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Islands are areas of land that are not connected to a continent and are surrounded by water. Small islands are sometimes called cays, keys, or islets. A group of islands is often called an archipelago.

There are two main type of islands; continental islands and oceanic islands. Continental islands are part of a continental shelf. One example of this is Great Britain is an island that sits on the continental shelf of Europe. Oceanic islands are islands that don't sit on a continental shelf. Many oceanic islands are formed by undersea volcanoes like Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

Below are some of the major islands in the world:

Greenland

Greenland is by far the world's largest island that is not a continent. It covers 822,706 square miles which is more than double the second largest island, New Guinea. For such a large island, Greenland only has a population of around 56,000 people making it one of the least densely populated places in the world. This is because most of Greenland is covered by a sheet of ice. Greenland is part of the continent of North America, but politically has generally been part of Europe through the country of Denmark.

Great Britain is the ninth largest island in the world and is the largest island in the British Isles. It is the third most populated island in the world. The British Empire was centered here and at its peak in the 18th to 20th century was the largest empire in the history of the world. It is part of Europe and is located off the northwest coast of France.

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. It's located off the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar is home to many animal and plant species that can't be found anywhere else on the planet. Around 80% of the plant and animal life on the island can only be found on Madagascar. It is so unique some scientists refer to it as the eighth continent.

Honshu is the largest island that makes up the country of Japan. It is the seventh largest island and has the second most people after the island of Java with a population of over 100 million. The highest mountain on Honshu is the famous volcano Mount Fuji and the largest city is Tokyo.

Luzon is the main island of a large number of islands that make up the country of the Philippines. It is the fifth most populated island in the world and is home to the city of Manila. Manila Bay is considered to be one of the best natural port harbors in the world due to its size and location.

Continue reading here:

Geography for Kids: Islands - Ducksters: Education Site

"Faeroes" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Fr or Fair Isle.

Coordinates: 6200N 0647W / 62.000N 6.783W / 62.000; -6.783

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The Faroe Islands (; Faroese: Froyar pronounced[fja]; Danish: Frerne, pronounced[fn]), sometimes called the Faeroe Islands, is an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic, about halfway between Norway and Iceland, 320 kilometres (200 miles) north-northwest of Scotland. The islands are an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark.[8][9][10] Their area is about 1,400 square kilometres (541 square miles) with a population of 50,322 in October 2017.[3]

The Faroes' terrain is rugged, and the islands have a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc): windy, wet, cloudy, and cool. Despite this island group's northerly latitude, temperatures average above freezing throughout the year because of the Gulf Stream.

Between 1035 and 1814, the Faroes were part of the Hereditary Kingdom of Norway. In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the islands, along with two other Norwegian island possessions: Greenland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948.[11]

The Faroese have control of most domestic matters. Areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, policing and the justice department, currency, and foreign affairs.[12] However, as they are not part of the same customs area as Denmark, the Faroe Islands have an independent trade policy and can establish trade agreements with other states. The islands also have representation in the Nordic Council as members of the Danish delegation. The Faroe Islands also have their own national teams competing in certain sports.

In Faroese, the name appears as Froyar. Oyar represents the plural of oy, older Faroese for "island". Due to sound changes, the modern Faroese word for island is oyggj. The first element, fr, may reflect an Old Norse word fr (sheep), although this analysis is sometimes disputed because Faroese now uses the word seyur (from Old Norse saur) to mean "sheep". Another possibility is that the Irish monks, who settled the island around 625, had already given the islands a name related to the Gaelic word fearrann, meaning "land" or "estate". This name could then have been passed on to the Norwegian settlers, who then added oyar (islands).[13] The name thus translates as either "Islands of Sheep" or "Islands of Fearrann".

In Danish, the name Frerne contains the same elements, though erne is the definite plural of (island).

In English, it may be seen as redundant to call them the Faroe Islands, since the oe comes from an element meaning "island". The name is also sometimes spelled "Faeroe".[14][15] Most notably in the Shipping Forecast, where the waters around the islands are called Faeroes.

Archaeological evidence shows settlers living on the Faroe Islands in two successive periods prior to the arrival of the Norse, the first between 300 and 600 AD and the second between 600 and 800 AD.[16] Scientists from the University of Aberdeen have also found early cereal pollen from domesticated plants, which further suggests people may have lived on the islands before the Vikings arrived.[17] Archaeologist Mike Church noted that Dicuil (see below) mentioned what may have been the Faroes. He also suggested that the people living there might have been from Ireland, Scotland or Scandinavia, possibly with groups from all three areas settling there.[18]

A Latin account of a voyage made by Brendan, an Irish monastic saint who lived around 484578, includes a description of insulae (islands) resembling the Faroe Islands. This association, however, is far from conclusive in its description.[19]

Dicuil, an Irish monk of the early 9th century, wrote a more definite account. In his geographical work De mensura orbis terrae he claimed he had reliable information of heremitae ex nostra Scotia ("hermits from our land of Ireland/Scotland") who had lived on the northerly islands of Britain for almost a hundred years until the arrival of Norse pirates.[20]

Norsemen settled the islands c. 800, bringing Old West Norse, which evolved into the modern Faroese language. According to Icelandic sagas such as Freyjar Saga, one of the best known men in the island was Trndur Gtu, a descendant of Scandinavian chiefs who had settled in Dublin, Ireland. Trndur led the battle against Sigmund Brestursson, the Norwegian monarchy and the Norwegian church.

The Norse and NorseGael settlers probably did not come directly from Scandinavia, but rather from Norse communities surrounding the Irish Sea, Northern Isles and Outer Hebrides of Scotland, including the Shetland and Orkney islands. A traditional name for the islands in Irish, Na Scigir, possibly refers to the (Eyja-)Skeggjar "(Island-)Beards", a nickname given to island dwellers.

According to the Freyinga saga, more emigrants left Norway who did not approve of the monarchy of Harald Fairhair (ruled c. 872 to 930). These people settled the Faroes around the end of the 9th century.[21] Early in the 11th century, Sigmundur Brestisson (9611005) whose clan had flourished in the southern islands before invaders from the northern islands almost exterminated it escaped to Norway. He was sent back to take possession of the islands for Olaf Tryggvason, King of Norway from 995 to 1000. Sigmundur introduced Christianity, forcing Trndur Gtu to convert or face beheading and, though Sigmundur was subsequently murdered, Norwegian taxation was upheld. Norwegian control of the Faroes continued until 1814, although, when the Kingdom of Norway (8721397) entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark, it gradually resulted in Danish control of the islands. The Reformation reached the Faroes in 1538. When the union between Denmark and Norway dissolved as a result of the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, Denmark retained possession of the Faroe Islands; Norway itself was joined in a union with Sweden.

In 1816, the Faroe Islands became a county in the Danish Kingdom.[22]

As part of Mercantilism, Denmark maintained a monopoly over trade with the Faroe Islands and forbade their inhabitants trading with others (e.g. the geographically close Britain). The trade monopoly in the Faroe Islands was abolished in 1856, after which the area developed as a modern fishing nation with its own fishing fleet. The national awakening from 1888 initially arose from a struggle to maintain the Faroese language and was thus culturally oriented, but after 1906 it became more political with the foundation of political parties of the Faroe Islands.

On 12 April 1940 British troops occupied the Faroe Islands, shortly after the German invasion of Denmark on 9 April 1940. In 19421943 the British Royal Engineers, under the leadership of Lt. Col. William Law MC, built the only airport in the Faroe Islands, Vgar Airport. Control of the islands reverted to Denmark following the war, but Danish rule had been undermined, and Iceland's independence served as a precedent for many Faroese.

The Faroese independence referendum, 1946 resulted in 50.73% in favor of independence to 49.27% against.[23] The Faroe Islands subsequently declared independence on 18 September 1946; however, this declaration was annulled by Denmark on 20 September on the grounds that a majority of the Faroese voters had not supported independence and King Christian X of Denmark dissolved the Faroese Lgting on 24 September.[24][25] The dissolution of the Lgting was on 8 November followed by the Faroese parliamentary election of 1946 in which the parties in favour of full independence received a total of 5,396 votes while the parties against received a total of 7,488 votes.[26] As a reaction to the growing self-government and independence movements, Denmark finally granted the Faroe Islands home-rule with a high degree of local autonomy on 30 March 1948.[24]

In 1973 the Faroe Islands declined to join Denmark in entering the European Economic Community (later absorbed into the European Union). The islands experienced considerable economic difficulties following the collapse of the fishing industry in the early 1990s, but have since made efforts to diversify the economy. Support for independence has grown and is the objective of the Republican Party.

The Faroe Islands are an island group consisting of 18 major islands about 655 kilometres (407mi) off the coast of Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Iceland and Norway, the closest neighbours being the Northern Isles and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Its coordinates are 6200N 0647W / 62.000N 6.783W / 62.000; -6.783.

Distance from the Faroe Islands to:

The islands cover an area of 1,399 square kilometres (540sq.mi) and have small lakes and rivers, but no major ones. There are 1,117 kilometres (694mi) of coastline.[27] The only significant uninhabited island is Ltla Dmun.

The islands are rugged and rocky with some low peaks; the coasts are mostly cliffs. The highest point is Slttaratindur in northern Eysturoy, 882 metres (2,894ft) above sea level.

The Faroe Islands are dominated by tholeiitic basalt lava, which was part of the great Thulean Plateau during the Paleogene period.[28]

The climate is classed as subpolar oceanic climate according to the Kppen climate classification: Cfc, with areas having a tundra climate, especially in the mountains, although some coastal or low-lying areas can have very mild-winter versions of a tundra climate. The overall character of the islands' climate is influenced by the strong warming influence of the Atlantic Ocean, which produces the North Atlantic Current. This, together with the remoteness of any source of warm airflows, ensures that winters are mild (mean temperature 3.0 to 4.0C or 37 to 39F) while summers are cool (mean temperature 9.5 to 10.5C or 49 to 51F).

The islands are windy, cloudy and cool throughout the year with an average of 210 rainy or snowy days per year. The islands lie in the path of depressions moving northeast, making strong winds and heavy rain possible at all times of the year. Sunny days are rare and overcast days are common. Hurricane Faith struck the Faroe Islands on 5 September 1966 with sustained winds over 100mph (160km/h) and only then did the storm cease to be a tropical system.[29]

The climate varies greatly over small distances, due to the altitude, ocean currents, topography and winds. Precipitation varies considerably throughout the archipelago. In some highland areas, snow cover can last for months with snowfalls possible for the greater part of the year (on the highest peaks, summer snowfall is by no means rare), while in some sheltered coastal locations, several years pass without any snowfall whatsoever. Trshavn receives frosts more often than other areas just a short distance to the south. Snow is also seen at a much higher frequency than on outlying islands nearby. The area receives on average 49 frosts a year.[30]

The collection of meteorological data on the Faroe Islands began in 1867.[31] Winter recording began in 1891, and the warmest winter occurred in 201617 with an average temperature of 6.1C.[32]

A collection of Faroese marine algae resulting from a survey sponsored by NATO,[citation needed] the British Museum (Natural History) and the Carlsberg Foundation, is preserved in the Ulster Museum (catalogue numbers: F3195F3307). It is one of ten exsiccatae sets.

The natural vegetation of the Faroe Islands is dominated by arctic-alpine plants, wildflowers, grasses, moss and lichen. Most of the lowland area is grassland and some is heath, dominated by shrubby heathers, mainly Calluna vulgaris. Among the herbaceous flora that occur in the Faroe Islands is the cosmopolitan marsh thistle, Cirsium palustre.[36]

Although there are no trees native to the Faroe Islands, limited species were able to be successfully introduced to the region, including the Black Cottonwood, also known as the California Poplar (Populus trichocarpa)

A few small plantations consisting of plants collected from similar climates such as Tierra del Fuego in South America and Alaska thrive on the islands.

The bird fauna of the Faroe Islands is dominated by seabirds and birds attracted to open land like heather, probably because of the lack of woodland and other suitable habitats. Many species have developed special Faroese sub-species: common eider, Common starling, Eurasian wren, common murre, and black guillemot.[37] The pied raven was endemic to the Faroe Islands, but has now become extinct.

Only a few species of wild land mammals are found in the Faroe Islands today, all introduced by humans. Three species are thriving on the islands today: mountain hare (Lepus timidus), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), and the house mouse (Mus musculus). Apart from these, there once was a local domestic sheep breed, the Faroe sheep (depicted on the coat of arms), a variety of feral sheep survived on Ltla Dmun until the mid-19th century.[38]

Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are common around the shorelines.[citation needed] Several species of cetacea live in the waters around the Faroe Islands. Best known are the long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melaena), which are still hunted by the islanders in accordance with longstanding local tradition.[39] Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are regular visitors around the islands.

The domestic animals of the Faroe Islands are a result of 1,200 years of isolated breeding. As a result, many of the islands' domestic animals are found nowhere else in the world. Faroese domestic breeds include Faroe pony, Faroe cow, Faroe sheep, Faroese goose, and Faroese duck.

The Faroese government holds executive power in local government affairs. The head of the government is called the Lgmaur ("Law person") and serves as a premier. Any other member of the cabinet is called a landsstrismaur ("national committee man") or landsstriskvinna ("national committee woman"). The Faroese parliament the Lgting ("Law assembly") dates back to Viking times and is believed to be one of the oldest parliaments in the world. The parliament currently has 33 members.[40]

In contemporary times, elections are held at municipal, national (Lgting) and Danish (Folketing) levels. Until 2007, there were seven electoral districts, each comprising a ssla, while Streymoy was divided into a northern and southern part (Trshavn region). However, on 25 October 2007, changes were made such that the entire country is one electoral district, giving each vote equal weight.

Administratively, the islands are divided into 30 municipalities (kommunur) within which there are 120 or so settlements.

Traditionally, there are also the six sslur (similar to the British "shire": Noroyar, Eysturoy, Streymoy, Vgar, Sandoy, and Suuroy). Although today ssla technically means "police district", the term is still commonly used to indicate a geographical region. In earlier times, each ssla had its own assembly, the so-called vrting ("spring assembly").

The Faroe Islands have been under Norwegian/Danish control since 1388. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel terminated the Danish-Norwegian union, and Norway came under the rule of the King of Sweden, while the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland remained Danish possessions. From ancient times the Faroe Islands had a parliament (Lgting) which was abolished in 1816, and the Faroe Islands were to be governed as an ordinary Danish amt (county), with the Amtmand as its head of government. In 1851, the Lgting was reinstated, but, until 1948, served mainly as an advisory body.

The islands are home to a notable independence movement that has seen an increase in popularity within recent decades. At the end of World War II, some of the population favoured independence from Denmark, and on 14 September 1946 an independence referendum was held on the question of secession. It was a consultative referendum; the parliament was not bound to follow the people's vote. This was the first time that the Faroese people had been asked whether they favoured independence or wanted to continue within the Danish kingdom.

The result of the vote was a narrow majority in favour of secession, but the coalition in parliament could not reach agreement on how this outcome should be interpreted and implemented; and because of these irresoluble differences, the coalition fell apart. A parliamentary election was held a few months later, in which the political parties that favoured staying in the Danish kingdom increased their share of the vote and formed a coalition. Based on this, they chose to reject secession. Instead, a compromise was made and the Folketing passed a home-rule law that went into effect in 1948. The Faroe Islands' status as a Danish amt was thereby brought to an end; the Faroe Islands were given a high degree of self-governance, supported by a financial subsidy from Denmark to recompense expenses the islands have on Danish services.

At present, the islanders are about evenly split between those favouring independence and those who prefer to continue as a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Within both camps there is a wide range of opinions. Of those who favour independence, some are in favour of an immediate unilateral declaration of independence. Others see it as something to be attained gradually and with the full consent of the Danish government and the Danish nation. In the unionist camp there are also many who foresee and welcome a gradual increase in autonomy even while strong ties with Denmark are maintained.

As of 2011[update], a new draft Faroese constitution is being drawn up. However the draft has been declared by the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Lkke Rasmussen, as incompatible with Denmark's constitution and if the Faroese political parties wish to continue with it then they must declare independence.[41]

As explicitly asserted by both treaties of the European Union, the Faroe Islands are not part of the European Union. The Faroes are not grouped with the EU when it comes to international trade; for instance, when the EU and Russia imposed reciprocal trade sanctions on each other over the War in Donbass in 2014, the Faroes began exporting significant amounts of fresh salmon to Russia.[42] Moreover, a protocol to the treaty of accession of Denmark to the European Communities stipulates that Danish nationals residing in the Faroe Islands are not considered Danish nationals within the meaning of the treaties. Hence, Danish people living in the Faroes are not citizens of the European Union (though other EU nationals living there remain EU citizens). The Faroes are not covered by the Schengen Agreement, but there are no border checks when travelling between the Faroes and any Schengen country (the Faroes have been part of the Nordic Passport Union since 1966, and since 2001 there have been no permanent border checks between the Nordic countries and the rest of the Schengen Area as part of the Schengen agreement).[43]

The Faroe Islands are not a fully independent country, but they do have political relations directly with other countries through agreement with Denmark. The Faroe Islands are a member of some international organisations as though they were an independent country.

The Faroe Islands are a member of several international sports federations like UEFA, FIFA in football[44] and FINA in swimming[45] and EHF in handball[46] and have their own national teams. The Faroe Islands have their own telephone country code, Internet country code top-level domain, banking code and postal country code.

The Faroe Islands make their own agreements with other countries regarding trade and commerce. When the EU embargo against Russia started in 2014, the Faroe Islands were not a part of the embargo because they are not a part of EU, and the islands had just themselves experienced a year of embargo from the EU including Denmark against the islands; the Faroese prime minister Kaj Leo Johannesen went to Moscow to negotiate the trade between the two countries.[10] The Faroese minister of fisheries negotiates with the EU and other countries regarding the rights to fish.[47]

The vast majority of the population are ethnic Faroese, of Norse and Celtic descent.[48] Recent DNA analyses have revealed that Y chromosomes, tracing male descent, are 87% Scandinavian.[49]The studies show that mitochondrial DNA, tracing female descent, is 84% Celtic.[50]

There is a gender deficit of about 2,000 women owing to migration.[51] Three hundred women from the Philippines and Thailand, recruited as wives because of the Faroes' gender imbalance, make up the largest ethnic minority in the Faroes.[51]

The total fertility rate of the Faroe Islands is currently one of the highest in Europe.[52] The fertility rate is 2.409 children born per woman (2015 est.).[53]

The 2011 census shows that of the approximately 48,600 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands (17,441 private households in 2011), 43,135 were born in the Faroe Islands, 3,597 were born in the other two countries of the Kingdom of Denmark (Denmark or Greenland), and 1,614 were born outside the Kingdom of Denmark. People were also asked about their nationality, including Faroese. Children under 15 were not asked about their nationality. 97% said that they were ethnic Faroese, which means that many of those who were born in either Denmark or Greenland consider themselves as ethnic Faroese. The other 3% of those older than 15 said they were not Faroese: 515 were Danish, 433 were from other European countries, 147 came from Asia, 65 from Africa, 55 from the Americas, 23 from Russia.[54]The Faroe Islands have people from 77 different nationalities.

If the first inhabitants of the Faroe Islands were Irish monks, then they must have lived as a very small group of settlers. Later, when the Vikings colonised the islands, there was a considerable increase in the population. However, it never exceeded 5,000 until the 19th century. Around 1349, about half the population perished in the Black Death plague.

Only with the rise of the deep-sea fishery (and thus independence from agriculture in the islands' harsh terrain) and with general progress in the health service was rapid population growth possible in the Faroes. Beginning in the 19th century, the population increased tenfold in 200 years.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Faroe Islands entered a deep economic crisis leading to heavy emigration; however, this trend reversed in subsequent years to a net immigration. This has been in the form of a population replacement as young Faroese women leave and are replaced with Asian/Pacific brides.[55]In 2011, there were 2,155 more men than women between the age of 0 to 59 in the Faroe Islands.[56]

The Faroese population is spread across most of the area; it was not until recent decades that significant urbanisation occurred. Industrialisation has been remarkably decentralised, and the area has therefore maintained quite a viable rural culture. Nevertheless, villages with poor harbour facilities have been the losers in the development from agriculture to fishing, and in the most peripheral agricultural areas, also known as toyggjar "Outer Islands", there are few young people. In recent decades, the village-based social structure has nevertheless been placed under pressure, giving way to a rise in interconnected "centres" that are better able to provide goods and services than the badly connected periphery. This means that shops and services are now relocating en masse from the villages into the centres, and slowly but steadily the Faroese population is concentrating in and around the centres.

In the 1990s, the government abandoned the old national policy of developing the villages (Bygdamenning), and instead began a process of regional development (kismenning). The term "region" referred to the large islands of the Faroes. Nevertheless, the government was unable to press through the structural reform of merging small rural municipalities to create sustainable, decentralised entities that could drive forward regional development. As regional development has been difficult on the administrative level, the government has instead invested heavily in infrastructure, interconnecting the regions.

In general, it is becoming less valid to regard the Faroes as a society based on separate islands and regions. The huge investments in roads, bridges and sub-sea tunnels (see also Transport in the Faroe Islands) have bound the islands together, creating a coherent economic and cultural sphere that covers almost 90% of the population. From this perspective it is reasonable to regard the Faroes as a dispersed city or even to refer to it as the Faroese Network City.[citation needed]

Faroese is spoken in the entire area as a first language. It is difficult to say exactly how many people worldwide speak the Faroese language, because many ethnic Faroese live in Denmark, and few who are born there return to the Faroes with their parents or as adults.

The Faroese language is one of the smallest of the Germanic languages. Written Faroese (grammar and vocabulary) is most similar to Icelandic and to their ancestor Old Norse, though the spoken language is closer to Norwegian dialects of Western Norway. Faroese is the first official language of the island while Danish, the second, is taught in schools and can be used by the Faroese government in public relations.[1]

Faroese language policy provides for the active creation of new terms in Faroese suitable for modern life.

According to the Freyinga saga, Sigmundur Brestisson brought Christianity to the islands in 999. However, archaeology at a site in Toftanes, Leirvk named Bnhstoftin (English: prayer-house ruin) and over a dozen slabs from lansgarur in the small island of Skvoy which in the main display encircled linear and outline crosses, suggest that Celtic Christianity may have arrived at least 150 years earlier.[57] The Faroe Islands' Church Reformation was completed on 1 January 1540. According to official statistics from 2017, 80.2% of the Faroese population are members of the state church, the Church of the Faroe Islands (Flkakirkjan), a form of Lutheranism.[58] The Flkakirkjan became an independent church in 2007; previously it had been a diocese within the Church of Denmark. Faroese members of the clergy who have had historical importance include Venceslaus Ulricus Hammershaimb (18191909), Frrikur Petersen (18531917) and, perhaps most significantly, Jkup Dahl (18781944), who had a great influence in ensuring that the Faroese language was spoken in the church instead of Danish. Participation in churches is more prevalent among the Faroese population than among most other Scandinavians.

In the late 1820s, the Christian Evangelical religious movement, the Plymouth Brethren, was established in England. In 1865, a member of this movement, William Gibson Sloan, travelled to the Faroes from Shetland. At the turn of the 20th century, the Faroese Plymouth Brethren numbered thirty. Today, around 10% of the Faroese population are members of the Open Brethren community (Brrasamkoman). About 3% belong to the Charismatic Movement. There are several charismatic churches around the islands, the largest of which, called Keldan (The Spring), has about 200 to 300 members. About 2% belong to other Christian groups. The Adventists operate a private school in Trshavn. Jehovah's Witnesses also have four congregations with a total of 121 members. The Roman Catholic congregation has about 170 members and falls under the jurisdiction of Denmark's Roman Catholic Diocese of Copenhagen. The municipality of Trshavn has an old Franciscan school.

There are also around fifteen Bah's who meet at four different places. The Ahmadiyyas established a community in the Faroe Islands in 2010. Unlike Denmark, Sweden and Iceland with Forn Sir, the Faroes have no organised Heathen community.

The best-known church buildings in the Faroe Islands include Trshavn Cathedral, Olaf II of Norway's Church and the Magnus Cathedral in Kirkjubur; the Vesturkirkjan and the Maria Church, both of which are situated in Trshavn; the church of Fmjin; the octagonal church in Haldrsvk; Christianskirkjan in Klaksvk; and also the two pictured here.

In 1948, Victor Danielsen (Plymouth Brethren) completed the first Bible translation into Faroese from different modern languages. Jacob Dahl and Kristian Osvald Vider (Flkakirkjan) completed the second translation in 1961. The latter was translated from the original Biblical languages (Hebrew and Greek) into Faroese.

According to the 2011 Census, there were 33,018 Christians (95.44%), 23 Muslims (0.07%), 7 Hindus (0.02%), 66 Buddhists (0.19%), 12 Jews (0.03%), 13 Baha'i (0.04%), 3 Sikhs (0.01%), 149 others (0.43%), 85 with more than one belief (0.25%), and 1,397 with no religion (4.04%).[59]

The levels of education in the Faroe Islands are primary, secondary and higher education. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are few private schools in the country. Education is compulsory for 9 years between the ages of 7 and 16.[60]

Compulsory education consists of seven years of primary education and two years of lower secondary education; it is public, free of charge, provided by the respective municipalities, and is called the Flkaskli in Faroese. The Flkaskli also provides optional preschool education as well as the tenth year of education that is a prerequisite to get admitted to upper secondary education. Students that complete compulsory education are allowed to continue education in a vocational school, where they can have job-specific training and education. Since the fishing industry is an important part of country's economy, maritime schools are an important part of Faroese education. Upon completion of the tenth year of Flkaskli, students can continue to upper secondary education which consists of several different types of schools. Higher education is offered at the University of the Faroe Islands; a part of Faroese youth moves abroad to pursue higher education, mainly in Denmark. Other forms of education comprise adult education and music schools. The structure of the Faroese educational system bears resemblances with its Danish counterpart.[60]

In the 12th century, education was provided by the Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands.[61] The Church of Denmark took over education after the Protestant Reformation.[62]Modern educational institutions started operating in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and developed throughout the twentieth century. The status of the Faroese language in education was a significant issue for decades, until it was accepted as a language of instruction in 1938.[63] Initially education was administered and regulated by Denmark.[63] In 1979 responsibilities on educational issues started transferring to the Faroese authorities, a procedure which was completed in 2002.[63]

The Ministry of Education, Research and Culture has the jurisdiction of educational responsibility in the Faroe Islands.[64] Since the Faroe Islands is a constituent country of the Danish Realm, education in the Faroe Islands is influenced and has similarities with the Danish educational system; there is an agreement on educational cooperation between the Faroe Islands and Denmark.[63][65][66] In 2012 the public spending on education was 8.1% of GDP.[67] The municipalities are responsible for the school buildings for children's education in Flkasklin from age 1st grade to 9th or 10th grade (age 7 to 16).[68] In November 2013 1,615 people, or 6.8% of the total number of employees, were employed in the education sector.[67] Of the 31,270 people aged 25 and above 1,717 (5.5%) have gained at least a master's degrees or a Ph.D., 8,428 (27%) have gained a B.Sc. or a diploma, 11,706 (37.4%) have finished upper secondary education while 9,419 (30.1%) has only finished primary school and have no other education.[69] There is no data on literacy in the Faroe Islands, but the CIA Factbook states that it is probably as high as in Denmark proper, i.e. 99%.[70]

The majority of students in upper secondary schools are women, although men represent the majority in higher education institutions. In addition, most young Faroese people who relocate to other countries to study are women.[71] Out of 8,535 holders of bachelor degrees, 4,796 (56.2%) have had their education in the Faroe Islands, 2,724 (31.9%) in Denmark, 543 in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 94 (1.1%) in Norway, 80 in the United Kingdom and the rest in other countries.[72] Out of 1,719 holders of master's degrees or PhDs, 1,249 (72.7% have had their education in Denmark, 87 (5.1%) in the United Kingdom, 86 (5%) in both the Faroe Islands and Denmark, 64 (3.7%) in the Faroe Islands, 60 (3.5%) in Norway and the rest in other countries (mostly EU and Nordic).[72] Since there is no medical school in the Faroe Islands, all medical students have to study abroad; as of 2013[update], out of a total of 96 medical students, 76 studied in Denmark, 19 in Poland, and 1 in Hungary.[73]

Economic troubles caused by a collapse of the Faroese fishing industry in the early 1990s brought high unemployment rates of 10 to 15% by the mid-1990s.[74] Unemployment decreased in the later 1990s, down to about 6% at the end of 1998.[74] By June 2008 unemployment had declined to 1.1%, before rising to 3.4% in early 2009.[74] In December 2014[75] the unemployment was 3.2%. Nevertheless, the almost total dependence on fishing and fish farming means that the economy remains vulnerable. One of the biggest private companies of the Faroe Islands is the salmon farming company Bakkafrost, which is the largest of the four salmon farming companies in the Faroe Islands[76] and the eighth biggest in the world.[77]

Petroleum found close to the Faroese area gives hope for deposits in the immediate area, which may provide a basis for sustained economic prosperity.[78]

13% of the Faroe Islands' national income comes as economic aid from Denmark.[79] This corresponds to roughly 5% of GDP.[citation needed]

Since 2000, the government has fostered new information technology and business projects to attract new investment. The introduction of Burger King in Trshavn was widely publicized as a sign of the globalization of Faroese culture. It remains to be seen whether these projects will succeed in broadening the islands' economic base. The islands have one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but this should not necessarily be taken as a sign of a recovering economy, as many young students move to Denmark and other countries after leaving high school. This leaves a largely middle-aged and elderly population that may lack the skills and knowledge to fill newly developed positions on the Faroes. Nonetheless, in 2008 the Faroes were able to make a $52 million loan to Iceland to help with that country's banking woes.[80]

On 5 August 2009, two opposition parties introduced a bill in the Lgting to adopt the euro as the national currency, pending a referendum.[81]

By road, the main islands are connected by bridges and tunnels. Government owned Strandfaraskip Landsins provides public bus and ferry service to the main towns and villages. There are no railways.

By air, Scandinavian Airlines and the government owned Atlantic Airways both have scheduled international flights to Vgar Airport, the islands' only airport. Atlantic Airways also provides helicopter service to each of the islands. All civil aviation matters are controlled from the Civil Aviation Administration Denmark.

By sea, Smyril Line operates a regular international passenger, car and freight service linking the Faroe Islands with Seyisfjrur, Iceland and Hirtshals, Denmark.[82]

Because of the rocky terrain in the Faroe Islands, its road transport system was not[when?] as extensive as in other places of the world. This situation has now changed, and the infrastructure has been developed extensively. Some 80 percent of the population of the islands is connected by tunnels through the mountains and between the islands, bridges and causeways that link the three largest islands and three other larger and smaller islands to the northeast together. While the other two large islands to the south of the main area, Sandoy and Suuroy, are connected to the main area with ferries, the small islands Koltur and Stra Dmun have no ferry connection, only helicopter service. Other small islandsMykines in the west, Kalsoy, Svnoy and Fugloy in the north, Hestur west of Streymoy, and Nlsoy east of Trshavnhave smaller ferries and some of these islands even have helicopter service.

In February 2014 all the political parties of the Lgting agreed on making two subsea tunnels, one between Streymoy and Eysturoy (the Eysturoyartunnilin) and one between Streymoy and Sandoy (Sandoyartunnilin). The plan is that both tunnels should open in 2021 and they will not be private.[83] The work to dig the Eysturoy-tunnel started on 1 March 2016 above the village of Hvtanes near Trshavn.[84]

The culture of the Faroe Islands has its roots in the Nordic culture. The Faroe Islands were long isolated from the main cultural phases and movements that swept across parts of Europe. This means that they have maintained a great part of their traditional culture. The language spoken is Faroese and it is one of three insular North Germanic languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, the others being Icelandic and the extinct Norn, which is thought to have been mutually intelligible with Faroese. Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Norwegians outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. Although a rich spoken tradition survived, for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally. These works were split into the following divisions: sagnir (historical), vintr (stories) and kvi (ballads), often set to music and the medieval chain dance. These were eventually written down in the 19th century.

Faroese written literature has only really developed in the past 100200 years. This is mainly because of the islands' isolation, and also because the Faroese language was not written down in a standardised format until 1890. The Danish language was also encouraged at the expense of Faroese. Nevertheless, the Faroes have produced several authors and poets. A rich centuries-old oral tradition of folk tales and Faroese folk songs accompanied the Faroese chain dance. The people learned these songs and stories by heart, and told or sung them to each other, teaching the younger generations too. This kind of literature was gathered in the 19th century and early 20th century. The Faroese folk songs, in Faroese called kvi, are still in use although not so large-scale as earlier. Some of the Faroese folk songs have been used by the Faroese Viking metal band Tr, i.e., Ormurin Langi.[85]

The first Faroese novel, Bbelstorni by Regin L, was published in 1909; the second novel was published 18 years later. In the period 1930 to 1940 a writer from the village Sklavk on Sandoy island, Hein Br, published three novels: Lognbr (1930), Fastatkur (1935) and Fegar fer (English title: The old man and his sons) (1940). Fegar fer has been translated into several other languages. Martin Joensen from Sandvk wrote about life on Faroese fishing vessels; he published the novels Fiskimenn (1946)[86] and Ta lsir landi (1952).

Well-known poets from the early 20th century are among others the two brothers from Trshavn: Hans Andrias Djurhuus (18831951)[87] and Janus Djurhuus (18811948),[88] other well known poets from this period and the mid 20th century are Poul F. Joensen (18981970),[89] Regin Dahl (19182007)[90] and Tummas Napoleon Djurhuus (192871).[91] Their poems are popular even today and can be found in Faroese song books and school books. Jens Pauli Heinesen (19322011), a school teacher from Sandavgur, was the most productive Faroese novelist, he published 17 novels. Steinbjrn B. Jacobsen (19372012), a schoolteacher from Sandvk, wrote short stories, plays, children's books and even novels. Most Faroese writers write in Faroese; two exceptions are William Heinesen (190091) and Jrgen-Frantz Jacobsen (190038).

Women were not so visible in the early Faroese literature except for Helena Patursson (18641916), but in the last decades of the 20th century and in the beginning of the 21st century female writers like Ebba Hentze (born 1933) wrote children's books, short stories, etc. Guri Helmsdal published the first modernistic collection of poems, Ltt lot, in 1963, which at the same time was the first collection of Faroese poems written by a woman.[92] Her daughter, Rakel Helmsdal (born 1966), is also a writer, best known for her children's books, for which she has won several prizes and nominations. Other female writers are the novelists Oddvr Johansen (born 1941), Bergtra Hanusardttir (born 1946) and novelist/children's books writers Marianna Debes Dahl (born 1947), and Slrun Michelsen (born 1948). Other modern Faroese writers include Gunnar Hoydal (born 1941), Hanus Kamban (born 1942), Jgvan Isaksen (born 1950), Janes Nielsen (born 1953), Troddur Poulsen and Carl Jhan Jensen (born 1957). Some of these writers have been nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize two to six times, but have never won it. The only Faroese writer who writes in Faroese who has won the prize is the poet Ri Patursson (born 1947), who won the prize in 1986 for Lkasum.[93]

In the 21st century, some new writers had success in the Faroe Islands and abroad. Brur Oskarsson (born 1972) is a children's book writer and illustrator; his books won prizes in the Faroes, Germany and the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize (2006). Though not born in the Faroe Islands, Matthew Landrum an American poet and editor for the Structo magazine, has written a collection of poems about the Islands. Sissal Kampmann (born 1974) won the Danish literary prize Klaus Rifbjerg's Debutant Prize (2012), and Rakel Helmsdal has won Faroese and Icelandic awards; she has been nominated for the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (representing Iceland, wrote the book together with and Icelandic and a Swedish writer/illustrator). Marjun Syderb Kjelns (born 1974) had success with her first novel Skriva sandin for teenagers; the book was awarded and nominated both in the Faroes and in other countries. She won the Nordic Children's Book Prize (2011) for this book, White Raven Deutsche Jugendbibliothek (2011) and nominated the West Nordic Council's Children and Youth Literature Prize and the Children and Youth Literature Prize of the Nordic Council (2013).[94]

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Faroe Islands - Wikipedia

The Aran (or Arran) jumper/sweatertakes its name from the Aran Islands, was popular in the fishing villages on and islands off the West Coast of Ireland, or from the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland. They are distinguished by their use of complex textured stitch patterns, several of which are combined in the creation of a single garment. The word choice of 'jumper' or 'sweater' (or indeed other options such as 'pullover' and 'jersey')is largely determined by the regional version of English being spoken. In the case of Ireland and Britain 'jumper' is the standard word with 'sweater' mainly found in tourist shops. To be even more respectful/aware of the local culture the word used in Irish Gaelic is 'geansa' and in Scottish Gaelic 'geansaidh' (both pronounced "gahnzee").

Originally the jumpers were knitted using unscoured wool that retained its natural oils or lanolin which made the garments water-resistant and meant they remained wearable even when wet. It was primarily the wives of Island fishermen who knitted the jumpers.

Some stitch patterns have a traditional interpretation often of religious significance. The honeycomb is a symbol of the hard-working bee. The cable, an integral part of the fisherman's daily life, is said to be a wish for safety and good luck when fishing. The diamond is a wish of success wealth and treasure. The basket stitch represents the fisherman's basket, a hope for a plentiful catch.

Traditionally an Aran jumper is made from undyed cream-coloured binn (pronounced bawneen), a yarn made from sheep's wool, sometimes "black-sheep" wool. They were originally made with unwashed wool that still contained natural sheep lanolin, making it to an extent water-repellent. Up to the seventies the island women spun their own yarn on spinning wheels.

The jumper, locally called a geansa, usually features 46 texture patterns each of which is about 24 inches in width, that move down the sweater in columns from top to bottom. Usually the patterns are symmetrical to a centre axis extending down the centre of the front and back panel. The patterns also usually extend down the sleeves as well. The same textured knitting are also used to make socks, hats, vests and even skirts.

There is debate about when island residents first started making the jumpers. Some have suggested that the jumper is an ancient design that has been used on the island for hundreds of years. Proponents of this theory often point to a picture in the Book of Kells that appears to depict an ancient "Aran jumper". Also many megaliths around Europe depict similar patterns as those used in the knitting, which are carved into the stone, and date back several thousand years. However it is more likely that the knitting stitches were modeled on these than that they evolved contemporaneously.

Most historians agree that far from being an ancient craft, aran knitting was invented as recently as the early 1900's by a small group of enterprising island women, with the intention of creating garments not just for their families to wear but which could be sold as a source of income.

The first Aran knitting patterns were published in the 1940s by Patons of England after being supplied by Mille's shop in Galway. Mille's was also responsible for most of the costuming used the filming of The Quiet Man in 1951. Vogue magazine carried articles on the garment in the 1950s, and jumper exports from the west of Ireland to the United States began in the early 1950s.

The development of the export trade during the 1950's and 1960's took place after P.A. Sochin organised an instructor, with the help of an IDA Ireland grant, to go to the islands and teach the knitters how to make garments to standard international sizings. Knitting became an important part of the island's economy and during the 1960's, even with all available knitters recruited from the three islands he had difficulty in fulfilling orders from around the world.

Aran jumpers are sometimes sold as a "fisherman sweater", indicating that the jumper was traditionally used by the islands' famous fishermen. It is said that each fisherman (or their family) had a jumper with a unique design, so that if he drowned and was found maybe weeks later on the beach, his body could be identified. There is no record of any such event ever taking place.

This misconception may have originated with J.M. Synge's 1904 play 'Riders to the Sea', in which the body of a dead fisherman is identified by the hand-knitted stitches on one of his garments. However, even in the play there is no reference to any decorative or Aran type pattern. The garment referred to is a plain stocking and it is identified by the number of stitches, the quote being "it's the second one of the third pair I knitted, and I put up three score stitches, and I dropped four of them".

There is also some doubt about whether Aran jumpers were ever widely used by fishermen and many argue that the original jumpers with their untreated yarn would not have been suitable for this use. They were quite thick and stiff, which would probably restrict the movements of a fisherman. On the other hand these garments were the only form of hardy clothing they had to weather the Atlantic Ocean storms in. Islanders can be seen wearing them in photographs taken early in the last century.

Arising from the myth above is a widely believed misconception that Aran patterns have clan associations, somewhat like Scottish tartan. Although sometimes used as a marketing device, there is no evidence for any such association even among families who lived on the Islands. Only a relatively small number of family names are or were ever found on the Aran Islands and the majority of Irish families have no history of either wearing or knitting jumpers of any particular pattern.

While in the past the majority of jumpers and other Aran garments were knit by hand, today the majority of items on sale in Ireland and elsewhere are either machine knit or produced on a hand loom. There are very few people still knitting jumpers by hand on a commercial basis.

Machine knit jumpers tend to use finer wool and have less complex patterns, since many of the traditional stitches cannot be reproduced this way. They are the least expensive option. Hand looming allows more complicated stitches to be used, will have more stitches to the inch and be thicker. The best quality hand loomed sweaters are almost indistinguishable from hand knit. Hand knit jumpers tend to be more tightly knit, to have more complex stitch patterns and to be longer lasting and they attract a significant price premium. By holding them up to light the difference between the machine knit and hand kits is self-evident.

Wikipedia contributors (2006). Aran Jumper. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 23, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aran_sweater

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Inis Mr (Inishmore) - Aran Islands - Galway - Doolin

PUBLIC NOTICE: Effective November 18, the Seven Islands Loop Trail will be closed until August 18, 2018 due to construction of an ADA Trail and Pedestrian Bridge at Seven Islands State Birding Park. We appreciate your patience as we work to make theSeven Islandsmore accessibleto all visitors, while providingnew ways to enjoy the park's unique features.

The diverse natural landscape of aquatic and grassland habitats makes Seven Islands State Birding Park a premier birding destination with more than 190 species of birds sighted. The park encompasses 416acres along the French Broad River in Knox County, approximately 19 miles east of Knoxville. This peninsula of land features more than eight miles of natural trails, rolling hills and views of the Smoky Mountains. In addition to being a wildlife refuge popular for hiking and wildlife observation, the park is a research and educational facility for schools and other groups and a demonstration area for land use and habitat management techniques. Songbirds, hawks and waterfowl can be seen along the meadow trails and several old barns are a favorite refuge for Barn Owls. For paddlers and anglers, there is a small canoe/kayak launch that provides access to the French Broad River.

The lands comprising the Seven Islands State Birding Park were acquired in 2002 as a wildlife refuge through a cooperative effort of the Seven Islands Foundation, a non-profit land conservancy, and the Knox County Parks and Recreation Department. The vision, goals and objectives of the Seven Island Foundation included preservation of this property as a wildlife sanctuary and refuge. The state of Tennessee will continue to manage this as a state park for native flora and fauna and low impact, non-consumptive, outdoor activities for enjoyment of the wildlife diversity and natural beauty of Seven Islands. Seven Islands became the 56th Tennessee State Park in July 2013.

In addition to preserving Seven Islands natural resources, future planning and management at the park puts a new focus on improving ADA accessibility. We are currently working on upgrading our restroom facilities, and parking areas, as well as adding more benches, and renovating our existing trails to improve accessibility. One project in progress, is the creation of an ADA trail that will take visitors to a fully accessible pedestrian bridge crossing the French Broad River to Newman's Island. This is an exciting project, and we are looking forward to providing a safe and satisfying experience for all visitors.

Dogs are permitted in the park. They must be on a leash at all times, and we do ask that you clean up after them.

Looking for a trail map? Click the link below to see a list of the maps available at this park. The page includes all the trail maps we have available, organized by park. We have free and paid options that provide you the details you need to have your next great adventure in Tennessee.

VIEW MAPS

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Seven Islands State Birding Park Tennessee State Parks

East Tennessees #1 Golf Course and Premier Daily Fee Golf Club was created to rival the countrys most prestigious golf clubs, bringing world class, daily fee golf to Tennessee. Conveniently located in Kodak, Tennessee ideally situated between Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains River Islands Golf Club is spectacularly set on over 175 acres of breathtaking views where bald eagles soar high above the river otters playing along the river banks. Featuring a true, links style, Arthur Hills design, River Islands has been a must play course in Tennessee since it opened in 1991.

The course covers over 7,000 yards and takes you over sweeping knolls, into lush valleys, below sharp bluffs, and across a flowing river dotted with islands. With brand newMiniVerde greensand beautiful Zoysia fairways, River Islands offers a challenging yet beautiful experience.

The course travels along the edge of the French Broad River with three islands in the middle of the river serving as focal points of the course. The championship layout and manicured conditions make River Islands a consistently superb playing experience.

River Islands hosts one of the most extensive practice facilities in the area, providing quality PGA instruction.Youll also enjoy our Clubhouse, offeringspecial events including golf outings.

Attentive service and a commitment to excellence are the hallmarks of River Islands Golf Club, which is dedicated to offering players of all levels a total golf experience in keeping with the rich traditions of the worlds greatest game. Discover for yourself why River Islands Golf Club is truly a round to remember.

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River Islands Golf Club Welcome to River Islands Golf Club!

The Marshall Islands declared independence in 1979 and were granted sovereignty in 1986. Mr. de Brum helped negotiate the countrys Compact of Free Association with the United States and led the drafting of the Marshall Islands constitution.

In a nearly 50-year government career, he went on to serve as foreign minister (three times), minister of finance, minister of health and the environment, minister-in-assistance to the former president Christopher Loeak, and Marshall Islands climate ambassador.

In 2013, Mr. de Brum criticized the Security Council for declaring that it was not the right body to address climate change. He reminded its members that 35 years earlier he had come before them to petition for his countrys independence.

It seems to me ironic, he said, bizarre, perhaps, that the very same agency whose approval was needed for my country to become a country again would consider that my coming back to ask for help to survive, to keep that country going, was not relevant to their work.

He often linked the issues of nuclear testing and climate change, noting that the Marshallese had already been resettled onto other islands because of radioactive fallout related to nuclear testing. He said the idea that citizens might have to leave the islands again if seas rose higher was repugnant.

Even the loss of a tiny island is, for us, significant, he said.

In 2014 Mr. de Brum filed lawsuits against nine nations in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations highest court, arguing that they had breached their obligations under international law by failing to pursue nuclear disarmament. The court later ruled the suit inadmissible.

At the Paris climate change negotiations in 2015, Mr. de Brum convened a group of about 100 nations, both rich and poor, to demand that the accord call for aggressive action, like establishing a clear long-term goal on global warming that was in line with scientific advice.

Calling themselves the High Ambition Coalition, leaders of the group walked into the final day of talks wearing coconut leaves on their lapels in solidarity with island nations.

The Paris accord, signed by nearly 200 countries, called for concerted efforts to keep the global temperature increase no higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by 2100.

Mr. de Brum was vocal in arguing that even if the temperature increase were held at 2 degrees which scientists often describe as a relatively safe guardrail a resulting rise in sea levels would be devastating for the Marshall Islands and other low-lying countries.

Todd Stern, who was United States special envoy for climate change under President Barack Obama, said in an interview that Mr. de Brum had been able to bridge divides among countries of different levels of wealth and responsibility for causing climate change and convince them that everyone must act.

We all owe a debt to Tony for getting Paris done, Mr. Stern said. When I think of people who were meaningful in getting the Paris deal, he is definitely on the short list.

Mr. de Brum was critical of President Trump for announcing this year that the United States would withdraw from the Paris agreement. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of the pact, he wrote, My country felt a little bit safer as a result of the historic agreement.

Tony Anton de Brum was born on Feb. 26, 1945, in Tuvalu, an island nation in the South Pacific. He grew up on the Marshallese atoll of Likiep and attended the University of Hawaii. President Heine said he was one of the first Marshallese to attend college.

Working with the linguist Alfred Capelle, he created the first Marshallese-English dictionary.

He is survived by his father; his wife, Rosalie; his daughters, Doreen, Dolores and Sally Ann; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Throughout his life Mr. de Brum carried a searing memory of a nuclear bomb exploding on the Pacific horizon. In March 1954 he was 9 years old and on the water fishing with his grandfather when, over Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, the United States tested the most powerful bomb it had ever developed till then one 1,000 times as destructive as those that had leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

Everything turned red, he recalled years later, the ocean, the fish, the sky, and my grandfathers net.

A version of this article appears in print on August 24, 2017, on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Tony de Brum, Marshall Islands Outsize Voice on Climate Change, Dies at 72.

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Tony de Brum, Voice of Pacific Islands on Climate Change, Dies at 72 - New York Times

DAVENPORT -- The ancient city of Babylon had its hanging gardens; now Davenport has some that float at Eastern Avenue Park.

Thursday, a group coordinated by

launched five "floating islands" into the park's lagoon. Each of the mattress-sized platforms was covered with dozens of young plants and drifts of brown potting mixture.

The plants, all natives that thrive in wet conditions, are there to absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorous, said Laura Morris, program manager at River Action.

"The real goal is to get rid of blue-green algae," Ms. Morris said Thursday as people bustled around her before the launch, tucking plants into holes in the islands' surfaces and layering the potting soil over the top.

Blue-green algae appears naturally in anecosystem, but if too much nitrogen and phosphorous is present, there is a risk of the algae growing beyond the environment's ability to support it in that area.

Such an unbalanced arrangement can use upoxygen in the water and lead totoxic conditions that can cause illnesses in people and kill animals.

Critics blame Mississippi River pollution caused by nitrogen and phosphorous, which are used in agriculture production, for a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico -- an oxygen-depleted area where little or no animal life can survive.

Ms. Morris said the lagoon has a history of problems with algae, and testing is planned to see how the islands affect water quality.

Other islands were scheduled to be placed in Credit Island lagoon later Thursday, and more installations were planned Friday at Nahant Marsh's Carp Lake.

The islands, made of recycled plastic, have a life span of up to 10 years, Ms. Morris said. As the plants grow, their roots will extend into the water below the island, and the plants will spread along the island's surface, filling in the spaces between planting holes.

The plants are perennials and will stay in place during the winter, Ms. Morris said. The islands will have to be monitored on occasion to replace plants that did not survive, and to remove invasive plant species.

The plants being used consist of grasses in the center of each island, and flowering plants along the edges, she said.

They will provide habitat and food for animals -- fish, insects and birds, she said. Until the plants are fully established, however, the islands will be netted to temporarily prevent birds from making use of them.

The islands are made by

, she said. They are a fairly new method of dealing with algae, but they have been used in other areas. They have been used at least once before in the Quad-Cities, and there are some in Bettendorf.

The project cost is about $60,000, and it is being funded by a Scott County Regional Authority grant, Ms. Morris said. Other entities that are taking part include Nahant and Davenport.

Ms. Morris said the islands also will serve as a tool for teaching people about pollution.

"It really opens the door for conversations in our area," she said.

More about Floating Island can be found atfloatingislandinternational.com.River Action's website is riveraction.org.

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Floating island will battle algae in Davenport park - Quad-Cities Online

The company initially said Saturday that 4,000 to 5,000 of the nearly 2-year-old fish, weighing from 8 to 10 pounds, had escaped several damaged net pens in the farm. But by Sunday afternoon, "the whole thing came apart."

The fish spill from an Atlantic salmon farm near Cypress Island is much bigger than initially thought, after the entire farm was destroyed over the weekend.

Its basically a salvage operation, said Nell Halse, vice president, communications for Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, which owns and operates several Atlantic salmon fish farms in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea, including the Deepwater Bay facility off Cypress Island.

The company initially said Saturday that 4,000 to 5,000 of the nearly 2-year-old fish, weighing from 8 to 10 pounds, had escaped several damaged net pens in the farm. The farm held a total of more than 300,000 fish weighing some 3 million pounds.

But on Sunday afternoon, the whole thing came apart, she said of the fish farm. That is when we realized we were in a really serious situation. The numbers started out low and we still dont know the full number, but there is clearly a lot of them out there. Very, very much more.

The farm totally collapsed, she said. It is a very difficult situation. These guys are farmers and they have invested a year and a half in taking care of these animals, and now they have lost them and seeing the devastation of the farm, it is a hard thing.

The company, which bought the salmon farm about a year ago, last month flew in experts to repair it because it had begun to drift, Halse said. Additional anchors were installed, she noted. The verdict was that the farm was good to go until harvest, she said, then just months away.

Scientists debunked the statement from Cooke on Tuesday that exceptionally high tides and currents coinciding with this weeks solar eclipse caused the damage.

Parker MacCready, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, noted tide data do not support the companys claim. The data speak for themselves: there were large tidal ranges around the day of the eclipse, but not out of the ordinary, and in fact they were smaller than during some recent months.

Jonathan White, author of Tides the Science and Spirit of the Ocean (Trinity University Press, 2017), said there were 105 tides this year as large or larger than those experienced over the weekend. If they were not prepared for this tide, they were not prepared for any tide, he said.

Kurt Beardslee, of the Wild Fish Conservancy, which opposes fish farming as well as a planned expansion by the company in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, blamed the company for inadequate equipment and maintenance.

Its an engineering issue. All engineering is about adding safety buffers, Beardslee said. They have this great benefit of using this water, this resource, and they have the obligation to engineer (the facility) so these failures wont happen.

The company had more to say Wednesday about the cause. We dont want to debate the data about the tides, Halse said. It says what it says. Whatever the reason, the guys experienced something they had not experienced in their memory, she said of farm employees.

There obviously is not one reason why this happened; it was not just the tides. We will be doing a full assessment as to what really caused it, and most importantly, what we can do to make sure it never happens again. Meanwhile, a fishing frenzy is under way, with some anglers eager to get the fish for their table and others mopping the Atlantic salmon up like a pollutant.

Some found passions against farmed salmon undercut a golden opportunity in the no-limit fishery. I had no idea there would be that many, said Nik Mardesich, a commercial gillnetter who kept pulling up Atlantics by the hundreds in his net while he was out for native chinook Monday night. However, he couldnt find a buyer for his bounty on Tuesday morning.

They wont even take them for crab bait, he said of the Atlantic salmon. I dont want to just throw them on the beach, so I am trying to give them away, Mardesich said.

He resorted to putting a sign reading free fish on his pickup at the Guemes ferry, and passing the salmon out in garbage bags.

A commercial fisherman all his life, he has his own objections to net-pen Atlantic salmon. I have no objection to farmed fish, Mardesich said. But there is a right way and a wrong way. The wrong way is open pens in wild salmon migration routes. The right way is a closed system, on land.

The Lummi Nation mounted a cleanup fishery Tuesday, deploying boats to mop up the fish like an oil spill. This type of incident is unacceptable, said Timothy Ballew II, chairman of the Lummi Nation business council. Halse and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife maintain the fish are safe to eat and pose little risk to the environment.

However, the Washington Department of Ecology considers the escaped fish a pollutant, and the company could potentially face penalties for the incident, said Larry Altose, an agency spokesman. They are supposed to be released to the store, he said of the Atlantic salmon. Not the Sound.

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Spill of farmed Atlantic salmon near San Juan Islands much bigger ... - The Seattle Times

The Magdalen Islands, which are known for red cliffs, rolling dunes and powerful winds, have become a magnet for kitesurfing aficionados.

Fans of the sport who have travelled the globe looking for ideal conditions say the archipelago in the Gulf of Saint Lawrenceis "world class."

Christian Labb is aprofessionalkitesurfer who has competed in dozens of competitions, some of which were overseas.

For the past decade, he has been making the 1,300-kilometre trip to Magdalen Islands from where he lives inBromont, Que.

Arosport kitesurfing school owner, ric Marchand catches some wind near Havre Aubert on the Magdalen Islands, Que. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

"I've been coming here for 10 years because it's a beautiful place," Labb said.

"We can go from one place to another every day, the lagoons, in the sea, from one end of the islands depending on the winds and what we feel like doing on a given day."

Christian Labb has competed and kitesurfed all over the world, but says the Magdalen Islands, Que. is his favourite place to practice the sport. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

ric Marchand, who says he registered Canada's first kitesurfing school in 1998, said the industry on the Magdalen Islands has seen steady growth in past few years.

He believes it's the best place in Canada for kitesurfing.

"The wind is always there, very steady and very predictable," he said.

"We have very shallow lagoons here, so to learn and to practice safely there's no jellyfish, there's no sharks."

Avid kitesurfers say strong, steady winds, and shallow lagoons make the Magdalen Islands, Que. an ideal place to learn or practice kitesurfing. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

Each summer, hundreds of people kitesurf on the Islands, according to the local tourism board.

Ian Franklin, 66, and his wife, JoAnn Franklin, 60, decided to try kitesurfing during their 20th wedding anniversary trip on the Magdalen Islands. They took a lesson and spent part of a sunny Sunday morning learning to manage the large kite.

ric Marchand opened the Arosport 'wind school' nearly 20 years ago and is a pioneer when it comes to kitesurfing in Quebec. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

"They told us it would be pretty easy to get started so we said, 'Okay, let's go!'" said Ian.

"It looked like a fun adventure, a wonderful way to enjoy the water and the wind here," said JoAnn.

The Franklins plan on trying the sport again when they return to New Brunswick.

"It'll probably take four or five times before you get good," said Ian Franklin.

Kitesurfing instructor, Adam Andersen, helps Ian and JoAnn Franklin learn to manage the kite during their first lesson. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

Normand Mcguire uses a different kind of board called a hydrofoil.

The fin cuts the water, lifting the board 15 to 30 centimetresoff it,reaching speeds comparable to those achieved by certain sailboats.

"When you're out on the water you're all alone and quiet and it just gives you the ability to relax completely,"said Mcguire.

"You just leave everything that could have been on your mind on shore."

In 1995,Mcguire started to fly stunt kites and loved being pulled hard by the kite.Eventually he discovered that large kites meant for pulling people over water, sand or snow existed.

"Being out there, being pulled by the wind is just a really nice feeling of liberty and somehow great power," said Mcguire.

Mcguire spends a good part of the summer on the Magdalen Islands living out of a converted, red, full sized school bus. The back doors open onto a storage space that is packed with gear.

Normand Mcguire uses a special board called a hydrofoil to kitesurf. The fin cuts the water, lifting the board 15 to 30 cm off the water, reaching speeds comparable to those achieved by certain sailboats. (Marika Wheeler/CBC)

Mcguire says he particularly loves the kitesurfing community in the Magdalen Islands where people are always willing to swap tips and help one another out.

On the day he spoke with CBC News, he pointed out an eight-year-old boy who had tried kitesurfing for the first time, and another group of his friends in their 60s who are also kitesurfers.

"We all kite, we all share the same passion," he said. "It's just the passion of the wind of being pulled by it that drives us together."

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Magdalen Islands, where kitesurfers go to fly - CBC.ca

Justin Gray will get some basketball experience before suiting for the Texas Tech mens basketball team in the fall.

The senior guard was picked to play for the Virgin Islands National Team in the International Basketball Federation AmeriCup Championships set to start this weekend in Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

The Virgin Islands, slated to compete in Group B, is scheduled for pool play Sunday against Canada before taking on Venezuela on Monday followed by host squad Argentina on Tuesday. All three games are expected to be carried live on FIBAs YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/FIBA.

After pool play is completed, the top team from each group along with Argentina advance to the semifinal round set for Sept. 2.

Gray gets a chance to play with his older brother, Johnathan, who was a member of Cornells 2010 NCAA Sweet 16 squad.

Carlos Silva Jr., A-J Media

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Red Raiders' Gray competing for Team Virgin Islands at FIBA AmeriCup Championships - LubbockOnline.com

Many people who think "vacation" go to the sea. Most of them don't immediately think of the Lakshadweep Islands, an archipelago of 36 islands about 300 kilometres off India's southwestern coast. Fewer think of going there during the monsoon rains that lash the islands as they sweep by on their way over the mainland toward the Himalayas.

This is what my wife Aashima and I chose to do, disregarding our friends and colleagues who imagined us restricted to our cottage on Bangaram and Kavaratti and surviving on biscuits. They did not need to worry. The rains came, but lasted just short of a half hour at a time. They would come as suddenly as they would disappear, blown away by the winds - the kind that one loves watching from a window sill over a cup of tea or go for a walk on a beach.

Their absence revealed turquoise seas melting into an azure sky, sandy beaches of almost platinum blonde, and emerald green interiors lush with coconut trees, shrubs and mangroves.

The Lakshadweep is a congregation of coral islands, and is one of India's Union Territories. (The name is from Sanskrit and means "one hundred thousand islands"). They are part of a long chain that extends close to the Maldives, a nation of atolls stretching well below India's southwest tip. The islands have changed hands since their first known mention nearly 2,000 years ago. Now, more than 60,000 people live over 10 islands, and all of them follow one religion, Islam.

And the reason why alcohol doesn't flow as easily. Only Bangaram, uninhabited by natives and meant only for tourists, allows alcohol.

Bangaram is where we spent two days on this trip. That's a feat in itself, given that the island is a little more than half a square mile in area - a visitor can walk the length of the beach in 20 minutes. On our trip, there was plenty of space to share. There were only two other couples on the island, one from Italy and one from Switzerland.

Around noon, when the temperature was 29 Celsius - remember it's a tropical island - we decided to walk to the southern tip of the eastern shore, and spend time wetting our feet in the tides and watching as the white surf along the coral reef, which encloses the lagoon 4 kilometres out, divided the water into turquoise within and electric blue on the open sea.

We also walked to the middle of the island, where a brackish pond cuts a crescent through the trees, and to a sandbar near the island's western shore that appears during the day in low tides and disappears during the evening with the onset of high tides.

Anne Vuilleumier, one of the Swiss tourists, said she appreciated the island's natural beauty, which she said was "still intact", as opposed to other island vacation destinations which are built up and lose something of what made them attractive to begin with. She also appreciated opportunities to canoe and fish in the lagoon area.

Anne, who has a masters in human geography, pointed out another feature of some islands that have maintained their pristine nature instead of becoming modern tourist traps - sometimes the amenities are not what many travelers might expect. In this case, that meant no hot water for a shower, and the water at times, she said, was "blackish". In our case, there was a tinge of sulfuric yellow. Nor were there beach towels and umbrellas for tourists, or enough deck chairs.

But rustic and spare are qualities that some people want in a vacation. The beauty of the place is what they seek. And there is plenty. One option is to take a 15-minute speedboat ride to the nearby tiny islands of Thinnakara and Parali 1 and 2, where hawk-billed turtles come to hatch their young.

We also stayed on Kavaratti island, the islands capital, a 15-minute helicopter ride from Bangaram. Kavaratti is the most populous island with 11,210 inhabitants as per the 2011 census. We stayed at the 26-bed hotel, Paradise Island Hut, a Lakshadweep tourism department property located barely 10 metres from the beach.

There, Abdul Samad, a water-sport instructor with the tourism department, took us to the southwestern tip of the island for snorkelling. The shallow corals lie only 25 metres offshore. While snorkelling, we saw close to 30 species of fish, including rainbow, surgeon, porcupine, lion and butterfly fish, giant clams and sea cucumber. We also saw a young hawksbill turtle lurking under a giant coral boulder. Samad held its flippers gently and brought it to us to hold for a few seconds.

Live corals of bright yellow, pink, green and white colour provided a perfect background to the schools of fishes and shell molluscs. If you take this trip, be advised - snorkelling is good for building up your appetite. Take fruit juice and energy bars or granola bars with you.

Also note that the monsoon is not the best time for speed-boating, parasailing, yachting or scuba diving. October to January typically offer calmer seas and better weather as temperatures vary between 17 and 19 Celsius. We were disappointed not to get the opportunity to strap on any gear and disappear beneath the surface for scuba diving, but we cured this by eating. The freshly caught tuna and local chicken dishes are delicious.

What's bad for diving is good for surfing, however. A handful of young boys who run the island's only surfing club lent me a board. It was difficult to get the hang of it, but it was worth the fleeting moments of gliding over the waves before losing balance and wiping out. The boys also recommended that surfers try Minicoy, the southernmost Lakshadweep island.

A day before our return journey, we went back to Agatti, a 7.6-kilometre-long island with the territory's only air strip. Agatti has a small museum that has preserved a few relics of the eighth and ninth centuries, which chronicle how Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam influenced the people of Lakshadweep. Though devoted to maintaining the island's history, it's in poor shape and desperately requires upkeep.

The food was in better shape. During a boat ride along the eastern shore of the island, a local who was accompanying us caught a metre-long Needle fish and simply gave it to us. This kind of hospitality is what made Agatti and, indeed, the Lakshadweep generally, special for us. How to get there

It's important to get permission from the Lakshadweep Administration to visit the island. Call: + 91 04842666789 or +91 9495984001.

Flights take a little more than three hours from Bangalore to Agatti, with a stopover in Kochi. Direct flights from Kochi take 80 minutes.

Peak season is October to May. Monsoon season is June to July.

The SPORTS (Society for Promotion Of Nature Tourism and Sports), a nodal agency of Lakshadweep administration, offers tour packages on ship from Kochi, Kerala. You can see them on their website here

'Lakshadweep Samudram' is a five-day cruise to visit the islands of Kavaratti, Kalpeni and Minicoy.

'Swaying Palm' is a week-long tour to Minicoy. Tourists are hosted in cottages on the beach front.'Weekend Package' is a one-day trip to the Kalpeni Island.

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The Lakshadweep islands: a sublime coral jewel - Reuters

The best Caribbean beaches in the world are all within reach of Northern Ohio. And there are plenty of islands bursting with adventures, activities, clear water and stunning natural sites. The question remains, which Caribbean island is best suited for you?

The way to determine that is simple. Visit the island. And you can do so by cruise ship, where you can spend the day getting a lovely taste of the area. Here are some exceptional Caribbean islands that most of the major cruise lines call on.

Antigua

Discover all of Antiguas amazing treasures and fascinating past. Explore three of Antiguas best-known locations while traveling through the heart of the countryside, past rolling hills and local villages. Visit the famous Nelsons Dockyard, the worlds only Georgian-era dockyard still in use, Blockhouse Ruins, and Shirley Heights for an amazing view of the harbor. Relax as you explore one of the most gorgeous cities in the eastern Caribbean.

St. Lucia

Embark on a leisurely cruise from St. Lucias north coast to discover the magnificent volcanic peaks known as the Gros and Petit Pitons. Rising dramatically from the ocean, these incredible geographic landmarks each reach heights of more than 2,000 feet. After your visit to the Pitons, continue sailing northward, with a stop for swimming and a visit to Marigot Bay.

Aruba

Explore the island of Aruba on a scenic drive. Enjoy spectacular views while learning about the culture and rich history of Aruba. Visit key landmarks and natural wonders. See the charming capital of Oranjestad, with its Dutch Colonial architecture, and schooner harbor. Marvel at the unusual geological formations of the Casibari Rock Formations. See the gold mill ruins, breathtaking beaches, and the natural bridge, a geological wonder formed by the forces of the wind and the sea.

St. Croix

Visit St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and explore its historic, cultural and natural sites. Marvel at St. Croixs tropical beauty and captivating views as you make your way along the island. Learn about the cultural traditions of the islanders before arriving to the historical town of Christiansted. Browse the shops or enjoy a stroll over to the famous Fort Christiansvern.

Dominica

Explore natures island with unspoiled beauty, a divers dream and its listed as one of the 10 best destinations to dive. A hikers paradise with 300 miles of trails a true nature lovers dream and an adventure, unlike any other Caribbean destination. Dominica has volcanic peaks, boiling waters and underwater champagne springs, sparkling waterfalls, rushing streams, rainforest canopies with spectacular drops and a submerged volcanic crater.

St. Thomas

A gateway isle of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Its known for its beaches and snorkeling spots and duty free shopping. Territorial capital Charlotte Amalie, founded by the Danish in the 1600s, is a busy cruise-ship port. Historic buildings include a 1679 watch tower, Blackbeards Castle, in reference to the areas pirate history. On the harbor, 17th-century Fort Christian is now a local-history museum.

St. Maarten / St. Martin

St. Martin is part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. It comprises two- separate countries, divided between its northern French side, Saint Martin, and its southern Dutch side, St. Maarten. The island is home to busy resort beaches and secluded coves. Its also known for fusion cuisine, vibrant nightlife and duty-free shops selling jewelry and liquor.

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman is the largest of the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. George Town, its capital, is home to the Cayman Islands National Museum, dedicated to Caymanian heritage. The city is also a major cruise-ship port and site of the ruins of colonial-era Fort George. Beaches and vibrant coral reefs are the islands hallmarks.

Jamaica

A Caribbean island nation has a lush topography of mountains, rainforests and reef-lined beaches. Many of its all-inclusive resorts are clustered in Montego Bay, with its British-colonial architecture, and Negril, known for its diving and snorkeling sites. Jamaica is famed as the birthplace of reggae music, and its capital Kingston is home to the Bob Marley Museum, dedicated to the famous singer.

Turks and Caicos

An archipelago of 40 low-lying coral islands in the Atlantic Ocean, a British overseas territory southeast of the Bahamas. The gateway island of Providenciales, known as Provo, is home to expansive Grace Bay Beach, with luxury resorts, shops and restaurants. Scuba-diving sites include a 14-mile barrier reef on Provos north shore and a dramatic 2,134m underwater wall off Grand Turk Island.

Arlene Goldberg is president and owner of Action Travel Center in Solon.

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The best beach islands are in the Caribbean - Cleveland Jewish News

Burgers

35 years of grilling leads to tastefully crafted burgers done to perfection. Designed for those with a big appetite and great style. All Islands burgers on Islands menu are served with an endless side of fresh cut Island Fries.

Sriracha cream cheese, soy-sriracha glaze, applewood smoked bacon, pickled peppers, pepper jack cheese, lettuce & onion.

BBQ sauce, Island Reds, american cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles & mayo.

Sauted mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, swiss & mayo.

Bleu cheese dressing, lettuce, tomato, red onion & crumbled bleu cheese.

Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles & mustard.

American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles & mustard.

Substitute our tasty turkey or veggie patty for your favorite burger at no extra charge.

Jalapeo & black pepper crusted burger w/pepper jack cheese, chipotle aioli, lettuce, tomato & Island Reds.

Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, pickles, onion & tomato.

Guacamole, lettuce, tomato, onion, swiss & mayo.

Chili, american cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles & mustard.

Fresh pineapple, teriyaki sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, swiss & mayo.

Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, american cheese, applewood smoked bacon & mustard.

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Food - Islands Menu | Islands Restaurants

By Lisa Niver

smithsonian.com August 22, 2017 5:33PM

Seventy five years ago, the Battle of Guadalcanal changed the course of World War II in the South Pacific. According to the National World War II Museum statistics, the Solomon Islands Campaign cost the Allies approximately 7,100 men, 29 ships and 615 aircraft. The Japanese lost 31,000 men, 38 ships and 683 aircraft. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy wanted a buffer against attack from the United States and its Allies, and began occupying islands throughout the Pacific Ocean.

When the Japanese began construction on what would later be called Henderson Airfield in July 1942, taking control of this strategic airfield became a primary goal for the US Marine offensive. American forces landed on August 7, 1942 to remove the Japanese from the island. The six-month battle in the Solomon Islands on the most easterly advance of the Rising Sun was crucial to preventing Australia and New Zealand from being cut off from the Allies. This was the first decisive battle of the war in the Pacific in which the Japanese forceswere turned back.

The United States Marines depended upon the Australian Coastwatchers and the Solomon Island Scouts for local knowledge and assistance. Inscribed in a plaque at the Memorial Garden at Henderson Airport, the United States Marines honor them with these words: In the Solomons, a handful of men, Coastwatchers and Solomon Islanders alike, operating side by side often behind enemy lines always against staggering odds, contributed heroically to our victory at Guadalcanal. This partnership between these groups is credited with having saved John F. Kennedy while he was stationed in the area.

Kennedy was at a forward military base on Lubaria Island, where today you can still visit and see the original cement pads from the bakery and mess house, in addition to a well hole. On August 2, 1943, a moonless night, whilepatrolling between Kolombangara Island and Ghizo Island, Kennedyand his crew were on maneuvers in their patrol boat (PT 109) and in the path of the Japanese destroyer, Amagiru Maru. After being struck, their boat broke apartand began to sink. Two of the seamenAndrew Jackson Kirksey and Harold W. Marneywere killed, and the remaining eleven survivors swam through flames towards land. Coastwatcher Reg Evans saw the flames and sent two scouts to search for survivors.

There were Japanese camps on thelarger islands like Kolombangara, and Kennedy's crewswam to the smaller and deserted Plum Pudding Island to the southwest. The men worked together to push a makeshift raft of timbers from the wreckto move the injured and non-swimmers. Kennedy, a strong swimmer and former member of the Harvard University swim team, pulled the injured Patrick McMahon by clenching his life jacket strap in his mouth. After nearly four hours and more thanthree miles, they reached their first island destination. In search of food and water, they had to swim to another small slip of landnamed Kasolo Island, where they survived on coconuts for several days.

Island scouts Biuku Gaza and Eroni Kumana searched for survivors in their dugout canoe. If spotted by Japanese ships or aircraft, they hoped to be taken fornative fisherman. When Gasa and Kumana found Kennedy, Gasa encouraged him to carve a message in a coconut shell. This message enabled them to coordinate their rescue:

NAURO ISL COMMANDER... NATIVE KNOWS POS'IT... HE CAN PILOT... 11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT... KENNEDY

Years later, that carved coconut shell sat on Kennedys desk in the Oval Office and served as a reminder of his time in the dangerous waters. Kasolo Island is now called Kennedy Island. And on August 3, 2017, Kennedys100th birthday portrait and the 75th Anniversary monument was unveiled at ceremonies on both Kennedy Island and Lubaria Island.

Touring the area is an opportunity to explore what happened on the Solomon Islands three quarters of a century ago.Today, on the islands pristine beaches, the violence of the battlefield feels long agobut physical reminders remain. The area is a graveyard of dozens of World War II destroyers, military ships and aircraft in the clear waters surrounding the islands, and makes for an incredible chance toSCUBA dive through history.

PLACES YOU CAN VISIT TODAY

Diving: see the planes, boats, submarines underwater from WWII.

Dive the Toa Maru in Gizo, which is similar in size to the ship that rammed Kennedys PT boat. Explore to 90 feet underwater in Mundo and visit the Airacobra P-39 fighter from the USAF 68th Fighter Squadron and the nearby Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless dive bomber,which was hit by fire during a raid on Munda on July 23, 1943.

In Honiara: I-1 submarine, B1 and B2.

In Munda:wreck diving.

Museums:

Vilu War Museum

Explore the open-air museum at Vilu and walkamong planes from the World War II dogfights.

Skull Island:

The ancestors of the Roviana people were warriors, and their skills as trackers enabled them to assist the United States in the battles fought on land and over water.

Peter Joseph WWII Museum in Munda.

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Commemorating WWII History in the Solomon Islands - Smithsonian

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - River Action will be installing five floating islands at the Eastern Avenue Lagoon on Thursday, August 24th at 9:00 am.

Volunteers will be planting about 500 perennial wetland species and will help float and anchor the islands in the Eastern Avenue Lagoon.

Once those islands are installed, three more will be installed in the Credit Island lagoon later in the day.

Floating islands are hydroponically grown plants that manage stormwater by removing suspended solids and contaminants, like heavy metals and nutrients. Blue-green algae also referred to as cyanobacteria, differs from other forms of algae in that they cannot be eaten by other organisms and are formed by an excess amount of nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) and sunlight. Cyanobacteria is often the result of agricultural and stormwater runoff.

Algae blooms form floating mats that become so dense that they block out sunlight from reaching other underwater plants and plankton. Because they no longer have the ability to photosynthesize, the water's oxygen level decreases. This creates a dead zone a region that is uninhabitable to most plant and animal life.

The floating islands will absorb the excess nutrients, resulting in a cleaner water system and a reduction of algal blooms. They will also create a food for fish and habitat for birds. The islands can overwinter and last up to ten years!

Just click HERE if you would like to volunteer.

Nahant Marsh will also be installing Islands on Friday, August 25th at 10:00 am.

This project is funded in part by Scott County Regional Authority and Floating Islands International.

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River Action plans to install floating islands in local lagoons - KWQC-TV6

Patrick Pizzella worked with Jack Abramoff to organize congressional junkets to this laboratory of liberty.

Noah LanardAug. 22, 2017 6:00 AM

Patrick Pizzella and his former boss Jack Abramoff.Mother Jones

Theres lobbying, and then theres working with Jack Abramoff to promote the sweatshop economy on remote Pacific islands. If you want to know about that kind of lobbying, you can ask Patrick Pizzella, President Donald Trumps pick to be deputy labor secretary. Or maybe you cant.

At a July Senate confirmation hearing, Pizzella said he didnt remember much about the work he did in the late 1990s to help the Northern Mariana Islandsa US commonwealth 1,500 miles from Japandefeat a bipartisan effort to rein in a guest worker program that the Labor Department found reliedonindentured workers. When Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) asked Pizzella whether he knew about reports of forced abortions and routine beatings at the time, Pizzella replied, I was not aware of any such thing. Pressed further, he said reports of abuse by multiple government agencies and newspapers were mere allegations.

What Pizzella didnt say was that he helped lead a public relations campaign to rebrand the islands as a paragon of free-market principles. Between 1996 and 2000, emails and billing records reviewed by Mother Jones show thatPizzella andcolleaguesorganized all-expenses-paidtrips to the islands for more than 100members of Congress, their staffers, andconservative thought leaders. When they got back, Pizzella helped them convince colleagues that the Northern Mariana Islands were, as his old boss Abramoff liked to put it, a laboratory of liberty.

Now Pizzella is poised to become Americas second-highest labor enforcer. If confirmed by the Senate, hell be responsible for holding employers accountable in the Northern Mariana Islands and across the country. (Pizzella, currently the acting chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, a federal agency that handles government employees labor disputes, declined to comment for this story.)

Pizzella at his Senate confirmation hearing in July.

Ron Sachs/ZUMA

Pizzella arrived at the law firm Preston Gates in 1996 as Abramoffs second hire. Smart, likeable, clever, and hardworking, Pat was a perfect addition to the quickly emerging Team Abramoff, Abramoff wrote in his 2011 memoir, Capitol Punishment. Pizzella immediately started reading up on Abramoffs newlobbyingclient: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a string of 14 tropical islands just north of Guamwith a population of about 53,000.

The year before, Abramoff had learned that the CNMI was looking for a lobbyist to fend off increased federal control. During World War II, the islands were under Japanese control until the United States won the Battle of Saipan (the CNMIs main island) in 1944. After a few decades in limbo as part of a United Nations trust, the Northern Mariana Islands opted to join the United States in 1975 as a commonwealth instead of pursuing independence.

The agreement between the islands and the United States granted two exemptions. First, the CNMI could set its own minimum wage. Second, the commonwealthwould be allowed to make its own immigration laws. CNMI officials initially requested control of immigration to ensure that theindigenous population would not be overwhelmed by newcomers.But adecade later,garment manufacturers and theCNMIs governmentdecidedto use the exemption toimport unlimited guest workers to make clothes for companies like Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic. The clothes they produced were stampedMade in the USA and exported to the United States tariff-free.Between 1985 and 1998, CNMI garment exports grew from almost nothing to more than $1 billion annuallyover a third of total CNMI business revenue.

Things were just completely out of control, says Allen Stayman, the top Interior Departmentofficial assigned to the CNMI from 1993 to 1999. Recruiters illegally required many foreign workers to pay fees in order to land jobs in the CNMI, causing them to go into debt that theyd have to work to pay off. Others signed shadow contracts in which they promised their employers not to unionize, date, or practice a religion while working in the CNMI. Some were made to sleep a dozen to a room, with barbed wire surrounding their barracks. If workers complained, the CNMI government, which had close ties tothe garment industry, could deport them immediately. In 1992, Willie Tan, a top garment industry baron, paid a $9 million settlement in a Labor Department suit alleging hed failed to pay workersovertime andtheCNMIs minimum wage of $2.15 an hourcompared with $4.25 elsewhere in the United States. The settlementwasthe largest in Labor Department history at the time.

When Abramoff signed the CNMIgovernmentas a client in July 1995, the USSenate had already unanimously passed a bill to strip the islands of its minimum-wage exemption, setting up what looked to be an uncontentious vote in the House. The year before, representatives from the Interior and Labor departments and the US Immigration and Naturalization Service had testified at a Senate hearing about mistreatment of foreign workers. CNMI Gov. Froilan Tenoriojoined them to say he was disgusted and ashamed by the stories of human rights abuses. Unfortunately, he added at the hearing, they are generally accurate.Still, the workers kept coming. According to a 1998 federal government report, indentured alien workers,mostly from Bangladesh, China, and the Philippines, made up 91 percent of the CNMIs private-sector workforce. The majority of citizens, on the other hand, worked in better-paidgovernmentjobs. Immigration laws that were supposed to protect the CNMIs indigenous population had made many citizens into overlords who were outnumbered by their guest workers.

A garment factory on Saipan in 1997

Charles Hanley/AP

But Tenorio argued that the CNMI could fix the problems without eliminating the exemptions. Other lobbyists, Abramoff wrote in his memoir, told Tenorio that preserving themwas a lost cause. Abramoff disagreed. To save them, Abramoffwrote, he told the governors chief of staff that the CNMI just needed to convince the conservatives running Congress that the fight was about defending a free market.

In a 1995 pitch letter to Tenorio,Abramoff argued that personal tours could help sway public officials. Pizzella led this effort. By his second month on the job, Pizzella was spending more than 100 billable hours per month on the CNMI account, about as much as Abramoff. The centerpiece of Pizzellas work was organizing all-inclusivejunkets for members of Congress and their wives, congressional staffers, and conservative influencerssuch as pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrickwho now goes by her married name, Kellyanne Conway, and advises President Donald Trumpwith first-class airfare and lodging at the beachfront Hyatt Regency on Saipan. Pats very effective, a former consultant to the CNMI told The New Republic in 2001. Visitors to the island seemed to get all the right information.

Pizzellas first trip, in 1996, included meetings with the governor and the SaipanGarment Manufacturers Association and a tour of a garment factory; some later trips included meetings with human rights activists. Later that year, Abramoff wrote in an email to Herman Guerrero, a CNMI official, that the recent Congressional staff trips have done more good for the CNMI than almost anything we have done in the past.

The leisurely aspect of the trips seemed to help. [S]ome of the group plans to play golf at LaoLao on monday afternoon and Kingfisher on Tuesday afternoon, Pizzella emailed Guerrero, please arrange for that authorization letter to the managers at each course indicating we will be renting clubs etcthat worked very, very well last visit. Another trip included a weekend layover in Hawaii on the way back, according to an email from Pizzella. The New York Times summed up the trips with the headline They Came. They Saw. They Golfed.

The view from the Hyatt on Saipan where Pizzellas guests usually stayed.

drufisher/Flickr

After they got back, they wrote. Clint Bolick, a co-founder of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm, reported shortly after returning that the CNMI boasted perhaps the most vibrant economy in the United States. The secret: largely unregulated markets that in two decades have created out of almost nothing head-spinning economic growth, productivity, and prosperity.

Bolick, who is now a state Supreme Court justice in Arizona, and others were particularly impressed that Gov. Tenorio supported conservative priorities like school vouchers. That wasnt an accident. The year before, Pizzella had discussed vouchers and a flat taxwith the conservative Heritage Foundation and thelibertarian Cato Institute on behalf of the CNMIs government. Our travelers ate this up, Abramoff wrote in his memoir. The conservative groups in Washington had found a new hero in this Democratic governor of our least populated territory.

Another Abramoff tactic, according to a Senate Finance Committee investigation, was to have the CNMI funnel money to a front group, which helped the trips appear independent. Before a 1996 junket, Preston Gates billing records show, Pizzella met with Amy Moritz, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative group that funded several trips for Abramoff, to discuss a CNMI trip and possible funding arrangements. After he got back, Pizzella explained in an email to Abramoff how a report byCato fellow Doug Bandow would be paid for. [T]hat leaves basically the fees for Bandows services and report; and the reimbursement for the bills he accumulated, Pizzella wrote to Abramoff. That should come to about $10,000. That is the amount CNMI should provide as a grant to NCPPR. Then they can cut check to Bandow. Preston Gates billing records include an $8,000 invoice for Bandows trip expenses that lists NCPPR as the vendor.

After the trip, Bandow started writing a report for the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. Pizzella had about a dozen discussions with Bandow and Marlo Lewis, a CEI executive, about the report, according to billing records. As the publication date got closer, Pizzella, Abramoff, and Michael Soussan, a junior Preston Gates lobbyist, also edited and provided comments on drafts. The final report called the CNMI a center of policy innovation and laboratory of liberty that could serve as a model for the rest of the country. (Bandow would later lose his position at Cato for accepting money from Abramoff to write favorable op-eds about the CNMI and other clients; he subsequently returned to the think tankand is nowa senior fellow there. Bandow did not respond to requests for comment.)

The next year, Soussan traveled to the CNMI with Pizzella, according to his memoir and billing records. As usual, the guests toured a garment factory. The point of my presence at the scene, Sousann wrote in the memoir, was to help these factory owners get away with exploitation. Without specifically naming Pizzella, he wrote that Pat, the team leader of the Congressional delegation, put a different spin on it, saying, See? Working conditions are not as horrible as the press would have us believe. On the way out, he recalled, they got a special treat: discounted clothes. The pride I felt for my job at that moment made me want to put a bullet through my head, Soussan wrote.(Soussan did not respond to requests for comment.)

When Stayman, the Interior Department official,went to the CNMI with Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the mid-1990s,he says, they attended the usual meetings arranged by localgovernment officials, before feigning jet lag and returning to their hotel. Then, in the evening, they left the hotel and got a different tour from Labor Department investigators and Christian human rights activists. They were quickly persuaded, Stayman says. Like I said, it was all Potemkin village. Murkowski later told PBS that calling the conditions unacceptable was putting it mildly.

But Abramoffs close relationship with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, who visited the CNMI for New Years in 1997, ensured that Murkowski and Akakas attempts to revoke the CNMIs immigration and minimum-wage exemptions met a certain death in the House. DeLay called the islands a perfect petri dish of capitalism, adding, Its like my Galapagos Island. (Abramoff could not be reached for comment.)

As Abramoffs clout expanded, Preston Gates payments from the islands rose from $100,000 in 1995 to more than $3 million in 1997. (In 2001, TheNew Republicreported thatPizzella made $175,000 per year.)Then Tenorios uncle ousted him from the governorship as the islands tourism industry tanked during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The next year, Preston Gates CNMI income dropped by more than half. To cover the shortfall, Abramoff turned to WillieTan, the garment magnate.In a 1998 memo to a Tan Holdings official, Abramoff laid out a six-part strategy for representing Tan and the government. Pizzella was tasked with running the trips programthe importance of which cannot be overstated, Abramoff wrote.

Jack Abramoff leaves a federal courthouse after entering a plea agreement on three felony charges.

CQ Roll Call/AP

In 2001, Abramoff moved on to the lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, where he continued to work on behalf of the CNMI. Instead of following him, Pizzella joined the George W. Bush administration as the chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management. But Pizzella had made his mark as a lobbyist for the CNMI. By 2001, more than 100 thought leaders and lawmakers had made the journey to the CNMI, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journaland other outlets. If you were a conservative intellectual and you didnt get invited, you just knew you werent cool, a source told The New Republics Franklin Foer in 2001.In 2007 and 2008, after Abramoff and Pizzella had stopped lobbying for the CNMI government, Congress overwhelmingly passed bills revoking the islands wage and immigration exemptions. Following a World Trade Organization agreement eliminating tariffs on US apparel importsfrom abroad in 2005,the CNMIs garment industry all but disappeared.

Hardly anyone seemed to notice when Pizzella was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be an assistant labor secretary a few months into the Bush administration. Wait, exactly who is this guy again? the textile unions legislative director asked Foer at the time. Six months removed from lobbying, Pizzella was already calling his CNMI work ancient history. I dont want to go down memory lane, he said in the June 2001 story. (President Barack Obamas nomination of Pizzella to the Federal Labor Relations Authority in 2013 was similarly uncontroversial.)

At Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff took his influencing to new, and frequently illegal, levels. In 2008, he received a four-year prison sentence for charges including corrupting public officials, tax evasion, and conspiracy. The fraud Abramoff perpetrated against Native American clients got most of theattention, but in Abramoffs plea deal, a January 2000 trip to the CNMI was included as one of many examples of how Abramoff provided golf and other things of value in exchange for official acts and influence.Twenty-one peoplewere ultimately found guilty in the Abramoff scandal.Pizzella was not charged.

At Pizzellas July confirmation hearing, Franken mentioned the people convictedin the Abramoff scandal. Pizzella was careful to point out, I was not one of them. Franken didnt seem particularly impressed. I understand that, hedeadpanned.Congratulations.

Image credit: Pizzella: Ron Sachs/ZUMA; Abramoff: Pablo Alcala/ZUMA

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(ROME) An earthquake rattled the Italian resort island of Ischia at the peak of tourist season Monday night, killing at least one person and trapping a half dozen others, including children, under collapsed homes.

Police said all but one of the people known to be trapped were responding to rescuers and were expected to be extracted alive. One person, however, wasn't responding, raising worries the death toll could increase, said Giovanni Salerno of the financial police.

Italy's national volcanology institute said the temblor struck a few minutes before 9 p.m., just as many people were having dinner. The hardest-hit area was Casamicciola, on the northern part of the island.

There was great discrepancy in the magnitude reported: Italy's national vulcanology agency put the initial magnitude at 3.6, though it revised it to a 4.0 sustained magnitude with a shallow depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles) in the waters just off the island. The U.S. Geological Survey and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center gave it a 4.3 magnitude, with a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).

While such discrepancies and revisions are common, Italian officials complained that the Italian agency's initial low 3.6-magnitude greatly underestimated the power of the temblor.

At least one hotel and parts of a hospital were evacuated. A doctor at the Rizzoli hospital, Roberto Allocca, told Sky TG24 that some 26 people were being treated for minor injuries at a makeshift emergency room set up on the hospital grounds. He said the situation was calm and under control.

Salerno confirmed one woman was killed by falling masonry. At least three people were extracted from the rubble, the civil protection said.

Civil protection crews, already on the island in force to fight the forest fires that have been ravaging southern Italy, were checking the status of the buildings that suffered damage.

Together with the nearby island of Capri, Ischia is a favorite island getaway for the European jet set, famed in particular for its thermal waters. Casamicciola was the epicenter of an 1883 earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people.

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At Least 1 Dead After Earthquake Hits Italian Resort Island - TIME

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Kem and Amber (Picture: Getty Images)

Love Island champ Amber Davies has revealed that she has only bought herself one treat with her 25,000-winning prize money a Chanel handbag.

I bought myself a Chanel bag, the reality star has admitted.

I thought to myself well I did win the show so I treated myself to a celebratory Chanel bag. Just one handbag isnt going to hurt is it?

Amber and Kem Cetinay won this years series thanks to their romance which began early on in the series and lasted despite many ups and downs, and they shared the 50,000 prize money.

Speaking to The Sun at V Festival, Amber added that Kem however has been spending his money, on hundreds of trainers, trainers and trainers and trainers as well as Amber: He has spoilt me rotten too though.

Although the pair are co-habiting just yet, Amber previously admitted that could change when her flat contract runs out next summer and wedding rumours are already swirling after Amber was spotted wearing a sparkly ring on her ring finger following Kems admission that Amber is the woman he wants to marry.

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Love Island champ Amber Davies says she's only bought one thing with her 50k prize - Metro