Sumatra

Sumatra (Indonesian: Sumatera) is an island in western Indonesia and part of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are shared between Indonesia and other countries) and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km² (including adjacent islands such as the Riau Islands and Bangga Belitung Islands).

Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest-southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the west, northwest, and southwest sides of Sumatra with the island chain of Simeulue, Nias and Mentawai bordering the southwestern coast. On the northeast side the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, an extension of the Eurasian continent. On the southeast the narrow Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra borders the Andaman Islands, while on the lower eastern side are the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karimata Strait and the Java Sea. The Bukit Barisan mountains, which contain several active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeast sides are outlying lowlands with swamps, mangrove and complex river systems. The equator crosses the island at its center on West Sumatra and Riau provinces. The climate of the island is tropical, hot and humid with lush tropical rain forest once dominating the landscape.

HNLMS Sumatra (1890)

The Dutch cruiser HNLMS Sumatra was a small protected cruiser with a heavy main gun. The ship was named after the island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). It was discarded in 1907.

Design and construction

The design resembled a smaller version of the Esmeralda concept (the 1883 protected cruiser built by Armstrong/Elswick shipyards for Chile) and is most similar in size to the Chinese protected cruiser Chi Yuan (1883) a ship built at about the same time as Esmeralda. Sumatra had the 8.2-inch gun forward and the 5.9-inch gun aft, both in shields, with sponsons on the sides for the two 4.7-inch guns. The Dutch Navy also built a larger protected cruiser with even heavier armament, Koningin Wilhelmina der Nederlanden launched in 1892, which had an 11-inch gun forward and was most comparable to the Japanese protected cruisers of the Matsushima type. These ships represented a design philosophy in which navies that could not afford first-class battleships (including the Netherlands) mounted heavy weapons on coastal defense ships or moderately sized protected cruisers with the idea these ships would pose a threat to first-class opponents.

Cherryholmes III: Don't Believe

Cherryholmes III: Don't Believe is the third major-label studio album by Cherryholmes. The album was released on September 30, 2008 and was nominated for Best Bluegrass Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards.

Content and reception

With four members of the Cherryholmes family in their teens and early 20s at the time of the album's recording, many songs deal with the early pressures and emotions involving heartbreak. One example is "Devil in Disguise", a cover song co-written by Gram Parsons. Other tracks on the album include "This Is My Son", about a parent sending her child off to war, and "Sumatra", which was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. The album was nominated in the Best Bluegrass Album category. It peaked at number three on the Billboard Top Bluegrass Albums chart and number 48 on the Top Country Albums chart.

Barry Mazor of American Songwriter wrote that "the ever-increasing vocal harmony strength, instrumental prowess, and original songwriting talent can’t be missed on this latest outing."Allmusic's James Christopher Monger remarked that on this album, the band "do(es) away completely with the traditional, opting for a sleek batch of self-penned contemporary bluegrass numbers that lean closer to Nickel Creek and the Dixie Chicks than they do Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder." Of the "Devil in Disguise" cover, Meredith Ochs of NPR said that "the song gives the Cherryholmes family a chance to demonstrate skill at that other bluegrass essential: harmonies, especially those that are genetically linked."