UNISON

UNISON is the second largest trade union in the United Kingdom with almost 1.3 million members.

The union was formed in 1993 when three public sector trade unions, the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO), the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the Confederation of Health Service Employees (COHSE) merged.

UNISON's current general secretary is Dave Prentis. He was elected on 28 February 2000 and took up the post on 1 January 2001, succeeding Rodney Bickerstaffe who had held the post for five years.

Members and organisation

Members of UNISON are typically from industries within the public sector and generally cover both full-time and part-time support and administrative staff. The majority of people joining UNISON would be workers within areas such as local government, education, the National Health Service Registered Nurses, NHS Managers & Clinical Support Workers. The union also admits ancillary staff such as Health Care Assistants and Assistant Practitioners, including Allied Health Professionals. Probation services, police services, utilities (such as gas, electricity and water), and transport. These 'Service Groups' all have their own national and regional democratic structures within UNISON's constitution.

Unison (video)

Unison is Celine Dion's first home video, released on VHS on July 2, 1991. It includes the music videos from her English debut album Unison.

This collection features never before used version of "Calling You," previously unreleased version of Dion's breakthrough hit "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" (Canadian black-and-white version mixed with the U.S. performance version), plus exclusive interviews with Dion at her home.

Three videos: "Délivre-moi," "Have a Heart," and "Calling You" were filmed during the Unison Tour at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto, Canada, and later shown in the 1991 MusiMax TV special.

In the United States, the U.S. version of "(If There Was) Any Other Way" from 1991 was included; in Canada, the Canadian version from 1990. This VHS was made in both English and in French. The two contain similar interviews conducted in both languages.

Unison home video was certified Gold in Canada.

Track listing

Certifications

Release history

References

Unison (Celine Dion album)

Unison is the 15th studio album by Canadian singer Celine Dion and her first studio album recorded in English. The album was originally released on 2 April 1990 by Columbia Records. Its music incorporates a range of contemporary genres with a mix of ballads and dance songs. Dion worked with a range of professional writers and producers, including Christopher Neil, David Foster, Tom Keane and Andy Goldmark.

Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented Dion's voice and technique, as well as the album's content. On the commercial level, Unison reached top ten in Norway and top twenty in Canada. Eventually, it was certified seven-times Platinum in Canada, Platinum in the United States, and Gold in the United Kingdom and France. The album has sold over three million copies worldwide.

Up to five singles were released from Unison, depending on the country. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" became a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number four. The next US single, "(If There Was) Any Other Way" peaked at number thirty-five. In 1991, Unison won Juno Award for Album of the Year and Dion won Juno Award for Female Vocalist of the Year.

Planetary phase

Refers to the periods of time during which a planet's surface reflects different amounts of sunlight, revealing different portions of the planet's surface from the perspective of a given point in space.

Inferior planets

The two inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, which have orbits that are smaller than the Earth's, exhibit the full range of phases as does the Moon, when seen through a telescope. Their phases are "full" when they are at superior conjunction, on the far side of the Sun as seen from the Earth. (It is possible to see them at these times, since their orbits are not exactly in the plane of Earth's orbit, so they usually appear to pass slightly above or below the Sun in the sky. Seeing them from the Earth's surface is difficult, because of sunlight scattered in Earth's atmosphere, but observers in space can see them easily if direct sunlight is blocked from reaching the observer's eyes.) The planets' phases are "new" when they are at inferior conjunction, passing more or less between the Sun and the Earth. (Sometimes they appear to cross the solar disk, which is called a transit of the planet.) At intermediate points on their orbits, these planets exhibit the full range of crescent and gibbous phases.

Phase (band)

Phase /feɪz/ is a UK-based rock band formed in Larissa, Greece in 2003. They made a digital single ("Perdition") for Microsoft’s Playlist Seven program in Feb 2010, they released one album In Consequence in which Duncan Patterson, better known from his work with the British rock band Anathema, took part. According to Reverbnation's charts, Phase is ranked 1st nationwide in Greece. Phase climbed on #12 of Billboard's fastest rising acts powered by Next Big Sound in the week of June 14th 2012.

History

Formation (2003;2008)

Phase was formed in 2003 and played intermittently until 2008 when they began recording their album In Consequence and performed at concerts. Soon after they had a functional line up they recorded Perdition which was the very first track Phase ever recorded to be later a part of Microsoft's Playlist 7 campaign.

Response

Phase has been the subject of several alternative rock publications and has generally been well received by its critics. They have had interviews in various magazines and radiostations and have received praise for their shows.

Phaser (effect)

A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal by creating a series of peaks and troughs in the frequency spectrum. The position of the peaks and troughs of the waveform being affected is typically modulated so that they vary over time, creating a sweeping effect. For this purpose, phasers usually include a low-frequency oscillator.

Process

The electronic phasing effect is created by splitting an audio signal into two paths. One path treats the signal with an all-pass filter, which preserves the amplitude of the original signal and alters the phase. The amount of change in phase depends on the frequency. When signals from the two paths are mixed, the frequencies that are out of phase will cancel each other out, creating the phaser's characteristic notches. Changing the mix ratio changes the depth of the notches; the deepest notches occur when the mix ratio is 50%.

The definition of phaser typically excludes such devices where the all-pass section is a delay line; such a device is called a flanger. Using a delay line creates an unlimited series of equally spaced notches and peaks. It is possible to cascade a delay line with another type of all-pass filter. This combines the unlimited number of notches from the flanger with the uneven spacing of the phaser.

New START

New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) (Russian: СНВ-III, SNV-III) is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed on 8 April 2010 in Prague, and, after ratification, entered into force on 5 February 2011. It is expected to last at least until 2021.

New START replaced the Treaty of Moscow (SORT), which was due to expire in December 2012. In terms of name, it is a follow-up to the START I treaty, which expired in December 2009, the proposed START II treaty, which never entered into force, and the START III treaty, for which negotiations were never concluded.

Under terms of the treaty, the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers will be reduced by half. A new inspection and verification regime will be established, replacing the SORT mechanism. It does not limit the number of operationally inactive stockpiled nuclear warheads that remain in the high thousands in both the Russian and American inventories.