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A relief well is a well drilled to intersect an oil or gas well that has experienced a blowout. Specialized liquid, such as heavy (dense) drilling mud followed by cement, can then be pumped down the relief well in order to stop the flow from the reservoir in the damaged well.

The first use of a relief well was in Texas in the mid 1930s when one was drilled to pump water into an oil well that had cratered and caught on fire. ^[1]

References and External links[link]

• "How a relief well works | Gulf of Mexico response | BP". http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033657&contentId=7061734. Retrieved 2010-05-16. 
• "IEEE Spectrum: How to Drill A Relief Well". http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/fossil-fuels/how-to-drill-a-relief-well. Retrieved 2010-08-05. 

This article related to natural gas, petroleum or the petroleum industry is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (September 2010)

Tara Leann Stiles (born May 6, 1981)^[1] is an American model turned yoga instructor and founder of Strala Yoga in New York City. She starred in Yoga For, the first instructional on-line yoga video series, produced by Ford Models. Vanity Fair reported on a yoga video that Stiles specifically designed for Sarah Palin; the Vanity Fair reporter commented that "Tara Stiles has got to be the coolest yoga instructor ever."^[2] Stiles is also the personal yoga instructor to Deepak Chopra, with whom she collaborated to create Authentic Yoga for the iPhone.

Early life[link]

Stiles grew up outside Morris, Illinois. Her mother designed, without any professional experience, their passive solar home and built it together with her father, now retired from a career in nuclear power.^[3] She has one sibling, an elder brother, Chad, who is an electrician.

Modeling career[link]

After graduation she studied dance in Chicago, where one of her ballet instructors introduced her to yoga. A local photographer brought her to Marie Anderson Boyd, founder of Aria Models in Chicago, later acquired by Ford Models, who signed her on the spot. Boyd booked Stiles' first casting, an ad campaign for Coca-Cola, and She moved to New York City soon after.^[3] She eventually realized that modeling was not what she was truly interested in. When Ford asked her to start making short promotional yoga videos for the agency and post them to YouTube, it was the beginning of her current career. She took a 200-hour course to become a certified instructor, and continues to make the videos, which have drawn over four million views.^[3]

Stiles was one of the first yoga instructors to use social media to attract students. The YouTube videos led a DVD with fellow model Brooklyn Decker as well as one of her own, Yoga Anywhere: The New York Session. After leaving Ford and modeling in 2007, she blogged for Women's Health and The Huffington Post (HuffPo).

A 2009 post at HuffPo entitled "Help! I'm Addicted to FaceBook",^[4] has received 1.2 million hits, making it one of the most-viewed blogs on the site.^[3] Stiles's first book, Slim Calm Sexy, published by Rodale, rose to the #1 spot on Amazon.com and best-selling status the first week it was released, August 31, 2010.

Stiles has been featured in pictorials for W, Shape Magazine, Self, Marie Claire, Fitness, and appeared on the covers of City, Time Out, and Fit Yoga. Stiles appeared in ads for Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Target Corporation, Gap and American Apparel, as well as numerous TV commercials for the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Avon. Stiles' health and yoga related work has been featured in such magazines as Esquire, Mens Health, Ascent, and Yoga Journal.

Stiles has been the Face of Women's Health, a Rodale, Inc. publication, since April 2009. Stiles is also a spokesperson for Nissan Motors,^[5] along with Ryan Hall and Lance Armstrong.

Strala Yoga[link]

In 2008 Stiles met her husband, Michael Taylor, at the Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York.^[6] "He was normal, he's straight, he does yoga ... I'm done for", she joked. After a civil ceremony in New York, they honeymooned in Negril, Jamaica.^[3][7]

The couple founded the New York City yoga studio Strala^[8] later that year. They made up the name, which is Swedish for "radiates light". In addition to continuing to make her videos and other media appearances, she currently teaches a quarter of the classes and oversees 13 other instructors at the 3,500 square feet (330 m²) studio, which has become profitable enough for her to consider opening a branch. Deepak Chopra and Jane Fonda are among her students; the former considers her his personal instructor. "I have been doing yoga for 30 years," he says. "I have had teachers of all kinds. Taking lessons from her has been more useful to me than taking yoga from anyone else."^[3]

Stiles does not follow any school of yoga or instructor and focuses purely on its physical aspects and health benefits, with no philosophical or spiritual dimension. She eschews the Sanskrit names for yoga positions and does not ask students to chant. She hires instructors without regard to the certification process normally required elsewhere, preferring to assess them by watching them teach, although Strala does offer a teacher-training program. Strala's per-class fee, $10, is lower than other Manhattan yoga studios.^[3]

Her goal is to make yoga more accessible. "People need yoga, not another religious leader. Quite often in New York, they want to be religious leaders, and it's not useful", she explains. "I was never invited to the party anyway—so I started my own party". Too many people outside yoga, she believes, see it as "something Jennifer Aniston does". Fonda has praised "her ability to make yoga accessible to people who might be scared of it or think it might be too esoteric". Stiles says she receives letters regularly from people, such as military men, who do her videos but are afraid to go to a yoga studio. "This studio is the first place I have felt comfortable", one Strala student told The New York Times. "It doesn't feel like it's all 26-year-old former dancers."^[3]

Stiles' approach to yoga has met with some controversy in the yoga community. Jennilyn Carson of the popular YogaDork blog reports that some practitioners consider it "disrespect to what the practice is" for Stiles to promote it as a weight-loss method. "I don't care what Tara Stiles says yoga is," another yogini says. "It's not about making your body beautiful." Yoga traditionalists have also complained about her willingness to draw on her modeling background and exploit sex appeal in yoga-wear advertisements and her videos, some of which she has appeared in wearing short shorts and a tank top.^[3] "Who made these rules?", Stiles has responded. "I feel like I'm standing up for yoga." To critics of her videos and photo shoots, she says, "We should not be hiding behind our bodies. [They] should be empowering."^[3]

Television[link]

Stiles was a contestant and winner of MTV's Fear episode 9, "Fort Gains". She has also appeared in Matthew Barney's The Cremaster Cycle: Cremester 3. She co-hosted three segments on ^[9] on fitness and fashion with Pedro Andrade, Siafa Lewis, and Margherita Missoni.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Tara Stiles at the Internet Movie Database
• Tara Stiles at the Fashion Model Directory
• Tara Stiles on iTunes
• YouTube
• Tara Stiles
• Tara Stiles on Twitter
• Tara Stiles Video Interview on TDL Profiles

Gemma Hayes
Background information
Born	(1977-08-11) 11 August 1977 (age 34)
Origin	Ballyporeen, Tipperary, Ireland
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock, folk
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Source Records (2001–2005)[1] Second Motion Records (2008–present) Fullfill Music (2012-present)
Website	http://www.gemmahayes.com

Gemma Claire Hayes (born 11 August 1977, Ballyporeen, Tipperary, Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter and member of The Cake Sale.

Early life[link]

One of eight children, Hayes was surrounded by music from an early age, both from any of her seven siblings' bedrooms and being played by her father, a keyboardist in a local band. By the time she left for boarding school in County Limerick, Hayes was already proficient at piano and found that the music used to counter the boredom of living in a small village.^[2] Although she enrolled at University in Dublin, Hayes soon left to concentrate on music, working part-time in a laundrette during the day and playing the city's circuit at night.^[1]

Music career[link]

Hayes signed to the French independent record label, Source Records in 2001, and issued the 4.35am EP and the Work to a Calm EP before releasing her debut album, Night on my Side, in 2002.^[1] In 2002 she won Best Female Singer at the Hot Press Awards. The album was nominated for the 2003 Mercury Prize but lost out to Ms. Dynamite's, A Little Deeper.^[1] After touring Night on my Side Hayes took two years out from the music industry; "All I do know is that I didn't want to listen to music at all. I stopped listening to the radio. It was like I'd overdosed on music".^[3]

In late 2005, Hayes returned with her second album, The Roads Don't Love You, and picked up the Best Irish Female Artist award at the 2006 Meteor Ireland Music Awards, while completing a small tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Shortly after this she left Source Records parent company EMI-Virgin as EMI-Virgin was undergoing an overhaul of artists and bands.^[1] During this time Hayes co-wrote the song "Hazy" with Adam Duritz.

On 14 August 2006 Hayes announced, via her MySpace profile,^[4] that she had begun work on her third album in the Black Box Studios in France, to be produced by her former guitarist, David Odlum.^[1] Hayes posted demo versions of a few of the songs on MySpace during recording, including "Out of Our Hands", "Home", and "This Is What You Do".

Gemma Hayes kicking off The Hollow of Morning tour at Cyprus Avenue, Cork City 22 April 2008

Hayes' third album The Hollow of Morning was independently-released on 2 May 2008 in Ireland, and debuted at number 12 in the Irish Albums Chart.^[1] Following this she signed a recording contract with the United States record label, Second Motion where The Hollow of Morning was released in the US on 30 September 2008. Second Motion works with Daniel Lanois, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver, Brian Vander Ark and others.

Whilst on her 2008 UK tour, Hayes announced that she planned to release an acoustic album by the end of 2008, thought the album has never surfaced. During this time during some promotional work and touring Hayes confirmed that she would start recording her fourth album in August 2008.^[5]

In January 2009, it was announced that Hayes had been nominated for Best Irish Female, at the 2009 Meteor Ireland Music Awards, which took place on 17 March 2009 in Dublin. She lost out to Imelda May. On 13 February 2009 she released her new music video for the song "Home" on Myspace; the track was from her 2008 release The Hollow of Morning. On 19 February 2009 she performed at the Oscar Wilde party in Los Angeles, California. The annual event takes place days before the Oscars, and celebrates the best of Irish popular culture.

On 22 February 2009 it was stated on her website that her new EP Oliver will be available for purchase on 9 March 2009.^[6][7] However, it was subsequently announced on Myspace on 9 March that the EP's release had been delayed. A new track called "Ghost" appeared on Myspace the same day.

On 13 March 2009 Oliver was released on iTunes.

On 14 April 2009 it was announced on her Myspace blog ^[8] that Hayes began to write new material for the next album.

On 3 September 2009 Gemma performed at the 2012 stage at the 2009 Århus Festival.^[9] Her set-list featured new songs Waiting for You and Shock to the System.

On 20 October 2009 Gemma confirmed through her Twitter page that she was recording new material in France in the Blackbox studios.^[10]

On 19 November 2009 Gemma began a short European tour with performances in Austria, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. During these tour dates Gemma played new songs including Tokyo, Waiting for You and Shock to the System. At her gig in Cork on 3 December, Gemma performed a cover of Kate Bush' "Cloudbusting".

On 22 December 2009 Gemma released her cover of "Cloudbusting" for free from her website.^[11]

In March 2010, Gemma featured on Ceol 2010^[12] a special album in the Irish language. Gemma previously appeared on Ceol 2007. On the Ceol 2010 album Gemma's song Rith me go Crich appeared on the album alongside Bell X1, Kila, The Walls.

Gemma Hayes originally stated on Irish music site Muzu TV that her yet to be titled fourth album would be released in September 2010.^{[13][dated info]}. However, in October 2010 on Tom Dunne's radio show on Newstalk 106-108, Gemma Hayes said that her new album will not be released until early 2011.^[14] In an interview with Irish music website State.ie she confirmed that the album would be released in mid-Spring 2011 either late February or March.^[15]

Gemma Hayes has written some original music for the 2010 movie Janie Jones, by writer/director David M. Rosenthal. Abigail Breslin sings and plays her music. The three songs to appear in the film will include Just a Game, Fight for Me and Hurricane.^[16]

Gemma Hayes returned to live performances in autumn 2010. She launched her autumn tour in Cork City, Ireland were she performed some new tracks which included Noise, Hurricane and Beside Me.

On Thursday, 13 February 2011, Gemma Hayes confirmed on RTE Radio 1's Today with Pat Kenny that her fourth studio album would be released sometime in May 2011 and that she would tour Ireland in early summer 2011.^[17] It was later confirmed on gemmahayes.com that the fourth album is due for May release with a single due mid-Spring as recording in Ireland and France neared completion.^[11] Gemma confirmed that 'Shock to the System' will appear on the album.^[18] On 15 March 2011 Gemma confirmed on her Twitter account that a track called Noise will feature on the album.^[19] On 10 April 2011 Gemma confirmed through her website that the new album will be released on 27 May 2011 in Ireland.^{[dated info]} The album will be called Let It Break.

Gemma confirmed that she has written two songs for Michael Uppendahl (director of US TV series Mad Men, Weeds, and Becker) for a forthcoming film directed by him.^[20]

On 11 October 2011 the soundtrack to Janie Jones is released in Europe and Australia. The album features three tracks written by Gemma Hayes. It also features the studio version of 'Waiting for You' which Gemma played as a promo track and on her tours throughout 2010 and 2011.

Hayes revealed in an interview with Evening Echo's 'Downtown' published on Thursday, 16 February 2012 that she has recorded a version of Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' which is to feature in a future episode of US Teen drama 'Pretty Little Liars'. The song also featured on her 2012 tour playlist.^[21]

It has been confirmed that Hayes will appear on Paul Noonan's debut solo album.^[22] Noonan has previously worked on Hayes' previous albums.

On 1 March 2012 gemmahayes.com confirmed her cover of "Wicked Games" will appear on Pretty Little Liars on 12 March and will be available to download as a single.^[23]

Popular culture[link]

This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial references. (May 2012)

• "Wicked Game", originally by Chris Isaak, covered by Gemma Hayes was featured in ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars second season. It appeared at the end of the 24th episode.
• "Sad Ol' Song" and "Chasing Dragons" featured in the final episode of Season 3 of RTÉ One's Raw on 13 February 2011.
• "Brittle Winter" featured on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars.^[24]
• "Out Of Our Hands" taken from Hollow of Morning featured in episode "The Return" of season 2 of Vampire Diaries.^[25]
• "November" taken from the Oliver EP featured on US drama series One Tree Hill. The song featured on the episode "At the Bottom of Everything".^[26] The episode was broadcast on Monday 15 February 2010 on CW.^[11]
• "Sad Ol Song" a track from The Hollow of Morning featured on episode 6 of RTÉ drama series RAW first broadcasted on RTÉ One on Sunday 14 February 2010.^[27]
• "Under a Canopy" a track from The Hollow of Morning album featured on episode 5 of RTÉ drama series RAW first broadcasted on RTÉ One on Sunday 7 February 2010.^[27]
• Her song "Chasing Dragons" was featured on Private Practice episode 301: "A Death in the Family" which first aired on ABC on 6 October 2009.^[28]
• Her song "Out of Our Hands" was featured in ER episode "T-Minus-6" (from Season 15) which aired on 26 February 2009 on NBC, 10 May 2009 on RTÉ One.,^[29] and in the episode "Bad Moon Rising" on the CW show The Vampire Diaries on 23 September 2010.
• The song "Two Step" was featured in a season 2 episode of the hit TV show Grey's Anatomy.^[30]
• She was also featured in a duet with Norwegian singer Magnet on a Bob Dylan cover, "Lay Lady Lay" in the 2005 feature film Mr. & Mrs. Smith.^[31]
• Hayes was on the Ceol '07 album, which was released on 2 March 2007, singing "Rith Mé Go Crích", an Irish language version of "Ran For Miles", which originally appeared on Night on my Side. Other Irish artists who appeared included Bell X1 and Paddy Casey.^[32] The track "Rith Mé Go Crích" reappeared on Ceol 2010 which was released in 2010.
• She appeared on the cover of the June 2008 edition of State magazine.^[33]
• "4:35am" appeared in the 2006 film, Flicka.^[34]
• She dueted with Julian Lennon on "Faithful" from his album Photograph Smile.

Discography[link]

• Night on My Side (2002)
• The Roads Don't Love You (2005)
• The Hollow of Morning (2008)
• Let It Break (2011)

Awards[link]

• 2001 - Best Female Artist - Hot Press Awards - Winner
• 2002 - Mercury Prize - Nomination
• 2003 - Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Music Award
• 2006 - Best Irish Female Artist - Meteor Ireland Music Awards - Winner
• 2009 - Best Irish Female Artist - Meteor Ireland Music Awards - Nomination
• 2009 - Best Solo Female - Irish Music Television: Video Music Awards - Home (Video) - Nomination ^[35]

See also[link]

• The Cake Sale
• List of singer-songwriters
• List of dream pop artists
• List of artists who have released Irish language songs
• List of Irish people

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gemma Hayes

External links[link]

• Official website
• Gemma Hayes at the Internet Movie Database
• Gemma Hayes at Irish Music Central