More and more people encouter difficulties finding a decent house with a decent rent in Belgium, they are told that there is a lack of social housing, this is one, it is closed and it seems that there is no money to restore them ...

I'm revolted seeing this, there's money enough for a brand new city hall, but none for refection ...

A little foodeling.....(a combination of folding and doodeling)

Paper of 7.5 x 7.5 with somewhat Hydragea-like folds.

As I had difficulty finding a location with an unobstructed view I missed the arrival of the winner at the finish line by about ten minutes. In case you don't know here are the results:

 

Geoffrey Ndungu won the Dublin City Marathon for the second year running in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 9 seconds. The time was outside last year's course record time of 2:08.33.

 

Paul Pollock from Belfast was the first Irish man home in ninth place in 2:16.30, ahead of Sean Hehir who finished in 2:17.50.

 

Magdalene Mukunzi was the first woman home in a time of 2:30.46 which was outside the course record of 2:26.13. Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman through the finishing line in 2:35.28.

 

Luke Jones from Wales won the wheelchair section.

A total of 14,300 people registered for this year's race which was without a major sponsor for the first time in 20 years.

 

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ...

Clergy and lay members from across the Diocese of Connor were in Ballymena on Wednesday October 3 for the annual Diocesan Synod.

 

This was preceded by a Service of Holy Communion in St Patrick’s Parish Church, which also hosted the evening meal.

 

In his Presidential Address, Bishop of Connor, the Rt Rev Alan Abernethy, spoke about Brexit, the ‘tragic’ absence of a Northern Ireland Assembly and the need to pray for a way forward and to find ways of dealing with the past.

 

The Bishop has recently returned from a four–month sabbatical, which he described as a ‘gift’ which gave him time to ‘recover from the constant demands of ministry and leadership.’ His new book, The Jewel in the Mess, will be published in the new year.

 

Bishop Abernethy spoke about the ‘real potential’ for Ordained Local Ministry and described his membership of the World Council of Churches Central Committee as ‘challenging and stimulating.’

 

He said it was critical that the Church was aware of how it engages with its own local culture, adding that he was encouraged to see the number of parishes trying new and innovative ways to engage with their local communities.

 

In his wide–ranging address Bishop Abernethy also spoke about his Lent Seminars, parish issues, the growth of the Diocesan Learning Agreement, and the ‘disturbing’ news from Connor’s link diocese of Yei in South Sudan.

 

Synod was divided into two sessions. The afternoon session included the President’s Address, reports from Diocesan Council and Associated Notices of Motion.

 

The Report of Diocesan Council was proposed by Mr Ken Gibson, Lisburn Cathedral, and seconded by the Rev Danielle McCullagh, Lisburn Cathedral.

 

Tributes were paid to members of Team Connor for the work they are doing in the diocese, in particular Diocesan Development Officer Trevor Douglas, Youth Officer Christina Baillie, Children’s Project Development Officer Jill Hamilton and Church Army Evangelists Karen Webb and Stephen Whitten.

 

In his report to Synod, Mr Douglas said he had assisted several parishes to develop strategic three–year plans. He said he was impressed by the number who had progressed their outreach work with new relationships established and new ministries formed.

 

Mr Douglas said he had secured additional funding for both children’s and youth ministry, and seed funding for a leadership training programme for clergy and lay, designed to enable leaders to explore new forms of mission and ministry at parish level.

 

His report also highlighted work he has done with the Bishop to develop relationships with a range of community leaders and activists. “It is encouraging that even in what appears to be a growing secularism of society, that these leaders welcome a relationship with the Church and are willing to listen to our voice,” Mr Douglas stated in his report.

 

In her report, Mrs Baillie revealed she will be launching a new project exploring issues around mental health and emotional well–being for young people later this year. “AFFIRM will equip and provide opportunities for young people in difficulty and their communities as a whole,” the report stated.

 

The Rev Andrew Campbell, rector of Skerry, Rathcavan and Newtowncrommelin, paid tribute to Mrs Hamilton, Mrs Webb and Connor Children’s Council for bringing Patrick’s Mysterious Adventure to Broughshane for four days in March. He said the event had engaged more than 550 local people.

 

Mrs Karen Webb updated Synod on the success of the TLG (Transforming Lives for Good) programme initiated by the Centre of Mission in Shankill Road. She said this project, which supports primary school children who might be at risk of being excluded from school, now has nine new coaches, making a total of 15. It was already apparent what a difference this one–hour mentoring a week was making in the lives of the children being coached, Mrs Webb said. “This could happen in any parish in the diocese,” she added.

 

Mrs Valerie Ash, whose six–year term as Diocesan President of Connor Mothers’ Union President finishes at the end of this year, spoke about developments in Mothers’ Union, particularly on the home front, and how the organisation supports the needs of others. Mrs Ash will be succeeded as Diocesan President by Mrs Sally Cotter.

 

At the end of the first session, Dean Sam Wright extended the thanks of the clergy for the support the Bishop has given them over the year. “In the challenges of life you are a listening ear. Your constant encouragement is appreciated by all of us,” Dean Wright said.

 

Mr Tom Lyttle stepped up to thank the Bishop on behalf of the laity for all his ‘openness and honesty’. “Thank you for the way you handle the business of the diocese on our behalf,” Mr Lyttle said.

 

Thanking both speakers, Bishop Abernethy said: “One of the greatest gifts is the gift of encouragement.”

 

The evening session of Synod began with stories of outreach work in four Connor parishes – an Alpha course in Ardoyne; Messy Church and more in St Aidan’s, Sandy Row; Filling Station (contemporary worship) in Ballymoney; and the African Child Ministries Shop in Greenisland.

 

Synod members then moved to the adjoining hall to meet representatives of a number of organisations, namely Messy Church, the North Belfast Centre of Mission, Xplore, Youth Forum, Streetreach, University Chaplaincy, CAP (Christians Against Poverty) and the African Child Ministries.

 

The final stage of the evening session was a keynote address by Bishop Abernethy, in which he reflected on his sabbatical, and how it helped him rediscover the wonder and beauty of Jesus.

 

The Bishop also looked at issues facing the Church today, including buildings, finance, and the dependence on clergy. He spoke about how, after the initial confusion, bewilderment and excitement of being appointed Bishop of Connor in 2007, he began to see a lot of ‘disconnection.’

 

That led to the diocesan Vision Strategy with its focus on Engaging culture, Empowering ministry, Effecting change.

 

This Development Team has created new networks with Youth Council, Children’s Council and a Centre of Mission building links with local community, local parishes and the parishes throughout the diocese, and recognition from civil society that the Church can be entrusted to be channels of help, Bishop Abernethy said.

 

He said the Inter Diocesan Learning Project had helped him and others see the things that were happening in the diocese – equipping new leaders, discipling young people, new ministries emerging from the Centre of Mission, parishes reaching out in new ventures, university chaplaincies growing, Belfast Cathedral addressing its mission in the heart of the city – and all these stories being told to the diocese through the diocesan magazine.

 

The Bishop said he had visited various Church Army projects during his sabbatical and that the diocese in its vision could focus on the Church Army’s DARE strategy – Doing, Advocating, Resourcing, Enabling.

French postcard by Editions cinema, no. 212. Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973)

 

American film actor and director Clint Eastwood (1930) rose to fame as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Later in the US, he played hard-edge police inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films, which elevated him to superstar status. Eastwood also directed and produced such award-winning masterpieces as Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

 

Clinton ‘Clint’ Eastwood, Jr. was born in San Francisco, California in 1930. His parents were Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (Runner) Eastwood, a factory worker. Clint has a younger sister, Jeanne. Because of his father's difficulty in finding steady work during the depression, Eastwood moved with his family from one Northern California town to another, attending some eight elementary schools in the process. Later he had odd jobs as a firefighter and lumberjack in Oregon, as well as a steelworker in Seattle. In 1951, Eastwood was drafted into the US Army, where he was a swimming instructor during the Korean War. He briefly attended Los Angeles City College but dropped out to pursue acting. Eastwood married Maggie Johnson in 1953, six months after they met on a blind date. However, their matrimony would not prove altogether smooth, with Eastwood believing that he had married too early. In 1954, the good-looking Eastwood with his towering height and slender frame got a contract at Universal. At first, he was criticized for his stiff manner, his squint, and hissing his lines through his teeth. His first acting role was an uncredited bit part as a laboratory assistant in the Sci-Fi horror film Revenge of the Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955). Over the next three years, he more bit parts in such films as Lady Godiva of Coventry (Arthur Lubin, 1955), Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955), and the war drama Away All Boats (Joseph Pevney, 1956) with George Nader and Lex Barker. His first bigger roles were in the B-Western Ambush at Cimarron Pass (Jodie Copelan, 1958), and the war film Lafayette Escadrille (William A. Wellman, 1958), starring Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau. In 1959, he became a TV star as Rowdy Yates in the Western series Rawhide (1959–1966). Although Rawhide never won an Emmy, it was a rating success for several years. During a trial separation from Maggie Johnson, an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis produced Eastwood’s first child, Kimber Tunis (1964). An intensely private person, Clint Eastwood was rarely featured in the tabloid press. However, he had more affairs, e.g. with actresses Catherine Deneuve, Inger Stevens and Jean Seberg. After a reconciliation, he had two children with Johnson: Kyle Eastwood (1968) and Alison Eastwood (1972), though he was not present at either birth. Johnson filed for legal separation in 1978, but the pair divorced in 1984.

 

In late 1963, Clint Eastwood's Rawhide co-star Eric Fleming rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made Western. Eastwood, who in turn saw the film as an opportunity to escape from his Rawhide image, signed the contract. The Western was called Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), to be directed in a remote region of Spain by the then relatively unknown Sergio Leone. A Fistful of Dollars, with Gian Maria Volonté and Marianne Koch, was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). Eastwood played a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town, torn apart by two feuding families. Hiring himself as a mercenary, the lone drifter plays one side against the other until nothing remains of either side. Eastwood developed a minimalist acting style creating the character's distinctive visual style. Although a non-smoker, Leone insisted Eastwood smoke cigars as an essential ingredient of the ‘mask’ he attempted to create for the loner character. Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) was the first instalment of the Dollars trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the US, coined another term: the Man With No Name trilogy. ‘The second part was Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965), a richer, more mythologized film that focused on two ruthless bounty hunters (Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) who form a tenuous partnership to hunt down a wanted bandit (Gian Maria Volontè). Both films were a huge success in Italy. They both contain all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Eastwood also appeared in a segment of Dino De Laurentiis’ five-part anthology production Le Streghe/The Witches (Vittorio De Sica a.o., 1967). But his performance opposite De Laurentiis' wife Silvana Mangano did not please the critics. Eastwood then played in the third and best Dollars film, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Again he played the mysterious Man with No Name, wearing the same trademark poncho (reportedly without ever having washed it). Lee Van Cleef returned as a ruthless fortune seeker, with Eli Wallach portraying the cunning Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. Yuri German at AllMovie: “Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive 'spaghetti western,' rivalled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).” The Dollars trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967, when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, followed by For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December. Eastwood redubbed his dialogue for the American releases. All the films were commercially successful, particularly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which turned Eastwood into a major film star. All three films received bad reviews and began a battle for Eastwood to win American film critics' respect. According to IMDb, Sergio Leone asked Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef to appear again in C'era una volta il West/Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), but declined when they heard that their characters were going to be killed off in the first five minutes.

 

Stardom brought more roles for Clint Eastwood. He signed to star in the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High (Ted Post, 1968), playing a man who takes up a Marshal's badge and seeks revenge as a lawman after being lynched by vigilantes and left for dead. Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy, accountant and Eastwood advisor Irving Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists. Critics praised Hang 'Em High. In July 1968, it had an unprecedented opening weekend in United Artists' history. His following film was Coogan's Bluff (Don Siegel, 1968), about an Arizona deputy sheriff tracking a wanted psychopathic criminal (Don Stroud) through the streets of New York City. Don Siegel was a Universal contract director who later became Eastwood's close friend, forming a partnership that would last more than ten years and produce five films. Coogan’s Bluff was controversial for its portrayal of violence. Eastwood created the prototype for the macho cop of the Dirty Harry film series. Coogan's Bluff also became the first collaboration with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later compose the jazzy score to several Eastwood films in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Dirty Harry films. Eastwood played the right-hand man of squad commander Richard Burton in the war epic Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the alpine mountains. Eastwood then branched out to star in the only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969). Then, Eastwood starred in the Western Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Sigel, 1970), with Shirley MacLaine, and as one of a group of Americans who steal a fortune in gold from the Nazis, in the World War II film Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 1970)). Kelly's Heroes was Eastwood's last film, not produced by his own Malpaso Productions.

 

Clint Eastwood’s next film, The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1970), was a tale of a wounded Union soldier, held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girl's school. Upon release, the film received major recognition in France. In the US it was a box office flop. Eastwood's career reached a turning point with Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971), The film centres around a hard-edged San Francisco police inspector named Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means. Dirty Harry achieved huge success after its release in December 1971. It was Siegel's highest-grossing film and the start of a series featuring the character Harry Callahan. He next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972). In 1973, Eastwood directed his first Western, High Plains Drifter, and starred alongside Verna Bloom. The revisionist film received a mixed reception but was a major box office success. Eastwood next turned his attention towards Breezy (Clint Eastwood, 1973), a film about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. During casting, Eastwood met actress Sondra Locke, who would become an important figure in his life. He reprised his role as Detective Harry Callahan in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973). This sequel to Dirty Harry was about a group of rogue young officers (including David Soul and Robert Urich) in the San Francisco Police Force who systematically exterminate the city's worst criminals. Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 1974). Eastwood's acting was noted by critics but was overshadowed by Bridges who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His next film The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood, 1975), based on Trevanian's spy novel, was a commercial and critical failure. His next film The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976) was widely acclaimed, with many critics and viewers seeing Eastwood's role as an iconic one that related to America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War. The third Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer (James Fargo, 1976) had Harry partnered with a new female officer (Tyne Daly) to face a San Francisco Bay terrorist organization. The film, culminating in a shootout on Alcatraz island, was a major commercial success grossing $100 million worldwide. In 1977, he directed and starred in The Gauntlet opposite Sondra Locke. Eastwood portrays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix, to testify against the mafia. In 1978 Eastwood starred with Locke and an orang-utan called Clyde in Every Which Way but Loose. Panned by critics, the film proved a surprise success and became the second-highest-grossing film in 1978. Eastwood then starred in the thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the last of his films to be directed by Don Siegel. The film was a major success and began a critically acclaimed period for Eastwood. Eastwood's relationship with Sondra Locke had begun in 1975 during the production of The Outlaw Josey Wales. They lived together for almost fourteen years, during which Locke remained married (in name only) to her gay husband, Gordon Anderson. Eastwood befriended Locke's husband and purchased a house in Crescent Heights for Anderson and his male lover.

 

In 1980, Clint Eastwood’s nonstop success was broken by Bronco Billy, which he directed and in which he played the lead role. Critics liked the film, but it was a rare commercial disappointment in Eastwood's career. Later that year, he starred in Any Which Way You Can (Buddy Van Horn, 1980), which ranked among the top five highest-grossing films of the year. In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred in Honkytonk Man, as a struggling Western singer who, accompanied by his young nephew (played by real-life son Kyle) goes to Nashville, Tennessee. The same year, Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox alongside Freddie Jones. Then, Eastwood directed and starred in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), the darkest and most violent of the series. ‘Go ahead, make my day’, uttered by Eastwood in the film, became one of cinema's immortal lines. Sudden Impact was the last film in which he starred with Locke. The film was the most commercially successful of the Dirty Harry films, earning $70 million and receiving very positive reviews. In the provocative thriller Tightrope (Richard Tuggle, 1984), Eastwood starred opposite Geneviève Bujold. His real-life daughter Alison, then eleven, also appeared in the film. It was another critical and commercial hit. Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (Richard Benjamin, 1984) alongside Burt Reynolds. Eastwood revisited the Western genre when he directed and starred in Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985), based on the classic Western Shane (George Stevens, 1953). It became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date and was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best Western to appear for a considerable period. He co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, 1986), about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. Then followed the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988), with Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, and a young Jim Carrey. It is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series. Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, he directed Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. Eastman himself is a prolific jazz pianist who occasionally shows up to play the piano at his Carmel, CA restaurant, The Hog's Breath Inn. He received two Golden Globes for Bird, but the film was a commercial failure. Jim Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (Buddy Van Horn, 1989) alongside Bernadette Peters. In 1989, while his partner Sondra Locke was away directing the film Impulse (1990), Eastwood had the locks changed on their Bel-Air home and ordered her possessions to be boxed and put in storage. During the last three years of his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood fathered two children in secrecy with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves, Scott Reeves (1986), and Kathryn Reeves (1988). Eastwood finally presented both children to the public in 2002.

 

In 1990, Clint Eastwood began living with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac in 1988. They had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (1993). Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in early 1995. Eastwood directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an adaptation of Peter Viertel's Roman à Clef, about John Huston and the making of the classic film The African Queen (1951). Later he directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie (1990), a buddy cop action film. Eastwood revisited the Western genre in the self-directed film Unforgiven (1992), in which he played an ageing ex-gunfighter long past his prime. Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 1993) co-starring John Malkovich. The film was among the top 10 box office performers that year, earning $200 million. Later in 1993, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal, and in 1995, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards. Opposite Meryl Streep, he starred in the romantic picture The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995), another commercial and critical success. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. In early 1995, Eastwood began dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993. They married in 1996. The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (1996). In 1997, Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power, alongside Gene Hackman. Later in 1997, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. He directed and starred in True Crime (1999), as a journalist and recovering alcoholic, who has to cover the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington). In 2000, he directed and starred in Space Cowboys alongside Tommy Lee Jones as veteran ex-test pilots sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite.

 

Clint Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent chasing a sadistic killer (Jeff Daniels) in the thriller Blood Work (2002). He directed and scored the crime drama Mystic River (2003), dealing with themes of murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse. The film starred Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins and won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins – with Eastwood garnering Best Director and Best Picture nominations. In the following year Eastwood found further critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, (2004). He played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with a female boxer (Hilary Swank). The film won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). At age 74 Eastwood became the oldest of eighteen directors to have directed two or more Best Picture winners. In 2006, he directed two films about World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima. The first, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi and featured the film debut of Eastwood's son Scott. This was followed by Letters from Iwo Jima, which dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote home to family members. Eastwood next directed Changeling (2008), based on a true story set in the late 1920s. Angelina Jolie stars as a woman reunited with her missing son only to realize he is an impostor. Eastwood ended a four-year self-imposed acting hiatus by appearing in Gran Torino (2008), which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million in theatres worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far. Eastwood's 30th directorial outing came with Invictus, a film based on the story of the South African team at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. In 2010, Eastwood directed the drama Hereafter, with Matt Damon as a psychic, and in 2011, J. Edgar, a biopic of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. Eastwood starred in the baseball drama Trouble with the Curve (Robert Lorenz, 2012), as a veteran baseball scout who travels with his daughter for a final scouting trip. Director Lorenz worked with Eastwood as an assistant director on several films. Clint Eastwood is also politically active and served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986 to 1988. Shawn Dwyer at TCM: “Although a registered Republican since the early 1950s, Eastwood's politics, like the man himself, were that of a true iconoclast. Over the years he had voted for candidates from both parties and publicly denounced the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. And while he had initially wished President Barack Obama well during his first term in office, Eastwood, became a vocal booster for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, dissatisfied with what he viewed as Obama's inability to govern.” But cinema is Eastwood’s major career. He has contributed to over 50 films as an actor, director, producer, and composer. According to the box office revenue tracking website, Box Office Mojo, films featuring Eastwood have grossed more than US $1.68 billion domestically, with an average of $37 million per film.

 

Sources: Shawn Dwyer (TCM), Yuri German (AllMovie), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The Prairie Trail is one of the easier paths in the Arboretum, not much hill and dale, but what I didn't know is that I had a badly clogged artery that in three weeks time that was going to lay me low and involve a trip to the emergency room and a stent being installed! Between that and some major diet changes (no more Doritos oh my!!!) hopefully in the future I'll be tacking more difficult trails

 

Prairie Tail Morton Arboretum - Lisle IL

Evil is always possible. Goodness is a difficulty. 2020 has been a year defined by a devastating global pandemic that no one saw coming, it has been a year of discovery and reconsideration, a year of contradictions and a year of selective blank slates. March 2021 marked one year since the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. As music and musical performances shared online continue to unite the world & give hope during the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems fitting to rerelease Slim Khezri’s 2010 classic “Open Up Your Heart”, with a brand new music video integrated with imagery from the tragic times of 2020 as a global message of encouragement and comfort to all during this difficult period. The COVID-19 virus is now responsible for an estimated 2.7 million deaths worldwide and over 543,000 in the United States. Europe is facing a 'third wave' surge , and new lockdowns.

 

▶ Please donate what you can to your favorite organization to help those in need during this crisis.

 

This rerelease marks Slim Khezri's first musical output in seven years, ‘Open Up Your Heart’ [written, co-produced and performed by Slim Khezri] is out now and available as a digital download, CD and streaming via digital subscription services. (Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora and more). ▶ ffm.bio/kymbb6x

 

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It seems to me that since my 365 ended I do more flying and less landing in Flickr. I love this web site, it's been my photographic learning ground. I've got to come up with a way to be more consistent without resorting to another 365...

 

I'll be making rounds this evening :o)

I’ve always had difficulty explaining what I am doing with this tree. It doesn’t fit easily into any existing category.

  

The model for this tree is the kind of deciduous tree that shoots out of artificial cliffs made when road crews cut through an embankment. These trees don't go down, like a full cascade. They can be compared to a semi cascade, but they are really a tree that grows perpendicular to the artificial wall created by road crews.

  

The tree is already in a rectangular pot. Intuitively, I felt this was right, but it always got in the way of explaining what I was trying to do. In bonsai, the custom is to see a tree like this in some kind of cascade pot, or to see the tree planted at some other angle.

  

Finally, I hit on the idea of using a cascade stand with my rectangular pot. In the inset picture, you can see how this looks. With its low profile, the pot creates the idea of a slab of rock or a ledge from which the tree shoots. I could use an actual slab, but for now, I like the container I have because it suggests flowers and butterflies. I have actually seen trees like this surrounded by wildflowers.

  

To see the 3-D, use red/cyan glasses.

  

To read the QR code in the picture, use your smart phone and a scanner app. To find out more about QR codes, go to www.fredtruck.com, choose the Articles menu item, and select the Seals option.

  

To find out how I make these 3-D conversions, go to www.fredtruck.com, choose the Articles menu item and choose the Chromobinocular Method option.

 

We saw this small falcon on exhibition yesterday at the Wildlife Research Institute located in the Ramona Grasslands in Ramona, California. They had owls, hawks and falcons on display. This is by no means a wildlife shot, but I did make an effort to position myself so that the light on the bird would be good, and also to have a background that wasn't distracting. I'm pretty sure I will never get this close to one of these beautiful birds in the wild.

 

Other bird pictures that I've taken can be seen in my Birds set. www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157628206812625/

 

This looks best when viewed large, and you can see it in that enlightened manner by pressing "L".

 

1/16/13 Update: I originally misidentified this peregrine falcon as a Merlin. My bad. Two of my Flickr cotacts (birdguy200 and Horestrainer - Mary) corrected me, and I'm grateful. I knew to birding, and I'm having a fair amount of difficulty getting identification right.

The image sensor on my camera died. How tragic.

Peter I commonly known as Peter the Great, was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter was an absolute monarch who remained the ultimate authority. His methods were often harsh and autocratic.

 

Most of Peter's reign was consumed by long wars against the Ottoman and Swedish Empires. Despite initial difficulties, the wars were ultimately successful and led to expansion to the Sea of Azov and the Baltic Sea, thus laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy. His victory in the Great Northern War ended Sweden's era as a great power and its domination of the Baltic region while elevating Russia's standing to the extent it came to be acknowledged as an empire. Peter led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernized, and based on radical Enlightenment.

 

In 1700, he introduced the Gregorian calendar but the Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant to this change; they wanted to maintain its distinct identity and avoid appearing influenced by Catholic practices.[citation needed] In 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti, and ordered the civil script, a reform of Russian orthography largely designed by himself. He founded the city of Saint Petersburg on the shore of the Neva as a "window to the West" in May 1703. In 1712 Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, where it remained – with only a brief interruption – until 1918. He promoted higher education and industrialization in the Russian Empire.

 

Peter had a great interest in plants, animals and minerals, in malformed creatures or exceptions to the law of nature for his cabinet of curiosities. He encouraged research of deformities, all along trying to debunk the superstitious fear of monsters. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Saint Petersburg State University were founded in 1724, a year before his death.

 

Peter is primarily credited with the modernization of the country, transforming it into a major European power. His administrative reforms, creating a Governing Senate in 1711, the Collegium in 1717 and the Table of Ranks in 1722 had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign.

 

Early life

Peter was named after the apostle. He grew up at Izmaylovo Estate and was educated from an early age by several tutors commissioned by his father, Tsar Alexis of Russia, most notably Nikita Zotov, Patrick Gordon, and Paul Menesius. On 29 January 1676, Alexis died, leaving the sovereignty to Peter's elder half-brother, the weak and sickly Feodor III of Russia. Throughout this period, the government was largely run by Artamon Matveev, an enlightened friend of Alexis, the political head of the Naryshkin family and one of Peter's greatest childhood benefactors.

 

This position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family (Maria Miloslavskaya was the first wife of Alexis I) and Naryshkin family (Natalya Naryshkina was his second) over who should inherit the throne. He jointly ruled with his elder half-brother, Ivan V, until 1696. Ivan, was next in line but was chronically ill and of infirm mind. Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the 10-year-old Peter to become Tsar, with his mother as regent.

 

This arrangement was brought before the people of Moscow, as ancient tradition demanded, and was ratified. Sophia, one of Alexis' daughters from his first marriage, led a rebellion of the Streltsy (Russia's elite military corps) in April–May 1682. In the subsequent conflict, some of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered, including Artamon Matveyev, and Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence.

 

The Streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys (the clan of Ivan) and their allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint Tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as the senior. Sophia then acted as regent during the minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. A large hole was cut in the back of the dual-seated throne used by Ivan and Peter. Sophia would sit behind the throne and listen as Peter conversed with nobles, while feeding him information and giving him responses to questions and problems. He lived at Preobrazhenskoye. This throne can be seen in the Kremlin Armoury in Moscow.

 

At the age of 16, Peter discovered an English boat on the estate, had it restored and learned to sail. He received a sextant, but did not know how to use the instrument. Therefore, he began a search for a foreign expert in the German Quarter. Peter befriended two Dutch carpenters, Frans Timmerman and Karsten Brandt, and several other foreigners in Russian service. Peter studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences. He was not interested in a musical education but seems to have liked fireworks and drumming.

 

Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name. He engaged in such pastimes as shipbuilding and sailing, as well as mock battles with his toy army. Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt a more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689. The marriage was a failure, and ten years later Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union.

 

By the summer of 1689, Peter, planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns against the Crimean Khanate in an attempt to stop devastating Crimean Tatar raids into Russia's southern lands. When she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with some leaders of the Streltsy, who continually aroused disorder and dissent. Peter, warned by others from the Streltsy, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable monastery of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra; there he slowly gathered adherents who perceived he would win the power struggle. Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Peter forced Sophia to enter a convent, where she gave up her name and her position as a member of the royal family.

 

Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power was instead exercised by his mother, Natalya Naryshkina. It was only when Natalya died in 1694 that Peter, then aged 22, became an independent sovereign. Formally, Ivan V was a co-ruler with Peter, though being ineffective. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696 without male offspring, two years later.

 

Peter grew to be extremely tall, especially for the time period, reportedly standing 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). Peter had noticeable facial tics, and he may have suffered from petit mal seizures, a form of epilepsy. Meanwhile, he was a frequent guest in German quarter, where he met Anna and Willem Mons.

 

Ideology of Peter's reign

As a young man, Peter I adopted the Protestant model of existence in a pragmatic world of competition and personal success, which largely shaped the philosophy of his reformism. He perceived the Russian people as rude, unintelligent, stubborn in their sluggishness, a child, a lazy student. He highly appreciated the state's role in the life of society, saw it as an ideal instrument for achieving high goals, saw it as a universal institution for transforming people, with the help of violence and fear, into educated, conscious, law-abiding and useful to the whole society subjects.

 

He introduced into the concept of the autocrat's power the notion of the monarch's duties. He considered it necessary to take care of his subjects, to protect them from enemies, to work for their benefit. Above all, he put the interests of Russia. He saw his mission in turning it into a power similar to Western countries, and subordinated his own life and the lives of his subjects to the realization of this idea. Gradually penetrated the idea that the task should be solved with the help of reforms, which will be carried out at the autocrat's will, who creates good and punishes evil. He considered the morality of a statesman separately from the morality of a private person and believed that the sovereign in the name of state interests can go to murder, violence, forgery and deceit.

 

He went through the naval service, starting from the lowest ranks: bombardier (1695), captain (1696), colonel (1706), schout-bij-nacht (1709), vice-admiral (1714), admiral (1721). By hard daily work (according to the figurative expression of Peter the Great himself, he was simultaneously "forced to hold a sword and a quill in one right hand") and courageous behavior he demonstrated to his subjects his personal positive example, showed how to act, fully devoting himself to the fulfillment of duty and service to the fatherland.

 

Reign

Peter implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia. Heavily influenced by his advisors from Western Europe, Peter reorganized the Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power. He faced much opposition to these policies at home but brutally suppressed rebellions against his authority, including by the Streltsy, Bashkirs, Astrakhan, and the greatest civil uprising of his reign, the Bulavin Rebellion.

 

Peter implemented social modernization in an absolute manner by introducing French and western dress to his court and requiring courtiers, state officials, and the military to shave their beards and adopt modern clothing styles. One means of achieving this end was the introduction of taxes for long beards and robes in September 1698.

 

In his process to westernize Russia, he wanted members of his family to marry other European royalty. In the past, his ancestors had been snubbed at the idea, but now, it was proving fruitful. He negotiated with Frederick William, Duke of Courland to marry his niece, Anna Ivanovna. He used the wedding in order to launch his new capital, St Petersburg, where he had already ordered building projects of westernized palaces and buildings. Peter hired Italian and German architects to design it.

 

As part of his reforms, Peter started an industrialization effort that was slow but eventually successful. Russian manufacturing and main exports were based on the mining and lumber industries. For example, by the end of the century Russia came to export more iron than any other country in the world.

 

To improve his nation's position on the seas, Peter sought more maritime outlets. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea at Arkhangelsk. The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire respectively in the south.

 

Peter attempted to acquire control of the Black Sea, which would require expelling the Tatars from the surrounding areas. As part of an agreement with Poland that ceded Kiev to Russia, Peter was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov, near the Don River. In the summer of 1695 Peter organized the Azov campaigns to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure.

 

Peter returned to Moscow in November 1695 and began building a large navy in Voronezh. He launched about thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year.

 

Grand Embassy

Peter knew that Russia could not face the Ottoman Empire alone. In 1697, he traveled "incognito" to Western Europe on an 18-month journey with a large Russian delegation–the so-called "Grand Embassy". He used a fake name, allowing him to escape social and diplomatic events, but since he was far taller than most others, he could not fool anyone. One goal was to seek the aid of European monarchs, but Peter's hopes were dashed. France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman Sultan, and Austria was eager to maintain peace in the east while conducting its own wars in the west. Peter, furthermore, had chosen an inopportune moment: the Europeans at the time were more concerned about the War of the Spanish Succession over who would succeed the childless King Charles II of Spain than about fighting the Ottoman Sultan.

 

In Königsberg, the Tsar was apprenticed for two months to an artillery engineer. In July he met Sophia of Hanover at Coppenbrügge castle. She described him: "The tsar is a tall, handsome man, with an attractive face. He has a lively mind is very witty. Only, someone so well endowed by nature could be a little better mannered." Peter rented a ship in Emmerich am Rhein and sailed to Zaandam, where he arrived on 18 August 1697. He studied saw-mills, manufacturing and shipbuilding but left after a week. Through the mediation of Nicolaas Witsen, an expert on Russia, the Tsar was given the opportunity to gain practical experience in shipyard, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, for a period of four months, under the supervision of Gerrit Claesz Pool. The diligent and capable Tsar assisted in the construction of an East Indiaman ship Peter and Paul specially laid down for him. During his stay the Tsar engaged many skilled workers such as builders of locks, fortresses, shipwrights, and seamen—including Cornelis Cruys, a vice-admiral who became, under Franz Lefort, the Tsar's advisor in maritime affairs. Peter later put his knowledge of shipbuilding to use in helping build Russia's navy.

 

Peter felt that the ship's carpenters in Holland worked too much by eye and lacked accurate construction drawings. On 11 January 1698 (Old Style) Peter arrived at Victoria Embankment with four chamberlains, three interpreters, two clock makers, a cook, a priest, six trumpeters, 70 soldiers from the Preobrazhensky regiment, four dwarfs and a monkey. Peter stayed at 21 Norfolk Street, Strand and met with King William III and Gilbert Burnet, attended a session of the Royal Society, received a doctorate from Oxford University, trained a telescope on Venus at the Greenwich Observatory, and saw a Fleet Review by Royal Navy at Deptford. He studied the English techniques of city-building he would later use to great effect at Saint Petersburg. At the end of April 1698 he left after learning to make watches, carpenting coffins and posing for Sir Godfrey Kneller.

 

The Embassy next went to Leipzig, Dresden, Prague and Vienna. Peter spoke with Augustus II the Strong and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.[18] Peter's visit was cut short, when he was forced to rush home by a rebellion of the Streltsy. The rebellion was easily crushed before Peter returned home; of the Tsar's troops, only one was killed. Peter nevertheless acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers. Over one thousand two hundred of the rebels were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators. The Streltsy were disbanded, some of the rebels were deported to Siberia, and the individual they sought to put on the Throne — Peter's half-sister Sophia — was forced to become a nun.

 

Peter's visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing and cut off their long beards, causing his Boyars, who were very fond of their beards, great upset. Boyars who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles. Peter also sought to end arranged marriages, which were the norm among the Russian nobility, because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other.

 

In 1698, Peter I instituted a beard tax to modernize Russian society. In the same year Peter sent a delegation to Malta, under boyar Boris Sheremetev, to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet. Sheremetev investigated the possibility of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base. On 12 September 1698, Peter officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog on the Sea of Azov.

 

In 1699, Peter changed the date of the celebration of the new year from 1 September to 1 January. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from the purported creation of the World, but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ. Thus, in the year 7207 of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was 1700. On the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peter's prime favourite and confidant. In 1701, the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation was founded; for fifteen years, not only naval officers, but also surveyors, engineers, and gunners were educated there.

 

Great Northern War

First Winter Palace

Peter made a temporary peace with the Ottoman Empire that allowed him to keep the captured fort of Azov, and turned his attention to Russian maritime supremacy. He sought to acquire control of the Baltic Sea, which had been taken by the Swedish Empire a half-century earlier. Peter declared war on Sweden, which was at the time led by the young King Charles XII. Sweden was also opposed by Denmark–Norway, Saxony, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Preobrazhensky regiment took part in all major battles of the Great Northern War.

 

Russia was ill-prepared to fight the Swedes, and their first attempt at seizing the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva in 1700. In the conflict, the forces of Charles XII, rather than employ a slow methodical siege, attacked immediately using a blinding snowstorm to their advantage. After the battle, Charles XII decided to concentrate his forces against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which gave Peter time to reorganize the Russian army. He invited Nicolaas Bidloo to organize a military hospital. In 1701, Peter the Great signed a decree on the opening of Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation.

 

While the Poles fought the Swedes, Peter founded the city of Saint Petersburg on 29 June 1703, in Ingermanland (a province of the Swedish Empire that he had captured). It was named after his patron saint Saint Peter. He forbade the building of stone edifices outside Saint Petersburg, which he intended to become Russia's capital, so that all stonemasons could participate in the construction of the new city. Peter moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1703. While the city was being built along the Neva he lived in a modest three-room log cabin (with a study but without a fire-place) which had to make room for the first version of the Winter palace. The first buildings which appeared were the Peter and Paul Fortress, a shipyard at the Admiralty and Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

 

Following several defeats, Polish King Augustus II the Strong abdicated in 1706. Swedish king Charles XII turned his attention to Russia, invading it in 1708. After crossing into Russia, Charles defeated Peter at Golovchin in July. In the Battle of Lesnaya, Charles suffered his first loss after Peter crushed a group of Swedish reinforcements marching from Riga. Deprived of this aid, Charles was forced to abandon his proposed march on Moscow.

 

Charles XII refused to retreat to Poland or back to Sweden and instead invaded Ukraine. Peter withdrew his army southward, employing scorched earth, destroying along the way anything that could assist the Swedes. Deprived of local supplies, the Swedish army was forced to halt its advance in the winter of 1708–1709. In the summer of 1709, they resumed their efforts to capture Russian-ruled Ukraine, culminating in the Battle of Poltava on 27 June. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Swedish forces, ending Charles' campaign in Ukraine and forcing him south to seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire. Russia had defeated what was considered to be one of the world's best militaries, and the victory overturned the view that Russia was militarily incompetent. In Poland, Augustus II was restored as King.

 

Peter, overestimating the support he would receive from his Balkan allies, attacked the Ottoman Empire, initiating the Russo-Turkish War of 1710. Peter's campaign in the Ottoman Empire was disastrous, and in the ensuing Treaty of the Pruth, Peter was forced to return the Black Sea ports he had seized in 1697. In return, the Sultan expelled Charles XII.

 

The Ottomans called him Mad Peter (Turkish: deli Petro), for his willingness to sacrifice large numbers of his troops in wartime. Peter I loved all sorts of rarities and curiosities. In 1704 Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a child with Ethiopian origin, was presented to him; in 1716 Peter took him to Paris.

 

In 1711, Peter established by decree a new state body known as the Governing Senate. Normally, the Boyar duma would have exercised power during his absence. Peter, however, mistrusted the boyars; he instead abolished the Duma and created a Senate of ten members. The Senate was founded as the highest state institution to supervise all judicial, financial and administrative affairs. Originally established only for the time of the monarch's absence, the Senate became a permanent body after his return. A special high official, the Ober-Procurator, served as the link between the ruler and the senate and acted, in Peter own words, as "the sovereign's eye". Without his signature no Senate decision could go into effect; the Senate became one of the most important institutions of Imperial Russia.

 

1712, Peter I issued a decree establishing an Engineering School in Moscow, which was supposed to recruit up to 150 students, and two-thirds of them were to consist of nobles.[31] Therefore, on 28 February 1714, he issued a decree calling for compulsory education, which dictated that all Russian 10- to 15-year-old children of the nobility, government clerks, and lesser-ranked officials must learn basic mathematics and geometry, and should be tested on the subjects at the end of their studies.

 

Peter's northern armies took the Swedish province of Livonia (the northern half of modern Latvia, and the southern half of modern Estonia), driving the Swedes out of Finland. In 1714 the Russian fleet won the Battle of Gangut. Most of Finland was occupied by the Russians.

 

In 1716, the Tsar visited Riga, and Danzig in January, Stettin, and obtained the assistance of the Electorate of Hanover and the Kingdom of Prussia fighting a war against Sweden at Wismar. He was forced to leave Mecklenburg. In Altona he met with Danish diplomats. He went on to Bad Pyrmont in May/June, because of an illness he stayed at this spa. He arrived in Amsterdam in December, where he bought some interesting collections: those of Frederik Ruysch, Levinus Vincent and Albertus Seba and paintings by Maria Sibylla Merian for his Kunstkamera. He visited a silk manufacture and a paper-mill, and learned to create paper and to spin silk. He visited Herman Boerhaave and Carel de Moor in Leiden and ordered two mercury thermometers from Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit and instruments from Musschenbroek. In April 1717 he continued his travel from Flushing to Brussels in the Austrian Netherlands and Dunkirk, Calais, Paris, where he obtained many books and proposed a marriage between his daughter and King Louis XV. Saint-Simon described him as "tall, well-formed and slim…with a look both bewildered and fierce." Via Reims, and Spa Peter travelled on to Maastricht, at that time one of the most important fortresses in Europe, where he was received by Daniël van Dopff, the commander of the fortress. He went back to Amsterdam and visited the Hortus Botanicus and left the city early September.

 

The Tsar's navy was powerful enough that the Russians could penetrate Sweden. Still, Charles XII refused to yield, and not until his death in battle in 1718 did peace become feasible. After the battle near Åland, Sweden made peace with all powers but Russia by 1720. In 1721, the Treaty of Nystad ended the Great Northern War. Russia acquired Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, and a substantial portion of Karelia. In turn, Russia paid two million Riksdaler and surrendered most of Finland. The Tsar retained some Finnish lands close to Saint Petersburg, which he had made his capital in 1712. Between 1713 and 1728, and from 1732 to 1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia.

 

Title

Following his victory in the Great Northern War, he adopted the title of emperor in 1721.

 

By the grace of God, the most excellent and great sovereign emperor Pyotr Alekseevich the ruler of all the Russias: of Moscow, of Kiev, of Vladimir, of Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan and Tsar of Siberia, sovereign of Pskov, great prince of Smolensk, of Tver, of Yugorsk, of Perm, of Vyatka, of Bulgaria and others, sovereign and great prince of the Novgorod Lower lands, of Chernigov, of Ryazan, of Rostov, of Yaroslavl, of Belozersk, of Udora, of Kondia and the sovereign of all the northern lands, and the sovereign of the Iverian lands, of the Kartlian and Georgian Kings, of the Kabardin lands, of the Circassian and Mountain princes and many other states and lands western and eastern here and there and the successor and sovereign and ruler.

 

Later years

In 1717, Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky led the first Russian military expedition into Central Asia against the Khanate of Khiva. The expedition ended in complete disaster when the entire expeditionary force was slaughtered.

 

In 1718, Peter investigated why the formerly Swedish province of Livonia was so orderly. He discovered that the Swedes spent as much administering Livonia (300 times smaller than his empire) as he spent on the entire Russian bureaucracy. He was forced to dismantle the province's government.

 

To the end of 1717, the preparatory phase of administrative reform in Russia was completed. After 1718, Peter established colleges in place of the old central agencies of government, including foreign affairs, war, navy, expense, income, justice, and inspection. Later others were added, to regulate mining and industry. Each college consisted of a president, a vice-president, a number of councilors and assessors, and a procurator. Some foreigners were included in various colleges but not as president. Peter did not have enough loyal, talented or educated persons to put in full charge of the various departments. Peter preferred to rely on groups of individuals who would keep check on one another. Decisions depended on the majority vote.

 

Peter's last years were marked by further reform in Russia. On 22 October 1721, soon after peace was made with Sweden, he was officially proclaimed Emperor of All Russia. Some proposed that he take the title Emperor of the East, but he refused. Gavrila Golovkin, the State Chancellor, was the first to add "the Great, Father of His Country, Emperor of All the Russias" to Peter's traditional title Tsar following a speech by the archbishop of Pskov in 1721. Peter's imperial title was recognized by Augustus II of Poland, Frederick William I of Prussia, and Frederick I of Sweden, but not by the other European monarchs. In the minds of many, the word emperor connoted superiority or pre-eminence over kings. Several rulers feared that Peter would claim authority over them, just as the Holy Roman Emperor had claimed suzerainty over all Christian nations.

 

In 1722, Peter created a new order of precedence known as the Table of Ranks. Formerly, precedence had been determined by birth. To deprive the Boyars of their high positions, Peter directed that precedence should be determined by merit and service to the Emperor. The Table of Ranks continued to remain in effect until the Russian monarchy was overthrown in 1917.

 

The once powerful Persian Safavid Empire to the south was in deep decline. Taking advantage of the profitable situation, Peter launched the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723, otherwise known as "The Persian Expedition of Peter the Great", which drastically increased Russian influence for the first time in the Caucasus and Caspian Sea region, and prevented the Ottoman Empire from making territorial gains in the region. After considerable success and the capture of many provinces and cities in the Caucasus and northern mainland Persia, the Safavids were forced to hand over territory to Russia, comprising Derbent, Shirvan, Gilan, Mazandaran, Baku, and Astrabad. Within twelve years all the territories were ceded back to Persia, now led by the charismatic military genius Nader Shah, as part of the Treaty of Resht, the Treaty of Ganja, and as the result of a Russo-Persian alliance against the Ottoman Empire, which was the common enemy of both.

 

Peter introduced new taxes to fund improvements in Saint Petersburg. He abolished the land tax and household tax and replaced them with a poll tax. The taxes on land and on households were payable only by individuals who owned property or maintained families. The new head taxes were payable by serfs and paupers. In 1725 the construction of Peterhof, a palace near Saint Petersburg, was completed. Peterhof (Dutch for "Peter's Court") was a grand residence, becoming known as the "Russian Versailles".

 

In the winter of 1723, Peter, whose overall health was never robust, began having problems with his urinary tract and bladder. In the summer of 1724, a team of doctors performed surgery releasing upwards of four pounds of blocked urine. Peter remained bedridden until late autumn. In the first week of October, restless and certain he was cured, Peter began a lengthy inspection tour of various projects. According to legend, in November, at Lakhta along the Gulf of Finland to inspect some ironworks, Peter saw a group of soldiers drowning near shore and, wading out into near-waist deep water, came to their rescue.

 

This icy water rescue is said to have exacerbated Peter's bladder problems and caused his death. The story, however, has been viewed with skepticism by some historians, pointing out that the German chronicler Jacob von Staehlin is the only source for the story, and it seems unlikely that no one else would have documented such an act of heroism. This, plus the interval of time between these actions and Peter's death seems to preclude any direct link.

 

In early January 1725, Peter was struck once again with uremia. Legend has it that before lapsing into unconsciousness Peter asked for a paper and pen and scrawled an unfinished note that read: "Leave all to ..." and then, exhausted by the effort, asked for his daughter Anna to be summoned.

 

Peter died between four and five in the morning 8 February 1725. An autopsy revealed his bladder to be infected with gangrene. He was fifty-two years, seven months old when he died, having reigned forty-two years. He is interred in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

After the death of Peter I, there were immediately students who came to the Military College with a request to "leave science" under the pretext of "unconsciousness and incomprehensibility."

 

Religion

Peter did not believe in miracles and founded The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters, an organization that mocked the Orthodox and Catholic Church when he was eighteen. In January 1695, Peter refused to partake in a traditional Russian Orthodox ceremony of the Epiphany Ceremony, and would often schedule events for The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters to directly conflict with the Church. He often used the nickname Pakhom Mikhailov (Russian: Пахом Михайлов) among the ministers of religion who made up his relatively close circle of long-term drinking companions. He drank less than the others, deliberately getting the others drunk in order to listen to their drunken conversations.

 

Peter was brought up in the Russian Orthodox faith, but he had low regard for the Church hierarchy, which he kept under tight governmental control. The traditional leader of the Church was the Patriarch of Moscow. In 1700, when the office fell vacant, Peter refused to name a replacement, allowing the patriarch's coadjutor (or deputy) to discharge the duties of the office. Peter could not tolerate the patriarch exercising power superior to the tsar, as indeed had happened in the case of Philaret (1619–1633) and Nikon (1652–66). In 1716 he invited Theophan Prokopovich to come to the capital. In 1718 he ordered to translate the "Introduction to European History" (a work by Samuel Pufendorf); the Ecclesiastical Regulations of 1721 are based on it. The Church reform of Peter the Great therefore abolished the patriarchate, replacing it with a Holy Synod that was under the control of a Procurator, and the tsar appointed all bishops.

 

In 1721, Peter followed the advice of Prokopovich in designing the Holy Synod as a council of ten clergymen. For leadership in the Church, Peter turned increasingly to Ukrainians, who were more open to reform, but were not well loved by the Russian clergy. Peter implemented a law that stipulated that no Russian man could join a monastery before the age of fifty. He felt that too many able Russian men were being wasted on clerical work when they could be joining his new and improved army.

 

A clerical career was not a route chosen by upper-class society. Most parish priests were sons of priests and were very poorly educated and paid. The monks in the monasteries had a slightly higher status; they were not allowed to marry. Politically, the Church was impotent.

 

Marriages and family

Peter the Great had two wives, with whom he had fifteen children, three of whom survived to adulthood. Peter's mother selected his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina, with the advice of other nobles in 1689. This was consistent with previous Romanov tradition by choosing a daughter of a minor noble. This was done to prevent fighting between the stronger noble houses and to bring fresh blood into the family. He also had a mistress from Westphalia, Anna Mons.

 

Upon his return from his European tour in 1698, Peter sought to end his unhappy marriage. He divorced the Tsaritsa and forced her to join a convent. She had borne him three children, although only one, Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, had survived past his childhood.

 

Menshikov introduced him to Marta Helena Skowrońska, a Polish-Lithuanian peasant, and took her as a mistress some time between 1702 and 1704. Marta converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Catherine. Though no record exists, Catherine and Peter married secretly between 23 Oct and 1 December 1707 in St. Petersburg. Peter valued Catherine and married officially, at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on 19 February 1712.

 

His eldest child and heir, Alexei, was suspected of being involved in a plot to overthrow the Emperor. Alexei was tried and confessed under torture during questioning conducted by a secular court (count Tolstoy). He was convicted and sentenced to be executed. The sentence could only be carried out with Peter's signed authorization, and Alexei died in prison, as Peter hesitated before making the decision. Alexei's death most likely resulted from injuries suffered during his torture. Alexei's mother Eudoxia was punished. She was dragged from her home, tried on false charges of adultery, publicly flogged, and confined in monasteries while being forbidden to be talked to.

 

In 1724, Peter had his second wife, Catherine, crowned as Empress, although he remained Russia's actual ruler.

 

Issue

By his two wives, he had fifteen children: three by Eudoxia and twelve by Catherine. These included four sons named Pavel and three sons named Peter, all of whom died in infancy. Only three of his children survived to adulthood. He also had three grandchildren: Tsar Peter II and Grand Duchess Natalia by Alexei and Tsar Peter III by Anna.

 

Mistresses and illegitimate children

Princess Maria Dmitrievna Cantemirovna of Moldavia (1700–1754), daughter of Dimitrie Cantemir

Unnamed son (1722 - 1723?) – different sources say that the baby was stillborn or died before he was one year old.

Lady Mary Hamilton, Catherine I's lady in waiting of Scottish descent.

Miscarriage (1715)

Unnamed child (1717 - 1718?)

 

Legacy

Peter's legacy has always been a major concern of Russian intellectuals. Riasanovsky points to a "paradoxical dichotomy" in the black and white images such as God/Antichrist, educator/ignoramus, architect of Russia's greatness/destroyer of national culture, father of his country/scourge of the common man. Voltaire's 1759 biography gave 18th-century Russians a man of the Enlightenment, while Alexander Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman" poem of 1833 gave a powerful romantic image of a creator-god. Slavophiles in mid-19th century deplored Peter's westernization of Russia.

 

Western writers and political analysts recounted "The Testimony" or secret will of Peter the Great. It supposedly revealed his grand evil plot for Russia to control the world via conquest of Constantinople, Afghanistan and India. It was a forgery made in Paris at Napoleon's command when he started his invasion of Russia in 1812. Nevertheless, it is still quoted in foreign policy circles.

 

The Communists executed the last Romanovs, and their historians such as Mikhail Pokrovsky presented strongly negative views of the entire dynasty. Stalin however admired how Peter strengthened the state, and wartime, diplomacy, industry, higher education, and government administration. Stalin wrote in 1928, "when Peter the Great, who had to deal with more developed countries in the West, feverishly built works in factories for supplying the army and strengthening the country's defenses, this was an original attempt to leap out of the framework of backwardness." As a result, Soviet historiography emphasizes both the positive achievement and the negative factor of oppressing the common people.

 

After the fall of Communism in 1991, scholars and the general public in Russia and the West gave fresh attention to Peter and his role in Russian history. His reign is now seen as the decisive formative event in the Russian imperial past. Many new ideas have merged, such as whether he strengthened the autocratic state or whether the tsarist regime was not statist enough given its small bureaucracy. Modernization models have become contested ground.

 

He initiated a wide range of economic, social, political, administrative, educational and military reforms which ended the dominance of traditionalism and religion in Russia and initiated its westernization. His efforts included secularization of education, organization of administration for effective governance, enhanced use of technology, establishing an industrial economy, modernization of the army and establishment of a strong navy.

 

Historian Y. Vodarsky said in 1993 that Peter, "did not lead the country on the path of accelerated economic, political and social development, did not force it to 'achieve a leap' through several stages.... On the contrary, these actions to the greatest degree put a brake on Russia's progress and created conditions for holding it back for one and a half centuries!" The autocratic powers that Stalin admired appeared as a liability to Evgeny Anisimov, who complained that Peter was, "the creator of the administrative command system and the true ancestor of Stalin."

 

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, "He did not completely bridge the gulf between Russia and the Western countries, but he achieved considerable progress in development of the national economy and trade, education, science and culture, and foreign policy. Russia became a great power, without whose concurrence no important European problem could thenceforth be settled. His internal reforms achieved progress to an extent that no earlier innovator could have envisaged."

 

While the cultural turn in historiography has downplayed diplomatic, economic and constitutional issues, new cultural roles have been found for Peter, for example in architecture and dress. James Cracraft argues:

 

The Petrine revolution in Russia—subsuming in this phrase the many military, naval, governmental, educational, architectural, linguistic, and other internal reforms enacted by Peter's regime to promote Russia's rise as a major European power—was essentially a cultural revolution, one that profoundly impacted both the basic constitution of the Russian Empire and, perforce, its subsequent development.

In popular culture

 

Peter has been featured in many histories, novels, plays, films, monuments and paintings. They include the poems The Bronze Horseman, Poltava and the unfinished novel The Moor of Peter the Great, all by Alexander Pushkin. The former dealt with The Bronze Horseman, an equestrian statue raised in Peter's honour. Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy wrote a biographical historical novel about him, named Peter I, in the 1930s.

 

The 1922 German silent film Peter the Great directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Emil Jannings as Peter

In 1929 A.N. Tolstoy's play was true to the party line, depicting Peter as a tyrant who "suppressed everyone and everything as if he had been possessed by demons, sowed fear, and put both his son and his country on the rack."

The 1937–1938 Soviet film Peter the Great

The 1976 film How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor, starring Aleksey Petrenko as Peter, and Vladimir Vysotsky as Abram Petrovich Gannibal, shows Peter's attempt to build the Baltic Fleet.

Peter was played by Jan Niklas and Maximilian Schell in the 1986 NBC miniseries Peter the Great.

The 2007 film The Sovereign's Servant depicts the unsavoury brutal side of Peter during the campaign.

A character based on Peter plays a major role in The Age of Unreason, a series of four alternate history novels written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gregory Keyes.

Peter is one of many supporting characters in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle – mainly featuring in the third novel, The System of the World.

Peter was portrayed on BBC Radio 4 by Isaac Rouse as a boy, Will Howard as a young adult and Elliot Cowan as an adult in the radio plays Peter the Great: The Gamblers and Peter the Great: The Queen of Spades, written by Mike Walker and which were the last two plays in the first series of Tsar. The plays were broadcast on 25 September and 2 October 2016.

A verse in the "Engineers' Drinking Song" references Peter the Great:

There was a man named Peter the Great who was a Russian Tzar;

When remodeling his the castle put the throne behind the bar;

He lined the walls with vodka, rum, and 40 kinds of beers;

And advanced the Russian culture by 120 years!

 

Peter was played by Jason Isaacs in the 2020 'antihistory' Hulu series The Great.

Peter is featured as the leader of the Russian civilization in the computer game Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

Peter was played by Ivan Kolesnikov in the 2022 Russian historical documentary film Peter I: The Last Tsar and the First Emperor.

In the 1800s, the U.S. Postal Service had difficulties delivering the mail across the country. To augment uneven postal service, almost 400 private individuals and companies undertook to fill this need. Wells, Fargo & Co. delivered letters from 1852 to 1895, longer than any other express. At first, a collect system, in which the recipient paid the postage prevailed. In 1855, the government made pre-payment, where the sender paid, mandatory. Express companies hand-stamped or printed their "frank" (or name) on envelopes and charged several times the postal rate. In the late 1850's and 1860's, Wells Fargo charged 10 cents for a Company-franked 3-cent U.S. envelope and carried 3/4 of the Pacific Coast letters.

 

The Wiltsee Collection, assembled by mining engineer, oil baron, and historian Ernest A. Wiltsee (1862-1947), has the largest assortment of "covers" (folded letters and envelopes) on public display. This collection paid special attention to delivery between 1848 and 1870 and Wells Fargo, the many small early expresses, the Pony Express, and United States postmarks from gold Rush towns.

 

The Wells Fargo History Museum, at 420 Montgomery Street site where Wells Fargo first opened for business in 1852 in 1852, features houses hundreds of genuine relics from the company's Gold Rush day including pistols, photographs, early banking articles, posters, a stagecoach, and mining equipment.

 

Founded in 1852, Wells Fargo & Co. became the greatest banking and transport company in the West and was integral in the development of the American frontier. In addition to providing banking services, they moved goods from the East to the West Coast, and between mining camps and towns, transported gold back East and delivered mail.

We moved the Hoever-Carriage as close as we dared to the edge of the great ruin. The pilot was having difficulty with the navigational instruments and we were forced to guide the craft in using signal flags.

 

As we disembarked I was immediately struck with the strange sensation of paramnesia (what the French all Deja Vu). Being dead certain of the knowledge that I'd never set foot in this place before was no comfort as what I could only compare to memories washed over me. The landscape, the dust, the ruins themselves all spoke of incidents past. A shudder came over me as I stepped into an open piazza with the others and saw before me the arches I had seen before only in my dreams. I make no claims to powers of premonition but all was as I remembered. The structure, the afternoon light even the smell of the dry air. As we began to spread out and search, I knew... no, I felt what was about to happen. The Reverend was about to speak. Glancing over my shoulder I saw him checking his compass. Feeling somewhat relieved by the failure of prediction I looked to the edge of the piazza. As I pointed to the horizon and opened my mouth to speak...

 

"Everyone!" came the Reverend's powerful baritone, "Check your compasses!"

(My stomach gave a slight lurch as the rush of memory overcame me. Yes! That was it... I remember he said that... what was next? The memory was fading now and all was becoming new again.)

 

Having both a compass and a terrestrial sextant upon my person I produced both only to discover that each pointed in an entirely different direction; their needles never coming to rest at north.

 

"What could it be?" Asked Jesse, eying his own compass with curiosity.

 

"Perhaps this area rests on a large deposit of loadstone, the magnetic field of which naturally disrupts the function of the compass." I was grasping for a logical explanation.

 

"Let us hope that is all." added the Revered quietly as he gave his compass a slight shake. I looked to him for something of an explanation but he put his head down and poked curiously at the instrument. "This will greatly hamper our efforts at an organized search." he added without looking up.

 

"If we cannot depend on our compasses for navigation we'll need to maintain frequent contact with our pendants." said Karl in a stern voice "We can't have anyone else getting lost out here before we've even located Wasserstrom."

 

I reached into my shirt and gave my signaling pendant a quick tap with Haggis' ID code. I got no reply. Looking across the piazza I spotted Haggis staring directly to the west. I tried the Karl's code and got no reply. "My pendant appears to have gone wrong."

 

A quick round of tests revealed, for reasons inexplicable, all our signaling pendants had failed simultaneously. I felt a chill and the nagging sensation that I knew this was going to happen. This time, however, it was not paramnesia, it was logic. The pendants were all issued at the same time and were all powered by the same type of voltaic batteries. If one were to fail it was likely the others would as well.

 

"What now?" I asked, "logic and science appear to have abandoned us."

 

"Line of sight." Stated Jesse with authority. "We search in teams of two. One person take the pojnt, the second keeps the first in sight at all times. Second team keeps the first team in sight and so on.... It's not as fast but it's safe."

 

"Very well" said Karl glumly, "Haggis, you're with me... Haggis.. Doctor!"

Karl's bellowing snapped Haggis free of his catatonia.

 

"Whu? Oh, aye.." he mumbled. As he straightened up he walked by Lady Porkshanks, keeping her in his gaze all the while. She returned the gesture.

 

The exchange did not go unnoticed by the others who, having no time for social awkwardness, failed to comment.

 

"Professor, you and I?" Jesse invited.

 

"Right then," said Allon, "My good Lady, you and I?

"Oh yes! Let's! Came her oddly enthusiastic reply.

 

In a gentlemanly fashion he lifted an elbow in her direction, inviting her to take his arm but in an act that left us all perplexed, Eugenia reached down and took the Reverend by the hand. She led him away like a child going off to play. Showing a mix of amusement, confusion and embarrassment, Allon looked back at us as she tugged him away.

 

* * * * *

Background Photo: Volubilis

By: jordillar_fotos

Under the Creative Commons License Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

 

... difficulty of access. […]‘Bright and tight’ is the phrase.” Martin Parr website (during the fashion week in Paris, in his blog).

 

Paris, Clok’s serie of Belleville, place Hannah-Arendt, August 2012 (mobile, I keep emptying my phone with unpublished images).

Focus on Eldercare's response to COVID-19

 

At the purpose when the noxious impacts of COVID-19 showed first in Wuhan, the entire city and therefore the entire of Hubei Province ground to a halt. The lockdown of Wuhan brought remarkable torment and threatening difficulties for several individual occupants therein first focus. Presently, COVID-19 represents those equivalent difficulties for individuals and social welfare frameworks all-inclusive. Especially, it tests our aggregate endeavors to believe one another, particularly the foremost defenseless among us.

 

As a populace, individuals quite 70 will generally have more fragile insusceptible frameworks and progressively fundamental conditions that obstruct their capacity to battle the infection. They're likewise sure to dwell on bunch day to day environments, nearby people. Floods of COVID-19 passings in nursing homes — first within the Seattle territory, at that time on the brink of Sacramento and now during the country — have underscored this inauspicious reality. Up until now, Californians quite 65 have made up, at any rate, a fourth of the state's affirmed instances of COVID-19.

 

Be that because it may, guidelines, especially for helping living offices, are unsafely failing to satisfy the expectations in protecting California's older folks from this infection. Luck, Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan on Aging activity, as of now ongoing, presents an opportunity to forcefully address this peril and find how to secure an enormous number of more seasoned Americans.

 

Helped living focuses are an aid to the Eldercare business and therefore the enormous corporate proprietors that currently command the market. Simultaneously, in any case, an absence of guideline and oversight of staffing levels and capabilities — particularly prerequisites for on-location doctors and much prepared clinical experts — has left the business defenseless against misuse and unfortunate results. One glaring issue that has got to be tended to: helped living focuses are directed by the state Department of Social Services rather than the Department of Public Health.

 

In any case, it helped to measure maybe a piece of social welfare and clinical consideration conveyance framework, not only a direction for living. Propelled a year ago, Newsom's plan on Aging has framed a warning advisory group, is holding open gatherings and within the fall is planned to offer a 10-year plan which will address issues from lodging and vagrancy to crisis readiness to manhandle and disrespect. The venture has made a "Value Committee" to urge a contribution from a progressively differing gathering of residents and associations, including agents of the crippled network, Native Americans and other ethnic minorities.

 

Considering the spreading coronavirus general wellbeing emerging, it's basic that the representative's plan on Aging takes on an expansive and genuine open arrangement job. We weren't bothered with elevated level clichés for tending to the wants of the old. We'd like solid arrangements, solid guidelines with implementation teeth and a guarantee to continued oversight.

 

The Age of COVID-19

 

Older people who get themselves out of the blue alone without authority over their conditions are at specific hazards for an assortment of serious, even hazardous, physical and psychological well-being conditions, including a subjective decrease. Limitations on the opportunity of development ought to be proportionate and not founded solely on age.

 

COVID-19, as different irresistible melodies, represents a higher hazard to populaces that live in nearness. This hazard is especially intense in nursing or matured consideration offices, where the infection can spread quickly and has just brought about numerous passings. About 1.5 million older people individuals live in the nursing homes in the US, barring helped living offices and different settings making nearness.

 

Twenty-three individuals kicked the bucket in a flare-up at an office in Washington State in February and March, and the US Centers for Disease Control detailed 400 additional cases in offices as of April 1. On March 31, wellbeing experts in the Grand East district of France detailed 570 passings of older people in nursing homes.

 

Older people often end up in nursing homes due to governments' inability to offer adequate social types of assistance for individuals to live freely in the network, approaches that have put millions at included danger of getting the infection as a result of their organization. Governments ought to guarantee the progression of network-based administrations with the goal that individuals don't wind up in organizations without different alternatives.

 

Expound now on the roles played via care laborers in continuing the lives of the old during that emergency, and who, however dreadful themselves, by and by remain day in and outing inside the bounds of their wards to offer fundamental consideration.

 

Care supervisor Chang, the woman in charge of the consideration laborers among whom I led my hands-on work, coordinated the change of her ward into a self-sufficient fixed of a unit of care. The passage to her floor is carefully monitored; just fundamental conveyances are permitted, for instance, nourishment and clothing. Since nobody can enter or leave the structure, the flask for the older was transformed into a dozing region for care laborers. Despite the very fact that a lot of consideration laborers have their circle of relatives to require care of, they put that piece of their life under the control of others. Care specialist Lin, whose spouse died at the start of the pandemic, did not have the chance to completely grieve his passing due to incessant understaffing at Sunlight. She came back to figure following the burial service, despite realizing that she not, at now expected to figure at Sunlight to hide her significant other's clinical costs. Lin's arrival says much regarding her promise to her calling, to her colleagues, and to the old she had come to understand so well. My examination with care laborers recommends that it's an enthusiastic association and an awareness of other's expectations that propels them to remain the end of the day in care work. This is often borne out immediately.

 

Carefully add China is often seen as being grimy and unfortunate, thanks to an excellent extension to its nearby hook up with the realistic consideration required by slight, skilled bodies. Chinese consideration laborers are for the foremost part provincial to urban transients or urban specialists laid far away from previous state-claimed processing plants. In any case, direct consideration is intricate. In any case, its unpredictability goes unrecognized, or maybe disregarded by institutional powers that organize benefits and generalize the old as bodies to chip away at, to the disregard of their social-passionate necessities. As is valid with Sunlight, things which might typically undermine the keenness of care laborers, for instance, the absence of institutional acknowledgment for his or her enthusiastic work, are required to be postponed. Care specialists are currently centered around a shared objective: ensuring the gift assistance of the older. COVID-19 propels care laborers to consider what kind of care is required and the way to offer that care. It fills in as a channel through which the elemental beliefs of care are observed. Care is about common human weakness and our intrinsic association. Care laborers at Sunlight, in their aggregate every minute of everyday endeavors to secure the older, typify this ethic through their consideration. May the respectful regard, they hold of the older in their consideration redound on them and everyone consideration laborers overall who are fighting this pandemic on the bleeding edge!

 

Like the consideration laborers at Sunlight, the laborers in numerous nations are regarded human life so that we cannot be embarrassed to return clean with the leading edge about ourselves. Salute the spearheading staff who salutes our purposeful endeavors to handle the pandemic in numerous settings around the globe, within the daylight, yet additionally to ensure that veterans are appropriately treated, took care of and washed.

 

We all hope and pray that the coronavirus will soon be controlled and subdued. And that when the crisis is behind us, that we continue the important work of protecting the elderly and other vulnerable segments of our citizenry.

 

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How Can I Contribute in Times of COVID-19?

 

Write your testimony about the concequences from the time of Corona virus (COVID-19). Here is a great knowledge base about the effects of the Corona virus. Thank you for your story! article-directory.org/article/717/40/Emergency-Situations...

Demonstrating the difficulties of getting a decent shot on the single track and heavily overgrown Antrim - Lisburn branch, an unidentified 80-class set approaches the road bridge known as the Devil's Elbow with 12.53 from Antrim to Belfast Central.

 

All photographs are my copyright and must not be used without permission. Unauthorised use will result in my invoicing you £1,500 per photograph and, if necessary, taking legal action for recovery.

via Tumblr ift.tt/1AFfkkM Plumbing system Hints You needed to Listen to Today

When you work using a plumbing tech, it could place you back a lot of money for additionally a really simple repair service that you could have done yourself with some basic plumbing system knowledge. Do not waste cash on plumbing technicians that are expert again! Read on for a few ideas on solving your own plumbing system difficulties with devices home is contended by you.

When it comes to plumbing system, there is never an unsolvable problem. You ought to try to stop from what you’re managing, should you feel in your own developeding into annoyed using the occupation. The biggest blunders start to happen when you blow up and inpatient pause too as walk outside.

Plumbing must simply be done by professionals in the event that you do not understand plumbing system or if there is a major problem. Several of the large issues that plumbers handle, really have alternatives that are easy. The average person, which will not get the the inner workings of pipes, generally wind up worsening the problem by activating various other expensive injury to our house throughout the repair service that is failed. The plumber will certainly need to be hired conclusion, anyway.

There are easy way to analyze your commode for leakages that may finally cause fantastic cost fiscal economies in the long term. The simplest way to do that is always to place a portion of food dye into your commode’s holding storage tank . In the early morning, after that you understand, in case you have any kind of colour you have a flow that needs some consideration.

One approach to stop water pipes through the winter months from cold would be to keep cupboard doors in your house that contain the pipes open. This could insure they get ample heat to keep comfortable and warm. Ensure also kind of tube and moreover, to disconnect outside and run a little water to remove the water pipes of almost any remaining water.

In order to guard against blocking prevent doing factors that will surely obstruct drains. Do not pour oil down the cooking space sink, and install hair catching filters in all of your bath bathtubs. This can surely shield against a number of unneeded clogs.

See to it you empower a slow drip over the night when you experience the chilliest of wintertime weather. There is to comply with a broad policy, if there is snow on the ground, leave the water trickling. This keeps a circulation that is consistent minimizes your risk of waking up to icy conduits that could get a terrific deal of damages.

If you drop a tiny thing like earring or a ring right hope isn’t spill. By very carefully removing the U-shaped catch beneath the sink, you can likely fetch the item. Remember that the catch will certainly teem with water, yet, so have something to get the spills.

Professional-plumbing services are costly, as well as anybody that knows what needs to be achieved could resolves numerous plumbing system difficulties.

A SUPER UNIQUE Spin:Plumbing system Tricks You needed to Listen to Now

It may place you back a lot of cash for additionally quite an simple repair service you may have done yourself when you work using a pipes tech. Don’t squander cash on pipes technicians that are skilled again! Read on for a few thoughts on solving your own plumbing system difficulties with apparatus home is contended by you.

In regards to plumbing system, there’s not a problem that is unsolvable. In case you’re feeling into annoyed using the occupation in your own developeding, you should try and stop from what you’re handling. The biggest blunders begin to occur when you blow up and inpatient pause at the same time as walk outdoor.

Plumbing must just be done by professionals in the event that you don’t understand plumbing system or if you have a significant issue. Several of the large issues that plumbers handle, really have choices that are easy. The common person, which doesn’t understand the intricacies of pipes, usually wind up by activating various other expensive injury to our house through the failed repair service, worsening the problem. The plumber will definitely have to be hired end, in any case.

There are simple way to analyze your commode for leakages which could finally result in cost that is excellent fiscal economies in the future. The most easy way to get this done is always to place a share of food dye to your commode’s carrying storage tank . In the first morning, after that you understand for those who have any kind of colour you’ve got a flow that needs some consideration.

One solution to stop water pipes through the wintertime from cold will be to keep cupboard doors in your own home which contain the conduits open. This may ensure they get considerable heat to maintain comfortable and warm. Ensure additionally kind of tube and moreover, to disconnect outside and run just a little water to get rid of the water pipes of almost any remaining water.

To be able to guard against blocking prevent doing variables that will surely obstruct drains. Don’t pour down the cooking space sink, and install hair getting filters in your entire bathtub tubs. This can definitely shield against a whole lot of clogs that are unneeded.

Find to it you empower a slow drip on the night time when you experience the chilliest of wintertime weather. There is to comply with an overall policy, if you have snow on the floor, leave the water dripping. This keeps a flow that is regular minimizes your risk of waking up to icy conduits that will get an excellent deal.

By quite carefully removing the catch that is U shaped you can likely get the thing. Bear in mind the catch will definitely teem with water, yet have something to get the spills.

Professional-plumbing services are expensive, as well as anybody that understands what needs to be achieved could resolves numerous plumbing system issues.

A Spin:Plumbing system Tricks You Had to Listen to Today

It could place you back a lot of money for also quite an easy repair service that you could have done yourself with some basic plumbing system knowledge when you work with a pipes technician. Don’t squander cash on plumbing technicians that are skilled again! Read on for some thoughts on solving your own plumbing system problems with devices dwelling is contended by you.

When it comes to plumbing system, there is not an unsolvable problem. Should you are feeling into annoyed using the occupation in your own developeding, you must try to pause from just what you are managing. The biggest blunders start to happen when you blow up and inpatient, so pause too as walk outdoor.

Plumbing needs to simply be done by professionals if you do not comprehend plumbing system or if there’s a major difficulty. Several of the big issues that plumbers handle, really have simple choices. The average person, which doesn’t comprehend the ins and outs of plumbing, usually wind up by activating various other expensive injury to our home through the failed repair service, worsening the problem. The plumber will certainly need to be hired end, in any case.

There are simple means to examine your commode for leakages which could finally lead to excellent price financial savings in the long run. The most easy way to accomplish this is always to place a percentage of food dye in the carrying storage tank overnight. In the early morning, after that you understand in case you have any kind of colour you might have a flow that needs some attention.

One approach to stop water pipes from cold throughout the winter months would be to keep cupboard doors in your own home which contain the pipes open. This may assure they get considerable heat to maintain warm and comfortable. Make certain moreover, to disconnect and additionally kind of tube outside and run just a little water to get rid of the water pipes of any kind of remaining water.

To be able to guard against blocking prevent doing factors that will surely obstruct drains. Don’t pour oil down the cooking area sink, and install hair capturing filters in your entire bathtub tubs. This will certainly shield against a number of unneeded clogs.

Find to it you enable a slow drip within the night when you experience the coldest of wintertime weather. There is to comply with a general policy, if you have snow on the floor, leave the water dribbling. This keeps a regular flow minimizes your risk of waking up to icy pipes that will induce an excellent deal.

You could likely get the thing, by quite carefully removing the U-shaped catch beneath the sink. Remember the catch will certainly teem with water, however have something under it to get the spills.

Professional-plumbing services are costly, and also numerous plumbing system issues might be resolved by anybody that knows what should be done.

A Spin:Plumbing system Suggestions You Had to Listen to Today

It could set you back a great deal of cash for additionally an extremely simple repair service you can have done yourself when you work with a plumbing tech. Do not waste cash on plumbing technicians that are skilled again! Read on for some ideas on solving your very own plumbing system problems with devices residence is contended by you.

There is not an unsolvable issue, when it comes to plumbing system. In case you’re feeling in your own developeding into annoyed with the job, you must try to pause from just what you are dealing with. The greatest blunders begin to occur when you blow up and inpatient pause also as walk outdoor.

Plumbing needs to simply be done by professionals if a significant issue is or if you don’t understand plumbing system. Several of the huge problems that plumbers handle, really have easy options. The typical person, which will not get the intricacies of pipes, generally wind up worsening the problem by triggering various other expensive injury to our home throughout the failed repair service. The plumber will definitely need to be hired end, in any case.

There are simple means to examine your commode for leakages that could finally result in price that is amazing fiscal economies in the long run. The most easy way to do that is always to place a share of food dye into the carrying storage tank . In the first morning, after that you understand for those who have any kind of colour in the container you have a leak that needs some attention.

One solution to stop water pipes throughout the wintertime from cold is to keep cupboard doors in your house which contain the conduits open. This could ensure that they get ample heat to maintain comfortable and warm. Make certain additionally kind of tube and additionally, to disconnect outside and run just a little water to eliminate the water pipes of any type of remaining water.

So as to guard against blocking prevent doing variables that will definitely obstruct drains. Don’t pour oil down the cooking space sink, and install hair capturing filters in your entire bath tubs. This will surely shield against a bunch of clogs that are unneeded.

See to it you empower a slow drip over the night when you experience the chilliest of wintertime weather. There is to comply with a broad policy, if there is snow on the ground, leave the water dripping. This keeps a consistent flow yet minimizes your risk of waking up to icy pipes that could get an excellent deal.

Should you drop a little matter like a ring or earring right hope isn’t spill. By very carefully removing the catch that is U-shaped you can probably fetch the item. Bear in mind that the catch will certainly teem with water, yet, so have something under it to catch the spills.

Professional-plumbing services are costly, as well as numerous plumbing system difficulties may be solved by anybody that understands what should be achieved. Hopefully, you have been given the knowledge to keep clear of an expensive call to a specialist pipes option as time goes on by this write-up.

A Spin:Plumbing system Hints You needed to Listen to Today

It can set you back a great deal of cash for additionally a very simple repair service you may have done yourself with some basic plumbing system knowledge when you work using a pipes technician. Do not squander money on expert plumbing technicians again! Read on for a few thoughts on solving your very own plumbing system problems with apparatus you contend residence.

When it comes to plumbing system, there’s not an unsolvable issue. If you’re feeling into annoyed using the job on your own developeding, you should try and pause from just what you’re handling. The biggest blunders begin to happen when you blow up and inpatient, so pause as well as walk outdoor.

Plumbing must just be done by professionals should you do not understand plumbing system or if a major difficulty is. Several of the large problems that plumbers handle, actually have easy options. The common person, which doesn’t get the intricacies of plumbing, normally wind up worsening the trouble by triggering various other expensive injury to our dwelling through the failed repair service. The plumber will certainly need to be hired end, anyhow.

There are easy means to analyze your commode for leakages which could ultimately result in excellent price fiscal economies in the long run. The easiest way to do this is always to put a percentage of food dye in your commode’s holding storage tank overnight. In the early morning, after that you know, in case you have any kind of colour in the container you might have a leak that needs some consideration.

One solution to stop water pipes from cold through the wintertime would be to keep cabinet doors in your house which contain the conduits open. This may insure they get considerable heat to maintain comfortable and warm. Ensure also kind of tube and moreover, to disconnect outside and run only a little water to remove the water pipes of almost any remaining water going outside.

In order to safeguard against blocking prevent doing factors that would definitely obstruct drains. Do not pour oil down the cooking area sink, and install catching filters in all of your bath bathtubs to hair. This can certainly protect against a bunch of clogs that are unneeded.

Find to it you enable a slow drip within the night time when you experience the chilliest of wintertime weather. An overall policy to comply with is, if you have snow on the ground, leave the water dribbling. This keeps a regular flow minimizes your danger of waking up to icy conduits that can get an excellent deal of damages.

You can likely bring the item by really carefully removing the U shaped catch beneath the sink. Bear in mind the catch will certainly teem with water, yet have something under it to catch the spills.

As you check out in the beginning of this writeup. Professional-plumbing services are costly, as well as numerous plumbing system issues may be resolved by anybody that understands what ought to be done. Hopefully, this write-up has given you the knowledge to keep clear of an expensive call to a specialist pipes solution in the foreseeable future.

from Blogger ift.tt/1AFezs2

January 20, 2015 at 06:05AM

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Despite the health difficulties and stressful drama over the last few months, including getting laid off and venturing out on my own, it seems the big 39 has arrived.

 

That's right. 39 years of age.

 

Most of the critics, haters and doubters wrote me off when I got my ASD (autism spectrum) diagnosis at four years old and even then, despite my hellish nightmare of a journey to become my true self.

 

But as I now begin the final year of my 30's, I now face a new challenge.

 

Did you know that the average life expectancy for someone who is on the autism spectrum is between 39 to 58 years old?

 

That's around 42 years less than the average life expectancy of a male (81) and 46 years less than a female at 85 years old in Australia.

 

Scary stuff, huh?

 

Well, to be honest with you, despite my ticker starting to give out due to family genetics and my anxiety, stress and C-PTSD deciding to play havoc with my mind and causing all sorts of health complications, I am now at that point in my life where, technically, I am in the danger zone of sorts in terms of life expectancy.

 

Now, you may be asking at this point....

 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Miss Cece?! This is supposed to be about YOU today and clocking over another year on the odometer, not some melodramatic diatribe on how your life could be cut short!"

 

Yes, I know.

 

On the one hand, I'm now one year away from going on 40. I want to achieve that milestone and eventually my ruby, gold and diamond jubilee celebrations.

 

On the other, I know now, that any day that the lights are going to be shut out for good.

 

But, I've been here before and defied the odds, despite a grim outlook and nearly facing the reaper the first time in 2015 when my weight ballooned to over 140kg due to a coming out going sideways and dealing with a lot on my plate.

 

So, despite my stuffed-up heart, a throbbing mind and going through a lot of heck, the annual tradition of "Cake Day" is upon us once again.

 

"Only twelve more months until the ruby 40th anniversary celebrations!""

 

(and that's if my ticker or mind holds steady and doesn't throw up any surprises between now and next year!)

View from Mt Difficulty Vineyard in Bannockburn where we are having lunch. April 27, 2016 Central Otago in the South Island of New Zealand.

 

The Cellar Door at Mt Difficulty Wines is known as much for its dramatic views of rugged rock and thyme landscapes as it is for its stylish wine and food.

 

The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area is partially created by the presence of Mount Difficulty which overlooks the southern Cromwell basin, and is the namesake of Mt Difficulty Wines. Mount Difficulty is integral in providing low rainfall and humidity for the region. Bannockburn enjoys hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns; conditions which bring the best out of the Pinot Noir grapes. These conditions, along with soils which are ideal for viticulture, provide an excellent basis not only for Pinot Noir, but also for Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. The soils are a mix of clay and gravels, but all feature a high pH level; grapes produce their best wines on sweet soils.

 

For More Info: www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/aboutus/ourstory.html

Difficulty to spot: 1/10

Strobist information:

 

580EX II softbox and bare 430EX II on subject, bare 430EX II on wall behind.

 

Levels and curves edited in LR3 and textures, resizing, dodge/burn, and three steps of unsharp mask applied in CS5.

Merry: Sorry for the delay we had some technical difficulties. But without further ado her are the winners of this years Blythe Academy Awards. In about 15 minutes there will be the announcement for Best Movie / Best Director and a special Achievement Award. Thank you for tuning in and for the lovely photos that have been posted.

Best Winter Documentary / Jenn: www.flickr.com/photos/jenns/15759302314/in/faves-48883973...

Best Film Cell / Pia: www.flickr.com/photos/omgdolls/16660836305/in/faves-48883...

Best Documentary of a Blythe / Steph! : www.flickr.com/photos/sparklefriday/18510110661/in/faves-...

Best Science Fiction Film Still Shots (6) / Hejog: www.flickr.com/photos/81721793@N00/18286979931/in/faves-4...

Best Actress: Starling Jane

Best Audio / Maryanne Stahl: www.flickr.com/photos/moondoxy/18094248086/in/faves-48883...

Best Blythe Con Film / Minita: www.flickr.com/photos/mini_ta/19253842791/in/faves-488839...

Best Location Film: bebopgirl: www.flickr.com/photos/bebopgirl1969/20063291735/in/faves-...

Best Western Still / Lyndell: www.flickr.com/photos/blythestar/21313794910/in/faves-488...

Best Actress Film / Blythe Devotee Forever: www.flickr.com/photos/103705767@N03/20591244928/in/faves-...

Best Animal Film (Cat) / Pixie Wildflower: www.flickr.com/photos/pixiewildflower/21895513585/in/fave...

Best Fun With Dolls Video / Dl2Quilt: www.flickr.com/photos/di2quilt/23287061832/in/faves-48883...

Most Beautiful Black & White Movie Still / Blythe Devotee Forever: www.flickr.com/photos/103705767@N03/24204044242/in/faves-...

Best Film Story Board / Bad_Juju: www.flickr.com/photos/63753222@N03/24346001253/in/faves-4...

Best Silent Film / bad_juju: www.flickr.com/photos/63753222@N03/24005023840/in/pool-19...

Best Dream Sequence / Nerdy Book Lover: www.flickr.com/photos/133964089@N07/24561080056/in/pool-1...

 

The poor Coto had some difficulty to eat his rabbit! ;)

Kriti Sanon finds difficulty with Tiger Shroff and Varun Dhawan!!!

Kriti Sanon who began her career with modeling had made her film debut with Telugu film, ‘Nenokkadine’ and has bagged huge applauds and accolades from the audiences and also from industry members. Kriti had shared screen space wit...

 

www.iluvcinema.in/hindi/kriti-sanon-finds-difficulty-with...

Difficulty:

1. Mint has a really kicky left leg

2. Vivere is floppy.

3. Elephants upstair stomping around making everything wobbly.

 

Hey but it's done!

As I had difficulty finding a location with an unobstructed view I missed the arrival of the winner at the finish line by about ten minutes. In case you don't know here are the results:

 

Geoffrey Ndungu won the Dublin City Marathon for the second year running in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 9 seconds. The time was outside last year's course record time of 2:08.33.

 

Paul Pollock from Belfast was the first Irish man home in ninth place in 2:16.30, ahead of Sean Hehir who finished in 2:17.50.

 

Magdalene Mukunzi was the first woman home in a time of 2:30.46 which was outside the course record of 2:26.13. Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman through the finishing line in 2:35.28.

 

Luke Jones from Wales won the wheelchair section.

A total of 14,300 people registered for this year's race which was without a major sponsor for the first time in 20 years.

 

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ...

As I had difficulty finding a location with an unobstructed view I missed the arrival of the winner at the finish line by about ten minutes. In case you don't know here are the results:

 

Geoffrey Ndungu won the Dublin City Marathon for the second year running in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 9 seconds. The time was outside last year's course record time of 2:08.33.

 

Paul Pollock from Belfast was the first Irish man home in ninth place in 2:16.30, ahead of Sean Hehir who finished in 2:17.50.

 

Magdalene Mukunzi was the first woman home in a time of 2:30.46 which was outside the course record of 2:26.13. Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman through the finishing line in 2:35.28.

 

Luke Jones from Wales won the wheelchair section.

A total of 14,300 people registered for this year's race which was without a major sponsor for the first time in 20 years.

 

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ...

Foyer, The Hotel Windsor, 111 Spring Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

 

From:http://www.thehotelwindsor.com.au :

 

For 129 years, The Hotel Windsor has graced Melbourne with stunning architecture and graceful interiors and has been home to the city's social, business, cultural and political communities.

 

The Hotel Windsor 5 star hotel in Melbourne was the dream of shipping magnate George Nipper. He commissioned eminent architect Charles Webb to design the hotel and the original hotel opened its doors in December 1883. The Hotel Windsor therefore predates many of the grand hotels of the Victorian era, including The Savoy, London (1889), The Plaza, New York, (1894), The Waldorf Astoria, New York (1894), the Hotel Ritz, Paris (1898) and The Raffles, Singapore (1887).

 

Following difficulties in his other business ventures, George Nipper sold the "Grand", as it was then known, to the Honourable James Munro who, in association with the Honourable James Balfour, embarked on a massive expansion programme. This doubled the size of the hotel, and saw the addition of the renowned Grand Ballroom, the Grand Staircase, and the twin cupola-capped towers.

 

At this point the hotel was known as the Grand Coffee Palace and for a brief period, under the influence of the Temperance Movement, banned liquor from its premises. By 1897, however, the hotel once again changed hands, welcomed back its original name, and regained its liquor license. From then on and for the better part of the 20th century, The Hotel Windsor Melbourne was a pivotal centre in the city and, indeed, Australia, for the political and social milieu. This was clearly illustrated when Australia's constitution was drafted at The Hotel Windsor between February and March 1898. For decades, The Hotel Windsor was the preferred hotel in Melbourne for Prime Ministers, politicians, actors, performers and celebrities.

 

Under threat of demolition in 1976, The Hotel Windsor in Melbourne was bought by the Victorian Government to ensure the conservation of an essential part of Victoria's heritage. In 1980 the lease was acquired by The Oberoi Group which subsequently purchased the property in 1990, assuring the ongoing future of the 'Duchess of Spring Street'.

 

The Oberoi Group initiated a programme of renovation and refurbishment, under the guidance of heritage specialists, which restored the splendour of the property and fully returned it to its status of Grand Hotel. The roll call of pre-eminent guests continued.

 

In November 2005, The Hotel Windsor became independent once more with the purchase of the Hotel by the Halim family. A sensitive yet extensive refurbishment is being planned in order to ensure the property remains one of the world's finest grand hotels. Meanwhile the focus on exemplary service was recognized in 2006 and 2007 with Condé Nast UK including The Hotel Windsor in their list of the top 18 Hotels in the World rated ‘Best for Service.’

We had some difficulty finding the trail at the end of Independence Lake that leads to North Lake via a steep climb up 24 switchbacks. The views and tarns and flowers along the trail were compensation for the steep slopes on a hot and humid day. The remains of fireweed slant up the hill on the right, an enormous cedar is in the middle and Devil's Ridge is beyond.

STRANGER

 

In the world of a future of uncertainty five young with every difficulty they keep inside with word justice, honesty thoughts and acts of compassion, but they do not could do nothing to help other people, they had no power, they had no money.

 

A scientist evolved much for your time and very rich discovered a very powerful force, the power of the six elements,

for the well of the civilization the destiny of the five young and the scientist are crossed, he perceive those young

are the owners of their discovery, a strange power.

 

- TECHNICAL ART PROVISIONAL / LAYOUT :

.FREE HAND DRAWING MIX DIGITAL

.NO INSTRUMENTS

.ONLY TRACES(LINE)

.MATERIAL = PENCIL 05mmPENCIL 07mm AND PAPER

.GRAPHITE

. PAPER SIZE 8 1/2 inch X 12 inch

. TEMPLATE TRANSPARENT SHEET BACK

. DIGITAL FINISH BLEACHING

. TOTAL EXECUTION TIME = 5 HOURS

 

>>> WHO HAVE ONE FRIEND HAS THE STRENGTH OF A ARMY <<<

 

۩۞۩<♫< ☼Contact :FERNANDO PEREIRA COSTA JUNIOR fernandopcjunior@msn.com e fernandoelgato2000@yahoo.com.br .☼<♫<۩۞۩

 

Contact : fernandopcjunior@msn.com FERNANDO PEREIRA COSTA JUNIOR

Gildas Paraiso Photography

Ford 1927

Put a Tiger in your tank.

 

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Humble Oil had difficulties promoting itself as a nationwide marketer of petroleum products, despite a number of high-profile marketing strategies. These included the popular "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" advertising campaign and accompanying tiger mascot, introduced in 1959, to promote Enco Extra and Esso Extra gasolines

  

The run around Chain of ponds and onto Birdwood.

 

If you know anything about these cars, specs, history, please post a comment.

 

2012. the year of the vintage (made between 1919 and 1930), veteran (pre-1919) and old.

No Classic cars (That comes in the 2013 run).

 

For more information look at www.baytobirdwood.com.au/the_run.html

 

I got to the grounds early (about 6am) and watched the oval fill from nothing. 1800 cars were expected for the biggest event of this type in the world.

 

From the website

"The sun will not yet have risen over the Adelaide Hills when the very first vehicles start arriving at Adelaide Shores. It may only be 6am but the excitement will already be palpable as these marvellous veteran, vintage and early classic vehicles ready themselves for the biennial Bay to Birdwood Run.

 

Breakfast With The Cars has become a tradition and this is the spectators' opportunity to mix 'n mingle with entrants and their vehicles. Enjoy a range of breakfasts provided by local service organisations washed down with jazz and other vintage entertainment, line the start ahead of the flag off by the one and only Glen Dix at 8:30 am and be a part of this icon event. It takes approximately 1.5 hours for all entrant vehicles to depart on the route to Birdwood - give them a send off they won't forget!

 

Vehicles head down West Beach Road after the official Start turning right into Tapleys Hill Road then left into Anzac Highway. Their journey through metropolitan Adelaide en route to the Finish at the National Motor Museum in Birdwood enables the spectators who line the 72km route each year to see Australia's greatest motoring show on wheels pass right in front of them - 2 hours of motoring history!"

 

The cars need to meet strict guidelines and the drivers and passangers are encouraged to dress in period clothes.

 

"Only those motor vehicles built and at ready for sale stage on or before 31 December 1955 are eligible to take part.

The onus of proof of date of build is the responsibility of the entrant and if required by the Committee must be substantiated and be supported by a Statutory Declaration. In the event of false information being supplied all entry monies will be forfeited.

All motor vehicles must be substantially to manufacturers' specifications, roadworthy and of acceptable standard of quality in the opinion of the Committee."

 

I enjoyed the ride. We passed many broken down cars whilst gliding along in my fathers Jowett Javelin.

 

We ended up in the fields behind the Birdwood Mill. We looked through the muesum and also the best dressed cars in the Concours d'Elegance. We listened to period music and poked about amongst the cars.

 

Canon EOS 5D, 24-70,

 

2012

 

_mg_8279

Flooded Thompson Avenue and railroad tracks, near 11th Street. Photo was most likely taken during the 1907 flood.

Iganga, Uganda.

 

I spent two weeks in east Africa travelling and meeting people in Uganda and Kenya. It's been a lifechanging experience. No more, no less. Hopefully my images from this trip into another world (there is no other way of putting it really) will be able to convey some of that.

 

At the age of 16 he is responsible for providing for his family. He brakes rocks and sells the gravel. He has no protection from the dust that his hard labour produces and his arms aches from the effort. He does this 10 hours a day.

 

Quote by Seneca.

 

View large on white is essential.

I had difficulty sleeping this night, waking up about 3 in the morning. When looking out my window, the sky is turning brighter since the sun will rise soon. I noticed a small light dot at the horizon and thought why not photograph that too. I used all the zoom I had in my camera including digital zoom, to enhance this nice looking Venus, also called the Morning Star. Well here is the result from the camera. Venus is a hot planet and even the ancients knew a lot about this planet and some cultures even worshipped it. Enjoy! /A

 

Here is the perfect image from Nasa, much better but they have the Hubble telescope haven't they :-)

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/venus/venusglobe.jpg

East Sussex CC’s County Rider services cause difficulties to those of us who like to catalogue our photographs neatly. Services may be operated by the Council itself (although I don’t think that any currently are), by operators using vehicles supplied by the Council, or by the operator’s own vehicles in County Rider livery. In the case of services run by operators using Council vehicles, the buses may be provided on a long-term basis, or just as a temporary loan. And what appears to be the latter may actually be a failure of anyone to report the former.

 

So here we have ESCC’s Leyland Cub / Reeve Burgess B801 BFG in Newhaven on 10th September 1997, working on service 123, at that time operated by Metrobus. As it doesn’t appear to have been recorded with them I’m guessing that this was only a short-term loan. I think that the destination display was in mid-scroll, but I’ve no idea what it was trying to say.

As I had difficulty finding a location with an unobstructed view I missed the arrival of the winner at the finish line by about ten minutes. In case you don't know here are the results:

 

Geoffrey Ndungu won the Dublin City Marathon for the second year running in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 9 seconds. The time was outside last year's course record time of 2:08.33.

 

Paul Pollock from Belfast was the first Irish man home in ninth place in 2:16.30, ahead of Sean Hehir who finished in 2:17.50.

 

Magdalene Mukunzi was the first woman home in a time of 2:30.46 which was outside the course record of 2:26.13. Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman through the finishing line in 2:35.28.

 

Luke Jones from Wales won the wheelchair section.

A total of 14,300 people registered for this year's race which was without a major sponsor for the first time in 20 years.

 

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ...

Once again, the difficulties of photographing one's own haircut.

 

Tim at Loose Endz seems to be getting better each time. He thought this was his best job yet, and I tend to agree. It's uneven on the far side, but you can't see that in this shot. I made it crystal clear I don't want a "line" in front, but I kind of suspect he's maintaining the old line by clipping it back each time. I really want to let that grow out.

 

Still and all very happy with this cut.

The Jeep Wrangler Level Red, which refers to the highest level of difficulty an off-road trail can be designated, comes well-equipped to handle challenging off-road terrain, riding high on a Jeep Performance Parts 2-inch lift kit. Jeep Performance Parts Dana 44 crate axles on the front and rear feature a 4:10 ratio. The Jeep Performance Parts Rock-Trac transfer case provides a 4:1 low range to make navigating obstacles much easier.

 

The 3.6-liter engine with a six-speed manual transmission is improved through a cold-air intake and low-restriction exhaust system. Wrangler Level Red’s crawl ratio is 73:1.

 

The sleek Pitch Black exterior of Wrangler Level Red is decorated by a TorRed prototype graphic stripe that runs along the top of the hood near the bottom of the windshield and halfway down the body sides.

As I had difficulty finding a location with an unobstructed view I missed the arrival of the winner at the finish line by about ten minutes. In case you don't know here are the results:

 

Geoffrey Ndungu won the Dublin City Marathon for the second year running in a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 9 seconds. The time was outside last year's course record time of 2:08.33.

 

Paul Pollock from Belfast was the first Irish man home in ninth place in 2:16.30, ahead of Sean Hehir who finished in 2:17.50.

 

Magdalene Mukunzi was the first woman home in a time of 2:30.46 which was outside the course record of 2:26.13. Maria McCambridge was the first Irish woman through the finishing line in 2:35.28.

 

Luke Jones from Wales won the wheelchair section.

A total of 14,300 people registered for this year's race which was without a major sponsor for the first time in 20 years.

 

MORE PHOTOGRAPHS ...

Railfan Photography Scale of Difficulty (1-10).

1. Shooting out of a car window.

2. Shooting out of a vehicle with the windows rolled down.

3. Stepping out of the vehicle to shoot the photo.

4. Stepping out of the vehicle and taking a minimal amount of steps (less than 10) to position oneself to take the photo.

5. Stepping out of the vehicle and taking more than 10 paces (but less than 20) from the vehicle.

6. Exerting actual effort to obtain a photograph (walking a short distance of more than 20 paces).

7. Walking a respectable distance and/or hiking to a location to photograph a train.

8. Hiking a relatively steep gradiant to locate a seldom-photographed scene.

9. Hiking more than a 1/2 mile (usually in fairly extreme conditions such as cold, snow, heat, etc.)

10. Putting oneself at risk by hiking long distances in oppressive heat, or bitter cold. Climbing steep sheer rock outcroppings hoping it won't collapse underneath you, etc., etc.

 

This photo (taken this morning from the open window of my truck) is a solid 2.

 

IC SD40-2 headed north at Sussex, WI

 

csis.org/event/tpp-digital-economy

Featuring a keynote address by

The Honorable Jared Polis, D-CO

Co-Chair, Congressional Caucus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Followed by an expert panelist discussion including

Jake Colvin

Vice President, National Foreign Trade Council

Gary Horlick

Attorney at Law

Johanna Shelton

Public Policy & Government Relations Senior Counsel, Google

Kenneth Smith Ramos

Director of the Trade and NAFTA Office at the Embassy of Mexico

Hosted by

Scott Miller

Senior Adviser and William M. Scholl Chair in International Business, CSIS

and

Murray Hiebert

Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

9:00 am – 11:00 am

CSIS B1A Conference Facility

1800 K St. NW, Washington, DC 20006

Follow this event on Twitter, @SoutheastAsiaDC | @SchollChair | @CSIS | #CSISLive

The digital economy is one of the new 21st century issues that negotiators from the 12 countries participating in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are hammering out in their discussions. They are working to ensure information flows, consumer protection, authentication of electronic transactions, and fair customs duties in the environment.

The key indicator for whether the United States will be economically engaged in the Asia Pacific region this year will be the completion of the TPP. Leadership on trade and the economic aspect of United States involvement in the region has never been more important.

CSIS is committed to exploring and promoting the policy dynamic surrounding these issues through the continuation of its 2012 TPP Initiative. As a continuing part of the 2013 Trans-Pacific Partnership Speaker Series, CSIS is proud to be hosting a morning conference on key digital economy issues that will be included and addressed in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Please RSVP to: SoutheastAsiaProgram@csis.org

Note: You must log on to your CSIS account to register. If you do not have an account with CSIS you will need to create one. If you have difficulties, please contact imisadmin@csis.org.

Please send any event questions to SoutheastAsiaProgram@csis.org.

Programs

ASIA PROGRAMS, SCHOLL CHAIR IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, SUMITRO CHAIR FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA STUDIES, TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES

Topics

TECHNOLOGY, TRADE AND ECONOMICS

Regions

ASIA, JAPAN, OCEANIA, SOUTH AMERICA, SOUTHEAST ASIA

EVEREST BASE CAMP EBC TREK - NEPAL.

 

Trekking to the Basecamp of Mt. Everest ( सगरमाथा ) 8848meters / 29029feet

 

(Follow the Foot-print of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary)

 

TRIP FACTS:

Country: Nepal

Region: Everest Khumbu

Activities: Trekking

Duration: 17 Days

Max. Altitude: 5545 m.

Difficulty: Grade- 3

Group Size: 2-16

 

Cost:

US$ 1395 per person,

For Indian INR-59,000 per person,

For Nepalese NRs-75,000 per person.

Start Point: Lukla

Ending Point: Lukla.

Route: Kathmandu- Lukla- Phakding- Namche- Khumjung- Syangboche- Tyangboche- Dingboche - Lobuche - Ghorakshep - Kalapatthar - Everest Base Camp

 

The Everest Base Camp Trek by Nepal Travel and Tour begins with an exciting mountain flight to Lukla airfield. We then begin our trek through Sherpa village, a long gurgling river and across high suspension bridges, meeting zobkyo (family of yak) caravan on the way. Entering the Sagarmatha National Park we arrive at Namche Bazaar. We continue on to the Tyangboche monastery within the imposing peak of Thamserku looming over the trail. From Tyangboche the views of Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam are sensational.

 

This trek leading to Everest region is one of the busiest route in Nepal. We fly to Lukla and ascend the Dudh Koshi valley to the Sherpa settlement of Namche Bazaar. A day's walk through lovely forests to the famous Buddhist monastery of Tyangboche is rewarded with views of Everest rising behind the Lhotse / Nuptse wall and the stunning peak of Ama Dablam. The peaceful village of Khumjung provides a glimpse of traditional Sherpa life. This region known as the Solu Khumbu is known around the world as the famous home of the world's highest mountain. Mt. Everest or Sagarmatha as the Nepalese call it rises 8,848 meters into the sky.

 

The hike to the base camp attracts trekkers from all over the Globe. This treks start and end in the closest airstrip to Everest in the town of Lukla. If you are looking for a much longer trek in this region we can start treks in the town of Jiri which is 5 days away from Lukla.

 

Itinerary:

Day 01 - Arrive to Kathmandu

Day 02 - Kathmandu Sightseen Tour

Day 03 - Fly to Lukla (2804m) trek to Phakding (2610m) approx. 4 hours.

Day 04 - Trek to Namche Bazar (3441m) approx. 5.30 hours

Day 05 - Acclimatization day- Namche Bazar (3441m)

Day 06 - Trek to Tyangboche (3860 meters)

Day 07 - Trek to Dingboche (4350 meters) 5.30 hours.

Day 08 - Acclimatization -Trek to Chhukung (4710m) and back to Dingboche (4350m).

Day 09 - Trek to Lobuche (4910 meters)

Day 10 - Trek to Everest Base Camp (5365m) then trek back to Gorakshep (5180m) 7 hours.

Day 11 - Trek / Climb to Kalapattar (5545 meters) then trek down to Pheriche (4240 meters)

Day 12 - Trek from Pheriche to Tyangboche (3860m) approx. 4 hours.

Day 13 - Trek from Tyangboche to Namche Bazaar (3440m) approx. 4 hours

Day 14 - Trek from Namche Bazaar to Lukla (2804m) - 6 Hours

Day 15 - Flight back to Kathmandu

Day 16 - Leisure/spare day in Kathmandu.

Day 17 - Departure Day

 

Cost Includes:

- Kathmandu Airport arrival pickup and drop.

- Twin sharing Accommodation with Breakfast in Kathmandu (maximum 4 nights)

- Kathmandu Halfday sightseeing tour.

- Kathmandu - Lukla both ways regular flight tickets.

- Twin sharing Accommodation in lodge during the trek.

- Normal regular Food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) during the trek.

- Guide/Sherpa, Supporter's wages & their insurance.

- Trekking TIMS permit and Sagarmatha National Park Entrance Fee.

- Normal First Aid Kit.

- Cultural Dinner Program.

- Service Charge of our office.

 

Cost Excludes:

- Airport taxes and Nepalese visa fee.

- Meals in Kathmandu other than breakfast.

- Extra nights' Accommodation in Kathmandu.

- Alcoholic drinks, cold drinks and other beverages.

- All; trekking equipment and personal items.

- Tips & gratitude for Guide/Sherpa and Supporters.

- Emergency medical and rescue/evacuation insurance.

- Any extra cost arose due to natural calamities, political disturbance and delay arrival etc.

 

FOR MORE:

 

Independent Himalayan Adventure Pvt. Ltd.

Nepal Travel and Tour Pvt. Ltd.

Thamel 29, Kathmandu, Nepal.

T : +977-14249214

M : +977-9851053909

E : info@nepaltravels.org

holiday@nepaltravelandtour.com

[..... Quality Tourism Service Since 1991]

 

#Everest #Sagarmatha #BaseCamp #Trekking #EBCTrek #Adventure #NepalTrek #Khumbu #SherpaLand #nepaltravelandtour

*Biodiversity*

 

_The picture shows the mountain stream with native Juniper trees just a few steps above Bees' Cliff (14) located in the opposite direction to the image's visual field._

 

Foreign trees often have difficulties in adjusting to its new environment. The Eucalyptus is growing apparently without trouble, but it is not capable of sexually reproducing itself, i.e. the seeds do not germinate in the Ethiopian soils. Therefore the standard procedure of introduction is the planting of seedlings.

 

The young trees soon start to compete very efficiently with other vegetation. It is a fast grower, easily reaching above other trees and suppressing them. At the same time, a chemical component in the leaves and roots prevents the growth of both other trees and herbs. This leads to a monoculture with eucalyptus as the only tree species and eventually no ground cover at all.

 

The eucalyptus demands large quantities of water. Areas which earlier were periodically wet and with a flora adjusted to such conditions, get drained by planted eucalyptus. Because of the poor flora and the lack of plants needed by specialised insect and birds, the biodiversity of a eucalyptus plantation is extremely low.

 

Also, when timber is continuously being taken out of the area without no input of fertilizer, the soil quality gradually decreases, reducing the possibilities of the reintroduction of indigenous species.

  

*Variation with habitat creation*

 

Juniperus procera is the natural species of Entoto, and it should dominate the future Natural Park. This does not mean that the forest will look the same all over. When designing with nature, it is essential to create habitats (biotopes) suitable for the area's physical conditions.

  

After analyzing soil quality and eroded parts, biodiversity, water availability and water catchment, limitations due to, e.g. high altitude, etc., the area's potential for accommodating certain plant communities can be estimated. The 17km² provides great variations in altitude, humidity, climate, and soil if the conditions specified for each spot are taken into consideration when planting and managing (Håkan Blanck and Pia Englund, Entoto Natural Park 1995).

  

_*Juniperus procera*_

*Ecology:* A valuable timber tree indigenous to Ethiopia and eastern Africa highland forests 1,500-3,000 m. It does best in high rainfall but can survive quite dry conditions once established. It is the largest juniper in the world. It performs well in Moist and Wet Weyna Dega and Dega agroclimatic zones (Azene Bekele-Tesemma 1993).

  

_*Entoto's high plateau and its Amazing Nature*_ -

_*A Great Wildlife View with the Meandering Streams*_

 

This plateau just above Bees' Cliff is a magnificently beautiful place with a great panorama view over the stream and many characters in the landscape. When the scene turns south, the abyss Bees' Cliff (14), the ravine is very close, where the river's further gorge meandering (35) becomes intuitively felt through the profound cooling air flow rising from the unknown abyss below the field of view.

 

*A Time of Fragrance, Harmony and Beauty.*

At the end of the rain season in September - October, the high plateau turns into a place of deep attraction where streams and waterfall begin to stabilise, and in October - November, a gentle, romantic flow of ideal conditions becomes evident.

 

_*The wilderness pools above Bees' Cliff.*_

_A purging fresh stream runs by leaps and joy, beyond the secret path of Kidane Mehret's sacred stone walls. Beauty shines beyond hidden depths and abyss, to be seen at the Bees' cliff (14)._

  

_*Podocarpus falcatus (P. gracilior)*_

 

This tree is scarce at Entoto these days and does not appear to be able to compete with the eucalyptus planted surroundings. It seems that it is no longer possible to give surviving progeny in the barren, eroded exposed lands that have been formed since the introduction of the alien eucalyptus tree over a hundred years ago.

 

However, a lot of work has been done to re-form an upper soil layer with a protective undergrowth. It would, therefore, be very pleasing with information about a new generation of this highly-blessed historic tree, which, however, still grows in a magical graceful and appealing landscape.

 

This tree has an exposed and sensitive seed-laying design that is quite the opposite to its otherwise healthy rugged seed coat including their fruit (cones). Here its nut-like dry last year's pendants decorate the mighty and powerful mother trees with its seed (cones) in ancient looking packagings that surround and protect the very fertile seed and provides inspiring sophisticated memories from last year's season.

 

The fact that this tree is related to Juniper appears with clarity, and it is in this context that difficulties arise with the seed's vulnerability. The seed of the Podocarpus tree and its stem is considerably longer than the corresponding comparison with the Juniper tree seed and hence higher and more vulnerable to climates and grazing animals.

 

Because the two related species have the same peculiarity to lift their seeds up from the ground to the height of their crisp stalk, an unprecedented vulnerability arises. This vulnerability with an exposed uplifted grain applies in particular to the Podocarpus tree as this species makes this seed presented with utmost sensibility and thus becomes an immediate victim on a hard and away offensive clay-soil crust.

  

*An evolutionary legacy from a time of natural wealth*

 

This peculiarity in seed design of setting its kernels to sprout with the high lift was developed at the beginning of these trees' era (evolution) and in epochs long before any human culture or species. Through this evolutionary prehistory, these seed stalks and kernels were naturally received with a moisty typically loose and absorbing soil (humus), and a surrounding of dense protective undergrowth that could hide and shield these so tender exposed vertically raised kernel stalks.

 

*A beautiful memory that attracts modern science and art.*

 

With glowing passion and warmth feeling, it is still spoken among the residents of Entoto about the time when the water level a reasonable time after the rainy season still stood one metre higher in Entoto's deep streams and its enchanting nature rock baths. It is thus quite close to the time when Entoto's mountain massif and its canyons could carry significantly higher water quantity and thus supply the population in the capital with fresh water to a much greater extent.

 

*Conclusion and Wonderful Solution*

 

The stalk of this seed of this tree is considerably more significant in height at an early stage of its soil germination than the equivalent of Juniper tree seed, and because they have the uniqueness of raising their seeds to the height of their brittle stems, an excellent and traditional solution arises; _Rosa abyssinica._

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_defense_against_herbivory

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_abyssinica

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorns,_spines,_and_prickles

 

www.entoto-natural-park.org/

 

entoto-natural-park.business.site/

POLICE COURT NEWS.

THE CHATEAU D'ÍF CASE.

COURCAU REMANDED

The French sailor, Charles Conrcau, arrested under difficulties on Friday evening, appeared in the Police Court on Saturday, before Mr. F. V. Frazer, S.M. There were three charges-.—(l) That, being a seaman lawfully engaged to serve on the foreign ship Chateau D'if, he refused to obey the commands of his captain; (2) that he absented himself without leave from the Chateau D'if; and (3) that on the 9th inst., he assaulted Louis Le Flock, so as to cause him actual bodily harm.

Sub-Inspector Johnston said that as there was no interpreter present, and the accused could not speak English, a remand would be required. "I don't think they will have this man back on the ship," he added. "He didn't work at any time."

A remand until Friday next was ordered. There was no request for bail.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19140914.2.30

 

DROWNED IN HARBOUR.

FRENCH SAILOR'S DEATH.

FALL FROM KING'S WHARF.

A sailor belonging to the French barque Chateau D'if was drowned in the harbour on Saturday evening. The body was recovered by Constable Hainsworth of the water police, yesterday morning, and conveyed to the mortuary. An inquest will be held at 9 a.m. to-day. The deceased was the man who was stabbed in the back aboard the Chateau D'if on Thursday evening last.

The deceased, whose name was Louis Le Flock, obtained leave to go ashore on Saturday evening. He was seen staggering along the King's Wharf at about 8 p.m. The man went towards the nightwatchman of the steamer Squall, who was sitting on deck, and mumbled something in broken English, at the same time pointing towards the Chateau D'if. He then went on his way towards his vessel, but returned a few minutes later. He went too close, to the edge of the wharf, staggered, and fell between the wharf and the side of the steamer. Constable Hainsworth was immediately informed of the accident, and he lost no time in getting to the spot. With the assistance of Mr. E. A. Woods, one of the Harbour Board's night officers, and the signalman from the King's Wharf, Mr. C. Galgey, the constable made a thorough search and dragged for the body under the wharf.

Constable Hainsworth engaged a launch at 6 a.m, yesterday, and after half an hour's dragging recovered the body between the wharf and the steamer Equal.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19140914.2.52

 

FRENCH SAILOR'S DEATH.

DROWNED BY FALL FROM WHARF.

Louis Le Flock, a sailor on the French barque Chateau D'if, was drowned by falling from the King's wharf on Saturday night. He had received a knife wound in a fight aboard the vessel the night before.

At an inquest held at the morgue this morning by Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., the nightwatchman aboard the steamer Squall stated that about 8.30 p.m. on Saturday he saw the deceased coming along the wharf in an intoxicated condition. He stood near the Squall's gangway muttering to himself, and witness advised him to get aboard his ship. He then moved towards the edge of the wharf, swayed and fell over. A ladder was let down, but nothing could be seen of the man. Constable Hainsworth stated that he made efforts to find the deceased, and afterwards dragged for the body, which he did not recover till the next morning. Dr. C. E. Coldicutt said that he attended the deceased on Friday evening and dressed a punctured wound on the left shoulder-blade. He had made a postmortem examination, which showed that death was due to drowning. The wound was about one inch in length, and had penetrated the muscle to the bone, but it had nothing to do with the mans death. Captain Ellian, of the barque, said that the deceased went ashore about an hour before his death, having first asked for 5/, which was given him. He was a sober man, and in good health apart from his wound.

The Coroner returned a verdict death from accidental drowning while the deceased was under the influence of liquor.

The deceased was a single man, about 30 years of age, and had his home at St. Brieux, France.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19140914.2.29

 

A SAILOR'S UNPOPULARITY.

SEQUEL TO CHATEAU D'IF INCIDENTS

As a sequel to the exciting times recently experienced aboard the French Chateau D'if, a sailor named Charles Courcaud, aged 30 years, was charged at the Police Court this morning with having assaulted Louis Le Flock so as to cause him actual bodily harm; with having refused to obey a lawful a command of the captain; and with having stolen a muffler and tiepin belonging to George Frelon, the cook on the ship.

In consequence of Le Flock—who was alleged to have been assaulted by Courcaud, and wounded with a knife having been drowned since the accused's arrest, the first charge was withdrawn. The charge of theft related to the disappearance of the tie and tiepin, and a muffler, which were bought by the cook at a cost of 20/, and were much treasured by him. Other members of the crew stated that they saw articles in Courcaud's possession, and that he said he had bought the tie and pin for 10d., but would not part with them for 30/. Incidentally the 3 witnesses did not conceal the fact that Courcaud was a person they feared and a detested, and intimated that they believed he would commit any sort of of wrongful act. The cook, however, settled the charge by stating that the theft took place on July 15, when the ship was on the high seas, and Mr. Allan Moody (for accused) at once pointed out that the matter was, consequently, beyond the jurisdiction of the Court, and the charge was dismissed.

The third charge of refusing to do his work when ordered to do so was not contested seriously, and on this charge Courcaid was convicted.

It was explained that the captain did not want him again on the ship on account of his previous behaviour, and also it was possible that Courcaud himself might come to injury at the hands of his shipmates. Consequently, he was remanded pending an endeavour by the French Consul to get him shipped a in another boat.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19140918.2.13

 

The French sailor Charles Courcaud, who has achieved some notoriety in connection with events on the French barque Chateau d'lf, and was eventually convicted of refusing to obey his officers, is to go back to France by another ship, the French Consul at Auckland having at the request of the captain of the Chateau d'if arranged this. He will be shipped to Sidney next Monday, and from there taken direct to France.

paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19140925.2.52

 

Plot 28: Louis Charles Augustine Le Flock (30ish) 9/9/1914 – Drowned

 

unmarked grave

   

DIfficulties in straightening corners... indeed. Also colours have muted in conversion from Photoshop to DxO VP and back to Lightroom.

Vintage photo. Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973).

 

American film actor and director Clint Eastwood (1930) rose to fame as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Westerns Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). Later in the US, he played hard-edge police inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films, which elevated him to superstar status. Eastwood also directed and produced such award-winning masterpieces as Unforgiven (1992), Mystic River (2003) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

 

Clinton ‘Clint’ Eastwood, Jr. was born in San Francisco, California in 1930. His parents were Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (Runner) Eastwood, a factory worker. Clint has a younger sister, Jeanne. Because of his father's difficulty in finding steady work during the depression, Eastwood moved with his family from one Northern California town to another, attending some eight elementary schools in the process. Later he had odd jobs as a firefighter and lumberjack in Oregon, as well as a steelworker in Seattle. In 1951, Eastwood was drafted into the US Army, where he was a swimming instructor during the Korean War. He briefly attended Los Angeles City College but dropped out to pursue acting. Eastwood married Maggie Johnson in 1953, six months after they met on a blind date. However, their matrimony would not prove altogether smooth, with Eastwood believing that he had married too early. In 1954, the good-looking Eastwood with his towering height and slender frame got a contract at Universal. At first, he was criticized for his stiff manner, his squint, and hissing his lines through his teeth. His first acting role was an uncredited bit part as a laboratory assistant in the Sci-Fi horror film Revenge of the Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955). Over the next three years, he more bit parts in such films as Lady Godiva of Coventry (Arthur Lubin, 1955), Tarantula (Jack Arnold, 1955), and the war drama Away All Boats (Joseph Pevney, 1956) with George Nader and Lex Barker. His first bigger roles were in the B-Western Ambush at Cimarron Pass (Jodie Copelan, 1958), and the war film Lafayette Escadrille (William A. Wellman, 1958), starring Tab Hunter and Etchika Choureau. In 1959, he became a TV star as Rowdy Yates in the Western series Rawhide (1959–1966). Although Rawhide never won an Emmy, it was a rating success for several years. During a trial separation from Maggie Johnson, an affair with dancer Roxanne Tunis produced Eastwood’s first child, Kimber Tunis (1964). An intensely private person, Clint Eastwood was rarely featured in the tabloid press. However, he had more affairs, e.g. with actresses Catherine Deneuve, Inger Stevens and Jean Seberg. After a reconciliation, he had two children with Johnson: Kyle Eastwood (1968) and Alison Eastwood (1972), though he was not present at either birth. Johnson filed for legal separation in 1978, but the pair divorced in 1984.

 

In late 1963, Clint Eastwood's Rawhide co-star Eric Fleming rejected an offer to star in an Italian-made Western. Eastwood, who in turn saw the film as an opportunity to escape from his Rawhide image, signed the contract. The Western was called Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (1964), to be directed in a remote region of Spain by the then relatively unknown Sergio Leone. A Fistful of Dollars, with Gian Maria Volonté and Marianne Koch, was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). Eastwood played a cynical gunfighter who comes to a small border town, torn apart by two feuding families. Hiring himself as a mercenary, the lone drifter plays one side against the other until nothing remains of either side. Eastwood developed a minimalist acting style creating the character's distinctive visual style. Although a non-smoker, Leone insisted Eastwood smoke cigars as an essential ingredient of the ‘mask’ he attempted to create for the loner character. Per un pugno di dollari/A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964) was the first instalment of the Dollars trilogy. Later, United Artists, who distributed it in the US, coined another term: the Man With No Name trilogy. ‘The second part was Per qualche dollaro in più/For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965), a richer, more mythologized film that focused on two ruthless bounty hunters (Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef) who form a tenuous partnership to hunt down a wanted bandit (Gian Maria Volontè). Both films were a huge success in Italy. They both contain all of Leone's eventual trademarks: taciturn characters, precise framing, extreme close-ups, and the haunting music of Ennio Morricone. Eastwood also appeared in a segment of Dino De Laurentiis’ five-part anthology production Le Streghe/The Witches (Vittorio De Sica a.o., 1967). But his performance opposite De Laurentiis' wife Silvana Mangano did not please the critics. Eastwood then played in the third and best Dollars film, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo/The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Again he played the mysterious Man with No Name, wearing the same trademark poncho (reportedly without ever having washed it). Lee Van Cleef returned as a ruthless fortune seeker, with Eli Wallach portraying the cunning Mexican bandit Tuco Ramirez. Yuri German at AllMovie: “Immensely entertaining and beautifully shot in Techniscope by Tonino Delli Colli, the movie is a virtually definitive 'spaghetti western,' rivalled only by Leone's own Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).” The Dollars trilogy was not released in the United States until 1967, when A Fistful of Dollars opened in January, followed by For a Few Dollars More in May, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in December. Eastwood redubbed his dialogue for the American releases. All the films were commercially successful, particularly The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which turned Eastwood into a major film star. All three films received bad reviews and began a battle for Eastwood to win American film critics' respect. According to IMDb, Sergio Leone asked Eastwood, Wallach, and Van Cleef to appear again in C'era una volta il West/Once Upon A Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968), but declined when they heard that their characters were going to be killed off in the first five minutes.

 

Stardom brought more roles for Clint Eastwood. He signed to star in the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High (Ted Post, 1968), playing a man who takes up a Marshal's badge and seeks revenge as a lawman after being lynched by vigilantes and left for dead. Using money earned from the Dollars trilogy, accountant and Eastwood advisor Irving Leonard helped establish Eastwood's production company, Malpaso Productions, named after Malpaso Creek on Eastwood's property in Monterey County, California. Leonard arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists. Critics praised Hang 'Em High. In July 1968, it had an unprecedented opening weekend in United Artists' history. His following film was Coogan's Bluff (Don Siegel, 1968), about an Arizona deputy sheriff tracking a wanted psychopathic criminal (Don Stroud) through the streets of New York City. Don Siegel was a Universal contract director who later became Eastwood's close friend, forming a partnership that would last more than ten years and produce five films. Coogan’s Bluff was controversial for its portrayal of violence. Eastwood created the prototype for the macho cop of the Dirty Harry film series. Coogan's Bluff also became the first collaboration with Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin, who would later compose the jazzy score to several Eastwood films in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Dirty Harry films. Eastwood played the right-hand man of squad commander Richard Burton in the war epic Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968), about a World War II squad parachuting into a Gestapo stronghold in the alpine mountains. Eastwood then branched out to star in the only musical of his career, Paint Your Wagon (Joshua Logan, 1969). Then, Eastwood starred in the Western Two Mules for Sister Sara (Don Sigel, 1970), with Shirley MacLaine, and as one of a group of Americans who steal a fortune in gold from the Nazis, in the World War II film Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton, 1970)). Kelly's Heroes was Eastwood's last film, not produced by his own Malpaso Productions.

 

Clint Eastwood’s next film, The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1970), was a tale of a wounded Union soldier, held captive by the sexually repressed matron of a southern girl's school. Upon release, the film received major recognition in France. In the US it was a box office flop. Eastwood's career reached a turning point with Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971), The film centres around a hard-edged San Francisco police inspector named Harry Callahan who is determined to stop a psychotic killer by any means. Dirty Harry achieved huge success after its release in December 1971. It was Siegel's highest-grossing film and the start of a series featuring the character Harry Callahan. He next starred in the loner Western Joe Kidd (John Sturges, 1972). In 1973, Eastwood directed his first Western, High Plains Drifter, and starred alongside Verna Bloom. The revisionist film received a mixed reception but was a major box office success. Eastwood next turned his attention towards Breezy (Clint Eastwood, 1973), a film about love blossoming between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl. During casting, Eastwood met actress Sondra Locke, who would become an important figure in his life. He reprised his role as Detective Harry Callahan in Magnum Force (Ted Post, 1973). This sequel to Dirty Harry was about a group of rogue young officers (including David Soul and Robert Urich) in the San Francisco Police Force who systematically exterminate the city's worst criminals. Eastwood teamed up with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action caper Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Michael Cimino, 1974). Eastwood's acting was noted by critics but was overshadowed by Bridges who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His next film The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood, 1975), based on Trevanian's spy novel, was a commercial and critical failure. His next film The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976) was widely acclaimed, with many critics and viewers seeing Eastwood's role as an iconic one that related to America's ancestral past and the destiny of the nation after the American Civil War. The third Dirty Harry film, The Enforcer (James Fargo, 1976) had Harry partnered with a new female officer (Tyne Daly) to face a San Francisco Bay terrorist organization. The film, culminating in a shootout on Alcatraz island, was a major commercial success grossing $100 million worldwide. In 1977, he directed and starred in The Gauntlet opposite Sondra Locke. Eastwood portrays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix, to testify against the mafia. In 1978 Eastwood starred with Locke and an orang-utan called Clyde in Every Which Way but Loose. Panned by critics, the film proved a surprise success and became the second-highest-grossing film in 1978. Eastwood then starred in the thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979), the last of his films to be directed by Don Siegel. The film was a major success and began a critically acclaimed period for Eastwood. Eastwood's relationship with Sondra Locke had begun in 1975 during the production of The Outlaw Josey Wales. They lived together for almost fourteen years, during which Locke remained married (in name only) to her gay husband, Gordon Anderson. Eastwood befriended Locke's husband and purchased a house in Crescent Heights for Anderson and his male lover.

 

In 1980, Clint Eastwood’s nonstop success was broken by Bronco Billy, which he directed and in which he played the lead role. Critics liked the film, but it was a rare commercial disappointment in Eastwood's career. Later that year, he starred in Any Which Way You Can (Buddy Van Horn, 1980), which ranked among the top five highest-grossing films of the year. In 1982, Eastwood directed and starred in Honkytonk Man, as a struggling Western singer who, accompanied by his young nephew (played by real-life son Kyle) goes to Nashville, Tennessee. In the same year, Eastwood directed, produced, and starred in the Cold War-themed Firefox alongside Freddie Jones. Then, Eastwood directed and starred in the fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), the darkest and most violent of the series. ‘Go ahead, make my day’, uttered by Eastwood in the film, became one of cinema's immortal lines. Sudden Impact was the last film in which he starred with Locke. The film was the most commercially successful of the Dirty Harry films, earning $70 million and receiving very positive reviews. In the provocative thriller Tightrope (Richard Tuggle, 1984), Eastwood starred opposite Geneviève Bujold. His real-life daughter Alison, then eleven, also appeared in the film. It was another critical and commercial hit. Eastwood next starred in the period comedy City Heat (Richard Benjamin, 1984) alongside Burt Reynolds. Eastwood revisited the Western genre when he directed and starred in Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985), based on the classic Western Shane (George Stevens, 1953). It became one of Eastwood's most successful films to date and was hailed as one of the best films of 1985 and the best Western to appear for a considerable period. He co-starred with Marsha Mason in the military drama Heartbreak Ridge (Clint Eastwood, 1986), about the 1983 United States invasion of Grenada. Then followed the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series The Dead Pool (Buddy Van Horn, 1988), with Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, and a young Jim Carrey. It is generally viewed as the weakest film of the series. Eastwood began working on smaller, more personal projects and experienced a lull in his career between 1988 and 1992. Always interested in jazz, he directed Bird (Clint Eastwood, 1988), a biopic starring Forest Whitaker as jazz musician Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker. Eastman himself is a prolific jazz pianist who occasionally shows up to play the piano at his Carmel, CA restaurant, The Hog's Breath Inn. He received two Golden Globes for Bird, but the film was a commercial failure. Jim Carrey would again appear with Eastwood in the poorly received comedy Pink Cadillac (Buddy Van Horn, 1989) alongside Bernadette Peters. In 1989, while his partner Sondra Locke was away directing the film Impulse (1990), Eastwood had the locks changed on their Bel-Air home and ordered her possessions to be boxed and put in storage. During the last three years of his cohabitation with Locke, Eastwood fathered two children in secrecy with flight attendant Jacelyn Reeves, Scott Reeves (1986), and Kathryn Reeves (1988). Eastwood finally presented both children to the public in 2002.

 

In 1990, Clint Eastwood began living with actress Frances Fisher, whom he had met on the set of Pink Cadillac in 1988. They had a daughter, Francesca Fisher-Eastwood (1993). Eastwood and Fisher ended their relationship in early 1995. Eastwood directed and starred in White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an adaptation of Peter Viertel's Roman à Clef, about John Huston and the making of the classic film The African Queen (1951). Later he directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in The Rookie (1990), a buddy cop action film. Eastwood revisited the Western genre in the self-directed film Unforgiven (1992), in which he played an ageing ex-gunfighter long past his prime. Unforgiven was a major commercial and critical success. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. Eastwood played Frank Horrigan in the Secret Service thriller In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 1993) co-starring John Malkovich. The film was among the top 10 box office performers that year, earning a reported $200 million. Later in 1993, Eastwood directed and co-starred with Kevin Costner in A Perfect World. At the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Eastwood received France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal, and in 1995, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 67th Academy Awards. Opposite Meryl Streep, he starred in the romantic picture The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995), another commercial and critical success. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture and won a César Award in France for Best Foreign Film. In early 1995, Eastwood began dating Dina Ruiz, a television news anchor 35 years his junior, whom he had first met when she interviewed him in 1993. They married in 1996. The couple has one daughter, Morgan Eastwood (1996). In 1997, Eastwood directed and starred in the political thriller Absolute Power, alongside Gene Hackman. Later in 1997, Eastwood directed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, and Jude Law. He directed and starred in True Crime (1999), as a journalist and recovering alcoholic, who has to cover the execution of murderer Frank Beechum (Isaiah Washington). In 2000, he directed and starred in Space Cowboys alongside Tommy Lee Jones as veteran ex-test pilots sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite.

 

Clint Eastwood played an ex-FBI agent chasing a sadistic killer (Jeff Daniels) in the thriller Blood Work (2002). He directed and scored the crime drama Mystic River (2003), dealing with themes of murder, vigilantism, and sexual abuse. The film starred Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Tim Robbins and won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Robbins – with Eastwood garnering Best Director and Best Picture nominations. In the following year Eastwood found further critical and commercial success when he directed, produced, scored, and starred in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, (2004). He played a cantankerous trainer who forms a bond with a female boxer (Hilary Swank). The film won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Swank), and Best Supporting Actor (Morgan Freeman). At age 74 Eastwood became the oldest of eighteen directors to have directed two or more Best Picture winners. In 2006, he directed two films about World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima. The first, Flags of Our Fathers, focused on the men who raised the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi and featured the film debut of Eastwood's son Scott. This was followed by Letters from Iwo Jima, which dealt with the tactics of the Japanese soldiers on the island and the letters they wrote home to family members. Eastwood next directed Changeling (2008), based on a true story set in the late 1920s. Angelina Jolie stars as a woman reunited with her missing son only to realize he is an impostor. Eastwood ended a four-year self-imposed acting hiatus by appearing in Gran Torino (2008), which he also directed, produced, and partly scored with his son Kyle and Jamie Cullum. Gran Torino eventually grossed over $268 million in theatres worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far. Eastwood's 30th directorial outing came with Invictus, a film based on the story of the South African team at the 1995 Rugby World Cup, with Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. In 2010, Eastwood directed the drama Hereafter, with Matt Damon as a psychic, and in 2011, J. Edgar, a biopic of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. Eastwood starred in the baseball drama Trouble with the Curve (Robert Lorenz, 2012), as a veteran baseball scout who travels with his daughter for a final scouting trip. Director Lorenz worked with Eastwood as an assistant director on several films. Clint Eastwood is also politically active and served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986 to 1988. Shawn Dwyer at TCM: “Although a registered Republican since the early 1950s, Eastwood's politics, like the man himself, were that of a true iconoclast. Over the years he had voted for candidates from both parties and publicly denounced the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. And while he had initially wished President Barack Obama well during his first term in office, Eastwood, became a vocal booster for Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, dissatisfied with what he viewed as Obama's inability to govern.” But cinema is Eastwood’s major career. He has contributed to over 50 films as an actor, director, producer, and composer. According to the box office revenue tracking website, Box Office Mojo, films featuring Eastwood have grossed more than US $1.68 billion domestically, with an average of $37 million per film.

 

Sources: Shawn Dwyer (TCM), Yuri German (AllMovie), Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

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