Difficulty photos on Flickr

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.

Dublin Marathon 2012 - The Slightly Slower Runners by William Murphy

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 ...

RPSOD = 2 by MRL 390

2 11

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

Lahden Hämeenkulma by Kees van Niftrik

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

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman by Roger K Olsson

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.

DONATE paypal.me/pools/c/8obn2hcLVG

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...

Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973) by Truus, Bob & Jan too!

12

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.

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

Oops.....difficulty??? by Magdalene Tan

Covid-19, except it’s photojournalistic documentation of the North. by Sarah Takahashi

1

A Photojournalistic Documentation of how Covid-19 has affected the North, and how the North has adapted to overcome these difficulties.

Whilst the Highlands has always been popular with national and international tourists, there has been a massive rise of Scots enjoying a staycation, with camper vans and tents being the popular choice for accommodation as opposed to the hotels and hostels dotted around the North. Also on the rise are those travelling in their own cars, motorbikes, cycling and even 2 former hearses, who camp in tents at the roadside.

With the rise of staycationers, shops and restaurants have been extra vigilant to keep to the governments guidelines by measuring distancing on shop floors, having signs in shop windows to remind visitors to wear a face coverings, some shops limiting the amount of customers in at a time, offering hand sanitiser at the entrance, and many even having artwork of some form thanking the NHS for its hard work.

Not everything is fully open however, but those who can open have had to change how they operate. Tourist destinations that are able to open have had to limit the amount of customers to keep everyone safe, so for many tourists and staycationers they are opting to avoid tourist hotspots and are mostly interacting with activities they can do by themselves, so instead of visiting castles, museums and activity centres, tourists drive to beauty spots, go for walks, and are interacting with the natural landscape more. Instead of tourist hotspots like Eilean Donan Castle being queued out the door, tourists only go as far as the car park, get some photos of the castle, then leave to visit something else.

So has Highland tourism been affected by Covid-19? Yes, where folk are more cautious, shops and restaurants have signage in place requesting patrons wear face coverings, where town centres are quieter than usual, where public toilets have signage, where campsites won’t allow motorhomes unless they have on-board toilets, where almost every lay-by in the evening has someone camping overnight. So whilst it has affected the tourist season it hasn’t stopped tourism, if anything the Highlands are busier than normal due to a massive rise in staycationers, it’s made tourist and locals alike be more careful, where local community councils are making sure there are toilet facilities available or trowels left in camping locations to bury human waste, where hand sanitiser is available at popular tourist destinations, shops and public toilets, where many shops have upgraded their payment options where previously they only accepted cash, many have modernised and installed card payments.

So yes, it’s been affected, but the most notable negative impact is that businesses are losing trade as less folk are spending money in restaurants, shops and tourist hotspots, so whilst there is an increase in visitors to the Highlands, there is a decrease in money being spent.

All in all, the North has been doing a fantastic job with its Covid-19 precautions, they’re taking it seriously and making sure visitors are safe.

Technical difficulties!:) by N Czernysz

1 1

I measured the ceiling in another area of the shop, and it’s 1.5 inches higher. Of course it is. Didn’t think, realized before I installed it, but after I drilled the holes in the stand. Kinda was thinking of a different location, that’s where I measured, but last minute change of plans. Oops 😬 I think this is the best possible setup for my tiny workspace. No problem, wrote a note for things to do tomorrow on the ceiling, so I don’t forget!:)

In all seriousness it’s probably going to be more than o.k. Curtains gotta go, will be sticking some sort of diffusing plastic or something. Molly will sort it out, she said. Good height I think. Belt sander slightly in the way, but I can take the arms out in a jiffy for a bit more room. This fixture is begging for a lathe, they would be the best of friends. Already have ideas, but best to forget them.

Turtledove trying to get out of the difficulty by Boston Public Library

1

Local Accession Number: 06_11_002832

Title: Turtledove trying to get out of the difficulty

Statement of responsibility: By William H. Rau

Creator/Contributor: Rau, William Herman, 1855-1920 (photographer)

Genre: Stereographs; Photographic prints; Portrait photographs; Group portraits; Humorous pictures

Created/Published: Chicago U.S.A. : Berry, Kelley & Chadwick

Copyright date: 1902

Physical description: 1 photographic print on curved stereo card : stereograph ; 9 x 18 cm.

General notes: Title from item.; No. 9.; No. 4642.

Subjects: Spouses; Adultery

Collection: Stereographs

Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department

Rights: No known copyright restrictions.

Dublin Marathon 2012 - The Slightly Slower Runners by William Murphy

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 ...

Dublin Marathon 2012 - The Slightly Slower Runners by William Murphy

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 ...

w0623fb_16 by kwebtv

An old cherry ladder climbing difficulty, one can walk as fast line completely difficult.

Two students, computer users, bow clan sore eyes, stick a break to relax eyelids! Soothe nerves!

Three women, or women's sick, pants on health, there are slow menstrual status! Muscle activation and deodorant! Delicate skin!

4 I heard a man placed in underwear at night, will be different every morning to get to!

With long-term disabilities consecutive 3-7 days will be effective!

5 constipation, stomach bloating, placed waist belt, will be improved.

Six men and women in the use of the mask, you add a patch, the effect of the rate will improve a lot

7 can also be placed inside the shoes, deodorant fragrance, stretch their legs and feet.

8 can be used inside the pillow to help you a good night's sleep.

9 The most important patch to stick not only on the use of tear places do not fall alone utility

Is environmentally friendly has been using the (money cloth), can be reused to patch dirty, and then discarded.

This stuff is the history of the Chinese nation has been used thousands of records, showing its value.

Missed Technical Difficulties by Keith Schmidt

Learn Math Online by tutorvista2011

Having difficulty working out Math problems? Stuck with your homework and having nightmares before your next Math test? TutorVista's tutors can help you. TutorVista's Online Help features interactive lessons in Math, worksheets and homework help and is designed to help you get the desired edge in acing the subject. We are a one stop for all your learn math online needs in Math. From regular online tutoring to homework help and help with exam preparation, we meet all your learning needs. Enroll for our online tutoring and see a dramatic improvement in your grades.

Menai Bridge by Robert D Thomas

Menai Suspension Bridge

Construction

Before the bridge was completed in 1826, the island had no fixed connection to the mainland and all movements to and from Anglesey were by ferry (or, with difficulty, on foot at low tide). The main source of income on Anglesey came from the sale of cattle, and in order to get them to the markets of the inland counties or London, they had to be driven into the water and swum across the Menai Straits.[1] The Act of Union 1800 increased the need for transport to Ireland, and with Holyhead as one of the principal terminals to Dublin it was decided that a bridge was needed.

Thomas Telford was assigned the task of improving the route from London to Holyhead, and one of the key improvements was his design of the suspension bridge over the Menai Strait between a point near Bangor on the mainland and the village of Porthaethwy (which is now also known as Menai Bridge) on Anglesey. The design of the bridge had to allow for Royal Navy sailing ships 100 feet (30 m) tall to pass under the deck at high water slack tide, and no scaffolding was allowed during construction which broke this rule.

Construction of the bridge began in 1819 with the towers on either side of the strait. These were constructed from Penmon limestone and were hollow with internal cross-walls. Then came the sixteen huge chain cables, each made of 935 iron bars that support the 176-metre (577 ft) span.[2] To avoid rusting between manufacture and use, the iron was soaked in linseed oil and later painted.[3] The suspending power of the chains was calculated at 2,016 tons and the total weight of each chain was 121 tons.[1] The bridge was opened to much fanfare on 30 January 1826 and reduced the journey time from London to Holyhead from 36 to 27 hours, a saving of 9 hours.

Later history

Damaged by winds in 1839, the road surface needed extensive repair, and in 1893 the entire wooden surface was replaced with a steel deck. Over the years, the 4.5 ton weight limit proved problematic for the increasing freight industry and in 1938 the original wrought iron[4] chains were replaced with steel ones without the need to close the bridge. In 1999 the bridge was closed for around a month to resurface the road and strengthen the structure, requiring all traffic to cross via the nearby Britannia Bridge.

On 28 February 2005 the bridge was promoted to UNESCO as a candidate World Heritage Site. On the same day one carriageway of the bridge was closed for six months restricting traffic to a single carriageway so that traffic travelled to the mainland in the morning and to Anglesey in the afternoon. The bridge was re-opened to traffic in both directions on 11 December 2005 after its first major re-painting in 65 years.

Menai Suspension Bridge

Construction

Before the bridge was completed in 1826, the island had no fixed connection to the mainland and all movements to and from Anglesey were by ferry (or, with difficulty, on foot at low tide). The main source of income on Anglesey came from the sale of cattle, and in order to get them to the markets of the inland counties or London, they had to be driven into the water and swum across the Menai Straits.[1] The Act of Union 1800 increased the need for transport to Ireland, and with Holyhead as one of the principal terminals to Dublin it was decided that a bridge was needed.

Thomas Telford was assigned the task of improving the route from London to Holyhead, and one of the key improvements was his design of the suspension bridge over the Menai Strait between a point near Bangor on the mainland and the village of Porthaethwy (which is now also known as Menai Bridge) on Anglesey. The design of the bridge had to allow for Royal Navy sailing ships 100 feet (30 m) tall to pass under the deck at high water slack tide, and no scaffolding was allowed during construction which broke this rule.

Construction of the bridge began in 1819 with the towers on either side of the strait. These were constructed from Penmon limestone and were hollow with internal cross-walls. Then came the sixteen huge chain cables, each made of 935 iron bars that support the 176-metre (577 ft) span.[2] To avoid rusting between manufacture and use, the iron was soaked in linseed oil and later painted.[3] The suspending power of the chains was calculated at 2,016 tons and the total weight of each chain was 121 tons.[1] The bridge was opened to much fanfare on 30 January 1826 and reduced the journey time from London to Holyhead from 36 to 27 hours, a saving of 9 hours.

Later history

Damaged by winds in 1839, the road surface needed extensive repair, and in 1893 the entire wooden surface was replaced with a steel deck. Over the years, the 4.5 ton weight limit proved problematic for the increasing freight industry and in 1938 the original wrought iron[4] chains were replaced with steel ones without the need to close the bridge. In 1999 the bridge was closed for around a month to resurface the road and strengthen the structure, requiring all traffic to cross via the nearby Britannia Bridge.

On 28 February 2005 the bridge was promoted to UNESCO as a candidate World Heritage Site. On the same day one carriageway of the bridge was closed for six months restricting traffic to a single carriageway so that traffic travelled to the mainland in the morning and to Anglesey in the afternoon. The bridge was re-opened to traffic in both directions on 11 December 2005 after its first major re-painting in 65 years.

Menai Suspension Bridge

The Menai Suspension Bridge (Welsh: Pont Grog y Borth) is a suspension bridge between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it is one of the first modern suspension bridges in the world.

Contents Construction

Before the bridge was completed in 1826, the island had no fixed connection to the mainland and all movements to and from Anglesey were by ferry (or, with difficulty, on foot at low tide). The main source of income on Anglesey came from the sale of cattle, and in order to get them to the markets of the inland counties or London, they had to be driven into the water and swum across the Menai Straits.[1] The Act of Union 1800 increased the need for transport to Ireland, and with Holyhead as one of the principal terminals to Dublin it was decided that a bridge was needed.

Thomas Telford was assigned the task of improving the route from London to Holyhead, and one of the key improvements was his design of the suspension bridge over the Menai Strait between a point near Bangor on the mainland and the village of Porthaethwy (which is now also known as Menai Bridge) on Anglesey. The design of the bridge had to allow for Royal Navy sailing ships 100 feet (30 m) tall to pass under the deck at high water slack tide, and no scaffolding was allowed during construction which broke this rule.

Construction of the bridge began in 1819 with the towers on either side of the strait. These were constructed from Penmon limestone and were hollow with internal cross-walls. Then came the sixteen huge chain cables, each made of 935 iron bars that support the 176-metre (577 ft) span.[2] To avoid rusting between manufacture and use, the iron was soaked in linseed oil and later painted.[3] The suspending power of the chains was calculated at 2,016 tons and the total weight of each chain was 121 tons.[1] The bridge was opened to much fanfare on 30 January 1826 and reduced the journey time from London to Holyhead from 36 to 27 hours, a saving of 9 hours.

Later history

Menai Suspension bridge being painted in August 2005

Damaged by winds in 1839, the road surface needed extensive repair, and in 1893 the entire wooden surface was replaced with a steel deck. Over the years, the 4.5 ton weight limit proved problematic for the increasing freight industry and in 1938 the original wrought iron[4] chains were replaced with steel ones without the need to close the bridge. In 1999 the bridge was closed for around a month to resurface the road and strengthen the structure, requiring all traffic to cross via the nearby Britannia Bridge.

On 28 February 2005 the bridge was promoted to UNESCO as a candidate World Heritage Site. On the same day one carriageway of the bridge was closed for six months restricting traffic to a single carriageway so that traffic travelled to the mainland in the morning and to Anglesey in the afternoon. The bridge was re-opened to traffic in both directions on 11 December 2005 after its first major re-painting in 65 years.

Surroundings

The Anglesey Coastal Path passes below the bridge. The bridge has a memorial to the Aberfan disaster victims on the Anglesey side.

Cultural references

The bridge as pictured in a Staffordshire stoneware plate in the 1840s. - (From the home of J L Runeberg)

Menai Suspension Bridge in the evening

The nearest settlement is the town of Menai Bridge. A representation of the Menai Bridge inside a border of railings and stanchions is featured on the reverse of British one pound coins minted in 2005. The coin was designed by Edwins Ellis.

Quotation

White Knight to Alice:

"I heard him then, for I had just

completed my design,

To keep the Menai bridge from rust

By boiling it in wine."

—"Haddocks' Eyes", Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll

Famous Welsh englyn

Uchelgaer uwch y weilgi - gyr y byd

Ei gerbydau drosti,

Chwithau, holl longau y lli,

Ewch o dan ei chadwyni.

—Dewi Wyn o Eifion[5] (David Owen) (1784–1841)

High fortress above the sea – the world drives

Its carriages across it;

And you, all you ships of the sea,

Pass beneath its chains.

Installation of W.Bro. James Coles and Investiture of Officers at Unity Lodge No 710 Brampton Ontario Canada (15) by antefixus21

1

A Masonic Rough Ashlar.

A rough and perfect ashlar are stones which symbolize Man's moral and spiritual life.

Cutting stone to uniform shapes and sizes requires the skill and experience of a true craftsman with many years of experience.

This is why, historically, only large edifices (buildings) were made of ashlars (rather than brick or wood), due to the necessity (and difficulty) of assembling the many skilled craftsman needed to complete the many subsets of knowledge such as how to build a stone archway, how to lay foundation stone, and how to lay stone, one atop another to great heights...not to mention the artisans who sculpted the stones into ornamental shapes.

In days of old, apprentice masons cut and raised the Rough Ashlars from the stone quarry under the supervision of more experienced craftsman, called Fellowcrafts.

The work was accomplished under the watchful eye of the Master masons of the craft...those who had proved their ability to make their Master's piece to the satisfaction of their superiors.

In Freemasonry, there are 2 forms of ashlars.

Rough Ashlar

In operative Freemasonry, the rough ashlar represents a rough, unprepared or undressed stone. In speculative Freemasonry, a rough ashlar is an allegory to the uninitiated Freemason prior to his discovering enlightenment.

Perfect Ashlar

Operatively, the Perfect ashlar represents the dressed stone (after it has been made uniform and smoothed) by use of the working tools, the common gavel, (mallet) and chisel. (The chisel may be found in English Freemasonry, but is not used in the United States as a Freemason symbol.)

Only after the stone has been dressed by an experienced stonemason, can it be suitable to be placed into the architectural structure or building.

Speculatively, a Perfect Ashlar is an allegory to a Freemason who, through Masonic education, works to achieve an upstanding life and diligently strives to obtain enlightenment.

Rough and Perfect Ashlars

In the Fellowcraft Degree, we see the use of the Rough and Perfect Ashlars. The lesson to be learned is that by means of education and the acquirement of knowledge, a man improves the state of his spiritual and moral being.

Like man, each Rough Ashlar begins as an imperfect stone. With education, cultivation and brotherly love, man is shaped into a being which has been tried by the square of virtue and encircled by the compasses of his boundaries, given to us by our Creator.

Rough and Perfect Ashlar: Fitted For The Builder's Use

In ancient times, quarried stone which could be easily shaped into desired configurations, was called "freestone". Typical freestones are limestone and sandstone.

Then, as now, only after refining and smoothing these rough stones into their desired shape, were the stonemasons able to "fit them for the builder's use".

In the Fellowcraft degree, the Rough Ashlar represents a man's unrefined state and his need for improvement. He learns that the goal of being a better man includes spirituality of thought and striving for perfection of conduct. Via duties, expectations and obligations, he is charged to work toward these goals of self improvement.

As the Freemason "smoothes" his rough edges, internally and externally; he becomes a better man and, therefore, a better Freemason.

Once a man has perfected his ashlar to the best of his ability,... as Brothers to all mankind, it is his duty to help others become better men and better Freemasons.

Rough and Perfect Ashlar - The Potential For Change

All rough ashlars must have within them the potential to be made into a perfect ashlar.

The stone must be made of sound material and have a minimum of character flaws which may cause it to weaken the edifice (building). It must be capable of being worked into a perfect stone. This is why candidates for the degrees are asked many questions as to their qualifications and character about why they wish to become Freemasons.

The candidate must have the potential to both serve and support the Fraternity. He must be carefully inspected, just as each Rough Ashlar is inspected for quality in order to be able to "fit" him into Freemasonry's tenets and goals, which are compatible to God's laws.

An imperfect stone may be made perfect, however major flaws are difficult to overcome and when assembled into a structure, the entire structure can be weakened from its improper use. This is as true of men as it is of stones.

Rough and Perfect Ashlar - States of Metamorphose

Freemasonry has a glorious history. Flawed ashlars can bring negative feelings and reproach upon the Fraternity from non-Freemasons in the outside world and therefore, can have no place within its walls.

...That said,...let us not forget that perfect ashlars are not found lying about the stone quarry without benefit of their having been hammered, chiseled and polished into such a state of being.

It also holds true that "perfect" men are also such an anomaly without the benefit of brotherly love, guidance and light. There are very few Freemasons who have not been in both the rough and perfect ashlar state-of-being at some point in their lives.

Freemason Duties For the Future of the Craft

1. Freemasons must give serious consideration to our personal responsibility to educate other Brothers toward their self improvement.

Like the Good Samaritan in the Holy Books; it is in the giving and assistance to others in which you will find the true "jewels" of enlightenment. True Master Masons not only exemplify the tenets of the craft, but they teach what they learn.

2. Lodges should carefully judge the potential of each candidate, weighing both their character and their potential for change. For more information as to how to properly perform this duty, see my page Masonic Investigation Committee.

3. Each Freemason is charged to extend the hand of brotherly love and affection to help new Freemasons become better men and strive to live on the square, stand upright with the plumb and take their true place as a man who would make his Creator (the Almighty), proud of him.

The lesson of the Rough and Perfect Ashlar applies to all men who are worthy,...who have a heartfelt wish to go from ignorance to knowledge,...from darkness to light...and from death to life.

The following poem, written by Mary Brooks Picken, entitled, "Thimblefuls of Friendliness" was written in 1924, and, perhaps says it, best.

"Thimblefuls of Friendliness"

"Isn't it strange that Princes and Kings

And clowns that caper in sawdust rings,

And just plain folks like you and me,

Are builders for Eternity?

To each is given a bag of tools,

A shapeless mass and a book of rules,

And each must make ere life is flown,

A stumbling block, or a stepping stone."

The Latin assis was a board or plank; in the diminutive form, assula, it meant a small board, like a shingle, or a chip. In this con-nection it is interesting to note that our "axle" and' "axis" were derived from it. In early English this became asheler and was used to denote a stone in the rough as it came from the quarries. The Operative Masons called such a stone a "rough ashlar," and when it had been shaped and finished for its place in the wall they called it a "perfect ashlar." An Apprentice is a rough ashlar, because unfinished, whereas a Master Mason is a perfect ashlar, because he has been shaped for his place in the organization of the Craft.

The publication of a number of Minute Books of old Lodges since it was written calls for a revision of the paragraph on ASHLAR, on page 107. In one of his memoranda on the building of St. Paul s, Sir Christopher Wren shows by the context that as the word was there and then used an ashlar was a stone, ready-dressed from the quarries (costing about $5.00 in our money), for use in walls ; and that a "perpend asheler" was one with polished ends each of which would lie in a surface of the wall ; in that case a "rough" ashlar was not a formless mass of rock, but was a stone ready for use, no surface of which would appear in the building walls; it was unfinished in the sense of unpolished. In other records, of which only a few have been found, a "perpend" ashlar was of stone cut with a key in it so as to interlock with a second stone cut correspondingly.

It is doubtful if the Symbolic Ashlars were widely used among the earliest Lodges; on the other hand they are mentioned in Lodge inventories often enough to make it certain that at least a few of the old Lodges used them ; and since records were so meagerly kept it is possible that their use may have been more common than has been believed. On April 11, 1754, Old Dundee Lodge in Wapping, London, "Resolved that A New Perpend Ashlar Inlaid with Devices of Masonry Valued at £2 12s. 6d. be purchased. " The word ''new'' proves that the Lodge had used an Ashlar before 1754, perhaps for many years before; the word "devices" duggests long years of symbolic use.

It is obvious that the Ashlars as referred to in the above were not like our own Perfect and Imperfect Ashlars. It is certain that our use of them did not originate in America ; there are no known data to show when or where they originated, but it is reasonable to suppose that Webb received them from Preston, or else from English Brethren in person who knew the Work in Preston's period. Operative Masons doubtless used the word in more than one sense, depending on time and place ; and no rule can be based on their Practice.

The Speculative Masons after 1717, as shown above, must have used "Perfect Ashlar" in the sense of "Perpend Ashlar"; nevertheless the general purpose of the symbolism has been the same throughout - a reminder to the Candidate that he is to think of himself as if he were a building stone and that he will be expected to polish himself in manners and character in order to find a place in the finished Work of Masonry. The contrast between the Rough Ashlar and the Perfect Ashlar is not as between one man and another man, thereby generating a snobbish sense of superiority; but as between what a man is at one stage of his own self-development and what he is at another stage.

In Sir Christopher Wren's use of "ashlar" (he was member of Lodge of Antiquity) the stone had a dimension of 1 x 1 x 2 feet; and many building records, some of them very old, mention similar dimensions; certainly, the "perpend" or "perfect" ashlar almost never was a cube, because there are few places in a wall where a cube will serve. Because in our own symbolism the Perfect Ashlar is a cube, a number of commentators on symbolism have drawn out of it pages of speculation on the properties of the cube, and on esoteric meanings they believe those properties to possess; the weight possessed by those theorizing is proportionate to the knowledge and intelligence of the commentator; but in any event these cubic interpretations do not have the authority of Masonic history behind them.

NOTE: During the many years of building and re-building at Westminster Abbey the clerk of the works kept a detailed account of money expended, money received, wages, etc. These records, still in existence, are called Fabric Rolls. In the Fabric Roll for 1253 the word "asselers" occurs many times, and means dressed stones, or ashlars. A "perpens" or "parpens," or "perpent-stone" was "a through stone," presumably because it was so cut that each end was flush with a face of the wall. It proves that "perpend ashlar" was not a "perfect ashlar" in the present sense of being a cube.

- Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

The Ashlars - Author Unknown

We are told that the Ashlars lie open in the lodge for the brethren to moralize on. Did you ever see a brother contemplating the Ashlars and trying to derive some moral benefit from them? For the most part they are quickly referred to and just as quickly forgotten. The Ashlar is the freestone as it comes from the quarry. The Rough Ashlar is the stone in its rude and natural state and is emblematic of man in his natural state – ignorant, uncultivated and vicious. But when education has exerted it’s wholesome influence in expanding his intellect, restraining his passions and purifying his life, he then is represented by the Perfect Ashlar which, under the skillful hands of workman, has been smoothed and squared and fitted for its place in the building.

However, you will observe that the Rough Ashlar in a Masonic Lodge is not in its rude or natural state. It has been squared in a fashion, partially smoothed and has apparent strength and solidarity. It possesses all the qualities that could make it a perfect stone for use in the construction of the Temple, but it needs the hands and skill of the perfect Craftsman to bring about that result. It represents the candidate for membership in a Masonic Lodge. Such an applicant is not in his rude or natural state, neither ignorant, uncultivated nor vicious.

Masonry does not accept men of such qualifications. The applicant by education and perseverance has fitted himself as a respectable man in his community, assuming full responsibility as a citizen, a churchman and a member of his family. There is a vast number of men in every community possessing such qualifications who are not members of a Masonic Lodge, and may never have the desire to associate themselves with the Ancient Craft.

A man judges Masonry by the actions and manner of living of those he knows are members of the Order, but knows little or nothing of its teachings or objectives in the building of character. In that sense, he is in the crude state of the rough Ashlar, possessing all the qualities or perfect material, but lacking the polish that comes from a continued study and practice of the great teachings of Masonry.

Membership in a lodge does not make a man a Mason. He must apply his abilities to improving all in him that falls short of that high standard set by Masonry in character and citizen building. If he is satisfied with being a Master Mason in name only, he loses the benefits of further advancement and improvement offered by membership in the Order. In other words, he falls far short of anything that might be termed the Perfect Ashlar.

The Perfect Ashlar is for the more expert Craftsman to try and adjust his jewels on. In ancient times, with crude tools that would not even be used in this age, workmen of great skill and experience produced material for the construction of the Temple having such perfection that each piece fitted perfectly into its place without adjustment or correction. Time was not one of the essential factors; perfection was the goal.

To keep this state of perfection in absolute balance, a standard must have been set whereby the workmen could constantly test their tools to know that continued wear and use had not changed the measurements; even in the slightest degree. Did they have a Perfect Ashlar on which to make such a test?

We are told that the Perfect Ashlar is for the more expert workmen to “try” and adjust their tools on. In Masonry, we are the workmen, whether we be active or inactive, workers or drones. What are our “jewels”, our most prized possession? If we have absorbed any of the teachings Masonry, the building of character and a Christian way of life are two of the many jewels that should constantly be before us. And in the building of that state of perfection to which we attain, what Perfect Ashlar have we that we might go to and “try” the tools with which we have been working, to know that they are still of fine quality and in perfect condition for the job that lies before us.

In every Masonic Lodge there rests on the Altar in the center of the room the V.O.T.S.L. It is the solid foundation upon which Masonry in our lives is built. It never changes. Civilizations may come and go, but the Book of Books remains the same, adaptable to all conditions and manner of men, in good times and bad, in peace or war, a guide for mankind.

How often do we consult this Guide to try and adjust the jewels which are ours and which may need to be altered to get them back to that state of perfection which we as Masons should endeavor at all times to hold as our standard way of life? I am afraid that in this busy world of today, we neglect this practice. Therefore, as we think of the Ashlars and try to do a little moralizing, let us forget, even for a brief period, the material things in our lives, and direct our thoughts to the more important duty of contemplating our own defects and shortcomings, and adjusting our way of life and bringing it more in harmony with that standard given us by the Great Creator in the V.O.T.S.L.

The Ashlars are not just two pieces of stone. They represent what we have been and what we hope to be. It is up to each individual Mason to pass his own judgment on himself and to adjust his jewels accordingly, so that when the time comes and he lays down his tools and makes the final journey to the Grand Lodge Above, he may leave behind a reputation as a wise counselor, a pillar of strength and stability, a Perfect Ashlar on which younger Masons may test the correctness and value of their own contribution to the Masonic order.

Technical difficulties by Red Panther 1

1

This is a converted heavy truck used by militias across africa and the middle east. Often a large anti-air gun or some other sort of heavy weapon will be mounted on to a technical.

-----------------------------------------

-Not That Dead-

Dublin Marathon 2012 - The Slightly Slower Runners [14665, 6765, 15160] by William Murphy

1

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 ...

Maurice Chevalier - Actor by Roger K Olsson