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Chakwal, 03-08-2013: Al-Khidmat arranged a ceremony to distribute widow allowances among the widows whose children have been sponsored by Al-Khidmat Orphan Care Program, Chakwal. School bags, stationary, Qarshi Jam-e-Shirin bottles and money for uniform and school bags were also distributed in the ceremony. President Al-Khidmat Chakwal, Mr. Haq Nawaz Sultan was also present in the ceremony
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Distribution
Odynerus spinipes is distributed throughout much of England and Wales and reaches southern Scotland. It is also found on the Isle of Man and on Guernsey and Herm in the Channel Islands. There are two old records from Ireland.
Status (in Britain only)
This species is not regarded as being threatened.
Flight period
Adults are most likely to be seen in flight in June but also during July. More unusually they may be seen during the second half of May and early August.
Prey collected
Beetle larvae of the genus Hypera (Curculionidae). During malaxation (chewing) of their prey, the adults also will take the oozing body fluids (Bristowe, 1948).
Nesting biology
Mating takes place shortly after the adults emerge, followed by a search for nest sites and preparation and mass provisioning of the cells by the females. Nest sites are in vertical banks of hard earth, often of clay but also of sand. The digging spot is wetted with water and a cluster of five to six cells is excavated just behind the vertical face of the bank (Bristowe, 1948). The excavated material is first used to build a 'chimney' up to 30 mm long which curves over and downwards. The function of the chimney is unknown but it could prevent the entry of rain into the burrows which are situated in rather exposed situations. It has also been suggested that the chimney deters potential cleptoparasites and parasitoids. Several females may be found nesting close together in small aggregations, probably due to lack of suitable nesting site habitat.
The female hunts for beetle larvae over the appropriate vegetation. When found, the prey is immobilised by stinging and malaxation. The prey is carried in the mandibles with the help of the forelegs against the underside of the body. Up to about 30 beetle larvae have been found in a cell. The egg, which is suspended from the wall of the cell by a fine filament, is laid before the prey is collected and hatches in a few days. The prey is eaten by the mason wasp larva in a matter of weeks; the probable overwintering stage is the prepupa.
Flowers visited
Those with a short corolla and accessible nectaries are usually chosen. Extra-floral nectaries and honeydew of aphids may also be taken.
Parasites
The parasitic wasp Chrysis viridula usually acts as a cleptoparasite, entering either the unsealed cell, or removing the partition of a provisioned cell and laying its egg. The larva on hatching destroys the host's egg before eating the prey. However, it may also act as a parasitoid feeding on the mature larva of its host. Other species of Chrysis, Pseudospinolia neglecta and Pseudomalus auratus may be found at O. spinipes nests.
Author of profile
M E Archer.
Year profile last updated
1997
Distribution of Solar LED Lanterns to best performing students of PEP Schools under Pervaiz Lodhie’s Pehli Kiran ( First ray of Light) initiative
Dated: Saturday March 12, 2016
Location: Raichand Meghwar Primary School
Old Mirpur, District Mirpurkhas
&
Sunflower Primary School,
Khawaja District Tando Allahyar
Giving Solar Lanterns as a prize to the best performing students is not a new initiative of Pervaiz Lodhie. In previous years Lodhie Foundation has extended his initiative to various schools in Sindh and Punjab.
Inspiring with the idea, Mr. Jonathan Mitchell PHD President and Founder of Concentric development Inc. invited Pervaiz Lodhie to extend his program of distributing solar lanterns as prizes in PEP schools. Pervaiz Lodhie has immediately offered to gift 249 lanterns, allowing for three prizes per school. His suggestion was to distribute them to 1)Top student of the year 2) Top most improved student of the year 3) Top best attendance student of the year.
Mr. Lodhie also suggested encouraging the prize recipients to teach a short literacy course to family members or relatives.
During his recent visit to Pakistan in March 2016, Pervaiz visited the two schools in Mirpurkas and Tando Allahyar and distributed the solar lanterns to the 7 best students. Remaining 242 lanterns will be distributed in first and second week of April 2016
The Primary Education Project (PEP) is a part of the education work of Diocese of Hyderabad that is working to provide sustainable quality education to the poorest children of Rural Sindh, Pakistan. PEP has been involved in the work of education since 2002 and currently has 83 schools in the five district areas of rural Sindh, which are Badin, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Umerkot. At Present 4970 students are enrolled in 83 schools.
Participants from Lodhie Foundation/Shaantech:
Pervaiz Lodhie, President and Founder LEDtronics Inc and Shaan Technologies Pakistan, Founder Lodhie Foundation
Shahid Siddique General Manager Shaan Technologies private Limited
Sohaib Ahmed Sheikh, Business development Executive
Participant from Primary Education project (PEP):
Lilian Charles, Program Manager PEP,
Parkash Peter , Smile Coordinator
Salvin John Aadiyal, Media Manager at Primary Education Project (PEP)
Not sure how many of these CN has. They have some in box cars, but also some in containers in single well cars. On the tail end of whatever just came off the Camrose Sub.
Thursday, 2 April 2015: Chumling (2385 m) to Chhokang Paro (3030 m)
A mega day taking the high route via Chumchet, Yarcho, Gompa Goan, Lari and Puh, distributing LED solar lights carried by porter Henry, before dropping down to the Sardi Khola / Syar Khola / Tsum Chu at Domje and climbing back up to Chhokang Paro where we were met by Namgyal’s mum, bringing tea and snacks to help us on the final mile or so to their home.
En route, lots of Tibetan tea, tsampa, rice and veg; offers of arak and chang; ~2000m ascent… visits to homes, schools, a monastery and a nunnery, high in the mountains of Upper Tsum Valley.
Wonderful.
Map from Günter Seyfferth’s Die Berge des Himalaya (The mountains of Himalaya).
Read more about my Tsum Valley trek with Val Pitkethly.
DSC08131
10th Feb 2010, 4.30pm - Dato G. Palanivel and YB Isa Abu Kassim distributing Chinese New Year goodies and Angpows to the needy people at Tokong Mao Shan, Ulu Yam Bharu near Pekan Ulu Yam. A similar function was held at the Dewan MIC, Kuala Kubu Bharu. Also present was YB Wong Kun Mun. Both functions were organised by Dato G. Palanivel and MIC Hulu Selangor with the help of Sports Toto Malaysia.
Views of the International Forum on the Sustainable Development of the Wood Industry in the Congo Basin (21-22 October 2013, Brazzaville, Congo).
Photos du Forum international sur le développement durable de la filière bois dans le bassin du Congo (21-22 octobre 2013, Brazzaville, Congo).
© FAO, 2013
Admission was free. By 2 pm, all the timed stickers for the Sendak exhibit had been distributed (the museum was scheduled to close at 4 pm, but it stayed open a litle later).
The Sendak exhibit continues through Jan 19, 2010
www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=ex...
Jews on Vinyl has been extended til Spring 2010
www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=ex...
www.trailofourvinylbook.blogspot.com
As It Is Written, the creation of a torah scroll continues through Fall 2010
www.thecjm.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=ex...
cjmvoices.blogspot.com/search?q=Julie+Seltzer
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/15/DD21...
Operation Homefront distributed toys to 130 military children at our Holiday Toy Distribution event in Colorado Springs, CO. WHAT A SUCCESS!
Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra distributed three-wheelers to over 200 physically challenged persons in New Delhi. On Late Rajiv Gandhi's birthday it was supposed to be distributed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi but due to her illness it got postponed.
Rahul and Priyanka, interacted with almost all the people who were given motorised three-wheelers by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and spent some time with them.
They went to almost every single person, exchanged pleasantries with them and heard their problems.
The Postcard
A postcard that was distributed by N. O. Triarchos & Co. Ltd. of P.O. Box 1296, Nicosia, Cyprus. The card was posted in Limassol on Tuesday the 2nd. March 1993 to a couple who lived in Alexandra Road, Muswell Hill, London N10.
The message on the divided back was as follows:
"Hi Peers,
Well I arrived!!
Trumpets, bongos and
chants should be sounded
at this point.
Hardcore is a thing of the
future here, unless you
like Cypriot bouzouki mix.
But never mind, pace of
life is very agreeable
even if the weather is
variable.
Still, I have managed to
sit on a beach and tour
the snow & mountains as
imagined.
I hired a car for a week &
toured the island with
Jayne & Sam as hoped,
managing to culture-
vulture it up on the way!!
The holiday is working
wonders for shattered
illusions - see ya soon,
Love David."
A bouzouki is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body and a long neck with a fretted fingerboard.
It has steel strings, and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin, but pitched lower.
The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
So what else happened on the day that David posted the card?
Not a lot, but four days earlier, the 1993 WTC bombing took place.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on Friday the 26th. February 1993 when a van bomb weighing two thirds of a ton detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City.
The 1,336 lb (606 kg) urea nitrate-hydrogen gas-enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower crashing into its twin, the South Tower, taking down both skyscrapers and killing tens of thousands of people.
It failed to do so, but killed six people, including a pregnant woman, and caused over a thousand injuries. About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings on that day.
In March 1994, four terrorists were convicted of planning and carrying out the bombing:
-- Mahmud Abouhalima
-- Ahmed Ajaj
-- Nidal Ayyad
-- Mohammad A. Salameh
The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more terrorists were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the organizer behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the van carrying the bomb.
Emad Salem, an FBI informant and a key witness in the trial, stated that the bomb itself was built under supervision from the FBI. During his time as an FBI informant, Salem recorded hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers.
In tapes made after the bombing, Salem alleged that an un-named FBI supervisor declined to move forward on a plan that would have used a "phony powder" to fool the conspirators into believing that they were working with genuine explosives.
Planning and Organization of the Bombing
Ramzi Yousef spent time at an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, before beginning in 1991 to plan a bombing attack within the United States.
Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who later was considered the principal architect of the September 11 attacks, gave him advice and tips over the phone, and funded his co-conspirator Mohammed Salameh with a US$660 wire transfer.
Yousef arrived illegally in the United States on the 1st. September 1992, traveling with Ahmed Ajaj from Pakistan, though both sat apart on the flight, and acted as though they were traveling separately.
Ajaj tried to enter with a forged Swedish passport, though it had been altered and thus raised suspicions among INS officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport. When officials put Ajaj through secondary inspection, they discovered bomb-making instructions and other materials in his luggage, and arrested him.
The name Abu Barra, an alias of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, appeared in the manuals. Yousef tried to enter with a false Iraqi passport, claiming political asylum. Yousef was allowed into the United States, and was given a hearing date.
Yousef set up residence in Jersey City, New Jersey, traveled around New York and New Jersey and called Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a controversial blind Muslim cleric, via cell phone.
After being introduced to his co-conspirators by Abdel Rahman at the latter's Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, Yousef began assembling the 1,500 lb (680 kg) device for delivery to the WTC.
He ordered chemicals from his hospital room when he had been injured in a car crash – one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and early in 1993.
El Sayyid Nosair, one of the blind sheikh's men, was arrested in 1991 for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane. According to prosecutors, "the Red" Mahmud Abouhalima, also convicted in the bombing, told Wadih el Hage to buy the .357 caliber revolver used by Nosair in the Kahane shooting.
In the initial court case in NYS Criminal Court, Nosair was acquitted of murder but convicted of gun charges. Dozens of Arabic bomb-making manuals and documents related to terrorist plots were found in Nosair's New Jersey apartment.
There were also manuals from the Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, along with secret memos linked to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 1,440 rounds of ammunition.
According to the transcript of his trial, Yousef hoped that his explosion would topple Tower 1 which would fall into Tower 2, killing the occupants of both buildings, which he estimated to be about 250,000 people in revenge for U.S. support for Israel against Palestine.
According to journalist Steve Coll, Yousef mailed letters to various New York newspapers just before the attack, in which he claimed he belonged to "Liberation Army, Fifth Battalion".
These letters made three demands:
-- An end to all US aid to Israel
-- An end to US diplomatic relations with Israel
-- A pledge by the United States to end interference "with any of the Middle East countries' interior affairs."
He stated that the attack on the World Trade Center would be merely the first of such attacks if his demands were not met. Yousef did not make any religious justification for the bombing, and when asked about his religious views, he was evasive.
The Attack
On Friday, 26th. February 1993, Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ford Econoline Ryder van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon.
They parked on the underground B-2 level. Yousef ignited the 20-foot (6.1 m) fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:18 p.m., the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 pounds per square inch.
The bomb opened a 100-foot-wide (30 m) hole through four sublevels of concrete. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 feet per second (10,000 mph; 4.6 km/s).
Initial news reports indicated a main transformer might have blown before it became clear that a bomb had exploded in the basement.
The bomb instantly cut off the World Trade Center's main electrical power line, knocking out the emergency lighting system. The bomb caused smoke to rise to the 93rd. floor of both towers, including through the stairwells, and smoke went up the damaged elevators in both towers.
With thick smoke filling the stairwells, evacuation was difficult for building occupants, and led to many smoke inhalation injuries.
Hundreds were trapped in elevators in the towers when the power was cut, including a group of 17 kindergartners on their way down from the South Tower observation deck, who were trapped between the 35th. and 36th. floors for five hours.
Deaths and Injuries Caused by the Explosion
Six people were killed: five Port Authority employees, one of whom was pregnant, and a businessman whose car was in the parking garage. Additionally, over 1,000 people were injured, most during the evacuation that followed the blast.
Among the scores of people who fled to the roofs of the towers, 28 with medical problems were airlifted by New York City police helicopters.
15 people received traumatic injuries from the blast, and 20 complained of cardiac problems. One firefighter was hospitalized, while 87 others, 35 police officers, and an EMS worker were also injured in dealing with the fires and other consequences of the bombing.
Also as a result of the loss of power, most of New York City's radio and television stations (save for one, WCBS-TV, lost their over-the-air broadcast signal for almost a week.
Television stations were only able to broadcast via cable and satellite via a microwave hook-up to three of the New York area's largest cable companies - Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable.
Telephone service for much of Lower Manhattan was also disrupted.
The tower did not collapse as intended by Yousef, but the garage was severely damaged by the explosion. Had the van been parked closer to the WTC's poured concrete foundations, Yousef's plan might have succeeded.
Yousef escaped to Pakistan several hours after the bombing.
The Bomb's Characteristics
First reports described the explosion as having the characteristics of up to 300 pounds of a plastic explosive called Semtex. However according to an article published in 1997, Semtex was only used as a detonating charge for the bomb.
It is still not known how the terrorists obtained Semtex (which is not a "home-made" explosive, unlike other components of the bomb).
According to the FBI, Yousef was assisted by Iraqi bomb maker Abdul Rahman Yasin, who helped assemble the complex bomb, which was made of a urea nitrate main charge with aluminum, magnesium and ferric oxide particles surrounding the explosive.
The charge used nitro-glycerine, ammonium nitrate dynamite, smokeless powder and fuse as booster explosives. Three tanks of bottled hydrogen were also placed in a circular configuration around the main charge, in order to enhance the fireball and afterburn of the solid metal particles.
The use of compressed gas cylinders in this type of attack closely resembles the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing 10 years earlier. Both of these attacks used compressed gas cylinders to create fuel-air and thermobaric bombs that release more energy than conventional high explosives.
Only once before the 1993 attack had the FBI recorded a bomb that used urea nitrate. Moreover, FBI agent Frederic Whitehurst was strongly critical of the procedures used to determine that the bomb contained urea nitrate.
According to his later testimony, he urinated in a vial, dried the urine and gave a sample of it to the analysts, who still concluded that the substance handed to them was urea nitrate.
The Ryder van used in the bombing had 295 cubic feet (8.4 m3) of space, which would hold up to 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of explosives. However, the van was not filled to capacity.
Yousef used four 20-foot-long (6.1 m) fuses, all covered in surgical tubing. Yasin calculated that the fuses would trigger the bomb in twelve minutes after he had used a cigarette lighter to light them.
Yousef wanted the smoke to remain in the tower, smothering people inside, killing them slowly.
There was a popular belief at the time that there was cyanide in the bomb, which was reinforced by Judge Duffy's statement at sentencing:
"You had sodium cyanide around,
and I'm sure it was in the bomb."
However, while the bomb's true composition was not able to be ascertained from the crime scene, Robert Blitzer, a senior FBI official who worked on the case, stated that:
"There is no forensic evidence
indicating the presence of sodium
cyanide at the bomb site."
Furthermore, Yousef is said only to have considered adding cyanide to the bomb, and to have regretted not doing so in Peter Lance's book '1000 Years for Revenge'.
The Victims of the Bombing
The names of the victims who were killed in the attack are inscribed in panel N-73 of the North Pool at the 9/11 Memorial, where the North Tower formerly stood.
Six people were killed:
-- John DiGiovanni, aged 45, a dental products salesperson.
-- Robert "Bob" Kirkpatrick, aged 61, Senior Structural Maintenance Supervisor.
-- Stephen Knapp, aged 47, Chief Maintenance Supervisor.
-- Bill Macko, aged 57, General Maintenance Supervisor.
-- Wilfredo Mercado, aged 37, a receiving agent for Windows on the World restaurant.
-- Monica Rodriguez Smith, aged 35, a secretary, who was seven months pregnant.
At the time of the bombing, Smith was checking time sheets in her office on the B-2 level. Kirkpatrick, Knapp and Macko were eating lunch together in an employees' break room next to Smith's office.
Mercado was checking in deliveries for the restaurant; and DiGiovanni was parking in the underground garage.
Memorials
A granite memorial fountain honoring the victims who died during the bombing was designed by Elyn Zimmerman, and dedicated on the 26th. February 1995, on Austin J. Tobin Plaza, directly above the site of the explosion.
It contained the names of the six adults who were killed in the attack, as well as an inscription written both in English and Spanish that read:
"On February 26, 1993, a bomb set by
terrorists exploded below this site. This
horrible act of violence killed innocent
people, injured thousands, and made
victims of us all."
The fountain was destroyed with the rest of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. A recovered fragment of the fountain marked "John D", from the name of John DiGiovanni, was later incorporated into a temporary memorial.
The temporary memorial was designed by Port Authority architect Jacqueline Hanley, and erected on the Liberty Street side of the site following the September 11 attacks. The memorial was visible across a fence barrier, but was not open to the public.
The rest of the fountain was never recovered, and any of its remains were removed from Ground Zero along with the rest of the rubble.
Post-9/11 Memorials
At the 9/11 Memorial, which opened on the tenth anniversary of the 2001 attacks, the people who died in the 1993 bombing are memorialized at the North Pool, on Panel N-73.
The recovered fragment of the memorial fountain is on display among other artifacts related to the bombing inside the museum's historical exhibition.
Investigations and Criminal Cases
Although the cause of the blast was not immediately known, with some individuals suspecting a transformer explosion, agents and bomb technicians from the ATF, FBI, and the NYPD quickly responded to the scene.
Agents quickly determined that the magnitude of the blast was far beyond that of an electrical explosion. FBI Laboratory Division technician David Williams, who took charge of the crime scene, claimed to know prior to scientific testing the nature and size of the bomb.
However other lab specialists such as Stephen Burmeister and Frederic Whitehurst contradicted his contention, and later challenged it with embarrassing consequences for the FBI Laboratory.
In the days after the bombing, investigators surveyed the damage and looked for clues. About 300 FBI agents were deployed under the codename TRADEBOM.
While combing through the rubble in the underground parking area, a bomb technician located some internal component fragments from the vehicle that delivered the bomb.
A vehicle identification number (VIN), found on part of an axle, gave investigators crucial information that led them to a Ryder van rented from DIB Leasing in Jersey City.
Investigators determined that the vehicle had been rented by Mohammed A. Salameh, one of Yousef's co-conspirators. Salameh had reported the van stolen, and when he returned on the 4th. March 1993 to get his deposit back, authorities arrested him.
Salameh's arrest led police to the apartment of Abdul Rahman Yasin at 40 Pamrapo Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, which Yasin was sharing with his mother, in the same building as Ramzi Yousef's apartment.
Yasin was taken to the FBI's Newark field office in Newark, New Jersey, and was then released. The next day, he flew back to Iraq. Yasin was later indicted for the attack, and in 2001 he was placed on the initial list of the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists, on which he remains today.
The capture of Salameh and Yasin led authorities to Ramzi Yousef's apartment, where they found bomb-making materials and a business card from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa.
Khalifa was arrested on the 14th. December 1994, and was deported to Jordan by the INS on the 5th. May 1995. He was acquitted by a Jordanian court, and lived as a free man in Saudi Arabia until he was killed in 2007.
In 2002, it was made public that Yasin, the only person involved in the bombing who was never convicted by US authorities, had been held as a prisoner on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq since 1994.
When journalist Lesley Stahl interviewed him there for a segment on 60 Minutes on the 23rd. May 2002, Yasin appeared in prison pyjamas and handcuffs. Yasin was not located during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and has not been seen or heard from since the interview.
Trial and Sentencing
In March 1994, Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj were each convicted of the World Trade Center bombing. In May 1994, they were sentenced to 240 years in prison.
In the years since, they have received several sentencing reductions, which could allow them to walk free in their 90's.
Aftermath of the Bombing
The South Tower did not re-open for tenants until the 18th. March 1993. The WTC Observation Deck re-opened on the 17th. April 1993, while the North Tower remained closed until the 1st. April 1993.
The cost to repair both buildings was estimated at $250 million, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
The Vista International Hotel at 3 WTC remained closed until the 1st. November 1994, after extensive repairs and renovations that amounted to $65 million.
The concourse level was reopened on the 27th. March 1993, while the parking garage reopened on the 1st. September 1993, for some government employee's vehicles. Commercial tenants' employees were not allowed until spring 1994.
New security measures were introduced, including identification tags for approved cars and drivers, surveillance cameras, and a barrier rising out of the roadway designed to stop rogue vehicles.
Even though the Windows on the World at the North Tower's 107th. floor wasn't structurally damaged, the explosion damaged receiving areas, the air-conditioning system, storage, and parking spots used by the restaurant complex.
As a result, the restaurant was forced to shut down. As the Port Authority decided to hire Joseph Baum, the restaurant's original designer, to renovate the space at a cost of $25 million, reopening was delayed until the 26th. June 1996.
FBI involvement
In the course of the trial, it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad Salem.
Salem claimed FBI involvement in building of the bomb. He secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers.
Federal authorities denied Salem's view of events, and the New York Times concluded that:
"The tapes do not make clear the extent
to which Federal authorities knew that
there was a plan to bomb the World Trade
Center, merely that they knew that a bombing
of some sort was being discussed."
But for the recordings, Emad would have been charged as a co-conspirator. It was recordings that were never provided to the New York Times that prevented the FBI from charging Emad.
U.S. Diplomatic Security Service involvement
Although the FBI received the credit, Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) special agents actually found and arrested Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the architect of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Special Agents Bill Miller and Jeff Riner were given a tip by an associate of Ramzi Yousef about his location. In coordination with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), DSS arrested Ramzi Yousef. After his arrest, Ramzi Yousef is alleged to have said to investigators:
"This is only the beginning."
Allegations of Iraqi Involvement
In October 2001 in a PBS interview, former CIA Director James Woolsey claimed that Ramzi Yousef worked for Iraqi intelligence.
He suggested that the grand jury investigation turned up evidence pointing to Iraq that the Justice Department "brushed aside." However Neil Herman, who headed the FBI investigation, noted:
"The one glaring connection that can't
be overlooked is Yasin. We pursued that
on every level, traced him to a relative
and a location, and we made overtures
to get him back."
However, Herman says that Yasin's presence in Baghdad does not mean Iraq sponsored the attack:
"We looked at that rather extensively.
There were no ties to the Iraqi
government."
CNN terrorism reporter Peter L. Bergen corroborated this conclusion:
"By the mid-'90s, the Joint Terrorism Task
Force in New York, the F.B.I., the U.S.
Attorney's Office in the Southern District
of New York, the C.I.A., the N.S.C., and the
State Department had all found no evidence
implicating the Iraqi government in the first
Trade Center attack."
Claims of direct Iraqi involvement come from Dr. Laurie Mylroie of the American Enterprise Institute, with her claims being generally rejected.
CNN reporter Peter Bergen has called her a "crackpot" who claimed that:
"Saddam was not only behind the '93
Trade Center attack, but also every
anti-American terrorist incident of the
past decade, from the bombings of U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the
leveling of the federal building in the
Oklahoma City bombing to September 11
itself."
Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, writes:
"The most knowledgeable analysts and
investigators at the CIA and at the FBI
believe that their work conclusively
disproves Mylroie's claims."
In March 2008, the Pentagon released its study of some 600,000 documents captured in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. The study found no 'smoking gun' (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda.
Among the documents released by the Pentagon was a captured audio file of Saddam Hussein speculating that the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center had been carried out by Israel or American intelligence, or perhaps a Saudi or Egyptian faction.
Saddam said that he did not trust the bomber Yasin, who was in Iraqi custody, because his testimony was too "organized."
The Pentagon study found that Yasin "was a prisoner, and not a guest, in Iraq."
Mylroie nevertheless denied that this was proof of Saddam's non-involvement, claiming that:
"One common purpose of such meetings
was to develop cover stories for whatever
Iraq sought to conceal."
Improved Security
In the wake of the bombing and the chaotic evacuation which followed, the World Trade Center and many of the firms inside of it revamped emergency procedures, particularly with regard to evacuation of the towers.
The New York Port Authority was to govern as the main security for the World Trade Center buildings. All packages were scanned at various checkpoints before being sent up to the addressee.
These policies played a role in evacuating the building during the September 11 attacks, which destroyed the towers.
Free access to the roofs, which had enabled evacuation by police helicopter in the 1993 bombing, was ended soon after.
Eclipsed by the September 11 Attacks
During the period between the 1993 bombing and the 2001 terrorist attacks, FBI Special Agent John O'Neill and former Senator Gary Hart attempted to alert high-ranking U.S. government officials about a future terrorist attack.
Since the September 11 attacks, the 1993 bombing is sometimes described as "forgotten" and "unknown." Although the 1993 bombing made the World Trade Center a publicly known terrorist target, with the possibility of another attack suspected as early as 1995 by FBI Special Agent John O'Neill, and January 2001 by former Senator Gary Hart, the 2001 attacks went largely unforeseen by U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
While victims' family members and injured survivors of the 2001 terrorist attack received compensation from the September 11th. Victim Compensation Fund, no such compensation was given to those affected by the 1993 bombing.
Legal responsibility
Some of the victims (which included families of the killed victims) of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for damages.
A decision was handed down in 2005, assigning liability for the bombings to the Port Authority. The decision declared that the agency was 68 percent responsible for the bombing, and the terrorists bore only 32 percent of the responsibility.
In January 2008, the Port Authority asked a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court to throw out the decision, describing the jury's verdict as "bizarre".
On the 29th. April 2008, a New York State Appeals Court unanimously upheld the jury's verdict. Under New York law, a defendant who is more than 50 percent at fault can be held fully financially liable.
On the 22nd. September 2011, the New York Court of Appeals, in a four to three ruling, excluded the Port Authority from claims of negligence related to the 1993 bombing.
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We’ve been writing a lot recently about the potential impacts of distributed generation systems - which generate power (usually through solar panels or wind turbines) near the point of use rather than at a centralized location - for both residential and commercial/industrial applications. The promise of this technology is enormous, as it allows greater freedom from utility companies, increased grid resiliency, and energy savings for consumers. Innovators the world over are exploring and testing the implementation of distributed generation “microgrids” to create a future of energy freedom.
What’s holding solar adopters back from embracing distributed generation systems? Utility companies, of course, who continue to throw up roadblocks for those who wish to decouple themselves from wasteful, unsustainable power generation and infrastructure practices. However, an emerging technology could hold the key to a new power paradigm that enables distributed generation installations to thrive. Let’s take a look:
Disrupting the Status Quo
“For over a century,” technology theorists write for IEEE Spectrum, “the electricity grid has been a top-down business with utilities and big power generators sending electricity to customers. But with the proliferation of renewables, the grid is rapidly transforming into a two-way street, where consumers... are themselves putting power back on the lines.”
“‘The future is moving toward distributed energy, distributed generation for local businesses and for consumers,’ says Susan Furnell, an energy industry consultant based in London.” However, “‘It needs a new set of technologies and a new set of business processes and a way of interacting to make all of that work.’” The current energy market, dominated for a century by utility companies, has been intentionally crafted to discourage independent, local energy production. To enable distributed generation to thrive, we need something new.
That’s where blockchain enters the equation.
All About Blockchain
Blockchain might be most familiar to non-tech-geeks as the underpinnings of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which made a big splash a few years ago and then faded from the news. Bitcoin may not turn out to be the currency of the future, but the technology developed to track it could have major implications for transactions in energy, finance, and beyond. This “distributed database” could do for value something similar to what distributed generation is doing for energy - create a new market for democratized, accessible commodities.
What exactly is blockchain? According to Blockgeeks, an online forum dedicated to blockchain technology, “Information held on a blockchain exists as a shared — and continually reconciled — database.” This information “isn’t stored in any single location, meaning the records it keeps are truly public and easily verifiable. Hosted by millions of computers simultaneously, its data is accessible to anyone on the internet.”
The Economist calls blockchain “the great chain of being sure about things,” noting that “It offers a way for people who do not know or trust each other to create a record of who owns what that will compel the assent of everyone concerned. It is a way of making and preserving truths.”
What does this mean for distributed generation systems?
Blockchain Meets Distributed Generation
The possibilities of blockchain as the basis of a new energy market are currently being tested by technology enthusiasts and energy disruptors who believe that it may provide a foundation for peer-to-peer distributed generation energy trading. As David Wagman writes on IEEE Spectrum, “blockchain’s unique attributes suggest it has the potential to play a game-changing role in the energy sector. For example... blockchain can streamline routine billing and facilitate still more amounts of automation in the process. As a disruptor, blockchain technology can allow potentially millions of energy devices” such as solar PV installations “to transact with each other at the electric power distribution edge.”
Wagman reports on one cutting-edge project taking place in Brooklyn, NY, where residents have come together to create The Brooklyn Microgrid, “a local, neighborhood-powered grid” using rooftop solar installations “that could operate in parallel to the main grid.” “The solar community emerged via a phone app and blockchain,” Wagman writes, “that allowed for information to be shared about available solar capacity, potential buyers, and transaction details.” The New Scientist, responding to this community effort, wrote that it “is the first version of a new kind of energy market, operated by consumers, which will change the way we generate and consume electricity."
There are larger forces at work behind the blockchain and distributed generation revolution as well. Wagman reports that “In early May, 10 energy companies in Asia, Europe, and the United States said they would chip in a total of US $2.5 million to seed the Energy Web Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate the commercial deployment of blockchain technology in the energy sector.”
The Energy Market of the Future
At Solar Design Studio, we’re excited about the possibilities that blockchain brings to the table. We envision a future in which solar distributed generation adopters are able to generate their own power near the point of use and distribute the excess through an energy market that rewards their investment in sustainable power. With so much enthusiasm for the potential of blockchain to create the energy market of the future, this reality may be closer than we imagine.
Would you like to learn more about Solar Design Studio’s consulting, design, and engineering services? Contact us today!
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The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by Lévy Fils et Cie of Paris and distributed by Fernand Benoit.
Visé Paris No. 2263
The card bears the imprimatur 'Visé Paris' followed by a unique reference number. This means that the image was inspected and deemed by the military authorities in the French capital not to be a security risk.
'Visé Paris' indicates that the card was published during or soon after the Great War.
Abba Eban
"History teaches us that men and
nations behave wisely when they
have exhausted all other alternatives".
This was said during a speech in London UK on 16th. December 1970 by Abba Eban (1915-2002), an Israeli diplomat and writer.
'The Next War'
'The Next War' is a prescient poem written by Robert Graves (1895–1985) which features in his 1918 book 'Fairies and Fusiliers':
"You young friskies who today
Jump and fight in Father’s hay
With bows and arrows and wooden spears,
Playing at Royal Welch Fusiliers,
Happy though these hours you spend,
Have they warned you how games end?
Boys, from the first time you prod
And thrust with spears of curtain-rod,
From the first time you tear and slash
Your long-bows from the garden ash,
Or fit your shaft with a blue jay feather,
Binding the split tops together,
From that same hour by fate you’re bound
As champions of this stony ground,
Loyal and true in everything,
To serve your Army and your King,
Prepared to starve and sweat and die
Under some fierce foreign sky,
If only to keep safe those joys
That belong to British boys,
To keep young Prussians from the soft
Scented hay of father’s loft,
And stop young Slavs from cutting bows
And bendy spears from Welsh hedgerows.
Another War soon gets begun,
A dirtier, a more glorious one;
Then, boys, you’ll have to play, all in;
It’s the cruellest team will win.
So hold your nose against the stink
And never stop too long to think.
Wars don’t change except in name;
The next one must go just the same,
And new foul tricks unguessed before
Will win and justify this War.
Kaisers and Czars will strut the stage
Once more with pomp and greed and rage;
Courtly ministers will stop
At home and fight to the last drop;
By the million men will die
In some new horrible agony;
And children here will thrust and poke,
Shoot and die, and laugh at the joke,
With bows and arrows and wooden spears,
Playing at Royal Welch Fusiliers."
Arras in the Great War
Arras is in Northern France by the Scarpe River. It is the capital ('chef-lieu') of the Pas-de-Calais department. In 2012 the city held over 43,000 residents.
During the Great War, Arras was near the Western Front, and a series of battles were fought around the city and nearby Vimy Ridge.
Medieval tunnels beneath the city, which were linked and greatly expanded by the New Zealand Tunnelling Company, became a decisive factor in British forces holding the city.
The Arras Townhouses
In Arras there is a unique architectural ensemble of 155 Flemish-Baroque-style townhouses bordering La Petite Place (also called La Place des Héros) and La Grand'Place.
These houses were built in the 17th. and 18th. centuries, and were originally made of wood. After the Great War, most of these houses were so severely damaged that they had to be rebuilt, this time using bricks.
Arras in WW II
In the Second World War Arras was occupied by the Germans, and 240 suspected French Resistance members were executed in the Arras Citadel.
During the invasion of France in May 1940, Arras was the focus of a major British counterattack. On the 3rd. September 1944 the town was entered and liberated by the British Guards Armoured Division.
'The General'
'The General' by Siegfried Sassoon:
'“Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
“He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack'.
Robert Graves
Captain Robert von Ranke Graves, who was born on the 24th. July 1895, was an English poet, historical novelist and critic.
His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celticists and students of Irish mythology.
Robert Graves produced more than 140 works in his lifetime. His poems, his translations and innovative analysis of the Greek myths, his memoir of his early life — including his role in the Great War — Good-Bye to All That (1929), and his speculative study of poetic inspiration The White Goddess have never been out of print.
Robert is also a renowned short story writer, with stories such as The Tenement still being popular today.
He earned his living from writing, particularly popular historical novels such as I, Claudius; King Jesus; The Golden Fleece; and Count Belisarius.
He also was a prominent translator of Classical Latin and Ancient Greek texts; his versions of The Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular for their clarity and entertaining style.
Graves was awarded the 1934 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for both I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
Robert Graves - The Early Years
Robert Graves was born into a middle-class family in Wimbledon, then part of Surrey, now part of south London. He was the eighth of ten children born to Alfred Perceval Graves (1846–1931), who was the sixth child and second son of Charles Graves, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe.
Robert's father was an Irish school inspector, Gaelic scholar and the author of the popular song "Father O'Flynn."
Robert's mother was his father's second wife, Amalie Elisabeth Sophie von Ranke (1857–1951), the niece of the historian Leopold von Ranke.
At the age of seven, double pneumonia following measles almost took Graves's life, the first of three occasions when he was despaired of by his doctors as a result of afflictions of the lungs, the second being the result of a war wound, and the third when he contracted Spanish influenza in late 1918, immediately before demobilisation.
At school, Graves was enrolled as Robert von Ranke Graves, and in Germany his books are published under that name, but before and during the Great War the name caused him difficulties.
In August 1916 an officer who disliked Robert spread the rumour that he was the brother of a captured German spy who had assumed the name "Karl Graves". The problem resurfaced in a minor way in the Second World War, when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to the Special Constabulary.
Graves's eldest half-brother, Philip Perceval Graves, achieved success as a journalist, and his younger brother, Charles Patrick Graves, was a writer and journalist.
Robert Graves' Education
Graves received his early education at a series of six preparatory schools, including King's College School in Wimbledon, Penrallt in Wales, Hillbrow School in Rugby, Rokeby School in Wimbledon, and Copthorne in Sussex, from which last in 1909 he won a scholarship to Charterhouse.
There Robert began to write poetry, and took up boxing, in due course becoming school champion at both welter- and middleweight. He claimed that this was in response to persecution because of the German element in his name, his outspokenness, his scholarly and moral seriousness, and his poverty relative to the other boys.
Robert also sang in the choir, meeting there an aristocratic boy three years younger, G. H. "Peter" Johnstone, with whom he began an intense romantic friendship, the scandal of which led ultimately to an interview with the headmaster.
However, Graves himself called it "chaste and sentimental" and "proto-homosexual," and though he was clearly in love with Peter (disguised by the name "Dick" in Good-Bye to All That), he denied that their relationship was ever sexual. Robert was warned about Peter's proclivities by other contemporaries.
Among the masters, Robert's chief influence was George Mallory, who introduced him to contemporary literature and took him mountaineering in the holidays. In his final year at Charterhouse, he won a classical exhibition to St. John's College, Oxford, but did not take his place there until after the Great War.
Robert Graves and the Great War
At the outbreak of the Great War on the 4th. August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the 3rd. Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant on the 12th. August.
He received rapid promotion, being promoted to lieutenant on the 5th. May 1915 and to captain on the 26th. October 1915.
Robert published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet, and was one of the first to write realistic poems about the experience of frontline conflict.
In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom."
At the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and was officially reported as having died of wounds. However Robert gradually recovered and, apart from a brief spell back in France, spent the remainder of the war in England.
One of Graves' friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, a fellow officer in his regiment. They both convalesced at Somerville College, Oxford, which was used as a hospital for officers. Sassoon wrote to him in 1917.:
"How unlike you to crib my idea of
going to the Ladies' College at Oxford,"
At Somerville College, Graves met and fell in love with Marjorie, a nurse and professional pianist, but stopped writing to her once he learned that she was engaged. About his time at Somerville, he wrote:
"I enjoyed my stay at Somerville. The
sun shone, and the discipline was easy."
In 1917, Siegfried Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face a court martial, and intervened with the military authorities, persuading them that Sassoon was experiencing shell shock, and that they should treat him accordingly.
As a result, Sassoon was sent to Craiglockhart, a military hospital in Edinburgh, where he was treated by W. H. R. Rivers and met fellow patient Wilfred Owen. Graves was treated here as well. Graves also had shell shock, or neurasthenia as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it:
"I thought of going back to France, but realized
the absurdity of the notion. Since 1916, the fear
of gas obsessed me: any unusual smell, even a
sudden strong scent of flowers in a garden, was
enough to send me trembling.
And I couldn't face the sound of heavy shelling
now; the noise of a car back-firing would send
me flat on my face, or running for cover."
The friendship between Graves and Sassoon is documented in Graves' letters and biographies. The intensity of their early relationship is demonstrated in Graves's collection Fairies and Fusiliers (1917), which contains many poems celebrating their friendship.
Sassoon remarked upon a "heavy sexual element" within it, an observation supported by the sentimental nature of much of the surviving correspondence between the two men. Through Sassoon, Graves became a friend of Wilfred Owen, who often used to send him poems from France.
In September 1917, Graves was seconded for duty with a garrison battalion. Graves's army career ended dramatically with an incident which could have led to a charge of desertion. He wrote:
"Having been posted to Limerick in late 1918,
I woke up with a sudden chill, which I recognized
as the first symptoms of Spanish influenza.
I decided to make a run for it. I should at least
have my influenza in an English, and not an Irish,
hospital."
Arriving at Waterloo with a high fever but without the official papers that would secure his release from the army, he chanced to share a taxi with a demobilisation officer also returning from Ireland, who completed his papers for him with the necessary secret codes.
Robert Graves After the Great War
Immediately after the war, Graves with his wife, Nancy Nicholson had a growing family, but he was financially insecure and weakened physically and mentally:
"I was very thin, very nervous, and with about four
years' loss of sleep to make up, I was waiting until
I got well enough to go to Oxford on the Government
educational grant.
I knew that it would be years before I could face
anything but a quiet country life. My disabilities were
many: I could not use a telephone, I felt sick every
time I travelled by train, and to see more than two
new people in a single day prevented me from
sleeping.
I felt ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy, but had
sworn on the very day of my demobilization never to
be under anyone's orders for the rest of my life.
Somehow I must live by writing."
In October 1919, Robert took up his place at the University of Oxford, soon changing course to English Language and Literature, though managing to retain his Classics exhibition.
In consideration of his health, he was permitted to live a little outside Oxford, on Boars Hill, where the residents included Robert Bridges, John Masefield (his landlord), Edmund Blunden, Gilbert Murray and Robert Nichols. Later, the family moved to Worlds End Cottage on Collice Street, Islip, Oxfordshire.
Robert's most notable Oxford companion was T. E. Lawrence, then a Fellow of All Souls', with whom he discussed contemporary poetry and shared in the planning of elaborate pranks. By this time, he had become an atheist. His work was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
While still an undergraduate Robert established a grocers shop on the outskirts of Oxford but the business soon failed. He also failed his BA degree, but was exceptionally permitted to take a Bachelor of Letters by dissertation instead, allowing him to pursue a teaching career.
In 1926, Robert took up a post as a professor of English Literature at Cairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding, with whom he was having an affair. Graves later claimed that one of his pupils at the university was a young Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Robert returned to London briefly, where he separated from his wife under highly emotional circumstances (at one point Laura Riding attempted suicide) before leaving to live with Riding in Deià, Majorca.
There they continued to publish letterpress books under the rubric of the Seizin Press, and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928). Both works had great influence on modern literary criticism.
Robert Graves' Literary Career
In 1927, Robert published Lawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography of T. E. Lawrence. The autobiographical Good-Bye to All That (1929, revised by him and republished in 1957) proved a success, but cost him many of his friends, notably Siegfried Sassoon.
In 1934, Robert published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius. Using classical sources, he constructed a complex and compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius, a tale extended in the sequel Claudius the God (1935).
I, Claudius received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1934. Later, in the 1970's, the Claudius books were turned into the very popular television series I, Claudius, with Sir Derek Jacobi shown in both Britain and United States.
Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
Graves and Laura Riding left Majorca in 1936 at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and in 1939 they moved to the United States, taking lodging in New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Their volatile relationship and eventual breakup was described by Robert's nephew Richard Perceval Graves in Robert Graves: 1927–1940: the Years with Laura, and T. S. Matthews's Jacks or Better (1977). It was also the basis for Miranda Seymour's novel The Summer of '39 (1998).
After returning to Britain, Graves began a relationship with Beryl Hodge, the wife of Alan Hodge, his collaborator on The Long Week-End (1940) and The Reader Over Your Shoulder (1943).
Graves and Beryl (they were not to marry until 1950) lived in Galmpton, Torbay until 1946, when they re-established a home with their three children, in Deià, Majorca. The house is now a museum.
The year 1946 also saw the publication of Robert's historical novel King Jesus. He published The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth in 1948; it is a study of the nature of poetic inspiration, interpreted in terms of the classical and Celtic mythology he knew so well.
He turned to science fiction with Seven Days in New Crete (1949), and in 1953 he published The Nazarene Gospel Restored with Joshua Podro.
Robert also wrote Hercules, My Shipmate, published under that name in 1945 (but first published as The Golden Fleece in 1944).
In 1955, he published The Greek Myths, which retells a large body of Greek myths, each tale followed by extensive commentary drawn from the system of The White Goddess. His retellings are well respected; many of his unconventional interpretations and etymologies are dismissed by classicists.
Graves in turn dismissed the reactions of classical scholars, arguing that they are too specialised and prose-minded to interpret ancient poetic meaning, and that:
"The few independent thinkers are
the poets, who try to keep civilisation
alive."
He published a volume of short stories, ¡Catacrok! Mostly Stories, Mostly Funny, in 1956. In 1961, he became Professor of Poetry at Oxford, a post he held until 1966.
In 1967, Robert Graves published, together with Omar Ali-Shah, a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The translation quickly became controversial; Graves was attacked for trying to break the spell of famed passages in Edward FitzGerald's Victorian translation.
L. P. Elwell-Sutton, an orientalist at Edinburgh University, maintained that the manuscript used by Ali-Shah and Graves, which Ali-Shah and his brother Idries Shah claimed had been in their family for 800 years, was a forgery. The translation was a critical disaster, and Graves' reputation suffered severely due to what the public perceived as his gullibility in falling for the Shah brothers' deception.
In 1968, Graves was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry by Queen Elizabeth II. His private audience with the Queen was shown in the BBC documentary film Royal Family, which aired in 1969.
From the 1960's until his death, Robert Graves frequently exchanged letters with Spike Milligan. Many of their letters to each other are collected in the book Dear Robert, Dear Spike.
On the 11th. November 1985, Graves was among sixteen Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner. The inscription on the stone was written by friend and fellow Great War poet Wilfred Owen. It reads:
"My subject is War, and the pity
of War. The Poetry is in the pity."
Of the 16 poets, Graves was the only one still living at the time of the commemoration ceremony, though he died less than a month later.
UK government documents released in 2012 indicate that Graves turned down a CBE in 1957.
In 2012, the Nobel Records were opened after 50 years, and it was revealed that Graves was among a shortlist of authors considered for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, along with John Steinbeck (who was that year's recipient of the prize), Lawrence Durrell, Jean Anouilh and Karen Blixen.
Graves was rejected because, even though he had written several historical novels, he was still primarily seen as a poet, and committee member Henry Olsson was reluctant to award any Anglo-Saxon poet the prize before the death of Ezra Pound, believing that other writers did not match his talent.
In 2017, Seven Stories Press began its Robert Graves Project. republishing fourteen of Graves' out-of-print books.
UK government documents released in 2023 reveal that in 1967 Graves was considered for, but then passed over for, the post of Poet Laureate.
His religious belief has been examined by Patrick Grant, "Belief in anarchy: Robert Graves as mythographer," in Six Modern Authors and Problems of Belief.
Robert Graves' Sexuality
Robert Graves was bisexual, having intense romantic relationships with both men and women, though the word he coined for it was "pseudo-homosexual." Graves noted:
"I was raised to be prudishly innocent,
as my mother had planned I should be."
In fact his mother, Amy, forbade speaking about sex, save in a "gruesome" context, and insisted That:
"All skin must be covered."
During his days in Penrallt, he had "innocent crushes" on boys; one in particular was a boy named Ronny:
"Ronny climbed trees, killed pigeons with
a catapult and broke all the school rules
while never seeming to get caught."
At Charterhouse, an all-boys school, it was common for boys to develop amorous but seldom erotic relationships, which the headmaster mostly ignored.
Graves described boxing with a friend, Raymond Rodakowski, as having a "a lot of sex feeling", and although Graves admitted to loving Raymond, he would dismiss it as "more comradely than amorous."
In his fourth year at Charterhouse, Graves met "Dick" (George "Peter" Harcourt Johnstone) with whom he would develop "an even stronger relationship".
Johnstone was an object of adoration in Graves's early poems. Graves's feelings for Johnstone were exploited by bullies, who led Graves to believe that Johnstone was seen kissing the choir-master.
Graves, jealous, demanded the choir-master's resignation. During the Great War, Johnstone remained a "solace" to Graves. Despite Graves's own "pure and innocent" view of Johnstone, Graves's cousin Gerald wrote in a letter that:
"Johnstone is not at all the innocent
fellow I took him for, but as bad as
anyone could be".
Johnstone remained a subject for Graves' poems despite this. Communication between them ended when Johnstone's mother found their letters and forbade further contact with Graves. Johnstone was later arrested for attempting to seduce a Canadian soldier, which removed Graves's denial about Johnstone's infidelity, causing Graves to collapse.
In 1917, Graves met Marjorie Machin, an auxiliary nurse from Kent. He admired her "direct manner and practical approach to life". However Graves did not pursue the relationship when he realised that Machin had a fiancé at the Front.
This began a period where Graves would begin to take interest in women with more masculine traits. Nancy Nicholson, his future wife, was an ardent feminist: she kept her hair short, wore trousers, and had "boyish directness and youth."
Her feminism never conflicted with Graves's own ideas of female superiority. Siegfried Sassoon, who felt as if Graves and he had a relationship of a fashion, felt betrayed by Graves's new relationship, and declined to go to the wedding. Graves apparently never loved Sassoon in the same fashion that Sassoon loved Graves.
Graves's and Nicholson's marriage was strained, with Graves living with "shell shock", and having an insatiable need for sex, which Nicholson did not reciprocate. Nancy forbade any mention of the war, which added to the conflict.
In 1926, he met Laura Riding, with whom he would run away in 1929 while still married to Nicholson. Prior to this, Graves, Riding and Nicholson attempted a triadic relationship called "The Trinity."
Despite the implications, Riding and Nicholson were most likely heterosexual. The triangle became the "Holy Circle" with the addition of Irish poet Geoffrey Phibbs, who himself was still married to Irish artist Norah McGuinness. This relationship revolved around the worship and reverence of Laura Riding.
Graves and Phibbs both slept with Riding. When Phibbs attempted to leave the relationship, Graves was sent to track him down, even threatening to kill Phibbs if he did not return to the circle. When Phibbs resisted, Riding threw herself out of a window, with Graves following suit to reach her.
Graves' commitment to Riding was so strong that he entered, on her word, a period of enforced celibacy, which he did not enjoy.
By 1938, no longer entranced by Riding, Graves fell in love with the then-married Beryl Hodge. In 1950, after much dispute with Nicholson (whom he had not yet divorced), he married Beryl.
However despite having a loving marriage with Beryl, Graves took on a 17-year-old muse, Judith Bledsoe, in 1950. Although the relationship was described as "not overtly sexual", Graves later in 1952 attacked Judith's new fiancé, getting the police called on him in the process.
Robert later had three successive female muses, who came to dominate his poetry.
The Death and Legacy of Robert Graves
During the early 1970's, Graves began to experience increasingly severe memory loss. By his 80th. birthday in 1975, he had come to the end of his working life.
He lived for another decade, in an increasingly dependent condition, until he died from heart failure on the 7th. December 1985 at the age of 90 years.
He was laid to rest the next morning in the small churchyard on a hill at Deià, at the site of a shrine that had once been sacred to the White Goddess of Pelion.
His second wife, Beryl Graves, died on the 27th. October 2003, and her body was interred in the same grave.
Three of Robert's former houses have a blue plaque on them: in Wimbledon, Brixham, and Islip.
Graves had eight children. With his first wife, Nancy Nicholson (1899-1977), he had Jennie (who married journalist Alexander Clifford), David (who was killed in the Second World War), Catherine (who married nuclear scientist Clifford Dalton at Aldershot), and Sam.
With his second wife, Beryl Pritchard Hodge (1915–2003), he had William (author of the well-received memoir Wild Olives: Life on Majorca with Robert Graves), Lucia (a translator and author whose versions of novels by Carlos Ruiz Zafón have been successful commercially), Juan (addressed in one of Robert Graves' most famous and critically praised poems, "To Juan at the Winter Solstice"), and Tomás (a writer and musician).
On December 5th distributing monareliefy.org blankets to IDPs and vulnerable families at Shamlan area of the capital Sana'a
During December 2- 16, 2015, the monareliefye.org was able to deliver IDPs and vulnerable families living in different areas in in and around the capital Sana'a with blankets, clothes and food aid packages.
Our campaigns lasted for almost two weeks and aimed at drawing attention of all human being in the world to the suffer of Yemenis under the war and blockade of Saudi regime on Yemen.
Artists, actors, singers and journalists from Yemen were invited by monareliefye.org to take part in the campaigns that almost succeeding in providing IDPs and vulnerable families different kinds of aid that they needed.
Pictures taken on December 5th , 2015 by monareliefye.org in Shamlan area of Sana’a.
Seeing Santa distribute the presents. This was at my cousin Melinda's place up in Stockton, CA during our family's annual Christmas party gathering here. We had lots of good food, fun games, fellowship, a short service, white elephant, the distribution of all the Christmas presents with Santa, and simply enjoyed the time we had with one another on this joyous holiday season. Anyway, hope y'all are having a nice and safe holiday season so far! (Tuesday late evening, December 24, 2024)
*Christmas is not found in the store-bought gifts but in the shared smiles, the heartfelt conversations, and the moments that touch the soul.
AYC & Brown Distributing's Ultimate Tailgate 2013
Photos by Anthony-Johnson Photography www.facebook.com/AnthonyJohnsonsPhotography
6th annual Virginia Beer Festival at Town Point Park on Norfolk's downtown waterfront. 19 May 2007.waterfront. 19 May 2007.
There's a write-up at www.yoursforgoodfermentables.com/2007/05/beer-on-bay.html.
Distribution of Solar LED Lanterns to best performing students of PEP Schools under Pervaiz Lodhie’s Pehli Kiran ( First ray of Light) initiative
Dated: Saturday March 12, 2016
Location: Raichand Meghwar Primary School
Old Mirpur, District Mirpurkhas
&
Sunflower Primary School,
Khawaja District Tando Allahyar
Giving Solar Lanterns as a prize to the best performing students is not a new initiative of Pervaiz Lodhie. In previous years Lodhie Foundation has extended his initiative to various schools in Sindh and Punjab.
Inspiring with the idea, Mr. Jonathan Mitchell PHD President and Founder of Concentric development Inc. invited Pervaiz Lodhie to extend his program of distributing solar lanterns as prizes in PEP schools. Pervaiz Lodhie has immediately offered to gift 249 lanterns, allowing for three prizes per school. His suggestion was to distribute them to 1)Top student of the year 2) Top most improved student of the year 3) Top best attendance student of the year.
Mr. Lodhie also suggested encouraging the prize recipients to teach a short literacy course to family members or relatives.
During his recent visit to Pakistan in March 2016, Pervaiz visited the two schools in Mirpurkas and Tando Allahyar and distributed the solar lanterns to the 7 best students. Remaining 242 lanterns will be distributed in first and second week of April 2016
The Primary Education Project (PEP) is a part of the education work of Diocese of Hyderabad that is working to provide sustainable quality education to the poorest children of Rural Sindh, Pakistan. PEP has been involved in the work of education since 2002 and currently has 83 schools in the five district areas of rural Sindh, which are Badin, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and Umerkot. At Present 4970 students are enrolled in 83 schools.
Participants from Lodhie Foundation/Shaantech:
Pervaiz Lodhie, President and Founder LEDtronics Inc and Shaan Technologies Pakistan, Founder Lodhie Foundation
Shahid Siddique General Manager Shaan Technologies private Limited
Sohaib Ahmed Sheikh, Business development Executive
Participant from Primary Education project (PEP):
Lilian Charles, Program Manager PEP,
Parkash Peter , Smile Coordinator
Salvin John Aadiyal, Media Manager at Primary Education Project (PEP)
FAO has distributed farm inputs worth over US$ 623,000.00 to over 6,500 food insecure households in The Gambia. This FAO-supported programme covered households in the North Bank Region (NBR), Lower River Region (LRR), Central River Region (CRR) and Upper River Region (URR)). These regions have stunting rates above the national average. The intervention aims to reverse the trend through increased crops (rice, maize, groundnuts) production and productivity. Photo Credit: ©FAO/Samuel Creppy
Coffee Distributing truck making deliveries in Manhattan. As seen on iseecdctrucks.com/2011/04/28/cdc-truck-driving-lexington-...
Taken from the end of the documentary "Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle" (1978).
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Locally Lahore Team planned to organize Iftar programs in Holy Month of Ramadan at different places (preselected) of Lahore under community giveback initiative.
Hizmet Relief distributes hot meals in Haiti after the earthquake.
Hizmet Relief sent 119 volunteers to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Hizmet Relief was the first organization to distribute food after the earthquake. Volunteers distributed hot meals to 1000 people each day for 30 days. Because of the earthquake many people were left homeless. Hizmet Relief distributed tents, blankets and clothes.
15 doctors attended this vital campaign and gave medical help to the injured. Hizmet Relief strongly believes that the impact moment is the time when the help is most needed but in order to help people in need for a long duration of time futuristic projects should be brought to life. Hizmet Relief and Kimse Yok Mu built a medical clinic. The clinic is planned to be in operation in the next year.
First up we all need a backpack. I sewed them all a backpack. The boys have a rescue pack (Diego). Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw them!
IOM distributes return kits including gas stoves, wooden beds, mattresses and cookware to flood victims in El Salvador with funding from the European Commission for Humanitarian and Civil Protection (ECHO). On 7 November 2009, a low pressure system caused floods and mudslides in the country leaving 180 dead and hundreds homeless.
Feel free to print and distribute everywhere!
Thanks to Leslie, JP's lovely wife, for designing this flyer. Hugs!
Thanks also to my fellow Scottaholics, JP and San, for being totally AWESOME!!!
Our party is going to rock ultimate.
There's a portal on the subspace highway directly to our party...
And if you like to RSVP to such things on Facebook, here you go...
November 20th, 2017. Universal Children's Day takes place annually on November 20th. First proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1954, it was established to encourage all countries to institute a day, firstly to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children and secondly to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world's children. On the eve of Universal Children's Day , CSDO (Child & Social Development Organization ) Celebrated the day in SCCI . Sialkot Eden Smile Lions Clubs ( District 305 N2) Pakistan, Distributed 150 School Bags among the Children's of CSDO Schools and Spent whole day with Childrens with joyfull moments. Very special thanks to Second Vice District Governor Lion Arif Khawar Butt, Regin Chairperson Lion Danish Abid (Executive Member SCCI) for their Participation and appreciating words. In the end I congratulate Club President, and all the members of Sialkot Eden Smile Lions Club on their exemplary team work and completion of a very successful event.