View allAll Photos Tagged Existence
from the book
STRATEGIES d'EXISTENCE"
strategy
by Morten Friis /1996
translation from danish text for the book "Strategies d' existence "
colonel formulates this liberation of the exhibition
in his manifeste
- les differents types de moving exhibition. bordertransgressing and as such is in accordance with the working conditions dictated to the artist by our time. the moving exhibition is a military strategy which simultaneously pays hommage to the sensibility of the artist.
moving exhibition, the bourgeois type, pays this hommage to the private, introverted room. the artist is protected against the eyes of the public or in company with “the understanding”.
the semi-bourgeois takes place in an environment where the artist is already accepted. in this type the integration of the public is a central idea. colonel insists upon the existence of a creative potential within the public. the provocation of this potential is central to the extrovert universe of colonel.
the offensive type underlines the penetrative. the penetration. it is here that the artist agressively manifests himself within the world of art. the artist’s dynamism attracts attention. the artworld is deprived of its monopoly. an exhibition, fernissage, conference looses its substance, when the offensive moving marches in.
flying exhibition is likewise offensive. the works of art are hurled out as paper aeroplanes. this is the most striking visual image of strategy, tactic and means in colonels exposition-method moving exhibition.
the vagabond type attacks the public space in all its entirety. it is democratic. humble. mobile.
the exhibitionistic type is based upon the aforementioned fascination colonel has for the potential of the individual. this type also represents the movement from the inside and out. from the interior to the exterior. the private is exposed into the public.
l’impermeable is a sublime construction. onto which is printed a thematic exhibition. the exterior part of l’impermeable can be wiewed by all. the interior is hidden. in its totality l’impermeable forms an accumulation of works. l’impermeable pierces all borderlines, surmounts all obstacles and reaches its goal. at the same time as its carrier: the artist.
sport art denotes an expansion and an acceleration of moving exhibition. sport art elevates the competition to an ideal with the motto: sport art is a competition. the direct, physical, social communication becomes accentuated. the work of art exists in the midst of a direct confrontation. moving surpasses its own dynamic nature by being able to follow the acceleration of sport art.
la valise. the suitcase, is a type of exhibition with an integrated, automatic mobility. colonel broadens the concept of “exhibition” by filling the suitcase with works of art. the suitcase is thus exhibited as a piece of art, whereas its contents remain hidden. however, colonel leaves the possibility of a breakthrough into the private sphere of the artistic universe open -
the visa. in modern mythologi, as in reality, the visa represents the solution that can open doors to new worlds. at the same time it has the means to keep the unwanted out. access to the interior of l’impermeable, the suitcase or other intimate exhibitions requires a valid visa, this is given by the artist. as an exhibition strategy this underlines the demands of the artist to his audience - that of undivided attention and passion. the traditional artistic presentation is turned around by means of the visa. art becomes the chased. the object of passion.
transport. the unpenetrable surface of the media stands as a wall between the artist and his public. colonel has perforated this wall and created a series of surprising loopholes. entrances through which manifests, works of art and statements can step through. colonels media strategy is simple. the birthday section, which is reserved for personal greetings, is used to announce new artforms e.g. the conclusionism. ad-papers are used in the same way to exhibit works of art. like a guerillasoldier of the media colonel places his messages and works undercover. the mediaimages are thus elevated to works of art. presented as such they obviously become integrated in the medias treatment of the artist. they are reproduced in the reviews and articles and is thereupon transported from media to media. on their way they become victims of reduction and change. they live an autonomous life in the media. this transition and transformation becomes an integral part of a work of art and acts simultanously as an analysis of the media’s consumption of the work of art.
strategy. the penetrating is a standard theme in the exhibition strategies of colonel. colonel proposes a frontal attack on the world, where artist and exhibition fuse together in a veritable warmachine, where all surfaces are assaulted. coloned proposes a fusion of artist and public. a common movement which also leads to a revealing of the mechanisms that lock the creative in a rigid position. yet at the same time one continuously discovers a most personal, emotionally based train of thought in colonel’s strategic work. a work based on existentialistic considerations. it is in this point of intersection, between the inner and the outer, that we discover colonel.
Morten Friis
from the book
STRATEGIES d'EXISTENCE" by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel
ISBN877245456949
Rhodos Publishing h
from the book
STRATEGIES d'EXISTENCE" by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel
ISBN877245456949
Rhodos Publishing house 1996
The Bell AH-1 Cobra (also called HueyCobra) owes its existence to the Vietnam War. While the proof of the air cavalry concept was being proven every day, the US Army was also losing huge amounts of helicopters to ground fire. Equipping the troop-carrying “slicks” with door guns helped, and arming the UH-1 Iroquois/Huey with weapons was another interim solution. Clearly, however, the solution lay with a dedicated attack helicopter that could defend the troop carriers.
Bell, the manufacturer of the UH-1, had been also experimenting with a concept of a heavily armed, turreted, and thin fuselage helicopter. The US Army awarded a proof-of-concept contract to Bell, which replied in a heavily modified Model 47 called the Sioux Scout. It failed to win any orders, but Bell kept at it even as the Army pursued the far more complicated and expensive AH-56 Cheyenne. This resulted in the Model 209, based on components of the UH-1 and the original conceptual design.
With the Vietnam War intensifying and the Cheyenne going nowhere, the Army issued a requirement for an interim solution, which the Model 209—built and tested in only eight months—won easily. The Army ordered 110 AH-1Gs in April 1966 and the type was in action in Vietnam a year later. It was highly successful there, and successive marks of the Cobra would continue to fight in America’s wars since—Grenada and both Gulf Wars. US Army Cobras were upgraded continually in the 1980s, resulting in a dizzying number of variants: the AH-1S (with upgraded engine), AH-1P (with flat glass windscreen), AH-1Q (with TOW missile system), AH-1E (with 20mm gatling cannon in nose turret), and AH-1F (with laser rangefinder and countermeasures). In 1988, the Army finally gave up and redesignated the whole lot as AH-1S.
US Army Cobras were finally retired in 2001, but USMC Cobras remain in service, with the fleet being converted to AH-1Z Kingcobras. Israel, Iran, and Pakistan likewise have used and continue to use their Cobra fleet, and it is generally considered to be the most successful and prototypical attack helicopter.
This AH-1S is 70-16042, and not much can be found about its career. It may have been originally built as an AH-1G and was later upgraded to an AH-1S, and may have also served in Vietnam. By the late 1980s, it was serving with the 285th Aviation Regiment (Arizona National Guard) at Marana-Silverbell Army Airfield, and was used as a training aircraft. It was retired in 1994 and eventually made its way to Fort Douglas, Utah, where it remains today.
Other than lacking turret guns and a complete cockpit, 70-16042 is in excellent shape, and is displayed with four M200 2.75-inch rocket launchers on the stubwings.
For the first time in six years of existence, the P1 AquaX was hosting a World Championship event sanctioned by IJSBA and it happened in Key West, Florida December 9th and 10th 2017. Since the Thailand King's Cup was being held at the same time, only 18 of the 25 pilots that made the selection were racing this week end. Nevertheless, Key West was a beautiful destination to race, every morning brought a different colour of sunrise and the ever changing blue hues of the water made this race memorable. After marine and storm delays, day one was hard for David Chassier after experiencing mechanical problems. Day two was a little better even if the Yamaha FX SVHO was barely taking 7000 rpm, the French pilot from Blois managed to finish 12 and 13, which placed him 15 overall. A big thank you to Barefoot Billy's Jet Ski Rental that helped us train the first days in Key West as well as Redler's family that gave us assistance and support during the race. Congratulation to our friend Nicolas Rius on landing a 3rd place overall despite a bad shoulder injury and we wish him the best recovery so he can be back a the top for 2018. This was the last race of the season, see you next year :)
In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith.[3] The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), divine simplicity, and as having an eternal and necessary existence. Many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent (perfectly good), and all loving.
God is most often held to be non-corporeal,[3] and to be without any human biological sex,[4][5] yet the concept of God actively creating the universe (as opposed to passively)[6] has caused many religions to describe God using masculine terminology, using such terms as "Him" or "Father". Furthermore, some religions (such as Judaism) attribute only a purely grammatical "gender" to God.[7]
In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[3] Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God.[8]
There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten,[9] premised on being the one "true" Supreme Being and Creator of the Universe.[10] In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, "He Who Is", "I Am that I Am", and the tetragrammaton YHWH (Hebrew: יהוה, which means: "I am who I am"; "He Who Exists") are used as names of God, while Yahweh and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalizations of YHWH. In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, the latter of which is believed by some scholars to descend from the Egyptian Aten.[11][12][13][14][15] In Islam, the name Allah, "Al-El", or "Al-Elah" ("the God") is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic deity.[16] Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith,[17] Waheguru in Sikhism,[18] and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.[19]
The many different conceptions of God, and competing claims as to God's characteristics, aims, and actions, have led to the development of ideas of omnitheism, pandeism,[20][21] or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is one underlying theological truth, of which all religions express a partial understanding, and as to which "the devout in the various great world religions are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different, overlapping concepts or mental images of Him."[22]
Contents [hide]
1Etymology and usage
2General conceptions
2.1Oneness
2.2Theism, deism and pantheism
2.3Other concepts
3Non-theistic views
3.1Agnosticism and atheism
3.2Anthropomorphism
4Existence
5Specific attributes
5.1Names
5.2Gender
5.3Relationship with creation
6Depiction
6.1Zoroastrianism
6.2Islam
6.3Judaism
6.4Christianity
7Theological approaches
8Distribution of belief
9See also
9.1In specific religions
10References
11Further reading
12External links
Etymology and usage
The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.
Main article: God (word)
The earliest written form of the Germanic word God (always, in this usage, capitalized[23]) comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke".[24] The Germanic words for God were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the words became a masculine syntactic form.[25]
The word 'Allah' in Arabic calligraphy
In the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism.[26][27] The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh. In many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton.[28]
Allāh (Arabic: الله) is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God" (with a capital G), while "ʾilāh" (Arabic: إله) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[29][30][31] God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari.[32]
Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå, reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female). It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means "intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning "placing (dʰeh1) one's mind (*mn̩-s)", hence "wise".[33]
Waheguru (Punjabi: vāhigurū) is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means "Wonderful Teacher" in the Punjabi language. Vāhi (a Middle Persian borrowing) means "wonderful" and guru (Sanskrit: guru) is a term denoting "teacher". Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all descriptions. The most common usage of the word "Waheguru" is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other:
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Wonderful Lord's Khalsa, Victory is to the Wonderful Lord.
Baha, the "greatest" name for God in the Baha'i faith, is Arabic for "All-Glorious".
General conceptions
Main article: Conceptions of God
There is no clear consensus on the nature or even the existence of God.[34] The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the monotheistic definition of God in Judaism, the trinitarian view of Christians, and the Islamic concept of God. The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste, ranging from monotheistic to polytheistic. Divinity was recognized by the historical Buddha, particularly Śakra and Brahma. However, other sentient beings, including gods, can at best only play a supportive role in one's personal path to salvation. Conceptions of God in the latter developments of the Mahayana tradition give a more prominent place to notions of the divine.[citation needed]
Oneness
Main articles: Monotheism and Henotheism
The Trinity is the belief that God is composed of The Father, The Son (embodied metaphysically in the physical realm by Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.
Monotheists hold that there is only one god, and may claim that the one true god is worshiped in different religions under different names. The view that all theists actually worship the same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in Hinduism[35] and Sikhism.[36] In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in three persons. The Trinity comprises The Father, The Son (embodied metaphysically by Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.[37] Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid (meaning "oneness" or "uniqueness"). God is described in the Quran as: "Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."[38][39] Muslims repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, and are not expected to visualize God.[40]
Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.[41]
Theism, deism and pantheism
Main articles: Theism, Deism, and Pantheism
Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought; that God created and sustains everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; and that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example, religious experience and the prayers of humans.[42] Theism holds that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously infinite and in some way present in the affairs of the world.[43] Not all theists subscribe to all of these propositions, but each usually subscribes to some of them (see, by way of comparison, family resemblance).[42] Catholic theology holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, asserts that, due to the nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future. Theism is sometimes used to refer in general to any belief in a god or gods, i.e., monotheism or polytheism.[44][45]
"God blessing the seventh day", a watercolor painting depicting God, by William Blake (1757 – 1827)
Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it.[43] In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and neither answers prayers nor produces miracles. Common in Deism is a belief that God has no interest in humanity and may not even be aware of humanity. Pandeism and Panendeism, respectively, combine Deism with the Pantheistic or Panentheistic beliefs.[21][46][47] Pandeism is proposed to explain as to Deism why God would create a universe and then abandon it,[48] and as to Pantheism, the origin and purpose of the universe.[48][49]
Pantheism holds that God is the universe and the universe is God, whereas Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe.[50] It is also the view of the Liberal Catholic Church; Theosophy; some views of Hinduism except Vaishnavism, which believes in panentheism; Sikhism; some divisions of Neopaganism and Taoism, along with many varying denominations and individuals within denominations. Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God—which has wide acceptance in Hasidic Judaism, particularly from their founder The Baal Shem Tov—but only as an addition to the Jewish view of a personal god, not in the original pantheistic sense that denies or limits persona to God.[citation needed]
Other concepts
Dystheism, which is related to theodicy, is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil. One such example comes from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, in which Ivan Karamazov rejects God on the grounds that he allows children to suffer.[51]
In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. The contemporaneous French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological essence of Life.[52]
God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[3] These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides,[53] Augustine of Hippo,[53] and Al-Ghazali,[8] respectively.
Non-theistic views
See also: Evolutionary origin of religions and Evolutionary psychology of religion
Non-theist views about God also vary. Some non-theists avoid the concept of God, whilst accepting that it is significant to many; other non-theists understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations. The nineteenth-century English atheist Charles Bradlaugh declared that he refused to say "There is no God", because "the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation";[54] he said more specifically that he disbelieved in the Christian god. Stephen Jay Gould proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world.[55]
Another view, advanced by Richard Dawkins, is that the existence of God is an empirical question, on the grounds that "a universe with a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference."[56] Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator (not necessarily a God) would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old.[57]
Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their book, The Grand Design, that it is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.[58] Neuroscientist Michael Nikoletseas has proposed that questions of the existence of God are no different from questions of natural sciences. Following a biological comparative approach, he concludes that it is highly probable that God exists, and, although not visible, it is possible that we know some of his attributes.[59]
Agnosticism and atheism
Agnosticism is the view that, the truth values of certain claims – especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God, the divine or the supernatural exist – are unknown and perhaps unknowable.[60][61][62]
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, or a God.[63][64] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[65]
Anthropomorphism
Main article: Anthropomorphism
Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites examples from Greek mythology, which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems.[66] Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics' epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries.[67] Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of the world because it makes those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father.[68]
Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups, they may have created gods as a means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.[69]
Existence
Main article: Existence of God
St. Thomas Aquinas summed up five main arguments as proofs for God's existence.
Isaac Newton saw the existence of a Creator necessary in the movement of astronomical objects.
Arguments about the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Different views include that: "God does not exist" (strong atheism); "God almost certainly does not exist" (de facto atheism); "no one knows whether God exists" (agnosticism[70]);"God exists, but this cannot be proven or disproven" (de facto theism); and that "God exists and this can be proven" (strong theism).[55]
Countless arguments have been proposed to prove the existence of God.[71] Some of the most notable arguments are the Five Ways of Aquinas, the Argument from Desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by St. Anselm and René Descartes.[72]
St. Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: "By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature.[73] His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.[74]
Scientist Isaac Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.[75] Nevertheless, he rejected polymath Leibniz' thesis that God would necessarily make a perfect world which requires no intervention from the creator. In Query 31 of the Opticks, Newton simultaneously made an argument from design and for the necessity of intervention:
For while comets move in very eccentric orbs in all manner of positions, blind fate could never make all the planets move one and the same way in orbs concentric, some inconsiderable irregularities excepted which may have arisen from the mutual actions of comets and planets on one another, and which will be apt to increase, till this system wants a reformation.[76]
St. Thomas believed that the existence of God is self-evident in itself, but not to us. "Therefore I say that this proposition, "God exists", of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject.... Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their nature—namely, by effects."[77] St. Thomas believed that the existence of God can be demonstrated. Briefly in the Summa theologiae and more extensively in the Summa contra Gentiles, he considered in great detail five arguments for the existence of God, widely known as the quinque viae (Five Ways).
For the original text of the five proofs, see quinque viae
Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since there can be no infinite chain of causes of motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First Cause, called God.
Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist.
Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative that is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God (Note: Thomas does not ascribe actual qualities to God Himself).
Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God (Note that even when we guide objects, in Thomas's view, the source of all our knowledge comes from God as well).[78]
Alister McGrath, a formerly atheistic scientist and theologian who has been highly critical of Richard Dawkins' version of atheism
Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian A.E. McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method.[79][80] Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argues that science and religion are not in conflict and do not overlap.[81]
Some findings in the fields of cosmology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience are interpreted by some atheists (including Lawrence M. Krauss and Sam Harris) as evidence that God is an imaginary entity only, with no basis in reality.[82][83][84] These atheists claim that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined, embellished and promulgated in a trans-generational manner.[85] Richard Dawkins interprets such findings not only as a lack of evidence for the material existence of such a God, but as extensive evidence to the contrary.[55] However, his views are opposed by some theologians and scientists including Alister McGrath, who argues that existence of God is compatible with science.[86]
Neuroscientist Michael Nikoletseas has proposed that questions of the existence of God are no different from questions of natural sciences. Following a biological comparative approach, he concludes that it is highly probable that God exists, and, although not visible, it is possible that we know some of his attributes.[59]
Specific attributes
Different religious traditions assign differing (though often similar) attributes and characteristics to God, including expansive powers and abilities, psychological characteristics, gender characteristics, and preferred nomenclature. The assignment of these attributes often differs according to the conceptions of God in the culture from which they arise. For example, attributes of God in Christianity, attributes of God in Islam, and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in Judaism share certain similarities arising from their common roots.
Names
Main article: Names of God
99 names of Allah, in Chinese Sini (script)
The word God is "one of the most complex and difficult in the English language." In the Judeo-Christian tradition, "the Bible has been the principal source of the conceptions of God". That the Bible "includes many different images, concepts, and ways of thinking about" God has resulted in perpetual "disagreements about how God is to be conceived and understood".[87]
Throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bibles there are many names for God. One of them is Elohim. Another one is El Shaddai, meaning "God Almighty".[88] A third notable name is El Elyon, which means "The Most High God".[89]
God is described and referred in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).[90]
Supreme soul
The Brahma Kumaris use the term "Supreme Soul" to refer to God. They see God as incorporeal and eternal, and regard him as a point of living light like human souls, but without a physical body, as he does not enter the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. God is seen as the perfect and constant embodiment of all virtues, powers and values and that He is the unconditionally loving Father of all souls, irrespective of their religion, gender, or culture.[91]
Vaishnavism, a tradition in Hinduism, has list of titles and names of Krishna.
Gender
Main article: Gender of God
The gender of God may be viewed as either a literal or an allegorical aspect of a deity who, in classical western philosophy, transcends bodily form.[92][93] Polytheistic religions commonly attribute to each of the gods a gender, allowing each to interact with any of the others, and perhaps with humans, sexually. In most monotheistic religions, God has no counterpart with which to relate sexually. Thus, in classical western philosophy the gender of this one-and-only deity is most likely to be an analogical statement of how humans and God address, and relate to, each other. Namely, God is seen as begetter of the world and revelation which corresponds to the active (as opposed to the receptive) role in sexual intercourse.[6]
Biblical sources usually refer to God using male words, except Genesis 1:26-27,[94][95] Psalm 123:2-3, and Luke 15:8-10 (female); Hosea 11:3-4, Deuteronomy 32:18, Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15, Isaiah 42:14, Psalm 131:2 (a mother); Deuteronomy 32:11-12 (a mother eagle); and Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 (a mother hen).
Relationship with creation
See also: Creator deity, Prayer, and Worship
And Elohim Created Adam by William Blake, c.1795
Prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Muslims believe that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[96][97] He is viewed as a personal God and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God. Prayer often also includes supplication and asking forgiveness. God is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance.[98] Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."[99]
Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind, if there is one. There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view is taken by exclusivists, who believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine, which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism. A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism, i.e., the belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism, where everybody is seen as equally right; an example being universalism: the doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is syncretism, mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement.
Jews and Christians believe that humans are created in the likeness of God, and are the center, crown and key to God's creation, stewards for God, supreme over everything else God had made (Gen 1:26); for this reason, humans are in Christianity called the "Children of God".[100]
Depiction
God is defined as incorporeal,[3] and invisible from direct sight, and thus cannot be portrayed in a literal visual image.
The respective principles of religions may or may not permit them to use images (which are entirely symbolic) to represent God in art or in worship .
Zoroastrianism
Ahura Mazda (depiction is on the right, with high crown) presents Ardashir I (left) with the ring of kingship. (Relief at Naqsh-e Rustam, 3rd century CE)
During the early Parthian Empire, Ahura Mazda was visually represented for worship. This practice ended during the beginning of the Sassanid empire. Zoroastrian iconoclasm, which can be traced to the end of the Parthian period and the beginning of the Sassanid, eventually put an end to the use of all images of Ahura Mazda in worship. However, Ahura Mazda continued to be symbolized by a dignified male figure, standing or on horseback which is found in Sassanian investiture.[101]
Islam
Further information: God in Islam
Muslims believe that God (Allah) is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of His creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, are not expected to visualize God.[40]
Judaism
At least some Jews do not use any image for God, since God is the unimageable Being who cannot be represented in material forms.[102] In some samples of Jewish Art, however, sometimes God, or at least His Intervention, is indicated by a Hand Of God symbol, which represents the bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or Voice of God;[103] this use of the Hand Of God is carried over to Christian Art.
Christianity
This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please help by spinning off or relocating any relevant information, and removing excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia's inclusion policy. (April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Early Christians believed that the words of the Gospel of John 1:18: "No man has seen God at any time" and numerous other statements were meant to apply not only to God, but to all attempts at the depiction of God.[104]
Use of the symbolic Hand of God in the Ascension from the Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850
However, later on the Hand of God symbol is found several times in the only ancient synagogue with a large surviving decorative scheme, the Dura Europos Synagogue of the mid-3rd century, and was probably adopted into Early Christian art from Jewish art. It was common in Late Antique art in both East and West, and remained the main way of symbolizing the actions or approval of God the Father in the West until about the end of the Romanesque period. It also represents the bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or voice of God,[103] just like in Jewish Art.
In situations, such as the Baptism of Christ, where a specific representation of God the Father was indicated, the Hand of God was used, with increasing freedom from the Carolingian period until the end of the Romanesque. This motif now, since the discovery of the 3rd century Dura Europos synagogue, seems to have been borrowed from Jewish art, and is found in Christian art almost from its beginnings.
The use of religious images in general continued to increase up to the end of the 7th century, to the point that in 695, upon assuming the throne, Byzantine emperor Justinian II put an image of Christ on the obverse side of his gold coins, resulting in a rift which ended the use of Byzantine coin types in the Islamic world.[105] However, the increase in religious imagery did not include depictions of God the Father. For instance, while the eighty second canon of the Council of Trullo in 692 did not specifically condemn images of The Father, it suggested that icons of Christ were preferred over Old Testament shadows and figures.[106]
The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the period of Byzantine iconoclasm (literally image-breaking) started. Emperor Leo III (717–741), suppressed the use of icons by imperial edict of the Byzantine Empire, presumably due to a military loss which he attributed to the undue veneration of icons.[107] The edict (which was issued without consulting the Church) forbade the veneration of religious images but did not apply to other forms of art, including the image of the emperor, or religious symbols such as the cross.[108] Theological arguments against icons then began to appear with iconoclasts arguing that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of Jesus at the same time. In this atmosphere, no public depictions of God the Father were even attempted and such depictions only began to appear two centuries later.
The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 effectively ended the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of icons and holy images in general.[109] However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as Saint John of Damascus, drew a distinction between images of God the Father and those of Christ.
In his treatise On the Divine Images John of Damascus wrote: "In former times, God who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see".[110] The implication here is that insofar as God the Father or the Spirit did not become man, visible and tangible, images and portrait icons can not be depicted. So what was true for the whole Trinity before Christ remains true for the Father and the Spirit but not for the Word. John of Damascus wrote:[111]
"If we attempt to make an image of the invisible God, this would be sinful indeed. It is impossible to portray one who is without body:invisible, uncircumscribed and without form."
Around 790 Charlemagne ordered a set of four books that became known as the Libri Carolini (i.e. "Charles' books") to refute what his court mistakenly understood to be the iconoclast decrees of the Byzantine Second Council of Nicaea regarding sacred images. Although not well known during the Middle Ages, these books describe the key elements of the Catholic theological position on sacred images. To the Western Church, images were just objects made by craftsmen, to be utilized for stimulating the senses of the faithful, and to be respected for the sake of the subject represented, not in themselves. The Council of Constantinople (869) (considered ecumenical by the Western Church, but not the Eastern Church) reaffirmed the decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea and helped stamp out any remaining coals of iconoclasm. Specifically, its third canon required the image of Christ to have veneration equal with that of a Gospel book:[112]
We decree that the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the liberator and Savior of all people, must be venerated with the same honor as is given the book of the holy Gospels. For as through the language of the words contained in this book all can reach salvation, so, due to the action which these images exercise by their colors, all wise and simple alike, can derive profit from them.
But images of God the Father were not directly addressed in Constantinople in 869. A list of permitted icons was enumerated at this Council, but symbols of God the Father were not among them.[113] However, the general acceptance of icons and holy images began to create an atmosphere in which God the Father could be symbolized.
Prior to the 10th century no attempt was made to use a human to symbolize God the Father in Western art.[104] Yet, Western art eventually required some way to illustrate the presence of the Father, so through successive representations a set of artistic styles for symbolizing the Father using a man gradually emerged around the 10th century AD. A rationale for the use of a human is the belief that God created the soul of Man in the image of His own (thus allowing Human to transcend the other animals).
It appears that when early artists designed to represent God the Father, fear and awe restrained them from a usage of the whole human figure. Typically only a small part would be used as the image, usually the hand, or sometimes the face, but rarely a whole human. In many images, the figure of the Son supplants the Father, so a smaller portion of the person of the Father is depicted.[114]
By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French illuminated manuscripts, which as a less public form could often be more adventurous in their iconography, and in stained glass church windows in England. Initially the head or bust was usually shown in some form of frame of clouds in the top of the picture space, where the Hand of God had formerly appeared; the Baptism of Christ on the famous baptismal font in Liège of Rainer of Huy is an example from 1118 (a Hand of God is used in another scene). Gradually the amount of the human symbol shown can increase to a half-length figure, then a full-length, usually enthroned, as in Giotto's fresco of c. 1305 in Padua.[115] In the 14th century the Naples Bible carried a depiction of God the Father in the Burning bush. By the early 15th century, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has a considerable number of symbols, including an elderly but tall and elegant full-length figure walking in the Garden of Eden, which show a considerable diversity of apparent ages and dress. The "Gates of Paradise" of the Florence Baptistry by Lorenzo Ghiberti, begun in 1425 use a similar tall full-length symbol for the Father. The Rohan Book of Hours of about 1430 also included depictions of God the Father in half-length human form, which were now becoming standard, and the Hand of God becoming rarer. At the same period other works, like the large Genesis altarpiece by the Hamburg painter Meister Bertram, continued to use the old depiction of Christ as Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all three persons of the Trinity as similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ.
In an early Venetian school Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, (c. 1443) The Father is depicted using the symbol consistently used by other artists later, namely a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the near-physical, but still figurative, description of the Ancient of Days.[116]
. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)
Usage of two Hands of God"(relatively unusual) and the Holy Spirit as a dove in Baptism of Christ, by Verrocchio, 1472
In the Annunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1470, God the Father is portrayed in the red robe and a hat that resembles that of a Cardinal. However, even in the later part of the 15th century, the symbolic representation of the Father and the Holy Spirit as "hands and dove" continued, e.g. in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472.[117]
God the Father with His Right Hand Raised in Blessing, with a triangular halo representing the Trinity, Girolamo dai Libri c. 1555
In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father using an old man, usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo (as a reference to the Trinity), or with a papal crown, specially in Northern Renaissance painting. In these depictions The Father may hold a globe or book (to symbolize God's knowledge and as a reference to how knowledge is deemed divine). He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the Throne of Mercy iconography. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit may hover above. Various people from different classes of society, e.g. kings, popes or martyrs may be present in the picture. In a Trinitarian Pietà, God the Father is often symbolized using a man wearing a papal dress and a papal crown, supporting the dead Christ in his arms. They are depicted as floating in heaven with angels who carry the instruments of the Passion.[118]
Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the Jansenist and Baianist movements as well as more orthodox theologians. As with other attacks on Catholic imagery, this had the effect both of reducing Church support for the less central depictions, and strengthening it for the core ones. In the Western Church, the pressure to restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image.[119]
Artistic depictions of God the Father were uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common depictions of the Trinity were condemned. In 1745 Pope Benedict XIV explicitly supported the Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in 1786 it was still necessary for Pope Pius VI to issue a papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all images of the Trinity from churches.[120]
The famous The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, c.1512
God the Father is symbolized in several Genesis scenes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, most famously The Creation of Adam (whose image of near touching hands of God and Adam is iconic of humanity, being a reminder that Man is created in the Image and Likeness of God (Gen 1:26)).God the Father is depicted as a powerful figure, floating in the clouds in Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in the Frari of Venice, long admired as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art.[121] The Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th century depictions of God the Father. In some of these paintings the Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also depicted God the Father as a man riding on a cloud, above the scenes.[122]
In both the Last Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin paintings by Rubens he depicted God the Father using the image that by then had become widely accepted, a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. In the 17th century, the two Spanish artists Velázquez (whose father-in-law Francisco Pacheco was in charge of the approval of new images for the Inquisition) and Murillo both depicted God the Father using a patriarchal figure with a white beard in a purple robe.
The Ancient of Days (1794) Watercolor etching by William Blake
While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the Star Chamber court in England (except the Archbishop of York) condemned the use of the images of the Trinity in church windows, and some considered them illegal.[123] Later in the 17th century Sir Thomas Browne wrote that he considered the representation of God the Father using an old man "a dangerous act" that might lead to Egyptian symbolism.[124] In 1847, Charles Winston was still critical of such images as a "Romish trend" (a term used to refer to Roman Catholics) that he considered best avoided in England.[125]
In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of symbolic depictions of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list,[126][127] mostly affecting Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in Russia, as well as Greece, Romania, and other Orthodox countries.
Theological approaches
Theologians and philosophers have attributed to God such characteristics as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.[3] These attributes were all claimed to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars, including Maimonides,[53] St Augustine,[53] and Al-Ghazali.[128]
Many philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,[8] while attempting to comprehend the precise implications of God's attributes. Reconciling some of those attributes generated important philosophical problems and debates. For example, God's omniscience may seem to imply that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, their ostensible free will might be illusory, or foreknowledge does not imply predestination, and if God does not know it, God may not be omniscient.[129]
However, if by its essential nature, free will is not predetermined, then the effect of its will can never be perfectly predicted by anyone, regardless of intelligence and knowledge. Although knowledge of the options presented to that will, combined with perfectly infinite intelligence, could be said to provide God with omniscience if omniscience is defined as knowledge or understanding of all that is.
The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response has been either to contend, as does Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic", or to take, as does Richard Swinburne, the evidentialist position.[130] Some theists agree that only some of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of logic, a position summed up by Pascal as "the heart has reasons of which reason does not know."[131] A recent theory using concepts from physics and neurophysiology proposes that God can be conceptualized within the theory of integrative level.[132]
Many religious believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings such as angels, saints, jinn, demons, and devas.[133][134][135][136][137]
Made using Stable Diffusion. I'm using Stable Diffusion to make conceptual illustrations for a grimoire of digital Platonic paganism. You can download it as a free PDF here: ericsteinhart.com/paganism/paganism-home.html
My take on a classic landmark of Sri Lanka. This is Thuparamaya; the oldest stupa in existence on the Island. It was originally built by King Devanampiyathissa in the year 3BC shortly after the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Over the centuries its been subjected to destruction and vandalism at the hands of numerous invaders and looters and has been restored and developed over time by a number of Kings including Sena II, Udaya II, Parakkramabahu I and Agbo II. The current shape and form of the stupa was what was built in 1862AD. An interesting fact was that earth from the Basawakkulama tank was used in the brickmaking that went into the original structure.
Credits for the stats above ; here here and here
EF-S 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 USM
ISO100 10mm f/8.0 1/400sec
Preserve [pri-zurv] verb, to keep alive or in existence; make lasting.
If one were to ask for the best way to accomplish the preservation of a historic property, they would likely find just as many interpretations as there would be responses. The truth is, there isn't necessarily a best way to go about saving something historic. You could restore it to original, preserve it as is, or make it useful for generations to come.
In the case of this photo, there are two drastically different methods of preservation at hand, yet both act to convey the definition of the word: making things last.
In the background we see the vessel currently named Point Ruston. Today it serves as a sales office for a new development. However, her history is much more than that, dating back to her construction in 1936 by Bath Iron Works as the ferry Aquidneck (YFB-14). Built for the US Navy, she served the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, RI for more than 30 years, until being placed in reserve in 1971. Her career resumed under a new owner, Pierce County, in 1975 when she became the ferry Steilacoom. In that capacity she carried on through her 70th birthday in 2006 until being sold and lovingly renovated to assume her new occupation.
In contrast, the ruins in the foreground are considerably more ambiguous. Likely what is left of a mill complex, they consist of a mixture of brick and concrete foundations, and the scant remains of numerous wooden pilings. Though anonymous, the fact is these too are in a state of preservation. Even if they will never be restored or truly appreciated for whatever role they played in Tacoma history, they have been preserved as-is, left to preserve an air of an industrial past that not too long ago dominated the shores of Commencement Bay.
One stormy Sunday in November 2005, a new girl came to church as the congregation stood to sing. She was a tiny thing with short blonde hair, freckled face and a tomboyishness about her. Exactly the energy that always drew me in, strong arms and bright eyes. But it’d been years since anyone my age passed through my life, and I didn’t have the social skills to make an introduction happen. I looked, then looked away. After the service, she sat by me almost immediately, offering small talk and nervous eye contact. Her name wasn't Celia, but that's what I'll call her. I was eighteen, she was a year younger, and all she wanted was to hang out with me sometime. Against the awkward voices in my head, I said: “Sure, come up and we’ll do something,” immediately doubting the words as they left my mouth. I went home and forgot all about it.
Dad called me to the door an hour later, where a tomboy-girl stood with bicycle in tow and a soccer ball under her arm. I was shocked and speechless that someone would leave their life to be a part of mine. It hadn’t happened before, not for even the most tenuous or passing friendship. This was the first that someone came looking for me, eager to insinuate themselves into my existence. Celia was unbelievable, a shocking presence within reach, after years convinced that I wasn’t of interest. I got my bike and we left the soccer ball behind.
We rolled west down Clarence Road in the dying autumn, under overcast skies with the temperature falling. The trees were nearly bare, and North Mountain glowed stark grey and black-green in bursts of pines and oaks in the nude. Everything was so stark that we seemed more alive in contrast. I wasn’t myself, I felt cheerful and open, joking about nothing, cycling in wide curves of lefts and rights in the road. Celia laughed at whatever I said, an excited attraction of new friendship, fully foreign. I’d only seen it in movies or observed it in the lives of others, that honest and easy affection. After biking hard for a few kilometers, my right sneaker suddenly split wide at the seams — old rubber failing, and my sock making a surprise appearance out the end. It was colder than my toes could take, so we headed home. I spent my evening haunted with the exotic emotions of enjoying company not my own.
Later that week, I went to a Remembrance Day service at the Bridgetown Legion. I wore brand new shoes that I didn’t like one bit, pending a good beating and a run through the mud. It was another dark day, teasing rain, and I felt in place with the clouds coming around. I hadn’t been back there since leaving Army Cadets, and felt wary of spotting familiar faces. Celia came from the crowd when she saw me, hands in pockets and back against the chilling wind. She was a small mouth under a blowing blonde mop, coat buttoned to her cheeks and chin. I talked like a stranger to language, making my guesses about the shapes of words and what they meant. I forgot what she said soon after I heard it, finding it hard to listen with the focus directly on me. I’d been a lifelong follower of the one-way conversation, sitting silently or playing eavesdropper, and it seemed unnaturally hard to formulate answers.
I walked her home on the grey sidewalks of Bridgetown, down Granville Street, beneath the blank staring windows to the west side of town. The un-mowed lawns waved uneven stalks in stiff winds, weeds and blades of grass at their ultimate height until next spring’s new growth. We passed the run-down apartments of the Blue Lagoon, sky-blue paint job perpetually peeling, and the austere beauty and fading flowers of Harrington House, where I’d been for a cousin’s wedding the summer before. I felt a decade distant from my childhood memories, like I’d been permanently divided from history, an only child eternally, always on my own. I’d walked those blocks a thousand times, but never with a friend, and it felt newer and painfully older than ever.
Celia’s house was white and ordinary, a shed to the side and a long yard rolling down to the Annapolis River. We sat on a bench overlooking the water, and she gave me some shattered pieces of her life, spread out like entrails to read. The two adults inside were foster parents, but her younger sister and brother were blood relatives. They’d been kept together at Celia’s strict insistence; her siblings were all she had. She told me a lot, and I offered little back, because my life seemed less worth telling.
We walked to the back porch and talked until nightfall, ignoring cold and the loss of light, knowing that we would've rushed off to warmth if either of us were alone. Celia’s foster father came suddenly shouting about her helping with dinner, inexplicably angry. He seemed annoyed at my presence, offering no hello or goodbye. Cary Grant was not his name, a blank man who looked past rather than at you, disquiet and dark. He wasn't around much, busy with his job as a pastor down Brier Island way. There was a coldness about him that shook me more than anyone I’d met, so I said a quick “Seeya” to Celia, and took the dark walk home.
Outside of church services, she didn’t cross my path through the turning season, or on into the new year. 2006 slipped back to the safe silence of solitude, and a felt little temptation to break it with company. Winter days were choked with my job running coax cable, tearing out obsolete tangles of RG-59 to replace with RG-6, ripped and wrapped around my neck like a noose, flickering static behind my eyes. I’d return home with waning interest from too much anonymous contact.
A rumor spread through town like the snaking river, some whispered talk about the Grant family caught in an eddy and passed around in whispered tones. The RCMP showed up, and Cary was arrested for what polite euphemisms reduced to “acting improperly” toward his foster daughters. It soon came clear that this was small-town talk for longterm sexual abuse. For five years straight, he’d manipulated Celia and her kid sister from a position of power, played them off each other with the threat of breaking up a family. Every midnight occasion when he came calling at their bedrooms, Cary dropped the warning that they’d never see each other again if they told a soul.
Celia's sister let it slip to a high school boyfriend, who couldn't keep the secret and told the cops. When they came calling at the Grant residence, they didn’t have to dig deep for a confession. Cary spilled his guts without much stress — suddenly the guiltiest man in town. After sentencing, they gave him a few short months in lockup, a loss of reputation and career, followed by a disappearing act that ran him out of province. It stung to hear the talk of forcible closeness, a man who made his life about pushing past human borders. As a young man who kept others at arm’s reach and further, nothing seemed shattering like an advance you couldn’t refuse.
July arrived, coming up on my first full year working the road with the cable company. It’d been a shapeless expanse, like dreaming without waking, uncounted days crowded with the overwhelming of time. Celia was always hanging on the periphery, willing to make friends, but I couldn’t find the context. Then she got hired for as a counselor at Camp Peniel, down Yarmouth way, and her first thought was to have me drive her down on Sunday afternoons. I hadn’t seen her in months, only passing sightings and brief hellos. But I’d just gotten my license, and was happy agreeing to anything on the open road.
We took the wide-open 101 all through blistering July and August, sitting with someone we hardly knew, saying next to nothing. It was a foreign feeling, being a preferred person. I’d never been anyone's first choice, the third or fourth wheel in a group at best. This one-on-one interaction was a sweet sort of poison, feeling better and more horrible than anything I’d experienced. It was almost intrusive being placed above all others, strangely intimate and incredibly close. Celia didn’t talk much, but I got the feeling she said all she wanted. Those were days of buzzing thoughts, hammering humming in my mind like the tires on the asphalt outside. I wanted to pour out my heart, but it felt like I might drown her in the process.
Those Sunday drives seemed like friendship, the closest resemblance to something I'd doubted like stories of alien abduction. I wanted to believe, but the small-town connections I’d seen seemed shaped in a form of mutual fear, with other bodies only there to prevent feeling faraway from love. Maybe there was a desperate limit to closeness, we just choke it down and feign comfort in company.
After weeks of stuttering silence, I thought I’d try on a shared emotion for size. I said a little more while the miles were passing, gave in to attraction, told Celia about my writing. I passed her printed copies of my early poems, whatever I’d been scribbling lately. She said how much she liked them, and that gave me a reason to make more, just to share them with her. Celia read them to her young campers through the week, and they made an impact. She brought back stories of tears shed by the teenage girls, feelings brought up by nothing but my words on paper. It was a great gift she gave me — passing what I created to a world I couldn’t reach. This was a kind of kindness she had, an eagerness to make everything better. I drifted closer to the concept of Celia, a soft heart when my own seemed so hard on me. She was a rope dangling down to the bottom of a lonely pit, reeling me in when no one bothered, seeing something in me when I was blinded to myself.
When summer’s final Sunday came along, I was craving a sense of closure. I sat parked on the edge of dusty Camp Peniel, where the noisy kids ran in circles, waiting to wave goodbye from the driver’s seat. I penned a note on a scrap of paper, signing with “I think I love you.” Celia got the note as I left, folded with instructions to open later. I couldn’t take the expression of emotion in person. A few days down the line, an response came for me in the mail, the first letter I’d ever received. It was an eager and vibrant affirmation of affection. I felt relief and fear in equal measure, coming down hard with apprehension, and I tried my best to push it under.
Mom’s fiftieth birthday came up at the end of that week, with a big party planned at my brother's house in Bridgetown. He’d bought a duplex for his family near the railroad bridge, just in sight of the winding river. We all gathered in his backyard as a big surprise, for a woman who’d always hated of surprises. I guess the party was more for us than her.
Celia was in the crowd when I arrived, and I’d almost forgotten the consequence of what I’d written. The small-town romance buzzed in my mind, flickered like a damaged filament in the dark. We separated from the sound and fury, walked down the railbed to the old rusty train bridge, and didn’t say much. We were small and alone on the sticky tar of splintered ties, Annapolis River running through the cracks beneath our feet. This is what love looked like, and I knew right then that it wouldn't last.
June 19, 2026
Granville Centre, Nova Scotia
Year 19, Day 6795 of my daily journal.
Bluesky | Etsy | Facebook | Instagram
Substack | Threads | Tumblr | YouTube
You can also support my work and
sign up for monthly handwritten
postcards over on my Patreon
Love movies? Find me on Letterboxd
Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint) and electronic drawing.
A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[1] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.
In addition to its more artistic forms, drawing is frequently used in commercial illustration, animation, architecture, engineering and technical drawing. A quick, freehand drawing, usually not intended as a finished work, is sometimes called a sketch. An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman or a draughtsman.[2]
Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper/other material, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface.[3] Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour,[4] while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.
Madame Palmyre with Her Dog, 1897. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Galileo Galilei. Phases of the Moon. 1616.
Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies.
There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling, free hand and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper, around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).
A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch.
In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.
History[edit]
Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.[5] It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invent of the written language,[5][6] demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.[7] These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts.[8] The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.
Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise.[9] Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings.[10] Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.[11][12] In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,[13] where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.[14]
The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts.[15] Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises.[16] Modernism in the arts encouraged "imaginative originality"[17] and artists' approach to drawing became more abstract.
Drawing Outside the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings.[16] Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead.[20] More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.
Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.[21] Papers can vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.
Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.
Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and become brittle much sooner.
The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.
Technique[edit]
Raphael, study for what became the Alba Madonna, with other sketches
Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.[22]
Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.
The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching—groups of parallel lines.[23] Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones—and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.[24]
Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.
Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.
Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on fixative to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.
Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.[25]
Tone[edit]
Line drawing in sanguine by Leonardo da Vinci
Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.
Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.
Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.
Form and proportion[edit]
Pencil portrait by Ingres
Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.
When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive volumes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic volumes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive volumes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.[26]
A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.
Perspective[edit]
Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.
Two-point perspective drawing
When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective.[27] Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.
Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.
Artistry[edit]
Chiaroscuro study drawing by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
The composition of the image is an important element in producing an interesting work of artistic merit. The artist plans element placement in the art to communicate ideas and feelings with the viewer. The composition can determine the focus of the art, and result in a harmonious whole that is aesthetically appealing and stimulating.
The illumination of the subject is also a key element in creating an artistic piece, and the interplay of light and shadow is a valuable method in the artist's toolbox. The placement of the light sources can make a considerable difference in the type of message that is being presented. Multiple light sources can wash out any wrinkles in a person's face, for instance, and give a more youthful appearance. In contrast, a single light source, such as harsh daylight, can serve to highlight any texture or interesting features.
When drawing an object or figure, the skilled artist pays attention to both the area within the silhouette and what lies outside. The exterior is termed the negative space, and can be as important in the representation as the figure. Objects placed in the background of the figure should appear properly placed wherever they can be viewed.
Drawing process in the Academic Study of a Male Torso by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1801, National Museum, Warsaw)
A study is a draft drawing that is made in preparation for a planned final image. Studies can be used to determine the appearances of specific parts of the completed image, or for experimenting with the best approach for accomplishing the end goal. However a well-crafted study can be a piece of art in its own right, and many hours of careful work can go into completing a study.
Process[edit]
Individuals display differences in their ability to produce visually accurate drawings.[28] A visually accurate drawing is described as being "recognized as a particular object at a particular time and in a particular space, rendered with little addition of visual detail that can not be seen in the object represented or with little deletion of visual detail”.[29]
Investigative studies have aimed to explain the reasons why some individuals draw better than others. One study posited four key abilities in the drawing process: perception of objects being drawn, ability to make good representational decisions, motor skills required for mark-making and the drawer's own perception of their drawing.[29] Following this hypothesis, several studies have sought to conclude which of these processes are most significant in affecting the accuracy of drawings.
Motor function Motor function is an important physical component in the 'Production Phase' of the drawing process.[30] It has been suggested that motor function plays a role in drawing ability, though its effects are not significant.[29]
Perception It has been suggested that an individual's ability to perceive an object they are drawing is the most important stage in the drawing process.[29] This suggestion is supported by the discovery of a robust relationship between perception and drawing ability.[31]
This evidence acted as the basis of Betty Edwards' how-to drawing book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.[32] Edwards aimed to teach her readers how to draw, based on the development of the reader's perceptual abilities.
Furthermore, the influential artist and art critic John Ruskin emphasised the importance of perception in the drawing process in his book The Elements of Drawing.[33] He stated that "For I am nearly convinced, that once we see keenly enough, there is very little difficult in drawing what we see".
Visual memory has also been shown to influence one's ability to create visually accurate drawings. Short-term memory plays an important part in drawing as one’s gaze shifts between the object they are drawing and the drawing itself.[34]
Macrinus, AD 217-218. AE Sestertius (23.9 g) minted at Rome. IMP CAES M OPEL SEV MACRINVS AVG. Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Macrinus right. Reverse: SECVRITAS TEMPORVM S C. Securitas (Security) standing left, holding scepter in right hand, resting left elbow on column. RIC 202; Cohen 123. Dark forest green patina. Meticulous strike of fine style offering a magnificent depiction of Macrinus. A fabulous coin and undoubtedly one of the finest of its type in existence. Very rare. Superb Extremely Fine. .
This handsome sestertius of Macrinus has a magnificent portrait of the emperor who briefly interrupted the Severan dynasty when he arranged for the assassination of Caracalla in AD 217. While Macrinus was serving as praetorian prefect at the time of Caracalla's Parthian campaign, he learned of a prophecy concerning his own future elevation to the throne. Terrified that the emperor would hear of this and order his immediate execution, Macrinus felt that he had no choice but to make the prophecy self-fulfilling by secretly plotting the emperor's murder. Once the deed was carried out along a lonely stretch of road between the Mesopotamian cities of Edessa and Carrhae, Macrinus was proclaimed emperor by the army, which was unaware of his part in the affair. The reverse proclaims the "security of the times," a somewhat extravagant claim given the uncertainty of the situation both for the new emperor himself and for the Roman army in the East.
Provenance: The Hunter Collection; Ex Superior Stamp & Coin, NYINC Sale, December 8-9, 1995, lot 947; Tkalec (Zurich), October 1992, lot 326.
GOLDBERG72, 4175
A winter of debris, broken branches and ice collects under an old willow clingling to the shoreline.
Just one of four German wartime U-boats left in existence, the U-505 is either the unluckiest U-boat to ever put to sea--or the luckiest of all.
Commissioned in August 1941, the U-505 was to undertake 12 war patrols, but only sank eight ships totaling 46,447 gross registered tons--a paltry sum compared to other U-boats at the time. The U-505 seemed snakebit. On its third patrol, it accidentally sank a Colombian sailing ship, giving Colombia a reason to join the Allies; on its fourth patrol, it was nearly sunk when a RAF Lockheed Hudson bombed it. Only through heroic efforts by its crew did it survive, and limp back to Lorient, France. While under repairs in France, it was continually sabotaged by the French Resistance, and four patrols were ended prematurely due to technical issues. When it did get out into the Atlantic, it was worked over hard by British hunter-killer groups--the last incident, on 24 October 1943, was such a depth-charging that the U-505's captain committed suicide, the only known incidence of a submarine captain doing so during the war.
Finally, the U-505 went out on its 12th patrol off the Cape Verde Islands. Unfortunately for its crew, the Allies knew German submarines were in the area due to Ultra codebreaking, and the U-505 was caught by Task Group 22.3 of the US Navy, centered around USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60), commanded by Captain Daniel Gallery. The U-505 was blown to the surface by one of the task group's destroyers; surrounded, the submarine's captain ordered the crew to abandon ship and surrender. The crew abandoned so fast that they forgot to do more than open a few valves to the sea to scuttle the ship, and failed to destroy either the codebooks or the Enigma code machine. The U-505 continued to cruise, half-sunk, through the task group, as the German crew was rescued.
Gallery ordered the U-505 to be boarded to capture the codes and the Enigma. An eight-man volunteer boarding party, under Lieutenant (jg) Albert David (who would later be awarded the Medal of Honor), went inside the U-505--considered extremely risky, as the submarine could sink at any moment. They found the damage to be minor, and David radioed Gallery to let him know the U-505 was basically intact. Gallery, already known as a bit of a maverick, decided on the spot to claim U-505 as a prize--the first time it had been done to an enemy combatant since the War of 1812. The valves were closed, the U-505's motors engaged to recharge the batteries, and the submarine pumped free of water. It was then towed back to the United States. Aboard, completely intact, were every codebook the Kriegsmarine used, as well as one of the newer four-rotor Enigma machines.
Admiral Ernest King, the Chief of Naval Operations, was incensed: if the Germans found out that the U-505 had been taken intact, they would change all of their codes. He initially wanted to court-martial Gallery, but instead ordered Task Group 22.3 be awared the Presidential Unit Citation and Gallery awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Neither would be awarded until after the war was over, to preserve the secret of the U-505. Even the German survivors were kept in a separate prison camp and the Red Cross not notified of their survival, while the U-505 was repainted and named the "USS Nemo" to preserve secrecy. The Germans never knew what a windfall of intelligence the Allies had gotten; more important was the capture of the U-505's acoustical homing torpedoes, which could be reverse-engineered. The secret was not revealed until after the war, when the crew was released, and even then parts of the story were heavily censored, as Ultra was not declassified until the 1970s.
After the war was over, the Navy was going to sink the now-superfluous U-505 as a target. Gallery, now a Rear Admiral, heard of the plan and once more decided to save the submarine. He contacted Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which agreed to take it on, then convinced the Navy to donate it. The U-505 was towed to Chicago and went on display outside the museum in 1954. It had been stripped of everything remotely usable, but once more Gallery came through: he contacted the German manufacturers, who were happy to help preserve the U-505 as a memorial to all the sailors who died during the Battle of the Atlantic.
After decades of being outside, the U-505 was starting to fall apart, so in 2004 it was moved into a completely new underground hall of the MSI and refurbished. Today it remains one of the best, if not the best, preserved U-boat left in the world.
I got to tour the U-505 in 2009, soon after it went back on display. As a big fan of the movie "Das Boot," it was fascinating to see the real thing in person. It is open to the public to tour the interior, and during the tour, the guide will recount the travails of the U-505 on its final war patrol--complete with change in interior lighting and a simulated depth charge attack. I found myself having trouble catching my breath, imagining what it was like for any submarine unlucky enough to be caught by depth charges; a good friend of mine started to have a panic attack. It's worth the extra cost to see the boat and experience the tour.
Sadly for me, most of my pictures blurred, but this one of the U-505's conning tower turned out well enough. The holes in the tower are damage the submarine sustained during TG 22.3's attack on 4 June 1944, from destroyer 40mm fire. This view shows the extended "wintergarden" of the Type IXC series, though it only carries a single 37mm antiaircraft gun; some IXCs were known to mount quad 20mm Flakvierlings.
The oldest wooden church in North America, apparently. It opened in 1750. A national historic site, this little chapel, built in 1747, is the oldest wooden church still in existence in North America. The first mass was celebrated here by the Jesuits in 1750.
"Tadoussac is quite rightly listed as one of the 50 most beautiful bays in the world.
Tadoussac is also the oldest village in Canada. In fact, the village celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2000.
But above all, Tadoussac is an internationally-renowned whale-watching site." From the link below.
www.authentikcanada.com/holidays/tourist-office-tadoussac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadoussac
A few days ago, I started on photos taken during the week friends and I spent in Quebec, 12-18 May 2018. Some photos were taken in the small, coastal village of Tadoussac itself, others were taken in the wonderful garden of the home in which we stayed all week, and the rest were taken on several drives we made further along the coast.
At the end of our 4-day stay at Point Pelee, we had to drive all the way back to Toronto, from where we flew to Quebec City airport. From there, we had a four-hour drive to Tadoussac on the coast of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is such a delightful, small place and in a beautiful setting. One of our friends, Anne B, and her husband have a summer cabin further along the cliff from the few stores and port. She had invited the four of us to go with her from Pelee to spend a week at her beautiful home. What an absolute treat this was! We were able to meet some of her relatives, too, who also have built cabins out there. We were looked after so well, and we were able to see and photograph all sorts of birds and other things.
Several trips were made to see different places along the coast, including the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, where we were able to see endless thousands of Snow Geese, in flight and also up close. Breathtaking!
We also had two boat trips from Tadoussac - one was a whaling trip in a Zodiac, where we saw very, very distant Beluga and Minke Whales. The Belugas looked almost like the white wave crests - but they were Belugas. The other boat trip was to the Brandy Pot Islands, inhabited by thousands of Razorbills and Common Murres, which were new birds for us, and Double-crested Cormorants that were nesting in tree tops. That long boat trip (in a tiny boat named Juno) started off in the rain and dark clouds and it was soooo cold! Thermal underwear, layers of fleece and toque and gloves were needed. This day was arranged through a contact of Anne's and it was so much enjoyed! Of course, we anchored a distance away from the island and sat there and ate our sandwiches and took endless photos - difficult when bobbing up and down on the rough water! It is forbidden to land on the island at nesting time.
Anne B, I can't thank you enough for organizing this holiday for us all and for inviting us to spend a week at your cabin. You worked so hard and it was so much appreciated by each and every one of us. Thank you for doing all the many hours of driving, too! Janet and Anne, thank you so much for compiling the lists of birds seen each day at various locations, and posted to ebird. These entries will be a huge help while I try and sort out where we were and when, and what species we saw. Miss your cookies and muffins, Janet, that you kindly made for us in Tadoussac, to go along with the wonderful meals that Anne planned and made for us : )
Link to my album (358 images) about Point Pelee and area, Ontario: www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/albums/72157667191771677
Everybody has a story. The Existence Project uses storytelling to build a community of empathy, understanding and belonging for everyone.
Read more: news.gov.bc.ca/20790
The Chain Gang came into existence in 1920 when it's leader / founder Gold Tooth (the man on the far right of this picture) began a sweets bootlegging business with some associates of his old deceased boss, Dollar Bill. He expanded into racketeering, bank robbing and dirtier crimes soon thereafter. By 1926, he was the top candy bootlegger in Lego City, and boss of a major crime organization running various operations in several different areas - Legoville, Fabuland, and Metru Nui to name just a few. In fact, Turaga Dume, leader of Metru Nui was on his payroll, as was about a quarter of the LEGO City police force in 1927.
In 1928 / 29 he tried to muscle in on Heartlake City's government and was, for once, rebuffed by local officials. He made it his goal to destroy the officials who spurned him by attempting to run for Mayor, but this was stopped by a successful campaign by a re-elected Mayor Stephanie. In late 1929, Gold Tooth and his gang made another mistake by making a derogatory public comment about Mayor Fleck of LEGO City who was not on his payroll. In an unusual moment of bravery, and inspired by Mayor Stephanie of Heartlake's bravery, he contacted her and Mayor Lionel Lion of Fabuland about an alliance against the criminals of their respective cities. This so called Tri-State Alliance proved to be a thorn in Gold Tooth's side for the next ten years - especially after the Sweets Amendment was repealed in 1933, cutting off a huge chunk of his income, as bootlegging illegal candy was no longer worth it.
The LEGO City police force was gone through with a fine comb and all the officers on the take fired by 1932. Fabuland also had a successful series of Catnip sting operations in 1934 that captured top operatives of the Chain Gang red handed. By 1938, Gold Tooth was hanging onto control of his gang by a thread - a civil war with a faction who wanted to pull up stakes and go to Metru Nui (the only municipal ally left) was costing him dearly. Thus, in March 1939 Gold Tooth was heading to a meeting with the rival faction leaders on a truce at a location near Legoville when he was surrounded and apprehended by members of the Duplo police force, who had been tipped off by a traitorous member of his entourage about Gold Tooth's route to the meeting.
On trial in Heartlake, he was defiant and admitted nothing - up until Turaga Dume took the stand as a witness for the prosecution. Dume had only been pretending to help the Chain Gang, all the while keeping diligent records of every crime and operative in his city, and quite a few in other cities too. Finally defeated, Goldtooth was sent away for 50 years - a life sentence for him considering his age. He died in prison in July 1957 of old age.
Today, the Chain Gang is no more.
Princes Road Synagogue came into existence when the Jewish community in Liverpool in the late 1860s decided to build itself a new synagogue, reflecting the status and wealth of the community. The Toxteth area was rapidly expanding as Liverpool's magnates built opulent mansions. The synagogue stands in a cluster of houses of worship designed to advertise the wealth and status of the local captains of industry, a group that was remarkably ethnically diverse, by the standards of Victorian England. Immediately adjacent to Princes Road are the magnificent Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, and a handsome, early French gothic, Welsh Presbyterian Church.
Author H A Meek is quoted as saying "He who has not seen the interior of Princes Road synagogue in Liverpool has not beheld the glory of Israel."
Weathervane Playhouse in Akron, Ohio, presents Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance" -- live on stage from March 26 to April 12, 2015.
Directed by Craig Joseph, Edward Albee's "A Delicate Balance" is a dark comedy in which the carefully controlled existence of two complacent suburbanites is forever shattered by their family and friends over the course of one eventful weekend.
Describing his play 30 years after its first production, the playwright Edward Albee wrote in 1996 that it concerns “the rigidity and ultimate paralysis which afflicts those who settle in too easily, waking up one day to discover that all of the choices they have avoided no longer give them any freedom of choice, and that what choices they do have left are beside the point.”
When the play begins, we meet Agnes and Tobias, a perfectly normal, upper middle-class married couple. With a cushion of wealth to protect them, they would appear to have the best of everything: a beautifully furnished home, the finest china and the most tasteful furniture.But the underpinnings of such a comfortable life have begun to come loose. Live-in sister-in-law Claire drinks too much and delights in trading caustic remarks with Agnes and Tobias. And Julia, Agnes and Tobias’s 36-year-old daughter, has returned home after her fourth failed marriage, a lost child seeking the comfort of hearth and home.
The sudden appearance of Harry and Edna, the neighbors and best friends of Agnes and Tobias, further threatens the rigidly restrained order of suburban splendor. Harry and Edna insist that they cannot return to their own home, due to an undefined “terror” that has gripped them. With their equilibrium thus upended, can Agnes and Tobias continue to maintain their “delicate balance?”
A drama packed with psychological complexity, Edward Albee's" A Delicate Balance" takes audiences on a careening ride from domestic superficiality to a jolting confrontation with life’s most existential questions.
For tickets and more information, visit www.weathervaneplayhouse.com/a-delicate-balance-2015-03-26
THE CAST
MOLLY McGINNIS*
Agnes
RICHARD WORSWICK
Tobias
MARGIE STOCKER
Claire
HARRIET DeVETO
Edna
ROSS RHODES
Harry
MORIAH OPHARDT
Julia
* Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional stage actors and stage managers.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
CRAIG JOSEPH
Director
MARTHA KALTENBACH
Stage Manager
BARRY FRIEDMAN
Assistant Stage Manager
JOHN GRAFTON
Properties Designer
SCOTT THANASIU
Sound Designer
JASEN J. SMITH
Costume Designer
JONATHON HUNTER
Lighting Designer
RALPH COOLEY
Scenic Designer
KATHY KOHL
Assistant Technical Director
The photos for this Flickr set were shot by Scott Diese for Weathervane Playhouse at the show's final dress rehearsal on March 25, 2015.
Giraffe with Oxpeckers
Giraffe mit Madenhackern
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
(Wikipedia)
The giraffe (Giraffa) is an African artiodactyl mammal, the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant. It is traditionally considered to be one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. However, the existence of up to eight extant giraffe species has been described, based upon research into the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, as well as morphological measurements of Giraffa. Seven other species are extinct, prehistoric species known from fossils.
The giraffe's chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its distinctive coat patterns. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Their food source is leaves, fruits and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach. They may be preyed on by lions, leopards, spotted hyenas and African wild dogs. Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring, or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males, but are gregarious and may gather in large aggregations. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking", which are combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, which bear the sole responsibility for raising the young.
The giraffe has intrigued various cultures, both ancient and modern, for its peculiar appearance, and has often been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. It is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable to extinction, and has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. Giraffes are still found in numerous national parks and game reserves but estimates as of 2016 indicate that there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. More than 1,600 were kept in zoos in 2010.
The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarāfah (زرافة), perhaps borrowed from the animal's Somali name geri. The Arab name is translated as "fast-walker". There were several Middle English spellings, such as jarraf, ziraph, and gerfauntz. The Italian form giraffa arose in the 1590s. The modern English form developed around 1600 from the French girafe. "Camelopard" is an archaic English name for the giraffe deriving from the Ancient Greek for camel and leopard, referring to its camel-like shape and its leopard-like colouring.
Fully grown giraffes stand 4.3–5.7 m (14.1–18.7 ft) tall, with males taller than females. The tallest recorded male was 5.88 m (19.3 ft) and the tallest recorded female was 5.17 m (17.0 ft) tall. The average weight is 1,192 kg (2,628 lb) for an adult male and 828 kg (1,825 lb) for an adult female with maximum weights of 1,930 kg (4,250 lb) and 1,180 kg (2,600 lb) having been recorded for males and females, respectively. Despite its long neck and legs, the giraffe's body is relatively short. Located at both sides of the head, the giraffe's large, bulging eyes give it good all-round vision from its great height. Giraffes see in colour and their senses of hearing and smell are also sharp. The animal can close its muscular nostrils to protect against sandstorms and ants.
The giraffe's prehensile tongue is about 45 cm (18 in) long. It is purplish-black in colour, perhaps to protect against sunburn, and is useful for grasping foliage, as well as for grooming and cleaning the animal's nose. The upper lip of the giraffe is also prehensile and useful when foraging and is covered in hair to protect against thorns. The tongue, and inside of the mouth are covered in papillae.
The coat has dark blotches or patches (which can be orange, chestnut, brown, or nearly black in colour) separated by light hair (usually white or cream in colour). Male giraffes become darker as they age. The coat pattern has been claimed to serve as camouflage in the light and shade patterns of savannah woodlands. Giraffe calves inherit some spot pattern traits from their mothers, and variation in some spot traits are correlated with neonatal survival. The skin underneath the dark areas may serve as windows for thermoregulation, being sites for complex blood vessel systems and large sweat glands. Each individual giraffe has a unique coat pattern.
The skin of a giraffe is mostly gray. Its thickness allows the animal to run through thorn bushes without being punctured. The fur may serve as a chemical defence, as its parasite repellents give the animal a characteristic scent. At least 11 main aromatic chemicals are in the fur, although indole and 3-methylindole are responsible for most of the smell. Because the males have a stronger odour than the females, the odour may also have sexual function. Along the animal's neck is a mane made of short, erect hairs. The one-metre (3.3-ft) tail ends in a long, dark tuft of hair and is used as a defense against insects.
Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and open woodlands. They prefer Acacieae, Commiphora, Combretum and open Terminalia woodlands over denser environments like Brachystegia woodlands.The Angolan giraffe can be found in desert environments. Giraffes browse on the twigs of trees, preferring trees of the subfamily Acacieae and the genera Commiphora and Terminalia, which are important sources of calcium and protein to sustain the giraffe's growth rate. They also feed on shrubs, grass and fruit. A giraffe eats around 34 kg (75 lb) of foliage daily. When stressed, giraffes may chew the bark off branches. Although herbivorous, the giraffe has been known to visit carcasses and lick dried meat off bones.
During the wet season, food is abundant and giraffes are more spread out, while during the dry season, they gather around the remaining evergreen trees and bushes. Mothers tend to feed in open areas, presumably to make it easier to detect predators, although this may reduce their feeding efficiency. As a ruminant, the giraffe first chews its food, then swallows it for processing and then visibly passes the half-digested cud up the neck and back into the mouth to chew again. It is common for a giraffe to salivate while feeding. The giraffe requires less food than many other herbivores because the foliage it eats has more concentrated nutrients and it has a more efficient digestive system. The animal's faeces come in the form of small pellets. When it has access to water, a giraffe drinks at intervals no longer than three days.
Giraffes have a great effect on the trees that they feed on, delaying the growth of young trees for some years and giving "waistlines" to trees that are too tall. Feeding is at its highest during the first and last hours of daytime. Between these hours, giraffes mostly stand and ruminate. Rumination is the dominant activity during the night, when it is mostly done lying down.
Giraffes are usually found in groups that vary in size and composition according to ecological, anthropogenic, temporal, and social factors. Traditionally, the composition of these groups had been described as open and ever-changing. For research purposes, a "group" has been defined as "a collection of individuals that are less than a kilometre apart and moving in the same general direction." More recent studies have found that giraffes have long-term social associations and may form groups or pairs based on kinship, sex or other factors. These groups may regularly associate with one another in larger communities or sub-communities within a fission–fusion society. The number of giraffes in a group can range up to 66 individuals.
Giraffe groups tend to be sex-segregated although mixed-sex groups made of adult females and young males are known to occur. Particularly stable giraffe groups are those made of mothers and their young, which can last weeks or months. Social cohesion in these groups is maintained by the bonds formed between calves. Female association appears to be based on space-use and individuals may be matrilineally related. In general, females are more selective than males in who they associate with in regards to individuals of the same sex. Young males also form groups and will engage in playfights. However, as they get older males become more solitary but may also associate in pairs or with female groups. Giraffes are not territorial, but they have home ranges that vary according to rainfall and proximity to human settlements. Male giraffes occasionally wander far from areas that they normally frequent.
Although generally quiet and non-vocal, giraffes have been heard to communicate using various sounds. During courtship, males emit loud coughs. Females call their young by bellowing. Calves will emit snorts, bleats, mooing and mewing sounds. Giraffes also snore, hiss, moan, grunt and make flute-like sounds. During nighttime, giraffes appear to hum to each other above the infrasound range for purposes which are unclear.
(Wikipedia)
The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the genus Buphagus, from Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), meaning "ox", and φάγος (phágos), meaning "eater", and family Buphagidae. The oxpeckers were formerly usually treated as a subfamily, Buphaginae, within the starling family, Sturnidae, but molecular phylogenetic studies have consistently shown that they form a separate lineage that is basal to the sister clades containing the Sturnidae and the Mimidae (mockingbirds, thrashers, and allies). Oxpeckers are endemic to the savanna of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Both the English and scientific names arise from their habit of perching on large mammals (both wild and domesticated) such as cattle, zebras, impalas, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and giraffes, eating ticks, small insects, botfly larvae, and other parasites, as well as the animals' blood. The behaviour of oxpeckers towards large mammals was thought to be exclusively mutual, though recent research suggests the relationship can be parasitic in nature as well.
The Swahili name for the red-billed oxpecker is Askari wa kifaru (the rhino's guard).
Taxonomy
The genus Buphagus was introduced in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson with the yellow-billed oxpecker as the type species. The name comes from Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), meaning "ox", and φάγος (phágos), meaning "eater".
According to the more recent studies of Muscicapoidea phylogeny, the oxpeckers are an ancient line related to Mimidae (mockingbirds and thrashers) and starlings but not particularly close to either. Considering the known biogeography of these groups, the most plausible explanation seems that the oxpecker lineage originated in Eastern or Southeastern Asia like the other two. This would make the two species of Buphagus something like living fossils, and demonstrates that such remnants of past evolution can possess striking and unique autapomorphic adaptations.
Distribution and habitat
The oxpeckers are endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, where they occur in most open habitats. They are absent from the driest deserts and the rainforests. Their distribution is restricted by the presence of their preferred prey, specific species of ticks, and the animal hosts of those ticks. The two species of oxpecker are sympatric over much of East Africa and may even occur on the same host animal. The nature of the interactions between the two species is unknown.
Behaviour
Diet and feeding
Oxpeckers graze exclusively on the bodies of large mammals. Certain species are seemingly preferred, whereas others, like the Lichtenstein's hartebeest or topi are generally avoided. Smaller antelope such as lechwe, duikers and reedbuck are also avoided; the smallest regularly used species is the impala, probably because of the heavy tick load and social nature of that species. In many parts of their range they now feed on cattle, but avoid camels. They feed on ectoparasites, particularly ticks, as well as insects infesting wounds and the flesh and blood of some wounds as well. They are sometimes classified as parasites, because they open wounds on the animals' backs.
Oxpecker/mammal interactions are the subject of some debate and ongoing research. They were originally thought to be an example of mutualism, but recent evidence suggests that oxpeckers may be parasites instead. Oxpeckers do eat ticks, but often the ticks have already fed on the ungulate host, and no statistically significant link has been shown between oxpecker presence and reduced ectoparasite load. Oxpeckers have been observed to open new wounds and enhance existing ones in order to drink the blood of their perches. Oxpeckers also feed on the earwax and dandruff of mammals; less is known about the possible benefits of this to the mammal, but it is suspected that this is also a parasitic behaviour. Some oxpeckers' hosts are intolerant of their presence. Elephants and some antelope will actively dislodge the oxpeckers when they land. However there have been noted instances of elephants allowing oxpeckers to eat parasites off of them. Other species tolerate oxpeckers while they search for ticks on their faces, which one author says "appears ... to be an uncomfortable and invasive process."
Breeding
The breeding season of the oxpeckers, in at least one location, is linked to the rainy season, which affects the activity of their mammalian hosts and the tick loads of those hosts. Both courtship and copulation occur on their hosts as well. They nest in holes, usually in trees but sometimes in other types of cavity, including holes in walls. The nests are lined with grasses and often with hair plucked from their hosts and even livestock such as sheep which are not usually used. The typical clutch is between two and three eggs, but the red-billed oxpecker may lay up to five eggs.
Roosting
Red-billed oxpeckers have been known to roost in reeds and trees. Studies of large savanna herbivores using cameras at night have shown that both species of oxpecker (but more often in yellow-billed oxpecker) may also roost on the bodies of herbivores, hanging under the insides of the thighs of giraffe and on top of impala and buffalo.
(Wikipedia)
Der Kruger-Nationalpark (deutsch häufig falsch Krüger-Nationalpark) ist das größte Wildschutzgebiet Südafrikas. Er liegt im Nordosten des Landes in der Landschaft des Lowveld auf dem Gebiet der Provinz Limpopo sowie des östlichen Abschnitts von Mpumalanga. Seine Fläche erstreckt sich vom Crocodile-River im Süden bis zum Limpopo, dem Grenzfluss zu Simbabwe, im Norden. Die Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung beträgt etwa 350 km, in Ost-West-Richtung ist der Park durchschnittlich 54 km breit und umfasst eine Fläche von rund 20.000 Quadratkilometern. Damit gehört er zu den größten Nationalparks in Afrika.
Das Schutzgebiet wurde am 26. März 1898 unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger als Sabie Game Reserve zum Schutz der Wildnis gegründet. 1926 erhielt das Gebiet den Status Nationalpark und wurde in seinen heutigen Namen umbenannt. Im Park leben 147 Säugetierarten inklusive der „Big Five“, außerdem etwa 507 Vogelarten und 114 Reptilienarten, 49 Fischarten und 34 Amphibienarten.
(Wikipedia)
Die Giraffen (Giraffa) sind eine Gattung der Säugetiere aus der Ordnung der Paarhufer. Ursprünglich wurde ihr mit Giraffa camelopardalis und der Trivialbezeichnung „Giraffe“ nur eine einzige Art zugewiesen. Molekulargenetische Untersuchungen aus dem Jahr 2016 zeigen jedoch, dass die Gattung wenigstens vier Arten mit sieben eigenständigen Populationen umfasst. Die Giraffen stellen die höchsten landlebenden Tiere der Welt. Zur Unterscheidung vom verwandten Okapi (sogenannte „Waldgiraffe“) werden sie auch als Steppengiraffen bezeichnet.
Männchen (Bullen) werden bis zu 6 Meter hoch und wiegen durchschnittlich rund 1600 Kilogramm. Weibchen (Kühe) werden bis zu 4,5 Meter hoch und wiegen etwa 830 Kilogramm bei einer Schulterhöhe zwischen 2 und 3,5 Metern.
Der Hals der Giraffen ist außergewöhnlich lang. Wie bei fast allen Säugetieren besteht die Halswirbelsäule gleichwohl aus nur sieben Halswirbeln, die aber stark verlängert sind. Der Hals wird von einer einzigen, sehr starken Sehne in einem Winkel von etwa 55° gehalten. Die Sehne verläuft vom Hinterkopf der Giraffe bis zum Steiß und ist für den „Höcker“ zwischen Hals und Körper verantwortlich. Der Ruhezustand hält Hals und Kopf in der aufrechten Position; um den Kopf nach unten zu bewegen, z. B. zum Trinken, muss die Giraffe Muskelarbeit aufbringen. Die Zunge kann 50 Zentimeter lang werden. Sie ist zum Greifen befähigt und im vorderen Bereich zum Schutz vor Sonnenbrand stark pigmentiert.
Das Muster des Haarkleids besteht aus dunklen Flecken, die sich von der helleren Grundfarbe abheben. Je nach Art variieren Form und Farbe der Flecken. Die Unterseite ist hell und ungefleckt. Die Flecken dienen der Tarnung und der Regulierung der Körpertemperatur. Im Unterhautgewebe verläuft um jeden Flecken eine ringförmige Arterie, die Äste in den Flecken hinein aussendet. Über eine stärkere Durchblutung kann die Giraffe so mehr Körperwärme abgeben und ist nicht auf Schatten angewiesen. Vor allem bei männlichen Giraffen werden die Flecken mit zunehmenden Alter dunkler. Dies geschieht jedoch nicht bei allen Individuen im gleichen Maß oder in der gleichen Intensität, so dass hellere und dunklere Tiere in derselben Altersklasse auftreten. Nach Untersuchungen an Tieren aus dem Etosha-Nationalpark sind dunklere Altbullen häufig einzelgängerisch und zeichnen sich durch ein dominantes Auftreten gegenüber Geschlechtsgenossen bei der Fortpflanzung aus. Gleichalte hellere Individuen führen dagegen häufig ein Leben im Verband und sind weniger dominant, was zu geringeren Erfolgen in der Verpaarung mit Kühen führt. Demnach gibt die Fellfarbe den sozialen Status eines Individuums wieder.
Der Geruch des Haarkleids ist für den Menschen unangenehm. Giraffenbullen riechen stärker als -kühe. An Fäkalien erinnern speziell die Stoffe Indol und Skatol, darüber hinaus finden sich Octan, Benzaldehyd, Heptanal, Octanal, Nonanal, p-Kresol, Tetradecan- und Hexadecansäure im Fell. Die meisten dieser Verbindungen hemmen das Wachstum von Bakterien oder Pilzen, wie sie auf der Haut von Säugetieren vorkommen. Der Gehalt von p-Kresol im Giraffenhaar ist ausreichend, um Zecken abzuschrecken.
Zwei zapfenartige Hörner sitzen bei beiden Geschlechtern dem Kopf auf. In seltenen Fällen wächst dahinter ein weiteres Hornpaar. Manche Giraffen haben zudem einen knochigen Höcker zwischen den Augen, der ähnlich wie die Hörner strukturiert ist.
Giraffen erreichen eine Spitzengeschwindigkeit von 55 km/h. Die langen Beine können die Giraffe aber nur auf festem Untergrund tragen. Sumpfige Gegenden werden von den Tieren daher gemieden.
Giraffen verständigen sich im für Menschen nicht hörbaren Infraschallbereich mit Frequenzen unter 20 Hertz.
Giraffen sind in afrikanischen Savannen verbreitet. Heute leben sie nur noch südlich der Sahara, vor allem in den Grassteppen Ost- und Südafrikas. Die Bestände nördlich der Sahara wurden frühzeitig durch den Menschen ausgerottet: während des frühen Altertums im Niltal und etwa im 7. Jahrhundert in den Küstenebenen Marokkos und Algeriens. Im 20. Jahrhundert verschwanden Giraffen aus vielen weiteren Bereichen ihres Verbreitungsgebiets.
Giraffen beweiden bevorzugt Akazien. Dabei greifen die Tiere einen Zweig mit ihrer bis zu 50 cm langen Zunge, ziehen ihn ins Maul und streifen durch Zurückziehen des Kopfes die Blätter ab. Zunge und Lippen sind so beschaffen, dass sie trotz der dornigen Äste keinen Schaden nehmen. Durch die hohe Bisskraft und die massiven Mahlzähne können die Äste, Blätter und Zweige zügig kleingemahlen werden und rutschen innerhalb kürzester Zeit den bis zu 2,5 Meter langen Hals herab. Jeden Tag nimmt eine Giraffe etwa 30 kg Nahrung auf; hierfür benötigt sie sechzehn bis zwanzig Stunden. Der Flüssigkeitsbedarf wird größtenteils aus der Nahrung gedeckt, so dass Giraffen wochenlang ohne zu trinken auskommen können. Wenn sie doch trinken, müssen sie die Vorderbeine weit spreizen, um den Kopf weit genug zur Wasserquelle herabsenken zu können; ebenso verfahren sie, wenn sie Nahrung vom Boden aufnehmen, was sie allerdings nur unter sehr ungünstigen Umständen tun.
Giraffen leben einzelgängerisch oder in losen Verbänden. Dabei hängt das Sozialverhalten vom Geschlecht ab: Weibchen tun sich stets zu Herden von 4 bis 32 Tieren zusammen, die jedoch immer wieder in der Zusammensetzung wechseln. Junge oder weniger dominante Männchen formen eigene Verbände, sogenannte Junggesellengruppen, dominante Altbullen sind meist Einzelgänger. Die Gruppengröße ist abhängig vom Lebensraum und wird nicht durch die Anwesenheit größerer Beutegreifer beeinflusst. Auffälligerweise finden sich Kühe mit Nachwuchs häufiger in kleineren Gruppen zusammen. In der Namib im südwestlichen Afrika bilden gemischte Gruppen zumeist größere Verbände als eingeschlechtige Gruppen, wodurch die Geschlechterzusammensetzung einen wichtigen Einfluss darstellt. Demgegenüber nehmen Herden mit Jungtieren nicht an Größe zu, was den Schluss zulässt, dass bei den Giraffen der Schutz des Nachwuchses vor Bejagung nicht über die Gruppengröße gesteuert wird. Einen weiteren wichtigen Faktor bei der Herdenbildung stellt die räumliche Verfügbarkeit von Nahrung dar. Dieser greift aber nicht über die Jahreszeiten hinweg, wodurch Herden als relativ stabil angesehen werden können. Fluktuationen in der Herdengröße sind demnach vom Nahrungsangebot abhängig und können über Tage deutlich schwanken. So kommt es häufig in den Morgen- und Abendstunden zu größeren Zusammenschlüssen, die der gemeinsamen Nahrungsaufnahme dienen.
Treffen zwei Bullen aufeinander, kommt es meistens zu einem ritualisierten Kampf, bei dem die Tiere nebeneinander stehen und ihren Kopf gegen den Hals des Konkurrenten schlagen. Zur Paarungszeit können solche Kämpfe aggressiver ausfallen und eine Heftigkeit annehmen, bei der einer der Konkurrenten bewusstlos geschlagen wird.
Entgegen weit verbreiteter Meinung fressen Giraffen, vor allem in der Trockenzeit, von niedrigen Büschen bzw. auf halber Körperhöhe. Aus diesem Grund wird mittlerweile angezweifelt, dass die Giraffen ihren langen Hals nur aufgrund von Nahrungsauswahl haben. Ein Argument, das gegen die Nahrungsaufnahme-Theorie spricht, ist, dass Giraffen im Laufe der Evolution stärker ihren Hals verlängert haben als ihre Beine. Längere Beine wären jedoch energetisch günstiger, wenn es nur um Höhengewinn gehen würde. Eine aktuelle Theorie für den langen Hals sieht daher den Kampf der Giraffen-Männchen um Dominanz und Weibchen als einen Hauptgrund. Ein langer Hals ist dabei im Kampf vorteilhaft.
Giraffen schlafen mehrmals innerhalb eines 24-Stunden-Tages, dabei liegen sie mit angezogenen Beinen auf dem Bauch, mit dem Kopf nach hinten auf dem Körper. Der Schlaf dauert in der Regel nur kurze Zeit, in mehr als der Hälfte aller Beobachtungen weniger als 11 Minuten, im Maximum bis zu 100 Minuten. Die REM-Phase währt im Mittel 3 Minuten. Es wird angenommen, dass die Tiere in der liegenden Stellung Raubtieren schutzlos ausgeliefert sind, da sie nur langsam aufstehen können und sich durch Treten mit den Beinen verteidigen. Den größten Teil der Nacht verbringen sie mit Wiederkäuen. Tagsüber dösen Giraffen hin und wieder kurz im Stehen, was insgesamt weniger als 50 Minuten eines 24-Stunden-Tages ausmacht. Dadurch kommt ein Individuum auf etwa 4,6 Stunden Schlaf je Tageszyklus. Jungtiere schlafen durchschnittlich länger.
(Wikipedia)
Die Madenhackerstare (Buphagus), auch kurz Madenhacker genannt, sind die einzige Gattung der Vogel-Familie Buphagidae. Die Gruppe umfasst lediglich zwei Arten, die anhand ihrer Schnabelfarbe klassifiziert werden und deren natürlicher Lebensraum die Savannen des mittleren und östlichen Afrikas südlich der Sahara sind. Beide Arten leben dort in offener Symbiose mit großen Haus- oder Wildtieren.
Vormals wurden die Madenhacker meist als Unterfamilie Buphaginae zu den Staren (Sturnidae) gestellt.
Merkmale
Madenhacker haben einen längsovalen Rumpf und ein graubraunes Gefieder, dass zum Bauch hin heller wird und einen eher hellbraune Tönung aufweist. Flügel und Schwanz sind mittellang; der Schwanz ist zum Ende hin zugespitzt. Der rote oder gelbrot gefärbte Schnabel ist mittellang und an der Spitze seitlich abgeflacht. Die Beine und die Zehen sind kurz und stämmig. Die Zehen enden in scharfen Krallen. Die Geschlechter sind äußerlich nicht zu unterscheiden.
Lebensweise
Madenhacker sind gesellige Vögel, die sich von Insekten und deren Larven sowie von Zecken ernähren. Hierzu halten sie sich häufig auf großen Wildtieren oder Haustierherden auf und lassen sich von diesen herumtragen. Sie suchen unter anderem das Fell der Tiere nach Parasiten ab und entfernen diese mit ihren kräftigen Schnäbeln. Auch warnen sie ihre Wirtstiere vor herannahenden Räubern, was ihnen beispielsweise auf Kisuaheli den Namen „Askari wa Kifaru“ (auf Deutsch etwa ‚Wächter des Nashorns‘) einbrachte. Der Bestand der Madenhacker ist neuen Beobachtungen zufolge allerdings rückläufig.
Madenhacker haben kräftige Füße und sind gute Flieger. Ihr Gefieder ist hellbraun. Die beiden Arten unterscheiden sich in der Schnabelfarbe. Die Vögel nisten in Löchern, oft in Wänden, die mit Haaren ihrer Wirtstiere ausgekleidet sind. Dort erbrüten sie zwei oder drei Eier.
Putzsymbiose
Auch wenn Madenhacker nicht zwingend auf einen Wirt angewiesen sind, bevorzugen sie doch das Leben mit diesem, da er ihnen Schutz und Nahrung bietet. Auch ihr Körperbau ist hierauf adaptiert. Bisher wurde die Beziehung als typische Putzsymbiose verstanden, die nicht nur zur Gesundheit des Wirtes beiträgt, sondern auch die Seuchengefahr für die Herde reduziert.
Diese Auffassung wurde jedoch in letzter Zeit infrage gestellt. Der englische Zoologe Paul Weeks kam zu dem Schluss, dass die Beziehung der Madenhacker zu ihren Wirten durchaus parasitische Züge trägt. Durch Untersuchung des Fressverhaltens von Rotschnabel-Madenhackern auf einer Gruppe von Hausrindern in Simbabwe fand Weeks heraus, dass diese nur 15 Prozent ihrer Zeit mit Parasitenvertilgung zubringen. Die übrige Zeit verbringen sie damit, in den Wunden der Tiere zu picken, diese offen zu halten, deren Ohrenschmalz zu fressen oder auf andere Weise im Fell nach Nahrung zu suchen. In diesem Fall wurden das Blut und kleine Stückchen aus den Wundrändern als Nahrung bevorzugt.
Eine weitere Untersuchung ergab, dass Rinder, von denen die Madenhacker vertrieben wurden, nicht stärker von Parasiten befallen waren als eine „geputzte“ Vergleichsgruppe. Es bleibt zu klären, ob diese Ergebnisse auf die etwa 25 weiteren Großwildarten Simbabwes übertragbar sind.
Systematik und Stammesgeschichte
Die Madenhacker wurden meist als Unterfamilie Buphaginae der Familie der Stare zugeordnet. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse genetischer Vergleichsuntersuchungen werden sie jedoch heute als eigene Familie (Buphagidae) betrachtet, da sie mit den übrigen Staren eher fern verwandt sind und basale Vertreter darstellen, die in ihrer ökologischen Nische überlebt haben. Die Ursprünge der Gattung sollen in Südostasien liegen.
Die beiden anerkannten Arten sind der Rotschnabel-Madenhacker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) und der Gelbschnabel-Madenhacker (Buphagus africanus) aus dem subsaharischen Afrika.
(Wikipedia)
This isn't exactly the type of photo I normally upload, but I really liked the old oil painting feel in this... Plus due to my school schedule, I have not had a chance to continue to upload the way I wanted too.
Wanted to put this out here as a wallpaper in case anyone would like it.
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 135L
If only there had been some mayonnaise, life might have turned out a whole lot different. More piquant, and perhaps with a little extra cream in it.
- Pratchett, _Eric_
It's just a little sale but there is plenty of stuff at discounted prices and some new stuff from *BOOM*, Pididdle and Miseria as well as guests, Croire, Apholic Gloom, The Falconer Brothers and Ana_Mations.
slurl.com/secondlife/Existence/150/121/22
There are a few gifts and exclusives as well.
Swope Block (1901), home of the Swope Art Museum, 25 South 7th Street, Terre Haute, Indiana. The Swope Art Museum has many people to thank for its existence, but none more than Terre Haute jeweler Sheldon Swope. Through a bequest, Swope laid the foundations on which the museum was built.
Born in Attica, Indiana on November 3, 1843 to James Asbury Swope and Jane Hull Patterson, Michael Sheldon Swope lived on a farm near Evansville until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Six months shy of his eighteenth birthday, Swope enlisted as a Private in Company I of the 14th Indiana Volunteers. The Gallant Fourteenth, as they came to be known, was the first regiment to leave Indiana for the war.
Swope served for four years in the regiment. During that time he saw the battles of Gettysburg, Antietam, and the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Then, upon returning from the war, Swope entered the jewelry business as apprentice under his half-brother, James Swope, in Dayton, Ohio. It was in this trade that he made his fortune.
In 1867, Swope came to Terre Haute and took a job with S. P. Freeman, a local jeweler. He soon became a partner. Later, Swope bought Freeman’s portion of the firm and hired Charles T. Nehf as partner. Together, they made Swope-Nehf Jewelry Indiana’s largest jewelry store.
Swope was a shrewd businessman. He retained interest in the jewelry firm even after his retirement, and was a respected diamond merchant. He traveled considerably and was considered one of the best read men in the city of Terre Haute. However, Swope was not an art collector himself, and it is unclear why he was motivated to take such interest in opening a gallery. What is clear is that he planned for the gallery long before his death on July 9th, 1929. His will, bequeathing all but a small portion of his estate to the founding of the art gallery, was written in 1903 and remained unchanged.
During his later years, Swope lived in Florida, fishing at Punta Gorda, enjoying Daytona Beach, and occasionally returning North to hunt. Swope never married, and at the time of his death, his estate was liquidated and allowed to accumulate interest for a period ten years. In addition, his will directed that works of art be purchased, accumulated and “…displayed publicly and free of charge to all residents of Terre Haute and Vigo County, Indiana, forever.”
On September 26, 1939, the first board of managers was appointed by Judge John W. Gerdink, and planning began for the new gallery and the collection of artworks to be housed there. The second floor of the downtown Swope Block, a 1901 Italian Renaissance style commercial building that was part of the Swope estate, was gutted and rebuilt as a state-of-the-art exhibition space in a streamlined Art Deco style.
In March of 1942, The Sheldon Swope Art Gallery formally opened its doors to the public with nationwide attention. Its founding collection, assembled by the Museum’s first director, John Rogers Cox, contained new works by artists such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton, Charles Burchfield, Zoltan Sepeshy and Edward Hopper, and it remains the feature for which the Swope is best known nationally and internationally.
Strobist:
AB1600 3/4th power Above Camera Left
Large Softbox
Canon 40D 17-40L + UV Filter
Took some promos with these fellers a few months back with the "fire flower" idea, went for some more casual ones this time, not to mention a member change.
A bunchhhh of shots coming soon (:
Please visit my Facebook Page -> www.facebook.com/SumanKarPhotography
Follow me on 500px -> 500px.com/Suman_Kar
Now the only one of its type left in existence, Hunting Air Cargo Airlines Vickers V953C Vanguard Merchantman G-APEP was delivered to Brooklands in spectacular fashion after retirement in 1996.
The Vickers Vanguard was very much the Dash 8 of its day, a short to medium range multi-purpose turboprop that was built by the Vickers company in 1959, with 44 aircraft eventually being built.
The main operators of the aircraft were British European Airways and Trans-Canada Airlines, although over time the aircraft found their way into service with other airlines. A very efficient aircraft, the Vanguard could easily match the block times of its jet powered equivalents, but with the age of propeller powered aircraft starting to become obsolete, their operations on passenger services were short lived, with the last of these aircraft flying for British Airways in 1974.
Most however were converted to freighters and soon found a new lease of life across the world working cargo operations. However, as time went on the fleet was slowly retired until eventually only one aircraft, Hunting Air Cargo Airlines Vickers V953C Vanguard Merchantman G-APEP, was left in the sky.
Making its last flight with the airline on September 30th 1996, the aircraft was donated to Brooklands Museum on October 17th of the same year, and in a spectacular landing on the heavily stripped down landing strip, the aircraft made a heroic touchdown for the very last time under confined space, landing just short of the tarmac and leaving two prominent gouges in the earth from the tyre impact.
Today the aircraft remains at Brooklands and is open for viewing, a thankful survivor of one of Britain's most famous but obscure aircraft.
The whole secret of existence is to have no fear Never fear what will become Quote Meaning
No explanation or meaning available. Be the first to write the meaning of this quote by commenting below. Write explanation in three sentences to get it featured here.
Main Topic: Fear Quotes Related...
www.braintrainingtools.org/skills/category/quotes/emotion...
#brainquotes #quotes
Website:
english
Is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium. It is located about 30 kilometers east of Brussels, with as other neighbouring cities Mechelen, Aarschot, Tienen, and Wavre.
The township comprises the historical city of Leuven and the former municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, a part of Korbeek-Lo, Wilsele and Wijgmaal.
It is home to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer group and one of the top five largest consumer goods companies in the world; and to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the largest and oldest university of the Low Countries and the oldest Catholic university still in existence.
History
The earliest mention of Leuven ("Loven") is from 891 when a Viking army was defeated by the Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia (see: Battle of Leuven). According to the city legend, its red-white-red colours depict the blood-stained shores of the river Dijle after this battle.
Situated at this river and nearby the stronghold of the Dukes of Brabant, Leuven became the most important centre of trade in the duchy between the 11th and the 14th century. A token of its former importance as a centre of cloth manufacture, is nicely reflected in the typical Leuven linen cloth, known in late 14-15th century texts as lewyn (other spellings: Leuwyn, Levyne, Lewan(e), Lovanium, Louvain).
In the 15th century a new golden era began with the founding of the by now largest and oldest university in the Low Countries, the Catholic University of Leuven, in 1425.
In the 18th century Leuven became even more important as a result of the flourishing of the brewery now named AB InBev, and whose flagship beer, Stella Artois, is brewed in Leuven.
In the 20th century, both world wars inflicted major damage to the city. Upon German entry in World War I, the town was heavily damaged due to German Schrecklichkeit policy. The Germans shot the burgomaster, university rector and all the city's police officers. The university library was deliberately destroyed by the German army on August 25, 1914, using petrol and incendiary pastilles. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts were lost. The world was outraged over this and the library was completely rebuilt after World War I with American charity funds and German war indemnities. After World War II, the burnt down building had to be restored again. It still stands as a symbol of the wars and of Allied solidarity.
Dutch
Leuven (Frans: Louvain, Duits: Löwen) is een stad en gemeente in de Belgische provincie Vlaams-Brabant. Ze is de centraal gelegen hoofdstad van deze provincie en tevens de hoofdplaats van het bestuurlijke en gerechtelijke arrondissement Leuven. Leuven heeft een oppervlakte van 5663 ha, telt ruim 95.000 inwoners en ligt aan de Dijle.
Leuven is onder meer bekend als de vestigingsplaats van de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, de oudste universiteit in de Lage Landen, de multinational Anheuser-Busch InBev (historisch Brouwerij Artois, naderhand ook nog Interbrew en InBev geheten), de Boerenbond en het universitair ziekenhuis Gasthuisberg.
Vanwege de eeuwenlange aanwezigheid van zowel de brouwerij Artois als het studentenleven wordt Leuven ook wel de bierhoofdstad van Vlaanderen/België genoemd.
Naamgeving
De naam Leuven wordt voor het eerst teruggevonden in het jaar 884 als Luvanium in de Annales Vedastini. De naam klimt op tot de prehistorische taal die in de regio gesproken werd vóór de germanisering (2e eeuw v.Chr.). In aansluiting bij Caesar mag men deze taal 'Belgisch' noemen. In het 'Belgisch' werden nederzettingsnamen doorgaans met behulp van het suffix -iom, afgeleid van persoonsnamen. Leuven is daarvan een mooi voorbeeld. De naam klimt op tot Lubaniom, hetgeen afgeleid is van de persoonsnaam Lubanios die betekent "de geliefde". Deze is op zijn beurt afgeleid van de indo-europese wortel leubh-, "liefhebben". Een andere bron zegt echter dat Leuven nederzetting bij het lieflijke water betekent.[bron?]
De bijnamen van de Leuvenaars zijn Pietermannen en koeienschieters. De eerste naam verwijst naar de inwoners van de oudste parochie (Sint-Pieter) en de tweede bijnaam verwijst naar het historische feit van 1691 toen de inwoners van Leuven op een zekere nacht het vuur op verdachte gestalten openden. De Leuvenaars werden op dat moment belegerd door de Fransen en waren in de waan dat ze op vijandige soldaten schoten. De volgende morgen bleek echter dat ze een kudde koeien hadden beschoten.
Português
Lovaina (em neerlandês Leuven) é uma cidade e um município da Bélgica localizado no distrito que leva o seu mesmo nome, parte província de Brabante Flamengo, região da Flandres. Lovaina é a capital da província do Brabante Flamengo, e a língua de seus habitantes é majoritariamente o holandês, embora quase sempre o francês, também seja conhecido. Está localizada a cerca de 30 km a leste da capital Bruxelas.
A exemplo de Coimbra, em Portugal, ou de Leiden, na Holanda, Lovaina é uma cidade universitária. A população é de aproximadamente 91.700 mil habitantes (2008), 30% dos quais são alunos ou professores de sua universidade. A vida em Lovaina gira em torno dessa instituição de ensino, que atrai gente de todo o país e do mundo para lá, sempre renovando o aspecto da cidade. Muitos de seus atuais moradores são ex-alunos que lá decidiram ficar ou voltar depois de terem concluído os seus estudos.
História
Há referências a Louvain desde 891, quando o exército viking foi derrotado por Arnulfo, Rei da Germânia. De acordo com a lenda local, as cores da bandeira de Lovaina, vermelho-branco-vermelho, representam o cenário sanguinolento em que as margens do rio Dijle ficaram.
Do século XI ao século XV Lovaina foi o centro comercial do Ducado de Brabante em que se integrava. Exemplo da riqueza da cidade e dos seus comerciantes foi a construção da câmara da cidade em estilo Gótico. Embora esta tenha sido construída depois das câmaras de Antuérpia e Bruxelas, os ricos habitantes de Lovaina fizeram questão de demonstrar o seu poder económico construindo aquela que é uma das mais belas câmaras da Bélgica. No século XV, mais precisamente 1425, início da época dourada, foi fundada a Universidade Católica de Lovaina, a mais antiga dos países baixos e uma das mais antigas da Europa.
Nessa mesma universidade estudou e leccionou Damião de Góis por volta de 1540. Ele envolveu-se pessoalmente na luta pela defesa da cidade contra as tropas de Carlos I de Espanha aquando da sua invasão da Flandres e acabou capturado.
No século XVIII a indústria cervejeira floresceu, e ainda hoje a InBev, uma das maiores cervejeiras do mundo que detém entre outras a Stella Artois e a Brahma tem aí localizada a sua sede.
No século XX a cidade foi fortemente danificada em ambas as Guerras Mundiais.