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Pacino di Buonaguida or Bonaguida (Florence, c. 1280 - 1339 ?) - Tree of Life (1305-1310) - tempera and gold on panel 248 x 151 cm.- Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence
Il soggetto della tavola è tipicamente francescano e si ispira all'opuscolo di meditazioni del Lignum Vitae di Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, in cui l'antichissimo tema dell'Albero della vita si fondeva con la storia della croce di Cristo. Il testo infatti si divide in dodici "rami" o "frutti" e quarantotto capitoli o meditazioni, fedelmente riprodotti nel dipinto.
Al centro campeggia Cristo crocifisso, nella posizione realistica inaugurata pochi anni prima da Giotto nel Crocifisso di Santa Maria Novella, con pochi accenni espressionistici come il sangue che scende lungo il tronco dell'Albero. Da ogni lato dipartono sei rami, da leggere da sinistra a destra e dal basso verso l'alto, alternatamente rossi e verdi con notazioni vegetali di stampo miniaturistico (Pacino era infatti anche un miniatore), dai quali pendono a sua volta quattro medaglioni ("frutti") con storie cristologiche, simboleggianti le virtù di Gesù, enunciate nei cartigli che corrono lungo i rami. Fa eccezione l'ultimo ramo in alto a destra, poiché il capitolo quarantotto è rappresentato nella cuspide: il paradiso.
In the center stands Christ crucified, in the realistic position inaugurated a few years earlier by Giotto in the Crucifix of Santa Maria Novella, with a few expressionistic hints such as the blood running down the trunk of the Tree. From each side deploy six branches, to be read from left to right and from bottom to top, alternately red and green with plant notations in the miniature style (Pacino was in fact also a miniaturist), from which hang in turn four medallions ("fruits") with Christological stories, symbolizing the virtues of Jesus, enunciated in the scrolls running along the branches. The exception is the last branch on the upper right, as chapter forty-eight is represented in the spire: heaven.
This is my current reading! As a matter of fact, I've almost finished it. It's a delightful little book on the basic and necessary elements for landscape photography. Author Michael Frye, an excellent landscape photographer himself, makes, all the time, interesting and instructive comparisons to the methods and ideas of great masters like Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter and Edward Weston, including the well-known Zone System. A real bargain for what it actually delivers.
I have two fun facts about Dot (my best friend). One is her hair always looks different and two is her eyes change color. Those are superpowers if I've ever seen any before. We are now trying to hone in on how we can use these powers for good by trying to save the world from destroying itself. Hey, don't underestimate cuteness, that force is strong!
Copyright © matilde b. All rights reserved. Please note that the fact that "This photo is public" doesn't mean it is public domain or a free stock image. Therefore, its use without written consent by the author is illegal and punished by law.
My award is your presence. Please, do not leave any other awards or group images on my stream
Due to the fact that the wind comes almost from West, the waves become the same direction, from W to E, and wash the sand away
To stop/make less this washout effect, to break the stronght of the waves - that's the reason of this pillars. In the northern part of Zeeland there are beaches , many km long, and there are this pillars, always two lines together, repeating so about 500m. Depending from tide/low tide you can see 2,0m or nothing from them.
Westkapelle (51°32′N, 3°26′E) is a village in the municipality of Veere on the island Walcheren, in the province Zeeland of the Netherlands. On 1 January 2005, it had a population of 2,671. Westkapelle is on the westernmost tip of Walcheren and is surrounded by the sea on three sides.
Westkapelle is mainly known because of its lighthouse, standing prominently at the entrance to the village. This tower is the remains of a church that burned down in the 18th century. In the 19th century, a light was added to the top so that it could serve as a lighthouse.
Westkapelle was a separate municipality from 1816 until 1997, when it was merged with Veere.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Shooting Date/Time: 9-1-2011 12:51:36
Tv( Shutter Speed ): 1/20
Av( Aperture Value ):F 18
ISO Speed: 100
FACT: Swing Keyholder
fashion gift available @ FACT: Mainstore
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Diwira/80/90/23
BLING BLING BABY !
Mike and I are starting a new tradition this year: Christmas without the tree.
I'm so relieved. Because every year, the tree has been the source of this huge internal struggle for me.
On one hand... in what I like to think is a nod to my long-ago Druid ancestors... I pretty much worship trees. (You may have noticed this elsewhere in my stream. Ahem. It's a powerful force.) So... to bring one in, and adorn it with lights and ornamentation, and spend many hours admiring it... living with it as a member of the family... well, it feels kind of right.
On the other hand... there is no escaping the fact that the trees we bring inside each year are dead. And worse - we killed them ourselves, with our own hands, and have the sap-stained clothes and gloves to attest to our act of, let's face it, murder.
It's always bugged me, but the final straw was Mike's comment on our watering system. We have this great set-up where... every time the tree takes a drink... we hear this musical glug-glug-gurgle. Our tradition has always been to raise our glasses in response, and drink (or eat, or make the motions thereof) in the tree's direction, and say something like, "Here's to you, tree!"
So... yeah. We've lived with this charade for years. And it was only in the past few weeks that we agreed the glug-glugging was, in fact, sinister. Equivalent, we decided, to the flopping and gasping a fish does out of water.
We have agreed (thank goodness) not to inflict that slow-death suffering on another good, honest tree this year. And I am so relieved.
Yes, I know there's the option of the "living tree," but that has its own problems. Kind of like bringing home a big Tyee salmon and watching it swim in a bowl for a few weeks. Conifers just weren't made to live indoors. Or die indoors. So I'll do my seasonal worshipping outdoors this year - in the trees' own living room, which is as it should be.
As is now the case in many parts of the world it is becoming increasingly common to refer to landmarks by the name used by the earliest settlers. We have seen this only recently in Australia with Ayers Rock being referred to as Uluru or in the U.S Mt Mckinley's name changed to Denali. Fitz Roy is gradually becoming more widely known as Cerro Chalten. The word 'Chalten' can loosely be translated as 'smoking mountain' which was a term used by the indigenous Ahònikenk. It was long assumed that this mountain was an active volcano.
Another tid bit of information; the sharks tooth shaped peak between Poincenot and Fitz Roy (the one in shadow) is commonly know as Aguja de la Silla, it in fact received a second name when it was christened by the 1952 French Fitz Roy expedition. Half jokingly they called it Pointe du Cinéaste (filmmaker’s point) for its striking appearance and unique location, and because they could foresee that the expedition’s film maker Georges Strouvé would have wished to sit on its very top to make the film of his life.
Il. Title- ( - sang sur mains - ) Mike Mullen having a nice steak dinner with a 'clear conscience' ... ( On top of dead Afghani civilians & dead soldiers.. Egomaniac.. ) Yes Wikileaks shared this piece inspired by them & their work: twitter.com/wikileaks/status/21824111844 it & the entire Wikileaks series is not- for sale.
At some point there may be an exhibition with funds going towards WL & Bradley Manning.
But for now none of the pieces in the series are commercially available or for sale to private individuals.
They do have free use by Wikileaks however.
More work to be posted soon.
Dimensions: 18" x 24.5" acid free paper, acrylics, gouache & ebony pencil
"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," Mullen said."
www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/29/pentagon-wikileaks-bl...
MMm no- Mullen..How can we end these wars ASAP- & STOP you from getting any MORE blood on YOUR hands..
( News from Wikileaks Twitter feed, 8 - 19 - 2012: "In fact, being from another planet, he might even have picked up on something that most Americans would be unlikely to notice -- that, with only slight alterations, Mullen’s blistering comment about Assange could be applied remarkably well to Mullen himself. “Chairman Mullen,” that Martian might have responded, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he is doing, but the truth is he already has on his hands the blood of some young soldiers and that of many Afghan families.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml )
War Diary - wardiary.wikileaks.org/ Timeline: wartimeline.haineault.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Mullen#2007_Senate_testimon...
& from the Pentagon- "“We want whatever they have returned to us and we want whatever copies they have expunged… We demand that they do the right thing. If doing the right thing is not good enough for them, then we will figure out what alternatives we have to compel them to do the right thing." mashable.com/2010/08/05/pentagon-wikileaks-demand/
The NERVE.. -
Wikileaks - "What we didn't hear from the Pentagon last week: "killing all those innocent people is bad. Sorry. We will stop that" Thursday, August 05, 2010
YES.
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"Thousands of children and adults had been killed and the US could have announced a broad inquiry into these killings, "but he decided to treat these issues with contempt''.
He said: "This behaviour is unacceptable. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."" - www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/30/us-military-wikileak...
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( From Wikileaks twitter- Aug 19 2010 _ ) -
Wikileaks vs the Pentagon: Phony Fingerpointing
Tom Engelhardt:: Who Really Has Blood On Their Hands?
"Consider the following statement offered by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference last week. He was discussing Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks as well as the person who has taken responsibility for the vast, still ongoing Afghan War document dump at that site. "Mr. Assange,” Mullen commented, “can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”
Now, if you were the proverbial fair-minded visitor from Mars (who in school civics texts of my childhood always seemed to land on Main Street, U.S.A., to survey the wonders of our American system), you might be a bit taken aback by Mullen’s statement. After all, one of the revelations in the trove of leaked documents Assange put online had to do with how much blood from innocent Afghan civilians was already on American hands.
The British Guardian was one of three publications given early access to the leaked archive, and it began its main article this way: “A huge cache of secret U.S. military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents. They range from the shootings of individual innocents to the often massive loss of life from air strikes...” Or as the paper added in a piece headlined “Secret CIA paramilitaries’ role in civilian deaths”: “Behind the military jargon, the war logs are littered with accounts of civilian tragedies.
The 144 entries in the logs recording some of these so-called ‘blue on white’ events, cover a wide spectrum of day-by-day assaults on Afghans, with hundreds of casualties.” Or as it also reported, when exploring documents related to Task Force 373, an “undisclosed ‘black’ unit” of U.S. special operations forces focused on assassinating Taliban and al-Qaeda “senior officials”: “The logs reveal that TF 373 has also killed civilian men, women, and children and even Afghan police officers who have strayed into its path.”
Admittedly, the events recorded in the Wikileaks archive took place between 2004 and the end of 2009, and so don’t cover the last six months of the Obama administration’s across-the-board surge in Afghanistan. Then again, Admiral Mullen became chairman of the Joint Chiefs in October 2007, and so has been at the helm of the American war machine for more than two of the years in question.
He was, for example, chairman in July 2008, when an American plane or planes took out an Afghan bridal party -- 70 to 90 strong and made up mostly of women -- on a road near the Pakistani border. They were "escorting the bride to meet her groom as local tradition dictates." The bride, whose name we don’t know, died, as did at least 27 other members of the party, including children. Mullen was similarly chairman in August 2008 when a memorial service for a tribal leader in the village of Azizabad in Afghanistan’s Herat Province was hit by repeated U.S. air strikes that killed at least 90 civilians, including perhaps 15 women and up to 60 children. Among the dead were 76 members of one extended family, headed by Reza Khan, a "wealthy businessman with construction and security contracts with the nearby American base at Shindand airport."
Mullen was still chairman in April 2009 when members of the family of Awal Khan, an Afghan army artillery commander on duty elsewhere, were killed in a U.S.-led raid in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. Among them were his "schoolteacher wife, a 17-year-old daughter named Nadia, a 15-year-old son, Aimal, and his brother, employed by a government department.” Another daughter was wounded and the pregnant wife of Khan's cousin was shot five times in the abdomen.
Mullen remained chairman when, in November 2009, two relatives of Majidullah Qarar, the spokesman for the Minister of Agriculture, were shot down in cold blood in Ghazni City in a Special Operations night raid; as he was -- and here we move beyond the Wikileaks time frame -- when, in February 2010, U.S. Special Forces troops in helicopters struck a convoy of mini-buses, killing up to 27 civilians, including women and children; as he also was when, in that same month, in a special operations night raid, two pregnant women and a teenage girl, as well as a police officer and his brother, were shot to death in their home in a village near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. After which, the soldiers reportedly dug the bullets out of the bodies, washed the wounds with alcohol, and tried to cover the incident up. He was no less chairman late last month when residents of a small town in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan claimed that a NATO missile attack had killed 52 civilians, an incident that, like just about every other one mentioned above and so many more, was initially denied by U.S. and NATO spokespeople and is now being “investigated.” "
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/06/opinion/main6748239.shtml
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"What is interesting is who is responsible for the killings.
Of the 1,325 civilian deaths recorded by the Afghan human rights group, 23 per cent were attributed to Nato or Afghan government forces. The Taliban and their allies were responsible for 68 per cent of the deaths.
The UN study claimed the civilian death toll was slightly lower at 1,271 with anti-government forces blamed for 76 per cent of the casualties.
Chronicling precise figures is extremely difficult because most parts of the country are inaccessible.
Crucially, both studies suggested that the proportion of deaths attributed to Nato and Afghan government forces were down compared to last year because of fewer air strikes.
This is important because clumsy air strikes on innocent villages and unfair raids on their houses has been driving a lot of Afghans to pick up arms on behalf of insurgents."
by, Hamida Ghafour
More: www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100811/OP...
& -
"My countrymen called me a prostitute
(Filed: 26/10/2004)
Fourteen months ago, Hamida Ghafour went to Afghanistan to cover her native countrys postwar reconstruction for this newspaper. But, as a westernised Afghan, her homecoming wasnt as welcoming as she had hoped"
www.afghanistan.org/news_detail.asp?17220
I am skeptical about agendas.. It can be confusing, this is why for better or worse one must have THE FACTS - it would have been better if we had them from the START.
Without facts no one cares what we do- or who we kill, because we simply don't have ANY concept of how a decade long war is going..
“The government is engaging in selective prosecution to ensure that employees keep their mouths shut,” says Stephen Khon, a lawyer specializing in whistleblowing cases. “All of a sudden the whistleblower becomes public enemy number one. There is no proportionality.” www.alternet.org/world/147778/how_the_military_destroys_t...
This- - you MUST watch-- It's of Afghani's asking for peace & for us to leave- "Wikileaks Assange, stand freely for love & we in Afg will stand with you.." From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9E_nXiPj9g
US war crimes: soldiers speak out. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj6s1V0Dpuw
From Wikileaks Twitter- "UNAMA Human Rights Unit issued recommendations in the report including:
• The Taliban should withdraw all orders and statements calling for the killing of civilians; and, the Taliban and other AGEs should end the use of IEDs and suicide attacks, comply with international humanitarian law, cease acts of intimidation and killing including assassination, execution and abduction, fully respect citizens’ freedom of movement and stop using civilians as human shields.
• International military forces should make more transparent their investigation and reporting on civilian casualties including on accountability; maintain and strengthen directives restricting aerial attacks and the use of night raids; coordinate investigation and reporting of civilian casualties with the Afghan Government to improve protection and accountability; improve compensation processes; and, improve transparency around any harm to civilians caused by Special Forces operations.
• The Afghan Government should create a public body to lead its response to major civilian casualty incidents and its interaction with international military forces and other key actors, ensure investigations include forensic components, ensure transparent and timely compensation to victims; and, improve accountability including discipline or prosecution for any Afghan National Security Forces personnel who unlawfully cause death or injury to civilians or otherwise violate the rights of Afghan citizens."
unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Deta...
From Wikileaks Twitter- CBC
"A bomb is found tucked into a school typewriter. Insurgents dressed in military uniforms attack an education chief. School guards are tied up while the building is bombed to smithereens. Teachers and students at an all-girls high school are poisoned through the drinking water."
"School attacks
Year Number of attacks against schools
2005 98
2006 220
2007 236
2008 348
2009 610
Source: UNICEF. Data for 2008 and 2009 are from the UN Country Task Force on Children, and previous years are from the Ministry of Education."
"Education for children up in Afghanistan since 2002- .
"Nine years ago, about 100,000 students were enrolled in schools. The figure now stands at more than seven million students, one-third of whom are girls, according to the Afghanistan Ministry of Education.
"It's one of those sectors where we've seen radical and dramatic progress since 2002," notes Rowell.
"No one knows where the country is going … but education is a beacon of success."
Read more: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/06/f-afghanistan-education...
& www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/database-afghan-war-logs/
""
"New Petition Gains Prominent Signatures: “Defend WikiLeaks – End the Secret Wars” - Sign: seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/64042
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others may despise it, is the invention of good games and it cannot be done by men out of touch with their instinctive selves." - Jung.
Treating Soldier Stress: www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2008931_2172992,00...
"Afghan War Diary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Afghan War Diary (also called The War Logs) is a collection of internal U.S. military logs of the War in Afghanistan published by Wikileaks on 25 July 2010.
The logs consist of 91,731 documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. Most of the documents were classified as "secret", which The New York Times called "a relatively low level of classification".
As of 28 July 2010, only 75,000 of the documents have been released to the public, a move which Wikileaks says is "part of a harm minimization process demanded by [the] source". Prior to releasing the initial 75,000 documents, Wikileaks made the logs available to The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel in its German and English on-line edition which published reports per previous agreement on that same day, July 25, 2010."
&
"In June 2010, Guardian journalist Nick Davies and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange established that the US army had built a huge database with six years of sensitive military intelligence material, to which many thousands of US soldiers had access and some of them had been able to download copies, and WikiLeaks had one copy which it proposed to publish online, via a series of uncensorable global servers.
Wikileaks describes itself as "a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public."
In an interview with the U.K.'s Channel 4, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that "we have a stated commitment to a particular kind of process and objective, and that commitment is to get censored material out and never to take it down." He contrasted the group with other media outlets by saying that "other journalists try to verify sources. We don't do that, we verify documents. We don't care where it came from." He denied that the group has an inherent bias against the Afghanistan War, saying that "We don't have a view about whether the war should continue or stop – we do have a view that it should be prosecuted as humanely as possible." However, he also said that he believes the leaked information will turn world public opinion to think more negatively of the war."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary
"War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford." -
Hannah Arendt
"The leak of tens of thousands of Afghanistan war-related documents tells us more than the sum total of many official communiqués about the war. On balance, more disclosure is a good thing, but the leaking of raw military intelligence is a special case that requires a careful, rather than a cavalier, approach.
There is not enough information about the war, and much official information is misleading. In Canada, the federal government's quarterly reports contain a few updates based on its goals in Kandahar, but little else that informs. The government has already shown itself to be an unreliable source on issues relating to Afghan detainees.
The situation is now too dangerous for the most trustworthy chroniclers – journalists, UN personnel – to go outside NATO-protected areas.
So reliable, independent information is lacking. The circumstances in this war make such information even more necessary."
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/we-neede...
"Instead, many eyes will now pore over this data from many different directions, looking for patterns and attempting to eliminate the noise, disinformation and fog of war.
Many will look to it to criticise and condemn the US presence in Afghanistan, but if those on the other side – those who support such military incursions – have any sense, they too will use it to understand better the war in which they find themselves and adapt their counsel to fit more accurately the facts on the ground.
That’s the benefit, usually, of an open society. We get to triangulate on the truth by gathering facts in the public space, then providing them to all sides to chew over. We use this against our own illusions and those of more closed societies who can only view the world through one narrow perspective.": www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0730/1224275801...
( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_ecology )
"The first phase was chilling, in part because the banter of the soldiers was so far beyond the boundaries of civilian discourse. “Just fuckin’, once you get on ’em, just open ’em up,” one of them said. The crew members of the Apache came upon about a dozen men ambling down a street, a block or so from American troops, and reported that five or six of the men were armed with AK-47s; as the Apache maneuvered into position to fire at them, the crew saw one of the Reuters journalists, who were mixed in among the other men, and mistook a long-lensed camera for an RPG. The Apaches fired on the men for twenty-five seconds, killing nearly all of them instantly."
Read more www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/06/07/100607fa_fact_khat...
"With the release of the WikiLeaks documents, Arab media may finally feel vindicated, as Western media finally start to give greater prominence to civilian casualties." newamericamedia.org/2010/07/wikileaks-documents-validate-...
"Wikileaks confirmed: A plan to kill American geologist with poison beer
The Wikileaks documents contain a claim that Pakistan and Afghanistan insurgents were working to poison alcoholic drinks in Afghanistan. While that's unproven, one US adviser in Afghanistan tells the Monitor he was almost poisoned that way in 2007." : www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0728/Wiki...
"This is duplicitous only if you close your eyes to the Pakistani reality, which the Americans never did. There was ample evidence, as the WikiLeaks show, of covert ISI ties to the Taliban. The Americans knew they couldn't break those ties. They settled for what support Pakistan could give them while constantly pressing them harder and harder until genuine fears in Washington emerged that Pakistan could destabilize altogether. Since a stable Pakistan is more important to the United States than a victory in Afghanistan—which it wasn't going to get anyway—the United States released pressure and increased aid. If Pakistan collapsed, then India would be the sole regional power, not something the United States wants."
www.billoreilly.com/site/rd?satype=13&said=12&url...
"How to read the Afghanistan war logs: video tutorial
David Leigh, the Guardian's investigations editor, explains the online tools we have created to help you understand the secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan": www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/video/2010/jul/25/afgha...
"Jonathan Foreman, writing for the right of center National Review's Corner blog, hopes the documents will force America to deal with the possible deceptions being made by ally Pakistan. "It is possible that the publication of documents that provide actual evidence — rather than rumors — of the role of ISI personnel in Taliban planning, logistics, and strategy will give the West greater leverage in dealing with Islamabad and might force Pakistan’s political elite to confront the reality of the ISI’s secret activities. If so, that would be a silver lining to what is otherwise a military disaster abetted by the U.S. and British media."
www.nbclosangeles.com/news/politics/NATL-The-Importance-o...
"The real significance of the Afghan war diaries lies in what Wikileaks represents as a movement, as an evolution in journalism. One analyst has called it the emergence of open source journalism. Julian Assange makes it possible for anybody anywhere in the world to submit secret documents for publication." www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Sevanti_Ninan/article541...
A War Without End: www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,708314,00.html
"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'
Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, explains why he decided to publish thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan Afghanistan war logs expose truth of occupation": www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2010/jul/25/julian-assange...
The history of US leaks: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10769495
Freedom of Information Act: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_...
"A long-delayed Afghanistan war funding bill, stripped of billions for teachers and black farmers, is back before the House and walking now into the storm over the Internet leak of battlefield reports stirring old doubts about U.S. policy and relations with Pakistan.": www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40254.html & www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40251.html
This is a large study/drawing, Assange/Wikileakers of the organization Wikileaks ( wikileaks.org ) uses 'matches from sources' to disclose US gov secrecy ( behind large black curtains ) & to also finally bring some much needed attention & closure to some of these revelations ( set ablaze ).
This ongoing series is dedicated to everyone who has needlessly had their lives destroyed, been injured or die in this almost past decade of war. For the sources, journalists & average citizens who risk their lives to inform us.
Reuters reporters Namir Eldeen, Saeed Chmagh & the good samaritan ( father ) who died trying to save them & of course his two surviving small children who will forever be impacted by the brutality of war for decades to come.
Please help Private Bradley Manning- www.bradleymanning.org/
"One surprising consequence of the war in Iraq is the surrender of postmodernism to a victorious modernism. This has been largely overlooked in North America.
In reaction to the U.S. intervention in Iraq, Jacques Derrida, a famous postmodernist, signed on as co-author of an article drafted by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, previously an opponent of his, in an unmistakable endorsement of modernist Enlightenment principles. Derrida, the apostle of deconstructionism, is now advocating some decidedly constructive and Eurocentric activism.
The article appeared simultaneously in two newspapers on May 31, in German in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "After the War: The Rebirth of Europe," and in French in Libération, less triumphantly, as "A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy: The demonstrations of Feb. 15 against the war in Iraq designed a new European public space."
Other famous intellectuals joined in with supportive newspaper articles of their own: Umberto Eco (of The Name of the Rose) and Gianni Vattimo in Italy and an American philosopher, Richard Rorty. This provoked much discussion in Europe, but only a few comments so far in North America, the Boston Globe and the Village Voice being rare exceptions.
This week in Montreal, there was an anti-globalization riot in which windows were broken in protest against a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting. But the Habermas-Derrida declaration praises the WTO and even the International Monetary Fund as part of Weltinnenpolitik: maddeningly hard to translate, but something like "global domestic policy" or "external internal policy."
Yet it is not much of a stretch to claim the young anti-globalists as disciples of postmodernism and Derrida, who has hitherto been a foe of "logocentrism" (putting reason at the centre), "phallologocentrism" (reason is an erect male organ and, as such, damnably central) and Eurocentrism (the old, old West is the homeland of all of the above).
Derrida added a note to the article, observing most people would recognize Habermas's style and thinking in the piece, and that he hadn't had time to write a separate piece. But notwithstanding his "past confrontations" with Habermas (Derrida had objected to being called a "Judaistic mystic," for one thing), he agreed with the article he had signed, which calls for new European responsibilities "beyond all Eurocentrism" and the strengthening of international law and international institutions."
More: www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
"In early 2003, both Habermas and Derrida were very active in opposing the coming Iraq War, and called for in a manifesto that later became the book Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe for a tighter union of the states of the European Union in order to provide a power capable of opposing American foreign policy. Derrida wrote a foreword expressing his unqualified subscription to Habermas's declaration of February 2003, "February 15, or, What Binds Europeans Together: Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in Core Europe,” in Old Europe, New Europe, Core Europe which was a reaction to the Bush administration demands upon European nations for support for the coming Iraq War[25]. Habermas has offered further context for this declaration in an interview."
More: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%c3%bcrgen_Habermas#Habermas_and_D...
Habermas: ”The asymmetry between the concentrated destructive power of the electronically controlled clusters of elegant and versatile missiles in the air and the archaic ferocity of the swarms of bearded warriors outfitted with Kalashnikovs on the ground remains a morally obscene sight
I consider Bush' s decision to call for a "war against terrorism" a serious mistake, both normatively and pragmatically. Normatively, he is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies; and pragmatically, one cannot lead a war against a "network" if the term "war" is to retain any definite meaning.”
Derrida: “To say it all too quickly and in passing, to amplify and clarify just a bit what I said earlier about an absolute threat whose origin is anonymous and not related to any state, such "terrorist" attacks already no longer need planes, bombs, or kamikazes: it is enough to infiltrate a strategically important computer system and introduce a virus or some other disruptive element to paralyze the economic, military, and political resources of an entire country or continent. And this can be attempted from just about anywhere on earth, at very little expense and with minimal means. The relationship between earth, terra territory, and terror has changed, and it is necessary to know that this is because of knowledge, that is, because of technoscience.
It is technoscience that blurs the distinction between war and terrorism. In this regard, when compared to the possibilities for destruction and chaotic disorder that are in reserve, for the future, in the computerized networks of the world, "September 11" is still part of the archaic theater of violence aimed at striking the imagination. One will be able to do even worse tomorrow, invisibly, in silence, more quickly and without any bloodshed, by attacking the computer and informational networks on which the entire life (social, economic, military, and so on) of a "great nation," of the greatest power on earth, depends.”
www.16beavergroup.org/mtarchive/archives/000361.php
I am incredibly- delighted at all the vital discussions about the war & US gov that are FINALLY taking place- & on a mass scale- as a result of this leak .. Simply miraculous..
FREEDOM & PEACE ( transparency, diplomacy & the evolution of such ) FOR ALL WAR NATIONS.
( WARNING - links ( after excerpt ) are NOT for sensitive viewers- ) "Wikileaks have released over 150 supressed images. This is the tip of the iceberg, keep looking, keep publishing.In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”The transparency group’s move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau’s carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people’s recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet."
fortuzero.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/tibet-western-media-sa...
file.wikileaks.org/file/tibet-protest-photos/index.html
FREE TIBET!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also other dire & serious issues ( out of countless ) - that expose corruption by corporations & gov's:
"A documentary about intensive pig farming due to be screened at the Guardian Hay festival on Sunday is facing a legal threat from one of the companies it investigates. Pig Business criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories."
www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/29/pig-business-document...
"In an investigation broadcast on BBC Radio 5 on November 14, 2004,[79] it was reported that the site is still contaminated with 'thousands' of metric tons of toxic chemicals, including benzene hexachloride and mercury, held in open containers or loose on the ground. A sample of drinking water from a well near the site had levels of contamination 500 times higher than the maximum limits recommended by the World Health Organization.[80]
In 2009, a day before the 25th anniversary of the disaster, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi based pollution monitoring lab, released latest tests from a study showing that groundwater in areas even three km from the factory up to 38.6 times more pesticides than Indian standards."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
-
The Blue Mask - Lou Reed - www.goear.com/listen/9960779/the-blue-mask-lou-reed ( & O Superman ) www.goear.com/listen/02cf55d/o-superman-(for-massenet)-la...
Lou Reed The Blue Mask
Lyrics:
They tied his arms behind
his back to teach him how to
swim They put
blood in his coffee and milk
in his gin They stood over the
soldier in
the midst of the squalor
There was war in his body and
it caused his
brain to holler
Make the sacrifice
mutilate my face
If you need someone to kill
I'm a man without a will
Wash the razor in the rain
Let me luxuriate in pain
Please don't set me free
Death means a lot to me
The pain was lean and it made
him scream he knew he was alive
They put a
pin through the nipples on his chest
He thought he was a saint
I've made love to my mother,
killed my father and my brother
What am I
to do
When a sin goes too far, it's
like a runaway car It cannot
be controlled
Spit upon his face and scream
There's no Oedipus today
This is no play you're thinking you
are in What will you say
Take the blue mask down from my face and
look me in the eye I get a
thrill from punishment
I've always been that way
I loathe and despise repentance
You are permanently stained
Your weakness buys indifference
and indiscretion in the streets
Dirty's what you are and clean is what
you're not You deserve to be
soundly beat
Make the sacrifice
Take it all the way
There's no won't high enough
To stop this desperate day
Don't take death away
Cut the finger at the joint
Cut the stallion at his mount
And stuff it in his mouth
---
-
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. "
Albert Einstein
IMAGINE THE HAPPINESS & GREAT WORK AHEAD OF US WE COULD HAVE AT THE END OF THE WARS!!!!!!!!!
www.goear.com/listen/48d6016/hora-de-la-mehedinti-romania...
NO MORE WAR & FREEDOM FOR ALL WAR NATIONS!!!!!!!!!
Peace.
sounds that will make him exhilarated and alive, or quiet and calm... As a matter of fact, one of the greatest sounds of them all—and to me it is a sound—is utter, complete silence :-)
André Kostelanetz
zinnia, sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina
Palmeiras (my soccer team Jersey) always with me.
***
Crotalaria is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae (subfamily Faboideae). The genus includes about 500 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs. Africa is the continent with the majority of Crotalaria species (approximately 400 species), which are mainly found in damp grassland, especially in floodplains, depressions and along edges of swamps and rivers, but also in deciduous bush land, roadsides and fields. Some species of Crotalaria are grown as ornamentals. The common name rattlepod or rattlebox is derived from the fact that the seeds become loose in the pod as they mature, and rattle when the pod is shaken. The name derives from the Ancient Greek κρόταλον, meaning "castanet", and is the same root as the name for the rattlesnakes (Crotalus).
No words can describe how much I love muted bark cloth, and the fact that this is the perfect catch all for my shipping supplies!
I love the story of this product almost as much as I love to eat it. It is made in the USA, but by a family whose patriarch and company founder, David Tran, arrived here in 1978 as one of the “Boat People” who escaped Viet Nam via hair-raising adventures on a variety of water craft. In fact, the company name comes from the Taiwanese freighter, Huey Fong, on which David and 3,316 other refugees traveled.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWs0n2QH0Tk
Just 2 years later, in 1980, the company was founded in Southern California, and according to Wikipedia, sales were $60 million in 2012. The company has never advertised, depending on word of mouth. I am not sure how widely its use has spread, but it is ubiquitous in the San Francisco Bay Area where I live. I discovered it in the early 1980’s, and I always have bottles of both the garlic sauce and the sriracha in my refrigerator.
We’re Here!: enjoying Hot & Spicy
2013 was a good year for Lady Aurora, and this one was from a series of shots that lasted all night-morning June 1
Tidbits about Mount Adams:
Known as Pah-to by the land’s original inhabitants, the 12,276-foot Mount Adams is the second-tallest mountain in the state. Only Mount Rainier is higher at 14,411 feet.
[[an old Yakama Elder was once quoted explaining that all the volcanic peaks were referred to as Pah-to, the Big People, and were honored and respected. This particular peak is known as Klickitat (Klik-a-tat) by local tribes.]]
• The first recorded sighting by whites was by Lewis and Clark in 1805. They and other early explorers mistook Mount Adams for Mount St. Helens, which had already been discovered by Pacific Ocean explorers. Some confusion continued until 1853, when the Pacific Railroad expedition mapped the mountain as Mount Adams.
• The generally accepted first ascent of Mount Adams was in 1854, when a group of men belonging to a military road work party made the summit.
www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/take-a-peek-at-some-fasci...
* "Presidential Range":
"Mount Adams was named after the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams. a name which survives from an 1839 scheme by Hall J. Kelly to make the Cascades the Presidential Range. Kelly intended the name Adams to go to Mount Hood -- he left the mountain in Washington out of the plan entirely. However, the person who mapped the mountains mixed up Kelly's names and put the name Mount Adams 40 miles in the wrong direction -- where there happened to be a mountain ready to bear the name. "Mount Adams" stuck firmly after 1853, when the Pacific Railroad Expedition put the name on their map."
volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/Historical/LewisClar...:
---------0---------
volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/Historical/naming_mo...:
“Jungle stories by Jim Corbett merit as much popularity and as wide a circulation as Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Books. Kipling’s Jungle Books were fiction, based on great knowledge of jungle life; Corbett’s stories are fact, and fact is often stranger than fiction.”
~M.G. Hallett (Introduction; Man-Eaters of Kumaon)
To the world, Jim Corbett is a little-known naturalist who rose to some fame in early 1900s hunting several maneaters in India’s Kumaon region. To Kumaonis, people from the densely forested Himalayan foothills of Kumaon, Jim Corbett was a savior. He was called upon on numerous occasions to alleviate terrors of man-eating tigers and leopards that roamed large regions and killed tens to hundreds of hapless men, women, and children who needed to venture into the jungle for their livelihood. To locals, Jim Corbett was not a hunter or a killer, he was their protector. Born in India of European ancestry, Jim Corbett loved the country and her people (“In my India, the India I know, there are four hundred million people, ninety percent of whom are simple, honest, brave, loyal, hard-working souls whose daily prayer to God…, is to give them security of life and of property...”; My India). Returning the love and doffing her hat to his status and posthumous influence in the region, India named her first national park after him (The Jim Corbett National Park).
Jim Corbett was also a writer extraordinaire, a fact often ignored in favor of his fame as the celebrated hunter. He hunted alone (“I have made it a hard and fast rule to go alone when hunting man-eaters, for if one’s companion is unarmed it is difficult to protect him, and if he is armed, it is even more difficult to protect oneself”), and he wrote alone producing prose that effortlessly took readers on nerve wrecking expeditions of hunting man-eaters. He shot with a long rifle and wrote in long sentences. Both his rifle and his sentences often met their targets. Take the following as an example:
"Dansay was an Irishman steeped to the crown of his head in every form of superstition, in which he had utter and complete belief, and it was therefore natural for him to tell his ghost stories in a very convincing manner. According to Dansay, a banshee was an evil female spirit that resided in dense forests and was so malignant that the mere hearing of it brought calamity to the hearer and his family, and the seeing of it death to the unfortunate beholder. Dansay described the call of a banshee as a long drawn-out scream, which was heard most frequently on dark and stormy nights. These banshee stories had a fearful fascination for me, for they had their setting in the jungles in which I loved to roam..." (Jungle Lore)
If you are not already spooked, you’re by now, at least, very curious about Dansay’s Banshee. I will let Jim tell you all about it:
"As on the evening of the storm a wind was blowing, and after I had been standing with my back to a tree for some minutes, I again heard the scream. Restraining with difficulty my impulse to run away, I stood trembling behind the tree and after the scream had been repeated a few times, I decided to creep up and have a look at the banshee. … —with my heart beating in my throat— I crept forward as slowly and as noiselessly as a Shadow, until I saw Dansay’s banshee.
In some violent storm of long ago a giant of the forest had been partly uprooted and had been prevented from crashing to the ground by falling across another and slightly smaller giant. The weight of the bigger tree had given the smaller tree a permanent bend, and when a gust of wind lifted the bigger one and then released it, it swayed back on to the supporting tree. At the point of impact the wood of both trees had died and worn as smooth as glass, and it was the friction between these two smooth surfaces that was emitting the terrifying scream. Not until I had laid the gun on the ground and climbed the leaning tree and sat on it while the scream was being repeated below me, was I satisfied that I had found the terror that was always at the back of my mind when I was alone in the jungles. From that day I date the desire I acquired of following up and getting to the bottom of every unusual thing I saw or heard in the jungles and for this I am grateful to Dansay for, by frightening me with his banshee, he started me on the compiling of many exciting and interesting jungle detective stories.” (Jungle Lore)
Locating and ‘getting to the bottom of the unusual sight’ above during our recent trip to the verdant national park, Rishabh said, ‘it looks like a scene from a videogame’. It was indeed a scene. It was Jim Corbett’s scene, which reminded me all about his Banshee and how not to be afraid of the unknown but be eagerly curious about it.
“Human beings are funny. They long to be with the person they love but refuse to admit it openly. Some are afraid to show even the slightest sign of affection because of fear. Fear that their feelings may not be recognized, or even worst, returned. But one thing about human beings puzzles me the most is their conscious effort to be connected with the object of their affection even if it kills them slowly within.”
A self portrait in a U-2 at 70,000' over Northern California. Note the ice forming on the rear of the cockpit. Interesting fact is that the curvature of the earth at this altitude creates 6 degrees of arc.
Here's a video from the same flight: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TBnZmG5o4U
The idea of 'fake' or 'professional' beggars is a hot topic in Liverpool.
Jimmy Boland, who runs the Rubber Soul Complex is adamant that the large number of people begging in and around Mathew Street are 'fake' and not in genuine need - and said he has seen people getting taxis home at the end of the night.
It is widely acknowledged that Liverpool has a major issue with people who take to the streets to beg when they are not actually homeless - making life difficult for those who are genuinely in need.
"I could give you facts and figures
I could give you plans and forecasts"
What’s the Buzz / Strange Thing Mystifying - Ted Neely cover from Jesús Christ Superstar
How a naive Raptor believes everything:
Hawk, line, and sinker
Raptor autumn beer celebration:
Hawktoberfest
Favorite Raptor table game:
Air Hawkey
Raptor music genre:
Hawk and Roll
Raptor retail activity:
Hawking its wares
How a Raptor keeps its guns:
Hawked and loaded
Specific Raptor committee:
Ad Hawk
Raptor M*A*S*H character:
Hawkeye Pierce
Raptor with an aristocratic or high-toned manner:
Tony Hawk
What the confident Raptor can do:
Talk the talk and hawk the hawk
Raptor informational movie style:
Hawkumentary
Mythological Raptor water creature:
Hawk Ness Monster
Raptor alcoholic drink:
Hawktail
Everything about a Raptor:
Hawk, stock, and barrel
Remark to Ted's lame Raptor puns:
Well, those were certainly very hawkward
The Devil’s Bathtub is a fascinating piece of streambed. It consists of a unique tiered waterfall located between the Upper Falls and Old Man’s Cave. The tub is situated in a weak layer of Blackhand sandstone and is constantly being enlarged by the swirling action of Old Man’s Creek. The upper part of the falls drops into a deep, bowl-shaped basin, forming a captivating whirlpool before dropping again into the large pool below. Whether you’re a Hocking Hills local or are just passing through, the Devil’s Bathtub is truly a sight to behold.
Fun Fact: While legend has it that the pool extends deep into the depths of Hades, it’s actually only a few feet deep!
217b 5 - TAC_2234 - lr-ps
Torreya Creek is not the name of this small waterway, in fact, it is very possibly nameless. In any case it is unidentified to many spectators who might take in its splendor at Torreya State Park, a large park absolutely littered with gorgeous and picturesque small streams flowing through its surprisingly hilly landscape. Though most of Florida is rather flat, Torreya provides hills towering several hundred feet which represent the lowest portion of the Appalachian Ridge dipping into Florida only to be divided by the Apalachicola River. These hills are crisscrossed and divided by creeks and steephead ravines as far as the eye can see. It is a premier natural Florida destination but one that lies seriously under the radar.
I had so much fun with the 50 FACTS ABOUT ME idea, I wanted to do it again--except this time I have kept it to 30. When I say “funny” I don’t necessarily mean knee-slapping hilarious, I am just being supercilious and sardonic. Enjoy.
1.I don’t believe there is only ‘one true love’ for us, although I am a romantic. I believe we are all most likely compatible with a multitude of people, however my girlfriends told me that I’m monogamous ;]
2.I am not an ideologue, although I am philosophically reflective, except when I’m sitting naked on a rock.
3.I am selective to whom I chose to befriend. Friends always start off as strangers, and you can't trust them. ;]
4.I will be publishing my first book in 2008, and I read my first book in 1968.
5.I am a mini-Toronto celebrity for painting famous faces but my own mug goes unrecognized. (My name is better known).
6.I was raised by my grandparents, Victor and Ruth Pross. (Thank God I was named after my grandfather and not my grandmother).
7.Both my biological parents (and grandparents) have passed away. I’m next.
8.When I fall in love, I fall deep and hard. When relationships fail, I hurt badly but I never give up hope. (I think this is a definition of insanity).
9.I am passionately in love with my vocation, with the world of art. Girlfriends always get jealous.
10.I am NOT a spectator sports enthusiast. I attribute this to having a mind.
***
11.I love dark ale beer, not so much domestic. (But if I get drunk I don’t give a shit).
12.I have my first You-tube video, thanks to a good friend who created it. (This is not funny, but I had to toss it in).
13.I am an analytical person but I’m not necessarily linier.
14.I’m left-handed, but I’m not a right-winger.
15.I would want to marry again. (This might be further evidence of my insanity).
16.I suffer from anxiety when a new gallery show presents my work; I am concerned about negative reviews only in so far as it affects potential commissions—even though negative reviews have garnered me more commissions.
17.I am a dog lover. (This is not to be confused with bestiality).
18.I am a very sensual, tactile person, perhaps too affectionate. (There are a few strangers I need to apologize to).
19.It wasn’t until I was married that I learned that there are “good towels.”
20.I need to listen to music before and during painting a new picture. (The same goes for making love, so I think it is rather symbolic).
****
21.I use to be a nail biter, now I thumb twiddle. (It’s better than being a bed-wetter).
22. I consider rap music to be a pounding headache, a profane street sermone.
23.Whenever I see the pope in his “Halloween” costume, I get a fit of the giggles.
24.I want to meet a woman who loves me for my money, but who is lousy at math.
25.People don’t like it when I chew gum when I listen to a friend’s misfortune; it makes me look like I don’t give a shit.
26.I am always losing things, e.g., house keys, combs, gloves. But I once found Hoffa under my couch. (Kidding).
27.I have this silly habit of wearing mismatched socks, and I am not colored coordinated. (And yet I consider myself a keen observing artist).
28.Whenever I use to go to church, I can’t get the Jim Jones Kool-aid thing out of my head.
29.I believe that denial is how an optimist keeps from becoming a pessimist.
30.I don’t really like the above photo; it looks like I’m pissed off or constipated.
****
Steel and Plastic. We are all entitled to our opinions, even to our idiosyncrasies and superstitions - unhelpful as they may sometimes be. But we are not entitled to our facts. Facts are not matters of personal choice but of public debate.
Funny fact: while I lived in Bremerhaven for the first 29 years of my life, most of the buildings shown here -- that make up the modern skyline of the city -- were not actually completed until I had moved elsewhere in Germany.
Left to right: Sail City Hotel, Climate House, Mediterraneo, Radar Tower.
Built for Marchitecture 2017.
Churlish Stories for Curious Children
The Remisier Caper
Acte Two
Quickly the two women move from the kitchen and up the back stairs, moving past the locked, still-silent, study, reaching the dimly lit corridor in the wing where the guest bedrooms are located
Lightening flashes outside, adding an ominous feeling to the already electric air.
As the pair stalked down the hall, Emilee instructed her friend as to where Cecelia hides her jewelry case.
Her diamond tiara is locked in the hidden safe inside Sir Reginald’s study.
Much to her dismay, Emilee will not be helping rob this room. Cecelia must not be made aware the French maid has had any part in this.
So Emilee asked a favour.
“In the wardrobe, a long-sleeved white satin blouse with the ruffles. Please Mon Ami?”
The thief had winked, pulling out the torch from her kit.
Reaching the target, the maid stands guard outside in the hallway as the thief carefully opens the door and slips inside.
Inside the room, turning on her torch, the thief sweeps the interior.
Cecelia is fast asleep in her bed, elegant in a long white satin nightgown, as she lays out upon the purple satin sheets.
Her pretty evening gown is over a high-backed velvet-covered chair.
Fire flashed from the diamonds hanging around the sleeping girl's throat. The rest of her diamonds lay in blazing glory, invitingly sprawled out upon the room’s vanity.
The thief approaches the bed, and the wind outside shrieks as a crack of lightning illuminates the room, waking the sleeping girl.
Her eyes sleepily open, then go wide as she sees the masked intruder at her bedside. The thief puts a finger to her lips, and motions the girl to come off the bed.
Cecelia, still not fully awake, limply obeys, and the thief leads her to the chair. There, using one of her victim’s long satin gloves, she is gagged and with a rope, her satin-clad figure is quickly tied up.
As the victim watched, paralyzed with fear, the thief pulls off a satin pillowcase and going to the vanity sweeps off her glittering diamonds down inside it.
Then, as Cecelia whimpered, the masked thief leans down and opens the drawers of her vanity.
Of course, looking back at her captive as she does, not wishing her snooty victim to miss the show.
Reaching the bottom drawer, the thief see’s Cecelia uneasily struggling against her well-tied ropes.
Smiling, the thief quickly pulls out the silky clothes on top. At the bottom lies the prize.
Quickly several velvet-covered cases are extracted and opened with their shimmery contents dumped out inside the pillowcase. Then the cases are carelessly discarded off to the side, adding to the silky underthings already littering the floor.
Hearing the tied-up Celia trying to talk with muffled unclear words, the thief turns and faces the poor girl.
“Don’t worry luv, after I’m done cleaning you out, I’m sure that maid I saw in the dining room will be in to clean it up for you.
Turning back, the thief opens the last, and by far, largest velvet case, a royally dazzling display of large emeralds and diamond set jewellery almost blinds the thief’s eyes.
The case is closed and then added to the loot.
Holding the pillowcase, the masked intruder goes to the wardrobe. Opening it she reached and begins pulling out and checking over the designer dresses and gowns inside. Casually casting them off to the side as she goes do.
Coming to the white ruffled satin blouse she sees there is a black onyx pin holding the high-necked satin bow in place. Perfect.
She takes it to a full-length mirror and holds the blouse up, seeing Cecilia’s wretchedness reflected behind her in the mirror.
She doesn’t feel sorry for the bound and gagged lass.
The thief, in planning this little caper, had learned about the spoiled Cecilia’s tyrannical attitude towards, well, everyone and everything. Her personal servants, as well as her horse, and the family pets, have the scars, both real and emotional, to prove it.
Stuffing the blouse inside the pillow case the thief moves over to the tied-up girl and lifts the diamonds hanging down around her throat. The thief sees the pricy gems sparkling in Cecelia’s wide-open eyes.
The thief then reached back with her free hand and undid the clasp. Saying to her squirming victim as she pulls off the necklace.
“Very nice my haughty lady. I doubt any of the other guest rooms will have anything this nice. Hopefully, I’m wrong.”
She tweaks the poor girl's cheek, then pats thoroughly down her satin-clad, totally compliant figure, deliberately feeling along every bump and bulge for any more of the young lady’s valuables. Nothing is found, but the thief is by no means disappointed.
The thief cuts off the torch’s beam. Pulling off the satin pillowcase from a second pillow, the thief leaves the room as another flash of lightning ominously lights up the bedroom.
Giving poor Cecelia a backside view of the departing thief carrying away the pillowcase full of her heirloom quality jewellry.
The weak-minded girl finally passes out cold from all the anxiety.
The masked thief heads out the door into the hallway where Emilee keeps watch, standing along the wall beside the door.
The thief nods as Emily licks her lips looking at the small bulge at the bottom of the satin pillowcase.
The thief opens it up, and Emilee gives a squeal seeing the blouse she had so coveted while seeing Cecilia wearing it the day before, as well as the bewitching jewelry piled inside the pillowcase.
The thief gently chided her partner in crime, saying as she jovially rubs her shoulder.
“Quit your droolin lass, plenty of work ahead of us this evening.
Lightening again flashes as they begin to scurry down the hallway.
Quickly the pair then enters each of the occupied guest rooms located down the hallway. With a methodical determination, each room is picked clean of any jewels, money, and small valuable items.
It is quick work, with the upstairs maid Emilee pointing out where the lady guest’s better jewels are kept, they both make a fast, quite accurate, job of it.
Like Cecelia, Rose Buxton had her valuable jewels hidden away at the bottom of a vanity drawer full of lingerie.
Lady Susan Macready had her better baubles in a soft-sided jewelry case under her bed’s Pillow.
Diane, Spencer’s fiancé, had a private room, and her good jewelry was in a case conveniently left open on her vanity.
Mrs. Marlene Cabot—Hinny’s overly expensive ‘borrowed’ diamonds from the jewelry shoppe, were found tucked inside a suitcase hidden under the bed.
Emilee grins as the jewels are located and added to the growing loot being added to the satin pillowcase she is holding, her mind going to the ladies in the Parlour downstairs, totally oblivious as to the robbing of their valuables that is occurring above their high held heads.
Cases of sparking jewels are located and dumped into the satin pillowcase. Purses are riffled, bedside drawers checked, and looted of valuables.
Each room entered is left picked clean with expert prowess.
Finishing plundering the last guest room, the pair slink past the study, to the master bedroom next door.
Both enter the stately outfitted room.
Standing as the thief sweeps her torches’ beam. All the light touches conveyed a sense of glamour and very upper-class level wealth.
As with the guest rooms, the pilfering is methodically fast and easy with the Maid’s help.
Quickly the thief is shown the large jewelry amour, and it is opened, showing off a massive collection of jewelry in all styles, and shapes, made with pricey metals and some set with mesmerizing gems. No costume jewelry here. Two pairs of hands begin pulling off from hooks and emptying small drawers, brim full of expensive baubles.
Madeline’s good jewels are kept in the study safe. Next on the list.
The vanity is also ransacked.
A gold mirror, brush and several silver compacts are taken. Several wallets are found, then quickly emptied of cash.
Everything is placed in the same pillowcase.
Last is lord Reginald’s nightstand. Cases of watches, rings, and cuff links are found and emptied. A gold clip with folded notes is found, as well as four billfolds containing notes. All added to the growing pile of loot.
The thief looks around, itching to be done here and tackle the study.
The lightning flashes outside, coming a little more frequently, are adding a feeling of impending foreboding to the thief’s intoxicating “cat burglar’s dance” this evening.
“Anything else? what about the closets, worth it in this room?”
“Oh yes, I Bet there are Lovely things in there that were not in the others… Here
Let me show you”
Emilee opens a double door exposing gowns dresses and other fine designer apparel of all makes and material
Emilee starts on one end, her partner on yet other. Feeling for any broaches or pins. They are treated for their efforts by finding a solid gold broach set with dripping pearls and a pair of diamond clips from a very pretty satin evening gown.
“That’s it then?”
Emilee nods her head yes.
“The rest is in the study safe, mon ami”
Her partner grins…
“Not safe for long then…”
They leave and head to the study next door.
Emilee unlocks the study door, opening it. The pair blink in the brightness of the room as they survey the scene displayed in front of them.
The thief smiled, picturing Emilee and herself as a pair of vultures, eagerly waiting to pick through the carcasses that were the bodies of the sleeping rich men strewn about the room.
Emilee showed her partner where the safe was.
It was actually a small vault, a full meter tall and half that wide, hidden in the wall behind a sliding bookcase.
Crouching down, the thief began the task of opening it.
Emilee took the now weighty satin pillowcase and went to each of the passed-out cold gentlemen in turn.
She skillfully began searching their figures. Almost like using a practice dummy, slipping her hands inside theri breast pockets, extracting handsome leather billfolds.
So it was a rather enjoyable, as well as profitable, undertaking going through pockets and searching in their clothes. Taking anything else of value, along with wallets… watches, rings, precious metal cigar /cigarette cases, tie pins , and cuff links were also nicked from the knockout-drugged male victims.
Emilee quickly located with methodical precision all of the unconscious males valuables, reliving the items from their persons, and plopping them inside the pillowcase.
To the man who had ordered “tea”, Emilee went to last, taking extra time over.
She slid him from the chair he was on and dragged him over to the open part of the bookcase. She place one hand on the lever that opened the bookcase to access the safe. Then she unzipped his trousers and stuck his other hand (after removing a gold signet ring) deep down inside his boxers. He did not stir during the entire ordeal.
None of them did, the knock-out drops that had been added to the gift bottle of brandy would keep them all out for hours.
The thief in the meantime had opened the safe and was stacking the contents on the floor beside her. Piles of banded notes, bonds, and 2 score of jewellery cases. Including 3 that held gem-encrusted tiaras, had all been found inside.
Emilee came to her partner's side and began opening the cases and spilling the contents inside the pillowcase. The notes, bonds. And a few other selected items were added on top.
As she was working on this, the thief moved off Lord Reginald’s desk and pilfered the drawers.
From behind her Emilee instructed.
“Bottom drawer, right. “
That drawer was opened, exposing a black military pistol.
The thief unloaded the cartridges, keeping one loaded in the chambre. She then stuck it in her belt.
The thief looked at Emilee...
“Done?”
She nodded
“Done, for the now we have coup de grâce… we go downstairs to the kitchen, then to the parlour…”
The thief nodded.
Emilee licks her lips. Tossing the masters keys to her partner
Catching them, the thief turns out the lights and locks the study door behind them as they leave
They head to the servants' stairs. As the pair reached them, Emilee puts a hand on her partner's shoulders.
“Juste une seconde..”
Emilee scurried done the corridore. Reaching Cecelia’s room she gives a polite knock.
“Maid, Mademoiselle Ceceylia?, ne vouliez-vous pas plus de sherri ?… more sherri Mademoiselle?”
Emilee turns to face her partner waiting patiently by the stairs. With a smirk, she shrugs her shoulders and scurries back. Passed the thief with a grin, then headed downstairs.
Grinning also, she follows Emilee down the back stairs to the kitchen.
Emilee takes the empty cart and heads down the hallway to the parlour
The thief lays the full pillowcase by the pantry door. With the other, still empty pillowcase, hanging on her arm, she leaves the kitchen and, from a distance, follows the maid down the hall.
The thief waits out in the corridor.
^^^^^^^^^^^
Back in calm maid mode, Emilee wheels in the cart and starts to collect dishes
Lady Madeline is talking about how hard it’s been this weekend being down to just a cook and their worthless slag of a maid, due to the bloody holidays. The fact that Emilee was trained to be an upstairs maid and not a sever is completely not a considerate issue here.
The hostess looks up at Emilee, knowing full well the maid heard every word. She gives her maid a lecture before issuing a command:
“Emilee, I’ve rung you 3 times now. Clear the glasses Then tell the men we would like them to join us at the conservatory .”
“Yes Mum, and Sorry, I was checking on jeune femme Cecelia upstairs. ”
Lady Madeline is clearly still not happy…
“No matter. I think you should pack your things tonight. I probably will want you out of here in the morning. “
Emilee nods dejectedly, then begins collecting the empty wine bottles and glasses.
Lady Madeline’s mother Marlene then arose and says she needs to go to her room and get her wrap since she finds the conservatory chilly.
Marlene adds, looking at Emilee, as she walks out the door
“Your maid shouldn’t be bothering Miss Cecelia, I will check on her myself.”
Marlene no sooner walked out, than she came back in.
Walking backward, hands raised as the thief had the gun trained on the broach hanging from her shiny gown’s midriff.
Over Marlene’s head, The thief snarled a command to the rest of the occupants in the room.
“All right ladies, all of you line up against that wall…NOW!”
The startled ladies obey, their long gowns fluttering along their figures as they miserably line up along the far wall by the windows.
Here now, I’ll have that. Using her free hand the thief unfastened the heavy diamond broach wedged between Marlene’s bulging breasts.
She tried to protest, but in shock, words failed her, and she only managed a high-pitched squeaking noise.
Marlene is then boldly told to turn around.
Given no choice, with the pistol now poking her in the back, Marlene is pushed to go to the end of the line.
Outside lightning cracked, illuminated the gardens outside, casting an eerie light inside the Parlour.
The thief takes a step back into the center of the room, facing the elegantly dressed ladies wearing valuably shimmering jewels, lined up against the wall, all with their gloved hands stretched up.
“Now listen to me you miserable lot. I don’t want you on my tail as soon as I leave. So let’s begin by having all of you strip off those lovely frocks and only your frocks. You too maid, lose that pretty outfit.”
As a group, the ladies begin protesting, including Emilee. The thief points the pistol at the mirror over Marlene’s head and fires the pistol
The loud report, and cracking glass, made everyone jump.
“That was not a request, Strip out of the bloody things …now.”
Then, as if on a movie director’s cue, another bolt of lightning streaks outside, followed by a flash and loud retort, literally making every one of the victims jump again.
The ladies, getting the ugly message, begin undoing their luxurious gowns, letting them drop to their feet.
Emilee has to help a few of them unzip and undress.
Soon their elegant silk nickers, other rich shiny undergarments, as well as a bit of naked flesh, are all exposed.
The thief motions the pistol at the gawking maid stripped down to her bra and nickers.
“You, collect those gowns and pile them underneath the window. Move it.”
Emilee quickly moved to the beginning of the line, and reaching down begins to pick up the discarded finery. Taking the pile to the end of the room, she threw them all down on the floor in front of the window in a slickly shiny heap.
Emilee, then turned around to face the room.
Seeing the thief motioning to her with a finger, she hesitantly approached.
The thief tossed the empty satin pillowcase to Emilee, pointing her pistol at Susan, only wearing a two-piece thin blue see-through slip and top, and is first in line.
“Here maid, take this, stand in front of the bluebird.”
Emilee catches the case and goes to Lady Susan Macready, holding open the pillowcase.
The thief addressed all of her richly jewelled-up victims. Pointing the pistol with menacing intent at each of the semi-naked, satin glove-wearing ladies lined up against the wall in turn.
“ In case it has not seeped in, this, ladies is a robbery. I’ll be having your jewels handed over. This will be over quickly as long as you lot don’t quibble. Your maid is holding the bag in front of you, I want you each to remove all, and I mean all, of your valuables. I’ve been watching from outside. So I know what jewels each of you fine ladies is wearing. Keep your hands up where I can see them until the maid reaches you.”
The thief waves the pistol along the line of desolate, rich ladies, ending up back Susan.
“Go one bluebird, time to pluck off those glittery feathers. Stop that whining. Let’s get going!”
Hands shaking, Lady Susan Macready begins removing her splendidly shimmering sapphire and diamond set jewels. Ears, throat, and wrists are all soon bare. As her last of four rings are pulled off, she steps back as the thief looks her dead in the eyes, the ugly black pistol pointed at her.
The thief speaks, looking at Susan
“Nicely done lady, now get those hands back up.”
Next in line is ravishing red-haired, impossibly large, emerald green-eyed, Diane, who is now only elegantly clad in an ankle-length crimson red half slip…and nothing above!
Standing there, half-naked, she sighs deeply, her face crestfallen.
The thief looks at her as if just noticing her condition of being half-dressed for the first time…
“You now, my perky red-breasted chick, I’ll be having those pearls.”
Diane lowered her hands and began slipping off her ropes of pearls and sadly dropping them inside the pillowcase.
As she was removing her necklace and working off her long earrings, then bending down to let them plop inside the open satin pillowcase, her naked breasts put on a show worthy of any French burlesque tease.
“And what is it about real pearls against naked skin that makes them look so sensuous ?”
Undoing her pricey bracelet last, she miserably watched it disappear inside.”
The thief calls out, startling everyone.
“I thought I said everything. The ring hunny bunny, now.”
Sadly Diane struggled, then finally managed to pull free her vulgarly large diamond ring, letting it drop inside the bag.
Emilee managed not to let her glee show, keeping her mouth tight, her eyes emotionally empty.
As Diane reassumed her position, raising her hands back up, points high and perked. The thief then turned the pistol to Lady Madeline.
Madeleine, wearing a full mint green taffeta slip, started to protest but was abruptly cut off by the thief.
“Zip it, don’t start lady, or I’ll remove those delicious emeralds your so richly wearing me self…”
lady Madeleine, use to being the one giving orders, not being ordered about, feels insulted.
Thinking any minute the men should be coming to their rescue. She says with a snarly voice only the very rich seem to be able to pull off
“My husband will be down any minute, let’s see how Insouciant you will be then…”
Annoyingly, the thief does not answer, only gives her a haughty look, and motions to the hanging satin pillowcase her maid is holding.
So with a sigh, she drops her hands, then begins to unhappily remove her emerald bracelet and rings from her green satin opera-length gloves, huffily tossing them into the pillowcase Emilee is holding.
She then pulls out her earrings, and finally, reaching up behind her neck, unfastened her long dripping-down necklace, plopping them all inside the makeshift bag in turn.
The thief points the pistol at her head.
“The diamond hairpiece, please. “
lady Madeleine tried to reason
“But it’s not real, surely you can see that..”
“Then I’ll take a chance on being a fool by taking it. Be a good rich girl and it over…”
Reluctantly the expensively flashy real diamond hairpiece is pulled out and added to the unseen collection inside the pillowcase.
Lady Madeline pulls her fallen hair back with an evil glare.
Rose is next to last in line.
Her petite necklace of diamonds flashes with a beckoning brilliance as her figure is tightly outlined by her stylish blue thin silk lingerie, her thinly covered breasts heaved up and down with the anguish she is feeling.
Emilee moved in from of her, and the thief also moved in behind, keeping the pistol trained on Lady Madeline.
The thief then moved the pistol to point at Rose. She begins addressing Rose, though her eyes never leave the stern-faced Madeline’s eyes. Much like a teacher keeps an eye on an insolent child as she resumes her lecture after being rudely interrupted.
“Okay my lady, remove those delicious diamonds and make it quick now.
Rose lowers her hands and begins working off all her lovely precious jewels. Plopping them piece by glittering pieces into the open pillowcase.
As she does, The thief spied Lady Madeline taking a glance towards the door.
The thief points her pistol toward her.
“Lady, I told you, helps not coming.”
Then points the pistol back at Rose
“Let’s hurry off with those rings, trust me, you don’t want me helping you!”
With a sigh, Rose pulled off the last ring from her sleek blue satin dinner gloves, then steps back and puts her hands up.
The thief, with unabashed attention, looks over Rose, her figure perked, points nicely outlined by thin blue silk.
“Thanks, lady, it looks to me like you are feeling a bit chilled. No worries, it’s almost over.
The thief then finally points the pistol at Marlene, clad in a stretched-out purple bra and knee-length half slip.
“Now as for you my plump purple bird, ripe for the plucking, so let’s prune off some of your shiny trimmings shall we…”
Marlene desperately pleads.
“The other’s jewels are real, mine are not. You already have my broach, The rest is worthless. Can’t you see? Don’t you have enough already? You’ll let me keep them then?”
The thief grins:
“Like I told the green bird, I’ll be the fool then, now be a luv and remove them.”
Marlene snaps;
“You’ll never get away with this.”
The thief walks up to her, leaning over Emilee’s shoulder she picked up Marlene’s long shimmery necklace.
The yanks it off her throat, dropping it In the pillowcase as the thief hisses with a snarky tone of voice:
“I do believe mum, I already am….”
Whimpering, Marlene stands stone-still. Shocked to the core
The thief snaps out an order.
“You, Maid, help the lady off with the rest. That’s the girl…”
Then, struggling not to show her glee over doing this, Emilee reached up with one hand and pulled free each of Marlene’s diamond earrings, plopping them one by one inside the pillowcase. She then went for Marlene’s glittering bracelet, slipped it off, and dropped it into the pillowcase. Then taking Marlene’s white satin gloves hands, works off the lady’s rings. Some of which were actually her own, and not “borrowed”.
Emilee looks back to the thief as she finishes. Thinking to herself how she would have loved to have done a bit of poking and prodding along priggish Marlene’s figure while removing her jewellery.
The masked thief, still training the pistol on the whining Marlene, beckons to Emilee with a free hand
“Good girl, now Maid, hand over the bag.”
Emilee did a neat little act of not wanting to give it to the thief. She looks at Lady Madeline as if for instructions.
The thief clicks her tongue.
“Don’t worry about your mistress, Let’s be a good girl now, hand it to me.”
Emilee hands it over, her back is to the ladies, and she winks as she does.
The thief keeps a stone face. Grabbing the dangling bag, she looks over the maid's head.
“Ok, Maid. Open that window.”
The thief, looking back down, spots the thin gold chain and cross the maid was wearing under her frock.
Come, come, now Maid…No holding out. I’ll have that gold crucifix of yours.
Unhappily Emilee removed it and reverently hands it over. The thief placed it on top of the loot inside the satin pillowcase.
Pouting, Emily turns and goes to open the window.
The thief then addresses them all, pointing the(now empty) pistol at the ceiling.
“Now maid, throw them clothes all out the window. And no shenanigans for the rest of you. I may or may not be a good shot. “
They all start to protest, but the thief waved the pistol at them, and they immediately shut up.
The Maid is forced to throw all the gowns and her outfit out the parlour window. The windows of the parlour are higher than the dining room windows, 3 full metres from the ground.
Everyone is watching Emilee. As the last shiny gown is dropped from the window sill, they all turn back to face the thief, only to discover she was already at the door, leaving the room with the pillowcase containing all of their nicked jewellery.
As the silent group watched. The thief turned off the lights, casting the room in darkness as she closed the door.
She then Locked the parlour door, turned, and made her way down the hallway to the kitchen.
In passing, she tossed the pistol and the keys on the cutting tables, then heads into the pantry.
She takes the empty Remisier brandy bottle, and adds it to the pillowcase she is holding.
Then picking up the first satin pillowcase, heavy with the upstairs haul, she heads outside into the yard. With the dark umbrella of rain-swollen clouds threatening overhead.
Outside by the door, the thief retrieved her rucksack.
Stuffing the pair of now full pillows inside she sprints around to the parlour window. Looking up she sees the shadows of her semi-naked victims moving about in the now-lit room above.
The thief quickly packs up the gowns, including the maid's costume, piling them inside her rut sack on top of the satin pillowcases. It fills up nicely.
Keeping an eye on the window as she does, but as earlier, no faces appear.
Flipping the happily full rut sack onto her shoulders she sprints from the shadows of the hedges and races across the yard as a bolt of lightning rips across the black swirling cloud-filled sky.
Rain starts pouring down as she reaches the treeline
The thief keeps a quick pace as she makes her way through the woods along the riding path she now knows by heart, having snuck up it several times over the last few months. Good thing too, since the dark sky and pelting rain are making visibility harder. She dared not lite up her torch. Going with the occasional lightning strikes to lite her way.
She safely made the almost 5-kilometer hike back to her hidden rental car without incident.
The journey of her escape had given the thief plenty of time to mull over the robbery…
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Little chance Emilee would be a suspect, she was a mere maid after all.
The thief thinks over the plan that had been put into motion for this evening, it had gone like clockwork.
She had bought the expensive Remesier brandy through a dealer and poured it into a secure decanter to celebrate with it later, just her and Emilee.
She had drugged a much cheaper high-quality brandy and poured it inside the empty Remesier bottle, resealing it. She wasn't going to waste good brandy on that lot.
Then had packaged it, written the note, and sent it to Sir Reginald.
They had also learned of how the unhappy upstairs maid was being treated by Lady Madeline and had paid her, through an intermediary, to give notice a week before the ball.
Emily applied and was accepted immediately.
She estimated that the entire takings from the robbery would be well over 8 mills.
By the end of the week, she would be out of the country, the mansion haul placed in her Swiss bank safety deposit box. Giving the hot ice time to chill.
As for the gowns, what she and Emilee didn’t want for themselves, would find their way to an OXFAM Shoppe Bin.
She was already planning on picking up a pretty leather skirt for Emilee to go with the lovely white satin blouse, imagining what a sexy outfit it would be as a distraction while on a future pickpocketing spree. That would be a delicious treat to help and watch her at “play” lifting fat wallets from leering males.
After Switzerland, the thief would then continue on vacation in Germany, Italy, and finally, France, where in a fortnight she and Emilee had already planned to meet up.
For it was in France that she had first met Emilee, actually more of an encounter…
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Our Thief, a few years before, had been in France to attend a wedding. The fact that she had not been invited was a trivial matter.
A few days before the weekend wedding, She had been walking down a street located in a busy shopping district. A well-dressed lady came out of a store carrying a large bag in her arm, talking to a female companion. On the wrist of the arm coddling the bag, was a fancy gold bracelet. As the lady’s head was turned to her companion, the thief had “bumped up against the lady, her fingers slipping easily up the long sleeve of her silk blouse, reaching the bracelet, and whisking it off her wrist in the process of apologizing to her in broken French.
As the thief had walked no more than a block away, a young long haired girl in a bohemian-style silk dress bumped into her. Realizing the trademark, the thief felt her pocket and realized the gold bracelet had been lifted. The stalker had been stalked herself.
The young stinker made her living robbing pickpockets.
The thief quickly caught up to the young girl, and keeping in step, began a guarded conversation, dropping enough hints to let this young version of herself know that there was a kindred spirit.
It worked and lunching over déjeuner woyj, wine, and Salade Niçoise, discussed their similarities. At first, the conversation was very guarded between the two, but by the end, it was one that fast friends would have.
Emilee had begun working the streets at a very young age. Using her looks and long fingers she found pickpocketing to be a pleasing and profitable profession to pursue.
Then she took it a level up and began robbing pickpockets of the items they had lifted from unwary victims. She soon was able to pick out the more professional thieves, accurately figuring out that they would be lifting from a richer class of persons.
Then she leaned the skills to be an upstairs maid. Using this to not only make a living but for herself to also level up into a better class of victims to use her nimble fingers on, discreetly of course.
For when a wealthy married male wanted a romp with an attractive, witty servant. Emilee played the seductress perfectly. And after a night satisfying the crétine (Pratt), if his wallet disappears, along with some of his wife’s jewels, well who was going to risk exposure by pointing a finger at her?
So over the course of a few months, as their lier (bond) grew, the thief introduced Emilee into her world of rich society, fancy dances, selections of wealthy victims, lifting of precious jewelry and wallets, as well as collecting information to rob mansions and other fancy dwellings of the ultra-rich.
Soon the pair as a team was doing quite well. Their adventure’s proving quite profitable. Emily only needed to work as a maid when the situation required it. Otherwise, she was the outside watcher for the inside cat burglar thief.
So how had tonight’s manor heist materialized?
^^^^^^^^^^^
While out on her own devices one evening, Emilee had taken a liking to a gold pendant worn by a boorish old lady she had spotted while “working” a reception.
She got close and as she watched the mesmerizing pendant, overheard what the lady was loudly droning on about, not caring who listened in, as long as they were impressed.
It appeared that she was claiming to be closely related to royalty, though her clothes and manner did not entirely back her story up.
But, smelling an opportunity, Emilee rolled the dice, changed tactics, and walking past the lady, easily lifted the wallet from the boorish lady’s designer purse.
She had contacted her cat burglar friend from wales to look into this, to see if this was a lead into something big.
It turned out it was the whole crux that lit the kindling which flamed up into the manor robbery scheme.
The boastingly boorish lady wearing the gold pendant's name?
Marlene Cabot-Hinny
And that would be the rest of the story.
Fini
Na afloop van het Plandampf evenement Dampf trifft Kies, zijn mijn vader en ik nog een dagje naar de Harz gegaan om ons daar nog even uit te kunnen leven.
In eerste instantie richtten we ons op de plekjes waar ik al in geen tijden meer was geweest: het traject tussen Nordhausen en Wernigerode en naar Schierke. Maar halverwege de dag ontdekte ik dat op deze dag, diverse dieselritten met stoom werden gereden. Een bezoekje aan de Selketalbahn was daarom erg aantrekkelijk. Helaas.... het was oktober, dus al vroeg donker. Dat nam echter niet weg dat we nog veel hebben kunnen fotograferen op Alexisbad en Gernrode.
After the Plandampf event Dampf trifft Kies, my father and I went to the Harz for a day to indulge ourselves with steam.
At first we focused on the places we had not been in ages: the stretch between Nordhausen and Wernigerode and to Schierke. But halfway through the day I discovered that on this day, several diesel rides were done with steam. A visit to the Selketalbahn was therefore very attractive. Unfortunately .... it was October, so dark early. However, that did not alter the fact that we were able to photograph a lot at Alexisbad and Gernrode.
Nach dem Plandampf Veranstaltung Dampf trifft Kies gingen mein Vater und ich für einen Tag in den Harz, um uns zu verwöhnen.
Zuerst konzentrierten wir uns auf die Stellen, an denen wir seit Ewigkeiten nicht mehr gewesen war: die Strecke zwischen Nordhausen und Wernigerode und nach Schierke. Aber Mitte des Tages stellte ich fest, dass an diesem Tag mehrere Dieselfahrten mit Dampf durchgeführt wurden. Ein Besuch der Selketalbahn war daher sehr attraktiv. Leider ... es war Oktober, so früh dunkel. Das änderte jedoch nichts an der Tatsache, dass wir in Alexisbad und Gernrode noch viel fotografieren konnten.
September 18, 2019 – the offer www.flickr.com/photos/51192881@N00/48952476853/in/datetaken/
October 1, 2019 the payment $4,000 “friends and family” www.flickr.com/photos/51192881@N00/48949342351/in/photost...
Oct 19th - Oct 20th (almost 3 weeks later) buyer blocked with no tracking. He makes a post on wclub with a screenshot (the tiny screenshot that appears int the texts above) showing that he had paid $4,000- that the seller had blocked him on facebbook, Instagram and Flickr – and to date, had not actually mailed his dolls- she labels him "liar and scammer and bully" and sends above text.
She claims that only after she had shipped the buyer opened a paypal dispute- which she won
flickr.com/photos/51192881@N00/48987661016/in/datetaken/
But... the tracking showed that she paid for her label on Oct 20th (sunday) and dropped the package at USPS Oct 22. That was after the paypal dispute was long over.
2nd story- after she shipped the dolls and after buyer opened a paypal dispute, she was able to "intercept" the package and swap out the grails for something he "deserved"
Then it was pointed out that there is no "package intercept" for USPS international mail ....
3rd story- her neighbor the postal master was able to get the package for her so she could swap out the dolls.
evidently violating: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1708
Now she just admits she never sent the dolls and laughs at him (See her flickr page- there is only one rant still up)
This loco is in fact Jubilee Class 45699 'Galatea' but is running as 45627 'Sierra Leone' after previously running as 45562 'Alberta'. 45699 'Galatea' is part of the West Coast Railways fleet which operates as the Railway Touring Company.
'Sierra Leone' was scrapped in 1967 followed by 'Alberta' in 1968.
When we were kids, traveling across the plains of Kansas in the days before the Interstate was finished, we passed through many a small town where Dad pointed out an interesting fact. The town Undertaker always had the biggest house in town because, eventually, he got everyone’s business.
Now imagine you are the Undertaker running Forrest Lawn Cemetery in the LA area.
Doctor Hubert Eaton, the guy who ran the place in 1938 had some spare change lying around when he ordered a custom, streamlined REO tractor to pull a Curtiss Aerocar trailer. For the first quarter of a million miles, it was powered by a White Flat-12 bus engine. In 1953 it got a Cummins diesel. The trailer had a small four cylinder to power a generator for electrical needs. There was space to sleep 6 people, a kitchen, bath and communication with the driver. His quarters and that of a butler/cook were in the cab of the REO.
The Aerocar was a product of aviation pioneer, Glenn Curtiss. You know, that other bicycle guy who, like the Wright Brothers started tinkering with airplanes. Curtiss and the Wrights would start as rivals but join forces to become Curtiss-Wright later on.
He started building luxury travel trailers in 1929 and continued until 1942. The camper is currently on display at The Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, California. It is on loan from LA’s Petersen Museum.
This is a forced perspective photograph of 1/43 scale die-cast models in front of a real background.
REO-Curtiss Aerocar is by Autocult
Bridge is by Lionel with help from some LGP upgrades.
Feed and Grain store is by Woodland Scenics from their Landmark structures series.
They have over 60 bones in their shells. Each bone in a tortoise's shell is connected to one another. It doesn't look like it, but they are also able to feel when their shells are touched because of the nerve endings in them.
Monday Healthy Fact
Lemons contain a high amount of vitamin C, soluble fiber, and plant compounds that give them a number of health benefits. Lemons may aid weight loss and reduce your risk of heart disease, anemia, kidney stones, digestive issues, and cancer. {Sharing The Knowledge}
REFERENCE: www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-lemon-health-benefits
Do you believe?
Flickr Fridays: Believe
Fun facts:
1) Tarot cards were invented in the 1400s as playing cards. They only started to be used in divination in the late 1700s.
2) These days, people think crossing the fortune teller's palm with silver means paying the fortune teller. Originally, though, it might have meant making the sign of the cross with a silver object as a way of warding off evil or assuring good fortune. (In some countries, it's a tradition to touch babies' palms with silver to bring them good luck -- called hanselling.)
3) There hasn't been any silver in Canadian dimes for about 50 years, so the coins in the photo are only good for crossing someone's palm with nickel-plated steel. :)