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In this discourse, His Holiness Younus AlGohar provides clear-cut explanation of the importance of a Perfect Spiritual Guide with references from the Koran. His Holiness gives a guideline on how to recognise and identify a Perfect Spiritual Guide and explains the differences between the three types of Perfect Spiritual Guides.
Watch the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSNGKRAndV0
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Watch the live recordings of these lectures every day at 22:00 GMT at: www.younusalgohar.com
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www.dailymotion.com/mehdifound...
Listen to this speech on the go with SoundCloud:
Some background:
The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. It was preceded into production by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible.
After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).
The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I, and was the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later.
The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties, which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter. The signature skills of U.N. Spacy ace pilot Maximilian Jenius exemplified the effectiveness of the variable systems as he near-constantly transformed the Valkyrie in battle to seize advantages of each mode as combat conditions changed from moment to moment.
The basic VF-1 was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) with constant updates and several sub-variants during its long and successful career. Its success was increased by the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie and FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie weapon systems, the latter enabling the fighter to operate in space.
After the end of Space War I, the VF-1A continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system (notably on the Lunar facility Apollo Base) and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would eventually be replaced as the primary VF of the UN Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III in 2020, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.
One notable operator of the VF-1 was the U.N. Spacy's Zentraedi Fleet, namely SVF-789, which was founded in 2012 as a cultural integration and training squadron with two flights of VF-1 at Tefé in Brazil. This mixed all-Zentraedi/Meltraedi unit was the first in the UN Spacy’s Zentraedi Fleet to be completely equipped with the 1st generation Valkyrie (other units, like SVF-122, which was made up exclusively from Zentraedi loyalists, kept a mixed lot of vehicles).
SVF-789’s flight leaders and some of its instructors were all former Quadrono Battalion aces (under the command of the famous Milia Fallyna, later married with aforementioned Maximilian Jenius), e. g. the Meltraedi pilot Taqisha T’saqeel who commanded SVF-789’s 3rd Flight.
Almost all future Zentraedi and Meltradi pilots for the U.N. Spacy received their training at Tefé, and the squadron was soon expanded to a total of five flights. During this early phase of the squadron's long career the VF-1s carried a characteristic dark-green wrap-around scheme, frequently decorated with colorful trim, reflecting the unit’s Zentraedi/Meltraedi heritage (the squadron’s motto and title “Dar es Carrack” meant “Victory is everywhere”) and boldly representing the individual flights.
In late 2013 the unit embarked upon Breetai Kridanik’s Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Command Battleship, and the machines received a standard all-grey livery, even though some typical decoration (e. g. the squadron code in Zentraedi symbols) remained.
When the UN Spacy eventually mothballed the majority of its legacy Zentraedi ships, the unit was re-assigned to the Tokugawa-class Super Dimensional Carrier UES Xerxes. In 2022, SVF-789 left the Sol System as part of the Pioneer Mission. By this time it had been made part of the Expeditionary Marine Corps and re-equipped with VAF-6 Alphas.
The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters.
The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters with several variants (VF-1A = 5,093, VF-1D = 85, VF-1J = 49, VF-1S = 30, VF-1G = 12, VE-1 = 122, VT-1 = 68) and ongoing modernization programs like the “Plus” MLU update that incorporated stronger engines and avionics from the VF-1’s successor, the VF-4 (including the more powerful radar, IRST sensor and a laser designator/range finder). These updates later led to the VF-1N, P an X variants.
However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!
General characteristics:
Equipment Type: all-environment variable fighter and tactical combat battroid
Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force
Accommodation: pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat
Dimensions:
Fighter Mode:
Length 14.23 meters
Wingspan 14.78 meters (fully extended)
Height 3.84 meters
Battroid Mode:
Height 12.68 meters
Width 7.3 meters
Length 4.0 meters
Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;
Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;
MTOW: 37.0 metric tons
Powerplant:
2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2008 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)
4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);
18 x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles
Performance:
Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h
Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87
g limit: in space +7
Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24
Design features:
3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system
Transformation:
Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.
Minimum time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.
Armament:
2x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute
1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 rds fired at 1,200 rds/min
4 x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including
- 12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or
- 12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or
- 6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or
- 4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point), each carrying 15x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,
or a combination of above load-outs
Optional Armament:
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry GBP-1S ground-combat protector weapon system, or
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry FAST Pack augmentative space weapon system
The kit and its assembly:
The second vintage 1:100 ARII VF-1 as a part of a Zentraedi squadron series, the canonical SVF-789. This one was inspired by a profile of such a machine in the “Macross Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Part 1” Art Book – true robot porn and full of valuable detail and background material for anyone who’d consider building a VF-1.
The SVF-789 machine shown in the book is a simple VF-1A, but with Zentraedi language markings and in a rather unusual livery in all dark green, yellow and black trim and grey low-viz roundels. While this does IMHO not really look sexy, I found the idea of a squadron, manned by former (alien) enemies very interesting. And so I took up the idea and started fleshing it out – including the idea of SVF-789’s initial base deep in the Amazonian jungle (justifying somehow the all-green livery!?).
This second build was to represent a flight leader’s aircraft, and consequently the basis is a VF-1J kit (which only differs outwardly through the head). In order to set the machine a little more apart I decided to incorporate some “Plus” program updates, including a different nose tip for the updated radar and two small fairings for IRST and laser designator sensors above and below the nose section, respectively. The fins’ tips were also modified – they were elongated a little through styrene sheet replacements.
This update is a bit early for the official Macross timeline, but I just wanted more than a standard J Valkyrie in a more exotic paint scheme.
Otherwise, this VF-1J fighter kit was built OOB, with the landing gear tucked up and the usual additions of some blade antennae, a pilot figure and a custom display stand in/under the ventral cannon pod.
The ordnance is non-standard, though; in this case the aircraft received two pairs of air-to-ground missiles (actually some misshapen Soviet AAMs from the Academy MiG-23 kit – either very fat R-60 ‘Aphid’ AAMs or very poor renditions of vintage K-6 ‘Alkali’ missiles?) inboards and four AMM-1 missiles on the outer pylons, with the lowest missile replaced by scratched ECM and chaff dispenser pods. The gun pod was also modified with a new nozzle, with parts from a surplus AMM-1 missile – also inspired by a source book entry.
Painting and markings:
This was planned to be a more exotic or extravagant interpretation of the profile from the book, which was already used as a guideline for the VF-1A build. The overall design of an all-green livery with a white nose tip as basis was kept, together with yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. The VF-1A already deviated from this slightly, but now I wanted something more outstanding – a bold flight leader’s mount.
Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (called Dark Satin Green, but it’s actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
In order to set this J Valkyrie apart from the all-dark green basic VF-1As, I added two bright green tones and a light purple as flight color: Humbrol 36 (called Pastel Green, but it’s actually very yellow-ish), 38 (Lime) and Napoleonic Violet from ModelMaster’s Authentic Line, respectively. 36 was applied to the lower legs and around the cockpit section, including the spinal fairing with the air brake. The slightly darker 38 was used on the wings and fins as well as for the fuselage’s and wings’ underside. On top of the wings and the inner and outer fins, the surfaces were segmented, with the dark green as basic color.
As an additional contrast, the head, shoulder guards and additional trim highlights on the legs as well as for a double chevron on the breast plate were painted in the pale purple tone. A sick color combination, but very Zentraedi/Meltraedi-esque!
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Meltraedi (yes, the fictional pilot Taqisha T’saqeel is to be female) with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, plus a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! The gun pod became dark blue (Humbrol 112, Field Blue), the AMM-1 missiles received a pale grey livery while the air-to-ground missiles and the chaff dispenser became olive drab. As an additional contrast, the ECM pod became white. A wild mix of colors!
This was even enhanced through U.N. Spacy roundels in standard full color – their red really stands out. The squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush, but in this case in a smaller variant and with two USN/USAF style code letters for the home basis added.
Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘300’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.
Building was relatively simple, just the rhinoplasty was a little tricky – a very subtle modification, though, but the pointed and slightly deeper nose changed the VF-1’s look. The standard Zentraedi-style VF-1 of SVF-789 already looked …different, but this one is … bright, if not challenging to the naked eye. Anyway, there’s more in the creative pipeline from the Zentraedi unit – this aircraft’s pilot in the form of a modified resin garage kit.
Urbex Benelux -
Once you are inside, there is only one important "guideline": leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures. This means that you have to leave everything as you find it. That way others can also view and record it. There is therefore no question of theft here.
046 (W4 ENG) '007 James Bond'
Scania K124/Irizar Century C49FT
Blowfield (Walters Coaches), Forest Hill
Forest Hill, 5 May 2018
New to Blueways Guideline, Battersea as the England football team coach
Yesterday's self isolation exercise took the form of an eleven-mile MTB ride which included the old pit tip at Calverton, Nottinghamshire. I have to confess that I exceeded the one-hour guideline by ten minutes but I only saw another eight people. Quite spooky as this is usually a very popular spot. This is a single-frame uplift from a Gopro video, the camera being mounted on the handlebars.
Text courtesy of pininfarina:
THE PROJECT:
Exclusivity, innovation and passion
It is named Sergio, after the man who led Pininfarina for 40 years and conceived some of the greatest car legends. It is the new, amazing concept car created to celebrate the Life Senator Sergio Pininfarina. At its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show 2013, the Sergio joins the brand that has so marked the history of Pininfarina: Ferrari. The Sergio, in fact, is a two-seater barchetta that looks to the future, very compact, very sporty, racy, pure and sensual. An exercise that Pininfarina decided to undertake on Ferrari 458 Spider mechanicals. Its formal interpretation is absolutely free, in the best tradition of the Pininfarina research which has produced so many Ferrari-based concept cars or unique models now recognised as masterpieces. The result is a modern, organic view of the mid-rear-engined two-seater barchetta. The willingness to revisit volumes and surface treatments in a subliminal way emerges with the Sergio, which evokes the spirit of Pininfarina's best achievements for Ferrari of the ‘60s and ‘70s. A radical object, unique and essential, which rejects the superfluous and is performance-oriented. A real open air car with an explicit nod to racing cars, in the sense that a cupola is not fitted to protect occupants, for which two helmets are provided. Its exclusivity and development on the basis of a production car, in fact, sets the Sergio in the tradition of the great Pininfarina custom-made cars specifically designed for "special" clients. It is therefore a real car that can easily be produced in limited series of a few units.
THE WAY:
A custom-made car designed to convey emotions
The Sergio is distinguished by a very simple and clear style, that becomes memorable the moment you look at it. Proportions pushed to the extreme, a dynamic front volume penetrating into a rear that is projected forward, a sculpted, three-dimensional interpretation of the typical barchetta. The composition of the two body masses through a longitudinal black insert becomes the design's guideline.
The Sergio also expresses an iconicity linked to ‘60s Ferraris proposing bulging and sensual wings inspired by those of sports cars and racing cars of that era, achieved by compacting all volume accessories as much as possible. The extreme lightness of the Sergio, which appears to float with the front up, is a direct result of aerodynamic research.
The front semi-floating development with the spoiler under the front, expresses aesthetic force and is at the same time functional for the stabilisation of the aerodynamic load and the heat exchange. The aerodynamic deflector in front of the cockpit also creates a virtual windscreen through the deviation of the air flow, protecting the passengers from turbulence. The roll bar, designed as a wing surface, is perfectly tuned to the evolution of the flow coming from the front, adding a further down force effect. Finally, the rear nolder and the extractor close the design effectively and functionally. Still on the subject of aerodynamics, even the rear-view mirror takes on a fluid form that, given the flow of the front baffle, helps to divert air from the heads of the passengers.
To enhance the formal purity of the Pininfarina style criterion, all the technical parts of the Sergio (handles, fins, air intake holes) are concentrated in dark parts of the body, leaving the red painted parts free.
THE MODEL:
This Lego miniland-scale pininfarina Sergio Ferrari Concept has been created for Flickr LUGNuts 76th build Challenge, - "Viva Italia", for all things automotive and Italian.
So today we got the dogs some holistic dog food from Old Mother Hubbart $2.69/can. And as I was looking at the back of the can I saw the wet food alone food guideline and I couldn't believe it... It says that I need to feed my dog 1 can per 10lbs body weight, that would mean for Joseph (115lbs) I would need 11 of these cans a day. Plus Charlie which is about 50lbs, 5 cans a day. Which makes a total of 16 cans a day for they two of my dogs. Well and I couldn't resist to start counting how much that would cost me a week/month/year!!
Weekly: $301.28
Monthly: $1286.40
Yearly: $15 436.80
That would be one expensive dog!!!
New blog post. Use as a guideline to get photo passes for concerts and events.
www.facebook.com/jasonogulnikphotography
www.jasonogulnik.com/blah-blah-blog/2014/6/3/97e7v865kzeb...
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Logo of the Austrian National Bank
Headquarters Vienna, Austria
Central Bank of Austria
Currency€
To ISO 4217 EUR
website
Previous Austro- Hungarian Bank
List of Central Banks
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, at Otto-Wagner -Platz No. 3, Vienna
The Austrian National Bank (OeNB), Austria's central bank as an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Eurosystem. It is instrumental in the design of the economic development in Austria and in the euro area. Legally, the OeNB is a public limited company.. However, it is also subject to further enshrined in the National Bank Act regulations resulting from its separate position as a central bank. In the framework of the Eurosystem, the OeNB contributes to a stability-oriented monetary policy. At the national level, it cares about the preservation of financial stability and the money supply and manage foreign exchange reserves to hedge against the euro in times of crisis. The guideline values in terms of the tasks of the Austrian National Bank are "security, stability and trust".
Contents
1 History
1.1 1816 to 1818
1.2 1818 to 1878
1.3 1878 to 1922
1.4 1922 to 1938
1.5 1938 to 1945
1.6 1945 to 1998
1.7 From 1999
2 The OeNB as a modern central bank
3 Legal form and organs
3.1 Legal framework
3.2 organs
3.2.1 General
3.2.2 General
3.2.3 Board of Directors
4 Tasks
4.1 Monetary policy strategies and monetary policy decision-making process
4.1.1 Economic analysis
4.1.2 Production of statistical information
4.1.3 Contribute to international organizations
4.2 Implementation of monetary policy
4.2.1 use of monetary policy instruments
4.2.2 Reserve Management
4.2.3 Money Supply
4.3 Communication of monetary policy
4.4 ensure financial stability
4.4.1 Financial Stability
4.4.2 Payment System Stability and payments
5 The OeNB in the European System of National Banks
6 President / Governors
7 See also
8 Literature
9 links
10 Notes and references
History
1816-1818
As long as 50 years before the founding of the National Bank the Habsburgs carried out first experiments with securities in the form of paper money. Finally, in the 18th Century the issue of banknotes transferred to a state independent institution, while the issue of paper money called "Banco notes," founded in 1705 by the "Vienna City Bank" took place in 1762.
In wartime governance took back control of the money issue, so there was an inflation of Banco-Zettel 1796-1810. The state ordered the forced acceptance of paper money in private transport, which led to a fast-growing discount on bills in the market. 1799 was therefore one for 100 guilders paper money only 92 guilders in silver coins, and at the end of 1810 the value of the paper florin had fallen to 15 % of the nominal value of the Banco-Zettel. Later, the Habsburgs declared a devaluation of the Banco-Zettel in the ratio of 5:1. This act was considered by the business community as a sovereign default, which the paper money experienced a rapid devaluation.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars the Habsburg multinational state ( → Habsburg Monarchy) faced a new challenge: the restoration of a European balance. Church, the nobility, the army and the bureaucracy as elements in the Ancien Régime were not sufficient to solve this problem, a well -founded economic situation was needed. Moreover, one could not ignore readily the laws of supply and demand.
In this regard, were the first June 1816 by Emperor Francis I two patents issued (later to distinguish the "main patent" or "bank patent"), the "privileged Austrian National Bank", conceived as a public company, had to constitute itself as soon a possible, propose the emperor three of its directors for selection of the governor and take up their activity provisionally on 1 July 1816.
The National Bank had henceforth a monopoly on the issuance of paper money, which led to a slowdown in the Austrian monetary system and an increase in the value of paper money. The economy was again a solid source of money keeping constant the value of money regardless of the spending plans of the State. The equity of the Bank justified this by share issues.
Initially comprised the activities of the bank - under temporary management - the redemption of paper money and the issuance of shares. The full effectiveness attained the National Bank until after the issue of 1,000 shares and the associated possibility of shareholders to set the management themselves.
1818-1878
On 15 July 1817 recieved the National Bank as the "first Bankprivilegium" the exclusive right to unrestricted issue of banknotes and in this context a special position in terms of Rediskontgeschäfts (rediscount business). Beginning of 1818 the definitive bank management was ready. Part of it were among leading figures of Viennese society, including the banker Johann Heinrich von Geymüller and Bernard of Eskeles. From 1830 to 1837 the Office of the Governor was held by Adrian Nicholas Baron Barbier.
In the countries of the Habsburg Monarchy, which were characterized in large part by an agricultural oriented activity pattern, some regions showed a lively commercial-industrial growth. The goal now was to create a system of economic exchange between these areas. Successively established the National Bank branch network and thus guaranteed a uniform money and credit supply. From its headquarters in Vienna this network extended over early industrial areas and commercial centers in Eastern and Central Europe to the northern Mediterranean.
Trade bills and coins were preferred assets of the National Bank, less the supply of money to the state. With the exchange transactions, the National Bank supported the economic growth of the monarchy and secured at the same time the supply of silver coins in the event that the need for these increases in exchange for bank notes, contrary to expectations. 1818 was the National Bank, however, by increasing public debt, due to high spending in times of crisis, not spared to make an increase in the government debt positions on the asset side of its balance sheet.
The patent provisions of the founding of the National Bank not sufficiently secured against the autonomy of governance. At the center of the struggle for independence, this was the question of the extent to which the issue of banknotes must be made on the basis of government bonds. In 1841, a renewal of Bankprivilegiums got a weakening of the independence by pushing back the influence of the shareholders in favor of the state administration. During the revolution of 1848/49 followers of constitutional goals received great support from senior figures in the National Bank. For about a hundred years, the Austrian branch of the Rothschild bank (from which from 1855, the "Royal Privileged Austrian Credit-Institute for Commerce and Industry", the later Creditanstalt, was born) was playing a leading role in the banking center of Vienna. Salomon Mayer von Rothschild was involved during the pre-March in all major transactions of the National Bank for the rehabilitation of the state budget.
Special focus the National Bank was putting on the development of the premium that was payable at the exchange of banknotes into silver money in business dealings. The increase, which corresponded to a depreciation of the notes issued by the Bank should be prevented. From an overall state perspective, the increase of the silver premium means a deterioration in terms of the exchange ratio towards foreign countries, influencing the price competitiveness of the Austrian foreign trade adversely. The stabilization of the premium were set some limits. Although the height of the emission activitiy was depending on the Bank, but also the price of silver and the potential effects of increased government debt materially affected the silver premium. Especially the 1848 revolution and conflicts in the following years caused an increasement of the silver premium.
Mid-century, the private banking and wholesale houses were no longer able to cope with the rapidly growing financial intermediation of the Habsburg monarchy. New forms of capital formation were required. From an initiative of the House of Rothschild, the first by the government approved and private joint-stock bank was created. This formation was followed in 1863 and 1864 by two other joint-stock banks, whose major shareholders included important personalities of the aristocracy, who possessed large liquid funds. Overall, grew with these banks the money creation potential of the "financial center of Vienna".
The central bank faced another difficult task: with its limited resources it had to secure sufficient liquidity on the one hand and on the other hand prevent the inflationary expansion of the money supply. Through close contacts with the shareholders of Vienna was a financial center (informal) ballot, especially in times of crisis, easily dealt out. In contrast, it gave differences of opinion in the Fed Board, which required enforcement of decisions.
In 1861, Friedrich Schey Koromla became director of the National Bank. On 27 December 1862 experienced the Bankprivilegium another innovation. The independence of the National Bank of the State was restored and anchored. Furthermore, was introduced the direct allocation of banknotes in circulation by the system of "Peel'schen Bank Act", which states that the fixed budget of 200 million guilders exceeding circulation of banknotes must be covered by silver coins. In 1866, when the German war ended in defeat for Austria, the compliance of the system was no longer met. The state felt itself forced to pay compensation for breach of privilege. This balance was supported by a law of 1872, after the National Bank may issue notes up to a maximum of 200 million guilders and each additional payment must be fully backed by gold or silver.
1873 the economic boom of the Habsburg monarchy was represented in a long-lasting rise in the share price. A now to be expecting break could by the behavior of the Vienna Stock not be intercepted, so it came to the "Great Crash of 1873". The in 1872 fixed restrictions of the circulation of notes for a short time have been suspended. Contrary to expectations, the money supply in crisis peak but only outgrew by nearly 1% the prescribed limit in the bank acts. The banks and the industrial and commercial companies survived the crash without major losses, although the share prices significantly lay below the initial level.
The years with high growth were followed by a period of stagnation.
1878-1922
As part of the compensation negotiations between Austria and Hungary in 1867, the National Bank was able to exercise fully their Privilegialrechte, the Kingdom of Hungary but now had the certified right, every ten years exercisable, to found an own central bank (bank note). As resulted from the first 10 -year period that furthermore none of the two parts of the monarchy wanted to build an independent money-issuing bank (Zettelbank), was built on 28 June 1878, initially to 31 December 1887 limited, an Austro-Hungarian Bank, and equipped with the Fed privilege. The first privilege of the new bank was a compromise in which on the one hand, regulations on liability for national debts as well as regulations limiting the influence of the government on banking businesses were included. 1878 Gustav Leonhardt was Secretary of the Bank.
The General Assembly and the General Council formed the unit of the bank management. Two directorates and major institutions - in Vienna and Budapest - represented the dual nature of the bank. 1892-1900 followed a long discussion finally the currency conversion from guilders (silver currency) to the crown (gold standard) with "Gold Crown" said coins.
Since the new banknotes were very popular in the public, now many gold coins piled up in the vaults of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. This period was characterized by a balanced combination of price growth and damping, the "per capita national product" grew while prices remained mostly stable. Against this background, it was easy for the Fed to encourage a new wave of industrialization.
With a third privilege in 1899 conditions were established under which the bank could be put into the financial services of the two countries, on the other hand there have been important innovations that paved a good exchange policy. By 1914, the exchange ratio of the Austro-Hungarian currency was unchanged with only minor fluctuations. In contrast, was the by conflicts marked political development.
The expansive foreign policy quickly led to high costs from which had to be shouldered by the central bank a significant part. The stability of the currency was in danger. Shortly after the beginning of World War I in 1914, laid down the Military Command to indemnify any seized property with double the price. There was an increasing scarcity of goods, connected with an ongoing expansion of the money supply and finally the increase in the price level on the 16-fold.
The resulting cost of the war of the Dual Monarchy were covered to 40% on central bank loans and 60% through war bonds. Over the duration of the war, the power force built up in recent decades has been frozen at the end of the conflict in 1918, the real income of the workers had fallen to one-fifth of the last year of peace.
With the end of the war the end for the old order had come, too. The decay of Cisleithania and Transleithania caused in several successor states, despite the efforts of the central bank to maintain the order, a currency separation (see Crown Currency in the decay of the monarchy, successor states). First, a separate "Austrian management" of the bank was introduced. It was encouraged to shoulder the shortcomings of the state budget of the Republic of Austria founded in 1918.
The new South Slav state began in January 1919 stamping its crown banknotes. The newly founded Czechoslovak Republic retained the crown currency (to date), but their printed banknotes in circulation as of February 1919 with indications that now these ar Czechoslovak crowns. (The country could an inflation as experienced by Austria avoide.) In March 1919, German Austria began to stamp its crown banknotes.
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of 10 September 1919, by Austria on 25 October 1919 ratified and which on 16 July 1920 came into force, determined the cancellation and replacement of all crown banknotes of all successor states of Austria-Hungary as well as the complete liquidation of the Austro-Hungarian Bank under the supervision of the war winners. The last meetings of the Bank took place mid 1921 and at the end of 1922.
After a period of overvaluation of the crown the dollar rate rose from 1919 again. 1921, had to be paid over 5,000 Austrian crowns per dollar. In addition to the significant drop in the external value existed in Austria rising inflation. End of 1922 was ultimately a rehabilitation program with foreign assistance - the "Geneva Protocol" - passed which slowed down the inflation.
1922-1938
With Federal Law of 24 July 1922 the Minister of Finance was commissioned to build a central bank, which had to take over the entire note circulation plus current liabilities of the Austrian management of the Austro-Hungarian Bank. With Federal Law of 14 November 1922, certain provisions of the law were amended and promulgated the statutes of the Austrian National Bank. By order of the Federal Government Seipel I 29 December 1922, the Board of the Austrian Austro-Hungarian Bank issued authorization for the central bank union activity with 1 January 1923 have been declared extinct and was made known the commencement of operations of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank this day.
The statutes of the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) secured the independence from the state, the independence of the Bank under exclusion of external influences and the corresponding equity. First, the stabilization of the Austrian currency was at the forefront. With the Schilling Act of 20 December 1924 was the schilling currency (First Republic) with 1 Introduced in March 1925, it replaced the crown currency. For 10,000 crowns now you got a shilling.
As an important personality in terms of the order of the state budget, Dr. Victor Kienböck has to be mentioned. He was in the time from 1922 to 1924 and from 1926 to 1929 finance minister of the First Republic and from 1932 to 1938 President of the Austrian National Bank. Through his work remained the Austrian Schilling, also beyound the global economy crisis, stable. Under this condition, the Fed was able to cope with the large number of bank failures of the past.
1938-1945
According to the on 13th March issued Anschlussgesetz (annexation law) , the Reichsmark with order of the Fuehrer and Chancellor of 17 was March 1938 introduced in the country Austria and determines the course: A Reichsmark is equal to one shilling fifty pence. On the same day, the Chancellor ordered that the management of the to be liquidated National Bank was transferred to the Reichsbank.
With regulation of three ministers of the German Reich of 23 April 1938, the National Bank was established as a property of the Reichsbank and its banknotes the quality as legal tender by 25 April 1938 withdrawn; public funds had Schilling banknotes until 15th of may in 1938 to accept. All the gold and foreign exchange reserves were transferred to Berlin.
The Second World War weakened the Austrian economy to a great extent, the production force after the war corresponded to only 40% of that of 1937 (see also air raids on Austria). To finance the war, the Reichsbank brought to a high degree banknotes in circulation, which only a great victory of the kingdom (Reich) actual values would have been opposable. Since prices were strictly regulated, inflation virtually could be "banned" during the war.
1945-1998
In occupied postwar Austria about 10 billion shillings by Allied military occupying powers were initially printed, which contributed to significant price increases.
With the re-establishment of the Republic of Austria by the Austrian declaration of independence of 27 April 1945, it came to the resumption of activities of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. By the "Fed Transition Act" of July 1945 preliminary legal regulations for the operations of the Bank have been established. The restoration of the Austrian currency was their first big job. The goal was the summary of all currencies, which at the time were in circulation, and their secondment to a new Austrian currency. The "Schilling Act" of November 1945, the basis for the re-introduction of the Schilling (Second Republic) as legal tender in Austria. The next step was to reduce excess liquidity to make necessary funds for new business investment available and to make the external value of the shilling for the development of the economy competitive. First, however, less changed the inflationary situation and also the shilling was still significantly undervalued in relation to other currencies.
The "Currency Protection Act" of 1947 brought a significant change in the monetary overhang. Some deposits have been deleted without replacement, others converted into claims against the Federal Treasury. The following exchange operations also significantly reduced the amount of cash: banknotes from 1945 were canceled and exchanged for new schilling notes in the ratio 1:3. Only 150 shillings per person could go 1-1.
To control inflation, the social partners came to the foreground. The associations of employers and employees set in 1947 prices for supplies, wages were also raised. This was the first of the five "wage-price agreements" of the social partners. In 1952, inflation was held back by limiting the use of monetary policy instruments by the National Bank. Also, the external sector slowly relaxed after the end of the Korean War.
In 1955, the Austrian National Bank was re-established by the new National Bank Act as a corporation and the by the National Bank Transition of Authorities Act (Nationalbank-Überleitungsgesetz) established provisional arragement abolished. The National Bank Act stipulated that each half of the capital should be situated at the federal government and private shareholders. In addition to the independence of bank loans of the state, the new National Bank Act also contained an order that the central bank must watch within their monetary and credit policies on the economic policies of the federal government. From now on also included within the instruments of the National Bank were the areas open market and minimum reserve policy.
The Austrian economy increasingly stabilized, through good fiscal and monetary policy a high growth could be attained, with low inflation and long-term maintenance of external equilibrium.
1960, Austria joined the European Free Trade Association and participated in the European integration.
In the sixties came the international monetary system based on gold-dollar convertibility into currency fluctuations and political reforms were necessary. First, the loosening of exchange rate adjustments between several states was an option. However, U.S. balance of payments problems brought with it restrictions on capital movements, and then the Euro-Dollar market was born. In 1971, the convertibility of the U.S. dollar was lifted.
1975 interrupted a recession increasing growth time. International unbalanced ayments caused very extensive foreign exchange movements, whereby the intervention force of Austrian monetary policy has been strongly challenged. Their task now was to control the effect of foreign exchange on domestic economic activities to stabilize the shilling in the context of constantly shifting exchange rates and to control the price rise appropriately. Since the inflow of foreign funds reached to high proportions, so that the economic stability has been compromised, the policy went the way of the independent course design in a pool of selected European currencies.
The collapse of the economy forced the policy makers to a new course with active mutual credit control, subdued wage growth, financial impulses in supply and demand, and interest rates are kept low. This system of regulation, however, kept back the need for structural change, so it had to be given up in 1979. In the same year a fire destroyed large parts of the main building of the Austrian National Bank in Vienna. The repairs lasted until 1985.
Target in the eighties was to strengthen the economic performance using a competitive power comparison. The findings from the seventies stimulated the Austrian monetary policy to align the Schilling course at the Deutsche Mark to ensure price stability in the country. In addition, the structural change was initiated by inclusion in a large area. Stable, if not necessarily comfortable environment of monetary policy was a prerequisite, to secure the companies long-term productivity gains and thus safeguard their position in the economy.
Initially, this development stood a high level of unemployment in the way. Growth until the second half of the decade increased, at the same time increased the competitiveness and current accounts could be kept in balance.
In the nineties, the annexation of Austria took place in the European Community. 1995 Austria became a member of the European Union (EU) and joined the exchange rate mechanism of the European Monetary System. In 1998, the Central Banks (ESCB) have established the independence of institutions or bodies of the European Community and the governments of the EU Member States through an amendment to the National Bank Act of the Austrian National Bank to implement the goals and tasks of the European System. Thus, the legal basis for the participation of Austria in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was created in 1999.
As of 1999
The Austrian National Bank, and other national central banks including the European Central Bank ( ECB), belongs to the European System of Central Banks.
On 1 January 1999 was introduced in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union in Austria and ten other EU Member States, the euro as a common currency. The European Central Bank is henceforth responsible for monetary and currency policy, decisions in this regard will be taken in accordance with the Council of the European Central Bank.
Since May 2010, the OeNB is in full possession of the Republic of Austria, after originally lobbies, banks and insurance companies were involved with 50 % of the share capital in it. In 2011, the National Bank Act was adapted by an amendment (Federal Law Gazette I No. 50 /2011) in this circumstance, a renewed privatization is thus excluded by law.
The OeNB as a modern central bank
With the withdrawal from the retail business in the sixties as well as the first major internationalization and implementation of a strategic management in the seventies, the OeNB went on the way to a future-oriented central bank. Another major reform of banking began at the end of the eighties.
In terms of global development, the OeNB established in 1988 as a service company and expanded its guiding values - "security, stability and trust" - to the principles of " fficiency" and "cost-consciousness". The business center was optimized and strategic business experienced through targeted improvements a reinforcement. Be mentioned as examples are intensifying domestic cooperation in the area of payments by encouraging the creation of the Society for the Study co-payments (STUZZA), the liberalization of capital movements, the professional management of foreign exchange reserves, the improvement of the supply of money through the construction of the money center and the internationalization of business activities through the establishment of representative offices in Brussels (European Union), Paris (OECD) and the financial center of New York.
After Austria's accession to the EU in 1995, the OeNB participated in the European Monetary System (EMS ) and its Exchange Rate Mechanism. The integration in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) was the next step towards further development of policy stability. Since the conclusion of the Maastricht Treaty, the Austrian National Bank has very fully considered its role in the ESCB and created a basis for inclusion in the community. The profound economic and monetary policy of Austria was also a reference that qualified the OeNB to actively participate in the monetary future of Europe, a greater harmonization of the statistical framework and monetary policy instruments with a view to the euro system, the preparation of the issue of European banknotes, and the establishment of operational processes and organizational integration of business processes within the ESCB being specific objectives of the OeNB.
In the following, it came, inter alia, to the establishement of an economic study department, of an education or training initiative and to strengthen the position of payment transactions through the TARGET system.
A in 1996 created "OeNB master plan" provided important points for the upcoming transition to the euro.
In May 1998, a new pension system came into force, by which new employees were incorporated into a two-pillar model.
1999, Austria's participation in the third stage of EMU was manifest. The Austrian National Bank - as part of the ESCB - became the owner of the European Central Bank and received new powers in this context in the sense of participation in the monetary policy decision-making at the level of the European Community. With the introduction of the euro, monetary policy functions of the General Council have been transferred to the Governing Council. However, the implementation remains the responsibility of national central banks.
Activities of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank were or are, for example, the further professionalization of asset management, the expansion of the network of representative offices by opening a representative office in the financial center of London, preparation of the smooth introduction of euro cash in 2002 and the participation of the OeNB on the creation of the "A-SIT" (Center for secure Information Technology Center - Austria) and the "A-Trust" (society of electronic security systems in traffic GmbH ) in order to promote security in information technology.
A Haiku Note:
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Golden Buddha face
post processed from another
all from Bali Hi
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A thought to ponder
Now use to be the future;
but now it's the past
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“As a jasmine plant sheds its withered flowers, men should shed passion and hatred, O monks!”
~The Buddha~
~ (0110 0100) ~
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What is Buddhism?
For me: A Philosophy,
not a religion.
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“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
~ The Buddha ~
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The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the Four Noble Truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.
1. Right View
Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realise the Four Noble Truths. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.
2. Right Intention
While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.
3. Right Speech
Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.
4. Right Action
The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the Precepts.
5. Right Livelihood
Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.
6. Right Effort
Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.
7. Right Mindfulness
Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.
8. Right Concentration
The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels of concentration also in everyday situations.
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Frontier Airlines
A320-214 N230FR
s/n 6773 del. OCT/2015
named: Betty the Bluebird
arriving/departing SFO
The Freedom to experiment, unlimited by an absence of rule and guideline. The freedom to get lost and to find yourself anew. The Freedom to express oneself without the fear of doubt or discrimination.
Walking on the Anglesey Coastal Path a 24 mile long-distance footpath around the island of Anglesey in North Wales.
The loop officially begins and ends at Holyhead, and is described in the official guidebook in an anti-clockwise direction. It cost £1.4 million and runs virtually within the length of the entire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, using the existing network of public rights of way and some designated permissive paths. For example, the coastal path at Mynachdy is closed between mid-September and mid-February. It has been walked in as little as four days, but around 7–10 days is a guideline for most walkers aiming to complete the whole path.
The Anglesey Coastal Path forms part of the Wales Coast Path, a 870 miles long-distance walking route around the whole coast of Wales from Chepstow to Queensferry.
Information Source
In the north of the Netherlands Park Hoge Veluwe stands Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, on a beautiful pond in a popular rambling area. It was built by architect H.P. Berlage from 1915 – 1920. The legend of Saint Hubertus served as a guideline for the design. It was built for Anton Kröller (who liked to hunt) and Helene Kröller – Müller (who was interested in the mystical aspect of the Hubertus legend). This legend tells the story of the conversion of Hubertus who in his youth had been a keen hunter. He repented, especially following a vision of a Red Deer with a luminous cross between its antlers and a voice that told him to better his life if he wanted to avoid hell. After having taken on the cross from the deer’s antlers - figuratively speaking - Hubertus retired to a monastery. Hubertus finally died in 727 as the bishop of Liege and Maastricht, and the Catholic Church later named him patron saint of the hunters. Architect Berlage and the artists who worked with him have expressed the legend in the Jachthuis using a lot of symbolic, which was quite normal for art styles of around 1900.
As the plan shows, the building is shaped like antlers. The tower with the cross incorporated in the masonry symbolizes the luminous cross between the antlers. Berlage was an architect who designed in the style of the New Objectivity. This style allowed artists to show the individual beauty of constructive elements. As Berlage designed most of the interior as well as many implements, the whole thing was perfectly geared to each other. This is enhanced by the repeated use of certain materials and shapes. In his time, Berlage was a modern architect. The building is full of technical tours de force, such as central heating, a central clock system, a central vacuum system, an electric lift and Pullmann sliding windows.
DSC_8877 - LJ15 BVK - BMW 330d xDrive - Northumbria Police (Escorting Australia Football Team Coach) and FA14 ENG - Scania K410EB6/Irizar PB - Guideline Coaches (Australia Football Team Coach; Ex-England Football Team Coach) - Monkwearmouth, Stadium of Light 27/05/16
The B-52 was 56-608, based at Westover AB, Massachusetts with the 99th Bomb Wing, part of the 307th Strategic Wing- but deployed to U-Tapao AB in Thailand. It was taking part in Operation Linebacker II on the night of 18/ 19 December 1972, the first night of the Christmas bombing campaign or 'The eleven days of Christmas'. The Vietnamese shot it down with an SA-2 'GUIDELINE' (S-75 Dvina) missile- one of 68 fired that night, bringing down two B-52Gs and this D-model. By the end of the bombing campaign the USAF had lost fifteen of the big bombers. Of the six man crew of "Rose 01", two were killed in the shootdown.
A number of B-52s made it back to base but were too badly damaged to be repaired. Between 22 and 27 jets were lost or written off due to enemy action. Certainly 10 went down over Ha Noi, another five elsewhere over Vietnam and nine jets made it back to U-Tapao where they remained. So at least 24. The USAF and Vietnamese 'official' figures are both suspect.
There's a pretty good colour match between these two coaches at Biddulph Grange Gardens yesterday, 15th August, 2018. My tour coach - Roadmark Mercedes Benz Tourismo BF67 WFT sits alongside Robinson of Burbage's former Guideline Mercedes Benz Vario UNVI GL12 LON
Scania K340EB4 Irizar PB C49FT
ex- Guideline,Battersea
ex- Mearns Executive Travel,East Kilbride
ex- M C T,Motherwell
ex- JP Minicoaches,Forfar
Great Central Way Wembley.
Art Gallery on the roof of the Lingotto Building, Via Nizza, Torino (Turin), Italy. Architect: Renzo Piano.
Lingotto is a district of Turin, Italy, but the name is most associated with the 355 160m² steel and concrete Lingotto building, which once was the Fiat factory. Built from 1916 and opened in 1923, the design (by architect Mattè Trucco) was unusual in that it had five floors, with raw materials going in at the ground floor, and cars built on a line that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level, where there was a rooftop test track, 2.4km long x 24.4m wide at 21.3m above ground. The original Lingotto rooftop test track can be seen briefly during the getaway sequence in the film The Italian Job (1969).
Lingotto was the largest car factory in the world at that time. For its time, the Lingotto building was avante-garde, influential and impressive — Le Corbusier called it "one of the most impressive sights in industry", and "a guideline for town planning". 80 different models of car were produced there in its lifetime, including the famous Fiat Topolino of 1936.
The factory became outmoded in the 1970's and the decision was made to finally close it in 1982. The closure of the plant led to much public debate about its future, and how to recover from industrial decline in general. An architectural competition was held, which was eventually awarded to Renzo Piano, who envisioned an exciting public space for the city. The old factory has been restored, refurbished and converted into a multi-purpose facility with trade exhibition and concert halls, a conference centre, a hotel, a shopping arcade, a convention centre, and on the roof an art gallery exhibiting the collection of the Agnelli family, the owners of Fiat.The work was completed in 1989.
Sources: Arup.com and Wikipedia.
Guideline Coaches of London Irizar PB Scania FA14ENG seen at Blists Hill Victorian Town Museum Telford.
This Coach was the former England Football Team Coach
Seen 6/5/17
In this large-scale portrait of Bill Clinton, two things stand out. The first is its size, given that the artist Chuck Close only shows Clinton’s head and shoulders. This means that his face alone is several feet high, making it about the same size as some of the full-length, life-size portraits in the “America’s Presidents” exhibition. Second, while the work is based on a photograph, it is far more abstract than a typical headshot. Similar to pixels on a screen, the painting is composed of hundreds of color-filled diamonds. As a result, this portrait of the forty-second president remains a puzzle-like abstraction, even though it alludes to a realistic photograph.
Let’s explore the mosaic-like composition. When we are near the portrait, Clinton’s likeness takes a back seat to Close’s technique. Close made a grid on both the original photograph and the canvas. He then used the grid as a guideline to enlarge the photograph, transferring and transforming the visual information from each segment to the canvas. Since diagonal lines form the grid instead of horizontals and verticals, the painting is made up of diamonds instead of squares. While each diamond is roughly two and a half by two and a half inches, some of them are joined together to form larger rectangles and L-shapes.
Close then filled these geometric fields with a series of loosely painted, multi-colored concentric circles, teardrops, or rectangles. They resemble nesting blocks of different colors and shapes. At the center of the composition, Close used unexpectedly bright hues to form the oval of Clinton’s face and hair. On the left side of the canvas, where the light hits the president’s face, the diamond tiles are filled with pale aqua, peach, and sage green. The mid-tones of his full cheeks and rounded chin are made up of tangerine, yellow ochre, olive green, eggplant, violet, and even crimson. Along his bulbous nose and underneath his chin, evergreen, eggplant, and burnt sienna represent darker shadows.
Within this warm palette, the blue of the irises of Clinton’s eyes stands out. Rings of turquoise, green, and aqua surround the black circles of his pupils. Each iris fills one of the diamonds. In this way, the eyes form the basic unit of composition and scale.
Now that we have examined the technique, let’s move back several feet. From our new vantage point, it becomes apparent that the variations in the grid suggest specific facial features. For example, there is a pale yellow and baby blue shape resembling a kidney bean about a third of the way up the center of the composition. From afar, it coalesces into the president’s sparkling white front teeth, which he reveals through parted, smiling lips.
Furthermore, colors that appear bright and bold up close seem more subdued at a distance. The background of peacock blue, evergreen, raspberry, and greenish gold becomes a dark blue-gray that complements Clinton’s warm tan complexion.
Even from the far end of the spacious gallery, which is several yards back, the painting does not read as a crisp image. Instead, it is almost as if we are viewing Clinton through textured glass.
(Source: National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC - npg.si.edu/learn/access-programs/verbal-description-tours...)
Daily Shoot #ds410 - The rule of thirds is a time-honored composition guideline. Put it to use today in a photo.
INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE TO BUILD THIS MODEL
Packard had struggled to regain its position as America’s premier luxury marque after WWII.
The 1951 Packards were completely redesigned. Designer John Reinhart introduced a high-waisted, more squared-off profile fitting the contemporary styling trends — very different from the traditional flowing design of the immediate postwar era. New styling features included a one-piece windshield, a wrap-around rear window, small tailfins on the long-wheelbase models, a full-width grill (replacing the traditional Packard upright design), and blunt "guideline fenders" with the hood and front fenders at the same height. The 122-inch (3,099 mm) wheelbase supported low-end 200-series standard and Deluxe two- and four-doors, and 250-series Mayfair hardtop coupes (Packard's first), and convertibles. Upmarket 300 and Patrician 400 models rode a 127-inch (3,226 mm) wheelbase.
Nance originally had hoped to introduce the new "Clipper" as a stand-alone marque, targeting the mid range price field which he felt was dragging the Packard image down. When word was leaked to the Packard dealer network that they would be losing their best-selling Packard model to "Clipper", they balked. As an appeasement, Nance rolled the Clipper out as a Packard, and worked to transition the cars toward their own make. Thus, the Packard Clipper name was reintroduced and applied to the company's entry-level models, previously known as the Packard 200, beginning in 1953.
The Packard inline eight, despite being an older design that lacked the power of Cadillac's engines, was very smooth. When combined with an Ultramatic transmission, the drivetrain made for a nearly quiet and smooth experience on the road. However, it struggled to keep pace with the horsepower race, which was increasingly moving to high compression, short stroke engines capable of sustained driving at speeds greater than 55 MPH.
Idaho National Guard Soldiers and Airmen, as well as active duty counterparts joined forces with a one-team, one-fight mentality for joint training during a mass casualty exercise on Feb. 4, 2023, near Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho. Medical personnel from Gowen Field’s 124th Medical Group and active duty medical personnel with the 366th Medical Group from Mountain Home Air Force Base teamed up for several mass casualty events, which also included the use of medevac Soldiers and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the Idaho Army National Guard’s 1st of the 168th Aviation Regiment to participate in the medical evacuation scenarios. Combat medics performed treatment and stabilized casualties at a field medical tent in a simulated deployed location. The focus for the combat medics during the mass casualty scenarios was an emphasis on Tactical Combat Casualty Care. The TCCC is the military guideline for trauma life support in pre-hospital combat medicine, designed to reduce preventable deaths while continuing to maintain operation success. The ground combat medics and the Black Hawk flight medics worked together to stabilize the casualty during flight until they reached the simulated higher echelon of medical care. (U.S. National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur)
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Description :
Martyred Intellectuals Memorial (Bengali: বুদ্ধিজীবি স্মৃতি সৌধ) is a memorial built for the memory of the martyred intellectuals of Bangladesh Liberation War. The memorial, located at Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana in Dhaka[1], was designed by architect Mostafa Ali Kuddus. During the entire duration of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a large number of teachers, doctors, engineers, poets and writers were systematically massacred by Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the alleged Islamist militia groups Al-Badr and [Al-Shams (Bangladesh)|[Al-Shams]]. The largest number of assassinations took place on December 14, 1971, only two days before the surrender of Pakistan army to the joint force of Indian army and Mukti bahini.
Closer view of Rayerbazar intellectuals' memorial.
Foundation plaque of the memorial, Mirpur, Dhaka.
In the night of 14 December 1971, over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up in Dhaka. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city. Later they were executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. In memory of the martyred intellectuals, December 14 is mourned in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").
Even after the official ending of the war on December 16 there were reports of hostile fire from the armed Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators. In one such incident, notable film-maker Zahir Raihan was killed on January 30, 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by the armed Beharis of Mirpur.
The number of intellectuals killed is estimated as follows: educationist 991, journalist 13, physician 49, lawyer 42, others (litterateur, artist and engineer) 16.[2]
Noted intellectuals who were killed between March 25 and December 16, 1971 in different parts of the country included Govinda Chandra Dev (Philosopher, Professor at DU), Munier Chowdhury (Litterateur, Dramatist, Professor at DU), Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Anwar Pasha (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (cardiologist), Dr. Alim Chowdhury (ophthalmologist), Shahidullah Kaisar (journalist), Nizamuddin Ahmed (Reporter), Selina Parvin (reporter), Altaf Mahmud (lyricist and musician), Dr. Hobibur Rahman (mathematician, Professor at RU), Dhirendranath Datta (politician), Ranadaprasad Saha (philanthropist), Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain (ex-soldier), Mamun Mahmood (Police Officer), and many others.
Martyred Intellectuals Memorial (Bengali: বুদ্ধিজীবি স্মৃতি সৌধ) is a memorial built for the memory of the martyred intellectuals of Bangladesh Liberation War. The memorial, located at Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana in Dhaka[1], was designed by architect Md. Jame- Al- Shafi and Farid Uddin Ahmed. During the entire duration of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a large number of teachers, doctors, engineers, poets and writers were systematically massacred by Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the alleged Islamist militia groups Al-Badr and [Al-Shams (Bangladesh)|[Al-Shams]]. The largest number of assassinations took place on December 14, 1971, only two days before the surrender of Pakistan army to the joint force of Indian army and Mukti bahini. Closer view of Rayerbazar intellectuals' memorial. Foundation plaque of the memorial, Mirpur, Dhaka.
In the night of 14 December 1971, over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up in Dhaka. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city. Later they were executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. In memory of the martyred intellectuals, December 14 is mourned in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").
Even after the official ending of the war on December 16 there were reports of hostile fire from the armed Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators. In one such incident, notable film-maker Zahir Raihan was killed on January 30, 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by the armed Beharis of Mirpur.
The number of intellectuals killed is estimated as follows: educationist 991, journalist 13, physician 49, lawyer 42, others (litterateur, artist and engineer) 16.[2]
Noted intellectuals who were killed between March 25 and December 16, 1971 in different parts of the country included Govinda Chandra Dev (Philosopher, Professor at DU), Munier Chowdhury (Litterateur, Dramatist, Professor at DU), Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Anwar Pasha (Litterateur, Professor at DU), Dr. Mohammed Fazle Rabbee (cardiologist), Dr. Alim Chowdhury (ophthalmologist), Shahidullah Kaisar (journalist), Nizamuddin Ahmed (Reporter), Selina Parvin (reporter), Altaf Mahmud (lyricist and musician), Dr. Hobibur Rahman (mathematician, Professor at RU), Dhirendranath Datta (politician), Ranadaprasad Saha (philanthropist), Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain (ex-soldier), Mamun Mahmood (Police Officer), and many other
A Haiku Note:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buddhist understand,
that the way of compassion
leads to harmony.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Better than a thousand hollow words
is one word that brings peace."
~ The Buddha ~
~ (0001 0011) ~
::::::::::: 13 :::::::::::
=====: 19 :=====
The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the Four Noble Truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.
1. Right View
Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realise the Four Noble Truth. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.
2. Right Intention
While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.
3. Right Speech
Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.
4. Right Action
The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the Precepts.
5. Right Livelihood
Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.
6. Right Effort
Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.
7. Right Mindfulness
Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.
8. Right Concentration
The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels concentration also in everyday situations.
"Unlike the Judeo-Christian tradition, Buddhism affirms the unity of all living beings, all equally posses the Buddha-nature, and all have the potential to become Buddhas, that is, to become fully and perfectly enlightened. Among the sentient, there are no second-class citizens. According to Buddhist teaching, human beings do not have a privileged, special place above and beyond that of the rest of life. The world is not a creation specifically for the benefit and pleasure of human beings. Furthermore, in some circumstances according with their karma, humans can be reborn as humans and animals can be reborn as humans. In Buddhism the most fundamental guideline for conduct is ahimsa-the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living being. Why should one refrain from killing? It is because all beings have lives; they love their lives and do not wish to die. Even one of the smallest creatures, the mosquito, when it approaches to bite you, will fly away if you make the slightest motion. Why does it fly away? Because it fears death. It figures that if it drinks your blood, you will take its life. . . . We should nurture compassionate thought. Since we wish to live, we should not kill any other living being. Furthermore, the karma of killing is understood as the root of all suffering and the fundamental cause of sickness and war, and the forces of killing are explicitly identified with the demonic. The highest and most universal ideal of Buddhism is to work unceasingly for permanent end to the suffering of all living beings, not just humans."
from: "A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON ANIMAL RIGHTS"
by Ronald Epstein
Diet By Chocolate (Focusing on the Chocolate :)
MY SWEET little secret that is ...I'm dieting AND eating chocolates! Shhh!
Project 52
Week 12/52
Week 12's theme is - FOCUS
From : Catcher In My Eye :)
As the word DIET always seems to turn into a NEGATIVE word...my FOCUS is on a POSITIVE Delight!
I'm DIETING and having my CHOCOLATE too!
I think Hubby will build me a backyard pool if I can get down to a reasonable SWIM SUIT weight!
He doesn't know about my sweet little secret weapon, CHOCOLATE ...and don't tell him, or I will have to put a lock on my chocolate stash box and I don't want to share!
Get out of the way, Grandkids! Gram is about to take a dive into a new pool, as I jump into dieting while eating chocolates! I plan to take off pounds and my old swimsuit cover up! :)
I found this article on the web to support my diet-by-chocolate idea! Hehehehe!
(You can find EVERYTHING you ever wanted on the internet to support your chocolate addiction! )
Read below:
Health By Chocolate
"Take two squares of dark chocolate and call me in the morning." I'd be all over those doctor's orders! Can eating chocolate really be good for your health?
Well, if it is, I'm certainly in great shape. I rarely let a day go by in which I don't enjoy a little bite of chocolate. I crave a little bit a day, much like those people who MUST have two cups of coffee in the morning.
The craving usually hits me mid-morning or right after lunch. A couple of squares or a small handful of chocolate-covered nuts, and I'm good to go. I just love the smoothness and the flavor of chocolate. No other food quite compares to it.
Chocolate and Your Health
The possible health benefits of chocolate stem from the antioxidant flavonoids. Chocolate comes from the cacao plant, and cacao is extraordinarily rich in flavanols, a type of flavonoid phytochemical. (Other plants rich in flavanols include tea, grapes, grapefruit, and wine.) That sounds simple enough, but some forms of chocolate have a lot more flavonoids than others.
So here's Health by Chocolate Rule of Thumb #1: The more nonfat cocoa solids a chocolate product contains, the more antioxidants it tends to contribute.
And what about the fat found in the cacao bean? It's true that cacao contains some saturated fat. But most of it is stearic acid -- which studies have suggested doesn't elevate blood cholesterol levels as much as other saturated fatty acids. The other fatty acids in cocoa butter are monounsaturated fat (considered a desirable fat) plus another saturated fat called palmitic fatty acid. But here's where it gets confusing: chocolate products can have other types of fat added, like "milk fat" or "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" or even coconut or palm oil (both naturally saturated oils), in addition to "cocoa butter."
So here's Health by Chocolate Rule of Thumb #2: If the chocolate contains fat ingredients other than cocoa butter, it might contain the more harmful saturated fats and trans fats, rather than stearic acid.
One tablespoon of cocoa butter oil contains:
8 grams of saturated fat (4.5 grams of which are from stearic acid and 3.5 grams of which are from another saturated fatty acid).
4.5 grams of monounsaturated fat.
0.4 grams of polyunsaturated fat (most of which is omega-6 fatty acids).
The Possible Health Benefits of Chocolate
More research needs to be done, but recent studies suggest four possible health benefits of dark chocolate and cocoa.
1. They May Reduce the Risk of Heart Attack.
A few squares of dark chocolate a day can reduce the risk of death from heart attack by almost 50% in some cases, says Diane Becker, MPH, ScD, a researcher with the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Becker's research found that blood platelets clotted more slowly in people who had eaten chocolate than in those who had not. This is significant because when platelets clump, a clot can form, and when the clot blocks a blood vessel, it can lead to a heart attack.
"The flavanols in cocoa beans have a biochemical effect of reducing platelet clumping, similar to but much less than aspirin," Becker says in an email interview.
After reviewing 136 scientific publications on chocolate and its components and heart disease, researchers from Harvard University School of Public Health concluded that short-term studies suggest cocoa and chocolate may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by:
Lowering blood pressure
Decreasing LDL oxidation
Anti-inflammation action
2. They May Decrease Blood Pressure and Increase Insulin Sensitivity
Researchers in Italy recently fed 15 healthy people either 3 ounces of dark chocolate or the same amount of white chocolate -- which contains no flavanol phytochemicals -- for 15 days. They found that insulin resistance (a risk factor for diabetes) was significantly lowered in those who ate the dark chocolate. Systolic blood pressure (the first number in a blood pressure reading), measured daily, was also lower in the group eating dark chocolate.
3. They May Improve Arterial Blood Flow
Healthy men who consume flavanol-rich cocoa may see improvements in the flow of blood through their arteries, according to recent research. The researchers found that when healthy men consumed the flavanol-rich cocoa, the ability of their blood vessels to relax improved significantly. And arterial blood flow is important for cardiovascular health.
4. They May Help People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
In a small study in England, 1 1/2 ounces of 85% cocoa dark chocolate was given to a group of adults with chronic fatigue syndrome every day for eight weeks. In the study, which has been submitted for publication, the participants reported feeling less fatigued after eating the chocolate. Surprisingly, no weight gain was reported in the chocolate-eating group, according to researcher Steve Atkin, PhD.
How might it work? The researchers believe that chocolate enhances the action of neurotransmitters, like serotonin, which help regulate mood and sleep. More research needs to be done to confirm a benefit in this area.
Not All Chocolate Is Created Equal
While the amount of the healthy antioxidant flavonoids varies from one type of chocolate to another, there's one guideline you can take to the bank: The more nonfat cocoa solids in a chocolate product, the more antioxidants it likely contains.
So which type of chocolate has the most flavonoids? The highest levels are in natural cocoa powder (not Dutch cocoa, though, because it is alkalized cocoa). The type second highest in flavonoids is unsweetened baking chocolate. Dark chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips rank third, with milk chocolate and chocolate syrup at the bottom of the list.
Keep in mind, though, that flavanol levels in types of chocolate can vary based on:
The cocoa beans selected.
The processing of the beans and chocolate.
Storage and handling conditions.
Perhaps in the near future, labels on chocolate products will list amounts of flavanols.
Which Type of Chocolate Has the Most Calories and Fat?
By far the lowest-calorie, lowest-fat form of chocolate is cocoa (the unsweetened type). A serving of 3 tablespoons has about:
60 calories
1.5 grams fat
0 grams saturated fat
3 grams fiber
The equivalent in unsweetened baking chocolate is 1 square (1 ounce), which contributes:
140 calories
14 grams fat
9 grams saturated fat
4 grams fiber
By comparison, a typical 2-ounce serving of semisweet or milk chocolate (with sweetener and other ingredients added) contains:
270 calories
17 grams of fat
10 grams of saturated fat
Semisweet chocolate adds around 3 grams of fiber per 2 ounces, while milk chocolate typically contributes zero. The mostly insoluble fiber in cocoa comes from the seed coat on the unprocessed cocoa bean.
All of this brings us to Health by Chocolate Rule of Thumb #3: For a better flavonoid-to-calorie ratio, choose cocoa powder whenever possible for baking and making hot chocolate.
Don't Forget the Calories
One thing most chocolate bars have in common is calories. An ounce of sweetened chocolate will cost you about 150 calories -- that's about six to seven chocolate kisses. Here's my take on it as a chocolate lover: Those six kisses are worth every calorie.
But here's a word of caution: The health benefits of chocolate may disappear if you are adding the calories above and beyond your regular intake. This could mean you're adding pounds along with the flavonoids.
Researchers from the University of California at Davis said it best in a scientific review on cocoa and chocolate flavonoids published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. They concluded that people may benefit from including a variety of flavonoid-rich foods as part of a healthful diet -- and dark chocolate, in moderate amounts, can be part of this plan.
I improv-pieced the 'spine'. all the embroidery was simple stem-stitch, added buttons, and her monogram.
I used this tutorial as my guideline:
www.vanessachristenson.com/2010/01/tutorial-composition-b...
I saw him on Dundas Street downtown on this bright, early fall Toronto day. I thought he had a face that would photograph well and liked his hat and the way his headphones coordinated with his shirt. He was, however, ducking into a bank so I looked up and down the street for a background, knowing that most bank visits are brief. I noticed a dark, reflective, polished marble wall just down the street that I thought would suit well and returned toward the corner. I saw that he was about to exit the building and hoped he would agree to participate in my photo project.
Hoping that it didn’t look like an “ambush” I introduced myself and told him why I had pegged him for my next 100 Strangers invitation. He seemed a bit surprised but flattered. He said he had a few minutes and would be glad to help out. Meet Fitzroy. During our short walk to the marble wall I learned that Fitzroy is 53 and came to Toronto from Jamaica 31 years ago. I commented that he looks younger than his 53 years and his smiling response was “I get that a lot.” He works as a chef at one of the residences at the University of Toronto and I was meeting him as he did errands on his lunch hour. Fitzroy came across as warm, open, and friendly – not unlike many of the Jamaican people I have met.
I demonstrated the pose I was wanting with Fitzroy separated from the wall by a few meters. We did a few photos without the headphones (he had removed them when I approached him) and with. I liked the photos both ways. He was a pleasure to meet and photograph. When I asked about his interests outside of cooking he said he does longboarding and snowboarding and enjoys outdoor activities. His guiding principle in life is balance in all things. “For example, if you enjoy eating, then you should also exercise.” I had a feeling he lives by this guideline and I commented that he looks very fit and healthy. He smiled and said he also belongs to a gym. Our time was up so we exchanged contact information and were both on our way.
Thank you Fitzroy for participating in 100 Strangers. You are Stranger #622 in Round 7 of my project.
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by the other photographers in our group at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page.
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Angkor Wat, a Hindu-Buddhist temple and World Heritage Site, is the largest religious monument in the world. This Cambodian temple deploys the same circles and squares grid architecture as described in ancient Indian Vāstu Śastras.[1]
Vastu shastra (vāstu śāstra) is a traditional Indian system of architecture originating in India[2] which literally translates to "science of architecture."[3] These are texts found on the Indian subcontinent that describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, space arrangement, and spatial geometry.[4][5] Vastu Shastras incorporate traditional Hindu and in some cases Buddhist beliefs.[6] The designs are intended to integrate architecture with nature, the relative functions of various parts of the structure, and ancient beliefs utilising geometric patterns (yantra), symmetry, and directional alignments.[7][8]
Vastu Shastra are the textual part of Vastu Vidya, the latter being the broader knowledge about architecture and design theories from ancient India.[9] Vastu Vidya knowledge is a collection of ideas and concepts, with or without the support of layout diagrams, that are not rigid. Rather, these ideas and concepts are models for the organisation of space and form within a building or collection of buildings, based on their functions in relation to each other, their usage and to the overall fabric of the Vastu.[9] Ancient Vastu Shastra principles include those for the design of Mandir (Hindu temples),[10] and the principles for the design and layout of houses, towns, cities, gardens, roads, water works, shops and other public areas.[5][11][12]
Contents
1Terminology
2History
3Description
4Mandala types and properties
5Modern adaptations and usage
5.1Vastu and superstition
6Sanskrit treatises on architecture
7See also
8References
9Further reading
Terminology[edit]
The Sanskrit word vāstu means a dwelling or house with a corresponding plot of land.[13] The vrddhi, vāstu, takes the meaning of "the site or foundation of a house, site, ground, building or dwelling-place, habitation, homestead, house". The underlying root is vas "to dwell, live, stay, reside".[14] The term shastra may loosely be translated as "doctrine, teaching".
Vāstu-Śastras (literally, science of dwelling) are ancient Sanskrit manuals of architecture. These contain Vastu-Vidya (literally, knowledge of dwelling).[15]
History[edit]
Proposals tracing potential links of the principles of composition in Vastu Shastra and the Indus Valley Civilization have been made, but Kapila Vatsyayan is reluctant to speculate on such links given the Indus Valley script remains undeciphered.[16] According to Chakrabarti, Vastu Vidya is as old the Vedic period and linked to the ritual architecture.[17] According to Michael W. Meister, the Atharvaveda contains verses with mystic cosmogony which provide a paradigm for cosmic planning, but they did not represent architecture nor a developed practice.[18] Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita dated to the sixth century CE, states Meister, is the first known Indian text that describes "something like a vastupurusamandala to plan cities and buildings".[18] The emergence of Vastu vidya as a specialised field of science is speculated to have occurred significantly before the 1st-century CE.[17]
Description[edit]
Ancient India produced many Sanskrit manuals of architecture, called Vastu Sastra. Many of these are about Hindu temple layout (above), design and construction, along with chapters on design principles for houses, villages, towns. The architect and artists (Silpins) were given wide latitude to experiment and express their creativity.[19]
There exist many Vāstu-Śastras on the art of building houses, temples, towns and cities. One such Vāstu Śastra is by Thakkura Pheru, describing where and how temples should be built.[7][20] By 6th century AD, Sanskrit manuals for constructing palatial temples were in circulation in India.[21] Vāstu-Śastra manuals included chapters on home construction, town planning,[15] and how efficient villages, towns and kingdoms integrated temples, water bodies and gardens within them to achieve harmony with nature.[11][12] While it is unclear, states Barnett,[22] as to whether these temple and town planning texts were theoretical studies and if or when they were properly implemented in practice, the manuals suggest that town planning and Hindu temples were conceived as ideals of art and integral part of Hindu social and spiritual life.[15]
The Silpa Prakasa of Odisha, authored by Ramachandra Bhattaraka Kaulachara sometime in ninth or tenth century CE, is another Vāstu Śastra.[23] Silpa Prakasa describes the geometric principles in every aspect of the temple and symbolism such as 16 emotions of human beings carved as 16 types of female figures. These styles were perfected in Hindu temples prevalent in eastern states of India. Other ancient texts found expand these architectural principles, suggesting that different parts of India developed, invented and added their own interpretations. For example, in Saurastra tradition of temple building found in western states of India, the feminine form, expressions and emotions are depicted in 32 types of Nataka-stri compared to 16 types described in Silpa Prakasa.[23] Silpa Prakasa provides brief introduction to 12 types of Hindu temples. Other texts, such as Pancaratra Prasada Prasadhana compiled by Daniel Smith[24] and Silpa Ratnakara compiled by Narmada Sankara[25] provide a more extensive list of Hindu temple types.
Ancient Sanskrit manuals for temple construction discovered in Rajasthan, in northwestern region of India, include Sutradhara Mandana's Prasadamandana (literally, manual for planning and building a temple) with chapters on town building.[26] Manasara shilpa and Mayamata, texts of South Indian origin, estimated to be in circulation by 5th to 7th century AD, is a guidebook on South Indian Vastu design and construction.[7][27] Isanasivagurudeva paddhati is another Sanskrit text from the 9th century describing the art of building in India in south and central India.[7][28] In north India, Brihat-samhita by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from 6th century describing the design and construction of Nagara style of Hindu temples.[19][29][30]
These ancient Vāstu Śastras, often discuss and describe the principles of Hindu temple design, but do not limit themselves to the design of a Hindu temple.[31] They describe the temple as a holistic part of its community, and lay out various principles and a diversity of alternate designs for home, village and city layout along with the temple, gardens, water bodies and nature.[12][32]
Mandala types and properties[edit]
The 8x8 (64) grid Manduka Vastu Purusha Mandala layout for Hindu Temples. It is one of 32 Vastu Purusha Mandala grid patterns described in Vastu sastras. In this grid structure of symmetry, each concentric layer has significance.[7]
The central area in all mandala is the Brahmasthana. Mandala "circle-circumference" or "completion", is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Hinduism and Buddhism. The space occupied by it varies in different mandala – in Pitha (9) and Upapitha (25) it occupies one square module, in Mahaapitha (16), Ugrapitha (36) and Manduka (64), four square modules and in Sthandila (49) and Paramasaayika (81), nine square modules.[33] The Pitha is an amplified Prithvimandala in which, according to some texts, the central space is occupied by earth. The Sthandila mandala is used in a concentric manner.[33]
The most important mandala is the Manduka/Chandita Mandala of 64 squares and the Paramasaayika Mandala of 81 squares. The normal position of the Vastu Purusha (head in the northeast, legs in the southwest) is as depicted in the Paramasaayika Mandala. However, in the Manduka Mandala the Vastu Purusha is depicted with the head facing east and the feet facing west.[citation needed]
vastu directional chakara
It is believed that every piece of a land or a building has a soul of its own and that soul is known as Vastu Purusha.[34]
A site of any shape can be divided using the Pada Vinyasa. Sites are known by the number of squares. They range from 1x1 to 32x32 (1024) square sites. Examples of mandalas with the corresponding names of sites include:[7]
Sakala (1 square) corresponds to Eka-pada (single divided site)
Pechaka (4 squares) corresponds to Dwi-pada (two divided site)
Pitha (9 squares) corresponds to Tri-pada (three divided site)
Mahaapitha (16 squares) corresponds to Chatush-pada (four divided site)
Upapitha (25 squares) corresponds to Pancha-pada (five divided site)
Ugrapitha (36 squares) corresponds to Shashtha-pada (six divided site)
Sthandila (49 squares) corresponds to Sapta-pada (seven divided site)
Manduka/ Chandita (64 square) corresponds to Ashta-pada (eight divided site)
Paramasaayika (81 squares) corresponds to Nava-pada (nine divided site)
Aasana (100 squares) corresponds to Dasa-pada (ten divided site)
Bhadrmahasan (196 squares) corresponds to Chodah-pada (14 divided sites)
Modern adaptations and usage[edit]
Vastu Shastra-inspired plan adapted and evolved by modern architect Charles Correa in the design of Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, Rajasthan.[8][35]
Vāstu Śastra represents a body of ancient concepts and knowledge to many modern architects, a guideline but not a rigid code.[8][36] The square-grid mandala is viewed as a model of organisation, not as a ground plan. The ancient Vāstu Śastra texts describe functional relations and adaptable alternate layouts for various rooms or buildings and utilities, but do not mandate a set compulsory architecture. Sachdev and Tillotson state that the mandala is a guideline, and employing the mandala concept of Vāstu Śastra does not mean every room or building has to be square.[8] The basic theme is around core elements of central space, peripheral zones, direction with respect to sunlight, and relative functions of the spaces.[8][36]
The pink city Jaipur in Rajasthan was master planned by Rajput king Jai Singh and built by 1727 CE, in part around Vastu Shilpa Sastra principles.[8][37][37] Similarly, modern era projects such as the architect Charles Correa's designed Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya in Ahmedabad, Vidhan Bhavan in Bhopal,[38] and Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, adapt and apply concepts from the Vastu Shastra Vidya.[8][36] In the design of Chandigarh city, Le Corbusier incorporated modern architecture theories with those of Vastu Shastra.[39][40][41]
During the colonial rule period of India, town planning officials of the British Raj did not consider Vastu Vidya, but largely grafted Islamic Mughal era motifs and designs such as domes and arches onto Victorian-era style buildings without overall relationship layout.[42][43] This movement, known as Indo-Saracenic architecture, is found in chaotically laid out, but externally grand structures in the form of currently used major railway stations, harbours, tax collection buildings, and other colonial offices in South Asia.[42]
Vāstu Śastra Vidya was ignored, during colonial era construction, for several reasons. These texts were viewed by 19th and early 20th century architects as archaic, the literature was inaccessible being in an ancient language not spoken or read by the architects, and the ancient texts assumed space to be readily available.[36][42] In contrast, public projects in the colonial era were forced into crowded spaces and local layout constraints, and the ancient Vastu sastra were viewed with prejudice as superstitious and rigid about a square grid or traditional materials of construction.[42] Sachdev and Tillotson state that these prejudices were flawed, as a scholarly and complete reading of the Vāstu Śastra literature amply suggests the architect is free to adapt the ideas to new materials of construction, local layout constraints and into a non-square space.[42][44] The design and completion of a new city of Jaipur in early 1700s based on Vāstu Śastra texts, well before any colonial era public projects, was one of many proofs.[42][44] Other examples include modern public projects designed by Charles Correa such as Jawahar Kala Kendra in Jaipur, and Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad.[8][35] Vastu Shastra remedies have also been applied by Khushdeep Bansal in 1997 to the Parliament complex of India, when he contented that the library being built next to the building is responsible for political instability in the country.[45]
German architect Klaus-Peter Gast states that the principles of Vāstu Śastras is witnessing a major revival and wide usage in the planning and design of individual homes, residential complexes, commercial and industrial campuses, and major public projects in India, along with the use of ancient iconography and mythological art work incorporated into the Vastu vidya architectures.[35][46]
Vastu and superstition[edit]
The use of Vastu shastra and Vastu consultants in modern home and public projects is controversial.[44] Some architects, particularly during India's colonial era, considered it arcane and superstitious.[36][42] Other architects state that critics have not read the texts and that most of the text is about flexible design guidelines for space, sunlight, flow and function.[36][46]
Vastu Shastra is considered as pseudoscience by rationalists like Narendra Nayak of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations.[47] Scientist and astronomer Jayant Narlikar considers Vastu Shastra as pseudoscience and writes that Vastu does not have any "logical connection" to the environment.[3] One of the examples cited by Narlikar arguing the absence of logical connection is the Vastu rule, "sites shaped like a triangle ... will lead to government harassment, ... parallelogram can lead to quarrels in the family." Narlikar notes that sometimes the building plans are changed and what has already been built is demolished to accommodate for Vastu rules.[3] Regarding superstitious beliefs in Vastu, Science writer Meera Nanda cites the case of N. T. Rama Rao, the ex-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, who sought the help of Vastu consultants for his political problems. Rama Rao was advised that his problems would be solved if he entered his office from an east facing gate. Accordingly, a slum on the east facing side of his office was ordered to be demolished, to make way for his car's entrance.[48] The knowledge of Vastu consultants is questioned by Pramod Kumar (citation required), "Ask the Vaastu folks if they know civil engineering or architecture or the local government rules on construction or minimum standards of construction to advise people on buildings. They will get into a barrage of "ancient" texts and "science" that smack of the pseudo-science of astrology. Ask them where they were before the construction boom and if they will go to slum tenements to advise people or advise on low-cost community-housing—you draw a blank."[49]
Sanskrit treatises on architecture[edit]
Of the numerous Sanskrit treatises mentioned in ancient Indian literature, some have been translated in English. Many Agamas, Puranas and Hindu scriptures include chapters on architecture of temples, homes, villages, towns, fortifications, streets, shop layout, public wells, public bathing, public halls, gardens, river fronts among other things.[5] In some cases, the manuscripts are partially lost, some are available only in Tibetan, Nepalese or South Indian languages, while in others original Sanskrit manuscripts are available in different parts of India. Some treatises, or books with chapters on Vaastu Shastra include:[5]
Manasara
Brhat samhita
Mayamata
Anka sastra
Aparajita Vāstu Śastra
Maha-agamas (28 books, each with 12 to 75 chapters)
Ayadi Lakshana
Aramadi Pratishtha Paddhati (includes garden design)
Kasyapiya
Kupadi Jala Sthana Lakshana
Kshetra Nirmana Vidhi (preparation of land and foundation of buildings including temples)
Gargya samhita (pillars, doors, windows, wall design and architecture)
Griha Pithika (types of houses and their construction)
Ghattotsarga Suchanika (riverfront and steps architecture)
Chakra sastra
Jnana ratna kosha
Vastu sarani (measurement, ratio and design layouts of objects, particularly buildings)
Devalaya Lakshana (treatise on construction of temples)
Dhruvadi shodasa gehani (guidelines for arrangement of buildings with respect to each other for harmony)
Nava sastra (36 books, most lost)
Agni Purana (Chapters 42 through 55, and 106 - Nagaradi Vastu)
Matsya Purana (Chapters 252 through 270)
Maya samgraha
Prasada kirtana
Prasada Lakshana
Tachchu sastra (primarily home design for families)
Manushyalaya Lakshana (primarily human dwelings)
Manushyalaya Chandrika
Mantra dipika
Mana kathana (measurement principles)
Manava vastu lakshana
Manasollasa (chapters on house layout, mostly ancient cooking recipes)
Raja griha nirmana (architecture and construction principles for royal palaces)
Rupa mandana
Vastu chakra
Vastu tattva
Vastu nirnaya
Vastu purusha lakshana
Vastu prakasa
Vastu pradipa
Vastu manjari
Vastu mandana
Vastu lakshana
Vastu vichara
Vastu Vidya
Vastu vidhi
Vastu samgraha
Vastu sarvasva
Vimana lakshana (tower design)
Visvakarma prakasa (home, roads, water tanks and public works architecture)
Vaikhanasa
Sastra jaladhi ratna
Silpa prakasa
Silpakala Dipika
Silpartha Śastra
Sanatkumara Vāstu Śastra
Samarangana Sutradhara
See also[edit]
Aranmula Kottaram
Feng shui
Kanippayyur Shankaran Namboodiripad
Maharishi Vastu Architecture
Shilpa Shastras
Tajul muluk
References[edit]
^ R Arya, Vaastu: The Indian Art of Placement, ISBN 978-0892818853
^ Quack, Johannes (2012). Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India. Oxford University Press. p. 119. ISBN 9780199812608. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b c Narlikar, Jayant V. (2009). "Astronomy, pseudoscience and rational thinking". In Percy, John; Pasachoff, Jay (eds.). Teaching and Learning Astronomy: Effective Strategies for Educators Worldwide. Cambridge University Press. p. 165.
^ "GOLDEN PRINCIPLES OF VASTU SHASTRA Vastukarta". www.vastukarta.com. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Acharya P.K. (1946), An Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture, Oxford University Press
^ Kumar, Vijaya (2002). Vastushastra. New Dawn/Sterling. p. 5. ISBN 978-81-207-2199-9.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Stella Kramrisch (1976), The Hindu Temple Volume 1 & 2, ISBN 81-208-0223-3
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Vibhuti Sachdev, Giles Tillotson (2004). Building Jaipur: The Making of an Indian City. pp. 155–160. ISBN 978-1861891372.
^ Jump up to: a b Vibhuti Sachdev, Giles Tillotson (2004). Building Jaipur: The Making of an Indian City. p. 147. ISBN 978-1861891372.
^ George Michell (1988), The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226532301, pp 21-22
^ Jump up to: a b GD Vasudev (2001), Vastu, Motilal Banarsidas, ISBN 81-208-1605-6, pp 74-92
^ Jump up to: a b c Sherri Silverman (2007), Vastu: Transcendental Home Design in Harmony with Nature, Gibbs Smith, Utah, ISBN 978-1423601326
^ Gautum, Jagdish (2006). Latest Vastu Shastra (Some Secrets). Abhinav Publications. p. 17. ISBN 978-81-7017-449-3.
^ Monier-Williams (1899).
^ Jump up to: a b c BB Dutt (1925), Town planning in Ancient India at Google Books, ISBN 978-81-8205-487-5; See critical review by LD Barnett, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol 4, Issue 2, June 1926, pp 391
^ Milton Singer (1991). Semiotics of Cities, Selves, and Cultures: Explorations in Semiotic Anthropology. Walter de Gruyter. p. 117. ISBN 978-3-11-085775-7.
^ Jump up to: a b Vibhuti Chakrabarti (2013). Indian Architectural Theory and Practice: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya. Routledge. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-136-77882-7.
^ Jump up to: a b Gudrun Bühnemann (2003). Mandalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions. BRILL Academic. pp. 251–254. ISBN 90-04-12902-2.
^ Jump up to: a b Meister, Michael W. (1983). "Geometry and Measure in Indian Temple Plans: Rectangular Temples". Artibus Asiae. 44 (4): 266–296. doi:10.2307/3249613. JSTOR 3249613.
^ Jack Hebner (2010), Architecture of the Vāstu Śastra - According to Sacred Science, in Science of the Sacred (Editor: David Osborn), ISBN 978-0557277247, pp. 85-92; N Lahiri (1996), Archaeological landscapes and textual images: a study of the sacred geography of late medieval Ballabgarh, World Archaeology, 28(2), pp 244-264
^ Susan Lewandowski (1984), Buildings and Society: Essays on the Social Development of the Built Environment, edited by Anthony D. King, Routledge, ISBN 978-0710202345, Chapter 4
^ LD Barnett, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol 4, Issue 2, June 1926, pp 391
^ Jump up to: a b Alice Boner and Sadāśiva Rath Śarmā (1966), Silpa Prakasa Medieval Orissan Sanskrit Text on Temple Architecture at Google Books, E.J. Brill (Netherlands)
^ H. Daniel Smith (1963), Ed. Pāncarātra prasāda prasādhapam, A Pancaratra Text on Temple-Building, Syracuse: University of Rochester, OCLC 68138877
^ Mahanti and Mahanty (1995 Reprint), Śilpa Ratnākara, Orissa Akademi, OCLC 42718271
^ Amita Sinha (1998), Design of Settlements in the Vaastu Shastras, Journal of Cultural Geography, 17(2), pp 27-41, doi:10.1080/08873639809478319
^ Tillotson, G. H. R. (1997). Svastika Mansion: A Silpa-Sastra in the 1930s. South Asian Studies, 13(1), pp 87-97
^ Ganapati Sastri (1920), Īśānaśivagurudeva paddhati, Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, OCLC 71801033
^ Heather Elgood (2000), Hinduism and the religious arts, ISBN 978-0304707393, Bloomsbury Academic, pp 121-125
^ H Kern (1865), The Brhat Sanhita of Varaha-mihara, The Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta
^ S Bafna, On the Idea of the Mandala as a Governing Device in Indian Architectural Tradition, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar. 2000), pp. 26-49
^ Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, Vol 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0222-3
^ Jump up to: a b Vibhuti Chakrabarti (2013). Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya. Routledge. pp. 86–99. ISBN 978-0700711130.
^ "Vastu for Beginners | Vastu Purusha Story | Vastu Shastra". 6 July 2015.
^ Jump up to: a b c Klaus-Peter Gast (2011). Modern Traditions: Contemporary Architecture in India. Birkhäuser Architecture. p. 11. ISBN 978-3764377540.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f V Chakrabarti (2013). Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya. Routledge. pp. 86–92. ISBN 978-0700711130.
^ Jump up to: a b Jantar Mantar & Jaipur - Section II National University of Singapore, pp. 17-22
^ Irena Murray (2011). Charles Correa: India's Greatest Architect. RIBA Publishing. ISBN 978-1859465172.
^ Gerald Steyn (2011). "Le Corbusier's research-based design approaches" (PDF). SAJAH. Tshwane University of Technology. 26 (3): 45–56.
^ H Saini (1996). Vaastu ordains a full flowering for Chandigarh. The Tribune.
^ Reena Patra (2009). "Vaastu Shastra: Towards Sustainable Development". Sustainable Development. Wiley InterScience. 17 (4): 244–256. doi:10.1002/sd.388.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Vibhuti Sachdev, Giles Tillotson (2004). Building Jaipur: The Making of an Indian City. pp. 149–157. ISBN 978-1861891372.
^ Anthony D'Costa (April 2012). A New India?: Critical Reflections in the Long Twentieth Century. pp. 165–168. ISBN 978-0857285041.
^ Jump up to: a b c V Chakrabarti (2013). Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya. Routledge. pp. 86–99. ISBN 978-0700711130.
^ "'Harmonising' homes, hearts". Hindustan Times. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b Stephen Marshall (2011). Urban Coding and Planning. Routledge. pp. 83–103. ISBN 978-0415441261.
^ Quack, Johannes (2012). Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India. Oxford University Press. p. 170. ISBN 9780199812608. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
^ Sokal, Alan (2008). Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture. Oxford University Press. pp. 306–307. ISBN 9780191623349.
^ Kumar, Pramod (14 May 2013). "Akshaya Tritiya and the great Indian superstition industry". Firstpost. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
Further reading[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vastu Shastra.
Acharya P.K. (1946), An Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture, Oxford University Press - Terminology of Ancient Architecture
Acharya P.K. (1946), Bibliography of Ancient Sanskrit Treatises on Architecture and Arts, in An Encyclopedia of Hindu Architecture, Oxford University Press - pages 615-659
B.B. Dutt (1925), Town Planning in Ancient India at Google Books
IVVRF (2000), Journal Of International Conference Vastu Panorama 2000, Main Theme - The Study of Energetic Dimension of Man and Behavior of Environment
IVVRF (2004), Journal Of International Conference Vastu Panorama 2004
IVVRF (2008), Journal Of International Conference Vastu Panorama 2008, Main Theme - Save Mother earth and life- A Vastu Mission
IVVRF (2012), Journal Of International Conference Vastu Panorama 2012, Main Theme- Vastu Dynamics for Global Well Being
V. Chakraborty, Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya at Google Books
Arya, Rohit Vaastu: the Indian art of placement : design and decorate homes to reflect eternal spiritual principles Inner Traditions / Bear & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-89281-885-9.
Important Concepts of Vasthu Shasthra Traditional Indian Architecture
Vastu: Transcendental Home Design in Harmony with Nature, Sherri Silverman
Prabhu, Balagopal,T.S and Achyuthan,A, "A text Book of Vastuvidya", Vastuvidyapratisthanam, Kozhikode, New Edition, 2011.
Prabhu, Balagopal,T.S and Achyuthan,A, "Design in Vastuvidya", Vastuvidyapratisthanam, Kozhiko
Prabhu, Balagopal,T.S, "Vastuvidyadarsanam",(Malayalam) Vastuvidyapratisthanam, Kozhikode.
Prabhu, Balagopal,T.S and Achyuthan,A, "Manusyalaya candrika- An Engineering Commentary", Vastuvidyapratisthanam, Kozhikode, New Edition, 2011.
Vastu-Silpa Kosha, Encyclopedia of Hindu Temple architecture and Vastu/S.K.Ramachandara Rao, Delhi, Devine Books, (Lala Murari Lal Chharia Oriental series) ISBN 978-93-81218-51-8 (Set)
D. N. Shukla, Vastu-Sastra: Hindu Science of Architecture, Munshiram Manoharial Publishers, 1993, ISBN 978-81-215-0611-3.
B. B. Puri, Applied vastu shastra vaibhavam in modern architecture, Vastu Gyan Publication, 1997, ISBN 978-81-900614-1-4.
Vibhuti Chakrabarti, Indian Architectural Theory: Contemporary Uses of Vastu Vidya Routledge, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7007-1113-0.
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Following on the neo-trad/new urbanists use of a 'pattern book' is the idea here to create a material and tectonic vocabulary for the development in the Midwest.
Here is the various roof guidelines, the curved steel roofs catch the light of the day, and respond gently to the winds. Each guideline typically has a plan or section on the left, and then the complimentary plan or section on the right of the photo.
The photos are examples from the existing landscape/architecture.
Guideline Coaches' GU16 WHU, a Scania K450EB6 / Irizar i8, is pictured at Watford Gap Services on the M1 northbound.
Some background:
The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. It was preceded into production by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible.
After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).
The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I, and was the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later.
The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties, which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter. The signature skills of U.N. Spacy ace pilot Maximilian Jenius exemplified the effectiveness of the variable systems as he near-constantly transformed the Valkyrie in battle to seize advantages of each mode as combat conditions changed from moment to moment.
The basic VF-1 was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) with constant updates and several sub-variants during its long and successful career. Its success was increased by the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie and FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie weapon systems, the latter enabling the fighter to operate in space.
After the end of Space War I, the VF-1A continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system (notably on the Lunar facility Apollo Base) and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would eventually be replaced as the primary VF of the UN Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III in 2020, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.
One notable operator of the VF-1 was the U.N. Spacy's Zentraedi Fleet, namely SVF-789, which was founded in 2012 as a cultural integration and training squadron with two flights of VF-1 at Tefé in Brazil. This mixed all-Zentraedi/Meltraedi unit was the first in the UN Spacy’s Zentraedi Fleet to be completely equipped with the 1st generation Valkyrie (other units, like SVF-122, which was made up exclusively from Zentraedi loyalists, kept a mixed lot of vehicles).
SVF-789’s flight leaders and some of its instructors were all former Quadrono Battalion aces (under the command of the famous Milia Fallyna, later married with aforementioned Maximilian Jenius), e. g. the Meltraedi pilot Taqisha T’saqeel who commanded SVF-789’s 3rd Flight.
Almost all future Zentraedi and Meltradi pilots for the U.N. Spacy received their training at Tefé, and the squadron was soon expanded to a total of five flights. During this early phase of the squadron's long career the VF-1s carried a characteristic dark-green wrap-around scheme, frequently decorated with colorful trim, reflecting the unit’s Zentraedi/Meltraedi heritage (the squadron’s motto and title “Dar es Carrack” meant “Victory is everywhere”) and boldly representing the individual flights.
In late 2013 the unit embarked upon Breetai Kridanik’s Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Command Battleship, and the machines received a standard all-grey livery, even though some typical decoration (e. g. the squadron code in Zentraedi symbols) remained.
When the UN Spacy eventually mothballed the majority of its legacy Zentraedi ships, the unit was re-assigned to the Tokugawa-class Super Dimensional Carrier UES Xerxes. In 2022, SVF-789 left the Sol System as part of the Pioneer Mission. By this time it had been made part of the Expeditionary Marine Corps and re-equipped with VAF-6 Alphas.
The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters.
The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters with several variants (VF-1A = 5,093, VF-1D = 85, VF-1J = 49, VF-1S = 30, VF-1G = 12, VE-1 = 122, VT-1 = 68) and ongoing modernization programs like the “Plus” MLU update that incorporated stronger engines and avionics from the VF-1’s successor, the VF-4 (including the more powerful radar, IRST sensor and a laser designator/range finder). These updates later led to the VF-1N, P an X variants.
However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!
General characteristics:
Equipment Type: all-environment variable fighter and tactical combat battroid
Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force
Accommodation: pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat
Dimensions:
Fighter Mode:
Length 14.23 meters
Wingspan 14.78 meters (fully extended)
Height 3.84 meters
Battroid Mode:
Height 12.68 meters
Width 7.3 meters
Length 4.0 meters
Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;
Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;
MTOW: 37.0 metric tons
Powerplant:
2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2008 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)
4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);
18 x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles
Performance:
Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h
Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87
g limit: in space +7
Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24
Design features:
3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system
Transformation:
Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.
Minimum time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.
Armament:
2x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute
1x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 rds fired at 1,200 rds/min
4 x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including
- 12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or
- 12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or
- 6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or
- 4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point), each carrying 15x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,
or a combination of above load-outs
Optional Armament:
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry GBP-1S ground-combat protector weapon system, or
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry FAST Pack augmentative space weapon system
The kit and its assembly:
The second vintage 1:100 ARII VF-1 as a part of a Zentraedi squadron series, the canonical SVF-789. This one was inspired by a profile of such a machine in the “Macross Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Part 1” Art Book – true robot porn and full of valuable detail and background material for anyone who’d consider building a VF-1.
The SVF-789 machine shown in the book is a simple VF-1A, but with Zentraedi language markings and in a rather unusual livery in all dark green, yellow and black trim and grey low-viz roundels. While this does IMHO not really look sexy, I found the idea of a squadron, manned by former (alien) enemies very interesting. And so I took up the idea and started fleshing it out – including the idea of SVF-789’s initial base deep in the Amazonian jungle (justifying somehow the all-green livery!?).
This second build was to represent a flight leader’s aircraft, and consequently the basis is a VF-1J kit (which only differs outwardly through the head). In order to set the machine a little more apart I decided to incorporate some “Plus” program updates, including a different nose tip for the updated radar and two small fairings for IRST and laser designator sensors above and below the nose section, respectively. The fins’ tips were also modified – they were elongated a little through styrene sheet replacements.
This update is a bit early for the official Macross timeline, but I just wanted more than a standard J Valkyrie in a more exotic paint scheme.
Otherwise, this VF-1J fighter kit was built OOB, with the landing gear tucked up and the usual additions of some blade antennae, a pilot figure and a custom display stand in/under the ventral cannon pod.
The ordnance is non-standard, though; in this case the aircraft received two pairs of air-to-ground missiles (actually some misshapen Soviet AAMs from the Academy MiG-23 kit – either very fat R-60 ‘Aphid’ AAMs or very poor renditions of vintage K-6 ‘Alkali’ missiles?) inboards and four AMM-1 missiles on the outer pylons, with the lowest missile replaced by scratched ECM and chaff dispenser pods. The gun pod was also modified with a new nozzle, with parts from a surplus AMM-1 missile – also inspired by a source book entry.
Painting and markings:
This was planned to be a more exotic or extravagant interpretation of the profile from the book, which was already used as a guideline for the VF-1A build. The overall design of an all-green livery with a white nose tip as basis was kept, together with yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. The VF-1A already deviated from this slightly, but now I wanted something more outstanding – a bold flight leader’s mount.
Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (called Dark Satin Green, but it’s actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
In order to set this J Valkyrie apart from the all-dark green basic VF-1As, I added two bright green tones and a light purple as flight color: Humbrol 36 (called Pastel Green, but it’s actually very yellow-ish), 38 (Lime) and Napoleonic Violet from ModelMaster’s Authentic Line, respectively. 36 was applied to the lower legs and around the cockpit section, including the spinal fairing with the air brake. The slightly darker 38 was used on the wings and fins as well as for the fuselage’s and wings’ underside. On top of the wings and the inner and outer fins, the surfaces were segmented, with the dark green as basic color.
As an additional contrast, the head, shoulder guards and additional trim highlights on the legs as well as for a double chevron on the breast plate were painted in the pale purple tone. A sick color combination, but very Zentraedi/Meltraedi-esque!
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Meltraedi (yes, the fictional pilot Taqisha T’saqeel is to be female) with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, plus a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! The gun pod became dark blue (Humbrol 112, Field Blue), the AMM-1 missiles received a pale grey livery while the air-to-ground missiles and the chaff dispenser became olive drab. As an additional contrast, the ECM pod became white. A wild mix of colors!
This was even enhanced through U.N. Spacy roundels in standard full color – their red really stands out. The squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush, but in this case in a smaller variant and with two USN/USAF style code letters for the home basis added.
Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘300’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.
Building was relatively simple, just the rhinoplasty was a little tricky – a very subtle modification, though, but the pointed and slightly deeper nose changed the VF-1’s look. The standard Zentraedi-style VF-1 of SVF-789 already looked …different, but this one is … bright, if not challenging to the naked eye. Anyway, there’s more in the creative pipeline from the Zentraedi unit – this aircraft’s pilot in the form of a modified resin garage kit.
The very first white band vehicle? I’ve never seen any photos of this vehicle without its white band and various shots show the yellow ‘pay as you enter’ transfer and some don’t. The ‘coin in the slot’ symbols were later removed as were the others on ‘EGP’ vehicles. DMS76 was a unique white band vehicle in that it featured the advert ‘guideline’ on the sides that DMS’s 1 -117 carried. The location in this photo is unclear and there is no date but ‘Wuthering Heights’ (starring Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff and a host of other well known actors) indicates some time in 1971.
Copyright myself from a negative that I purchased
GC67 ENG
Irizar i8 / Scania K410EB6
Guideline Coaches of Chelsfield
Location: Stonehenge Coach Park
Date: 05/08/2024
Some background:
The VF-1 was developed by Stonewell/Bellcom/Shinnakasu for the U.N. Spacy by using alien Overtechnology obtained from the SDF-1 Macross alien spaceship. It was preceded into production by an aerodynamic proving version of its airframe, the VF-X. Unlike all later VF vehicles, the VF-X was strictly a jet aircraft, built to demonstrate that a jet fighter with the features necessary to convert to Battroid mode was aerodynamically feasible.
After the VF-X's testing was finished, an advanced concept atmospheric-only prototype, the VF-0 Phoenix, was flight-tested from 2005 to 2007 and briefly served as an active-duty fighter from 2007 to the VF-1's rollout in late 2008, while the bugs were being worked out of the full-up VF-1 prototype (VF-X-1).
The space-capable VF-1's combat debut was on February 7, 2009, during the Battle of South Ataria Island - the first battle of Space War I, and was the mainstay fighter of the U.N. Spacy for the entire conflict. Introduced in 2008, the VF-1 would be out of frontline service just five years later.
The VF-1 proved to be an extremely capable craft, successfully combating a variety of Zentraedi mecha even in most sorties, which saw UN Spacy forces significantly outnumbered. The versatility of the Valkyrie design enabled the variable fighter to act as both large-scale infantry and as air/space superiority fighter. The signature skills of U.N. Spacy ace pilot Maximilian Jenius exemplified the effectiveness of the variable systems as he near-constantly transformed the Valkyrie in battle to seize advantages of each mode as combat conditions changed from moment to moment.
The basic VF-1 was deployed in four minor variants (designated A, D, J, and S) with constant updates and several sub-variants during its long and successful career. Its success was increased by the GBP-1S "Armored" Valkyrie and FAST Pack "Super" Valkyrie weapon systems, the latter enabling the fighter to operate in space.
After the end of Space War I, the VF-1A continued to be manufactured both in the Sol system (notably on the Lunar facility Apollo Base) and throughout the UNG space colonies. Although the VF-1 would eventually be replaced as the primary VF of the UN Spacy by the more capable, but also much bigger, VF-4 Lightning III in 2020, a long service record and continued production after the war proved the lasting worth of the design.
One notable operator of the VF-1 was the U.N. Spacy's Zentraedi Fleet, namely SVF-789, which was founded in 2012 as a cultural integration and training squadron with two flights of VF-1 at Tefé in Brazil. This mixed all-Zentraedi/Meltraedi unit was the first in the UN Spacy’s Zentraedi Fleet to be completely equipped with the 1st generation Valkyrie (other units, like SVF-122, which was made up exclusively from Zentraedi loyalists, kept a mixed lot of vehicles).
SVF-789’s flight leaders and some of its instructors were all former Quadrono Battalion aces (under the command of the famous Milia Fallyna, later married with aforementioned Maximilian Jenius), e. g. the Meltraedi pilot Taqisha T’saqeel. Almost all future Zentraedi and Meltradi pilots for the U.N. Spacy received their training at Tefé, and the squadron was soon expanded to a total of five flights. During this early phase of the squadron's long career the VF-1s carried a characteristic dark-green wrap-around scheme, frequently decorated with colorful trim, reflecting the unit’s Zentraedi/Meltraedi heritage (the squadron’s motto and title “Dar es Carrack” meant “Victory is everywhere”) and boldly representing the individual flights.
In late 2013 the unit embarked upon Breetai Kridanik’s Nupetiet-Vergnitzs-Class Fleet Command Battleship, and the machines received a standard all-grey livery, even though some typical decoration (e. g. the squadron code in Zentraedi symbols) remained.
When the UN Spacy eventually mothballed the majority of its legacy Zentraedi ships, the unit was re-assigned to the Tokugawa-class Super Dimensional Carrier UES Xerxes. In 2022, SVF-789 left the Sol System as part of the Pioneer Mission. By this time it had been made part of the Expeditionary Marine Corps and re-equipped with VAF-6 Alphas.
The VF-1 was without doubt the most recognizable variable fighter of Space War I and was seen as a vibrant symbol of the U.N. Spacy even into the first year of the New Era 0001 in 2013. At the end of 2015 the final rollout of the VF-1 was celebrated at a special ceremony, commemorating this most famous of variable fighters.
The VF-1 Valkryie was built from 2006 to 2013 with a total production of 5,459 VF-1 variable fighters with several variants (VF-1A = 5,093, VF-1D = 85, VF-1J = 49, VF-1S = 30, VF-1G = 12, VE-1 = 122, VT-1 = 68)
However, the fighter remained active in many second line units and continued to show its worthiness years later, e. g. through Milia Jenius who would use her old VF-1 fighter in defense of the colonization fleet - 35 years after the type's service introduction!
General characteristics:
Equipment Type: all-environment variable fighter and tactical combat battroid
Government: U.N. Spacy, U.N. Navy, U.N. Space Air Force
Accommodation: pilot only in Marty & Beck Mk-7 zero/zero ejection seat
Dimensions:
Fighter Mode:
Length 14.23 meters
Wingspan 14.78 meters (fully extended)
Height 3.84 meters
Battroid Mode:
Height 12.68 meters
Width 7.3 meters
Length 4.0 meters
Empty weight: 13.25 metric tons;
Standard T-O mass: 18.5 metric tons;
MTOW: 37.0 metric tons
Powerplant:
2x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry/P&W/Roice FF-2001 thermonuclear reaction turbine engines, output 650 MW each, rated at 11,500 kg in standard or in overboost (225.63 kN x 2)
4 x Shinnakasu Heavy Industry NBS-1 high-thrust vernier thrusters (1 x counter reverse vernier thruster nozzle mounted on the side of each leg nacelle/air intake, 1 x wing thruster roll control system on each wingtip);
18 x P&W LHP04 low-thrust vernier thrusters beneath multipurpose hook/handles
Performance:
Battroid Mode: maximum walking speed 160 km/h
Fighter Mode: at 10,000 m Mach 2.71; at 30,000+ m Mach 3.87
g limit: in space +7
Thrust-to-weight ratio: empty 3.47; standard T-O 2.49; maximum T-O 1.24
Design features:
3-mode variable transformation; variable geometry wing; vertical take-off and landing; control-configurable vehicle; single-axis thrust vectoring; three "magic hand" manipulators for maintenance use; retractable canopy shield for Battroid mode and atmospheric reentry; option of GBP-1S system, atmospheric-escape booster, or FAST Pack system
Transformation:
Standard time from Fighter to Battroid (automated): under 5 sec.
Minimum time from Fighter to Battroid (manual): 0.9 sec.
Armament:
1 x internal Mauler RÖV-20 anti-aircraft laser cannon, firing 6,000 pulses per minute
1 x Howard GU-11 55 mm three-barrel Gatling gun pod with 200 rds fired at 1,200 rds/min
4 x underwing hard points for a wide variety of ordnance, including
- 12x AMM-1 hybrid guided multipurpose missiles (3/point), or
- 12x MK-82 LDGB conventional bombs (3/point), or
- 6x RMS-1 large anti-ship reaction missiles (2/outboard point, 1/inboard point), or
- 4x UUM-7 micro-missile pods (1/point), each carrying 15x Bifors HMM-01 micro-missiles,
or a combination of above load-outs
Optional Armament:
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry GBP-1S ground-combat protector weapon system, or
Shinnakasu Heavy Industry FAST Pack augmentative space weapon system
The kit and its assembly:
Another vintage 1:100 ARII VF-1, but part of a model series around the canonical SVF-789 squadron. This one was inspired by a profile of such a machine in the “Macross Variable Fighter Master File: VF-1 Valkyrie Part 1” Art Book – true robot porn and full of valuable detail and background material for anyone who’d consider building a VF-1.
The SVF-789 machine shown in the book is a simple VF-1A, but with Zentraedi language markings and in a rather unusual livery in all dark green, yellow and black trim and grey low-viz roundels. While this does IMHO not really look sexy, I found the idea of a squadron, manned by former (alien) enemies very interesting. And so I took up the idea and started fleshing it out – including the idea of SVF-789’s initial base deep in the Amazonian jungle (justifying somehow the all-green livery!?).
The small VF-1A kit was built OOB, with the landing gear tucked up and the usual additions of some blade antennae, a pilot figure and a custom display stand in/under the ventral cannon pod. Even the ordnance of a dozen AMM-1 missiles on the four underwing pylons is OOB. Nothing fancy.
Painting and markings:
I used the profile from the book as a guideline, but did not want to copy it – also because of technical problems I just took the overall style and created something that would just be a machine from another flight.
The overall concept of an all-green livery with a white nose tip was kept, together with the yellow trim on wings, fins and the stabilizer fins on the Valkyrie’s legs. Zentraedi vehicles tend to be rather colorful, so the tones I chose for painting were rather bright. For instance, the initial idea for the green was FS 34079, a tone which also comes close to the printed profile in the book. But it looked IMHO too militaristic, or too little anime-esque, so I eventually settled for something brighter and used Humbrol 195 (Dark Satin Green, actually RAL 6020, Chromoxyd Grün, a color used on German railway wagons during and after WWII), later shaded with black ink for the engravings and Humbrol 76 (Uniform Green) for highlights.
The nose became pure white, the leading edge trim was painted with Revell 310 (Lufthansa Gelb, RAL 1028), a deep and rich tone that stands out well from the murky green.
Anyway, I found the original black trim on the green basis to be a bit dull, lacking contrast to the murky green. So I replaced it with a Zentraedi-esque pale blue (RLM 65/FS35414) and added more of this color e. g. to the fin tips, the VF-1’s head, the shoulder covers and as stripes along the legs, the cockpit flanks and a chevron on the breastplate. Instead of masking and painting these trim lines by hand, I used blank decal sheet and painted the thinned enamel onto it, so that the stripes are actually self-made, cut-out decals. Experimental, yes, but it works.
The cockpit interior was, according to Macross references, painted in Dark Gull Grey. The seat received brown cushions and the pilot figure was turned into a micronized Zentraedi with a colorful jumpsuit in violet and white, a white and red helmet – and bright green skin! As another weirdo idea, the gun pod became dark blue (in fact new Humbrol 112, Field Blue), and the AAM-1 missiles received a pale grey basis instead of harsh white.
In order to add some more color contrast the U.N. Spacy roundels were applied in standard full color versions, the squadron emblem/symbol on the fin was painted with a brush. Since I can not print white letters onto clear decal sheet at home, the aircraft’s tactical code ‘415’ was created with letters from the human alphabet. A simplification and deviation from the original concept, but I found the only alternative of painting tiny and delicate Zentraedi codes by brush and hand just to be too risky.
Finally the small kit was sealed with a sheen acrylic varnish – with the many, contrasting colors a pure matt finish somehow did not appear right.
Building was simple, but the blue trim took some time to create and apply. This Zentraedi-style VF-1 looks very different, though - if not odd. And there’s more in the creative pipeline from SVF-789 – including another VF-1, this time a flight leader’s mount (with even more bright and exotic colors!) and a large scale character figure, a converted resin garage kit.
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by The South African Garrison Institutes. The card was printed by Whitehead, Morris & Co. Ltd. of Cape Town. The card has a divided back.
Windhoek
Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre.
The population of Windhoek in 2020 was 431,000 which is growing continuously due to an influx from all over Namibia.
Windhoek is the social, economic, political, and cultural centre of the country. Nearly every Namibian national enterprise, governmental body, educational and cultural institution is headquartered there.
The city developed at the site of a permanent hot spring known to the indigenous pastoral communities. It developed rapidly after Jonker Afrikaner, Captain of the Orlam, settled here in 1840 and built a stone church for his community.
In the decades following, multiple wars and armed hostilities resulted in the neglect and destruction of the new settlement. Windhoek was founded a second time in 1890 by Imperial German Army Major Curt von François, when the territory was colonised by the German Empire.
Herero and Nama Genocide
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero and the Nama in German South West Africa.
It was the first genocide of the 20th. century, occurring between 1904 and 1908.
In January 1904, the Herero and Nama people rebelled against German colonial rule. On the 12th. January they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja, although women, children, missionaries and non-German Europeans were spared.
In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.
Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama died in the genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterised by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib desert by German forces.
Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa.
In 2004, the German government recognised and apologised for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants.
In July 2015, the German government and the speaker of the Bundestag officially called the events a "genocide". However, it still refused to consider reparations. Despite this, the last batch of skulls and other remains of slaughtered tribesmen which were taken to Germany to promote racial superiority were taken back to Namibia in 2018.
In May 2021, the German government agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects in communities that were impacted by the genocide.
Background to the Genocide
The Herero, who speak a Bantu language, were originally a group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th. century. The Herero seized vast swaths of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing.
Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Khoisan and Bushmen. Over the rest of the 18th. century, the Herero slowly drove the Khoisan into the dry, rugged hills to the south and east.
The Hereros were a pastoral people whose entire way of life centred on their cattle. The Herero language, while limited in its vocabulary for most areas, contains more than a thousand words for the colours and markings of cattle. The Hereros were content to live in peace as long as their cattle were safe and well-pastured, but became formidable warriors when their cattle were threatened.
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike
than the indigenous Khoisan people, were possessed
of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of
life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth
and personal happiness, had to do with cattle.
Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the
Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far
more 'savage' than the Khoisan had ever been.
Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing,
the few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen
in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural
aristocrats.'"
By the time of the Scramble for Africa, the area which was occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.
The Nama were pastorals and traders, and lived to the south of the Herero.
In 1883, Adolf Lüderitz, a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near Lüderitz Bay (Angra Pequena) from the reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for European settlement.
Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maherero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoekhoe under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty on the 21st. October 1885 with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of World War I flying ace and World War II convicted war criminal Hermann Göring), but did not cede the land of the Herero.
This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi, but it was reinstated in 1890.
The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans, a crime that the German judges and prosecutors were reluctant to punish.
In 1890 Maherero's son, Samuel, signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Herero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief.
German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894. In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region.
German Colonial Policy
Both German colonial authorities and European settlers envisioned a predominately white "new African Germany," wherein the native populations would be put onto reservations and their land distributed among settlers and companies.
Under German colonial rule, colonists were encouraged to seize land and cattle from the native Herero and Nama peoples and to subjugate them as slave laborers.
Resentment understandably brewed among the native populations over their loss of status and property to German ranchers arriving in South West Africa, and the dismantling of traditional political hierarchies. Previously ruling tribes were reduced to the same status as the other tribes they had previously ruled over and enslaved. This resentment contributed to the Herero Wars that began in 1904.
Major Theodor Leutwein, the Governor of German South West Africa, was well aware of the effect of the German colonial rule on the Hereros. He later wrote :
"The Hereros from early years were a freedom-loving
people, courageous and proud beyond measure. On
the one hand, there was the progressive extension of
German rule over them, and on the other their own
sufferings increasing from year to year."
The Dietrich Case
In January 1903, a German trader named Dietrich was walking from his homestead to the nearby town of Omaruru to buy a new horse. Halfway to Dietrich's destination, a wagon carrying the son of a Herero chief, his wife, and their son stopped by. As a common courtesy in Hereroland, the chief's son offered Dietrich a ride.
That night, however, Dietrich got very drunk and after everyone was asleep, he attempted to rape the wife of the chief's son. When she resisted, Dietrich shot her dead.
When he was tried for murder in Windhoek, Dietrich denied attempting to rape his victim. He alleged that he awoke thinking the camp was under attack, and had fired blindly into the darkness. The killing of the Herero woman, he claimed, was an unfortunate accident. The court acquitted him, alleging that Dietrich was suffering from "tropical fever" and temporary insanity.
The murder aroused extraordinary interest in Hereroland, especially since the murdered woman had been the wife of the son of a Chief and the daughter of another. Everywhere the question was asked:
"Have white people the right
to shoot native women?"
Governor Leutwein intervened. He made the Public Prosecutor appeal Dietrich's acquittal. A second trial took place (before the colony's supreme court), and this time Dietrich was found guilty of manslaughter and imprisoned.
The move prompted violent objections of German settlers who considered Leutwein a "race traitor".
Rising Tension
In 1903, some of the Nama clans rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.
(a) Land Rights
One of the major issues was land rights. In 1903 the Herero learned of a plan to divide their territory with a railway line and to set up reservations where they would be concentrated.
The Herero had already ceded more than a quarter of their 130,000 km2 (50,000 sq mi) territory to German colonists by 1903, before the Otavi railway line running from the African coast to inland German settlements was completed.
Completion of this line would have made the German colonies much more accessible, and would have ushered in a new wave of Europeans into the area.
Historian Horst Drechsler states that there was discussion of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves, and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land.
Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the Reichskolonialbund (German Colonial League) held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one colonist.
(b) Racial Tensions
There were also racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination. The German settlers often referred to black Africans as "baboons" and treated them with contempt.
One missionary reported:
"The real cause of the bitterness among the Hereros
toward the Germans is without question the fact that
the average German looks down upon the natives as
being about on the same level as the higher primates
('baboon' being their favourite term for the natives),
and treat them like animals.
The settler holds that the native has a right to exist only
in so far as he is useful to the white man. This sense of
contempt led the settlers to commit violence against
the Hereros."
The contempt manifested itself particularly in the concubinage of native women. In a practice referred to in Südwesterdeutsch as Verkafferung, native women were taken by male European traders and ranchers both willingly and by force.
(c) Debt Collection
A new policy on debt collection, enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in the habit of borrowing money from colonist moneylenders at extremely high interest rates.
For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected, and it accumulated, as most Herero had no means to pay. In order to correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the following year would be voided.
In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, as collateral. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people. Resentment escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the moneylenders who were about to lose what they were owed.
Revolts
In 1903, the Hereros saw an opportunity to revolt. At that time, there was a distant Khoisan tribe in the south called the Bondelzwarts, who resisted German demands to register their guns. The Bondelzwarts engaged in a firefight with the German authorities which led to three Germans being killed and a fourth wounded.
The situation deteriorated further, and the governor of the Herero colony, Major Theodor Leutwein, went south to take personal command, leaving almost no troops in the north.
The Herero revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 German settlers, as well as seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls a "desperate surprise attack".
The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero clan to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified, and so withdrew half of the German troops stationed in the colony.
Led by Chief Samuel Maherero, the Herero surrounded Okahandja and cut railroad and telegraph links to Windhoek, the colonial capital.
Maharero then issued a manifesto in which he forbade his troops to kill any Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved peoples, women and children in general, or German missionaries.
The Herero revolts catalysed a separate revolt and attack on Fort Namutoni in the north of the country a few weeks later by the Ondonga.
A Herero warrior interviewed by German authorities in 1895 had described his people's traditional way of dealing with suspected cattle rustlers, a treatment which, during the uprising, was regularly extended to German soldiers and civilians:
"We came across a few Khoisan whom of course
we killed. I myself helped to kill one of them.
-- First we cut off his ears, saying, 'You will never
hear Herero cattle lowing.'
-- Then we cut off his nose, saying, 'Never again
shall you smell Herero cattle.'
-- And then we cut off his lips, saying, 'You shall
never again taste Herero cattle.'
And finally we cut his throat."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"Leutwein knew that the wrath of the German Empire
was about to fall on them and hoped to soften the
blow. He sent desperate messages to Chief Samuel
Maherero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war.
In this, Leutwein acted on his own, heedless of the
prevailing mood in Germany, which called for bloody
revenge."
The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that the Germans were too cowardly to fight in the open. They rejected Leutwein's offers of peace.
One missionary wrote:
"The Germans are filled with fearful hate. I must really
call it a blood thirst against the Hereros. One hears
nothing but talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting
down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc."
According to Robert Gaudi:
"The Germans suffered more than defeat in the early
months of 1904; they suffered humiliation, their brilliant
modern army unable to defeat a rabble of 'half-naked
savages.'
Cries in the Reichstag, and from the Kaiser himself, for
total eradication of the Hereros grew strident. When a
leading member of the Social Democratic Party pointed
out that the Hereros were as human as any German and
possessed immortal souls, he was howled down by the
entire conservative side of the legislature."
Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief (German: Oberbefehlshaber) of South West Africa, arriving with an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops on the 11th. June 1904.
Leutwein was subordinate to the civilian Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which was supported by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, while General Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was supported by Emperor Wilhelm II.
Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder in order to achieve a political settlement. Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:
"My intimate knowledge of many central African
nations (Bantu and others) has everywhere
convinced me of the necessity that the Negro
does not respect treaties, but only brute force."
By late spring of 1904, German troops were pouring into the colony. In August 1904, the main Herero forces were surrounded and crushed at the Battle of Waterberg.
Genocide
In 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been enraged by the killing of Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the Imperial German minister plenipotentiary in Beijing, during the Boxer Rebellion. The Kaiser took it as a personal insult from a people he viewed as racially inferior, all the more because of his obsession with the "Yellow Peril".
On the 27th. July 1900, the Kaiser gave the infamous Hunnenrede (Hun speech) in Bremerhaven to German soldiers being sent to Imperial China, ordering them to show the Boxers no mercy, and to behave like Attila's Huns.
General von Trotha had served in China, and was chosen in 1904 to command the expedition to German South West Africa precisely because of his record in China.
In 1904, the Kaiser was made furious by the latest revolt in his colonial empire by a people whom he also viewed as inferior, and took the Herero rebellion as a personal insult, just as he had viewed the Boxers' assassination of Baron von Ketteler.
The tactless and bloodthirsty language that Wilhelm II used about the Herero people in 1904 is strikingly similar to the language he had used about the Chinese Boxers in 1900. Nevertheless, the Kaiser denied, together with Chancellor von Bülow, von Trotha's request to quickly quell the rebellion.
No written order by Wilhelm II ordering or authorising genocide has survived. In February 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the building housing all of the documents of the Prussian Army from the Imperial period.
Despite this fact, surviving documents indicate that Trotha used the same tactics in Namibia that he had used in China, only on a much vaster scale. It is also known that throughout the genocide, Trotha sent regular reports to both the General Staff and to the Kaiser.
Historian Jeremy-Sarkin Hughes believes that regardless of whether or not a written order was given, the Kaiser must have given General von Trotha verbal orders. According to Hughes, the fact that Trotha was decorated and not court-martialed after the genocide had become public knowledge lends support to the thesis that he was acting under orders.
General von Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg:
"I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated,
or, if this is not possible by tactical measures, have to be
expelled from the country. This will be possible if the water-
holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied.
The constant movement of our troops will enable us to
find the small groups of this nation who have moved
backwards, and destroy them gradually."
Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11th. and 12th. August 1904, but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors.
The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force, and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to the ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops, and deposed the following statement:
"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a
battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all
men, women, and children who fell into German hands,
wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death.
Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all
those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were
shot down and bayoneted to death.
The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus
unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get
away with their cattle."
A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to the Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British Bechuanaland; fewer than 1,000 Herero managed to get there, where they were granted asylum by the British authorities.
To prevent them from returning, Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (43 ft) deep that had been dug in a vain attempt to find water. Some sources also state that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert water wells.
Maherero and 500–1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the Batswana chief Sekgoma.
On the 2nd. October 1904, Trotha issued a warning to the Herero:
"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this
letter to the Herero. The Herero are German subjects
no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears
and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and
now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer.
I announce to the people that whoever hands me one
of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000
marks for Samuel Maherero.
The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it
refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube'
[cannon].
Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or
without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare
neither women nor children. I shall give the order to
drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words
to the Herero people."
Trotha further gave orders that:
"This proclamation is to be read to the troops at roll-call,
with the addition that the unit that catches a captain will
also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting
at women and children is to be understood as shooting
above their heads, so as to force them to run away.
I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in
taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate
into atrocities against women and children. The latter will
run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The
troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of
the German soldier."
Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation and thirst was to be certain.
Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases."
Trotha explained that:
"The insurrection is and remains
the beginning of a racial struggle."
After the war, Trotha argued that his orders were necessary, writing in 1909 that:
"If I had made the small water holes accessible
to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African
catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia."
The German general staff were aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:
"This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant
light the ruthless energy of the German command
in pursuing their beaten enemy.
No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating
the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a
wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from
one water-hole to the next, until finally he became
the victim of his own environment.
The arid Omaheke Desert was to complete what
the German army had begun: the extermination of
the Herero nation."
Alfred von Schlieffen (Chief of the Imperial German General Staff and architect of the Great War Schlieffen Plan) approved of Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country, but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.
Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction, and ruining any chance of a political settlement.
According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely due to the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as a potential source of labour, and thus economically important. For instance, Governor Leutwein wrote that:
"I do not concur with those fanatics who want to
see the Herero destroyed altogether. I would
consider such a move a grave mistake from an
economic point of view. We need the Herero as
cattle breeders, and especially as labourers.
Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Emperor Wilhelm II that:
"Trotha's actions are contrary to Christian and
humanitarian principle, economically devastating
and damaging to Germany's international
reputation".
Upon the arrival of new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into labor camps, where they were given to private companies as slave labourers, or exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments.
Concentration Camps
Survivors of the massacre, the majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in places like Shark Island concentration camp, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labour for the German military and settlers.
All prisoners were categorised into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating "death by exhaustion following privation" were issued. The British government published their well-known account of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples in 1918.
Many Herero and Nama died of disease, exhaustion, starvation and malnutrition. Estimates of the mortality rate at the camps are between 45% and 74%.
Food in the camps was extremely scarce, consisting of rice with no additions. As the prisoners lacked pots and the rice they received was uncooked, it was indigestible. Horses and oxen that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food.
Dysentery and lung diseases were common. Despite the living conditions, the prisoners were taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care. Many Herero and Nama were worked to death.
Shootings, hangings, beatings, and other harsh treatment of the forced labourers (including use of sjamboks) were common. A sjambok is a long, stiff whip, originally made from rhinoceros hide.
A 28th. September 1905 article in the South African newspaper Cape Argus detailed some of the abuse with the heading:
"In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling
Allegations: Horrible Cruelty".
In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences:
"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and
children and a few old men. When they fall they are
sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang,
with full force, until they get up.
On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child
of under a year old slung at her back, and with a
heavy sack of grain on her head - she fell.
The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more
than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well.
The woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went
on with her load.
She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the
baby cried very hard."
During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern-day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Nama people. Fred Cornell, an aspiring British diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island concentration camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:
"Cold – for the nights are often bitterly cold there –
hunger, thirst, exposure, disease and madness
claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads
of their bodies were every day carted over to the
back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low
tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out,
food for the sharks."
Shark Island was the worst of the German South West African camps. Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbour lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland by only a small causeway.
The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterised by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year.
German Commander Ludwig von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners (including 1,203 Nama) had died by April 1907.
In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people per day). Missionary reports put the death rate at 12–18 per day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to Shark Island eventually died there.
There are accusations of Herero women being coerced into sex slavery as a means of survival.
Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle," and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases.
Benjamin Madley has concluded that although Shark Island is referred to as a concentration camp, it in fact functioned as an extermination camp or death camp.
Medical Experiments and Scientific Racism
Prisoners were used for medical experiments, and their illnesses or their recoveries from them were used for research.
Experiments on live prisoners were performed by Dr. Bofinger, who injected Herero who were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium; afterwards he researched the effects of these substances via autopsy.
Experimentation with the dead body parts of the prisoners was rife. Zoologist Leonhard Schultze (1872–1955) noted taking "body parts from fresh native corpses" which according to him, was "a welcome addition." He also noted that he could use prisoners for that purpose.
An estimated 300 skulls were sent to Germany for experimentation, in part from concentration camp prisoners. In October 2011, after three years of talks, the first 20 of an estimated 300 skulls stored in the museum of the Charité were returned to Namibia for burial. In 2014, 14 additional skulls were repatriated by the University of Freiburg.
The Number of Victims
A census conducted in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South West Africa.
According to the Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero had been reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" by 1907. In 'Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st. Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia' by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes, the number of 100,000 victims is given. Up to 80% of the indigenous population were killed.
A political cartoon on German South West Africa was run in 1906 with the following caption:
"Even if it hasn't brought in much profit and
there are no better quality goods on offer,
at least we can use it to set up a bone-
grinding plant."
Newspapers in 2004 reported 65,000 victims when announcing that Germany officially recognized the genocide.
Aftermath of the Genocide
With the closure of the concentration camps, all surviving Herero were distributed as labourers for settlers in the German colony. From that time on, all Herero over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with their labour registration number. They were also banned from owning land or cattle, a necessity for pastoral society.
About 19,000 German troops were engaged in the conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat. The rest were used for upkeep and administration.
The German losses were 676 soldiers killed in combat, 76 missing, and 689 dead from disease. The Reiterdenkmal (English: Equestrian Monument) in Windhoek was erected in 1912 to celebrate the victory and to remember the fallen German soldiers and civilians. Until after Independence, no monument was built to the killed indigenous population. It remains a bone of contention in independent Namibia.
The campaign cost Germany 600 million marks. The normal annual subsidy to the colony was 14.5 million marks. In 1908, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity, though it was short-lived.
In 1915, during the Great War, the German colony was taken over and occupied by the Union of South Africa, which was victorious in the South West Africa campaign. South Africa received a League of Nations mandate over South West Africa on the 17th. December 1920.
Link Between the Herero Genocide and the Holocaust
The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study issues of continuity between the Herero genocide and The Holocaust of WWII. It is argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany that would later be followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps.
According to Benjamin Madley, the German experience in South West Africa was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide. He argues that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.
Tony Barta, a research associate at La Trobe University, argues that the Herero genocide was an inspiration for Hitler in his war against the Jews, Slavs, Romani, and others whom he described as "non-Aryans".
According to Clarence Lusane, Eugen Fischer's medical experiments can be seen as a testing ground for medical procedures which were later followed during the Nazi Holocaust.
Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. Otmar von Verschuer was a student of Fischer; Verschuer himself had a prominent pupil, Josef Mengele.
Franz Ritter von Epp, who was later responsible for the liquidation of virtually all Bavarian Jews and Roma as governor of Bavaria, took part in the Herero and Nama genocide.
Mahmood Mamdani argues that the links between the Herero genocide and the Holocaust are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps as there are also ideological similarities in the conduct of both genocides. He focuses on a written statement by General Trotha:
"I destroy the African tribes with streams
of blood. Only following this cleansing can
something new emerge, which will remain."
Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims of the General and of the Nazis. According to Mamdani, in both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing", after which "something new" would "emerge".
Reconciliation
In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the massacres as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest cases of genocide in the 20th. century.
In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He pointed out that international law requiring reparation did not exist in 1907, but he undertook to take the Herero petition back to the German government.
On the 16th. August 2004, on the 100th, anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologised and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring in a speech that:
"We Germans accept our historical and
moral responsibility and the guilt incurred
by Germans at that time.
She ruled out paying special compensation, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which in 2004 amounted to $14M a year. This amount has been significantly increased since then, with the budget for the years 2016–17 allocating a sum total of €138M in monetary support payments.
The Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said,
"We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed
of the terrible events that took place 100 years
ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time."
Negotiations and Agreement
The Herero filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.
With a complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2017, descendants of the Herero and Nama people sued Germany for damages in the United States. The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 U.S. law often invoked in human rights cases. Their proposed class-action lawsuit sought unspecified sums for thousands of descendants of the victims, for the "incalculable damages" that were caused.
Germany seeks to rely on its state immunity as implemented in US law as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, arguing that, as a sovereign nation, it cannot be sued in US courts in relation to its acts outside the United States. In March 2019, the judge dismissed the claims due to the exceptions to sovereign immunity being too narrow for the case.
In September 2020, the Second Circuit stated that the claimants did not prove that money used to buy property in New York could be traced back to wealth resulting from the seized property, and therefore the lawsuit could not overcome Germany's immunity. In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition to revive the case.
Germany, while admitting brutality in Namibia, at first refused to call it a "genocide", claiming that the term only became international law in 1945.
However, in July 2015, then foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a political guideline stating that the massacre should be referred to as a "war crime and a genocide". Bundestag president Norbert Lammert wrote an article in Die Zeit that same month referring to the events as a genocide. These events paved the way for negotiations with Namibia.
In 2015, the German government began negotiations with Namibia over a possible apology, and by 2016, Germany committed itself to apologizing for the genocide, as well as to refer to the event as a genocide; but the actual declaration was postponed while negotiations stalled over questions of compensation.
On the 11th. August 2020, following negotiations over a potential compensation agreement between Germany and Namibia, President Hage Geingob of Namibia stated that the German government's offer was "not acceptable", while German envoy Ruprecht Polenz said:
"I am still optimistic that a
solution can be found."
On the 28th. May 2021, the German government announced that it was formally recognizing the atrocities committed as a genocide, following five years of negotiations. The declaration was made by foreign minister Heiko Maas, who also stated that Germany was asking Namibia and the descendants of the genocide victims for forgiveness.
In addition to recognizing the events as a genocide, Germany agreed to give as a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering" €1.1 billion in aid to the communities impacted by the genocide.
Following the announcement, the agreement needs to be ratified by both countries' parliaments, after which Germany will send its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to officially apologize for the genocide. The nations agreed not to use the term "reparation" to describe the financial aid package.
The agreement was criticized by the chairman of the Namibian Genocide Association, Laidlaw Peringanda, who insisted that Germany should purchase their ancestral lands back from the descendants of the German settlers and return it to the Herero and Nama people.
The agreement was also criticized because negotiations were held solely between the German and Namibian governments, and did not include representatives of the Herero and Nama people.
Repatriation of the Skulls
Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904–1908 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to claim the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia.
Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found more than 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island.
In September 2011 the skulls were returned to Namibia. In August 2018, Germany returned all of the remaining skulls and other human remains which were examined in Germany to scientifically promote white supremacy. This was the third such transfer, and shortly before it occurred, German Protestant bishop Petra Bosse-Huber stated:
"Today, we want to do what should have been
done many years ago – to give back to their
descendants the remains of people who
became victims of the first genocide of the
20th. century."
As part of the repatriation process, the German government announced on the 17th. May 2019 that it would return a stone symbol it took from Namibia in the 1900's.
The Genocide in the Media
-- A BBC documentary, 'Namibia – Genocide and the Second Reich' (2005), explores the Herero and Nama genocide and the circumstances surrounding it.
-- In the documentary '100 Years of Silence', filmmakers Halfdan Muurholm and Casper Erichsen portray a 23-year-old Herero woman, whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier. The documentary explores the past and the way Namibia deals with it now.
-- Mama Namibia, a historical novel by Mari Serebrov, provides two perspectives of the 1904 genocide in German South West Africa. The first is that of Jahohora, a 12-year-old Herero girl who survives on her own in the veld for two years after her family is killed by German soldiers. The second story is that of Kov, a Jewish doctor who volunteered to serve in the German military to prove his patriotism. As he witnesses the atrocities of the genocide, he rethinks his loyalty to the Fatherland.
-- Thomas Pynchon's novel 'V'. (1963) has a chapter that included recollections of the genocide; there are memories of events that took place in 1904 in various locations, including the Shark Island concentration camp.
-- Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, 'We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Between the Years 1884–1915', is about a group of actors developing a play about the Herero and Nama genocide.
The distinguishing feature of this camera is the "markfinder". Rather than the rangefinder found on its younger siblings (the C4 & C44), the Argus 21 sports a viewfinder with a projected frame mask to aid in photo composition and eliminate eye-position error.
Here's an excerpt from an advertisement for the Argus 21:
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This handsome camera was manufactured from 1947-52.