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"Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Social Aims
I ran into Chris, leading his crew on the Hadlock Brook Trail. Walking past me with extra-large strides, he’s a bundle of energy. He was happy that I stopped in to visit with the group and was really eager to talk about and show me the re-route they were building on the trail system. This section included some newly constructed granite stone steps, several interconnected staircases in actuality, cut into the hillside far above Hadlock Pond – dry stone masonry at its most elegant. Watching the work progress, it became clear that Chris is a person of action who leads and mentors by example. He has very high work standards for himself and pushes hard for success. Tenacity and perseverance; this is Chris. Working hard is something innate. Chis proved to be nonstop hands in the dirt, splitting and moving rock with the crew. …describing, aligning, and implementing the cable system set for hoisting boulders across the landscape. …but most importantly, encouraging everyone through act and action. It’s clear that his crew really enjoys working with him and am sure they learn lots about themselves and develop refined skill as part of business. Thanks, Chris, for being one of those few out there who show possibility.
Hasselblad 500C medium format SLR camera + Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 lens+ Kodak Professional Tri-X 400 black and white film
~Dan Grenier
2015 Artist in Residence
Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park
Our Daily Challenge:
FULL FRAME ONE OBJECT is the topic for Friday, July 12 - Thursday July 18, 2024
Details best viewed in Original Size.
I captured the image of this diorama at the Akely Hall of African Mammals of the American Museum of Natural History located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. According to Wikipedia, the American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world. Located in park-like grounds across the street from Central Park, the Museum comprises 25 interconnected buildings that house 46 permanent exhibition halls, research laboratories, and its renowned library. The collections contain over 32 million specimens, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The Museum has a scientific staff of more than 200, sponsors over 100 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
Walker Lake, Nevada is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 32 crew member on the International Space Station. According to scientists, the Pleistocene landscape of western Nevada approximately 15,000 years ago was one of narrow mountain ranges and numerous interconnected lakes that together formed the extensive glacial Lake Lahontan. Scientists believe drying and warming of the regional climate since the last Ice Age led to the disappearance of the glaciers feeding meltwater to Lake Lahontan, and eventual disappearance of the lake itself. Today, few remnants of Lahontan remain; most of its arms have become dry enclosed basins known as playas. This photograph highlights Walker Lake, one of only two remnant lakes that contain water throughout the year (Pyramid Lake in Nevada is the other). The lake is located in an enclosed basin bounded by the Wassuk Range to the west and the Gillis Range to the east. It is fed by the Walker River flowing from the north. The current dimensions of the lake are approximately 21 kilometers north-south by 9 kilometers east-west. Shoreline deposits at higher elevations than the current lake level form concentric bands that are just visible in the image (bottom center) -- these record varying lake levels in the geologic past. The nearest town is Hawthorne, Nevada to the southeast. To the southwest the highest peak of the Wassuk Range, Mount Grant (elevation 3,496 meters above sea level), dominates the skyline. Green agricultural fields, primarily alfalfa, located to the west of the Wassuk Range (lower right) provide a striking contrast to the surrounding Great Basin desert. These fields are irrigated using water from the nearby East Fork of the Walker River (right, just visible alongside the fields).
Image credit: NASA/JSC
Original image:
spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-32/html/...
More about space station research:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html
There's a Flickr group about Space Station Research. Please feel welcome to join! www.flickr.com/groups/stationscience/
View more than 400 photos like this in the "NASA Earth Images" Flickr photoset:
www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/
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The Jeita Grotto (Arabic: مغارة جعيتا) is a system of two separate, but interconnected limestone caves spanning 5.6 miles. Visitors can walk through the upper cave, but the lower cave contains an underwater river and lake. It is only accessible in summer and then only by boat.
These pictures were all taken in water filled lower cave. The water flows through at 1–2 m3/s, providing drinking water for 1.5 million people in Beirut. Cameras are normally taken and secured from visitors while in the caverns. These photos were taken with special permission.
We met at the Jacob's Ladder Festival in Kibbutz Geinosar on the Kinneret, a.k.a. Lake of Galilee. It was a wonderful music event with a lovely audience which I attended for the first time ever.
I also met many new people such as Deborah & her beautiful family. I love the message she shared for my photo project:
"No matter our background, our tribe, religion, ethnicity, education, where we come from, our nationality... we are all interconnected. We are all part of the human family, the bigger picture, part of God, all of us have a divine spark within us which has the capacity to recognise, honour and love the divine spark in others."
Deborah's advice to herself:
"Stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to please. Focus more on what really makes you feel alive, loved and joyful."
When asking about challenges in her life, Deborah said:
"I have faced many personal challenges. For much of my adult life I now realise I have struggled with depression and anxiety, but was unaware of what it was until fairly late in my life.
I have also supported my husband through a very serious form of cancer (pancreatic stage 3b). He was diagnosed when our children were only 4 years old, 2 years old and 7 months old. It was quite a trauma. Thankfully there is no evidence of disease three and a half years later."
"What do you love about yourself, Deborah?"
"I am still learning who I am and to love myself. It is quite a journey."
"Can you tell me a bit about your background?"
"I am a former divorce lawyer from London and made Aliyah seven years ago. Now I teach yoga with Torah and am training in TRE--tension and trauma releasing exercises--. I am fascinated by mind-body-spirituality connections."
It was a real privilege to meet Deborah and her family. The memories of the Festival will stay with me thanks to people like them. I hope our paths will cross once again.
Thank you so much for sharing your life story, Deborah. It is most enlightening.
I wish you all happiness and good health, especially to David.
This is my 743rd submission to The Human Family group.
Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: The Human Family
You can read more here about the Festival:
"Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival is a unique musical and social event which takes place twice a year in two different formats for lovers of all aspects of folk music from Bluegrass to World music, from Irish jigs to Country Rock, from Blues to Bagpipes.
This year's spring festival, to be held at Nof Ginosar Hotel and its surrounding lawns, swimming pool and beach on the edge of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) will be full of surprises. Three days of great music outside at the Main stage near the beach or indoors at smaller venues in the Hotel, NEW dance workshops, Yoga, Tai Chi/Chi Kong, Guitar Workshops and much more. The festival will have something for everyone, Teens and Seniors, Families and Singles, Children and Couples.
Out of the 40 musical happenings, 23 of the performances will be FIRST TIME performances at Jacob's Ladder Festival. Get ready to enjoy an amazing authentic folk band called BRIGAN from South Italy, the Israeli Gypsy Band SUMSUM, the Israeli Swing Band, ELI & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, the alternative electro folk band of MAYA ISAC, Hypnotic beats and melodies from the Blue Desert with Grammy nominated YOSSI FINE & BEN AYLON, and many more exciting bands.
The prizewinning Bluegrass and Old-Time music band NEFESH MOUNTAIN will be joining us from the USA and we are excited to present the Howling totally authentic Hebrew Blues artist, this time with his full band, ITAMAR BECK AND P'KIDEI HAKABALA. And of course, no Jacob's Ladder Festival will be complete without traditional country music with SHAY TOCHNER, YONATAN MILLER, GABRIELLA LEWIS, MAYA JOHANNA and the SUPER BAND."
Red Sands Army Fort [U6] was a Maunsell army fort built near the Thames estuary for anti-aircraft defence. It is made up of several once interconnected towers.
Derelict, the remains of the Fort Towers are still standing.
Cityscape on a molecular level.
© Andy Brandl (2013) // PhotonMix Photography // Andy Brandl @ Getty Images
Don´t redistribute - don´t use on webpages, blogs or any other media without my explicit written permission.
See my "profile" page for my portfolio´s web address and information regarding licensing of this image for personal or commercial use.
ArchesAndAngles - Architectural Photography Architectural Photography
I caught this magnificent melting ice photo from the inside of a cave under a remote frozen waterfall in the Santiam Canyon. The cave was a bit of a death trap, with huge sharp pointed icecicles clinging to the top of the cave and occasionally falling and shattering to pieces on the rugged rocky floor of the cave. It was a 2 mile hike up the frozen stream to get there...no trails to follow, just a treacherous narrow canyon frozen semisolid. Fell through the ice a few times, and lost my lens cap and almost my camera trying to get up there, but something kept telling me to carry on. The pics of the waterfall are crazy, a wall if 5-10 foot icecicles all interconnected. They need some work, as the white balance was way off when I took the shot, but I will try to get them posted soon.
I thought of this artpiece when I stayed with my mom earlier this year and she was reading the Dalai Lama's book (in collaboration with Franz Alt) :
“An Appeal to the World: The Way to Peace in a Time of Division.”
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"When the president of the United States says “America first,” he is making his voters happy. I can understand that. But from a global perspective, this statement isn’t relevant. Everything is interconnected today.
The new reality is that everyone is interdependent with everyone else. The United States is a leading nation of the free world. For this reason, I call on its president to think more about global-level issues. There are no national boundaries for climate protection or the global economy. No religious boundaries, either. The time has come to understand that we are the same human beings on this planet. Whether we want to or not, we must coexist.
History tells us that when people pursue only their own national interests, there is strife and war. This is shortsighted and narrow-minded. It is also unrealistic and outdated. Living together as brothers and sisters is the only way to peace, compassion, mindfulness and more justice.
The time has come to understand that we are the same human beings on this planet. Whether we want to or not, we must coexist.
Religion can to a certain degree help to overcome division. But religion alone will not be enough. Global secular ethics are now more important than the classical religions. We need a global ethic that can accept both believers and nonbelievers, including atheists.
My wish is that, one day, formal education will pay attention to the education of the heart, teaching love, compassion, justice, forgiveness, mindfulness, tolerance and peace. This education is necessary, from kindergarten to secondary schools and universities. I mean social, emotional and ethical learning. We need a worldwide initiative for educating heart and mind in this modern age.
At present our educational systems are oriented mainly toward material values and training one’s understanding. But reality teaches us that we do not come to reason through understanding alone. We should place greater emphasis on inner values.
Intolerance leads to hatred and division. Our children should grow up with the idea that dialogue, not violence, is the best and most practical way to solve conflicts. The young generations have a great responsibility to ensure that the world becomes a more peaceful place for all. But this can become reality only if we educate, not just the brain, but also the heart. The educational systems of the future should place greater emphasis on strengthening human abilities, such as warm-heartedness, a sense of oneness, humanity and love.
I see with ever greater clarity that our spiritual well-being depends not on religion, but on our innate human nature — our natural affinity for goodness, compassion and caring for others. Regardless of whether we belong to a religion, we all have a fundamental and profoundly human wellspring of ethics within ourselves. We need to nurture that shared ethical basis.
Ethics, as opposed to religion, are grounded in human nature. Through ethics, we can work on preserving creation. Empathy is the basis of human coexistence. It is my belief that human development relies on cooperation, not competition. Science tells us this.
We must learn that humanity is one big family. We are all brothers and sisters: physically, mentally and emotionally. But we are still focusing far too much on our differences instead of our commonalities. After all, every one of us is born the same way and dies the same way."
- The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso
The 1,800 kilometer (1,100 mile) Tucurí transmission line crosses the Rio Trombetas just north of Oriximiná, with huge towers and span.
Viewed from Raoul Wallenberg Promenade downhill and east of the Strahov Monastery.
"The Church of Saint Nicholas (Czech: Kostel svatého Mikuláše) is a Baroque church in the Lesser Town of Prague. It was built between 1704 and 1755 on the site where formerly a Gothic church from the 13th century stood, which was also dedicated to Saint Nicholas. It has been described as the greatest example of Prague Baroque.
The original Gothic Parish church of Saint Nicholas which dated from the 13th century, stood on the site of the present church. Sometime after 1620, it was given to the Jesuits, and the parish transferred to St. Václav's Church. In 1628, they opened a primary school and a junior secondary school.
In the second half of the 17th century the Jesuits decided to build a new church designed by Giovanni Domenico Orsi. A partial impression of the original planned appearance of the church is provided by the Chapel of St Barbara, which was built first so that mass could be celebrated. Old Saint Nicholas was demolished and in 1673 the cornerstone laid for the new church. The church was built in two stages during the 18th century. From 1703 till 1711 the west façade, the choir, the Chapels of St Barbara and St Anne were built.
Count Wenceslaus Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky (1634 – 6 October 1659) from the prominent Czech House of Kolowrat was the largest patron of The church of St. Nicholas. He donated his entire estate, worth 178,500 gold, for the construction of the church and the adjacent buildings in Prague in Malá Strana.
The new plans involved an intricate geometrical system of interconnected cylinders with a central dome above the transept. The massive nave with side chapels and an undulating vault based on a system of intersecting ellipsoids was apparently built by Christoph Dientzenhofer. The pillars between the wide spans of the arcade supporting the triforium were meant to maximize the dynamic effect of the church. The chancel and its characteristic copper cupola were built in 1737–1752, this time using plans by Christoph's son, Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer.
In 1752, after Dientzenhofer's death in 1751, the construction of the church tower was completed. During the years the church continued to expand its interior beauty. Following the abolition of the Jesuit Order by Pope Clement XIV, St Nicholas became the main parish church of the Lesser Town in 1775.
During the communist era the church tower was used as an observatory for State Security since from the tower it was possible to keep watch on the American and Yugoslav embassies and the access route to the West German embassy.
It has been described as "the most impressive example of Prague Baroque" and "without doubt the greatest Baroque church in Prague and the Dientzenhofers' supreme achievement".
On the shield is a sign of the alleged patron of the building Frantisek Karel Count of Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. The mark of the actual patron Václav Count of Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky on the facade of the temple is not found. He was so humble that he did not want his name to be associated with the building, and after the completion of the building the coat of arms of his uncle were used.
The church excels not only in the architecture, but also in the decoration, external facade is brownish color, mainly with the frescos by Jan Lukas Kracker and a fresco inside the 70 m high dome by František Xaver Palko. The interior is further decorated with sculptures by František Ignác Platzer.
The Baroque organ has over 4,000 pipes up to six metres in length and was played by Mozart in 1787. Mozart's spectacular masterpiece, Mass in C, was first performed in the Church of Saint Nicholas shortly after his visit.
The 79 m tall belfry is directly connected with the church's massive dome. The belfry with great panoramic view, was unlike the church completed in Rococo forms in 1751–1756 by Anselmo Lurago.
Malá Strana (Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", German: Prager Kleinseite) or more formally Menší Město pražské (English: Lesser Town of Prague) is a district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods.
In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center of the ethnic German (and since 16th century also Italian) citizens of Prague. It also housed many noble palaces while the right-bank towns were comparatively more bourgeois and more Bohemian Czech.
Prague (/ˈprɑːɡ/ PRAHG; Czech: Praha [ˈpraɦa]; German: Prag [pʁaːk]; Latin: Praga) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate oceanic climate, with relatively warm summers and chilly winters.
Prague is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectures. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia and residence of several Holy Roman Emperors, most notably Charles IV (r. 1346–1378) and Rudolf II (r. 1575–1611).
It was an important city to the Habsburg monarchy and Austro-Hungarian Empire. The city played major roles in the Bohemian and the Protestant Reformations, the Thirty Years' War and in 20th-century history as the capital of Czechoslovakia between the World Wars and the post-war Communist era.
Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, many of which survived the violence and destruction of 20th-century Europe. Main attractions include Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad. Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
The city has more than ten major museums, along with numerous theatres, galleries, cinemas, and other historical exhibits. An extensive modern public transportation system connects the city. It is home to a wide range of public and private schools, including Charles University in Prague, the oldest university in Central Europe.
Prague is classified as a "Alpha-" global city according to GaWC studies. In 2019, the city was ranked as 69th most livable city in the world by Mercer. In the same year, the PICSA Index ranked the city as 13th most livable city in the world. Its rich history makes it a popular tourist destination and as of 2017, the city receives more than 8.5 million international visitors annually. In 2017, Prague was listed as the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul.
Bohemia (Latin Bohemia, German Böhmen, Polish Czechy) is a region in the west of the Czech Republic. Previously, as a kingdom, they were the center of the Czech Crown. The root of the word Czech probably corresponds to the meaning of man. The Latin equivalent of Bohemia, originally Boiohaemum (literally "land of Battles"), which over time also influenced the names in other languages, is derived from the Celtic tribe of the Boios, who lived in this area from the 4th to the 1st century BC Bohemia on it borders Germany in the west, Austria in the south, Moravia in the east and Poland in the north. Geographically, they are bounded from the north, west and south by a chain of mountains, the highest of which are the Krkonoše Mountains, in which the highest mountain of Bohemia, Sněžka, is also located. The most important rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava, with the fertile Polabean Plain extending around the Elbe. The capital and largest city of Bohemia is Prague, other important cities include, for example, Pilsen, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Pardubice and České Budějovice, Jihlava also lies partly on the historical territory of Bohemia." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside the City of London, it constitutes one of the main financial centres in the United Kingdom and the world, containing many high-rise buildings including the third-tallest in the UK, One Canada Square, which opened on 26 August 1991.
Developed on the site of the former West India Docks in East London, Canary Wharf contains around 16,000,000 sq ft (1,500,000 m2) of office and retail space. It has many open areas and gardens, including Canada Square, Cabot Square, Westferry Circus, Jubilee Park, and Crossrail Place Roof Garden. Together with Heron Quays and Wood Wharf, it forms the Canary Wharf Estate, around 97 acres (39 ha) in area.
History
Canary Wharf is located on the West India Docks on the Isle of Dogs. As journalist José Luis Jiménez explains, the name of this location stems from its use during World War II as a storage area for agricultural exports—primarily tomatoes, cucumbers, and bananas—from the Canary Islands. Its remote position, far from the city center, even included the Canarian Docks on its outskirts.
West India Dock Company
From 1802 to the late 1980s, what would become the Canary Wharf Estate was a part of the Isle of Dogs (Millwall), Limehouse, and Poplar and was one of the busiest docks in the world. West India Docks was primarily developed by Robert Milligan (c. 1746–1809) who set up the West India Dock Company.
Port of London Authority
The Port of London Authority was established in 1909 and took control of West India Dock. The enterprise of Sir Alfred Lewis Jones, a Welsh shipping magnate who was a prominent figure in the Canary Islands, Spain, led to a constant stream of ships arriving into London's South Quay Dock and the naming of Canary Wharf, after the ships' origin. It was named after No. 32 berth of the West Wood Quay of the Import Dock. This was built in 1936 for Fruit Lines Ltd, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Lines for the Mediterranean and Canary Islands fruit trade. It is located on the Isle of Dogs, the quay and warehouse were given the name Canary Wharf.
London Docklands Development Corporation
After the 1960s, when cargo became containerised, port industry began to decline, leading to all the docks being closed by 1980. After the docks closed in 1980, the British Government adopted policies to stimulate redevelopment of the area, including the creation of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) in 1981 and the granting of Urban Enterprise Zone status to the Isle of Dogs in 1982.
The Canary Wharf of today began when Michael von Clemm, former chairman of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), came up with the idea to convert Canary Wharf into a back office. Further discussions with G Ware Travelstead led to proposals for a new business district and included the LDDC developing an inexpensive light metro scheme, the Docklands Light Railway, to make use of a large amount of redundant railway infrastructure and to improve access.
The project was sold to the Canadian company Olympia & York and construction began in 1988, master-planned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Yorke Rosenberg Mardall as their UK advisors, and subsequently by Koetter Kim. The first buildings were completed in 1991, including One Canada Square, which became the UK's tallest building at the time and a symbol of the regeneration of Docklands. By the time it opened, the London commercial property market had collapsed, and Olympia and York Canary Wharf Limited filed for bankruptcy in May 1992.
Initially, the City of London saw Canary Wharf as an existential threat. It modified its planning laws to expand the provision of new offices in the City of London, for example, creating offices above railway stations (Blackfriars) and roads (Alban Gate). The resulting oversupply of office space contributed to the failure of the Canary Wharf project.
Canary Wharf Group
In October 1995, an international consortium that included investors such as Alwaleed, bought control for $1.2 billion. Paul Reichmann, of Olympia & York, was named chairman, and Canary Wharf went public in 1999. The new company was called Canary Wharf Limited, and later became Canary Wharf Group.
In 1997, some residents living on the Isle of Dogs launched a lawsuit against Canary Wharf Ltd for private nuisance because the tower interfered with TV signals. The residents lost the case.
Recovery in the property market generally, coupled with continuing demand for large floorplate Grade A office space, slowly improved the level of interest. A critical event in the recovery was the much-delayed start of work on the Jubilee Line Extension, which the government wanted ready for the Millennium celebrations.
In March 2004, Canary Wharf Group plc. was taken over by a consortium of investors, backed by its largest shareholder Glick Family Investments and led by Morgan Stanley using a vehicle named Songbird Estates plc.
Corporations and agencies
Canary Wharf contains around 16,000,000 sq ft (1,500,000 m2) of office and retail space, of which around 7,900,000 sq ft (730,000 m2) (about 49%) is owned by Canary Wharf Group. Around 105,000 people work in Canary Wharf,[95] and it is home to the world or European headquarters of numerous major banks, professional services firms, and media organisations, including Barclays, Citigroup, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Fitch Ratings, HSBC, Infosys, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, MetLife, Moody's, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada, Deutsche Bank, S&P Global, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, State Street, The Economist Group and Thomson Reuters. Until 2018, Canary Wharf also hosted two European Union agencies, European Medicines Agency and European Banking Authority, that moved to Amsterdam and Paris respectively due to Brexit.
Leisure
Marina
West India Quays and Poplar Dock are two marinas that are used as moorings for barges and private leisure river craft and is owned by the Canal & River Trust.
Library
A local public library, called Idea Store Canary Wharf, is in Churchill Place shopping mall and run by Tower Hamlets Council which opened on Thursday 16 March 2006 as part of the Idea Store project and is the borough fourth Idea Store.
Cinema
Canary Wharf hosts two multiplexes (cinemas), one on West India Quay run by Cineworld. and another at Crossrail Place called Everyman Cinema.
Go Karting
An over 800m long electric karting facility exists within Cabot Square. The facility can accommodate up to 20 drivers at a single time. Karts can reach speeds of up to 45 mph.
Squares and public areas
Canada Square
Canada Square is one of the central squares at Canary Wharf. It is a large open space with grass, except during the winter when it is converted into an ice rink. The square is named after Canada, because the original developers of modern Canary Wharf, Olympia & York, wanted to reflect their heritage. Underneath the square is Canada Place shopping mall.
Westferry Circus
Westferry Circus is on the west side of Canary Wharf. It is a garden at ground level, and below is a roundabout allowing traffic to flow through. The garden is enclosed by bespoke hand-crafted ornamental railings and entrance gates by artist Giuseppe Lund. The area has a long history, dating back to 1812, when the Poplar and Greenwich Roads Company operated a horse ferry between Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs. It operated on the West Ferry and East Ferry Roads, which the names survived. Westferry Circus was chosen as the name for the roundabout and park by virtue of its proximity to Westferry Road.
Cabot Square
Cabot Square is one of the biggest squares at Canary Wharf, with a large fountain at the centre. The inner perimeter has additional fountains covered by trees. The square has large circular glass ventilation holes to allow gases to escape from the underground car park. The square is named after John Cabot and his son Sebastian, who were Italian explorers who settled in England in 1484.
Churchill Place
Churchill Place is an area on the east side of Canary Wharf. It is named after Winston Churchill.
Columbus Courtyard
A small square on the west side of Canary Wharf named after Christopher Columbus. The first phase of Canary Wharf was completed in 1992, 500 years after Columbus arrived in America.
Chancellor Passage
A passageway south of Cabot Square. Named after Richard Chancellor who sailed with Sir John Willoughby from Greenwich on their voyage through the White Sea to Moscow.
Wren Landing
Small area north of Cabot Square. Leads to North Dock footbridge towards Port East. Named after British architect Christopher Wren.
Montgomery Square
Located at the east end of Jubilee Park, Montgomery Square is an outdoor location for socialising. Events include street food markets, beach volleyball tournaments, padel tennis competition, and minigolf.
Parks and green spaces
Canary Wharf Group is enthusiastic about adding more green spaces and gardens to the dense urban environment. A total of 20 acres of landscaped parks, gardens and verdant squares complete with 1,000 trees, 4,000 shrubs and 70,000 seasonal plants are added each year.[110] Visitors are welcome to explore these parks and green spaces, which are ideal places for relaxation, social gatherings, performances, viewing outdoor public art, as well as hosting outdoor events and festivities.
Jubilee Park
Jubilee Park is a 10,000m² roof garden located above Jubilee Place, a shopping mall, and Canary Wharf Jubilee Station, an underground railway station. The park, opened in 2002 and was named in honour of the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Jubilee Park is located in the financial district of Canary Wharf. The park's central feature is a raised serpentine water channel with rough stone walls. The curvilinear design of the water channel is intended to contrast to the scale and straightness of the surrounding buildings. In 2023, Jubilee Park won the Green Flag Award, recognising Jubilee Park as one of the United Kingdom's best parks
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
A 4,160 m2 (44,800 sq ft) roof garden, one of London's largest, houses on the top of seven-storey Crossrail Place structure, which contains the Elizabeth line Canary Wharf station. Opened to public in 2015, it lies almost exactly on the Meridian line splitting eastern and western hemispheres. The plants originating from the eastern hemisphere are planted to the East of the Meridian line in the garden, with those from the Western hemisphere on the opposite side. The design and development of Crossrail Place Roof Garden was honored by winning numerous prestigious international and United Kingdom awards. Selected notable awards include: "Best Urban Regeneration Project" at 2016 MIPIM awards in France, the first prize for the best "Innovative Design of a Contemporary Garden" at the 2017 European Garden Awards in Berlin, and a Highly Commended accolade at the 2016 Landscape Institute Awards in the category 'Design for a Small-Scale Development'.
Harbour Quay Garden
A newly opened garden, located at the strand of Wood Wharf, features a boardwalk for waterside wandering. The garden also offers family-friendly picnic spots and outdoor fitness equipment on the green lawn, where visitors can relax, view outdoor public art, and watch the water. Just around the corner, it has access to a new garden square, Harbord Square Park.
Harbord Square Park
Harbord Square Park, the newest garden square in Wood Wharf, continues the great London tradition of garden squares. It is open 24/7 and offers green space available for mindfulness activities and to support nearby residents' general wellbeing.
Eden Dock
In Oct 2024, in partnership with the Eden Project, the Canary Wharf group opened Eden dock. The waterfront green space can be accessed via Jubilee Plaza or Mackenzie Walk. It includes floating islands which are designed to encourage biodiversity.
Shopping malls
Canary Wharf shopping centre, ranked as one of the best in London, has five interconnected shopping malls: Canada Place, Cabot Place, Jubilee Place, Crossrail Place, and Churchill Place. The malls provide over 102,193 m2 (1,100,000 sq ft) of retail space, more than 310 shops from beauty, fashion, lifestyle, luxurious brands, health, and homeware, as well as 70 cafés, bars, and restaurants, eight grocery stores, five health clubs and a cinema. There are also numerous bars, restaurants, and food halls at street level, alongside plenty of outdoor seating enabling visitors to see the stunning wharf and riverside views.
Museums and archives
Opened in a Grade I listed Georgian warehouse by Queen Elizabeth II in June 2003, the Museum of London Docklands is one of the main attractions in the area. It is dedicated to the history of London's river, port, and people from Roman settlement to the present day. The museum offers a range of activities for children and families, including interactive displays and immersive activities.
Pokémon Go
Canary Wharf has been reported since 2017 as part of the Pokémon Go augmented reality game to being the home for the most wanted Pokémon gyms in London including Canary Wharf DLR station and Montgomery Square.
Canary Wharf Group published an official Pokémon map for PokéStops and Pokémon Gyms, the managing director for retail Camille Waxer said in 2016 that Pokémon Go has serious potential to attract new audiences to the area, particularly food and drink outlets which saw an increase in foot traffic.
(Wikipedia)
Canary Wharf (dt. „Kanaren-Kai“) ist ein Bürogebäudekomplex auf der Isle of Dogs im Londoner Stadtbezirk Tower Hamlets. Er befindet sich im Herzen der Docklands, dem ehemaligen Hafengebiet der britischen Hauptstadt. Canary Wharf steht in Konkurrenz zum historisch gewachsenen Finanzzentrum in der City of London. Hier stehen drei der höchsten Gebäude des Vereinigten Königreichs, One Canada Square, HSBC Tower und Citigroup Centre.
Wirtschaftszentrum
Zu den Unternehmen, die sich in Canary Wharf niedergelassen haben, gehören Finanzinstitute wie Credit Suisse, HSBC, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America und Barclays. Auch bedeutende Medienunternehmen haben hier ihre Hauptsitze, darunter The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Thomson Reuters und der Daily Mirror. Ebenfalls hier vertreten sind der Europa-Hauptsitz von Texaco, der Hauptsitz von Clifford Chance, eine der weltweit größten Anwaltssozietäten, sowie das Wirtschaftsprüfungsunternehmen KPMG. Bis zum Brexit war hier auch der Sitz der Europäischen Bankenaufsichtsbehörde (EBA).
Zu Beginn des Jahres betrug die offizielle Zahl der hier arbeitenden Angestellten 78.000, wovon 25 Prozent in den fünf umliegenden Stadtbezirken leben. Canary Wharf entwickelt sich auch immer mehr zu einem teuren und exklusiven Einkaufsviertel, insbesondere nach der Eröffnung des Jubilee-Place-Einkaufszentrums im Jahr 2004. Es gibt über 200 Läden mit mehr als 4.500 Verkaufsangestellten. Jede Woche gehen rund 500.000 Personen hierhin zum Einkaufen.
Canary Wharf verfügt über eine ausgezeichnete Anbindung an das Netz des öffentlichen Nahverkehrs. Seit 1991 hält an der Station Canary Wharf (DLR) die vollautomatische Stadtbahn Docklands Light Railway. 1999 wurde die Jubilee Line der London Underground eröffnet, die in der gleichnamigen, aber räumlich getrennten Station Canary Wharf (London Underground) hält, und 2022 wurde der Verkehr auf der neuen Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) aufgenommen. Der Flughafen London City liegt nur ein paar Kilometer östlich und kann mit regelmäßig verkehrenden Bussen, Taxis und mit der DLR in unter 15 Minuten erreicht werden. Vom Canary Wharf Pier aus stellen Schiffe auf der Themse weitere Verbindungen in Richtung Innenstadt her; die Thames Clippers verkehren unter der Woche alle 20 Minuten.
Geschichte
Canary Wharf war einst der Standort von Lagerhäusern inmitten der Docks. Der Name leitet sich ab vom Seehandel mit den Kanarischen Inseln, der von hier aus abgewickelt wurde. Während des 19. Jahrhunderts lagen hier die West India Docks, einer der verkehrsreichsten Häfen der Welt. In den 1960er Jahren setzte der Verfall der Hafen- und Industrieanlagen ein. Nachdem im Jahr 1980 das letzte Dock geschlossen worden war, beschloss die britische Regierung im Jahr 1981 ein Programm, mit dem ein 21 km² großes Gebiet neu belebt werden sollte. Um das Projekt zu koordinieren, wurde die Entwicklungsgesellschaft „London Docklands Development Corporation“ gegründet. In den ersten Jahren ließen sich hier Betriebe der Leichtindustrie nieder, der größte Mieter in Canary Wharf war ein TV-Produktionsstudio.
1984 besuchte Michael von Clemm, der Vorsitzende der Investmentbank Credit Suisse, im Auftrag eines Kunden die Docklands, um nach einem Standort für einen Lebensmittelverarbeitungsbetrieb Ausschau zu halten. Er war sich auch bewusst, dass die Büros der Bank in der City of London zu klein waren, vor allem im Hinblick auf die bevorstehende Deregulierung der Finanzmärkte im Jahr 1986. Von Clemm hatte die Idee, das Gebiet für Bürobauten zu nutzen. Allerdings war eine kritische Masse notwendig, um das ganze Vorhaben überhaupt rentabel werden zu lassen. Entsprechende Pläne wurden zusammen mit dem Unternehmen Morgan Stanley präsentiert, später allerdings wieder zu den Akten gelegt. Als 1987 die Docklands Light Railway eröffnet wurde, hatte man in Canary Wharf keine Station errichtet, da man nicht mit einer Entwicklung des Gebiets rechnete.
1988 übernahm das vom Immobilienunternehmer Paul Reichmann geleitete kanadische Unternehmen Olympia and York (O&Y) das Projekt und brachte es zur Baureife. Die Bauarbeiten begannen im selben Jahr, die erste Phase war 1992 abgeschlossen. O&Y, das auch das World Financial Center in New York gebaut hatte, verpflichtete sich, die Hälfte der Kosten für die geplante Verlängerung der Jubilee Line zu übernehmen. Zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre brach der weltweite Immobilienmarkt ein. Die Nachfrage nach Büroräumlichkeiten ging stark zurück und O&Y ging 1992 bankrott. Die obere Hälfte des Wolkenkratzers One Canada Square blieb ohne Mieter, Canary Wharf wurde zum Symbol der Immobilienkrise.
Im Februar 1996 explodierte in der Nähe von Canary Wharf an der Station South Quay der DLR eine Autobombe der IRA. Zwei Menschen wurden getötet, 39 verletzt. Es entstand dabei ein Sachschaden von 85 Millionen Pfund.
Im Dezember 1995 kaufte ein internationales Konsortium unter Vorsitz von Paul Reichmann[3] das Gelände. Damals waren hier rund 13.000 Arbeitsplätze angesiedelt, doch noch immer stand über die Hälfte der vorhandenen Büroliegenschaften leer. Ein wichtiges Ereignis für die Wiederbelebung des Projekts Canary Wharf war der Baubeginn der Jubilee Line, der mehrmals verschoben worden war. Von da an betrachteten Unternehmen das Gebiet zunehmend als Alternative zu den traditionellen Geschäftszentren. Die zunehmende Nachfrage ermöglichte neben der Fertigstellung der zurückgestellten Bauabschnitte auch die Realisierung zusätzlicher Projekte. Im März 2004 wurde die Betriebsgesellschaft Canary Wharf Group plc durch das von Morgan Stanley angeführte Investorenkonsortium Songbird Estates übernommen. Im Jahr 2004 belegten 70 Prozent der Büroflächen in Canary Wharf Banken.
Im Jahr 2014 wurde die erste bauliche Erweiterung seit der Finanzkrise 2008 genehmigt. Das am östlichen Ende der Canary Wharf befindliche Projekt Wood Wharf umfasst eine Fläche von 4,9 Millionen Quadratfuß[7], worauf insgesamt 30 Gebäude entstehen sollen. Als Herzstück soll der vom Schweizer Architekturbüro Herzog & de Meuron entworfene, 211 Meter und 57 Stockwerke hohe zylinderförmige Wohnturm errichtet werden.
Stand 2020 ist die Canary Wharf Group im Besitz des katarischen Staatsfonds und der kanadischen Immobiliengesellschaft Brookfield Properties.
Im Zuge der COVID-19-Pandemie zu Beginn des 2020er Jahrzehnts verkleinerten auch die in Canary Wharf ansässigen Unternehmen ihre Bürofleichen und lagerten Arbeiten und Mitarbeiter ins Homeoffice aus. In den 2020er Jahren kündigten viele große Unternehmen (darunter die Großbank HSBC, Moody’s, Clifford Chance) an, aus Canary Wharf auszuziehen. Der Exodus führt dazu, dass viele Gebäude enorm an Wert verloren. Gleichzeitig siedelten sich vermehrt Bars, Restaurants, Clubs, Fitness- und Freizeitcenter und andere kleinere Unternehmen wie Start-Ups in Canary Wharf an. In Wood Wharf wurden und werden Stand 2024 Appartmentkomplexe für mehr als 7000 Menschen gebaut.
Vorkommen in der Popkultur
In der Serie Doctor Who befindet sich im Bürokomplex das fiktive Torchwood-Institut, das im Finale der zweiten Staffel im Kampf gegen die Daleks und Cybermen zerstört wird. Die Ereignisse nach dieser Schlacht werden im Spin Off Torchwood erzählt.
(Wikipedia)
lovely quote by Ian Somerhalder :)
"...The trees are our lungs, the rivers our bloodstream. We are all interconnected, and what you do to the environment, ultimately you do to yourself."
Nederlands: Zevenster
English: Chickweed Wintergreen
Scientific name: Trientalis europaea
Français: Trientale
Deutsch: Siebenstern
Wetenschappelijk: Trientalis europaea (Lysimachia trientalis)
Familie: Sleutelbloemfamilie, Primulaceae
Geslacht: Trientalis, Zevenster
Koude streken in Europa, in Siberië en in noordwestelijk Noord-Amerika. In het laagland zuidelijk tot in Nederland. Verder zuidelijk komt Zevenster nog wel voor op plateaus en in gebergten.
Vrij zeldzaam in Drenthe, zeldzaam op de Veluwe, in Twente en op Ameland en Terschelling en zeer zeldzaam in Zuid-Limburg bij Vaals.
Rode lijst 2012. Thans niet bedreigd. Trend sinds 1950: stabiel of toegenomen. Zeldzaam. Oorspronkelijk inheems.
Zeer zeldzaam in Voeren. Ook eenmaal gevonden in de Kempen.
Rode lijst. Zeer zeldzaam. Beschermd.
Wallonië Vrij zeldzaam in de Hoge Ardennen en zeer zeldzaam in de Ardennen.
Trientalis europaea is a plant in the Primulaceae family, called by the common name chickweed-wintergreen or arctic starflower. It is a small herbaceous perennial plant with one or more whorls of obovate leaves. The leaves take on a copper hue in late summer. The solitary white flowers (1–2 cm diameter, usually with 6-8 petals) appear in midsummer. Trientalis europaea occurs throughout boreal regions of Europe and Asia, but is largely replaced by Trientalis borealis in corresponding habitats in North America.
This is a woodland indicator species, and in Scotland it is found on acid, organic soils, mainly in pine, birch and oak woodland and moorland which has supported woodland in the past. The plant is a weak competitor, rarely reproducing by seed but forming extensive clonal populations interconnected by rhizomes during the growing season. The rhizomes and above-ground parts are deciduous, the plant forming overwintering tubers. The range of the plant is changing little in Scotland, but it has declined in northern England due to woodland clearance and moor burning. It is classified as an endangered plant in some areas..
The flower is the provincial flower of the Värmland province in Sweden.
A lone tree, on the shore of Loch Ness, in Scotland.
Loch Ness is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately 23 miles (37 km) southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 52 ft (16 m) above sea level. Loch Ness is best known for alleged sightings of the cryptozoological Loch Ness Monster, also known affectionately as "Nessie". It is connected at the southern end by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich. At the northern end there is the Bona Narrows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the River Ness and a further section of canal to Inverness. It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland; its water visibility is exceptionally low due to a high peat content in the surrounding soil.
Loch Ness is the second largest Scottish loch by surface area at 22 sq mi (56 km2) after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume in the British Isles. Its deepest point is 755 ft (230 m), making it the second deepest loch in Scotland after Loch Morar. A 2016 survey claimed to have discovered a crevice that pushed the depth to 889 ft (271 m) but further research determined it to be a sonar anomaly. It contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined, and is the largest body of water on the Great Glen Fault, which runs from Inverness in the north to Fort William in the south.
Montreal's Underground City (officially RÉSEAU or La Ville Souterraine in French) is the set of interconnected complexes (both above and below ground) in and around Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is also known as the indoor city (ville intérieure), and is the largest underground complex in the world.
The lower floors of the Eaton Centre between the McGill and Peel metro stations.Not all portions of the indoor city (ville intérieure) are underground. The connections are considered tunnels architecturally and technically, but have conditioned air and good lighting as any building's liveable space does. Many tunnels are large enough to have shops on both sides of the passage. With over 32 km (20 mi) of tunnels spread over more than 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi), connected areas include shopping malls, apartment buildings, hotels, condominiums, banks, offices, museums, universities, seven metro stations, two commuter train stations, a regional bus terminal and the Bell Centre amphitheatre and arena. There are more than 120 exterior access points to the underground city. Each access point is an entry point to one of 60 residential or commercial complexes comprising 3.6 km2 (1.4 sq mi) of floor space, including 80% of all office space and 35% of all commercial space in downtown Montreal. In winter, some 500,000 people use the underground city every day.
Source: Wikipedia
More pictures of Montreal are Here
American Museum of Natural History. New York. Jan/2017
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH), located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, is one of the largest museums in the world. Located in park-like grounds across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 28 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 33 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time, and occupies more than 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2). The museum has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually.
The one mission statement of the American Museum of Natural History is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and education—knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.
Source: Wikipedia
O Museu Americano de História Natural (American Museum of Natural History, em inglês) é um museu dos Estados Unidos da América, localizado em Nova Iorque e fundado em 1869. É especialmente reconhecido pela sua vasta coleção de fósseis, incluindo de espécies de Dinossauros. Uma das grandes atrações do museu é uma coleção de esqueletos de dinossauro, com mais de 30 milhões de fósseis e artefatos espalhados por 42 salas de exibição.Um T-Rex de aproximadamente 15 metros e dá as boas vindas aos visitantes na entrada.
Theodore Roosevelt está ligado à sua fundação e é lembrado no actual museu por um memorial. O primeiro edifício do museu acabou de ser construído em 1877, a partir do projecto de Calvert Vaux e Jacob Wrey Mould, a partir de uma ideia de Albert Smith Bickmore, discípulo de Louis Agassiz no Museu de Zoologia Comparativa de Harvard, em 1860. O museu serviu como cenário para o filme "Uma Noite no Museu" (2006).
Fonte: Wikipedia
The real jet looks most attractive with the wings swept back and so does the model, but the swing wings are fully functional and interconnected to move in tandem.
Valle de los Ingenios, also named Valley de los Ingenios or Valley of the Sugar Mills, is a series of three interconnected valleys about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) outside of Trinidad, Cuba. The three valleys, San Luis, Santa Rosa, and Meyer, were a centre for sugar production from the late 18th century until the late 19th century.
At the peak of the industry in Cuba there were over fifty sugar cane mills in operation in the three valleys, with over 30,000 slaves working in the mills and on the sugar cane plantations that surrounded them.
The 45 metre (147 ft) tower was constructed sometime in 1816 by the owner, Alejo Maria Iznaga y Borrell. According to experts, the bell that formerly hung on top of the tower announced the beginning and the end of the work day for the slaves, as well as the times for prayers to the Holy Virgin in the morning, midday, and afternoon. It was also used to sound an alarm in case of fire or slave escape. The height and magnificence of the tower served to display Iznaga's power over his slaves and his stature in the sugar industry and local society; at one time it was the tallest structure in Cuba. A recognised landmark of the region, the Iznaga Tower testifies to the area's flourishing material culture in the Spanish colonial period. The large bell now rests at the foot of the tower. [Wikipedia]
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At Wilton Slopes on the Tar River, Granville County, North Carolina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Live Oaks have a shallow, sprawling root system. I've read that they are sometimes even interconnected. I've heard of redwoods in the pacific northwest (USA) doing something similar. As in the case of the redwoods, they are "families" of related trees and actually "care" for one another by passing carbon and other nutrients from one to another; and that's just what we know so far. I wonder if the live oaks at Fort Fisher are just one big family, too! And if so, do you think they ever argue?
Yalu is a crocodile nest, a termite mound, a womb, a home - a sanctuary that protects new life. It serves as the foundation that connects us to our birth, people, land, and saltwater.
- The Mulka Project, 2025
Grounded in ideas of sanctuary, origin and kinship, Yalu evokes the shifting cycles of land and sea and the interconnected flow of culture in Yolnu country in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.
The Kö-Bogen I and II projects in Düsseldorf, Germany, represent a major urban revitalization effort that has transformed a former elevated motorway and traffic hub into a modern, pedestrian-friendly city center. The projects were conceived as two distinct but interconnected architectural ensembles that re-establish the connection between the city's main shopping street, Königsallee, and the Hofgarten park. Both projects feature cutting-edge, sustainable design and have received international recognition for their innovative approach to urban planning and architecture. The overall goal was to create a new, vibrant public space that prioritizes pedestrians and greenery, while also housing high-end retail and office spaces.
Kö-Bogen I was the first phase of the project, completed in 2013, and was designed by the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. The ensemble consists of two curved buildings, connected by a bridge, which sit on the site of the former elevated motorway. The buildings are characterized by their striking façade of white natural stone and glass, with diagonal incisions that are planted with greenery. These "cuts" are a signature element of Libeskind's design, creating a dynamic visual effect and providing additional shading. The complex houses luxury retail spaces and high-end offices, and its design was intended to create a seamless transition between the urban environment of Königsallee and the natural landscape of the Hofgarten.
Kö-Bogen II, completed in 2020, is perhaps the most iconic part of the development. Designed by Ingenhoven Architects, this commercial and office building ensemble features a spectacular and sustainable design element: Europe's largest green façade. The building is covered in more than 30,000 hornbeam hedges, a native hardwood species that retains its leaves in winter. This greening concept is not just for aesthetics; it plays a crucial role in improving the city's microclimate by absorbing carbon dioxide, reducing urban heat, dampening noise, and promoting biodiversity. The building's sloping facades, which are inspired by Land Art, face the Hofgarten and create a deliberate visual conversation with the neighboring post-war modernist landmarks like the Dreischeibenhaus and Schauspielhaus.
Together, the Kö-Bogen I and II projects have successfully redefined a key area of Düsseldorf's city center. By dismantling a 1960s motorway and replacing it with these architecturally significant and environmentally conscious buildings, the city has transformed a car-centric space into a vibrant, green, and walkable urban destination. The project as a whole has received numerous awards and is considered a lighthouse example of modern "city repair," demonstrating how cities can address climate change and urban design challenges through innovative, sustainable, and people-oriented architecture.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Museum is one of the jewels of architecture known in Portugal. Architects Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia, Pedro Cid and Alberto Pessoa designed the campus and the buildings in memory of the foundation of the same name.
These important architects were responsible for implementing the project of the Foundation and Museum after winning a competition in 1959. The contest invited three teams of three architects to propose ideas for these buildings, which would serve as a cultural center and museum for the impressive art collection Calouste Gulbenkian. In late 1969, the execution of the project was completed.
The winning proposal involved austere modern buildings, which, as is said, reflect the personality of Calouste Gulbenkian. These concrete structures in buildings are separate but interconnected pathways through relaxing campus.
The landscaping was developed by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles Barreto and Antonio Viana, and has great value in itself. The vegetation is proposed on the entire campus on the lawn, trees and water features. Spaces lead visitors to the city for a quiet place where they can enjoy the buildings and works of art.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Museum was recognized as a National Monument in Portugal in 2010. The buildings are seen as a significant representation of modern Portuguese architecture of the 60's, and continue to inspire young architects today.
This guy is a fixture in the neighborhood, and I always notice him because of his beard. I took one photo of him in the same area around lunchtime, and uploaded it to Instagram and Facebook; and then I took another photo of him a couple days later, sound asleep on a park bench down on 95th Street.
He does seem to like his newspapers ...
**********************
As I’ve mentioned in a couple of recent Tumblr blog postings, I’m working on an exercise for a new class that I’ve started taking at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in the fall of 2015.( You can see the earlier Tumblr postings here and here.)
In addition to taking a bunch of photos (see the other Tumblr postings for details and descriptions of what the photos are supposed to illustrate), we also have the task of editing our images down to a maximum of 10 “presentation images” that we will share with the ICP class next week. When our instructor, Joanne Dugan, asked me last week if I anticipated having any problems with this aspect of the assignment, I shrugged and said, “No, I do this all the time …”
Well, yes and no: I do do a lot of editing/winnowing of my photos before deciding which ones should be shared with anyone else. But I had forgotten that I also do a lot of cropping, color-adjustment, tweaking, and general post-processing before I upload my photos to Flickr, Facebook, or even Instagram. For this particular ICP exercise, we were also told not to crop the photos, and not to do any post-processing. That makes things a lot more difficult …
On the other hand, part of the exercise is to assemble and share a maximum of ten photos that collectively tell a “story” of some kind – and to “tell” that story with anywhere from a word, to a sentence, to a paragraph for each of the photos. That makes things a lot easier … after all, if a photo has to be presented in isolation, then it truly stands alone. And it is intended to be viewed without any accompanying text, then it really stands alone. There’s nothing wrong with that; indeed, one might argue that that’s the whole point of photography: a picture should “tell” a story all by itself, without any extraneous verbiage to “explain” what might not be obvious to the viewer.
But not very many things exist in complete isolation of the rest of the universe, especially in today’s interconnected world. I suppose some people would debate that point quite vigorously; and some people might argue that a photograph of a person, place, or thing should be able to “stand alone” without anything else. I certainly have seen photos that fall into this category, and I suppose I’ve taken a few like that, too. Or, maybe if I never intended my photos to be considered in complete isolation from one another, perhaps that’s how some people prefer to look at them …
But for me, that’s a pretty rare phenomenon. Almost always, I find myself telling a story. The photographs obviously present one “dimension” of the story, in a visual form; and I’ve been trying to remind myself lately that videos can present can present one, and sometimes two, additional dimensions (motion and sound) that can add enormously to the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of the underlying story.
But even if one uses only traditional photos, I find that it’s almost impossible for me to crate (or make, or take) one photo by itself; invariably, I take dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands, which collectively tell a story. It may be a story about someplace I’ve been, or some event in which I’ve participated, or some individual (or group of individuals) that I want the viewer to know and appreciate in more detail than would be possible to communicate in a single photo.
And then there are the words … maybe it’s because I spend part of my time as a writer and teacher that I find it almost impossible not to augment my photos with words. Lots of words. Indeed, sometimes far too many words; and sometimes clumsy words, or the wrong words. And I do realize that there are times when the situation would be improved if I would just shut up, and let the photograph do all of the communication. But for better or worse, I guess I’m a photojournalist.
With that in mind, I began the process of editing the photos for my recent ICP assignment. Here’s what I found:
1. It’s not as easy as one might think, when you start with a large number. I began winnowing the original images when I had 2,700 (after 9 days of shooting), and I still had 5 days of shooting left).
2. It’s much more difficult than I had imagined, given the constraints of my ICP class: no cropping, no post-processing, and a maximum of only 10 images. I’ve worked within those constraints for the final images that I’m submitting to the ICP class; but for these Flickr uploads, I’ve ended up with 40-45 images – and they have been heavily cropped, tilted, color-corrected, noise-dusted, and tweaked in various other ways. C’est la vie…
3. Using the collection of photos to “tell a story” is both easier and harder than I thought it would be. I’m including these background notes in all of the photos that get uploaded to Flickr … because I’ve learned (form past experience) that some visitor will zoom in on just one particular photo, without necessarily looking at all of them, and/or without seeing the overall notes for the entire album. And I don’t think I’ll find it difficult to write a few sentences to provide the background details for each photo … but whether they “flow” and create one overall, coherent “story” remains to be seen.
4. Aside from a narrative “story,” there are some “themes” that I noticed throughout this entire two-week exercise. The most significant one was exactly what I had anticipated: patterns. If you are lucky enough to sit in the same spot at the same time, day after day, you see the same rhythms, the same people, the same repetitions of life’s little actions and emotions. Many people have the opportunity to see these patterns, because they do follow the same schedule, day after day, on their way to their job or their school. But some of us have irregular routines, and any, most of us don’t pay any attention. If you slow down, and pay attention, you’ll see the patterns.
But sometimes the pattern involves uniqueness – i.e. strange and unusual people or events that seem to happen only once. But I have to keep reminding myself that my visits have lasted only two weeks; if I was here for a month, or a full season, or perhaps an entire year – then perhaps I would see these strange incidents repeating themselves
5. Another theme – which I did not anticipate, but was delighted to see – was the pervasive sense of affection and caring between and among everyone on the street. Mostly it was apparent in the interactions between parents and children; but sometimes it was between dog-owners and the dogs they were walking; sometimes it was between friends who happened to be walking along together; and sometimes it was between complete strangers and me, as the strangers would smile and nod and say “hello” if they noticed I was watching them. It was a great experience.
State Heritage listed Hart’s Mill of 1855 – the oldest building in the complex.
Harts Mill is a complex of interconnected buildings and structure. The earliest is the prominent limestone building on the corner of Mundy Street, built by Captain Hart in 1855.
He was a significant figure in the young colony of South Australia. He was three times Premier of South Australia and an instigator of much of the development of Port Adelaide.
The former Adelaide Milling Company mill site at Port Adelaide is the longest continuously serving flour milling enterprise in South Australia, operating from 1855 to 1980. The two major buildings constitute an important landmark in the Port.
The building was the largest and most technologically advanced mill in South Australia and at the time was claimed to be the best in the southern hemisphere. It was designed to create an export market for the State's produce, and successfully shipped flour around the world.
The iconic tall red brick building was constructed in 1884, at which time the Adelaide Milling Company was owner of the mill. The building was completed to the design and supervision of Henry Simon and Co, milling engineers in England who also equipped the building. The interior was severely damaged by fire in 1905: following the insurance payout of £10,357 the mill was rebuilt and re-equipped, again by Henry Simon. It continued to operate until 1980.
Obituary
John Hart, mariner, merchant and parliamentarian, was born on 25 February 1809 in England. He went to sea at 12 and visited Hobart Town in September 1828 as a seaman in the ‘Magnet’. In November 1829 as second mate in the ‘Britannia’ he went to Western Australia and then became well acquainted with the southern coast from Perth to Sydney. In 1832 he was master of the ‘Elizabeth’, owned and built by John Griffiths at Launceston, and often visited Kangaroo Island to land and pick up sealers and collect seal and wallaby skins and salt.
Hart retired from the sea in 1846 and settled in Adelaide. He bought and leased land in various parts of the colony, ran cattle and acted as agent for absentees. He also invested in copper mines at the Burra, Paringa and Montacute in 1845, Princess Royal and Mount Remarkable in 1846 and Yorke's Peninsula in 1848. He was also a director of the Forest Iron Smelting and Steam Sawing Co at Cox's Creek and a copper-smelting venture at Port Adelaide but lost heavily on mineral land at North Kapunda.
In 1849 he had helped to form the short-lived Adelaide Marine Association Co and the company intending to build a railway from Adelaide to the port: later he bought shares in the National and the Union Banks.
Perhaps his best-known achievement was at Port Adelaide where in 1855 he built a flourmill with twice the grinding capacity of any other in the province, believing that South Australia was to be the granary of the continent.
Hart was elected in 1851 to the Legislative Council for the district of Victoria, resigned in 1853 to visit England and was re-elected in 1854. In the House of Assembly he represented Port Adelaide in 1857-59 and 1862-66, Light in 1868-70 and the Burra in 1870-73. He was treasurer under Baker in 1857, Hanson in 1857-58, (Sir) Henry Ayers in 1863 and in 1864, and (Sir) Arthur Blyth in 1864-65. He was chief secretary under Francis Dutton in July 1863 and led his own ministries in 1865-66, 1868 and 1870-71 when he introduced the title of premier.
While Hart was in office he planned George Goyder's survey expedition and carried the bill for the overland telegraph to Darwin although he criticized its route through Port Augusta.
He was appointed CMG in 1870 and died suddenly on 28 January 1873 while chairing a meeting in Adelaide. He was survived by his wife and a large family, to whom he left an estate valued at more than £50,000. A son, John, represented Port Adelaide in the House of Assembly in 1880-81.
Ref: Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 4, (MUP), 1972 article by Sally O’Neill.
Pentax 6x7
105mm f2.4
Fomapan 100
"...the headwaters of the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. These headwaters were originally comprised of a large area of interconnected marsh that eventually formed a creek. This marsh system, in times of high water, connected with the St. Johns River, allowing native peoples to travel. It is estimated that this area was inhabited as early as 3000 to 750 BC. The native peoples that lived in this area were most likely Santa Luce (Guacata) Indians; they lived on the St. Lucie River and camped farther inland than most of the coast peoples such as the Ais Indians. The culture itself is classified as “East Okeechobee”, and is transitional, showing influences from neighboring cultures. These include Glades ceramics from the south, Belle Glades from the west, Orange and St. Johns from the north, and shell tool types from the north and south."
Blue escalator seen through a blue chair at the Lighthouse Building in Glasgow
From Wikipedia '
The Lighthouse in Glasgow is Scotland's Centre for Design and Architecture. It was opened as part of Glasgow's status as UK City of Architecture and Design in 1999.
The Lighthouse is the renamed conversion of the former offices of the Glasgow Herald newspaper. Completed in 1895, it was designed by the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.[1] The centre's vision is to develop the links between design, architecture, and the creative industries, seeing these as interconnected social, educational, economic and cultural issues of concern to everyone.
Two strings of TankTrain cars are just behind the head end autoracks on CN 401, CN 585 will forward them from Taschereau Yard to Maitland, Ontario. These cars are interconnected, for quicker unloading.
Nitmiluk National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 244 km southeast of Darwin, (4 hours or 350 km by road) around a series of gorges on the Katherine River and Edith Falls.
Previously named Katherine Gorge National Park, its northern edge borders Kakadu National Park. The gorges and the surrounding landscape have great ceremonial significance to the local Jawoyn people, who are custodians of Nitmiluk National Park. In Jawoyn, Nitmiluk means "place of the cicada dreaming".
Katherine Gorge, a deep gorge carved through ancient sandstone by the Katherine River, is the central attraction of the park. Katherine Gorge is made up of thirteen gorges, with rapids and falls, and follow the Katherine River, which begins in Kakadu. During the Dry, roughly from April to October, the Katherine Gorge waters are placid in most spots and ideal for swimming and canoeing.
There may be freshwater crocodiles in most parts of the river, as they nest along the banks, but they are generally harmless to humans unless provoked. Saltwater crocodiles regularly enter the river during the wet season, when the water levels are very high, and are subsequently removed and returned to the lower levels at the onset of the dry season. Thus, swimming in the wet season is prohibited.
Cruises of various lengths go as far as the fifth gorge. The gorges can be explored by canoe and flat bottomed boat. In the dry season the gorges become separated as the level of the river falls. They are interconnected in the wet. There is a visitor centre located at the Katherine Gorge, about 30 km east of the town of Katherine.
Freshwater crocodiles are widely distributed along the river year-round. During the wet season, rises in water levels may allow saltwater crocodiles to enter the gorge, where they are caught and relocated to lower levels when the dry season begins.
Birds that can be seen include ospreys, red-tailed black cockatoos, great bowerbirds, white-gaped honeyeaters and red-winged parrots. Part of the Yinberrie Hills Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for endangered Gouldian finches, lies in the park
Lighting The Sails 'Songlines'
World Premiere, Sydney Only
Directed by the Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts
Co-curated by Sydney Opera House and Destination NSW
Visual content and animation created by Artists in Motion
Lighting the Sails for the eighth year of Vivid Sydney, Sydney Opera House will transform into an animated canvas of Australian indigenous art featuring iconic contemporary works from Karla Dickens, Djon Mundine, Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi, Reko Rennie, Donny Woolagoodja, and the late Gulumbu Yunupingu.
Celebrating First Nations' spirituality and culture through the songlines of our land and sky, this year’s Lighting the Sails is about painting and celebrating country through a pattern of sharing systems, interconnected history lines and trade routes. Lighting the Sails Director and Head of Indigenous Programming at Sydney Opera House Rhoda Roberts has selected six artists of different clans, national estates and territories for an immersive projected artwork that weaves through time and distance.
As the first indigenous work commissioned exclusively for the sails of the Sydney Opera House, this visual tapestry will weave through personal journeys, while celebrating the timeless themes and enduring art of Australia's most influential contemporary First Nations artists, exclusive to Vivid Sydney.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Karla Dickens (Wiradjuri)
Karla Dickens was born in Sydney in 1967; the Year of the Referendum that gave Aboriginal people human status. A double dawn for Aboriginal people; a major national political and social shift, and an innocent newborn seemingly as yet without any connection to her history and Aboriginal heritage. Karla’s Aboriginality and sexuality profoundly inform her work – her insight and breadth of artistic practice both deeply embraces the notion of identity politics and yet works with universal human experiences.
Djon Mundine OAM (Bandjalung)
Djon Mundine is a member of the Bandjalung people of northern New South Wales. Djon has an extended career as a curator, activist, writer, and occasional artist and is renown as the concept curator for the Aboriginal Memorial installation permanently exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia. Djon was awarded an OAM in 1993 and is currently Indigenous Curator-Contemporary Art at the Campbelltown Art Centre.
Gabriella Possum (Nungurrayi)
Gabriella Possum was born in 1967 and she is the eldest daughter of the internationally renowned artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri who was awarded the Order of Australia in 2002. Gabriella is best known for her Seven Sisters paintings, with her iconic depiction of the Milky Way and she also paints Bush Tucker and Grandmother's Country stories.
Reko Rennie (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay/Gummaroi)
Through his art Reko explores what it means to be an urban Aboriginal in contemporary Australian society. Rennie received no formal artistic training but as a teenager discovered graffiti which became an all-consuming passion. His art and installations continually explore issues of identity, race, law & justice, land rights, stolen generations and other issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in contemporary society.
Donny Woolagoodja (Worora)
Donny, Mowanjum Artists Spirit of the Wandjina Aboriginal Corporation (MASWAC) chairman, is the fourth eldest of ten children. His father, Sam, was the last of the Worora banmen (lawman and medicine man).
Donny's remarkable upbringing bridges the white Christian beliefs he became aware of at the mission churches and the ancient Wandjina laws his father taught him allowing him to move easily between his Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people.
Gulumbu Yunupingu (1954-2012, Gumatj)
Using distinctive white and black crosses on a red ground, Yolgnu artist Gulumbu Yunupingu (1945-2012) painted Garak, the starry universe, on barks and poles. She came to national prominence when she won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award (2004), and to international acclaim in 2006 with her scaled-up version of Garak on permanent display at Musee du Quai Branly (2006).
Artists In Motion
Artists in Motion is a Creative Project company that are highly regarded as pioneers of the industry. Known for their work around the world they still remain a proudly home grown creative force that produces all of their creations from their Sydney studio.
AIM is a collective of unique talent and experienced artists who have worked as a united team for several years. From the Epic to culturally emotional, they continue to transfix audiences of all kinds.
Under the creative leadership of Richard Lindsay, previous projects include content creation for the Beijing Olympics Ceremonies, Vancouver Winter Olympic Ceremonies, Hong Kong Pulse Shows, Alfa Bank Projection Moscow, 1st European Games Baku, the iconic UAE production “Clusters of Light”, as well as previous works for VIVID, including the popular Play projection on the Sydney Opera House.
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Avram Noam Chomsky
Portrait of Noam Chomsky painted in admiration for Justice and Liberty of his Wisdom
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1273830809738507&set=a.1...
“Freedom without opportunity is a devil's gift.”
― Noam Chomsky
Language and Freedom
Noam Chomsky
chomsky.info/language-and-freedom/
Excerpted from For Reasons of State, New York: Pantheon Books, 1973.
When I was invited to speak on the topic “Language and freedom”, I was puzzled and intrigued. Most of my professional life has been devoted to the study of language. There would be no great difficulty in finding a topic to discuss in that domain. And there is much to say about the problems of freedom and liberation as they pose themselves to us and to others in the mid-twentieth century. What is troublesome in the title of this lecture is the conjunction. In what way are language and freedom to be interconnected?
As a preliminary, let me say just a word about the contemporary study of language, as I see it. There are many aspects of language and language use that raise intriguing questions, but – in my judgement – only a few have so far led to productive theoretical work. In particular, our deepest insights are in the area of formal grammatical structure. A person who knows a language has acquired a system of rules and principles – a “generative grammar,” in technical terms – that associates sound and meaning in some specific fashion. There are many reasonably well-founded and, I think, rather enlightening hypotheses as to the character of such grammars, for quite a number of languages. Furthermore, there has been a renewal of interest in “universal grammar”, interpreted now as the theory that tries to specify the general properties of those languages that can be learned in the normal way by humans. Here, too, significant progress has been achieved.
The subject is of particular importance. It is appropriate to regard universal grammar as the study of one of the essential faculties of mind. It is, therefore, extremely interesting to discover, as I believe we do, that the principles of universal grammar are rich, abstract, and restrictive, and can be used to construct principled explanations for a variety of phenomena. At the present stage of our understanding, if language is to provide a springboard for the investigation of other problems of human nature, it is these aspects of language to which we will have to turn our attention, for the simple reason that it is only these aspects that are reasonably well understood. In another sense, the study of formal properties of language reveals something of the nature of humans in a negative way: it underscores, with great clarity, the limits of our understanding of those qualities of mind that are apparently unique to humans and that must enter into their cultural achievements in an intimate, if still quite obscure, manner.
In searching for a point of departure, one turns naturally to a period in the history of Western thought when it was possible to believe that “the thought of making freedom the sum and substance of philosophy has emancipated the human spirit in all its relationships, and . . . has given to science in all its parts a more powerful reorientation than any earlier revolution.” [1] The word “revolution” bears multiple association in this passage, for Schelling also proclaims that “man is born to act and not to speculate”; and when he writes that “the time has come to proclaim to a nobler humanity the freedom of the spirit, and no longer to have patience with men’s tearful regrets for their lost chains” we hear the echoes of the libertarian thought and revolutionary acts of the late eighteenth century. Schelling writes that “the beginning and end of all philosophy is – Freedom.” These words are invested with meaning and urgency at a time when people are struggling to cast off their chains, to resist authority that has lost its claim to legitimacy, to construct more humane and more democratic social institutions. It is at such a time that the philosopher may be driven to inquire into the nature of human freedom and its limits, and perhaps to conclude, with Schelling, that with respect to the human ego, “its essence is freedom”; and with respect to philosophy, “the highest dignity of Philosophy consists precisely therein, that it stakes all on human freedom.”
We are living, once again, at such a time. A revolutionary ferment is sweeping the socalled Third World, awakening enormous masses from torpor and acquiescence in traditional authority. There are those who feel that the industrial societies as well are ripe for revolutionary change – and I do not refer only to representatives of the New Left. The threat of revolutionary change brings forth repression and reaction. Its signs are evident in varying forms, in France, in the Soviet Union, in the United States—not least, in the city where we are meeting. It is natural, then, that we should consider, abstractly, the problems of human freedom, and turn with interest and serious attention to the thinking of an earlier period when archaic social institutions were subjected to critical analysis and sustained attack. It is natural and appropriate, so long as we bear in mind Schellings’s admonition that man is born not merely to speculate but also to act.
One of the earliest and most remarkable of the eighteenth-century investigations of freedom and servitude is Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (1755), in many ways a revolutionary tract. In it, he seeks to “set forth the origin and progress of inequality, the establishment and abuse of political societies, insofar as these things can be deduced from the nature of man by the light of reason alone.” His conclusions were sufficiently shocking that the judges of the prize competition of the Academy of Dijon, to whom the work was originally submitted, refused to hear the manuscript through. [2] In it, Rousseau challenges the legitimacy of virtually every social institution, as well as individual control of property and wealth. These are “usurpations . . . established only on a precarious and abusive right . . . having been acquired only by force, force could take them away without (the rich) having grounds for complaint.” Not even property acquired by personal industry is held “upon better titles”. Against such a claim, one might object: “Do you not know that a multitude of your brethren die or suffer from need of what you have in excess, and that you needed express and unanimous consent of the human race to appropriate for yourself anything from common subsistence that exceeded your own?” It is contrary to the law of nature that “a handful of men be glutted with superfluities while the starving multitude lacks necessities.”
Rousseau argues that civil society is hardly more than a conspiracy by the rich to guarantee their plunder. Hypocritically, the rich call upon their neighbors to “institute regulations of justice and peace to which all are obliged to conform, which make an exception of no one, and which compensate in some way for the caprices of fortune by equally subjecting the powerful and the weak to mutual duties”– those laws which, as Anatole France was to say, in their majesty deny to the rich and the poor equally the right to sleep under the bridge at night. By such arguments, the poor and weak were seduced: “All ran to meet their chains thinking they secured their freedom. . . .” Thus society and laws “gave new fetters to the weak and new forces to the rich, destroyed natural freedom for all time, established forever the law of property and inequality, changed a clever usurpation into an irrevocable right, and for the profit of a few ambitious men henceforth subjected the whole human race to work, servitude and misery”. Governments inevitably tend toward arbitrary power, as “their corruption and extreme limit”. This power is “by its nature illegitimate,” and new revolutions must
dissolve the government altogether or bring it closer to its legitimate institutions … . The uprising that ends by strangling or dethroning a sultan is as lawful an act as those by which he disposed, the day before, of the lives and goods of his subjects. Force alone maintained him, force alone overthrows him.
What is interesting, in the present connection, is the path that Rousseau follows to reach these conclusions “by the light of reason alone,” beginning with his ideas about human nature. He wants to see man “as nature formed him”. It is from human nature that the principles of natural right and the foundations of social existence must be deduced.
This same study of original man, of his true needs, and of the principles underlying his duties, is also the only good means one could use to remove those crowds of difficulties which present themselves concerning the origin of moral inequality, the true foundation of the body politic, the reciprocal rights of its members, and a thousand similar questions as important as they are ill explained.
To determine the nature of man, Rousseau proceeds to compare man and animal. Man is “intelligent, free . . . the sole animal endowed with reason.” Animals are “devoid of intellect and freedom.”
In every animal I see only an ingenious machine to which nature has given senses in order to revitalize itself and guarantee itself, to a certain point, from all that tends to destroy or upset it. I perceive precisely the same things in the human machine, with the difference that nature alone does everything in the operations of a beast, whereas man contributes to his operations by being a free agent. The former chooses or rejects by instinct and the latter by an act of freedom, so that a beast cannot de viate from the rule that is prescribed to it even when it would be advantageous for it do so, and a man deviates from it often to his detriment . . . . it is not so much understanding which constitutes the distinction of man among the animals as it is his being a free agent. Nature commands every animal, and the beast obeys. Man feels the same impetus, but he realizes that he is free to acquiesce or resist; and it is above all in the consciousness of this freedom that the spirituality of his soul is shown. For physics explains in some way the mechanism of the senses and the formation of ideas; but in the power of willing, or rather of choosing, and in the sentiment of this power are found only purely spiritual acts about which the laws of mechanics explain nothing.
Thus the essence of human nature is human freedom and the consciousness of this freedom. So Rousseau can say that “the jurists, who have gravely pronounced that the child of a slave would be born a slave, have decided in other terms that a man would not be born a man.”[3]
Sophistic politicians and intellectuals search for ways to obscure the fact that the essential and defining property of man is his freedom: “They attribute to men a natural inclination to servitude, without thinking that it is the same for freedom as for innocence and virtue – their value is felt only as long as one enjoys them oneself and the taste for them is lost as soon as one has lost them.” In contrast, Rousseau asks rhetorically “whether, freedom being the most noble of man’s faculties, it is not degrading one’s nature, putting oneself on the level of beasts enslaved by instinct, even offending the author on one’s being, to renounce without reservation the most precious of all his gifts and subject ourselves to committing all the crimes he forbids us in order to please a ferocious or insane master” – a question that has been asked, in similar terms, by many an American draft resister in the last few years, and by many others who are beginning to recover from the catastrophe of twentieth-century Western civilization, which has so tragically confirmed Rousseau’s judgement:
Hence arose the national wars, battles, murders, and reprisals which make nature tremble and shock reason, and all those horrible prejudices which rank the honour of shedding human blood among the virtues. The most decent men learned to consider it one of their duties to murder their fellowmen; at length men were seen to massacre each other by the thousands without knowing why; more murders were committed on a single day of fighting and more horrors in the capture of a single city than were committed in the state of nature during whole centuries over the entire face of the earth.
The proof of his doctrine that the struggle for freedom is an essential human attribute, that the value of freedom is felt only as long as one enjoys it, Rousseau sees in “the marvels done by all free peoples to guard themselves from oppression.” True, those who have abandoned the life of a free man
do nothing but boast incessantly of the peace and repose they enjoy in their chains . . . . But when I see the others sacrifice pleasures, repose, wealth, power, and life itself for the preservation of this sole good which is so disdained by those who have lost it; when I see animals born free and despising captivity break their heads against the bars of their prison; when I see multitudes of entirely naked savages scorn European voluptousness and endure hunger, fire, the sword, and death to preserve only their independence, I feel that it does not behoove slaves to reason about freedom.
Rather similar thoughts were expressed by Kant, forty years later. He cannot, he says, accept the proposition that certain people “are not ripe for freedom,” for example, the serfs of some landlord:
If one accepts this assumption, freedom will never be achieved; for one can not arrive at the maturity for freedom without having already acquired it; one must be free to learn how to make use of one’s powers freely and usefully. The first attempts will surely be brutal and will lead to a state of affairs more painful and dangerous than the former condition under the dominance but also the protection of an external authority. However, one can achieve reason only through one’s own experiences and one must be free to be able to undertake them. . . . To accept the principle that freedom is worthless for those under one’s control and that one has the right to refuse it to them forever, is an infringement on the rights of God himself, who has created man to be free. [4]
The remark is particularly interesting because of its context. Kant was defending the French Revolution, during the Terror, against those who claimed that it showed the masses to be unready for the privilege of freedom. Kant’s remarks have contemporary relevance. No rational person will approve of violence and terror. In particular, the terror of the postrevolutionary state, fallen into the hands of a grim autocracy, has more than once reached indescribable levels of savagery. Yet no person of understanding or humanity will too quickly condemn the violence that often occurs when long-subdued masses rise against their oppressors, or take their first steps toward liberty and social reconstruction.
Let me return now to Rousseau’s argument against the legitimacy of established authority, whether that of political power or of wealth. It is striking that his argument, up to this point, follows a familiar Cartesian model. Man is uniquely beyond the bounds of physical explanation; the beast, on the other hand, is merely an ingenious machine, commanded by natural law. Man’s freedom and his consciousness of this freedom distinguish him from the beast-machine. The principles of mechanical explanation are incapable of accounting for these human properties, though they can account for sensation and even the combination of ideas, in which regard “man differs from a beast only in degree.”
To Descartes and his followers, such as Cordemoy, the only sure sign that another organism has a mind, and hence also lies beyond the bounds of mechanical explanation, is its use of language in the normal, creative human fashion, free from control by identifiable stimuli, novel and innovative, appropriate to situations, coherent, and engendering in our minds new thoughts and ideas. [5] To the Cartesians, it is obvious by introspection that each man possesses a mind, a substance whose essence is thought; his creative use of language reflects this freedom of thought and conception. When we have evidence that another organism, too, uses language in this free and creative fashion, we are led to attribute to it as well a mind like ours. From similar assumptions regarding the intrinsic limits of mechanical explanation, its inability to account for man’s freedom and consciousness of his freedom, Rousseau proceeds to develop his critique of authoritarian institutions, which deny to man his essential attribute of freedom, in varying degree.
Were we to combine these speculations, we might develop an interesting connection between language and freedom. Language, in its essential properties and the manner of its use, provides the basic criterion for determining that another organism is a being with a human mind and the human capacity for free thought and self-expression, and with the essential human need for freedom from the external constraints of repressive authority. Furthermore, we might try to proceed from the detailed investigation of language and its use to a deeper and more specific understanding of the human mind. Proceeding on this model, we might further attempt to study other aspects of that human nature which, as Rousseau rightly observes, must be correctly conceived if we are to be able to develop, in theory, the foundations for a rational social order.
I will return to this problem, but first I would like to trace further Rousseau’s thinking about the matter. Rousseau diverges from the Cartesian tradition in several respects. He defines the “specific characteristic of the human species” as man’s “faculty of selfperfection,” which, “with the aid of circumstances, successively develops all the others, and resides among us as much in the species as in the individual.” The faculty of selfperfection and of perfection of the human species through cultural transmission is not, to my knowledge, discussed in any similar terms by the Cartesians. However, I think that Rousseau’s remarks might be interpreted as a development of the Cartesian tradition in an unexplored direction, rather than as a denial and rejection of it. There is no inconsistency in the notion that the restrictive attributes of mind underlie a historically evolving human nature that develops within the limits that they set; or that these attributes of mind provide the possibility of self-perfection; or that, by providing the consciousness of freedom, these essential attributes of human nature give man the opportunity to create social conditions and social forms to maximize the possibilities for freedom, diversity, and individual self-realization. To use an arithmetical analogy, the integers do not fail to be an infinite set merely because they do not exhaust the rational numbers. Analogously, it is no denial of man’s capacity for infinite “self-perfection” to hold that there are intrinsic properties of mind that constrain his development. I would like to argue that in a sense the opposite is true, that without a system of formal constraints there are no creative acts; specifically, in the absence of intrinsic and restrictive properties of mind, there can be only “shaping of behaviour” but no creative acts of self-perfection. Furthermore, Rousseau’s concern for the evolutionary character of self-perfection brings us back, from another point of view, to a concern for human language, which would appear to be a prerequisite for such evolution of society and culture, for Rousseau’s perfection of the species, beyond the most rudimentary forms.
Rousseau holds that “although the organ of speech is natural to man, speech itself is nonetheless not natural to him.” Again, I see no inconsistency between this observation and the typical Cartesian view that innate abilities are “dispositional,” faculties that lead us to produce ideas (specifically, innate ideas) in a particular manner under given conditions of external stimulation, but that also provide us with the ability to proceed in our thinking without such external factors. Language too, then, is natural to man only in a specific way. This is an important and, I believe, quite fundamental insight of the rationalist linguists that was disregarded, very largely, under the impact of empiricist psychology in the eighteenth century and since.[6]
Rousseau discusses the origin of language at some length, though he confesses himself to be unable to come to grips with the problem in a satisfactory way. Thus
if men needed speech in order to learn to think, they had even greater need of knowing how to think in order to discover the art of speech. . . . So that one can hardly form tenable conjectures about this art of communicating thoughts and establishing intercourse between minds; a sublime art which is now very far from its origin. . . .
He holds that “general ideas can come into the mind only with the aid of words, and the understanding grasps them only through propositions” – a fact which prevents animals, devoid of reason, from formulating such ideas or ever acquiring “the perfectibility which depends upon them.” Thus he cannot conceive of the means by which “our new grammarians began to extend their ideas and to generalize their words,” or to develop the means “to express all the thoughts of men”: “numbers, abstract words, aorists, and all the tenses of verbs, particles, syntax, the linking of propositions, reasoning, and the forming of all the logic of discourse.” He does speculate about later stages of the perfection of the species, “when the ideas of men began to spread and multiply, and when closer communication was established among them, [and] they sought more numerous signs and a more extensive language.” But he must, unhappily, abandon “the following difficult problem: which was most necessary, previously formed society for the institution of languages, or previously invented languages for the establishment of society?”
The Cartesians cut the Gordian knot by postulating the existence of a species-specific characteristic, a second substance that serves as what we might call a “creative principle” alongside the “mechanical principle” that determines totally the behaviour of animals. There was, for them, no need to explain the origin of language in the course of historical evolution. Rather, man’s nature is qualitatively distinct: there is no passage from body to mind. We might reinterpret this idea in more current terms by speculating the rather sudden and dramatic mutations might have led to qualities of intelligence that are, so far as we know, unique to humans, possession of language in the human sense being the most distinctive index of these qualities. [7] If this is correct, as at least a first approximation to the facts, the study of language might be expected to offer an entering wedge, or perhaps a model, for an investigation of human nature that would provide the grounding for a much broader theory of human nature.
To conclude these historical remarks, I would like to turn, as I have elsewhere, [8] to Wilhelm von Humboldt, one of the most stimulating and intriguing thinkers of the period. Humboldt was, on the one hand, one of the most profound theorists of general linguistics, and on the other, an early and forceful advocate of libertarian values. The basic concept of his philosophy is Bildung, by which, as J.W. Burrow expresses it, “he meant the fullest, richest, and most harmonious development of the potentialities of the individual, the community or the human race.” [9] His own thought might serve as an exemplary case. Though he does not, to my knowledge, explicitly relate his ideas about language to his libertarian social thought, there is quite clearly a common ground from which they develop, a concept of human nature that inspires each. Mill’s essay On Liberty takes as its epigraph Humboldt’s formulation of the “leading principle” of his thought: “the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity.” Humboldt concludes his critique of the authoritarian state by saying: “I have felt myself animated throughout with a sense of the deepest respect for the inherent dignity of human nature, and for freedom, which alone befits that dignity.” Briefly put, his concept of human nature is this:
The true end of Man, or that which is prescribed by the eternal and immutable dictates of reason, and not suggested by vague and transient desires, is the highest and most harmonious development of his powers to a complete and consistent whole. Freedom is the first and indispensable condition which the possibility of such a development presupposes; but there is besides another essential – intimately connected with freedom, it is true – a variety of situations. [10]
Like Rousseau and Kant, he holds that
nothing promotes this ripeness for freedom so much as freedom itself. This truth, perhaps, may not be acknowledged by those who have so often used this unripeness as an excuse for continuing repression. But it seems to me to follow unquestionably from the very nature of man. The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to heighten this power is the only way to supply this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of the power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity. Only it is clear we cannot call it giving freedom, when bonds are relaxed which are not felt as such by him who wears them. But of no man on earth – however neglected by nature, and however degraded by circumstances – is this true of all the bonds which oppress him. Let us undo them one by one, as the feeling of freedom awakens in men’s hearts, and we shall hasten progress at every step.
Those who do not comprehend this “may justly be suspected of misunderstanding human nature, and of wishing to make men into machines.”
Man is fundamentally a creative, searching, self-perfecting being: “To inquire and to create – these are the centres around which all human pursuits more or less directly revolve.” But freedom of thought and enlightenment are not only for the elite. Once again echoing Rousseau, Humboldt states, “There is something degrading to human nature in the idea of refusing to any man the right to be a man.” He is, then, optimistic about the effects on all of “the diffusion of scientific knowledge by freedom and enlightenment.” But “all moral culture springs solely and immediately from the inner life of the soul, and can only be stimulated in human nature, and never produced by external and artificial contrivances.” “The cultivation of the understanding, as of any of man’s other faculties, is generally achieved by his own activity, his own ingenuity, or his own methods of using the discoveries of others. . . .” Education, then, must provide the opportunities for selffulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way. Even a language cannot, strictly speaking, be taught, but only “awakened in the mind: one can only provide the thread along which it will develop of itself.” I think that Humboldt would have found congenial much of Dewey’s thinking about education. And he might also have appreciated the recent revolutionary extension of such ideas, for example, by the radical Catholics of Latin America who are concerned with the “awakening of consciousness,” referring to “the transformation of the passive exploited lower classes into conscious and critical masters of their own destinies” [11] much in the manner of Third World revolutionaries elsewhere. He would, I am sure, have approved of their criticism of schools that are
more preoccupied with the transmission of knowledge than with the creation, among other values, of a critical spirit. From the social point of view, the educational systems are oriented to maintaining the existing social and economic structures instead of transforming them.[12]
But Humboldt’s concern for spontaneity goes well beyond educational practice in the narrow sense. It touches also the question of labour and exploitation. The remarks, just quoted, about the cultivation of understanding through spontaneous action continue as follows:
. . . man never regards what he possesses as so much his own, as what he does; and the labourer who tends a garden is perhaps in a true sense its owner, than the listless voluptuary who enjoys its fruits. . . . In view of this consideration, [13] it seems as if all peasants and craftsmen might be elevated into artists; that is, men who love their labour for its own sake, improve it by their own plastic genius and inventive skill, and thereby cultivate their intellect, ennoble their character, and exalt and refine their pleasures. And so humanity would be ennobled by the very things which now, thought beautiful in themselves, so often serve to degrade it. . . But, still, freedom is undoubtedly the indispensable condition, without which even the pursuits most congenial to individual human nature, can never succeed in producing such salutary influences. Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.
If a man acts in a purely mechanical way, reacting to external demands or instruction rather than in ways determined by his own interests and energies and power, “we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.” [14]
On such conceptions Humboldt grounds his ideas concerning the role of the state, which tends to “make man an instrument to serve its arbitrary ends, overlooking his individual purposes.” His doctrine is classical liberal, strongly opposed to all but the most minimal forms of state intervention in personal or social life.
Writing in the 1790s, Humboldt had no conception of the forms that industrial capitalism would take. Hence he is not overly concerned with the dangers of private power.
But when we reflect (still keeping theory distinct from practice) that the influence of a private person is liable to diminution and decay, from competition, dissipation of fortune, even death; and that clearly none of these contingencies can be applied to the State; we are still left with the principle that the latter is not to meddle in anything which does not refer exclusively to security. . . .
He speaks of the essential equality of the condition of private citizens, and of course has no idea of the ways in which the notion “private person” would come to be reinterpreted in the era of corporate capitalism. He did not foresee that “Democracy with its motto of equality of all citizens before the law and Liberalism with its right of man over his own person both [would be] wrecked on realities of capitalist economy.”15 He did not foresee that, in a predatory capitalist economy, state intervention would be an absolute necessity to preserve human existence and to prevent the destruction of the physical environment— I speak optimistically. As Karl Polanyi, for one, has pointed out, the self-adjusting market “could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness.” Humboldt did not foresee the consequences of the commodity character of labour, the doctrine (in Polanyi’s words) that “it is not for the commodity to decide where is should be offered for sale, to what purpose it should be used, at what price it should be allowed to change hands, and in what manner it should be consumed or destroyed.” But the commodity, in the case, is a human life, and social protection was therefore a minimal necessity to constrain the irrational and destructive workings of the classical free market. Nor did Humboldt understand that capitalist economic relations perpetuated a form of bondage which, as early as 1767, Simon Linguet had declared to be even worse than slavery.
It is the impossibility of living by any other means that compels our farm labourers to till the soil whose fruits they will not eat, and our masons to construct buildings in which they will not live. It is want that drags them to those markets where they await masters who will do them the kindness of buying them. It is want that compels them to go down on their knees to the rich man in order to get from him permission to enrich him. . . . What effective gain has the suppression of slavery brought him?. . . . He is free, you say. Ah! That is his misfortune. The slave was precious to his master because of the money he had cost him. But the handicraftsmen cost nothing to the rich voluptuary who employs him. . . . These men, it is said, have no master– they have one, and the most terrible, the most imperious of masters, that is need. It is this that reduces them to the most cruel dependence. [17]
If there is something degrading to human nature in the idea of bondage, then a new emancipation must be awaited, Fourier’s “third and last emancipatory phase of history,” which will transform the proletariat to free men by eliminating the commodity character of labor, ending wage slavery, and bringing the commercial, industrial, and financial institutions under democratic control. [18]
Perhaps Humboldt might have accepted these conclusions. He does agree that state intervention in social life is legitimate if “freedom would destroy the very conditions without which not only freedom but even existence itself would be inconceivable” – precisely the circumstances that arise in an unconstrained capitalist economy. In any event, his criticism of bureaucracy and the autocratic state stands as an eloquent forewarning of some of the most dismal aspects of modern history, and the basis of his critique is applicable to a broader range of coercive institutions than he imagined.
Though expressing a classical liberal doctrine, Humboldt is no primitive individualist in the style of Rousseau. Rousseau extols the savage who “lives within himself”; he has little use for “the sociable man, always outside of himself, [who] knows how to live only in the opinion of others . . . from [whose] judgement alone . . . he draws the sentiment of his own existence.”19 Humboldt’s vision is quite different:
. . . the whole tenor of the ideas and arguments unfolded in this essay might fairly be reduced to this, that while they would break all fetters in human society, they would attempt to find as many new social bonds as possible. The isolated man is no more able to develop than the one who is fettered.
Thus he looks forward to a community of free association without coercion by the state or other authoritarian institutions, in which free men can create and inquire, and achieve the highest development of their powers – far ahead of his time, he presents an anarchist vision that is appropriate, perhaps, to the next stage of industrial society. We can perhaps look forward to a day when these various strands will be brought together within the framework of libertarian socialism, a social form that barely exists today though its elements can be perceived: in the guarantee of individual rights that has achieved its highest form – though still tragically flawed – in the Western democracies; in the Israeli kibbutzim; in the experiments with workers’ councils in Yugoslavia; in the effort to awaken popular consciousness and create a new involvement in the social process which is a fundamental element in the Third World revolutions, coexisting uneasily with indefensible authoritarian practice.
A similar concept of human nature underlies Humboldt’s work on language. Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation. The normal use of language and the acquisition of language depend on what Humboldt calls the fixed form of language, a system of generative processes that is rooted in the nature of the human mind and constrains but does not determine the free creations of normal intelligence or, at a higher and more original level, of the great writer or thinker. Humboldt is, on the one hand, a Platonist who insists that learning is a kind of reminiscence, in which the mind, stimulated by experience, draws from its own internal resources and follows a path that it itself determines; and he is also a romantic, attuned to cultural variety, and the endless possibilities for the spiritual contributions of the creative genius. There is no contradiction in this, any more than there is a contradiction in the insistence of aesthetic theory that individual works of genius are constrained by principle and rule. The normal, creative use of language, which to the Cartesian rationalist is the best index of the existence of another mind, presupposes a system of rules and generative principles of a sort that the rationalist grammarians attempted, with some success, to determine and make explicit.
The many modern critics who sense an inconsistency in the belief that free creation takes place within – presupposes, in fact – a system of constraints and governing principles are quite mistaken; unless, of course, they speak of “contradiction” in the loose and metaphoric sense of Schelling, when he writes that “without the contradiction of necessity and freedom not only philosophy but every nobler ambition of the spirit would sink to that death which is peculiar to those sciences in which that contradiction serves no function.” Without this tension between necessity and freedom, rule and choice, there can be no creativity, no communication, no meaningful acts at all.
I have discussed these traditional ideas at some length, not out of antiquarian interest, but because I think that they are valuable and essentially correct, and that they project a course we can follow with profit. Social action must be animated by a vision of a future society, and by explicit judgements of value concerning the character of this future society. These judgements must derive from some concept of human nature, and one may seek empirical foundations by investigating human nature as it is revealed by human behaviour and human creations, material, intellectual, and social. We have, perhaps, reached a point in history when it is possible to think seriously about a society in which freely constituted social bonds replace the fetters of autocratic institutions, rather in the sense conveyed by the remarks of Humboldt that I quoted, and elaborated more fully in the tradition of libertarian socialism in the years that followed.
Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century. It is incapable of meeting human needs that can be expressed only in collective terms, and its concept of competitive man who seeks only to maximize wealth and power, who subjects himself to market relationships, to exploitation and external authority, is antihuman and intolerable in the deepest sense. An autocratic state is no acceptable substitute; nor can the militarized state capitalism evolving in the United States or the bureaucratized, centralized welfare state be accepted as the goal of human existence. The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival. Modern science and technology can relieve people of the necessity for specialized, imbecile labour. They may, in principle, provide the basis for a rational social order based on free association and democratic control, if we have the will to create it.
A vision of a future social order is in turn based on a concept of human nature. If in fact humans are indefinitely malleable, completely plastic beings, with no innate structures of mind and no intrinsic needs of a cultural or social character, then they are fit subjects for the “shaping of behavior” by the state authority, the corporate manager, the technocrat, or the central committee. Those with some confidence in the human species will hope this is not so and will try to determine the intrinsic human characteristics that provide the framework for intellectual development, the growth of moral consciousness, cultural achievement, and participation in a free community. In a partly analogous way, a classical tradition spoke of artistic genius acting within and in some ways challenging a framework of rule. Here we touch on matters that are little understood. It seems to me that we must break away, sharply and radically, from much of modern social and behavioral science if we are to move toward a deeper understanding of these matters.
Here, too, I think that the tradition I have briefly reviewed has a contribution to offer. As I have already observed, those who were concerned with human distinctiveness and potential repeatedly were led to a consideration of the properties of language. I think that the study of language can provide some glimmerings of understanding of rule-governed behavior and the possibilities for free and creative action within the framework of a system of rules that in part, at least, reflect intrinsic properties of human mental organization. It seems to me fair to regard the contemporary study of language as in some ways a return to the Humboldtian concept of the form of language: a system of generative processes rooted in innate properties of mind but permitting, in Humboldt’s phrase, an infinite use of finite means. Language cannot be described as a system of organization of behaviour. Rather, to understand how language is used, we must discover the abstract Humboldtian form of language – its generative grammar, in modern terms. To learn a language is to construct for oneself this abstract system, of course unconsciously. The linguist and pyschologist can proceed to study the use and acquistion of language only insofar as they have some grasp of the properties of the system that has been mastered by the person who knows the language. Furthermore, it seems to me that a good case can be made in support of the empirical claim that such a system can be acquired, under the given conditions of time and access, only by a mind that is endowed with certain specific properties that we can now tentatively describe in some detail. As long as we restrict ourselves, conceptually, to the investigation of behavior, its organization, its development through interaction with the environment, we are bound to miss these characteristics of language and mind. Other aspects of human psychology and culture might, in principle, be studied in a similar way.
Conceivably, we might in this way develop a social science based on empirically wellfounded propositions concerning human nature. Just as we study the range of humanly attainable languages, with some success, we might also try to study the forms of artistic expression or, for that matter, scientific knowledge that humans can conceive, and perhaps even the range of ethical systems and social structures in which humans can live and function, given their intrinsic capacities and needs. Perhaps one might go on to project a concept of social organization that would – under given conditions of material and spiritual culture – best encourage and accommodate the fundamental human need – if such it is – for spontaneous initiative, creative work, solidarity, pursuit of social justice.
I do not want to exaggerate, as I no doubt have, the role of investigation of language. Language is the product of human intelligence that is, for the moment, most accessible to study. A rich tradition held language to be a mirror of mind. To some extent, there is surely truth and useful insight in this idea.
I am no less puzzled by the topic “language and freedom” than when I began – and no less intrigued. In these speculative and sketchy remarks there are gaps so vast that one might question what would remain, when metaphor and unsubstantiated guess are removed. It is sobering to realize – as I believe we must – how little we have progressed in our knowledge of human beings and society, or even in formulating clearly the problems that might be seriously studied. But there are, I think, a few footholds that seem fairly firm. I like to believe that the intensive study of one aspect of human psychology – human language – may contribute to a humanistic social science that will serve, as well, as an instrument for social action. It must, needless to say, be stressed that social action cannot await a firmly established theory of human nature and society, nor can the validity of the latter be determined by our hopes and moral judgements. The two – speculation and action – must progress as best they can, looking forward to the day when theoretical inquiry will provide a firm guide to the unending, often grim, but never hopeless struggle for freedom and social justice.
Suggested Reading
[1] F W J Schelling, Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom, trans. and ed. James Gutmann (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1936).
[2] R D Masters, introduction to his edition of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, First and Second Discourses, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1964).
[3] Compare Proudhon, a century later: “No long discussion is necessary to demonstrate that the power of denying a man his thought, his will, his personality, is a power of life and death, and that to make a man a slave is to assassinate him.”
[4] Cited in A Lehning, ed., Bakunin, Etatisme et anarchie (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967), editor’s note 50, from P Schrecker, “Kant et la révolution francaise,” Revue philosophique, September–December 1939.
[5] I have discussed this matter in Cartesian Linguistics (New York: Harper & Row, 1966) and Language and Mind (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, extended ed., 1972).
[6] See the references of note 5, and also my Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1969), chap. 1, sec. 8.
[7] I need hardly add that this is not the prevailing view. For discussion, see E.H. Lenneberg, Biological Foundations of Language (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1967); my Language and Mind; E.A. Drewe et al., “A Comparative Review of the Results of Behavioural Research on Man and Monkey,” (London; Institute of Psychiatry, unpublished draft, 1969); P.H. Lieberman, D.H. Klatt, and W.H. Wilson, “Vocal Tract Limitations on the Vowel Repertoires of Rhesus Monkeys and other Nonhuman Primates,” Science, June 6, 1969; and P.H. Lieberman, “Primate Vocalizations and Human Linguistic Ability,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 44, no. 6 (1968).
[8] In the books cited above, and in Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (New York: Humanities Press, 1964).
[9] J W Burrow, introduction to his edition of Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State Action (London: Cambridge University Press, 1969), from which most of the following quotes are taken.
[10] Compare the remarks of Kant, quoted above. Kant’s essay appeared in 1793; Humboldt’s was written in 1791–92. Parts appeared, but it did not appear in full during his lifetime. See Burrow, introduction to Humboldt, Limits of State Action.
[11 ] Thomas G Sanders, “The Church in Latin America,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 48, no. 2 (1970).
[12] Ibid, The source is said to be the ideas of Paulo Freire. Similar criticism is widespread in the student movement in the West. See, for example, Mitchell Cohen and Dennis Hale, eds., The New Student Left rev. ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967), chap. 3.
[13] Namely, that a man “only attains the most matured and graceful consummation of his activity, when his way of life is harmoniously in keeping with his character”–that is, when his actions flow from inner impulse.
[14] The latter quote is from Humboldt’s comments on the French Constitution, 1791–parts translated in Marianne Cowan, ed., Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1963).
[15] Rudolf Rocker, “Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism,” in Paul Eltzbacher, Anarchism (London: Freedom Press, 1960). In his book Nationalism and Culture (London: Freedom Press, 1937), Rocker describes Humboldt as “the most prominent representative in Germany” of the doctrine of natural rights and of the opposition to the authoritarian state. Rousseau he regards as a precursor of authoritarian doctrine, but he considers only the Social Contract, not the far more libertarian Discourse on Inequality. Burrow observes that Humboldt’s essay anticipates “much nineteenth century political theory of a populist, anarchist and syndicalist kind” and notes the hints of the early Marx. See also my Cartesian Linguistics, n. 51, for some comments.
[16] Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957).
[17] Cited by Paul Mattick, “Workers’ Control,” in Priscilla Long, ed., The New Left (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1969), p. 377.
[18] Cited in Martin Buber, Paths in Utopia (Boston: Beacon Press, 1958). p. 19
CHOMSKY.INFO
The Dixie Highway was planned out in December 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South, from Chicago to Miami.
By the mid-1920s, the project was largely completed with a network of roads interconnected across 10 states with more than 5,000 miles of paved, bricked road. But, by 1927, Dixie Highway became part of the US Route System, and was therefore, mostly abandoned. But, a portion of it still remains in remote Florida, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 2005.
“It’s one of the oldest roads in America,” according to the historian.
Upon on my arrival, I started from south toward north, before I entered, there is a warning: “Travel at your own risk.” And another prohibiting the removal of the bricks in the road. Doing so, it says, warrants prosecution “to the fullest extent of the law.”
The historic stretch of Old Dixie Highway is 10 miles long, and would recommend to drive slowly as there are some thick soft-sand on the road that could cause slide off from the road if driving too fast.
Interesting fact: The brick was manufactured by the Graves Shale Brick Company in Birmingham, Alabama, belonging to a slave-owning man who fought for the Confederacy. It took 237,600 such bricks to build just 1 mile of road, 9 feet wide. Others are with the words "SOUTHERN CLAY MFG CO” for the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company in Tennessee.
Near maximum length (c.35mm) for the species.
1: posterior profile slightly convex.
2: anterior profile straight.
3: excavated vertex patch.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION part A BELOW
SPECIES DESCRIPTION part B 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR
Key id. features 3Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7bhf
PDF version at www.researchgate.net/profile/Ian_Smith19/research
OTHER SPECIES ALBUMS www.flickr.com/photos/56388191@N08/collections/
Patella_depressa Pennant, 1777
Current taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=151374
Synonyms: Patella intermedia Murray in Knapp,1857; Patella vulgata var. intermedia Jeffreys, 1865; Patella athletica [as dark variant of] Forbes & Hanley,1849;
Jeffreys (1865) mistakenly took the rudimentary description of P. depressa by Pennant (1777) to be what is currently (2015) called P. ulyssiponensis Gmelin, 1791 (syn. P. athletica). Until 1923, most authors followed Jeffreys in applying the name P. depressa Pennant to the wrong species, and in using the name P. intermedia Jeffreys for what is now recognised as P. depressa Pennant. Examination of Pennant's type specimen by Tomlin (1923) exposed the error and authors started to use the name P. athletica Bean, 1844, for what is now called P. ulyssiponensis but, probably to avoid confusion, many retained use of P. intermedia Jeffreys for the true P. depressa Pennant, despite Pennant's priority, until the 1970s (e.g.Yonge & Thompson, 1976).
Vernacular names: Black footed limpet (English); Brenigen dorddu (Welsh); Platte schaalhoren (Dutch); Patelle bernique (French);
Meaning of name:
Patella (Latin) = little pan. depressa (Latin) = depressed /low.
Terms in text used with restricted or specialised meaning are marked with hashtag#; refer to GLOSSARY below.
Shell Description
Patellid limpets have great geographical variation within and between species. This account refers to typical British specimens.
Usual maximum length c.35mm and height# 12mm 1Pd flic.kr/p/BaSA3C . Strong. Conoid; apex is positioned to anterior of centre. The base is ovoid , widest and sometimes angulated at posterior. Profile usually low (H/L 25-37% in sample of twelve typical shells from S.W.England and N.W. Wales) 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR . In profile, anterior and posterior usually slightly convex or almost straight. Sculpture of narrow, radiating, whitish ribs that tend to be arranged in triplets; one major flanked by a minor each side 10Pd flic.kr/p/BaScwq . Ribs project as points from aperture-rim of unworn shells 3Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7bhf , but often majority have ribs rounded, and rib-points reduced, by erosion, and outer shell-layer eroded away from apical half of the shell 4Pd flic.kr/p/Bc5Hk6 to almost whole shell 5Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7kFz . Dark radiating rays in grooves of exterior shell-layer visible externally only on uneroded parts 4Pd flic.kr/p/Bc5Hk6 , but usually clearly visible on interior through transparent, iridescent skirt-shell-layer# for much 6Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7i76 or most 7Pd flic.kr/p/AfbuN8 of the way to opaque, whitish, pallial-groove-band#. On interior, whitish projecting points of ribs have short, unglazed, chalky-white central line, but reduced or lacking where projecting point of rib eroded 8Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6YL9 . Pedal-retractor muscle leaves translucent horseshoe-shape scar 7Pd flic.kr/p/AfbuN8 , often containing an opaque white line 9Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7bJg . Mouth of horseshoe-scar is closed by thin anterior mantle-attachment scar 9Pd flic.kr/p/Ay7bJg ; the two scars enclose area shaped like fat amphora# filled with blackish 10Pd flic.kr/p/BaScwq , grey 11Pd flic.kr/p/Bd4YEr , orange-cream 12Pd flic.kr/p/Af3iJS , opaque-white and/or yellowish-cream 7Pd flic.kr/p/AfbuN8 shell-layer. Some have excavated, colourless, translucent patch near vertex#, 13Pd flic.kr/p/AApFbT , perhaps caused by re-absorption of shell-material. Juvenile spat lack ridges on main antero-posterior axis and have broad, prominent, mid-lateral pigment lines from apex to lip that are swept forwards on left and backwards on right.
Body description
Translucent white head, darkened to purple-pink by internal odontophore 14Pd flic.kr/p/Bc5hcv ; has substantial snout , slit at posterior, with large mouth (transverse when shut) fringed by thick outer lips 15Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6H2J . Distal end of snout and lips tinted pale yellow 14Pd flic.kr/p/Bc5hcv . When outer lips opened, dull-yellow inner lips exposed. Inner lips open laterally to expose radula with crimson ribbon and golden teeth, and white, cuticularized, triangular licker 15Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6H2J . Sturdy pale grey cephalic tentacles have small black eye in slight swelling at base 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR . Eye is primitive (or degenerate) cavity, open to seawater and lined with black retina cells. Mantle-skirt translucent buff 16Pd flic.kr/p/Afb9yv ; colour most saturated and translucency least when skirt retracted from shell-periphery 17Pd flic.kr/p/BaRWfU . Mantle cavity consists of nuchal cavity over head, and pallial groove filled with pallial gills around entire periphery of foot-head 16Pd flic.kr/p/Afb9yv ; no ctenidium. Each gill is tongue-shaped leaflet attached by stalk to distal wall of pallial-groove, and has densely ciliated groove on stalk and thickened rim 18Pd flic.kr/p/Bc59v8 . Efferent pallial vessel in mantle-skirt, close to pallial-groove, enters nuchal cavity on left 16Pd flic.kr/p/Afb9yv . Mantle-edge has many opaquely-pigmented chalky-white pallial tentacles, becoming translucent and less intensely coloured only in a small distal portion; tentacles distinct from translucent, buff mantle-skirt that they arise from 19Pd flic.kr/p/Af37zY . Around perimeter, pallial tentacles alternate single long with several short. Length of pallial tentacles, and their position relative to shell, vary with degree of extension of mantle skirt 20Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6PEH , 21Pd flic.kr/p/Azyo2Q and 17Pd flic.kr/p/BaRWfU . Pedal-retractor muscle arranged in horseshoe pattern of white muscle bundles demarcated by gaps 20Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6PEH ; muscle attaches body/foot to shell (a.k.a. shell muscle) 17Pd flic.kr/p/BaRWfU . Sole of foot approximately circular 20Pd flic.kr/p/Ay6PEH to oval with slightly tapered posterior 21Pd flic.kr/p/Azyo2Q , pitch-brown to black with pale peripheral rim, colour most saturated when foot contracted 17Pd flic.kr/p/BaRWfU . White sides of foot lack features such as epipodial tentacles 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR . When crawling, usually only extended pallial tentacles and, perhaps, tips of cephalic tentacles protrude beyond shelter of shell 22Pd flic.kr/p/BexkLe . No penis as fertilization external.
Further detail visible with simple dissection
Shell removal by severing pedal-retractor muscle shows muscle-bundles clearly 23Pd flic.kr/p/AzykaY ; anterior bundle on each side is largest and strongest as must firmly pull down shell further to anterior where bundles are absent. Removal of viscera reveals that muscle bundles continue far into foot 24Pd flic.kr/p/BdwNkP towards median groove of large blood-sinus 25Pd flic.kr/p/ABS7Sp . Shell removal exposes entire mantle 23Pd flic.kr/p/AzykaY subdivided into a) pale translucent mantle-skirt, b) narrow black band over pallial-groove containing gills, c) large black amphora-shaped area, often with pale vertex patch, over viscera and d) separated from amphora by pale anterior-mantle attachment, smaller black area over the nuchal cavity containing the head and anterior pallial gills 26Pd flic.kr/p/BciErS . Pale patch within black amphora may be related to excavated patch near shell-vertex, see 11Pd flic.kr/p/Bd4YEr , a feature frequently found on P. depressa. If mantle skirt is folded back, 26Pd flic.kr/p/BciErS , collapsed pallial gills exposed. Careful removal of black amphora area of mantle reveals translucent membrane over viscera 27Pd flic.kr/p/AzysF8 ; when removed, clear view, 28Pd flic.kr/p/BbdZum , of digestive gland, intestine and rectum. Efferent pallial vessel in mantle-skirt, 26Pd flic.kr/p/BciErS carries blood from mantle to right of nuchal cavity 29Pd flic.kr/p/AguVDE and through it to elongated heart behind left of cavity 30Pd flic.kr/p/Bex7R6 . When roof of nuchal cavity folded back, translucent white head showing purple-red of internal odontophore visible 26Pd flic.kr/p/BciErS . Removal of head's epithelium reveals odontophore and anterior of radula with hyaline shield 28Pd flic.kr/p/BbdZum . Removal of viscera reveals entire long radula, folded and coiled to fit in body 24Pd flic.kr/p/BdwNkP . P. depressa probably has longest radula relative to shell-length, up to 270%, of any British mollusc 31Pd flic.kr/p/BbdUdE (Fretter & Graham, 1962, p.172). Fully mineralized, golden radular teeth, ready for action, clearly visible at anterior where radula rests on transparent hyaline shield on top of odontophore 32Pd flic.kr/p/Bcivym . Inner lips enclosed at sides and anterior by white chitinous unarticulated jaw# 24Pd flic.kr/p/BdwNkP . White, cuticularized, triangular licker at tip of radula is divided into plate-like ridges by deep transverse grooves 32Pd flic.kr/p/Bcivym . Teeth obscured by white translucent radular sac to posterior of hyaline shield. When radular sac removed by treatment with 10% solution NaOH, posterior of radula clearly seen to have white ribbon with slightly pigmented teeth as mineralization at early stage 33Pd flic.kr/p/ABRUWR while further forward ribbon is rich crimson, and teeth strongly pigmented golden with strong hard minerals of iron and silica. Each row of teeth arranged in docoglossan formula, 3+D+2+R+2+D+3: at centre, two pairs of large, unicuspid, pigmented lateral teeth (with small, unpigmented rachidian/median tooth hidden from easy view at their base), and near each margin of ribbon a single, tricuspid, pigmented, dominant-marginal tooth with, close-by, three inconspicuous, unicuspid, marginal teeth 33Pd flic.kr/p/ABRUWR . Middle cusp of dominant-marginal on P. depressa and P. vulgata is largest; on P. ulyssiponensis outer cusp largest. Before and during spring-autumn breeding season, large gonads (20% of female's mass) occur in mature adults between viscera and foot and, when fully developed, spread up around periphery of visceral mass 30Pd flic.kr/p/Bex7R6 . Male testes are pinkish/orange/yellow with numerous interconnected tubules seen side-on 34Pd flic.kr/p/ABRUor or end-on 35Pd flic.kr/p/BbdNHb . Female gonads not observed by IFS (four adults dissected in late September; two with testes, two without gonads- spent females?) but as reproductive systems similar in the genus, probably greenish and granular as in P. vulgata .
SPECIES DESCRIPTION part B at 2Pd flic.kr/p/AfbFkR
GLOSSARY
amphora – (on interior of limpet shell) Roman amphora-shaped area enclosed by scars of pedal-retractor muscle and anterior mantle-attachment.
aperture – mouth of gastropod shell; outlet for head and foot.
apex - earliest formed part of a gastropod shell, the summit of the cone. (In this limpet-account restricted to the exterior of the shell, and “vertex” used for the interior.)
cephalic – (adj.) of or on the head.
cilia – (pl.) microscopic linear extensions of membrane that move in rhythmic waves to create locomotion, or move particles and liquids e.g. inhalent water currents. (“cilium” singular). (Electron scanning microscope image at flic.kr/p/qQB5zj )
ciliary – (adj.) relating to or involving cilia.
coll. – in the collection of (named person or institution) (compare with legit).
conoid – shaped like a cone.
ctenidium – comb-like molluscan gill; usually an axis with a row of filaments either side (missing from Patella spp.).
distal - away from centre of body or point of attachment.
ditaxic - (of locomotion waves on foot) double series of waves, out of phase with each other, one series on each side of median line on sole.
ELWS – extreme low water spring tide level (usually near March and September equinoxes).
EHWS - extreme high water spring tide level (usually near March and September equinoxes).
epipodial - (adj.) of the epipodium (collar or circlet running round sides of foot of some gastropods).
epithelium – membranous covering of internal and external surfaces of animal's body, e.g. skin and lining of tubes and cavities.
head scar – term used by many British authors for patch of different shell-material, and often different colour, near vertex of interior of limpet shell; misnomer as the mobile head, free of any attachment to the shell or mantle-roof of the nuchal cavity cannot make a scar. A preferable term is “vertex patch”.
height – (of limpet) perpendicular distance from apex to plane of aperture-rim (best measured with callipers).
hyaline shield – transparent sheet of chitin at anterior of radula that rests on bolsters of odontophore; attachment point for retractor muscles of radula; helps guide food particles into mouth.
interspecific – existing or arising between different species.
intraspecific – occuring within a single species or involving members of one species.
jaw - unarticulated chitinous structure that encloses inner lips of Patella spp. at sides and anterior.
legit – (abbreviation; leg.) collected/ found by (compare with coll.)
licker - cuticularized structure with plate-like ridges and deep transverse grooves at tip of radula of Patella spp.; retains and sweeps up food particles.
mantle – sheet of tissue covering visceral mass of molluscs. Secretes shell of shelled species, and forms part or all of dorsal body surface (notum) of those without shells. (See mantle skirt.)
mantle skirt – extension on gastropods of mantle proper as a flap roofing a cavity containing gills, genital and renal openings, anus etc. On limpets, skirt and cavity extend around periphery of animal.
MHWN - mean high water neap tide level (mean level reached by weakest high tides for a few days every fortnight. i.e. those that rise the least).
MLWN – mean low water neap tide level (mean level reached by weakest low tides for a few days every fortnight. i.e. those that fall the least).
MLWS - mean low water spring tide level (mean level reached by lowest low tides for a few days every fortnight; Laminaria or Coralline zone on rocky coasts).
nuchal – (adj.) of nape of the neck.
nuchal cavity – cavity roofed by mantle skirt that contains head of limpet; part of mantle cavity (remainder consists of pallial groove on each side of body).
ovoid – egg-shaped, as a solid or in outline.
pallial groove band – shell material deposited on interior of shell by strip of black mantle roofing the pallial groove that contains the gills. On British Patella spp. it is often clouded-white.
pedal retractor muscle – strong muscle that retracts foot into shell of most gastropods, but on limpets is used to clamp shell to substrate, a.k.a. “foot muscle”.
retrograde - (of locomotion waves on foot) waves travel from anterior to posterior.
scar – mark on shell made by attachment point of muscle or other body part.
skirt shell layer - shell material deposited on interior of shell by mantle skirt. On British Patella spp. colourless when deposited, and clouded white, or transparent showing the colours of the outer layer. Crystalline structure causes short lines of blue iridescence parallel to the aperture rim on all four British species of Patella when the light is right.
trochophore – spherical or pear-shaped larva that swims with aid of girdle of cilia. Stage preceding veliger, passed within gastropod egg in most spp. but free in plankton for patellid limpets, most Trochidae and Tricolia pullus.
tricuspid - (of tooth) having three points.
unicuspid - (of tooth) having a single point.
veliger – shelled larva of marine gastropod or bivalve mollusc which moves by beating cilia of a velum (bilobed flap).
vertex – angle at highest point on interior of limpet-shell. [Synonym of “apex”, chosen (by IFS) to help avoid confusion with the highest point, apex, on the exterior. Gmelin used “vertex” when describing the interior of Patella ulyssiponensis, and in classical Latin “vertex” was used for the “pole of the heavens”; obviously only seen from below.]
vertex patch –layer of different shell-material, and often different colour, at vertex of interior of limpet shell. (See “head scar”.)
This snapshot view is looking out over the nose of the lead locomotive of a manifest train, taken on Christmas Day, from the conductor's seat inside the locomotive cab. The winds were howling as the temperature outside reached -24F.
America's vast network of interconnected railroad lines doesn't sleep at night or in bad weather. The railroads don't take off holidays either—not even Christmas. When you're new to the job of being a railroader you become fixated on safety, obeying rules, and watching signals and mile posts so that you always know where you are. You also learn about "seniority" and what that brings to you on the holidays.
If your seniority "whiskers" are long enough, you can get nearly any day off to be with family. But the younger-seniority men and women who run these trains simply do not have that luxury. Railroaders are assigned to pools of workers who run trains back and forth, again and again, across a limited section of the division they work on. Some in the yard, some to industries, and some on inter-divisional or cross-country runs. Divisions with multiple lines have multiple pools of workers to cover each of those different routes and roles. Some men and women work the extra board and are considered to be "extra" crews. They fill in for crew members on vacation, or who may have called in sick, or when extra trains simply need to be run because business mandated that an extra train had to be run.
Some jobs, like the ones doing yard and industry work, have a set number of days to work each week, with set hours of duty, and set rest days. But everything rolling down the mainline has a crew made up from one of the pools. The people who operate those trains get a phone call a few hours in advance of the train's on-duty time. Then they gather their stuff. That can include overnight bags, food for 5-6 meals, coffee, snacks, paperwork, and anything else they think they might need to make it "wherever", and back home again. Federal regulations say that railroaders cannot work more than 12 hours each day. But after you factor in the phone call that woke you up, the commute to the yard office, another commute to the train, the train trip itself, delays encountered enroute, and another commute to find a hotel at the end of the run, a typical day on a mainline train can easily consume 16-17 hours of time in total. Hopefully, you got a full 8 hours of sleep before the phone rang. That certainly makes any day on the railroad better—and safer for everyone too.
When you're a junior person working on the railroad and you finally put your head down on the pillow for some sleep on Christmas Eve—you never really know for sure if your phone is going to ring, or not. Sometimes it does. At night. When it's very windy and extremely cold outside. Even on Christmas.
No matter where any of us might live in North America, virtually everything that we enjoy during the Christmas Holiday came to us aboard a train*. That includes all manners of fresh and frozen foods that we find at the grocery stores, every kind of drink hard and soft, bottled water, electronics, clothing, blankets, the beds we sleep on and the pillows that rest our head, the furnaces that warm our homes, and of course all of the presents that we give and share with each other. Then, after all the presents are opened on Christmas morning, those big plastic trash bags come out of the cupboard and are used to gather up and dispose of all the torn boxes and crumpled wrapping paper. Even the raw material used to make those plastic trash bags came on a train, well in advance of anyone's need.
A great deal of individual effort goes into operating each of the thousands of trains that run on the railroads each day. But none more noble than those lonely few trains operating this very day that are kept moving by the extra board men and women who were called to duty late on Christmas Eve, or very early on Christmas Day. It's their turn to help keep America's "conveyor belt" of food, material goods and raw materials moving from coast to coast, and back again.
Merry Christmas wishes are extended to one and all—and especially to those of you looking out over the nose of your locomotive right now—as the rest of us enjoy a very different view of the holiday.
Cheers!
Jeff Lemke
Twin Ports Rail History
*P.S. If you'd like to learn a bit more about how these trains get from coast to coast when crews can only work 12 hours at a time, visit my website's WHAT WE DO tab, then find the text that refers to the railroads and the global economy. Hiding behind that text is a dandy training PDF with some great images that you might enjoy reading. It's pretty heavy size-wise, so give it a few moments to load. Here's the link: www.twinportsrailhistory.com/what-we-do/
This piece of art will be lost on most people of Dundee
A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device.
a little knowledge can go a long way
a lot of professionals are crackpots
a man can't know what it is to be a mother
a name means a lot just by itself
a positive attitude means all the difference in the world
a relaxed man is not necessarily a better man
a sense of timing is the mark of genius
a sincere effort is all you can ask
a single event can have infinitely many interpretations
a solid home base builds a sense of self
a strong sense of duty imprisons you
absolute submission can be a form of freedom
abstraction is a type of decadence
abuse of power comes as no surprise
action causes more trouble than thought
alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries
all things are delicately interconnected
ambition is just as dangerous as complacency
ambivalence can ruin your life
an elite is inevitable
anger or hate can be a useful motivating force
animalism is perfectly healthy
any surplus is immoral
anything is a legitimate area of investigation
artificial desires are despoiling the earth
at times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning
at times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind
automation is deadly
awful punishment awaits really bad people
bad intentions can yield good results
being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular
being happy is more important than anything else
being judgmental is a sign of life
being sure of yourself means you're a fool
believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat
boredom makes you do crazy things
calm is more conductive to creativity than is anxiety
categorizing fear is calming
change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants
chasing the new is dangerous to society
children are the most cruel of all
children are the hope of the future
class action is a nice idea with no substance
class structure is as artificial as plastic
confusing yourself is a way to stay honest
crime against property is relatively unimportant
decadence can be an end in itself
decency is a relative thing
dependence can be a meal ticket
description is more important than metaphor
deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity
disgust is the appropriate response to most situations
disorganization is a kind of anesthesia
don't place to much trust in experts
drama often obscures the real issues
dreaming while awake is a frightening contradiction
dying and coming back gives you considerable perspective
dying should be as easy as falling off a log
eating too much is criminal
elaboration is a form of pollution
emotional responses ar as valuable as intellectual responses
enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway
ensure that your life stays in flux
even your family can betray you
every achievement requires a sacrifice
everyone's work is equally important
everything that's interesting is new
exceptional people deserve special concessions
expiring for love is beautiful but stupid
expressing anger is necessary
extreme behavior has its basis in pathological psychology
extreme self-consciousness leads to perversion
faithfulness is a social not a biological law
fake or real indifference is a powerful personal weapon
fathers often use too much force
fear is the greatest incapacitator
freedom is a luxury not a necessity
giving free rein to your emotions is an honest way to live
go all out in romance and let the chips fall where they may
going with the flow is soothing but risky
good deeds eventually are rewarded
government is a burden on the people
grass roots agitation is the only hope
guilt and self-laceration are indulgences
habitual contempt doesn't reflect a finer sensibility
hiding your emotions is despicable
holding back protects your vital energies
humanism is obsolete
humor is a release
ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age
if you aren't political your personal life should be exemplary
if you can't leave your mark give up
if you have many desires your life will be interesting
if you live simply there is nothing to worry about
ignoring enemies is the best way to fight
illness is a state of mind
imposing order is man's vocation for chaos is hell
in some instances it's better to die than to continue
inheritance must be abolished
it can be helpful to keep going no matter what
it is heroic to try to stop time
it is man's fate to outsmart himself
it is a gift to the world not to have babies
it's better to be a good person than a famous person
it's better to be lonely than to be with inferior people
it's better to be naive than jaded
it's better to study the living fact than to analyze history
it's crucial to have an active fantasy life
it's good to give extra money to charity
it's important to stay clean on all levels
it's just an accident that your parents are your parents
it's not good to hold too many absolutes
it's not good to operate on credit
it's vital to live in harmony with nature
just believing something can make it happen
keep something in reserve for emergencies
killing is unavoidable but nothing to be proud of
knowing yourself lets you understand others
knowledge should be advanced at all costs
labor is a life-destroying activity
lack of charisma can be fatal
leisure time is a gigantic smoke screen
listen when your body talks
looking back is the first sign of aging and decay
loving animals is a substitute activity
low expectations are good protection
manual labor can be refreshing and wholesome
men are not monogamous by nature
moderation kills the spirit
money creates taste
monomania is a prerequisite of success
morals are for little people
most people are not fit to rule themselves
mostly you should mind your own business
mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices
much was decided before you were born
murder has its sexual side
myth can make reality more intelligible
noise can be hostile
nothing upsets the balance of good and evil
occasionally principles are more valuable than people
offer very little information about yourself
often you should act like you are sexless
old friends are better left in the past
opacity is an irresistible challenge
pain can be a very positive thing
people are boring unless they are extremists
people are nuts if they think they are important
people are responsible for what they do unless they are insane
people who don't work with their hands are parasites
people who go crazy are too sensitive
people won't behave if they have nothing to lose
physical culture is second best
planning for the future is escapism
playing it safe can cause a lot of damage in the long run
politics is used for personal gain
potential counts for nothing until it's realized
private property created crime
pursuing pleasure for the sake of pleasure will ruin you
push yourself to the limit as often as possible
raise boys and girls the same way
random mating is good for debunking sex myths
rechanneling destructive impulses is a sign of maturity
recluses always get weak
redistributing wealth is imperative
relativity is no boon to mankind
religion causes as many problems as it solves
remember you always have freedom of choice
repetition is the best way to learn
resolutions serve to ease our conscience
revolution begins with changes in the individual
romantic love was invented to manipulate women
routine is a link with the past
routine small excesses are worse than then the occasional debauch
sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act
salvation can't be bought and sold
self-awareness can be crippling
self-contempt can do more harm than good
selfishness is the most basic motivation
selflessness is the highest achievement
separatism is the way to a new beginning
sex differences are here to stay
sin is a means of social control
slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison
sloppy thinking gets worse over time
solitude is enriching
sometimes science advances faster than it should
sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord
spending too much time on self-improvement is antisocial
starvation is nature's way
stasis is a dream state
sterilization is a weapon of the rulers
strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity
stupid people shouldn't breed
survival of the fittest applies to men and animals
symbols are more meaningful than things themselves
taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position
talking is used to hide one's inability to act
teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences
technology will make or break us
the cruelest disappointment is when you let yourself down
the desire to reproduce is a death wish
the family is living on borrowed time
the idea of revolution is an adolescent fantasy
the idea of transcendence is used to obscure oppression
the idiosyncratic has lost its authority
the most profound things are inexpressible
the mundane is to be cherished
the new is nothing but a restatement of the old
the only way to be pure is to stay by yourself
the sum of your actions determines what you are
the unattainable is invariable attractive
the world operates according to discoverable laws
there are too few immutable truths today
there's nothing except what you sense
there's nothing redeeming in toil
thinking too much can only cause problems
threatening someone sexually is a horrible act
timidity is laughable
to disagree presupposes moral integrity
to volunteer is reactionary
torture is barbaric
trading a life for a life is fair enough
true freedom is frightful
unique things must be the most valuable
unquestioning love demonstrates largesse of spirit
using force to stop force is absurd
violence is permissible even desirable occasionally
war is a purification rite
we must make sacrifices to maintain our quality of life
when something terrible happens people wake up
wishing things away is not effective
with perseverance you can discover any truth
words tend to be inadequate
worrying can help you prepare
you are a victim of the rules you live by
you are guileless in your dreams
you are responsible for constituting the meaning of things
you are the past present and future
you can live on through your descendants
you can't expect people to be something they're not
you can't fool others if you're fooling yourself
you don't know what's what until you support yourself
you have to hurt others to be extraordinary
you must be intimate with a token few
you must disagree with authority figures
you must have one grand passion
you must know where you stop and the world begins
you can understand someone of your sex only
you owe the world not the other way around
you should study as much as possible
your actions ae pointless if no one notices
your oldest fears are the worst ones
France, Alsace, Strasbourg, European Parliament, “Salvador De Madariaga” Building at Quai du Bassin is part of two interconnected buildings used as offices of the European Parliament. The building is named after “Salvador de Madariaga” born 1886 in La Coruña, Spain, he was a Spanish diplomat, writer, historian & pacifist, who lived in Switzerland.
The building is hosting administrative & other departments, including a Kindergarten & other social facilities. The headquarters of the European Ombudsman is located on the 7th floor. In existence since 1995, the Ombudsman is elected by the parliament for a five-years period. Submitting an appeal to the Ombudsman can be useful in the event of the unsatisfactory administration of a European institution or body, for example, in the case of administrative irregularities, abuses of power, lack or refusal to provide information, excessive delays or discrimination. Any citizen of the European Union or any natural person residing in or having his registered office in a member state may submit a complaint to the Ombudsman.
...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over 650.000 clicks in my photostream with countless motivating comments
"Multitudes of people are beauty-blind to the outdoor pictures. I doubt if one in a hundred begins to take in the beauty visible on even a short walk in city or country." - Delia Lyman Porter
I had such fun yesterday walking from home along the Waterfront Recreational Trail and through the Humber Bay Parks.
"The Waterfront Trail is made up of an interconnected series of trails mainly along the shores of Lake Ontario in Canada, beginning in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and extending to Brockville, Ontario, with an extension along Former Highway 2, to the Quebec provincial border. Through Toronto, the trail is called the Martin Goodman Trail. The Waterfront Trail is also used by commuters in parts of Southern Ontario." Wikipedia
Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day.
The Jeita Grotto (Arabic: مغارة جعيتا) is a system of two separate, but interconnected limestone caves spanning 5.6 miles. Visitors can walk through the upper cave, but the lower cave contains an underwater river and lake. It is only accessible in summer and then only by boat.
These pictures were all taken in water filled lower cave. The water flows through at 1–2 m3/s, providing drinking water for 1.5 million people in Beirut. Cameras are normally taken and secured from visitors while in the caverns. These photos were taken with special permission.
World-renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei exhibited a new edition of his Forever Bicycles sculpture in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square. 3,144 interconnected bicycles form a three-dimensional structure creating an incredible visual effect.
An interconnected digital world.
The variable geometry wings on my model work and are interconnected so that they move in tandem. I've used a similar system on my F-14 Tomcat models and my Su-24 Fencer. On the F-111 it was more difficult, however, because the main undercarriage bay sits just just below the wing. Finding space and making the central fuselage structurally sound was a major challenge.