On Saturday 12 November, Egyptian activists from all across the UK joined up with protesters in London demonstrating for climate justice, to demand an end to Sisi's murderous dictatorship and the immediate release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British-Egyptian citizen on hunger strike, and at least 60,000 other political prisoners held in appalling conditions in Egyptian prisons.

 

As COP27 continues, Sisi's government intensifies its repression against civil society, arresting anyone in Cairo and other cities found with any mention of Alaa or other political dissidents on their phones, as well as targeting anyone suspected of planning strikes or protests.

 

I'm still working on individual captions for each photo - sorry for the delay - but in the meantime I'm reposting an earlier commentary I posted about Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

 

Last weekend on Sunday 6 November, activists gathered outside Downing Street for a candle-lit vigil as British-Egyptian democracy dissident, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, escalated his hunger strike in an Egyptian prison, refusing to take water.

 

Even prior to his refusal of water from Saturday 6 November, Alaa was already over 200 days into his 100 calorie a day hunger strike in prison in Egypt.

 

On Tuesday 8 November Sanaa Seif gave a speech to journalists at COP27 - "They are very happy for him to die. The only thing they care about is that it doesn't happen while the world is watching."

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqXibJ7PUTY

 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah has endured much of the last twelve years in some of the worst prison conditions anywhere in the world, on account of his brave work in promoting democracy in Egypt.

 

He was last arrested in September 2019 while attending Cairo's Dokki Police Station and in December last year was sentenced to five years imprisonment for "spreading false news undermining state security." More precisely, he had shared social media posts explaining the hell-hole reality of Egyptian prison conditions.

 

TORA PRISON - "A DAY HERE, IS LIKE A YEAR IN BELMARSH"

 

In April, Alaa began his hunger strike in a cell in one of the most secure sections of Cairo's sprawling and notorious Tora Prison - a maze of grim high concrete walls and watch towers, which strike fear into even the thousands of commuters who have to pass daily.

 

In 2012, one young Londoner confined to one of the least uncomfortable and most survivable wings of Tora prison, contrasted it with his own previous experience at Britain's high security Belmarsh. I can never forget his exact words. "A day here, is like a year at Belmarsh!" A little over 12 months later, he died of TB - the prison authorities had refused to listen to the pleas of his aunt, who fell on her knees during a rare visit, begging that he be admitted to the prison hospital.

 

ALAA'S HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES AT WADI EL NATRUN PRISON

 

More than 200 days have passed since Alaa started his hunger strike. He has now been moved to the Wadi El Natrun prison complex in the desert north of Cairo, dubbed by inmates as the "Valley of Hell."

 

He may not survive much longer. However, as he holds British-Egyptian nationality, one would hope that the British government would be doing everything they could to secure his immediate release and it would be reasonable to suppose that the Foreign Office could get an immediate pledge in this regard, especially given that the British companies, including the likes of British Petroleum and BP, are the biggest investors in Egypt.

 

NO CONSULAR ACCESS

 

However, the British government have failed even to get him any consular access - think about that. That's an outrage. Even a convicted mass murderer, if British, would be entitled to consular access while in prison. That meeting would obviously not take place in his cell - but in a designated room in the prison or the highly supervised prison visiting area.

 

British men and women convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes in Egypt have received consular visits, so why not Alaa? The answer is because Alaa's crime is that he dared to tell the truth about Egypt, and the injustice both inside and outside its many prison walls. Nobody knows exactly how many political prisoners Egypt now has, but the number is estimated to be at least 60,000.

 

ALAA WAS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah was one of the leaders of arguably the most inspirational democratic revolt the world has seen in the last hundred years. Although the first phase of the 2011 uprising in Egypt lasted just 18 days, and although it followed the toppling of the dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia - the streets and bridges around Tahrir Square became a deadly stage watched by the world, where protesters from every walk of life were pitted against Egypt's feared state security forces. Against all the odds, and at the cost of many lives, Egyptians refused to leave the square, sleeping in front of the tanks and fending off attacks from government militia.

 

The Egyptian people's initial success in toppling the dictator Mubarak led to further revolts not just across the Middle East (most notably in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria) - the highly organised Tahrir-Square sit-in provided the inspiration for strikes and workplace sit-ins against austerity across the United States and Europe and to the Occupy Movement of the same year. The people of Egypt showed that it does not matter how brutal, feared and authoritarian a government is, it can be toppled if people act collectively.

 

THE MILITARY BACKLASH

 

It's true that Egypt's flirtation with the path to greater freedom seemed to be only temporary - the Egyptian authorities deployed the usual divide and rule tactics - encouraging the less committed protesters to return home - and then rushed to elections without allowing time for genuinely democratic opposition parties to develop.

 

Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won the presidential election in 2012 - the Brotherhood (contrary to the perception many people have here in the West) had genuinely progressive elements within it, but the chance for any transformative radical programme was prevented partly by the corruption and self-interest of some of the main political actors and partly by opposition to its democratic mandate from the deep state (the military, the Interior Ministry, State Security, the police etc.)

 

The army, seeing its chance, seized power in 2013, superficially in the name of the people, but in reality, to advance the interests of the generals. The new president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, moved quickly to crush all opposition, and ordering his security forces to attack Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had gathered in eastern Cairo at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square, killing at least 800 people - the bloodiest massacre of civilians in Egypt's modern history.

 

DON'T ALLOW EGYPT TO USE COP27 TO GREENWASH ITS REGIME - AND PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE ALAA

 

Now COP27 is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh and Sisi has been given a golden opportunity to greenwash his murderous regime, which has also seen ever increasing levels inequality and corruption. While British representatives at COP27 will be given accommodation in the most luxurious five star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh and fall asleep listening to the sound of the waves, another British citizen, Alaa Abdel El-Fatah is near death, on a painful hunger strike in the darkest of places - his dimly lit cell. The only thing he might hear at night is the desperate cry from some prisoner in another cell appealing for medical help which most likely never comes.

 

If we care for freedom, real democracy and justice, we can't allow the British Foreign Office to forget Alaa - especially if it's simply not to upset the highly profitable relationship British multinationals have with one of the world's most authoritarian and corrupt regimes - a relationship which only benefits the wealthiest of Egyptians.

 

Please show your support by signing the petition. Let's not fail Alaa. Thank you.

 

www.change.org/p/help-free-my-brother-before-it-s-too-lat...

This parent bird was bringing food (in this case a moth) to its young chicks in the bird house. This was a very busy parent and was making a delivery at least every 5 minutes while I was watching it. Apparently there is no shortage of insects. I don't know what variety of bird this is, and I don't know if it's the male or female parent. I'm more of a photographer than a knowledgeable bird watcher. My brother-in-law thinks it might be some kind of fly catcher, and my sister thought perhaps a female sparrow. I plead ignorance.

 

Lighting stuff: I put a bare YN560 on a light stand at camera left and a YN560-III on a light stand at camera right. The strobes were in manual mode and set at 1/8 power. They were triggered by a Yongnuo RF-603N.

 

Over the years I've taken quite a few pictures of birds including some which you might find worthy, and they're in my creatively named Birds album. www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157628206812625/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MANIFESTO GLEITZEIT 2015

PROLOGUE

Paul Jaisini was like a messiah, as you wish, who saw/understood the impending end and complete degeneration of Fine art or Art become and investment nothing more than that. He predicted the bubble pops art when everybody would eventually become an artist, including dogs cats and horses, because they as kids followed the main rule: express yourself without skills or knowledge or any aesthetic concerns. J. Pollack started pouring paints onto canvases; Julian Schnabel, former cab driver from NY, suddenly decided he could do better than what he saw displayed in galleries, so he started gluing dishes on canvases; A.Warhol, an industrial artist who made commercial silk-screen for the factories he worked in, started to exhibit "Campbell's soup" used for commercial adds... and later the thing that made him an "American Idol": by copying and pasting Hollywood celebrities (same type of posters he made before for movie theaters).

When Paul Jaisini stood out against the Me culture in the US by burning all of his own 120 brilliant paintings (according to the then-new director of Fort Worth MoMa Museum, who offered hin an exhibition of his art in 1992, and later the Metropolitan Museum curator, Phillippe de Montebello, in 1994).Paul probably assumed all fellow true fine artists would join him or stand by him against corruption of the art world.

And after 20 years of his stand-off...the time has finally come today. Many artists and humanitarians around the world took a place beside him. His invisible Paintings became a synonym for the future reincarnation of fine art and long lost harmony. The establishment is in panic! The "moneybags" (as Paul Jaisini named them) are in panic, because they invested BILLIONS of dollars in real crap made by

craftsmen. Now they realize that the reputation of American legends of expressionism was nothing but a copy of Russian avant-garde" Kazimir Malevich, Vasiliy Kandinsky and tens of others from France and Germany.. US tycoon investors were spending billions on "Me more original, than you". "Artist Shit" is a 1061 artwork by the Italian artist Piero Manzoni. The work consists of 90 tin cans, filled with feces. A tin can was sold for £124,000, 180,000 at Sothebys, 2007.

EPILOGUE

Before I resume promoting and admiring a very important art persona on today's international art arena, I'd like to clear up some BIG questions; people ask continuously and subconsciously, directly & indirectly: "Why does the name Paul Jaisini, flood the Internet in such "obnoxious" quantities that it's started suppressing some other activities that my friends might share with the rest of the Internet's Ego Me only Me www society? I can't just answer this... so I'll try to explain why I'm writing this: Jaisini's followers keep posting art and info about,

He IMHO the only hope in quickly decomposing visual fine art. "Paul Jaisini realized many years ago, in 1994, when he declared (at that time to himself only) the start of a New era, a New vision, that he is trying to redirect from the rat race, started by an establishment in post-war New York, long before the Internet culture.

Sub related information: Adolf Gottlieb, Mart Rothko, etc (after visiting Paris France in 1933):

"We must forget analytical art, we must express ourselves, as a 5 year old child would, without a developed consciousness. Forget about results - do what you feel, EXPRESS yourself with your own unique style"

With this statement Mark Rothko starts to teach his students, degeneration of fine art begins, and the generation of war of styles took a start signal of the material race, greatly rewarded by establishment "individual" - eccentric craftsmen - show business clowns.

Sub related Information: In the summer of 1936, Adolf Gottlieb painted more than 800 paintings, which was 20X more than he created in his whole art career as a painter, starting from the time of Gottlieb becomes a founding member of "The Ten" group in NYC "Group of Ten" was a very peculiar, enigmatic group... Based on a religious point of view;(where a human figure was prohibited from being created)

GLOSSARY

IN 1997, Paul Jaisini's best friend Ellen Y.K.Gottlieb started a cyber campaign by promoting on a very young Internet, back then, Paul Jaisini's burned paintings as Invisible Paintings, visible only through poetic essays. She and a handful of people saw his originals and were devastated that nobody could ever see them again. "We, his fans, believe that someday Paul will recreate his 120 burned paintings if he has any decency and moral obligation to his fans, who have dedicated decades to make it happen, for their Phoenix to rise from the ashes and the whole world will witness that all these years we spent to get him back to re-paint the Visuals again were not in vain," - said E.Y.K.Gottlieb in 2014 during the 20th anniversary celebration of Invisible Paintings to GIGroup in NYCity. So now, hopefully, this clears up why I and others do what we do - our "cyber terrorism" of good art, dedicated to Paul Jaisini's return, which is & and was our mission & our goal. We post good art to fight "troll art" which is worthless pics, after being passed through 1-click filters of free web apps. We are, in fact, against this www pops pollution, done with "bubble art" by the out of control masses with 5 billon pics a day: Pics of cats, memes, quotes,national geographic sunsets and waterfalls, not counting their own daily "selfies: and whatever self-indulging Me-ego-Me affairs, sponsored happily by photo gadget companies like Canon, Nikon, Sony...who churn out higher quality madness tools at lower cost.

This way Government taking away attention from the real world crisis of lowest morality & economical devastation. The masses are too easily re-engineered/manipulated by the Establishment PopsStyle delivered to them by pop music and Hollywood "super" stars. In 1992 Paul Jaisini's Gleitzeit theory predict such a massive, pops self-entertain madness, following technologicalexplosion, but not in illusive scales.

Uber Aless @2015 NYC USA

NOTE Date's numbers and events can be slightly inaccurate.

#gleitzeit #paul-jaisini #invisible #painting #art #futurism #art-news,

 

Proposals for a university in Queensland began in the 1870s. A Royal Commission in 1874, chaired by Sir Charles Lilley, recommended the immediate establishment of a university. Those against a university argued that technical rather than academic education was more important in an economy dominated by primary industry. Those in favour of the university, in the face of this opposition, distanced themselves from Oxford and Cambridge and proposed instead a model derived from the mid-western states of the USA. A second Royal Commission in 1891 recommended the inclusion of five faculties in a new university; Arts, Law, Medicine, Science and Applied Science. Education generally was given a low priority in Queensland's budgets, and in a colony with a literacy rate of 57% in 1861, primary education was the first concern well ahead of secondary and technical education. The government, despite the findings of the Royal Commissions, was unwilling to commit funds to the establishment of a university.

 

In 1893 the Queensland University Extension Movement was begun by a group of private individuals who organised public lecture courses in adult education, hoping to excite wider community support for a university in Queensland. In 1894, 245 students were enrolled in the extension classes and the lectures were described as practical and useful. In 1906 the University Extension Movement staged the University Congress, a forum for interested delegates to promote the idea of a university. Opinion was mobilised, a fund was started, and a draft Bill for a Queensland University was prepared. Stress was laid on the practical aspects of university education and its importance for the commerce of Queensland. The proceedings of the Congress were forwarded to Premier Kidston. In October 1906, sixty acres in Victoria Park were gazetted for university purposes.

 

The University of Queensland was established by an Act of State Parliament on the 10th of December 1909 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queensland's separation from the colony of New South Wales. The Act allowed for the university to be governed by a senate of 20 men and Sir William MacGregor, the incoming Governor, was appointed the first chancellor with RH Roe as the vice chancellor. Old Government House in George Street was set aside for the University following the departure of the Governor to the Bardon residence, Fernberg, sparking the first debates about the best location for the university.

 

In 1910 the first teaching faculties were created. These included Engineering, Classics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. In December of the same year, the Senate appointed the first four professors; BD Steele in chemistry, JL Michie in classics, H. Priestly in mathematics and A Gibson in engineering. In 1911 the first students enrolled.

 

Practically from the start there was controversy about a permanent site for the University. Old Government House was too small and was seen by many as evidence merely of government parsimony. There was not much room for expansion and there were conflicts with the neighbouring Brisbane Central Technical College. Victoria Park had been chosen in 1906 for a permanent site and in 1922 a further 170 acres were vested in the University. The high cost of preparing the steeply sloping land at Victoria Park for building made it a less than ideal site despite its central location and proximity to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Yeronga Park and Saint Lucia were considered as options. But in 1926 the whole issue was transformed when Doctor James O'Neil Mayne and Miss Mary Emilia Mayne made £50,000 available to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at Saint Lucia and present it to the University. Opinion was divided with Professor Steele and many members of the medical profession against Saint Lucia because of its isolation and lack of public transport. A meeting of the Senate, on the 10th of December, voted for the Saint Lucia site on the condition that the city council provided access. Those voting for Saint Lucia included Archbishop Duhig, EJD Stanley, ACV Melbourne, and Professor Richards. Doctor Lockhart Gibson, Chancellor AJ Thynne and Archbishop Sharp were amongst those who voted for Victoria Park. In 1930 the Senate handed over Victoria Park, less eleven acres reserved for a medical school, to the Brisbane City Council in exchange for the Saint Lucia site.

 

During the years of the Depression that followed the university suffered progressive reduction of government funding. Cuts were made to both staff salaries and numbers, while student numbers trebled between 1923 and 1933. There was no prospect of building the new university until 1935 when the Premier, W. Forgan Smith, announced that the Queensland Government would undertake construction at Saint Lucia. This was one of the three major development projects initiated in the mid 1930s by the Queensland government to create employment, the others being the Stanley River Dam and the Story Bridge. The University Senate called for and received schemes from various enthusiasts, including Professor Hawken, Dr FW Robinson, AB Leven, and Dr JJC Bradfield. Taking ideas from these suggestions the Senate committee produced its own preliminary design. The principle building, containing Arts, Law and administration, was E-shaped and enclosed one side of an arcaded quadrangle. Related outer buildings contained Engineering, Biology, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, a museum and a teachers' training college. The Queensland government, despite hopes for a competition, appointed the Sydney firm of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co as architects for the project; and Jack Francis Hennessy (1887 - 1955) produced the coherent and logical plan that still lies at the heart of the University.

 

The foundation stone was laid in 1937 by Forgan Smith but it was another year before building commenced. Construction began in March 1938 with the main building, now known as the Forgan Smith Building, and was followed shortly afterward with the lower floors of the library and the Chemistry Building. It was to proceed, due to financial constraints, in stages clockwise around the court.

 

Work was disrupted by the Second World War (WWII). The main building served its first use, from 1942 - 1944, as the headquarters of General Sir Thomas Blamey (head of the Australian Defence Forces). The army evacuated the building and work re-commenced by 1948. The Forgan Smith Building was officially opened in May 1949 by Premier Hanlon. The Duhig Library (two-stories only and named for Archbishop Sir James Duhig) was also ready by this time, as was the Steele Building (named for the first professor of chemistry, Professor Bertram Steele).

 

In 1951 the Richards Building (named for the first professor of geology, Henry Casselli Richards) was completed. In 1955 the Parnell Building (named for the inaugural professor of physics, Thomas Parnell) and an addition to the west wing of the Forgan Smith Building were completed. In 1962, jointly funded by State and Commonwealth Governments, the Goddard Building (named for the second professor of biology, Ernest Jones Goddard) was completed. In 1965 three extra floors were added to the Duhig Library to the design of James Birrell.

 

The final building at the western end of the Forgan Smith was to have been a Great Hall. JD Story, the vice chancellor from 1938 until 1960, proposed in 1959 that this be replaced by a western Arts building and in 1972 construction began on the Michie Building (named for first the professor of classics, J.L. Michie). The state government announced in 1974 that it would provide the funding to clad the building in sandstone. The Michie Building was completed in 1978.

 

In March 1979 the colonnade between the Michie Building and the Goddard Building was completed enclosing the Great Court Complex.

 

A number of changes have been made over the years to the Great Court Complex. Some of buildings have been augmented or altered: there are various structures on top of the Goddard Building, and a new, discreet addition to the Law Library at the western end of the Forgan Smith Building which was designed by Robert Riddell. Perhaps the most significant change is that the planting within the Court is less formal than originally intended, and takes little account of Hennessy's plans for strong visual axes to tie the whole Court together. Notable also in this respect are Professor Gareth Robert's master plan for the university which involved the closing of the circular drive and the placement of the Main Library and the Great Hall in front of the Forgan Smith Building.

 

The Sculptors:

 

As part of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co's original concept, it was intended that the Great Court would include extensive sculptural work portraying historical panels, statues, coats of arms and panels of Australian plant and animal life. Many of the designs were done by Leo Drinan, who was the principle architect with Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. Work on the sculptures began in 1939, with German born John Theodore Muller and Frederick James McGowan as the principle stonemasons. Work was halted by the war in 1942 and McGowan died before it resumed three years later. Muller continued to carve until his death at more than 80 years of age, in 1953. At the time of his death, all of the friezes, most of the statues, and half of the grotesques, coats of arms, arches and roundels were completed.

 

Carving virtually stopped at the University after Muller's death and resumed only after the Michie Building was under construction. A competition amongst several Queensland sculptors in 1976 led to the commissioning of Mrs Rhyl Hinwood. Mrs Hinwood has since continued to carve numerous grotesques and coats of arms for the Court, as well as the two monumental figures at the main entrance to the Goddard Building.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

mixed media on canvas - 20x39 inches / 50x100 cm

Sexy Ashleigh Reid and the gorgeous girls from the Racing Dolls PR Team with a McLaren 570 S at the Scottish Car show, Highland Centre, Edinburgh. Nikon D-800, Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 IF-ED-VR-2. 35mm, f3.8, 1/60 sec.

 

Please note:

These images are not public domain and are protected by copyright law.

All images © MSI (Motorsport Images Ireland) 2016. All rights reserved.

COPYRIGHT: The copyright and intellectual property rights of this image is owned by MSI (Ireland), and is protected by copyright laws of Ireland and international intellectual property right treaties. You may not copy any portion of the images in any form whatsoever. You may not alter the images in any way.

UNAUTHORIZED USE: You may not use, copy, rent, lease, sell, claim ownership, publish to a website, blog or other such electronic hosting medium, modify, decompile, disassemble, otherwise reverse engineer, or transfer images in any form whatsoever whether electronically, mechanically or any other method. Any such unauthorized use shall result in immediate and automatic termination of this license and may result in civil and/or legal action against you/your company or representative.

 

If you are interested in the use of this digital photographic image, please contact us via e-mail at msiireland@yahoo.com or motorsportimagesireland@gmail.com

......................................................................................................................

Photography by JOB/MSI Ireland

 

© MSI Ireland 2016

All Rights Reserved

-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--

 

ROCK YOUR RACK 2022

October 1, 2022 - October 16, 2022

 

10th Annual Rock Your Rack Event is on the way!

 

Breast cancer is one of the leading health crises for women. 12% of women, and an every increasing percentage of men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. There is currently no known cure for breast cancer, and its early diagnosis is critical to survival.

 

Models Giving Back is pleased to present Rock Your Rack, an annual fundraising event combining the best of SL Music, Art, Dance and Fashion to support the work of breast cancer charities and raise awareness for early detection which is critical to a positive outcome for this devastating disease.

 

This year's sponsors include Blue Rose Creations, Cute N Cuddly Breedables, BOSLArts, Dark Star Radio, Designs by Soosy, Kultivate Music Management, LOPO District, and Fire Within.

 

Thank you to our Media sponsors as well for getting the word out: BOSL Magazine, Equalizer Magazine, Grid Affairs, Kultivate Magazine, Hostcrate, Media SL, ModeLS Magazine, The SL Enquirer, and XRadio SL.

 

This year's event will support the National Breast Cancer Foundation which provides free mammograms, education, support and early detection services to anyone in need.

 

Designers will be providing limited edition creations with 100% of the sales of those items going to the National Breast Cancer Foundation along with a fine selection of the newest, exclusive and most popular designs for your shopping pleasure. And, of course, the very popular 10L hunt will be up and running in the 50+ different designer booths and 35+ different artist booths.

 

For a complete listing of events and more details on this year's event, please visit the website: rockyourrack.wordpress.com

 

The event officially opens to the public on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at 12:00 am SLT and will close at 11:59 pm SLT on Sunday, October 16, 2022.

 

Together we can make a difference!

 

Those who are unable to attend but wish to support the cause, may visit the Model's Giving Back official donation page at fundraise.nbcf.org/MGB2022 where donations can be made directly using a variety of means.

 

****************************************************

About Models Giving Back

 

Models Giving Back is an agency of professional, certified SecondLife models who give of their time and talents to raise funds for legitimate and verified SL and RL charities.

 

Models Giving Back was founded in October of 2012 by Jamee Sandalwood after a previous agency dedicated to charity work was forced to close due to the owner leaving SecondLife. Jamee felt the work that was being done needed to be continued and set out to lead the models that were already a part of the former agency into new and bigger endeavors at the newly created Models Giving Back.

 

To date the agency has partnered with dozens of designers and provided models for runway, print and other functions that support charities around SL.

 

Rock Your Rack is the creation of Jamee Sandalwood and is owned exclusively by Models Giving Back in SecondLife.

 

Models Giving Back CEO: Jamee Sandalwood

Models Giving Back Logo:

Models Giving Back Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ModelsGivingBack

 

Models Giving Back Flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/94469096@N04/

 

********************************************

About the National Breast Cancer Foundation

 

The National Breast Cancer Foundation was founded in 1991 by breast cancer survivor, Janelle Hail. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 34. At the time of her diagnosis, there was little information about the disease, and she was forced to make a decision about her health with few options. After her treatment, Janelle made a commitment to help women around the world by educating them about breast cancer and the importance of early detection. NBCF’s mission is to save lives through early detection and to provide mammograms for those in need. This mission includes increasing awareness through education, providing diagnostic breast care services for those in need, and providing nurturing support services.

 

www.nationalbreastcancer.org

immediate seating for 100 of my closest friends :)

Immediate Press Release

 

GRAND OPENING

 

After much talk and a few delays co-designers Catlyn Sahara and Yatsumi Resident are ready to open up their doors. Along with their Manager Zoya Braham they will continue to fill in the store.

 

[Kawaii Dolls] currently has mesh clothing and SLINK nail enhancements for feet and hands. There will be more nails put out in the next week.

 

We ask that you come and take a look around. We also offer a free gift that was meant to be sent out before 4th of July that is free to all customers.

 

We hope you enjoy our creations and if you have any suggestions of nails you would like to see. Please leave us a notecard in our mailbox penguin.

 

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Queen%20Island/174/92/3250

 

Catlyn Sahara and Yatsumi Resident

Co-Designers and Owners

 

Zoya Braham

Manager

 

MODEL and PHOTOGRAPHER: Falbala Fairey

In the immediate post 'Deregulation' years, competition was hot in the Wrexham area. Crosville, the incumbent operator suddenly faced onslaughts on many fronts. Chief amongst their oppressors at the time was rapidly expanding local independent, Wright's of Pen-y-Cae.

Whilst Wright's did indeed have their own blue based livery, this second hand MCW bodied Bristol VR from West Midlands PTE certainly wasn't wearing it. A few appropriate stickers were deemed sufficient to identify JOV 722P to prespective passengers.

On the subject of stickers / decals, I'm more than a little amused by those above the windscreen on the Crosville (Wales) Olympian next to the VR as they appear to have a somewhat surreal appearance to them and almost look like they've been added to the photo at a later date!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 25, 2023

Contact: TFL Management (thefashionloft)

 

The Fashion Loft Invites You to Celebrate the End of 2023

 

On December 9, The Fashion Loft (TFL) will host its 7th annual Holiday Event in Second Life. The event is created to show appreciation for the creators who have supported TFL, as well as a way to promote mainstore shopping.

 

Using a HUD, shoppers will be able to teleport to participating stores. Once there, they will find items for sale for L$99, and hunt items for L$1.

 

To kick things off, The Fashion Loft will host an Opening Day party at TFL Headquarters on Saturday, December 9 from 2-4 PM SLT.

  

About The Fashion Loft

 

The Fashion Loft prides itself on being a home for bloggers, content creators, fashionistas, models, and photographers. Since 2016, TFL has provided events, shows, contests, and other activities that brings the fashion community together.

 

Inworld: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Isle%20of%20Creation/160/2...

Website: thefashionloftevents.wordpress.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/thefashionloftsl/

Flickr: www.flickr.com/groups/tflevents/

Twitter: twitter.com/TFL_SL

Discord: discord.gg/SrZAhhz

 

No gory pictures or audio. Just the steps that can save someone who has been shot or suffered any puncture wound that means they may bleed-out if action isn't taken. If you can't watch the video the procedure can be summed up in the phrase FIND IT. PLUG IT. PUSH IT. I accept no responsibility for death or injury resulting from the use of this technique. In memory of Jo Cox MP and all the other victims of gun violence.

Item # PP099

Très Chic Boutique

Poppy Parker™ Dressed Doll

The Bonbon Collection

Approximate Ship Date: Late Summer/Early Fall

Limited Edition Size: 900 Dolls Worldwide

Suggested Retail Price: $120.00

 

***AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE PRE-ORDER FROM YOUR FAVORITE IT DEALERS!***

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE LIST OF AUTHORIZED INTEGRITY TOYS DEALERS

 

Doll Tech Specs:

 

Body Type: Poppy Parker™

Head Sculpt: Poppy Parker™

Quick Switch Feature: No

Skin Tone: FR White

Hair Color: Natural Red

Eyelashes: Yes, Hand-Applied

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When defenses against the most immediate forms of mental disturbance have been raised, the assimilation of the principles of "right conduct" arouses in the mind an "intimate, unalloyed joy" joined with the stability and sureness of one who feels himself in a state of "justice." For which we are given the simile of a lawfully crowned king who knows that his enemies are routed and that there is no threat of any kind to his sovereignty. We have also acquired the strengthened "neutrality" or "sidereality" of the mind that, thanks to the fourfold contemplation, has further freed itself and is now at the center of all its experience, both internal and external. At this point we undertake the really cathartic action whose aim is to neutralize, by degrees, any possibility of "combustion" and of self-abandonment to the multiple variety of "contacts."

 

Contacts wound; contacts consume by exciting the fire that burns the body and the mind, which nourishes the samsaric stem and prostrates the higher principle. "The fool, struck by force, perishes; the wise man, when struck, does not tremble," he remains intact, remains unshakable, remains elusive; we must become like the wise man. It is a question, then, of dealing a blow at the transcendental "desire" that lurks in the visual and other senses, in the khandha (the groups of the personality), in the elements, and which is corruption, disease, suppuration. All this must naturally take place, not on the psychological or moral plane, but on the existential and metaphysical one. The beginning of the process of alteration lies in the senses, which are likened to so many "wounds." (…) In order to "bandage the wounds" and neutralize the infection provoked by contacts, we must ensure that "the internal sight, the internal smelling, the internal hearing, the internal tasting, the internal touching, the internal thinking are not distracted," that is to say, that we are present in the sixfold seat of the senses in such a way that we can immediately prevent any self-relaxation, self-attachment, self-intoxication, any luring of ourselves by enjoyment. There will be, then, no further building of combinations, at first in the fundamental stem of the will, and then in the five stems of the personality." This is the essence of the new work of catharsis.

 

This work is based on what is known as the "watch over the doors of the senses," for which the canonical formula is: "Upon perceiving a form with the eye, the ascetic conceives no inclination, no interest. Since craving and aversion and damaging and harmful thoughts soon overcome the man who lives with the eye unguarded, he remains vigilant, he guards the eye, he remains vigilant over the eye." Upon hearing a sound with the ear, upon smelling an odor with the nose, upon tasting a flavor with the tongue, upon touching a contact with the body, upon representing to himself a mental state with the mind, he conceives no inclination, he conceives no interest. Since craving and aversion and damaging and harmful thoughts soon overcome the man who lives with his mind unguarded, he remains vigilant, he guards the mind, he remains vigilant over the mind." To fail in this vigilance at some point is to suffer the fate of the tortoise: when the tortoise unthinkingly put out one of its limbs a jackal seized it by that limb and carried it off to its ruin.

 

In this matter then, we have to come to grips with the samsaric entity with which we are associated and that constitutes our double, composed of thirst. A continually tightening circle closes round it. It is effectively likened to an enemy who, knowing that he cannot openly defeat his adversary, gets himself employed by him as a servant and gains his confidence so that he may then defeat him by treachery: this is the part that the illusory "I," created by identification, plays in us until the time of initiation into the doctrine of the Ariya.

 

That the discipline of the watch over the senses or binding the wounds leads to a higher liberation is shown by the simile of the man who has at a crossroads a thoroughbred team and can guide them wherever he pleases. The man who does not know or who forgets this practice is dominated by forms, sounds, smells, tastes, contacts, and thoughts, instead of being their master.

 

In another way this discipline can also he summed up by the word silentium: "to gird oneself with silence," silence in the technical and initiatory sense. Impressions are arrested at the periphery, at the limit of the senses. Between them and the "I" there is now a distance, a zone of "silence." We thus become endowed with that form of silence that consists of not pronouncing either the exterior word or the interior word, and this in turn implies not hearing, not seeing, not imagining. This theme has also been expressed in a popular form. It is, in fact, the deeper, hidden significance of the well-known statuette of the three sacred monkeys, one with the ears closed, one with the mouth closed, and one with the eyes closed: speak not, hear not, see not. And we may here also recall the curious hermetical formula: "Who has ears, let him open them [in the sense of a close watch on every impression], who has a mouth, let him keep it shut [in the sense of the aforesaid silence, of calm, intangible 'neutrality']."

 

It is thus that the conditions for further liberation and then for awakening the extrasamsāric principle are consolidated.

 

As the natural counterpart of the watch on the doors of the senses, a world of disintoxication is carried out within the zone that is now isolated, in order to eliminate or reduce those internal smoldering embers of agitation and self-identification that may be made to burst into life by external contacts. This is what is known as the removal of the five nīvarana, a term that means a "dross," a "hindrance," or an "impediment." The five nīvarana are: desire (kāmacchanda); hate or anger (vyāpāda); slothful idleness (thīna-middha); pride and impatience (uddhacca- kukkucca); doubtful uncertainty (vicikicchā).

 

The action of these five hindrances is clearly indicated by the following similes: it is like trying to look at one's reflection in water wherein all kinds of colors are mixed (desire), or in boiling water (hate and anger), or in water full of mud and moss (slothful idleness), or in water agitated by the wind (pride and impatience), or finally, in dark and murky water (doubt). Removal is effected by direct action of the mind on the mind, together with accurate and calm self-examination. The discipline is described in the texts in the following manner.

 

The ascetic finds a solitary place and begins to meditate. A well-known yoga position is counseled: sit with legs crossed and body straight upright. This traditional Indo-Aryan position is, however, only suitable if one is so accustomed to it that it is quite natural and requires no special effort and does not produce fatigue. In general, the position recommended for this, as for other contemplations, must be one of equilibrium, which does not have to be changed; it must have a kind of symbolical meaning of self-awareness and it must not demand efforts that would distract the mind.

 

It is fundamentally a more advanced development of the states already induced by sīla or "right conduct." The aim here is obviously to bring us to a deeper zone by means of the strengthened power of internal vision that we have gained through the preceding disciplines. It is a matter of attacking, to some degree, the sankhara, that is to say, the innate and congenital tendencies that come, in part, from the extra-individual heredity that we have assumed.

 

Here, too, the purity achieved at certain moments comes to be developed until it has almost attained a state of permanency. This is how we must understand what is known as the "threefold watch": "by day, walking and sitting, turn the mind away from disturbing things; in the first watch of the night, walking and sitting, turn the mind away from disturbing things; in the middle watch of the night, lie down on the right side, like the lion, one foot on the other, bringing to mind the hour of waking; in the last watch of the night, after arising, walking or sitting, turn the mind away from disturbing things."

 

This is a kind of continuous examination of consciousness. The yama, the watches of the night that are recognized in this discipline consist, according to the Buddhist tradition, of four hours each; the first runs from six until ten in the evening, the second from ten until two in the morning, the third from two to six in the morning. Thus, strictly speaking, the period of true sleep or of the state that in the common man would correspond to sleep is restricted to four hours only, from ten in the evening until two in the morning. In this we must not see an "ascetic" discipline in the Western sense of mortification: on the contrary, it is natural that in advancing along the road of illumination the need for sleep is considerably reduced, and this reduction produces no ill effect. Here, too, a unilateral "authoritarian" intervention would only serve to create states of fatigue and inattention unfavorable for spiritual life by day.

 

With attentive care of the "wounds" and with action taken against the hindrances or impediments, the zone of "silence" is strengthened, and a gradual interior increase of the extrasamsāric quality takes place therein; this increase should he aided by illuminated effort and it is related to the aforesaid "seven awakenings". These "awakenings" are the positive counterpart of the cathartic or prophylactic action, that is to say, they are a "defence against intoxication produced by action." The canonical formula is: "[The ascetic] rightly causes the awakening of mindfulness derived from detachment, derived from dispassion, derived from cessation [of the flux], ending in renunciation, he causes the awakening of investigation -of inflexible energy- of enthusiasm -of calm- of concentration -of equanimity, of these awakenings derived from detachment, derived from dispassion, derived from cessation, ending in renunciation."

 

Various interpretations of the place of these awakenings in the whole development are, nevertheless, possible. Their sense as a whole, indeed, reflects that of the four jhānas, of the contemplation that is to be performed in complete detachment from external experience. Here, however, we may understand them on a more relative plane, as a kind of transfiguration and liberation of faculties that are already pervaded by the element of bodhi, whence the expression bojjhanga. It must be realized that we are not dealing with a simple schematic enu¬meration, but rather with a series in which the meditation whereby they are appre¬hended should pursue an intimate causal linking of the single terms so that we are naturally led on from one to the next, and so that in the one we see the integration and resolution of its predecessors. Thus, we must first achieve nondistracted medita¬tion: then we must awaken the state of "mindfulness," fix it in the mind, develop it, master it, and see how this state leads to the second awakening and passes into "investigation," which may find support in some element of the doctrine; this inves¬tigation, when developed, fixed, extended, and mastered must lead on to the awak¬ening of "inflexible energy," whose perfect conquest should herald a state of spe¬cial, purified "enthusiasm," of purified joy. By further developing the meditation, we should realize that this enthusiasm, this joy, awakened and perfectly developed in a body that is becoming calm, in a mind that is becoming calm, will become resolved and liberated in the next awakening, which is that of "calm." When calm has been developed, extended, fixed, and mastered, "concentration" awakens; this, in its turn, when completely developed, becomes established and shines forth in the "equanimity" that is the seventh awakening.

 

These form a series of landmarks in meditation that is concerned with realization and they are connected by an inherent continuity. Through these, one is led in another way to the confirmation of what was already becoming established in the satipatthāna, the fourfold contemplation of detachment, that is to say, one is led to that impassibility that is qualified as "pure, clear, ductile, flexible, resplendent," but which has nothing to do-it should be noted-with the indifference of a blunt mind, with the indifference "of a fool, of an ignorant man, of an inexpert common man." For our part, we think it opportune to add that the state in question must on no account be confused with apathy, and that it develops together with a feeling of purified intellectualized and heroic joy, although this may at first seem difficult to understand. The Bhagavadgītā says: "When the mind, lamed by ascesis, becomes quiet; when [the ascetic], seeing the self in the self, rejoices in himself, knows that boundless joy which, transcending the senses, can only be ap¬prehended by the intellect and, when fixed in it, does not stir from the truth ... he knows that this detachment from union with pain is called yoga." At the same time, Buddhism speaks of a pleasure that is "like dung" when compared to that based on detachment, calm, and illumination (thus two kinds of joy are considered and contrasted. the one bound to life in the world, to mania, to enjoyment, the other to ascesis or to ultramundane states of detachment and of freedom from mania; and it is said that the second is the higher joy. "Extinction is the greatest joy.")

 

Furthermore, such sequences as these are frequent: "In the ascetic joy arises; this joy makes him blissful; being blissful, his body becomes calm: with the body calmed, serenity arises; in this serenity the mind comes to rest, becomes concentrated"; this is a preparation for the four jhāna. This is another sequence that has the character of a connected series, developing in an upward sense, not unlike that which, through the twelve nidana, led us downward to samsāric existence. The point of departure of this new series is, in fact, the state of suffering, of agitation, of contingency, which corresponds to the last nidāna of the descending path. Beyond it, there is the state of confidence; this leads to purified joy; then follows serenity, which gives place to bliss, passing on to equanimity - the term used here literally means also to vanish, to cease being in a place: it is a question of detached equilibrium. In this text the supreme realization has behind it a linked series in which special states of liberated joy play a particular part: a kind of joy that Plato contrasted with all mixed and conditioned forms of joy or of pleasure.

 

Let us quote another text that represents the state at which we may reckon to have arrived at this point of our exposition: „Concentration which knows neither increase nor decrease, which is not based on wearisome subjugation, which, because of its detached nature is constant, because of its constancy is full of bliss, because of its bliss cannot be destroyed — such concentration has suprene wisdom as its result.”

 

This should destroy the idea that the path of awakening is arid and desolate, that it kills all joy, that it offers only renunciation and destruction. That everyone whose furthest horizon is still within the effective, samsarically conditioned world should have this idea is quite natural but is of very little account.

 

A text reminds us that only an Awakened One can comprehend the Awakened One. An expressive simile demonstrates this: two companions leave a city together and reach a rock that one of them climbs. He says to the other: "I see from up here a wonderful view of gardens, woods, fields, and lakes," but the other retorts: "It is impossible, it is inadmissible, friend, that from up there you can see all that." Then the companion standing on the rock comes down, takes the other by the arm, makes him climb up on the rock and. after he has recovered his breath, asks him: "What do you then see, friend, standing on the rock?" The other replies: "I see a wonderful view of gardens, woods, fields, and lakes." "And your previous opinion?" "While I was obstructed by this great rock, I could not see what is now visible." It concludes: it is impossible that what is knowable, discernible, capable of achievement, capable of realization through detachment can be known, discerned, achieved, realized by one who lives among desires and who is consumed by desires." Quite apart from the higher "sidereal" principle. the Buddhist also knows the kind of joy that is contentedness, rejoicing, jubilation, enthusiasm, exultation, transport of the spirit and that, among others, is considered as "a factor of the great awakening”.

 

[Countering those who believe that the Buddhist road is one of desolation and aridity, Louis de La Vallée-Poussin most opportunely writes: “We must, rather, recognise that India is difficult when it comes to being and bliss; that as she puts being beyond existence, so she puts bliss beyond sensation.”]

 

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Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part II., Chapter 4. - Sidereal Awareness: The Wounds Close (excerpt)

 

The brick former Naval Offices at 3 Edward Street in Brisbane was constructed in 1900 - 1901 by the Queensland Department of Public Works as the first purpose-built headquarters for naval forces in Queensland. Built for the Queensland Marine Defence Force (QMDF), it was soon used by the Australian Commonwealth Navy (ACN). It was transferred to Commonwealth ownership in 1911 and was used by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

 

The former Naval Offices is located midway along the Town Reach (Petrie's Bight to Garden Point) of the Brisbane River, within a block bounded by Margaret, Edward, and Alice streets and the river. Over time this area was utilised by a number of Queensland Government entities dedicated to commercial shipping, including; the Government Shipping Office, Port Office, Marine Board Office, Harbours and Rivers Department, Hydraulic Engineers and Shipping Master's departments, Marine Department, and the Government Seamen's Saving Bank. A Reserve for the Harbour Master's Department of 1 rood and 30 perches (1771sqm) was surveyed in 1862 between the corner of Alice and Edward streets and the river, and a stone and brick building was erected that year. Later known as the (first) Port Office, it included offices on the ground floor and store rooms and a boatshed underneath. Prior to this date the Harbour Master was based in George Street.

 

Military use of the immediate area started in 1886, when the QMDF occupied the 1862 Port Office. The QMDF was created in 1885 in response to fears that Queensland's coastal settlements were vulnerable to Russian warships. In the late 1870s tensions between Britain and Russia had raised concerns regarding the defence of Britain's overseas colonies. Colonel Sir William Jervois of the Royal Engineers, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Scratchley, toured the Australian colonies to make recommendations for defence arrangements and the pair visited Queensland in August 1877. In order to deal with the perceived Russian naval threat to Brisbane they recommended utilising small naval vessels to disrupt enemy landings, a coastal fort with submarine mines across the river at Lytton, and a mobile field force of infantry and engineers with artillery. A Naval Brigade and a Torpedo Corps was also required. When the Defence Act 1884 was gazetted on the 25th of February 1885, the existing Queensland Volunteer Force (land forces) became the Queensland Defence Force (QDF). The Queensland Defence (Marine) Force was gazetted on the 3rd of March 1885.

 

Lieutenant Walton Drake had taken command of the Naval Brigade from the 1st of January 1885, tasked with training volunteers. Two 50-strong companies of Brisbane naval volunteers were announced that month and additional naval brigades were later formed at other Queensland ports, including Townsville, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Cairns, Cooktown, Bundaberg, Thursday Island, and Mackay.

 

Naval vessels were also ordered as part of the proposed plan to defend Queensland. The first vessel of Queensland's new navy to be delivered was the steel, second-class spar torpedo boat ‘Mosquito', which arrived as deck cargo in Brisbane in October 1884. Prior to this the closest thing that Queensland had to a naval vessel was the Queensland Government schooner ‘Pearl', which conducted survey work and guarded the pearling fisheries in northern Queensland waters.

 

The main strength of the QMDF, the sister Alpha class gunboats ‘Gayundah' (meaning Thunder) and ‘Paluma' (Lightning), ordered from Britain in 1883 and launched in 1884, arrived in March 1885 and May 1885 respectively.

 

The ‘Gayundah' sailed to Queensland under Commander (later Captain) Henry Townley Wright, a retired Royal Navy officer. Wright was appointed as Senior Naval Officer (SNO) and Superintendent of the QMDF on the 30th of March 1885, as well as remaining in command of the ‘Gayundah'. Those of the crew who elected to remain in Queensland's service became the first permanent members of the QMDF. The ‘Gayundah' was used to train QMDF seamen, while the ‘Paluma' was used on survey work by the British Admiralty until being handed back to Queensland in 1895. The last regular vessel of the QMDF was the ‘Midge', a mahogany timber picquet boat/spar torpedo boat, which arrived in 1888.

 

Auxiliary vessels in the QMDF included a locally-built steamer ‘Miner', and the government steamer ‘Otter'. Five steam hopper barges of the Harbours and Rivers Department, the ‘Bonito', ‘Stingaree', ‘Dolphin', ‘Bream' and 'Pumba', could also be armed if required for port defence.

 

A Permanent Force, HMQS Gayundah, QDF (Marine), was established in February 1892, but most of its full-time crew were paid off in 1893 as part of cutbacks during the 1890s depression, as was the ‘Paluma's' crew after the ship had completed its survey work. For most of the 1890s the gunboats were used by naval brigade crews solely for training.

 

In and near Brisbane, a number of buildings were erected for the QMDF. The Naval Stores and a wharf were built at the base of the Kangaroo Point cliffs in 1886 - 1887, across the river from the QMDF headquarters on Edward Street. A sub-marine mining (naval mine) store was erected circa 1886 at Fort Lytton, and a sub-marine mining drill hall was later built at the west end of Alice Street in 1900.

 

By 1896, the old Port Office used by the QMDF was in a poor state and the foundations, inundated during the 1893 floods, were settling and causing wall cracks. On the 1st of August 1899 the QMDF's Staff Paymaster, Edward Vincent Pollock, also complained that the roof was leaking water onto his paperwork. Later that month £1500 was allocated by the Department of Public Works for the construction of new offices.

 

In May 1900 it was decided by Queensland's new Naval Commandant, Captain William Rooke Creswell, that the new offices would replace the cottage of the Marine Department's messenger/caretaker at the corner of Edward and Alice Streets. Tenders were invited in late August and the cottage was demolished.

 

Plans for the new Naval Offices were approved by AB Brady, the Government Architect within the Department of Public Works (DPW), on the 14th of September 1900, but since he was trained as an engineer it is unlikely to be his design. The DPW employed a number of accomplished architects at this time and the work could be attributed to Thomas Pye (First Assistant Architect from July 1899), John Smith Murdoch (Second Assistant Architect from the 1st of July 1899), or George David Payne (Temporary Draughtsman 1898 - 1901). Pye supervised larger works, while Murdoch took charge of the designing and drafting staff.

 

DPW was involved in the design and construction of Queensland's most important buildings and capital works following its formation in 1866. Employing a succession of highly-talented architects, DPW produced many fine buildings of high architectural merit. Prior to World War II these buildings were characterised by: highly-functional, rational plan arrangements that were commodious and accommodating; use of high-quality, durable materials, preferably sourced from Queensland; and a quality of civic dignity brought about through style, scaling, and form.

 

The tender of James Mason of Brisbane of £1845/17/6 for the Brisbane Naval Offices was accepted in October 1900, and the building was completed by late June 1901. ‘The Queenslander' reported on the 16th of November 1901 that the building's facing bricks were dark-brown, relieved with cement dressings and rough-cast work. The roof was covered with rolled galvanised iron. The Annual Report for DPW to the 30th of June 1901 (where the Naval Offices was listed under principal works completed during the year) mentioned internal fittings of pine and cedar. No other Australian colony built naval offices in this period, just prior to Federation and the transfer of defence assets. Queensland may have done so to ensure the continued use of Brisbane by the Commonwealth Navy.

 

As a naval headquarters, the building was designed with spaces for the senior naval officers and their administrative staff, along with a strong room for the Staff Paymaster. The original ground floor plan included an entry porch off Edward Street, with double doors leading north-west into a public space which was separated by a counter from the Clerk's office. There was also a set of double doors leading north-east into a vestibule between the front offices, and onwards into a central hall. To the rear of the Clerk's Office was the Paymaster's Office, which included a projecting strong room at the rear of the building. The right front (southern) office was for the Commandant, while the right rear (eastern) office was for the Officer of the Naval Corps. Each had a fireplace.

 

Behind the Naval Corp's office was the separate Brigade Entrance. From this entrance, the ground floor rear verandah could be accessed, as well as a stairway up to a landing from which people could either descend to the ground floor offices, or continue up to the first floor. The latter was a large open space used as an Orderly (Administrative) Room, with four fireplaces and a small lavatory and store at the right rear (eastern) corner. This space may have been later partitioned for sleeping quarters and offices. The 1900 plans do not show the ventilation fleche which was present on the roof when the building was finished. This fleche was removed by the mid 1980s, and was replicated in the 1990s.

 

Although the QMDF existed when the building was started, the first occupants were technically the Queensland components of a Commonwealth Navy. After the Australian Commonwealth was formed on the 1st of January 1901 the defence forces of the separate colonies were transferred to the new Federal Government in March. However, procedural delays meant arrangements were not completed until 1902.

 

At the time of Federation, Queensland's naval forces numbered 750 men of all ranks, and it was one of four states (including Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia) to contribute ships to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Force (ACNF), formed on the 1st of March 1901 - handing over the ‘Gayundah', ‘Paluma', ‘Mosquito' and ‘Midge'. Captain Creswell remained the Commandant of the Queensland-based flotilla of the ACN. In late 1904 Captain Creswell was appointed Director of Commonwealth Naval Forces, and his place as Queensland Naval Commandant was taken by Captain Frederick Tickell (to 1907). By 1904, 49% of Australia's serving naval officers had served in the QMDF.

 

Captain Creswell was a major advocate for an independent Australian navy. Australia had been a separate British Naval Station since 1859 and a squadron of the Royal Navy was maintained in Australian waters until 1913. After March 1901 the Royal Navy was still paid to provide blue water defence (a force projection capability beyond coastal defence), but Captain Creswell lobbied for an autonomous Australian blue water navy. The 1909 Imperial Conference agreed to form an Australian fleet, and the first ships of this fleet, the destroyers ‘Yarra' and ‘Parramatta', reached Australia in 1910. On the 10th of July 1911 King George V granted the title ‘Royal Australian Navy' to the ACN and in October 1913 formal control of these units was transferred to the Commonwealth Naval Board. Meanwhile, in 1911 district naval officers were appointed around Australia to replace the naval commandants.

 

Although the Commonwealth took control of Queensland's naval forces in 1901, the Naval Offices was not transferred to Commonwealth ownership until 1911. DPW was still maintaining the building in 1910 and it was still in Queensland ownership in June 1911.

 

A number of alterations were made to the Naval Offices during Commonwealth ownership. February 1933 plans included the addition of a first floor rear verandah with an enclosed laundry and new stairs from the side yard. At the same time, the first floor was converted into a residence for the Senior Naval Officer, and the large space was partitioned into domestic rooms. The internal stairway from the main ground floor hall was removed, so the upstairs residence could only be accessed from the old Brigade Entrance or the new rear verandah. Two sets of French doors plus a single door were installed between the verandah and the residence. A ‘typiste' (typists) room was added to the north west end of the original ground floor rear verandah, and a new lavatory was added behind the strong room. Further additions in late 1939 resulted in a new office, lavatory, and water closet (WC) being built behind the strong room, replacing the 1933 lavatory. Two other WCs were also built sometime between 1933 and 1939 on and adjacent to the rear verandah.

 

After Japan entered World War II in December 1941, Brisbane became an important supply and command centre and the resulting expansion of the Allied naval presence in the city meant larger Naval Staff Offices were urgently required. During 1942 - 1943 commercial buildings in Queen Street were requisitioned and occupied by the Australian and United States navies. Although the Operational Staff of the RAN's Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC), Queensland, was based in Queen Street, the District Naval Officer, Queensland, remained at the Edward Street Naval Offices with the Civil Secretariat and Accounts staffs. Other wartime RAN facilities in Brisbane were located at Colmslie and New Farm. The Smellie and Co. warehouse opposite the Naval Offices was used by the US Red Cross before becoming an Australian Comforts Fund hostel for the Royal Navy in 1945.

 

Further alterations were made to accommodate the extra staff at the Naval Offices. In 1944 a two-storey timber office extension was added behind the existing verandahs, the verandahs were enclosed as offices, and toilet arrangements were reconfigured. The stairway to the first floor 1933 verandah was removed, as was the first floor verandah laundry. The original steps up to the rear yard from Alice Street were removed and replaced with steps that climbed south west to the side yard.

 

By 1977 the former Naval Offices was vacant, its functions having been transferred to HMAS Moreton at New Farm (naval base, closed 1994). The Edward Street site was surplus to Commonwealth requirements but, as it was included on the Register of the National Estate by this time, a decision was made to lease the property for 99 years rather than sell it. This enabled conditions protecting the heritage values of the original section of the former Naval Offices to be written into the lease. The building was leased to Jakuma Limited in November 1981. The lease was transferred to Historic Holdings Pty Ltd in 1987, and to HSH Hotels (Australia) Limited in 2000.

 

From 1982 the former Naval Offices was used as Muddies Seafood Restaurant, and alterations were made including removing walls between the ground floor offices, constructing a new stair in the ground floor hall, removing internal partitions in the rear timber extensions on both levels, a new kitchen fit-out on the first floor, and adding a fire escape stair to the rear.

 

After the restaurant closed in 1989, the building was vacant for a period before being refurbished in the early 1990s. This refurbishment was designed by Bruce Buchanan Architects and saw the restoration of lost or obscured significant fabric. The 1944 office extensions to the rear of the building were demolished and the rear verandah was reconstructed. The ground floor toilets were upgraded, partitions were reinstated between the offices on the ground floor, and the first floor partitions were removed to make one large space. At some time after this work, the first floor was again partitioned into rooms although these walls do not reach the ceiling. A new kitchenette was built at the rear eastern corner of the first floor.

 

Behind the former Naval Offices, the Stamford Hotel, a large multi-storey building, was constructed in 1990 and a boardwalk was built behind the former Naval Offices along the river edge. However, a visual connection between the former Naval Offices and the river was maintained. The flagpole at the front of the building is not an original feature but was there by World War II; while the four flagpoles located near the rear northern corner of the building date from between 1974 and 1991. The building was returned to Queensland State Government ownership in 2011, and in 2012 the ground floor was occupied by a florist, while an architectural firm and a property developer sub-leased the first floor.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

immediate

Proposals for a university in Queensland began in the 1870s. A Royal Commission in 1874, chaired by Sir Charles Lilley, recommended the immediate establishment of a university. Those against a university argued that technical rather than academic education was more important in an economy dominated by primary industry. Those in favour of the university, in the face of this opposition, distanced themselves from Oxford and Cambridge and proposed instead a model derived from the mid-western states of the USA. A second Royal Commission in 1891 recommended the inclusion of five faculties in a new university; Arts, Law, Medicine, Science and Applied Science. Education generally was given a low priority in Queensland's budgets, and in a colony with a literacy rate of 57% in 1861, primary education was the first concern well ahead of secondary and technical education. The government, despite the findings of the Royal Commissions, was unwilling to commit funds to the establishment of a university.

 

In 1893 the Queensland University Extension Movement was begun by a group of private individuals who organised public lecture courses in adult education, hoping to excite wider community support for a university in Queensland. In 1894, 245 students were enrolled in the extension classes and the lectures were described as practical and useful. In 1906 the University Extension Movement staged the University Congress, a forum for interested delegates to promote the idea of a university. Opinion was mobilised, a fund was started, and a draft Bill for a Queensland University was prepared. Stress was laid on the practical aspects of university education and its importance for the commerce of Queensland. The proceedings of the Congress were forwarded to Premier Kidston. In October 1906, sixty acres in Victoria Park were gazetted for university purposes.

 

The University of Queensland was established by an Act of State Parliament on the 10th of December 1909 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Queensland's separation from the colony of New South Wales. The Act allowed for the university to be governed by a senate of 20 men and Sir William MacGregor, the incoming Governor, was appointed the first chancellor with RH Roe as the vice chancellor. Old Government House in George Street was set aside for the University following the departure of the Governor to the Bardon residence, Fernberg, sparking the first debates about the best location for the university.

 

In 1910 the first teaching faculties were created. These included Engineering, Classics, Mathematics, and Chemistry. In December of the same year, the Senate appointed the first four professors; BD Steele in chemistry, JL Michie in classics, H. Priestly in mathematics and A Gibson in engineering. In 1911 the first students enrolled.

 

Practically from the start there was controversy about a permanent site for the University. Old Government House was too small and was seen by many as evidence merely of government parsimony. There was not much room for expansion and there were conflicts with the neighbouring Brisbane Central Technical College. Victoria Park had been chosen in 1906 for a permanent site and in 1922 a further 170 acres were vested in the University. The high cost of preparing the steeply sloping land at Victoria Park for building made it a less than ideal site despite its central location and proximity to the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Yeronga Park and Saint Lucia were considered as options. But in 1926 the whole issue was transformed when Doctor James O'Neil Mayne and Miss Mary Emilia Mayne made £50,000 available to the Brisbane City Council to resume land at Saint Lucia and present it to the University. Opinion was divided with Professor Steele and many members of the medical profession against Saint Lucia because of its isolation and lack of public transport. A meeting of the Senate, on the 10th of December, voted for the Saint Lucia site on the condition that the city council provided access. Those voting for Saint Lucia included Archbishop Duhig, EJD Stanley, ACV Melbourne, and Professor Richards. Doctor Lockhart Gibson, Chancellor AJ Thynne and Archbishop Sharp were amongst those who voted for Victoria Park. In 1930 the Senate handed over Victoria Park, less eleven acres reserved for a medical school, to the Brisbane City Council in exchange for the Saint Lucia site.

 

During the years of the Depression that followed the university suffered progressive reduction of government funding. Cuts were made to both staff salaries and numbers, while student numbers trebled between 1923 and 1933. There was no prospect of building the new university until 1935 when the Premier, W. Forgan Smith, announced that the Queensland Government would undertake construction at Saint Lucia. This was one of the three major development projects initiated in the mid 1930s by the Queensland government to create employment, the others being the Stanley River Dam and the Story Bridge. The University Senate called for and received schemes from various enthusiasts, including Professor Hawken, Dr FW Robinson, AB Leven, and Dr JJC Bradfield. Taking ideas from these suggestions the Senate committee produced its own preliminary design. The principle building, containing Arts, Law and administration, was E-shaped and enclosed one side of an arcaded quadrangle. Related outer buildings contained Engineering, Biology, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, a museum and a teachers' training college. The Queensland government, despite hopes for a competition, appointed the Sydney firm of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co as architects for the project; and Jack Francis Hennessy (1887 - 1955) produced the coherent and logical plan that still lies at the heart of the University.

 

The foundation stone was laid in 1937 by Forgan Smith but it was another year before building commenced. Construction began in March 1938 with the main building, now known as the Forgan Smith Building, and was followed shortly afterward with the lower floors of the library and the Chemistry Building. It was to proceed, due to financial constraints, in stages clockwise around the court.

 

Work was disrupted by the Second World War (WWII). The main building served its first use, from 1942 - 1944, as the headquarters of General Sir Thomas Blamey (head of the Australian Defence Forces). The army evacuated the building and work re-commenced by 1948. The Forgan Smith Building was officially opened in May 1949 by Premier Hanlon. The Duhig Library (two-stories only and named for Archbishop Sir James Duhig) was also ready by this time, as was the Steele Building (named for the first professor of chemistry, Professor Bertram Steele).

 

In 1951 the Richards Building (named for the first professor of geology, Henry Casselli Richards) was completed. In 1955 the Parnell Building (named for the inaugural professor of physics, Thomas Parnell) and an addition to the west wing of the Forgan Smith Building were completed. In 1962, jointly funded by State and Commonwealth Governments, the Goddard Building (named for the second professor of biology, Ernest Jones Goddard) was completed. In 1965 three extra floors were added to the Duhig Library to the design of James Birrell.

 

The final building at the western end of the Forgan Smith was to have been a Great Hall. JD Story, the vice chancellor from 1938 until 1960, proposed in 1959 that this be replaced by a western Arts building and in 1972 construction began on the Michie Building (named for first the professor of classics, J.L. Michie). The state government announced in 1974 that it would provide the funding to clad the building in sandstone. The Michie Building was completed in 1978.

 

In March 1979 the colonnade between the Michie Building and the Goddard Building was completed enclosing the Great Court Complex.

 

A number of changes have been made over the years to the Great Court Complex. Some of buildings have been augmented or altered: there are various structures on top of the Goddard Building, and a new, discreet addition to the Law Library at the western end of the Forgan Smith Building which was designed by Robert Riddell. Perhaps the most significant change is that the planting within the Court is less formal than originally intended, and takes little account of Hennessy's plans for strong visual axes to tie the whole Court together. Notable also in this respect are Professor Gareth Robert's master plan for the university which involved the closing of the circular drive and the placement of the Main Library and the Great Hall in front of the Forgan Smith Building.

 

The Sculptors:

 

As part of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co's original concept, it was intended that the Great Court would include extensive sculptural work portraying historical panels, statues, coats of arms and panels of Australian plant and animal life. Many of the designs were done by Leo Drinan, who was the principle architect with Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. Work on the sculptures began in 1939, with German born John Theodore Muller and Frederick James McGowan as the principle stonemasons. Work was halted by the war in 1942 and McGowan died before it resumed three years later. Muller continued to carve until his death at more than 80 years of age, in 1953. At the time of his death, all of the friezes, most of the statues, and half of the grotesques, coats of arms, arches and roundels were completed.

 

Carving virtually stopped at the University after Muller's death and resumed only after the Michie Building was under construction. A competition amongst several Queensland sculptors in 1976 led to the commissioning of Mrs Rhyl Hinwood. Mrs Hinwood has since continued to carve numerous grotesques and coats of arms for the Court, as well as the two monumental figures at the main entrance to the Goddard Building.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

When the Allegheny National Forest was established in 1923, the immediate challenge was nurturing the young trees growing amongst logging slash on the recently cleared hillsides. Because of such heavy logging and mining, wildfires, floods and erosion were a threat. With care and a general absence of overt human interference and manipulation, the forests grew. Since they started growing at roughly the same time, most of the trees in today's second-growth forest on the Allegheny Plateau are the same age (70–100 years old).

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 22nd 2013

MEDIA CONTACT: Cacilia McMasters

 

ZENSHI Presents....... WINTER FAIR FROST

A Zenshi's Catalogue Trunk Show.

 

AVENUE-zenshi is pleased to announce its 1st Winter Fair Frost, A Zenshi's Catalogue Trunk Show.! This event will run November 30th - December 30th 2013 and will include Second Life's best designers.

 

TRUNK SHOW: November 30, 2013 at 2PM (Landmark to be Announced)

 

Each designer will have 1 exclusive design to ZENSHI as well as other outfits to fit your winter fashion flair. On opening day November 30th with some of Second LIfes best models walking the runway featuring these one of a kind designs.

 

We are looking forward to this event being one that we will present every year. The Winter Fair Frost, Zenshi's Catalogue Trunk Show, promises to provide you with all your winter fashion needs in one convenient place.

 

If you have any questions you can contact Fuzz Lennie or Ashia Denimore. Thank you for your time today. We look forward to seeing you at the Winter Fair Frost, Zenshi's Catalogue Trunk Show!

  

List of Designers

 

BAOBA

LIZIAAH

ECLIPSE

Legal Insanity

Faster Pussycat

Fendty

LPD

BSD

ZANZE

Liv Gla

AD Creations

Zibska

Vero Modero

LPD

....and many more.

  

Models...

 

BlackLIquid Tokyoska

Landa Crystal

Natzuka Miliandrovic

Sylphia Constantine

Zaara123

Ewan Crumb

HabibMaalouf

Lex Demonista

Nayomi Gartner

Nice Wildrose

Roxy Olsonne

Tyra Eiren

Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand behavior and mental processes by researching and establishing both general principles and specific cases. For many practitioners, one goal of applied psychology is to benefit society. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist, and can be classified as a social scientist, behavioral scientist, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and behaviors. Psychologists explore such concepts as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also consider the unconscious mind.a Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. In addition, or in opposition, to employing empirical and deductive methods, some—especially clinical and counseling psychologists—at times rely upon symbolic interpretation and other inductive techniques. Psychology incorporates research from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, such as philosophy.

 

While psychological knowledge is often applied to the assessment and treatment of mental health problems, it is also applied to understanding and solving problems in many different spheres of human activity. Although the majority of psychologists are involved in some kind of therapeutic role (clinical, counseling, and school positions); many do scientific research on a wide range of topics related to mental processes and behavior (typically in university psychology departments) and/or teach such knowledge in academic settings; and some are employed in industrial and organizational settings, and in other areas such as human development and aging, sports, health, the media, law, and forensics

 

KD06 HWL-seen parked up close to the Birmingham Diwali Festival in Birmingham city centre.

AD by Daniele Eberhardt for The ASHRAYA PROJECT (better seen large)

 

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16 April 2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

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PR Contacts:

 

Press: Kay Fairey (Eng/Jap) or Xandrah Sciavo (Eng)

General questions: Leah McCullough (Eng/Spa)

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THE ASHRAYA PROJECT

 

“Giving hope and love to the children of India”

 

May 5th - June 4th 2012

  

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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

  

• Thu. May 3rd: Opening to Bloggers and Press

 

• Sat. May 5th:

 

10.00 am SLT: 1st Fashion Show featuring the exclusive creations of the Fashion Fair

12.00 pm SLT: Interview to Virginia Lupindo “How Ashraya changed my life”

12.30 pm SLT: Celebration Party with Djs

6.00 pm SLT: 2nd Fashion Show featuring the exclusive creations of the Fashion Fair

 

• Sun. May 6th: Official Opening of The Ashraya Project Fashion Fair

 

• Sun. May 13th, 11.00 pm SLT: Ga-Go SL Ver. Concert

 

• Fri. May 18th, 2.00 pm SLT: Mankind Tracer Concert

 

• Mon. May 28th, 12.00 pm SLT: Official Opening of The Ashraya Project Art Expo

 

• Mon. June 4th, 12.00 pm SLT: Closing Party and Auctions

  

DJs schedule will be announced soon

 

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ABOUT ASHRAYA

  

Ashraya is an organization based in India which operates with the purpose of providing aid to Indian children in need and abused women through the implementation of various projects.

 

From the organization’s website:

 

"Ashraya", meaning 'Shelter' has brought hope and love into the lives of several hundred children and women, over many years. Founded and registered in 1982, the Bangalore based organization is dedicated to finding solutions for children within the frame work of their own biological families, or in adoptive homes. Initially, the organization’s main function was to work with and rehabilitate destitute, poor and abandoned children. It has now extended its services to the family as a whole.”

 

(www.ashraya.net)

 

As is true in so many nations throughout our world, the quality of care for institutionalized children suffers due to lack of resources and financial support. When founded, Ashraya’s purpose was to improve the quality of care for these children.

 

The organization operates under the firm belief that such institutions are best only as temporary placement for children, and adoption has become a large piece of Ashraya’s mission. Through the important work done here, hundreds of children are placed with their forever families and are able to enjoy happiness and a bright future.

 

Education is highly valued by Ashraya, and that is why the organization also supports endeavors to provide schooling to children who would not otherwise be able to learn to read and write.

 

By helping children lead safe, happy lives and providing them with the important tools that a solid education can bring, Ashraya continues to improve the world, one young life at a time.

  

Read Ashraya success stories here:

 

ashraya.net/subpages/Success.html

  

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ABOUT OUR PROJECT

  

Our focus with this project will be to come to the aid of the many Indian children who need us today through the sponsorship of basic needs items as well as study programs. By participating in The ASHRAYA PROJECT, you too may help to provide food for a day or even a week, a pair of shoes, or clothing.

It is our hope that through our donations, we are able to help fund the education for as many children as possible. This, we believe, is a worthwhile cause.

 

Plans are currently underway for this exciting event which will open on May 5, 2012, with a KICKOFF CELEBRATION PARTY and two FASHION SHOWS featuring a live showcase of exclusive items which will be available at the FASHION FAIR running from May 6 until June 4.

Each vendor participating in the fair has agreed to offer at least one exclusive item, and the full proceeds for these exclusive items will be donated to Ashraya.

 

Throughout the month, we are planning various live performances for your enjoyment, and the event will close with the ART EXPO from May 28 until June 4, at which exclusive artistic creations from many talented artists on the grid will be featured and even available for purchase.

An ongoing raffle will also run during the event at which participants can win a variety of prizes ranging from personal styling sessions to photo shoots.

 

Our event will be held at two sims which have been graciously donated to us by BONAIRE ESTATES, and we are excited to be partnering with them for what promises to be an incredible project. The LM of the sims will be sent soon.

 

So many of the grid’s top designers have joined our team and will be participating as vendors in the fashion fair, and we are pleased to announce that we still have some spots available to add even more designers.

If you are interested in participating as designer, please contact Anna Sapphire for your application.

The complete list of the designers participating in The ASHRAYA PROJECT FASHION FAIR will be announced April 20.

  

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For more information, please visit the following sites:

 

The Ashraya Project

ashrayaproject.wordpress.com/

 

Ashraya

www.ashraya.net

 

Neelbagh Rural Residential School

www.ashraya.net/subpages/Sponsorship.html

   

The Ashraya Project Team

 

Founder

Anna Sapphire

 

Team Members

Arialee Miles

Carley Benazzi

Daniele Eberhardt

Jax Aster

Kay Fairey

Leah McCullough

Xandrah Sciavo

 

Builder

Setsuna Infinity

 

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Sponsored by

 

Avenue Magazine

BeStyle Magazine

Bonaire Estates

BOSL Radio

Haute Magazine

L’Homme Magazine

Maniera Magazine

The Best Of SL Magazine

 

It's 5:30a.m., and I am halfway into my drive from home base in Mesa to Hayden, home of the Copper Basin Railway. A thought running through my mind was "It's unlikely, but how cool would it be if we could somehow get a GP18 leader today"

 

Flash forward to 7am, and my face is lit up with an ear to ear grin as CBRY SLAG-04 comes into view with some instant gratification to this morning's thoughts. The train is heading up the Hayden smelter branch, and this won't be the last I would see of this unique motor for the day

le stop !!! vibré sur les vélos gratuit velib

Windows réflexion free bicycle

in Paris

Sony A7R 90 mm OLD LEICA 2.8 yellow filter

 

Thanks for your visits, likes and interest. Feel free to leave a comment. Have a nice weekend or day's and enjoy the stream! Regards Gilles

 

Please push "C" key on your keybord to leave a comment is great :-) And Thank you for that !

 

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without, my explicit permission

© gD Under copyright Bern agreement(convention) all right reserved © GillesD « Tous droits réservés »

 

L.A. Studio Session Musicians - 2/23/24

Guitar: Steve Postell - Bass: Leyland Sklar

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Sklar

stevepostell.com/bio

 

"Somebody's Baby" - medley - (this show!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUiPwD5ONZs

 

"Let the Good Time Roll" - (this cruise!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyMDXwmGKXM

 

"Just What I Needed" - (this cruise!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHMkGXrxdmk

  

*[left double-click for a closer-look - Day 2 - Deck Stage - 9:45 PM]

 

-- Atlantic Ocean - just northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands --

 

OK, so I've done the Sail-Away, the 'Port' in the Dominican Republic, and some sunrises/sunsets along this five-day cruise. NOW, it's time for: The Artists at Sea - Twenty Amazing Bands! Will be posting in no particular order: the wide stage-shots & then the verticals. This was our 7th consecutive Rock Legends Cruise. Epic Music Cruise. Enjoy.

 

Rock Legends Cruise XI - February 22nd-26th, 2024

------- Annual Rock Music Festival at Sea Benefit ---------

Independence of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Line

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_of_the_Seas

---- Miami - Dominican Republic - Miami - (five days) ----

20 Bands! - Five Day Party! - three stages! - 60 Shows!

Concerts all day-and-night from 10:00 AM to 2:00 AM

 

2024 Bands: Sammy Hagar & The Circle - Billy F Gibbons

Bret Michaels - Rick Springfield - Collective Soul - Geoff Tate

Jefferson Starship - Last In Line - The Immediate Family

The Kentucky Headhunters - Canned Heat - Mononeon

Vanessa Collier - Gary Hoey - Duane Betts & Palmetto Motel

Robert Jon & The Wreck - Anthony Gomes - Two Wolf

Mathew Curry - Jax Hallow - Gary Hoey's All Star Jam

 

*Rock Legends VII - (Feb 2019) - Cruise Video Montage

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pIMWuGq2WI&feature=youtu.be&...

 

*ALL proceeds from ALL the Rock Legends Cruises go to NAHA :

Native American Heritage Association, a non-profit organization

dedicated to fighting hunger and providing basic life necessities

to families living on Reservations in South Dakota, U.S.A.

 

2024 Rock Legends Cruise XI slide-show: flic.kr/s/aHBqjBhjDw

 

*[this was our 7th consecutive (annual) Rock Legends Cruise

(1-year postponed w/ covid). We already booked RLC XII 2025

w/Robin Trower - Burton Cummings! Next year will be: 8 of 12!]

 

"And in the end, the love you take, is equal

to the love you make" ---Paul McCartney

“In the immediate future, more and more manned space flights will be undertaken and a manned space station is destined to be launched to serve as a space laboratory. Scientists are concerned about the astronauts in these vehicles for they will be subject to a potentially serious hazard in the form of fast-moving space particles called meteoroids. It is imperative that the extent of this danger be known before astronauts spend protracted periods in space.

 

The precise origin of meteoroids is not too well understood. Astronomers know of at least two types – wholly dissimilar in nature. There is a type of dust ball of appreciable size but of exceedingly low mass which can float safely down through the earth’s atmosphere to settle on the surface.

 

It is this type which may find its way to the bottom of lakes where they can accumulate for literally millions of years. These are discovered in cores taken from the lake bottoms. The danger in space from these particles is negligible.

 

The other type of meteoroid is massive and relatively small. The mass and speed of these particles provide the energy to penetrate a space craft or space station to do significant damage. Some scientists believe these particles may be large enough to set up a shock wave on impacting a space craft which could kill the crew. Some of these are large enough to survive passage through the atmosphere and are picked up on earth as meteorites.

 

From this, it is seen that the hazard is a real one and scientists concerned with the danger are looking for ways to learn more about it so that the necessary counter – measures may be undertaken.

 

To determine the extent of this danger, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded to the Fairchild Stratos Corp. a $6.5 million contract to build several Meteoroid Detection Satellites, weighing about 3,400 pounds each, to be launched by the Saturn I booster from Cape Canaveral before the end of 1964.

 

Scientists realize that knowledge of the mass and energy content of meteoroids in the intermediate range is needed most. There is fairly definitive data on the very small meteoroids, as well as the very few large ones, but the number of intermediate ones—the ones which represent the danger—is a mystery.”

 

Above per the accompanying caption/description, as written by Dr. I. M. Levitt, Director, Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.

 

Another damned nice piece of work by the enigmatic, yet ubiquitous John Gorsuch!

The immediate predecessor of the Iowa Traction Railroad was the Iowa Terminal Railroad. The Iowa Terminal had two non-contiguous divisions: the better known electric division centered in Mason City and the lesser known diesel division centered in Charles City. Here a pair of Iowa Terminal electric locomotives await their next assignment in Mason City. Both are 50 ton units built by Baldwin-Westinghouse. For active locomotives both are ancient with #54 being built in 1919 and #51 built in 1921. The Iowa Terminal became a fallen flag in 1987 when the railroad was sold and renamed the Iowa Traction

The American Bald Eagle gained immediate, unofficial recognition as our National bird when the Great Seal of the United States was adopted on June 20, 1782. Official designation of the massive bird that has a wingspan of from 6 to 8 feet did not come however, for six more years. During that time it was the subject of fierce arguments by leading political leaders of the day.

 

In January of 1784 elder statesman Benjamin Franklin registered his own disapproval of the eagle as our National bird when he stated:

"The bald eagle...is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy.

"The turkey is a much more respectable bird and withal a true original native of America.

 

The bald eagle's friends prevailed in the end, however, and in 1789 George Washington became our Nation's first President and the American Bald Eagle became our Country's official bird. Almost 150 years later the American Bald Eagle was protected under the National Emblem Act of 1940.

President John F. Kennedy later wrote:

"The Founding Fathers made an appropriate choice when they selected the bald eagle as the emblem of the nation. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and freedom of America."

 

I found this National Bird at Homosassa Springs State Park, Citrus County, Florida.

 

His phenomenally successful novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), his play Les Burgraves (1842-43) and, later on in his life, his mammoth epic La legende des siecles (published between 1859 and 1883) were key texts for contemporaries.

Though Christian buildings by purpose, Europe’s Gothic cathedrals contain an ancient Pagan wisdom hidden in their architecture. This wisdom, which predates Christianity, was placed by the operative Freemasons, builders commissioned by the Church to create cathedrals, churches, and other edifices. For centuries the Masonic heresy went unrecognized, but the Church eventually outlawed the Freemasons and called for their immediate destruction once the heresy was discovered. Their structures live on, however, and in this article we’ll see how Freemasonry’s “lost secret” can be found encoded in the stone architecture of Gothic cathedrals.This “pairs of opposites” wisdom is the lost key to all the Mystery schools in history (Perennial Philosophy, Hermetic Teachings, Philosopher’s Stone, etc. and so on). The “pairs of opposites” can be witnessed in the natural mechanics of the moon: they each spend half the day up, and though the Sun is far larger than the moon they appear the same size because the moon is much closer. These natural pairings are strong evidence towards the sun and the moon as being equal but opposing natural symbols.Quasimodo is a monstrously deformed hunchback who was left on the foundling bench in front of Notre Dame. “Sixteen years previous to the epoch ... His play on at the beginning of the book fails due to the dignitaries showing up late, and perhaps it being too esoteric for the masses.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (French: Notre-Dame de Paris, "Our Lady of Paris") is a French Romantic/Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The original French title refers to Notre Dame Cathedral, on which the story is centered. English translator Frederic Shoberl named the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1833 because at the time, Gothic novels were more popular than Romance novels in England.[1] The story is set in Paris, France in the Late Middle Ages, during the reign of Louis XI.Victor Hugo began writing Notre-Dame de Paris in 1829, largely to make his contemporaries more aware of the value of the Gothic architecture, which was neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced by replacement of parts of buildings in a newer style. For instance, the medieval stained glass panels of Notre-Dame de Paris had been replaced by white glass to let more light into the church.This explains the large descriptive sections of the book, which far exceed the requirements of the story. A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs (War to the Demolishers) specifically aimed at saving Paris' medieval architecture.

 

The agreement with his original publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year, but Hugo was constantly delayed due to the demands of other projects. In the summer of 1830, Gosselin demanded that Hugo complete the book by February 1831. Beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked nonstop on the project thereafter. The book was finished six months later.Paris, 1482. The gypsy Esmeralda (born as Agnés) captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of the Notre Dame Cathedral. He orders Quasimodo to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda. Gringoire, who attempted to help Esmeralda but was knocked out by Quasimodo, is about to be hanged by beggars when Esmeralda saves him by agreeing to marry him for four years.

 

The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, followed by another hour's public exposure. He calls for water. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart.

 

Later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary, temporarily protecting her from arrest.

 

Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to the sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the Cathedral and will be taken away to be killed. Clopin, the leader of the Gypsies, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda.

 

When Quasimodo sees the Gypsies, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Likewise, he thinks the King's men want to rescue her, and tries to help them find her. She is rescued by Frollo and Gringoire. But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is being hanged. When Frollo laughs during Esmeralda's hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the height of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo sees Esmeralda's body, he dies with her and their bodies turn to dust

The one that surprises me the most is the Disney film. I have not seen it, but I cannot imagine Disney remaining true to the story and it still be a Disney film. The only character in the book with any sort of redeemable qualities is Quasimodo. La Esmeralda was basically an innocent, but in the end her obsession kills her.

 

Say what you will about numerable top 100 novels lists that float around on the Internet, but I use them to get ideas on classical literature to read. As I read this book I wondered if it was on any of the lists. I wondered this because it is so well written and the story line leads the reader on at such a quick pace. Surprisingly it was not. I attribute this to two possible causes. First, there are few chapters in the novel that are basically history lessons about Paris. I found them interesting, but some readers may find them a bit tedious. Secondly, the ending of the books leaves the reader with a sense of the futility of life.

 

The book is set in Paris at the tail end of the medieval period, the 15th century. It is a time of superstition, over religiosity, absolute power of the establishment, and little concern for human life or the humanity of individuals. It was a time of huge class distinctions, with the lower classes considered to have little or no value. It was a time when there were gibbets and machines for public torture practically in ever square of the city.

 

One of the principles characters is Quasimodo. Quasimodo is a monstrously deformed hunchback who was left on the foundling bench in front of Notre Dame.

 

“Sixteen years previous to the epoch when this story takes place, one fine morning, on Quasimodo Sunday, a living creature had been deposited, after mass, in the church of Notre-Dame, on the wooden bed securely fixed in the vestibule on the left, opposite that great image of Saint Christopher, which the figure of Messire Antoine des Essarts, chevalier, carved in stone, had been gazing at on his knees since 1413, when they took it into their heads to overthrow the saint and the faithful follower. Upon this bed of wood it was customary to expose foundlings for public charity. Whoever cared to take them did so. In front of the wooden bed was a copper basin for alms.”

 

Another one of the principle characters, the Archdeacon Claude Frollo, claimed the foundling and named him Quasimodo in honor of the religious holiday. Frollo raised Quasimodo, educated him the best he could, and eventually made him the bell ringer of Notre Dame. In many ways Quasimodo is a vile creature operating at a primitive level. Due to his deafness, a result of being so close to ringing big bells of the cathedral, he is isolated beyond the isolation created by his grotesque appearance. In the end he is as close to a hero as the book has. He and Claude Frollo both “loved” La Esmeralda, but in much different ways. Quasimodo loved her in a self-sacrificing manner that did not make demands on her.

 

Archdeacon Claude Frollo is wonderful argument against the celibacy of the priesthood. Here is a man of remarkable intellect and drive who suppresses basic human passions. He does so to adhere to the teachings of the church. He sublimates these desires into his pursuit of knowledge. He is a man who many ways wants to do Good. However, when the physical urgings can no longer be ignored they overwhelm him with disastrous results for a large number of folks. The unfortunate object of his obsession is La Esmeralda, a gypsy street dancer. In the end he orchestrates her death rather than allow someone else to have her. The novel in many ways is a tale of this obsession and others obsessions gone astray.

 

The pivot around which the novel turns is La Esmeralda, the gypsy street dancer. It turns out she was actually kidnapped by the gypsies as a baby and raised by them. Before she died, a gypsy woman told La Esmeralda of her real mother. This became her obsession in life, to be reunited with her mother. Excluding that here is a person that lived in the moment, plying her street dancing trade. She also had a trained goat, Djali, with which she entertained crowds with feats of his ability to mimic haughty personages, tell time, etc. She lives in a section of town full of gypsies, pickpockets, beggars and other assorted outsiders. Her beauty is admired by all who see her, and she is revered by these people. Her obsession with a soldier, Phoebus de Chateaupers, leads to her downfall and death.

 

Phoebus de Chateaupers is a self-centered soldier and general bon vivant. There is a kidnapping attempt on La Esmeralda. He and the soldiers under his command prevent this. When La Esmeralda first sees her rescuer, she is smitten beyond any degree of sanity. He later on sees her as just another female conquest. He is a cad to her, and a cad to his finance, Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier. It is he who is the proximate cause of La Esmeralda’s troubles with the authorities.

 

Sister Gudule aka the sacked nun who self-imprisoned herself in a small cell opening onto a square of the city of Paris. She had been in there for 15 years feed and mocked by the citizens of Paris. It comes out at the end of the novel that she is really La Esmeralda’s mother.

 

There is Jehan Frollo the brother of Archdeacon Claude Frollo and a thorn in his side. He is ostensibly a student, but his primary activities are carousing and drinking. In the end he dies in the riot outside of Notre Dame meant to free La Esmeralda.

 

Another character that ties many parts of the book together is Pierre Gringoire, a supposed playwright. His play on at the beginning of the book fails due to the dignitaries showing up late, and perhaps it being too esoteric for the masses. Not being paid he has nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat. For various reasons he follows La Esmeralda, disrupts her kidnapping by Quasimodo and an unknown assistant. Then he loses her path. He ends up in the Cour des Miracles which is basically the bad section of town. “The King” of this domain is about to hang Gringoire when La Esmeralda intervenes.

 

“You are going to hang this man?” she said gravely, to Clopin.

 

“Yes, sister,” replied the King of Thunes, “unless you will take him for your husband.”

 

She made her pretty little pout with her under lip. “I’ll take him,” said she.

 

Gringoire firmly believed that he had been in a dream ever since morning, and that this was the continuation of it.

 

The change was, in fact, violent, though a gratifying one. They undid the noose, and made the poet step down from the stool. His emotion was so lively that he was obliged to sit down.

 

The Duke of Egypt brought an earthenware crock, without uttering a word. The gypsy offered it to Gringoire: “Fling it on the ground,” said she.

 

The crock broke into four pieces.

 

“Brother,” then said the Duke of Egypt, laying his hands upon their foreheads, “she is your wife; sister, he is your husband for four years. Go.”

 

But the marriage is never consummated. La Esmeralda must remain virginal in order for the search for her mother to be successful. Gringoire disappears for a while in the novel to reappear towards the end. He is somewhat friendly with Claude Frollo and hatches a plot to allow the Claude Frollo to kidnap La Esmeralda. The plot results in 100s of the vagabounds of the Cour of Miracles being slaughtered by the Louis XI’s soldiers.

 

Besides the obsessions of Claude Frollo, Quasimodo and La Esmeralda the novel deals with the human insanity that was the middle ages. The courts are basically the whim of the magistrate without any rules of evidence. The first chapter of Book 6 is absolutely hilarious as the deaf magistrate is questioning the deaf Quasimodo. It is a scene worthy of Monty Python. Then at the end of the trail after Quasimodo has been sentenced one of the clerks tries to intervene for a little clemency.

 

However, at the moment when Master Florian Barbedienne was reading the sentence in his turn, before signing it, the clerk felt himself moved with pity for the poor wretch of a prisoner, and, in the hope of obtaining some mitigation of the penalty, he approached as near the auditor’s ear as possible, and said, pointing to Quasimodo, “That man is deaf.”

 

He hoped that this community of infirmity would awaken Master Florian’s interest in behalf of the condemned man. But, in the first place, we have already observed that Master Florian did not care to have his deafness noticed. In the next place, he was so hard of hearing That he did not catch a single word of what the clerk said to him; nevertheless, he wished to have the appearance of hearing, and replied, “Ah! ah! that is different; I did not know that. An hour more of the pillory, in that case.”

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunchback_of_Notre-Dame

 

 

C H E R N O B Y L - 2 0 1 2

 

This is the view of the Chernobyl reactor as seen from the so-called “Bridge of Death”. To the immediate right of the reactor you might see 2 white cranes. These cranes are part of the “new safe containment” project. The goal of this project is to create a new containment unit, and to replace the existing sarcophagus.

 

On the left side of the photo you will see 2 sets of railroad tracks. Notice also how the tracks on the left have obviously not been maintained in a very long time. The tracks on the right look positively new in comparison. That's likely because they are new. This train line has apparently been reactivated as part of the "new safe containment" project.

 

Now, after all of this, you just might be wondering how this bridge got the name “Bridge of Death.” In the early morning of April 26, 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl number 4 reactor blew a 1000 ton cover off the containment unit. Obviously, an explosion of that magnitude would be heard a good distance away. But no news was forthcoming from the Soviet authorities or the power plant managers. So, some people wandered out the following morning to try to figure out what happened. This bridge was the 1st place they could get a clear view of the reactors. Unfortunately, the night before, a good deal of radiation had fallen in this area. It is said that everyone who viewed the explosion from this vantage point died. Whether that is true, I cannot say. And whether death happened in one month, one year, or 5 years, I have not seen reports clarifying that in any way.

 

It is not surprising that people who viewed the reactors from this vantage point received a high dosage of radiation. From the point where I took this photo, off to the right and behind me, is an area called “the Red Forest.” It is said that the Red Forest received such a high dose of radiation that the trees glowed red. Or maybe it was only the needles on the pine trees that glowed red. This is one of the more frustrating legacies of Chernobyl. If you read 3 different reports on any aspect of Chernobyl, you may likely get 3 very different stories of what actually happened that day. The Red Forest, to this day, remains one of the most radioactive areas within the Chernobyl "exclusion zone" or "zone of alienation."

 

For those who may be wondering, during the 30 hours I spent in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, my radiation exposure was roughly equivalent to what I would receive in Kiev over a seven-day period. And roughly equivalent to Detroit, USA, but less then places like Denver. And it was less than the typical radiation exposure one would receive on a New York to Los Angeles round-trip flight.

Ready to move into, clean interior, bodywork needs slight attention, racing stripes fitted, features single floor spiral staircase.

No trains on The Snowdon Mountain Railway - certainly not for the immediate future, anyway,

However long that turns out to be! You cross the line to access the view of the waterfall!

By way of immediate action, a stand must first be made against thought, against mental processes. "I do not know" - it is said - "anything which, when unbridled, uncontrolled, unwatched, untamed, brings such ruin as thought, and I do not know anything which, when bridled, controlled, watched, tamed, brings such benefits as thought."

 

Thought, which everyone lightly says is "mine," is, in reality, only to a very small degree in our power. In the majority of cases, instead of "to think" it would be correct to say "we are thought" or "thought takes place in me." In the normal way, the characteristic of thought is its instability. "Incorporeal" - it is said - "it walks by itself": it "runs hither and thither like an untamed bull." Hard to check, unstable, it runs where it pleases. In general, it is said that, while this body may persist one year, two years, three years or even up to a hundred years and more in its present form, "what we call thought, what we call mind, what we call consciousness arises in one manner, ceases in another; incessantly, night and day"; "it is like a monkey who goes through the forest, and who progresses by seizing one branch, letting go of it, taking hold of another, and so on."

 

The task is to "arrest" thought: to master it and to strengthen the attention; to be able then to say: "Once this thought wandered at its fancy, at its pleasure, as it liked: I today shall hold it completely bridled, as a mahout holds a rut-elephant with his goad."

 

A few explanations.

 

If one day normal conditions were to return, few civilizations would seem as odd as the present one, in which every form of power and dominion over material things is sought, while mastery over one's own mind, one's own emotions and psychic life in general is entirely overlooked. For this reason, many of our contemporaries - particularly our so-called "men of action" - really resemble those crustaceans that are as hard-shelled outside with scabrous incrustations as they are soft and spineless within. It is true that many achievements of modern civilization have been made possible by methodically applied and rigorously controlled thought. This, however, does not alter the fact that most of the "private" mental life of every average and more-than-average man develops today in that passive manner of thought that, as the Buddhist text we have just quoted strikingly puts it, "walks by itself," while, half-unconscious, we look on. Anyone can convince himself of this by trying to observe what goes on in his mind, for example, when leaving his house: he thinks of why he is going out but, at the door, his thoughts turn to the postman and thence to a certain friend from whom news is awaited, to the news itself, to the foreign country where his friend lives and which, in turn, makes him remember that he must do something about his own passport: but his eye notices a passing woman and starts a fresh train of thought, which again changes when he sees an advertisement, and these thoughts are replaced by the various feelings and associations that chase each other during a ride through the town. His thought has moved exactly like a monkey that jumps from branch to branch, without even keep-ing a fixed direction. Let us try, after a quarter of an hour, to remember what we have thought - or, rather, what has been thought in us - and we shall see how diffi¬cult it is. This means that in all these processes and disordered associations our consciousness has been dazed or "absent." Having seen this, let us undertake to follow, without disturbing them, the various mental associations. After only a minute or two we shall find ourselves distracted by a flood of thoughts that have invaded us and that are quite out of control. Thought does not like being watched, does not like being seen. Now this irrational and parasitical development of thought takes up a large part of our normal psychic life, and produces corresponding areas of reduced activity and of reduced self-presence. The state of passivity is accentuated when our thought is no longer merely "spontaneous" and when the mind is agitated by some emotion, some worry, hope, or fear. The degree of consciousness is certainly greater in these cases - but so, at the same time, is that of our passivity.

These considerations may throw some light on the task that is set when one "ceases to go"; one reacts, one aims at being the master in the world of one's own mind. It now seems quite incomprehensible that nearly all men have long since been accustomed to consider as normal and natural this state of irrationality and passivity, where thought goes where it will - instead of being an instrument that enters into action only when necessary and in the required direction, just as we can speak when we wish to, and with a purpose, and otherwise remain silent. In comprehending this "according to reality," we must each decide whether we will continue to put up with this state of affairs.

 

In its fluid, changeable and inconsistent character, normal thought reflects, moreover, the general law of samsāric consciousness. This is why mental control is consid¬ered as the first urgent measure to be taken by one who opposes the "current." In un¬dertaking this task, however, we must not be under any illusions. The dynamis, the subtle force that determines and carries our trains of thought, works from the subconscious. For this reason, to attempt to dominate the thought completely by means of the will, which is bound to thought itself, would almost be like trying to cut air with a sword or to drown an echo by raising the voice. The doctrine, which declares that thought is located in the "cavern of the heart," refers, among other things, to thought considered "organically" and not to its mental and psychological offshoots. Mastery of thought cannot, therefore, be merely the object of a form of mental gymnastics: rather, one must, simultaneously, proceed to an act of conversion of the will and of the spirit; inte¬rior calm must be created, and one must be pervaded by intimate, sincere earnestness.

 

The "fluttering" of thought mentioned in our text is more than a mere simile: it is related to the primordial anguish, to the dark substratum of samsāric life that comes out and reacts since, as soon as it feels that it is seen, it becomes aware of the danger; the condition of passivity and unconsciousness is essential for the development of samsāric being and for the establishment of its existence. This simile illustrates an experience that, in one form or another, is even encountered on the ascetic path.

 

The discipline of constant control of the thought, with the elimination of its automatic forms, gradually achieves what in the texts is called appamada, a term variously translated as "attention," "earnestness," "vigilance," "diligence," or "reflection." It is, in point of fact, the opposite state to that of "letting oneself think," it is the first form of entry into oneself, of an earnestness and of a fervid, austere concentration. When it is understood in this sense, appamāda constitutes the base of every virtue. It is also said: "This intensive earnestness is the path that leads toward the deathless, in the same way that unreflective thought leads, instead, to death. He who possesses that earnestness does not die, while those who have unstable thought are as if already dead." An ascetic "who delights in appamāda - in this austere concentration - and who guards against mental laxity, will advance like a fire, burning every bond, both great and small." He "cannot err." And when, thanks to this energy, all negligence is gone and he is calm, from his heights of wisdom he will look down on vain and agitated beings, "as one who lives on a mountaintop looks down on those who live in the plains."

 

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excerpt from The Doctrine of Awakening by Julius Evola

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

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........*****All images are copyrighted by their respective authors .......

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... message header for item 2... Common sense, planning make a safer campus

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency.

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... message header for item 1. Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

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.....item 1).... Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal ...

 

.... The Miami Herald ... www.miamiherald.com/ ...

 

The Miami Herald > Living > Food ... FRIED RICE ...

 

BY SARA MOULTON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/25/3360267/leftover-rice-make...

 

Starchy, crunchy and flavorful, fried rice is a deeply satisfying dish no matter what you add to it. And you can add just about any vegetable or protein you care to name, fresh or left over.

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

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img code photo ... Shrimp fried rice

 

media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2013/04/23/16/00/OnksA.Em.56...

 

Shrimp fried rice with pickled radishes MATTHEW MEAD / AP

 

Main dish

 

--- Shrimp Fried Rice with Pickled Radishes

 

... 2 eggs

... Kosher salt and ground pepper

... 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, divided

... 1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

... 1/2 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp

... 2 garlic cloves, minced

... 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

... 3 cups cooked brown rice

... 2 cups coarsely shredded radishes (about 10 large radishes)

... 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

... 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

... 2 tablespoons sake or dry sherry

... 2 teaspoons sesame oil

... 1 cup blanched fresh or thawed frozen peas

... 1 cup blanched sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Coat the pan with cooking spray.

 

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper to the eggs, then add them to the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the egg all around to make a flat pancake. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, or until almost set. Turn over the egg (you can cut it in a few pieces to make it easier, using the side of a nonstick pan-safe spatula) and cook for another 10 seconds. Transfer the egg to a cutting board.

 

Add 1/2 tablespoon of the oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until almost cooked through, about another 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.

 

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet, then add the rice, pressing it flat with the back of the spatula. Cook until the rice is slightly crispy, turning it over with the spatula, about 8 to 10 minutes.

 

While the rice is cooking, in a small bowl combine the radishes, vinegar and salt to taste. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, sake and sesame oil. Chop the egg and add it along with the peas and sugar snap peas to the bowl with the shrimp.

 

When the rice is nicely crisped, add the contents of the shrimp bowl and the soy sauce mixture to the skillet and cook, stirring, until the mixture is heated through. Transfer the fried rice to 4 bowls and top each portion with some of the radishes. Makes 4 servings.

 

Per serving: 440 calories; 120 calories from fat (27 percent of total calories); 14 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 175 mg cholesterol; 50 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 9 g sugar; 22 g protein; 670 mg sodium.

 

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I’ve never been all that great at cooking rice. I just can’t seem to get the ratio and timing right, and I always forget when you’re supposed to leave it alone and when you’re supposed to stir it. I finesse this handicap by leaning on a little trick I learned during my restaurant days: boiling the rice in a big pot of salted water as if it was pasta. That way there’s no rice-to-water ratio to worry about. For brown rice, 45 minutes does the trick.

 

And if you’re in a particular rush, you can swap in instant brown rice, which is almost as nutritious as regular brown rice and cooks up quicker, as advertised.

 

This being spring, I made sure that the stars of the recipe were seasonal ingredients, starting with peas. Fresh peas are heavenly, of course, but they start turning to starch as soon as they’re harvested, so be sure to cook them right away. I also incorporated two other spring vegetables— sugar snap peas and radishes, though I left the radishes raw. Saute a radish and this spicy, crispy root vegetable becomes sweet and tender.

 

But I like the kick of a raw radish, so I simply shredded them, then tossed them with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Sprinkled on top of the finished dish, these raw radishes are similar to a pickle.

 

Protein-wise, this recipe calls for shrimp, but you can use any protein you choose, or toss in mushrooms instead and call it a vegetarian’s delight.

 

As is typical in Chinese cuisine, this dish requires little cooking time. But you must have all the ingredients measured and chopped before you toss them in the pan. If you want to streamline the process even further, you can leave out the sauce, simply serving the finished dish with soy sauce and hot sauce on the side. For that matter, you could lose the radish garnish, though even suggesting such a thing makes me sad.

 

In the end, I can pretty much guarantee that if you try this recipe even once, you’ll be inspired to make it again and again, changing it slightly every time to make room for whichever delicious seasonal ingredients happen to be at hand or whichever leftovers are crying out to be used up.

  

READ MORE FOOD STORIES FROM THE MIAMI HERALD

 

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.....item 2).... Common sense, planning make a safer campus ...

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Be in the know with FSU Guardian, the Night Nole and more protection from FSUPD

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img code photo ... The Blue Light Trail

 

cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...

 

The Blue Light Trail is one of the numerous precautions Florida State has implemented to increase campus safety. / Zachary Goldstein / FSView

 

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May 22, 2013

 

Written by

Brittany Lyons

Staff Writer @Bhl11Lyons

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Life

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130523/FSVIEW0101/130522030/Com...

 

With so much else to focus on when students move in and get settled for the school year, safety may be the last thing that Seminoles are thinking about. The good news is that FSU already has several measures in place that maintain safety on campus.

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency. In addition, students that provide their cell phone numbers will be able to receive emergency notifications through FSU Alert, and university police offer a free new service called FSU Guardian—if you sign up, an emergency call from your cell phone would allow FSUPD to have quick access to your information as well as GPS coordinates of your location in order to help them respond more quickly.

 

FSUPD also allows students to register their personal and valuable property online in case of theft or loss. Lieutenant Hank Jacob of FSUPD’s Support Services Division advises students to record the serial numbers of their valuables. According to Jacob, this information is especially valuable if property ends up at a pawn shop or advertised on Craigslist. Of course, taking caution with your belongings is important as well.

 

“A lot of it is common sense,” Jacob said. “One of the biggest things we get is people leaving their stuff around. You can’t expect it to be there when you get back. You can’t leave your residence hall unlocked or your car unlocked. You have to do the most you can to secure and safeguard your property.”

 

Common sense also applies to keeping safe at night. Students have several night-time transportation options. The S.A.F.E. Connection—a project by the Student Government Association in affiliation with FSUPD—offers free transportation to any location on-campus and several off-campus locations as well. It is available from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. nearly every night during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

 

During the fall and spring, the Night Nole also provides transportation to even more off-campus locations but does not operate on Sunday or Monday nights. It is designed to transport students from the Tennessee Strip to over 32 apartment complexes.

 

For those students living in residence halls on campus, University Housing provides Night Staff for safety concerns that may arise between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. In addition, female students can take a Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) program that is free if not taken for credit.

 

There are many ways to prevent crime and maintain safety while at FSU, but students who are conscious of their habits and their surroundings will be able to decrease their risk even further. Common sense knowledge like letting a friend know your whereabouts and not walking alone at night is essential to abide by at college because of the unique and riskier environment. It is essential for incoming students to exercise caution as they adjust to college life.

 

Finally, Jacob offered advice on how to stay safe and be responsible at FSU.

“Don’t break the law,” Jacob said. “Don’t drink. Don’t do pot. Don’t be so trusting or naïve.”

 

Important Phone Numbers:

 

FSUPD Emergency Situation: 911

FSUPD Urgent Situation: 311

S.A.F.E. Connection: 644-7233

 

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.....item 3).... Get the skinny on Tallahassee Naturally

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Jun. 26, 2013 7:56 PM |

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img code photo ... Taking minimalism to the extreme

 

cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...

 

Taking minimalism to the extreme, Custom Content Editor Tammy Noel throws fashion, and her clothes, to the wind in favor of nude naturism. / Tammy Noel and Katie Dolciato / FSView

 

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Written by

Tammy L. Noel

Custom Content Editor

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Campus

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130627/FSVIEW1/130626026/Get-sk...

 

So we’re supposed to just take our clothes off now? Cool.

 

My comrades and I jumped out of my Jetta and walked on the dirt beaten path toward the lake. Our first sight: Chuck from Pensacola, standing in bare flesh with a brewski waving hey.

 

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

 

What I appreciate most about clothing is the actual textile. My favorite is leather. Whether its pebbled, saffiano, or patent leather, authentic animal hide maintains a caliber that is unmatched to the over popularized poly-cotton blends, most college students are accustomed to it. It’s tough. It’s durable. Yet, it’s restrictive. And no matter how much I enjoy my leather trousers, what’s even better than putting it on, is taking it off.

 

Clothing dictates opinions. They do. That blonde who sits in the front row with her Tory Brunch flats and Michael Kors tote, what do you really know of her? Or that hipster that wears tight skinnies with a graphic tee, what do you really know of him? Nothing. You actually think you know more than you do. Clothing protects us, but always restricts our frame of judgment. Shedding free of that restrictive material may allow us to witness a clarity that we wouldn’t normally see. Well, I needed some clarity.

 

But wait—the closest thing to being “natural” is the Nature Valley bars I snag from the vending machine. I hate the outdoors so much my dream home resides in the heart of metropolitan city with the rooftop garden.

 

I was predictably nervous. Was I going to be hit on? I mean how could they possibly resist themselves. Or at least I’d like to believe that to be the case. But, quite possibly, this wasn’t about me, maybe it was something deeper than the stereotypical notions we all cling to. “Now you start asking people why and everybody will give you a different reason, high on most peoples’ list is the freedom of it,” LeValley said. “To me, it’s a way of getting in touch with ancestral roots. This is the way people were for thousands and thousands of years—connected with all of history.”

 

A frequent guest lecturer at FSU and FAMU, over a warm fire and s’mores, LeValley, amongst others, dissected the reason why. However, in order to understand why, I needed to understand how. “Back in the early 80s a whole lot of students got to skinny dipping at [Sam Allen Lake] off Springhill Road. There might have been 100 students there,” LeValley shared. “Then one day the police did a very stupid thing. They raided the place and arrested seven people. One of them demanded a jury trial, went to court and won.”

 

Seriousness overcame everyone standing around the fire. Like a Kanye interview, LeValley had our attention. All that could be heard was the crunch of graham crackers and the crackle of the fire. “The jury said, ‘well everyone knows that’s a skinny dipping place. Why are you surprised?’ It became totally unenforceable.”

After being displaced, the unclad crusaders decided to find another lake. Yet again, the police raided that pond and left the nudists…well, naked.

 

“Then finally three of us got to together and developed a strategy of finding so many lakes and sinkholes, and rivers that we could meet in the parking lot Sunday morning and decided then and there which one we were going to. We didn’t have to worry about the police stalking the place out,” said LeValley. “So we did that for 4 years. Rob had just joined us and he started looking for some places in this area and he went to a lake. There was an old man fishing and Rob decided to be honest and tell him what he was looking for.”

 

Luck struck. That old man fishing had a brother with a lake and for a small rental fee the unclad crusaders had a haven to call their own—equipped with trees, a lake, a hiking trail and campfire. Perseverance created the retreat that I was sitting in the heart of smacking on s’mores and sharing stories.

 

To my left, stood Monty. A decorated retired pilot, who chose to not reveal his last name, but his reason for becoming a nudist was simple—he wanted freedom from judgment.

 

“That’s one of the things that I’ve always thought was really beautiful about nudism. It destroys the textile classes that our society sets up because I’m not wearing K-Mart and you’re not wearing Gucci,” Monty said. “We’re wearing nothing.”

 

As the night aged, in the midst of the rainy weather, I bonded with complete strangers. We swam together in the lake and talk about everything: Blackboard, tattoos, and careers—normal topics. The water was perfect, as if the temperature was set to stimulate conversation. Though it was pitch black, the full moon illuminated their faces. When the mosquitoes decided it was feeding time, I witness the grimaces—a normal expression. I observed as the vets coyly smiled at the rookies’ pain—a normal expression. Around the campfire, in between light rain showers, we discussed politics, music and sports. Well, I didn’t really participate in the latter.

 

During the NBA finals, I caught up on Project Runway. Anyhow, I had normal conversation, about normal topics, with normal people.

 

It made me wonder why, though, isn’t this considered normal? “I find it interesting that everyone laughs and pokes fun at nudists’ resorts, which is not a sexually thing, yet sex with a lot of different people is so accepted in our society,” Monty said.

 

“You’re just sitting around with friends nude and just enjoying the elements. I didn’t feel like it was a brilliant brainchild that I came up with. I just felt like it’s a question that begs to be asked, since I’ve become a nudist.”

 

Nudity may be subculture, though it’s a factor that connects humans. Clothing is a necessity. Hell, I would be without a passion without them but at times clothing is somewhat of a necessary evil.

 

“When a girl is in clothes, whether she’s dressed provocatively or just in business clothes, there are people that are always looking at your attire to see how you present yourself,” Naturally FSU chapter president Nina Vallad said. “Here you are completely nude, so you don’t have to worry about ‘is this popping out or makes me look fat.’ You’re just here and you’re experiencing what it feels like to be completely beautiful. Everyone is basically accepted at face value.”

 

Now, did I look? Yes, at times maybe too long. Bodies are different shapes, shades and sizes. Many of those shapes I’ve never seen prior to that night. Yet the hippie weirdo scene I thought I was getting myself into wasn’t so weird after all.

 

Am I now a self-proclaimed nudist? No and I have the bug bites to prove why.

 

However, at the end of the night, it suddenly dawned on me that I was just like them—bare; stripped of clothes and judgment, yet undoubtedly myself.

 

My new friend Monty agrees: “You find that when you’re down to absolutely nothing but just your body than you get to know people for who they really are.”

 

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Immediate occupation available ! (needs minor repairs).

On Saturday 12 November, Egyptian activists from all across the UK joined up with protesters in London demonstrating for climate justice, to demand an end to Sisi's murderous dictatorship and the immediate release of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a British-Egyptian citizen on hunger strike, and at least 60,000 other political prisoners held in appalling conditions in Egyptian prisons.

 

As COP27 continues, Sisi's government intensifies its repression against civil society, arresting anyone in Cairo and other cities found with any mention of Alaa or other political dissidents on their phones, as well as targeting anyone suspected of planning strikes or protests.

 

I'm still working on individual captions for each photo - sorry for the delay - but in the meantime I'm reposting an earlier commentary I posted about Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

 

Last weekend on Sunday 6 November, activists gathered outside Downing Street for a candle-lit vigil as British-Egyptian democracy dissident, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, escalated his hunger strike in an Egyptian prison, refusing to take water.

 

Even prior to his refusal of water from Saturday 6 November, Alaa was already over 200 days into his 100 calorie a day hunger strike in prison in Egypt.

 

On Tuesday 8 November Sanaa Seif gave a speech to journalists at COP27 - "They are very happy for him to die. The only thing they care about is that it doesn't happen while the world is watching."

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqXibJ7PUTY

 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah has endured much of the last twelve years in some of the worst prison conditions anywhere in the world, on account of his brave work in promoting democracy in Egypt.

 

He was last arrested in September 2019 while attending Cairo's Dokki Police Station and in December last year was sentenced to five years imprisonment for "spreading false news undermining state security." More precisely, he had shared social media posts explaining the hell-hole reality of Egyptian prison conditions.

 

TORA PRISON - "A DAY HERE, IS LIKE A YEAR IN BELMARSH"

 

In April, Alaa began his hunger strike in a cell in one of the most secure sections of Cairo's sprawling and notorious Tora Prison - a maze of grim high concrete walls and watch towers, which strike fear into even the thousands of commuters who have to pass daily.

 

In 2012, one young Londoner confined to one of the least uncomfortable and most survivable wings of Tora prison, contrasted it with his own previous experience at Britain's high security Belmarsh. I can never forget his exact words. "A day here, is like a year at Belmarsh!" A little over 12 months later, he died of TB - the prison authorities had refused to listen to the pleas of his aunt, who fell on her knees during a rare visit, begging that he be admitted to the prison hospital.

 

ALAA'S HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES AT WADI EL NATRUN PRISON

 

More than 200 days have passed since Alaa started his hunger strike. He has now been moved to the Wadi El Natrun prison complex in the desert north of Cairo, dubbed by inmates as the "Valley of Hell."

 

He may not survive much longer. However, as he holds British-Egyptian nationality, one would hope that the British government would be doing everything they could to secure his immediate release and it would be reasonable to suppose that the Foreign Office could get an immediate pledge in this regard, especially given that the British companies, including the likes of British Petroleum and BP, are the biggest investors in Egypt.

 

NO CONSULAR ACCESS

 

However, the British government have failed even to get him any consular access - think about that. That's an outrage. Even a convicted mass murderer, if British, would be entitled to consular access while in prison. That meeting would obviously not take place in his cell - but in a designated room in the prison or the highly supervised prison visiting area.

 

British men and women convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes in Egypt have received consular visits, so why not Alaa? The answer is because Alaa's crime is that he dared to tell the truth about Egypt, and the injustice both inside and outside its many prison walls. Nobody knows exactly how many political prisoners Egypt now has, but the number is estimated to be at least 60,000.

 

ALAA WAS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN

 

Alaa Abd El-Fattah was one of the leaders of arguably the most inspirational democratic revolt the world has seen in the last hundred years. Although the first phase of the 2011 uprising in Egypt lasted just 18 days, and although it followed the toppling of the dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia - the streets and bridges around Tahrir Square became a deadly stage watched by the world, where protesters from every walk of life were pitted against Egypt's feared state security forces. Against all the odds, and at the cost of many lives, Egyptians refused to leave the square, sleeping in front of the tanks and fending off attacks from government militia.

 

The Egyptian people's initial success in toppling the dictator Mubarak led to further revolts not just across the Middle East (most notably in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria) - the highly organised Tahrir-Square sit-in provided the inspiration for strikes and workplace sit-ins against austerity across the United States and Europe and to the Occupy Movement of the same year. The people of Egypt showed that it does not matter how brutal, feared and authoritarian a government is, it can be toppled if people act collectively.

 

THE MILITARY BACKLASH

 

It's true that Egypt's flirtation with the path to greater freedom seemed to be only temporary - the Egyptian authorities deployed the usual divide and rule tactics - encouraging the less committed protesters to return home - and then rushed to elections without allowing time for genuinely democratic opposition parties to develop.

 

Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won the presidential election in 2012 - the Brotherhood (contrary to the perception many people have here in the West) had genuinely progressive elements within it, but the chance for any transformative radical programme was prevented partly by the corruption and self-interest of some of the main political actors and partly by opposition to its democratic mandate from the deep state (the military, the Interior Ministry, State Security, the police etc.)

 

The army, seeing its chance, seized power in 2013, superficially in the name of the people, but in reality, to advance the interests of the generals. The new president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, moved quickly to crush all opposition, and ordering his security forces to attack Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had gathered in eastern Cairo at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square, killing at least 800 people - the bloodiest massacre of civilians in Egypt's modern history.

 

DON'T ALLOW EGYPT TO USE COP27 TO GREENWASH ITS REGIME - AND PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE ALAA

 

Now COP27 is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh and Sisi has been given a golden opportunity to greenwash his murderous regime, which has also seen ever increasing levels inequality and corruption. While British representatives at COP27 will be given accommodation in the most luxurious five star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh and fall asleep listening to the sound of the waves, another British citizen, Alaa Abdel El-Fatah is near death, on a painful hunger strike in the darkest of places - his dimly lit cell. The only thing he might hear at night is the desperate cry from some prisoner in another cell appealing for medical help which most likely never comes.

 

If we care for freedom, real democracy and justice, we can't allow the British Foreign Office to forget Alaa - especially if it's simply not to upset the highly profitable relationship British multinationals have with one of the world's most authoritarian and corrupt regimes - a relationship which only benefits the wealthiest of Egyptians.

 

Please show your support by signing the petition. Let's not fail Alaa. Thank you.

 

www.change.org/p/help-free-my-brother-before-it-s-too-lat...

This butterfly was part of a large migration. Many thousands if not millions. Normally they are found in drier parts of Australia, but due to good winter rains they have bred in large numbers and now migrate to the coast in search of food. The immediate trigger for migration may be extreme weather - in this case it could be heat.

The immediate act of snapping a photo is relatively quick. For example, this one here of a star flower took 1/160 of a second. I depressed the shutter, it rose, 1/160 of a second elapsed, and then the shutter closed back down with the image burned into the digital sensor.

 

But that fails to consider all the time that went into making the photo beforehand. It took me a while to compose the image that morning. I experimented with including other star flower clusters in a constellation-like pattern. (Get it? Star flowers. Constellations.) But the constellation idea didn't end up looking right, so I ended up choosing to go with the single cluster. Before that, I had to find the scene. I had been hiking around the woods a while that morning before I found this particular cluster of flowers. And we can even zoom out even past that morning. I have visited this location many times, especially in the spring when I have found owls, lady slippers, fields of lilies of the valley... and, you guessed it, star flowers! So I knew that morning there was a good chance I would find these.

 

This doesn't even account for the time I spent wandering around finding scenes like this in other locations, which helped train my eye for this day in May. Or the time gathering inspiration from other photographers' work, helping me find out what I liked. Or even the time practicing how to use my camera and learning to read the light that allowed me to make this photograph. I didn't just pick up the camera and know to look for a scene like this when there is diffused,even light, like early morning or a cloudy day. And then there's the time after I pressed the shutter: filtering through all of the exposures on the computer, selecting the image to use, and post-processing it.

 

So while this photograph here only took 1/160 of a second, like each and every photograph I work on these days, it was actually years in the making.

Immediate boarding.

 

I've wanted to take such a photo for a very long time.

And yes, RATP does operate in London too, not only in Paris!

Model: Cristiano Langella

 

SHOPS: Starfish / Immediate / Modern World Gallery / Kate & Aud / Dirty Harry / To Be Worn Again (all Brighton based stores)

 

HAIR & MAKE UP: The Blue Room / Natalie Lupton / Elloise India Willett & Sofia

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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thedirtygrindsl.wixsite.com/carnivalcountdown

 

Celebrate the arts in Second Life and the 5th anniversary of The Dirty Grind Independent Artist Community with Carnival of the Arts 5.

 

The Dirty Grind Independent Artist Community family of artists and patrons invite you to enjoy 3 days of 100% LIVE music from a selection of the top indie songwriters who enjoy SL! Join the celebration for the opening of their featured artist gallery for the newest member of their family, Silas Merlin.

 

Lexie Smith is returning to the grid for this special occasion while they also welcome back Benski Korhonen and Etherian Kamaboko. Many surprises and a lot of fun are sure to be had.

 

The entire family of The Dirty Grind Independent Artist Community hopes you will join them to embrace the grid's wonderful community of artists!

 

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DETAILS

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Dates friday, the 7th of september, ad 2018 through

sunday, the 9th of september, ad 2018

 

Press preview wednesday and thursday, 5 & 6 of september, 2018

 

Location maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fender/47/87/36

 

Host The Dirty Grind Independent Artist Community and

Radio Grind

 

Visual Featured Artist, Silas Merlin

Artists Spotlight Artists, Toysoldier Thor and Enola Vaher

 

Friday, 7 September 2018

 

3 Beth Odets

4 Strum Diesel

5 the matthew show

6 Jamba Losangelas

7 Twostep Spiritweaver

8 Benski Korhonen

 

Saturday, 8 September 2018

 

2 Shannon Oherlihy

3 Thunderfoot Lorefield

4 Phemie Alcott

5 Senjata Witt

6 Grace McDunnough

7 Bearsheart

8 suzen JueL

 

Sunday, 9 September 2018

 

2 Wald Schridde

3 Lexie Smith

4 Winston Ackland

5 David Csiszer

6 The Vinnie Show

7 Effinjay

8 Etherian Kamaboko

  

*All times are subject to change. Please join our group in-

world or visit our daily blog, www.TheDirtyBlogSL.com, to

receive al updates.

 

Land Rover Discovery

Adams Factory Shoe Outlet.3655 W Irving Park Rd.Chicago, IL 60618

Trafalgar Square

 

Thanks for all the views, please check out my other photos & albums

one of many benches along the trails at the P.E.R.T.