Site of St George’s School established 1848, demolished 1891: aka L S Burton’s School

 

St George’s School was established 1850 as an adjunct of the Church of England.

The establishment was to be open to those of other denominations who wished to avail themselves of it. As a consequence, its scholars included Jews, Roman Catholics and others. Gawler was at that time an insignificant place, but its school did it credit.

 

The late Mr Leonard Samuel Burton was the eldest son of the late Mr William Burton, of Dent, Yorkshire, and Chester, England, and was born at Chester, on January 8, 1824. Mr Burton was educated at the King's school in his native town, and was afterwards engaged in business as a chemist and druggist. In 1849 Mr Burton gave up his business and sailed in the "Rajah" for South Australia, arriving here in April, 1850. In September of the same year the late gentleman entered Pulteney Street school as under-master, the Rev E K Miller being the head-master.

 

Mr Burton afterwards had a school at Saddleworth under the old Education Board, but in June, 1853, he received the appointment of head-master of St George's School, Gawler.

From that time Mr Burton resided in Gawler continuously until his death. He was therefore a resident of nearly 42 years.

 

On Mr Burton's appointment, sectarian teaching had to be relinquished during the ordinary school hours in compliance with the regulations of the Education Board. In 1857 the school building, which stood on the north side of Orleana Square and was only demolished two or three years ago, had a separate room for girls added to it, and about 30 years ago the present St George's Schoolroom was built. Mr Burton's appointment was fully justified and popular, and successful as the school was prior to that, it became much more so after. Indeed it was regarded as one of the best educational institutions in the colony, and students were sent here from various parts of South Australia. It is impossible within the limits of this sketch to give anything like an adequate notice of St George's School. It was one of the chief features of the town for many years, and the influence it exerted was important and far reaching. One cannot go into any important centre of Australia without encountering someone who is indebted to the instruction he received at St George's.

 

The late Mr Burton was of marked individuality, and the lines upon which he administered his school were well-defined. With a strictness of discipline he combined a zeal in the cause of education, a painstaking carefulness in the training of each scholar, and a sympathetic interest in the desires and difficulties of his pupils, which inspired confidence on the part of parent and scholar alike. As years rolled by this developed into affection, and there are few men living for whom a warmer regard by an enormous circle of colonists is entertained than for our late townsman. His thorough conscientiousness, his unflagging energy, and his transparent unselfishness were characteristics which marked him strongly both as a teacher and a citizen. St George's School continued to flourish and add to its laurels until the adoption of the Education Act of 1875, when educational matters in the colony were revolutionised. The introduction of the public school system spelt death to many private establishments, and St George's likewise suffered.

 

How Mr Burton received the appointment of headmaster when the Gawler Model School was opened; how he retained it for two years and six months; how he subsequently re-opened St George's School; how about eighteen months ago he removed the school to his own house; how he was the recipient of a handsomely illuminated address and purse of sovereigns in December, 1893, from his old scholars, are all matters of recent history.

He was one of the most prominent of the history makers of Gawler, and the record of long and useful service which he leaves should act as an inspiration to others to follow the excellent example which he has set them. [Ref: Bunyip (Gawler) 15 March 1895]

 

Mr Burton’s Funeral Gawler, February 25

The funeral of the late Mr L S Burton took place this afternoon, the cortege leaving the deceased gentleman's house in King Street for the Church of England Cemetery at halfpast 3 o'clock. For some time before a crowd had been gathering and vehicles were arriving in quick succession, making it evident that the procession would be one of the largest that had ever taken place in Gawler, and thus giving evidence of the high esteem in which the deceased was held by all classes of the community.

A number of beautiful wreaths were sent and placed on the coffin, the principal donors being the Gawler Corporation, the institute committee, the Lodge of Fidelity Freemasons, the Gawler Agricultural Society, the present scholars of St George's school, the immediate past scholars, the teachers of the Gawler public school, and many others from private individuals.

 

A trap containing the members of the corporation led the way and was followed by another with members of the institute committee. Just behind the Freemasons belonging to the Lodge of Fidelity mustered to the number of nearly 40, and, attired in regalia, marched the whole way to the cemetery.

The present and past scholars of the deceased were present in strong force, numbering about 80, and they also walked in the procession.

 

Next came the hearse, the coffin being almost hidden by wreaths, and after this the principal mourning coaches, followed by nearly 80 vehicles. Passing round by the Albion Mill into Murray Street, large numbers of spectators had collected, and many evidences of mourning were apparent, the shops having their shutters up, and the flag on the Town Hall flying at half-mast. On mounting the hill near the cemetery the sight was a most imposing one, the line of vehicles stretching back as far as the eye could reach. Conspicuous among the procession were the brass helmets of the Fire Brigade, the members of which were mounted on the reel. On reaching the grave, where the Rev Canon Coombs officiated, the burial service was conducted very impressively. The Masonic service was also read by Bro R K Thomson, WM. The chief mourner was Mr William Burton (son), who was accompanied by the Rev E K Miller and Messrs W Cherry and F King, who are intimate friends of the family. [Ref: South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide) Saturday 2 March 1895]

 

St George’s Anglican Church

 

The present St George’s Church, in Orleana Square, Gawler, was started in 1858.

Orleana Square was named after the sailing ship ‘Orleana’ which dropped anchor in Holdfast Bay January 1839 bringing Gawler pioneering families from Ireland, Scotland and England.

Those landowning pioneers selected the site of St George’s Church: of local bluestone, and slate tiled roof in 1864 to replace an earlier Anglican church built in 1848.

The buttressed tower, belfry and parapet was built 1910, with bells finally installed in 1921.

The church has stained glass windows lit up at night which display the Gawler Coat of Arms and a memorial to the Reid family amongst others.

 

A large brass plaque in the church, to the memory of the family of John Reid, a first settler, reads as follows –

“In Memory of

John Reid, of Newry, Ireland, 4th Son of Sam’l Reid Esq, Seneschal of that Borough

Born November 11 1795, Died October 12th 1874, who arrived in South Australia Jan 1839, by the Ship “Orleana” and who with H D Murray of Ochtertyre, Scotland, son of the Sixth Bart, took out the Special Survey and with others laid out the Town of “Gawler” and in whose house the first Church of England service held North of Adelaide was conducted by the Rev’d C B Howard MA.

And of his wife Jane Livingston Born March 11th 1795, died March 26th 1885.

And of their children,

Eliza Sarah born August 16th 1824, died 23rd December 1914.

Samuel born Aug 17th 1825, died March 8th 1859.

William Livingston born October 11th 1827, died July 16th 1900.

John Born October 25th 1929, died 24th October 1916.

Ross Thompson born Feb 2nd 1832, died 10th January 1915.

Richard Jebb Browne born November 7th 1833, died 27 July 1872.”

But look at all the stuff in it. Rooftop TV antennas for receiving Al Radka - a basketball backboard that's mounted on a house, so the hop is positioned over the driveway.

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

scan my horizon as blue turns to black

the sky is gone again

and all beneath are born to die

insignificant,am I ?

-Nevermore

 

View On Black

 

Boy floats on makeshift raft while looking up at distant missile/jet plane launch (from where I have no idea, the Maldives doesn't have an airforce).

 

Part of track

Yay! A minimalistic photo at last :) Aside from the beautiful snow white beach, Mexico has gifted me with a very picturesque scene. However insignificant a little seaweed that floats around the ocean, it was deposited on the beach in perfect moment and perfect place!

 

www.jinchoiphotography.com

St Aubin is at the western end of St Aubin's Bay, opposite St Helier, and is the island's second largest harbour and town. It attracted merchant vessels long before it had a jetty.

 

Never the capital

Some writers claim that St Aubin was the island's capital before St Helier, but this is not true.

 

Given that it did not have it's own church until the 18th Century; it has always been a district of St Brelade, ruled by the Constable and Parish Assembly of that parish; and is not even a separate Vingtaine, falling partly in Noirmont and partly in Le Coin, it would hardly have had the status of capital, although it may well have been the more important centre of commerce at one point.

 

So insignificant was St Aubin for so long that there is no mention of it in the 13th Century Assize Rolls and Extentes, on which so much of our knowledge of early life in the island is based. Indeed, there is no mention of St Aubin in any document until the 16th century.

 

Also, St Helier had the island's only market for some time, there being no record of any in St Aubin until 1584.

 

Main town?

We are not sure where the suggestion that St Aubin was the island's capital started. It was described as 'the main town' during the second half of the 17th century by the noted 19th century Jersey historian, the Rev Alban E Ragg, in his 'Popular History of Jersey'. Even that was something of an exaggeration because work on the first quay at St Aubin, which started in 1670, was halted by Royal decree in 1681 because it was not thought to offer the claimed advantages. At this time the town had a fledgling market, mainly for foreign produce brought in by ships which beached behind the fort and were unloaded at low tide. But it had no church, no court, and there is no record of any government buildings.

 

How could Ragg have been justified in calling it the island's chief town? The Court sat in the building on St Helier's Market Square and prisoners were brought there from Mont Orgueil. Most islanders who ventured 'to town' for the market, went to St Helier. Ships were already using St Aubin, drying out on the beach to load and unload cargo, but this seems hardly to have justified the description 'chief town'. Balleine's respected 'History of Jersey' published in the 1950s, says that the eventual completion of the Bulwarks led St Aubin to grow into a little 'town' (his quotes). All of this was subject to the control of the States, which sat in St Helier.

 

The north pier, which gave the harbour complete protection, was not yet built. This drawing is dated 1809, but the row of houses is not as complete as that shown in the 1788 drawing above, so one of these images must be wrongly dated

What may give rise to the belief that St Aubin had a superior status to that of St Helier was that it provided a better sheltered anchorage for fishing vessels in the days before there was a harbour at either end of St Aubin’s Bay. Ships could be grounded without danger at low tide for unloading, and as trade grew, and a quay was built, better than any facility at St Helier, merchants began to build fine houses and the population expanded.

 

Old Court House

One of the finest of these properties, at the southern end of the harbour, is now the Old Court House Inn. The original buildings are claimed by the present owners to date back to 1450. The front portion of the property, originally "Osborne House" was a wealthy merchant's homestead with enormous cellars which date from the 17th century - there is a fireplace bearing the date 1611 - stored privateers' plunder alongside legitimate cargo. There is no evidence that the building was ever actually a courthouse, although it may have served as an Admiralty Court to rule on vessels and cargos captured by privateers in the 17th century.

 

St Aubin's Fort

Ships unloading their cargo into carts on the beach at St Aubin were vulnerable to attack by pirates coming into the bay. This was a particular problem in the 16th century when pirate vessels from Brittany and Belgium roamed the Channel and sailed into island waters looking for easy prey. A bulwark (earth work) with two guns was constructed on shore, giving the area the name, Bulwarks, it still has today, and then a tower was constructed on the offshore rocky islet to house four more gunners.

 

A century later in the Civil War the Parliamentarians turned it into a stronger fortress, by building a bulwark it, and when the Royalists regained possession they replaced this with granite ramparts and added a storey to the tower. In the 18th century, and again in the 19th, the fort was rebuilt twice, but in peaceful Victorian times it was let as a summer residence. In the Second World War the Germans strengthened the fort with turret guns and concrete casemates.

 

Jetties built

As trade grew at St Aubin the demand grew for better harbour facilities and King Charles II ordered a pier to be built, paid for by import dues. The States wanted it to run out from the shore to the south of where today's southern pier lies, but time slipped by without work starting and the Governor, Sir Thomas Morgan decided to take charge and ordered a pier to be built out from the fort in 1675.

 

It was not until 1754 that work began on the south pier, and 36 years later the merchants who had established themselves in the growing little town constructed a quay the length of the shoreline, reclaiming a considerable depth of land to add to their gardens in the process.

 

Trade at St Aubin grew strongly and in 1816 the north quay was constructed, creating an enclosed harbour. It was not unusual for 30 merchant vessels to be tied up at one time, loading and unloading cargoes. The only problem was that everything had to be transferred by cart to St Helier across the beach, because there was no coastal road at the time, and eventually the States decided that St Helier had to have its own port. Despite the construction of a road from St Helier to La Haule in 1810, and then on to St Aubin in 1844, and the arrival of the railway in 1870, St Aubin could not compete with the new facilities provided in St Helier and its days as a commercial port were numbered.

 

Churches

The growth in the community at St Aubin led to a demand for their own church, to avoid the long walk to St Brelade's Parish Church and back. A petition by the merchants to the Bishop of Winchester complained:"The town is distant from its Parish Church about two miles. The road is difficult by reason of rugged ascents, and a great way on moving sands. The inhabitants are exposed to great fatigue in summer by the scorching heat and in winter by tempestuous winds, from which there is no shelter". Even worse, there was insufficient time to return home between morning and evening services so those attending had to pass the time in an inn near the church.

 

Permission was given to build a chapel of ease and the new church was in use by 1749, although it was condemned as unsafe in 1887 and replaced by the present St Aubin on the Hill Church. Methodism came to St Aubin in the late 18th century, causing considerable unrest, but in due course a chapel was built in 1817, to be replaced by the building which still stands on the Boulevard, in 1868. Roman Catholics used a hall on Mont les Vaux for many years before building their seafront church.

 

Houses

St Aubin has six main streets. The coast road from St Helier is known as Victoria Road and the centre of the town is Charing Cross, off which lead the Bulwarks and Bulwarks Hill (Mont du Boulevard) at the far end; St Aubin's Hill, or Mont les Vaux; High Street and Market Hill. The High Street has a number of interesting houses. At the bottom L'Ancienneté was the home of John Janvrin , Peterborough House is named after Francis Jeune, Bishop of Peterborough, who was born there in 1806; and St Magloire was the home of Charles Robin, the famous founder of the cod fishing business on Canada's Atlantic coast.

 

The brook which runs down the side of Mont les Vaux is called Egouttepluie (raindrops) and it once drove a mill, which is mentioned in records as far back as 1269 and parts of which remain today.

 

Plague

St Aubin has seen exciting and sad days. During the Civil War, when Sir George Carteret's privateers were plundering shipping in the Channel they would return to St Aubin with their prizes. Carteret's captains brought their families from England to live in style in Jersey. However, none were immune from the outbreak of the plague in 1626, when 105 people died in five months, many of them buried in their own gardens.

 

A history of St Aubin

Development of St Aubin over the centuries

The old town of St Aubin, a detailed history by Julia Marett from the 1949 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise

St Aubin's High Street, or Rue du Croquet, a Jersey Archive history

St Aubin's markets

St Aubin shipyards

St Aubin's Fort

Somerville Hotel

Hotel La Tour

El Spelterini at St Aubin, an Italian woman tightrope walker performs at St Aubin

Heritage entry

The Jersey Heritage Historic Environment Record website has this description of the harbour:

 

'Harbour, 18th - 19th century. St Aubin was the main port for commercial trade to Jersey during the 17th century until the early 19th century - offering shelter to the growing number of merchant vessels collecting and delivering cargo and goods to the island. Ships were originally loaded and unloaded by carts at low tide - the main anchorages being in Belcroute or in the lee of the Fort. Work began on the first stone quay, out at the Fort, in 1680. Work on the present harbour began in 1765 when a short stone jetty was built on the southern side. This was lengthened in the 1790s when the Bulwarks, in front of the old merchants houses, were also built. The northern arm (now occupied by the Parish Hall) was built in 1810, and the final enclosing arm built in 1819 - constructed of random, dry jointed granite masonry, with parapet walls on the seaward sides. During the 19th century a number of shipbuilders were based around the harbour or across on the Fort. The area of the designation encompasses the harbour arms and associated 18th / 19th century structures that contribute to the significance and character of the tidal harbour site, including the granite seawall that forms the landward side along Le Boulevard, the various slipways and iron railings, ancillary structures of historical value such as the cannon bollard; and German World War II defences.

A shot from June this year.

 

Reußen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

 

www.feldauge.de

335/366

We seldom find matching butts at the dog park, but when we did, I was once again insignificant.

 

on Instagram bit.ly/16PcSxg

The plaque seemed insignificant and can be seen on the building here:

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www.flickr.com/photos/inferno55/12841493013/in/album-7215...

50,000 year old fossilized walrus penis bone, from Alaska. This one is just barely larger than average at 22" long. Inuit originally prized them for use during seal clubbing season. It's hard, dense, and strong, performing well in temperatures that would make steel brittle.

Reposted after removing unsightly flares (not an insignificant effort).

 

Spent New Year's Day with my little sister and good buddy Jean Day, shooting in Davenport at the famous crack. What a cool place this is. We were really lucky to have it almost to ourselves, but we got there fairly early hoping for just that. Sitting shoulder to shoulder on those rocks, our comps are similar, but I like her results a bit better. Timing is everything here.

 

While we had a decent sunset, it was next to impossible to come away with anything presentable without planning an exposure blend. I managed to complete this one with three exposures, but with the not-quite-set sun in there, beaming its radiance though the frame, it was a bit of a challenge. This also included removing some unsightly lens flares. All that said, I'm happy with the result. Oh, and one more thing, if you look closely, you can see the water flowing out in the foreground and flowing in at its opening - I love that.

 

Hope you're all looking forward to a wonderful 2012 and a memorable Spring.

 

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

So those six, no eight DCUC action figures I bought to build lil' Darkseid (who still has two right legs) where unnecessary. Eight because I tried to get his left leg, but nope that didn't work. Worse thing is NEW 52 Darkseid was cheaper. I hate those "collect & connect" build a figures. I do not need a Sinestro Batman for ANY reason. Such a waste of cheap plastic.

NOOSA/QLD (16th March, 2012): The penultimate and semi finals day of competition commenced, with inspirational action taking place from the very first heat. Although an insignificant drop of swell occurred overnight, it was complimented by a decrease in wind and more favourable direction blessed the contest arena with manicured waves running across the mid-tide sand bank.

 

Junior divisions abound for the quartet of opening heats, the Pacific Longboarder Under 18s rapidly followed by the Under 15 Boys semi final, sponsored by Humid.

 

The Jones brothers had a fantastic morning, older brother Nic, a team rider for event sponsor Classic Malibu, gleaning nine well-earned points from his opening wave, and a mid-range score very late in the piece securing a justified victory in the first heat of the day. His younger sibling Harri had more of a challenge in the Humid Under 15s, putting all his efforts in to narrowly qualify for tomorrow’s final.

 

Nathan Strom was untouchable in heat one of the Under 15s, leading from the commencement and indefatigable throughout to register a superb win.

 

Light showers came down on the heads of the spectators clamouring for position along the shoreline of First Point’s natural amphitheatre, as the inaugural Laguna Bay Longboards Logger Pro launched into its first semi final.

 

Matt Chojnacki, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches was world-class in his performance, his very traditional stylings the epitome of panache and the perfect example of the skills required for the event. 16 points even garnished Cojnacki with a convincing win in heat one, whilst the second heat was dominated once again by the local superhuman surfer, Harrison Roach.

 

Only three waves were ridden by Roach, his opening ride, an impressive 6.75, looking shabby next to his very high following scores. Roach’s faultless talent gave him a near-perfect score to set the bar for the final tomorrow.

 

Another traditional event ensued, the Old Mal division, sponsored by RACV Noosa Resort. Matt Cuddihy remained in the water after taking a qualifying second place in the previous division, and backed it up with a healthy twelve points, a touch of Sage Joske’s influence in his crouched rail-grab bottom turns, Joske an outstanding participant in previous years.

 

Cuddihy surfed outstandingly and, alongside Matt Cojnacki, was a definitive surfer in this event, featuring exclusively boards all made before 1967. Cojnacki channeled the spirits of yesteryear, emulating the surfers of a decade in which he was not even born.

 

Both surfers will take their well-earned places in tomorrow’s final.

 

The Old Guys Ruled once again, with the Over 55 and Over 60 Men’s events taking to the water.

 

These semis were the last opportunities for surfers to earn a berth in tomorrow’s finals, the top three of each heat advancing. This do-or-die challenge drew some outstanding performances from the surfers, Albe Curtis particularly of note, posting two very solid rides to lead from start to finish. Nipping at his heels though was Pacific Longboarder chief editor, John ‘JB’ Brasen. JB’s best was the heat’s highest score, a 7.25, but he was unable to match it and relinquishing the top spot, but not his ticket to the final.

 

Mike Pimm, too, was a standout, two massive 7.5 waves giving him a fantastic victory.

 

And then to the noserider. The Golden Breed Noserider, always a thrilling crowd-pleaser, failed to disappoint and, with little surprise, Harrison Roach again was head-and-shoulders above his adversaries.

 

Local knowledge paid dividends and three of the four surfers tip-timing their ways into the finals. Roach went from the sublime to ridiculous, with again very closely a minute perched on the front end of his board. But today he was in closer company, Matt Cuddihy and Beau Nixon both around ten seconds off the pace. All three were indisputable finalists, but the fourth and last remaining place was a nail-biter. With just seven seconds separating the remaining contestants, it was young Noosa local, Zye Norris who won the coveted fourth.

 

With so much action taking place throughout the day, it is very nearly impossible to hone the highlights, like needles in a needle stack of exceptional moments.

 

To précis a wonderful day of semi finals, Nic Jones was phenomenal in both the Under 18 and the Open Amateur Men’s, claiming outstanding victories in both, amounting almost 17 points of a possible twenty in his heat, making for a very busy finals day tomorrow.

 

The PJ Burns Under 18 Girls second semi was far too close to call. A very lethargic ocean providing little opportunity in the heat’s first half reduced the action to ten minutes. The surfers added to this compression of scores, matching each other evenly right up until the dying minutes. An overabundance of very late scores left the judges sweating for a full five minutes after the final horn, but it was Rosain Carolan who emerged victorious, Rachel Fleming set to join her in the final.

 

The SeaGlass Project Finless Challenge was again Harrison Roach’s feeding ground, but Fred Branger dominated the second heat and it will be very interesting watching the pair go head to head in tomorrow’s final.

 

Final competing was done by the Senior Women, for the John Madill Toyota semi final.

 

An interference call denied local favourite, Keena Wilson a berth in the first heat, Leanne ‘Bluey’ Gilkes taking the heat, and in the second semi, visiting Taiwanese surfer, BayBay Niu surfed an exquisite round, but with a breath-taking 8.25 points scored on a perfectly executed wave, Yvette Kordick tipped the balance.

 

Both surfers, though, will have their rematch in the final.

 

The greatest crowd of the day was drawn in the dying hours of daylight. Wrapping up the day was a fantastic display of surfing-meets-gymnastics, with five tandem couples paddling out and gaining the largest cheers and greatest appreciation of the festival so far.

 

All the action of the last day of the festival tomorrow, as finals fill the day for all divisions. Exceptional talent, thrilling tension, nail-biting finishes – the day is poised to be an unmissable event, all taking place right on the beach at First Point, Noosa.

 

All results for the day, and the week, are available on the event website, as well as draws for Thursday’s competition.

 

Visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com for further information and images of the daily events.#

 

Photos: Geoff Fanning / Noosa Festival Of Surfing

Exert from: ‘The Absurdity of Pigeon Feed’ by Tom Tomlinson

‘Yet another act of God, Pt. 2.’

 

Context: The international space station undergoes a catastrophic accident. Shit is launched into deep space and spawns life on two distant planets. Billions of years later the two planets tune into slightly different radio broadcasts from planet Earth (broadcasts of religious wars and children’s programs).

Result: they are infected by different belief memes and decide to go to war against each other. A space ship from another civilization is about to enter their solar system…..

 

‘Sir, we’ll be entering the constellation in less time than it takes for a Greater Naked Mole Rat to engage in a quick Jiffy.’

‘Is that your best effort at humour Mr Speck? Pathetic. Besides, don’t mention greater naked mole rats when Piranha’s about, she suffers from arachnophobia; human beings have feelings, don’t you know?’

‘I think you mean zemmiphobia. The psychological condition is totally illogical, there is no evidence that the greater naked mole rat ever existed, and hence zemmiphobia is doubly irration….’

‘Shut the fuck up you insignificant…. Take her out of hyperinflation drive and engage subprime engines, mark 3, plot a course intersecting the two planets and bring us to rest between them.’

‘Aye, aye, Captain Buckfirst.’

 

‘Captain Sir, sensors are picking up hundreds of craft around that very location. Captain, they appear to be engaged in warfare?’

‘What? Warfare. Thank you Mr Stalin. Science officer Speck, what do you make of it?’

‘Antiquated weapon systems, no problem for our shields. However, the two class P planets do seem to be engaged in an unauthorised war of attrition and yet both planets appear to have abundant resources Sir. Laser weaponry isn’t up to much, they’d be better off throwing soggy turds at each other. However, I recommend engaging the shields.’

‘Mr Speck I’m going to need two science crews, one to beam down to each planet. I want to find out why these beings are engaged in ignorant economically crippling activities without any sign of profitable outside subversion. We’ve no records of selling arms to either side.’

‘Yes Captain, in their case warfare does seem totally irrational.’

The ship came to rest, the science teams got on their way. The Captain had nothing to do so he and the other members of the bridge crew returned to their game of ‘Risk,’ its objective the economic dominance of the entire Universe. The Captain kept his eye on Communications Officer Piranha. Sassy bitch always cheated.

The ship came under attack, laser beams hit it repeatedly; the powerful blasts nothing more than wasp stings to the enormous vessel and her shields. After a pause in fire, quite suddenly the ship lurched just as the Captain had secured a total monopoly on cocoa trade in the Milky Way. Pissed off, he put the game aside for the moment and then just as he’d taken the advantage – in fact he’d never actually won – that fucking science officer ‘vulcanised ears’ with his mind twisting rationality always had to play.

 

‘Mr Grueshev what in tar-nation was that.’

‘Sir one of the opponents are using the low down dirty Kamikaze tactics of crazed martyrs, that last bump was thirty of their ships hitting us at one time, why would they do that sir, they killed themselves for nothing? No profit there Sir, I’ve run the strategy through all the game theory algorithms we have?’

‘Any real danger Stalin?’

‘Na Captain Buckfirst, the shields can handle it.’

‘Your go; by the way Piranha I thought I saw a great naked rat or was it a mole in the corridor next to your cabin today,’ commented Captain Buckfirst as he eyed her hands carefully.

The game went on while the ship rocked gently back and forth like a baby sleeping peacefully in its crib as thousands upon thousands of alien craft destroyed themselves for nothing at all. Coffee breaks with banal conversation came and went. Just as the Captain was about to seriously lose it, his being on the verge of going economically bankrupt again to Piranha, the two teams arrived back. The Captain sighed with relief, ‘Pack that shit away, we’ve got work to do. Mr Speck, I hope you have some answers for me.’

‘Yes Sir complicated but not irresolvable, I calculate we have a 99.78% chance of resolving the situation to our advantage.’

‘Good, give it to me, what’s going on?’

 

‘It seems both races have evolved from genetic material from Planet Earth Sir, although one or two genes were corrupted during their transportation here, Interstellar radiation would account for that. Both races are humanoid derivatives; they call themselves Drogans. Their genetic codes mutations resulted in a phenotype that’s overly fertile and their sex hormones are elevated to unsustainable levels.

‘Hang on Speck, are you saying they fuck like Greater Naked Mole Rats on Viagra and pop em out at the same rate?’

‘Something like that Captain, although strangely evolution has taken care of that by checking their population growth and bringing it into balance with their planet’s resources in both cases.’

‘Give me the details Speck, not the sex, pervert, just how exactly are the populations brought in check?’

 

‘Sir, the original wild oats sown on the planets contained the same human genome even if it wasn’t fully expressed for aeon’s to come. From a shitty sludge rose up a multitude of life forms not dissimilar from those that populated your original home planet Sir. The outright evolutionary winners on both planets, humanoid life forms.’

‘You’re boring me, showing off again you swat, get to the point.’

‘Both populations began to accede to the effects of over fertility yet each population became checked and put in balance by symbiotic relationships with other species, all be it the truth was never discovered by their own scientist.’

‘Speck I said the point, I haven’t got a Galaxy year, we have to move on soon and get that druggie doctor up here, stun him if you have-to and spike him up with something to sober him up; see to that Piranha.’

‘As I was saying, one race evolved together with a cat like animal, its paw in the door original value to them was to keep the rodents plaguing the population to a level insuring civilisation grew without their nuisance. Illogically it came to pass cats became revered as agents of their God and their faeces are burnt as ceremonial offerings to him.’

‘Are you pulling my plonker Speck?’

‘No Sir, that would be irrational and in your case it might even be classified as a disgusting perversion. Unfortunately the cat’s shit is infected with a virus, benign to themselves but with the capacity to meddle with their human carers: the ubiquitous ceremonial burning of their faeces facilitates the virus to infect all the humanoids. After a period of incubation it gains access to yummy regions of the brain, regions controlling emotion. The virus meddles with the brain’s chemistry producing a population where melancholy is the norm, suicide common and hardly worth the mention. That explains the irrational Kamikaze ships dousing the shields have had to put up with; Captain the shields will need cleaning soon.’

The Captain appeared to nod, in approval.

‘The other planet’s humanoids story is not dissimilar. Its population was put in balance with their resources by a symbiotic relationship with a canine, a dog like creature with a trick in its paw. It too gained access to the private lives of the humanoids, first by tapping into the humanoids practical needs, then overtime, it evolved a clever neuropeptide to subjugate and addict its masters by excreting it from sweetened farts and later the humanoid produced his own neuropeptide every time he made eye contact or petted the animal. The humanoids became so addicted to the dog’s drug fellow humanoids became secondary to their beloved pets, unaware of their addiction they began to isolate themselves, happy, content, and fulfilled. Sex however, became an-ever increasingly complicated chore requiring great effort, to be avoided if possible.’

 

Speck became suspicious, the Captain hadn’t interrupted him once. ‘Captain, Captain Buckfirst.’

‘What? What the…?’ The Captain had drift off and now came too taking note of the medical officer who had arrived bleary-eyed and staggering.

‘The last aspect of the two planet’s discord revolves around their belief meme/genes. Same old story there, useful for enabling them to learn life’s basics and keeping them safe in childhood, but if it doesn’t get switched off or moderated by rationality and logic after puberty.

It always results in the same old boring bollocks; belief in unsubstantiated absurdities. We’ve seen the same old crap all over the Universe Captain, Gods, phantasmagorical tittle-tattle and other such primitive brain numbing stuff.

So, the vastly different mind-sets of each planet had no chance of resolving even the tiniest of disputes, then, add in such a stupid contention as to whose God thingy is the realest and bestest, in their case all rationality and logic disappeared in a murky haze of sweetened dog farts and cat shit fumes.

It’s totally illogical, just imagine Captain they’re fighting each other in a war of attrition that can only end in the extinction of the two races over whether one planets’ gods ‘Bill and Ben and his Flower Pot Men’ or the others ‘Zebedee of the Magic Roundabout and his prophet Florence’ are the one and only true gods.?’

‘Shut it Speck. Why not throw down a few clones and unseat their governments, you know, install two corrupt cronies who are open to a one-way trade agreement and bribery and get some real democracy going?’

‘Captain, that’s illogical we haven’t done that for eons, it’s costly and always fucks up super big-time creating even more problems, untold loss of life, cultural genocide and no profit to mention other than arms sales.’

‘Okay I’ve had enough of this. Mr Stalin load the photon tubes and take out all life on one of the planets on my word. Second thought’s trash everything I’m bored with all of this. Let’s get on our way there’s no way we can we make a quick buck here, target both the planets.’

 

The Doc had been sat for some time listening in and now jumped from his seat to confront the Captain, ‘My God Jim. What about the Federation’s Prime Directive? No meddling in alien civilisations, do the greatest good for the greatest number of people and all that?’

‘Oh come on Doc get your bleeding nose outa this.’

‘But Captain Buckfirst, you were the one who dragged me away from my stuff. Now look here Jim, the Prime Directive clearly states, not to interfere in the internal development of alien civilisations unless there’s a reasonable profit to be made out of them for the good of the greatest number of people, namely us.’

The Captain swivelled his chair back and forth, ‘I don’t see no profit here you Boneless druggie.’

‘Jim, just give me half an hour and we can blast both planets with one of my unbelievably clever concoctions and we can redress the belief meme/genes to their correct levels.’

‘Oh Yeah, and what about the cats and dogs.’

Speck spoke up, ‘Captain, we can blast them with species specific lasers and eradicate them bringing total freedom to all those we deem to be friendly humanoids. There may even be a buck to be had out of all this.’

Speck lent down and whispered in the Captains ear.

 

The ‘USS. ECONOMIC CONQUEST UN-LTD.’ engaged its hyperinflation warp drive and spend off into the unknown on its never-ending mission to discover and economically subvert any civilisation where a reasonable profit to the detriment of others was to be made.

Captain Buckfirst and the enterprise had done it again; they’d brought real free democracy to the two civilisations at once by eradicating the cats and dogs and moderating the two side’s belief meme/genes.

 

The emancipated humanoids where now able to exercise total freedom of choice within a democratic society. That is; one sufficiently warped by the wake of hyperinflation engines as they scarpered down dirty intergalactic wormholes off to their next exciting mission, opening up new markets to exploitation whilst rendering them forever dollar indebted to beloved Utilitarian ethics of freely given help and generosity. More precisely put: a warped Utilitarianism that brings about the minimum morally best action to achieve the greatest illusion of pleasure and happiness to the greatest number of people while making maximum profit bled off to US consortiums.

 

Epilogue; (Cheap crappy music running in the background.)

 

In time the Dog Star constellation became universally famous for its male and female whores and their incredible unlimited sex drives. Whereas the populations of the two planets had had their minds enslaved by dogs, cats and belief meme/genes, they now became economically enslaved having to buy in all manner of contraceptives and expensive drugs at vastly over inflated prices to treat a new strain of the dreaded sexually transmitted belief meme – Scrambled Fibobytes Unidemic Disease –commonly known as – Schmuck Smegma’s disease – that was sweeping across several galaxies.

Mind mangling drugs poured in rocking and rolling an American stylised democracy of sycophantic corruption, quickly followed by police state thought control, racism and topped off with a spot of cultural genocide piggybacking in on the computer-generated green back.

Highly profitable social breakdown and crippling debt ensued; The Dog Star constellation soon became a gold star standard for US economic imperialism.

 

Exert from: ‘The Absurdity of Pigeon Feed’ by Tom Tomlinson.

Conceptual photographer and essayist

  

www.arqueologiadelperu.com/writing-on-the-church-wall/

 

Cley-Next-the-Sea's 14th-century prosperity is reflected in St. Margaret's church and its cathedral-esque proportions. The interior contains examples of medieval religious graffiti.

 

Imagine walking into your local church, pulling a penknife from your pocket, and scratching a little drawing into the wall: a geometric design, a drawing of a boat, even a few meaningful words. Today that would be sacrilege, but a new survey of the walls of medieval churches in England is revealing that many of them are covered in riots of graffiti, scratched into what were once boldly colored walls. Furthermore, the practice appears to have been condoned, and sometimes even encouraged, by Church authorities. The finds are changing the perception of how medieval worshippers viewed religion and interacted with their churches.

 

Cley-Next-the-Sea, on the north coast of Norfolk in eastern England, is a well-heeled tourist village of ancient flint-walled houses and narrow streets. Situated far from England's highways, it draws visitors—but only committed ones—year-round. Its harbor silted up in the seventeenth century, so the village is now separated from the sea by spectacular salt marshes that draw many bird-watchers. But 700 years ago, Cley-Next-the-Sea was at the heart of one of the busiest ports in England, the Glaven Port, where grain, malt, fish, spices, coal, cloth, barley, and oats were exported and imported. That period of prominence explains why the seemingly insignificant village sports a glorious church of cathedralesque proportions.

   

Panels on the octagonal font in the nave of St. Margaret's church have medieval markings thought to bring luck or protect from evil. As the large wooden door shuts behind him, Matthew Champion, project director of the Norfolk and Suffolk Medieval Graffiti Surveys, proceeds to the ornate octagonal font that dominates one end of the nave of St. Margaret's church. Its elaborately carved stone panels depict religious scenes, including a baptism and the ordination of a priest. Tiny fragments of paint in the crevices confirm that the font was brightly decorated in medieval times. “The blue color was made from lapis lazuli pigment,” Champion says, “which was very exotic and expensive then.”

 

Approaching what appears to be a bare patch of stone on one of the font's panels, Champion illuminates it with his flashlight—at first from the front, and then from the side. As the panel is bathed in raking light, patterns come into view: a series of perfect circles, filled with six-petaled flower patterns, scratched into the stone.To twenty-first century eyes, the scratched designs seem incongruous with the magnificent setting, but Champion sees more than ancient graffiti. He moves quickly to the north side of the church and, this time, sweeps the beam of his flashlight down a column, where the raking light reveals repeats of this same precise geometric design. “In the past, fonts were usually situated on the north side of churches, close to the ‘Devil's door' [a door on the north, or ‘heathen,' side of a church], and we find concentrations of these designs on and around the area where the font would have been,” he explains.

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In 2008, Champion was asked to manage a conservation program of medieval wall paintings at Lakenheath church in Suffolk. It was when he closely inspected the paintings that he first observed marks scratched into the paint: previously unnoticed graffiti. “I was a bit nonplussed to begin with,” he says. He began to dig around in the literature and realized that no one had thoroughly documented such medieval graffiti. Perhaps this was because of its rarity, he thought. So he selected another medieval church at random—All Saints' in Litcham, Norfolk—and inspected the walls. “I started to shine my torch and realized there were hundreds and hundreds of markings,” he says. “They are almost invisible unless you shine light on them from the side, and I think they simply hadn't been noticed before.” Champion was hooked, and in 2010 he started a community archaeology project, using teams of volunteers to systematically record the graffiti in the County of Norfolk's medieval churches. With ordinary flashlights and cameras, volunteers have mapped the wall markings in half of Norfolk's 650 or so medieval churches. To date, they have uncovered more than 28,000 inscriptions. In 2014, Champion established an equivalent survey in the neighboring County of Suffolk, with similar results. Now Champion has surveys springing up all over the country, and the findings, along with reports from other countries, suggest that medieval religious graffiti was a widespread phenomenon. “I've seen the same kind of symbols cropping up in churches in Norway, Germany, Spain, and even Malta,” he says. “It seems that graffiti was normal and accepted everywhere the medieval Christian Church got to.” With these data, and the promise of more, Champion has been able to provide some context and interpretation for the symbols the volunteers are finding. “Everyone from the lord of the manor to the lowliest commoner was making these marks,” says Champion.

 

Circular floral designs (highlighted here to show the shape clearly) are the most common motif in medieval church graffiti, and were thought to trap malevolent spirits.

 

The circular floral designs, for example, turn out to be the most common motif, with several thousand recorded in Norfolk and Suffolk alone. The majority are quite small—less than four inches across—and are precise enough that they must have been drawn with compasses or other tools. “Originally, we thought these might have been created by the masons, perhaps to teach their apprentices the basics of geometry, or to create a guide for themselves,” Champion says. Indeed, some of the larger compass-drawn designs are probably exactly that, but the small designs that Champion has found peppered around fonts would have been impossible to draw with the giant compasses that masons used. Rather, the clustering of the symbol on and around fonts is a crucial clue. Traditionally, baptism ceremonies were meant to cast out the devil, and Champion thinks that the marks served as ritual protection, brought luck, and protected the person being baptized from evil. “Christianity was not the warm and fluffy religion that it is today,” he says. “People believed in the power of evil, and would do everything they could to ward off the ill forces that lurked outside the church door.” Designs like this, intricate and mazelike, were thought to trap malevolent spirits, which would follow the lines and be unable to find their way back out.

 

Mark Gardiner, a medieval graffiti expert from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, agrees that the symbols were probably intended to ward off evil. “We also find an abundance of these kind of marks inside medieval houses, often close to fireplaces. This coincides with the interest in and fear of witches,” he says, “which grew markedly during the second half of the sixteenth century.”

 

So who could have made these marks? Compasses from this time are exceedingly rare in the archaeological record. Champion speculates that they could have been made using the little shears that women tended to carry around with them. “The shears would be about the right size, so we think it could have been predominately women making these protective symbols around the font,” he says. Medieval women carried small shears, which they may have used to incise the circular graffiti designs.

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St. Nicholas' in Blakeney, which was located at the harbor mouth of a bustling medieval port, is the site of much intricately drawn graffiti depicting ships.

 

At St. Nicholas' church in Blakeney, the village that sat at the harbor mouth of the Glaven Port, Champion squeezes past some wooden paneling to view part of a stone column normally hidden from view. Practiced in applying the right amount of raking light to make the designs emerge from the stonework, Champion flourishes his flashlight to reveal ship after ship etched at eye level and below—more than 30 in all, ranging in size from two to 12 inches. Every ship is intricately drawn, with details such as anchors, rigging, and flags. Like the font at St. Margaret's, the column holds minuscule flecks of paint, which confirm that the ships, faint today, would have once stood out boldly on a colored background. They reflect another side of life in a medieval port—the uncertainty that comes with a culture built on the hazards of the sea. “Most of them are single-masted cogs, which were typical trading ships in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries,” Champion says. By analyzing the types of ships depicted, he concluded that they were all drawn over a period of 200 to 300 years, and must have been tolerated by the priests of the day. “They could easily have repainted the column to cover them up,” he says, “but they didn't.”

 

It will never be known exactly who drew the ships, but it is no accident that they are clustered around the side altar of St. Nicholas—patron saint of those in peril upon the sea. “I think they were like little prayers made solid in stone, perhaps thanks for a voyage safely undertaken, a prayer for a voyage yet to come, or maybe a plea for a ship long overdue [to return to port],” he says. According to documentary records, the Glaven Port usually had 50 to 60 ships that would have considered the harbor home, and, on average, one ship was lost at sea every two or three years. “Some of these ships were taking people on pilgrimage, and when one ship was lost, that could be as many as 250 people gone in one go,” says Champion.

Ship graffiti from St. Nicolas' church, used as prayers for safe voyages, depict late 14th- and early 15th-century vessel designs.

Ship etchings are no surprise in a church so closely tied to the sea, but such pieces weren't only found in coastal churches. Champion and his volunteers have found them as far inland as Leicestershire, a good 50 miles from the coast. “This inland ship graffiti is quite possibly associated with pilgrimage, with people traveling to or from continental shrines,” he explains.

 

The church in Steeple Bumpstead, a small village in eastern England, doesn't have etchings of ships on its walls, but rather more stark, literal expressions of anxiety. “God help us, God help us, God help us,” reads an inscription dated 1348. “It is the scariest inscription I've ever seen and sends shivers down my spine,” says Champion, who documented a peak in inscriptions like this in the middle of the fourteenth century, when the Black Death swept across Europe. People were terrified of the mysterious disease, which wiped out entire villages and killed nearly half the European population over four years, and Steeple Bumpstead was particularly hard-hit. Meanwhile, in All Saints' and St. Andrew's in Kingston, near Cambridge, three names—Cateryn, Jane, and Amee—are inscribed, thought to belong to three children from one family who died during the 1515 plague outbreak.

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Crosses (highlighted) found carved in stone around church porches are thought to have been a way of sealing important agreements.

 

Written records clearly state that churches at the time were always locked, except during services. This reinforces the idea that the graffiti was made during Church services, condoned, and intended to be seen. “These were not the furtive scratchings of people making illicit messages, but were part of the ritualistic activity, which seems to have been quite widespread in the late Middle Ages,” Gardiner says. Indeed, some of the graffiti may have even been part of ceremonies. In many churches Champion found crosses scratched around the doors and in porch areas. “In medieval times documents and agreements were often signed in the porch, and it may have been that scratching a cross into the wall was a way of making an oath,” he says.

 

At St. Mary's in Wiveton, church graffiti depicts the crests of a patron family. Another form of Church ritual—the making of donations—was the subject of still more graffiti. In Wiveton, near Blakeney, a church column sports a strange angular symbol that also appears on a crest above the “parish chest,” a huge locked trunk, located on the other side of the church, used to hold the parish's valuables. In Wiveton, the chest had been donated by a local businessman named Raulf Greneway. Greneway's mark was memorialized on the plaque, but then was also repeated as graffiti on the column, perhaps as a symbol of the aspirations of the family or pride at their rise in society. “This man was a working man,” explains Champion, “who had done well for himself, and the mark on his crest is a kind of heraldry or guild mark for the working man, something that was passed down through the family after he had gone. It was their way of preserving the memory of their family for posterity.” Similar merchant's marks have turned up in the surveys across the country, though in most cases it has been impossible to trace the families to whom they belong.

 

And finally, some churches sport inscriptions made by stonemasons and architects for purely functional purposes. At Binham Priory, for example, sweeping lines represent working architectural drawings dating to the 1240s. The architect in this case was experimenting with a window design from France—called bar tracery—that the English were only beginning to employ at the time. In fact, the drawings have helped settle just how the church's large arched windows, long since collapsed, had been conceived. “It was totally revolutionary designwise,” says Champion, “and not the gradual progression in architecture we might have expected.” Taken together, all this graffiti provides Champion, his volunteers, and a visiting writer with a strong sense of connection with the people who scratched into church walls hundreds of years ago.

 

The daisy-wheel patterns from St. Margaret's transmit an aura of fear, protectiveness, and hope for the best possible start in life. Meanwhile, the exquisite little ships at Blakeney exude excitement but also terror about the unknown. And the merchant's marks represent the desire for a person or family to be remembered for posterity. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, which began in 1529 in England, people's relationships with God were officially mediated via priests or the Pope. “For me, the graffiti represents the religion and spirituality of ordinary individual people,” Champion says. “It was their opportunity to communicate with God without needing the interaction of a priest.” Following the Reformation, the amount of church graffiti declines. “After the Reformation, religion became more personal—you could read your own Bible for example—so perhaps people didn't feel the need to make their own individual mark on the church wall any more.”

 

At a time when writing materials were expensive and many people were illiterate, it seems that church walls were an accepted place to express one's deepest hopes and fears.

 

Kate Ravilious is a science journalist based in York, United Kingdom.

 

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The world’s leading scientist Fang Ruida found in a major study: the influence of cosmic matter and cosmic energy on the sun, the homology and homogeneity of particle spin and half-spin and planetary motion (Bucksdell)

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Fang Ruida The latest major research findings in physics and cosmology The influence of cosmic matter and cosmic energy on the sun, the homology and homogeneity of particle spin and half-spin and planetary motion (Bucksdell)

  

The latest major research findings in physics and cosmology: the influence of cosmic material and cosmic energy on the sun, the homology and homophase of the spin and half-spin of particles and the motion of the planet, the forces other than the four forces in natural mechanics, the force of living animals Coupling and Differential Selection of Cell Genes of High God System and Cell Genes of Human Advanced Nervous System (Fang Ruida November 2018)

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The sun is great. Once the sun is destroyed and mutated, the solar system will turn into ashes and dust. The moon, Mars, and Jupiter will all return to zero.

The sun itself is the greatest energy collector, energy absorber and converter. It absorbs infinite cosmic particles and cosmic matter at all times, and at the same time emits a large amount of light and heat at every moment. Therefore, the life of the sun Energy far exceeds human imagination.

Any person is nothing but insignificant particles of dust in front of the natural universe. The human cognitive perception of the high-level nervous system is not infinite.

 

The sun itself is a huge energy absorber and energy storage device, an energy converter; the continuous burning of the sun originates from the nuclear fusion reaction. It not only emits a large amount of energy, light and heat day and night, but it also continuously Absorb all kinds of energy matter from the dark energy of various dark matter in the universe and the cosmic stellar matter. In the universe, the sun mainly relies on its own matter to undergo a polarization reaction to emit radiation, but it can also receive some interstellar matter, such as dark matter, dark energy, and other interstellar matter. In the natural universe, no stellar body will evolve in isolation, on the contrary, the interstellar network is full of it. Including all kinds of matter, all kinds of energy, all kinds of internal and external particle spinning, etc., as well as interstellar macromolecules, dust and so on. Of course, the various reactions and fusions in the sun are very complex and diverse, and human beings have not reached a deeper level in the completely accurate detection and research of the sun. Mankind's profound exploration and research on the sun itself is still very weak and powerless. Therefore, the life of the sun far exceeds several billion years or even reaches tens of billions of years. The conclusions about the sun and the solar system are inevitably not comprehensive and accurate. Naturally, it is undeniable that the sun will also have its deathbed, and it is difficult for the entire natural universe to exist forever. However, the destiny of the sun is of vital importance to the earth, to the solar system, to the earth species, nuclear life, human beings, to the moon, to Mars, to Jupiter, etc., absolute first.

Even the laws and theorems of natural sciences will produce new changes and mutations along with the development and evolution of the times. Strong interaction 1 1/r 10 gluon

Electromagnetic interaction 1/137 1/r infinite photon

Weak interaction 10 1/r 10 W and Z boson

Gravitational interaction 10 1/r infinite graviton. This is the most important discovery of modern physics and deserves praise and congratulations. However, are there only these four basic forces in the natural universe?

 

1. The influence and effect of matter (energy) in the universe, dark matter and dark energy on the sun, in addition to the sun's own material energy storage, the influence of external matter, including force, rotation and so on. Although the core area of ​​the sun is very small, the radius is only 1/4 of the sun's radius, but it is the true source of the sun's huge energy. The temperature of the core of the sun is extremely high, reaching 15 million degrees Celsius, and the pressure is also very high, so that the thermonuclear reaction from hydrogen fusion to helium can take place, thereby releasing great energy. These energy can be transmitted to the bottom of the solar photosphere through the transmission of materials in the radiant layer and the troposphere, and radiate outward through the photosphere. Humans have discovered more than 4000 exoplanets in the Milky Way. Scientists are still continuously discovering novel worlds, some of which are surprisingly large, some weird and some weird, such as black holes, dark matter, superstars and so on. In addition to the four forces in the universe, spin action, etc. The spin and half-spin of a particle is very different from the rotation of the planet. The spin of the particle is mainly caused by the internal force, and the planet rotates by the external force. Of course, the two also have certain similarities and differences. In a certain sense, the two are of the same origin and the same phase. As to whether they are of the same quality, a large number of experimental observations are needed to prove. A particle whose spin is 0, 1, and 2 that cause force between particles of matter. The particles of matter obey the so-called Pauli exclusion principle. this

It was discovered by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. Gravity, this force is universal, that is to say, every particle feels due to its mass or energy

Subject to gravity. Electromagnetic force. It acts between charged particles (such as electrons and quarks), but not with no

Charged particles (such as gravitons) interact. It is much stronger than gravity: the electromagnetic force between two electrons is stronger than gravity

It's about 10 billion billion billion billion billion times larger. However, there are two kinds of charges-positive and negative.

The forces of the same kind of charges are mutually repelling, while the different kinds of charges are attracted to each other. A large object, such as the earth or

The sun contains almost equal amounts of positive and negative charges and weak nuclear power. It restricts the phenomenon of radioactivity and only acts on matter particles whose spin is 1/2.

It does not work on particles with spins of 0, 1, or 2, such as photons and gravitons. Quantum mechanics, particle physics, cosmic physics, the study of the four forces is quite important. However, it is undeniable that there will not only be these four forces in the universe, and there will be new forces discovered and clarified by human beings. The finite theoretical hypotheses contained in physics, etc., cannot fully give scientific empirical evidence. Imperial College London in 1967

After Burdas Salam and Stephen Weinberg of Harvard proposed a unified theory of weak action and electromagnetic action, weak action

The use is well understood. We know only 5% of the cosmic matter that makes up stars, stars, trees, humans, etc., and the remaining 95% is unknown dark matter and dark energy. This is a mystery that plagues the powerful forces of modern physics. It binds the quarks in protons and neutrons together, and binds the protons in atoms to

The neutrons are bound together. It is generally believed that another kind of particle with spin 1 called gluon carries a strong force. It can only work with

Interact with itself and with quarks. The strong nuclear force always binds the particles into

Combination without color. Compared with the physical revolution, the current research on quantum entanglement of complex systems. Many important issues in the universe, such as black holes, dark matter, and dark energy, are complex and changeable. Human scientific research and exploration and human cognitive perception are still very limited. Physics, cosmology, heliology, mechanics, the deep structure of the universe, and many of the universe Difficulties require in-depth exploration and research, and they cannot be finalized.

3. Coupling and differentiated selection between the cell genes of the hyperesthetic system of living animals and the cell genes of the human advanced nervous system

Coupling and differential selection between the cell genes of the higher theories of living animals such as monkeys, wolf dogs, foxes, cattle, sheep and horses and human higher nervous system cells, and the structural differences in the structure of the nervous system

And structural differences, genetic variation of gene fragments, etc., in addition, their cooperative coupling with other physiological systems is also very important. The DNA sequence similarity between chimpanzee and human genome reaches 99%; even if DNA sequence insertion or deletion is taken into account, the similarity between the two is 96%; humans and chimpanzees share 29% of the common gene coding to produce the same protein.

 

After humans and chimpanzees evolved from a common ancestor 6 million years ago, their protein systems have only undergone one major change. The difference between the two is only equivalent to 10 times the genomic difference between any two different people. What humans and chimpanzees have in common is that they both have some genes that mutate quickly. These genes are mainly involved in hearing, nerve signal transduction, sperm production, and ion transmission in cells. The genetic similarity of the four mammals and humans, the closest relative to humans is

Macaque gorilla chimpanzee orangutan

People 93% 98% 99% 97%

They mutate much faster than similar genes in other mammals. Scientists believe that these genes may determine the characteristics of primates. Compared with other animals, humans and chimpanzees share some genes that are prone to disease. Scientists believe that although these genes weaken the resistance of primates as a whole, they make them more adaptable to rapid changes in the environment. The first characteristic of the human brain is that the cerebral cortex is developed, and the cerebral cortex of other animals is simple to develop, and most of them only have physiological functions. Different brain capacity:

(A) The relative brain volume of humans is the largest. The brain volume of the human brain is about three times that of the chimpanzee. The human brain is not simply a magnification of the chimpanzee brain, but has obvious differences in structure.

(B) The areas where the human brain is significantly larger than the chimpanzee brain are the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and frontal lobe. The parietal lobe enlarges upwards and backwards, squeezing and covering part of the occipital lobe, causing the back of the head to be rounder and fuller, and the temporal lobe is facing It develops on both sides and upwards, widening and heightening the brain case. The parietal and temporal lobes are basically enlarged in the same proportion, and the biggest change lies in the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is not only simply enlarged, but more than other parts. Increase at a fast speed.

 

(C) Compared with animals, the frontal lobe, inferior parietal lobe, temporo-occipital area, and temporal pole area are particularly developed in humans, except for the bulge of the cranial nerve tissue in these parts. In addition to examining it, we can also see the abnormality of the corpus callosum that connects the neocortex of the two hemispheres.

(D) In ​​addition to the structure of physiological tissues, the complex network systems of cells, genes, transmission, electronic signals, DNA, etc., and self-feedback systems are quite complex and changeable. This largely determines the various differences between the human brain's high nervous system activity and the nervous system activities of animals such as chimpanzees and apes.

(E) The coordinated physiological effects of other important parts of the human body, such as the human heart, lungs, sensory system, blood, etc., also have inseparable roles and various coordinated auxiliary functions. They are closely related to the entire brain's nervous system. Therefore, the activity of the human brain is very different from that of chimpanzees and apes.

(F) The nervous system activities of the human brain and animals such as chimpanzees and monkeys are quite similar, especially the most basic cognitive system, perception system, transmission system, feedback system, network system, and so on. Of course, cell genes, DNA, enzymes, proteins, etc. will be very different in terms of deep structure and function, which also leads to a major division between humans and animals, and the widening of the gap between higher neural activity and lower neural activity. Biological control, brain structure, genetic variation, etc.

  

Fang Ruida Les dernières découvertes majeures de la recherche en physique et en cosmologie L'influence de la matière cosmique et de l'énergie cosmique sur le soleil, l'homologie et l'homogénéité du spin et du demi-spin des particules et du mouvement planétaire (Bucksdell)

  

Les dernières découvertes majeures de la physique et de la cosmologie : l'influence de la matière cosmique et de l'énergie cosmique sur le soleil, l'homologie et l'homophase du spin et du demi-spin des particules et du mouvement de la planète, les forces autres que les quatre forces en mécanique naturelle, la force des animaux vivants Couplage et sélection différentielle des gènes cellulaires du système divin supérieur et des gènes cellulaires du système nerveux avancé humain (Fang Ruida novembre 2018)

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Le soleil est grand, une fois le soleil détruit et muté, le système solaire se transformera en cendres et en poussière. La lune, Mars et Jupiter reviendront tous à zéro.

Le soleil lui-même est le plus grand collecteur, absorbeur et convertisseur d'énergie. Il absorbe à tout moment une infinité de particules cosmiques et de matière cosmique, et en même temps émet une grande quantité de lumière et de chaleur à chaque instant. Par conséquent, la vie du soleil L'énergie dépasse de loin l'imagination humaine.

Toute personne n'est rien d'autre que des particules de poussière insignifiantes devant l'univers naturel. La perception cognitive humaine du système nerveux de haut niveau n'est pas infinie.

 

Le soleil lui-même est un énorme absorbeur d'énergie et un dispositif de stockage d'énergie, un convertisseur d'énergie ; la combustion continue du soleil provient de la réaction de fusion nucléaire. Il émet non seulement une grande quantité d'énergie, de lumière et de chaleur jour et nuit, mais il Absorber en continu toutes sortes de matière énergétique de l'énergie noire de diverses matières noires de l'univers et de la matière stellaire cosmique. Dans l'univers, le soleil dépend principalement de sa propre matière pour subir une réaction de polarisation afin d'émettre un rayonnement, mais il peut également recevoir de la matière interstellaire, telle que la matière noire, l'énergie noire et d'autres matières interstellaires. Dans l'univers naturel, aucun corps stellaire n'évoluera isolément, au contraire le réseau interstellaire en regorge. Y compris toutes sortes de matière, toutes sortes d'énergie, toutes sortes de rotations de particules internes et externes, etc., ainsi que des macromolécules interstellaires, de la poussière, etc. Bien sûr, les diverses réactions et fusions dans le soleil sont très complexes et diverses, et les êtres humains n'ont pas atteint un niveau plus profond dans la détection et la recherche complètement précises du soleil. L'exploration et la recherche approfondies de l'humanité sur le soleil lui-même sont encore très faibles et impuissantes. Ainsi, la durée de vie du soleil dépasse de loin plusieurs milliards d'années voire atteint des dizaines de milliards d'années. Les conclusions sur le soleil et le système solaire ne sont inévitablement pas complètes et précises. Naturellement, il est indéniable que le soleil aura également son lit de mort, et il est difficile pour l'univers naturel tout entier d'exister pour toujours. Cependant, le destin du soleil est d'une importance vitale pour la terre, pour le système solaire, pour les espèces terrestres, la vie nucléaire, les êtres humains, pour la lune, pour Mars, pour Jupiter, etc., tout d'abord.

Même les lois et les théorèmes des sciences naturelles produiront de nouveaux changements et mutations avec le développement et l'évolution des temps. Interaction forte 1 1/r 10 gluon

Interaction électromagnétique 1/137 1/r photon infini

Interaction faible 10 1/r 10 W et boson Z

Interaction gravitationnelle 10 1/r graviton infini. C'est la découverte la plus importante de la physique moderne et mérite des éloges et des félicitations. Cependant, n'y a-t-il que ces quatre forces fondamentales dans l'univers naturel ?

 

1. L'influence et l'effet de la matière (énergie) dans l'univers, la matière noire et l'énergie noire sur le soleil, en plus du propre stockage d'énergie matérielle du soleil, l'influence de la matière externe, y compris la force, la rotation, etc. Bien que la zone centrale du soleil soit très petite, le rayon n'est que 1/4 du rayon du soleil, mais c'est la véritable source de l'énorme énergie du soleil. La température du noyau du soleil est extrêmement élevée, atteignant 15 millions de degrés Celsius, et la pression est également très élevée, de sorte que la réaction thermonucléaire de la fusion de l'hydrogène à l'hélium peut avoir lieu, libérant ainsi une grande énergie. Cette énergie peut être transmise au fond de la photosphère solaire par la transmission de matériaux dans la couche radiante et la troposphère, et rayonner vers l'extérieur à travers la photosphère. Les humains ont découvert plus de 4000 exoplanètes dans la Voie lactée. Les scientifiques découvrent toujours de nouveaux mondes, dont certains sont étonnamment grands, d'autres étranges et d'autres étranges, tels que les trous noirs, la matière noire et les superstars. En plus des quatre forces de l'univers, l'action de rotation, etc. Le spin et le demi-tour d'une particule sont très différents de la rotation de la planète.Le spin de la particule est principalement causé par la force interne, et la planète tourne par la force externe. Bien sûr, les deux ont aussi certaines similitudes et différences. Dans un certain sens, les deux sont de la même origine et de la même phase. Quant à savoir s'ils sont de même qualité, un grand nombre d'observations expérimentales sont nécessaires pour le prouver. Une particule dont le spin est 0, 1 et 2 qui provoquent une force entre les particules de matière. Les particules de matière obéissent au principe dit d'exclusion de Pauli. cette

Il a été découvert par le physicien autrichien Wolfgang Pauli en 1925. La gravité, cette force est universelle, c'est-à-dire que chaque particule se sent du fait de sa masse ou de son énergie

Soumis à la gravité. Force électromagnétique. Il agit entre les particules chargées (comme les électrons et les quarks), mais pas sans

Les particules chargées (comme les gravitons) interagissent. C'est beaucoup plus fort que la gravité : la force électromagnétique entre deux électrons est plus forte que la gravité

Il est environ 10 milliards de milliards de milliards de milliards de milliards de fois plus grand. Cependant, il existe deux types de charges - positives et négatives.

Les forces du même type de charges se repoussent mutuellement, tandis que les différents types de charges s'attirent les unes aux autres. Un gros objet, comme la terre ou

Le soleil contient des quantités presque égales de charges positives et négatives et une faible puissance nucléaire. Il limite le phénomène de radioactivité et n'agit que sur les particules de matière dont le spin est 1/2.

Il ne fonctionne pas sur les particules avec des spins de 0, 1 ou 2, comme les photons et les gravitons. Mécanique quantique, physique des particules, physique cosmique, l'étude des quatre forces est assez importante. Cependant, il est indéniable qu'il n'y aura pas que ces quatre forces dans l'univers, et qu'il y aura de nouvelles forces découvertes et clarifiées par les êtres humains. Les hypothèses théoriques finies contenues dans la physique, etc., ne peuvent pas fournir pleinement des preuves empiriques scientifiques. Imperial College de Londres en 1967

Après que Burdas Salam et Stephen Weinberg de Harvard aient proposé une théorie unifiée de l'action faible et de l'action électromagnétique, l'action faible

L'utilisation est bien comprise. Nous ne connaissons que 5% de la matière cosmique qui compose les étoiles, les étoiles, les arbres, les humains, etc., et les 95% restants sont de la matière noire et de l'énergie noire inconnues. C'est un mystère qui afflige les puissantes forces de la physique moderne. Il lie les quarks des protons et des neutrons ensemble, et lie les protons des atomes à

Les neutrons sont liés entre eux. On pense généralement qu'un autre type de particule de spin 1 appelé gluon transporte une force puissante. Il ne peut fonctionner qu'avec

Interagir avec lui-même et avec les quarks. La force nucléaire forte lie toujours les particules en

Combinaison sans couleur. Par rapport à la révolution physique, les recherches actuelles sur l'intrication quantique des systèmes complexes. De nombreux problèmes importants dans l'univers, tels que les trous noirs, la matière noire et l'énergie noire, sont complexes et changeants. La recherche et l'exploration scientifiques humaines et la perception cognitive humaine sont encore très limitées. Physique, cosmologie, héliologie, mécanique, structure profonde de l'univers, et de nombreuses difficultés de l'univers Les difficultés nécessitent une exploration et des recherches approfondies, et elles ne peuvent pas être finalisées.

3. Couplage et sélection différenciée entre les gènes cellulaires du système hyperesthésique des animaux vivants et les gènes cellulaires du système nerveux avancé humain

Couplage et sélection différentielle entre les gènes cellulaires des théories supérieures des animaux vivants tels que les singes, les chiens-loups, les renards, les bovins, les moutons et les chevaux et les cellules du système nerveux supérieur humain, et les différences structurelles dans la structure du système nerveux

Et les différences structurelles, la variation génétique des fragments de gènes, etc., en plus, leur coordination et leur couplage avec d'autres systèmes physiologiques sont également très importants. La similitude de séquence d'ADN entre le chimpanzé et le génome humain atteint 99 % ; même si l'insertion ou la suppression de séquence d'ADN est prise en compte, la similitude entre les deux est de 96 % ; les humains et les chimpanzés partagent 29 % du gène commun codant pour produire la même protéine .

 

Après que les humains et les chimpanzés aient évolué à partir d'un ancêtre commun il y a 6 millions d'années, leurs systèmes protéiques n'ont subi qu'un seul changement majeur. La différence entre les deux n'est équivalente qu'à 10 fois la différence génomique entre deux personnes différentes. Ce que les humains et les chimpanzés ont en commun, c'est qu'ils ont tous deux des gènes qui mutent rapidement. Ces gènes sont principalement impliqués dans l'audition, la transduction du signal nerveux, la production de spermatozoïdes et la transmission des ions dans les cellules. La similitude génétique des quatre mammifères et des humains, le plus proche parent de l'homme est

Macaque gorille chimpanzé orang-outan

Personnes 93 % 98 % 99 % 97 %

Ils mutent beaucoup plus rapidement que des gènes similaires chez d'autres mammifères. Les scientifiques pensent que ces gènes peuvent déterminer les caractéristiques des primates. Comparés à d'autres animaux, les humains et les chimpanzés partagent certains gènes sujets aux maladies. Les scientifiques pensent que bien que ces gènes affaiblissent la résistance des primates dans leur ensemble, ils les rendent plus adaptables aux changements rapides de l'environnement. La première caractéristique du cerveau humain est que le cortex cérébral est développé, et le cortex cérébral des autres animaux est simple à développer, et la plupart d'entre eux n'ont que des fonctions physiologiques. Différentes capacités cérébrales :

(A) Le volume cérébral relatif des humains est le plus grand. Le volume cérébral du cerveau humain est environ trois fois celui du chimpanzé. Le cerveau humain n'est pas simplement un grossissement du cerveau du chimpanzé, mais présente des différences évidentes de structure.

(B) Les zones où le cerveau humain est significativement plus grand que le cerveau de chimpanzé sont le lobe temporal, le lobe pariétal et le lobe frontal. Le lobe pariétal s'agrandit vers le haut et vers l'arrière, comprimant et recouvrant une partie du lobe occipital, provoquant l'arrière la tête est plus ronde et plus pleine, et le lobe temporal fait face Il se développe des deux côtés et vers le haut, élargissant et augmentant le cas du cerveau.Les lobes pariétaux et temporaux sont fondamentalement agrandis dans la même proportion, et le plus grand changement réside dans le lobe frontal Le lobe frontal est non seulement simplement agrandi, mais plus que d'autres parties.Augmente à une vitesse rapide.

 

(C) Par rapport aux animaux, le lobe frontal, le lobe pariétal inférieur, la zone temporo-occipitale et la zone du pôle temporal sont particulièrement développés chez l'homme, à l'exception du renflement du tissu nerveux crânien dans ces parties. En plus de l'examiner, nous peut également voir l'anomalie du corps calleux qui relie le néocortex des deux hémisphères.

(D) En plus de la structure des tissus physiologiques, les systèmes de réseaux complexes de cellules, de gènes, de transmission, de signaux électroniques, d'ADN, etc., et les systèmes d'auto-rétroaction sont assez complexes et changeants. Cela détermine en grande partie les différentes différences entre l'activité élevée du système nerveux du cerveau humain et les activités du système nerveux des animaux tels que les chimpanzés et les singes.

(E) Les effets physiologiques coordonnés d'autres parties importantes du corps humain, telles que le cœur humain, les poumons, le système sensoriel, le sang, etc., ont également des rôles inséparables et diverses fonctions auxiliaires coordonnées. Ils sont étroitement liés à l'ensemble du système nerveux du cerveau. Par conséquent, l'activité du cerveau humain est très différente de celle des chimpanzés et des singes.

(F) Les activités du système nerveux du cerveau humain et des animaux tels que les chimpanzés et les singes sont assez similaires, en particulier le système cognitif le plus élémentaire, le système de perception, le système de transmission, le système de rétroaction, le système de réseau, etc. Bien sûr, les gènes cellulaires, l'ADN, les enzymes, les protéines, etc. seront très différents en termes de structure et de fonction profondes, ce qui conduit également à une division majeure entre les humains et les animaux, et à l'élargissement de l'écart entre une activité neuronale plus élevée et une plus faible activité neuronale. Contrôle biologique, structure cérébrale, variation génétique, etc.

NOOSA/QLD (16th March, 2012): The penultimate and semi finals day of competition commenced, with inspirational action taking place from the very first heat. Although an insignificant drop of swell occurred overnight, it was complimented by a decrease in wind and more favourable direction blessed the contest arena with manicured waves running across the mid-tide sand bank.

 

Junior divisions abound for the quartet of opening heats, the Pacific Longboarder Under 18s rapidly followed by the Under 15 Boys semi final, sponsored by Humid.

 

The Jones brothers had a fantastic morning, older brother Nic, a team rider for event sponsor Classic Malibu, gleaning nine well-earned points from his opening wave, and a mid-range score very late in the piece securing a justified victory in the first heat of the day. His younger sibling Harri had more of a challenge in the Humid Under 15s, putting all his efforts in to narrowly qualify for tomorrow’s final.

 

Nathan Strom was untouchable in heat one of the Under 15s, leading from the commencement and indefatigable throughout to register a superb win.

 

Light showers came down on the heads of the spectators clamouring for position along the shoreline of First Point’s natural amphitheatre, as the inaugural Laguna Bay Longboards Logger Pro launched into its first semi final.

 

Matt Chojnacki, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches was world-class in his performance, his very traditional stylings the epitome of panache and the perfect example of the skills required for the event. 16 points even garnished Cojnacki with a convincing win in heat one, whilst the second heat was dominated once again by the local superhuman surfer, Harrison Roach.

 

Only three waves were ridden by Roach, his opening ride, an impressive 6.75, looking shabby next to his very high following scores. Roach’s faultless talent gave him a near-perfect score to set the bar for the final tomorrow.

 

Another traditional event ensued, the Old Mal division, sponsored by RACV Noosa Resort. Matt Cuddihy remained in the water after taking a qualifying second place in the previous division, and backed it up with a healthy twelve points, a touch of Sage Joske’s influence in his crouched rail-grab bottom turns, Joske an outstanding participant in previous years.

 

Cuddihy surfed outstandingly and, alongside Matt Cojnacki, was a definitive surfer in this event, featuring exclusively boards all made before 1967. Cojnacki channeled the spirits of yesteryear, emulating the surfers of a decade in which he was not even born.

 

Both surfers will take their well-earned places in tomorrow’s final.

 

The Old Guys Ruled once again, with the Over 55 and Over 60 Men’s events taking to the water.

 

These semis were the last opportunities for surfers to earn a berth in tomorrow’s finals, the top three of each heat advancing. This do-or-die challenge drew some outstanding performances from the surfers, Albe Curtis particularly of note, posting two very solid rides to lead from start to finish. Nipping at his heels though was Pacific Longboarder chief editor, John ‘JB’ Brasen. JB’s best was the heat’s highest score, a 7.25, but he was unable to match it and relinquishing the top spot, but not his ticket to the final.

 

Mike Pimm, too, was a standout, two massive 7.5 waves giving him a fantastic victory.

 

And then to the noserider. The Golden Breed Noserider, always a thrilling crowd-pleaser, failed to disappoint and, with little surprise, Harrison Roach again was head-and-shoulders above his adversaries.

 

Local knowledge paid dividends and three of the four surfers tip-timing their ways into the finals. Roach went from the sublime to ridiculous, with again very closely a minute perched on the front end of his board. But today he was in closer company, Matt Cuddihy and Beau Nixon both around ten seconds off the pace. All three were indisputable finalists, but the fourth and last remaining place was a nail-biter. With just seven seconds separating the remaining contestants, it was young Noosa local, Zye Norris who won the coveted fourth.

 

With so much action taking place throughout the day, it is very nearly impossible to hone the highlights, like needles in a needle stack of exceptional moments.

 

To précis a wonderful day of semi finals, Nic Jones was phenomenal in both the Under 18 and the Open Amateur Men’s, claiming outstanding victories in both, amounting almost 17 points of a possible twenty in his heat, making for a very busy finals day tomorrow.

 

The PJ Burns Under 18 Girls second semi was far too close to call. A very lethargic ocean providing little opportunity in the heat’s first half reduced the action to ten minutes. The surfers added to this compression of scores, matching each other evenly right up until the dying minutes. An overabundance of very late scores left the judges sweating for a full five minutes after the final horn, but it was Rosain Carolan who emerged victorious, Rachel Fleming set to join her in the final.

 

The SeaGlass Project Finless Challenge was again Harrison Roach’s feeding ground, but Fred Branger dominated the second heat and it will be very interesting watching the pair go head to head in tomorrow’s final.

 

Final competing was done by the Senior Women, for the John Madill Toyota semi final.

 

An interference call denied local favourite, Keena Wilson a berth in the first heat, Leanne ‘Bluey’ Gilkes taking the heat, and in the second semi, visiting Taiwanese surfer, BayBay Niu surfed an exquisite round, but with a breath-taking 8.25 points scored on a perfectly executed wave, Yvette Kordick tipped the balance.

 

Both surfers, though, will have their rematch in the final.

 

The greatest crowd of the day was drawn in the dying hours of daylight. Wrapping up the day was a fantastic display of surfing-meets-gymnastics, with five tandem couples paddling out and gaining the largest cheers and greatest appreciation of the festival so far.

 

All the action of the last day of the festival tomorrow, as finals fill the day for all divisions. Exceptional talent, thrilling tension, nail-biting finishes – the day is poised to be an unmissable event, all taking place right on the beach at First Point, Noosa.

 

All results for the day, and the week, are available on the event website, as well as draws for Thursday’s competition.

 

Visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com for further information and images of the daily events.#

 

Photos: Geoff Fanning / Noosa Festival Of Surfing

Modern cars can do over 100,000 miles without pausing for breath. If you really pile on the miles, you might have 200,000 or even 300,000 miles on the clock. If the car Gods are really shining on you, you might have managed more than half a million.

 

Prepare to feel insignificant. Irv Gordon from East Patchogue, New York, together with his Volvo P1800, a 1966 1800S, has completed over three million miles--a new world record for the highest number of miles driven by a single person in the same car. If you're after an arbitrary comparison to offer some perspective, that's around six round-trips to the moon, or 120 circumnavigations of Earth.

 

Gordon hit the three million miles mark on September 18 while driving near the village of Girdwood, on the Seward Highway, south of Anchorage, Alaska; one of the two remaining states where Irv and his famous car had not been together until now.

 

”It was all rather undramatic,” said Irv. ”We just cruised along and I kept an eye on the odometer in order not to miss the great moment”.

 

Gordon first bought his 1800S on a Friday back in 1966 and immediately fell in love. He simply couldn't stop driving the car and over the course of the weekend he had already covered 1,500 miles, causing him to return to the dealership he bought it the following Monday in order for its first service.

 

With a 125-mile round-trip daily commute, a fanatical dedication to vehicle maintenance and a passion for driving, Gordon logged 500,000 miles in 10 years. In 1987, he celebrated his one-millionth mile by driving a loop around the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, and in 2002 he drove the car's two-millionth mile down Times Square. Since then, Gordon has broken his record every time he gets behind the wheel of his beloved Volvo.

 

[Text from MotorAuthority]

 

www.motorauthority.com/news/1087353_irv-gordon-reaches-3-...

 

History

 

The project was started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had been a disaster, with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for the Volvo PV444. The design work was done by Helmer's son Pelle Petterson, who worked at Pietro Frua at that time. Volvo insisted it was an Italian design by Frua and only officially recognized that Pelle Petterson designed it in 2009. The Italian Carrozzeria Pietro Frua design firm (then a recently acquired subsidiary of Ghia) built the first three prototypes between September 1957 and early 1958, later designated by Volvo in September 1958: P958-X1, P958-X2 and P958-X3 (P:Project 9:September 58:Year 1958 = P958).

 

In December 1957 Helmer Petterson drove X1, (the first hand-built P1800 prototype) to Osnabrück, West Germany, headquarters of Karmann. Petterson hoped that Karmann would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800. Karmann's engineers had already been preparing working drawings from the wooden styling buck at Frua. Petterson and Volvo chief engineer Thor Berthelius met there, tested the car and discussed the construction with Karmann. They were ready to build it and this meant that the first cars could hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February, Karmann's most important customer, Volkswagen VAG, forbade Karmann to take on the job.[citation needed] They feared that the P1800 would compete with the sales of their own cars, and threatened to cancel all their contracts with Karmann if they took on this car. This setback almost caused the project to be abandoned.

 

Other German firms, NSU, Drautz and Hanomag, were contacted but none was chosen because Volvo did not believe they met Volvo's manufacturing quality-control standards.

 

It began to appear that Volvo might never produce the P1800. This motivated Helmer Petterson to obtain financial backing from two financial firms with the intention of buying the components directly from Volvo and marketing the car himself. At this point Volvo had made no mention of the P1800 and the factory would not comment. Then a press release surfaced with a photo of the car, putting Volvo in a position where they had to acknowledge its existence. These events influenced the company to renew its efforts: the car was presented to the public for the first time at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1960 and Volvo turned to Jensen Motors, whose production lines were under-utilised, and they agreed a contract for 10,000 cars. The Linwood, Scotland, body plant of manufacturer Pressed Steel was in turn sub-contracted by Jensen to create the unibody shells, which were then taken by rail to be assembled at Jensen in West Bromwich, England. In September 1960, the first production P1800 (for the 1961 model year) left Jensen for an eager public.

 

P1800

 

The engine was the B18 (B for the Swedish word for gasoline: Bensin; 18 for 1800 cc displacement) with dual SU carburettors, producing 100 hp (75 kW). This variant (named B18B) had a higher compression ratio than the slightly less powerful twin-carb B18D used in the contemporary Amazon 122S, as well as a different camshaft. The 'new' B18 was actually developed from the existing B36 V8 engine used in Volvo trucks at the time. This cut production costs, as well as furnishing the P1800 with a strong engine boasting five main crankshaft bearings. The B18 was matched with the new and more robust M40 manual gearbox through 1963. From 1963 to 1972 the M41 gearbox with electrically actuated overdrive was a popular option. Two overdrive types were used, the D-Type through 1969, and the J-type through 1973. The J-type had a slightly shorter ratio of 0.797:1 as opposed to 0.756:1 for the D-type. The overdrive effectively gave the 1800 series a fifth gear, for improved fuel efficiency and decreased drivetrain wear. Cars without overdrive had a numerically lower-ratio differential, which had the interesting effect of giving them a somewhat higher top speed (just under 120 mph (193 km/h)) than the more popular overdrive models. This was because the non-overdrive cars could reach the engine's redline in top gear, while the overdrive-equipped cars could not, giving them a top speed of roughly 110 mph (177 km/h).

 

1800S

 

As time progressed, Jensen had problems with quality control, so the contract was ended early at 6,000 cars. In 1963 production was moved to Volvo's Lundby Plant in Gothenburg and the car's name was changed to 1800S (S standing for Sverige, or in English : Sweden). The engine was improved with an additional 8 hp (6 kW). In 1966 the four-cylinder engine was updated to 115 hp (86 kW). Top speed was 175 km/h (109 mph).[3] In 1969 the B18 engine was replaced with the 2-litre B20B variant of the B20 giving 118 bhp (89 kW), though it kept the designation 1800S.

 

[Text from Wikipedia]

 

This Lego miniland-scale Volvo P1800 Coupe has been created for Flickr LUGNut's 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's Break Some Records", - a challenge focused on creating vehicles that set some benchmark for biggness, fastness or other extreme of some specification. The Volvo model shown here claim, by far, the farthermost distance ever traveled by an automobile, at over 3,000,000 miles (4,800,00 kilometres).

NOOSA/QLD (16th March, 2012): The penultimate and semi finals day of competition commenced, with inspirational action taking place from the very first heat. Although an insignificant drop of swell occurred overnight, it was complimented by a decrease in wind and more favourable direction blessed the contest arena with manicured waves running across the mid-tide sand bank.

 

Junior divisions abound for the quartet of opening heats, the Pacific Longboarder Under 18s rapidly followed by the Under 15 Boys semi final, sponsored by Humid.

 

The Jones brothers had a fantastic morning, older brother Nic, a team rider for event sponsor Classic Malibu, gleaning nine well-earned points from his opening wave, and a mid-range score very late in the piece securing a justified victory in the first heat of the day. His younger sibling Harri had more of a challenge in the Humid Under 15s, putting all his efforts in to narrowly qualify for tomorrow’s final.

 

Nathan Strom was untouchable in heat one of the Under 15s, leading from the commencement and indefatigable throughout to register a superb win.

 

Light showers came down on the heads of the spectators clamouring for position along the shoreline of First Point’s natural amphitheatre, as the inaugural Laguna Bay Longboards Logger Pro launched into its first semi final.

 

Matt Chojnacki, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches was world-class in his performance, his very traditional stylings the epitome of panache and the perfect example of the skills required for the event. 16 points even garnished Cojnacki with a convincing win in heat one, whilst the second heat was dominated once again by the local superhuman surfer, Harrison Roach.

 

Only three waves were ridden by Roach, his opening ride, an impressive 6.75, looking shabby next to his very high following scores. Roach’s faultless talent gave him a near-perfect score to set the bar for the final tomorrow.

 

Another traditional event ensued, the Old Mal division, sponsored by RACV Noosa Resort. Matt Cuddihy remained in the water after taking a qualifying second place in the previous division, and backed it up with a healthy twelve points, a touch of Sage Joske’s influence in his crouched rail-grab bottom turns, Joske an outstanding participant in previous years.

 

Cuddihy surfed outstandingly and, alongside Matt Cojnacki, was a definitive surfer in this event, featuring exclusively boards all made before 1967. Cojnacki channeled the spirits of yesteryear, emulating the surfers of a decade in which he was not even born.

 

Both surfers will take their well-earned places in tomorrow’s final.

 

The Old Guys Ruled once again, with the Over 55 and Over 60 Men’s events taking to the water.

 

These semis were the last opportunities for surfers to earn a berth in tomorrow’s finals, the top three of each heat advancing. This do-or-die challenge drew some outstanding performances from the surfers, Albe Curtis particularly of note, posting two very solid rides to lead from start to finish. Nipping at his heels though was Pacific Longboarder chief editor, John ‘JB’ Brasen. JB’s best was the heat’s highest score, a 7.25, but he was unable to match it and relinquishing the top spot, but not his ticket to the final.

 

Mike Pimm, too, was a standout, two massive 7.5 waves giving him a fantastic victory.

 

And then to the noserider. The Golden Breed Noserider, always a thrilling crowd-pleaser, failed to disappoint and, with little surprise, Harrison Roach again was head-and-shoulders above his adversaries.

 

Local knowledge paid dividends and three of the four surfers tip-timing their ways into the finals. Roach went from the sublime to ridiculous, with again very closely a minute perched on the front end of his board. But today he was in closer company, Matt Cuddihy and Beau Nixon both around ten seconds off the pace. All three were indisputable finalists, but the fourth and last remaining place was a nail-biter. With just seven seconds separating the remaining contestants, it was young Noosa local, Zye Norris who won the coveted fourth.

 

With so much action taking place throughout the day, it is very nearly impossible to hone the highlights, like needles in a needle stack of exceptional moments.

 

To précis a wonderful day of semi finals, Nic Jones was phenomenal in both the Under 18 and the Open Amateur Men’s, claiming outstanding victories in both, amounting almost 17 points of a possible twenty in his heat, making for a very busy finals day tomorrow.

 

The PJ Burns Under 18 Girls second semi was far too close to call. A very lethargic ocean providing little opportunity in the heat’s first half reduced the action to ten minutes. The surfers added to this compression of scores, matching each other evenly right up until the dying minutes. An overabundance of very late scores left the judges sweating for a full five minutes after the final horn, but it was Rosain Carolan who emerged victorious, Rachel Fleming set to join her in the final.

 

The SeaGlass Project Finless Challenge was again Harrison Roach’s feeding ground, but Fred Branger dominated the second heat and it will be very interesting watching the pair go head to head in tomorrow’s final.

 

Final competing was done by the Senior Women, for the John Madill Toyota semi final.

 

An interference call denied local favourite, Keena Wilson a berth in the first heat, Leanne ‘Bluey’ Gilkes taking the heat, and in the second semi, visiting Taiwanese surfer, BayBay Niu surfed an exquisite round, but with a breath-taking 8.25 points scored on a perfectly executed wave, Yvette Kordick tipped the balance.

 

Both surfers, though, will have their rematch in the final.

 

The greatest crowd of the day was drawn in the dying hours of daylight. Wrapping up the day was a fantastic display of surfing-meets-gymnastics, with five tandem couples paddling out and gaining the largest cheers and greatest appreciation of the festival so far.

 

All the action of the last day of the festival tomorrow, as finals fill the day for all divisions. Exceptional talent, thrilling tension, nail-biting finishes – the day is poised to be an unmissable event, all taking place right on the beach at First Point, Noosa.

 

All results for the day, and the week, are available on the event website, as well as draws for Thursday’s competition.

 

Visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com for further information and images of the daily events.#

 

Photos: Geoff Fanning / Noosa Festival Of Surfing

The Borough of Brooklyn lies across the East River from Manhattan. Of late there's been a bit of a competition over which destination is cooler (rather...hipper...or even more accurately, has more hipster cred.) Saw this view of the Empire State Building paling in comparison to the Williamsburg Bridge last month and had to share it. Hard to make historic landmarks seem puny and insignificant but if anyone can do it, the folks in Brooklyn can. Representin' NYC from the wrong coast, yo.

 

Visit my new photo blog at www.alanwshapiro.blogspot.com/

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

NOOSA/QLD (16th March, 2012): The penultimate and semi finals day of competition commenced, with inspirational action taking place from the very first heat. Although an insignificant drop of swell occurred overnight, it was complimented by a decrease in wind and more favourable direction blessed the contest arena with manicured waves running across the mid-tide sand bank.

 

Junior divisions abound for the quartet of opening heats, the Pacific Longboarder Under 18s rapidly followed by the Under 15 Boys semi final, sponsored by Humid.

 

The Jones brothers had a fantastic morning, older brother Nic, a team rider for event sponsor Classic Malibu, gleaning nine well-earned points from his opening wave, and a mid-range score very late in the piece securing a justified victory in the first heat of the day. His younger sibling Harri had more of a challenge in the Humid Under 15s, putting all his efforts in to narrowly qualify for tomorrow’s final.

 

Nathan Strom was untouchable in heat one of the Under 15s, leading from the commencement and indefatigable throughout to register a superb win.

 

Light showers came down on the heads of the spectators clamouring for position along the shoreline of First Point’s natural amphitheatre, as the inaugural Laguna Bay Longboards Logger Pro launched into its first semi final.

 

Matt Chojnacki, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches was world-class in his performance, his very traditional stylings the epitome of panache and the perfect example of the skills required for the event. 16 points even garnished Cojnacki with a convincing win in heat one, whilst the second heat was dominated once again by the local superhuman surfer, Harrison Roach.

 

Only three waves were ridden by Roach, his opening ride, an impressive 6.75, looking shabby next to his very high following scores. Roach’s faultless talent gave him a near-perfect score to set the bar for the final tomorrow.

 

Another traditional event ensued, the Old Mal division, sponsored by RACV Noosa Resort. Matt Cuddihy remained in the water after taking a qualifying second place in the previous division, and backed it up with a healthy twelve points, a touch of Sage Joske’s influence in his crouched rail-grab bottom turns, Joske an outstanding participant in previous years.

 

Cuddihy surfed outstandingly and, alongside Matt Cojnacki, was a definitive surfer in this event, featuring exclusively boards all made before 1967. Cojnacki channeled the spirits of yesteryear, emulating the surfers of a decade in which he was not even born.

 

Both surfers will take their well-earned places in tomorrow’s final.

 

The Old Guys Ruled once again, with the Over 55 and Over 60 Men’s events taking to the water.

 

These semis were the last opportunities for surfers to earn a berth in tomorrow’s finals, the top three of each heat advancing. This do-or-die challenge drew some outstanding performances from the surfers, Albe Curtis particularly of note, posting two very solid rides to lead from start to finish. Nipping at his heels though was Pacific Longboarder chief editor, John ‘JB’ Brasen. JB’s best was the heat’s highest score, a 7.25, but he was unable to match it and relinquishing the top spot, but not his ticket to the final.

 

Mike Pimm, too, was a standout, two massive 7.5 waves giving him a fantastic victory.

 

And then to the noserider. The Golden Breed Noserider, always a thrilling crowd-pleaser, failed to disappoint and, with little surprise, Harrison Roach again was head-and-shoulders above his adversaries.

 

Local knowledge paid dividends and three of the four surfers tip-timing their ways into the finals. Roach went from the sublime to ridiculous, with again very closely a minute perched on the front end of his board. But today he was in closer company, Matt Cuddihy and Beau Nixon both around ten seconds off the pace. All three were indisputable finalists, but the fourth and last remaining place was a nail-biter. With just seven seconds separating the remaining contestants, it was young Noosa local, Zye Norris who won the coveted fourth.

 

With so much action taking place throughout the day, it is very nearly impossible to hone the highlights, like needles in a needle stack of exceptional moments.

 

To précis a wonderful day of semi finals, Nic Jones was phenomenal in both the Under 18 and the Open Amateur Men’s, claiming outstanding victories in both, amounting almost 17 points of a possible twenty in his heat, making for a very busy finals day tomorrow.

 

The PJ Burns Under 18 Girls second semi was far too close to call. A very lethargic ocean providing little opportunity in the heat’s first half reduced the action to ten minutes. The surfers added to this compression of scores, matching each other evenly right up until the dying minutes. An overabundance of very late scores left the judges sweating for a full five minutes after the final horn, but it was Rosain Carolan who emerged victorious, Rachel Fleming set to join her in the final.

 

The SeaGlass Project Finless Challenge was again Harrison Roach’s feeding ground, but Fred Branger dominated the second heat and it will be very interesting watching the pair go head to head in tomorrow’s final.

 

Final competing was done by the Senior Women, for the John Madill Toyota semi final.

 

An interference call denied local favourite, Keena Wilson a berth in the first heat, Leanne ‘Bluey’ Gilkes taking the heat, and in the second semi, visiting Taiwanese surfer, BayBay Niu surfed an exquisite round, but with a breath-taking 8.25 points scored on a perfectly executed wave, Yvette Kordick tipped the balance.

 

Both surfers, though, will have their rematch in the final.

 

The greatest crowd of the day was drawn in the dying hours of daylight. Wrapping up the day was a fantastic display of surfing-meets-gymnastics, with five tandem couples paddling out and gaining the largest cheers and greatest appreciation of the festival so far.

 

All the action of the last day of the festival tomorrow, as finals fill the day for all divisions. Exceptional talent, thrilling tension, nail-biting finishes – the day is poised to be an unmissable event, all taking place right on the beach at First Point, Noosa.

 

All results for the day, and the week, are available on the event website, as well as draws for Thursday’s competition.

 

Visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com for further information and images of the daily events.#

 

Photos: Geoff Fanning / Noosa Festival Of Surfing

Large view is almost mandatory for this one ... :)

03/10 Insignificant Secret @ Legacy Taipei

NOOSA/QLD (16th March, 2012): The penultimate and semi finals day of competition commenced, with inspirational action taking place from the very first heat. Although an insignificant drop of swell occurred overnight, it was complimented by a decrease in wind and more favourable direction blessed the contest arena with manicured waves running across the mid-tide sand bank.

 

Junior divisions abound for the quartet of opening heats, the Pacific Longboarder Under 18s rapidly followed by the Under 15 Boys semi final, sponsored by Humid.

 

The Jones brothers had a fantastic morning, older brother Nic, a team rider for event sponsor Classic Malibu, gleaning nine well-earned points from his opening wave, and a mid-range score very late in the piece securing a justified victory in the first heat of the day. His younger sibling Harri had more of a challenge in the Humid Under 15s, putting all his efforts in to narrowly qualify for tomorrow’s final.

 

Nathan Strom was untouchable in heat one of the Under 15s, leading from the commencement and indefatigable throughout to register a superb win.

 

Light showers came down on the heads of the spectators clamouring for position along the shoreline of First Point’s natural amphitheatre, as the inaugural Laguna Bay Longboards Logger Pro launched into its first semi final.

 

Matt Chojnacki, from Sydney’s Northern Beaches was world-class in his performance, his very traditional stylings the epitome of panache and the perfect example of the skills required for the event. 16 points even garnished Cojnacki with a convincing win in heat one, whilst the second heat was dominated once again by the local superhuman surfer, Harrison Roach.

 

Only three waves were ridden by Roach, his opening ride, an impressive 6.75, looking shabby next to his very high following scores. Roach’s faultless talent gave him a near-perfect score to set the bar for the final tomorrow.

 

Another traditional event ensued, the Old Mal division, sponsored by RACV Noosa Resort. Matt Cuddihy remained in the water after taking a qualifying second place in the previous division, and backed it up with a healthy twelve points, a touch of Sage Joske’s influence in his crouched rail-grab bottom turns, Joske an outstanding participant in previous years.

 

Cuddihy surfed outstandingly and, alongside Matt Cojnacki, was a definitive surfer in this event, featuring exclusively boards all made before 1967. Cojnacki channeled the spirits of yesteryear, emulating the surfers of a decade in which he was not even born.

 

Both surfers will take their well-earned places in tomorrow’s final.

 

The Old Guys Ruled once again, with the Over 55 and Over 60 Men’s events taking to the water.

 

These semis were the last opportunities for surfers to earn a berth in tomorrow’s finals, the top three of each heat advancing. This do-or-die challenge drew some outstanding performances from the surfers, Albe Curtis particularly of note, posting two very solid rides to lead from start to finish. Nipping at his heels though was Pacific Longboarder chief editor, John ‘JB’ Brasen. JB’s best was the heat’s highest score, a 7.25, but he was unable to match it and relinquishing the top spot, but not his ticket to the final.

 

Mike Pimm, too, was a standout, two massive 7.5 waves giving him a fantastic victory.

 

And then to the noserider. The Golden Breed Noserider, always a thrilling crowd-pleaser, failed to disappoint and, with little surprise, Harrison Roach again was head-and-shoulders above his adversaries.

 

Local knowledge paid dividends and three of the four surfers tip-timing their ways into the finals. Roach went from the sublime to ridiculous, with again very closely a minute perched on the front end of his board. But today he was in closer company, Matt Cuddihy and Beau Nixon both around ten seconds off the pace. All three were indisputable finalists, but the fourth and last remaining place was a nail-biter. With just seven seconds separating the remaining contestants, it was young Noosa local, Zye Norris who won the coveted fourth.

 

With so much action taking place throughout the day, it is very nearly impossible to hone the highlights, like needles in a needle stack of exceptional moments.

 

To précis a wonderful day of semi finals, Nic Jones was phenomenal in both the Under 18 and the Open Amateur Men’s, claiming outstanding victories in both, amounting almost 17 points of a possible twenty in his heat, making for a very busy finals day tomorrow.

 

The PJ Burns Under 18 Girls second semi was far too close to call. A very lethargic ocean providing little opportunity in the heat’s first half reduced the action to ten minutes. The surfers added to this compression of scores, matching each other evenly right up until the dying minutes. An overabundance of very late scores left the judges sweating for a full five minutes after the final horn, but it was Rosain Carolan who emerged victorious, Rachel Fleming set to join her in the final.

 

The SeaGlass Project Finless Challenge was again Harrison Roach’s feeding ground, but Fred Branger dominated the second heat and it will be very interesting watching the pair go head to head in tomorrow’s final.

 

Final competing was done by the Senior Women, for the John Madill Toyota semi final.

 

An interference call denied local favourite, Keena Wilson a berth in the first heat, Leanne ‘Bluey’ Gilkes taking the heat, and in the second semi, visiting Taiwanese surfer, BayBay Niu surfed an exquisite round, but with a breath-taking 8.25 points scored on a perfectly executed wave, Yvette Kordick tipped the balance.

 

Both surfers, though, will have their rematch in the final.

 

The greatest crowd of the day was drawn in the dying hours of daylight. Wrapping up the day was a fantastic display of surfing-meets-gymnastics, with five tandem couples paddling out and gaining the largest cheers and greatest appreciation of the festival so far.

 

All the action of the last day of the festival tomorrow, as finals fill the day for all divisions. Exceptional talent, thrilling tension, nail-biting finishes – the day is poised to be an unmissable event, all taking place right on the beach at First Point, Noosa.

 

All results for the day, and the week, are available on the event website, as well as draws for Thursday’s competition.

 

Visit www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com for further information and images of the daily events.#

 

Photos: Geoff Fanning / Noosa Festival Of Surfing

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

To the unaided eye, an insignificant white flower, but the macro lens reveals this beautiful "bearded" structure of the petals of the small-leafed bearded heath (Leucopogon microphyllus), now flowering in Manly Dam.

Modern cars can do over 100,000 miles without pausing for breath. If you really pile on the miles, you might have 200,000 or even 300,000 miles on the clock. If the car Gods are really shining on you, you might have managed more than half a million.

 

Prepare to feel insignificant. Irv Gordon from East Patchogue, New York, together with his Volvo P1800, a 1966 1800S, has completed over three million miles--a new world record for the highest number of miles driven by a single person in the same car. If you're after an arbitrary comparison to offer some perspective, that's around six round-trips to the moon, or 120 circumnavigations of Earth.

 

Gordon hit the three million miles mark on September 18 while driving near the village of Girdwood, on the Seward Highway, south of Anchorage, Alaska; one of the two remaining states where Irv and his famous car had not been together until now.

 

”It was all rather undramatic,” said Irv. ”We just cruised along and I kept an eye on the odometer in order not to miss the great moment”.

 

Gordon first bought his 1800S on a Friday back in 1966 and immediately fell in love. He simply couldn't stop driving the car and over the course of the weekend he had already covered 1,500 miles, causing him to return to the dealership he bought it the following Monday in order for its first service.

 

With a 125-mile round-trip daily commute, a fanatical dedication to vehicle maintenance and a passion for driving, Gordon logged 500,000 miles in 10 years. In 1987, he celebrated his one-millionth mile by driving a loop around the Tavern on the Green in Central Park, and in 2002 he drove the car's two-millionth mile down Times Square. Since then, Gordon has broken his record every time he gets behind the wheel of his beloved Volvo.

 

[Text from MotorAuthority]

 

www.motorauthority.com/news/1087353_irv-gordon-reaches-3-...

 

History

 

The project was started in 1957 because Volvo wanted a sports car, despite the fact that their previous attempt, the P1900, had been a disaster, with only 68 cars sold. The man behind the project was an engineering consultant to Volvo, Helmer Petterson, who in the 1940s was responsible for the Volvo PV444. The design work was done by Helmer's son Pelle Petterson, who worked at Pietro Frua at that time. Volvo insisted it was an Italian design by Frua and only officially recognized that Pelle Petterson designed it in 2009. The Italian Carrozzeria Pietro Frua design firm (then a recently acquired subsidiary of Ghia) built the first three prototypes between September 1957 and early 1958, later designated by Volvo in September 1958: P958-X1, P958-X2 and P958-X3 (P:Project 9:September 58:Year 1958 = P958).

 

In December 1957 Helmer Petterson drove X1, (the first hand-built P1800 prototype) to Osnabrück, West Germany, headquarters of Karmann. Petterson hoped that Karmann would be able to take on the tooling and building of the P1800. Karmann's engineers had already been preparing working drawings from the wooden styling buck at Frua. Petterson and Volvo chief engineer Thor Berthelius met there, tested the car and discussed the construction with Karmann. They were ready to build it and this meant that the first cars could hit the market as early as December 1958. But in February, Karmann's most important customer, Volkswagen VAG, forbade Karmann to take on the job.[citation needed] They feared that the P1800 would compete with the sales of their own cars, and threatened to cancel all their contracts with Karmann if they took on this car. This setback almost caused the project to be abandoned.

 

Other German firms, NSU, Drautz and Hanomag, were contacted but none was chosen because Volvo did not believe they met Volvo's manufacturing quality-control standards.

 

It began to appear that Volvo might never produce the P1800. This motivated Helmer Petterson to obtain financial backing from two financial firms with the intention of buying the components directly from Volvo and marketing the car himself. At this point Volvo had made no mention of the P1800 and the factory would not comment. Then a press release surfaced with a photo of the car, putting Volvo in a position where they had to acknowledge its existence. These events influenced the company to renew its efforts: the car was presented to the public for the first time at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1960 and Volvo turned to Jensen Motors, whose production lines were under-utilised, and they agreed a contract for 10,000 cars. The Linwood, Scotland, body plant of manufacturer Pressed Steel was in turn sub-contracted by Jensen to create the unibody shells, which were then taken by rail to be assembled at Jensen in West Bromwich, England. In September 1960, the first production P1800 (for the 1961 model year) left Jensen for an eager public.

 

P1800

 

The engine was the B18 (B for the Swedish word for gasoline: Bensin; 18 for 1800 cc displacement) with dual SU carburettors, producing 100 hp (75 kW). This variant (named B18B) had a higher compression ratio than the slightly less powerful twin-carb B18D used in the contemporary Amazon 122S, as well as a different camshaft. The 'new' B18 was actually developed from the existing B36 V8 engine used in Volvo trucks at the time. This cut production costs, as well as furnishing the P1800 with a strong engine boasting five main crankshaft bearings. The B18 was matched with the new and more robust M40 manual gearbox through 1963. From 1963 to 1972 the M41 gearbox with electrically actuated overdrive was a popular option. Two overdrive types were used, the D-Type through 1969, and the J-type through 1973. The J-type had a slightly shorter ratio of 0.797:1 as opposed to 0.756:1 for the D-type. The overdrive effectively gave the 1800 series a fifth gear, for improved fuel efficiency and decreased drivetrain wear. Cars without overdrive had a numerically lower-ratio differential, which had the interesting effect of giving them a somewhat higher top speed (just under 120 mph (193 km/h)) than the more popular overdrive models. This was because the non-overdrive cars could reach the engine's redline in top gear, while the overdrive-equipped cars could not, giving them a top speed of roughly 110 mph (177 km/h).

 

1800S

 

As time progressed, Jensen had problems with quality control, so the contract was ended early at 6,000 cars. In 1963 production was moved to Volvo's Lundby Plant in Gothenburg and the car's name was changed to 1800S (S standing for Sverige, or in English : Sweden). The engine was improved with an additional 8 hp (6 kW). In 1966 the four-cylinder engine was updated to 115 hp (86 kW). Top speed was 175 km/h (109 mph).[3] In 1969 the B18 engine was replaced with the 2-litre B20B variant of the B20 giving 118 bhp (89 kW), though it kept the designation 1800S.

 

[Text from Wikipedia]

 

This Lego miniland-scale Volvo P1800 Coupe has been created for Flickr LUGNut's 88th Build Challenge, - "Let's Break Some Records", - a challenge focused on creating vehicles that set some benchmark for biggness, fastness or other extreme of some specification. The Volvo model shown here claim, by far, the farthermost distance ever traveled by an automobile, at over 3,000,000 miles (4,800,00 kilometres).

Seducing the boss , even though , or is it because , I’m a boy dressed as a gorgeous girl , that he now wants to seduce me !

Mydolling Heeah

1 Year seems insignificant date, but believe it is a small anniversary

Aquest petit i aparentment insignificant illot és l'ultim cim del Pirineu, i l'unic que es troba envoltat d'aigua. Aqui acaba tot, els Pirineus, l'Empordà, Catalunya, la Peninsula Iberica...

 

---------------------------------

 

This tiny rock does look like nothing interesting, but it's the last "peak" of the Pyrenees, and the easternmost point of Catalonia. This is because is located on the outside side of the Cap de Creus, the easternmost point of Catalonia & the iberic peninsula.

 

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Massa_d'Or

 

View On Black

 

not always as smooth as I had hoped. This was the "first eye" and I have thought about fixing the somewhat jerky transitions. But when you stp back, it is insignificant.

Also my first acrylic painting ever.

It all depends on the point of view. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

 

10/365

 

One of my favorite quotes***

26 by 26 Challenge #14:

Photograph something you consider insignificant.

– Riitta Ikonen & Karoline Hjorth

 

I find significance in most things, so this was a pretty hard assignment for me!

I looked for the blandest and least interesting thing I could find on my walk, and settled on a row of garden fences, which looked suitably uninteresting and featureless. My quest was then to produce something which is purely pleasing on a visual level, as opposed to looking for meaning or symbolism or anything deeper. These are the marks left behind by ivy.

Triple Coconut Cream Pie on smittenkitchen.com

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville Province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration - are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

 

The city, which was named in honour of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in 2008. Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District. A relatively young city, it has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral oil terminal and a transport logistics facility. As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

 

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists since the late 20th century. As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia. As of 2014 the tourism sector remains insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand. Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island - and urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

 

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, after decades of war and upheaval the town and its infrastructure remain very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water and power supply, while international standard health facilities remain limited.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The official name of the city in Khmer is: Krong (city) Preah (holy) Sihanouk (name of the former king), which adds up to: "City of the holy Sihanouk" or "Honorable Sihanouk City". King Norodom Sihanouk (reigned 1941-1955, 1993-2004) was and still is revered as father of the (modern) nation. The name "Sihanouk" is derived from Sanskrit through two Pali words: Siha (lion), and Hanu (jaws).

 

The alternative name, Kompong Saom (also romanized as Kompong Som and Kampong Som), (Khmer: កំពង់សោម) means "Port of the Moon" or "Shiva's Port". Saom is derived from the Sanskrit word "saumya", the original (Rig Vedic) meaning of which was "Soma, the juice or sacrifice of the moon-god", but evolved into Pali "moon", "moonlike" "name of Shiva". The word Kampong or Kompong is of Malayan origin and means village or hamlet. Its meaning underwent extension towards pier or river landing bridge.

 

HISTORY

CLASSICAL PERIOD (BEFORE 1700)

Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, the port of Kompong Som must have been only of regional significance - due to the absence of navigable waterways that connect the port with the kingdom's settlement centers. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire. The Chronicle of Samtec Cauva Vamn Juon - one of the 18th and 19th century Cambodian Royal Chronicles - briefly mentions the region as the country was split into 3 parts during a 9-year civil war from 1476 to 1485: "In 1479, Dhammaraja took on the throne at Catumukh (Phnom Penh) and controlled the provinces of Samraong Tong, Thbong, Kompong Saom, Kampot up to the Bassak, Preah Trapeang, Kramuon Sah, Koh Slaket and Peam"[mouth of the Mekong].

 

EARLY MODERN PERIOD (AROUND 1700-1863)

From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. During the Nguyen-Siamese War (1717–18) a Siamese fleet burned the port of Kompong Som in 1717 but was defeated by the Vietnamese at Banteay Meas/Ha Tien.[20] A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. In 1757 Ha Tien acquired the ports of Kampot and Kompong Som as a reward for Mac's military support to the King of Cambodia. Until its destruction in 1771 the port developed into an independent duty-free entrepot - linked with several Chinese trading networks.

 

Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that "Kompong Som and Banteay Meas (later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, as Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river (Bassac river) of three leagues broad." and "King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Oudong to Kampot". Kampot remained the only international seaport of Cambodia. "The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants." French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam [Mekong Delta], but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot."

 

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850s, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam".

 

FRENCH RULE (1863-1954)

Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.

 

INSURRECTION

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were led by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

 

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.

 

AFTER INDIPENDENCE (SINCE 1954)

The city's and province's alternative name Kampong som (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

 

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

 

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

 

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

 

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

 

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

 

In 2006 the Koh Puos (Cambodia) Investment Group submitted an application, planning to invest $276 million in converting the 116-hectare Koh Puos - Snake island into a luxury residential - and resort complex. After the completion of certain elements of the infrastructure, the investor announced alterations of the original blueprints, as "Reapplying for permission will happen in 2014..." according to the Council of the Development of Cambodia.

 

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.

 

BEACHES

Sihanoukville's beaches are one of the city's most valuable ecological and economic resource with varying degrees of commercial exploitation. The beaches listed in this section do not include any of the island's beaches.

 

- Ochheuteal Beach, ឆ្នេរអូរឈើទាល: is a 3.3 km long strip of white sand beach and although the name translates to "Creek/Estuary of the Tiel tree" it is lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees. Grass umbrellas, rental chairs in front of around 30 standardized beach huts serve meals, drinks and entertainment. Well established middle class hotels and high-profile residences flank the beach along its Northern part. The sustainability of Ochheuteal beach was a primary consideration of various stakeholders, which brought about the development of a tourism development and management plan in 2005. The Southern half remains - apart from some hotels at its far end - essentially undeveloped.

 

- Serendipity Beach: Technically the western end (roughly one fifth or 600 m) of Ochheuteal beach, is very popular with Western tourists and has a few small guesthouses right on the beach. It has been named by an American fellow, who came here in the Nineties. Struck by its (then) unspoiled beauty and pristine condition, he came up with the term, which quickly entered common vocabulary.

 

- Otres Beach, ្នេរអូរត្រេស: is around 4.6 km long and beyond the small "Queen hill" headland at the southern end of Ochheuteal Beach. Its long white sand strip, also completely lined with Casuarina and Tamarisk trees, is far less developed and commercialized than Ochheuteal Beach and has developed into a preferred lodging place for Western visitors. From 2004 to 2011 this beach was occupied by numerous bungalows and dormitories, run by Western people. Due to the element of illegality of on-beach accommodation, among other reasons, police cleaned up the area in May 2011, removing the greater part of the beach-side bungalows. Permanent structures beyond the beach road supplement the remaining places since 2012. It is a very popular, well established holiday retreat – where prices have risen considerably over the course of the last years.

 

- Sokha Beach: Sokha Beach is around 1.2 km long and located west of Serendipity Beach. The beach is privately owned by - and its southern half occupied by the Sokha Beach Hotel, the first five-star luxury beach hotel in Cambodia. While the beach is well kept and many facilities are provided, visitors have to pay for their use and beach vendors are not allowed.

 

- Independence Beach: Independence Beach is around 1.3 km long and located north-west of Sokha Beach. The beach is named after the Independence Hotel, another example of New Khmer Architecture, towering on top of a rock at the beaches northern end.

 

- Victory Beach: Victory beach is around 300 m long and situated at the furthest north of the peninsula of Sihanoukville. It was heavily used by backpackers and is still popular with budget travelers. The deep water port is located at the northern end of the beach. A consortium of Russian business people undertook large scale development here. The beach is regularly maintained.

 

- Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach: is the southern succession of Victory Beach, situated north of Independence Beach. It is a strip of similar length as Victory Beach - around 300 m. Here is the very place where the French/Cambodian construction team's groundwork began for the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port in 1955.

 

- Treasure Island Beach south of Lamherkay/Hawaii Beach is less than 50 m long and its entire length is fringed with concrete steps and wooden pavilions of a big Cambodian seafood restaurant.

 

- Hun Sen (Prek Treng) Beach, ឆ្នេរព្រែកត្រែង: is the northernmost beach of the city with a length of around 1.5 km, situated behind the local port and essentially empty without beach huts and bars, it sees only weekend - and holiday visitors. The water is very shallow, but the area is lacking favorable infrastructure and is not regularly cleaned.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

The Humble Instrument

Sister Faustina was a young, uneducated, nun in a convent of the Congregation of Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Cracow, Poland during the 1930's. She came from a very poor family that struggled on their little farm during the years of World War I. She had only three years of very simple education, so hers were the humblest tasks in the convent, usually in the kitchen or garden. However, she received extraordinary revelations or messages from Our Lord Jesus. Jesus asked Sr. Faustina to record these experiences, which she compiled in notebooks. These notebooks are known today as the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska and the words contained within are God's loving message of Divine Mercy.

 

Though the Divine Mercy message is not new to the teachings of the Church, Sr. Faustina's Diary sparked a great movement, and a strong and significant focus on the mercy of Christ. Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina in 2000 making her the "first saint of the new millennium." Speaking of Sr. Faustina and the importance of the message contained in her Diary, the Pope call her "the great apostle of Divine Mercy in our time."

 

Today, we continue to rely of Saint Faustina as a constant reminder of the message to trust in Jesus' endless mercy, and to live life mercifully toward others. We also turn to her in prayer and request her intercession to our merciful Savior on our behalf. At the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, we include the following in our 3 o'clock prayers:

 

Saint Faustina,

You told us that your mission would continue after your death and that you would not forget us. Our Lord also granted you a great privilege, telling you to "distribute graces as you will, to who you will, and when you will." Relying on this, we ask your intercession for the graces we need, especially for the intentions just mentioned. Help us, above all, to trust in Jesus as you did and thus to glorify His mercy every moment of our lives. Amen

 

thedivinemercy.org/message/stfaustina/

 

The Biography of Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament

(August 25, 1905 – October 5, 1938)

An excerpt from Apostle of Divine Mercy, a biography published by the Vatican.

 

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, an apostle of Divine Mercy, belongs today to the group of the most popular and well-known saints of the Church.

 

Through her the Lord Jesus communicates to the world the great message of God's mercy and reveals the pattern of Christian perfection based on trust in God and on the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbors.

 

Sr. Faustina was born on August 25, 1905 in Glogowiec in Poland of a poor and religious family of peasants, the third of ten children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Swinice Warckie. From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of seven she had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation. Helen made her first Holy Communion at the age of nine, which was very profound moment in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul. She attended school for three years. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent but her parents would not give her permission. Being of age at sixteen, Helen left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents.

 

Helen joins Sister of Our Lady of Mercy

Helen never lost her desire for a religious vocation. After being called during a vision of the Suffering Christ, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on August 1, 1925, and took the name Sr. Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years in several religious houses. She spent time at Krakow, Plock and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener, and porter.

 

Externally nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene, and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbor. Although her life was apparently insignificant, monotonous and dull, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God.

 

It is the mystery of the Mercy of God which she contemplated in the word of God as well as in the everyday activities of her life that forms the basis of her spirituality. The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God's mercy helped develop within Sr. Maria Faustina the attitude of child-like trust in God as well as mercy toward her neighbors.

 

Sister Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church which she loved like a Mother and the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. Conscious of her role in the Church, she cooperated with God's mercy in the task of saving lost souls. At the specific request of and following the example of the Lord Jesus, she made a sacrifice of her own life for this very goal. In her spiritual life she also distinguished herself with a love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy.

 

The Secretary of God's Mercy

The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Maria Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message, which Sr. Faustina recorded in a diary she titled Divine Mercy in My Soul. In the Old Covenant He said to her:

 

"I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart." (Diary 1588)

 

In an extraordinary way, Sr. Maria Faustina's work sheds light on the mystery of the Divine Mercy. It delights not only the simple and uneducated people, but also scholars who look upon it as an additional source of theological research. The Diary has been translated into many languages, among others, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Czech, and Slovak.

 

Sr. Maria Faustina, consumed by tuberculosis and by innumerable sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, died in Krakow at the age of just 33 on October 5, 1938, with a reputation for spiritual maturity and a mystical union with God. The reputation of the holiness of her life grew as did the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces she obtained from God through her intercession. In the years 1965-67, the Investigative Process into her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Krakow and in the year 1968, the Beatification Process was initiated in Rome. The latter came to an end in December 1992.

 

On April 18, 1993 our Holy Father, John Paul II raised St. Faustina to the glory of the altars. She was canonized on April 30, 2000. St. Maria Faustina's remains rest at the Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Krakow-Lagiewniki.

 

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

Revelations

The years Sr. Faustina spent at the convent were filled with extraordinary gifts, such as revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, and the rare gift of mystical engagement and marriage.

 

The living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the angels, the saints, the souls in Purgatory — with the entire supernatural world — was as equally real for her as was the world she perceived with her senses. In spite of being so richly endowed with extraordinary graces, Sr. Maria Faustina knew that they do not in fact constitute sanctity. In her Diary she wrote:

 

"Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God."

 

(Diary 1107)

 

The Mission of St. Faustina

The mission of St. Faustina was recorded in her Diary which she kept at the specific request of the Lord Jesus and her confessors. In it, she recorded faithfully all of the Lord Jesus' wishes and also described the encounters between her soul and Him.

 

"Secretary of My most profound mystery," the Lord Jesus said to Sr. Faustina, "know that your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me." (Diary 1693)

 

Task One

Reminding the world of the truth of our faith revealed in the Holy Scripture about the merciful love of God toward every human being.

 

Task Two

Entreating God's mercy for the whole world and particularly for sinners, among others through the practice of new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by the Lord Jesus, such as: the veneration of the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription: "Jesus, I Trust in You," the feast of the Divine Mercy celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter, chaplet to the Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3 pm). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to the above forms of devotion, provided one entrusted one's life to God and practiced active love of one's neighbor.

 

Task Three

The third task in Sr. Mary Faustina's mission consists in initiating the apostolic movement of the Divine Mercy which undertakes the task of proclaiming and entreating God's mercy for the world and strives for Christian perfection, following the precepts laid down by the Blessed Sr. Mary Faustina. The precepts in question require the faithful to display an attitude of child-like trust in God which expresses itself in fulfilling His will, as well as in the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbors. Today, this movement within the Church involves millions of people throughout the world; it comprises religious congregations, lay institutes, religious, brotherhoods, associations, various communities of apostles of the Divine Mercy, as well as individual people who take up the tasks which the Lord Jesus communicated to them through Sr. Mary Faustina.

 

Graces and Miracles Received

Miracles attributed to the intercession of Sr. Maria Faustina lead to her canonization on April 30, 2000. Today, people from around the world rely on St. Faustina to interceed on their behalf to Our Lord.

 

Miracle received by Maureen Digan

Innerly she heard Sister Faustina say: "If you ask for my help, I will give it to you."

Before the age of 15, Maureen Digan enjoyed a normal healthy life. Then she was struck down with a very serious, slowly progressive but terminal disease called lymphedima. This is a disease that does not respond to medication and does not go into remission. Within the next ten years Maureen had fifty operations and had lengthy confinements in the hospital of up to a year at a time.

 

Friends and relations suggested she should pray and put her trust in God. But Maureen could not understand why God had allowed her to get this disease in the first place, and had lost her faith completely. Eventually her deteriorating condition would require the amputation of one leg.

 

One evening while Maureen was in the hospital her husband Bob watched a film on Divine Mercy and there he became convinced of the healing powers of intercession by Sr. Faustina. Bob persuaded Maureen and the doctors that she should go to the tomb of Sr. Faustina in Poland. Together with her husband, son, and Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC (a priest of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception), they traveled to St. Faustina's tomb at the Shrine of The Divine Mercy outside Krakow, Poland. They arrived in Poland on March 23, 1981 and Maureen went to confession for the first time since she was a young girl.

 

At the tomb Maureen remembers saying "Okay, Faustina I came a long way, now do something." Innerly she heard Sr. Faustina say: "If you ask for my help, I will give it to you." Suddenly she thought she was losing her mind. All the pain seemed to drain out of her body and her swollen leg, which was due to be amputated shortly, went back to its normal size. When she returned to the USA she was examined by five independent doctors who came to the conclusion that she was completely healed. They had no medical explanation for the sudden healing of this incurable disease.

 

The accumulated evidence of this miracle was examined in consultation by five doctors appointed by the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Having passed this test it was examined by a team of theologians, and finally by a team of cardinals and bishops. The cure was accepted by all as a miracle caused by Sr. Faustina's intercession to the Divine Mercy. Sr. Faustina was beatified on April 18, 1993.

 

Miracle received by Fr. Ron Pytel

"I know in my heart that Faustina put in a word with Jesus, and His Heart touched mine. It's as simple as that."

On Oct. 5, 1995, the Feast Day of St. Faustina (who was then a blessed), Fr. Ron Pytel and some friends gathered for prayer at Holy Rosary Church, which is also the Baltimore archdiocesan Shrine of The Divine Mercy. After a time of prayer for the healing of his heart through Sr. Faustina's intercession, Fr. Ron venerated a relic of St. Faustina and collapsed. He felt paralyzed, but was completely at peace. A subsequent visit to his cardiologist showed that his heart had been healed.

 

Although he was healed through St. Faustina's intercession, Fr. Ron is quick to point out that Jesus healed him. "I know in my heart that Faustina put in a word with Jesus, and His Heart touched mine. It's as simple as that," he explained.

 

After almost three years of examining Fr. Ron and his medical records, doctors and theologians from the Congregation for the Cause of Saints concluded an exhaustive investigation of the healing. And on Dec. 20, 1999, Pope John Paul II ordered publication of the fact of the healing as a miracle through Sr. Faustina's intercession, leading to her canonization on Mercy Sunday, April 30, in St. Peter's Square.

 

Grace of Healing received by Ugo Festa

"Entrust yourself to Him and pray to my Sr. Faustina to intercede."

Ugo Festa was born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1951. He was struck down at an early age with multiple sclerosis. Gradually his health deteriorated. This led to many other problems in his young life. By the age of 39 he was suffering from muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. Early in 1990 his spine was becoming distorted and he was having seizures daily. He had been continually attending doctors since he first contracted the disease, but they could not do nothing for him. He decided there was nothing left to try but prayer.

 

On April 28, 1990, Ugo went with a pilgrimage to Rome. In his unfortunate situation he was introduced to Mother Teresa who was in Rome at the time with a group whom he also became acquainted with. Ugo was invited along with this group to a retreat at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Trent, but he refused. On leaving, one of the group, a nun, gave him five copies of the Divine Mercy Image and a Divine Mercy medal.

 

The following day, April 29, 1990, Ugo wore the medal and carried in his arms the images to be blessed by the Holy Father. At the bottom of the steps to St. Peter's the Holy Father passed by. Ugo asked him to bless his Divine Mercy images. After blessing the images the Pope asked him how he was. Ugo told him he felt very despondent and was at a crisis in his life. The Holy Father said, "How could you have a crisis with Jesus the Divine Mercy in your arms? Entrust yourself to Him and pray to my Sr. Faustina to intercede."

 

With this advice Ugo changed his mind and decided that he would go to the Divine Mercy shrine in Trent. At the side altar in the Villa O'Santissima Villazzano, Trent, there is a Shrine to the Divine Mercy with a life size icon of the Divine Image. On the fourth day of praying in front of this icon Ugo suddenly noticed the arms of the image stretched out to him and a tremendous warmth flowed through his body.

 

He found himself standing on his feet with his arms outstretched to the Lord and he heard himself loudly praising Jesus the Divine Mercy. He saw Jesus coming down to him, His white garment blowing as if in a breeze. He thought: 'My God, this is the Man from Galilee coming towards me.' He heard Jesus say in a clear voice, "Rise up and walk." Ugo began to walk. All his ailments were at that instant cured and he was more physically perfect than he had ever been in his life.

 

On August 19, 1990, Ugo returned to the Vatican and during a Papal Audience at Paul VI Hall, was taken to meet John Paul II. He told him about the great grace he had received and thanked him for the words of inspiration which led him to Trent, and resulted in this great miracle on that day.

 

Today Ugo Festa devotes his life to Jesus, voluntarily working in a hospital and spreading the Message of Divine Mercy throughout Italy.

 

History of the Message and Devotion to Divine Mercy

The Message of the Divine Mercy that Sr. Faustina received from the Lord was not only directed toward her personal growth in faith but also toward the good of the people. With the command of our Lord to paint an image according to the pattern that Sr. Faustina had seen, came also a request to have this image venerated, first in the Sisters' chapel, and then throughout the world. The same is true with the revelations of the Chaplet. The Lord requested that this Chaplet be said not only by Sr. Faustina, but by others: "Encourage souls to say the Chaplet that I have given you."

 

The same is true of the revelation of the Feast of Mercy. "The Feast of Mercy emerged from my very depths of tenderness. It is my desire that it solemnly be celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the fount of My Mercy."

 

These requests of the Lord given to Sr. Faustina between 1931 and 1938 can be considered the beginning of the Divine Mercy Message and Devotion in the new forms.

 

Through the efforts of Sr. Faustina’s spiritual directors, Fr. Michael Sopocko, and Fr. Joseph Andrasz, SJ, and others—including the Marians of the Immaculate Conception—this message began to spread throughout the world.

 

However, it is important to remember that this message of The Divine Mercy, revealed to St. Faustina and to our present generation is not new. It is a powerful reminder of who God is and has been from the very beginning. This truth that God is in His very nature Love and Mercy Itself, is given to us by our Judeo-Christian faith and God’s self-revelation. The veil that has hidden the mystery of God from eternity was lifted by God Himself. In His goodness and love God chose to reveal Himself to us, His creatures, and to make known His eternal plan of salvation. This He had done partly through the Old Testament Patriarchs, Moses and the Prophets, and fully through His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In the person of Jesus Christ, conceived through power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, the unseen God was made visible.

 

Jesus reveals God as Merciful Father

The Old Testament speaks frequently and with great tenderness about God’s mercy. Yet, it was Jesus, who through His words and actions, revealed to us in an extraordinary way, God as a loving Father, rich in mercy and abounding in great kindness and love. In Jesus’ merciful love and care for the poor, the oppressed, the sick and the sinful, and especially in His freely choosing to take upon Himself the punishment for our sins (a truly horrible suffering and death on the Cross), so that all may be freed from destructive consequences and death, He manifested in a superabundant and radical way the greatness of God’s love and mercy for humanity. In His person as God-Man, one in being with the Father, Jesus both reveals and is God’s Love and Mercy Itself.

 

The message of God’s Love and Mercy is especially made known by the Gospels.

The good news revealed through Jesus Christ is that God’s love for each person knows no bounds, and no sin or infidelity, no matter how horrible, will separate us from God and His love when we turn to Him in confidence, and seek his mercy. God’s will is our salvation. He has done all on our behalf, but since He made us free, He invites us to choose Him and partake of His divine life. We become partakers of His divine life when we believe in His revealed truth and trust Him, when we love Him and remain true to His word, when we honor Him and seek His Kingdom, when we receive Him in Communion and turn away from sin; when we are mutually carrying and forgiving.

 

August 25, 1905 Helena Kowalska was born in Glogowiec, Poland; the third of ten children living off a small farm and her father's carpentry work.

 

August 27, 1905 Helana is baptized at St. Casimirís church in Swinice Warckie.

 

1912 At the age of seven, Helana hears a voice calling her to religious life.

 

1914 Helena receives first Holy Communion.

 

1917 Helena begins her primary education, which lasts only two and a half years.

 

1920 At age 15, Helena begins domestic work to support her large family.

 

1922 Helena returns home, announces a desire to enter convent; her parents oppose; she works two years to help support her family.

 

July 1924 Helena sees a vision of the scourged Christ who calls her to religious life.

 

Helena goes to Warsaw to search for a convent, and she works to support herself.

 

August 1925 Helena is accepted by the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy; one month later she wants to leave for a stricter order.

 

April 30, 1926 Helena receives habit and her religious name Maria Faustina.

 

April 3, 1927 Sr. Faustina experiences spiritual dark night during novitiate.

 

April 16, 1928 On Good Friday, she is engulfed by the flame of Divine Love.

 

April 30, 1928 Sr. Faustina makes her first profession of temporary vows.

 

December 1928 Newly elected Mother General Michaela Moraczewska is source of help and comfort to Sr. Faustina during her religious life.

 

October 1928-30 Easily adaptable, Sr. Faustina is sent to work at various houses.

 

February 22, 1931 Sr. Faustina sees a vision of Jesus who tells her to paint His image.

 

May 1, 1933 Sr. Faustina takes her perpetual vows.

 

May 25, 1933 Sr. Faustina goes to Vilnius where she receives many mystical experiences and is assisted by Fr. Michael Sopocko, a wise spiritual director.

 

January 2, 1934 Sr. Faustina visits the artist Kazimirowski, who is to paint the image.

 

March 29, 1934 Sr. Faustina offers herself for sinners, especially those who lack trust.

 

June 1934 The painting of Divine Mercy is completed, but Sr. Faustina does not like it.

 

July 1934 Beginning of Sr. Faustina's illness; she begins writing the Diary under obedience.

 

April 28, 1935 (Feast of Mercy) Divine Mercy image is publicly venerated in Vilnius for the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Redemption: January 8, 1936. Sr. Faustina informs the Bishop that Jesus requests the founding of an order.

 

May 11, 1936 Sr. Faustina goes to Krakow; guided by Fr. Andrasz SJ; her health deteriorates.

 

September 1937 Holy cards with the Divine Mercy image printed for first time.

 

September 1938 Sr. Faustina prepares herself for death, and she asks pardon of the Congregation.

 

October 5, 1938 Sr. Faustina makes final confession, and dies late in the evening.

 

October 7, 1938 Funeral of Sr. Faustina, burial at the convent cemetery.

 

1940-1941 Divine Mercy message spreads first among the victims of WWII.

 

April 1941 Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, brings the Divine Mercy message to the USA and the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception begins to spread the message in Polish.

 

1942-1959 The Divine Mercy message spreads worldwide through the efforts of the Marians, who publish images and literature in many languages.

 

March 6, 1959 Holy Office issues a notification banning Divine Mercy devotion.

 

October 21, 1965 Informative Process of Sr. Faustina's life and virtues is opened by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, encouraged by Cardinal Ottaviani, the Prefect of the Holy Office.

 

September 1967 Informative Process closes; Cardinal Wojtyla sends acts to Rome, January 31, 1968. The process of Beatification of Sr. Faustina is inaugurated.

 

April 15, 1978 Prefect of Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declares the Notification ban no longer binding.

 

October 16, 1978 Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II.

 

July 12, 1979 Marians receive an authoritative explanation of the Notification issued by the Prefect for the Doctrine of Faith stating that no impediments exist in the spread of the message and devotion to the Divine Mercy in the forms proposed by Sr. Faustina.

 

May 1980 Marians publish critical edition of Sr. Faustina's Diary in Polish.

 

November 30, 1980 Pope John Paul II issues encyclical on the Divine Mercy.

 

November 22, 1981 Pope John Paul II visits the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza near Todi, Italy, stating that, "Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter's See in Rome, I considered this message (of Divine Mercy) my special task."

 

1986 Marians publish critical edition of Sr. Faustina's Diary in English.

 

April 10, 1991 Pope John Paul II links the encyclical's message to Sr. Faustina.

 

March 7, 1992 Decree of Heroic Virtues of Sr. Faustina is promulgated.

 

December 1992 Miracle through intercession of Sr. Faustina is accepted.

 

April 18, 1993 Sr. Faustina beatified in Rome on Second Sunday of Easter.

 

January 2000 Second miracle through Bl. Faustina intercession is accepted.

 

April 30, 2000 Bl. Faustina is canonized in Rome on Divine Mercy Sunday and Divine Mercy Sunday is proclaimed.

 

May 5, 2000 Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issues a Decree proclaiming the Second Sunday of Easter also as Divine Mercy Sunday.

 

December 2000 The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments listed the Devotion to the Divine Mercy in its Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy: Principles and Guidelines.

 

April 22, 2001 Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated officially for the first time by the universal Church.

 

May 13, 2001 Congregation For The Clergy issues a document: "Priest of God, you embody the Mystery of Mercy."

 

August 18, 2002 John Paul II consecrates the whole world to the Divine Mercy from The Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow-Lagiewniki, the site of St. Faustina's tomb.

 

August 21, 2002 Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary issued on Indulgences attached to devotions in honor of Divine Mercy.

 

History of the Message and Devotion to Divine Mercy

The Marian Connection

The Divine Mercy devotion was brought to the USA from Poland by Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, a member of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception.

In 1941, hardly three years after the death of Sr. Faustina, The Divine Mercy devotion was brought to the USA from Poland by Fr. Joseph Jarzebowski, MIC, a member of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception. Fr. Jarzebowski had at first been skeptical about the great graces received by those who entrusted themselves to The Divine Mercy. But, in the spring of 1940, he vowed that if he were able to safely reach his fellow Marians in America, he would spend the rest of his life spreading the Divine Mercy message and devotion. Before his departure Fr. Michael Sopocko, St. Faustina’s spiritual director, gave Fr. Jarzebowski materials on Divine Mercy that he prepared. With these materials and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Fr. Jarzebowski set out for the journey.

 

By 1953, some 25 million pieces of Divine Mercy literature had been distributed around the world.

After an extraordinary journey from Poland into Lithuania, then across Russia and Siberia to Vladivostok, and from there to Japan, he arrived on American soil a year later. True to his vow, he immediately began distributing information about the message and devotion with the help of the Felician Sisters in Michigan and Connecticut. His Marian confreres soon became intensely involved as well. After several years of this activity, in 1944 Fr. Walter Pelczynski, MIC, established the "Mercy of God Apostolate" on Eden Hill in Stockbridge, MA, now home of the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy and the Marian Helpers Center, a modern, religious publishing house that has become the international center for the Divine Mercy message and devotion. By 1953, some 25 million pieces of Divine Mercy literature had been distributed around the world.

 

Banned by the Church

Then, in 1958 and 1959, Sr. Faustina’s prophecy about the apparent destruction of the Divine Mercy work (Diary, 378) began to be fulfilled. The Holy See, having received erroneous and confusing translations of Diary entries, which it was unable to verify due to existing political conditions, forbade the spreading of the Divine Mercy message and devotion in the forms proposed by Sr. Faustina’s writings.

 

During the period of the ban, the Marians continued to spread devotion to God’s mercy, but, in obedience to Rome, they based the message and devotion regarding Divine Mercy on Sacred Scripture, the Liturgy, the teachings of the Church, and Our Lady’s revelations at Fatima.

 

The Lifting of the Ban

Twenty years later (in 1978), the ban was completely lifted, thanks to the intervention of the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. Through his efforts, an informative process relating to the life and virtues of Sister Faustina was begun in 1965. Its successful outcome led to the inauguration of her Beatification cause in 1968.

 

In a new "Notification" on April 15, 1978, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, having reviewed many original documents that were not made available to it in 1959, reversed its earlier decision and declared the 1959 prohibition 'no longer binding.'

 

Six months later, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II.

 

Prompted by the pastoral concern of His Excellency, Joseph F. Maguire, Bishop of Springfield, MA, with regard to the resuming of efforts to make the Divine Mercy message and devotion known, the Congregation of Marians asked for an authoritative explanation of the Notification of 1978. On July 12, 1979, they received a reply from the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation, stating that ‘there no longer exists, on the part of this Sacred Congregation, any impediment to the spreading of the devotion to The Divine Mercy in the authentic forms proposed by the religious Sister mentioned above [Sister Faustina Kowalska]."

 

Thus, in 1979 — with the local bishop’s permission — the Marians resumed their work of spreading the Divine Mercy message and devotion in the forms proposed by Sr. Faustina. The response from laity, priests, and bishops all over the world has been overwhelming, and the devotion has grown faster than anyone ever expected.

 

Pope John Paul II

One of the reasons for this is certainly the continued support of the Holy Father. In 1981, he published an encyclical letter entitled Rich in Mercy, in which he speaks of Christ as the "incarnation of mercy — the inexhaustible source of mercy."(8) He goes on to emphasize that "Christ’s messianic program, the program of mercy" must become "the program of His people, the program of the Church."(8)

 

Throughout the encyclical, the Holy Father stresses that the Church — especially in our modern times — has the "right and the duty" to "profess and proclaim God’s mercy," to "introduce it and make it incarnate" in the lives of all people, and "to call upon the mercy of God," imploring it for the whole world. (See Rich in Mercy, 12-15.)

 

A year after publishing Rich in Mercy, the Pope visited the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, during his first pilgrimage outside Rome after the attempt on his life. There he emphasized that spreading the message of mercy was his "special task."

 

Beatification

On April 18, 1993, Pope John Paul II beatified Sr. Faustina at St. Peter’s Square in Rome. It was the first Sunday after Easter — the very day that is to be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday, according to the Merciful Savior’s revelations to Sr. Faustina. And it was precisely John Paul II who beatified her, the very one who had initiated the Informative Process for her cause in 1965 when he was Archbishop of Krakow, Poland. The event that contributed to her beatification was Maureen Digan’s miraculous healing. Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, a Marian priest, both witnessed the miracle, as well as assisted in the beatification process by serving as Vice Postulator for her cause.

 

O Faustina... you were chosen by Christ to remind people of this great mystery of Divine Mercy!

In his homily, The Holy Father said: "I salute you, Sr. Faustina. Beginning today the Church calls you Blessed." O Faustina, how extraordinary your life is! Precisely you, the poor and simple daughter of Mazovia, of the Polish people, chosen by Christ to remind people of this great mystery of Divine Mercy! You bore this mystery within yourself, leaving this world after a short life filled with suffering. However, at the same time, this mystery has become a prophetic reminder to the world.

 

"I feel certain that my mission will not come to an end upon my death, but will begin," Sr. Faustina wrote in her diary (Diary, 281). And it truly did! Her mission continues and is yielding astonishing fruit. It is truly marvelous how her devotion to the merciful Jesus is spreading in our contemporary world and gaining so many human hearts! This is undoubtedly a sign of the times — a sign of our 20th century. The balance of this century which is now ending, in addition to the advances which have often surpassed those of preceding eras, presents a deep restlessness and fear of the future. Where, if not in The Divine Mercy, can the world find refuge and the light of hope? Believers understand that perfectly.

 

Canonization

On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina as the first saint of the Great Jubilee Year.

Once again through the efforts of Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the second miracle, the healing of Fr. Ronald Pytel, was attributed to Bl. Faustina's intercession. On April 30, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina as the first saint of the Great Jubilee Year. And again, it was on Divine Mercy Sunday. In fact, the Holy Father also announced during his homily that the Second Sunday of Easter would now be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday throughout the universal Church.

 

In his homily, the Holy Father said: "Today my joy is truly great in presenting the life and witness of Sr. Faustina Kowalska to the whole Church as a gift of God for our time. By Divine Providence, the life of this humble daughter of Poland was completely linked with the history of the 20th century, the century we have just left behind."

 

"In fact, it was between the First and Second World Wars that Christ entrusted His message of mercy to her. Those who remember, who were witnesses and participants in the events of those years and the horrible sufferings they caused for millions of people, know well how necessary was the message of mercy.

 

"Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy."

(Diary, 300)

"Jesus told Sr. Faustina: 'Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy,' (Diary, 300). Through the work of the Polish religious, this message has become linked forever to the 20th century, the last of the second millennium and the bridge to the third. It is not a new message but can be considered a gift of special enlightenment that helps us to relive the Gospel of Easter more intensely, to offer it as a ray of light to the men and women of our time.

 

"What will the years ahead bring us? We are not given to know. But the light of Divine Mercy, which the Lord in a way wished to return to the world through Sr. Faustina’s charism, will illumine the way for the men and women of the third Millennium. Sr. Faustina’s canonization has a particular eloquence: '... by this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium.'

 

Special Papal blessing bestowed on the Marians

On the 70th anniversary of the revelation of the image and 60th anniversary of the Congregation of Marians’ involvement in the spread of the Message and Devotion to the Divine Mercy, the Holy Father, John Paul II sent a special apostolic blessing and a renewed call to be apostles of the Divine Mercy under the maternal guidance of Our Lady.

 

Now, inspired by the Mercy Pope, it is our task to spread the message of Divine Mercy in the third millennium.

 

Divine Mercy Sunday

Divine Mercy Sunday is the Second Sunday of the Easter season. It was named by Pope John Paul II at the canonization of St. Maria Faustina on April 30, 2000, and then officially decreed by the Vatican.

 

Divine Mercy Sunday can be seen as the convergence of all the mysteries and graces of Holy Week and Easter Week. It is like a multi-exposure photograph of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Week. Or we can think of it as a converging lens that focuses the light of the Risen Christ into a radiant beam of merciful love and grace for the whole world.

 

In fact, Jesus revealed in various revelations to St. Faustina that it was His desire that we celebrate this special feast. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy. (Diary, 699)

 

Our Lord revealed to St. Faustina His desire to literally flood us with His graces on that day. Just consider each of the promises and desires that He expressed about Mercy Sunday, which are recorded in the main passage of the Diary — passage 699 — about Mercy Sunday:

 

On that day the very depths of My tender Mercy are open.

 

I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon these souls who approach the Fount of My mercy [the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Eucharist].

 

The soul that will go to Confession [beforehand] and receive Holy Communion [on that day] shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment.

 

On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened.

 

Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.

 

The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness.

 

It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter.

 

Forms of Devotion

The Hour of Great Mercy

In His revelations to St. Faustina, Our Lord asked for a special prayer and meditation on His Passion each afternoon at the three o’clock hour, the hour that recalls His death on the cross.

 

At three o’clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion (Diary, 1320).

 

As often as you hear the clock strike the third hour, immerse yourself completely in My mercy, adoring and glorifying it; invoke its omnipotence for the whole world, and particularly for poor sinners; for at that moment mercy was opened wide for every soul. In this hour you can obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking; it was the hour of grace for the whole world — mercy triumphed over justice. (1572)

 

My daughter, try your best to make the Stations of the Cross in this hour, provided that your duties permit it; and if you are not able to make the Stations of the Cross, then at least step into the chapel for a moment and adore, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, My Heart, which is full of mercy; and should you be unable to step into the chapel, immerse yourself in prayer there where you happen to be, if only for a very brief instant. (1572)

 

From these detailed instructions, it’s clear that Our Lord wants us to turn our attention to His Passion at the three o’clock hour to whatever degree our duties allow, and He wants us to ask for His mercy.

 

In Genesis 18:16-32, Abraham begged God to reduce the conditions necessary for Him to be merciful to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Here, Christ Himself offers a reduction of conditions because of the varied demands of our life’s duties, and He begs us to ask, even in the smallest way, for His mercy, so that He will be able to pour His mercy upon us all.

 

We may not all be able to make the Stations or adore Him in the Blessed Sacrament, but we can all mentally pause for a "brief instant," think of His total abandonment at the hour of agony, and say a short prayer such as "Jesus, Mercy," or "Jesus, for the sake of Your Sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

 

This meditation, however brief, on Christ’s Passion brings us face-to-face with the cross, and, as Pope John Paul II writes in Rich in Mercy, "It is in the cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination" (8). God invites us, the Holy Father continues, "to have ‘mercy’ on His only Son, the crucified one" (8). Thus, our reflection on the Passion should lead to a type of love for Our Lord which is "not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of ‘mercy’ shown by each one of us to the Son of the Eternal Father."

 

What are Novenas?

From an article in MARIAN HELPER magazine, Fall 1993.

If you mention novenas, you’re likely to get mixed reactions, with extremes at both ends of the scale.

 

Some view novenas as extraordinarily powerful prayers with guaranteed results — like a legal contract with God: if you fulfill the conditions, God grants your request.

 

Others feel that novenas are simply a waste of time — an outdated form of prayer practiced by overly pious people looking for spiritual magic.

 

As is often the case, neither extreme is accurate, though each reflects some truth. Making a novena is indeed a valid, powerful way to pray, but if misunderstood can become an act of superstition rather than prayer.

 

What It Is

The word “novena” comes from the Latin meaning “nine each.” It is a prayer or Holy Mass that is offered for nine consecutive days.

 

Scripturally, novenas take their origin from the nine days of prayer before Pentecost. After the Ascension, the apostles and disciples, in obedience to the Lord, gathered in the upper room and devoted themselves to constant prayer, together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1:4-5).

 

The nine days of prayer can also be considered as a representation of the nine months of Jesus in the womb of Mary. Like Jesus our Head, we His Body are also to be born of Mary and the Holy Spirit. The nine days of prayer were gestation prior to the birth of the Church on Pentecost. Since then, each novena can be considered as a time of gestation before a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

 

What It Is Not

Over the centuries, the practice of making novenas grew in popularity, and inevitably, abuses developed like weeds in a garden.

 

One abuse is absolute guarantees of positive results. There are no absolute guarantees. Prayer must always be made according to the will of God. Even Christ Himself prayed, “Not my will, Father, but Yours be done.”

 

We pray with trust that God will give us what He knows is best for us.

 

Another abuse is the guarantee that a particular novena will never fail if we publish the novena prayer. These mistaken ideas can often cause great confusion and lead to superstition.

 

Persistent Prayer

Novenas should be considered persistent prayer. Jesus exhorted us to continually ask, seek, and knock for what we need (Lk 11:10), and he gave us strong examples of the value of persistence in prayer — like the widow who kept pleading with the judge (Lk 18:1-8) and the man who woke his neighbor in the middle of the night to give him bread (Lk 11:5-9).

 

St. Faustina also gives us a powerful example of persistence in prayer. Novenas were an important and regular part of her spiritual life. She made novenas of different kinds and for various needs. For her they were times of intense and persevering prayer.

 

For us, too, novenas can be times of persevering prayer for special needs and of preparation for solemn feasts.

 

Novenas also can help us to focus our intentions so that we can more effectively give thanks for God’s response to our needs — whatever they are — placing ever greater trust in the Lord Jesus.

   

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Being so close to a volcano that has destroyed so much makes you feel so insignificant

A pair of prosthetic hip implants, made of a titanium/vanadium alloy. If you wanted to buy one of these new, they would cost you about $7000-9000. Each.