Old Citizen automatic watch

The Nemours Estate is a 300-acre country estate with jardin à la française formal gardens and a French neoclassical mansion in Wilmington, Delaware. Built to resemble a French château, its 105 rooms on five floors occupy nearly 47,000 sq ft. It shares the grounds at 1600 Rockland Road with the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, and both are owned by the Nemours Foundation.

 

Nemours was created by Alfred I. du Pont in 1909–10 as a gift for his second wife, Alicia. It was named for the north-central French town of Nemours, which was affiliated with his great-great-grandfather, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. Carrère and Hastings designed the mansion, which is in the Louis XVI style of French architecture.

 

The house contains rare 18th-century French furniture and an eclectic collection of notable antiques, works of art and tapestries. Artworks range from 16th-century religious works to paintings by the European masters to early works by Americans Frederic Remington and Sidney Lawrence.

 

Of particular interest is a rare Louis XVI musical clock, circa 1785, by David Roentgen and Peter Kinzing, which plays four tunes on a dulcimer and pipe organ. Another clock at the mansion with a connection to French royalty is one made for Marie Antoinette, which she never received.

 

The mansion also has a chair from the 1937 coronation of King George VI, an event which was attended by Alfred I. du Pont's third wife Jessie, and a chair from Independence Hall. Alfred I. du Pont's own portrait is also in the mansion.

 

The estate has the most developed and largest jardin à la française (French formal garden)-style landscape park and collection of individual gardens in North America. The design is patterned after the gardens of Versailles surrounding the Petit Trianon at the Château de Versailles. Their central axis extends ⅓ of a mile from the mansion facade, paralleling the main avenue leading to the house. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with plantings, fountains, pools, a carillon tower, statuary, and a pavilion surrounded by naturalized woodlands.

 

The named features include:

The Boxwood Garden – French parterre garden with boxwood edging and a central faun fountain.

The Colonnade (1926) – memorial to Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and his son Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, designed by Thomas Hastings.

The Maze Garden – a maze garden with main hedges of Western Arborvitae 'Spring Grove', inner hedges of Japanese Barberry 'Crimson Pygmy', and central statue of Achievement, by Henri Crenier, atop a base with images of Triton and Neptune's face.

The Reflecting Pool (1 acre) – 40 feet in diameter, with 157 jets, backed by Japanese cryptomeria, pink flowering horse chestnut, and pin oaks.

The Sunken Gardens – designed by Alfred Victor du Pont and Gabriel Masséna. Features large lake, grottoes, and 1930 statue by Charles-Marie Sarrabezolles (1888–1971). A. V. du Pont (1900–1970) was the only son of the owner and an architect trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

The Temple of Love – in classical style, with life-sized statue of Diana (1780) by Jean-Antoine Houdon.

 

The Nemours mansion and gardens reopened its gates on May 1, 2008, after closing in 2005 for a 3-year, $39 million renovation. The work, commissioned by the Nemours Foundation, was performed by world-class conservators, artisans and craftspeople who refurbished furniture, fabrics, tapestries, interior finishes, paintings, and sculptures. The comprehensive reconstruction included replacing the entire electrical system, draining and repairing the 800,000-gallon reflecting pool, and landscape restoration of the extensive formal gardens plantings, constructed design elements, and statuary.

This is another shot of the snake I found and photographed about a week ago. I like the color in the eye on this shot.

I had been wanting to get a good shot of a viper in the wild and on this day my wishes came true when shortly after leaving home I found this 3 - 4 ft. Cottonmouth at the edge of the road. There are 3 sub-species of Cottonmouth snakes, this one being the Eastern, the others are the Florida and Western.

There is NOTHING better at getting people into the holiday spirit then a Winter Festival and if you are around the Starke or Northeast Florida area the Christmas On Call Street Winter Festival was the place to be on Saturday! The Parade Line Up started at HCA Florida Emergency (Hospital and traveled all the way up Call Street to US 301 and into SantaFe AndrewsCenter and Walgreens go down 301 to Strickland's Scoop and Winkler's Electric where it will turn onto Jackson Street and go down to the City Hall Parking Lot. The Car Show is NEXT and the fun doesnt end there!

 

Stay #active and ask yourself,#RuLockedIN/

This is a series of test photos with a Sigma DP1. I had the chance to try it out for one week. To be honest: I would never buy it. It's simply to expensive for a camera which is offering only compact snapshot quality.

 

---

 

Das ist eine Serie von Testfotos mit einer Sigma DP1. Ich hatte die Gelegenheit diese für eine Woche mal ausgiebig zu testen. Ehrlich gesagt würde ich mir die Sigma nie kaufen. Sie ist einfach nur zu teuer für eine kleine Schnappschuss Knipse.

 

HIER geht's zu meinem Erfahrungsbericht (leider nur in deutsch - german only, sorry).

Apparently this art is completely functional and comfortable as this man had no problems relaxing on the “sofa” just like the one at home. Photo along the Paseo de la Reforma aka "Avenida Reforma".

 

Paseo de la Reforma has become a space intended to represent Mexico City's step into modernity by participating in urban, interactive and avant-garde ways to present art. It is an important avenue that has been taken by the government as a full on project to transform it into the best version of itself, by remodeling its appearance and redefining its architectural concept.

 

Street Art Exhibit E: Sofas set.

 

claudiatello.hubpages.com/hub/streetartvisitmexicourbanart#

Mackinac Island, Michigan, is a beautiful island. Located in the Straits of Mackinac, it's about 8-9 miles in circumference.

 

There's the actual town of Mackinac Island, where the ships dock. Since 1898 (I think), there have been no motorized vehicles allowed on the island (for consumer use, at least) as they scared the horses.

 

Your modes of transportation are one of three:

 

1. Horse (and carriage) as a taxi, personal rental, or part of a tour (for about $30/adult). Or, just rent a horse for $50/hour/horse.

 

2. Bicycles. For rental all over the place in town.

 

3. Your two feet.

 

The town of Mackinac Island. Its Main Street -- the first thing you see after passing under the portico from any of the ferries -- is actually Huron Street. One parallel street behind, you have Market Street. There are a number of other streets in the town, too, all easily walkable (obviously). Since this is basically a tourist resort, you'll find about 80% of the establishments in town fall into one of the following categories: fudge shops (12 different companies have fudge shops here), bed & breakfasts, bike rentals, or restaurants (pizzeria, bar/saloon/burger joint). The only eyesore on the island is a Starbucks. It disgusts me to no end. If you intend to spend the night on the island, be prepared to have your wallet lightened substantially, especially in season (Memorial Day to Labor Day).

 

For overnight accommodations, the most famous place on the island is the Grand Hotel, which has the longest covered porch of any building in the world (660 ft./200 meters). It'll set you back over $400/night. There's no air conditioning. It was built in 1887 and is perfectly imperfect. They finished it in three months. Even to wander the grounds, you have to pay $10 per their signage. On a sunny summer day, it's beautiful, especially with all of the flags flying along the porch. If you aren't inclined to pay through the nose here, the B&Bs, during summer, would probably set you back around $300/night, but don't quote me on that. (The more frugal folks -- like me -- stay in Mackinaw City, slightly expensive, but reasonable, and take day trips to the island.

 

Speaking of "in season," Mackinac Island has less than 500 year-round residents. Yet, I think they clear 2 million tourists a year. The majority of them come from May-September.

 

To support that massive influx, there are 600 horses on the island in summer, but only about 200 stay on for winter.

 

More than the horses, they can't survive without a temporary summer workforce. On the island (and also in Mackinaw City and possibly St. Ignace), you'll find the majority of summer workers are eastern European. They stay until the end of September. This year, I bumped into Turkish, Polish, Montenegran, Serbian, Kosovan, and I'm not sure which other nationalities. Expect to meet some incredibly friendly and happy Europeans.

 

What's the history of this area? Recent (1600-now), is about all most people focus on. It was originally Native American land, then the French arrived, followed by Brits, and finally Americans.

 

As a result, there are forts around. Michilimackinac (in Mackinaw City) was the first fort, from the Brits, then Americans. Then the Brits relocated to the island (more strategic) and built Fort Mackinac. While at Fort Mackinac, they also decided to build a more rudimentary fort on the highest ground on the island: Fort George (which the Americans renamed Fort Holmes).

 

The forts were eventually in the Americans' hands and Fort Mackinac was garrisoned until 1895. So here's your fun trivia: Yellowstone National Park was the first national park created in the U.S. (and world) in 1872. The second national park in the U.S.? Mackinac Island, actually.

 

The island was a national park (as the parks were actually administered by the military prior to the creation of the Department of the Interior & National Park Service) and it was maintained as a national park until 1895 when the federal government trimmed back a bit and stopped having an active presence on the island. (At this point, the island went to the state and the entire island is now basically Mackinac State Park.)

 

As it's a state park, you'll find the majority of the island is actually natural -- lots of woods and beautiful walks and trails. Should you have a little wanderlust to get away from the town, you'll find the following:

 

1. A small airport in the middle of the island.

 

2. Two 9 hole golf courses (Jewel & Wawashkamo), though you could be creative and call it one where the front and back nine are a bit away from each other.

 

3. Cemeteries: Protestant, Catholic, and Military. (The military cemetery is one of only 5 in the nation that are permitted to fly flags at half mast year-round due to the unknown soldiers buried here.)

 

4. Hiking trails that lead to Fort Holmes, Skull Cave, Arch Rock, and other areas on the interior. (Skull Cave is very underwhelming in its current condition, though its history is interesting.)

 

Among the buildings in town that don't fall into one of the generic categories mentinoed above, you'll find at least 4 churches, the old fur trading store, a police station, a U.S. post office, a school, an old county courthouse (not current as Michilimackinac County no longer exists), an art museum, and a yacht club.

 

Fort Mackinac, by the way, is actually in town and the price of admission is $13.50 as of this writing. They have soldiers in period uniforms do weapons demonstrations (rifle, cannon), and have all of the buildings maintained to the time of its use (1875-95 or so). Some of the views of the town, Marquette Park, and cove with its two lighthouses are nice. Is it worth $13.50? I don't think so, but hey...if you're only here once, you ought to have a look, especially if the weather's nice and sunny.

 

During the summer, you'll find that June is the best time to come for flowers -- so many lilacs that the air smells more like flowers than horses. There are also the two boat regattas (Port Huron to Mackinac & Chicago to Mackinac) that end here in the straits. I believe those are in May or June.

 

All in all, there's a good reason that Mackinac Island is usually voted one of the ten best summer getaways in the country. It's unforgettable and, more than that, it's relaxing. Even with the excessive crowds. I know I haven't covered everything, but it's certainly enough to give you a good idea.

This is a food truck on campus that caters to students on UT campus and it claims to be authentic latin food. This is advertised as a grilled cheese truck bu they have lots of latin options

I actually got this doll last year as a trade b/c I wanted the Moonlit Shadows fullset outfit. The doll herself went to my Mom and I rarely took notice of her till I changed her outfit today and had a small epiphany along the lines of "fml, she kinda looks like GoT's Melisandre of Asshai". I can never unsee that now OTL

 

Melisandre is an Evangeline Ghastly "Moonlit Shadows" wearing Ellowyne Wilde "Ties that bind"

Presidio Park is a city historic park in San Diego, California. It is the site where the San Diego Presidio and the San Diego Mission, the first European settlements in what is now the western United States, were founded in 1769.

 

In 1773 the mission moved a few miles upriver while the fort remained on Presidio Hill. The presidio had been established to protect against Indian attacks or foreign invasions. As the need for such protection disappeared, people preferred to live in Old Town at the foot of the hill, and the fort was gradually abandoned. It was in ruins by 1835.[2]

 

In 1907 George Marston, a wealthy department store owner and civic leader, bought Presidio Hill with the aim of preserving the historic site. Unable to attract city funding, Marston built a private park (planned by architect John Nolan) including the Serra Museum (designed by architect William Templeton Johnson) in 1925. Marston donated the park to the city in 1929.[2][3]

 

The park encompasses about 40 acres (16 ha). Visitors to Presidio Park enjoy sweeping views of the city, the San Diego River valley, and the Pacific Ocean. The grounds are open for picnics and play. The facilities can be used for weddings and other special events. The Serra Museum is run by the San Diego Historical Society.[4] (The Serra Museum, with its Mission architecture, is sometimes erroneously called the Presidio.)

 

The spot in the park where Junípero Serra planted a palm tree when he first arrived in 1769 was declared a California Historical Landmark.[1] Otherwise, no historical structures remain in Presidio Park today. The site is occasionally used for archaeological excavations. A fenced-off area encloses the foundations of the chapel, walls, and other historical sites.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_Park

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

And our last photo from the Con itself is my favorite

moment of the whole Con. Now the reason is due to

a few reasons.

 

What you see here is Sheri finally getting a sketch from

Fables artist, Mark Buckingham. She waited almost 3 hours

in line to get a sketch and was only one of 10 people to get one

during this drawing session. Sheri was so excited.

 

I picked this as my favorite because I never thought Sheri would

get into comics as much as I am and love them like I do. It took

the suggestion from her cousin Jason to get her started and she

found a title that she really loves. Her collection only extends across

three titles: Fables, Jack of Fables and Invincible, but she is passionate

about them.

 

To see her happy and to share my love of comics made the whole experience

at Comic-Con a perfect one. We will definitely be there next year and the

year after and so on :)

 

This is me before I went out to a "nasty Christmas" party. I wasn't really all too concerned because I felt kind of gross all day yesterday (don't eat the Subway meatball sub). I suppose this is about as "Traditional Skinhead" as I get.

 

-grid pattern sweater vest - Fink

-Ben Sherman button down

-vintage Levi's Sta-Prest (more like Sta-Wrinkled)

-Docs once again

 

THIS IS NOT MY WORK... A FRIEND SENT IT TO ME TO ENCOURAGE ME.... :)

I HAD TO SHARE IT.... :)

THE VERY SMALL PRINT SAYS WARNING: SIDE EFFECTS INCLUDE FREEDOM FROM GUILT, REDUCED TENSION,INCREASED JOY,SPONTANEOUS LAUGHTER,LOVE FOR YOUR FELLOW HUMAN,ETERNAL LIFE,AND THE URGE TO TELL OTHERS THE WONDERFUL NEWS.

 

Prescribed by the Great Physician

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

The next time you feel like Jehovah God can't use you, just remember... Moses had a speech impediment.. Gideon was afraid..

Rahab was a prostitute..

Jeremiah and Timothy were too young..

David had an affair & a 2nd degree murderer, Isaiah preached naked..

Jonah ran from God..

Naomi was a widow..

Job went bankrupt..

Peter denied Christ..

The Disciples fell asleep while praying..

Martha worried about everything..

The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once..

Zaccheus was too small..

Timothy had an ulcer.. AND

Lazarus was dead!

Now! No more excuses!

Jehovah can use you to your full potential.

Besides you aren't the message, you are just the

messenger .. ..

  

De "Rotterdam" ligt aan het 3e Katendrechtse Hoofd op Katendrecht in Rotterdam. De renovatie van de "Rotterdam" is van VFD Architects van ir. F.C.J. Dingemans en ADB Architects van Arnold Bos.

 

"Rotterdam" kan in 1960 van stapel lopen. Kunstenaars zullen de inrichting verfraaien". Het Vrije Volk van 28-10-1955: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010952348:mpeg21:a0009

 

"Precies op de seconde. Tienduizenden zagen stapelloop van de Rotterdam Koningin doopte nieuw vlaggeschip van HAL". Nieuwsblad van het Noorden van 15-9-1958: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010677797:mpeg21:a0003

 

"Nieuw vlaggeschip van H.A.L. een jaar op de helling „Rotterdam" (38.000 ton) krijgt al gestalte". De Tijd van 20-12-1957: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:011208301:mpeg21:a0145

 

"Koningin bracht t.s.s. Rotterdam in zijn element". Algemeen Handelsblad van 15-9-1958: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBNRC01:000037330:mpeg21:a0041

 

"Terwijl tachtigduizend mensen toekeken: Voorspoedig gleed de Rotterdam te water. Koningin wenste vlaggeschip behouden vaart". Trouw van 15-9-1958: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ABCDDD:010816587:mpeg21:a0012

 

"Het vlaggeschip Rotterdam: pronkstuk van Nederlandse koopvaardij. Bezichtiging kost een hele dag. Iets over de inrichting". Algemeen Handelsblad van 6-8-1959: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=KBNRC01:000036794:mpeg21:a0111

 

"RDM krijgt order passagiersschepen". De Volkskrant van 25-3-1969: resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ABCDDD:010848230:mpeg21:a0097

 

"Op zoek naar bijzondere verhalen over ss Rotterdam.

De leiding van het ss Rotterdam is nog altijd op zoek naar bijzondere verhalen over het historische schip op Katendrecht dat dit jaar 60 jaar bestaat.

AD, Gert Onnink, 31-1-2019: www.ad.nl/rotterdam/op-zoek-naar-bijzondere-verhalen-over...

 

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA): oma.eu/search?q=rotterdam

This is not a photo I took, it is a small portion of someone else's photo which I have cropped and processed to illustrate a feature on the Porsche 911 GT1, for model builders. I believe this is "fair use" of copyrighted material, but it isn't mine and I have no ownership of it.

 

The driver's compartment is to the right, the throttle cable comes off the accelerator pedal, passes through the firewall and threads into the engine. Its clamped to a bracket attached to the furthest forward cylinder on the starboard (right) side.

 

The cable is more or less straight, the pedal pushes forward and that pulls the cable, all the way back to the end here which pulls on the arm attacked to the throttle bar. The pull rotates the throttle bar clockwise (from the starboard side of the car, looking in). Across the top of the engine, the throttle bar has a pair of arms between cylinder 3 and 2, left to right, and between cylinder 6 and 5. The idle position of the arms is 1:00 or 1:30, pointing forward. Turning the arm counter clockwise twists the arms downward, pulling down a linkage at each end that pulls to a similar arm on the intake manifold butterfly axles. Push the pedal, the butterfly valves open.

 

Engine management or sensor cable connections are clipped to little aluminum shelves bolted to the throttle butterflies. One cable end probably goes into the car's wiring harness, one is part of the engine. Note the fuel injector spritzer cables in front of each intake, with yellow id stickers.

This is a highly detailed, original watercolor painting of the 1933 Toronto Argonauts uniform. It was created as part of a collection of 5 pieces of original art celebrating the history of the uniforms of the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. This original painting, and more than 1500 other CFL, NHL, NFL, MLB and NCAA football uniform paintings, is available for sale at our Heritage Sports Art website.

To get a good understanding of the art, the history behind this whole project and what the art looks like when it's framed, please check out our Toronto Argonauts Artwork YouTube video.

And if you love the history of sports, you might enjoy our Heritage Jerseys and Uniforms blog which has history postings for almost every NFL, MLB, NHL team as well as a number of NCAA football teams.

New Milton is a market town in south west Hampshire, England. ( In 1303, Thomas de Chaucombe was given permission to hold a weekly market on Tuesdays at Milton, as well as an annual fair on the feast day of Mary Magdalene. ) The town has a high street and holds a market every Wednesday. Situated on the edge of the New Forest, the town is about six miles ( 10 km ) west of Lymington town centre and 12 miles ( 19 km ) east of Bournemouth town centre. New Milton dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, and encompasses Old Milton, Barton on Sea, Ashley, Bashley, and Wootton. It is recorded as having a population of around 23,000 in 2001. The traditional village centre of Milton was just south of the church. Up to the 1960's, moated earthworks were still visible next to the road known as Moat Lane. Excavations of these earthworks in 1956 revealed a series of peasant enclosures and hut remains dating from the 9th to the 12th century, but no evidence of a manorial farmstead was found.

The parish church of Milton is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and consists of a chancel with vestry, a nave and a western tower. The medieval church was pulled down and replaced around 1830, although the tower is of an earlier 17th century date. In 1835 a Church of England National School was founded on an island of land near the village green, where children were taught until just after World War I. In 1881, the population of the entire Milton parish was only 1489 people, and Milton was still a small village. The location of the village on the main Christchurch to Lymington road ( now the A 337 ) meant that there were two coaching inns - The Wheatsheaf and The George.

In March 1888 New Milton railway station was opened, which is still in operation today. A new town developed, which expanded rapidly with the coming of the railway and the name New Milton was used for the first time and can originally be traced back to the Post Office that stood opposite the railway station. In 1895, the owner of the Post Office, Emma Newhook, commissioned a sign, which read - New Milton Sub Post Office to differentiate it from the post office in Old Milton. This was officially accepted in 1896, and so the name New Milton caught on. Much of the local farmland has been developed, first in the 1960's for commuter housing and again in the 1970's for small industrial / trade units. There is a mix of housing from cottages on the outskirts to more modern, urban housing in the central area.

Milton village subsequently became known as Old Milton, and lies between New Milton and Barton on Sea. There are a few notable architectural points of interest in the local area. However, a distinctive row of Coast Guard Cottages are to be found in Barton Lane, Barton on Sea, which were built at the end of the 19th century by the Government of the day to house armed guards to try to stop the smuggling that was rife at the time. The Barton on Sea and Mudeford coastline was renowned for smuggling with many of the offshore seaways and routes to shore being named after well known local smuggling families. It was in this context that Frederick Marryat, author of The Children of the New Forest, was sent on patrol here as a young naval lieutenant in 1821, to watch over the Christchurch Bay area. Britain's first reinforced concrete bridge was built in 1901 just outside New Milton at Chewton. There was an earlier experiment in building with this material in its un reinforced form at Sway ( Sway Tower ).

New Milton water tower. Built in 1900 was the Tudor style water tower, which can be found adjacent to the car park in Osborne Road. It has a staircase and is constructed with a turret, slit windows and battlements. It is a striking orange - red colour, was built from locally manufactured bricks. The German Luftwaffe carried out bombing raids on New Milton on the 23rd August 1940, the 8th August 1942 and on January 22nd 1943. The town's water tower was suggested as the target. During the Second World War, New Milton homed evacuees and was a transit station for soldiers going to the battlefields. It also had an army hospital. It was a favourite for the airmen who were based at the nearby airfields at Lymington and Holmsley. The Memorial Centre in Whitefield Road commemorates those who died in the raids, as well as towns people who have died more recently. Bricks can be purchased for inscription and insertion into the wall of the Memorial Room, which stands to the left of the front door and contains mementos saved from the original building, which was destroyed by fire in the 1970's.

Ballard Lake that borders Fernhill Lane and Lake Grove Road, in New Milton is a picturesque area of New Milton that you could spend a hot summers day feeding the many ducks, mallards, geese that live around this lake. A few walks branch out from this lake to stroll along. Seats have been sited from donations from residents who have passed away and serve as a reminder to long lost friends or family. The stream from this lake meanders for many miles in many cases forming picturesque walks further along New Milton.

NS 8009 and NS 8099 (SOU) wait for a new crew on Main 1 short of Skelly's east of Galesburg, IL while CSXT 5230 and CSXT 502 roll east with a unit train of gondolas.

 

June 22, 2013.

This is a photograph from the 60th Anniversary Commerative Half Marathon for Tullamore Harriers AC which was held on Saturday 31st August 2013 in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland at 12:00. This was a really great event and there couldn't be any fault found with any aspect of the race. There were stewarts all along the route, 3 drink stations with bottled water, superb facilities, and great after-race refreshments. The stewards along the route provided great encouragement to all of the runners. Tullamore Harriers and the local community really worked together to make this is a wonderful event.

 

Race event manangement and organisations was provided by PRECISION TIMING - see their website at [www.precisiontiming.net/]

 

This photograph is one of a set of photographs from the Tullamore Harriers Half Marathon 2013. The permanent link to the full set of photographs is [http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157635307620452/]. This set of photographs includes photographs of the start and then photographs of the finish up to the 2 HOUR finishing time.

 

This race celebrates the 60th Anniversary (a Diamond Anniversary) of the foundation of Tullamore Harriers AC. The club was formed in the town in November 1953. However, it was almost 1979 before facilities close to what we see today open in the present day site. Over 50 provincial and national athletics meetings are held at Tullamore Harriers every year. The facilities available combined with it's central geographical location joing routes from North, South, East, and West make it a very attractive venue. The race today brings competitive national road racing back to The Harriers. In the past there was the famous Quinnlan Cup

Festival of Races (see a link below for some nostalgia) which was one of Ireland's Blue Ribband events. Today, the facilities at Tullamore Harriers are the envy of many athletics clubs in Ireland. The facilities provided by Tullamore make it one of the premier venues for local and national level athletics in Ireland. There is an Olympic standard tartan track, a fully equipped gym, changing facilities, press and media facilities, meeting room spaces, etc. The club also provides a social center and niteclub which makes "The Harriers" a very well known on the local social scene. Esssentially, the town of Tullamore would be a different place if it weren't for the presence of Tullamore Harriers AC.

 

Overall Race Summary

Participants: There was about 500 participants of runners, joggers, and walkers.

Weather: The midday start seen warm pleasant conditions for running. The layout of the course meant that there was a stiff breeze into the face of competitors for the first few miles. When the race turned around to return to Tullamore the wind was more favourable to runners.

Course: The race starts on the Charleville Road just outside the entrance to Tullamore Harriers. The race proceeds south along the R421 and onto the N52 before taking a route onto local back roads. The race then completes a large rural road route before it joins to the R421 again and the final 1.5 miles are the same as the first mile of the race. The runners enter tullamore stadium and complete one lap of the tartan track before the finish line. The course is challenging in places with some undulations along the route. But overall it is fair course.

Location Map: Start/finish and registration and race HQ was all at Tullamore Harriers AC Club Grounds: goo.gl/maps/xZ4GM (Google Streetview)

Refreshments: There was a very impressive selection of refreshments including sandwiches, cakes, home-made breads, etc in the Harriers clubhouse afterwards. People were able to enjoy their post race refreshments outside in the warm pleasant sunshine.

 

Viewing this on a smartphone device?

If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".

 

Some Useful Links related to the race

Race Results are available from PRECISION TIMING: www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer

Facebook event page: www.facebook.com/events/547723028583924/

The Tullamore Harriers AC Website: www.tullamoreharriers.com/

The Tullamore Harriers Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/tullamore.harriers (Facebook logon required)

The Tullamore Harriers Half Marathon ROUTE on MapMyRun: www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/217165415

The Boards.ie Athletics Discussion Thread on the Race: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056942637

Read about Tullamore Town on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullamore

Quinlan Cup 1997: ireland.iol.ie/~ar5meade/quinlan97.htm

The Entrace to Tullamore Harriers AC Club Grounds: goo.gl/maps/xZ4GM (Google Streetview)

An Aerial Image of the Facilities of Tullamore Harriers AC: binged.it/12UPZ9N (Bing Aerial BirdsEye )

 

How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?

 

All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available offline, free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.

 

If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

 

Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

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This is what happens when someone puts together the following:

 

1929 Bugatti Type 46 Semi-profile Coupe, 1930

 

Cord L-29 Cabriolet, 1930

 

Henderson KJ Streamline

 

1930 Jordan Model Z Speedway Ace Roadster

 

1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow Sedan

 

1934 Model 40 Special Speedster

 

1934 Packard Twelve Model 1106 Sport Coupe by LeBaron

 

1934 Voisin Type C27 Aérosport Coupe

 

1935 Chrysler Imperial Model C-2 Airflow Coupe

 

1936 Cord 810 "Armchair" Beverly Sedan

 

1936 Delahaye 135M Figoni & Falaschi Competition Coupe

 

1936 Stout Scarab

 

1937 Delahaye 135MS Roadster

 

1938 Hispano-Suiza H6B Dubonnet “Xenia” Coupe

 

1938 Talbot-Lago T-150C-SS Teardrop Coupe

 

1938 Tatra T97

 

1939 Bugatti Type 57C by Vanvooren

 

1939 Delage D8-120S Saoutchik Cabriolet

 

1940 Indian Chief

 

1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt

Swayambhunath (स्वयम्भूनाथ स्तुप) is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living in the north-west parts of the temple. The Tibetan name for the site means 'Sublime Trees'.

 

For the Buddhist Newars in whose mythological history and origin myth as well as day-to-day religious practice, Swayambhunath occupies a central position, it is probably the most sacred among Buddhist pilgrimage sites. For Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, it is second only to Boudhanath.

 

The Swayambhunath complex consists of a stupa, a variety of shrines and temples, some dating back to the Licchavi period. A Tibetan monastery, museum and library are more recent additions. The stupa has Buddha's eyes and eyebrows painted on. Between them, the number one (in Devanagari script) is painted in the fashion of a nose. There are also shops, restaurants and hostels. The site has two access points: a long stairway with 365 steps, leading directly to the main platform of the temple, which is from the top of the hill to the east; and a car road around the hill from the south leading to the southwest entrance [Wikipedia.org]

...is simply divine.

SpirosK is the wonderful photographer for this henna project, and Danai Gourd the marvellous model. We shot in an abandoned hotel in the mountains north of Athens, Greece. The hotel was really moody, surreal, post-apocalyptic fairy in a mad maxish setting. This was one of the most fun projects I have worked on with a great crew - assistants, make up artists, everyone gave 110% of their energy to do this.

 

Henna was a challenge for me, not my normal style. Tried to make it thorny, not too flowery, tribally, but not too tribal, and the raggedy faerie wings were accented with water color pencil.

The cast and crew are:

Spiros K. = Photographer

Kree Arvanitas = Henna artist

Danai Gourd = Model

Jennifer Rage = Makeup Artist

Magdalini = Artist Assistant

Anastasia = Model Assistant

The ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea), known in India as the Brahminy duck, is a member of the family Anatidae. It is a distinctive waterfowl, 58 to 70 cm (23 to 28 in) in length with a wingspan of 110 to 135 cm (43 to 53 in). It has orange-brown body plumage with a paler head, while the tail and the flight feathers in the wings are black, contrasting with the white wing-coverts. It is a migratory bird, wintering in the Indian subcontinent and breeding in southeastern Europe and central Asia, though there are small resident populations in North Africa. It has a loud honking call.

 

The ruddy shelduck mostly inhabits inland water-bodies such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers. The male and female form a lasting pair bond and the nest may be well away from water, in a crevice or hole in a cliff, tree or similar site. A clutch of about eight eggs is laid and is incubated solely by the female for about four weeks. The young are cared for by both parents and fledge about eight weeks after hatching.

 

In central and eastern Asia, populations are steady or rising, but in Europe they are generally in decline. Altogether, the birds have a wide range and large total population, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed their conservation status as being of least concern.

 

Taxonomy

The ruddy shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea) is a member of the shelduck genus Tadorna; in the wildfowl family Anatidae. The bird was first described in 1764 by the German zoologist and botanist Peter Simon Pallas who named it Anas ferruginea, but later it was transferred to the genus Tadorna with the other shelducks. Some authorities place it in the genus Casarca along with the South African shelduck (T. cana), the Australian shelduck (T. tadornoides) and the paradise shelduck (T. variegata). Phylogenetic analysis shows that it is most closely related to the South African shelduck. In captivity, the ruddy shelduck has been known to hybridise with several other members of Tadorna, with several members of the dabbling duck genus Anas, and with the Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca). No subspecies are recognised.

 

The genus name Tadorna comes from the French "tadorne", the common shelduck, and may originally derive from a Celtic word meaning "pied waterfowl". The English name "sheld duck" dates from around 1700 and means the same. The species name ferruginea is Latin for "rusty" and refers to the colour of the plumage.

 

Description

The ruddy shelduck grows to a length of 58 to 70 cm (23 to 28 in) and has a 110–135 cm (43–53 in) wingspan. The male has orange-brown body plumage and a paler, orange-brown head and neck, separated from the body by a narrow black collar. The rump, flight feathers, tail-coverts and tail feathers are black and there are iridescent green speculum feathers on the inner surfaces of the wings. Both upper and lower wing-coverts are white, this feature being particularly noticeable in flight but hardly visible when the bird is at rest. The bill is black and the legs are dark grey. The female is similar but has a rather pale, whitish head and neck and lacks the black collar, and in both sexes, the colouring is variable and fades as the feathers age. The birds moult at the end of the breeding season and the male loses the black collar, but a further partial moult between December and April restores it. Juveniles are similar to the female but are a darker shade of brown.

 

The call is a series of loud, nasal honking notes, it being possible to discern the difference between those produced by the male and the female. The calls are made both on the ground and in the air, and the sounds are variable according to the circumstances in which they are uttered.

 

Distribution and habitat

There are very small resident populations of this species in Northwest Africa and Ethiopia, but the main breeding area of the bird is from southeast Europe across the Palearctic to Lake Baikal, Mongolia, and western China. Eastern populations are mostly migratory, wintering in the Indian subcontinent. This species has colonised the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, first breeding there in 1994, and reaching a population of almost fifty pairs by 2008. The ruddy shelduck is a common winter visitor in India where it arrives by October and departs by April. Its typical breeding habitat is large wetlands and rivers with mud flats and shingle banks, and it is found in large numbers on lakes and reservoirs. It breeds in high altitude lakes and swamps in Jammu and Kashmir.[11] Outside the breeding season it prefers lowland streams, sluggish rivers, ponds, flooded grassland, marshes and brackish lagoons.

 

Although becoming quite rare in Southeastern Europe and southern Spain, the ruddy shelduck is still common across much of its Asian range. It may be this population which gives rise to vagrants as far west as Iceland, Great Britain and Ireland. However, since the European population is declining, it is likely that most occurrences in Western Europe in recent decades are escapes or feral birds. Although this bird is observed in the wild from time to time in eastern North America, no evidence has been found that this is a genuine case of vagrancy. Feral ruddy shelduck have bred successfully in several European countries. In Switzerland the ruddy shelduck is considered an invasive species that threatens to displace native birds. Despite actions taken to reduce numbers, the population of ruddy shelduck in Switzerland increased from 211 to 1250 individuals in the period from 2006 to 2016.

 

A stable population exists in Moscow, settling the city parks' ponds alongside the endemic mallards. It is theorized that the birds are feral descendants of escapees from the Moscow Zoo, the population most likely forming after 1948, when the policy of clipping the birds' wings was repealed. Unlike the wild population, these ducks are non-migratory, wintering instead in the non-freezing parts of the city's bodies of water.

 

This shelduck mostly frequents open locations on inland bodies of water such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers. It is seldom seen in forested areas but does occur in brackish water and saline lagoons. Though more common in the lowlands, it also inhabits higher altitudes and in central Asia is one of the few waterbirds, along with the bar-headed goose (Anser indicus), to be found on lakes at 5,000 m (16,400 ft).

 

Behaviour

The ruddy shelduck is a mainly nocturnal bird. It is omnivorous and feeds on grasses, the young shoots of plants, grain and water plants as well as both aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates. On land it grazes on the foliage, in the water it dabbles in the shallows, and at greater depths, it up-ends, but it does not dive.

 

The ruddy shelduck is usually found in pairs or small groups and rarely forms large flocks. However, moulting and wintering gatherings on chosen lakes or slow rivers can be very large. Gatherings of over four thousand birds have been recorded on the Koshi Barrage and in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, and over ten thousand at Lake Düden in Turkey.

 

The birds arrive at their main breeding locations in central Asia in March and April. There is a strong pair bond between the male and female and it is thought they pair for life. In their breeding quarters, the birds are very aggressive towards their own kind and towards other species. The female in particular approaches intruders with head lowered and neck outstretched, uttering anger calls. If the intruder stands its ground, the female returns to the male and runs round him, inciting him to attack. He may or may not do so. Mating takes place on the water after a brief courtship ritual involving neck stretching, head dipping and tail raising. The nesting site is often far away from water in a hole in a tree or ruined building, a crevice in a cliff, among sand-dunes or in an animal burrow. The nest is constructed by the female using feathers and down and some grasses.

 

A clutch of about eight eggs (range six to twelve) is laid between late April and early June. These have a dull gloss and are creamy-white, averaging 68 by 47 mm (2.68 by 1.85 in). Incubation is done by the female while the male stands in attendance nearby. The eggs hatch after about twenty-eight days and both parents care for the young, which fledge in a further fifty-five days. After breeding the adults moult, losing the power of flight for about a month while they do so. Before moulting they move to large water bodies where they can more easily avoid predation while they are flightless. The family may stay together as a group for some time; the autumn migration starts around September and the young may mature in their second year. North African birds breed about five weeks earlier, and their breeding success is greater in wet summers.

 

Status

Buddhists regard the ruddy shelduck as sacred and this gives the birds some protection in central and eastern Asia, where the population is thought to be steady or even rising. The Pembo Black-necked Crane Reserve in Tibet is an important wintering area for ruddy shelducks, and here they receive protection. In Europe on the other hand, populations are generally declining as wetlands are drained and the birds are hunted. However, they are less vulnerable than some other waterfowl because of their adaptability to new habitats such as reservoirs.

 

The ruddy shelduck has a very wide range and an estimated total population size of 170,000 to 225,000 individuals. The overall population trend is unclear as some local populations are increasing while others are decreasing. The bird does not appear to meet the higher criteria necessary to be considered threatened, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature assesses that its conservation status is of least concern. It is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.

Galena-calcite from Peru. (Carolyn Manchester collection)

 

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5200 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

 

The sulfide minerals contain one or more sulfide anions (S-2). The sulfides are usually considered together with the arsenide minerals, the sulfarsenide minerals, and the telluride minerals. Many sulfides are economically significant, as they occur commonly in ores. The metals that combine with S-2 are mainly Fe, Cu, Ni, Ag, etc. Most sulfides have a metallic luster, are moderately soft, and are noticeably heavy for their size. These minerals will not form in the presence of free oxygen. Under an oxygen-rich atmosphere, sulfide minerals tend to chemically weather to various oxide and hydroxide minerals.

 

Galena is a lead sulfide mineral (PbS). It has a metallic luster, silvery-gray color, cubic crystals, cubic cleavage, is moderately soft, and has a very high specific gravity (it's very heavy for its size).

 

Galena is the most important lead ore mineral. It's principally found in hydrothermal vein systems and in Mississippi Valley-type deposits. Silver (Ag) can fall into the lead position as an impurity, sometimes in relatively high proportions. This results in argentiferous galena, (Pb,Ag)S.

 

Historically, lead from galena has been used as a gasoline additive, a paint ingredient, and for making bullets. Lead is also used to make various metal products, batteries, and radiation shielding.

 

The well-formed crystals of galena shown above comes from the Huanzala Deposit in the Andes Mountains of Peru. There, several limestone horizons of the Lower Cretaceous Santa Formation have polymetallic mineralization. Origin interpretations vary - some consider this to be a contact metamorphic (metasomatized) deposit - a skarn, formed by the interaction between host limestones and Miocene dikes. Others consider this to be a high-temperature, Cretaceous-aged, volcanic sedimentary ore deposit subjected to Miocene remobilization of minerals.

 

Most galena specimens are cubic, but the crystals shown above are pseudohexagonal tabular contact twins.

 

Locality: Huanzala Mine, western Peru

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

Photo gallery of galena:

www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=1641

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

Some geologic info. synthesized from:

 

Crowley et al. (1997) - The Raura-Huanzala Group (mining districts in Peru). Mineralogical Record 28(4).

 

Imai et al. (1985) - Mineralization and paragenesis of the Huanzala Mine, central Peru. Economic Geology 80: 461-478.

 

Soler et al. (1986) - Mineralization and paragenesis of the Huanzala Mine, central Peru - a discussion. Economic Geology 81: 195-196.

 

when a Muslim girl is born:

she becomes a reason for her

father to enter paradise

when she grows up and marries a man:

she completes the other

half of his deen

 

when she becomes a mother:

paradise will be under

her feet

Mojacar Pueblo is the kind of vacation spot you would expect to see on a postcard. A fairytale town, with its cluster of white sugar cubed buildings clinging to the side of the hilltop. For visitors, the old town is a delightful place to explore, where you will find charming trinket shops, restaurants, bars and terraces. The town is a browser's delight. Arty shops beckon with their bits and pieces hanging from walls and makeshift stalls. The winding streets lead you past smartly renovated houses decked out with potted plants and flowers and hole-in-the-wall shops selling everything from trendy clothing to locally made souvenirs. Look out for the great value hand woven rugs, jarapas and the famous Indalo Man. At the heart of the mountaintop town is the Plaza Nueva where you stand on what appears to be a marble dance floor overhanging the side of a mountain. The views of the unexpected green carpet of agriculture land surrounding the town and Sierra Cabrera Mountains and coastline are magnificent. For those with the energy, further spectacular views await at the Mirador Castillo, which is the highest point of the town.

 

andrevandecappellephotography.com/

 

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This is the reason that Farrah was not at the Teen Mom wedding

www.reportread.com/this-is-the-reason-that-farrah-was-not...

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

Bruce Lee

 

Canon EOS 60D | Canon EF 50mm 1.8f | f2.2 | ISO 3200 | 1/8000

    

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This is a photograph from the finish of the Tullamore Harriers AC "Quinlan Cup" Half Marathon which was held on Saturday 26th August 2017 in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, Ireland at 11:00. This is the fifth year of the event. The race is organised and promoted by Tullamore Harriers AC. The race starts on the Charleville Road just outside the entrance to Tullamore Harriers. The race proceeds south along the R421 and onto the N52 before taking a route onto local back roads. The race then completes a large rural road route before it joins to the R421 again and the final 1.5 miles are the same as the first mile of the race. The runners enter Tullamore stadium and complete one lap of the tartan track before the finish line. The course is challenging in places with some undulations along the route. But overall it is fair course. 2013 seen the first year of the event as the club commemorated the 60th Anniversary of the formation of Tullamore Harriers AC which today is one of Ireland's best known athletics clubs.

 

We have a large set of photographs from the start and the finish of today's race on our Flickr Photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157685695893933

The race was chip timed by MyRunResults - their website is www.myrunresults.com

 

The race was perfectly organised. The weather was good for racing but there was warm summer weather for the entire race which made for warmer than usual running conditions There were stewarts all along the route, 3 drink stations with bottled water, superb facilities, and great after-race refreshments. The stewards along the route provided great encouragement to all of the runners. Tullamore Harriers and the local community really worked together to make this is a wonderful event. There was also a relay option where teams of two can run approximately 10.5km each.

 

As mentioned above this race half marathon started in 2013 and celebrated the 60th Anniversary (a Diamond Anniversary) of the foundation of Tullamore Harriers AC. The club was formed in the town in November 1953. However, it was almost 1979 before facilities close to what we see today open in the present day site. Over 50 provincial and national athletics meetings are held at Tullamore Harriers every year. The facilities available combined with it's central geographical location joining routes from North, South, East, and West make it a very attractive venue. The half marathon today firmly brings competitive national road racing back to "The Harriers". The Quinlan Cup which will be awarded to the winning club team. For more than 40 years the Harriers Quinlan Cup was the most prestigious event on the road racing calendar. Having started as a cross-country race back in 1957, it became a road race in 1967 and remained so until 2000 when the race was last held. During its reign as a blue-ribband event the Quinlan Cup was won by the likes of John Treacy and Eamonn Coughlan.

 

Today, the facilities at Tullamore Harriers are the envy of many athletics clubs in Ireland. The facilities provided by Tullamore make it one of the premier venues for local and national level athletics in Ireland. There is an Olympic standard tartan track, a fully equipped gym, changing facilities, press and media facilities, meeting room spaces, etc. The club also provides a social center and niteclub which makes "The Harriers" a very well known on the local social scene. Esssentially, the town of Tullamore would be a different place if it weren't for the presence of Tullamore Harriers AC.

 

Our photographs from the 2016 Half Marathon on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157669860212434

 

Our photographs from the 2015 Half Marathon on Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157655560294853

 

Our photographs from the 2014 Half Marathon on Flickr. www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157646587496250/

 

Our photographs from the 2013 Half Marathon on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157635307620452/

 

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

 

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share directly to: email, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

 

BUT..... Wait there a minute....

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not charge for our photographs. Our only "cost" is that we request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, VK.com, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm,etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us or acknowledge us as the original photographers.

 

This also extends to the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

 

You can download this photographic image here directly to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. Have a look for a down-arrow symbol or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

 

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

 

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting takes a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

 

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

Let's get a bit technical: We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

 

Above all what Creative Commons aims to do is to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

 

... is my title for this piece for the Moleskine Exchange Portrait Party Number One

 

Check out the Flickr group

 

This is Robin's Book. Monoprint on book page, with gouache.

 

is a second Western terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans vagrans) checking out the October weather at Idaho Fish and Game MK Nature Center in Boise. Photo by Frank.

 

This is a highly detailed, original watercolor painting of the Chicago Cubs 1940 uniform. It was created as part of a collection of 17 pieces of original art celebrating the history of the uniforms of the MLB Chicago Cubs. This original painting, and more than 1500 other NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA football and CFL uniform paintings, is available for sale at our Heritage Sports Art website.

To get a good understanding of the art, the history behind this whole project and what the art looks like when it's framed, check out our Chicago Cubs Artwork YouTube video.

You can also read several Chicago Cubs history posts at our Heritage Jerseys and Uniforms blog including a history of every home stadium the Cubs have ever played in - and also several hundred other NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA football and CFL posts too.

Giardini Naxos is a comune in the Province of Messina on the island of Sicily in Italy. It is situated on the coast of the Ionian Sea on a bay which lies between Cape Taormina and Cape Schisò. Today it is a popular seaside-resort.Founded by Thucles the Chalcidian in 734 BC, Naxos was never a powerful city, but its temple of Apollo Archegetes, protecting deity of all the Greek colonies, gave it prominence in religious affairs. Leontini and Catania were both colonized from here. Hippocrates, tyrant of Gela, captured it in 494 BC. Its opposition to Syracuse ultimately led to its capture and destruction in 403 BC at the hands of Dionysius the tyrant, after it had supported Athens during that city's disastrous Sicilian Expedition. Though the site continued to be inhabited, most activity shifted to neighbouring Tauromenium.In 1544, following the raids by Turkish corsair, Barbarossa Kheir-ed-Din, several military buildings were constructed to protect Cape Schisò from the Barbary pirates who continued to attack and plunder the coastal villages. These were Schisò Castle which was rebuilt from an earlier 13th century castle, Schisò fort, and Vignazza Tower. The latter is a quadrangular watchtower which served to patrol the coast south of Port Schisò; if any pirate boats were sighted, the observers inside the tower could alert the villagers and neighbouring watchtowers by sending out smoke signals. Vignazza Tower is located in the Recanati area of Giardini Naxos, but is not open to the public.Prior to the early 1970s, Giardini Naxos was a quiet fishing village. Now it is a popular tourist destination, famous for its beaches, panoramic view of the bay and surrounding hills, and its small, but bustling fishing port. It attracts foreign visitors and Italians alike, many of whom own summer residences in the comune. The seafront, Via Tysandros, is lined with hotels, smaller pensions, pubs, restaurants and pizzerias.

 

Giardini-Naxos è un comune di 9.152 abitanti della provincia di Messina. Anticamente chiamata Nasso, dista 39 km da Messina e 40 da Catania.Nell'attuale collocazione di Giardini-Naxos, presso Capo Schisò, nel 734 a.C. dei coloni calcidesi fondarono quello che è da tutti ritenuto il primo insediamento greco in Sicilia. Alla nuova colonia venne attribuito il nome di Naxos come l'omonima isola nel Mar Egeo. Nonostante rimase un centro di modeste dimensioni mantenne il suo valore simbolico, in quanto venne eretto un altare in onore di Apollo Archegetes, questo era il punto di partenza degli ambasciatori greci in ritorno alla madrepatria. Durante la Guerra del Peloponneso Naxos si schierò con Atene, ma quando nel 403 a.C. la spedizione militare ateniese in Sicilia fallì, il tiranno siracusano Dionigi il Vecchio la fece radere al suolo e fece costruire sull'altura sovrastante Tauromenion (Taormina). Il territorio venne donato ai Siculi e gli abitanti furono venduti come schiavi. Il nome Naxos permase nel tempo anche in epoca romana e nell'Itinerario Antonino del III secolo d.C. viene citato come località per lo scambio di cavalli lungo la strada consolare in direzione Siracusa. Nel periodo bizantino sulle spoglie della colonia greca si andò a formare un piccolo centro abitato, questo diventò l'approdo strategico per la vicina Taormina. Il periodo di dominio arabo ha lasciato numerosi toponimi come quello del vicino fiume Alcantara o dello stesso Capo Schisò.

 

Font : Wikipedia

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrbCw69ED2s

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1tVP6wBJIQ

This is a photograph from the second annual hosting of the Coralstown National School 5KM Road Race and Fun Run was held at Coralstown, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Wednesday 30th April 2013 at 19:30. This proceeds of the race were in aid of support for Coralstown National School. The race started and finished outside of Coralstown Church (beside the school - see Google StreetMap goo.gl/maps/oWGeu). The National School provided the facilities for changing rooms, toilets, registration, and parking. The race was organised by local athlete and Mullingar Harriers clubman Mattie Glennon. Mattie and a huge team of helpers and volunteers organised a wonderful evening's racing. The course was on small country roads and tarmac canal bank. Coralstown is located just off the M4 motorway between junctions 12 Kinnegad and 13 The Downs. It is approximately 7 miles east of Mullingar.

 

Well done to everyone involved. This was a great evening with a real sense of community spirit at the race. Spot prizes and refreshments were offered afterwards in the National School.

 

We have a full set of photographs from the race tonight on Flickr at this album location: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157644037961317/ The lighting conditions were not the best for photographs but I think we managed to capture most people finishing the race.

 

Overall Race Summary

Participants: Approximately 400 people took part

Weather: This was a very rainy evening with a heavy shower of rain before the race before clearing to drier conditions.

Course: Accurately measured course on rural roads and tarmac canal bank roadway. Course was marked in KMs and Miles.

Refreshments: There was bottled water available at the finish and then hot and cold refreshments served in the school.

Location Map: This is the start/finish area on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/oWGeu]

 

Reading on a Smartphone or tablet? Don't forget to scroll down further to read more about this race and see important Internet links to other information about the race! You can also find out how to access and download these photographs.

 

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

 

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

 

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.

 

This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

 

You can download the photographic image here direct to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. However - look for a symbol with three dots 'ooo' or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

 

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

 

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

 

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

 

Creative Commons aims to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

  

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

2020 Congratulating Joe Biden is President Elect and VP Kamala Harris - November Times Square Social Distancing Wednesday NYC during Coronavirus Protection Medical distancing in Clinton Neighborhood Corona virus COVID-19 near Times Square - AD Advertisement side walk forty second St and 9th Ave NYC 11/10/2020 New York City Covid 19 Subway sign Traffic looking South skyscraper department store sign Blue Sky forty second

...Is another woman's photo op. Taken a while ago at a women's bathroom at school on an especially rainy, windy day.

PS Waverley is named after Sir Walter Scott's first novel. She was built in 1946 to replace a PS Waverley that was built in 1899, served in the Second World War as a minesweeper and was sunk in 1940 while helping to evacuate troops from Dunkirk. Shipbuilders A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow launched the new 693 tonne steamer in October 1946. She entered service with the London and North Eastern Railway in June 1947, working the LNER's Firth of Clyde steamer route from Craigendoran Pier, near Helensburgh, up Loch Long to Arrochar. In her first year in service she wore that company's red, white and black funnel colours.

  

The Waverly with red lions and yellow funnels in 1970

The 1948 nationalisation of Britain's railways brought their Scottish steamers into the Caledonian Steam Packet Company (CSP), a subsidiary of the Railway Executive, and the funnels were repainted yellow with a black top. In 1965 a Scottish red lion rampant was fixed to each side of both funnels. Waverley's hull was painted monastral blue until 1970.

 

After a revival of fortunes in the 1950s, the 1960s saw a gradual change in holiday habits that led to a decline in passenger numbers and the closure of many of the small piers. Since 1969 and the formation of the Scottish Transport Group, the CSP had been gradually merging with the West Highland shipping and ferry company David MacBrayne Ltd. In 1973 the company became Caledonian MacBrayne Ltd (CalMac}

 

CalMac withdrew Waverley after the 1973 season as she was too costly to operate and needed significant expenditure. By then the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society had been set up as a registered UK charity, and had bought the near-derelict small River Dart paddler PS Kingswear Castle. CalMac, keen to ensure that the ship was preserved, sold Waverley to the PSPS for the token sum of one pound. Neither side really believed that the vessel would return to steam but, just in case, Caledonian MacBrayne stipulated that she should not sail in competition with their remaining cruise vessel, TS Queen Mary.

 

A public appeal was launched to secure funding for the return of the Waverley to service and the fund-raising operation was successful. The PSPS found itself running a cruise ship operation, "Waverley Excursions". Since then Waverley has been joined in the PSPS fleet by PS Kingswear Castle and MV Balmoral, and has had a series of extensive refits and much restoration work, including a new boiler and improvements to meet modern safety standards. She has circumnavigated Great Britain and every year makes extensive sailings around the country.

 

Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet,[3] between 2000 and 2003 the ship underwent a substantial rebuild and reboilering at the shipyard of George Prior at Great Yarmouth, funded principally by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The work was done in two stages, has added many 21st century safety and technological improvements and returned the ship to her original 1947 livery.

 

In 2009 the ship was affiliated with HMS Defender,[4] having hosted the official dignitary party at Defender's launch on the River Clyde. And in 2011 the ship was awarded the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 65th Engineering Heritage Award.

 

From Wikipedia:

 

"The Vesper is a cocktail that was originally made of gin, vodka, and Kina Lillet. Since that form of Lillet is no longer produced, modern bartenders need to modify the recipe to mimic the original taste, with Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano as a typical substitute.

 

The drink was popularised by author Ian Fleming (1908–1964) in his 1953 novel Casino Royale, in which the character James Bond invents the recipe and names the cocktail. Fleming's Bond calls it a "special martini", and though it lacks the vermouth that defined a martini in Fleming's day, it is sometimes called a Vesper martini."

 

IMG_0675

This is the Mary Peake (Elevation B) Tidewater Series single-family home by Ryan Homes. This home is available in the Fairways Cove neighborhood of Potomac Shores. The price starts at $530,000 with 2,865 basic square feet on 2 levels with an unfinished basement and 2 car garage. The floor plan allows 4-5 bedrooms, and 3.5 to 4.5 bathrooms.

 

Potomac Shores estate and single-family homes offer neighborhoods built among a 18 hole Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, miles of walking trails, elementary and middle schools built inside the community, a commercial town center, resort hotel, 450 slip marina, Virginia Railway Express commuter train station (Fredericksburg Line), office complex, athletic fields and courts, community center with workout and swimming facilities, and more.

 

Contact us at www.TheMoyersTeam.com for information, brochures, and showings. We are experienced new home agents.

This is a photograph from the finish of the annual Rita and Robbie's Christmas 5KM promoted by Navan AC and held at Claremont Stadium Navan in Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland on Thursday 27th December 2018 at 12:00. Just under 500 people took part making it one of the best attendances for this event in recent years. The weather for racing this year was a complete contrast to the weather from last year. In 2017 the weather was very cold with the frost from the night making road conditions icy and slippery. This year the race was held in relatively mild conditions with little or no breeze. All in all a perfect December day. There was an excellent club representation from around County Meath and surrounding areas.

The race started outside Claremont Stadium on the Robinstow Road and finished on the tartan track within the grounds of the stadium. The race followed a well known and historic 5km route which takes in the Navan Trim road moving onto Beechmount before turning back onto Navan Robinstown road back to the stadium. This route was used many times in the past for previous races hosted by the Navan Clubs. This photograph is part of a large set of photographs from today's race which is available on Flickr here at www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157674916720797

The race is dedicated to Rita Brady and Robbie Byrne who are both stalwards of athletics in Navan with both having given a lifetime of service to the promotion of athletics in the town of Navan and beyond. Both of their involvement with Navan-based athletics can be traced back not just in years but in decades - back to the 1940s, 50s and 60s and in more recent times. The race today is a suitable way of honoring their work and dedication.

Race timing and event management was provided by MyRunResults (www.myrunresults.ie)

 

This photograph is part of a set of photographs from the start and finish of the race.

. . . 3. 3. 2007 - this is the second day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week.

If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.

_____________________________________

 

The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").

 

The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.

 

Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.

 

ETHNIC IDENTITY

The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).

 

HISTORY

From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.

 

Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.

 

In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to

 

CHRISTIANITY

Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.

 

SOCIETY

There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.

 

FAMILY AFFILIATION

Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.

 

Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.

 

Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.

 

CLASS AFFILIATION

In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.

 

Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.

 

Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.

 

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.

 

The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.

 

CULTURE

TONGKONAN

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").

 

Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.

 

The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.

 

WOOD CARVINGS

To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.

 

Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.

 

Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.

 

FUNERAL RITES

In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.

 

The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.

 

Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.

 

There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.

 

In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.

 

DANCE AND MUSIC

Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.

 

As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.

 

A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.

 

LANGUAGE

The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.

 

ECONOMY

Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .

 

With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.

 

Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.

 

TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.

 

In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.

 

Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.

 

A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.

 

Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.

 

WIKIPEDIA

This Photo is #349 in my 365 Days of Photos Walking Around My Neighborhood Project. This project is part of the group with the same name at www.flickr.com/groups/neighborhood365/

Detroit is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the fourth-largest city in the Midwest and the largest city on the United States–Canada border. It is the seat of Wayne County, the most populous county in the state. Detroit's metropolitan area, known as Metro Detroit, is home to 5.3 million people, making it the fourteenth-most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the second-largest in the Midwestern United States (behind Chicago). It is a major port on the Detroit River, a strait that connects the Great Lakes system to the Saint Lawrence Seaway. The City of Detroit anchors the second-largest economic region in the Midwest, behind Chicago, and the thirteenth-largest in the United States.

 

Detroit is the center of a three-county urban area (population 3,734,090, area of 1,337 square miles (3,460 km2), a 2010 United States Census) six-county metropolitan statistical area (2010 Census population of 4,296,250, area of 3,913 square miles [10,130 km2]), and a nine-county Combined Statistical Area (2010 Census population of 5,218,852, area of 5,814 square miles [15,060 km2]). The Detroit–Windsor area, a commercial link straddling the Canada–U.S. border, has a total population of about 5,700,000. The Detroit metropolitan region holds roughly one-half of Michigan's population.

 

Detroit was founded on July 24, 1701, by the French explorer and adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and a party of settlers. With expansion of the automobile industry, the Detroit area emerged as a significant metropolitan region within the United States in the early 20th century, when the city became the fourth-largest in the country for a period. In the 1950s and 1960s, expansion continued with construction of a regional freeway system.

 

Due to industrial restructuring and loss of jobs in the auto industry, Detroit lost considerable population from the late 20th century to present. Between 2000 and 2010 the city's population fell by 25 percent, changing its ranking from the nation's 10th-largest city to 18th. In 2010, the city had a population of 713,777, more than a 60 percent drop from a peak population of over 1.8 million at the 1950 census. This resulted from suburbanization, industrial restructuring, and the decline of Detroit's auto industry. Following the shift of population and jobs to its suburbs or other states or nations, the city has focused on becoming the metropolitan region's employment and economic center. Downtown Detroit has held an increased role as an entertainment destination in the 21st century, with the restoration of several historic theatres, several new sports stadiums, and a riverfront revitalization project. More recently, the population of Downtown Detroit, Midtown Detroit, and a handful of other neighborhoods has increased. Many other neighborhoods remain distressed, with extensive abandonment of properties.

 

The Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, declared a financial emergency for the city in March 2013, appointing an emergency manager. On July 18, 2013, Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history. It was declared bankrupt by Judge Steven W. Rhodes of the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on December 3, 2013; he cited its $18.5 billion debt and declared that negotiations with its thousands of creditors were unfeasible. On November 7, 2014, Judge Rhodes approved the city's bankruptcy plan, allowing the city to begin the process of exiting bankruptcy. The City of Detroit successfully exited Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy with all finances handed back to the city at midnight on December 11, 2014.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit

 

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