Navaratri is a festival celebrating the nine forms of Goddess Durga. On the second night, Goddess Brahmacharini Devi is venerated.

Here ‘Brahma’ means meditation. The Goddess is the meditator or practitioner of penance. She is showing us how important our Sadhana and our penance is, our expression of devotion to the Divine.

Find out more:

www.bhaktimarga.org

The Brihadeshwara Temple at Thanjavur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It is an important example of Tamil architecture achieved during the Chola dynasty. The temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Great Living Chola Temples".

This is one of the largest temples in India and one of India's most prized architectural sites. Built by emperor Raja Raja Chola I and completed in 1010 AD, Peruvudaiyaar Temple, also popularly known as the 'Big Temple', turned 1000 years old in 2010.

Thanjavur Periya Kovil stands amidst fortified walls that were probably added in the 16th century. The vimanam (or temple tower) is 66 m) high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. The Kumbam (Kalasha or Chikharam, the apex or the bulbous structure on the top) of the temple is carved out of a single rock and it weighs around 80 tons. There is a big statue of Nandi (sacred bull), carved out of a single rock, at the entrance measuring about 16 feet long and 13 feet high. The entire temple structure is made out of granite, the nearest sources of which are close to Tiruchirappalli, about 60 km to the west of Thanjavur.

HISTORY

The temple had its foundations laid out by the Tamil emperor Arulmozhivarman, popularly called Rajaraja Chola I, in 1002 CE, as the first of the great Tamil Chola building projects.

The Brihadeshwarar Temple was built to grace the throne of the Chola empire in compliance to a command given to him in his dream. The scale and grandeur is in the Chola tradition. An axial and symmetrical geometry rules the temple layout. Temples from this period and the following two centuries are an expression of the Tamils (Chola) wealth, power and artistic expertise. The emergence of such features as the multifaceted columns with projecting square capitals signal the arrival of the new Chola style.

The Brihadeshwarar Temple was built to be the royal temple to display the emperor's vision of his power and his relationship to the universal order. The temple was the site of the major royal ceremonies such as anointing the emperor and linking him with its deity, Shiva, and the daily rituals of the deities were mirrored by those of the king. It is an architectural example showcasing the pure form of the Dravida type of temple architecture and representative of the Chola Empire ideology and the Tamil civilisation in Southern India. The temple "testify to the brilliant achievements of the Chola in architecture, sculpture, painting and bronze casting."

CONSTRUCTION

The wish to build a mammoth temple like this is said to have occurred to Raja Raja while he stayed at Sri Lanka as an emperor.

The esteemed architect and engineer of the temple was Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan as stated in inscriptions found at the temple. The temple was built per ancient texts called Vaastu Shastras and Agamas. He is the ancient ancestor of the doyan of Vaastu Vedic architecture, the late Dr. V. Ganapti Sthapati of Chennai and Mahabalipurim (architect of the 133' granite Thiruvalluvar statue at the tip of south India). Members of his family still live and practice the ancient art and science. The American University of Mayonic Science and Technology was initiated by Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati to perpetuate the same form of architectural principles used by Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan to build the Brihadeeswarar temple. The temple was built using a measure of 1 3/8-inch called an angula (24 units equalling 33 inches called a hasta, muzam, or kishku). This is the same measure found in ancient Lothal and other sites in the Indus Valley dating back 4000 - 6000 years. This same measure is used to build structures compliant with the Vaastu Shastras and Agamas today. While some builders use a different measure this is considered a standard due to its antiquity.

This temple is the first building fully built by granite and finished within 5yrs [1004AD – 1009AD]. The solid base of the temple raises about 5 metres, above which stone deities and representatives of Shiva dance. The huge kalasam or Vimanam (top portion of the shrine) is believed to weigh 81.28 tonnes of single stone block and was raised to its present height by dragging on an inclined plane of 6.44 km. The big Nandi (bull), weighing about 20 tonnes is made of a single stone and is about 2 m in height, 6 m in length and 2.5 m in width. The presiding deity of lingam is 3.7m tall. The prakaram (outer precincts of the temple) measures 240m by 125m. The outer wall of the upper storey is carved with 81 dance karanas – postures of Bharathanatyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu. The shrine of Goddess was added by Pandyas during the 13th century, Subramanya Shrine by Vijayanagara rulers and the Vinayaka shrine was renovated by Maratha rulers.

TEMPLE COMPLEX

The temple complex sits on the banks of a river that was channelled to make a moat around the complex's outer walls, the walls being built like a fortress. The complex is made up of many structures that are aligned axially. The complex can be entered either on one axis through a five-story gopuram or with a second access directly to the huge main quadrangle through a smaller free-standing gopuram. The massive size of the main Vimanam (Shikhara) is ca. 60 meters high, with 16 elaborately articulated stories, and dominates the main quadrangle. Pilaster, piers, and attached columns are placed rhythmically covering every surface of the Vimanam.

The gopuram of the main entrance is 30 m high, smaller than the vimana. It is unusual in the dravidian architecture where the gopurams are generally the main towers and taller than the vimanam.

MAIN TEMPLE

A first rectangular surrounding wall, 270 m by 140 m, marks the outer boundary. The main temple is in the center of the spacious quadrangle composed of a sanctuary, a Nandi, a pillared hall and an assembly hall (mandapas), and many sub-shrines. The most important part of the temple is the inner mandapa which is surrounded by massive walls that are divided into levels by sharply cut sculptures and pilasters providing deep bays and recesses. Each side of the sanctuary has a bay emphasising the principle cult icons. The karuvarai, a Tamil word meaning the interior of the sanctum sanctorum, is the inner most sanctum and focus of the temple where an image of the primary deity, Shiva, resides. Inside is a huge stone linga. The word Karuvarai means "womb chamber" from Tamil word karu for foetus. Only priests are allowed to enter this inner-most chamber.

In the Dravida style, the Karuvarai takes the form of a miniature vimana with other features exclusive to southern Indian temple architecture such as the inner wall together with the outer wall creating a pradakshina around the garbhagriha for circumambulation (pradakshina). The entrance is highly decorated. The inside chamber housing the image of the god is the sanctum sanctorum, the garbhagriha. The garbhagriha is square and sits on a plinth, its location calculated to be a point of total equilibrium and harmony as it is representative of a microcosm of the universe. In the center is placed the image of the deity. The royal bathing-hall where Rajaraja the great gave gifts is to the east of the hall of Irumudi-Soran.

The circumambulation winds around the massive lingam in the garbhagriha and is repeated in an upper story, presenting the idea that Chola Empire freely offered access to the gods.

The inner mandapa leads out to a rectangular mandapa and then to a twenty-columned porch with three staircases leading down. Sharing the same stone plinth is a small open mandapa dedicated to Nandi, Shiva's sacred bull mount.

TEMPLE DEITIES

The "moolavar" or prime deity of the Brihadeeswarar Temple is Shiva. All deities, particularly those placed in the niches of the outer wall (Koshta Moorthigal) like Dakshinamurthy, Surya, Chandra are of huge size. The Brihadiswarar temple is one of the rare temples which has idols for "Ashta-dikpaalakas" (Guardians of the directions) – Indra, Agni, Yama, Nirṛti, Varuṇa, Vāyu, Kubera, Īśāna – each of whom was originally represented by a life-sized statue, approximately 6 feet tall, enshrined in a separate temple located in the respective direction. (Only Agni, Varuṇa, Vāyu and Īśāna are preserved in situ.)

ADJOINING STRUCTURES

Surrounding the main temple are two walled enclosures. The outer wall is high, defining the temple complex area. Here is the massive gopuram or gateway mentioned above. Within this a portico, a barrel vaulted gorpuram with over 400 pillars, is enclosed by a high wall interspersed with huge gopurams axially lined up to the main temple.

FEATURES

Another widely held belief is that the shadow of the gopuram (pyramidal tower usually over the gateway of a temple) never falls on the ground. . The temple is said to be made up of about 60,000 tons of sandstone and granite. The Kumbam itself, a 60 ton granite stone carved in one piece, on top of the main gopuram is believed to have been taken to the top by creating an inclined slope to the height of 66m to the top of the gopuram. The prevailing belief is that a mud-slope, which starts at about three miles from the temple site, from Thirukoilore (birthplace of Raja raja's mother) near Sri Virateshvara swamy temple portrays the figure of the Thanjavur Temple. Elephants might have been used to drag the stone up the slope. This was claimed to be the only part of the gopuram, which does not cast a shadow that fall on the ground, at least not within the temple premises which is an architectural amazement in the world of architecture.

MURALS

The temple has Chola frescoes on the walls around the sanctum sanctorum potryaing Shiva in action, destroying demonic forts, dancing and sending a white elephant to transport a devotee to heaven. These frescoes were discovered in the 1940s and portray the mythological episodes of the journey of Saint Sundarar and the Chera King to heaven, the battle scene of Tripurantaka (Lord Siva) with Asuras (demons). The Chola artists have proved their mettle by portraying even the Asura women with a sense of beauty. Some of the paintings in the sanctum sanctorum and the walls in the passage had been damaged because of the soot that had deposited on them. Owing to the continuous exposure to smoke and soot from the lamps and burning of camphor in the sanctum sanctorum over a period of centuries certain parts of the Chola paintings on the circumambulatory passage walls had been badly damaged. The Tanjore Nayak kings replaced them with a few paintings of their own, about 400 years ago. The Archaeological Survey of India, for the first time in the world, used its unique de-stucco process to restore 16 Nayak paintings, which were superimposed on 1000-year-old Chola frescoes. These 400-year-old paintings have been mounted on fibre glass boards, displayed at a separate pavilion.

TEMPLE PERSONNEL

The temple was consecrated in 1010 CE by Raja Raja Chola I & in 2010 a celebration commemorated the temple's thousandth anniversary. The temple maintained a staff of 1000 people in various capacities with 400 being temple dancers Besides the Brahmin priests, these included record-keepers, musicians, scholars, and craftsman of every type as well as housekeeping staff. In those days the temple was a hub of business activities for the flower, milk, oil, and ghee merchants, all of whom made a regular supply of their respective goods for the temple for its poojas and during festival seasons. Moreover as evidenced by the inscriptions that found in the compound wall of this temple, the temple had always been serving as a platform for the dancers who excelled in the traditional dance form of Bharatnatyam. vallamuthu minnadi generation worshipped this temple.

WIKIPEDIA

This is a photograph from the 11th annual running of the Tom Brennan Memorial 5KM Road Race and Fun Run which was held on Furze Road, Phoenix Park, Chapelizod, Dublin, Ireland on New Year's Day Friday 1st January 2016 at 12:00. The race route is a two loop course which starts and finishes on the Furze Road in the middle of the Phoenix Park. Participants follow a clockwise, right-handed, route around Furze Road, Ordnance Survey and Chesterfield Avenue. The weather was not the best for fast racing. A very very strong stormy headwind into the faces of participants along Chesterfield Avenue made this particular section tough going for everyone. There was also a particularly cold icy feel in the air. However several hundred runners, joggers and walkers braved the elements to take part.

The race is organised and promoted by the local athletics club Liffey Valley Athletic Club who are based in Islandbridge, Dublin 8 and have a catchment area around this part of Dublin city.

The race commemorates the memory and contribution of former club member Tom Brennan who won the National Cross Country Championships in 1975 in UCD Belfield at the age of 24 years. A special commemorative perpetual trophy is presented to the winner of the race every year. The race is also of particular interest to those runners, joggers and walkers who are not necessarily involved in the competitive side of the race. Annually the race is the first of a series of races in Dublin city which make up the Lord Mayor’s 5 Alive Challenge. This initiative by Dublin City Council is now in its fourth year and over 300 runners, joggers and walkers volunteer to take part in five of Dublin’s most popular road races. The Liffey Valley Club and many other volunteers work hard to make this a very successful event. It provides a splendid opening of the New Year for runners of all abilities. It is also a fitting 'official' start to the new year of road racing in the Dublin and North Leinster region.

This photograph is part of a large set of photographs which was taken at the race. The complete set is available on our Flickr page at [https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157662953593456]

Timing and Event Management was provided by the new Irish company MyRunResults.com. The results from today's race can be found on their website in the results section [www.myrunresults.com/results.html]

LINKS:

Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2015: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157649636870307

The Dublin Lord Mayor's 5 Alive Challenge Hashtag on Twitter for 2016: twitter.com/hashtag/LordMayor5Alive?src=hash

Liffey Valley AC on Twitter: twitter.com/liffeyvalleyac

The Liffey Valley AC Website Homepage: liffeyvalleyac.com/

The Liffey Valley AC Facebook Page (might require Facebook logon to access): www.facebook.com/liffeyvalleyac

Location of the Phoenix Park on OpenStreetMap: www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.3587&mlon=-6.3362#map=...

GPS Garmin Trace of the 5KM Road Race Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/661573721

USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

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, 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

Spring is here and I can finally bring the plants out to the porch again!

This is a photograph from the start second annual running of the Renault Mullingar Half Marathon which was held on Thursday 17th March 2016 St. Patrick's Day Lá Fhéile Pádraig in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland at 10:30. This photograph was taken at the Green Bridge in Mullingar town. Following on from the incredible success of the inaugural year of the race this year the total numbers participating rose from just under 600 in 2015 to over 900 this year. As was the case last year the nominated charity was Childline. The roots of the success of the event last year was the perfect running weather, excellent organisation and a very flat and fast route. All of these characteristics were repeated this year. Incredibly the weather was almost a carbon copy of last year - cool, clear, still fresh Spring weather presenting runners with little or no wind. Participants traveled from all over Ireland with a very large participation from runners around Mullingar and the midlands. The race has an AAI permit. The race's early start time was to facilitate the annual St. Patrick's Day parade which brings a large number of local visitors to the town on an annual basis. Parking is free in Mullingar town for the entire day.

The race began on Pearse Street/Austin Friar's Street in the town and proceeds North East out of the town to the N52 Delvin/Dundalk road towards Lough Sheever. The course then follows beautiful rural country roads out to The Downs at the M4. The only hill or rise on the course occurs here at about 7 miles when runners cross the M4 at Junction 14 Thomas Flynn and Sons. The race then joins the now local access route of the old N4 road and then joins the Royal Canal at Great Down. The remainder of the race follows the Royal Canal back westward to Mullingar town. The towpath on the Canal is perfectly flat and in excellent condition. Runners will notice how the level of the canal changes dramatically along the route - at points the canal is level with the towpath. In other places the canal is at least 3 meters lower than the canal path. However the path is perfectly flat and firm the whole way. The course then leaves the Royal Canal at the Ardmore Road/Millmount area of the town and finishes in the Mullingar Town Park on Austin Friar's Street beside the Annebrook Hotel which is the Race Headquarters. The park provides a very nice setting for the finish of the race and runners and their families can mix and congregate around the finish area and the hotel.

Timing and event organisation was provided by Irish company MyRunResults. You can find all of the results of the race on their website at www.myrunresults.com

Useful Links:

Our Flickr Photo Album from the 2015 Mullingar Half Marathon www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157651394365962

The Annebrook House Hotel (Race HQ) www.annebrook.ie/

iRadio the official media partner www.iradio.ie/

Offical Race Facebook Page www.facebook.com/mullingarhalfmarathon/

Google Maps Location of the Start/Finish www.google.ie/maps/@53.5253133,-7.3369538,18z

USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

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, 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 the average car now a days large or is the mini small? That's the question!

Hyacinthus

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.

The immortal life of the king of Lanka. Click here to read at The Delhi Walla.

Krissy is a blast to shoot with; she is like a chameleon or a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get at a shoot. At the 2026 New Year's Day group shoot, she showed up looking rough and tough - but she is so sweet underneath. What a fun mini-shoot and I see more shoots with Krissy in 2026. Life is good!

This is Stranger 8 out of 100

Ernesto is a jeweler from Peru. He makes jewelry mostly out of recycled wood and wire. He says his stuff is all 100% recycled, and gathers his materials from all around Toronto. Inside his store, he has a small work bench complete with a buffing wheel and a scroll saw right by the store window. Underneath the shelves, he hides all his discarded tables, chairs, and wooden objects, which he makes his jewelry out of! He displays some of his work in very ornate and detailed wooden frames, which he said his brother made for him. His brother went to school for carpentry. I bought myself a ring and necklace from him. The ring is made from a piece of hard wood, stained black, engraved, polished smooth and filled with a resin. The necklace is made of an abalone shell. He said his work is "inspired by the universe", as he posed for the photo!

Ernesto was an extremely nice man. He looked at my bag, asked me to see it. He examines it, and says "Ah! That's how they do it!" He then tells me he's trying to make a bunch of leather bags to sell, but couldn't find out how to attach the shoulder strap without weakening the body. "You teach me, I teach you!" He tells me the process he used to make the ring I bought. As I went inside his store to check out his other work, he grabs a big empty jam jar, now filled with mashed potatoes and a chicken thigh. "Kings eat this," he says. A small child in blue, about 8 years old, waves at him through a window. "Hello!" he says enthusiastically, "He's my friend," he tells me.

Ernesto's store is located in Kensington Market, though sadly, I forgot where. I'll be sure to update this with the location once I find it!

Leica M8 | 50mm F2 Summitar

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Parineeti Chopra is currently busy with her Australian holiday and pictures would make you rather jealous. The actress was recently appointed as the brand ambassador of Australian tourism in India and she was third Indian actor after Sidharth Malhotra and Ranveer Singh, who was chosen to promote...

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#ActressParineetiChopraHotImages, #ParineetiChopraBikiniShotPictures, #ParineetiChopraFULLHDHotWallpapers

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This is a PRIVATE university student housing development by FAIRFIELD RESIDENTIAL, LLC. at The University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. I designed a resort style pool area with lap pool, water volleyball pool, water basketball, heated Jacuzzi, Bar-B-Q grills...pool is approx. 4,500 sq. ft. and the pool deck is 10,000 sq. ft. The shade arbor is a very strong design element in the pool area. This student housing development and;is 1 of 12 I designed for Fairfied Residential, LLC...also, designed projects like this one for this developer in Texas, Alabama, Florida and

North Carolina.

J. Robert Wainner

Is there a Nobel Prize for photos taken with the iPhone from the bike?

Foligno nell'era delle pavimentazioni 1

A Ezra Pound - La Finca Vigia, 19 luglio 1956

Caro E., domani essendo il mio cinquantasettesimo compleanno della mia età spero che accetterai la medaglia del mio Nobel che segue attraverso altri canali. Te la mando sulla base del vecchio principio cinese, col quale hai familiarità, secondo cui nessuno possiede nulla sinchè non l'ha dato ad unaltro.

Te la mando anche perchè sei il maggior poeta vivente; una piccola distinzione ma tua soltanto. Essa va anche al mio vecchio rivale di tennis, l'uomo che ha fondato BEL ESPRIT, e l'uomo che mi ha insegnato, gentilmente, a essere misericordioso e che ha cercato di insegnarmi a essere gentile quando avevo solo omertà.

The Maison Losseau is an Art Nouveau private house located in Mons, Belgium. Dating from the 18th century, it was renovated in Art Nouveau style in the early 1900s at the request of Léon Losseau by Paul Saintenoy. It is listed on the list of the exceptional heritage site of Wallonia and since 2015 houses a center for the interpretation of Léon Losseau's collections and regional literature. The house is located at number 37 rue de Nimy in Mons, next to the courthouse.

The neoclassical façade is covered with a white coating. The entrance door is detached, consisting of black cast iron columns decorated with golden leaves (1908) and fuchsia flowers of the same color.The house has very refined details. Each piece has a flower theme.The lobby has for example the theme of pink and orchid. A canopy with wooden beams overlooks the living room, which was decorated in 1911 by 15 pâte de verres of Amalric Walter representing the Belfry of Thuin and the river Sambre.

The facade, the roof and the interior of the house are classified as heritage monuments on the list of the exceptional heritage sites of Wallonia. Since 19 April 1982, the facade and the roofs are classified as heritage while the interior of the house was classified in 21 November 1983. In 2015, after a project launched in the early 2010s in anticipation of Mons 2015, a renovation began in 2011, the house reopened to the public in 2015. It houses a center for the interpretation of Léon Losseau's collections and a center for regional literature.

The original house was built in the eighteenth century. It was acquired in 1873 by Charles Losseau, the father of Léon Losseau.

Glass roof in the living room. Glass and wooden beams, stylization of rosebushes and orchids. (Daum 1905)

It was completely renovated by Paul Saintenoy who was contacted in 1899 by Léon Losseau, lawyer, bibliophile, photographer and art patron. The finishing works were entrusted to Parisian architects Henri Sauvage and Charles Sarazin and continued by the Brussels architect Louis Sauvage. Paul Saintenoy began its work in 1900 and completed it in 1904, while the majority of decorations were made between 1905 and 1912. The renovation that ended in 1913 included the addition of electricity, central heating and an elevator. Once the renovation was completed, it became the first private house in Mons equipped with electricity and central heating.

During his life, Léon Losseau accumulated more than 100,000 books in his private library, mostly devoted to politics, but also to literature and poetry. A foundation was created in 1952 to manage his legacy.

Phandar, Gilgit Baltistan.

Photo stamping is a lot of fun which is using a photo print (in this case, I stamp on a cloud photo printed on glossy photo paper) to use as a background/foundation for your imagery. Photo stamping doesn't have to be for scenic stamping as you can stamp anything type of stamp on to a photo but it works great for scenes. The type of photos you can use depends on what stamps you want to use on the photo. The more see-through a stamp is, the narrower the background tolerance can be as far as things like colors, contrasts, etc. as the background will show through the stamp impressions. The more solid a stamp is, the wider the variety of backgrounds can be used with it. If you're stamping on photo-paper, dye inks work great on them. You can use a solvent ink but if your'e going to color your imagery with alcohol inks/pens like I do in this video, the alcohol inks can dissolve the solvent ink so dye's are a great foundation with alcohol as those two don't mix. You might have to heat set your dye ink impressions if coloring right away. Standard pigment inks won't dry on photo paper from what I've experienced but the Brilliance fast drying pigment inks have no problem drying on this surface.

Free cloud photo downloads: flic.kr/p/2i5suVv

Original: Marvy dye based inks. Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black fast drying pigment ink for foreground images. Hero Arts Unicorn white and Tsukineko Moonlight White pigment ink for fog. 4" x 6" glossy photo paper print of clouds (see my flickr ink if you would like to download and print this photo). Shuttle Art and Marvy alcohol pens. Miaosun white acrylic paint pen.

Stampscapes stamps used: Tree Trunk 088F, Tree Trunk Trio 088F, Pine Tree 196F, Sedge Filler 251C, Boulders w/Lichen Sm 210C, Reeds Lg 068D, Tiny Rocks Sm 329A, Leaves 399E.

For more information visit: www.stampscapes.com

Oh, yes... one year makes a hell of a difference! Stay tuned, this set's going to be small but spectacular! Images: 8/2011 and 10/2012

HUGE thanks, once again, to Artspace for not just letting me photobomb this place again but for saving the Karcher from near-destruction!

Karcher Hotel/Karcher Artspace Lofts -- Waukegan, IL -- 10/20/12

Taormina is a comune and small town on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of Messina, about midway between Messina and Catania. Taormina has been a very popular tourist destination since the 19th century. It has popular beaches (accessible via an aerial tramway) on the Ionian sea, which is remarkably warm and has a high salt content. Taormina can be reached via highways from Messina from the north and Catania .Just south of Taormina is the Isola Bella, a nature reserve. Tours of the Capo Sant' Andrea grottos are also available. Taormina is built on an extremely hilly coast, and is approximately a forty-five minute drive away from Europe's largest active volcano, Mount Etna.A stay at Taormina is not just a seaside vacation. This area, rich in charm and history, must be experienced in a spirit that is outside the ordinary, and for one simple reason: here, everything is extraordinary. Every stone is a thousand-year-old piece of history, the glorious sea reflects Taormina's beauty, as it shapes and marks the passage of time, and the places that enchanted the Greeks create to this day a vibrant and exciting ambiance. But trying to describe in words what makes Taormina unique is truly difficult.

Taormina ist eine Stadt mit 11.076 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2010) an der Ostküste Siziliens. Die Gründung der Stadt geht auf die Sikuler zurück, die schon vor der griechischen Kolonisation auf den Terrassen des Monte Tauro siedelten. Im 4. Jahrhundert vor Christus wurde die Stadt griechisch. Die heutige Stadt ist eine Neugründung aus dem Mittelalter, nachdem die Araber die antike Stadt zerstört hatten.Auf Grund der malerischen Landschaft, des milden Klimas und zahlreicher historischer Sehenswürdigkeiten entwickelte sich die Stadt im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert zu einem der wichtigsten Touristenzentren Siziliens. Besonders bekannt und sehenswert sind das antike Theater mit Blick auf den Ätna und den Golf von Giardini-Naxos und die kleine Insel Isola Bella vor der Küste Taorminas.

Taormina (griego antiguo Ταυρομένιον, Tauromenion, latín Tauromenium) es una ciudad situada en la costa este de la isla de Sicilia (Italia), en la provincia de Mesina, a medio camino entre Mesina y Catania. Cuenta con 10.991 habitantes.Está casi en el límite de la provincia de Catania, se extiende por el monte Tauro, a 200 m de altitud, y se halla en un balcón sobre el mar, enfrente del volcán Etna. Es un centro turístico muy importante desde el siglo XIX.Posee magníficas playas (accesibles mediante teleférico) y un patrimonio histórico muy rico, cuyo máximo exponente es el célebre teatro greco-romano. Además, se conserva un castillo árabe, que ocupa el lugar de la antigua ciudadela o Arx.Taormina y el volcán Etna al fondo, desde el teatro griego.La ciudad fue fundada por los griegos en el 736 a. C., con el nombre de Naxos.La leyenda cuenta que los marinos griegos que pasaban por la costa oriental de Sicilia olvidaron realizar sacrificios en honor a Poseidón, y él, encolerizado, les hizo naufragar. El único superviviente, Teocles, llegó al Capo Schico, próximo a Naxos, y volvió a Grecia para contar las maravillas de Sicilia, convenciendo a sus compatriotas para instalarse en la isla.

Taormine, en italien Taormina, est une commune de la province de Messine en Sicile (Italie).Taormine est située sur la côte est de la Sicile, à peu près à mi-chemin entre Messine et Catane (50 km), presque à la limite de la province de Catane.Elle s’étend sur le Mont Tauro à 200 m d’altitude. La ville est en balcon sur la mer face à l’Etna. La Calabre, distante d'environ 30 km, est visible par temps clair ainsi que la nuit.La légende dit que des marins grecs, passant sur la côte orientale de la Sicile, avaient oublié de sacrifier à Neptune. Celui-ci, en colère, fit chavirer leur embarcation. Le seul survivant, Théocle, parvint au Cap Schiso, non loin du site de Naxos (aujourd'hui Giardini-Naxos). Il retourna ensuite en Grèce pour narrer à ses compatriotes les merveilles de la Sicile. Certains, convaincus, décidèrent de venir s’y installer.

Taormina è un comune di 10.991 abitanti della provincia di Messina. E' uno dei centri balneari di maggiore rilievo di tutta la regione. Il suo aspetto, il suo paesaggio, i suoi luoghi, le sue bellezze riescono ad attirare turisti provenienti da tutto il mondo.Situata su una collina a 206 m di altezza sul livello del mare , sospesa tra rocce e mare su un terrazzo del monte Tauro, in uno scenario di bellezze naturali unico per varietà e contrasti di motivi , splendore di colori e lussureggiante vegetazione.Il clima è dolcemente mite.Molto belle le mezze stagioni , Primavera e Autunno infatti vantano un clima idealmente mite.La storia di Taormina è sicuramente costellata da molteplici dominazioni, e questo è possibile vederlo passeggiando per le strade del centro storico che mostrano i segni lasciati dai vari popoli passati per Taomina. Essendo situata al centro del mediterraneo la Sicilia fu sempre una preda ambita per la sua posizione strategica di passaggio,situata sulla parte est e in posizione fortificata su una collina permetteva già da allora di controllare buona parte della costa ionica e ha sempre rappresentato un ottimo punto di fortificazione e controllo nelle stradegie di guerra. Dopo aver attestato l'esistenza di una sede di siculi ( antichi abitanti dell'isola, detti anche sicani) presso Taormina, per certo vi passarono e vi lasciarono le loro tracce I Greci, i Romani, i Saraceni, dunque gli Arabi, i Bizantini ,I Normanni , Gli Aragonesi , e per ultimi i Borboni.Un soggiorno a Taormina non è semplicemente una vacanza al mare. Questi luoghi, pregni di storia e di fascino, chiedono infatti di essere vissuti con uno spirito diverso da quello comune e la ragione è semplice: qui tutto è fuori dall'ordinario.Ogni pietra reca in sé una storia millenaria, il mare meraviglioso su cui Taormina riflette tutta la sua bellezza, condiziona e scandisce lo scorrere del tempo ed i luoghi che furono l'incanto dei greci trasmettono tutt'oggi un'atmosfera vibrante di emozioni. Ma tentare di descrivere con le parole ciò che rende unica Taormina è davvero difficile.

Font : Wikipedia

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgokPbsuXrw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2na3n59torA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMiplnTr6FU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDDZzYD2vxY

2010年2月12日的2009鴻海科技集團年終旺年會

[ Canon EOS 50D + Canon EF 70 -300mm F4-5.6 IS USM ] - RAW 4752 x 3168 -

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February 2010　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Photo by Kai-Chu © All rights reserved

This is a creative commons image, which you may freely use by linking to this page. Please respect the photographer and his work.

[The album has 9 photos] This Art Moderne commercial structure is in Mena, Arkansas (Polk County). Built in 1948, it is stucco over concrete blocks. The roof is flat, covered in tar; and the foundation is of concrete. The parapet is curved and shows a hand-painted Studebaker logo, all capped with a narrow ledge. Other Art Moderne features are the curved corners and the glass blocks which either contain a pattern of red spots or reflects something inside the building (see images 8 and 9 in this set). The wraparound glass block panels contain 300 blocks each. The curvilinear showroom has 16 single vertical curved panes, allowing for plenty of light. Above this set of windows is a small ledge or overhang. The dealership had a short life span, only 14 years, closing in 1962. It has since been used before restoration as an auto garage, a dry cleaners, machine shop and restaurant. Images 3 and 10 show the contents of the showroom, which are calculated to take one back to a former time. I don't know if the building is open or not, but it commands a distinctive architectural place in Mena. It was added to National Register of Historic Places June 9, 2000 with ID #00000636. My major source of information, other than being there in person, was the National Register of Historic Places nomination form.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Sponza Palace, also called Divona, is a 16th-century palace in Dubrovnik. Its name is derived from the Latin word "spongia", the spot where rainwater was collected. The rectangular building with an inner courtyard was built in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style between 1516 and 1522 by Paskoje Miličević Mihov. The loggia and sculptures were crafted by the brothers Andrijić and other stonecutters. The palace has served a variety of public functions, including as a customs office and bonded warehouse, mint, armory, treasury, bank and school. It became the cultural center of the Republic of Ragusa with the establishment of the Academia dei Concordi, a literary academy, in the 16th century. It survived the 1667 earthquake without damage. The palace's atrium served as a trading center. The palace is now home to the city archives, which hold documents dating back to the 12th century, with the earliest manuscript being from 1022. These files, including more than 7000 volumes of manuscripts and about 100,000 individual manuscripts, were previously kept in the Rector's palace / Dubrovnik is a city on the Adriatic Sea in southern Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport and the center of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its total 2019 population was <30,000. In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. The prosperity of the city was historically based on maritime trade; as the capital of the maritime Republic of Ragusa, it achieved a high level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries, as it became notable for its wealth and skilled diplomacy. In 1991, after the break-up of Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik was besieged by Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army for seven months and suffered significant damage from shelling. The 'Pearl of the Adriatic', situated on the Dalmatian coast, became an important Mediterranean Sea power from the 13th century onwards. Although severely damaged by an earthquake in 1667, Dubrovnik managed to preserve its beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces and fountains. Damaged again in the 1990s by armed conflict, it has since a focus for its complete restoration in a program coordinated by UNESCO. After making repair and restorations in the 1990s and early 2000s, Dubrovnik has re-emerged as one of the top tourist destinations in the Mediterranean.

This is a photograph from the second running of the newly situated Irish 3/4 Marathon (formerly the Athlone 3/4) which was held in Longwood, Enfield, Co. Meath, Ireland on Sunday 8th of October 2017 at 10:00. The event is positioned perfectly in the calendar as a key training race before the Dublin City Marathon at the end of the month. This year was the second year that the event was held in Longwood, Co. Meath which is now well known for its hosting of the Longwood 10KM/5KM annual races and a host venue for East of Ireland Marathon series marathons on a bi-annual basis. The race started and finished at Longwood GAA club just outside the village of Longwood. It followed an anti-clockwise course around the beautiful picturesque countryside of south Meath. The course went through the townlands of Longwood, Castlerickard, Killyon, Hill-of-Down, Anneville and Ashfield Clonard, Blackshare, Stoneyford and back to Longwood. The river Boyne and Blackwater were crossed as was the Royal Canal and the Dublin-Sligo Railway line at Hill-of-Down. Overall this was a very different course to the previous years in Athlone. The overall elevation of the course works out at 3/4 of the total elevation of the Dublin Marathon course. What most stood out about today's race was the course and how the countryside around it looked on a beautiful almost perfect Autumn morning. There was a large local effort with stewarding and many local people watched from their gardens as the race passed by. The organisation of the race was first class with every detail taken care of from the start until the finish. There was some rain showers from about 13:00 onwards but these soon passed.

There is a large set of photographs from today's race - taken at the start in Longwood village and the 25KM mark outside near our home.

They are available on our Flickr photostream at the following set. www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157687694983023

Photographs from 2016's race are available on our Flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157673672195732

NOTE: These are completely unofficial photographs are not connected commercially with the Irish 3/4 marathon event photography. Please check the Official Website www.irish3quartermarathon.ie/ for official photographs and other media.

USING OUR 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 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

Shaikh Salim Chishti was Sufi saint during Mughal Empire in South Asia. Salim Chishti (1478-1572) was one of the famous Sufi saints of the Chishti Order in India. Salim Chishti was the descendant of the famous Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti whose tomb is in Ajmer, Rajasthan

The tomb of Shaikh Salim was originally built with red sandstone but later converted into a beautiful marble mausoleum. Currently his descendant syed sajjada Nasheen Ayaz uddin Faridi alias Rais mia lives there and maintains the Mazar. Salim Chishti's Mazar (tomb) is in the middle of The Emperor's Courtyard at Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh, India. Childless women, particularly those without a male heir, still continue to pray on bended knees before his tomb.

It is believed that by offering prayers at this Mazar whatever one wishes will definitely get fulfilled . There is also a ritual of tying a thread at the marble windows of this Dargah to in order to have one's wishes fulfilled and, consequently, many threads can be seen to be tied there. The ancestral house of shaikh Salim Chishti is behind the first building built in Fatehpur Sikri, which is known as "Sangtarash mosque" or Stone Cutter's mosque. One of the oldest buildings in Fatehpur Sikri, Stone Cutter's mosque is situated to the west of the Jami Masjid, which was built by the local stone cutters in honour of Salim Chishti. It has some beautiful architectural features, marking the incorporation of indigenous architectural styles in the construction. This is the mosque where Salim Chishti spent most of his time in-between the numerous hajjes he performed.

Salim Chishti's mazar is one of the most notable accomplishments of Mughal architecture, surpassed only in reputation, and is flanked by the massive Buland Darwaza or Victory gate on the southern side, the Badshahi darwaza or Emperor's gate on eastern side, and a grand mosque Jama masjid on western side, as well as by courtyards, a reflecting pool, and other tombs. Construction commenced in 1571 and the work was completed fifteen years later.

ABC's and 123's One is for One Beautiful Piece of Art from a One-of-a-Kind Friend!

PizzaBuzz is, in a city so full of new restaurant openings, a very good idea indeed. The concept can be summed up (crudely) as âDIY Pizzaâ or "we have the toppings, you do the rest!" or "Subway, but with pizzas!". This doesnât really do it justice however and there is, obviously, much more to it than that - which Iâll now try to elaborate upon:

Essentially the idea is semi-self service pizza/food assembly. You take your place at the start of their "DIY pizza assembly lineâ and prepare yourself a pizza entirely of your own devising (though you donât have to do anything really asides from tell them what you want your pizza to be made of - it arrives pre sliced too, woo!).

You choose from 5 types of bases (gluten free options are available). These range from a âregularâ Margherita (cheese, tomato etc) to the Bianca (white sauce, mozzarella, parmesan) - plus a pretty fkn extensive range of toppings, divided into vegetables, proteins (i.e meats, fish) and cheese. Said toppings include such gastronomic curiosities such as bacon jam and wild rock shrimp. The recommended number of toppings for a pizza is about 4-5, though apparently one guy came in (drunk) on a Friday night once and ordered a £20+ pizza that contained EVERY SINGLE topping they offered. It ended up looking like a pyramid (hahahahaha!)

And, if you donât fancy coming up with your own pizza, their âsignature collectionâ of pre-designed pizzas come in around £10, and have names like Middle Earth and Etna. Once youâve picked your combo of ingredients, it takes them about 1-3 minutes to cook the whole thing in their wood fired ovens - so you might even be able to describe it as fast food. Takeaway is also an option. In the Southern Italian style, you can also get a burrata (and choose what ingredients to have it with, which is the recurring theme...)

As for the ambiance - PizzaBuzz lives inside the brand spanking new Alphabeta development on Worship street. On the inside it has a minimal vibe - almost the feel of an industrial space about it. Except theyâve made it more friendly with offcentre animal illustrations drawn onto the walls (pictured) plus their colourful logo and a recurring love of hexagonal things. Plus staff singing along to the music (not sure if this is an actual feature or if I just came in at the right time ^_^)

I must also tell you about the dough - which took a yearâs development and is quite something (theyâve got a video called âJane Doughâ in which the dough explains this all to you in a Yorkshire accent, lol). Anyway, it comes from a small mill in Oxfordshire and is, unusually, 50% spelt. I am told that this results in better texture, digestibility and mouthfeel than regular pizza. This is a big claim to make, and Iâm not sure I agree - the pizza I had, however, WAS very good and thatâs all I can say about that.

All in all, Pizzabuzz is taking a very good idea from another restaurant (*ahem*) and applying it to pizza very, very well. I wasnât surprised to hear that they have another site opening soon and can see them doing pretty well in future. Inherently, itâs fun, a bit silly, and provides you with a lot more choice than most of the (pizza based) competition. Definitely a place Iâd recommend to everybody (because who the hell doesnât like pizza, really?!)

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting name: Fagot) was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. In aerial combat during the Korean War, it outclassed straight-winged jet day fighters, which were largely relegated to ground-attack roles. In response to the MiG-15’s appearance and in order to counter it, the United States Air Force rushed the North American F-86 Sabre to Korea. The MiG-15 is believed to have been one of the most produced jet aircraft evr, with more than 13,000 manufactured.

SBLim-1A aircraft were withdrawn from service by 1975. The SBLim-2A were retired in the early 1990s, but this was not the end of their career. Some were, however, after the 7th Special Aviation Regiment had been termintaed, converted back to training versions during overhauls and re-designated as SBLim-2M. The last examples of the SBLim-2M were withdrawn from service in the early 1990s.

General characteristics:

Crew: 2

Length: 10.04 m (32 ft 10½ in) overall

8,02 m (26 ft 3¼ in) hull only

Wingspan: 10.08 m (33 ft 1 in)

Height: 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)

Wing area: 20.6 m² (222 sq ft)

Airfoil: root: TsAGI S-10; tip: TsAGI SR-3

Empty weight: 3.916 kg (8,625 lb)

Gross weight: 5,044 kg (11,995 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 5.446 kg (15,585 lb)

Fuel capacity: 1,420 L (380 US gal; 310 imp gal) internal

Powerplant:

1× WSK Lis-2 (license-built Klimov VK-1A) centrifugal-flow turbojet,

with 26.5 kN (5,955 lbf) maximum thrust

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1,050 km/h (669 mph, 581 kn) / Mach 0.87 at sea level

1,031 km/h (640 mph; 560 kn) / Mach 0.9 at 5,000 m (16,377 ft)

Cruise speed: 850 km/h (530 mph, 460 kn) / Mach 0.69

Ferry range: 2,520 km (1,570 mi, 1,360 nmi) at 12,000 m (39,370 ft)

with 2x600 L (160 US gal; 130 imp gal) drop-tanks

Service ceiling: 15,200 m (49,800 ft)

Rate of climb: 42 m/s (8,255 ft/min)

Wing loading: 255 kg/m² (60.7 lb/sq ft) at MTOW

Thrust/weight: 0.54

Armament:

1 or 2× 23 mm Nudelman-Rikhter NR-23 autocannon in the lower left fuselage (80 RPG each)

2× underwing hardpoints for 100 kg (220 lb) bombs, drop tanks, or unguided rockets

The kit and its assembly:

This is another Hobby Boss MiG-15, but this time the two-seat trainer kit. While it effectively a what-if model, this project is very close to reality – in fact it’s only the paint scheme (even though this was inspired by a real Polish Navy SBLim-2A, see below) and tactical code that are fictional, or rather a personal interpretation or real-world things.

The Midget was built OOB, and external difference to an earlier baseline MiG-15 (e. g. shape and position of the airbrakes) will only be obvious to expert eyes. The Mig_15 kit is one of the more complex Hobby Boss kits (read: more than just a fuselage plus wings and some bits to stick onto this base) like the company’s F9F or Hawker Seahawk and IMHO pretty good and crisp. It’s still quite simple, but it features many small detail parts to be added to the airframe that yield a convincing model, including a surprisingly well detailed cockpit tub, a nice landing gear and two different pairs of underwing tanks (slipper and drop-shaped tanks with fins).

While it goes together well there are some watchouts:

- Locator pins inside the air intake should be sanded away, they are visible from certain angles

- The canopy’s locator pins should be removed, too, and I split the part for open cockpit display

- Do not forget to add nose weight, even though there is little internal space for it

Painting and markings:

While it looks as if it had been painted in a fever dream this Midget is very close to reality! The Polish Navy SBLim-2As all carried individual camouflage paint schemes, with three and sometimes even fopur different colors, and wide and wild color choices! For my build I adapted the scheme of a real aircraft coded “2004 Red”, of which I only had a starboard profile drawing, though. So, the colors and the pattern from the left and above had to be guessed, and I gave it a fictional new tactical code. To make things look even more spectacular I adopted a painting detail from another SBLim-2A (“6010 Red”): it had, probably during overhaul, been re-touched with fresh bluish dark green paint (a tone NOT part of its original camouflage in dark green, erath brown, a bluish grey and rather yellowish sand or ochre tone) in many places, e. g. on leading edges, around the cockpit and over some inspection flaps. A wild and shaggy look, even though I am certain that the aircraft were in a very good shape.

Finding appropriate tones for everything took a while, and I settled for bright Humbrol 89 (mid Blue) underneath and Model Master 2031 (Blue FS 35109), Humbrol 149 (Dark Green, FS 34092), Revell 43 (USAF Neutral Grey, FS 36270) and Model Master 2134 (Fulcrum Gray Green). The touch-ups werre done with thinned Humbrol 3 (Brunswick green). The drop tanks (in this case I used the standard pylon-mounted variant) were painted with aluminum metallizer.

The cockpit tub was painted in the dreaded Soviet anti-fatigue teal, with a black dashboard and dark grey seats. The landing gear and the respective wells were painted in a grey tone (Revell 43), with bright green wheel discs as contrast, using good benchmark pics from literature (e. g. the exhaustive “Mikoyan MiG-15” by Yefim Gordon and Dmitriy Komissarov).

The markings mostly came from a Gran MiG-15UTI kit that I had procured for this project because of its decals sheet – it includes markings for a 7th Special Naval Aviation Regiment SBLim-2A, specifically the unit’s badge consisting of an owl perched on top of an anchor. The same sheet provided the national markings as well as the many blue stencils, which add a modern touch to the vintage Midget. The tactical code was puzzled together from single red digits, from a PLAAF aircraft (Trumpeter).

Some panel shading was done as well as dry-brushing with light grey to add a used look, and finally the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and the wire antenna, made from heated black sprue material, was mounted between cockpit and fin.

Canon A800

* This is the 24.5" model of the J/24.

The model is mounted on the Teak backboard.

The model dimension is 24.5"(L) x 8"(H) x 4"(D). The size of this backboard is 31.5"(W) x 12.5"(H). The model scale is 1/12. The model weight is 11 LBS. The model is built with gelcoat & fiberglass using 3 part molds.

The link to the detail pictures of this model is listed below :

goo.gl/photos/6KhitMRaSHAVCnxE7

The link to the detail pictures of the latest models is listed below :

goo.gl/photos/M7uwYtSLUgBUChGY6

www.pinterest.com/halfhull/zuma-boat/

www.pinterest.com/halfhull/boards/

Please contact Mas at halfhull@gmail.com or please visit the web at www.halfhull.net for more information.

Zuma Boat

(404) 272-7889

halfhull@gmail.com

www.halfhull.net

El Teatro Romano is the oldest monument in Málaga City; it is situated in the cultural heart of the city, at the foot of the Alcazaba fortress. It is one of the only ancient ruins left in Málaga after the outwardly Republican city was bombed by Nationalist sympathizers - the Italian army - during the Civil war, and one of the only remaining Roman ruins in Andalucía after centuries of warfare, and construction. The site is accompanied by the Centro de Interpretación (visitors centre) which teaches visitors about the history of the ruins and its subsequent excavation.

History of the theatre

The theatre was built in the first century BC, under Emperor Augustus, and was used until the third century AD. Subsequently it was left to ruin for centuries, until the Moors settled in Andalucía. In 756-780AD the amphitheatre was used as a quarry by the Moorish settlers , to excavate the stone used to build the Alcazaba fortress - you can see some Roman columns and capitals in the fortress. Over time it became buried under dirt and rubble, and remained hidden there for almost five centuries.

The theatre was rediscovered in 1951, when the construction of Casa de Cultura uncovered the first archaeological clues. The construction of the gardens was abandoned, and instead excavations began. In 1995 a polemic decision was made to demolish the Casa de la Cultura, which stood over a third of the site. Once the site had been fully excavated, a large scale restoration project began, which proved more difficult than anticipated, as many of the missing pieces are now part of the foundations of the neighbouring Alcazaba.

On 15 September 2011, 27 years after reconstruction began, El Teatro Romano reopened to the public, and held its first stage performances for millennia, with performances from Andrés Mérida, Daniel Casares, and Carlos Álvarez, reading from Juvenal Soto and the poetry of Pablo Picasso and Manuel Alcántara. The amphitheatre is now open throughout the year for visitors, and in summer, it will be used for open-air performances. It seats 220 spectators.

Layout

The theatre is separated into three parts: the Cavea (general seats), the Orchestra (VIP seats) , and the Proscaenium (stage). The Cavea is the spectators' circle: 31m in radius and 16m high, it is a semi-circular shape divided by aisles into three parts - Inma Cávea, Media Cávea, and Sunma Cávea - which can all be accessed by separate Vomitoria (exit passageways, literally "spew forth").

The Orchestra is situated between the Cávea and the Proscaenium. This is the area where the more important citizens sat. The Proscaenium is the stage area. It is raised slightly above the Orchestra area, to give the best view, and would ordinarily have a wooden floor.

Visitor Centre

A new Centro de Interpretación (visitor centre) adjacent to the amphitheatre, opened in October 2010 is the free entrance to the site. A long rectangular building made of steel, serigraphic glass and wood, the centre itself is visually stunning, as its design in simple but striking, and the glass is engraved with Latin text, the Lex Flavia Malacitana (the legal declarations of Málaga under the Roman Empire). The building was designed by Antonio Tejedor with a dual purpose: to provide a base for archaeologists, and to provide information for visitors to the site. The centre contains little historical information about the site, and a few archaeological discoveries, uncovered from the site, such as tools and pottery, and audiovisual exhibitions of the site's excavation and restoration.

Location

Address: Calle Alcazabilla, 8. Málaga 29012.

Tel: 951 041 400

Admission: Free (but not advertised on outside as free)

No disabled acces to the site.

Source: www.andalucia.com/cities/malaga/teatro-romano.htm

I absolutely love shooting with Vanessa. She is the type of person you want to clone as soon as you meet her. Pure sweetness. Our photography history is pretty cool - I first shot her when she was very pregnant, shortly after she had her baby girl, on the day of her Dad's memorial service and she needed photo therapy, and now that she is getting back in shape.

Vanessa joined us for a small group shoot at a friend's house. We had three shooters and three models and it was cramped quarters. There was also issues with the lighting so I ended up using on camera flash (not my favorite). Grrrr. Vanessa looked stunning and I was glad I had another chance to shoot with her - and we have another shoot in the works!

Rolleiflex GX 60 Jahre

Fuji Provia

500@2.8 R.nar1 ml

This is an immature Katydid in the family Tettigoniidae of the suborder Ensifera, in the order Orthoptera. It's perched on a new Aster (Asteraceae) flower in the garden this morning. It was overcast today, perfect for capturing these delicate colors. (San Marcos Pass, 12 July 2012)

It may well be an Angle-wing Katydid in the genus Microcentrum - possibly the California Angle-winged Katydid (Microcentrum californicum). These are gentle leaf-like creatures which do no harm.

We had an interesting weather day! It was overcast all day, and about 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. We've had a few raindrops from tropical monsoon moisture, and there's a chance of rain - and lightning - tonight!

The Maison Forte de Reignac is a kind of fortified Manor House that has been built into the rock. The majority of its roof is the overhanging cliff that is above it. Its modest appearance on the outside belies the scale of the building on the inside.

The Maison Forte de Reignac has been closed to the public until recently. It is now the only cliff-castle of its type in France that is so totally intact.

EXPLORING THE MAISON FORT DE REIGNAC

The front of the house was built in the 14th century and its windows added in the 16th century, though the rock shelter has been occupied since historic times.

The initial entrance leads into a large underground rock chamber which is now used to display some of the prehistoric objects discovered on the site.

Maison ForteFrom here a tour of the building reveals many rooms with their period furnishings but each room has the odd anomaly of a stone wall or stone roof as most are built of stone at the front with windows etc but at the back of the room the wall or ceiling is the rock of the cliffs into which the house has been built.

The combination of the rock roof and rear walls and various defensive features of the chateau mean that it is one of the strongest of the Dordogne.

The rooms include kitchen, dining room, living room and chapel amongst others.

One of the smallest rooms belonged to one of the notorious inhabitants of the chateau. It is called the 'Billy goat room' after 'The Billy Goat of Reignac'. The chronicles of Eugene El Roy tell that his reputation was known throughout the Vezere Valley. He exercised his right of 'jus primae noctis' (right of the first night) over the women and girls of the region with a particular brutality. Men had to present their wives to the lord of the chateau on their wedding night for him to amuse himself as he wished!

This is a yamabushi monk. On his head is a tokin. The tokin is a means to focus energies for enlightment.

He is holding a shakujyo. It is used to bless the participants and to aid in enlightenment.

For an explanation of the festival, see the description in the set. Photos in the set are arranged chronologically to aid in understanding the event. Unfortunately, I've written the photo descriptions with the assumption that the set description was read first. That is likely not the case.

Here she is—Brushtail Mousie, in all her cunning glory, relishing the political battle! You can see the fire in her eyes as she plots her next move.

This is another exciting model of the M-ATV MRAP series. It depicts an All-Terrain MRAP Vehicle (M-ATV), this time in Extended Configuration.

As all our models it was developed in 3D software and a digital tooling was created, which was used to produce selected parts and components. Most of the parts and components were produced by rapid prototyping, using nylon for over 80% of these parts. In addition some of the nylon parts were also reinforced by metal, which made them even more durable. As its sister model in Standard Configuration, this version is also mounted on a wood finished base and protected with a clear acrylic cover. Two of these models were produced.

The model also earned high recognition for the accuracy and high level of detailing. It will possibly be followed by a series of smaller scale executive desktop models (multiples).

This is the Carraig Phádraig, or the Rock of Cashel, also known as St. Patrick’s Rock, located in the town of Cashel in County Tipperary, Éire. Originally the site of a hilltop fort, home to the kings of Munster for many centuries, the Rock was donated to the church in 1101 by King Muirchertach Ua Briain. However, few 12th Century structures survive, with the round tower, 90 feet (28 meters) tall, and Cormac’s Chapel, a Romanesque-style sandstone Building, was constructed atop the rock between 1127 and 1134, being the only buildings left from this time period. The largest of the structures atop the rock is The Cathedral, which was built between 1235 and 1270, which abuts against a residential structure for the clergy, known as the castle, constructed in the 15th Century. Both of these buildings are now in ruins. The other building on the site is the Vicars Choral, constructed in the 15th Century, which today has been fully restored, and houses several Celtic and medieval artworks. The rock remained intact and in use for major religious functions until 1647, when it was sacked during the Irish Confederate Wars, after Irish Confederate troops sought refuge on the rock, and were massacred by the opposing English Parliamentarian troops, along with the Catholic clergy, whom the English Parliamentarian troops saw as aiding the enemy. The buildings were sacked and vandalized. The buildings remained intact, however, though in a state of partial ruin, until 1749, when the main cathedral roof was removed by the Anglican Archbishop of Cashel, showing how little regard or respect the English had for the Irish people. The rock became home to a cemetery during the 18th and 19th Centuries, with many impressive grave markers. The most notable feature of this is a large tomb built for the Scully Family in 1867, once topped by a large cross, destroyed in 1976 by lighting, which sits in pieces on the ground nearby. The buildings on the rock have had conservation work carried out on them in recent decades, and the rock is considered a National Monument of Ireland, owing to its historical importance, cultural significance, and significant artistic works.

This is the final retouched version that my friend chose for her Christmas card. His expression is casual and candid, and the train ads a punch of color. I minimized the glare off of the glass door in the background to be less distracting.

Nikon D200 and Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 with White Lightning Ultra 1800 for the background and White Lightning UltraZap 800 for lighting the boy.

www.jasonpier.com

This is a crazyest funny pizza list I've ever seen. Its a present from my friend IrinaK, she went to Kharkiv recently and brought it back saying: "if you were there you'd for sure shoot it". So she gave it to me as a present.

Alas, I did not go back to Kharkiv this summer. May be in November. Again. It's not so scary when you know what's waiting for you. And knowing there are pizzas as those...

Boudhanath (Devanagari, Nepali: बौद्धनाथ) (also called Boudha, Bouddhanath or Baudhanath or the Khāsa Caitya) is a stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known as Khāsti in Nepal Bhasa, Jyarung Khashor in Tibetan language (Tibetan: བྱ་རུང་ཁ་ཤོར། Wylie: bya rung kha shor) or as Bauddha by speakers of Nepali. Located about 11 km from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal.

The Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of refugees from Tibet has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan Gompas (Monasteries) around Boudhanath. As of 1979, Boudhanath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along with Swayambhunath, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the Kathmandu area.

The Stupa is on the ancient trade route from Tibet which enters the Kathmandu Valley by the village of Sankhu in the northeast corner, passes by Boudnath Stupa to the ancient and smaller stupa of Cā-bahī (often called 'Little Boudnath'). It then turns directly south, heading over the Bagmati river to Patan - thus bypassing the main city of Kathmandu (which was a later foundation). Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Boudhanath. The Stupa is said to entomb the remains of Kassapa Buddha.

MYTHOLOGY

PADMASAMBHAVA BUDDHISM

This Bauddha stupa was built just after the demise of Lord Buddha and is largest single Chhorten in the world. Many Kilograms of gold were used in the decoration of the holy building. The legend of its building begins with one person:

An Apsara in a previous life, Jyajima (Tibetan: བྱ་རྫི་མ། Wylie: bya rdzi ma) was born into a very ordinary family of the earth after the reduction of her religious merit from the heaven. She had four husbands, and gave birth to four sons from each of her husbands. Tajibu (Tibetan: རྟ་རྫིའི་བུ། Wylie: rta rdzi'i bu) was born of a horse trader, Phagjibu (Tibetan: ཕག་རྫིའི་བུ། Wylie: phag rdzi'i bu) from a pig trader, khyijibu (Tibetan: ཁྱི་རྫིའི་བུ། Wylie: khyi rdzi'i bu) from dog trader and Jyajibu (Tibetan: བྱ་རྫིའི་བུ། Wylie: bya rdzi'i bu) from poultry business man. They had a most religious attitude, and decided to construct the largest chhorten (stupa). The land necessary for the stupa was made available by Majyajima (Tibetan: མ་བྱ་རྫི་མ། Wylie: ma bya rdzi ma), and construction was started soon after. The construction materials of soil, bricks and stones were carried on elephants, horses, donkeys etc. Majyajima died four years later, after completion of four stories of the structure, and after three more years of ceaseless efforts, the sons completed The Baudha stupa. It took almost seven years in total to complete the construction of the stupa.

It is believed that thousands of Buddhas and heavenly Deities incarnated as Lamas in the Baudha stupa It is said that because of Rabne, the rays of Bodhisattvas entered in the song from heaven and the holy sound of was heard in the sky. Due to being empowered by the Bodhisattvas this stupa is viewed with a great reverence as are Sangye Tong Duspai Chorten (Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས་སྟོང་འདུས་པའི་མཆོད་རྟེན། Wylie: sangs rgyas stong 'dus pa'i mchod rten) etc.

After the completion of the construction of Boudha stupa, Tajibu prayed very devoutly to become the king of the northern region to disseminate the religion, so he was the Dharma King Trisong Detsen of Tibet in his next life. Phagjibu wished to be a scholar to disseminate the religion, and he became Bodhisattva Śāntarakṣita, an enlightened teacher in Tibet in the next birth. Khyijibu was incarnated as the enlightened Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava on Ashada Dashain (on the tenth day of lunar calendar of first half of Ashada) in Oddiyana, Oḍḍiyāna (Skt. Oḍḍiyāna; Tibetan: ཨུ་རྒྱན་, Wylie: u rgyan, Oriya: ଓଡ଼ିଆଣ), in the southwest area, at Dhanakosha lake. He suppressed the Demons who were barriers to the religion and conserved and protected the religion from the Demonic attacks. Jyajibu prayed to be a minister for the protection of religion in the north and as an answer to his prayer he was born at Tibet and became the minister Bhami Thri Zher (Tibetan: སྦ་མི་ཁྲི་བཞེར། Wylie: sba mi khri bzher).

All of these person prayed for themselves but they did not pray for the animals, who transported bricks, soil, and stone. So these animals became angry and the elephant prayed to be the Demon in the next life to eliminate the religion. So he became the King Langdarma of Tibet in the next life, where Tajibu had disseminated the holiest religion. In the same way, the Donkey prayed to become a minister in the next life to destroy the religion and he too became a minister Dudlon Mazhang Drompakye (Tibetan: བདུད་བློན་མ་ཞང་གྲོམ་པ་སྐྱེས། Wylie: bdud blon ma zhang grom pa skyes) in Tibet.

A crow listened the prayers of these animals who prayed for the destruction of the holiest religion, and he (the crow) prayed to the Bauddha Stupa to be a minister to protect and preserve the holy religion by killing the demonic king Langdarma (Tibetan: རྒྱལ་པོ་གླང་དར་མ། Wylie: rgyal po glang dar ma) in the next life. He was born as Lha Lung Pal Gyi Dorje (Tibetan: ལྷ་ལུང་དཔལ་གྱི་རྡོ་རྗེ། Wylie: lha lung dpal gyi rdo rje) in the next life, and assassinated King Lang Darma with a bow and arrow.

The cowherds and shepherds, who prayed for the protection of religion and suppression of demons (who were attempting to eliminate the holy religion), were born as Cholon Gos Padma Gung Tsan (Tibetan: ཆོས་བློན་འགོས་པདྨ་གུང་བཙན། Wylie: chos blon 'gos padma gung tsan) in Tibet to conserve the religion. In the same way, Chodpurchan and Sarse, two Brahmins who prayed to the stupa to be born in the holy country and to write the holy literature were reborn in the next life as Kawa Paltsek (Tibetan: སྐ་བ་དཔལ་བརྩེགས། Wylie: ska ba dpal brtsegs) and Chogro Lhui Gyaltshan (Tibetan: ཅོག་རོ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན། Wylie: cog ro klu'i rgyaltshan); these two translated thousands of holy teachings of Lord Buddha into Bhoti (Tibetan) Language.

In addition to this, two crown princes of Nepal prayed to be helpers in dissesminating the religion, and they became Denma Tsemang (Tibetan: ལྡན་མ་རྩེ་མང་། Wylie:ldan ma rtse mang) and Legzyin Nyima (Tibetan: ལེགས་བྱིན་ཉི་མ། Wylie: legs byin nyi ma) in their next lives and wrote many holy books. Along with this, the religious king of Tibet, Dechen Devachan asked the greatest teacher Rinpoche: "what could be the factor and cultural background of our previous life that made us deeply devoted in religion and active in disseminating religious matters"? He was answered and was reverently referred by the Guru as 'Jyarung Khashor.

LEGEND OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE STUPA ACCORDING TO TIBETAN BUDDHIST MYTHOLOGY

"The village that surrounds the great Kāṣyapa stupa is generally known by the name of Bauḍḍha. ...which in Tibetan is called Yambu Chorten Chenpo (Tibetan: ཡམ་བུའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་ཆེན་པོ། Wylie: yam bu'i mchod rten chenpo). Yambu is the general name by which Kāthmāndu is known in Tibet; and Chorten Chenpo means great stupa. The real name of the stupa in full is, however, Jya Rung Khashor Chorten Chenpo, which may be translated into: "Have finished giving the order to proceed with."

The stupa has an interesting history of its own which explains this strange name. It is said in this history that Kāṣyapa was a Buḍḍha that lived a long time before Shākyamuni Buḍḍha. after Kāṣyapa Buḍḍha's demise, a certain old woman, with her four sons, interred this great sage's remains at the spot over which the great mound now stands, the latter having been built by the woman herself. Before starting on the work of construction, she petitioned the King of the time, and obtained permission to "proceed with" building a tower. By the time that, as a result of great sacrifices on the part of the woman and her four sons, the groundwork of the structure had been finished, those who saw it were astonished at the greatness of the scale on which it was undertaken. Especially was this the case with the high officials of the country, who all said that if such a poor old dame were allowed to complete building such a stupendous tower, they themselves would have to dedicated a temple as great as a mountain, and so they decided to ask the King to disallow the further progress of the work. When the King was approached on the matter his Majesty replied: "I have finished giving the order to the woman to proceed with the work. Kings must not eat their words, and I cannot undo my orders now." So the tower was allowed to be finished, and hence its unique name, "Jya Rung Khashor Chorten Chenpo." I rather think, however, that the tower must have been built after the days of Shākyamuni Buḍḍha, for the above description from Tibetan books is different from the records in Sanskrit, which are more reliable than the Tibetan." the biggest stupa in Nepal.

HISTORY

The Gopālarājavaṃśāvalī (Gopu) says Boudhanath was founded by the Nepalese Licchavi king Śivadeva (c. 590-604 CE); though other Nepalese chronicles date it to the reign of King Mānadeva (464-505 CE). Tibetan sources claim a mound on the site was excavated in the late 15th or early 16th century and the bones of king Aṃshuvarmā 605-621 were discovered there.However, the Tibetan emperor, Trisong Detsän (r. 755 to 797) is also traditionally associated with the construction of the Boudhanath Stupa.Yolmo Ngagchang Sakya Zangpo from Helambu resurrected Boudhanath.

2015 EARTHQUAKE

On April 25th, 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake caused minor damage to the stupa.

WIKIPEDIA

This is a photograph from the 6th annual running of the Meath Spring Half Marathon and 10KM Road Races and Fun Runs which were promoted and hosted by Bohermeen Athletic Club at Bohermeen, Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland on Sunday 12th of March 2017 at 11:00. The half marathon consists of a 11KM and 10KM repeated loop around the roads of Bohermeen and Oristown. The 10KM race just completes the 2nd part of the half marathon. The finish line is on the running track within Bohermeen Community Center. The course is a fast fair course with a few small hills. Last year the course was 'reversed' which just meant that the traditional course changed to accomodate the large number of participants and the narrow country roads on which both the race participants and race traffic must both share before, during and after the race. Most runners agreed that this made the course much faster as a result. There was almost a total of 1,000 participants in both races.

The other great variable in road racing - the weather - was dry, clear but rather windy. At several parts of the course there was a stiff headwind which made these sections that bit more difficult. Temperatures were around a seasonal 10C for this time in March in Ireland.

Bohermeen AC is steeped in Irish athletics history since 1927 and it is this experience and exceptional community spirit and volunteering which has made this event today so successful. Having now organised the event for six years running it is certain that the event will continue to grow and expand become one of the mainstays on the Irish athletic club road racing calendar for many years to come.

This race takes place about one month after the Bewley's 10 Mile Road Race in Trim (just down the road from Bohermeen). Indeed these races truly kick-start the whole road racing season of fixtures amongst the clubs in Meath who are now famous for the quality and standard of the road races staged and organised.

The race is supported by substantial local sponsorship from businesses in the local area. McNally Logistics and Transportation are the main sponsors of this year's event. The company specialises in national and international haulage.

Timing and event management was provided by http://www.myrunresults.com/. Their website is here [www.myrunresults.com/] and will contain the results to today's race.

Some useful Internet links related to the race

MapMyRun GPS Trace of the Route in 2016: www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/988503627

Google Streetview of the Race Start: goo.gl/maps/rtj1X

Google Streetview of the Race Finish and Race Headquarters: goo.gl/maps/qVttR

Photographs from previous events

Our Flickr Photograph set from the 4th Spring Marathon 2016: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157665850980555

Our Flickr Photograph set from the 4th Spring Marathon 2015: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157648897769373

Our Flickr Photograph set from the 3rd Spring Marathon 2014: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157641717197563

Our Flickr Photograph set from the 2nd Spring Marathon 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157632906920970/

Our Flickr set from the 1st Spring Marathon (2012) www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157629146137284/

Photographs from the 2013 event from our friend Paul Reilly [pjrphotography.zenfolio.com/p670974697]

USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

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, 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, Instagram, Snapchat, 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

This is an IQ Light stencil made with tabs that should spiral smoothly down to a point. This is based on the stencil by Lennart Poettering, but modified to give spiral joints. To do this I shaped the tabs according to this picture, which is what I got from "whirling" five radial lines in The Gimp.

Note: If you want the panels to bend less, shrink this image vertically a little bit.

This is the Right Hand of InMoov West. My print of hairygael's 3D printed robot: InMoov. I should start calling his InMoov France or InMoov Europe. :-)

This photo is the Right hand version 1. No rotating wrist, separate interior roller spacers as ligament guides and with servos mounted in both sides of the arm. Ack - inconvenient. But, the designer has revised his design to mount servos into one side. I'm now faced with the work to completely tear down and rebuild the Right arm to upgrade and restring ligaments. Yuck!

I've was so lazy that version 2 came about and so for the Left it is with some great new features.

Photos from Spring 2014 Parents' Weekend

This is probably funnier for Portuguese speakers, but I will try to explain.

"Puta" means "bitch", "whore" and "madre" means "mother." The two words together become a very offensive expletive in Portuguese so I was understandably very surprised to see this label.

However, I made a linguistic search and learnt that if the article "la" (meaning "the") is added to the beginning of the phrase ("la puta madre"), it becomes a high compliment meaning that something is the coolest of its kind - a linguistic contradiction similar to what happens with the use of "the dog´s bollocks"

This is what makes me love languages so much. :-)

PS: I bought it and it is delicious.

Bangkok. January 2020.

Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen วัดปากน้ำภาษีเจริญ, is a royal temple. It is part of the Maha Nikaya fraternity and is the origin of the Dhammakaya Movement.

During the protests which led up to the 2014 coup d'état, Somdet Chuang (the head monk of Wat Pak Nam) made a public statement opposing the protests, asking protest/coup leaders Phra Suwit Dhiradhammo (known as Phra Phuttha Issara and a former infantryman) and politician Suthep Thaugsuban, to stop causing civil unrest

After the coup d'état, the junta set up a National Reform Council. As part of the council a panel was started to reform Thai religion. This panel was led by Paiboon Nititawan, a former senator who had played a role in the coup. Backed by the bureaucracy, the military and the Royal Palace, Paiboon sought to deal with any shortcomings in the leading Thai Sangha through legislative means. Paiboon was joined by coup leader Phra Suwit Dhiradhammo

On 5 January 2016, Somdet Chuang was nominated by the Supreme Sangha Council to take the post of Supreme Patriarch.

Phra Suwit objected to this nomination, and held a petition and succeeded to stop it. Phra Suwit led two hundred soldiers and civilians to pay a visit to Wat Paknam. Critics interpreted Phra Suwit's visit as aggressive, disrespectful, and inappropriate for a monk. Several Thai intellectuals and news analysts asserted that Paiboon and Phra Suwit were abusing the Vinaya (monastic discipline) for political ends.

In February 2016, Chao Khun Prasarn, vice-rector of the MCU, assistant abbot of Wat Mahadhatu, and proponent of Somdet Chuang's appointment, held a protest of over a thousand of Thai monks in the Phutthamonthon Park, as a response to the postponing of the appointment. He demanded that the Thai junta not interfere with the Sangha's affairs, in particular the appointment of the next Supreme Patriarch. The junta responded by sending soldiers to control the site. The junta saw the protests as another reason to stall the appointment.

It has been pointed out that if Somdet Chuang were to become Supreme Patriarch, it would mean a leader from the Maha Nikaya fraternity, rather than the Dhammayuttika fraternity, which historically has always been the preferred choice by the Thai government and monarchy.

- - - - - - - -

Dhammakaya Sect is Building Bangkok’s Next Top Buddha

By Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer -

February 19, 2020

A gigantic Buddha statue under construction in western Bangkok is set to become the city’s tallest Buddha figure when it is completed later this year.

The 69 meter tall statue – approximately the neck-craning height of a 20-storey building – is being built by followers of the Dhammakaya sect at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen. Sitting in meditation posture, the massive structure is made of gilded copper and cost about 100 million baht to build.

“The money came mostly from local donations,” Phra Kru Pisal Sangkaphinit, a temple spokesman, said in an interview.

During a recent visit, the statue’s upper body was nearly completed. Temple staff believes work will finish by July.

The statue is called Buddha Dhammakaya Dhepmongkol, or the Great Buddha in short. Once completed, it will rise over the current tallest Buddha figure in Bangkok, the 32-meter statue of Wat Indraviharn.

But the achievement will still stop short of rivalling the tallest Buddha statue in Thailand, which sits at 92 meters in Ang Thong province.

Wat Paknam is considered the birthplace of the Dhammakaya, a school of Buddhism popular among wealthy urbanites and politicians. The sect, which believes in purity of the body’s soul, has drawn controversies in recent years for its alleged emphasis on earthly riches.

Its former head abbot, 75-year-old Dhammajayo, is currently on the run from the authorities on charges related to money laundering.

So whats it about …….

When 80-year-old Maud's best friend Elizabeth fails to turn up for a shopping trip, she is certain that something terrible has happened.

Despite living with dementia, she decides to turn detective and sets about trying to solve the mystery, but with her condition it's not always easy to hold on to the clues.

Cast & Crew are as follows

Maud Glenda Jackson

Helen Helen Behan

Sukey Sophie Rundle

Young Maud Liv Hill

Katy Nell Williams

Frank Mark Stanley

Douglas Neil Pendleton

Elizabeth Maggie Steed

Tom Sam Hazeldine

Dad John Paul Hurley

Peter Stuart McQuarrie

Margery Julie Hannan

Carla Linda Hargreaves

Ma Michelle Duncan

Desk sergeant Tom Urie

The Woman Cara Kelly

Rafid Nabs Aziz

Dr Harris Brian Ferguson

Det Grainger Anna-Maria Nabirye

Director Aisling Walsh

Executive Producer Gaynor Holmes

Executive Producer Sarah Brown

Executive Producer Andrea Gibb

Producer Chrissy Skinns

Writer Andrea Gibb

Tjalk is a traditional Dutch sailng vessel for rivers and coastal waters. According to old books, tjalks anready existed in 17 century. Tjalks were used as cargo vessels till 1950ties. Now they are still used as yacths. Here is one from Antwerp harbour.

The most tipical trait of tjalk is the rounded shape of the prow and stern, as it can be seen on this picture.