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Timber thinning operation south of Williams leaves groups of diverse age class trees while creating grassy interspaces. Photo taken by Dianne Berry, Forest Service 4FRI Acting Public Affairs Officer, October 21, 2016.
Mistletoe infestation south of Williams. Photo taken by Dianne Berry, Forest Service 4FRI Acting Public Affairs Officer, October 21, 2016.
© Lela Bouse-McCracken
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This little squirt looks bigger here than he was.... had to be only 8 - 10 inches tall max.
Grant McCracken holds a PhD in anthropology from The University of Chicago. He is the author of Culture and Consumption, The Long Interview and Big Hair. He was the founding director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and has recently taught at McGill University and Harvard Business School. Born and raised in Vancouver, BC, Grant's resume also includes stints as a phonebook proofreader and chauffeur to a Hollywood star.
More Pop!Tech art by Peter Durand of Alphachimp Studio Inc. at: www.alphachimp.com/poptech-art/
The Postcard
A postcard published by Erler & Co., Markgrafenstr. 30, Dresden-N.
The card was posted in Dresden on the 13th. October 1904 to:
Mrs. McCracken,
1, Northumberland Mansions,
Marylebone Road,
London W.,
England.
Dresden in the Second World War
During the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945, the Jewish community of Dresden was reduced from over 6,000 (7,100 people were persecuted as Jews) to 41, mostly as a result of emigration, but later also deportation and murder.
Non-Jews were also targeted, and over 1,300 people were executed by the Nazis at the Münchner Platz, a courthouse in Dresden, including labour leaders, undesirables, resistance fighters and anyone caught listening to foreign radio broadcasts.
Dresden in the 20th. century was a major communications hub and manufacturing centre, with 127 factories and major workshops. It was designated by the German military as a defensive strongpoint from which to hinder the Soviet advance.
Being the capital of the German state of Saxony, Dresden not only had garrisons, but a whole military borough, the Albertstadt. This military complex, named after Saxon King Albert, was not specifically targeted in the bombing of Dresden, although it was extensively damaged.
During the final months of the Second World War, Dresden harboured some 600,000 refugees, with a total population of 1.2 million. Dresden was attacked seven times between 1944 and 1945, and was occupied by the Red Army after the German capitulation.
The bombing of Dresden by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between the 13th. and 15th. February 1945 was controversial.
On the night of the 13th.–14th. February 1945, 773 RAF Lancaster bombers dropped 1,182 tons of incendiary bombs and 1,478 tons of high explosive bombs on Dresden, targeting the rail yards at the centre of the city.
The inner city of Dresden was largely destroyed. The high explosive bombs damaged buildings and exposed their wooden structures, while the incendiaries ignited them, denying their use by retreating German troops and refugees.
Widely quoted Nazi propaganda reports claimed 200,000 deaths, but the German Dresden Historians' Commission, made up of 13 prominent German historians, in an official 2010 report published after five years of research concluded that casualties numbered between 22,500 and 25,000.
The Allies described the operation as the legitimate bombing of a military and industrial target. Several researchers have argued that the February attacks were disproportionate.
As a result of inadequate Nazi air raid measures for refugees, mostly women and children died.
The bombing stopped prisoners who were busy digging a large hole into which 4,000 prisoners were to be disposed of.
When interviewed after the war in 1977, Sir Arthur ('Bomber') Harris stood by his decision to carry out the raids, and reaffirmed that it reduced the German military's ability to wage war.
American author Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five is loosely based on his first-hand experience of the raid as a POW.
In remembrance of the victims, the anniversaries of the bombing of Dresden are marked with peace demonstrations, devotions and marches.
The destruction of Dresden allowed Hildebrand Gurlitt, a major Nazi museum director and art dealer, to hide a large collection of artwork worth tens of millions of dollars that had been stolen during the Nazi era, as he claimed it had been destroyed along with his house which was located in Dresden.
Dresden After World War II
Following his military service, the German press photographer and photojournalist Richard Peter returned to Dresden and began to document the ruined city. Among his best known works is Blick auf Dresden vom Rathausturm ("View of Dresden from the Rathaus Tower").
It has become one of the best-known photographs of a ruined post-war Germany following its appearance in 1949 in his book Dresden, Eine Kamera Klagt an ("Dresden, a Photographic Accusation").
When a skeleton that had previously been used as a model for drawing art classes was found in the ruins of the Dresden Art Academy, the photographer Edmund Kesting, with the assistance of Peter, posed it in a number of different locations to produce a series of haunting photographic images to give the impression that Death was wandering through the city in search of the dead.
Kesting subsequently published the photographs in the book Dresdner Totentanz ("Dresden’s Death Dance").
The damage from the Allied air raids was so extensive that following the end of the Second World War, a narrow-gauge light railway system was constructed to remove the debris, although being makeshift, there were frequent derailments.
The railway system, which had seven lines, employed 5,000 staff and 40 locomotives, all of which bore women’s names. The last train remained in service until 1958, although the final official debris clearance team was only disbanded in 1977.
Rather than repair them, the German Democratic Republic authorities razed the ruins of many churches, royal buildings and palaces in the 1950's and 1960's, such as the Gothic Sophienkirche, the Alberttheater and the Wackerbarth-Palais, as well as many historic residential buildings.
The surroundings of the once-lively Prager Straße resembled a wasteland before it was rebuilt in the socialist style at the beginning of the 1960's.
However, the majority of historic buildings were either saved or reconstructed. Among them were the Ständehaus (1946), the Augustusbrücke (1949), the Kreuzkirche (until 1955), the Zwinger (until 1963), the Catholic Court Church (until 1965), the Semperoper (until 1985), the Japanese Palace (until 1987) and the two largest train stations.
Some of this work dragged on for decades, often interrupted by the overall economic situation in the GDR. The ruins of the Frauenkirche were allowed to remain on Neumarkt as a memorial to the war.
From 1955 to 1958, a large part of the art treasures looted by the Soviet Union was returned, which meant that from 1960 onwards many state art collections could be opened in reconstructed facilities.
Important orchestras such as the Staatskapelle performed in alternative venues (for example in the Kulturpalast from 1969). Some cultural institutions were moved out of the city center (for example the state library in Albertstadt).
The Outer Neustadt, which was almost undamaged during the war, was threatened with demolition in the 1980's following years of neglect, but was preserved following public protests.
To house the homeless, large prefabricated housing estates were built on previously undeveloped land In Prohlis and Gorbitz. Damaged housing in the Johannstadt and other areas in the city center were demolished and replaced with large apartment blocks.
The villa districts in Blasewitz, Striesen, Kleinzschachwitz, Loschwitz and on the Weißen Hirsch were largely preserved.
Abba Eban
"History teaches us that men and
nations behave wisely when they
have exhausted all other alternatives".
This was said during a speech in London UK on 16th. December 1970 by Abba Eban (1915-2002), an Israeli diplomat and writer.
HMS Patrol
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on Thursday the 13th. October 1904, HMS Patrol, built at the yards of Cammell Laird at a cost of £279,000, was launched. She was the only ship in the Royal Navy to have born the name HMS Patrol.
She served with the Royal Navy both before and during the Great War. Being surplus to requirements after the war, she was sold for scrap in April 1920 to Machinehandel of the Netherlands.
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
Constructed in 1949, McCracken Hall was designed to house the paper science studies and chemistry facilities and was dedicated to William McCracken, a well-known faculty member. McCracken Hall is no longer used for academic classes, but continues to house the paper science studies' Paper Pilot Program which is located on the lower level. The original 1949 building remains but the second phase of McCracken was demolished in 2017.
The photo on the left is from the Western Michigan University collection and was taken around 1949. The photo on the right was taken by Christina LaCasse, Western Michigan University, School of Art, 2009.
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
Brews sampled by Bill and me at the St. Pete Brewery. Mine’s the Scottish ale served in the jar, Bill has chosen the wheat beer.
This is a group portrait of all the original officers and men of the 11th Battalion, AIF. Much of the men’s time was spent training, but on Sundays, their days off or in the evenings they were able to visit local sites of interest such as the pyramids, the Citadel and the many mosques of Cairo.
© Lela Bouse-McCracken
Please No Invites or Graphics. Thank You Ever So Much.
We watched this nest yesterday, March 31. When we first spotted it, there was just the one Eagle sitting on the nest. Eventually a second Eagle was spotted in the sky & was running off some nearby Turkey Vultures. It then came and landed on the nest, as you see here. It sat for a while before again taking off.
We left and returned about 30 minutes later to see the one still sitting on the nest. Again, a second eagle returned and brought food (fish?) to the nest. I believe it was a fish, because I could only see what looked like mossy water plants hanging from the prey as the Eagle flew by. (See photo below) After it landed with the food, the two Eagles switched places with the second Eagle taking its place on the edge of the nest. We watched as it held up a bird (Coot?) and proceeded to tear feathers off - we saw them drifting to the ground. We believe there was at least one hatched eagle because the adult was not eating all of the food. It was, however, taking a bite once in a while. ;-)
We'll be going back soon to see how things are shaping up. I could have watched them all day.
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
Flemington & Kensington Conservation Study 1985 survey images: 68 sheets of Kodak colour negatives (reduced for Flickr)
© Lela Bouse-McCracken
Please No Invites or Graphics. Thank You Ever So Much.
"A large, orange-billed tern, the Royal Tern is found only along ocean beaches.
The Royal Tern makes its nest scrape on the ground on low-lying islands. The pair defecates directly on the nest rim, perhaps to reinforce the nest against flooding. After a few weeks, the nest rim hardens.
Young Royal Terns leave the nest scrape within one day after hatching and congregate together in a group known as a crèche. Eventually all of the chicks in a colony come to the crèche, which can have thousands of chicks ranging in age from two to 35 days old. A pair of Royal Terns will feed only their own chick, and manage to find it in the crowd, probably by recognizing its call." -allaboutbirds.org