View allAll Photos Tagged Overcomer
“But I have a secret.
You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them.
You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist.
And there are many of us out there, more than you think.
People who refuse to stop believing.
People who refuse to come to earth.
People who love in a world without walls, people who love into hate, into refusal, against hope,and without fear.
I love you.
Remember.
They cannot take it."
(From “Delirium (Delirium, #1)” by Lauren Oliver)
Pteromerhanophobia is the right word for the fear of being on an airplane or any other flying vehicle.
I carry this fear since I am a child nevertheless it is funny that most of the pictures I took in the sky were published or used as CD covers, as if they were meant to overcome my fear of flying...
Join the photographer at
LAURENT GOLDSTEIN Photography
© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.
Everyone faces obstacles, we do things we regret or don't do things at all. Despite all that the one good way to connect and sort it out is through sitting down and talking.
Not a bad place to spend sunset. The hike up was short and very steep but the awesome lookout was a great payoff. Heres a shot of my number one model enjoying the colors change over Mt Rainier.
Macro Monday project - 01/12/09
"Imperfections”
Not a lot of time this week!!! Getting ready for a big vacation trip!!! Be back in 2 to 3 weeks!!!
The Artist Shed is scared to be participating in the most popular of the TR Events Hunts. The Spookzilla Hunt 8 runs from October 23rd (12 PM SLT) to October 31st, with a costume party on the 30th at 6PM SLT.
If you've never been, Spookzilla is a region wide scavenger hunt designed to make you SCREAM in frustration as prizes are difficult to find! Participants have hidden 3-10 prizes each all over the Slytherin region, in hopes you will never locate them!
Prizes are L$25 or less and hunt keys are provided so you can form a plan of attack.
This hunt is not structured to be an easy grab. You will be tricked! Your patience will be taunted (but will you find the goodies you are after?)
I have made some items to add a little spook to your home...
1. Halloweenie Neon (Ghostie) - L$3
2. Halloweenie Chair (Zombie Eye) - L$5
3. Halloweenie Neon (Pumpkin) - L$3
4. Halloweenie Chair (Ghostie) - L$5
5. Halloweenie Neon (Cat) - L$3
Do you have the guts to overcome Spookzilla? I dare to see you try!
Buahahahahaaaaa-a-a-a-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
him, her ...two people together, trying to overcome time, space and reality.
That's all there is to it.
A motion blur series about "him" and about "her", that is constantly in my mind and that I intend to work on, but didn't have the time lately. I have a few more unprocessed images in this series waiting for me and I hope I'll be able to concentrate and work on them soon.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Google+ | 500px | Art Limited | 1x.com | Facebook | Facebook Page | Twitter | Stark-Magazine
marketplace.secondlife.com/p/60-OFF-PROMOTION-ArisarisBWD...
60%OFF- ONLY IN MARKETPLACE- LIMITES QUANTITIES
TRY DEMO
DELIRIUM Dress:
Nine different models, all of high quality, different, original. Wear this sexy dress, and you will surpass all the expectations, in silks, embroideries, transparencies, Overcome everything, be different.
Sizes:
3-Belleza- Freya, Isis and Venus
2-Slink Physique and Hourglass
1-Maitreya
1-Fitted for Standard Sizes
1-HUD
Rigged, New Materials
I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.
(Maya Angelou)
Wallykazam full episodes english Season 2 : Wally Saves the Trollidays - Wallykazam! funny cartoon - Best videos : - Wallykazam full episodes english Season 2 : Naptime for Borgelo - Wallykazam! funny cartoon for kids - www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKz2dLfwy2E - Wallykazam full episodes english Season 2 : Castle Caper - Wallykazam! funny cartoon - www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW6P6bK1cFw - Wallykazam full episodes english Season 2 : The Rock Can Talk - Wallykazam! funny cartoon for kids - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXeMDjspYw Wallykazam! is an animated interactive comedy for preschoolers centered on the adventures of Wally Trollman and his pet dragon, Norville. Wally and Norville live in a mythical forest among giants, goblins, ogres, sprites, and fantastical creatures of every shape and size. But Wally has a power like no other; using his magic stick, he can make any word spring to life! Each adventure has a new set of magic words that share a certain characteristic (they may start with a given letter, have a certain sound, or rhyme with each other). Wally uses these words to play with and transform the world around him. For example, if the magic words begin with "c" and have a hard "c" sound, Wally can create a castle, and launch himself into it with a catapult. Wally uses his magic to solve problems, help friends, and overcome the antics of the forest's resident troublemaker, Bobgoblin. At times, however, his magic stick can cause unintended complications, such as conjuring a word that accidentally makes the whole forest go dark or sends his house galloping away! But Wally's magic stick ALWAYS helps kids learn new words and the basics of reading with each exciting, hilarious adventure . Subcribe my chanel for more videos : www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PJEw15MOQoga23wWwQJkQ?sub_conf... *************** thanks for watching ******************
Despite the size of its existing fleet and pre-war construction programmes the National Armada had under its belt, it faced shipping shortages on every front. One particular shortage, was the relatively new requirement for escort units. It was during the Eight Years War that the first warship was sunk by naval torpedoes; a cheap but lethal weapon that Perceptum’s enemies were now producing en masse to overcome the Armada’s heavy ships. Try as they might, even with large batteries of smaller guns, these big ships simply could not adequately defend themselves against the emerging threat of torpedo boats. Simultaneously, the escalating conflict in the colonies of Yafranica and the Orient required more and more warships that could traverse rivers and shallow coasts- and that’s when it clicked.
What remained of the navy’s pre-war design bureau came up with what they called the “Hundred Day Gunboat”, a shallow-draft ocean-going gun platform that could be built quickly and cheaply to meet a multitude of missions. Once approved by the Supreme Leader (or more correctly, his secretary) the ship type was put into production in just about every shipyard in the Empire that could spare the space; by the end of the war, over a hundred had been built, with about sixty making it out alive.
But like many other Perceptan ships built during the war, they had design defects. The first and most obvious being that they were often too small to handle the armaments and crew thrust upon them, which did nothing for the living conditions aboard. The second was that the Navy Staff made a big mistake by assuming all the Empires scattered shipyards would naturally churn out the exact same quality of ship. The Armada’s four big, primary shipyards (Malva, Thesselos, Forza and Nacivitas) were able to construct tough and reliable ships without issue. But many of the colonial ports (which were either understaffed or running off slave labour) were not only incapable of matching the craftsmanship of the leading shipyards, but were critically short of many of the materials they needed. As a result, they may as well have been making an entire range of ship types unique to each shipyard; many shipbuilders ditched the original six 6in gun setup for whatever artillery pieces they could get their hands on locally, others installed torpedo tubes, more yet would cut many corners to save costs and turned out boats that didn’t even make it past sea trials. To add to these problems, the Armada’s chronic shortage of trained sailors forced them to draft crews from prisons, the army, colonial towns and press-ganging citizens who would have been of more use to the war effort elsewhere.
Those that actually remained afloat saw service in all theaters of the War, but once the conflict had come to an end, many would meet their fate in the scrapyard. Of those that were still in sailing condition, only thirty remained in service in the Grande Marina, which replaced the National Armada. All the rest were sold indiscriminately to the highest bidder; an action that the Perceptans would come to regret, for many found their way into the service of their enemies and pirate groups like the Chornslad Alliance.
Pictured here is the RNS Tigris, which was the first of the gunboats laid down (which is why they are usually referred to as the Tigris Class). As you can see, she and ships of her variation of the Hundred Day Gunboat were armed with six muzzle-loading 6in gun’s and six lighter rifles for use against torpedo boats. She and ships of her class still remain in use, mostly as merchant convoy escorts and colonial police ships.
In 1920 Rudolf Steiner spoke of Goethe’s fairy tale TheGreen Snake and the Beautiful Lily as the archetypal seed of the Anthroposophical movement. The destiny of the first Goetheanum can be said to lead to ‘rebirth out of the ashes’. On 1 January, 1923, was the tragedy of the burning of the first Goetheanum. In retrospect (and from an alchemical point of view), it can be seen as a ‘mystical death’ by fire, Out of the living etheric forces of the First Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner brought forth ‘The Foundation Stone Mantrum’ as an act of creative will. In response to the ‘cry of longing of mankind for the spirit’ had The House of the Word been built, and the 2nd Goetheaunum was to rise, phoenix-like out of the ashes. An interesting way of exploring the time element in ‘The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’ has been offered by Paul M. Allen in The Time Is at Hand.1) I will also relate a short summary of the fairy tale in its sequence, as the times of days occur, woven into a tapestry, corresponding to the steps, which are involved in the alchemical transmutation inherent in this fairy tale.‘Alchemy can perhaps best be described as a process of metamorphosis, a changing of form by means of the activity of the three fundamental powers of the soul; thinking, feeling and willing; These three can be likened to the nature of the substances Salt, Mercury, and Sulphur as they work upon the elements inherent in all created things Earth, Water, Air and Fire, transforming these from their fallen states of unredeemed matter to a restoration of their archetypal , original spiritual condition.’1) I was privileged to know Agnes Linde, Herman’s daughter in the early to mid 1980’s, while I was living in Dornach. She was a Eurythmist and a painter. I was often able to observe the original illustrations made by her father of ‘The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’, which portray the interwoven correspondence to Steiner’s first Mystery Play, ‘The Portal of Initiation’.Now, let us begin with the following correlations involving the soul transformations of J. W. Goethe’s ‘The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’:At Midnight begins the Transmutation –Prima Materia, in Goethe’s allegorical fairy tale. This Corresponds to Study or Pure Thought in the Rosicrucian Initiation, as Rudolf Steiner spoke of at The Munich Conference.Here begins the fairy tale…‘In his little hut by the great river, which a heavy rain had swollen to overflowing, lay the ancient ferryman, asleep, wearied by the toil of the day’
This is the state at the beginning of the process of transmutation, ‘the given’, the basis, in musical expression, Prime. The ferryman meets the mischievous, unevolved, Will-o-the–Wisps who wish to cross the mysterious river, while boisterously shaking out heaps of glittering gold. The ire of the Ferryman is aroused; and disembarking, when he reaches the other side of the river, he gathers the gold pieces (which cannot be allowed to fall into that elemental stream), and throws them into a cleft of rock where they can safely lie.
Having now arrived on the other side of the realm, the earthly world, the Will-o-the-Wisps meet the Green Snake, who is swallowing the gold, (or the wisdom of spiritual science) and who is able digest it, having suffered and become open to spiritual understandings.
Afterwards, the Snake meets the Old Man with the Lantern in the subterranean temple, and undergoes a beginning step of initiation, as she answers the Sphinxlike questions of the four Kings in the temple, and comes to the first declaration of ‘The time is at hand’
In Christian Gnostic Initiation this can be compared with ‘The Washing of the Feet’
‘The time is at hand’, these words appear in the first verses of the book of Revelations. This ‘time’ is, paradoxically, referring to an individual as well as a universal moment of initiation.At Dawn the alchemical experience of Separation or Clarification of the Elements occurs; this is Imaginative Knowledge, in the Rosicrucian Initiation, The Second in musical intervals. The Wisps go to the Old Woman’s cottage, and rudely devour the gold from the walls of the cottage, and again shower the realm with gold pieces. They cannot comprehend the Old Woman’s wisdom either, but can only intellectualise or ‘parrot’ undigested knowledge. Their gold pieces kill the dog Mops.The Old Woman has somehow promised the Will o the Wisps to repay their debt to the Ferryman for their crossing. He can take no gold, only ‘fruits of the earth’: three cabbages, three artichokes, and three onions, deeds of thinking, willing and feeling. However the Giant who is bathing in the river, spots the Old Woman with her basket of fruits of the earth. He is able with his shadow to snatch up an artichoke (which represents deeds of the will) out of the basket. Mops has also been taken along in the basket, to give to the Fair Lily, on the Spirit side of the river. She can mysteriously make dead things living, and living things dead. Such is her nature. Before meeting the Prince, the Old Woman is obliged to pay a debt to the river to make up for the lost artichoke, and enable her to cross the river; this entails placing her hand in the stream, which causes it to blacken. Painful but necessary, these events have a relation in the Gnostic Christian Initiation, to the Scourging.Noon brings the Clarification and Uniting of Active and Passive, and the Rosicrucian stage of Inspiration. The interval of the Third is evoked. The Old Woman meets with the Prince, who is also seeking the fair Lily. The Prince is suffering from melancholy and can offer little information about his own being. They travel on the same path and cross the river together in reverence, at noon, on the back of the Green Snake who habitually offers service to all who are able to cross. This is the first bridge. In Christian Gnostic terms, it corresponds to the Crown of Thorns.Twilight appears as the Mystical Death, the transmutation of substance into carbon (the Philosopher’s Stone) The stage of Intuition. This is the fourth interval of music. All meet in the Kingdom of the Lily. Mops is brought back to life by the Lily’s touch. The Youth, overcome with desire, passionately reaches out and touches the Lily, which causes his death. The Snake then forms a protective ring around the Youth and the Canary bird that she had inadvertently killed. These events would be comparable to The Crucifixion in the Christian Gnostic Initiation,Midnight is the next time, the Washing or Purifying, Correspondence between the Microcosm and the Macrocosm the reuniting of the soul and the body, the greater and lesser worlds – Macrocosm and Microcosm; this is the fifth musical interval; the Old Man with the Lantern assigns tasks. The Old Man declares that at this point, ‘An individual helps not but he who combines himself with many at the proper hour does help.’ The procession crosses the bridge again on the back of the Snake. The Youth has a first awakening. For this to happen, the Lily must touch the Snake with the right hand and her lover with the left. The Snake then makes a final sacrifice and becomes a permanent jewelled bridge leading to the temple. All enter the temple and greet the Kings. This is related to The Mystical Death in the Christian Gnostic Initiation.At Dawn is theBursting Out, Living into the Macrocosm where reborn purified element appears in many colours, the Macrocosm: the sixth interval of music; the Temple rises to the surface of the earth. The final initiation of the Youth and the investiture into Kingship then occurs, as does the demise of the Mixed King. This corresponds to the Burial and Resurrection in Christian Gnostic terms.Bright Noonday brings aboutthe Chymical Wedding, the Stage of Divine Bliss, Royal Marriage, the Seventh interval in music, rejuvenation, including the healing of the Old Woman, and the transformation of the Giant. ‘All debts are paid’ There is a Michaelic bridge, the sacrifice of the Snake, now serving all of humanity. Goethe’s text end with the following words:… ‘and to the present hour the bridge is swarming with travellers, and the Temple is the most frequented on the whole earth. This stage must relate to the Ascension of the Soul in Christian Gnostic terms. The Octave, then, would be related to the ultimate realities of the Eternal. Humanity will have been guided from the world of images in Space (the Earthly world, through events taking place in Time ( the Soul’s transformation ) as pictured allegorically in the ‘Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’ – to pure Spirit, those ultimate eternal realities. 1) The Time is at Hand, Paul M.. Allen, Anthroposophic Press, RR4 Box 94 A-1, Hudson , NY 12534
This corrugation is exactly what it says on the tin: blintzed bird bases tiled side by side. Large tilings have a slight tendency towards curling but it can be overcome by folding all creases sharp and applying a little force in the direction opposite of the curl. Folded the right size, this corrugation could be used as an egg carton or as a set of small containers for screws, nails, candy or other small objects.
Designed and folded by me.
See also:
- close-up
- back
This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.
I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since it can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.
I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.
I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.
www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.
The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.
The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.
nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...
The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.
The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.
The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.
The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.
Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.
The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]
Haiku thoughts:
Beneath earth's cool veil,
Stalactites in silence grow,
Whispers of stone deep.
Kartchner
Southern Arizona Adventures 2024
This armchair has supported the weight of the bitterness during long time. When you suffer an emotional misfortune you take refuge in him during days, months and sometimes years without moving a single muscle. Looking for the insensibilidad that allows you not to suffer. In spite of being that the aim, at the same time is demolishing. You happen to comprise of the homemade furniture. You become a vegetable… But in your interior, notes a small and arrhythmic beat, that at some time it invites to you to overcome. These so hurt sentimentally, that any pocket makes you fall again… and the cycle is repeated: “Refuge in my armchair”
Este sillón ha soportado el peso de la amargura durante mucho tiempo. Cuando sufres un revés emocional te refugias en él durante días, meses y a veces años sin mover un solo músculo. Buscando la insensibilidad que te permita no sufrir. A pesar de ser ese el fin, al mismo tiempo es demoledor. Pasas a formar parte del mobiliario casero. Te conviertes en un vegetal... Pero en tu interior, notas un pequeño y arrítmico latido, que en algún momento te invita a remontar. Estas tan herida sentimentalmente, que cualquier bache te hace caer de nuevo... y se repite el ciclo: “Refugio en mi sillón”
Please add your Passionately Pink images to:
www.flickr.com/groups/passionatelypinkforthecure/
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Yahoo! is donating $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for each pink photo added to this pool up to $50,000
The Kyrenia Mountains is a long, narrow mountain range that runs for approximately 160 km (100 mi) along the northern coast of the island of Cyprus. It is primarily made of limestone, with some marble. Its highest peak is Mount Selvili, at 1,024 m (3,360 ft).
The Kyrenian mountains are named after the Kyrenian mountains in Achaia, Greece, which are well known from mythology because of the connection with one of the 12 labours of Hercules, the capture of the Kerynitis deer that lived there. This sacred deer of Artemis with golden horns and bronze legs ran so fast that no one could reach it. Hercules, however, after pursuing it for a whole year, managed to catch it and transport it alive to Mycenae.
A devastating fire in July 1995 burned large portions of the Kyrenia Mountains, resulting in the loss of significant forest land and natural habitat.
The only other mountain range in Cyprus is the Troodos Mountains.
These mountains are a series of sedimentary formations from the Permian to the Middle Miocene pushed up by a collision of the African and Eurasian plates. Though only half the height of the Troodos Mountains, the Kyrenia Mountains are rugged and rise abruptly from the Mesaoria plain.
The location of the mountains near the sea made them desirable locations for watch towers and castles overlooking the northern Cyprus coast, as well as the central plain. These castles generally date from the 10th through the 15th centuries, primarily constructed by the Byzantines and Lusignans. The castles of St. Hilarion, Buffavento, and Kantara sit astride peaks and were of strategic importance during much of the history of Cyprus during the Middle Ages.
A flag of Northern Cyprus is painted on the southern slope of the Kyrenia Mountains. It is reportedly 425 metres wide and 250 metres high, and is illuminated at night.
The flag is considered controversial as evidenced in the Parliamentary Question put to the European Parliament by Antigoni Papadopoulou on 22 October 2009, "How can it permit the existence of such a flag which, apart from the catastrophic environmental damage it causes, the use of chemical substances and the brutal abuse of the environment, involves an absurd waste of electricity at a time of economic crisis? Does Turkey show sufficient respect towards the environment to justify its desire to open the relevant chapter of accession negotiations?".
There are many legends about the Pentadactylos mountains. One tells the story of a conceited villager who fell in love with the local queen and asked for her hand in marriage. The queen wished to be rid of the impertinent young man and requested that he bring her some water from the spring of Apostolos Andreas monastery in the Karpas, a perilous journey in those days. The man set off and after several weeks returned with a skin full of that precious water. The queen was most dismayed to see that he had succeeded, but still refused to marry him. In a fit of rage, he poured the water on to the earth, seized a handful of the resulting mud and threw it at the queens head. She ducked and the lump of mud sailed far across the plain to land on top of the Kyrenia mountain range, where it is to this day, still showing the impression of the thwarted villager’s five fingers.
Another famous one is of the Byzantine hero Digenis Akritas. Tradition has it that Digenis Akritas's hand gripped the mountain to get out of the sea when he came to free Cyprus from its Saracen invaders, and this is his handprint. He also threw a large rock across Cyprus to get at the Saracen ships. That rock landed in Paphos at the site of the birthplace of Aphrodite, thus known to this day as Petra Tou Romiou or "Rock of the Greek".
Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.
A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.
Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.
Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.
Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.
The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.
Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.
Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.
By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.
EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.
However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.
On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.
In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.
By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.
In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.
The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.
After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".
As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.
Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.
The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.
Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.
The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.
Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.
Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria
An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."
In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.
Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.
In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.
Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.
Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.
Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:
UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.
The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.
By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."
After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.
On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.
The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.
During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.
In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.
Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.
A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.
Marines from the Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry-East, navigate their way through the obstacle course at Camp Geiger, N.C., Oct 4, 2013. This is the first company at ITB with female students as part of a measured, deliberate and responsible collection of data on the performance of female Marines when executing existing infantry tasks and training events. The Marine Corps is soliciting entry-level female Marine volunteers to attend the eight-week basic infantryman and infantry rifleman training courses at ITB.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Paul S. Mancuso/Released)
Youth find the Rijksmuseum one of the ten most popular attractions in the Netherlands. The Anne Frank House ranks lower than the top 10. This is the conclusion of a brand study conducted by, amongst others, the University of Amsterdam (UvA). The research has been around since 2010 and was also conducted among youth between 4 and 18 years old in 2017 for the first time. 800 boys and girls were asked which outings they know at all. Of these outings, it was then checked what the young people think.
The Rijksmuseum is in 10th place on the list. This while the museum was still in 25th place in 2017. The Rijksmuseum is the most popular museum for youth from the age of 9. And the interest among this group has increased enormously in two years. It is clear that all the attention that the museum gives to it education policy is bearing fruit.
But now back to the somewhat rhetorical question: who has fun under observance of who?
Is it me, watched or caught by the teacher of the Rijks? Or the teacher, radiating to me how much fun see has with teaching these children? Or perhaps the persons in the artwork onlooking this primary school class creating works of art themselves.
You tell me…
Technical stuff
This single shot is part of a small burst on the old motor drive setting. As the lighting in this part of the Rijks is not very favourable for photography, I downgraded the shutter speed as much as possible. The Fuji XT does very well under low lighting, but if you can downplay it a bit more, why not. So, I use the technique of bursting to overcome the little vibration of the camera while pressing the shutter button. By holding the button the third and fourth photo are less influenced by this vibration. Then is becomes, depending on the movement of the subjects to take rather steady photo at 2500ISO, F5.0, 1/25, -2/3 at 16 mils.
Post-production was done with a little help of Lightroom. I fiddled a little with the clarity tool and the luminance setting. Finally, I added some copyright signs (in PS). The latter is, alas, there to stay due to the fact that my photos were frequently copied. So, don't bother commenting on that.
T21 - Typhon, overcoming Jupiter, casts him into the cave of Corycus, at the foot of Parnassus
Gem impression
Source:
www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/recordDetailsLarge.asp?recor...{ACBDF58F-16F5-4B45-A7A7-DBAD759B49F0}&returnPage=&start=0
Silver birch clinging on to a sheer slope in a disused slate quarry somewhere above Llanberis.
Midday is not necessarily the best time for photography, but with the steep walls of the quarry in deep shadow the illumination of the young silver birch trees provided a nice contrast.
Almost 7 months now. My belly button popped out during this weekend and there is a light black line started forming on my belly. I have to admit that being pregnant is not an easy task, especially when you getting bigger and heavier, but nothing stop you having fun and being as confident as before. A good and positive mood everyday help me overcome all sorts of physical changes and pain. ^_^
The doorway of an empty building was truly being overcome by the encroaching green.
©AnvilcloudPhotography
Overcoming Creative Block – Make 100 Things
Source by fancylinda
sharekid.com/a-powerfully-playful-strategy-for-overcoming...
#ShareKid
Model/Hair: Audrey StarksPhotography/Editing/Makeup/Props/Wardrobe: Nico NordströmTeam: Decker Derdeyn, Michael McBride, Mitchell Reiter, Reece Wills
Blog post coming soon with behind the scenes photos! :]
"No more dreaming of the dead,
as if death itself was undone,
No more calling like a crow,
for a boy,
for a body in a garden"
No more dreaming like a girl so in love,
so in love"
Follow Me: niconordstrom.tumblr.com
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/niconordstromphotography