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Gerani (Greek: Γεράνι, literally 'Geranium', Turkish: Turnalar) is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus, located 8 km (5.0 mi) northeast of Trikomo. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.

 

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.

Promoting the second season of her show "Cleaners"

The Ganden Sumtsenling Monastery, also known as Sungtseling and Guihuasi (Tibetan: དགའ་ལྡན་སུམ་རྩེན་གླིང་, dga' ldan sum rtsen gling, Chinese: 松赞林寺 Sōngzànlín Sì), is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery situated 5 kilometres from the city of Zhongdian at elevation 3,380 metres in Yunnan province, China. Built in 1679, the monastery is the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province and is sometimes referred to as the Little Potala Palace. Located in the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, it is also the most important monastery in southwest China.

 

It belongs to the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelukpa order of the Dalai Lama. The Fifth Dalai Lama's Buddhist visionary zeal established the monastery in Zhongdian, in 1679. Its architecture is a fusion of the Tibetan and Han Chinese. It was extensively damaged in the Cultural Revolution and subsequently rebuilt in 1983; at its peak, the monastery contained accommodation for 2,000 monks; it currently accommodates in its rebuilt structures 700 monks in 200 associated houses.

 

Because of the popularity of James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon (novel) (1933), which introduced Shangri-La and is said have been written on an inspirational theme of "the Tibetan Buddhist Scriptures, where human beings, animals, and nature lived in harmony under the rule of a Tibetan", the Chinese authorities changed the name of Zhongdian County to Shangri-La County in 2001, basically to encourage tourism. The earlier names were – the Zhongdian (建塘镇 Jiàntáng Zhèn) to the Chinese, and Gyalthang (Standard Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཐང་རྫོང་) to the Tibetans, of the town which has predominantly Tibetan population. The name of the county's capital town was similarly changed from Jiantang to Shangri-la. The ambiance of the town is distinctly Tibetan with prayer flags fluttering, mountains known by holy names, lamaseries and rocks inscribed in Tibetan language with Buddhist sutras.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The monastery, with a group of structures packed together on a rolling farm land, located in the town of Jiantang in the Yunnan province, now renamed as Shangri-la town in the renamed Shangri-la county, is in the heart of the mountain range known as Hengduan Mountain Range; it is part of the Mount Baimang Nature Reserve in Yunnan province but the monastery does not have snow covered backdrop. It is delimited in the north west contiguously by Tibet, to the north by Muli and Ganzi, on the west by the Salween River Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, on its south by the Lijiang; the populace is an amalgam of Tibetans, Hui, Bai, Naxi and Han. The town is located on the famous Southern Silk Road, which originates in Sichuan province in the north, crosses Yunnan province and goes to Vietnam.

 

Well established road links exist from Shangri-la to Lhasa, Litang, Dali and Tibetan Sichuan. It is 198 kilometres to the northwest of Lijiang. Shangri-La is also well connected by air with Lhasa and Kunming from its airport known as Shangri-La Diqing Airport, which is 7 kilometres to the south of the town in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. However, there are no rail links at present. The monastery is an hour's walk from the Shangri-la town and is a major attraction for tourists and the change of name of the town to Shangri-la and the impressive Monastery complex are stated to have encouraged tourism to this place.

 

HISTORY

The Sumtseling monastery belonging to the Gelukpa order of Buddhism was established by the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1679. It was built during the rule of the Qing dynasty Kangxi Emperor (r.1662-1722). He fully patronized the development of this monastery. It is also said that the emperor was associated in the reincarnation search for the Seventh Dalai Lama.

 

In the 1930s, the monastery had provided full support to the Communist general He Long who passed through this area during his campaign. However, in 1959, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China bombed the monastery during their invasion of Tibet. Since 1981, the situation has changed, the monastery buildings have been mostly restored and normality prevails.

 

STTRUCTURES

The Monastery built in the 17th century as the largest Buddhist monastery in Yunnan province, after a revelation by the Fifth Dalai Lama is in accordance with Tibetan traditional architectural style. It has six main structures including eight colleges. The entrance gate is at the foot of the hill and provides access to the main hall of the monastery through 146 steps.

 

In the main hall of the monastery, more than 1500 monks congregate to recite the Buddhist scriptures. This hall houses a plethora of scriptures written on palm leaves, a gilded statue of Shakyamuni Buddha which is 8 metres tall at the main altar along with paintings depicting the life of Buddha. The altar has permanent decorated by yak butter lamps.

 

The monastery has two major lamasery buildings – Zhacang and Jikang – apart from several smaller lamaseries. Numerous living rooms have also been built for the monks to reside. The main monastery structure built in Tibetan style has a gilded copper roof similar to the one at the Potala Monastery in Lhasa. The other buildings in the complex are built in Han Chinese style.

 

The road from the old town of the city, leads to the scripture chamber (Gucheng Zangjingtang), which was earlier a Red Army Memorial hall to commemorate the Red Army's long march in the 1930s. At the opposite end of this hall, across the street is the Gulshan Park (Gulshan Gongyuan), which has a monastery with a commanding view of the town and its surroundings. Further along the road, known as the 'Changzeng Lu' 2 kilometres long north-south trending street with intersecting roads laid in grid pattern) to the extreme south, is another temple. Passing through this street leads to gardens and a pavilion; and further to the north on a hill, there is a Chorten (Tibetan stupa). The east west road 'Tuanje Jie' leads to many smaller temples at the south end around the old town.

 

FESTIVALS

The Gedong Festival is held in the precincts of the monastery annually on 29 November when devotees from the region attend to worship and also to witness the religious mask dances – the Cham dance – that are performed by the monks in colourful costumes depicting deities, ghosts and animals.

 

A three-day 'Horse Racing Festival' also known as 'Heavenly Steed Festival' is held at Zandiaong, some time in June (according to the lunar calendar: 5th day of the 5th month), to the south east of the town, which involves dancing, singing and eating, in addition to the racing of horses. Horse traders assemble here in their finest attire of furs and silks. Families of villagers camp in tents at the designated horse racing meadow land at an elevation of 3,288 metres.

 

A new festival introduced in 1990s is called the 'Minority Festival' held in September when artists from neighbouring districts and Tibet participate to present their art forms.

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Shangri-La is a county-level city in northwestern Yunnan province, People's Republic of China and is the location of the seat of the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

 

NAME

In the second half of the 20th century Shangri-La was called Zhongdian (Chinese: 中甸 Zhōngdiàn) but was renamed on 17 December 2001 as Shangri-La (other spellings: Semkyi'nyida, Xianggelila, or Xamgyi'nyilha) after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. The original Tibetan population previously refers to this place by its traditional name Gyalthang or Gyaitang (Standard Tibetan: རྒྱལ་ཐང།; Wylie: rgyal thang, ZWPY: Gyaitang), meaning "Royal plains". This ancient name is reflected in the Tibetan Pinyin name of the town of Jiantang (建塘; Jiàntáng), the county seat.

 

TOWNS

Jiantang Town

Zhongdian Town

Hutiaoxia Town

Jinjiang Town

Luoji Township

 

In the early morning of January 11, 2014, a fire broke out in the 1,000-year-old Dukezong Tibetan neighborhood. About 242 homes and shops were destroyed and 2,600 residents were displaced. About half of the old town was destroyed by the fire, half was spared. After the fire residents were allowed back to their homes and shops. By the end of 2014 rebuilding had started and tourism started to come back. Generally tourism was not affected by the fire, since the main sights in the old town, such as the prayer wheel and temples were not damaged. Many of the other main sights are located outside of the old town.

 

CLIMATE

Shangri-La has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen Dwb), due to the high elevation. Winters are chilly but sunny, with a January 24-hour average temperature of −3.2 °C, while summers are cool, with a July 24-hour average temperature of 13.5 °C, and feature frequent rain; more than 70% of the annual precipitation is delivered from June to September. The annual mean is 5.85 °C. Except during the summer, nights are usually sharply cooler than the days. Despite the dryness of the winter, the small amount of precipitation is generally sufficient to cause major transportation dislocations and isolate the area between November and March. Being located just 27° in latitude from the equator, the effects of altitude on the climate are so exceptional that it actually means the average yearly temperature is 2.5°C lower than that for Bergen, Norway, located as much as 60° from the equator.

 

NATIONAL PARK

Pudacuo National Park, the first national park in China to meet IUCN standards, is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas World Heritage Site.

 

TRANSPORT

The town's airport is Diqing Airport. Covering an area of 225 hectares, it is one of the biggest airports in the northwest of Yunnan. There are flights to Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Since there is no railway available in Shangri-la, taking a long-distance bus is also a major means to get to Shangri-la besides flight. It takes about 4 hours to get to Shangri-la from Lijiang by bus.It is also advised to rent a car so that tourists could also visit the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the First Bend of Yangtze River on the way.

Many travelers use the county town as a gateway into Tibet, either travelling many days overland by jeep to Lhasa, or by flying from the city's airport. However, the town itself is a tourist destination, primarily due to the nearby Gandan Sumtseling Monastery, Ganden Sumtsen Ling, 松赞林寺 Sōngzànlín Sì), Pudacuo National Park, and Tiger Leaping Gorge.

China National Highway 214

 

WIKIPEDIA

This is a photograph from the first annual running of the "Mullingar 10" - a 10 mile road race and fun run which was held in Dalystown, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Sunday July 27th 2014 at 11:00. Dalystown is a rural parish situated about 6 miles south of Mullingar. The race was organised by Mullingar Harriers who promoted the event. There was almost 400 participants in the event. The race follows a simple 'figure of 8' route. The race starts from Dalystown National School and heads north briefly to Dalystown cross-roads where there is a left turn which brings runners along the L1122 road. The only real cross-over of the route is at the 2.5 and 7.5 mile mark. The race completes a loop between 2.5 and the 7.5 mile mark which brings runners into the locality of Ballinagore. The final 2.5 miles of the race brings runners back through Cloneheigue and the final 1.5 miles of the race is along straight road heading north back to Dalystown and the finish outside of Wallace's Pub.

 

The course was a mixture of long straight level sections of road with some short rolling hills which made for a challenging but overall fair course. The race took place is warm temperatures with a strong southerly breeze in the face of runners for stretches along the route. However some beautiful mature hedgerows along the mostly rural roads provided shade and shelter from the sun for runners.

 

This was the first year of the event and going on today's event it will become an annual fixture on the calendar. Clubs from all over the North Leinster region and beyond were represented today. Refreshments were provided outside Wallace's Pub at the Finish line. Well done to Mullingar Harriers and all the many volunteers who helped make today's race a wonderful success.

  

We have a large set of photographs from the event today. The full set is accessible at: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157645912529346/ - They were taken at the start and finish of the event.

 

2014 Results: www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2100

Mullingar 10 - event Facebook Page www.facebook.com/mullingar10?ref=ts&fref=ts (requires Facebook logon)

Mullingar Harriers Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/groups/158535740855708/?ref=ts&fref=ts (requires Facebook logon)

Google StreetView of Start Area www.google.ie/maps/@53.435088,-7.385069,3a,75y,270h,90t/d...

Google StreetView of Finish area at Wallace's Bar: www.google.ie/maps/@53.43684,-7.383215,3a,75y,90t/data=!3...

 

Timing and event management was provided by Precision Timing. Results are available on their website at www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2100 with additional material available on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts) See their promotional video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-7_TUVwJ6Q

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

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

The explaination is very simple.

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

  

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

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

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

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

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

Disabled Rights Book Launch

Scouts Camporee on Omaha Beach Honors Heroes and Promotes Peace.

 

By Robert Turtil

 

U.S. Scouts gathered April 24 to 27 for the 2014 Omaha Beach Camporee, in event held every three years in Normandy, France. This years Camporee was particularly special, because it was recognized as the opening event of the 70th anniversary of the D Day landings planned for June. Hundreds of Scouts from France, Britain, Poland, Switzerland, the BeNeLux and Scandinavian countries, Germany and other nations joined for a weekend of remembrance.

 

U.S. embassy personnel and active duty service members brought their families from facilities around Europe and North Africa. More than a few F-16 fighter jockeys directed AstroVans from the Autobahn to the AutoRoute to the D-514, while others followed the more historic route across, or below, the English Channel. Some Scouts flew from American cities over their spring break, and as usual, moms led the charge when dads couldn’t get away. All converged on a welcoming destination for Americans on the French coast.

 

Nearly 4,200 troops and their supporting families battled sometimes horizontal rain to re-live the history, and recognize the sacrifices of American and Allied soldiers, many close to their own age, who have fought and died fighting for freedom and peace. World War Two Veterans were honored, and sacrifices made during The Great War, Korea, Vietnam and The War on Terror were also recognized by scout leaders and other volunteers, many of whom are U.S. Veterans, the traditional backbone of scouting in America.

 

Campsites were pitched in the rain, the mud and the dark; pots of pasta were swamped by tent malfunctions. The elements provoked short-term tears and tantrums, and perhaps a sleepless night. But complaints were mitigated with stories of invasion boats packed with seasick assault troops, mud filled foxholes, and cold k-rations, as Scouts peered at the sogginess of this Norman spring. But, as EVERY Scout knows, only fun will be remembered of the mud and chill of this weekend.

 

Scout convoys raced around the invasion coast following ambitious schedules: Utah Beach, Point D’Hoc, Sainte Mere Eglise, Arromanches, the Pegasus Bridge and many museums. Scouts and Veterans were the special guests of honor at the historic and grand Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux where clergy, along with national and local leaders, christened a newly forged Bell of Peace and Freedom. The Cathedral was a packed and flowing sea of international scout uniforms, flags and neckerchiefs… all highlighted by sunbeams streaking through stained-glass windows.

 

90 year-old, World War ll Army Air Force Veteran Captain Samuel Wiley Hammersmith, B-25 pilot with 28 missions in the Pacific, mingled with Scouts throughout the weekend.

 

New Eagles and candidates for the Order of the Arrow were sworn in at an Omaha Beach campfire in the most meaningful of ceremonies for Scouts and their families. A French Air Force flyover, a military band and youth choir opened the Messengers of Peace multimedia presentation, bringing home the sacrifices made in the past and the promise of peace Scouting seeks to contribute worldwide. That evening, friendships were made, neckerchiefs swapped, and Paella shared at sunset on the beach, followed by a fusillade of fireworks.

 

Sunday’s closing ceremony was held in the drizzle at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Each Troop flew its colors and laid a wreath at the base of the huge bronze statue, The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. Scouts and their families then joined hundreds of others walking the many acres of markers, looking for specific names, or just looking, at the beauty- with history, the sense of sacrifice and a touch of tears that the damp, perfect green grass of the cemetery envokes. Slowly the parking lot emptied as each American Troop and Patrol headed in every direction across Europe and the ocean… home.

 

If you would like to support the Scouts quest to preserve Omaha Beach as a UNESCO World Heritage site, follow this link and sign the petition:

www.change.org/petitions/unesco-save-the-d-day-beaches-ma...

 

Photos Courtesy Robert Turtil

 

www.redcarpetreporttv.com

 

Mingle Media TV's Red Carpet Report host Ine Back Iversen were invited to come out to Secret Room Events Beauty Bar and Luxury Lounge at the W Hotel in Westwood honoring this year’s nominees and invited guests during Oscar Week in honor of the 87th Academy Awards.

 

Nominees in attendance were Anthony McCarten

(The Theory of Everything), Brent Burge (The Hobbit), Danielle Brisebois (Begin Again), David Lancaster (Whiplash),Dennis Liddiard (Foxcatcher), Armando Bo (Birdcatcher), Jason Canovas (The Hobbit), Julien Feret (Butter Lamp), Lisa Bruce (The Theory of Everything), Nissa Kashani (Parvaneh), Omar Dorsey (Selma), Orlando Von Eisiendel (Virunga), Paul Young (Song of the Sea), Robert Stromberg (Maleficent), Stefan Eichenberger (Parvaneh), Talkhon Hamzavi (Parvaneh), Tom Moore (Song of the Sea) and many more.

 

Get the Story from the Red Carpet Report Team, follow us on Twitter and Facebook at:

twitter.com/TheRedCarpetTV

www.facebook.com/RedCarpetReportTV

www.youtube.com/MingleMediaTVNetwork

The on-site INTERACTIVE BEAUTIFYING BAR offered guests gourmet food and beverages from H20 Bar/Boxed water is better, Waiakea and True Toniqs and beauty services by TONI&GUY® Hairdressing Academy, Makeup by artist Megan Cahill, Massage by Cecilia Alcala, Dial M for Makeup and Michelle Fong lash bar.

 

Also onsite were Secret Room Events Platinum and Gold sponsors who gifted guests the following:

Muller - amazing new Ice Cream Inspired creamy yogurt in four delectable flavors

Calorease - supplements that bind with fat from food to reduce up to 500 calories a day

Imperial Fine Books - leather bound sets and fine bindings in literature, history, poetry, children's and more

Gutsy Products - Gutsy Chewy promotes oral and digestive health with a proprietary blend of nature’s remedies

Ancestry.com - free memberships to access the world’s largest online history resource

Revitalash - famous eyelash and eyebrow products to help enhance your natural beauty

Guests also enjoyed gifts from Silver sponsors Testa Wines of the World ltd, Nuwati Herbals, Lady Ease,

Belli Vita, Night Fox Jewelry, Alphabet Kids, Our Angels, Fiber Choice, Fun Toys, Hipoglos, No Mo "O” and To Be A Woman.

Secret Room Events Beauty Bar and Luxury Lounge benefited OMICS Live! Which takes high school students on an engaging career exploring process behind the scenes at businesses and events. www.fashionomicslive.com

VIP GIFT BAGS were given to guests filled with gifts from Uzurii, Xtend-Life Natural Products, Taymor, Little Remedies, LadyBurg, Bluefish Sport, OPI, Estevia Parfum, Mack and Jane Jewelry, Justins, Murad, Single Cup Coffee, Biscuit for Your Thoughts, New Braiding Handbook, Elizabeth Jane Swimwear, Natures Jeannie, Lansinoh, 2UNDR, Old Dutch Co., Pink Spot Vapors, Good Earth, Judi Cakes, Nubru Coffee, The Invisible Chef, Sierra Sage Herbs, Rusk, Life Choice, Waiakea Springs, LeTarte, Sprinkles Magazine, Huit, Freya, Snack It Forward, Deborah Marquit, Wireless Solutions LLC, Estevia Perfume, Sir Richards and Kuzma Designs.

 

ABOUT SECRET ROOM EVENTS

Secret Room Events produces exclusive gift lounges and gift bags surrounding major awards shows. Secret Room Events was voted top gift suite by Huffington Post, featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, Access Hollywood, E!, OK!, HGTV, Frontdoor.com and many more. For more info please contact Amy by email at: amy@secretroomevents.com or Visit their website www.secretroomevents.com

 

For more of Mingle Media TV’s Red Carpet Report coverage, please visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook here:

www.minglemediatv.com

www.flickr.com/MingleMediaTVNetwork

www.twitter.com/minglemediatv

Follow our Host, Ine, on Twitter at twitter.com/IneBackIversen

Scouts Camporee on Omaha Beach Honors Heroes and Promotes Peace.

 

By Robert Turtil

 

U.S. Scouts gathered April 24 to 27 for the 2014 Omaha Beach Camporee, in event held every three years in Normandy, France. This years Camporee was particularly special, because it was recognized as the opening event of the 70th anniversary of the D Day landings planned for June. Hundreds of Scouts from France, Britain, Poland, Switzerland, the BeNeLux and Scandinavian countries, Germany and other nations joined for a weekend of remembrance.

 

U.S. embassy personnel and active duty service members brought their families from facilities around Europe and North Africa. More than a few F-16 fighter jockeys directed AstroVans from the Autobahn to the AutoRoute to the D-514, while others followed the more historic route across, or below, the English Channel. Some Scouts flew from American cities over their spring break, and as usual, moms led the charge when dads couldn’t get away. All converged on a welcoming destination for Americans on the French coast.

 

Nearly 4,200 troops and their supporting families battled sometimes horizontal rain to re-live the history, and recognize the sacrifices of American and Allied soldiers, many close to their own age, who have fought and died fighting for freedom and peace. World War Two Veterans were honored, and sacrifices made during The Great War, Korea, Vietnam and The War on Terror were also recognized by scout leaders and other volunteers, many of whom are U.S. Veterans, the traditional backbone of scouting in America.

 

Campsites were pitched in the rain, the mud and the dark; pots of pasta were swamped by tent malfunctions. The elements provoked short-term tears and tantrums, and perhaps a sleepless night. But complaints were mitigated with stories of invasion boats packed with seasick assault troops, mud filled foxholes, and cold k-rations, as Scouts peered at the sogginess of this Norman spring. But, as EVERY Scout knows, only fun will be remembered of the mud and chill of this weekend.

 

Scout convoys raced around the invasion coast following ambitious schedules: Utah Beach, Point D’Hoc, Sainte Mere Eglise, Arromanches, the Pegasus Bridge and many museums. Scouts and Veterans were the special guests of honor at the historic and grand Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux where clergy, along with national and local leaders, christened a newly forged Bell of Peace and Freedom. The Cathedral was a packed and flowing sea of international scout uniforms, flags and neckerchiefs… all highlighted by sunbeams streaking through stained-glass windows.

 

90 year-old, World War ll Army Air Force Veteran Captain Samuel Wiley Hammersmith, B-25 pilot with 28 missions in the Pacific, mingled with Scouts throughout the weekend.

 

New Eagles and candidates for the Order of the Arrow were sworn in at an Omaha Beach campfire in the most meaningful of ceremonies for Scouts and their families. A French Air Force flyover, a military band and youth choir opened the Messengers of Peace multimedia presentation, bringing home the sacrifices made in the past and the promise of peace Scouting seeks to contribute worldwide. That evening, friendships were made, neckerchiefs swapped, and Paella shared at sunset on the beach, followed by a fusillade of fireworks.

 

Sunday’s closing ceremony was held in the drizzle at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Each Troop flew its colors and laid a wreath at the base of the huge bronze statue, The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. Scouts and their families then joined hundreds of others walking the many acres of markers, looking for specific names, or just looking, at the beauty- with history, the sense of sacrifice and a touch of tears that the damp, perfect green grass of the cemetery envokes. Slowly the parking lot emptied as each American Troop and Patrol headed in every direction across Europe and the ocean… home.

 

If you would like to support the Scouts quest to preserve Omaha Beach as a UNESCO World Heritage site, follow this link and sign the petition:

www.change.org/petitions/unesco-save-the-d-day-beaches-ma...

 

Photos Courtesy Robert Turtil

 

Promoting "A Series of Unfortunate Breakups" from Some Riot Theatre

artwork promoted by San Francisco Arts Committee: theme of 50 years of gay pride in San Francisco: Pride as Protest

Market Street, San Francisco

 

20200710_152001

 

On March 14, 2019 the Los Angeles Fire Department proudly promoted 45 members to the below listed positions:

 

Assistant Chief:

Battalion Chief Kristina Kepner

 

Battalion Chief:

Captain II Luis Aldana

Captain II Monica Hall

 

Captain II:

Captain I Joseph Angiuli

Captain I Erik Scott

Captain I Michael Coffey

Captain I Dustin Clark

Captain I Kairi Brown

Captain I Todd Cremins

 

Captain I:

Apparatus Operator Scott Kingsland

Engineer Pedro Jimenez

Firefighter III/Paramedic/EIT Robert Barna

Firefighter III Fernando Pattison

Firefighter III Brian Harris

Apparatus Operator Travis Humpherys

Engineer Kenneth Williams

Engineer Jared Kearns

Firefighter III/Paramedic Amy Bastman

Firefighter III/Paramedic Erik Williams

Firefighter III Kevin Easton

Firefighter III/Paramedic Cathleen Gilbert

Firefighter III/EIT Jeffrey Sambar

Apparatus Operator Raul Cabrera

Firefighter III Michael Nelson, II

Firefighter III/EIT Carlos Mejia

Apparatus Operator Louis Polanco

Engineer Andrew Balandis

Apparatus Operator Alex Garcia

 

Apparatus Operator:

Firefighter III/Paramedic Alex Barcelona

Firefighter III Kent Gladinus

Firefighter III Graham Mileham

Firefighter III/Paramedic Michael Henderson

 

Engineer:

Firefighter III Patrick Perez

Firefighter III Kongrit Tiengerd

Firefighter III Engel Luistro

Firefighter III Mark Zizi

Firefighter III Carlos Limon

Firefighter III/Paramedic Jefferson Pytell

Firefighter III Makar Pashabezyan

Firefighter III/Paramedic Michael Miller

Firefighter III/Paramedic Jarrett Barton

Firefighter III/Paramedic Michael Correy

Firefighter III/Paramedic Nicholas Durepo

 

Inspector I:

Engineer Chi Lam

Firefighter III/Paramedic Henry Medina

  

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit: LAFD Photo | Alex Gillman

 

LAFD Event: 031419

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

REFF, FakePress, AOS and Ossigeno

present

 

REFF on tour

Ancona, Osimo, Macerata

 

REFF on tour

 

REFF on tour

 

30-31 marzo 2011

 

Just back from London REFF, the fake institution promoting from 2009 cultural policies, artworks and technologied inspired to the systhematic reinvention of reality, will arrive in Marche (Italy)

 

Thanks to the collaboration of Ossigeno, REFF A/R Youth Program, the special program in Education & Learning dedicated to yung gneration, will be presented in public shool, Academias and Universities of Ancona, Osimo and Macerata cities.

 

Everyones – students, professors, citizens – will have the possibility to experiment the extraordinary effects of REFF AR Drugs, the augmented reality drug recently lunched by the fake institution.

 

REFF – Remix the World! Reinvent Reality!

 

Program of activities

 

30th March 2011 , 10,40am – Aula Magna

Liceo Artistico Mannucci “E. Mannucci” – Ancona

 

Introduction by Prof. Francesco Colonnelli

 

30th March 2011 – 17.30pm

Libreria Il mercante di Storie – Osimo (AN)

 

31th March 2011 – 10am – Aula Magna

Accademia di Belle Arti Macerata – Macerata (http://www2.abamc.it/)

Introduction by Prof. Antonio G. Benemia

 

More info on:

www.romaeuropa.org

www.fakepress.it

www.artisopensource.net

www.ossigenazioni.com

 

ABOUT REFF AR YOUTH PROGRAM

 

REFF AR Youth Program is a special program of Education & Learning enacted by REFF to ensure the immediate distribution of REFF AR Drug to young generations.The Program consists in a series of theoretical and practical workshops exploring the possibilities offered by fake, remix, recontextualization, plagiarism and reenactment as a tool for methodological reinvention of reality.

 

REFF AR Youth Program was lunched in London as a part of the exhibit “Remix the World! Reinvent reality!” (Fourtherfield Gallery, 25th Feb – 26th Mar 2011). The agenda of the Fake Institution inspired approval and enthusiasm in the academic world. Six different universities in London already guested REFF workshops and presentations.

 

Learn mere here:

 

ABOUT REFF AR Drugs

 

From the information sheet:

 

“REFF is an Augmented Reality (AR) Drug. Also referred to as Simulata Realitas per Activam-Industriosam-Laboriosam Multiplicationem, REFF AR Drug is a psychotropic antidepressant administered cross-medially.This drug is used to treat social depression, fear of the future, precariety, anthropological distress, lack of opportunities, communicational totalitarianism, scarcity of freedoms and intolerant social ecosystems.Compared to other drugs acting on the same areas, REFF AR Drug is designed with accessibility in mind and as an enabler of the spontaneous generation of forms of expression and of collaborative practices.

 

REFF AR Drug is also used (off-label) to treat numerous other conditions such as the UFPS (Uncertainty for the Future of Publishing Syndrome), and the LDSBMS (Lack of Decent Sustainable Business Models Syndrome).”

 

Learn more here:

 

www.fakepress.it/FP/?p=1640

 

ABOUT REFF – RomaEuropa FakeFactory

 

REFF is a fake cultural institution enacting real policies for arts, creativity and freedoms of expression all over the world.

 

REFF was born in Italy in 2009. Since then it continuously operated using fake, remix, reinvention, recontextualization, plagiarism and reenactment as tools for the systematic reinvention of reality. Defining what is real is an act of power. Being able to reinvent reality is an act of freedom. REFF promotes the dissemination and reappropriation of all technologies, theories and practices that can be used to freely and autonomously reinvent reality.

 

To do this, REFF established an international competition on digital arts, a worldwide education program in which ubiquitous technologies are used to create additional layers of reality for critical practices and freedoms, a series of open source software platforms and an Augmented Reality Drug.

 

REFF collaborates with art organizations, student groups, research institutions and all other subjects wishing to promote the freedoms to reinvent their world. REFF has received several official recognitions worldwide: it was hosted in the Cultural Commission of the Italian Senate, and was an official initiative of the European Community’s Year of Creativity in 2009.

 

Official site:

 

www.romaeuropa.org

 

REFF in the world:

 

reff.romaeuropa.org

 

Photos by Marco Fagotti and Giacomo Cesari

President Kagame promotes 721 Cadet Officers to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant

Collage of three oil on canvas paintings: "Spring Waterfalls" (left), "Waterfall in the Rhyolite Formations" (center), and "Soul of the Bruneau River" (right) by JanyRae Seda, 2014 Artist-in-Residence at Bruneau-Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness, Idaho.

 

The national BLM Artist-in-Residence Program provides artistic and educational opportunities to promote deeper understanding of, and dialogue about, the significance of natural, cultural, and historic resources on public lands managed by the BLM – including the National Landscape Conservation System.

 

The BLM Artist-in-Residence program is managed at the local level by a participating BLM field office. Each participating field office has the flexibility of crafting their Artist-in-Residence program as it best suits their needs and resources while keeping within the overall program guidelines.

 

Learn more: www.blm.gov/get-involved/artist-in-residence

About the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa

 

** Hacienda Pinilla

 

In the 1950s, Hoover Gordon “Pat” Pattillo was a power player in the development of Atlanta, when the city was coming into its own. Pattillo Construction Inc. began as a family-owned design/build general contractor serving Atlanta and the state of Georgia. The business built over 1,000 industrial buildings accounting for more than 80 million square feet. Pattillo was a

prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist in Georgia. He served as chairman (1975) of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

 

In 1974 H.G. Pattillo bought a cattle ranch in Costa Rica, locally known as Hacienda Pinilla. He would come down once a year and stay in the old farmhouse. He had no long range ideas

for what to do with the land. But following his retirement in the mid 1990's Pattillo begin developing the ranch land with a few home sites. Eventually the ranch, located just south of Tamarindo and Langosta and North of Playa Avellanas, became a 5,000 acre development featuring a JW Marriott hotel (opened in 2008), golf course, tennis courts, residential housing, condos, restaurants, beach club, equestrian center and a working cattle ranch and one of the ten best beaches in all of Central America.

 

After 40 years of directing and overseeing Hacienda Pinilla, Pat Pattillo, the majority shareholder of Agroganadera Pinilla, S.A, determined auctioning off the property (estimated proceeds were $2 billion) would allow for the acceleration of the vision for the project. Agroganadera Pinilla has invested more than $178 million in the ranch development, which includes the infrastructure for water, electricity and fiber optics. Also, proceeds form the auction would permanently fund the charitable work of Guanacaste Ventures U.S. Inc and its Costa Rican counterpart - Fundación Progreso Guanacast.

 

The foundations were established in 2005 by Mr. H.G. (“Pat”) Pattillo, the majority shareholder of Agroganadera Pinilla, S.A. The original idea was to use profits garnered from the Hacienda Pinilla Beach Resort and Residential Community to improve the lives and offer educational opportunities of the citizens of the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica.

 

After consideration of all offers and options, Agroganadera Pinilla, S.A,. determined that retention of ownership control and an aggressive reinvestment in the project, along with improvements to resort operations, would result in the optimal outcomes for current ownership, property owners, partners, the foundations and staff. Moving forward Bree McClure Pattillo, Pat Patilla's granddaughter was named as its new president in 2012. Bree Pattillo is a director and officer of Pattillo Construction Corp. and several real estate holding companies in the United States, and received her MBA from The Citadel.

 

** JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa

 

From the open-air plazas to the chunky stone walls to the red roof tiles, this JW Marriott resort sits on the edge of the 4,500-acre Hacienda Pinilla and exudes the charm of an old hacienda by the sea. Designed by Costa Rican architect Ronald Zurcher, the architect for the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, this 310-unit colonial compound was planned to preserve history and nature. The interiors were conceived by Dallas interior designer Paul Duesing. Duesing's résumé boasts 97 five-star hotels, including Capella Pedregal (Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) and Tucker’s Point Club (Bermuda) and most recently the Mukul Resort & Spa in Nicaragua.

 

The JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort is owned by Grupo Poma, a family-owned company headed by Ricardo Poma in El Salvador. The hotel opened in 2009 and is on land owned by

Agroganader Pinilla. Ricardo Poma, president of developer Grupo Poma, told the grand-opening crowd that the first time he came to Hacienda Pinilla Beach Resort and Residential

Community, he fell in love with its sprawling dry forest, temperate weather, gorgeous Pacific beaches and lovely people, and decided to build the five-star hotel at this location.

 

Ricardo Poma was an original investor in Mitt Romney's Bain Capital. Poma obtained an industrial engineering degree from Princeton University in 1967 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1970. Some of Grupo Poma’s business activities include automobile dealerships, real estate development and construction, industrial manufacturing and hotels.

 

Grupo Poma's Hotel division, Real Hotels and Resorts, whose CEO is Ricardo's son Fernando, owns twenty eight InterContinental, Marriott International and Choice Hotels in Central America, Colombia, the Caribbean and Miami, Florida.

 

Costa Rica’s president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, U.S.Ambassador Peter Cianchette and Mr. Pattillo, a founder of the Pattillo C onstruction Co. attended the Feb. 4, 2009 dedication of the

five-star J.W. Marriott Guanacaste Resort and Spa at Hacienda Pinilla, the 40th JW Marriott property worldwide.

 

Carlos Diago was the opening General Manager. He previously served as Rooms Director for the JW Marriott Mexico City. He currently is the GM at the Cali Marriott Hotel, a Real Hotel.

 

Jesus Gonzalez was named General Manager in March 2012 where he currently serves. Previously he was general manager at Hotel Real InterContinental San Pedro Sula for 4 years.

 

** The Golf Course at Hacienda Pinilla

 

Pat Pattillo conceived the course in the late 1990s as a centerpiece for Hacienda Pinilla and to lure resort development and homesite ownership. Created by Georgia golf architect Mike Young, the layout conforms gracefully to the natural flow of the land, weaving through the tropical forest along the shores of the Pacific to provide an unparalleled blue water backdrop.

 

Opened in 2000, the par 72 course, which can play up to 7,200 yards, was designed to enhance the natural landscape of Hacienda Pinilla. Young’s distinctive taste for details allowed him to design a course where each hole harmonizes with the slopes and the profile of the landscape. Tif Eagle bermuda grass greens, lush fairways and steep-faced bunkers are surrounded by trees and waste areas. An inventory for habitat purposes revealed 30 colonies of the howler monkeys - expect to see some climbing or howling through the trees on or near the course.

 

Compiled by Dick Johnson

October 2015

U.S. Army Africa photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Davis

 

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) hosted its second annual C4ISR Senior Leaders Conference Feb. 2-4 at Caserma Ederle, headquarters of U.S. Army Africa, in Vicenza, Italy.

 

The communications and intelligence community event, hosted by Brig. Gen. Robert Ferrell, AFRICOM C4 director, drew approximately 80 senior leaders from diverse U.S. military and government branches and agencies, as well as representatives of African nations and the African Union.

 

“The conference is a combination of our U.S. AFRICOM C4 systems and intel directorate,” said Ferrell. “We come together annually to bring the team together to work on common goals to work on throughout the year. The team consists of our coalition partners as well as our inter-agency partners, as well as our components and U.S. AFRICOM staff.”

 

The conference focused on updates from participants, and on assessing the present state and goals of coalition partners in Africa, he said.

 

“The theme for our conference is ‘Delivering Capabilities to a Joint Information Environment,’ and we see it as a joint and combined team ... working together, side by side, to promote peace and stability there on the African continent,” Ferrell said.

 

Three goals of this year’s conference were to strengthen the team, assess priorities across the board, and get a better fix on the impact that the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command will have on all members’ efforts in the future, he said.

 

“With the stand-up of U.S. Cyber Command, it brings a lot of unique challenges that we as a team need to talk through to ensure that our information is protected at all times,” Ferrell said.

 

African Union (AU) representatives from four broad geographic regions of Africa attended, which generated a holistic perspective on needs and requirements from across the continent, he said.

 

“We have members from the African Union headquarters that is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; we have members that are from Uganda; from Zambia; from Ghana; and also from the Congo. What are the gaps, what are the things that we kind of need to assist with as we move forward on our engagements on the African continent?” Ferrell said.

 

U.S. Army Africa Commander, Maj. Gen. David R. Hogg, welcomed participants as the conference got under way.

 

“We’re absolutely delighted to be the host for this conference, and we hope that this week you get a whole lot out of it,” said Hogg.

 

He took the opportunity to address the participants not only as their host, but from the perspective of a customer whose missions depend on the results of their efforts to support commanders in the field.

 

“When we’re talking about this group of folks that are here — from the joint side, from our African partners, from State, all those folks — it’s about partnership and interoperability. And every commander who’s ever had to fight in a combined environment understands that interoperability is the thing that absolutely slaps you upside the head,” Hogg said.

 

“We’re in the early stages of the process here of working with the African Union and the other partners, and you have an opportunity to design this from the end state, versus just building a bunch of ‘gunkulators.’ And so, the message is: think about what the end state is supposed to look like and construct the strategy to support the end state.

 

“Look at where we want to be at and design it that way,” Hogg said.

 

He also admonished participants to consider the second- and third-order effects of their choices in designing networks.

 

“With that said, over the next four days, I hope this conference works very well for you. If there’s anything we can do to make your stay better, please let us know,” Hogg said.

 

Over the following three days, participants engaged in a steady stream of briefings and presentations focused on systems, missions and updates from the field.

 

Col. Joseph W. Angyal, director of U.S. Army Africa G-6, gave an overview of operations and issues that focused on fundamentals, the emergence of regional accords as a way forward, and the evolution of a joint network enterprise that would serve all interested parties.

 

“What we’re trying to do is to work regionally. That’s frankly a challenge, but as we stand up the capability, really for the U.S. government, and work through that, we hope to become more regionally focused,” he said.

 

He referred to Africa Endeavor, an annual, multi-nation communications exercise, as a test bed for the current state of affairs on the continent, and an aid in itself to future development.

 

“In order to conduct those exercises, to conduct those security and cooperation events, and to meet contingency missions, we really, from the C4ISR perspective, have five big challenges,” Angyal said.

 

“You heard General Hogg this morning talk about ‘think about the customer’ — you’ve got to allow me to be able to get access to our data; I’ve got to be able to get to the data where and when I need it; you’ve got to be able to protect it; I have to be able to share it; and then finally, the systems have to be able to work together in order to build that coalition.

 

“One of the reasons General Ferrell is setting up this joint information enterprise, this joint network enterprise . . . it’s almost like trying to bring together disparate companies or corporations: everyone has their own system, they’ve paid for their own infrastructure, and they have their own policy, even though they support the same major company.

 

“Now multiply that when you bring in different services, multiply that when you bring in different U.S. government agencies, and then put a layer on top of that with the international partners, and there are lots of policies that are standing in our way.”

 

The main issue is not a question of technology, he said.

 

“The boxes are the same — a Cisco router is a Cisco router; Microsoft Exchange server is the same all over the world — but it’s the way that we employ them, and it’s the policies that we apply to it, that really stops us from interoperating, and that’s the challenge we hope to work through with the joint network enterprise.

 

“And I think that through things like Africa Endeavor and through the joint enterprise network, we’re looking at knocking down some of those policy walls, but at the end of the day they are ours to knock down. Bill Gates did not design a system to work only for the Army or for the Navy — it works for everyone,” Angyal said.

 

Brig. Gen. Joseph Searyoh, director general of Defense Information Communication Systems, General Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, agreed that coordinating policy is fundamental to improving communications with all its implications for a host of operations and missions.

 

“One would expect that in these modern times there is some kind of mutual engagement, and to build that engagement to be strong, there must be some kind of element of trust. … We have to build some kind of trust to be able to move forward,” said Searyoh.

 

“Some people may be living in silos of the past, but in the current engagement we need to tell people that we are there with no hidden agenda, no negative hidden agenda, but for the common good of all of us.

 

“We say that we are in the information age, and I’ve been saying something: that our response should not be optional, but it must be a must, because if you don’t join now, you are going to be left behind.

 

“So what do we do? We have to get our house in order.

 

“Why do I say so? We used to operate like this before the information age; now in the information age, how do we operate?

 

“So, we have to get our house in order and see whether we are aligning ourselves with way things should work now. So, our challenge is to come up with a strategy, see how best we can reorganize our structures, to be able to deliver communications-information systems support for the Ghana Armed Forces,” he said.

 

Searyoh related that his organization has already accomplished one part of erecting the necessary foundation by establishing an appropriate policy structure.

 

“What is required now is the implementing level. Currently we have communications on one side, and computers on one side. The lines are blurred — you cannot operate like that, you’ve got to bring them together,” he said.

 

Building that merged entity to support deployed forces is what he sees as the primary challenge at present.

 

“Once you get that done you can talk about equipment, you can talk about resources,” Searyoh said. “I look at the current collaboration between the U.S. and the coalition partners taking a new level.”

 

“The immediate challenges that we have is the interoperability, which I think is one of the things we are also discussing here, interoperability and integration,” said Lt. Col. Kelvin Silomba, African Union-Zambia, Information Technology expert for the Africa Stand-by Force.

 

“You know that we’ve got five regions in Africa. All these regions, we need to integrate them and bring them together, so the challenge of interoperability in terms of equipment, you know, different tactical equipment that we use, and also in terms of the language barrier — you know, all these regions in Africa you find that they speak different languages — so to bring them together we need to come up with one standard that will make everybody on board and make everybody able to talk to each other,” he said.

 

“So we have all these challenges. Other than that also, stemming from the background of these African countries, based on the colonization: some of them were French colonized, some of them were British colonized and so on, so you find that when they come up now we’ve adopted some of the procedures based on our former colonial masters, so that is another challenge that is coming on board.”

 

The partnership with brother African states, with the U.S. government and its military branches, and with other interested collaborators has had a positive influence, said Silomba.

 

“Oh, it’s great. From the time that I got engaged with U.S. AFRICOM — I started with Africa Endeavor, before I even came to the AU — it is my experience that it is something very, very good.

 

“I would encourage — I know that there are some member states — I would encourage that all those member states they come on board, all of these regional organizations, that they come on board and support the AFRICOM lead. It is something that is very, very good.

 

“As for example, the African Union has a lot of support that’s been coming in, technical as well as in terms of knowledge and equipment. So it’s great; it’s good and it’s great,” said Salimba.

 

Other participant responses to the conference were positive as well.

 

“The feedback I’ve gotten from every member is that they now know what the red carpet treatment looks like, because USARAF has gone over and above board to make sure the environment, the atmosphere and the actual engagements … are executed to perfection,” said Ferrell. “It’s been very good from a team-building aspect.

 

“We’ve had very good discussions from members of the African Union, who gave us a very good understanding of the operations that are taking place in the area of Somalia, the challenges with communications, and laid out the gaps and desires of where they see that the U.S. and other coalition partners can kind of improve the capacity there in that area of responsibility.

 

“We also talked about the AU, as they are expanding their reach to all of the five regions, of how can they have that interoperability and connectivity to each of the regions,” Ferrell said.

 

“(It’s been) a wealth of knowledge and experts that are here to share in terms of how we can move forward with building capacities and capabilities. Not only for U.S. interests, but more importantly from my perspective, in building capacities and capabilities for our African partners beginning with the Commission at the African Union itself,” said Kevin Warthon, U.S. State Department, peace and security adviser to the African Union.

 

“I think that General Ferrell has done an absolutely wonderful thing by inviting key African partners to participate in this event so they can share their personal experience from a national, regional and continental perspective,” he said.

 

Warthon related from his personal experience a vignette of African trust in Providence that he believed carries a pertinent metaphor and message to everyone attending the conference.

 

“We are not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but the one thing that I am sure of is that we are able to do something. Don’t know when, don’t know how, but as long as our focus is on our ability to assist and to help to progress a people, that’s really what counts more than anything else,” he said.

 

“Don’t worry about the timetable; just focus on your ability to make a difference and that’s what that really is all about.

 

“I see venues such as this as opportunities to make what seems to be the impossible become possible. … This is what this kind of venue does for our African partners.

 

“We’re doing a wonderful job at building relationships, because that’s where it begins — we have to build relationships to establish trust. That’s why this is so important: building trust through relationships so that we can move forward in the future,” Warthon said.

 

Conference members took a cultural tour of Venice and visited a traditional winery in the hills above Vicenza before adjourning.

 

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica

 

Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica

 

Work promotes confidence

Date Created/Published: [New York] : Federal Art Project, [between 1936 and 1941]

Medium: 1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen, color.

Summary: Poster for Works Progress Administration encouraging laborers to gain confidence from their work, showing stylized man holding hammer.

Reproduction Number: LC-USZC2-1018 (color film copy slide) LC-USZ62-59986 (b&w film copy neg.)

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

Call Number: POS - WPA - NY .01 .W76, no. 1 (C size) [P&P]

Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Notes:

Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).

Posters of the WPA / Christopher DeNoon. Los Angeles : Wheatly Press, c1987, no. 1

 

wpa_work promoters confidence_M

The Lobkowicz Palace[1] (Czech: Lobkowický palác) is a part of the Prague Castle complex in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the only privately owned building in the Prague Castle complex and houses the Lobkowicz Collections and Museum.

The palace was built in the second half of the 16th century by the Czech nobleman Jaroslav of Pernštejn (1528–1569) and completed by his brother, Vratislav of Pernštejn (1530–1582), the chancellor of the Czech Kingdom. It was opened to the public for the first time on 2 April 2007 as the Lobkowicz Palace Museum. Set in 22 galleries, the museum displays a selection of pieces from the Lobkowicz Collections, including works by artists such as Antonio Canaletto, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Diego Velázquez, as well as decorative art, military paraphernalia, musical instruments, and original scores of composers including Beethoven and Mozart.

  

History

Lobkowicz Palace was built in the second half of the 16th century by the Czech nobleman Jaroslav of Pernštejn (1528-1569) and completed by his brother, Vratislav of Pernštejn (1530–1582), the chancellor of the Czech Kingdom. Vratislav's wife, Maria Maximiliana Manrique de Lara y Mendoza, brought the Infant Jesus of Prague statue, thought to have healing powers, from her homeland of Spain to the Palace. The statue was later given by Vratislav and Maria Maximiliana's daughter, Polyxena (1566-1642), to the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Prague, where it remains on display as a popular tourist attraction. A replica of the Infant Jesus of Prague is on permanent display in the Lobkowicz Palace Museum.

  

Martinic, in the Lobkowicz Palace on 23 May 1618, Rudolf Vejrych after Václav Brožík

The Palace came into the Lobkowicz family through the marriage of Polyxena to Zdeněk Vojtěch, 1st Prince Lobkowicz (1568-1628). In 1618, Protestant rebels threw the Catholic Imperial Ministers from the windows of the Royal Palace at Prague Castle, known as the Second Defenestration of Prague. Surviving the fall, the ministers took refuge in Lobkowicz Palace, where they were protected from further assault by Polyxena.

Following the defeat of the Protestant faction at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, the Catholic Lobkowicz family grew in influence and power for the next three centuries. Lobkowicz Palace took on a more formal, imperial role and functioned as the Prague residence when the family needed to be present at the seat of Bohemian power for political and ceremonial purposes. With the exception of the 63 years (1939-2002) during which the property was confiscated and held by Nazi and then Communist authorities, the Palace has belonged to the Lobkowicz family.

After World War I, and the abolition of hereditary titles in 1918, Maximilian Lobkowicz (1888-1967), son of Ferdinand Zdenko, 10th Prince Lobkowicz (1858-1938), demonstrated his support for the fledgling First Republic of Czechoslovakia by making several rooms at the palace available to the government headed by Tomas G. Masaryk. In 1939, the occupying Nazi forces confiscated the Palace, along with all other Lobkowicz family properties. The Palace was returned in 1945, only to be seized again after the Communist takeover in 1948. For the next forty years, the Palace was used for a variety of purposes, including State offices and as a museum of Czech history.

After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the fall of the Communist government, President Václav Havel enacted a series of laws that allowed for the restitution of confiscated properties. Following a twelve-year restitution process, the palace returned to the ownership of the Lobkowicz family in 2002. On 2 April 2007, after four years of restoration and refurbishment, the palace was opened to the public for the first time as the Lobkowicz Palace Museum, home to one part of The Lobkowicz Collections. The 17th century baroque Concert Hall of the Lobkowicz Palace hosts regular concerts of classical music, and the premises are also used for weddings.

  

Architecture

After the Thirty Years War, the Palace underwent a number of significant changes, particularly under Václav Eusebius, 2nd Prince Lobkowicz. He was responsible for the palace’s significant baroque alterations and some of its more lavishly decorated salons. Václav Eusebius redesigned the palace in the Italianate style. His design influence can be seen today in the Imperial Hall, whose walls are painted in fresco with trompe l'oeil statues of emperors surrounded by geometric designs, floral and other decorative motifs. Additional examples of the Italianate style are the Concert Hall and the Balcony Room, whose ceilings are adorned with elaborate painted stuccowork and frescoes by F.V. Harovník.

In the 18th century, Joseph František Maximilian, 7th Prince Lobkowicz commissioned the reconstruction of the exterior of the Palace in preparation for the coronation at Prague Castle of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia in 1791. The alterations included the addition of the palace's panoramic balconies. Despite the various alterations made through the years, remnants of original 16th-century murals and graffito work can still be seen in both of the interior courtyards.

  

The Lobkowicz Collection

  

Haymaking, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, oil on panel, The Lobkowicz Collections

The oldest and largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic, the Lobkowicz Collection draws its significance from its comprehensive nature, reflecting the cultural, social, political and economic life of Central Europe for over seven centuries. In 1907, Max Dvořák, a prominent member of the Vienna School of Art History, created the first complete catalogue of The Collections.[2] After the restitution laws in the early 1990s, the Lobkowicz family was able to reassemble most of the collection, subsequently making it available to the public for the first time.

 

Paintings

The Lobkowicz Collections comprise approximately 1,500 paintings, including famous works by artists including Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Bellotto,[which?] Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Diego Velázquez Peter Paul Rubens, Paolo Veronese and Canaletto. The collections also include: an extensive collection of Spanish portraits; Central European portraits by Hans von Aachen and the School of Prague; Dutch, Flemish and German genre paintings; and over 50 paintings and watercolors of Lobkowicz residences by Carl Robert Croll.

 

The three most prestigious artworks in the collection are Haymaking (1565) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and two panoramic views of London by Canaletto. Other notable works include: Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent (c. 1614) by the Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens; The Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine (c. 1520) by Lucas Cranach the Elder; Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (c. 1530) by Lucas Cranach the Younger; Caritas Romana (early-mid 16th century) by Georg Pencz and smaller paintings such as A Village in Winter (c. 1600) by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and St. Martin Dividing his Cloak (1611) by Jan Brueghel the Elder. Venetian painting of the 16th century is represented by Paolo Veronese's David with the Head of Goliath (1575).

The Italian baroque collection includes a prayerful Madonna by Giovanni Battista Salvi, and paintings by Francesco del Cairo, Antonio Zanchi and Giovanni Paolo Pannini. The principal Lobkowicz residences and estates—Roudnice nad Labem, Nelahozeves, Jezeří and Bílina—are depicted in oils and watercolors, commissioned from the 19th-century German painter Carl Robert Croll.

The portraits contained in The Collections reflect the Lobkowicz family's participation in European political and cultural life. The collection includes full-length Spanish portraits of Pernstejns, Lobkowiczes, Rožmberks and related members of European and ruling Habsburg dynasties by painters such as Alonso Sánchez Coello, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, Jacob Seisenegger and Hans Krell. Among the 17th and the 18th century works in the collection is the Spanish Infanta Margarita Theresa (c. 1655), attributed to Diego Velázquez. Later portraits of members of the Lobkowicz family are by Viennese portraitists of the 19th century such as Franz Schrotzberg and Friedrich von Amerling.

The collection of paintings is accompanied by an extensive collection of graphics and drawings, including a set of engravings of Rome by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.

  

Decorative Arts

While not as well known as the paintings, books and music associated with the Lobkowiczes, decorative and sacred arts objects, dating from the 13th through the 20th centuries, form a significant part of The Collections.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia and the later period of Communist rule, the private chapels in the family’s principal residences were desecrated and their contents dispersed. Important artefacts survived, including a 12th-century reliquary cross of rock crystal and gilded copper. The gold reliquary head of a female saint, possibly St. Ursula, dated c. 1300 and known as the Jezeri Bust, was found in a trunk of theatrical props. It is now on display in the Lobkowicz Palace.

Late-Renaissance and early-baroque ceramics from Italy feature prominently in the collections. Several pieces of colorful Deruta ware are considered to be among the earliest Italian ceramics brought back to Bohemia. Ordered during a trip to Italy in 1551, the pieces are colourfully decorated with an image of a bull, which was the Pernstejn family crest.

By the late 17th century, Chinese hard-paste porcelain had become the great obsession of European rulers and aristocrats. The Dutch workshops at Delft created tin-glazed earthenware that was an early European imitation of the expensive Chinese ware. Around 1680 when he was Imperial Envoy to the Netherlands, Wenzel Ferdinand, Count Lobkowicz of Bilina, commissioned a personalized work, designed with intricate overlapping letters of his initials WL. With 150 pieces, the set is the largest surviving Delft dinner service. A selection of pieces are on display at the Lobkowicz Palace Museum. In the spring of 2000, over sixty pieces from this service were lent to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, to be displayed as part of the "Glory of the Golden Age" exhibition.

The Meissen factory outside Dresden discovered how to produce hard-paste porcelain in the first decade of the 18th century, for the first time outside of Asia. As a result of the factory’s proximity to the Lobkowicz landholdings and castles, 18th and 19th century examples of these porcelain works are prevalent in the collections, ranging from the earlier delicate chinoiserie motifs to the more traditional European elements and designs with fruits and flowers.

Some of the cabinetmaking and marquetry in the Collections come from the Eger craftsmen who worked in Western Bohemia in the 17th century. Several Eger jewelry cabinets are considered among the finest ever produced.[citation needed] Other pieces include caskets, tables and games boards, which are lavishly inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell, depicting landscapes, animals and classical motifs.

  

Music

The Music Archive of the Lobkowicz Collection holds over 5,000 items. Originally housed in The Lobkowicz Library at the principal family seat of Roudnice Castle, the entire archive was confiscated, first by the Nazis in 1941, and again by the Communist regime, which sent it to the Museum of Czech Music. In October 1998, the Music Archive was returned to the family in its entirety and moved to Nelahozeves Castle under the auspices of the Roudnice-Lobkowicz Foundation.

The Music Archive, established by Ferdinand August, 3rd Prince of Lobkowicz, was assembled over three centuries by principal members of the family who were not only enthusiastic collectors, but patrons of the arts and also often talented performers. The Music Archive contains works by over five hundred composers and musicians. These include a rare collection of late 17th- and early 18th-century lute, mandolin and guitar scores. This collection, regarded as the world’s largest private collection of baroque music for plucked instruments, has a particularly extensive collection of works by French composers, including Denis and Ennemond Gaultier, St. Luc, Charles Mouton, and Jacques Gallot. The Music Archive is most noted, however, for its late 18th- and early 19th-century collection, including works by Handel, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, including Beethoven’s Third (Eroica), Fourth and Fifth symphonies, and Mozart’s hand written re-orchestration of Handel’s Messiah.

Philip Hyacinth, 4th Prince of Lobkowicz, and his second wife, Anna Wilhelmina Althan, were both distinguished lutenists and the prince an accomplished composer as well. Both were both taught by some of the finest contemporary lutenists, including Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Andreas Bohr, and their fine period instruments remain part of the collections. Their son, Ferdinand Philip, the sixth prince, played the glass harmonica and championed the son of one of the family's foresters, the opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck.

The family member who had the greatest impact on the history of Western music, however, was the 7th Prince, Joseph Franz Maximilian. A talented singer, violinist and cellist, the 7th Prince was the major patron of Beethoven, who dedicated his Third (Eroica), Fifth, and Sixth (Pastoral) symphonies to the Prince, as well as other works. It was the annual stipend provided by the Prince (and continued by his son until the composer’s death), supplemented by support from the Archduke Rudolf and Prince Kinsky, that allowed Beethoven the freedom to compose without dependence on commissions and time-consuming teaching.[citation needed]

In addition to the manuscripts and printed music, the Collections include musical instruments from house orchestras that performed in the various family residences at Jezeří and Roudnice nad Labem in Northern Bohemia, as well as in Vienna. Also on display are lutes from the 16th and 17th centuries by Maler, Tieffenbrucker and Unverdorben; a 17th-century guitar; violins of Italian, German and Czech origin (Gasparo da Salo, Jacob Stainer, Eberle, Hellmer, Rauch); contrabasses from Edlinger[disambiguation needed] and Jacob Stainer; Guarneri and Kulik violoncelli; 18th-century Viennese wind instruments and a pair of copper martial kettledrums. A rare item in the collection is a suite of six elaborately decorated silver trumpets made in 1716 by Michael Leichamschneider of Vienna – one of only two documented sets in existence.

The Nelahozeves Castle Music Room displays a spinet, a contrabass by Posch[disambiguation needed] and other string instruments as well as two pairs of copper and bronze kettledrums.

 

Military equipment

Hunting was an important activity for Central European nobility from the late Renaissance period onwards, and all of the major Lobkowicz properties served as venues for hunting. Bearing witness to these hunting parties and their participants are hundreds of mounted trophies in the Lobkowicz Collections, dating from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. The social aspects of the hunt are also reflected in the numerous paintings and graphics by local artists in the collection, among them pictures of favourite horses, dogs and trophies. The central part of the hunting-related exhibitions, however, is the firearms themselves, which are displayed in two armoury rooms at Lobkowicz Palace, while further items from the collection are held at Nelahozeves Castle.

The majority of these rifles and pistols were produced locally for the family between 1650 and 1750, by the 17th-century Prague workshops of Adam Brand, Paul Ignatius Poser, the Neireiter family and Leopold Becher, as well as Roudnice craftsmen such as Johannes Lackner and Adel Friedrich during the mid-18th century. These exhibits reflect the patronage of the Lobkowicz family, who provided the gun makers with large orders for guns for many centuries.

The collection features a group of identical flintlock rifles produced for the Lobkowicz Militia in the 18th century, one of the largest collections of such items. Additional weapons came from Silesia, while the most elaborate 18th-century rifles and pistols (some in the Turkish manner) with mother-of-pearl inlay were produced in Vienna. Goldsmiths and silversmiths specializing in inlay were employed to decorate guns, rifles, crossbows and powder flasks of the finest quality.

The palace housed an exhibition of the work Illustrated geography and history of Bohemia by Bavarian cartographer Mauritius Vogt. The exhibition ran until 31 May 2015.

  

Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s.

In 1994, a non-profit organisation, Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. (previously the Roudnice Lobkowicz Foundation), was established to curate and maintain the Lobkowicz Collection, recently returned to the family after the Velvet Revolution. The organisation also works to provide access to the art, music and literature contained in the collection to academic researchers and the general public. Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. has co-ordinated the installation of the collections at both Lobkowicz Palace and Nelahozeves Castle.

The organisation's responsibilities include:

•overseeing the preservation and installation of the objects in The Collections

•developing education programs for students

•promoting and facilitating academic research around The Collections

•administering loans to other cultural institutions

•curating exhibitions of works included in the collections for the public

Significant restoration projects include the restoration of Peter Paul Rubens’ Hygieia Nourishing the Sacred Serpent, restored by Hubert von Sonnenburg of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This project was funded by the American Friends for the Preservation of Czech Culture (AFPCC).

Lobkowicz Collections o.p.s. also administers lending of artworks to exhibitions. Since 1993, over 200 works of art have been lent to museums in the Czech Republic and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Royal Academy of Art in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

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Joyful little girl in a seller uniform pointing to the counter with salami and sausage

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

To Promote the next big exhibition at the end of the year in Autoworld with the fabulous theme "American Dream Cars" we proudly present to you the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird. This car is restored in it's rare, original, and wonderful period color of Limelight Green, wit a Black Vinyl Top, 440 Commando, 4-barrel engine and the heavy duty "Hemi Type" 4 speed transmission. With just 68.000 miles, the car runs and drives great and one can cruise the highway listing to both AM and the factory optional 8 Track stereo.

 

Featuring the wonderful Warner Bros. cartoon character the Road Runner, and being featured in Petty Blue in the hit 2006 Pixar film "Cars" as "The King" sponsored by "Dinoco", the Super Bird is a car that is loved by children from age 3 and up.

 

This particular 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird is one of just approx. 1.980, that left the Chrysler's Lynch Road facility. The Superbird was produced, only in 1970. In stock form, with the 440 or 426 Hemi engine, the street car hit over 160 mph off the showroom floor. As you can imagine seeing something like this on the American roads in 1970, caused a sensation wherever they went and they still do today.

 

www.autoworld.be

 

Expo : Dream Cars 2017

 

Auto / Moto / Van : 95° European Motor Show Brussels

Autosalon Brussel

Salon de l'Auto Bruxelles

 

Brussels - Belgium

January 2017

The Los Angeles Fire Department is proud to honor the achievements of five LAFD uniformed members who have successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw a formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park on Friday, May 12, 2023.

 

Individually honored at the event (with their new rank) were:

 

Assistant Chief Luis Aldana

 

Assistant Chief Melford Beard

 

Assistant Chief Jason Hing

 

Assistant Chief Peter Hsiao

 

Inspector II Patrick Perez

  

LAFD Event: 051223

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit: LAFD Photo (John McCoy)

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

{[es]

 

FECHA DE PROYECTO: 2009 {br}

FECHA DE OBRA: 2009 {br}

PROMOTOR: BILBAO RIA 2000 {br}

 

{La oficina interviene en este trabajo como colaboradora de la Ingeniería Esteyco en el marco de una iniciativa de trabajo multidisciplinar entre los campos de la ingeniería y la arquitectura, ambos con límites difusos, capaz de aportar una mirada más diversa y enriquecedora.{br} El proyecto de ascensor se plantea, inicialmente para resolver la comunicación vertical entre la superficie de la urbanización y un aparcamiento subterráneo de reciente construcción. .No obstante, se presenta la oportunidad, aprovechando la misma implantación, de resolver la conexión vertical, a nivel peatonal, de la trama urbana que confluye en la ladera que separa el Barrio de Irala del Barrio de Ametzola. En este último se han realizado intervenciones de fuerte calado para el desarrollo urbano de Bilbao y sus áreas de oportunidad, el más significativo la Variante Sur Ferroviaria y otra serie de actuaciones no tan significativas, a nivel de estructura urbana, pero si importantes en la medida en que han configurado un nuevo espacio urbano singular, residual en tanto que ha permanecido aislado, pero llamado a ser el punto de encuentro y relación de los habitantes del entorno de Irala una vez resuelta la comunicación y la continuidad del tejido urbano.{br}La ladera presenta desniveles de diez a dieciocho metros y una pendiente que imposibilita el trazado de una calle pero permite la inserción de rampas o escaleras de conexión entre la arteria principal del Área de Ametzola, la Avenida del Ferrocarril y la calle más próxima del Área de Irala, la calle Batalla de Padura, integrados en un parque que sirva como soporte de todos los elementos de comunicación. {br} El proyecto se desarrolla en coherencia formal con una serie de pequeñas intervenciones anteriores consistentes en construcciones de pequeña escala para alojar un ascensor, un centro de transformación o un edículo de alojamiento de un vestíbulo de salida de peatones de las líneas ferroviarias subterráneas.{br} El núcleo de comunicación vertical está compuesto por dos ascensores, alojados en dos torres de hormigón para uso independiente de usuarios del aparcamiento y peatones, entre los que se inserta una pasarela peatonal de unos tres metros de anchura que hace la función de puente y enlaza con la calle Batalla de Padura. La torre baja, de unos catorce metros de altura, se encaja sobre la estructura del foso e incorpora el ascensor de conexión ente Padura y los tres niveles del aparcamiento. La otra torre, más alta, de unos 22 m, sobresale sobre Batalla de Padura como el elemento singular de relación entre la parte alta de Irala y el área de Ametzola.{br} Las torres se conforman como dos láminas de hormigón plegadas, de tres metros de anchura y unos 50 cm de espesor, que albergan las estructuras metálicas de soporte de los elevadores. Las dos caras abiertas del pliegue en ambas torres se cierran con láminas de vidrio laminado de colores verdes, un verde claro para la torre alta y verde más brillante para la torre del aparcamiento y el edículo de salida.{br} La iluminación nocturna situada en el interior de las estructuras resalta la geometría de las láminas de hormigón y refleja al exterior un halo verde de distinta intensidad, visible y reconocible desde el entorno inmediato de la ciudad. Desde Ametzola será un gran faro al final de la avenida, desde Miribilla el primer elemento urbano del renovado barrio.} {br}

 

{FOTOS: Nº1,Nº2,Nº3 ,Nº4 ,Nº5 ,Nº6 ,Nº7 ,Nº8 ,Nº9 ,Nº10 ,Nº11 {br}

IMB ARQUITECTOS}{br}

  

}

 

{[en]

PROJECT DATE:2009{br}

WOKS DATE:2009{br}

CLIENT: BILBAO RIA 2000 {br}

 

{ The office is involved in this work as a collaborator of Engineering Esteyco in the framework of a multidisciplinary working between the fields of engineering and architecture, both with fuzzy boundaries, which could provide a more diverse and rich look.{br} The elevator project is raised, initially to resolve the vertical communication between the surface and underground parking urbanization of recent construction. . However, there is an opportunity, using the same implementation, to resolve the vertical connection to pedestrian level of the urban fabric that flows into the hillside separating the Barrio de Irala Ametzola Quarter. In the latter interventions were made strong draft for the urban development of Bilbao and its areas of opportunity, the most significant South Alternative Rail and a number of actions not so significant, in terms of urban structure, but important to the extent they have formed a unique new urban space, while residual has remained isolated, but called to be the meeting place and relationship of the dwellers of Irala once we have communication and continuity of the urban fabric. The hillside has slopes of ten to eighteen meters and a slope that precludes the drawing of a street but allows the inclusion of ramps and stairs connecting the main artery Ametzola Area, Railroad Avenue and the nearest street Area Irala, Battle of Padura Street, built in a park that serves as a support for all elements of communication.{br} The project is formally consistent with a small number of previous interventions consisting of small-scale buildings to house an elevator, a transformer or a little building housing a pedestrian departure hall of the railway lines underground.

{br} •The square Otsa{br} The vertical communication core is composed of two elevators, housed in two concrete towers to independent use of park users and pedestrians, including a pedestrian bridge is inserted about three meters wide that serves as a bridge and link to Street Battle of Padura. The low tower, about fourteen feet high, is fitted on the structure of the elevator pit and incorporates body connection Padura and the three levels of parking. The other tower, taller, about 22 m, stands on Battle of Padura as the unique characteristic of relationship between the top of Irala and Ametzola area.

{br} The towers are shaped like two sheets of folded concrete, three feet wide and 50 cm thick metal structures that house the support of the elevators. Both sides fold open in both towers are closed with sheets of laminated glass in green, light green for the tall tower and brighter green for parking tower and the little building out.{br} The night lighting on the inside of the structures emphasizes the geometry of the layers of concrete and abroad reflects a green halo of varying intensity, visible and recognizable from the immediate environment of the city. From Ametzola be a great beacon light at the end of the avenue, from Miribilla the first element of the renewed urban neighborhood.} {br}

 

{PICTURES: Nº1,Nº2, Nº3 ,Nº4 ,Nº5 ,Nº6 ,Nº7 ,Nº8 ,Nº9 ,Nº10 ,Nº11 {br}

IMB ARQUITECTOS}{br}

  

}

  

{[eus]

 

PROIEKTU DATA: 2009-an {br}

LANAREN DATA: 2009-an {br}

SUSTATZAILEA: BILBAO RIA 2000{br}

 

{ Kasu honetan, bulegoak, Esteyco ingenieritzarekin lan egiten du, arkitektura eta ingeneria arloak bateratzen, eta bakoitzaren ikuspuntua proiektua aberasteko.{br} Igogailuaren proiektua, urbanizatutako azalera eta lur-azpiko aprkalekua konektatzeko balio izan du. Hala ere, aukera paregabea dago proiektuarekin, Irala auzo eta Ametzola auzoetako oinezkoen arazoa konpontzeko.{br} Azken auzo honetan eraberritze lan indartsuak egin dira, Bilboren garapenerako. Nabarmenena, Hegoaldeko sahiesbidearena ,beste batzuk ez ain garrantzitsuak estruktura mailan, adibidez, baina aldaketa handia suposatu dutenak, bai topagune eta biztanleen arteko hartu emanetan. Paisana urbano berri bat azaleratu da, eta jarraipena duen proiektu baten barnean dago.{br} Mendi-mazelak hamar hemezortzi metroko mailen desberdintasuna eta maldatsua denez, ezinezkoa da kale bat eraikitea, baina, irtenbide bezala arrapala eta eskaileren bitartez Ametzolako kale nagusia, Trenbidearen etorbidea eta Iralako Padurako gudak kalea lotzeko ahaleginak egin dira.{br} Proeiktuaren garapena, koherentzia formal bat du helburu, horretarako eraikin multzo txiki batzuk egiten dira, Tranformazio zentroa, Trenaren erabiltzaileendako sarrera, igogailuak, etb.{br} Hormigoizkoak diren bi dorrekin konpontzenda komunikazio bertikala. bi igogailurekin osatzen da, batak aparkalekuentzat eta bestea oinezkoentzat da. Bien artean hiru metroko zabalera duen pasabide eraikitzen da iralako kalearentzat. Dorre baxuak, 14 metroko garriera dauka, eta Padura eta lur –azpiko 3solairu elkartzen ditu. Beste dorrea 22metrokoa da eta Maduraren gainetik azaleratzen da mugarri bezala.{br} Hormigoizko xaflak 3 metroko zabalera eta 50 zentimetroko lodierakoak igogailuaren estructura gordetzen dute. Beste bi aurpegiak berde koloreko beira iejztuarekin egiten da.{br} Gaueko argiztatzea estructuraren barnean aurkitzen da. Horrela, hormigoiaren geometria nabarmentzen da, gainera, intentsitate desberdineko zisku berde islatzen du

Hiri ingurua antzematen. Ametzolatik, itsasargi bat izango da, Miribilatik ordea, lehen elementu urbanoa. }{br}

 

{ARGAZKIAK: 1.zkia, 2. zkia, 3. zkia, 4. zkia, 5. zkia, 6. zkia, 7. zkia, 8. zkia, 9. zkia, 10. zkia, 11. zkia {br}

IMB ARQUITECTOS}{br}

   

}

 

Rudolph Valentino while traveling across country to promote his last movie, The Son of the Sheik took ill. On August 15th 1926 he was rushed to Polyclinic Hospital for severe abdominal pains. X-Rays confirmed a large perforated ulcer. Surgery was performed to cleaned the abdomen cavity of the infection. Within days his gut was swollen, bruised and blotchy. Further X-Rays were taken and revealed pleurisy and all hopes of recovery were lost.

 

Nurses wept as they attempted to make his final hours pleasant. A priest was called to perform the last rites. Crowds outside waited for word. Police had to form a ring around the hospital because of the thousands of mostly female fans besieging it.

 

Thing is, he probably would have survived if the surgeons weren’t so freaked out by the fact that "Valentino" was in their midst. They were terrified "being THE ONE to cut open Valentino", that they procrastinated for several hours, dramatically worsening his condition. Technically he may have been killed by his own celebrity.

 

His last words were spoken to Joseph Schenck, Chairman of the Board of United Artists, "Don't worry Chief, I will be all right." Last rites were given to Rudolph 10am.

 

At 12:10pm on August 23, 1926 The Great Lover died at age 31.

   

People flipped. Two women attempted suicide outside the hospital. In London, another took poison in front of a photograph of Valentino, while a boy in New York died on a bed covered with Valentino photos (drama queen). Valentino's body was taken in a plain wicker basket covered in a gold cloth, to the Campbell funeral home in NYC.

 

The first funeral was in New York, and drew a crowd of 100,000 in what was describe as a "carnival setting". More than 100,000 fans filed past his open casket at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home. A spokesperson for the Funeral Home said in a statement, "Never before have so many persons tried to see a body. Mr. Valentino’s body is not being handled any differently than that of anyone else, excepting we are giving it special attention, and putting in an exceptionally great amount of time on it. The body arrived here at about two o’clock Monday afternoon, August 23rd, and we immediately began work on the embalming, keeping at it until the following morning, when it was placed on view until 1am.” Right then, no special treatment.

 

Valentino’s remains were described as, “dressed in a dinner jacket and heavy pancake make-up and mascara applied to his face. His mouth, still contorted in pain from his period in the hospital, was eased into a deductive smile.” He was in a bronze casket on a raised pedestal. There was a railing and a low, cushioned ledge where people could pray. One floral arrangement included 4000 red roses from Pola Negri, who swore they were engaged to marry.

 

There is a report that the actual body on display was not the real Rudolph Valentino. “To save that idol from wear and tear, Valentino was substituted by a wax dummy for the body –an artist was called in who was skilled at creating a perfect likeness. So while the real Valentino lay in peace in a cool, dark vault, the wax figure of Valentino took the brutal punishment from the hundreds of fans at the funeral parlor,” was quoted by a source.

 

When his body was transported to Hollywood, thousands stood by to see the train pass. In Los Angeles there was an invitation only service at the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, where this card was distributed. Another 80,000 crowded in and around the Hollywood Memorial Park. Bushels of flowers were dropped from a plane overhead, as he was carried into the Cathedral Mausoleum.

 

He was interred under the name Rodolfo Gugliemi Valentino in a ‘temporary' gravesite in the Cathedral Mausoleum. Plans were made for an elaborate memorial including life size statues of Valentino from his various roles. Money, however, became a problem when his estate was found to be lacking and his temporary resting-place became permanent.

 

The grave was owned by June Mathis, the woman often described as having discovered him. When he died, Mathis offered her crypt as a temporary place of entombment until the appropriate personal mausoleum for him was built. Mathis died the following year of a heart attack, and Valentino was moved into the vault which was intended for her husband, which of course is where her remains remain today.

 

On the one-year anniversary of his death, a woman bought flowers to Valentino's grave. She was dressed all in black, complete with a long veil. This "Lady in Black" has kept up this tradition throughout the years. Here is a picture of her in 1963. The most popular theory of her identity is a supposedly terminally ill young girl Valentino had visited in the hospital. They made a pact: whoever died first would visit the grave of the other every year on the anniversary. The girl got better. Valentino became ill. When he died she kept the promise, passing on the honor to the next generation of The Lady in Black. She, as well as many well-meaning impostors, can be seen today. There is even a black lady, dressed in white. Hilarity ensues. The original Lady In Black is now identified as Anna Maria De Carrascosa - and she was killed by a bus. Her daughter, Estrillita Di Regil took on the role. Almost daily she would show up at the crypt, and weep. Loudly. Honestly, she was crazier than a box of frogs. I met her. Crazy fo real.

words from the wonderful www.findadeath.com

 

80 years on people gather to have a memorial service for Valentino and in the evening gather to picnic on the great lawn near Douglas Fairbanks memorial and watch a Valentino movie.

promoting her new show Dinner at Tiffani's on Cooking Channel

Scouts Camporee on Omaha Beach Honors Heroes and Promotes Peace.

 

By Robert Turtil

 

U.S. Scouts gathered April 24 to 27 for the 2014 Omaha Beach Camporee, in event held every three years in Normandy, France. This years Camporee was particularly special, because it was recognized as the opening event of the 70th anniversary of the D Day landings planned for June. Hundreds of Scouts from France, Britain, Poland, Switzerland, the BeNeLux and Scandinavian countries, Germany and other nations joined for a weekend of remembrance.

 

U.S. embassy personnel and active duty service members brought their families from facilities around Europe and North Africa. More than a few F-16 fighter jockeys directed AstroVans from the Autobahn to the AutoRoute to the D-514, while others followed the more historic route across, or below, the English Channel. Some Scouts flew from American cities over their spring break, and as usual, moms led the charge when dads couldn’t get away. All converged on a welcoming destination for Americans on the French coast.

 

Nearly 4,200 troops and their supporting families battled sometimes horizontal rain to re-live the history, and recognize the sacrifices of American and Allied soldiers, many close to their own age, who have fought and died fighting for freedom and peace. World War Two Veterans were honored, and sacrifices made during The Great War, Korea, Vietnam and The War on Terror were also recognized by scout leaders and other volunteers, many of whom are U.S. Veterans, the traditional backbone of scouting in America.

 

Campsites were pitched in the rain, the mud and the dark; pots of pasta were swamped by tent malfunctions. The elements provoked short-term tears and tantrums, and perhaps a sleepless night. But complaints were mitigated with stories of invasion boats packed with seasick assault troops, mud filled foxholes, and cold k-rations, as Scouts peered at the sogginess of this Norman spring. But, as EVERY Scout knows, only fun will be remembered of the mud and chill of this weekend.

 

Scout convoys raced around the invasion coast following ambitious schedules: Utah Beach, Point D’Hoc, Sainte Mere Eglise, Arromanches, the Pegasus Bridge and many museums. Scouts and Veterans were the special guests of honor at the historic and grand Notre Dame Cathedral of Bayeux where clergy, along with national and local leaders, christened a newly forged Bell of Peace and Freedom. The Cathedral was a packed and flowing sea of international scout uniforms, flags and neckerchiefs… all highlighted by sunbeams streaking through stained-glass windows.

 

90 year-old, World War ll Army Air Force Veteran Captain Samuel Wiley Hammersmith, B-25 pilot with 28 missions in the Pacific, mingled with Scouts throughout the weekend.

 

New Eagles and candidates for the Order of the Arrow were sworn in at an Omaha Beach campfire in the most meaningful of ceremonies for Scouts and their families. A French Air Force flyover, a military band and youth choir opened the Messengers of Peace multimedia presentation, bringing home the sacrifices made in the past and the promise of peace Scouting seeks to contribute worldwide. That evening, friendships were made, neckerchiefs swapped, and Paella shared at sunset on the beach, followed by a fusillade of fireworks.

 

Sunday’s closing ceremony was held in the drizzle at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Each Troop flew its colors and laid a wreath at the base of the huge bronze statue, The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. Scouts and their families then joined hundreds of others walking the many acres of markers, looking for specific names, or just looking, at the beauty- with history, the sense of sacrifice and a touch of tears that the damp, perfect green grass of the cemetery envokes. Slowly the parking lot emptied as each American Troop and Patrol headed in every direction across Europe and the ocean… home.

 

If you would like to support the Scouts quest to preserve Omaha Beach as a UNESCO World Heritage site, follow this link and sign the petition:

www.change.org/petitions/unesco-save-the-d-day-beaches-ma...

 

Photos Courtesy Robert Turtil

 

The Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland

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Promote your business, services, products, social networks,

Blog or website with this great looking professional

Multipurpose facebook banners set

You can use these banners for Facebook.

 

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If you want contact me for graphic design work

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Promoting Literacy. And it's free. A book exchange! In a pandemic? My Doctor says to Wash your hands well and Leave the book in a bag for 24 hours. It should be safe to read now.

 

My hobby is photography.

CTV Regional Contact gave me 3 minutes on the local CTV News here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C2U_01ajdw

 

Mikey G Ottawa's 100 most interesting images as per Flickriver HERE: www.flickriver.com/photos/mikeygottawa/popular-interesting/

 

See Mikey G Ottawa's most popular Flickr Photo Albums HERE:

www.flickr.com/photos/mikeygottawa/albums

 

CBC Radio 1 gave me almost eight minutes. Listen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=253iqLH82oA

 

Rogers Cable TV gave me 10 minutes on Camera Talk HERE:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-s4ZpS_t1Y

  

President Kagame promotes 721 Cadet Officers to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant

Promoted to middle school :)

France: President François Hollande

 

“The first [goal] is to promote women's [position]. …The goal is to enable all girls in the world to freely go to school, to have access to work, to also be able to found their own businesses, and to be able to be autonomous and independent in their lives... The second goal is to promote the place of women for peace... We must mobilize and that's what we're going to do during this General Assembly, to strengthen the means of the High Commission for Refugees, to find a solution to what is happening in Syria, ... combat terrorism, because stopping the war is bringing an end to the suffering of women... In Paris, we will be holding the Climate Conference, and we have been able to note that climate injustices strengthen even further inequalities. …We've also been able to note that it is the women who can be the most capable of playing a role in finding solutions to global warming and preserving the environment. It's for this reason I would ask that ...in the Paris Conference, financing for women will be a priority. The final objective is to promote the [position] of women because this is to act for dignity. I therefore call for the universal ratification of the Convention on all Forms of Discrimination against Women. … If we want these goals to become truly the global order, if we want these to be achieved, there’s only one way to do it: To give many more women responsibility in countries that make up the international community, to ensure equality at all levels of the administration and politics. If I can give an example, in France, the Government that I chose and created has more women than men.”

 

World leaders convene at the United Nations on 27 September 2015 for the “Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Commitment to Action” to personally commit to ending discrimination against women by 2030 and announce concrete and measurable actions to kick-start rapid change in their countries.

 

Read More: www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/9/press-release-glob...

 

Read every country's committment from the event: beijing20.unwomen.org/en/step-it-up/commitments

Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

  

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

June 17, 2008: Meagan Good at MTV Studios in New York City for an appearance on Total Request Live (TRL) to promote the new movie The Love Guru. Credit: Roger Wong/INFphoto.com Ref.: infusny-12

The transom of the cruise boat Macquarie Princess (ex Nambucca & Promote), built 1915, at Berowra Waters. The centenary was celebrated on 17th April 2015.

 

The 100th anniversary was celebrated in 2015 www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/the-hills/former-boat...

 

A history of the vessel essentially copied from Macquarie Princess' facebook page

 

Images of the Promote and Macquarie Princess are found in the Album Nambucca. No images of the Nambucca have been found.

 

The ferry Promote, formerly the Nambucca and later the Macquarie Princess has an interesting history from cream/milk boat to ferry.

 

Details:

Name: Nambucca - later Promote - later Macquarie Princess

ON 172892 (Promote)

Registered 17/1939 Sydney

Register Tonnage: Gross 24.1 Net: 16.4

Length: 49.4 ft

Breadth: 16.0 ft

Depth: 5.5 ft

Builder: W.L. Holmes, McMahon's Point

 

The Nambucca replaced the Breckenridge-built cream boat Undaunted when the latter was burned to the water line in 1914.

 

Initial Operation - 1915 - 1925

The Nambucca was built by W. L. Holmes & Co, McMahons Point, Sydney, NSW, Australia. She was used on the Nambucca River as a milk/cream boat to collect milk containers from dairy farmers along the river for delivery to the Nambucca Dairy Co., Ltd., (NORCO) butter factory.

 

Launch for the Royal Australian Navy 1925 - 1938

By 1925 cargo transport had become more economical via road and the Nambucca was commissioned by the NAVY as a personnel transportation vessel, running from Balmain to Garden Island on Sydney Harbour.

 

Purchased by Nicholson Bros., converted to ferry and re-named Promote 1938 - 1969

Nicholson Brothers Harbour Transport, which was based at Balmain, purchased the vessel. Her name was changed to Promote and she joined sister vessels the Provide and later the Produce and Protend on the Balmain to Erskine Street (Darling Harbour) run. During her years as a ferry on the Harbour, the superstructure included an open top deck which enabled her to carry 197 passengers comfortably.

 

Purchased by Stannard Bros. and formed part of Stannard's ferry fleet - 1969 - 1973:

The Promote, continued to work on Sydney Harbour as part of the Stannard Brothers fleet of commuter ferries.

 

Pittwater ferry - 1973 - 1974:

The Promote was sold to Broken Bay Ferries, operated by George and Thelma Bennet, and continued to work as a commuter ferry, this time on Pittwater.

 

Pittwater ferry under new ownership 1974 - 1979

The Promote continued to work on Pittwater as Scotland Island Co-op (John Hebden) included her in their fleet.

 

Converted to cruise boat for use on Lake Macquarie - name changed to Macquarie Princess

In 1980 David Mitchell purchased the vessel and she was taken to Lake Macquarie for conversion to a cruise boat. Her name was changed once again to Macquarie Princess.

 

Operation from Berowra Waters

In 1983 the Macquarie Princess was purchased by Gordon & Joan Mandin and commenced operation at Berowra Waters on the Hawkesbury River as cruise vessel.

 

In 2003 The Mandin Family retired and the Macquarie Princess was purchased by owner operators Fred & Carolyn Mulae, and Gino & Mary Donofrio. The vessel underwent a major mechanical overhaul and structural restoration.

 

In 2007 the Macquarie Princess was purchased by John & Lisa Tillott, and along with the help of children Jasmine & Bradley is now run as a family operated cruise boat.

 

The Macquarie Princess has now operated from the very same wharf at Berowra Waters West Marina since 1983, and in this time has carried over 650 000 passengers.

The Tillott family look forward to ensuring that the M.V. Macquarie Princess will continue to cruise the Hawkesbury for many years to come.

Macquarie Princess Website

 

Image Source - Black Diamond Images Collection

 

All Images in this photostream are Copyright - Great Lakes Manning River Shipping and/or their individual owners as may be stated above and may not be downloaded, reproduced, or used in any way without prior written approval.

 

GREAT LAKES MANNING RIVER SHIPPING, NSW - Flickr Group --> Alphabetical Boat Index --> Boat builders Index --> Tags List

  

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

Promote your business, services, products, social networks,

Blog or website with this great looking professional

Multipurpose facebook banners set

You can use these banners for Facebook.

 

Are you looking for professional Freelancer for graphic design,.. I am the right choice for you

If you want contact me for graphic design work

thank you....

Promotion de la violence pour la violence, si triste!

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

Prior to Kylemore becoming an Abbey, it was built as a Castle and the first stone was laid in 1867. One hundred men were employed a day to constuct the castle which took four years to complete with construction costs coming to a little over £29,000.

 

The Castle covered approximately 40,000 square feet with over 70 rooms and the principal wall was two to three feet thick. The facade measured 142 feet in length and is made of granite brought from Dalkey by sea to Letterfrack and limestone from Ballinasloe.

 

There were 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, ballroom, billard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants.

 

In 1920, Kylemore became an Abbey and is the oldest of the Irish Benedictine Abbeys. The Community of nuns, who have resided here for 189 years, have a long history stretching back almost three hundred and forty years. Founded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1665, the purpose of the Abbey at Ypres was to provide an education and religious community for Irish women during times of persecution here in Ireland. Down through the centuries, Ypres Abbey attracted the daughters of the Irish nobility, both as students and postulants, and enjoyed the patronage of many influential Irish families living in exile.

 

The Community were forced to leave their beautiful Abbey in Ypres, just as the first shells began to fall on it during World War I. After several years of searching, and with the assistance and blessings of the Archbishop of Tuam, the Community eventually settled on Kylemore Castle in December 1920. Content in the peace and tranquillity of Connemara, all rights and privileges of the Ypres Abbey were transferred to Kylemore by the Holy See, and so the Castle became an Abbey.

 

Here they nuns opened an international boarding school and established a day school for local girls, which came to a close in June 2010. Since the 70’s, the Benedictine Community have opened their Abbey and Estate to the public and now Kylemore has become known as a must see when visiting the West of Ireland.

 

Visitors are invited to enter the Abbey where four rooms have been sympathetically restored. Visitors can experience the character and atmosphere of the castle and enjoy the breathtaking views the large picture windows which capture and frame the majestic landscape.

  

Royston was promoted during the event for Georigia On My Mind Days held at the Georgia Vistor Center on I-85. The Better Hometown Program spoke with many travelers letting them know about Royston and encouraged them to make plans to visit our community in the near future.

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Fire Department gathered on May 5, 2022 to honor the achievements of seventy LAFD uniformed and civilian members who successfully completed the demanding process of promoting in rank or status within the Department.

 

Expressing her pride in their accomplishments, City of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley oversaw the formal promotion ceremony at the LAFD Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center in Elysian Park.

 

Individually honored at the event were:

 

PROMOTING TO BATTALION CHIEF:

 

Martin G. Mullen

Ricky D. Crawford

Brett R. Willis

Timothy G. Lambert

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN II:

 

Abran Tapia III

Kyle M. Rausch

Timothy J. Toledo

Bryan R. Willis

Leroy R. Rogers

Santino B. Marcione

Daniel J. Will

 

PROMOTING TO CAPTAIN I:

 

Landon Rupright

Kuniyuki Kasahara

Austin M. Hajjar

Scott R. Benton

Jason E. Yim

Bryan A. Geiger

Senay I. Teklu

Dameon A. Cane

Osbaldo G. Garcia

Stephen M. Hiserman

 

PROMOTING TO APPARATUS OPERATOR:

 

Brian A. Farris

Aaron E. Brownell

Mark S. Perine

Cameron S. Sentance

 

PROMOTING TO ENGINEER:

 

Anh M. Nguyen

Garrett M. Roach

Jacob S. Gonzalez

Jake B. Lins

Paul D. Jeremica

Matthew R. Moon

Calos Zuniga

Chelsey C. Grigsby

Cody A. Morgan

Drew R. Denton

Jesus Padilla

Cody E. Eitner

Christopher R. Winn

William F. Isozaki

Presyller G. Gadia Jr.

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR II:

 

Laveon Rider

Daryl S. Yoshihashi

Lance S. Kawakami

 

PROMOTING TO INSPECTOR I:

 

Mathew J. Kovar

Blake S. Robbins

Jason G. Bunn

Marteese Smith

Benjamin R. Guzman

Ildefonso Felix

Lonnie Lopez

John D. Heller

 

PROMOTING TO FIREFIGHTER III / PARAMEDIC:

 

Natalie N. Martin

A'Raymond S. Smith

Charles Flowers

Jacy W. Hernandez

Sergio Lara Jara

Edward J. Oh

Mitchell R. Wasserman

Darion M. Timmons

Zulema Chavez

Jonathan C. McNey

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ELECTRICIAN:

 

Frank Moreno

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR:

 

Valerie J. Ross

 

PROMOTING TO SECRETARY:

 

Hana K. Ali

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK:

 

Gina Nelson

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR ACCOUNTANT II:

 

Marife Espenilla

 

PROMOTING TO EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT III:

 

Isela Iniquez

 

PROMOTING TO FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEER ASSOCIATE IV:

 

William D. Johns

Oscar Salgado

 

PROMOTING TO SENIOR PERSONNEL ANALYST II:

 

Irma Romanelli

 

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

 

Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit LAFD

 

LAFD Event 050522-Promotion Ceremony

 

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

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