Resting on the tail of the Great Bear in the constellation of Ursa Major lies NGC 5585, a spiral galaxy that is more than it appears.

 

The many stars and clouds of dust and gas that make up NGC 5585, shown here in this Hubble image, contribute only a small fraction of the total mass of the galaxy. As in many galaxies, this discrepancy can be explained by the abundant yet seemingly invisible presence of dark matter, a mysterious material that astronomers can’t directly observe.

 

The stellar disk of the galaxy extends over 35,000 light-years across. When compared with galaxies of a similar shape and size, NGC 5585 stands out by having a notably different composition. Contributing to the total mass of the galaxy, it contains a far higher proportion of dark matter.

 

Hot spots of star formation can be seen along the galaxy’s faint spiral arms. These regions shine a brilliant blue, contrasting strikingly against the ever-black background of space.

 

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully; acknowledgment: Gagandeep Anand

 

#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #astronomy #space #astrophysics #solarsystemandbeyond #gsfc #Goddard #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #ESA #EuropeanSpaceAgency #galaxy #darkmatter

 

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Proportions

Otherwise known as the Church of St Philip and St James, it is younger than it looks and was actually built in the 1860s by William White for the Carew Pole family, who owned the adjacent Antony House and its associated estate. The steeple was built a few years later to White's design. The church is Grade II*-listed. Michael Swift, eminent Cornish historian, has spoken of it as ‘a gem’, and ‘one of the most important buildings in Cornwall’.

 

According to a detailed note by Veronica Writer in Trip Advisor, "It is well-proportioned, picturesque, and exceptionally well-designed, and stands in a small garden. Inside White used colour to great effect, from the polychromatic arches, to the marble altarpiece, from the pillars to the pattern on the floors. He designed the fixtures and fittings, and all blend together in harmony."

 

"The stained glass windows are a magnificent example of the work of Clayton and Bell, ‘one of the most prolific and proficient workshops of English stained glass during the latter half of the 19th century.’ (Wikipedia) The stories told in the glass are grouped by theme, and they include careful details so easy to miss on a first inspection. For example, Moses stands as the Red Sea retreats, and there in the waves are the outlines of fishes."

 

Might be useful where a 1 x 2 vent using the standard grille brick would turn out too big/out of proportion. And the shutters are see thru :-)

 

LDD says it's illegal, but it'll work in real bricks as the protruding upper edge of the SNOTted 1x2 grater will slide nicely into the space between outer wall and tubes of a covering plate or brick. Note that it'll require at least a 2x3 plate or brick to work that way, though.

© Luis Marco

 

All rights reserved

 

Todos los derechos reservados

 

Cualquiera de las imágenes publicadas en este Flickr, estan registradas. El uso sin consentimiento por mi parte de ellas, reportará la denuncia al registro de propiedad intelectual.

 

Any of the images published in this Flickr are registered. Use without consent on my part of it, will report the complaint to the registration of intellectual property.

After a Few Drinks.....

A window of epic proportion looms overhead while walking down in to the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral.

  

I have found my enjoyment of seeing a deer crossing the road in front of me is in direct inverse proportion to how fast I am driving.

#FlickrFriday #proportion

 

Tribute to Platon. The inspiration for this photograph comes from Platon's amazing portrait of President Bill Clinton.

Thanks to my friend Neil, a truly gifted artist.

Freight cars

The standard means of transport was a 10-metre long freight car. The SS manual covered such trains, suggesting a carrying capacity per each trainset of 2,500 people in 50 cars, each boxcar loaded with 50 prisoners. In reality, however, boxcars were routinely loaded with 100 people per car. This resulted in an average of 5,000 people per trainset.

  

Birkenau was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. During its three years of operation, it had a range of functions. When construction began in October 1941, it was supposed to be a camp for 125 thousand prisoners of war. It opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942, and served at the same time as a center for the extermination of the Jews. In its final phase, from 1944, it also became a place where prisoners were concentrated before being transferred to labor in German industry in the depths of the Third Reich.

 

The majority—probably about 90%—of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp died in Birkenau. This means approximately a million people. The majority, more than nine out of every ten, were Jews. A large proportion of the more than 70 thousand Poles who died or were killed in the Auschwitz complex perished in Birkenau. So did approximately 20 thousand Roma and Sinti, in addition to Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities.

Photographed at Walmart Supercenter

Lakeville Minnesota

Friday May 16th, 2025

Two types of barracks, brick and wooden, housed prisoners in Birkenau concentration camp. The brick buildings were erected in great haste, without suitable insulation, on marshy ground. More than 700 people were assigned to each barrack, although in practice the figure was sometimes higher. These barracks lacked any true heating; nor did they contain sanitary facilities.

 

Dampness, leaky roofs, and the fouling of straw and straw mattresses by prisoners suffering from diarrhea made difficult living conditions worse. The barracks swarmed with various sorts of vermin and rats. A constant shortage of water for washing, and the lack of suitable sanitary facilities, aggravated the situation.

 

Birkenau was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. During its three years of operation, it had a range of functions. When construction began in October 1941, it was supposed to be a camp for 125 thousand prisoners of war. It opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942, and served at the same time as a center for the extermination of the Jews. In its final phase, from 1944, it also became a place where prisoners were concentrated before being transferred to labor in German industry in the depths of the Third Reich.

 

The majority—probably about 90%—of the victims of Auschwitz Concentration Camp died in Birkenau. This means approximately a million people. The majority, more than nine out of every ten, were Jews. A large proportion of the more than 70 thousand Poles who died or were killed in the Auschwitz complex perished in Birkenau. So did approximately 20 thousand Roma and Sinti, in addition to Soviet POWs and prisoners of other nationalities.

Absolute World is a residential condominium twin tower skyscraper complex in the five tower Absolute City Centre development in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The taller buildings have been nicknamed the "Marilyn Monroe" towers due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure likened to actress Marilyn Monroe.

 

==============

HIT THE 'L' KEY FOR A BETTER VIEW! Thanks for the favs and comments. Much Appreciated.

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All of my photographs are under copyright ©. None of these photographs may be reproduced and/or used in any way without my permission.

 

© VanveenJF Photography

Drawn with a Karas Kustoms Render K with Monteverde Emerald Green ink

180712_135018_oly-PEN-f_Italië

 

Duomo Nuovo

Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta

Piazza Paolo VI

Brescia

Lombardy

Italy

Balance is proportion. It’s important to have correct balance of heat, steam, and pressure with a quality iron to best achieve the desired results. Dimensions: 1-5/8" H x 2" W. HMM

This HYBYCOZO sculpture is titled Insight and is on the Plants & People of the Sonoran Desert Trail by the Saguaro Harvesting Ramada. This is the view of the entire sculpture from near the Saguaro Harvest Ramada.

Insight 2018

Stainless Steel, Powder Coat Pigment, LED

This geometric sculpture is inspired by the non-repeating patterns found on rare minerals, such as meteorites. Step inside this immersive artwork, featuring 60 sides covered in intricate patterns, to experience the beauty and complexity of science, mathematics, and nature.

 

dbg.org/events/light-bloom/2024-10-12/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFelgzzzQqg

LIGHT BLOOM by HYBYCOZO is a limited-time exhibit where nature and light converge. This mesmerizing display invites you to explore the Garden transformed by stunning geometric light installations that illuminate the beauty of the desert landscape in a new way. As the sun sets, LIGHT BLOOM comes to life, casting intricate shadows and vibrant hues across the Garden. Wander the trails and let the enchanting installations transport you to a magical realm where the natural world meets the abstract.

 

www.hybycozo.com/artists

HYBYCOZO is the collaborative studio of artists Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk. Based in Los Angeles, their work consists of larger than life geometric sculptures, often with pattern and texture that draw on inspirations from mathematics, science, and natural phenomena. Typically illuminated, the work celebrates the inherent beauty of form and pattern and represents their ongoing journey in exploring the myriad dimensions of geometry. HYBYCOZO is short for the Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone, a nod to their favorite novel (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) and was the title of their first installation in 2014. They continue to create under this name. In the novel earth was being destroyed to make way for a bypass. It lead Serge and Yelena to ask what it means to make art at a time where the earth’s hospitable time in the universe may be limited.

 

dbg.org/meet-the-artists-behind-light-bloom/

Q: Walk us through your creative process?

A: The focus of our creative process is to explore the intricate interplay between geometry, light, space and to inspire contemplation, wonder and a sense of place among our audiences. Geometry and pattern-making serve as the backbone of our creative expression. It is the framework through which we navigate the complexities of form, proportion and spatial relationships. Patterns, both simple and complex, have a profound impact on our perception and understanding of the world. They possess the ability to evoke a sense of order, balance and aesthetic pleasure. Pattern making and geometry offer us a means of storytelling and communication. These patterns serve as conduits for deeper exploration, provoking introspection and contemplation to uncover the underlying symbols embedded within the human psyche.

Q: What inspired the concept of LIGHT BLOOM?

A: Just as many cactus and desert plants have evolved to produce night-blooming flowers, adapting to their environment and thriving in darkness, our sculptures come alive after sunset, blossoming with light and transforming the night into a glowing landscape of art and geometry.

 

Desert Botanical Garden has an incredible collection of plants and cacti arranged in a beautiful park setting.

dbg.org/

"Think the desert is all dirt and tumbleweeds? Think again. Desert Botanical Garden is home to thousands of species of cactus, trees and flowers from all around the world spread across 55 acres in Phoenix, Arizona."

 

Desert Botanical Garden

DBG HYBYCOZO Light Bloom

Five species of rather similar-looking stilts are recognized in the genus Himantopus. They have the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos. The Hawaiian subspecies of Black-necked Stilt has the black of its neck reaching much farther forward than the mainland forms. From Cornell Lab of Ornithology

 

Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra)

Drawn with a Platinum Preppy EF02 fountain pen with Iroshizuku Take Sumi ink in a Leuchtturm1917 journal

• Italia, Venezia: San Giorgio Maggiore •

 

better on large on black

 

----------------------------–––––––––- © Stefano Guadagni ----------------------------–––––––––-

2013 0133lr

1. Nautilus, 2. flickr.com/photos/29861286@N00/108698757/, 3. nautilus macromphalus from New Caledonia, 4. Nautilus in Black and White, 5. Nautilus on Black 2, 6. Nautlius Ammonoid 70495, 7. Nautilus Polished, 8. Nautilus Inside & Out, 9. Nautilus, 10. ammo orig, 11. 2-24-2008 Chambered Nautilus Shell, 12. Nautilus shell jewelry, 13. paper nautilus shell, 14. NAUTILUS, 15. Nautilus on Black, 16. Nautilus 69, 17. Spiral Slice, 18. Shell or Fractal?, 19. Nautilus: one SB-24 and PW, 20. Paper Nautilus, 21. This is Zen, 22. The Exterior of Devine Proportion, 23. Sailor, 24. F(n), 25. nautilus, 26. NAUTILUS, 27. Nautilus again, 28. All the Nautilus, 29. Nautilus shell, 30. Nautilus en la sagrada familia, 31. He would give me SeaShells..., 32. curl up, 33. Double Nautilus v2, 34. Nautilus, 35. Perfect Geometry, 36. Vortex

 

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

"Sembra che il mistero dell’universo, il suo inizio e la sua fine, sia leggibile nelle spire della conchiglia nautilus. Ogni giro una nuova storia che si ripete, sempre necessariamente uguale, eppure diversa”. Sembra anche che il mistero della forma possa trovare soluzione nella perfetta costruzione geometrica che il nautilus incarna.

At the sea wall, Essaouira, Morocco

A gentle giant

I rate the Chicago Trump Tower as a bombastic eyeshore, utterly out of proportion to the iconic buildings that are forced to keep it company. As seen from Randolph/Wabash Station.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournemouth

  

Bournemouth Listeni/ˈbɔərnməθ/ is a large coastal resort town on the south coast of England directly to the east of the Jurassic Coast, a 96-mile (155 km) World Heritage Site.[1] According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 183,491 making it the largest settlement in Dorset. With Poole to the west and Christchurch in the east, Bournemouth forms the South East Dorset conurbation, which has a total population of over 465,000.

 

Before it was founded in 1810 by Lewis Tregonwell, the area was a deserted heathland occasionally visited by fishermen and smugglers. Initially marketed as a health resort, the town received a boost when it appeared in Dr Granville's book, The Spas of England. Bournemouth's growth really accelerated with the arrival of the railway and it became a recognised town in 1870. Historically part of Hampshire, it joined Dorset with the reorganisation of local government in 1974. Since 1997, the town has been administered by a unitary authority, giving it autonomy from Dorset County Council although it remains part of the ceremonial county. The local council is Bournemouth Borough Council.

 

The town centre has notable Victorian architecture and the 202-foot (62 m) spire of St Peter's Church, one of three Grade I listed churches in the borough, is a local landmark. Bournemouth's location has made it a popular destination for tourists, attracting over five million visitors annually with its beaches and popular nightlife. The town is also a regional centre of business, home of the Bournemouth International Centre or BIC, and a financial sector that is worth more than £1,000 million in Gross Value Added.

  

Toponymy

  

The first mention of Bournemouth comes in the Christchurch cartulary of 1406, where a monk describes how a large fish ("uni magno piscis"), 18 ft. long, was washed up at "La Bournemowthe" in October of that year and taken to the Manor of Wick; six days later, a portion of the fish was collected by a canon from Christchurch Priory and taken away as tithe.[2] "La Bournemowthe", however, was purely a geographic reference to the uninhabited area around the mouth of the small river which, in turn, drained the heathland between the towns of Poole and Christchurch.[3][4][5] The word bourne, meaning a small stream, is a derivative of burna, old English for a brook.[4][6] From the latter half of the 16th century "Bourne Mouth" seems to be preferred, being recorded as such in surveys and reports of the period, but this appears to have been shortened to "Bourne" after the area had started to develop.[4][5] A travel guide published in 1831 calls the place "Bourne Cliffe" or "Tregonwell's Bourne" after its founder.[7] The Spas of England, published ten years later, calls it simply "Bourne"[8] as does an 1838 edition of the Hampshire Advertiser.[9] In the late 19th century "Bournemouth" became predominant, although its two-word form appears to have remained in use up until at least the early 20th century, turning up on a 1909 ordnance map.[

  

History

  

In the 12th century the region around the mouth of the River Bourne was part of the Hundred of Holdenhurst. The hundred later became the Liberty of Westover when it was also extended to include the settlements of North Ashley, Muscliff, Muccleshill, Throop, Iford, Pokesdown, Tuckton and Wick, and incorporated into the Manor of Christchurch.[11] Although the Dorset and Hampshire region surrounding it had been the site of human settlement for thousands of years, Westover was largely a remote and barren heathland before 1800.[12] In 1574 the Earl of Southampton noted that the area was "Devoid of all habitation", and as late as 1795 the Duke of Rutland recorded that "... on this barren and uncultivated heath there was not a human to direct us".[4][13]

 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Borough of Bournemouth would grow to encompass a number of ancient settlements along the River Stour, including Longham where a skull thought to be 5,500 years old was found in 1932. Bronze Age burials near Moordown, and the discovery of Iron Age pottery on the East Cliff in 1969, suggest there may have been settlements there during that period. Hengistbury Head, added to the borough in 1932, was the site of a much older Palaeolithic encampment.[14][15][16] During the latter half of the 16th century James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy, began mining for alum in the area, and at one time part of the heath was used for hunting, although by the late 18th century little evidence of either event remained.[17][18] No-one lived at the mouth of the Bourne river and the only regular visitors to the area before the 19th century were a few fishermen, turf cutters and gangs of smugglers.[19]

  

Prior to the Christchurch Inclosures Act 1802, more than 70% of the Westover area was common land. The act, together with the Inclosure Commissioners' Award of 1805, transferred five thousand acres into the hands of five private owners, including James Harris, 1st Earl of Malmesbury, and Sir George Ivison Tapps.[20][21] In 1809 the Tapps Arms public house appeared on the heath. A few years later, in 1812, the first official residents, retired army officer Lewis Tregonwell and his wife, moved into their new home built on land purchased from Tapps. The area was well known to Tregonwell who, during the Napoleonic wars, spent much of his time searching the heath and coastline for French invaders and smugglers.[22]

 

Anticipating that people would come to the area to indulge in the newly fashionable pastime of sea-bathing, an activity with perceived health benefits, Tregonwell built a series of villas on his land between 1816 and 1822, which he hoped to let out.[23][24] The common belief that pine-scented air was good for lung conditions, and in particular tuberculosis, prompted Tregonwell and Tapps to plant hundreds of pine trees. These early attempts to promote the town as a health resort meant that by the time Tregonwell had died in 1832, Bournemouth had grown into a small community with a scattering of houses, villas and cottages.[23][25] The town would ultimately grow up around the scattered pines and tree-lined walk to the beach, later to become known as the Invalids' Walk.[26][27]

 

After the death of Tapps in 1835, his son Sir George William Tapps-Gervis inherited his father's estate. He hired the young local architect Benjamin Ferrey to develop the coastal area on the east side of the stream.[28] Bournemouth's first hotel, later to become part of the Royal Bath Hotel, opened in 1838 and is one of the few buildings designed by Ferrey still standing.[25][28] Bournemouth started to grow at a faster rate as Tapps-Gervis began developing the area similarly to the south coast resorts of Weymouth and Brighton. Despite enormous investment, the town's share of the market remained modest.[26] In 1841 Tapps-Gervis invited the physician and writer Augustus Granville to stay. Granville was the author of The Spas of England, which described health resorts around the country, and as a result of his visit he included a chapter on Bournemouth in the second edition of his book. The publication of the book, and the increase in visitors seeking the medicinal use of seawater and the pine-scented air, helped the town to grow and establish itself as an early tourist destination.[29][30]

  

In the 1840s Benjamin Ferrey was replaced by Decimus Burton, whose plans for Bournemouth included the construction of a garden alongside the Bourne stream, an idea first mooted by Granville. The fields south of the road crossing (later Bournemouth Square) were drained and laid out with shrubberies and walks. Many of these paths, including the Invalids' Walk, remain in the town today.[30][31] A second suggestion of Granville's, a sanatorium, was completed in 1855 and greatly raised Bournemouth's profile as a place for recuperation.[32]

 

At a time when the most convenient way to arrive in the town was by sea, a pier was considered to be a necessity. Holdenhurst Parish Council were reluctant to find the money, and an attempt to raise the money privately in 1847 had only succeeded in financing a small 100 feet (30 m) jetty.[33] The Bournemouth Improvement Act of 1856 granted greater financial autonomy to the town and a pier was approved that year. A number of wooden structures were built before an 838 feet (255 m) cast iron design by Eugenius Birch was completed in 1880.[33][34] Under the Act, a board of 13 Commissioners was established to build and organise the expanding infrastructure of the town, such as paving, sewers, drainage, street lighting and street cleaning.[35]

 

The arrival of the railways in 1870 precipitated a massive growth in seaside and summer visitors to the town, especially from the Midlands and London. In 1880 the town had a population of 17,000, but by 1900, when railway connections to Bournemouth were at their most developed, the town's population had risen to 60,000 and it had become a favourite location for visiting artists and writers.[23] The town was improved greatly during this period through the efforts of Sir Merton Russell-Cotes, the town's mayor and a local philanthropist, who helped to establish the town's first library and museum. The Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum was housed in his mansion, and after his death it was given to the town.[36] Bournemouth became a municipal borough in 1890 and a county borough in 1900.[35]

 

As Bournemouth's growth increased in the early 20th century, the town centre spawned theatres, cafés, two art deco cinemas and more hotels. Other new buildings included the war memorial in 1921 and the Bournemouth Pavilion, the town's concert hall and grand theatre, finished in 1925.

 

The town escaped heavy bombing during the Second World War, but the sea front incurred great damage when it was fortified against invasion.[37] The cast iron lamposts and benches along the front were removed and melted down for munitions, as was much of the superstructure from both Bournemouth and Boscombe piers before they were breached to prevent their use by enemy ships.[37] The large amounts of barbed wire and anti-tank obstacles along the beach, and the mines at the foot of the chines, took two years to remove when peace was finally achieved.[38]

  

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution stationed an inshore lifeboat at Bournemouth between 1965 and 1972. Coverage for the area has otherwise been provided from Poole Lifeboat Station.[39] The Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), a large conference and exhibition centre, was constructed near the seafront in 1984,[40] and in the following year Bournemouth became the first town in the United Kingdom to introduce and use CCTV cameras for public street-based surveillance.[25]

 

The Waterfront complex, which was intended to hold an IMAX cinema, was constructed on the seafront in 1998.[41] The 19 m (62 ft)-high concrete and smoked glass building featured a wavy roof design, but was despised by residents and visitors alike because it blocked views of the bay and the Isle of Purbeck.[41][42] In 2005 it was voted the most hated building in England in a 10,000-people poll conducted by the Channel 4 programme 'Demolition', and was pulled down in Spring 2013.[41][43] The site is to be used as an outdoor event arena. The council still plan a larger redevelopment of the site and adjoining council land in the long term.

 

In 2012 Bournemouth was unsuccessful in its bid for city status, losing out to Chelmsford in competition with 26 other towns to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.[

  

Governance

  

Historically Bournemouth was part of Hampshire, with neighbouring Poole, just to the west of the border, in Dorset. At the time of the 1974 local government re-organisation, it was considered desirable that the whole of the Poole/Bournemouth urban area should be part of the same county. Bournemouth therefore became part of the non-metropolitan county of Dorset on 1 April 1974.[35] On 1 April 1997, Bournemouth became a unitary authority, independent from Dorset County Council.[45] For the purposes of the Lieutenancy it remains part of the ceremonial county of Dorset.

 

For local elections the district is divided into 18 wards,[46] and the Bournemouth Borough Council is elected every four years.[47] In the 2011 local elections the Conservatives held overall control, winning 45 of the available 51 seats.[48] The Council elects a Mayor and Deputy Mayor annually.[49] For 2014–15 the mayor is Chris Mayne.[50]

 

Bournemouth is represented by two parliamentary constituencies in the House of Commons; Bournemouth East and Bournemouth West.[51] In the 2010 general election, the former was held for the Conservatives by Tobias Elwood with 48.4% of the vote, while the latter was also held for the Conservatives by Connor Burns with 45.1%.[52][53]

  

Geography

  

Bournemouth is about 94 miles (151 km) southwest of London at 50°43′12″N 1°52′48″WCoordinates: 50°43′12″N 1°52′48″W.[54] The borough borders the neighbouring boroughs of Poole and Christchurch to the west and east respectively and the East Dorset District to the north. Poole Bay lies to the South.[55][56] The River Stour forms a natural boundary to the north and east, terminating at Christchurch Harbour;[56][57] while the River Bourne rises in Poole and flows through the middle of Bournemouth town centre, into the English Channel.[58] The towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch form the South East Dorset conurbation with a combined population of over 400,000. Bournemouth is both a retail and commercial centre.[59] Areas within Bournemouth include: Boscombe, Kinson, Southbourne, Springbourne, Throop, Westbourne and Winton.[60]

 

The area's geology has little variety, comprising almost entirely of Eocene clays which, prior to urbanisation, supported a heathland environment.[61][62] Patches of the original heath still remain, notably Turbary Common, a 36-hectare (89-acre) site, much of which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.[63] This heathland habitat is home to all six species of native reptile, the Dartford Warbler and some important flora such as Sundew and Bog Asphodel. Small populations of Exmoor pony and Shetland cattle help to maintain the area.[64] Bournemouth is directly north of Old Harry Rocks, the easternmost end of the Jurassic Coast, 96 miles (155 km) of coastline designated a World Heritage Site in 2001.[65] Bournemouth's own coastline stretches from Sandbanks to Christchurch Harbour and comprises mainly sandy beaches backed by gravel and sandy clay cliffs. These cliffs are cut by a number of chines which provide natural access to the shore.[66] At the easternmost point lies Hengistbury Head, a narrow peninsula that forms the southern shore of Christchurch Harbour. It is a local nature reserve and the site of a Bronze Age settlement.

  

Climate

  

Due to its location on the south coast, Bournemouth has a temperate climate with moderate variation in annual and daily temperatures. From 1981 to 2010 the annual mean temperature was 10 to 11 °C (50 to 52 °F).[69] The warmest months are July and August, which have an average temperature range of 12 to 22 °C (54 to 72 °F), while the coolest months are January and February, which have an average temperature range of 1 to 8 °C (34 to 46 °F).[70] Average rainfall in Bournemouth is around 800 mm (31 in) annually, well below the national average of 1,126 millimetres.[71] Since 1960, temperature extremes as measured at Bournemouth Hurn Airport have ranged from 34.1 °C (93.4 °F) in August 1990,[72] down to −13.4 °C (7.9 °F) in January 1963.[73] The lowest temperature recorded in recent years was −10.4 °C (13.3 °F) in December 2010.[

  

Demography

  

Religious demography

  

Christian 57.1

Buddhist 0.7

Hindu 0.7

Jewish 0.7

Muslim 1.8

Sikh 0.1

Other religion 0.7

No religion 30.5

Not stated 7.8

 

The 2011 census records the population of Bournemouth as 183,491, comprising 91,386 males and 92,105 females, which equates to 49.8% and 50.2% of the population respectively.[77][78] The mean average age of all persons is 40 years.[79] With 4,000 residents per square kilometre, Bournemouth has the highest population density of any authority in the South-West region, and is the eighth most populated.[80]

 

Much of the population, 83.8%, describe their ethnicity as 'white British' while other white groups account for a further 8.1%. Asian groups; Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and other Asian, make up 3.9%. Black British, black African, black Caribbean and other black groups form 1.0% of the population, Those of a mixed race make up 2.3% of the population, and 0.9% are from other ethnic groups.[81]

 

Christians made up 57.1% of the population but 30% of residents said they had no religion and 7.8% refused to say whether they were religious or not. Muslims were 1.8%, Budhists, Hindus and Jews each had a 0.7% share, Sikhs were 0.1%. and other religions made up 0.7%.[76]

 

Of all Bournemouth residents aged 16 or over, 19.1% had no qualifications at all, although 35% said they had between one and four O-levels, CSEs, GCSEs or equivalent, and 36.5% have more than five O-level equivalents (grade C and above), an A-level or two to three AS-levels. Those with an NVQ level 1 comprise 8.0% of the population while 15.2% have a level 2 NVQ, a City and Guilds craft certificate, BTEC or general diploma. Just over 20% of residents had two or more A-levels, four or more AS-Levels or an advanced diploma while 15.8% possessed a degree, such as a BA or BSc or a higher degree such as an MA or PhD. An NVQ level 4 or 5, HNC, HND, higher BTEC or higher diploma, is held by 4.2% and a professional qualification is held by 13.9% of residents. An apprenticeship has been completed by 6.3% of the population while 16.9% have some other work related or vocational qualification and 8.3% hold a foreign qualification.[82]

  

Historical population of Bournemouth

  

Year

 

Population

  

1801 726

1821 877

1841 1,605

1851 2,029

1871 13,160

1891 34,098

1941 128,099

1961 149,106

1981 140,216

1991 158,711

2001 163,441

  

Historical population figures are for an area that equates to the modern Unitary Authority of Bournemouth[83]

  

Source: GIS / University of Portsmouth, A Vision of Britain through Time.[84]

  

Historically Bournemouth has suffered from negative rates of natural increase and has relied on immigration to maintain population growth. In 2007 however, births exceeded deaths for the first time, and this trend has continued through to 2011. This, coupled with a substantial increase in people moving into the area, has led to a sharp rise in the resident population since 2001.[80][85] Of the total population, 3.3% are 85 or over, compared to 2.2% nationally; however the largest group of people moving into the area are students in the 16-24-year age group, and 9% of the current population are between 20 and 24. In England this age group accounts for only 7%.[85]

  

Economy

  

Similarly to the rest of Dorset, Bournemouth's economy is primarily in the service sector, which employed 95% of the workforce in 2010.[86] This was 10% higher than the average employment in the service sector for Great Britain and 11% higher than the South West.[86] Of particular importance are the financial and public service sectors which through 2011 continued to show sustained growth. Compared to the rest of the country, Bournemouth performed well in these two areas but under performed in transport and communications.[87]

 

The smallest geographical region for which Gross Value Added information is available is the NUTS3 area, Bournemouth and Poole. The latest figures, as of 2012, are for the year 2009 which showed that the Bournemouth and Poole area enjoyed the strongest annualised growth in the South-West region.[88][89] In 2009 the South West Regional Accounts showed that the Financial Services sector in Bournemouth was worth £1,031.8 million in Gross Value Added. Important employers in this sector include: JPMorgan, Nationwide Building Society, and the Liverpool Victoria, Unisys, and RIAS insurance companies.[89] The manufacturing sector is predominantly based in neighbouring Poole, but still employed 2% of the workforce in 2010 and 2.6% in 2011.[86][90][Note 2]

 

Tourism is also important to the local economy. In 2011, domestic and overseas visitors made more than 5.6 million trips to the town and spent over £460 million between them. The equivalent of 8,531 full-time jobs exist as a result which accounts for 15% of all employment in the town.[91] Bournemouth seafront is one of the UK's biggest attractions with 4.5 million visitors in 2011.[92]

 

With a third of all town centre businesses in the leisure industry, Bournemouth has a booming nightlife economy and is a popular destination for stag and hen parties.[93][94] These party-goers contribute £125 million a year to the economy and support 4,000 jobs. In 2010 the town was awarded a Purple Flag for providing a wide variety of night-time activities while maintaining the safety of both residents and visitors.[94] An independent report published in 2012 indicates there has been a rise in antisocial behaviour which it attributes to the increase in nightlife.[93]

 

Those of working age make up approximately 65% of Bournemouth's population and of these, 74.6% are economically active although not necessarily employed within the Bournemouth area.[89] Industry in Bournemouth employed more than 76,400 people in 2011 but not all of these were Bournemouth residents.[90] Of those employed in Bournemouth based industries, 29.32% were employed in the public administration, education and health sector. This compares favourably with Dorset, the South-West region, and the country as a whole, as do the other large sectors; distribution, hotels & restaurants (29.06%), and banking, finance and insurance (24.48%). 37.2% of Bournemouth's resident population are employed full-time while 13.3% are employed part-time. An additional 7.1% full-time workers are self-employed, 3.1% are self-employed part-time. Full-time students with jobs account for 5.3% and 3.8% are unemployed.[95]

 

The shopping streets are mostly pedestrianised with modern shopping malls, Victorian arcades and a large selection of bars, clubs and cafés. North of the centre there is an out-of-town shopping complex called Castlepoint. The 41 acre site has 40 units and was the largest shopping centre in the UK when it opened it 2003.[96] Other major shopping areas are situated in the districts of Westbourne and Boscombe.

  

Culture

  

Bournemouth is a tourist and regional centre for leisure, entertainment, culture and recreation. Local author and former mayor, Keith Rawlings, suggests that Bournemouth has a thriving youth culture due to its large university population and many language school students.[97][98] In recent years, Bournemouth has become a popular nightlife destination with UK visitors and many clubs, bars and restaurants are located within the town centre.[98][99] In a 2007 survey by First Direct, Bournemouth was found to be the happiest place in the UK, with 82% of people questioned saying they were happy with their lives.[100]

 

Major venues for concerts include BIC, Pavilion Theatre and O2 Academy.[101] Built in 1984, the BIC is also a popular place for party political conferences and has been used by all three major political parties.[102] Its four auditoria make it the largest venue on the south coast.[103] The O2 and Pavilion are older and are both Grade II listed buildings. The O2, which opened in 1895 as The Grand Pavilion Theatre, was initially used as a circus and later for music hall theatre. The Pavilion opened in 1929 as concert hall and tea room while also providing a venue for the municipal orchestra. It continues to provide traditional entertainment today, presenting West End stage shows, ballet and operas.[104][105][106] Bournemouth has more than 200 listed buildings, mainly from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, including three grade I churches; St Peter's, St Clement's and St Stephen's.[106]

 

The Russell-Cotes Museum is a Grade II* listed, villa completed in 1901. It houses artefacts and paintings collected by the Victorian philanthropist Merton Russell-Cotes and his wife during their extensive travels around the world.[107] The four art galleries display paintings by William Powell Frith, Edwin Landseer, Edwin Long, William Orchardson, Arthur Hughes, Albert Moore, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.[108] It was Russell-Cotes who successfully campaigned to have a promenade built; it runs continuously along the Bournemouth and Poole shoreline.[109]

 

The Lower, Central and Upper Gardens are Grade II* public parks, leading for several miles down the valley of the River Bourne through the centre of the town to the sea.[110] Bournemouth has a further 425 acres (172 ha) of parkland. Initially serving to compensate for the loss of common rights after common land was enclosed in 1802, it was held in trust until 1889 when ownership passed to Bournemouth Corporation and the land became five public parks: King's Park, Queen's Park, Meyrick Park, Seafield Gardens and Redhill Common.[7][111]

 

The detailed Land Use Survey by the Office for National Statistics in 2005 noted that the local authority area of Bournemouth had the third highest proportion of land taken up by domestic gardens, 34.6%, of the 326 districts in England; narrowly less than the London Boroughs of Harrow and Sutton at the time with 34.7% and 35.1%.[112]

 

One of Bournemouth's most noted cultural institutions is the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra which was formed in 1893 under Dan Godfrey.[113][114] It became the first municipal orchestra in the country when in 1896, Bournemouth Borough Council took control and Godfrey was appointed musical director and head of the town's entertainments.[113][115] Originally playing three concerts a day during the summer season, in the great glass palm house known as the Winter Gardens;[114][116] the orchestra is now based in Poole and performs around 130 concerts a year across Southern England.[117]

 

Bournemouth is currently host to a number of festivals. The Bournemouth Food and Drink Festival is a ten-day event which combines a market with live cookery demonstrations.[118] The Arts by the Sea Festival is a mix of dance, film, theatre, literature, and music[119] which was launched in 2012 by the local university, The Arts University Bournemouth, and is set to become an annual event.[120] The Bourne Free carnival is held in the town each year during the summer. Initially a gay pride festival, it has become a celebration of diversity and inclusion.[121] Since 2008, Bournemouth has held its own air festival over four days in August.[122] This has featured displays from the Red Arrows as well as appearances from the Yakovlevs, Blades, Team Guinot Wing-Walkers, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including Lancaster, Hurricane, Spitfire and also the last flying Vulcan. The festival has also seen appearances from modern aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.[123] The air festival attracts up to a million people over the four-day event.

  

The town was especially rich in literary associations during the late 19th century and earlier years of the 20th century. P. C. Wren author of Beau Geste, Frederick E. Smith, writer of the 633 Squadron books, and Beatrice Webb, later Potter, all lived in the town.[126] Paul Verlaine taught at Bournemouth a preparatory school[127][128] and the writer J. R. R. Tolkien, spent 30 years taking holidays in Bournemouth, staying in the same room at the Hotel Miramar. He eventually retired to the area in the 1960s with his wife Edith, where they lived close to Branksome Chine. Tolkien died in September 1973 at his home in Bournemouth but was buried in Oxfordshire. The house was demolished in 2008.[129]

 

Percy Florence Shelley lived at Boscombe Manor; a house he had built for his mother, Mary Shelley, the writer and author of the gothic horror novel, Frankenstein. Mary died before the house was completed but she was buried in Bournemouth, in accordance with her wishes. The family plot in St Peter's churchyard also contains her parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and the heart of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley.[130] Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and most of his novel Kidnapped from his house "Skerryvore" on the west cliff, Westbourne.[131] Vladimir Chertkov established a Tolstoyan publishing house with other Russian exiles in Iford Waterworks at Southbourne, and under the 'Free Age Press' imprint, published the first edition of several works by Leo Tolstoy.[126] Author Bill Bryson worked for a time with the Bournemouth Echo newspaper and wrote about the town in his 1995 work Notes from a Small Island.[132]

  

Landmarks

  

Bournemouth has three Grade I listed churches, St Peter's and St Stephen's in the town centre and St Clemment's in Boscombe.[106] St Peter's was the town's first church, completed in 1879 and designed by George Edmund Street.[133] In his book, England's Thousand Best Churches, Simon Jenkins describes the chancel as "one of the richest Gothic Revival interiors in England", while the 202 feet (62 m) spire dominates the surrounding skyline.[134][135] When the architect, John Loughborough Pearson, designed St Stephen's his aim was to,"bring people to their knees". It has a high stone groined roof, twin aisles and a triforium gallery, although the tower lacks a spire.[136][137]

 

The borough has two piers: Bournemouth Pier, close to the town centre, and the shorter but architecturally more important Boscombe Pier. Designed by the architect Archibald Smith, Boscombe Pier opened in 1889 as a 600 feet (180 m) structure which was extended to 750 feet (230 m) in 1927 when a new head was constructed.[138] Added in 1958, the boomerang-shaped entrance kiosk and overhanging concrete roof is now a Grade II listed building. In 1961 a theatre was added but this was demolished in 2008 when the rest of the pier was renovated.[138][139] In 2009, fashion designer Wayne Hemingway described Boscombe Pier as "Britain's coolest pier". It was also voted Pier of the Year 2010 by the National Piers Society.[140]

 

In 1856, Bournemouth Pier was a simple, wooden jetty. This was replaced by a longer, wooden pier five years later, and a cast iron structure in 1880.[34] Two extensions to the pier in 1894 and 1905, brought the total length to 305 metres (1000 feet). After World War II, the structure was strengthened to allow for the addition of a Pier Theatre, finally constructed in 1960. Between 1979 and 1981, a £1.7 million redevelopment programme, saw a great deal of reconstruction work, and the addition of a large two-storey, octagonal-shaped entrance building.[34]

 

Built as the Mont Dore Hotel in 1881, Bournemouth Town Hall was designated a Grade II listed building in 2001. Designed by Alfred Bedborough in the French, Italian and neo-classical styles, the foundation stone was laid by King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway and the hotel opened in 1885.[141][142][143] The buff brick exterior features Bath stone dressings and terracotta friezes. The main entrance is sited within a projected façade that reaches to the eaves and is topped with a pediment, while above sits a belvedere with turrets and a pavilion roof.[142] During the First World War the hotel was used as a hospital for British and Indian soldiers and after as a convalescent home. It never opened as a hotel again and was purchased by Bournemouth Borough Council in 1919.[144]

 

Built in the Art Deco style in 1929, situated close to the seafront, the Pavilion Theatre was at the time considered to be the greatest ever municipal enterprise for the benefit of entertainment.[145] Built from brick and stone, the frontage features square Corinthian columns.[141] Still a popular venue, it is today a Grade II listed building.[145]

 

The Bournemouth Eye is a helium-filled balloon attached to a steel cable in the town's lower gardens. The spherical balloon is 69 m (226 ft) in circumference and carries an enclosed, steel gondola. Rising to a height of 150 m (492 ft), it provides a panoramic view of the surrounding area for up to 28 passengers.[

  

Sport

  

The town has a professional football club, AFC Bournemouth, known as the Cherries, who were promoted to the Championship in 2013 and Premier League in 2015,[148] AFC Bournemouth play at Dean Court near Boscombe in Kings' Park, 2 miles (3 km) east of the town centre.[149]

 

Bournemouth Rugby Club, which competes in the National League Division Two South, has its home at the Bournemouth Sports Club, next to Bournemouth Airport, where it hosts an annual Rugby sevens tournament and festival.[150][151][152] Bournemouth Cricket Club also plays at Bournemouth Sports Club and is reported to be one of the biggest cricket clubs in the country. Its first team plays in the Southern Premier League.[153] Dean Park is a former county cricket ground, once home to Hampshire County Cricket Club and later Dorset County Cricket Club. Today it is a venue for university cricket.[154]

 

The BIC has become a venue for a round of the Premier League Darts Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation.[155]

 

The Westover and Bournemouth Rowing Club, is the town's coastal rowing club. Established in 1865, it is reported to be the oldest sporting association in the county. The club regularly competes in regattas organised by the Hants and Dorset Amateur Rowing Association which take place on the South Coast of England between May and September.[156]

 

Other watersports popular in Poole Bay include sailing and surfing, and there are a number of local schools for the beginner to learn either sport.[157] Bournemouth has the third largest community of surfers in the UK and in 2009 an artificial surf reef, one of only four in the world, was constructed there.[158] The reef failed to deliver the promised grade 5 wave, suffered a series of delays and ran over budget, finally costing £3.2 million.

  

Transport

  

Road

  

The principal route to the town centre is the A338 spur road, a dual carriageway that connects to the A31 close to the Hampshire border. The A31 joins the M27 at Southampton and from there the M3 to London and the A34 to the Midlands and the North can be accessed.[161] The main road west is the A35 to Honiton in Devon which runs through the South East Dorset Conurbation and continues east as far as Southampton, albeit as a non-primary route.[162][163] The A350 in the neighbouring borough of Poole provides the only northern route out of the conurbation.[164] National Express coaches serve Bournemouth Travel Interchange & Bournemouth University. There are frequent departures to London Victoria Coach Station and Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airports.[165][166] Local buses are provided mainly by two companies, More Bus, the former National Bus Company subsidiary and now owned by the Go-Ahead group, and Yellow Buses, the former Bournemouth Council-owned company and successors to Bournemouth Corporation Transport, which began operating trams in 1902.[166][167] Other operators serving the town include Damory Coaches and the Shaftesbury & District bus company.[166]

  

Rail

  

There are two stations in the town, Bournemouth railway station and Pokesdown railway station to the east.[168] Parts of western Bournemouth can also be reached from Branksome station. All three stations lie on the South Western Main Line from Weymouth to London Waterloo.[169] South West Trains operates a comprehensive service along this line, which also serves Southampton Central, Winchester and Basingstoke to the east, and Poole, Wareham, and Dorchester South to the west.[169][170] Before its closure in 1966, Bournemouth was also served by the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which provided direct access to Somerset and the Midlands.[171]

  

Air

  

Originally an RAF airfield, Bournemouth Airport was transferred to the Civil Aviation Authority in 1944 and was the UK's only international airport before the opening of Heathrow in 1946.[172] Acquired by the Manchester Airports Group in 2001, the airport underwent a £45 million phased expansion programme between 2007 and 2011.[173][174] Situated in the village of Hurn on the periphery of Bournemouth, the airport is 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the town centre and serves around 600,000 passengers annually.[175] There are direct flights to more than 35 international destinations in 19 countries including: Croatia, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.[175]

  

Education

  

The Bournemouth local education authority was first set up in 1903 and remained in existence until local government was reorganised in 1974 when Bournemouth lost its County Borough status and became part of the county of Dorset. Under the later reforms of 1997, Bournemouth became a unitary authority and the Bournemouth local education authority was re-established.[176][177]

 

The local council operates a two-tier comprehensive system whereby pupils attend one of the 26 primary schools in the borough before completing their education at secondary school.[178] Bournemouth is one of the minority of local authorities in England still to maintain selective education, with two grammar schools (one for boys, one for girls) and ten secondary modern/comprehensive schools.[179] There are also a small number of independent schools in the town, and a further education college.[180] Bournemouth has two universities: Bournemouth University and Arts University Bournemouth, both of which are located across the boundary in neighbouring Poole.[181]

 

In 2012, 60.7% of the borough's school leavers gained 5 GCSEs of grade C or above. This was slightly better than the national average of 59.4% and above the average for the rest of Dorset, with 58.8% of pupils from the local authority of Poole, and 54.1% from the remainder of the county, managing to do likewise.[182]

   

Rocking Chair by Jack Rogers Hopkins

circa 1970’s, USA. Walnut

 

Branded JACK/ROGERS/HOPKINS

 

"Domestically proportioned pieces by Jack Rogers Hopkins are exceedingly scarce and highly sought after. Hopkins is an important and influential sculptor/furniture designer who helped defined the California design scene in the 70’s. He mastered laminated wood and applied it to never seen before forms. Although Hopkins created other chairs, this is an exceptional and unique piece. The Rocking Chair simultaneously pays homage to one of the most cherished American pieces of furniture while realizing the form in a creative and dynamic manner. Despite the form’s ingenuity and presence, it is surprisingly comfortable."

 

Furniture from Todd Merrell Antiques

The ruins of the Temple of Delphi visible today date from the 4th century BC are of a peripteral Doric building. It was erected on the remains of an earlier temple, dated to the 6th century BC which itself was erected on the site of a 7th-century BC construction attributed to the architects Trophonios and Agamedes.

 

The 6th-century BC temple was named the "Temple of Alcmeonidae" in tribute to the Athenian family who funded its reconstruction following a fire, which had destroyed the original structure. The new building was a Doric hexastyle temple of 6 by 15 columns. This temple was destroyed in 373 BC by an earthquake. The pediment sculptures are a tribute to Praxias and Androsthenes of Athens. Of a similar proportion to the second temple it retained the 6 by 15 column pattern around the stylobate. Inside was the adyton, the centre of the Delphic oracle and seat of Pythia. The temple had the statement "Know thyself", one of the Delphic maxims, carved into it (and some modern Greek writers say the rest were carved into it), and the maxims were attributed to Apollo and given through the oracle and/or the Seven Sages of Greece ("know thyself" perhaps also being attributed to other famous philosophers). The monument was partly restored during 1938(?)–1300.

 

The temple survived until 390 AD, when the Christian emperor Theodosius I silenced the oracle by destroying the temple and most of the statues and works of art in the name of Christianity. The site was completely destroyed by zealous Christians in an attempt to remove all traces of Paganism.

Peter Duesberg is a "scientist" who is widely recognised as being one of the foremost idiots who thinks that HIV does not cause AIDS. He thinks that everyone gets it from taking ARVs and doing too much poppers and too many recreational drugs. Celia "Thats why they put blood on my face" Farber has spent an awful long time defending this lunatic "faith".

 

A new Harvard study has claimed that the deaths of around 330,000 South Africans occured as a direct result of Mbeki's HIV denial.

 

Peter Duesberg was on Mbeki's AIDS panel, so advised him in his murderous denial.

 

Of course I am not pointing the finger directly at Duesberg as the buck stopped with Mbeki and his health minister Dr Beetroot, and the policies they enacted.

 

However it would be wrong to completely ignore the role that Duesberg and others played in the deaths of all of these people.

 

Duesberg is currently employed by the University of California Berkeley. Maybe in light of this new evidence they should seriously consider his position within their (ANY!) teaching institution.

 

Mbeki Aids policy 'led to 330,000 deaths'

Sarah Boseley Thursday November 27 2008 00.01 GMT

 

The Aids policies of former president Thabo Mbeki's government were directly responsible for the avoidable deaths of a third of a million people in South Africa, according to research from Harvard University.

 

South Africa has one of the most severe HIV/Aids epidemics in the world. About 5.5 million people, or 18.8% of the adult population, have HIV, according to the UN. In 2005 there were 900 deaths a day.

 

But from the late 90s Mbeki turned his back on the scientific consensus that Aids was caused by a viral infection which could be combated, though not cured, by sophisticated and expensive drugs. He came under the influence of maverick scientists known as Aids-denialists, most prominent among whom was Peter Duesberg from Berkeley, California.

 

In 2000 Mbeki called a round-table of experts, including Duesberg and his supporters but also their opponents, to discuss the cause of Aids. Later that year, at the international Aids conference in Durban, he publicly rejected the accepted wisdom. Aids, he said, was indeed brought about by the collapse of the immune system - but not because of a virus. The cause, he said, was poverty, bad nourishment and general ill-health. The solution was not expensive western medicine but the alleviation of poverty in Africa.

 

In a new paper Harvard researchers have quantified the death toll resulting from Mbeki's stance, which caused him to reject offers of free drugs and grants and led to foot-dragging over a treatment programme, even after Mbeki had taken a vow of silence on the issue.

 

"We contend that the South African government acted as a major obstacle in the provision of medication to patients with Aids," write Pride Chigwedere and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

 

They have made their calculations by comparing the scale-up of treatment programmes in neighbouring Botswana and Namibia with the limited availability of drugs in South Africa from 2000-2005.

 

Expensive antiretrovirals came down in price dramatically as a result of activists' campaigning and public pressure. In July 2000 the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim offered to donate its drug nevirapine, which could prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child during labour. But South Africa restricted the availability of nevirapine to two pilot sites a province until December 2002.

 

Eventually, under international pressure, South Africa did launch a national programme for the prevention of mother to child transmission in August 2003 and a national adult treatment programme in 2004. But by 2005, the paper's authors estimate, there was still only 23% drug coverage and less than 30% prevention of mother to child transmission.

 

By comparison, Botswana achieved 85% treatment coverage and Namibia 71% by 2005, and both had 70% mother to child transmission programmes coverage.

 

The authors estimate that more than 330,000 people died unnecessarily in South Africa over the period and that 35,000 HIV-infected babies were born who could have been protected from the virus but would now probably have a limited life.

 

Their calculations will withstand scrutiny, they say. "The analysis is robust," said Dr Chigwedere. "We used a transparent and accessible calculation, publicly available data, and, where we made assumptions, we explained their basis. We purposely chose very conservative assumptions and performed sensitivity analyses to test whether the results would qualitatively change if a different assumption were used."

 

The authors conclude: "Access to appropriate public health practice is often determined by a small number of political leaders. In the case of South Africa, many lives were lost because of a failure to accept the use of available ARVs to prevent and treat HIV/Aids in a timely manner."

 

Since Mbeki's ousting from the leadership of the African National Congress in September South Africa has urgently pursued new policies to get treatment to as many people as possible under a new health minister, Barbara Hogan.

 

November 26, 2008

Study Cites Toll of AIDS Policy in South Africa

By CELIA W. DUGGER

www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html?_r=1

JOHANNESBURG — A new study by Harvard researchers estimates that the South African government would have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people earlier this decade if it had provided antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients and widely administered drugs to help prevent pregnant women from infecting their babies.

 

The Harvard study concluded that the policies grew out of President Thabo Mbeki’s denial of the well-established scientific consensus about the viral cause of AIDS and the essential role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it.

 

Coming in the wake of Mr. Mbeki’s ouster in September after a power struggle in his party, the African National Congress, the report has reignited questions about why Mr. Mbeki, a man of great acumen, was so influenced by AIDS denialists.

 

And it has again caused soul-searching about why his colleagues in the party did not act earlier to challenge his resistance to broadly accepted methods of treating and preventing AIDS.

 

Reckoning with a legacy of such policies, Mr. Mbeki’s’s successor, Kgalema Motlanthe, acted on the first day of his presidency two months ago to remove the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, a polarizing figure who had proposed garlic, lemon juice and beetroot as AIDS remedies.

 

He replaced her with Barbara Hogan, who has brought South Africa — the most powerful country in a region at the epicenter of the world’s AIDS pandemic — back into the mainstream.

 

“I feel ashamed that we have to own up to what Harvard is saying,” Ms. Hogan, an A.N.C. stalwart who was imprisoned for a decade during the anti-apartheid struggle, said in a recent interview. “The era of denialism is over completely in South Africa.”

 

For years, the South African government did not provide antiretroviral medicines, even as Botswana and Namibia, neighboring countries with epidemics of similar scale, took action, the Harvard study reported.

 

The Harvard researchers quantified the human cost of that inaction by comparing the number of people who got antiretrovirals in South Africa from 2000 to 2005 with the number the government could have reached had it put in place a workable treatment and prevention program.

 

They estimated that by 2005, South Africa could have been helping half those in need but had reached only 23 percent. By comparison, Botswana was already providing treatment to 85 percent of those in need, and Namibia to 71 percent.

 

The 330,000 South Africans who died for lack of treatment and the 35,000 babies who perished because they were infected with H.I.V. together lost at least 3.8 million years of life, the study concluded.

 

Epidemiologists and biostatisticians who reviewed the study for The New York Times said the researchers had based their estimates on conservative assumptions and used a sound methodology.

 

“They have truly used conservative estimates for their calculations, and I would consider their numbers quite reasonable,” James Chin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Public Health, said in an e-mail message.

 

The report was posted online last month and will be published on Monday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

 

Max Essex, the virologist who has led the Harvard School of Public Health’s AIDS research program for the past 20 years and who oversaw the study, called South Africa’s response to AIDS under Mr. Mbeki “a case of bad, or even evil, public health.”

 

Mr. Mbeki has maintained a silence on his AIDS legacy since his forced resignation. His spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, said Mr. Mbeki would not discuss his thinking on H.I.V. and AIDS, explaining that policy decisions were made collectively by the cabinet and so questions should be addressed to the government.

 

The new government is now trying to hasten the expansion of antiretroviral treatments. The task is urgent. South Africa today is home to 5.7 million people who are H.I.V.-positive — more than any other nation, almost one in five adults. More than 900 people a day die here as a result of AIDS, the United Nations estimates.

 

Since the party forced Mr. Mbeki from office and some of his loyalists split off to start a new party, rivalries have flared and stories about what happened inside the A.N.C. have begun to tumble out, offering unsettling glimpses of how South Africa’s AIDS policies went so wrong.

 

From the first year of his presidency in 1999, Mr. Mbeki became consumed with the thinking of a small group of dissident scientists who argued that H.I.V. was not the cause of AIDS, his biographers say.

 

As president he wielded enormous power, and those who disagreed with him said they feared they would be sidelined if they spoke out. Even Nelson Mandela, the revered former president, was not immune from opprobrium.

 

In a column in The Sunday Times of Johannesburg on Oct. 19, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, a senior party member now running the party’s 2009 election campaign, recounted how Mr. Mandela, known affectionately as Madiba, was humiliated during a 2002 A.N.C. meeting after he made a rare appearance to question the party’s stance on AIDS.

 

Mr. Ramatlhodi described speakers competing to show greater loyalty to Mr. Mbeki by verbally attacking Mr. Mandela as Mr. Mbeki looked on silently. “After his vicious mauling, Madiba looked twice his age, old and ashen,” Mr. Ramatlhodi wrote.

 

Mr. Ramatlhodi himself acknowledged in a recent interview that in 2001 he sent a 22-page letter, drafted by Mr. Mbeki’s office, to another of Mr. Mbeki’s most credible critics, Prof. Malegapuru Makgoba, an immunologist who was one of South Africa’s leading scientists. The letter accused Professor Makgoba of defending Western science and its racist ideas about Africans at the expense of Mr. Mbeki.

 

In 2000 Mr. Mbeki had provided Professor Makgoba with two bound volumes containing 1,500 pages of documents written by AIDS denialists. After reading them, Professor Makgoba said in an interview that he wrote back to warn Mr. Mbeki that if he adopted the denialists’ ideas, South Africa would “become the laughingstock, if not the pariah, of the world again.”

 

But Mr. Mbeki indicated last year to one of his biographers, Mark Gevisser, that his views on AIDS were essentially unchanged, pointing the writer to a document that, he said, was drafted by A.N.C. leaders and accurately reflected his position.

 

The document’s authors conceded that H.I.V. might be one cause of AIDS but contended that there were many others, like other diseases and malnutrition.

 

The document maintained that antiretrovirals were toxic. And it suggested that powerful vested interests — drug companies, governments, scientists — pushed the consensus view of AIDS in a quest for money and power, while peddling centuries-old white racist beliefs that depicted Africans as sexually rapacious.

 

“Yes, we are sex crazy!” the document’s authors bitterly exclaimed. “Yes, we are diseased! Yes, we spread the deadly H.I. virus through our uncontrolled heterosexual sex!”

 

In 2002, after a prolonged outcry over Mr. Mbeki’s comments about AIDS and the government’s policies, Mr. Mbeki agreed to requests from within his party to withdraw from the public debate. That same year, the Constitutional Court ruled that the government had to provide antiretroviral drugs to prevent the infection of newborns. And in 2003, the cabinet announced plans to go forward with an antiretroviral treatment program.

 

“We did an enormous amount of good in the early days in South Africa, not because of the Health Ministry, but in spite of the Health Ministry,” said Randall L. Tobias, who was appointed by President Bush in 2003 to lead the United States’ $15 billion global AIDS undertaking.

 

In the same years, former President Clinton and his foundation were also deeply involved in helping South Africa get a treatment program going. Mr. Clinton attended Mr. Mandela’s 85th birthday celebration in Johannesburg in 2003. During the dinner, he and Mr. Mbeki slipped away to talk about AIDS, Mr. Clinton recalled in a recent interview.

 

Mr. Clinton said he told Mr. Mbeki how antiretroviral treatment had reduced the AIDS mortality rate in the United States and reminded him, “I’m your friend and I haven’t joined in the public condemnation.” That evening, when Mr. Clinton offered to send in a team of experts to help the country put together a national treatment plan, Mr. Mbeki took him up on it.

 

The Clinton Foundation helped devise a plan and mobilized 20 people to travel to South Africa in 2004 to help carry it out. But the South African government never invited them, Mr. Clinton said. So the foundation, which had projects all over Africa, was to have none in South Africa.

 

Changes since Mr. Mbeki’s fall from power have prompted many to hope for forceful South African political leadership on AIDS. Mr. Mbeki’s rival and successor as head of the party, Jacob Zuma, who is expected to become president after next year’s election, himself made a famously questionable remark about AIDS.

 

In his 2006 rape trial, in which he was acquitted of sexually assaulting a family friend, he testified that he sought to reduce his chances of being infected with H.I.V. by taking a shower after sex. Nonetheless, he seems to have more conventional views on the pandemic.

 

“Who would have thought Jacob Zuma would be better than Mbeki, but he is,” said Richard C. Holbrooke, the former ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration who heads a coalition of businesses fighting AIDS. “The tragedy of Thabo Mbeki is that he’s a smart man who could have been an international statesman on this issue. To this day, you wonder what got into him.”

 

For South Africans who watched the dying and were powerless to stop it, the grief is still raw. Zackie Achmat, the country’s most prominent advocate for people with AIDS, became sick during the almost five years he refused to take antiretrovirals until they were made widely available. He cast Mr. Mbeki as the leading man in this African tragedy.

 

“He is like Macbeth,” Mr. Achmat said. “It’s easier to walk through the blood than to turn back and admit you made a mistake.”

 

Mbeki's opposition to ARVs cost 330,000 lives, shows study

Michael Carter, Thursday, November 27, 2008

www.aidsmap.com/en/news/97BFC49D-E43C-4028-8E4D-CACF15F82...

 

The refusal of the Mbeki government to roll-out antiretroviral therapy and treatment to prevent mother-to child transmission in South Africa resulted in 330,000 needlessly premature HIV-related deaths and 35,000 avoidable case of mother-to-child HIV transmission according to estimates published in the December 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

 

South Africa is one of the countries hardest hit by HIV. UNAIDS estimates that 19% of the adult population is HIV-positive, some 5.5 million individuals. In 2005, an estimated 320,000 individuals died because of HIV.

 

President Thabo Mbeki’s government consistently resisted the provision of antiretroviral therapy. The first important evidence of this was in 1999 when, under pressure to provide AZT monotherapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, President Mbeki announced that the drug was dangerous and that it would therefore not be provided by his government. This was followed by Mbeki publicly questioning that HIV caused AIDS and the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy. The Mbeki administration then resisted the use of nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission and obstructed the acquisition of grants from the Global Fund.

 

US investigators estimated the lost benefits resulting from the Mbeki government’s opposition to provision of antiretroviral therapy and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. To do this, they compared the actual number of people who received HIV treatment or therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission between 2000 and 2005 and compared this to the number that could feasibly have been treated during this period. This difference was multiplied by the average efficacy of antiretroviral treatment and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission to give the lost benefits consequent upon the South African government’s decision to prevent access to anti-HIV drugs.

 

“Our overriding values in choosing methods were transparency and minimization of assumptions and we were purposely conservative”, write the investigators.

 

When estimating the number of people who could reasonably have been provided with antiretroviral therapy or treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission, the investigators noted that HIV treatment became significantly more accessible between 2000-2005. This was because:

 

* The price of anti-HIV drugs fell significantly in this period.

  

* More money was available for donor organisations, such as the Global Fund and PEPFAR, to purchase antiretroviral drugs.

   

Nevertheless, the South African government still maintained opposition to the provision of HIV drugs.

 

To estimate the number of people who should have been eligible to receive antiretroviral therapy, the investigators obtained from UNAIDS the number of HIV-related deaths in South Africa between 2000-2005. Patients who died of HIV without receiving anti-HIV drugs lost the entire potential benefits of antiretroviral therapy.

 

Next, the investigators obtained figures showing how many individuals received antiretroviral therapy in the same period. Their sources were UNAIDS and the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) “3 x 5” antiretroviral treatment access programme. These figures showed that fewer than 3% of patients received antiretroviral treatment in 2000, increasing to approximately 10% in 2003 and 23% in 2005.

 

The researchers considered it reasonable that South Africa could have treated no more than 5% of eligible patients with HIV in 2000. However, because drugs became less expensive and more international funding became available, “ramping up” access to treatment was feasible, meaning that by 2005, 50% of HIV-positive patients in South Africa should have been receiving antiretroviral therapy. They note that the maximum of 50% treatment coverage is significantly lower than the 71% achieved by Namibia and the 85% achieved by Botswana.

 

Finally they estimated the number of life years that would be gained per patient due to antiretroviral therapy. They used the most conservative estimate of 6.7 years.

 

Their calculations showed that 330,000 lives and 2.2 million person years were lost because the Mbeki government resisted the implementation of a reasonable antiretroviral treatment programme.

 

They tested their model using a number of other assumptions. For example, if they reduced the number of patients who could reasonably be expected to receive antiretroviral therapy in 2005 to 40%, then the number of lives lost fell to 226,800 or 1.5 million person years.

 

Consequences of opposition to treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission

 

The researchers' model to test the impact of the Mbeki administration’s opposition to treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission also included a number of conservative assumptions.

 

First, they calculated the number of children infected with HIV vertically. They looked at a number of sources and selected the lowest estimate of 68,000 per year and revised this down to 60,000 to take into account the high adult HIV population and marginal increase in population growth in South Africa during this period.

 

A number of sources suggested that in 2005, coverage of treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission was 30%, having increased from below 3% before 2000.

 

To estimate the proportion of women who could have received treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission, they considered that treatment would have been free during this period, that it is easy to administer and that 84% of pregnant women in South Africa receive antenatal care.

 

Based on these assumptions, the investigators calculated that no more than 5% of women would have received treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission in 2000, but that this could have increased to 55% by 2005.

 

Next the investigators estimated the efficacy of such therapy, taking as their benchmark the HIVNET 012 study which showed that single-dose nevirapine reduced the risk of transmission by 47% compared to short-course AZT amongst women who breastfeed.

 

Finally, they assumed an average life-expectancy at birth of 48 years, and subtracted from this the average three year life-expectancy of infants infected with HIV at birth.

 

The investigators therefore estimated that 35,000 cases of mother-to-child transmission (or 1.6 million life years) were the result of the Mbeki administration’s policies.

 

One again, the investigators tested their results using other assumptions. If they accepted 40% coverage of treatment as acceptable, then the excess number of babies infected because of government policies was 18,000, a loss of 800,00 life years. However, had there been 70% coverage (still below what was achieved in Namibia and Botswana), then HIV infections in 44,000 babies (or 2 million life years), would have been avoided.

 

When the investigators combined their two estimates – years of life lost because of opposition to antiretroviral treatment, and life years lost because of the failure to provide treatment to prevent vertical transmission – they found that some 3.8 million life years were lost because of the Mbeki administration’s policies.

 

They conclude, “in the case of South Africa, many lives were lost because of failure to accept the use of available antiretrovirals to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in a timely manner.”

 

Reference

 

Chigwedere, P. et al. Estimating the lost benefits of antiretroviral drug use in South Africa. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 49: 410-15, 2008.

   

Gauben eines abbruchreifen Hauses

schöne Proportionen, handwerklich perfekt ausgeführt!

Badgastein, 1982

Mamiya 645 with Fuji Velvia 50

Samburu National Reserve

Kenya

East Africa

 

Two male giraffes fighting down by the Ewaso Ng'iro River. They sometimes swing their heads under the body to try to knock their opponent off their feet.

 

Male giraffes use their necks as weapons in combat, a behavior known as "necking". Necking is used to establish dominance and males that win necking bouts have greater reproductive success. This behavior occurs at low or high intensity.

 

In low intensity necking, the combatants rub and lean against each other. The male that can hold itself more erect wins the bout. In high intensity necking, the combatants will spread their front legs and swing their necks at each other, attempting to land blows with their ossicones. The contestants will try to dodge each other's blows and then get ready to counter. The power of a blow depends on the weight of the skull and the arc of the swing.

 

A necking duel can last more than half an hour, depending on how well matched the combatants are. Although most fights do not lead to serious injury, there have been records of broken jaws, broken necks, and even deaths.

 

After a duel, it is common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males have been found to be more frequent than heterosexual coupling. In one study, up to 94 percent of observed mounting incidents took place between males. The proportion of same-sex activities varied from 30–75 percent. Only one percent of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females.

Esta imagen no está disponible para su uso en páginas web, blogs o cualquier otro soporte sin mi autorización por escrito.

This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit written permission.

Todos los derechos reservados. All rights reserved.

©2015 Jesús Cañas

Tirada limitada. Limited edition.

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@gsusce

gsusce@yahoo.es

View On Black

14 years in this tiny condo, 26 stories above Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta. And the sunsets never fail to illuminate the beauty of the skyline. I love the proportion of earth to sky... blue to orange... and lights to building silhouettes.

An old town in miniature proportion

Lights, Camera, Action! 🎥 🚗

 

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Finally.. at long last I present to you the fruits of nearly a year and a half of blood, sweat, and tears.. my Volkswagen Beetle Type 1. This small car has so much history behind it in real life, as well as in my career as a builder in this amazing community.

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I cannot stress how proud I am to finally lay this project to rest as this project had many issues in its production from stability, lack of parts, and proper proportion especially when it comes to the front hood.

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I also would like to draw your attention to the background set ups which are all 100% my own custom builds as from the studio like to the table.

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For 2022 I will be making instructions for purchase of the VW as many of you have requested it! This is my first step into the new year and I plan to make it my best year yet! Thank you to all those who gave wonderful improvement opinions and stuck with me on this painfully repetitive journey haha!

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▇▇ All content interactions are appreciated!

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Stats :

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Scale - 1/45

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Model/s - Volkswagen Beetle Type 1 & studio set

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Parts Comp. - LEGO & Brickmania molded elements,

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Accesorios Comp. - Accesories for figs from @valiantbricksofficial & @brickmaniatoys

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Parts Est. - 200~

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Build Time - 1 year~

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Instruction Progress - None as of 01/01/2020

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#lego #legocar #legovw #legovwbeetle #custombuild #legomoccar #car #vwbeetle #volkswagenbeetle #volkswagen #brickmania #customcar #beetle #ww2 #legoww2 #legoww2moc #legomoc #legomoccar #germany

The title of this installation is Unknown to me. It looks really awesome at night. It might be titled InSpire.

 

dbg.org/events/light-bloom/2024-10-12/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFelgzzzQqg

LIGHT BLOOM by HYBYCOZO is a limited-time exhibit where nature and light converge. This mesmerizing display invites you to explore the Garden transformed by stunning geometric light installations that illuminate the beauty of the desert landscape in a new way. As the sun sets, LIGHT BLOOM comes to life, castingâ¯intricate shadows and vibrant hues across the Garden. Wander the trails and let the enchanting installations transport you to a magical realm where the natural world meets the abstract.

 

www.hybycozo.com/artists

HYBYCOZO is the collaborative studio of artists Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk. Based in Los Angeles, their work consists of larger than life geometric sculptures, often with pattern and texture that draw on inspirations from mathematics, science, and natural phenomena. Typically illuminated, the work celebrates the inherent beauty of form and pattern and represents their ongoing journey in exploring the myriad dimensions of geometry. HYBYCOZO is short for the Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone, a nod to their favorite novel (The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) and was the title of their first installation in 2014. They continue to create under this name. In the novel earth was being destroyed to make way for a bypass. It lead Serge and Yelena to ask what it means to make art at a time where the earthâs hospitable time in the universe may be limited.

 

dbg.org/meet-the-artists-behind-light-bloom/

Q: Walk us through your creative process? Â

A: The focus of our creative process is to explore the intricate interplay between geometry, light, space and to inspire contemplation, wonder and a sense of place among our audiences. Geometry and pattern-making serve as the backbone of our creative expression. It is the framework through which we navigate the complexities of form, proportion and spatial relationships. Patterns, both simple and complex, have a profound impact on our perception and understanding of the world. They possess the ability to evoke a sense of order, balance and aesthetic pleasure. Pattern making and geometry offer us a means of storytelling and communication. These patterns serve as conduits for deeper exploration, provoking introspection and contemplation to uncover the underlying symbols embedded within the human psyche.

Q: What inspired the concept of LIGHT BLOOM?

A: Just as many cactus and desert plants have evolved to produce night-blooming flowers, adapting to their environment and thriving in darkness, our sculptures come alive after sunset, blossoming with light and transforming the night into a glowing landscape of art and geometry.

 

Desert Botanical Garden has an incredible collection of plants and cacti arranged in a beautiful park setting.

dbg.org/

"Think the desert is all dirt and tumbleweeds? Think again. Desert Botanical Garden is home to thousands of species of cactus, trees and flowers from all around the world spread across 55 acres in Phoenix, Arizona."

 

Desert Botanical Garden

DBG HYBYCOZO Light Bloom

Fire hydrant and sky scrapers.

 

© Leonardo da Vinci

Shofuso Japanese House and gardens were built in 1958 in 16th century style. It is located on the grounds of the Horticultural Center in the West Philadelphia section of Fairmount Park. The perfectly proportioned architecture of the main structure and adjoining tea house is enhanced by an ornamental garden and picturesque pond. Tours of the house are available and periodically there are special events offered including tea ceremonies, bonsai plant showings and more. Finding a cultural nugget like this so close to the city of Philadelphia is very unique and special and definitely needs to be checked out if you are looking for something a little different.

 

For more information on visiting Shofuso, check out Shofuso.com

 

Technical details:

Bronica SQ-A medium format film camera with a Bronica Zenzanon 65mm F4 PS lens.

Hoya Yellow-Green filter on lens.

Fuji Acros 100 film shot at ISO 100.

Semi-stand development using Kodak HC-110 1+100 dilution for 1 hour with 30 seconds initial agitation with swizzle stick and three turns @ 30 minute mark. Paterson 3 reel tank.

Negative scanned with Epson 4990 on holders fitted with ANR glass.

File: 2025008-0189

 

At the Wartime in the Vale 2025 event. Ashdown Camp, at Ashdown Farm, off Badsey Road, Evesham, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom, on Sunday 22nd of June 2025.

    

About the photograph.

 

I dabble in vexillology, not really a serious interest, just a bit of passing interest in the study of flags.

 

I was attending a military vehicles re-enactment event when I saw this flag flying at one the camps, so I took a series of shots using high continuous frame rate mode.

 

This is the national flag of Australia.

 

It is a 1:2 proportion flag with a blue field, and the British Union Flag in the canton (the upper left side), with a large white star in the lower hoist quarter (lower left side), plus five small stars forming the Southern Cross constellation on the fly half (the right side of the flag).

 

Other way to describe the flag would be to say the Blue Ensign defaced with the Southern Cross on the fly half.

 

It was designed from 1901 onwards, and was adopted on 11th February 1903.

 

The large star is referred as the Commonwealth Star, while the five stars on the fly side, being the Southern Cross is because the constellation can be seen in the Southern Hemisphere.

   

About the event.

 

Wartime in the Vale is an annual re-enactment event, held at the former Second World War camp, next to the town of Evesham, during the summer. The event is organised by the Military Vehicle Trust – South Midlands Area.

 

The event is held during the weekend, and believed to have at least more than 500 military vehicles of various eras, but mostly of First and Second World Wars, on display as well as re-enactment events in the main arena, including blank firing of weapons. They even have a flypast over the area.

 

The Ashdown Camp is a 40 acres site, with some old WWII era buildings, mainly huts, located near the Ashdown Farm, just to the east of Evesham.

  

Feel free to comment on the photo, on the subject of the photo, or of your experience.