My attempt at keeping was was left intact which was pretty much useless but

at least it's still somewhat there.

Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC

2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington DC

Room 524

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The Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC, which opened in 1979, can trace its financial wherewithal to Léopold Dreyfus, a French man who in 1850 began trading grain for a profit. Dreyfus incorporated the world’s first international grain trading company under the name Louis-Dreyfus - being too young to use his own name he chose to operate under his father's name Louis Dreyfus. Leopold later changed his surname to Louis-Dreyfus - thus founding one of great French family dynasties. Leopold's great grandson, William Louis-Dreyfus and other family members continue to grow the privately held company.

William Louis-Dreyfus and his first wife Judith Bowles have a daughter, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (yes, that Elaine from Seinfeld). When Julia was asked by accesshollywood.com what her dad does she responded "He does stuff that I don’t understand with grains and energy and selling commodities. That goes in one ear and out the other".

Washington D.C. real estate developer Ben Jacobs (the J in JBG Associates) approached the New York based Louis Dreyfus Property Group with the idea of building a Holiday Inn style hotel and office complex on land acquired in a Georgetown neighborhood. The mixed-use project known as Georgetown Plaza would go up overlooking the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (the water transportation system built by George Washington) but also adjacent to a forlorn city heating plant and an overnight depot for city buses. Representing the "money" behind the deal, William Louis-Dreyfus had the final say on all the projects details. A significant selling point for the site was its street address - 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW - the address of the White House is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.

The architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, designed a 300-room hotel with a red brick exterior that met the historic aspects of the surrounding Georgetown neighborhood. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were also famously known for designing Laurence Rockefeller's Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Hawaii's Big Island (1965).

Before ground was broken Louis-Dreyfus determined a 5-star hotel was better suited for the site and he sent two company men to Toronto to talk with Isadore Sharp - the founder of Four Seasons Hotels. The two men were Ernest Steiner now the retired Vice Chairman and President of Louis Dreyfus Holding Company and Jeffrey I. Sussman who established Louis Dreyfus Property Group in 1971. Sharp negotiated a 75 year management contract with the group for the first hotel in the U.S. named Four Seasons.

According to Isadore Sharp's book "Four Seasons - the True Story of a Business Philosophy" Ben Jacobs was uneasy with the shift from a 3-star hotel to a 5 star hotel and perturbed that William Louis-Dreyfus always sided with Four Season's requirements to reconfigure the hotel. Sharp quotes Ben Jacobs asking William Louis-Dreyfus "What happens if Sharp wants to paint the building purple?" Louis-Dreyfus responded "Then we will paint it purple."

The footprint of the buildings remained the same but the room count was reduced from 300 to 210 and the first floor became much grander with elaborately designed lobby and lounge with beautiful flower gardens called The Garden Terrace Club & Bar. The hotel's fine dining room was located on the lower level - the Aux Beaux Champs - a French, silk napery restaurant.

In 1978 Isadore Sharp recruited Wolf Hengst from the Shoreham Hotel (now the Omni Shoreham Hotel) to be the Four Seasons Washington D.C. first general manager. Hengst later served as president, worldwide operations for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

In the mid 70's Isadore Sharp determined quality of service would be a pillar of Four Season's business platform. As employed at The Inn on the Park London - the concept of a concierge was brought from Europe to the Four Seasons Washington D.C. Wolf Hengst hired Jack Nargil, who knew Washington D.C. inside and out, as the hotel's concierge and stationed him in the lobby near the front desk.

Service made the hotel special – so much so that the new Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC, was featured in the introduction to Tom Peters’ book "In Search of Excellence". The success of this prompted Four Seasons to install concierge services at all of its hotels. Nargil remained with the Four Seasons Hotel for 13 years and was elected as the first president of Les Clefs d'Or in the United States.

Four Seasons Hotel Washington was the first hotel to fly the Four Seasons flag in the US, and the Canadian company had a challenge convincing travelers that this unknown brand was the place to stay In Washington. As a Canadian company it had a challenge convincing travelers that this unknown brand was the place to stay in Washington. Opening in 1979 the Four Seasons Washington D.C. had the opportunity to play host too many events surrounding the presidential election of 1980 between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and the Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan. Reagan's camp had asked Wolf Hengst for a donation - the hotel countered by offering Reagan free accommodations when in D.C. Reagan held a three-day fund raiser at the hotel which resulted in many of the country's most influential business leaders staying at the hotel and becoming long term customers.

** 1998 $20 million Expansion and Renovation **

In 1998 Louis Dreyfus Property Group and Four Seasons General Manager Stan Bromley embarked on a 14 month $20 million renovation and expansion of hotel suites, health club facility, and adjacent office space. In the adjacent 60,000 sq. ft. office building the upper floors were converted into 40 new hotel suites. On the first and second floors of this adjacent building, 11,000 sq. ft. were renovated to house the office of Pardoe Real Estate. The existing health club facility was expanded to fill 8,000 sq. ft. and renovations included extensive high-end millwork. A landscaped plaza was constructed to serve as a connector link between the two buildings with a pedestrian walkway. Also substantial upgrades to the back-of-house facilities included the food storage, room service, butcher shop, locker rooms, employee cafeteria, and security offices.

Stan Bromley was also known for his circumspection. In 1991 Marla Maples threw a ring at Donald Trump during a quarrel in the Four Seasons lobby, and the security camera caught it on tape. David Armstrong of the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Bromley " 'Hard Copy' offered $25,000 for the tape. Trump called me and I said, 'Don't worry, Mr. Trump, it's gone. I destroyed it.' "

In 2001 Chef Douglas McNeil retired from the Four Seasons Washington DC, a hotel he had opened in the same capacity in 1979. His successor was another Scotsman Douglas Anderson, a 14-year Four Seasons veteran, most recently the Executive Chef at the Four Seasons Seattle.

** 2004 Expansion and renovation ***

Facing stiff competition from the new 400-room Mandarin Oriental and the new 86-room Ritz-Carlton Georgetown the Louis Dreyfus Property Group and Christopher Hunsberger, the hotel's general manager embarked on a 6-month renovation to increase the size of their standard rooms from 350 to 480 square feet, dropping the total room count from 252 to 211. The larger rooms are part of the hotel's strategy to stay competitive. To minimize guest disruption during the remodel the hotel would at times deliberately over staff and were very liberal with offers of complimentary drinks because of the construction noise. According to Hunsberger guest ratings were very high during the $25 million major remodel. Hunsberger became a Four Season's Senior Vice President Operations, North America in 2008.

** Mobil Five Star **

In 2005 Mobil Travel Guide announced the only new Mobil Five-Star hotel in 2005 was the Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, D.C. The Four Seasons is the only D.C. hotel to boast the Mobil Travel Guide’s five star honor and one of only 31 in the U.S. to receive Five Stars.

** Four Seasons Up for Sale **

Following 27 years of ownership, the Louis Dreyfus Property Group put the Washington D.C. Four Seasons Hotel up for sale in January 2006. The asking price was $170 million or approximately $800,000 per room. William Louis-Dreyfus may have thought what more could they accomplish after receiving the coveted fifth Mobil star. The previous top hotel sale in the D.C. market was the former Monarch Hotel, now the Fairmont Washington, D.C. Hotel sold in December 2002 for $350,000 a room. Four Seasons would likely remain as manager - it has at least 50 years remaining on a 75-year management contract.

Strategic Hotel Capital, Inc. (NYSE: SLH) announced on January 23, 2006 they signed an agreement to acquire the 211-room Four Season Washington, D.C. for $168.39 million. The hotel has 160 rooms, 51 suites, 12,500 square feet of meeting space, 24,000 square feet of retail space, underground parking, and a 12,500 square foot Four Seasons fitness club and spa. Strategic agreed to pay Louis-Dreyfus an annual license fee of $50,000 for the 2,000 pieces of art throughout the hotel that is part of Louis Drefus' personal art collection including works by Thornton Dial, Raymond Mason and Nellie Mae Rowe. Strategic Hotel Capital forecasts an EBITDA between $10.4 million and $11.4 million in the first twelve months of ownership. The sale also included the transfer of a receivable in the original amount of $400,000 due from Christopher B. Hunsberger, the general manager.

Laurence Geller, ceo of Strategic Hotels & Resorts, commented, "The Washington, D.C. market has significant growth yet to come. We believe our physical improvements to the food and beverage and lobby areas will position this hotel to reap the benefits of the market growth while the hotel continues to lead the market for the foreseeable future."

In a related event LDW Resort & Hotel Development (LDW is an acronym for Louis Dreyfus and Woodbridge) was established by Property Group Partners in 2000 for the specific purpose of developing luxury resort and hotel properties in partnership with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. LDW is a joint venture of Property Group Partners and The Woodbridge Company Limited. The Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole in Wyoming opened in December 2003, and the Four Seasons Hotel Silicon Valley opened in March 2006. Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. acquired the Four Seasons Jackson Hole and Four Seasons Silicon Valley from The Woodbridge Company Limited in 2011.

** Bourbon Steak **

In December 2008 Strategic opened Michael Min's Bourbon Steak in the space formerly occupied by The Garden Terrace Club & Bar. It is known for its complementary duck fat fries and signature dish - steak poached in butter. The designer David Rockwell is known for restaurant interior work including Bobby Flay Steak at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Strategic also has a Bourbon Steak at its Fairmont Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ. While Mina oversees the menu, David Varley serves as executive chef at the restaurant.

** The Royal Suite **

The Four Seasons Hotel unveiled its 4,000-square-foot Royal Suite -- supposedly the biggest hotel suite in D.C. - in 2009. The $12,500 per night suite includes car service and a personalized shopper. It is the hotel’s sixth suite and includes a wooden private patio, gym, library, Bang & Olufsen systems and bullet-resistant glass. The foyer has a Swarovski crystal ceiling shining down on sparkling stone mosaic tiling. The dining room, which seats 10, sits adjacent to a 1,000 square-foot outdoor patio with a fire pit that overlooks Georgetown. For entourages, the entire wing the suite resides in can be closed off to include eight bedrooms totaling 9,000 square feet.

** Seasons Restaurant **

In early 2012 Seasons Restaurant, formerly the Aux Beaux Champs (The beautiful fields), re-opened following a $1 million dollar renovation. Michael Dalton, vice president of design for Strategic Hotels, reinvented Seasons with custom made English walnut dining tables, mahogany dining chairs and signature lamps referencing the Federal Period throughout the room. For guests who simply want a cup of coffee while catching up on the morning news, a separate living room area with a flat screen TV is available. Most importantly the tables remain distant enough from each other to assure privacy. The power brokers’ favored and most visible tables are untouched. For monumental business agreements, a private dining room with a separate entrance and exit remains available. As for the tenured staff, the only change is their uniforms. They have guests’ preferences memorized and understand that timely and unobtrusive service remains the top priority. The former Aux Beaux Champs (named changed in 1993) was a Wine Spectator Grand Award-winning restaurant under long-term chef Douglas MacNeil.

** Art Collection **

In 2010 Strategic Hotels replaced the 2,000 piece Louis-Dreyfus art collection. The firm Soho Myraid Gallery was contracted to create a new contemporary art collection for the Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC. According to the Four Season's press release the collection is representative of American artists and is composed of more than 1,650 pieces, 400 of which are premier, blue chip and commissioned pieces for the public spaces and corridors. Among the prominent public area pieces are works by Roni Stretch, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, Robert Mangold, Ron Richmond, Andrea Rosenberg and Andrei Petrov. These were purchased from private collections and exclusive galleries throughout the United States.

** Actual results 2007 through 2011 **

Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C. Results from the Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Annual Reports:

YE 2011 YE 2010 YE 2009 YE 2008 YE 2007

Rooms Available 222 222 222 211 211

Total Revenue (mil) $61,736 $58,402 $57,036 $63,455 $53,670

EBITDA (mil) 14,305 12,666 11,332 7,806 10,917

Average Occupancy 71.5% 69.9% 67.9% 66.2% 71.5%

ADR 530.23 522.01 509.53 533.61 542.58

RevPAR 378.97 364.64 346.04 353.50 388.00

Total RevPAR 761.89 720.75 703.89 665.76 696.88

As of February 2012 Christian Clerc is the Regional Vice President and General Manager Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC. He previously served as Regional Vice President overseeing Four Seasons Hotel Mexico City and Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita and Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica.

Text compiled by Dick Johnson. Photos by Dick Johnson.

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

Lost in Paradise

from Tim Robertson

robertsontim66@gmail.com

Sep 15， 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

I am back in China again after my summer of “couch surfing” as my daughters would call it. Since I had no friends in the Los Angeles area, the five days I spent there seeing Miranda at Moorpark College cost me more than the rest of my two months in the States. In addition to showing me her work in the teaching zoo, Miranda took me to see a Hindu Temple, Malibu Beach and Universal Studios, all somewhat iconic in their own ways. Because it was Labor Day weekend, the places were crowded and I felt like a tourist in a foreign land observing the strange customs of the natives. The waves of the Pacific Ocean seemed to be beckoning me to cross over to the other side, which is what I did the next day. It seemed that the most stressful part of the journey was getting through LA traffic to the airport and getting through security before the flight. I was thankful to be able to get a new ticket since I had made the silly mistake of not using my full name while booking my international ticket online. Not doing that again!

The day before my flight, the recruiting agency sent me an message to ask if I could arrive two days earlier. Since I was west bound instead of east bound I could not arrive earlier than I left – my powers of time travel are somewhat limited that way. I suspected that something was up, because they had previously insisted on my arriving later. So I skipped my extra day in Shanghai to see my sister and friends from Fuyang and went straight to the train station the next morning after arriving at 9:00 the previous evening. I took the train from a different station, closer than the one I had used earlier in June. I managed to get on the 10:00 train just before it left by dropping my bags and jamming my hand between the doors as they closed. I had not realized it was leaving so soon since there was no crowd for me to follow - which is what I usually do. When I sat down I seemed to be the only passenger in that car so I briefly enjoyed the feeling of being a majority - of one - until the next stop when I saw two men sitting in the front. At any rate, I was able to find the office in Hangzhou by taking a bus, a train, the subway and a taxi before noon.

On my arrival at the office, the first item of business confirmed my suspicions that all would not go as I expected. I was informed that I would be teaching at Zhejiang University of Technology near the center of the city instead the small private vocational technical college in the suburbs that I had applied for and been accepted three months earlier. I do not know if I could have refused, but they said that the university was the second most respected one in Zhejiang Province and they wanted the best teachers, so I was recommended to them. I wonder if that was really true or if it was merely flattery to get me to go along with change, but it worked. It seems that ZUT was unable to fulfill their usual number of teachers through a program that sends new graduates to them from Princeton and Harvard and desperate to fill the gap. So I was the first teacher to be recruited by this agency to work there and of course they welcomed the opportunity. As it is, I will be one of only six foreign English teachers instead of the eight that the university had requested.

The next item on the agenda was to go over the contract and sign it before I had time to go to see the campus or my apartment. At that point I was so exhausted and in need of a good sleep due to the time difference and loss of sleep on the plane, that all I wanted to do was get into a bed. I chose to go directly to the apartment instead of stay in a hotel so I was driven to my new apartment by private car. It is on the sixth floor without an elevator. (Most apartment buildings in China have only six floors, which is the maximum before they are required to have an elevator.) When I arrived, I met the administrator and the building manager who gave me the keys and showed me where it was. Fortunately it has air-conditioning since I was sweating profusely from the heat and the exertion of hauling my luggage to the top floor.

My first night I awoke to the sensation of the whole building swaying and I thought it must have been an earthquake, but after waking three more times, I realized the trembling must be caused by passage of heavy trucks on the busy street below. It would be interesting to find out what it would feel like in an actual earthquake, but I am willing pass up on that experience and hope I don’t find out. Fortunately this area does not get earth quakes like Szechuan Province in the eastern part of the country, otherwise this building may not have been here so long. The next morning I had to go get my health check repeated since the one I did three months ago was in Anhui province and would not be accepted by a public university in Zhejiang. I got a ride to the subway station with my friendly next door neighbor only to find out I had brought the wrong wallet which had only US dollars instead of Chinese Ren Min Bi to pay for my ticket. I found my way back to my apartment on foot, exchanged wallets and walked to another subway station several blocks away, and still arrived early to my meeting with my recruiter.

After going through the battery of about a dozen tests again, in about a half hour, I was glad this was socialized medicine, where I am treated very efficiently like a number instead of having to wait for an personal appointment. I then returned to the office by subway and found the boxes I had shipped from Fuyang in June and got them back up to my apartment where I began to unpack. The next two days I slept and rearranged the furniture to my liking. I could not figure out why the bed was in the living room area, until I moved it to the bedroom and found out the traffic noise was much louder, since it faced the street in front of the building. I am gradually getting used to sleeping through the constant background noise and the feeling of sleeping on Jell-O. A student named Alex was assigned to help me find my way around the campus and take me to the local shopping center. She was most helpful and I was able to get a lot of things done on my list – like the all-important internet connection.

On Sunday I found the location of the Hangzhou International Christian Fellowship on the map and found my way there by walking and subway. The congregation of foreigners (Chinese citizens are not allowed to attend) is made up mostly of students from various African countries. So the worship style is a mixture of contemporary songs, southern Black gospel and African rhythms which is a new experience for me. I have to admit that I dozed of listening to the American (white) teacher since his delivery was quite dry (in comparison) and I needed the sleep. It is a great encouragement to meet friendly people, many of whom have lived here many years. This is a spiritual benefit of living in a major city in China with a significant ex-patriot community, unlike Fuyang.

The next day was Mid-autumn Festival so I got my bicycle out of the shipping crate and put it back together. I then decided to go see West Lake, one of the most famous tourist sites in China. I rode around the lake and noticed how the causeways were thick with pedestrians as they walked across the lake and over the low arching bridges. On the far side of the lake I was surprised to find myself riding into the low hills between tea plantations that produce the best tea in China – according to the locals. I resolved to return another day when I have more energy to climb one of several mountain peaks on the west side of the city. Deep emerald green forest and well maintained gardens create the impression of a subtropical paradise. The lake is lined with the stately and classic architecture of luxury resorts, sumptuous restaurants and traditional tea houses. I noticed a traffic jam at Lei Feng Tower which was built to commemorate a tragic love story that had happened at this lake according to ancient mythology. Unfortunately they were charging an entrance fee so I decided I would wait until I have actually made some money here.

As I returned along the shoreline close to the downtown area I was seduced into stopping to watch the gondolas floating on the lake, the brightly lit dinner party boats and the various street performers that drew crowds. Although I had planned to make the trip in two hours, darkness arrived before I could tear myself away and begin my return to campus. I had brought a map to help guide me back, but in the dark I became hopelessly disoriented and had to stop several times to ask for directions. After getting various contradictory directions, I realized I was being sent to the other ZUT Campus which caused me to ride around in circles for a couple of hours. By the time I got back it was 9:00pm and I needed to find dinner quickly, so I went to the place called “Dirty Alley” to buy some street food as I often did at my previous school. By comparison, the conditions here are much cleaner than Fuyang but the fried noodles were not nearly as good to my taste.

I spent the last week catching up on sleep and trying to get my stuff organized in the available living space – an ongoing project. I was able to contact two of the veteran teachers (not Ivy Leaguers) from previous years who were very helpful in giving advice from several years of teaching here and elsewhere in China. I did not get my class schedule until Friday since it had to be revised for only six teachers. Although my contract is for a maximum of 20 hours, I was given 26 class hours to teach, and I was dismayed to find that the school will not pay overtime as is stated in my contract About half of my classes will be post-graduate students, and the rest will be first and second and third year students. About half of the classes will be at the old campus near downtown (which is across the street from my apartment) and the other half will be at the new campus, which is about an hour away by shuttle bus. My schedule requires that I do the two hour round trip commute four days each week.

On Saturday I was able to swap two of the classes which I have never taught before (Advanced Writing and Western Media) with a veteran teacher for more oral English classes and reduce my class hours to 24 per week. I also met the three new teachers who really are from Princeton and Harvard – in China, one never knows. As often happens when I move to a new location I picked up a local flu bug that I spent the weekend recovering from. Today is Monday and I taught my first class. When I arrived at the classroom I found I had stupidly left my memory stick in my computer at my apartment, so I returned to get it during the class break between the two sessions and my bike lock jammed. Other than these two minor disasters, I felt the class went as well as could be expected. I hope I am learning from my mistakes, since I am making so many of them.

As always I count on your prayers and Divine Providence to see me through the various obstacles and barriers that pop up as regularly as a video game - or a pinball game if you remember those. I am constantly amazed at what God has brought me through and stressing out over the new ones that I am facing each day. This is by far the biggest city I have lived in and the greatest teaching challenge that I have faced, “and all I have to do is follow.”

May His goodness and mercy follow you,

Tim

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from Tim Robertson, robertsontim66@gmail.com

Aug 17, 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

In a month’s time I will be occupied with my new classes at Yuying Vocational Technical College in Hangzhou and too busy to write. Since I have the time now I will keep up with my schedule of writing this monthly newsletter to stay in touch with all of you. I am now in Sequim, WA and staying in Stan and Patti Chapple’s basement apartment. They have graciously allowed me to store the boxes of books, clothing and leftovers from my previous life here. I have been sorting through the stuff to find some useful items that I can take back with me and adding a few others that I brought with me from Michigan. I am thankful for the free storage since it would hardly be worth paying good money for storage of detritus pressed down by time.

I look forward to the challenges and changes that I will face in Hangzhou and try not to form too many expectations that are sure to be altered by reality. I know the culture will be much different since Zhejiang is considered to the wealthiest province in China due to its proximity to Shanghai which is the largest city in the world and is governed as a separate municipality (one of four in China) rather than being part of a province. Since Anhui province is the poorest province in China (by per capita income), and Fuyang, my former city of residence, was probably the poorest part of Anhui, I will no doubt be experiencing a certain level of culture shock. Hangzhou has a subway system, connections by fast train and an international airport, not to mention a much higher cost of living. Although my salary will remain largely the same, I will not be able to live on 25% of it, and save the rest as I was able to do in Fuyang.

For that reason among others, I am considering taking on the additional responsibility of training other English teachers for Echo English, the recruiting agency with which I have signed my contract. The Academic Director has just sent me a job description as part of a proposal to teach other foreign teachers that they have hired to work in various places in China. (Most foreign English teachers only stay one or two years, so they are usually lacking in experience and training.) They seem to think that I am qualified and I am reluctant to try and convince them otherwise, although I definitely feel that way. I have not yet received a contract for that job, so I am waiting for more details before I commit to another new role for myself. Since I have not yet received my class schedule from the college, I am not sure whether I will have the time to commute across town by subway to put in four or five hours at the Echo office each week. It is likely that I will be teaching both first and second year students at the college which will require additional lesson preparation time. Being the only foreign English teacher on campus may also bring other duties and expectations that I am not currently aware of.

After being away for so long (especially from Stanton) it is interesting for me to look for the changes that have happened during my time in China. But the biggest differences are changes that have happened to me. I find myself noticing things that would not have attracted my attention before and seeing details that seem strange to my altered state of perception. For example, I have been noticing cemeteries which do not exist in traditional Chinese culture. As I went cycling through the fields and villages near Fuyang, I would sometimes stop at random points to count the burial mounds that I could see without turning around – usually between 20 and 30. Sometimes there were groups of 10 or 20 clustered together with black stone markers that stood three to four feet tall with personal details and poetry carved on it, but usually the brown conical mounds are scattered somewhat randomly through the small family plots of ground that provide subsistence to most rural village dwellers. Only close relatives can be depended upon to maintain the grave sites of their ancestors and this strengthens the filial bonds that bind families together with the land.

Tomb Sweeping Day (aka Qing Ming Festival, often translated as Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestor’s Day), was reinstated in 2008 as a national holiday and is held in April each year. My first impression was that it was celebrated to remind families of their duties to perform rituals for their ancestors as required by the teachings of Confucius. But on further research I found that the date was originally designated in 732 AD by the Emperor in the Tang dynasty in order to limit the time and money spent on expensive and extravagant ceremonies honoring departed family members. Now the concern of the government is that so much of the scarce fertile land is taken up by burial mounds that there is not enough land left for food production. The burial mounds of dark soil are also an obstruction to mechanized farming so that many small farms must use manual labor to till, plant and harvest the wheat in May and the corn in September.

Since Anhui is largely an agricultural province, the provincial government has recently begun to enforce the law against burying bodies. As part of the ban, police have been raiding local carpentry shops to destroy the coffins that are on sale for traditional burials. News stories (*see below) tell of elderly people killing themselves in order to be buried before the deadline of June 1st this year and thus escape the penalty of breaking the law and the necessity of cremation. With the announcement of changes to the residential registration system, 13 million people each year are moving from the rural areas into booming cities to get jobs, better education and health care. Many are reluctant to move as it will mean giving up the security of growing their own food and abandoning the tombs of their ancestors.

The loss of family members recently has made me more sympathetic to their concerns. After the burial of my mother in the cemetery next to my father I spent some time wandering among the headstones and noticing the names on them. Although I left Stanton right after my high school graduation in 1976, I saw surprised at how many names I recognized and remembered those people who I used to know. I found the graves of many former teachers, neighbors, paper route customers and church members among the markers that date as far back as Civil War dead. This being the only large hill in town, we would often come to “cemetery hill” to go sledding in the winter. Now I notice a sign the prohibits that activity out of concern for the danger of hitting grave stones and trees on the steep slope. When I visited once more before leaving I was struck by the wild flowers blooming around the edges of the gravesite and felt God had planted and caused them to grow for both of them.

Since that time I have been noticing the small green cemeteries in each town with small white headstones and colorful flowers and thinking how they express the traditional beliefs of Christians. Although Americans are known for highly valuing individualism and private property, they share the community space set aside for honoring the dead, while Chinese, known for their values of community and family, honor their dead privately on land that they do not own and are abandoning in large numbers. Perhaps that reflects the expectation of Christians that they will rise together to eternal life at the second coming of Christ, while the majority of Chinese traditionally believe in the reincarnation of individuals after they die. as taught by Buddhism. The only color at a gravesite in China is usually the red paper left from exploded firecrackers and remains of burned incense, “spirit money” and fake ingots of gold and silver for the next life, after which they will die again.

I am looking forward to living in Hangzhou, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in China because of its natural scenery. Much of its reputation is due to the famous West Lake gardens which are pictured on the one-Yuan note and have been recreated in Japan and Korea. Another interesting feature is the Qiantang River which runs close to the Yuying College campus and is famous for having the highest tidal bore in the world which can be as high as 30 feet and travel up to 25 miles an hour inland from the East China Sea. The city is the capital of Zhejiang Province and is the fourth largest metropolitan area in China with a population of over 21 million people. I am looking forward to being able to cycling on top of the levy along the river as the tide changes and watching the “Silver Dragon” sweep up the river and into the harbor. Yes, they actually hold surfing competitions in the Qiantang River!

As you may have noticed, I am not one to take a lot of pictures, but I may have to change that and send along some to you in future newsletters. I have been looking at some of the pictures my mother gave me from the many photo albums that she kept of our large family. Many of them are of me as a young boy in the villages of the Ashaninka people where we lived on the headwaters of the upper tributaries of the Amazon River. There are some of the missionary boarding school in Tournavista, named after R. G. Letourneau who built the town and the school for MKs. Looking back, I can see many differences and similarities to what I am doing now. My father and mother went out as singles to the mission field where they got to know each other in a small Ashaninka village where they were both working. Dad was 32 when he married mom and they had 6 children, 5 of whom were born in Peru. As I go out alone to China, I feel a sense of following a pattern. I will live with the students on campus and enjoy the adventure of walking by faith.

I remember the old hymn sung at my mother’s funeral, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.” (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing)

Thank-you for remembering to pray for me as I seek to represent Christ.

Tim

P.S. *Article: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2639757/Elderly-Chinese-...

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Tim Robertson's posts about his time as an English teacher in Anhui at the Fuyang Teachers College are uploaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9114089397/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/8302698850/in/photostream, www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/14217075257/in/photostream; www.flickr.com/photos/ray_mahoney/9012874492/

The colourful second-hand U.S Bluebird school buses have been an integral part of the Panama public transport network for years but are becoming a rarer sight.

According to local media, with a new transport system being developed, the traditional Red Devils imported to Panama throughout the last 40 years are now disappearing and are only used for a few specific routes.

equipment: FSQ-106ED, Reducer QE 0.73x and EOS 5Dmk2-sp2 by Seo san at ISO 1,600 on EM-200 temma 2 Jr. without guiding

exposure: 10 times x 15 minutes, 5 x 4 min, and 6 x 1 minute

View On Black

www.usaraf.army.mil

U.S Army Medical Research Unit: Improving malaria diagnosis in Africa, one lab at a time

By Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Africa

OYUGIS, Kenya – Inside Rachuonyo district hospital, Simba Mobagi peers through his laboratory’s only microscope at a sick woman’s blood sample.

The 33-year-old laboratory technologist’s goal – rapidly identifying malaria parasites.

Dozens more samples await his eyes. Each represents a patient suffering outside on wooden benches.

Mogabi takes little time to ponder his workload. He quickly finds malaria parasites, marks his findings on a pink patient record and moves to the next slide. Much to his surprise, a U.S. Army officer arrives, removes his black beret and sets down a large box.

Inside Maj. Eric Wagar’s box is a new microscope – a small gesture within U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya’s larger efforts to improve malaria diagnostics in Africa.

For more than 40 years, USAMRU-K – known locally as the Walter Reed Project – has studied diseases in East Africa through a partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute.

Wagar heads USAMRU-K’s Malaria Diagnostics and Control Center of Excellence in Kisumu, a unique establishment begun in 2004 that’s since trained more than 650 laboratory specialist to better their malaria microscopy skills.

“Working with the Walter Reed Project is so good for the community, as it benefits the patient,” Mobagi said, who is looking forward to attending the center’s malaria diagnostics course. “Plus, having a new microscope improves our work environment. Work will be easier and we will have better outcomes.”

Back in Kisumu, wall maps mark the center’s success, with hundreds of trained lab technicians from more than a dozen countries across the African continent. International students have come from Ireland, the U.S. and Thailand.

Many students are sponsored through U.S. government aid programs aimed at reducing disease in Africa or by nongovernmental organizations. Most of the center’s $450,000 annual budget comes from the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative. Other funding is from the U.S. Defense Department, NGOs and pharmaceutical companies.

For students to practice malaria identification, five Kenyan lab technicians work tirelessly to create a variety of blood specimens. Slides may show one or more of malaria’s several species – others are free of parasites. The majority of malaria cases are the falciparum species, but many people are co-infected with other species and it’s important for students to recognize that, Wagar said.

“At our course, lab students learn skills and habits that increase their ability to accurately detect malaria on blood slides. Yet, when they return to their local laboratories, they face the challenge of changing habits and procedures,” Wagar said. “Changing behavior is hard to do.”

In late-April, Wagar accompanied Jew Ochola, 28, the center’s daily operations manager to Oyugis, the district center of Rachuonyo that lies roughly 30 miles south of Kisumu in Kenya’s Nyanza province.

“First I do an assessment of the hospital’s lab, what procedures they have, the number of people on staff and the equipment they use,” Ochola said. “By partnering with laboratory managers, we hope to increase standards and improve efficient and effective diagnosis.

The goal is to lessen the burden of malaria on the local people.”

To mark progress, lab staffs must collect 20 slides each month that show properly handled blood samples. Monthly visits will mark performance improvement.

Through quality malaria diagnosis, USAMRU-K is part of a larger public health effort to reduce malaria’s impacts on Kenyan’s lives. Illness means paying for treatment and less wages earned, creating an impact on the economy.

“By mitigating a public health burden, people should have more time to grow food and have money for things other than medical care,” Wagar said. “We can’t expect to see change right away, but hopefully things will be a little bit better every month.”

Working with the Djibouti-based Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa and other DoD agencies, the center recently offered microscopy courses through U.S. military partnership events in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. The effort supports U.S. Army Africa’s strategic engagement goal of increasing capabilities and strengthening capacity with the militaries of African nations, Wagar said.

“To date, that includes eight Kenyan military lab techs, 17 from the Tanzania People’s Defense Force and 30 Nigerians,” Wagar said.

Accurate diagnosis is also a key factor for military readiness, Wagar said. For example, a Kenyan soldier stationed in Nairobi – where malaria is less prevalent – is susceptible to the disease if posted elsewhere in the country.

“Improving malaria diagnosis within African military laboratories sets conditions for healthier troops,” Wagar said. “When forces are healthy, they are more capable to support their government and regional security.”

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

Trent signal box TT213 signal protecting Long Eaton Town and North Erewash level crossings with Long Eaton Town signal box beyond Long Eaton Town level crossing. Sunday 19th June 1988

Long Eaton Station signal box was located by the Down Main line alongside Station Street level crossing, and was a London Midland & Scottish Railway Company type 11c design fitted with a 35 lever Railway Executive Committee frame that opened in 1941 replacing a 1904-built signal box located on the opposite side of the line. The signal box was renamed Long Eaton Town circa 1967-68, and was reduced to a non block post controlling the adjacent level crossing only and renamed Long Eaton Town Crossing Shunting Frame on 20th October 1969 under stage 2B of the Trent power signal box resignalling scheme. The lever frame was reduced to 10 levers at some time and was left in situ after replacement in the 1980s by a British Railways London Midland Region individual function switch console. The signal box closed on 23rd October 1988 when the level crossing and North Erewash level crossing (which it had controlled by closed circuit television from 30th January 1977) became controlled from Trent signal box by closed circuit television

The signal box carries a British Rail corporate identity printed nameplate

Trent signal box TT213 signal was a four aspect searchlight signal on the Up Erewash line which was commissioned on 20th October 1969 under stage 2B of the Trent power signal box resignalling scheme, and replaced Long Eaton Town Crossing signal box 14 signal (up main starting) with Trent signal box TT222R signal (Up Erewash distant) below it. The signal was slotted by Long Eaton Town signal box

Ref no 08697

Tatsächlich, reduziert

The Death of Canadian Journalism - Sean Condon on the homegrown media

giant that's holding the nation hostage.

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Sean Condon's website: www.seancondon.com/index.html

The Death of Canadian Journalism

By SEAN CONDON

In a crowded bar in downtown Vancouver, a group of reporters from the city’s main daily newspaper, The Vancouver Sun, gather after work to do what most people revel in after a long week at the office: bitch about the boss. While images of the Iraq War, Wal-Mart and Kid Rock quickly flash and disappear on the television screens above them, editors are mocked, columnists are ridiculed and the paper their bylines appear in is panned up and down.

There’s nothing too radical about most of their complaints – it’s not secret to anyone in the city that the Sun is a dull suburban paper pretending to be a respectable urban broadsheet. With few exceptions, there’s little investigative journalism left within its pages, and most of what gets printed is so tepid and banal that it’s almost entirely useless to read.

It’s when the reporters start talking about what’s happening inside the newsroom that they reveal a deeper and more disturbing problem with the flagship newspaper in Canada’s third largest city: one that explains everything that is wrong with the increasing consolidation of the media around the world.

Overly anxious that they’re not caught exposing the paper’s dirty secret, reporters at the Sun say that morale has hit rock bottom and an alarming atmosphere of fear and paranoia has infected the newsroom. With a tone of anger and resentment, reporters tell stories about vindictive editors who spend more time attacking them over personal and petty grievances than they do worrying about the deteriorating quality of the paper. Anyone that dares question the authority of Editor-in-Chief Patricia Graham is bullied, isolated and forced out of the paper.

Reporters say the story inside the Sun is that inexperienced editors rise through the ranks because they toe the company line or are personal friends with senior editors and not because they produce good journalism or defend the public trust. There newly empowered editors are known for not letting reporters pitch their own ideas and for pushing press releases onto veteran journalists who grudgingly grind out copy before deadline, caring very little about what they write. Reporters who challenge this system are moved out of their department, questioned about their stories and eventually given an ultimatum by the editors: quit or we’ll make your life hell.

“The culture at The Vancouver Sun is incredibly poisonous and it extends right through the newsroom,” confides Charles Campbell, a former editorial board member at the paper, who says he was surprised at how much disdain senior management had towards the paper’s star reporters. “There are very few [reporters] who are particularly happy or proud of The Vancouver Sun as a newspaper.”

While the Sun has a long history of acrimonious newsrooms and lengthy labor disputes, it was also once a respected paper that boasted some of the top journalists in the country and consistently broke stories that changed the political landscape of the city and province. When the paper was part of the Southam chain, the newsroom had a bigger budget and more independence – reports were even allowed to criticize the paper in print. But once CanWest Global Communications got its hands on the Sun in 2000, it slashed funding, silenced writers and allowed an inexperienced, and strangely insecure, management to take control. The paper has never been as irrelevant or dysfunctional as it is today.

CanWest has such a stranglehold on the city that any reporter caught speaking out against them would have trouble finding work in Vancouver again. This toxic environment has created such a chill amongst reporters that getting them to talk about the turmoil is extremely difficult. One news staffer that initially agreed to be quoted as an anonymous source later backed out for fear of repercussion. A former reporter was so worried by the ruthless reach of the editors that they would only talk off-the-record. Most wouldn’t even take that risk.

“If [the Editor-in-Chief] found out I talked, I’d be finished,” said one reporter when declining an interview. “If there was another game in town it’d be different, but there’s nothing else in this city. There’s nowhere to go.”

CanWest’s dominance over Vancouver is extraordinary even in an era of unprecedented global media consolidation and convergence.

Led by CEO Leonard Asper and the powerful Asper family, the Winnipeg-based corporation now owns both of Vancouver’s daily newspapers (the Sun and the tabloid Province), the city’s top-rated television station (GlobalTV), 12 community newspapers, eight analog and digital television stations, and one of two national papers. For good measure, it also owns the only daily in the nearby provincial capital, Victoria’s Times Colonist. A throwback to the classic Company Town, CanWest has turned Vancouver into the single-most media concentrated city in the western world.

Cities thrive in diverse media markets. In Montreal, four different companies own the city’s four major dailies, each presenting four unique perspectives on issues that concern its citizens. The same is true in cities from Toronto and New York to London and Paris. But as a small number of corporations swallow up more media outlets every year, the conflicts within the Sun are being duplicated across the country. With the largest private newspaper publisher in Canada, Black Press, recently taking ownership of Osprey, one of the most diverse, just four corporations now control 70 percent of the country’s newspaper circulation.

Cities stagnate in consolidated media markets. CanWest has a total of 13 daily newspapers in Canada, where its only competitors are often vapid tabloid or commuter dailies. On the East Coast, the Irving family owns every English-language newspaper in the province of New Brunswick and a series of dailies and weeklies throughout the Maritimes. Without any real competition, these newspapers can manipulate their content to push a single point of view. In Canada, this had led to a one-sided debate on the country’s role in Afghanistan, where editorials back the country’s military intervention and pay little attention to the mounting civilian causalities and ongoing human rights violations. But nowhere is the freedom of the press in as much danger as Vancouver, where the CanWest monopoly controls an astonishing 70 percent of the entire media market and is the only voice of record for the city.

“The story of the Sun should be presented as a cautionary tale [to the rest of the world],” says Marc Edge, a former Vancouver journalist and author of Pacific Press: The Unauthorized Story of Vancouver’s Newspaper Monopoly. “If you want to see the future of media, just look at Vancouver where you have the tightest control of media in the free world. If you allow cross-media ownership like the [Federal Communications Commission in the United States] has been considering, this is how it could end up.”

Editorial Eclipse

The internal turmoil of the Sun is a stark contrast to the colorless content on its pages. While almost all corporate newspapers have an obvious pro-business slant, the Sun leaves little doubt about where its bias lies. Corporate press releases are disguised as news stories, puff pieces on right-wing politicians pose as investigative journalism and hatchet jobs on activists purport to be fair and balanced reporting. In 2002, the Sun spent $3 million to run a series of advertorial stories praising the virtues of British Columbian businesses called ‘Believe BC.’ The stories weren’t marked as advertising features as they should have been, but were either listed as a ‘Special Feature’ or left completely unmarked.

The timing of the Believe BC series was especially insulting since it came right after the newly elected right-wing provincial government had slashed social services for the poor by $2 billion while cutting taxes for the rich by $2 billion. But there has been little coverage in the paper since then of how the cuts caused Vancouver’s homeless population to double in just three years. Although Sun reporters aren’t given direct orders to write glowing reports about the provincial government, they say they are discouraged from writing claims made by government critics. There has also been a conscious decision from the paper’s management to ignore government protesters, even when their actions are top stories for national news agencies. More often than not, the Sun is not the voice of the community, but a mouthpiece for the provincial government – over the years CanWest has donated thousands of dollars to the current provincial government and the Sun employs the premier’s brother as a columnist.

However, most troubling of all is that the Sun refuses to be held to account to the many criticisms lobbied at them by media analysts and their own current and former employees. A request for an interview with the paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Patricia Graham, was denied because Adbusters is protecting the identity of the Sun reporters who have spoken out.

“The Vancouver Sun has a policy of avoiding the use of unnamed sources,” wrote Graham in an email. “We consider it a violation of journalistic ethics to permit people to criticize others while remaining anonymous. I do not care to participate in interviews with publications whose ethical standards I do not share.”

Aside from the fact that any Sun reporter named would immediately be fired, Graham overlooks the fact that most media outlets allow anonymous sources if the importance of their information outweighs the potential for public skepticism. But Adbusters couldn’t even get a copy of the Sun’s code of ethics to verify what the paper’s policy on using anonymous sources actually is. While other news agencies post their code of ethics online, a request to the Sun was denied on the grounds that it’s not available to the public. Like much of what is happening in the Sun, the paper seems to prefer keeping the public in the dark.

Black Hole

The Aspers bought the Sun and over 130 newspapers across the country from Conrad Black’s Hollinger Inc. at a time when major media corporations around the world were clamoring for convergence. But while CanWest had one of the largest television networks in the country, it had zero experience in newspapers. Like many newly formed media conglomerates at the time, it quickly lost millions of dollars trying to make its different media outlets work together. Just as newspaper circulation was plummeting across North America, the Aspers paid Black an inflated $3.5 billion for a product in an ailing industry that they had no idea how to run.

With their fledgling newspaper empire quickly crumbling and its newly adopted national daily The National Post hemorrhaging profits from the other dailies, the Aspers tried to stop the hemorrhaging with massive layoffs – leaving already thin newsrooms stretched beyond repair. Today, reports at CanWest papers have to write more stories in less time, which adds another level of pressure in already tense environments. Instead of investigative journalism, there has been an increase in one-source stories. Many reporters have been moved off of beats and turned into general assignment reporters, giving them less knowledge on the issues they cover and less access to sources that help them cultivate and uncover breaking news.

CanWest further exasperated the problem by carelessly spending $5 million launching its now-defunct, youth-oriented commuter daily, Dose, while saving $4.6 million this past June by abandoning its partnership with the national newswire, Canadian Press (CP). Reporters across the chain have been extremely distressed by this latest move, saying it will force shorthanded newsrooms to produce extra copy for which the CP co-operative could once be relied upon. Since newspapers are still the best, and often the only, mechanism that gives the public in-depth analysis on issues, all of these cuts have damaged the public’s ability to have the kind of qualified and informed debate required in a democracy.

“This whole corporatization of journalism is not healthy,” says Mike Gasher, director of journalism at Concordia University and a former Vancouver Province reporter. “I know journalism is a business, but I think it’s just a question of how you strike the balance between the quality of the product and the bottom line. My concern is that when you have these conglomerate ownerships, that not only own several newspapers, but radio, television, internet, then I think by definition the commitment to any one of those properties is decreased.”

CanWest did not return multiple requests for an interview. Adbusters Media Foundation is currently suing CanWest along with another national broadcaster for refusing to air its public awareness campaigns about mass consumerism on their stations, which was also one of the reasons that Graham gave for turning down an interview.

Burnout

The acrimony inside the Sun is excessive when compared to other newspapers, but there are high levels of dissatisfaction and depression in all of CanWest‘s dailies. Not long after CanWest bought Black’s chain, it sparked international uproar when it broke the journalistic autonomy and implemented a national editorial policy. In 2001, the Aspers dictated a series of editorials from Winnipeg and demanded its papers not run any editorial that held views opposed their “core positions” – which primarily focused on lowering taxes and supporting Israel in the Middle East. After journalists at Montreal’s The Gazette angrily withheld their bylines, the controversy forced CanWest to drop the policy. However, it sent an early message to its newsrooms that their independence had vanished.

“I can say to our critics and to the bleeding hearts of the journalist community that it’s the end of the world as they know it, and I feel fine,” callously said David Asper, the family’s publication chairman, about the Gazette’s protest.

But the national editorial policy was almost benign compared to the firing of Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills for running a feature about then Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s suspicious financial dealings and an editorial calling for his resignation. Asper patriarch Izzy Asper (now deceased) had close ties to Chretien and the country’s ruling Liberal party, and the firing sent a chill throughout the entire CanWest chain that still exists today. Although CanWest has since toned down its editorial interference (its most recent act was to replace all mention of Palestinian “militants” with “terrorists” in newswire copy), reporters at its papers say the damage has already been done.

“People do their jobs, they roll their eyeballs, and a lot of them at quitting time stop thinking about it,” says one staffer at The Gazette.

The primary complaint heard from CanWest reporters today is that the corporation’s drastic financial cuts have done the most to sink morale. In almost revolutionary development, editors and publishers at CanWest papers have also begun to openly criticize the Aspers to their reporters because of the budget cuts. The Aspers make a sharp contrast to the CanWest papers’ original owners, the Southam family, which turned its newspapers into some of the most competitive and respected in North America. Ironically, CanWest reporters even refer to the Conrad Black era as the “golden age.” Although Black cut back on reporters and was reviled as a tyrant with an overt political agenda, he also invested more in his newsrooms. Today, the computers in the Edmonton Journal newsroom are so old that staff can’t even access their own paper’s website.

“It’s depressing,” says Journal reporter, “and it makes you wonder about the future. There are all sorts of new pressures going on in today’s media, and most of us don’t have confidence that the Aspers have the business acumen to deal with these pressures in an effective way.”

Shine A Light

While CanWest’s control over Canada’s media sheds a disturbing light on the future of media consolidation, the concentration of ownership has in actuality been a major problem brewing in Canada for the past half-century. When The Vancouver Sun and The Province first merged their competing newspapers under a single management company called Pacific Press in 1957 because of economic problems, the federal government investigated the deal and found it would likely be “to the detriment of the public.” However, it backed away from taking any action.

When corporate chains came to control an alarming 77 percent of the country’s circulation, the 1970 Davey Committee stated that “all transactions that increase concentration of ownership in the mass media are undesirable and contrary to the public interest – unless otherwise shown,” and recommended the country form a press review board to rule on mergers. However, none of its recommendations were implemented.

When two major newspaper chains, Southam and Thompson, colluded to each shut down a competing newspaper in Ottawa and Winnipeg in 1980 and both of Vancouver’s daily newspapers were officially handed over to the Southams, the Royal Commission on Newspapers stated that “freedom of the press is not a property right of owners,” and recommended strict ownership limits. Again, no action was taken.

And when a Senate committee on media concentration released a report in 2006 stating, “the concentration of ownership has reached levels that few other countries would consider acceptable” and recommended that large mergers be publicly reviewed, it was outright dismissed by Heritage Minister Bev Oda who argued that “convergence has become an essential business strategy in order to stay competitive.”

Despite an endless amount of evidence provided by federal commissions and investigations showing how dangerous it is to a democracy when fewer companies control the media market – foreign bureaus are reduced, staff is cut back and quality diminished – no Canadian government has ever tried to put the brakes on consolidation. By ignoring the problem for the past 50 years, it has been allowed to grow into a full-blown crisis.

Today, reporters at CanWest simply go through the motions and many veteran journalists say their main goal is to try and get an early buyout from the corporation. Others say they personally tell journalism students to stay out of the business. Seeing the writing on the wall, many journalism students at colleges and universities from Vancouver to Ottawa say they have little interest entering an industry that they had such high hopes for only a few years earlier. Once considered a respected and noble profession that challenged authority and represented its community, CanWest’s consolidation has killed any sense of pride Canadian journalist once had in their job.

The most obvious example of consolidation run amok is Vancouver, where one corporation has such a tight control over the city that it gets away with bullying its reporters and slanting its news coverage without ever being challenged. The problems inside the Sun and CanWest papers will be repeated across the country if consolidation is allowed to continue unabated.

Because the priority of the paper’s corporate controller is on the bottom line instead of the public trust, a once-proud newspaper chain has turned into a skeleton of its former self. Reporters at CanWest papers who don’t conform the corporate perspective have few options or alternatives since CanWest owns the majority of media in most of their cities. Despite the restrictions, some reporters have managed to produce good journalism, but those that try to speak out have been harassed, silenced and sent packing. When journalists are denied resources and can’t truthfully disseminate information, the entire public is held hostage. It’s time to set them free.

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Soybeans grown by Norwood Farms owners and producers Don and son Grant Norwood who have been helped by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist Ron Harrison to implement their crop rotation and residue management practices to reduce erosion leading to improved land use and crop production; they also practice no-till farming on nearly every acre in the operation, in Henry County, TN, on Sept 19, 2019.

The stover of remaining corn stalk stubs, leaves, and cobs that are expelled and and left behind the corn harvester becomes a cover crop. The stover can be seen between soybean crop.

Crop dusters adapted with a seed spreader can seed directly into standing corn and standing soybeans. This gives the seeds a chance to get established before it freezes. In the spring, the cover crop will grow up through the corn stover.

Norwood Farms have successfully established the building blocks of conservation with conservation crop rotation on the entire Norwood operation. The crops are rotated between corn, wheat, soybeans and in some cases, corn cover crops and soybeans cover crops. The practices are implemented to reduced erosion sediment in surface water and are leading to improved land use and crop production.

Conservation Crop Rotation (Practice Code 328) is a management practices where growing a planned sequence of various crops takes place on the same piece of land for a variety of conservation purposes. Crops included in conservation crop rotation include high-residue producing crops such as corn or wheat in rotation with low-residue- producing crops such as soybeans. Crop rotations vary with soil type, crops produced, farming operations, and how the crop residue is managed. The most effective crops for soil improvement is fibrous-rooted high-residue producing crops such as grass and small grain.

Residue and Tillage Management (Practice Code 329) is managing the amount, orientation and distribution of crop and other plant residue on the soil surface throughout the year. For our area, we are utilizing reduced tillage and no-till. Residue and Tillage Management should be used on all cropland fields, especially where excess sheet and rill erosion are a problem. Residue and tillage management is most effective when used with other conservation practices like grassed waterways, contouring, field borders, etc.

NRCS has a proud history of supporting America's farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners. For more than 80 years, we have helped people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat. As the USDA's primary private lands conservation agency, we generate, manage, and share the data, technology, and standards that enable partners and policymakers to make decisions informed by objective, reliable science. And through one-on-one, personalized advice, we work voluntarily with producers and communities to find the best solutions to meet their unique conservation and business goals. By doing so, we help ensure the health of our natural resources and the long-term sustainability of American agriculture.

Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department's focal point for the nationâs farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs, and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.

The agencies and services supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), NRCS, and Risk Management Agency (RMA).

For more information please see www.usda.gov

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

Chhattisgarh is a very young state, only 19 years old, and is currently on a growing trajectory. Its education system is catching up with the other states. The lack of proper educational infrastructure is definitely a problem but the government has joined hands with private players in the state and together they are uplifting higher education in the state. Among these private players is one of the Best University in Chhattisgarh, Dr CV Raman University, Bilaspur.

The 21st century is rightly named as the digital era and the internet has clearly taken over every aspect of our life, including education. Technology is the biggest driver of the education sector of any country and this college has definitely leveraged the use of the internet. From providing full-fledged computer labs to fully functional digitized libraries, the college has taken care of everything.

Technological evolutions like AI, ML, Data Science have had a resounding impact on the education sector and this college has included all these topics in their management courses Chhattisgarh. They are making sure that the state is at par with the changing scenario of the world around. Their curriculum also focuses on technology, innovation, general skills and business management which other colleges generally overlook.

According to the world economic forum, by 2025, demand for critical thinking and computer skills would increase by 20% which in turn would create 2.1 million jobs by 2020 in all related domains. Incorporation of digitized courses by the university helps its students learn critical thinking, innovation, problem solving and collaboration.

Exams from pen and paper have now moved to online portals, powerpoint presentations have taken the place of projects and the computer is taking over everything. This college has signed up for many online portals such as LMS, MOOC, KConnect and many more. Students directly get quizzes to solve, submit projects, divide into groups through online platforms are now getting the gist of technology.

CV Raman University is emerging as the Top Private College in Chhattisgarh and it is making sure that its students walk that path with them. They have clearly understood the outcomes of digitized education and have taken up the challenge to ensure that everyone gets to reap the benefits of it. The students of this college are involved in a more research-oriented and thought based learning process. The business world is rapidly moving towards newer technologies like IOT and Block Chain and the college organizes regular guest lectures from experts in the industry to keep the students up-to-date with the latest trends. The students, while graduating, are industry ready and take upon new challenges.

With the pace technology is moving at, the future of jobs will be defined by speed, scale and digitization. In order to embrace this change, India needs to skill their youth to ensure that we excel in it. This will help us raise the living standards of people in our country. All these transformational changes are bound to take higher education of the country to another level.

To Know More: cvru.ac.in/

Jose Rojas, North American Division Volunteer Ministries director, presents Check Him Out at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene, Ore.

GB Railfreight Class 92, 92043 does its best to make up some time as it works the Caledonian Sleeper Up Highlander through Hartford.

The service was running around an hour late (and was similarly delayed on arrival at Euston) due to issues with the Mk5s during the shunt at Edinburgh.

This was also the first night of the reduced service in response to the second national lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the latest revision to the timetable, only one train ran in each direction, serving Edinburgh and Inverness. The usual services to Glasgow, Aberdeen and Fort William were cancelled.

In an attempt to get some fall colour shots in spite of dreadfully dull weather conditions, verging on rain but holding off (for the most part) for a few hours while I waited to transport some people home from a meeting in Caledonia, Ontario, I explored Caithness Street East. Here area located a number of fine old buildings that typify the architecture of Southern Ontario in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This particular building had the yellow brick accents typical of Scottish style buildings of the day, as well as the ornate gingerbread trim. On top of that it is pretty hard to resist the spectacular red and yellow fall colour display on the property. - JW

Date Taken: 2014-10-15

Tech Details:

Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D7100 fitted with a Nikkor 12-24mm Lense set to 18mm, ISO100, Aperture priority mode, f/7.1, exposure bias of EV+2.0 on a base exposure of 1/15 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee: increase exposure very slightly, slightly increase contrast, boost black, increase contrast and vibrance slightly, apply noise reduction, sharpen. PP in free Open Source GIMP: apply perspective correction to remove keystoning arising from use of a tilted wide angle lense, adjust colour balance slightly to remove slight magenta cast, remove some chromatic aberration traces in the lower right, use the healing tool and soft brush shape to remove steel post that projected into the frame near the right bottom of the frame, slightly reduce green channel only saturation to tone down the grass, sharpen, add fine black and white frame, add bar and text on left, scale to 1800 wide for posting.

BILL RUSSELL ...ONE OF THE GREATEST DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE NBA

Boston Celtics center Bill Russell (born 1934) earned a place in the National Basketball Association's Hall of Fame as the greatest defensive player in the history of the league and one of the greatest players of all time.

Bill Russell was an unlikely superstar. Lanky and shy, he came into the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a center for the Boston Celtics and remained with that team for the duration of his playing career. At six-feet-ten-inches tall he was larger than most had ever seen. He was talented, not in scoring points like other basketball stars, but in stopping his opponents cold in their tracks.

At the bidding of his coach Russell avoided shooting the basketball altogether, yet his affinity for teamwork and his ability to relay the ball to the point-makers on his team successfully earned for the Celtics 11 NBA championships. The glory of Russell's talent was, at times, marred by the intolerant social climate of his day. He was among only a few black players in the NBA during the "Russell Era," but he focused his efforts on elevating the dignity of humankind and donated his time and effort to right the wrongs of a racially biased culture.

William Felton Russell, the youngest son of Charles and Katie (King) Russell, was born in Monroe, Louisiana on February 2, 1934. His paternal grandfather, Jake Russell, was a first-generation free man, a woodsman and champion logroller, affectionately known as the "Old Man" by his offspring and heirs. As a youngster Bill Russell bonded closely with the Old Man.

Charles Russell moved the family to Oakland, California when Bill was eleven years old. Russell's parents worked at a military shipyard, and Jake Russell established his own trucking company. The Russells shared a house in north Oakland with eight families. When conditions improved the family moved to west Oakland, where Bill Russell enrolled at Cole Elementary School.

Russell held his mother in great regard, and it was a blow to him when she became ill and died in 1946. He and his brother accompanied their father on a train to Louisiana to bury Katie Russell. When they returned to Oakland, Bill became introverted and withdrew into books and reading.

At Hoover Junior High School, Russell was far from impressive as an athlete. He played basketball at McClymonds High School but was never a star; so rare were his appearances on the court that he shared a jersey with another player. Hesitant and unobtrusive, he suffered from low self-esteem in spite of his ever-towering size. His bent for basketball blossomed slowly because he lacked the skills to be a great ball handler; he worked instead to develop his talent as a defender.

In 1952, Bill accelerated his high school curriculum and graduated, ahead of his class, in order to tour with an exhibition basketball team throughout the Pacific Northwest.

During the exhibition tour, a representative from the University of San Francisco (USF) named Hal DeJulio observed Russell and set out to recruit the unusually tall young man. Russell, in turn, welcomed the opportunity for a college scholarship. At DeJulio's suggestion, Russell took the college entrance exam and applied to USF.

To bide his time during the collage application process, Bill took a job as an apprentice sheet-metal worker at the Naval yard in San Francisco. He continued to play basketball in his spare time and improved his skills and grew continually, for years, even after his peers leveled off. He was six feet five inches tall when he finished high school, and grew five inches more before reaching his full adult height.

With DeJulio as a mentor, Russell secured a full scholarship to USF and supplemented the award with a student job for additional income. Bill, by then was very tall and adept at jumping— his leaping reach extended four feet higher than the rim of the basket (14 feet above the ground), and the air-born accomplishment was exhilarating.

Russell played freshman ball and joined the USF Dons' varsity team as a sophomore in 1953. In his junior year (1954-55) the Dons won the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) championship. Russell received the title of Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament. He averaged 21.4 points per game for the season with 21.5 rebounds per game.

During the summer of 1955, Bill traveled on a goodwill tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. In conjunction with his participation in a national program to promote physical fitness, he also attended a White House luncheon with the President of the United States.

Russell returned to USF for his senior year in the fall of 1955. He added track and field to his extracurricular schedule and made an impressive showing. After years of perfecting his leaps and bounds, he very nearly broke a world record in the high jump with a score of six feet nine and one-quarter inches.

In 1955, The Dons won the national championship again that year, and Russell was named as an All-American center, to play in the East-West college all-star game at Madison Square Gardens. That year the NCAA widened the foul (free-throw) lane from 6 to 12 feet, because of the ease with which Russell could dominate the court.

Among the most eventful years of Russell's life, 1956 was a year to remember. During the course of that year, he earned a bachelor of arts degree, joined the elite society of Olympic gold medallists, married his girlfriend, and signed a contract with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Early in 1956, Russell reduced his academic load, in anticipation of the upcoming summer Olympics. He later refused an offer from Abe Saperstein, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, to play professionally with the team. Russell feared it would jeopardize his eligibility for the U.S. Olympic basketball team. To Russell's gratification he was given a spot on the Olympic team and won a gold medal at the games in Melbourne, Australia.

During the 1956 NBA draft, Russell, a second round pick, went to the Boston Celtics under unusual circumstances. As a highly ranked team, the Celtics could not pick early in the draft. Head coach, Red Auerbach, nonetheless wanted Russell to play with his team. Auerbach sacrificed two of his best players in return for an early draft option. Russell was drafted and remained with the Celtics from 1957 until his retirement in 1969.

As 1956 drew to a close, Russell completed his studies and received his college degree. He married the former Rose Swisher in 1956, three days after his return from the Melbourne Olympics.

During his dynamic career, Russell left his mark a the greatest defensive player in the history of the NBA. He was a true team player; a highly effective re-bounder and a leviathan jumper.

Prior to Russell, it was unheard of in the NBA for a player to position himself strictly for the purpose of blocking opposing scorers and without concern for sinking baskets.

Russell in fact was a mediocre ball handler, and Auerbach instructed him to avoid shooting or carrying the ball. Yet the years that coincided with Russell's playing career bear the nickname the "Bill Russell Era."

Critics maintained that Russell's presence on the team was a key factor in 11 NBA championships won by the Celtics from 1957 through 1969.

Russell started with the Boston Celtics at a salary of $19,500; he wore jersey number 6. Celtics center Arnie Risen, whom Russell replaced, graciously assisted the rookie in mastering the finesse of professional basketball.

In 1957-59 Russell played in the NBA all-star game. His team won the NBA championship in 1957, 1959-66, and again in 1968 and 1969. Prior to Russell's rookie season the Celtics had never won a championship. Thereafter they lost only two championships during his entire 13-season career.

When Auerbach retired, he selected Bill to replace him as coach; he was the first African American to coach a NBA team. He continued as a player and coach, until 1969 when he retired with 11 NBA championships to his credit as a player, including two as a coach.

Russell served as general manager and coach for the Seattle Super Sonics between 1973 and 1977. During the 1970s and 1980s he worked as a broadcast analyst for several television networks. He coached the Sacramento Kings in 1987-88 and continued as president of basketball operations for the Kings through 1989.

Russell retired from the Celtics in 1969, having led the league in time played (40,726 minutes). He also led in career rebounds, with a total of 21,721. He received five Most Valuable Player awards: in 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1965.

The NBA revised some rules in reaction to Russell's great prowess, including a limitation on in-the-air assists. Years later, as celebrations were underway to mark the end of the second millennium in 1999, cable sports network ESPN duly named Russell among the top 50 athletes of the previous 100 years in a retrospective of 20th century sports.

Fans and colleagues failed to understand Russell's reluctance to be inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 1974. He was the first African American in history to be so honored, and an entire community hoped to share his pride in the moment. His hesitation might have stemmed from an incident that occurred in 1971 when the city of Boston held a public celebration in Russell's honor. During the festivities, thugs—apparently motivated by racism— rampaged and violated Russell's residence. After thoughtful consideration, Russell attended the Hall of Fame ceremony and accepted the compliment.

Bill Russell left his mark in sports history as an innovator and a great man. He refused to sign autographs, yet he never avoided his fans. Instead he mingled with them, talked to them, and shook their hands—to Russell those gestures were more personal than signing a piece of paper. He wrote an autobiography, Go Up for Glory, and recorded a memoir for Random House, Second Wind, with Taylor Branch in 1979.

Russell was among a small group of professional athletes who took a public stand during the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington and set up an integrated sports training camp in the southern United States. The NAACP cited other contributions by Russell that improved the quality of life for underprivileged students of the Boston public schools.

Additionally, Russell invested in a program to purchase rubber plantations in the African nation of Liberia, in an effort to create jobs and spur the economy of that nation.

Russell and his first wife had three children: William Jr., Karen Kenyatta, and Jacob. The couple separated in 1969 and divorced in 1973. He was briefly married to the former Miss USA, Didi Anstett. During his years with the Boston Celtics Russell lived in Reading, Massachusetts. After retirement, he maintained a residence on Mercer Island, Lake Washington, near Seattle.

The town was laid out in 1860 by the government to provide a settlement for the Wallaroo mines of Walter Watson Hughes. Blocks were auctioned in 1861. The town took its name from the corruption of a local Aboriginal word meaning “lizard plain” Kaddyinna. By 1863 the town had a court house, police station, Post Office and telegraph station. At that time it took three or four days to travel to Adelaide but this was reduced to 12 hours when the road was completed in 1865. Near to the mines Cornish village settlements sprang up, often on leased Crown land until 1871 when the area was surveyed and the freehold sold to settlers. These villages included Matta Flat, Jerusalem, Jericho and Wallaroo Mines. Most of the buildings in these villages have now disappeared since the closure of the mine in 1923. Stone from some of the mine structures was used to build the Catholic Church in Kadina which opened in 1936. It is an especially fine building with limestone. The well laid out township of Kadina was destined to become the major commercial centre for the Copper Triangle once the railway from Adelaide arrived there in 1878.

Truscott House 1922. This amazing structure was built for the AMP Society in 1922 just before the mines closed. It is an example of a stripped classical building in dull cement render. It is similar in design to Old Parliament House in Canberra. It has remnants of classical columns across the front. Note the amazing sized front doors under the colonnade or veranda. Check out the carved wooden heads and scroll work in the doors- a typical feature of stripped classical buildings. It is probably the only example of this style of architecture in country SA. Goldsborough Mort eventually took over Truscott House and you might be able to discern their name on the side wall. Mr Truscott operated a grocery store on this site before the AMP built here. It has had many uses in the last 30 years.

Breast Reduction surgery or Reduction mammaplasty is a reduction of the breast tissue to make the breasts smaller and lighter. This commonly requested procedure helps in getting more proportionate breasts to one’s frame.

It alleviates the immense physical (Back pain, neck pain, bad posture, fungal infection in the lower breast fold) and social discomfort that a woman may be feeling due to the large breasts. It corrects the asymmetry in the nipple-areola area and also in the breast sizes.

The procedures of breast reduction are varied:

Liposuction: Although liposuction is performed in almost all breast reduction, it is used as an adjunctive procedure rather than the mainstay of treatment. It is usually used to reduce the fat component of the breasts and the sides. Alone liposuction will only benefit females where they have a substantial fat component in the breasts. This usually happens with post-menopausal women.

To know more visit: www.drshilpibhadani.com/body-...

To Book an Appointment: www.drshilpibhadani.com/book-...

Important facts explained by Dr. Shilpi Bhadani in the video:

1- When should one consider breast reduction? 0:17

2- Heavy breasts cause discomfort such as 0:28

3- About the breast reduction procedure 0:47

4- Tyes of scar left after breast reduction 1:20

ESILALEI, TANZANIA - FEBRUARY 2, 2014: Through the creation of solar powered micro-grids, Maasai of the Moduli district in northern Tanzania are receiving power in their mud huts inside their bomas (corralled community). The solar power is providing life-saving water purification, a shared refrigerator for food and medicines, a computer for the community, and lights for the cow and goat corrals to frighten away the hyenas. The International Collaborative for Science, Education and the Environment (ICSEE) also manufactures and distributes a chimney stove for Maasai homes designed collaboratively with Maasai women and installed by teams of women from each participating village to reduce the intake of smoke and carbon dioxide when cooking over traditional fires inside the home. Photo by Morgana Wingard

For the story of a Tanzanian tribal village transformed by power visit USAID’s storytelling hub: go.usa.gov/3fpUB

Aerial view of the 290-meter L-shaped quay and onshore facilities built under the ADF funded Domestic Maritime Transport Project significantly increased efficiency and reduced congestion at Malé’s domestic harbor (Malé North Harbor), the main hub for the distribution of good in the Maldive’s.

Read more on:

Maldives

Transport

Domestic Maritime Transport Project

Very wide angle coverage, obviously. Too wide for most uses.

The flashhead was powered by a 4,000 w/s Norman 40/40 powerpack, turned down to minimum power.

Camera was set to ISO50 at f/22

The tour that I went on today was lead by Pat Liddy (who I highly recommend) and sponsored by Dublin City Council (thanks). Toured part of the Liberties and despite the fact that I live not far from the area and despite that I went to Kevin Street College I saw parts of the the city that I never saw before. I will revisit most of the area when the weather is better and I will of course publish some more photographs.

Pat Liddy is a well-known Dublin historian, author and artist who has developed a unique walking tour service for Dublin. Covering the inner city and, by advance request, the coastal villages, waterways, hills and intriguing suburbs, the tours are compiled by Pat Liddy himself based on his years of experience, historical research and the collection of anecdotal and legendary stories of Ireland's Capital City

The Liberties of Dublin, Ireland were manorial jurisdictions that existed since the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. They were town lands united to the city, but still preserving their own jurisdiction. The most important of these liberties were the Liberty of St. Sepulchre, under the Archbishop of Dublin, and the Liberty of Thomas Court and Donore belonging to the Abbey of St. Thomas (later called the Earl of Meath's Liberty). Today's "Dublin Liberties" generally refer to the inner-city area covered by these two liberties.

Many places in The Liberties still have connections with a turbulent past in which political upheaval or dire poverty were the order of the day. In the 17th century, parts of them became wealthy districts, when the weaving crafts of the immigrant Huguenots had a ready market around the present day Meath Street Market, and a healthy export trade.

In the late 17th century development started in order to house the weavers who were moving into the area. Woolen manufacture was set up by settlers from England, while many Huguenots took up silk weaving, using skills they had acquired in their home country, France. They constructed their own traditional style of house, Dutch Billies, with gables that faced the street. Thousands of weavers became employed in the Coombe, Pimlico, Spitalfields and Weavers' Square.

However, English woolen manufacturers felt threatened by the Irish industry, and heavy duties were imposed on Irish wool exports. The Navigation Act was passed to prevent the Irish from exporting to the whole colonial market, then in 1699 the English government passed the Wool Act which prevented export to any country whatsoever, which effectively put an end to the industry in the Liberties.

A weavers' hall was built by the Weavers' Guild in the Lower Coombe in 1682. In 1745 a new hall was provided, financed by the Huguenot, David Digges La Touche. In 1750 the Guild erected a statue of George II on the front of their hall "as a mark of their sincere loyalty". The hall was demolished in 1965.

In the eighteenth century a revival took place by importing Spanish wool into Ireland, which was helped from 1775 by the Royal Dublin Society, but the events of 1798 and 1803, in which many weavers in the Liberties took part, and the economic decline that set in after the Act of Union, prevented any further growth in this industry in the Liberties.

Similarly, the successful growth of the silk and poplin industries, which was supported by the Royal Dublin Society in the second half of the 18th century, was hindered by an act passed by the Irish government in 1786, which prevented the society from supporting any house where Irish silk goods were sold. When war was declared against France under Napoleon and raw materials were difficult to obtain, the silk weavers suffered greatly.

The final blow came in the 1820s when the British government did away with the tarifs imposed upon imported silk products. From this time on fate of the Liberties was sealed and most of the once-prosperous houses became poverty-stricken tenements housing the unemployed and destitute.

The Tenter House was erected in 1815 in Cork Street, financed by Thomas Pleasants. Before this the poor weavers of the Liberties had either to suspend work in rainy weather or use the alehouse fire and thus were (as Wright expresses it) "exposed to great distress, and not unfrequently reduced either to the hospital or the gaol." The Tenter House was a brick building 275 feet long, 3 stories high, and with a central cupola. It had a form of central heating powered by four furnaces, and provided a place for weavers to stretch their material in bad weather.

Part of the area was redeveloped into affordable housing and parkland by the Iveagh Trust, the Dublin Artisans Dwellings Company and the City Council in the early to mid twentieth century. The appalling slums, dire poverty and hazardous dereliction have now been wiped away, and only a few scattered pockets remain to be demolished.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) District Conservationist for Arkansas Derrek Nokes, and State Grazing Lands Specialists such as Jeremy Huff assisted Kenny and Annette Sites with a conservation plan that includes prescribed grazing (528); and the forage and biomass planting (524) of the pastures, in Sheridan, AR, on June 27, 2019.

A companion video can be seen at youtu.be/JOiyO31rOis

Prescribed Grazing manages the harvest of vegetation by grazing and/or browsing animals.

This improves or maintains desired species composition and vigor of plant communities. Improves or maintains quantity and quality of forage for grazing and browsing animals’ health and productivity. Improves or maintains surface and/or subsurface water quality and quantity. Improve or maintain riparian and watershed function. Reduce accelerated soil erosion and maintain or improve soil condition. Improve or maintain the quantity and quality of food and/or cover available for wildlife. Manage fine fuel loads to achieve desired conditions.

Forage and Biomass Planting establishes adapted and/or compatible species, varieties, or cultivars of herbaceous species suitable for pasture, hay, or biomass production.

These pastures improve or maintain livestock nutrition and/or health. Provide or increase forage supply during periods of low forage production. Reduce soil erosion. Improve soil and water quality. Produce feedstock for biofuel or energy production

NRCS has a proud history of supporting America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners. For more than 80 years, we have helped people make investments in their operations and local communities to keep working lands working, boost rural economies, increase the competitiveness of American agriculture, and improve the quality of our air, water, soil, and habitat.

As the USDA’s primary private lands conservation agency, we generate, manage, and share the data, technology, and standards that enable partners and policymakers to make decisions informed by objective, reliable science.

And through one-on-one, personalized advice, we work voluntarily with producers and communities to find the best solutions to meet their unique conservation and business goals. By doing so, we help ensure the health of our natural resources and the long-term sustainability of American agriculture.

Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) is the Department’s focal point for the nation’s farmers and ranchers and other stewards of private agricultural lands and non-industrial private forest lands. FPAC agencies implement programs designed to mitigate the significant risks of farming through crop insurance services, conservation programs and technical assistance, and commodity, lending, and disaster programs.

The agencies and service supporting FPAC are Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Risk Management Agency (RMA).

For more information please see www.usda.gov.

Prescribed Grazing, Practice Code 528, nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/programs/?cid=nrcs144p2_027164

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

Manufactured Landscapes

An interesting set of photographers with similar grand styles and a somewhat common theme. I managed to find the subjects I wanted for the assignment but did not have any opportunity for higher vantage points. Instead I opted for a closer view that spanned the entire frame in an effort to follow a few of the examples by Burtynsky. I also integrated the order and repeating pattern of Gursky. So in essence I blended their styles to get my product.

I also used this assignment to show my young daughters what grand things humans can make and what the cost is beyond money. Perhaps a bit like showing someone how a yummy sausage is made.

View on black

Madison, GA

Former Anchor Hocking building in Clarksburg, WV. See the attached photo of what it used to look like.

The Albertina

The architectural history of the Palais

(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Image: The oldest photographic view of the newly designed Palais Archduke Albrecht, 1869

"It is my will that ​​the expansion of the inner city of Vienna with regard to a suitable connection of the same with the suburbs as soon as possible is tackled and at this on Regulirung (regulation) and beautifying of my Residence and Imperial Capital is taken into account. To this end I grant the withdrawal of the ramparts and fortifications of the inner city and the trenches around the same".

This decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I, published on 25 December 1857 in the Wiener Zeitung, formed the basis for the largest the surface concerning and architecturally most significant transformation of the Viennese cityscape. Involving several renowned domestic and foreign architects a "master plan" took form, which included the construction of a boulevard instead of the ramparts between the inner city and its radially upstream suburbs. In the 50-years during implementation phase, an impressive architectural ensemble developed, consisting of imperial and private representational buildings, public administration and cultural buildings, churches and barracks, marking the era under the term "ring-street style". Already in the first year tithe decided a senior member of the Austrian imperial family to decorate the facades of his palace according to the new design principles, and thus certified the aristocratic claim that this also "historicism" said style on the part of the imperial house was attributed.

Image: The Old Albertina after 1920

It was the palace of Archduke Albrecht (1817-1895), the Senior of the Habsburg Family Council, who as Field Marshal held the overall command over the Austro-Hungarian army. The building was incorporated into the imperial residence of the Hofburg complex, forming the south-west corner and extending eleven meters above street level on the so-called Augustinerbastei.

The close proximity of the palace to the imperial residence corresponded not only with Emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Albert with a close familial relationship between the owner of the palace and the monarch. Even the former inhabitants were always in close relationship to the imperial family, whether by birth or marriage. An exception here again proves the rule: Don Emanuel Teles da Silva Conde Tarouca (1696-1771), for which Maria Theresa in 1744 the palace had built, was just a close friend and advisor of the monarch. Silva Tarouca underpins the rule with a second exception, because he belonged to the administrative services as Generalhofbaudirektor (general court architect) and President of the Austrian-Dutch administration, while all other him subsequent owners were highest ranking military.

In the annals of Austrian history, especially those of military history, they either went into as commander of the Imperial Army, or the Austrian, later kk Army. In chronological order, this applies to Duke Carl Alexander of Lorraine, the brother-of-law of Maria Theresa, as Imperial Marshal, her son-in-law Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, also field marshal, whos adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, the last imperial field marshal and only Generalissimo of Austria, his son Archduke Albrecht of Austria as Feldmarschalil and army Supreme commander, and most recently his nephew Archduke Friedrich of Austria, who held as field marshal from 1914 to 1916 the command of the Austro-Hungarian troops. Despite their military profession, all five generals conceived themselves as patrons of the arts and promoted large sums of money to build large collections, the construction of magnificent buildings and cultural life. Charles Alexander of Lorraine promoted as governor of the Austrian Netherlands from 1741 to 1780 the Academy of Fine Arts, the Théâtre de Ja Monnaie and the companies Bourgeois Concert and Concert Noble, he founded the Academie royale et imperial des Sciences et des Lettres, opened the Bibliotheque Royal for the population and supported artistic talents with high scholarships. World fame got his porcelain collection, which however had to be sold by Emperor Joseph II to pay off his debts. Duke Albert began in 1776 according to the concept of conte Durazzo to set up an encyclopedic collection of prints, which forms the core of the world-famous "Albertina" today.

Image : Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine show in family cercle the from Italy brought along art, 1776. Frederick Henry Füger.

1816 declared to Fideikommiss and thus in future indivisible, inalienable and inseparable, the collection 1822 passed into the possession of Archduke Carl, who, like his descendants, it broadened. Under him, the collection was introduced together with the sumptuously equipped palace on the Augustinerbastei in the so-called "Carl Ludwig'schen fideicommissum in 1826, by which the building and the in it kept collection fused into an indissoluble unity. At this time had from the Palais Tarouca by structural expansion or acquisition a veritable Residenz palace evolved. Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen was first in 1800 the third floor of the adjacent Augustinian convent wing adapted to house his collection and he had after 1802 by his Belgian architect Louis de Montoyer at the suburban side built a magnificent extension, called the wing of staterooms, it was equipped in the style of Louis XVI. Only two decades later, Archduke Carl the entire palace newly set up. According to scetches of the architect Joseph Kornhäusel the 1822-1825 retreaded premises presented themselves in the Empire style. The interior of the palace testified from now in an impressive way the high rank and the prominent position of its owner. Under Archduke Albrecht the outer appearance also should meet the requirements. He had the facade of the palace in the style of historicism orchestrated and added to the Palais front against the suburbs an offshore covered access. Inside, he limited himself, apart from the redesign of the Rococo room in the manner of the second Blondel style, to the retention of the paternal stock. Archduke Friedrich's plans for an expansion of the palace were omitted, however, because of the outbreak of the First World War so that his contribution to the state rooms, especially, consists in the layout of the Spanish apartment, which he in 1895 for his sister, the Queen of Spain Maria Christina, had set up as a permanent residence.

Picture: The "audience room" after the restoration: Picture: The "balcony room" around 1990

The era of stately representation with handing down their cultural values ​​found its most obvious visualization inside the palace through the design and features of the staterooms. On one hand, by the use of the finest materials and the purchase of masterfully manufactured pieces of equipment, such as on the other hand by the permanent reuse of older equipment parts. This period lasted until 1919, when Archduke Friedrich was expropriated by the newly founded Republic of Austria. With the republicanization of the collection and the building first of all finished the tradition that the owner's name was synonymous with the building name:

After Palais Tarouca or tarokkisches house it was called Lorraine House, afterwards Duke Albert Palais and Palais Archduke Carl. Due to the new construction of an adjacently located administration building it received in 1865 the prefix "Upper" and was referred to as Upper Palais Archduke Albrecht and Upper Palais Archduke Frederick. For the state a special reference to the Habsburg past was certainly politically no longer opportune, which is why was decided to name the building according to the in it kept collection "Albertina".

Picture: The "Wedgwood Cabinet" after the restoration: Picture: the "Wedgwood Cabinet" in the Palais Archduke Friedrich, 1905

This name derives from the term "La Collection Albertina" which had been used by the gallery Inspector Maurice von Thausing in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts for the former graphics collection of Duke Albert. For this reason, it was the first time since the foundation of the palace that the name of the collection had become synonymous with the room shell. Room shell, hence, because the Republic of Austria Archduke Friedrich had allowed to take along all the movable goods from the palace in his Hungarian exile: crystal chandeliers, curtains and carpets as well as sculptures, vases and clocks. Particularly stressed should be the exquisite furniture, which stems of three facilities phases: the Louis XVI furnitures of Duke Albert, which had been manufactured on the basis of fraternal relations between his wife Archduchess Marie Christine and the French Queen Marie Antoinette after 1780 in the French Hofmanufakturen, also the on behalf of Archduke Charles 1822-1825 in the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory by Joseph Danhauser produced Empire furnitures and thirdly additions of the same style of Archduke Friedrich, which this about 1900 at Portois & Ffix as well as at Friedrich Otto Schmidt had commissioned.

The "swept clean" building got due to the strained financial situation after the First World War initially only a makeshift facility. However, since until 1999 no revision of the emergency equipment took place, but differently designed, primarily the utilitarianism committed office furnitures complementarily had been added, the equipment of the former state rooms presented itself at the end of the 20th century as an inhomogeneous administrative mingle-mangle of insignificant parts, where, however, dwelt a certain quaint charm. From the magnificent state rooms had evolved depots, storage rooms, a library, a study hall and several officed.

Image: The Albertina Graphic Arts Collection and the Philipphof after the American bombing of 12 März 1945.

Image: The palace after the demolition of the entrance facade, 1948-52

Worse it hit the outer appearance of the palace, because in times of continued anti-Habsburg sentiment after the Second World War and inspired by an intolerant destruction will, it came by pickaxe to a ministerial erasure of history. In contrast to the graphic collection possessed the richly decorated facades with the conspicuous insignia of the former owner an object-immanent reference to the Habsburg past and thus exhibited the monarchial traditions and values ​​of the era of Francis Joseph significantly. As part of the remedial measures after a bomb damage, in 1948 the aristocratic, by Archduke Albert initiated, historicist facade structuring along with all decorations was cut off, many facade figures demolished and the Hapsburg crest emblems plunged to the ground. Since in addition the old ramp also had been cancelled and the main entrance of the bastion level had been moved down to the second basement storey at street level, ended the presence of the old Archduke's palace after more than 200 years. At the reopening of the "Albertina Graphic Collection" in 1952, the former Hapsburg Palais of splendour presented itself as one of his identity robbed, formally trivial, soulless room shell, whose successful republicanization an oversized and also unproportional eagle above the new main entrance to the Augustinian road symbolized. The emocratic throw of monuments had wiped out the Hapsburg palace from the urban appeareance, whereby in the perception only existed a nondescript, nameless and ahistorical building that henceforth served the lodging and presentation of world-famous graphic collection of the Albertina. The condition was not changed by the decision to the refurbishment because there were only planned collection specific extensions, but no restoration of the palace.

Image: The palace after the Second World War with simplified facades, the rudiment of the Danubiusbrunnens (well) and the new staircase up to the Augustinerbastei

This paradigm shift corresponded to a blatant reversal of the historical circumstances, as the travel guides and travel books for kk Residence and imperial capital of Vienna dedicated itself primarily with the magnificent, aristocratic palace on the Augustinerbastei with the sumptuously fitted out reception rooms and mentioned the collection kept there - if at all - only in passing. Only with the repositioning of the Albertina in 2000 under the direction of Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the palace was within the meaning and in fulfillment of the Fideikommiss of Archduke Charles in 1826 again met with the high regard, from which could result a further inseparable bond between the magnificent mansions and the world-famous collection. In view of the knowing about politically motivated errors and omissions of the past, the facades should get back their noble, historicist designing, the staterooms regain their glamorous, prestigious appearance and culturally unique equippment be repurchased. From this presumption, eventually grew the full commitment to revise the history of redemption and the return of the stately palace in the public consciousness.

Image: The restored suburb facade of the Palais Albertina suburb

The smoothed palace facades were returned to their original condition and present themselves today - with the exception of the not anymore reconstructed Attica figures - again with the historicist decoration and layout elements that Archduke Albrecht had given after the razing of the Augustinerbastei in 1865 in order. The neoclassical interiors, today called after the former inhabitants "Habsburg Staterooms", receiving a meticulous and detailed restoration taking place at the premises of originality and authenticity, got back their venerable and sumptuous appearance. From the world wide scattered historical pieces of equipment have been bought back 70 properties or could be returned through permanent loan to its original location, by which to the visitors is made experiencable again that atmosphere in 1919 the state rooms of the last Habsburg owner Archduke Frederick had owned. The for the first time in 80 years public accessible "Habsburg State Rooms" at the Palais Albertina enable now again as eloquent testimony to our Habsburg past and as a unique cultural heritage fundamental and essential insights into the Austrian cultural history. With the relocation of the main entrance to the level of the Augustinerbastei the recollection to this so valuable Austrian Cultural Heritage formally and functionally came to completion. The vision of the restoration and recovery of the grand palace was a pillar on which the new Albertina should arise again, the other embody the four large newly built exhibition halls, which allow for the first time in the history of the Albertina, to exhibit the collection throughout its encyclopedic breadh under optimal conservation conditions.

Image: The new entrance area of the Albertina

64 meter long shed roof. Hans Hollein.

The palace presents itself now in its appearance in the historicist style of the Ringstrassenära, almost as if nothing had happened in the meantime. But will the wheel of time should not, cannot and must not be turned back, so that the double standards of the "Albertina Palace" said museum - on the one hand Habsburg grandeur palaces and other modern museum for the arts of graphics - should be symbolized by a modern character: The in 2003 by Hans Hollein designed far into the Albertina square cantilevering, elegant floating flying roof. 64 meters long, it symbolizes in the form of a dynamic wedge the accelerated urban spatial connectivity and public access to the palace. It advertises the major changes in the interior as well as the huge underground extensions of the repositioned "Albertina".

Christian Benedictine

Art historian with research interests History of Architecture, building industry of the Hapsburgs, Hofburg and Zeremonialwissenschaft (ceremonial sciences). Since 1990 he works in the architecture collection of the Albertina. Since 2000 he supervises as director of the newly founded department "Staterooms" the restoration and furnishing of the state rooms and the restoration of the facades and explores the history of the palace and its inhabitants.

www.wien-vienna.at/albertinabaugeschichte.php

Omega Speedmaster Reduce

The complex of 14 shops & hotel was built in stages 1880-83 for SA Company, architect William McMinn. The western section opened Sep 1909 as Malcolm Reid’s furniture store after extensive alterations to previous warehouse of Charles Segar, taking over adjoining premises of W Storrie when they closed 1916. The company was later managed by his sons, closed. The first section of complex was the hotel on corner of Bent St, opened as Cohen’s Family Hotel, later renamed Astral 1898.

Malcolm Donald Reid had opened a timber business at Port Adelaide 1882. By 1892 he had expanded to Broken Hill NSW and Franklin St, city. Opening a store in Rundle Street 1892, he extended his trade from timber & iron to furniture. In 1902 he set up a timber business in Johannesburg, South Africa to be run by his son.

“Another large warehouse is to be added to the number of fine buildings which have recently been erected in Rundle-street. Messrs. Malcolm Reid and Co., household furnishers, have found that their business has expanded to such an extent that it necessitates the keeping of a large and varied stock, so that their present premises in Franklin-street have-grown much too small for its requirements.” [Kapunda Herald 26 Feb 1909]

“Messrs. Malcolm Reid & Co., having secured possession of the handsome warehouse in Rundle-street next to the establishment of Messrs. Foy & Gibson, practically rebuilt the premises, and it is now open to the public. A spacious and lofty basement the full size of the block — 66 ft. by 120 ft. — was excavated, and the superstructure was so enlarged as to give double the accommodation previously available, every inch of space being utilised. The result is that they are now in occupation of the largest furniture emporium in Adelaide, which, on its four floors, gives an area of nearly an acre for the display of their wonderful stock of up-to-date furniture.” [Advertiser 14 Sep 1909]

“The departments included in the business of Messrs. Malcolm Reid & Co. are: — Furniture and pianos; carpets and linoleums; ironmongery; mantelpieces and grates; crockery and glassware; electroplate and brushware; drapery; saddlery and harness; buggies and drays. The warehouse is now open for inspection, and during Show week the firm hope to receive visits from thousands of country people.” [Chronicle 18 Sep 1909]

“business has increased so rapidly that alterations and extensions have been necessitated. The eastern portion of the premises has been cleared of ironmongery and crockery, in order to make room for a fine stock of drapery and allied goods, and the crockery and ironware have been removed to the basement. . . So far as Australia is concerned it is quite a novelty in the art of shopkeeping. It is called the model room system. The top floor, which may be reached either by a wide and easy staircase or an electric lift, consists of 21 apartments, which are furnished as bedrooms, drawing-rooms, kitchens, music-rooms, boudoirs, smoking-rooms, sitting-rooms, dining-rooms, and bathrooms.” [Daily Herald 30 Apr 1910]

“Mr. Malcolm D. Reid. . . was born at Fort Adelaide in 1857, and was educated at Martin's Academy, Alberton. His first engagement was as a clerk with Messrs. D. & J. Fowler, but later he obtained a position with a local builder. . . [to Broken Hill] and opened a business. As wood and iron were required in big quantities. . . Leaving the Broken Hill business in charge of his brother, Mr. Tom Reid, Mr. Malcolm Reid came to Adelaide and established a timber business in Franklin street, but, with the advent of Federation, business became so bad in Adelaide that he went to South Africa in 1902. . . He started as a timber merchant in Johannesburg, under the name of Malcolm Reid and Son. . . in 1909 returned to Adelaide with three of his sons, Messrs. Harold, Reg, and Douglas Reid, who opened business as timber merchants, under the title of Reid Brothers. Two years later Mr. Malcolm Reid floated the present business of Malcolm Reid and Co., wholesale furnishers. . . returned to South Africa in 1919. . . returned to South Australia in 1923. . . alderman of the Adelaide City Council. . . Mr. Reid left a widow — his first wife died at Marseilles in 1923 — six sons and one daughter. They are:— Messrs. Malcolm Reid (proprietor of the Globe Timber Mills). Harold Reid (Reid Bros.), Sidney Reid (manager for Sir Sidney Kidman), Douglas Reid (Vanderfield & Reid, timber merchants, Sydney), Clifford and Arnold Reid (Malcolm Reid & Co.. Adelaide), and Miss Rosa Reid (Adelaide). Another son, Mr. Reg Reid, was killed in the war.” [Advertiser 17 Mar 1933]

“Malcolm Reid & Co. Ltd., Adelaide furnishers, is raising its ordinary dividend from 4/ to 5/ for the year to August. [Advertiser 30 Oct 1954]

MALCOLM REID’S ORIGINAL BUSINESS

“New timber yard started in St. Vincent-street, Port Adelaide, by Messrs. Malcolm Reid & Co.” [Port Adelaide News 3 Nov 1882]

“New Timber Yard, St. Vincent-Street, Port Adelaide. Malcolm Reid & Co. . . have commenced business. . . Deals, Cedar, Jarrah, Oregon Flooring and Weather Boards, Palings, V.D.L. Hardwood, Doors, Sashes, Frames, Skirtings, Mouldings, Galvanized Iron, Guttering, Ridging, Ironmongery, Cement, &c.” [Advertiser 10 Nov 1882 advert]

“Malcolm Reid, late Reid & Emes, Timber Merchants, Port Adelaide, Franklin-street, near Post-Office, Adelaide, and at Broken Hill. Timber of Every Description for Builders, Joiners, Wheelwrights, Cabinetmakers, always on Hand. Country Orders Promptly Attended to. Mouldings, Turnery, Doors, Windows, and Joinery.” [Evening Journal 4 Dec 1890 advert]

“Most people of the Barrier have long since discovered that Malcolm Reid's is the best house for timber, furniture, and ironmongery.” [Barrier Miner, Broken Hill 9 Dec 1890]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid's tender for additions to the Broken Hill Courthouse has been accepted.” [Barrier Miner, Broken Hill 19 Mar 1891]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid's tender for the erection of an infants' school. Central Broken Hill, has been accepted. The additions will give considerably more accommodation than is at present available at the school.” [Barrier Miner, Broken Hill 11 Apr 1891]

“The Council of the Zoological Gardens has long recognised the necessity for the erection of one house in which to place the monkeys. . . Messrs. D. Garlick & Son are the architects for the building, and Mr. Malcolm Reid has secured the contract for £640.” [Barrier Miner, Broken Hill 27 Apr 1891]

“It was only a week or two ago that the ‘Miner’ had to record a disastrous fire, which resulted in the destruction of a great portion of the premises and stock-in-trade of Mr. Malcolm Reid, timber merchant, Argent and Blende streets. A visit to the site to-day shows how much a little energy may accomplish in a short space of time. A new workshop has been erected and the large stock of frames, window-sashes, &c. which was burned is now almost entirely replaced. A large store shed — the forerunner of a range of this class of building to extend from Blende-street to the lane-has been erected, and is stocked with immense tiers of oregon, pine and deal for building purposes, cedar for sash and door work, and jarrah for heavy and underground work.” [Barrier Miner, Broken Hill 1 Jul 1891]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid, the well-known timber merchant of. Port Adelaide, Adelaide, and Broken Hill, has given to Mr. E. Hounslow (the Seamen's missionary) for distribution among the poor of Port Adelaide, a number of tickets which will entitle the holders to receive goods of the value named on the cards.” [Register 23 Dec 1891]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid, who for the last ten years has carried on an extensive trade as a timber merchant, has recently embarked in the furniture business. For the past four years this has been a part of the firm's operations at their branch at Broken Hill. . . Some six months ago, in order to test the market, premises were taken in Rundle-street on a short lease, and the result was so encouraging that large premises, formerly occupied by Mr. C. Segar in Rundle street, have been obtained on a long lease, and fitted up as a first-class furniture warehouse.” [Advertiser 20 Aug 1892]

“Malcolm Reid & Co. . . furniture establishment in Rundle-street. . . get the timber direct from the forest for their work, and having their own sawmills and a kiln for drying timber they pride themselves upon the seasoning of the material used in the manufacture of their goods. One of their specialities is the manufacture of furniture of new designs.” [Register 24 Dec 1892]

“Chief among the business houses in the colony is that of Mr. Malcolm Reid, who has timber yards at Adelaide, Port Adelaide, and Broken Hill, and furniture warehouses at Adelaide and the Barrier. . . despite all the talk of depression he has not reduced the number of hands in his employ, but maintains his full staff — namely, 100 employes. Ten years ago Mr. Reid started in business as a timber merchant at Port Adelaide, and here it is that the bulk of the machinery of the firm is in operation. . . Five years ago Mr. Reid started a branch at Broken Hill, and he can claim to have built more of the important buildings in the great Silver city than any other firm. . . Two or three years ago he commenced business in Franklin street, securing those large and commodious premises formerly occupied by Messrs. C. Farr & Co. close to the General Post Office. . . Twelve months ago Mr. Reid started out in a new line in the form of a furniture business in Rundle-street, and he found such rapid progress was made that it was necessary to send an order to England for a new plant. With this he will be able to make doors that were formerly imported from America. . . He intends to manufacture all classes of furniture, and the introduction of the joinery plant will enable him to beat the cheaply-made Chinese goods out of the market.” [Advertiser 30 Mar 1893]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid is still in Johannesburg, where he is establishing his son in business as a timber merchant.” [Advertiser 24 Sep 1903]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid, the well-known timber merchant, formerly of Adelaide and Port Adelaide, who returned from South Africa on Monday. . . has established his sons in the timber business in Johannesburg, states that the Transvaal has been making steady progress towards recovery since the end of the war. Work is being rapidly resumed at all the mines. . . The agricultural industry received a set back during the war with the natural consequence that the price of all agricultural produce is very high. The bulk of the food supplies is imported in a frozen state. . . Mr. Reid considers that there is a good market in South Africa for Australian produce, more particularly for fresh and preserved fruits.” [Register 14 Dec 1904]

“received from Malcolm Reid and Co., the well-known Adelaide Furnishers, a copy of their latest Catalogue, a profusely illustrated compilation of 144 pages, including a carefully arranged index. The list of Household Requirements pictorially represented is of so all-embracing a character that persons about to furnish either a cottage or a mansion, or to make the constant additions required by the already settled householder, can hardly fail to be suited after a glance through these attractive pages. Particularly will the book be valuable to farmers and country residents” [Evening Journal 30 Apr 1908]

“Mr. Malcolm Reid, and his wife and three sons, returned to Adelaide on Monday from England. They intend to settle down here. Mr. Reid still has business interests in South Africa, which he has left in the care of his sons. Three years have elapsed since he left Australia, two and a half years of which he spent in London.” [Advertiser 15 Sep 1908]

Thanks to Internet Archive

Sustainable Development Goal

A chest freezer opens from the top, which lessens cold air from escaping.

Apple Cider Caramels on smittenkitchen.com

Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan

I dropped off our recycling today and grabbed this shot.

One man's trash is another's treasure. Make a photo of something discarded or abandoned today.

Taken with Pixels 3a phone processed to reduce detail with PSElements.

Designed by Carol Sogard. The cover was letterpressed and the guts were offset printed on repurposed posters. The result was fantastic.

Printed in 2005.

Australian government has announced to cut country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 % of 2005 levels by 2030 as part of negotiations on a global climate deal.Prime Minister Tony Abbott led government will submit its target to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate C... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/latest/australia-unveils-p...

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

Set of five 16-ounce reusable, Aluminum BPA-free bottles

. This is water bottle recycling at its best! Fit in a specially-designed tray that slides neatly into your fridge. Dishwasher safe, water bottles are ideal for a variety of indoor/outdoor activities. This high end set is made from Aluminum and comes equipped with a looped sport lid for easy attaching on the go.

soneekk@gmail.com

Girl Scout Troop #41280 from Bethel, Ohio

Title - "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle....Make a difference one piece at a time."

Dream Theme - Conservation

Who Participated?

Alex Fridel, Alyson Bauer, Brook Jones, Cara Bowen, Destanie Haney, Fiona Leahr, Hannah Davis, Julia Bowen, Lauren Abner, Libby Richards, Lovely Michel, Summer Fields, Deborah Davis, Denae Bowen, & Sharee Manning

Techniques Used & Materials Used: Plastic canvas & yarn

Tell us the story behind your panel:

Our Girl Scout Troop has been learning about the Great Pacific Garbage

Patch and how long it takes various materials to break down.

Through this visible reminder, we will learn ways that we can make a

difference in our community one piece at a time. We hope this will make a difference in how our community

thinks about the containers they use everyday.

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

★What IS THE INTERNATIONAL FIBER COLLABORATIVE?

As the leading voice for collaborative public art projects around the world, the International Fiber Collaborative is dedicated to promoting understanding and appreciation of contemporary art & craft through educational experiences. We are committed to developing vital education programs that elevate, expand, modernize and enhance the image of collaboration and education today.

★WHAT IS THE DREAM ROCKET PROJECT?

The Dream Rocket Team is collecting nearly 8,000 artworks from participants around the globe. The artwork will be assembled together to create a massive cover in which will wrap a 37 story Saturn V Moon Rocket at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. We will also be displaying submitted artwork in dozens of national venues prior to the wrapping of the Saturn V. Additionally, we are posting images of submitted artwork & their stories on our Website, Flickr, and Facebook.The Dream Rocket project uses the Saturn V Moon Rocket as a symbolism of universal values of the human spirit. Optimism, hope,

caring for our natural resources, scientific exploration, and harnessing technological advancements for a better quality of life while safeguarding our communities, are all common desires across national and international boundaries. Participants are able to express and learn about these values through this creative collaboration. With the completion of each artwork, participants are asked to write an essay explaining their artwork, and the dream theme in which they chose.

★How can I Participate & Have my Artwork Displayed?

The Dream Rocket project would like to challenge you to ‘Dare to Dream’. To dream about your future and the future of our world through dream themes such as health, community, conservation, science, technology, space, peace, and so on. We would like you to use your selected Dream Theme to express, explore, and create your vision on your section of the wrap. We hope that you are able to express and learn through this creative collaboration. With the completion of each artwork, you are asked to write a brief essay explaining your artwork, and the dream theme in which you chose.

“The Saturn V is the ideal icon to represent a big dream. This rocket was designed and built as a collaboration of nearly half-a-million people and allowed our human species to venture beyond our world and stand on ANOTHER - SURELY one of the biggest dreams of all time. ENABLING THE DREAMS of young people to touch this mighty rocket sends a powerful message in conjunction with creating an educational curriculum to engage students to embrace the power of learning through many important subjects”

-Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, New York

★I VALUE THE ARTS!!!!

The International Fiber Collaborative is able to share the power of a collaboration and art, thanks to the support of generous individual donors. We welcome any amount of donations and remember the International Fiber Collaborative is exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, making this gift tax deductible.

Donate Today at: www.thedreamrocket.com/support-the-dream-rocket

See our Online Flickr Photo Album at: www.flickr.com/photos/thedreamrocket/

★★★SIGN UP AT WWW.THEDREAMROCKET.COM

Butterflies!