Relator photos on Flickr

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Kyrgyz aretfacts relating to the Yurt which was based at the Earth Centre, Conisbrough, Doncaster Museum of Sustainability 1999-2004

Yurts

For over a thousand years tents like the yurt and ger have been homes for the nomads of Central Asia.

The yurt was used as a classroom yurt and housed a fascinating exhibition on the sustainable and nomadic lifestyle of the Kyrgyz people.

The felt yurt was made for Earth Centre by a Yurt Master in Kyrgyzstan. The roof is steeply sloped to protect against the rain and snow in the high mountain regions where the nomads lived. The felt covers are laid on a trellis frame usually made of willow. The yurt is light and easy to put up, to pull down and to carry from place to place. It would have taken two camels to transport a yurt this size. Inside, the damp wool smell of the felt is quite distinctive.

The Kyrgyz nomads depended on their animals; sheep, especially, provided their main diet of milk and meat, the hides and wool for their clothing and felt, bones to make into utensils and toys and dung for fuel. Nothing was wasted in the nomadic lifestyle.

MusaRama, the image bank on all things banana by Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT

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A repository of images relate to Banana (Musa spp) shared by members of MusaNet. The album depicts images from different African, Asian and countries from the Americas where collaborative work on Banana research is done.

©CIAT

Please credit accordingly and leave a comment when you use a CIAT photo.

For more info: alliance-comms@cgiar.org

relate by Monique van der Lint

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I Can Relate by Thomas Vessely

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On a sunny afternoon in spring...

The Spot by Brian McIntyre

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I can relate to this shot on a physical level. It may not be the most intense barrel ever ridden but the feeling when you are in the pocket and your arm is dragging to maintain the position can be very satisfying. Much of the surfing I capture is unexciting to look at but the surfer is experiencing another kind of sensation. Often when I show people the wave they rode they are a little disappointed as it lacks the drama they experienced while riding.

And other times I will capture someone standing in a part of the wave where serious action is all around them but they don't see it from their perspective. This why it is great to watch from the water as well as surf . You will see what the surfer didn't.

Island Strategic Plan (ISP) consultation, Nanumea Island_TCAP_III by UNDP Climate

Relates to the UNDP-supported GCF-funded Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project www.adaptation-undp.org/projects/tuvalu-coastal-adaptatio...

Mahabharata, 1852, Miniature 1 by Centre for Research Collections University of Edinburgh

Detail of miniature from scroll relating the Mahabharata showing the symbol 'om'. Inside, five Hindu deities can be seen.

One of two major Sanskrit epics of Ancient India, the Mahabharata tells the tale of a dynastic struggle between two sets of cousins for control of the Bharata kingdom in central India. One of the longest poems ever written, eclipsed only by the Gesar Epic of Tibet, it is said to have been composed between 900 and 400BCE by the sage Vyasa, although, in reality, it is likely to have been created by a number of individuals. To Hindus, it is important in terms of both dharma (moral law) and history (itihasa), as its themes are often didactic.

This scroll dates to 1795CE and was donated to the university in 1821 by Colonel Walker of Bowland. It is 13.5cm wide and 72m long and has 78 miniatures of varying sizes. All of the illustrations are in the late Mughul or Kangra style, with gold backgrounds and floral patterning in red, white and gold, as well as green leaves and blue diamond-shaped designs.

Sources:

www.brown.edu/Departments/Sanskrit_in_Classics_at_Brown/M... (accessed 16/06/14).

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/357806/Mahabharata (accessed 16/06/14).

The full LUNA record for this item is here: images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEsha~4~4~61032~1...

A typical dug-out fishing canoe by H*B

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Relates to the adjacent photo set. ALl of which are difficult to age except for the 1900 portrait. Very thin paper.

The original oneness of Adam & Eve by Jim Forest

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This can be seen as an image relating to kidney donation.

Nancy and I were among the kidney donors and recipients interviewed for a book published 4 October 2012 by the Dutch Kidney Foundation (Nierstichting Nederland): "20 Dubbelportretten nierdonatie bij leven" ("20 Double Portraits of Kidney Donations by Living Donors". The interviews were done by Jacintha Jenniskens. The photos, including this one, were taken by Diederik Schiebergen. To order copies: www.nierstichting.nl/folders/boekbestellen?execution=e4s1 The photo is copyright and may not be reproduced with he permission of the photographer.

Valdes-Scott Family aboard the Audalieu From Chile to England 25th June to 4th Aug 1961 by Paul Clarke

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A second photo album relating to the Valdes Scott Family. The first album can be viewed here www.flickr.com/photos/runninginsuffolk/albums/72157665423... This album also turned up at a car boot sale but a year later than the other in 2017. Seems to date from 1951 and the birth of Roselle in Chile.

Countryside Walk - Dyce Aberdeen Scotland - 24/3/2018 by DanoAberdeen

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Today 24th March 2018 we had brilliant sunshine bathe our Scottish soil, it really was a contrast to the zero temperatures we experienced just a few days ago, a temperature of 11 degrees and we all celebrated , I am so looking forward to summer arriving .

I visited Dyce today , a few miles from my home, our Airport and most of the Oil Industry offices are situated in this area, though I chose to take the back roads rather than the main that runs through the centre of Dyce.

I viewed breathtaking scenery in our country side, fields populated with farm animals and some domesticated horses grazing , I share the photo's I took to capture this magnificent day .

The Origins of Horse Domestication

Throughout the course of the 20th century a variety of theories have been developed purporting to explain where, when and for what purposes the horse was first domesticated. The basic positions can be summarized as that it was first domesticated:

· during the Neolithic, Eneolithic or Early Bronze Age;

· for meat, riding or traction;

· in the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Eastern Europe, Western Europe or the Near East;

· at a single locus or at a number of different loci, more or less simultaneously.

In some situations it is, of course, very easy to show how horses had been used in ancient times. For example, the horses found in some of the south Siberian Iron Age kurgans - such as Pazyryk, Bashadar and Ak-Alakha - were accompanied by well-preserved equipment such as bridles, saddles and harnessing (Polos'mak, 1994; Rudenko, 1970).

However, at most sites, especially those dating from the period when horses were first domesticated for riding and traction, the situation is more complicated. Organic materials such as leather and wood are only very rarely recoverable from the archaeological record. In unfavourable soil conditions even bone is eventually destroyed. Moreover, not only is it possible to ride a horse without the use of a saddle or bridle, but also, during the early stages of horse domestication, it is likely that they were usually ridden that way.

Types of Evidence for the Origins of Horse Domestication

There are two kinds of evidence for early horse husbandry: direct and indirect. Direct evidence relates to artistic, textual and funerary evidence (burials where horses were interred with riding tack, harnessing, wagons or chariots), in which there is virtually no doubt both that the horses were caballine and that they were ridden or used for traction. That is, the possibility that a wild horse would be buried with a chariot is almost certainly low enough to be dismissed as insignificant (but, of course, not impossible).

Indirect evidence is inferred from characteristics of bones and artifacts. It includes evidence derived from analytical methods such as population structure profiling, osteometrical analysis, biogeographical distribution, relative proportions in archaeological deposits, bit wear analysis, palaeopathology, and artifact analysis. It is invariably the case that any one pattern manifested by these types of data could have more than one explanation.

There is no direct evidence for the origins of horse domestication and it is doubtful that there ever will be. Moreover, on its own no one type of indirect data can provide satisfactory evidence of horse domestication. Indirect evidence must have corroboration from as many directions as possible. The confusing of direct and indirect evidence has resulted in mistaken interpretations of the archaeological data. These issues have been discussed in detail elsewhere (Levine, 1999b), so they will only be briefly mentioned here. Some types of indirect and unsatisfactory evidence often used as proof of horse domestication are:

The presence of so-called horse-head sceptres and other ritual objects apparently associated with horses at Eneolithic sites.

· The presence of horse burials not associated with tack.

· The presence of objects described as cheekpieces or hobbles.

· Beveling of the lower 2nd premolar, described as bit wear.

· Confusing the intensification of horse exploitation with domestication.

· Size change.

· Morphological variability.

· The discovery of horses outside their apparent geographical distribution.

· Misinterpretations of population structure.

· A relatively high percentage of horse bones and teeth in a deposit.

· The apparent increase in the proportion of horses at a site or group of sites by comparison with earlier periods.

· The association of horses with other apparently domesticated taxa.

Dereivka, a Ukrainian settlement site (circa 4500-3500 BC), has been central to the problem of the origins of horse domestication, because for the past three decades it has been regarded as the site with the earliest evidence of horse husbandry (e.g. Anthony and Brown, 1991; Bibikova, 1986; Bökönyi, 1978; Gimbutas, 1991; Mallory, 1989; Telegin, 1986). More recently another Eneolithic settlement site, Botai, from Kazakhstan has also been associated with the origins of horse domestication (Brown and Anthony, 1998). However, upon further examination, it is clear that the evidence backing these claims is deeply flawed. Careful consideration of the data from both Botai and Dereivka strongly suggests that the vast majority, if not the totality, of the horses from both of those sites were wild (Levine, 1999a; Levine, 1999b).

Because of the relatively high proportions of horses dying during their most productive years, their mortality distributions, based upon tooth ageing, are characteristic of hunted animals.

Investigations of bone pathology have also been very informative about this question (Levine, 1999b; Levine et al, 2000). Comparisons of Early Iron Age, Scytho-Siberian horses from burials in the Ukraine and the Altai (1st millennium BC), free-living modern Exmoor Ponies and Medieval Turkic horses from the Altai strongly suggest that certain abnormalities of the caudal thoracic vertebrae are associated with the use of pad saddles and, most probably, with riding bareback.

These abnormalities are entirely absent from Botai, where the preservation of vertebrae is very good. Unfortunately the vertebrae from Dereivka had all been discarded before they could be studied.

The Earliest direct Evidence for Horse Domestication

The earliest unambiguous dateable textual and artistic evidence for horse domestication probably only dates back to the end of the third millennium BC. Evidence of horses in graves, accompanied by artifacts unambiguously associated with riding or traction is even more recent, dating, so far, only to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC (Kuz'mina, 1994; Littauer and Crouwel, 1996; Piggott, 1992; Postgate, 1986; Renfrew, 1987; Zarins, 1986).

The horses from the Sintashta chariot burials (on the south Ural steppe), dated to circa 2000 BC, are the earliest known domestic horses (Zdanovich and Zdanovich in press). However, shortly thereafter the expansion of the domestic horse throughout Europe was little short of explosive. By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC horses were being used to pull chariots – from as far afield as Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Eurasian steppe; and in China by the 14th century BC (Linduff in press; Littauer and Crouwel, 1996; Piggott, 1992; Shaw, 2001).

There is apparently no reliable textual or artistic evidence for horse riding earlier than the end of the 2nd millennium BC (Levine, 1999b; Piggott, 1992; Renfrew, 1987). There are earlier representations of people riding equids in the Near East. However, because of the extreme difficulty of distinguishing artistic representations of Equus caballus from those of other Near Eastern equids, it is impossible to identify the earliest evidence for horse riding itself (Postgate, 1992).

That horses were buried in considerable numbers in elaborate, high prestige graves at Sintashta (Gening, Zdanovich, and Gening, 1992) suggests that by this period (the Middle Bronze Age) they played an important role in society and, almost certainly had been domesticated for a considerable period of time. Currently we lack the evidence to say what that period of time actually was. Nevertheless, ethnographic and ethological data allow us to put forward a hypothesis to explain how the earliest domestication might have come about.

Taming and Domesticating Horses

According to J. Clutton-Brock, "A tame animal differs from a wild one in that it is dependent on man and will stay close to him of its own free will" (Clutton-Brock, 1987, p.12)). Aboriginal hunter-gatherers and horticulturists throughout the world are known to tame all kinds of wild animals to keep as pets. There is no reason to think that this would not have been the case at least from time of the earliest anatomically modern Homo sapiens and, when the need arose, taming would probably have been the first step towards domestication (Clutton-Brock, 1987; Galton 1883; Serpell, 1989). Wild horses, particularly as foals, can be captured and tamed and, as such, ridden or harnessed and, at the end of their lives, if necessary, slaughtered and eaten. During historical times both the North American Plains tribes and the Mongols used the arkan, lasso or herd drive to capture wild or feral horses to eat or to tame them (Levine, 1999a).

Horses taming was regarded as a skill most successfully carried out by specialists, whose most important tool was their intimate knowledge of horse behaviour. On this basis I would like to propose a possible scenario for the development of horse husbandry.

As a working hypothesis, I would like to suggest that horse taming probably first arose as a bi-product of horse hunting for meat. Orphaned foals, captured between the ages of perhaps 2 months and 1 year, or possibly somewhat later, would sometimes have been adopted and raised as pets. Eventually, and perhaps repeatedly, the discovery was made that these pets could be put to work.

This knowledge could have been acquired and lost many times from the Pleistocene onwards. But it was, apparently, only during the Holocene - possibly between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age - that it began to influence human social developments.

Initially the difficulties involved in keeping captured wild horses alive would have set limits to their impact - as work animals - on human society. Furthermore, considering the problems encountered by modern collectors trying to breed Przewalski’s horses, it seems likely that horse-keeping would have had to have been relatively advanced before controlled breeding, and thus domestication, would have been possible: “Failure to consider the typical social organization of the species can result in problems such as pacing, excessive rates of aggression, impotence and infanticide” (Boyd and Houpt, 1994, p. 222). In order to breed wild horses successfully in captivity, their environmental, nutritional and social requirements must be met:

“...In zoos, juvenile male Przewalski’s horses should be left in their natal bands for at least a year so that they can observe mating behaviour. They should be placed in bachelor herds when removed from the natural band, and not given harems until they are at least four or five years of age. The first mares placed with the stallion should be younger than he and the harem size should be kept small until the stallion gains age and experience.” (Boyd and Houpt, 1994, p 226)

That capturing wild horses and stealing tamed or domesticated ones was regarded by the Plains tribes as preferable to breeding them supports the scenario proposed here. If it is correct, it seems likely that there would have been a relatively long period of time when new horses would have been recruited from wild populations. This could have been carried out by trapping, driving and chasing, as documented for the Mongols and North American Plains tribes (Levine, 1999a).

Table 1 - A Rough Chronology of the Pontic Steppe

Approximate

Dates (BC)

Period

900 - 300

Iron Age

1500 - 900

Late Bronze Age

2000 - 1500

Middle Bronze Age

3000 - 2000

Early Bronze Age

4500/4000 - 3000

Eneolithic

6000 - 4500/4000

Neolithic

Horse domestication could thus, in a sense, have been initiated by the horses themselves. Another possibility is that the human understanding of horse behaviour might have developed to such a degree that horses finally would have been able to reproduce in captivity. Perhaps the most likely scenario is that the human and equine parts of the equation would have evolved together.

Vitality by ZFactorx

Vitality relates to our sensation of power or aliveness. It correlates highly with satisfaction with life, happiness, and health. It indicates optimum human functioning. Discover the factors that help in higher degrees and how to boost your vitality. Have you ever before considered what vitality implies to you? Lots of people are familiar with the concept of "vitality", but extremely few recognize exactly how it is. This short article reveals you a method of examining your vitality and invites you to make a commitment to obtain your personal ideal.Visit our site www.z-factor.com/ for more information on Vitality

Postcard FTP01316_48 by Yarra Plenty Regional Library Local History

Postcard

The Fay Thomas Collection includes family archives relating to the Thomas family. Moses Thomas (1825-1878) was a significant figure in the history of the area now known as the City of Whittlesea, Victoria, Australia. Thomas and Ann and their family lived at "Mayfield", Mernda, Victoria.

Miss Lily Thomas (1871-1946), Thomas and Ann’s fourth daughter lived there all her life. She collected postcards which her family and friends sent her on a very regular basis. It was an easy and enjoyable way to keep in touch. Production of postcards blossomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lily’s collection encompasses the so-called Golden Age (1890-1915) with many postmarked 1906-1907. Some were sent to other members of the family.

The collection document the natural landscape as well as the built environment—buildings, gardens, parks, and tourist sites. Topographical Postcards showing street scenes and general views from Australian and international locations, some of which are artistic views. Popular postcard manufacturers such as Tuck’s Postcards are included in the collection.

Decorative cards, many embellished with floral motives (as a nod to the receiver Lily?) and embossing. Greeting cards are common for Christmas, New Year, Easter and of course birthdays.

Regular senders can be identified from Kyneton and the Great Ocean Road area, Victoria and there is a siginifant collection from Scotland (but not sent from there).

YPRL hold digital copies of the Papers of the Moses Thomas Family held at State Library Victoria

Copyright for these images is Public domain but a credit to the Fay Thomas Collection and YPRL would be appreciated.

Enquiries: Yarra Plenty Regional Library

Vitality by ZFactorx

Vitality relates to our sensation of power or aliveness. It correlates highly with satisfaction with life, happiness, and health. It indicates optimum human functioning. Discover the factors that help in higher degrees and how to boost your vitality. Have you ever before considered what vitality implies to you? Lots of people are familiar with the concept of "vitality", but extremely few recognize exactly how it is. This short article reveals you a method of examining your vitality and invites you to make a commitment to obtain your personal ideal.Visit our site www.z-factor.com/ for more information on Vitality

TR Motorsport - Bang Saen February 2017 by Unixx TR Motorsport

The word Endurance as an Adjective is defined as:

denoting or relating to a race or other sporting event that takes place over a long distance or otherwise demands great physical stamina.

However, I feel the best way to describe how this season has gone is to use the Noun definition of the word: the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way

The 3rd and final race of the 2016 season was held at the postponed Bang Saen Festival of Speed. The championship standings showed the #36 Toyota with such a commanding lead from the first two races that only a small miracle would see TR-Motorsport crowned as champions. However unlikely it may be the scenario was Thomas and the DC5 to finish in first while the Toyota failed to cross the line at all, being the slowest car on the grid - this was tall order!

As with all the endurance races this season the team was beset by mechanical issues.During the extended practice period, gearbox and clutch problems arose resulting in a complete change out of the gearbox. Luckily this rectified the problems and the team were ready for qualifying. Tony Percy, longtime friend of the team and co-driver took the reins of the Honda Integra DC5, with the previous issues still fresh in his mind Tony gently eased the car through qualifying and into a respectable 9th place, which is was an outstanding achievement considering that there were 61 other cars on the track at the same time all vying for a clean lap.

As with all endurance races the 6 hours is split between drivers, for the first stint, Tony pushed the Integra into 7th before the first changeover. The safety car period eventually became a red flagged race and all cars returned to the pits resulting in the team losing any advantage they had gained. Seven cars had been involved in the on-track pileup and although this meant fewer cars in the race and more space on track it took several hours to remove the cars and fix the damaged barriers.

At the restart, Thomas powered his way into 2nd place overall and was somehow setting faster times than the leading Toyota. He consolidated his position up until the next driver change however the gremlins were back playing with the clutch again causing the car to struggle to change gear. Eventually, all the gears except 4th had failed with Tony limping around the circuit. The decision was then made to pit early and see if the issue could be solved. No fix could be applied so it was 4th gear all the way to the chequered flag for the final 1 hour 24 minutes. Ironically the leading Toyota crashed several times and finished dead last but this was still enough to win the championship. TR-Motorsport finished 4th in class,later promoted to 3rd as another team had received a 30 lap penalty for a jump start behind the safety car.

TR-Motorsports final position in the Enduring Endurance Championship was 3rd in class, with just a little bit more luck who knows what might have been……

Super Production Class

Race One

An eventful weekend of racing greeted TR-Motorsport at the final rounds of the Thailand Super Series held at the picturesque Bang Saen Beach Street Circuit. The final event had been postponed from November ’16 to February ’17 due to the passing of the late King. With the postponement came a long gap giving us the perfect opportunity to concentrate on some R & D in the hope of closing the gap to Championship Victor Hideharu Kuroki. After some minor tweaks to the car, a major redesign of the front Air Intake was undertaken which provided very encouraging results after completing several simulations on the Dyno equipment.

Simulations are all well and good, however, it’s on the track where it counts and Thomas fully obliged with the fastest lap around the circuit in official practice. When qualifying began both Thomas and Hideharu were setting fastest lap after fastest lap, nip and tuck all the way. Eventually, Thomas managed to claim a fantastic Pole Position by just one-tenth of a second from Hideharu, being Pole on a tight and twisty circuit is always vital so the race to the first corner could possibly decide the race.

Due to our first gear ratio being longer and the race to the first corner uphill we knew wewould be at a disadvantage. Thomas got off the line perfectly and stormed up the hill defending his line to the left to try and outwit Hideharu who was virtually alongside the ‘Blue Blur’, paint was traded several times before Hideharu backed out and slotted in behind to mount another challenge. The final corner of lap 1 caused a gasp from the TR-Motorsport team and fans as Hideharu once again tried a move, this time on the inside but again showed professionalism by backing off at the right time.

By the middle of lap 2 Thomas had pulled out a small lead and held on for the remainder of the race even breaking the lap record on several occasions, Hideharu pushed Thomas all the way to the chequered flag and saw his 100% record gone as Thomas, 10 years after his first win at Bang Saen came home with the spoils and a much needed 20 points, cementing his second place position in the championship.

Race 2

After the elation of the previous victory had faded, the team of mechanics led by Sven Thummel got to work on the car to check everything over and prepare for Race 2. The team soon spotted an issue with the wishbones as the bushings were damaged and as a precautionary measure these were duly replaced. As with all previous rounds, the top 5 finishers from Race 1 started in reverse order meaning Thomas would start from 5th. As the cars assembled on the grid all looked good and a top 3 position looked more than possible.

As the car left for the warm lap Thomas felt an issue with the steering although not terminal, Thomas made the wisest choice to visit the pits to try and ascertain what the issue was. The team of mechanics could not find anything obvious so the car headed back out on track. People reading this familiar with the rules and regulations of motorsport, will of course know that our little visit to the pits would mean starting at the back of the grid, this was only compounded by the fact that due to a miscommunication with the stewards we forced to wait at the pit lane exit some 600 meters away from the back of the grid!

Regular readers will know that we have had similar issues before and still come out on top. However, today was not going to be one of those days! The first 3 laps of the race went perfectly with Thomas making his way through the field from a lowly 19th to a respectable 10th. The racing gods were smiling on us as a safety car deployment bunched the whole pack back up and with 9 laps to go top 3 was still an outside possibility. In came the safety car down went the throttle and that's where the problems began, a massive loss of power resulted in cars streaming past a limping Thomas. On the pit to car radio turning the electrics on and off to reset the car,was suggested - it worked! But by now Thomas was once again at the back of the grid. For the remaining laps, a valiant Thomas fought back to a very respectful 8th place and again set the fastest lap and broke the track record for the Super Production Class.

After the race, the car was checked over by the official Thailand Super Series scrutineers and as with all races we have competed in this year,they found nothing to report. Although dejected the team were still in good spirits after another great week of motorsport at Bang Saen Beach and look forward to returning in July to compete in the GTC Supercar Class with the new Porsche 911 (997).

In next month’s Pattaya Trader we will have a big update for your regarding the upcoming season, in the meantime you can follow us through our website Tr-Motorosport.com, our Facebook page Facebook.com/TRMotorsportThailand and our Instagram account tmotorsport_thailand

Pitts S1 Pair + Pitts S2S Duo-Duxford Oct 2010 by Feggy Art

The description and specifications relate to the Pitts Special as this is an identical aircraft to the S1 and S2S.

The Pitts Special is a light aerobatic biplane designed by Curtis Pitts. It has accumulated many competition wins since its first flight in 1944. The Pitts Special dominated world aerobatic competition in the 1960s and 1970s and, even today, remains a potent competition aircraft and is a favourite for many an aerobatic pilot.

General characteristics

•Crew: Two

•Length: 18 ft 9 in (5.71 m)

•Wingspan: 20 ft 0 in (6.10 m)

•Height: 6 ft 7⅓ in (2.02 m)

•Wing area: 125 ft² (11.6 m²)

•Empty weight: 1,150 lb (521 kg)

•Max takeoff weight: 1,625 lb (737 kg)

•Powerplant: 1× Textron Lycoming AEIO-540-D4A5 flat-six air cooled piston engine, 260 hp (194 kW)

Performance

•Never exceed speed: 182 knots (210 mph, 338 km/h)

•Cruise speed: 152 knots (175 mph, 282 km/h) (max cruise)

•Stall speed: 52 knots (60 mph, 97 km/h)

•Range: 277 NM (319 mi, 513 km)

•Service ceiling: 21,000 ft (6,400 m)

•Rate of climb: 2,700 ft/min (13.7 m/s)

•Wing loading: 13.0 lb/ft² (63.6 kg/m²)

•Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb (0.26 kW/kg)

Text and specifications based on Wikipedia article under the Creative Commons License for non-profit use.

PM Dr Ngirente presented before Rwanda parliament, Government of Rwanda achievements relating to ICT in the knowledge-based economy | Kigali, 2 December 2019 by Primature Rwanda

PM Dr Ngirente presented before Rwanda parliament, Government of Rwanda achievements relating to ICT in the knowledge-based economy | Kigali, 2 December 2019

Diarama II | Indian Museum | Kolkata by dynamo.photography

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++++++++++ FROM WKIPEDIA +++++++++

The Indian Museum in Kolkata, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in British India era texts,[2] is the largest and oldest museum in India and has rare collections of antiques, armour and ornaments, fossils, skeletons, mummies, and Mughal paintings. It was founded by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Kolkata (Calcutta), India, in 1814. The founder curator was Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist.

Indian Museum, Kolkata

ভারতীয় জাদুঘর, কলকাতা

भारतीय संग्रहालय, कोलकाता

Courtyard

Established

1814

Location

Chowringhee - Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Type

Museum

Collection size

102,646 (as of March 31, 2004)[1]

Director

Shri Rajesh Purohit

Website

indianmuseumkolkata.org

It has six sections comprising thirty five galleries of cultural and scientific artifacts namely Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Economic Botany. Many rare and unique specimens, both Indian and trans-Indian, relating to humanities and natural sciences, are preserved and displayed in the galleries of these sections. the administrative control of the Cultural sections, viz. Art, Archaeology and Anthropology rests with the Board of Trustees under its Directorate, and that of the three other science sections is with the geological survey of India, the zoological survey of India and the Botanical survey of India. The museum Directorate has eight co-ordinating service units: Education, Preservation, publication, presentation, photography, medical, modelling and library. This multipurpose Institution with multidisciplinary activities is being included as an Institute of national importance in the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India.[3] It is one of oldest museums in the world. This is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The present Director of the Indian Museum is Rajesh Purohit.[4]The museum was closed to visitors due to massive restoration and upgrades from 1 September 2013 to 3 February 2014.[5][6]

HistoryEdit

The Indian Museum originated from the Asiatic Society of Bengal which was created by Sir William Jones in 1784. The concept of having a museum arose in 1796 from members of the Asiatic Society as a place where man-made and natural objects could be collected, cared for and displayed. The objective began to look achievable in 1808 when the Society was offered suitable accommodation by the Government of India in the Chowringhee-Park Street area.[7]

In February 2, 1814, Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist, who had been captured in the siege of Serampore but later released, wrote a letter supporting the formation of a museum in Calcutta which he said should have two sections - an archaeological, ethnological and technical section and a geological and zoological one.[8] The Museum was created, with Wallich named the Honorary Curator and then Superintendent of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. Wallich also donated a number of botanical specimens to the museum from his personal collection.[9]

View of the courtyard

After the resignation of Wallich, curators were paid salaries ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 200 a month. Until 1836 this salary was paid by the Asiatic Society but in that year its bankers, Palmer and Company became insolvent and the Government began to pay from its public funds. A temporary grant of Rs 200 per month was sanctioned for maintenance of the museum and library, and J. T. Pearson of the Bengal Medical Service was appointed curator followed shortly by John McClelland and after his resignation by Edward Blyth. In 1840, the Government took a keen interest in the geology and mineral resources and this led to an additional grant of Rs 250 per month for the geological section alone. A new building became a need and this was designed by Walter R Granville and completed in 1875 for the cost of Rs 1,40,000.[10] In 1879 it received a portion of the collection from the India Museum (South Kensington) when that collection was dispersed.[11]

The Zoological and Anthropological sections of the museum gave rise to the Zoological Survey of India in 1916, which in turn gave rise to the Anthropological Survey of India in 1945.[12]

The Scottish anatomist and zoologist John Anderson took up the position of curator in 1865, and catalogued the mammal and archaeology collections. The English zoologist James Wood-Mason worked at the museum from 1869 and succeeded Anderson as curator in 1887. [13]

Collection

Egyptian

It currently occupies a resplendent mansion, and exhibits among others: an Egyptian mummy. The mummy is being restored.[14][15][16][17]

Indian

Indian artifacts include the Buddhist stupa from Bharhut, the Buddha's ashes, the Ashoka pillar, whose four-lion symbol became the official emblem of the Republic of India, fossil skeletons of prehistoric animals, an art collection, rare antiques, and a collection of meteorites.

stone sculpture of Devi Durga in kolkata

The Indian Museum is also regarded as "the beginning of a significant epoch initiating the socio-cultural and scientific achievements of the country. It is otherwise considered as the beginning of the modernity and the end of medieval era" by UZER Places.[18]

Natural HistoryEdit

The museum has four galleries dedicated to natural history, namely the botanical, insect, mammal and bird galleries.[19]

Kolkata /koʊlˈkɑːtə/ ([kolkata] (About this soundlisten), also known as Calcutta /kælˈkʌtə/, the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River approximately 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of the border with Bangladesh, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. The city is widely regarded as the "cultural capital" of India, and is also nicknamed the "City of Joy".[1][2][3].According to the 2011 Indian census, it is the seventh most populous city. the city had a population of 4.5 million, while the population of the city and its suburbs was 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. Recent estimates of Kolkata Metropolitan Area's economy have ranged from $60 to $150 billion (GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity) making it third most-productive metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai and Delhi.[11][12][13]

In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Calcutta were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading licence in 1690,[15] the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified trading post. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Calcutta in 1756, and the East India Company retook it the following year. In 1793 the East India company was strong enough to abolish Nizamat (local rule), and assumed full sovereignty of the region. Under the company rule, and later under the British Raj, Calcutta served as the capital of British-held territories in India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. Calcutta was the centre for the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata, which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics, suffered several decades of economic stagnation.

As a nucleus of the 19th- and early 20th-century Bengal Renaissance and a religiously and ethnically diverse centre of culture in Bengal and India, Kolkata has local traditions in drama, art, film, theatre, and literature. Many people from Kolkata—among them several Nobel laureates—have contributed to the arts, the sciences, and other areas. Kolkata culture features idiosyncrasies that include distinctively close-knit neighbourhoods (paras) and freestyle intellectual exchanges (adda). West Bengal's share of the Bengali film industry is based in the city, which also hosts venerable cultural institutions of national importance, such as the Academy of Fine Arts, the Victoria Memorial, the Asiatic Society, the Indian Museum and the National Library of India. Among professional scientific institutions, Kolkata hosts the Agri Horticultural Society of India, the Geological Survey of India, the Botanical Survey of India, the Calcutta Mathematical Society, the Indian Science Congress Association, the Zoological Survey of India, the Institution of Engineers, the Anthropological Survey of India and the Indian Public Health Association. Though home to major cricketing venues and franchises, Kolkata differs from other Indian cities by giving importance to association football and other sports.

Etymology

The word Kolkata derives from the Bengali term Kôlikata (Bengali: কলিকাতা) [ˈkɔlikat̪a], the name of one of three villages that predated the arrival of the British, in the area where the city eventually was to be established; the other two villages were Sutanuti and Govindapur.[16]

There are several explanations about the etymology of this name:

The term Kolikata is thought to be a variation of Kalikkhetrô [ˈkalikʰːet̪rɔ] (Bengali: কালীক্ষেত্র), meaning "Field of [the goddess] Kali". Similarly, it can be a variation of 'Kalikshetra' (Sanskrit: कालीक्षेत्र, lit. "area of Goddess Kali").

Another theory is that the name derives from Kalighat.[17]

Alternatively, the name may have been derived from the Bengali term kilkila (Bengali: কিলকিলা), or "flat area".[18]

The name may have its origin in the words khal [ˈkʰal] (Bengali: খাল) meaning "canal", followed by kaṭa [ˈkata] (Bengali: কাটা), which may mean "dug".[19]

According to another theory, the area specialised in the production of quicklime or koli chun [ˈkɔlitɕun] (Bengali: কলি চুন) and coir or kata [ˈkat̪a] (Bengali: কাতা); hence, it was called Kolikata [ˈkɔlikat̪a] (Bengali: কলিকাতা).[18]

Although the city's name has always been pronounced Kolkata [ˈkolkat̪a] (Bengali: কলকাতা) or Kôlikata [ˈkɔlikat̪a] (Bengali: কলিকাতা) in Bengali, the anglicised form Calcutta was the official name until 2001, when it was changed to Kolkata in order to match Bengali pronunciation.[20] (It should be noted that "Calcutt" is an etymologically unrelated place name found at several locations in England.)

History

The discovery and archaeological study of Chandraketugarh, 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Kolkata, provide evidence that the region in which the city stands has been inhabited for over two millennia.[21][22] Kolkata's recorded history began in 1690 with the arrival of the English East India Company, which was consolidating its trade business in Bengal. Job Charnock, an administrator who worked for the company, was formerly credited as the founder of the city;[23] In response to a public petition,[24] the Calcutta High Court ruled in 2003 that the city does not have a founder.[25] The area occupied by the present-day city encompassed three villages: Kalikata, Gobindapur, and Sutanuti. Kalikata was a fishing village; Sutanuti was a riverside weavers' village. They were part of an estate belonging to the Mughal emperor; the jagirdari (a land grant bestowed by a king on his noblemen) taxation rights to the villages were held by the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family of landowners, or zamindars. These rights were transferred to the East India Company in 1698.[26]:1

In 1712, the British completed the construction of Fort William, located on the east bank of the Hooghly River to protect their trading factory.[27] Facing frequent skirmishes with French forces, the British began to upgrade their fortifications in 1756. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, condemned the militarisation and tax evasion by the company. His warning went unheeded, and the Nawab attacked; he captured Fort William which led to the killings of several East India company officials in the Black Hole of Calcutta.[28] A force of Company soldiers (sepoys) and British troops led by Robert Clive recaptured the city the following year.[28] Per the 1765 Treaty of Allahabad following the battle of Buxar, East India company was appointed imperial tax collector of the Mughal emperor in the province of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, while Mughal-appointed Nawabs continued to rule the province.[29] Declared a presidency city, Calcutta became the headquarters of the East India Company by 1773.[30] In 1793, ruling power of the Nawabs were abolished and East India company took complete control of the city and the province. In the early 19th century, the marshes surrounding the city were drained; the government area was laid out along the banks of the Hooghly River. Richard Wellesley, Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William between 1797 and 1805, was largely responsible for the development of the city and its public architecture.[31] Throughout the late 18th and 19th century, the city was a centre of the East India Company's opium trade.[32]

By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centred on Chowringhee and Dalhousie Square; and Black Town, mainly Indian and centred on North Calcutta.[33] The city underwent rapid industrial growth starting in the early 1850s, especially in the textile and jute industries; this encouraged British companies to massively invest in infrastructure projects, which included telegraph connections and Howrah railway station. The coalescence of British and Indian culture resulted in the emergence of a new babu class of urbane Indians, whose members were often bureaucrats, professionals, newspaper readers, and Anglophiles; they usually belonged to upper-caste Hindu communities.[34] In the 19th century, the Bengal Renaissance brought about an increased sociocultural sophistication among city denizens. In 1883, Calcutta was host to the first national conference of the Indian National Association, the first avowed nationalist organisation in India.[35]

Bengali billboards on Harrison Street. Calcutta was the largest commercial centre in British India.

The partition of Bengal in 1905 along religious lines led to mass protests, making Calcutta a less hospitable place for the British.[36][37] The capital was moved to New Delhi in 1911.[38] Calcutta continued to be a centre for revolutionary organisations associated with the Indian independence movement. The city and its port were bombed several times by the Japanese between 1942 and 1944, during World War II.[39][40] Coinciding with the war, millions starved to death during the Bengal famine of 1943 due to a combination of military, administrative, and natural factors.[41] Demands for the creation of a Muslim state led in 1946 to an episode of communal violence that killed over 4,000.[42][43][44] The partition of India led to further clashes and a demographic shift—many Muslims left for East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), while hundreds of thousands of Hindus fled into the city.[45]

During the 1960s and 1970s, severe power shortages, strikes, and a violent Marxist–Maoist movement by groups known as the Naxalites damaged much of the city's infrastructure, resulting in economic stagnation.[46] The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 led to a massive influx of thousands of refugees, many of them penniless, that strained Kolkata's infrastructure.[47] During the mid-1980s, Mumbai (then called Bombay) overtook Kolkata as India's most populous city. In 1985, prime minister Rajiv Gandhi dubbed Kolkata a "dying city" in light of its socio-political woes.[48] In the period 1977–2011, West Bengal was governed from Kolkata by the Left Front, which was dominated by the Communist Party of India (CPM). It was the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist government, during which Kolkata was a key base for Indian communism.[49][50][51] In the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 2011, Left Front was defeated by the Trinamool Congress. The city's economic recovery gathered momentum after the 1990s, when India began to institute pro-market reforms. Since 2000, the information technology (IT) services sector has revitalised Kolkata's stagnant economy. The city is also experiencing marked growth in its manufacturing base.[52]

Geography

Spread roughly north–south along the east bank of the Hooghly River, Kolkata sits within the lower Ganges Delta of eastern India approximately 75 km (47 mi) west of the international border with Bangladesh; the city's elevation is 1.5–9 m (5–30 ft).[53] Much of the city was originally a wetland that was reclaimed over the decades to accommodate a burgeoning population.[54] The remaining undeveloped areas, known as the East Kolkata Wetlands, were designated a "wetland of international importance" by the Ramsar Convention (1975).[55] As with most of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the soil and water are predominantly alluvial in origin. Kolkata is located over the "Bengal basin", a pericratonic tertiary basin.[56] Bengal basin comprises three structural units: shelf or platform in the west; central hinge or shelf/slope break; and deep basinal part in the east and southeast. Kolkata is located atop the western part of the hinge zone which is about 25 km (16 mi) wide at a depth of about 45,000 m (148,000 ft) below the surface.[56] The shelf and hinge zones have many faults, among them some are active. Total thickness of sediment below Kolkata is nearly 7,500 m (24,600 ft) above the crystalline basement; of these the top 350–450 m (1,150–1,480 ft) is Quaternary, followed by 4,500–5,500 m (14,760–18,040 ft) of Tertiary sediments, 500–700 m (1,640–2,300 ft) trap wash of Cretaceous trap and 600–800 m (1,970–2,620 ft) Permian-Carboniferous Gondwana rocks.[56] The quaternary sediments consist of clay, silt, and several grades of sand and gravel. These sediments are sandwiched between two clay beds: the lower one at a depth of 250–650 m (820–2,130 ft); the upper one 10–40 m (30–130 ft) in thickness.[57] According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, on a scale ranging from I to V in order of increasing susceptibility to earthquakes, the city lies inside seismic zone III.[58]

Urban structure

Howrah Bridge from the western bank of the Ganges

The Kolkata metropolitan area is spread over 1,886.67 km2 (728.45 sq mi)[59]:7 and comprises 3 municipal corporations (including Kolkata Municipal Corporation), 39 local municipalities and 24 panchayat samitis, as of 2011.[59]:7 The urban agglomeration encompassed 72 cities and 527 towns and villages, as of 2006.[60] Suburban areas in the Kolkata metropolitan area incorporate parts of the following districts: North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, and Nadia.[61]:15 Kolkata, which is under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), has an area of 185 km2 (71 sq mi).[60] The east–west dimension of the city is comparatively narrow, stretching from the Hooghly River in the west to roughly the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the east—a span of 9–10 km (5.6–6.2 mi).[62] The north–south distance is greater, and its axis is used to section the city into North, Central, and South Kolkata. East Kolkata is also a section.

North Kolkata is the oldest part of the city. Characterised by 19th-century architecture, dilapidated buildings, overpopulated slums, crowded bazaars, and narrow alleyways, it includes areas such as Shyambazar, Hatibagan, Maniktala, Kankurgachi, Rajabazar, Shobhabazar, Shyampukur, Sonagachi, Kumortuli, Bagbazar, Jorasanko, Chitpur, Pathuriaghata, Cossipore, Kestopur, Sinthee, Belgachia, Jorabagan, and Dum Dum.[63]:65–66 The northern suburban areas like Baranagar, Durganagar, Noapara, Dunlop, Dakshineswar, Nagerbazar, Belghoria, Agarpara, Sodepur, Madhyamgram, Barasat, Birati, Khardah up to Barrackpur are also within the city of Kolkata (as a metropolitan structure).

Central Kolkata

Central Kolkata hosts the central business district. It contains B. B. D. Bagh, formerly known as Dalhousie Square, and the Esplanade on its east; Strand Road is on its west.[64] The West Bengal Secretariat, General Post Office, Reserve Bank of India, High Court, Lalbazar Police Headquarters, and several other government and private offices are located there. Another business hub is the area south of Park Street, which comprises thoroughfares such as Chowringhee, Camac Street, Wood Street, Loudon Street, Shakespeare Sarani, and A. J. C. Bose Road.[65] The Maidan is a large open field in the heart of the city that has been called the "lungs of Kolkata"[66] and accommodates sporting events and public meetings.[67] The Victoria Memorial and Kolkata Race Course are located at the southern end of the Maidan. Other important areas of Central Kolkata are Park Circus, Burrabazar, College Street, Sealdah, Taltala, Janbazar, Bowbazar, Entally, Chandni Chowk, Lalbazar, Chowringhee, Dharmatala, Tiretta Bazar, Bow Barracks, Mullick Bazar, Park Circus, Babughat etc. Among the other parks are Central Park in Bidhannagar and Millennium Park on Strand Road, along the Hooghly River.

South Kolkata

South Kolkata developed after India gained independence in 1947; it includes upscale neighbourhoods such as Ballygunge, Alipore, New Alipore, Lansdowne, Bhowanipore, Kalighat, Dhakuria, Gariahat, Tollygunge, Naktala, Jodhpur Park, Lake Gardens, Golf Green, Jadavpur, Garfa, Kalikapur, Haltu, Nandi Bagan, Santoshpur, Baghajatin, Garia, Ramgarh, Raipur, Kanungo Park, Ranikuthi, Bikramgarh, Bijoygarh, Bansdroni and Kudghat.[16] Outlying areas of South Kolkata include Garden Reach, Khidirpur, Metiabruz, Taratala, Majerhat, Budge Budge, Behala, Sarsuna, Barisha, Parnasree Pally, Thakurpukur, Maheshtala and Joka. The southern suburban neighbourhoods like Mahamayatala, Pratapgarh, Kamalgazi, Narendrapur, Sonarpur, Subhashgram and Baruipur are also within the city of Kolkata (as metropolitan, urban agglomeration area). Fort William, on the western part of the city, houses the headquarters of the Eastern Command of the Indian Army;[68] its premises are under the jurisdiction of the army.

East Kolkata

East Kolkata is largely composed of newly developed areas and neighbourhoods of Saltlake, Rajarhat, Tangra, Topsia, Kasba, Anandapur, Mukundapur, Picnic Garden, Beleghata, Ultadanga, Phoolbagan, Kaikhali, Lake Town, etc. Two planned townships in the greater Kolkata region are Bidhannagar, also known as Salt Lake City and located north-east of the city; and Rajarhat, also called New Town and sited east of Bidhannagar.[16][69] In the 2000s, Sector V in Bidhannagar developed into a business hub for information technology and telecommunication companies.[70][71] Both Bidhannagar and New Town are situated outside the Kolkata Municipal Corporation limits, in their own municipalities.[69]

Climate

Kolkata is subject to a tropical wet-and-dry climate that is designated Aw under the Köppen climate classification. According to a United Nations Development Programme report, its wind and cyclone zone is "very high damage risk".[58]

Temperature

The annual mean temperature is 26.8 °C (80.2 °F); monthly mean temperatures are 19–30 °C (66–86 °F). Summers (March–June) are hot and humid, with temperatures in the low 30s Celsius; during dry spells, maximum temperatures often exceed 40 °C (104 °F) in May and June.[72] Winter lasts for roughly two-and-a-half months, with seasonal lows dipping to 9–11 °C (48–52 °F) in December and January. May is the hottest month, with daily temperatures ranging from 27–37 °C (81–99 °F); January, the coldest month, has temperatures varying from 12–23 °C (54–73 °F). The highest recorded temperature is 43.9 °C (111.0 °F), and the lowest is 5 °C (41 °F).[72] The winter is mild and very comfortable weather pertains over the city throughout this season. Often, in April–June, the city is struck by heavy rains or dusty squalls that are followed by thunderstorms or hailstorms, bringing cooling relief from the prevailing humidity. These thunderstorms are convective in nature, and are known locally as kal bôishakhi (কালবৈশাখী), or "Nor'westers" in English.[73]

Rains brought by the Bay of Bengal branch of the south-west summer monsoon[74] lash Kolkata between June and September, supplying it with most of its annual rainfall of about 1,850 mm (73 in). The highest monthly rainfall total occurs in July and August. In these months often incessant rain for days brings live to a stall for the city dwellers. The city receives 2,528 hours of sunshine per year, with maximum sunlight exposure occurring in March.[75] Kolkata has been hit by several cyclones; these include systems occurring in 1737 and 1864 that killed thousands.[76][77]

Environmental issues

Pollution is a major concern in Kolkata. As of 2008, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide annual concentration were within the national ambient air quality standards of India, but respirable suspended particulate matter levels were high, and on an increasing trend for five consecutive years, causing smog and haze.[80][81] Severe air pollution in the city has caused a rise in pollution-related respiratory ailments, such as lung cancer.[82]

Economy

Kolkata is the main commercial and financial hub of East and North-East India[61] and home to the Calcutta Stock Exchange.[83][84] It is a major commercial and military port, and is the only city in eastern India, apart from Bhubaneswar to have an international airport. Once India's leading city, Kolkata experienced a steady economic decline in the decades following India's independence due to steep population increases and a rise in militant trade-unionism, which included frequent strikes that were backed by left-wing parties.[52] From the 1960s to the late 1990s, several factories were closed and businesses relocated.[52] The lack of capital and resources added to the depressed state of the city's economy and gave rise to an unwelcome sobriquet: the "dying city".[85] The city's fortunes improved after the Indian economy was liberalised in the 1990s and changes in economic policy were enacted by the West Bengal state government.[52]

Flexible production has been the norm in Kolkata, which has an informal sector that employs more than 40% of the labour force.[16] One unorganised group, roadside hawkers, generated business worth ₹ 8,772 crore (US$ 2 billion) in 2005.[86] As of 2001, around 0.81% of the city's workforce was employed in the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, mining, etc.); 15.49% worked in the secondary sector (industrial and manufacturing); and 83.69% worked in the tertiary sector (service industries).[61]:19 As of 2003, the majority of households in slums were engaged in occupations belonging to the informal sector; 36.5% were involved in servicing the urban middle class (as maids, drivers, etc.), and 22.2% were casual labourers.[87]:11 About 34% of the available labour force in Kolkata slums were unemployed.[87]:11 According to one estimate, almost a quarter of the population live on less than 27 rupees (equivalent to 45 US cents) per day.[88] As of 2010, Kolkata, with an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity of 150 billion dollars, ranked third among South Asian cities, after Mumbai and Delhi.[89] Kolkata's GDP in 2014 was Rs 1.84 trillion, according to a collaborative assessment by multiple universities and climate agencies.[90] As in many other Indian cities, information technology became a high-growth sector in Kolkata starting in the late 1990s; the city's IT sector grew at 70% per annum—a rate that was twice the national average.[52] The 2000s saw a surge of investments in the real estate, infrastructure, retail, and hospitality sectors; several large shopping malls and hotels were launched.[91][92][93][94][95] Companies such as ITC Limited, CESC Limited, Exide Industries, Emami, Eveready Industries India, Lux Industries, Rupa Company, Berger Paints, Birla Corporation and Britannia Industries are headquartered in the city. Philips India, PricewaterhouseCoopers India, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Steel have their registered office and zonal headquarters in Kolkata. Kolkata hosts the headquarters of three major public-sector banks: Allahabad Bank, UCO Bank, and the United Bank of India; and a private bank Bandhan Bank. Reserve Bank of India has its eastern zonal office in Kolkata, and India Government Mint, Kolkata is one of the four mints in India.

Panoramic view of the Down town Sector V one of the major IT hubs of Kolkata as seen from the lakes surrounding Bidhannagar. Major Buildings such as Technopolis, Godrej Waterside, TCS Lords, Eden and Wanderers Park, Gobsyn Crystal, South City Pinnacle, RDB Boulevard, West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (WEBEL) Bhawan can be seen.

Demographics

See also: Health care in Kolkata

A big building in cream colour with many columns and a portico

Calcutta Medical College, the second institution in Asia to teach modern medicine(after 'Ecole de Médicine de Pondichéry')

IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata is the largest hospital in West Bengal and one of the oldest in Kolkata.

As of 2011, the health care system in Kolkata consists of 48 government hospitals, mostly under the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, and 366 private medical establishments;[177] these establishments provide the city with 27,687 hospital beds.[177] For every 10,000 people in the city, there are 61.7 hospital beds,[178] which is higher than the national average of 9 hospital beds per 10,000.[179] Ten medical and dental colleges are located in the Kolkata metropolitan area which act as tertiary referral hospitals in the state.[180][181] The Calcutta Medical College, founded in 1835, was the first institution in Asia to teach modern medicine.[182] However, These facilities are inadequate to meet the healthcare needs of the city.[183][184][185] More than 78% in Kolkata prefer the private medical sector over the public medical sector,[117]:109 due to the poor quality of care, the lack of a nearby facility, and excessive waiting times at government facilities.[117]:61

According to the Indian 2005 National Family Health Survey, only a small proportion of Kolkata households were covered under any health scheme or health insurance.[117]:41 The total fertility rate in Kolkata was 1.4, The lowest among the eight cities surveyed.[117]:45 In Kolkata, 77% of the married women used contraceptives, which was the highest among the cities surveyed, but use of modern contraceptive methods was the lowest (46%).[117]:47 The infant mortality rate in Kolkata was 41 per 1,000 live births, and the mortality rate for children under five was 49 per 1,000 live births.[117]:48

Among the surveyed cities, Kolkata stood second (5%) for children who had not had any vaccinations under the Universal Immunization Programme as of 2005.[117]:48 Kolkata ranked second with access to an anganwadi centre under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme for 57% of the children between 0 and 71 months.[117]:51 The proportion of malnourished, anaemic and underweight children in Kolkata was less in comparison to other surveyed cities.[117]:54–55

About 18% of the men and 30% of the women in Kolkata are obese—the majority of them belonging to the non-poor strata of society.[117]:105 In 2005, Kolkata had the highest percentage (55%) among the surveyed cities of anaemic women, while 20% of the men in Kolkata were anaemic.[117]:56–57 Diseases like diabetes, asthma, goitre and other thyroid disorders were found in large numbers of people.[117]:57–59 Tropical diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya are prevalent in Kolkata, though their incidence is decreasing.[186][187] Kolkata is one of the districts in India with a high number of people with AIDS; it has been designated a district prone to high risk.[188][189]

As of 2014, because of higher air pollution, the life expectancy of a person born in the city is four years fewer than in the suburbs.[190]

Education

Kolkata's schools are run by the state government or private organisations, many of which are religious. Bengali and English are the primary languages of instruction; Urdu and Hindi are also used, particularly in central Kolkata.[191][192] Schools in Kolkata follow the "10+2+3" plan. After completing their secondary education, students typically enroll in schools that have a higher secondary facility and are affiliated with the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, the ICSE, or the CBSE.[191] They usually choose a focus on liberal arts, business, or science. Vocational programs are also available.[191] Some Kolkata schools, for example La Martiniere Calcutta, Calcutta Boys' School, St. James' School (Kolkata), St. Xavier's Collegiate School, and Loreto House, have been ranked amongst the best schools in the country.[193]

Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

As of 2010, the Kolkata urban agglomeration is home to 14 universities run by the state government.[194] The colleges are each affiliated with a university or institution based either in Kolkata or elsewhere in India. Aliah University which was founded in 1780 as Mohammedan College of Calcutta is the oldest post-secondary educational institution of the city.[195] The University of Calcutta, founded in 1857, is the first modern university in South Asia.[196] Presidency College, Kolkata (formerly Hindu College between 1817 and 1855), founded in 1855, was one of the oldest and most eminent colleges in India. It was affiliated with the University of Calcutta until 2010 when it was converted to Presidency University, Kolkata in 2010. Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) is the second oldest engineering institution of the country located in Howrah.[197] An Institute of National Importance, BESU was converted to India's first IIEST. Jadavpur University is known for its arts, science, and engineering faculties.[198] The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, which was the first of the Indian Institutes of Management, was established in 1961 at Joka, a locality in the south-western suburbs. Kolkata also houses the prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, which was started here in the year 2006.[199] The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences is one of India's autonomous law schools,[200][201] and the Indian Statistical Institute is a public research institute and university. State owned Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, West Bengal (MAKAUT, WB), formerly West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT) is the largest Technological University in terms of student enrollment and number of Institutions affiliated by it. Private institutions include the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute and University of Engineering & Management (UEM).

Notable scholars who were born, worked or studied in Kolkata include physicists Satyendra Nath Bose, Meghnad Saha,[202] and Jagadish Chandra Bose;[203] chemist Prafulla Chandra Roy;[202] statisticians Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and Anil Kumar Gain;[202] physician Upendranath Brahmachari;[202] educator Ashutosh Mukherjee;[204] and Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore,[205] C. V. Raman,[203] and Amartya Sen.[206]

Kolkata houses many premier research institutes like Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bose Institute, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI), S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS), Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Kolkata, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) and Indian Centre for Space Physics. Nobel laureate Sir C. V. Raman did his groundbreaking work in Raman effect in IACS.

Culture

Kolkata is known for its literary, artistic, and revolutionary heritage; as the former capital of India, it was the birthplace of modern Indian literary and artistic thought.[207] Kolkata has been called the "City of Furious, Creative Energy"[208] as well as the "cultural [or literary] capital of India".[209][210] The presence of paras, which are neighbourhoods that possess a strong sense of community, is characteristic of the city.[211] Typically, each para has its own community club and, on occasion, a playing field.[211] Residents engage in addas, or leisurely chats, that often take the form of freestyle intellectual conversation.[212][213] The city has a tradition of political graffiti depicting everything from outrageous slander to witty banter and limericks, caricatures, and propaganda.[214][215]

Kolkata has many buildings adorned with Indo-Islamic and Indo-Saracenic architectural motifs. Several well-maintained major buildings from the colonial period have been declared "heritage structures";[216] others are in various stages of decay.[217][218] Established in 1814 as the nation's oldest museum, the Indian Museum houses large collections that showcase Indian natural history and Indian art.[219] Marble Palace is a classic example of a European mansion that was built in the city. The Victoria Memorial, a place of interest in Kolkata, has a museum documenting the city's history. The National Library of India is the leading public library in the country while Science City is the largest science centre in the Indian subcontinent.[220]

The popularity of commercial theatres in the city has declined since the 1980s.[221]:99[222] Group theatres of Kolkata, a cultural movement that started in the 1940s contrasting with the then-popular commercial theatres, are theatres that are not professional or commercial, and are centres of various experiments in theme, content, and production;[223] group theatres use the proscenium stage to highlight socially relevant messages.[221]:99[224] Chitpur locality of the city houses multiple production companies of jatra, a tradition of folk drama popular in rural Bengal.[225][226] Kolkata is the home of the Bengali cinema industry, dubbed "Tollywood" for Tollygunj, where most of the state's film studios are located.[227] Its long tradition of art films includes globally acclaimed film directors such as Academy Award-winning director Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, and contemporary directors such as Aparna Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose and Rituparno Ghosh.[228]

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Bengali literature was modernised through the works of authors such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.[229] Coupled with social reforms led by Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and others, this constituted a major part of the Bengal Renaissance.[230] The middle and latter parts of the 20th century witnessed the arrival of post-modernism, as well as literary movements such as those espoused by the Kallol movement, hungryalists and the little magazines.[231] Large majority of publishers of the city is concentrated in and around College Street, "... a half-mile of bookshops and bookstalls spilling over onto the pavement", selling new and used books.[232]

Kalighat painting originated in 19th century Kolkata as a local style that reflected a variety of themes including mythology and quotidian life.[233] The Government College of Art and Craft, founded in 1864, has been the cradle as well as workplace of eminent artists including Abanindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, and Nandalal Bose.[234] The art college was the birthplace of the Bengal school of art that arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement reacting against the prevalent academic art styles in the early 20th century.[235][236] The Academy of Fine Arts and other art galleries hold regular art exhibitions. The city is recognised for its appreciation of Rabindra sangeet (songs written by Rabindranath Tagore) and Indian classical music, with important concerts and recitals, such as Dover Lane Music Conference, being held throughout the year; Bengali popular music, including baul folk ballads, kirtans, and Gajan festival music; and modern music, including Bengali-language adhunik songs.[237][238] Since the early 1990s, new genres have emerged, including one comprising alternative folk–rock Bengali bands.[237] Another new style, jibonmukhi gaan ("songs about life"), is based on realism.[221]:105 Key elements of Kolkata's cuisine include rice and a fish curry known as machher jhol,[239] which can be accompanied by desserts such as roshogolla, sandesh, and a sweet yoghurt known as mishti dohi. Bengal's large repertoire of seafood dishes includes various preparations of ilish, a fish that is a favourite among Calcuttans. Street foods such as beguni (fried battered eggplant slices), kati roll (flatbread roll with vegetable or chicken, mutton, or egg stuffing), phuchka (a deep-fried crêpe with tamarind sauce) and Indian Chinese cuisine from Chinatown are popular.[240][241][242][243]

Though Bengali women traditionally wear the sari, the shalwar kameez and Western attire is gaining acceptance among younger women.[244] Western-style dress has greater acceptance among men, although the traditional dhoti and kurta are seen during festivals. Durga Puja, held in September–October, is Kolkata's most important and largest festival; it is an occasion for glamorous celebrations and artistic decorations.[245][246] The Bengali New Year, known as Poila Boishak, as well as the harvest festival of Poush Parbon are among the city's other festivals; also celebrated are Kali Puja, Diwali, Holi, Jagaddhatri Puja, Saraswati Puja, Rathayatra, Janmashtami, Maha Shivratri, Vishwakarma Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Ganesh Chathurthi, Makar Sankranti, Gajan, Kalpataru Day, Bhai Phonta, Maghotsab, Eid, Muharram, Christmas, Buddha Purnima and Mahavir Jayanti. Cultural events include the Rabindra Jayanti, Independence Day(15 August), Republic Day(26 January), Kolkata Book Fair, the Dover Lane Music Festival, the Kolkata Film Festival, Nandikar's National Theatre Festival, Statesman Vintage & Classic Car Rally and Gandhi Jayanti.

Media

See also: Kolkata in the media and List of Bengali-language television channels

A five storied building in cream colour with multiple columns in front

Akashvani Bhawan, the head office of state-owned All India Radio, Kolkata

The first newspaper in India, the Bengal Gazette started publishing from the city in 1780.[247] Among Kolkata's widely circulated Bengali-language newspapers are Anandabazar Patrika, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Aajkaal, Dainik Statesman and Ganashakti.[248] The Statesman and The Telegraph are two major English-language newspapers that are produced and published from Kolkata. Other popular English-language newspapers published and sold in Kolkata include The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and the Asian Age.[248] As the largest trading centre in East India, Kolkata has several high-circulation financial dailies, including The Economic Times, The Financial Express, Business Line, and Business Standard.[248][249] Vernacular newspapers, such as those in the Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Odia, Punjabi, and Chinese languages, are read by minorities.[248][103] Major periodicals based in Kolkata include Desh, Sananda, Saptahik Bartaman, Unish-Kuri, Anandalok, and Anandamela.[248] Historically, Kolkata has been the centre of the Bengali little magazine movement.[250][251]

All India Radio, the national state-owned radio broadcaster, airs several AM radio stations in the city.[252] Kolkata has 12 local radio stations broadcasting on FM, including two from AIR.[253] India's state-owned television broadcaster, Doordarshan, provides two free-to-air terrestrial channels,[254] while a mix of Bengali, Hindi, English, and other regional channels are accessible via cable subscription, direct-broadcast satellite services, or internet-based television.[255][256][257] Bengali-language 24-hour television news channels include ABP Ananda, Tara Newz, Kolkata TV, 24 Ghanta, News Time and Channel 10.[258]

Sports

See also: Football in Kolkata, Kolkata Marathon, and Kolkata derby

Salt Lake Stadium during Indian Super League opening ceremony

The most popular sports in Kolkata are football and cricket. Unlike most parts of India, the residents show significant passion for football.[259] The city is home to top national football clubs such as Mohun Bagan A.C., East Bengal F.C., Prayag United S.C., and the Mohammedan Sporting Club.[260][261] Calcutta Football League, which was started in 1898, is the oldest football league in Asia.[262] Mohun Bagan A.C., one of the oldest football clubs in Asia, is the only organisation to be dubbed a "National Club of India".[263][264] Football matches between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, dubbed as the Kolkata derby, witness large audience attendance and rivalry between patrons.[265]

A Twenty20 cricket match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Pune Warriors during Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens

As in the rest of India, cricket is popular in Kolkata and is played on grounds and in streets throughout the city.[266][267] Kolkata has the Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders; the Cricket Association of Bengal, which regulates cricket in West Bengal, is also based in the city. Kolkata also has an Indian Super League franchise known as Atlético de Kolkata. Tournaments, especially those involving cricket, football, badminton, and carrom, are regularly organised on an inter-locality or inter-club basis.[211] The Maidan, a vast field that serves as the city's largest park, hosts several minor football and cricket clubs and coaching institutes.[268]

Eden Gardens, which has a capacity of 68,000 as of 2017,[269] hosted the final match of the 1987 Cricket World Cup. It is home to the Bengal cricket team and the Kolkata Knight Riders.

The multi-use Salt Lake Stadium, also known as Yuva Bharati Krirangan, is India's largest stadium by seating capacity. Most matches of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup were played in the Salt Lake Stadium including both Semi-Final matches and the Final match. Kolkata also accounted for 45% of total attendance in 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup with an average of 55,345 spectators.[270] The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is the second-oldest cricket club in the world.[271][272]

Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Stadium served as host of the 1981 Asian Basketball Championship, where India's national basketball team finished 5th, ahead of teams that belong to Asia's basketball elite, such as Iran. The city has three 18-hole golf courses. The oldest is at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, the first golf club built outside the United Kingdom.[273][274] The other two are located at the Tollygunge Club and at Fort William. The Royal Calcutta Turf Club hosts horse racing and polo matches.[275] The Calcutta Polo Club is considered the oldest extant polo club in the world.[276][277][278] The Calcutta Racket Club is a squash and racquet club in Kolkata. It was founded in 1793, making it one of the oldest rackets clubs in the world, and the first in the Indian subcontinent.[279][280] The Calcutta South Club is a venue for national and international tennis tournaments; it held the first grass-court national championship in 1946.[281][282] In the period 2005–2007, Sunfeast Open, a tier-III tournament on the Women's Tennis Association circuit, was held in the Netaji Indoor Stadium; it has since been discontinued.[283][284]

The Calcutta Rowing Club hosts rowing heats and training events. Kolkata, considered the leading centre of rugby union in India, gives its name to the oldest international tournament in rugby union, the Calcutta Cup.[285][286][287] The Automobile Association of Eastern India, established in 1904,[288][289] and the Bengal Motor Sports Club are involved in promoting motor sports and car rallies in Kolkata and West Bengal.[290][291] The Beighton Cup, an event organised by the Bengal Hockey Association and first played in 1895, is India's oldest field hockey tournament; it is usually held on the Mohun Bagan Ground of the Maidan.[292][293] Athletes from Kolkata include Sourav Ganguly and Pankaj Roy, who are former captains of the Indian national cricket team; Olympic tennis bronze medallist Leander Paes, golfer Arjun Atwal, and former footballers Sailen Manna, Chuni Goswami, P. K. Banerjee, and Subrata Bhattacharya

Yurt inside (2) by Avid Snapper

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Kyrgyz aretfacts relating to the Yurt which was based at the Earth Centre, Conisbrough, Doncaster Museum of Sustainability 1999-2004

Yurts

For over a thousand years tents like the yurt and ger have been homes for the nomads of Central Asia.

The yurt was used as a classroom yurt and housed a fascinating exhibition on the sustainable and nomadic lifestyle of the Kyrgyz people.

The felt yurt was made for Earth Centre by a Yurt Master in Kyrgyzstan. The roof is steeply sloped to protect against the rain and snow in the high mountain regions where the nomads lived. The felt covers are laid on a trellis frame usually made of willow. The yurt is light and easy to put up, to pull down and to carry from place to place. It would have taken two camels to transport a yurt this size. Inside, the damp wool smell of the felt is quite distinctive.

The Kyrgyz nomads depended on their animals; sheep, especially, provided their main diet of milk and meat, the hides and wool for their clothing and felt, bones to make into utensils and toys and dung for fuel. Nothing was wasted in the nomadic lifestyle.

List of the Photographs and Photographic Negatives Relating to the War for the Union now in the War Department Library, 1897 by The History of Photography Archive

1

Maker:

Born: USA

Active: USA

Medium: catalog

Size: 5 3/4 in x 9 in

Location:

Object No. 2020.369a

Shelf: E-43

Publication: List of the Photographs and Photographic Negatives Relating to the War for the Union, now in the War Department Library, Subject Catalogue No. 5, Washington, D. C. Government Printing Office, 1897

Other Collections:

Provenance:

Notes: Once part of the War Department Library and cataloged and published as "List of the Photographs and Photographic Negatives Relating to the War for the Union" (War Department Subject Catalogue No. 5, 1897, the records include photographs from the Matthew B. Brady collection, purchased for $27,840 by the War Department in 1874 and 1875, photographs from the Quartermaster's Department of the Corps of Engineers, and photographs private citizens donated to the War Department. The pictures are now in the Still Picture Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

To view our archive organized by Collections, visit: OUR COLLECTIONS

For information about reproducing this image, visit: THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE

Bangor RFC V Dundalk RFC Irish Junior Cup Final 31st January 2015 reach for him by John Mooney

Dundalk overwhelm Bangor in All Ireland Final

by Roger Corbett

Bangor’s amazing run in the All Ireland Junior Cup came to an abrupt end when they were comprehensively beaten by Dundalk, eventually losing by 55-5.

Where do you start when trying to relate and absorb the events of Saturday’s final at Chambers Park? Firstly, congratulations to worthy winners Dundalk who nullified the Bangor attack, then went on to produce some stunning plays which racked up no less than 8 tries, each by a different player. For Bangor’s part, they were unable to respond to the intensity of Dundalk’s game, and lacked the cutting edge which their opponents used to great effect.

The day started full of promise, as the strong support from North Down made their way to Chambers Park in Portadown, knowing Bangor would be fielding their best team. Once again, the pundits had Bangor as the underdogs – just as they had done so in the previous three rounds! In confounding the experts earlier, Bangor produced some awesome performances against top quality opposition to get to the final. Dundalk had produced some convincing wins in the early rounds of the competition, but had struggled to get past CIYMS in the semi-final, just managing to squeeze ahead at the second time of asking. However, with a number of key players returning to the side in time for this game, they were now back at full strength and would be a formidable force to contend with.

Having won the toss, captain Jamie Clegg elected to play into the stiff wind in the first half. For the first 5 minutes, Bangor doggedly retained possession and tried to play their way into Dundalk’s half through a series of determined forward moves. However, little ground was made and, when possession was finally lost, the Dundalk back line produced a burst that simply cut through the Bangor defence resulting in an easy touch down under Bangor’s posts for a 7-0 lead.

Bangor stuck to their plan and slowly, but patiently, got their attack moving forward, eventually winning a penalty to the left of Dundalk’s posts, but Mark Widdowson’s kick into the wind drifted just wide of the mark.

The contrast in play between the two teams was becoming clear, with Bangor trying to keep the ball close while Dundalk were throwing it wide. The latter strategy was proving to be the more effective as, with 20 minutes gone, a quick back line move with players looping around resulted in an overlap on the right wing which gave a clear run in to again, score under the posts. A further 9 minutes later, they did it again and, although the Bangor defence had sensed the danger and moved across to cover it, their tackling let them down allowing Dundalk to get over in the right hand corner, taking their lead to 19-0.

By now, Bangor were trying to hang on until half time when they could regroup and come out with the wind at their backs. Dundalk, on the other hand were anxious to press home their advantage and give them a more comfortable lead. To Bangor’s credit, although camped on their own line for lengthy spells, they dug in and managed to hold on until the referee’s half time whistle.

As the teams reappeared from the dressing rooms, it was obvious Bangor were ringing the changes, particularly in the backs. With the wind advantage having lessened considerably, Bangor got the second half underway. It was now Dundalk’s turn to adopt the slow, steady approach, just as Bangor had done earlier. However, their more confident off-loading and support play was, once again, taking play deep into Bangor’s territory. Frustration at not being able to gain possession and take play out of their danger area eventually resulted in a yellow card for Clegg after a succession of penalties. Dundalk kicked the penalty to touch, won their lineout and drove for the line. Although initially held up by the Bangor defence, Dundalk’s repeated drives were eventually rewarded with another converted score, extending their lead to 26-0.

From the touchline, the Bangor faithful had felt that if their players had managed to score first in the second half, they may have been able to mount a fight-back and close the gap to their opponents. As it was, this Dundalk score simply bolstered their confidence and pushed Bangor deeper into trouble. With Bangor still a man down, Dundalk added to the score with a penalty and then another score in the corner. Everything was now working for the Leinster men, as even the difficult touchline conversion into the biting wind successfully split the posts, bringing the score to 36-0.

As the game entered the final quarter, and with Dundalk all but holding the cup, Bangor were now on the ropes. By contrast, the Dundalk players were in almost total control, and were not going to slow down now. In a 10 minute spell, they ran in a further 3 tries, making the scoreline 55-0. By now, any sense of dejection the Bangor supporters may have been feeling was now moved to feelings of sympathy for their players. However, pride was at stake and once again Bangor rallied as the game entered its final minutes. At last, the forwards got within striking distance of the Dundalk line and, although their repeated attacks were repelled, they finally managed to do what their opponents had done so effectively, and quickly passed the ball wide to Davy Charles. Even though they were 55 points ahead, the Dundalk defence made Charles work hard to drive through the tackles and score Bangor’s consolation try, bringing the final score to 55-5.

From Bangor’s point of view, the final score doesn’t tell the whole story of this competition. While the final may have resulted in a sad anti-climax for Bangor, the remarkable journey to get there will be remembered for some time. On the day, Dundalk were by far the better side, and Bangor would have to concede that their game was not up to the usual standard. However, there is no doubt the experience of competing at this level is something to relish and the goal now will be to secure a top four place in the league and try again next year.

Everybody at the club has nothing but the highest respect and praise for what has been achieved this year by not just the 1sts, but all the senior teams, and one poor result isn’t going to change that – the welcome at Upritchard Park for the returning players is testament to that. With that in mind, the players now need to put this disappointment behind them and provide the best possible response against a struggling Portadown side at home in the league next Saturday.

Bangor side: J Leary, A Jackson, P Whyte, F Black, G Irvine, R Latimer, J Clegg, C Stewart, R Armstrong, K Rosson, D Charles, M Aspley, M Weir, M Widdowson, C Morgan

Subs: S Irvine, O McIlmurray, D Kelly, M Rodgers, C Harper, D Fusco, M Thompson

Bangor scores: D Charles (1T)

Dundalk Storm To Title Dundalk 55 v Bangor 5 from KnockOn.ie

Dundalk Scorers: Christopher Scully, Owen McNally, Jonathan Williams, John Smyth, Ultan Murphy, Tiernan Gonnelly, James McConnon and Stephen Murphy 1 try each. Ultan Murphy 6 cons, 1 pen.

Bangor Scorers: David Charles 1 try.

In front of a big crowd at Chambers Park on Saturday afternoon Dundalk delivered a stunning and ruthless display to see off the challenge of Bangor and capture the All Ireland Junior Cup title for the very first time.

Three first half tries had them firmly in control at 19-0 ahead having played with the elements at the Portadown venue during the first half and while the wind dropped somewhat after half time the Dundalk intensity most certainly didn’t as they cut loose scoring five more tries.

Dundalk returned to a heroes welcome at their Mill Road clubhouse on Saturday night after a display of pure brilliance throughout the afternoon.

Precision, pace and skill from the Louth men from start to finish left Bangor playing second fiddle for long periods.

Xxx 1K - 2 Home sweet home by antefixus21

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A variety of light necklaces from Mexico relating to the Huichol ceremonies. The necklace on the right relates to corn and a stone representing the eye of a deer, two of the three parts of their Holy Trinity, peyote being the third part shown with the drum. The necklace on the left indicates their sacred mushrooms.

The colourful necklace:

A God's eye is a yarn weaving and a spiritual object. The Ojo de Dios (Eye of God in Spanish) is woven with yarn and wood, often with several colors. The weaving of an Ojo de Dios is an ancient contemplative and spiritual practice for many indigenous peoples in the Americas, and beliefs surrounding them vary with location and history. Some people believe they were originally part of the sophisticated religion of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples.

In many of the Pueblos of New Mexico (U.S.) Ojos de Dios have traditionally been created for celebration or blessing, presented as a gift or designed to bless a home. Often they reflect a confidence in all-seeing Providence. The spiritual eye has the power to see and understand things unknown to the physical eye. During Spanish colonial times in New Mexico, from the 1500s to the 1800s, Ojos de Dios were placed where people worked, or where they walked along a trail (Mager, 2012).

Traditional Ojos de Dios are frequently woven in solitude, as part of an extended meditation or prayer. In other settings, their construction is one aspect of longstanding communal engagement and connection. For centuries, young people in the mountains of New Mexico have made Ojos de Dios in learning circles (wisdom circles) with their elders. In other parts of the 'New World' they were used as ritual objects or for rites of passage. Today, artisans weave complicated or variegated versions of the traditional Ojo de Dios, selling them as decorations or religious objects. There has also been a huge increase in the use of Ojos de Dios as an easy and fun craft for children, but with the meditative and collaborative aspects removed.

The Ojo de Dios or God's eye is a ritual tool, magical object, and cultural symbol evoking the weaving motif and its spiritual associations for the Huichol and Tepehuan Indians of western Mexico. The God's Eye is symbolic of the power of seeing and understanding that which is unknown and unknowable, The Mystery. The four points represent the elemental processes: earth, fire, air, and water. The Huichol call their God's eyes Sikuli, which means "the power to see and understand things unknown." When a child is born, the central eye is woven by the father, then one eye is added for every year of the child's life until the child reaches the age of five. Original Tepehuan Crosses are extremely rare to come by. There are many that are being made for the tourist market, but they do not carry the same traditional and spiritual significance.

www.flickr.com/photos/21728045@N08/2489621591/in/photolis...

On Oct. 18, 2020 1:40 AM. I was surprised to see this co. advertised on Canadian CTV.

numinus.ca/

Bangor RFC V Dundalk RFC Irish Junior Cup Final 31st January 2015 engulfed by John Mooney