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Maj. Gen. Al Aycock, deputy commanding general and chief of staff of U.S. Army Installation Management Command, was honored with a ceremony commemorating his service at IMCOM June 7. His wife, Sue, joined him. Aycock, who has served with IMCOM since February 2009, is leaving the command headquarters to become director of operations for the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Installation Management (ACSIM) in Washington, D.C.
IMCOM Commanding General Rick Lynch presented Aycock with a Distinguished Service Medal.
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About the U.S. Army Installation Management Community:
IMCOM handles the day-to-day operations of U.S. Army installations around the globe - We are the Army's Home. Army installations are communities that provide many of the same types of services expected from any small city. Fire, police, public works, housing, and child-care are just some of the things IMCOM does in Army communities every day. We endeavor to provide a quality of life for Soldiers, Civilians and Families commensurate with their service. Our professional workforce strives to deliver on the commitments of the Army Family Covenant, honor the sacrifices of military Families, and enable the Army Force Generation cycle.
Our Mission: To provide standardized, effective and efficient services, facilities and infrastructure to Soldiers, Civilians and Families for an Army and Nation engaged in persistent conflict.
Our Vision: Army installations are the Department of Defense standard for infrastructure quality and are the provider of consistent, quality services that are a force multiplier in supported organizations' mission accomplishment, and materially enhance Soldier, Civilian and Family well-being and readiness.
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Since Flickr resizes all my wallpapers to a ridiculously tiny 1024x640 resolution, go to my dA gallery nes--still-the-best.deviantart.com/gallery/ to look at and download the full sized, better quality versions (1600x1200 for 4:3 ratio, or 1920x1200, for widescreen).
Since I had gotten up early for the Venus Moon and Saturn lineup I knew about where Venus was in relation to the moon so I went out to see if I could find it during the day and sure enough, it's bright enough to spot!
This isn't really a photo I'd expect to get faves or comments on, I just thought it pretty cool that it's actually possible to see. Try it if you get out before the moon sets.
You can now buy a little landspeeder for your kid, just like the one Luke drove on Tatooine. But it has wheels - I'd hold off until they can develop real air speeder hovering technology.
since this is technically my art journal ;) , i'm trying out a new way of journalling. i know it's less personal to type but it lets me get my thoughts out so much quicker. i like embellishing the text pages too.
Since the theme is "Masks," I decided to do an empty smile since I have friends who deal with depression. It's a bit uncanon, I know, but it's personal. So yeah.
Designed and folded by me from one uncut square.
Since the 1980s there have been hundreds of public toilets closed or disaffected in Hamburg, a sad loss of urbanity. This one in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, Behringstraße on the corner of Hohenzollernring has been turned into a small art gallery named 'Bedürfnisanstalt'. That's the official German designation for public toilets. The translation is 'institution of need'.
The area around Lübeck, today a large city with a population of more than 200,000, had been settled by Slavs since the 7th century. Slavs had a settlement north of the present city called "Liubice", which was razed by the pagan Rani tribe in 1128.
15 years later Adolf II, Count of Schauenburg and Holstein, founded the modern town as a German settlement on the river island of Bucu. He built a new castle, first mentioned as existing in 1147. Adolf II had to cede the castle to the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, in 1158. After Henry's fall from power in 1181, the town became an Imperial city. Emperor Barbarossa ordained that the city should have a ruling council of 20 members. With the council dominated by merchants, trade interests shaped Lübeck's politics for centuries.
In the 14th century, Lübeck became the "Queen of the Hanseatic League", being by far the largest and most powerful member of that medieval trade organization. In 1375, Emperor Charles IV named Lübeck one of the five "Glories of the Empire", a title shared with Venice, Rome, Pisa, and Florence.
Conflicts about trading privileges resulted in fighting between Lübeck (with the Hanseatic League) and Denmark and Norway – with varying outcome. While Lübeck and the Hanseatic League prevailed in conflicts in 1435 and 1512, Lübeck lost when it became involved in a civil war that raged in Denmark from 1534 to 1536. From then on Lübeck's power slowly declined. The city remained neutral in the Thirty Years' War, but the devastation from the decades-long war and the new transatlantic orientation of European trade caused the Hanseatic League – and thus Lübeck with it – to decline in importance. However, Lübeck still remained an important trading town on the Baltic Sea.
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When Heinrich, who had been abbot at Brunswick, was elected bishop of Lübeck in 1173, no monastery did exist here. So Bishop Heinrich sought monks from his former monastery and build a monastery. It got consecrated in 1177. A few decades later, nuns were also admitted to the monastery. But living with the nuns is said to have contributed to the bad reputation of the monastery in 1246.
In 1231 the Archbishop of Bremen confirmed the transfer of the monks because of economic and disciplinary difficulties. In 1245 Bishop of Lübeck certified the separation of the monastery, which had become a double monastery. The monks had to leave and the remaining nuns now followed the rules of the Cistercians. The legal battle that the monks fought against the decision lasted for decades and was ultimately decided in Rome.
After the Reformation, the monastery continued to exist as a convent for single women under the name "Stiftung St. Johannes-Jungfrauenkloster". After nationalization in 1803, the monastery was run as a municipal institution, the entire inventory and most of the buildings including the large Romanesque church were knocked down.
In the early 20th century the monastery property was divided. On one part, the "Gymnasium Johanneum" was built, and on the other, in 1903/1904, a new building with apartments for the elderly was erected under the name of St. Johannes-Jungfrauen-Stift, continuing the tradition of the monastery as a municipal home for the elderly.
Islamic calligraphy
From the Wikipedia:
Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing, and by extension, of bookmaking.[1] This art has most often employed the Arabic script, throughout many languages. Calligraphy is especially revered among Islamic arts since it was the primary means for the preservation of the Qur'an.
Throughout Islamic history, the work of calligraphers was collected and appreciated. Consideration of figurative art as idolatrous led to calligraphy and abstract figures becoming the main forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures.[2]
Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy is associated with geometric Islamic art (the Arabesque) on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the page. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world draw on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions in their work.
Calligraphic scripts
The first Arabic script to gain popularity was the Kufic script, which was created in 537. Kufic is angular, made of square and short horizontal strokes, long verticals, and bold, compact circles. It was the main script used to copy the Qur'an for three centuries. Its static aspect made it suitable for monumental inscriptions, too. It developed many serifs (small decorations added to each character).
More often used for casual writing was the cursive Naskh script, with rounder letters and thin lines. As techniques for writing in this style were refined, it came to be preferred to Kufic for copying the Qur'an. Naskh is the first script taught to most children. Almost all printed material in Arabic is in Naskh so, to avoid confusion, children are taught to write in the same script. It is also clearer and easier to decipher.
In the 13th century, the Thuluth script took on the ornamental role formerly associated with the Kufic script. Thuluth means "one third"; the form of Thuluth is based on the principle that one third of each letter slides downward. Thus it has a strong cursive aspect and is usually written in ample curves.
After Persia was conquered by Arabs in the 7th century, it became common to write Persian in Arabic script. The Persians contributed the Ta'liq and Nasta'liq styles to Arabic calligraphy. Nasta'liq is extremely cursive, with exaggeratedly long horizontal strokes. One of its peculiarities is that vertical strokes lean to the right rather than (as more commonly) to the left, making Nasta'liq writing flow particularly well. The Persians also developed a style called shekasteh ('broken' in Persian). Shekasteh has seldom been used for scripting Arabic texts, though it is an Arabic calligraphy style.
The Diwani script is a cursive style of Arabic calligraphy developed during the reign of the early Ottoman Turks (16th and early 17th centuries). It was invented by Housam Roumi and reached its height of popularity under Süleyman I the Magnificent (1520–66). As decorative as it was communicative, Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.
A variation of the Diwani, the Diwani Al Jali, is characterized by its abundance of diacritical and ornamental marks.
Finally, the most common script for everyday use is Ruq'ah (also known as Riq'a). Simple and easy to write, its movements are small, without much amplitude. It is the one most commonly seen. It is considered a step up from Naskh script, which children are taught first. In later grades they are introduced to Ruq'ah.
« Since the earliest days of aerial combat, air power has been a key contributor to success on the ground and at sea. The Battle of Britan was a powerful example of that principle.
By July 1940, Hitler had begun to mass invasion craft on the European coast of the English Channel in preparation for Operation Sea Lion – the invasion of the United Kingdom.
Nazi fighter aircraft flew across the Channel daily in an attempt to destroy the British air defences and establish control over the Channel. They did not succeed.
Valiant Royal Air Force pilots, supported by their dedicated and tireless ground crews, rose to the skies to meet the Nazi aggressors. By October 1940, Hitler knew he would not be able to establish air superiority over the Channel and abandoned his plans to invade England. He would never consider it again.
Air power had changed the course of the war.
Amongst the British, Commonwealth and Europeans flyers who daily pushed back the Nazi attacks were one hundred Canadians, twenty-three of whom lost their lives. Their courage, their heroism, their dedication and their sacrifices are examples to us all.
Today we commemorate the Battle of Britain, I salute the veterans of that crucial Battle, as well as the veterans of peace and conflicts throughout our aviation history. That proud history and tradition is carried with our men and women today. I salute those who today continue to serve their country with pride and professionalism, wearing Air Force blue.”
Excerpts from the message from the Lieutenant-General André Deschamps, Commander, Royal Canadian Air Force on Sunday September 18, 2011, at the Battle of Britain ceremony held at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Rockcliffe airport, CYRO, Ottawa.
« Depuis l’avènement des combats aériens, la puissance aérienne a été un atout important qui a contribué au succès au sol et en mer. La bataille d’Angleterre est un exemple solide de ce principe.
En juillet 1940, Hitler avait commencé à envahir massivement les côtes européennes de la Manche en préparation pour l’Opération Sea Lion, soit l’invasion du Royaume-Uni.
Les chasseurs nazis effectuaient quotidiennement des vols au-dessus de la Manche en vue de détruire les défenses aériennes britanniques et de prendre le contrôle de la Manche. Ils n’ont pas réussi.
De vaillants pilotes de la Royal Air Force, soutenus par leurs membres d’équipage dévoués et infatigables, ont pris les airs pour affronter leurs agresseurs nazis, Dès octobre 1940, Hitler savait qu’il ne pourrait établir sa supériorité aérienne au-dessus de la Manche et il a abandonné ses plans d’invasion de l’Angleterre. Invasion qu’il n’envisagerait jamais plus.
La puissance aérienne avait changé le cours de la guerre.
Parmi les aviateurs britanniques, européens et du Commonwealth qui repoussaient quotidiennement les attaques nazies, on comptait une centaine de Canadiens dont vingt-trois ont perdu la vie. Leur courage, leur héroïsme, leur dévouement et leur sacrifice sont des sources d’inspiration pour chacun d’entre nous.
Aujourd’hui, alors que nous commémorons la bataille d’Angleterre, je rends hommage aux participants de cette bataille décisive ainsi qu’aux anciens combattants des opérations de paix et de conflit dans toute l’histoire de l’aviation canadienne. Cette fière histoire et tradition se perpétuent avec nos hommes et femmes d’aujourd’hui. Je salue ceux et celles qui, de nos jours, continuent de servir le pays avec fierté et professionnalisme, vêtus de l’uniforme bleu de la Force aérienne. »
Extrait du message du Lieutenant –général André Deschamps, Commandant, Aviation royale du Canada le dimanche 18 septembre, lors de la cérémonie de la bataille d’Angleterre, au Musée de l’aviation et de l’espace du, aéroport de Rockcliffe, CYRO, Ottawa.
Since the Class 315 trains operating the normal service had eight carriages whilst the first Class 345 trains to enter service only had seven carriages the train describers included the shorter length of the train in its information.
Billingsgate Fish Market Canary Wharf Docklands East London J Charles LLP Aberdeen Scotland Fawsit Broken King Scallop Pecten Maximus 1 Kgs £10 good value since whole Scallops is £26
Already since carolingian times this little settlement was known for the quality of it´s wine. So in early medieval times three abbeys owned vinyards here and the village (pop. today around 1200) had already three chapels within the 9th century. One of them was founded by Richardis, wife of Charles III (aka "Charles the Fat"), and given to the abbey of Etival (60kms east) in 884. We met Richardis already before in Andlau. This chapel was replaced later by the parish church Saint-Pierre-et-Paul. A major reconstruction and expansion took place within the 19th century.
During the battle for the "Colmar Pocket" in winter 1944/1945 Sigolsheim got nearly completely destroyed. Today next to the village is the "Nécropole Nationale de Sigolsheim".
L'Église Saint-Pierre-et-Paul got as well ruined during that battle. What we see today is a "reconstruction" done between 1950 and 1960.
All the blind arcades around the church end in "faces". Most faces are human, some are faces from cats.
Here is a cat. The carver did not even try, to create a "realistic" head.
Other than lions, elephants or apes, sometimes seen on romanesque capitals, domestic cats belonged to the "normal world" of Sigolsheim. The carver created the symbol of a cat.
The cat seems very aggressive. Eyes wide open - hissing a warning..
Since 1987, Redirections Sign & Design has become one of the leading creative centers in the custom sign industry. Over the past 22 years, the company has expanded into 6 Midwest locations with corporate office and production studios headquartered in Indianapolis, IN. Their growth is attributed to Redirections' mission to bring together a team of hand-picked professionals to provide customers with beautiful custom designs in a timely manner. Certified by the National Association of Women Business Owners (WBE), Redirections Sign & Design can assist your needs to fulfill minority requirements in national projects.
The Redirections Sign & Design production facility equips the team to meet almost any custom signage need. The 30,000 square foot building includes CNC routers, vinyl and digital printers, silk-screen printing, a full-size spray booth, a complete mill shop, and also custom metal fabrication. Redirections works with several brick, stone and concrete contractors, to assure their clients have the most options possible for their signage solutions.
From banners to digital graphics, to routed and sandblasted signs, Redirections Sign & Designs’ award-winning design team and graphic technicians are ready to work with you to fulfill your project's unique signage needs. Their experience and commitment to customer satisfaction has earned them a competitive place in the sign industry.
Most importantly, Redirections’ clients are more than customers; they are partners in the creation process. Please visit Redirections Sign & Design online at www.re-directions.com to begin the creative process on your next custom signage project.
Since I last posted a photo of Transdev 451 it has had it's early completely green front end relieved with additional blue paintwork in the same style as 452.
Pictured here on Leeds Road, Thackley, it is working Keighley & District route 760 to Leeds. A former Yorkshire Coastliner & Harrogate & District Volvo B7RLE, it carries Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork and the new style Transdev in Keighley fleetnames..
Since my friends avoid to get in front of the camera, I have to take pictures of things, that doesn't try to escape. :)
When I took this photograph and looked back at it I suddenly realised how long it had been since I’ve seen the stars, this is because over the past few months I’ve been preoccupied with shooting while the Moon illuminates the sky. This seems odd as the photograph at the top of my “want” list is a photograph with the Milky Way in, and I have made frequent attempts this year but have as yet been unsuccessful.
This was taken near the end of my walk around Killingworth Lake, I had just taken an extremely wide photograph of a bench beside the path, but as I started walking away I noticed a bench wrapped around. Thanks to the trees I was able to hide one of the street lights which enabled me to create the appearance of dense frost making its way across the frame. It was a frosty night but due to the light reflecting off the ground during the long exposure it appears a lot worse than it was.
It’s the winter solstice tomorrow, and at the same time the Moon sets long before it’ll get dark, hopefully I’ll get out and capture some beautiful shots of the stars.
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May 12
China was hit by a magnitude-8 earthquake near the central city of Chengdu, leaving at least 30.000 people dead and causing buildings to shake in Beijing, more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away.
The quake struck 92 kilometers west-northwest of Chengdu at 2:28 p.m. local time, at a depth of 10 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. A magnitude-6 quake struck the area about 15 minutes later. Chengdu is the provincial capital of Sichuan and has a population of about 11 million.
City was lucky though cos earthquake didn't cause any serious damage. Some died jumping out the windows.
Most of the people decided to sleep outside afraid of aftershocks. So did I.
All we could do was watching news on telly, trying to organize some help. But after all it always comes a point when you have to face the consciousness of one's helplessness.
You stay in the city, thinking that everything's gonna be all right now and then you hear those rumors spreading around that another earthquake is coming, water is polluted etc.
That only causes panic on the streets.
I heard about people fighting in front of the supermarket. Everyone was trying to buy water. These days it turned out to be more precious than ever.
Juice, milk, sprite, pepsi...in few houres shelves were totally empty.
I'm still thinking the hype was a little bit overblown and people simply overreacted but can we blame them now?
Since the spring of 2013 this site in Trafford Wharf Road close to neighbouring MediaCityUK is now the home of the Rovers Return, the Kabin, Kevin Webster's garage, Roy's Rolls and the Underworld factory. The previous Granada TV site in Quay Street in Manchester city centre dating from the 1960s was deemed too small for the modern-day Coronation Street set to be filmed in so this new site over in Trafford Wharf was constructed instead, with more room for Britain's most famous television street to be filmed in and with more room for special effects and dramatic storylines.
The Real Hong Kong Car Culture
Hong Kong Car | Automotive Photography since 2011
For a detailed introduction | guide on Hong Kong Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates click on the link below to learn more :
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/hk-car-vanity-plates
One of the largest collections of quality Hong Kong Car Images and specialising in Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates or as the Hong Kong Government likes to call them - Vehicle Registration Marks
I photograph all car brands and please do bear in mind I am an enthusiastic amateur and NOT a professional photographer but I do have a fairly distinctive style and it has got better over the years.
☛.... and if you want to read about my views on Hong Kong, then go to my blog, link is shown below, I have lived in Hong Kong for over 50 years!
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/j3c-blog
☛ Photography is simply a hobby for me, I do NOT sell my images and all of my images can be FREELY downloaded from this site in the original upload image size or 5 other sizes, please note that you DO NOT have to ask for permission to download and use any of my images!
Since Victorian times grouse shooting has been a country sport. Red grouse cannot be bred in captivity easily, so gamekeepers look after the moors to suit the grouse. Red grouse need young heather with tender, green shoots for feeding and older, taller heather in which to shelter and build nests. Gamekeepers achieve this by burning small areas of old heather every year, which encourages new heather plants to grow. Grouse moor management also involves routine control of predators such as foxes, crows and stoats.
I took this photo on 11th August. They had better keep their heads down, because 12th August is known as The Glorious Twelfth , the official start of the four-month shooting season for red grouse in the UK and Ireland, and traditionally the busiest day of the shooting season. Grouse shooting began back in 1853 when railways made it easier for people to get to the moors.
But not everyone finds the 12th August ‘glorious’. Animal rights activists argue that the sport – which is traditionally an aristocratic hobby – results in the illegal killing of other animals, such as mountain hares, hen harriers, foxes and stoats which are often culled to protect grouse and their chicks. Meanwhile, environmentalists have raised concerns that burning moors increases carbon emissions and the risk of wildfires and flooding.
Because the birds aren’t bred in captivity Grouse numbers fluctuate each year, and so some years are more fruitful than others for grouse shooting.
I Decided To Enter Another Contest At SCF
Here Is The Body Shot I Did
Dress is PSed, Shoes Were Drawn On ... Ummm Pose Was Frankenstiened, And Yes Boobs Are Fake And Her Expressions Is Editted.
Since the Iconoclasts did their worst on the building I guess this is a 19th century replacement. Well carved this is one of the Evangelists.
Since August 2014, lava has gushed from fissures just north of Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest glacier. As of January 6, 2015, the Holuhraun lava field had spread across more than 84 square kilometers (32 square miles), making it larger than the island of Manhattan. Holuhraun is Iceland’s largest basaltic lava flow since the Laki eruption in 1783–84, an event that killed 20 percent of the island’s population.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this view of the lava field on January 3, 2015. The false-color images combine shortwave infrared, near infrared, and red light (OLI bands 6-5-4). The plume of steam and sulfur dioxide appears white. Newly-formed basaltic rock is black. Fresh lava is bright orange. A lava lake is visible on the western part of the lava field, and steam rises from the eastern margin where the lava meets the Jökulsá á Fjöllum River. Beyond the growth of the lava field, much of the flow was in lava rivers on the surface in September, while in January much of the lava was delivered to the eastern edge through a closed channel.
Since we moved to the US and had our first proper Christmas Tree, we have bought one Coca-Cola ornament each year. This is the 5th (and definitely most fragile)
www.arqueologiadelperu.com/modern-humans-occupied-mas-daz...
A team of archaeologists and geoarchaeologists from Inrap and the Traces Laboratory (CNRS – Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès) have been working since 2011, under prescription of the State (Drac Midi-Pyrénées), in the cave-tunnel of Mas d'Azil, in the Ariège region of France.
Archaeologists work in the Mas d'Azil cave in Le Mas-d'Azil, southern France [Credit: AFP/Remy Gabalda]
This rescue and research operation is part of a vast project to better understand this site and improve its presentation to the public. The multiple rescue operations are linked to various tourist installations in the cave (visitor's pathway and welcome center, etc.) and to renovating the departmental highway running through it to make it safer.
This work is accompanied by a complete archaeological and geological study of the cave, consisting of a meticulous study focused on its prehistoric occupations during the last great glaciation (between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago). The cave also provides useful climatic information, attesting to alternating periods of hostile cold and more temperate phases, during which prehistoric humans ventured inside the cave.A new scenario for the history of the cave
The researchers have thus revealed a new history of human presence at the foot of the Pyrenees. The unearthing of an Aurignacian occupation linked to the first arrival of modern humans in this part of Europe is a major discovery.
The cave of Mas-d'Azil is a large, 500 metre long tunnel dug by the Arize River through a wall of the Massif Plantaurelin, part of the Ariege Pyrenees [Credit: © Denis Gliksman, Inrap]
The Prehistory of Mas d'Azil now begins with the arrival, 35,000 BC, of the first Upper Paleolithic populations (called the Aurignacians, and the artists of Chauvet Cave). They were followed much later by Magdalenian people who ventured into the cave during a milder climatic period.
In this immense cavern, they left numerous and famous portable art objects, as well as artistic depictions on the cave walls. At the end of the Pleistocene, when the climate became warmer, a new civilization emerged, the Azilian, which was named after this cave.All of the Upper Paleolithic is present in the Mas d'Azil Cave
Extensively explored since 1860, the right bank of the Mas d'Azil Cave largely suffered from its early discovery. Until recently, it was thought that only a bit of spoil from the early excavations remained, but recent rescue archaeology operations have now revealed a long stratigraphy several meters deep.
Archaeologists have established that the cave was occupied by the first modern European man 35,000 years ago [Credit: © Denis Gliksman, Inrap]
During the glacial periods of the Quaternary, the Arize River deposited sedimentary layers (pebbles, sands and silt) that nearly filled in the cave. These previously unknown periods of flooding in the cave are very important for understanding the history of its formation, as well as of the evolution of the Pyrenean valleys.
Most of the oldest layers, which were sealed by these river deposits, can be attributed to the Aurignacian period (35,000-33,000 BC).
When the climate later became warmer, the Arize River regained its erosive power and re-cut through its own deposits, making the cave accessible to humans once again.
The later layers date to 14,700 BC and lie directly above the river deposits: the Magdalenian occupation thus followed this flooding and filling phase in the cave. Another important element has now been revealed at Mas d'Azil: it was previously thought that Aurignacians did not live deep in caves, but their occupations have now been found inside this cave. This is a major discovery. Modern prehistoric archaeology techniques now enable researchers to replace some of the old artefact collections, kept in museums, into their original context.
Archaeologists exploring the cave of Mas d'Azil [Credit: © Denis Gliksman, Inrap]
The discovery of a complex stratigraphic sequence, with many Aurignacian artifacts at its base, contributes important new elements to our knowledge of Prehistory. The study of this new stratigraphy, an understanding of its formation processes, and the extension of this archaeological and geoarchaeological study throughout the cave, are all very promising.
This research sheds new light on the Aurignacian period in the French Central Pyrenees. The prehistoric human occupations in this vast valley bottom could have been very different from, or complementary to, those found in the "small” caves often perched high above the landscape, and which until now were almost the only ones known.The Mas d'Azil Cave and Prehistory
Research began at this paleontological and prehistoric site as early as the 1840's by Father Pouech when the genie imperial planned to construct the road traversing the cave. Félix Garrigou described its general stratigraphy in 1867. During these years, thousands of flint tools and hundreds of portable art objects were extracted from the cave. In 1901-1902, Henri Breuil defined the chronology of the Magdalenian culture based on the excavations at Mas d'Azil, and discovered the first remains of parietal art in the cavern (depictions of bison, horse, felines, fish, etc.).
The entry of the River Arize to the southern side of the Grotte [Credit: © Denis Gliksman, Inrap]
From 1936 to 1958, Joseph Mandement discovered numerous galleries until then unknown. But it was Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart who, from 1935 to 1942, excavated deep in the cave and uncovered one of the rare "deep-cave dwellings”, along with some Magdalenian artistic masterpieces: spearthrowers, pierced batons, cut-out figures, etc. Since this date, only occasional research has been conducted in the cave. The right bank, where the decorated galleries are located, was since considered sterile.
The Mas d'Azil Cave is the eponymous site of the last culture of the Upper Paleolithic before the start of a new era, the Azilian, defined by Edourd Piette in 1887-1889 based on his work in the vast site on the left bank of the cave. This Epipaleolithic culture, meaning between the Upper Paleolithic and the Mesolithic, followed by the Neolithic, is characterized by perforated red deer harpoons; very short endscrapers and more or less geometric weapon armatures (Azilian points). Art is represented by painted or engraved pebbles.
Unique in the world, Mas d'Azil is also open to the public. Visitors are invited to discover the galleries on the right bank of the Arize. Beginning in the middle of the cave, this underground system is a complex succession of chambers and galleries that are deep and obscure. The entire section that is open to the public was renovated in 2013.Source: Inrap [June 01, 2015]
The Real Hong Kong Car Culture
Hong Kong Car | Automotive Photography since 2011
For a detailed introduction | guide on Hong Kong Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates click on the link below to learn more :
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/hk-car-vanity-plates
One of the largest collections of quality Hong Kong Car Images and specialising in Car Licence Plates | Car Vanity Plates or as the Hong Kong Government likes to call them - Vehicle Registration Marks
I photograph all car brands and please do bear in mind I am an enthusiastic amateur and NOT a professional photographer but I do have a fairly distinctive style and it has got better over the years.
☛.... and if you want to read about my views on Hong Kong, then go to my blog, link is shown below, I have lived in Hong Kong for over 50 years!
✚ www.j3consultantshongkong.com/j3c-blog
☛ Photography is simply a hobby for me, I do NOT sell my images and all of my images can be FREELY downloaded from this site in the original upload image size or 5 other sizes, please note that you DO NOT have to ask for permission to download and use any of my images!
Dear friends,
It’s been quite some time since my last collection was released, but now it’s finally here and online. The big bummer, however, is: I can’t ship to all countries at the moment! There might be a chance to ship to the US starting on May 11th, but for a higher price than usual. Europe only has few restricted countries left. If you want to know more, you can visit the info page by Deutsche Post: www.deutschepost.de/en/c/coronavirus.html
Be assured, if you miss out on a certain design during these strange and challenging times – contact me and I’ll make sure that I’ll sew another copy for you ; )!
The collection is called “Shine” and you’ll find some cute yoga / home work out fashions there, as well as some bright prints and basic pieces. Don’t let anything dull your light – keep on shining!
Dearest greetings,
Nina & Gigi
Since its founding in 1702, St Petersburgs Peter and Paul Fortress has been used as a prison to hold high ranking or political prisoners
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
Since 2006, Millsaps College and the Midtown neighborhood have come together for the 1 Campus 1 Community Block Party, which is a celebration of community through food, games, music, dancing, sports, art, and informative activities. This year, the University of Mississippi School of Nursing and the UNCARE Health Clinic in the Midtown neighborhood of Jackson offered BMI measurements and took blood pressure readings. The School of Dental Hygiene at UMC provided information about good dental habits, free toothbrushes and toothpaste, and offered interactive games. Members of the Millsaps College Pre-Health Society, Alpha Epsilon Delta, volunteered their time and provided blood sugar testing and information about healthy eating. The Mississippi Roadmap to Health Equity and FoodCorps also offered healthy eating activities.
Since I didn't like the beige painted grill, I decided to replace it with a plain gray one. But before I did, I thought this would be a cool preview to see what vehicle damage could look like for later models.
I’ve been telling the “coffee twins” who fetch me my coffee at the local coffee shop I frequent that I’d make it to one of their performances ever since they were still in high school. One of the identical twins plays the trombone and even some Jazz trombone. The “evil twin” plays the drums as most “evil twins” do.
Last night (Friday), the “good twin” trombone player was playing with a horn section in a band opening at a fairly major music venue at a Jersey Shore town really close to me. Let’s just say it wouldn’t be unusual for “The Boss” to show up there and jump up on stage for a song or two.
I arrived at the venue and found the trombone playing “good twin” sitting at a table across from the stage with a black “Mark of Shame” on his wrist. The venue is 21 years and older and, at still 18, venue security was NOT HAPPY at having to let a child into the building. The “good twin” told me, “They put this big mark on my hand and banished me to this table. I’m not allowed to move.” Then he told me, “Then security went and pointed me out to every bartender and told them to make sure that they didn’t serve me.”
Getting served the hard stuff isn’t normally a problem for him when he plays at any of the many local Irish pubs here on the shore. I don’t think he would have even tried to get served last night because he told me that he had stopped at McDonalds for dinner before showing up and was feeling a little queasy. I’m not sure what he ate at McDonalds, but at 18, he’s probably still eating the “Happy Meal.”
We watched the first opening band which played a set of about 6 songs (not counting the “Happy Birthday” they sang to one of their members). They were excellent and their female lead singer/keyboard player had the voice of an angel. Aggie Ring loved her singing and bought their CD.
After the first opening act, under the watchful eyes of security, “Good Twin Coffee Boy” left his table of banishment, grabbed his trombone, and began setting up on stage with the band he plays with when they need a horn section. “Coffee boy” was certainly the youngest musician in the band. Most of the other members looked between 30 and 40. (Note: They probably weren’t quite that old, but the hard life of a musician ages you rapidly).
The identical twins’ boss, a retired Army NCO I’m friends with has always told me that they’re good. I just brushed that off thinking, “Well, they work for him. Of course he’s going to say that.”
Cutting to the chase, the entire band was totally amazing. They style was a Rock/Jazz/Funk that Aggie Ring was quite pleased with. When “coffee boy” started playing his trombone, Texas Aggie Ring said, “I’ll be God damned. He really can play.” I’ve been around a trombone player or two, believe me. Apparently, he is one of those “natural musicians” who can run through a piece once or twice and then play it perfectly from then on.
On the way home, Aggie Ring told me, “You need to start tipping him better. He’s been talking about wanting to buy a new mouthpiece.” I told Aggie Ring, “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”