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I was in the mood to try and draw Unisphere. So I tried. And I made this little poster in the NY World's Fair's quintessential orange and blue color scheme.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Alexander Martin Lippisch (November 2, 1894 – February 11, 1976) was a German aeronautical engineer, a pioneer of aerodynamics who made important contributions to the understanding of flying wings, delta wings and the ground effect.
After working intially for the Zeppelin company, Reichsluftfahrtsministerium (RLM, Reich Aviation Ministry) transferred Lippisch and his team in 1939 to work at the Messerschmitt factory, in order to design a high-speed fighter aircraft around the rocket engines then under development by Hellmuth Walter. The team quickly adapted their most recent design, the DFS 194, to rocket power, the first example successfully flying in early 1940. This successfully demonstrated the technology for what would become the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, his most famous design.
In 1943, Lippisch transferred to Vienna’s Aeronautical Research Institute (Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Wien, LFW), to concentrate on the problems of high-speed flight.That same year, he was awarded a doctoral degree in engineering by the University of Heidelberg. However, his research work did not stop Lippisch from designing further, mostly jet-powered and tailless fighter aircraft, e. g. for Henschel.
In early 1944, the RLM became aware of Allied jet developments and the high altitude B-29 in the Pacific TO, which was expected to appear soon over Europe, too. In response, the RLM instituted the Emergency Fighter Program, which took effect on July 3, 1944, ending production of most bomber and multi-role aircraft in favour of fighters, especially jet fighters. Additionally, they accelerated the development of experimental designs that would guarantee a performance edge over the Allied opponents, and designs that would replace the first generation of the German jet fighters, namely the Messerschmitt Me 262 and Heinkel He 162.
One of these advanced designs was the Ta 183 fighter, built by Focke Wulf and developed by Kurt Tank. The Ta 183 had a short fuselage with the air intake passing under the cockpit and proceeding to the rear where the single engine was located. The wings were swept back at 40° and were mounted in the mid-fuselage position. The pilot sat in a pressurized cockpit with a bubble canopy, which provided excellent vision. The primary armament of the aircraft consisted of four 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannons arranged around the air intake. The Ta 183 had a planned speed of about 1,000 km/h (620 mph) at 7,000 m (22,970 ft) and was powered by a 2nd generation jet engine, the Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet with 13 kN (2,700 lbf) of thrust. Several, steadily improved variants of the Ta 183 entered service from mid 1945 onwards, and the type was also the basis for more thorough derivatives - including a high altitude jet fighter proposed by Alexander Lippisch.
The resulting aircraft mated the structural basis of the proven Ta 183 with advanced aerodynamics, namely a tailless design with a much increased wing and fin area, and the machine was also powered by the new BMW 018 jet engine which delivered at this early stage 25kN (5.200 lb) of thrust and was expected to achieve more than 36 kN (7.500 lb) soon, without bigger dimensions than the widely used HeS 011 at the time.
The resulting machine, designated Li 383 in order to honor the developer, sacrificed some of the Ta 183' agility and speed for sheer altitude and climb performance, and the new wings were mostly built from non-strategic material, what increased weight considerably - the Li 383 was 1.5 times as heavy as the nimble Ta 183 fighter, but the new wing was more than twice as large.
Nevertheless, the modifications were effective and the RLM quickly accepted the radical re-design, since no better options were available on short notice. While the Ta 183 fighter was able to reach 14.000m (45,935 ft) in a zoom climb, the Li 383 could easily operate at 16.000m (52.500 ft) and even above that. However, Alexander Lippisch's original design, the Li 383A, had, despite positive wind tunnel tests, turned out to be unstable and prone to spinning. The reason was quickly found to be a lack of latitudal surfaces, and this was quickly fixed with a bigger tail fin and a characteristic gull wing that gave it the inofficial nickname for the serial Li 383B, "Sturmvogel".
When the Allied Forces eventually added the high-flying B-29 bombers to their air raids over Germany in late 1945, the Li 383 B-1 serial production variant was just ready for service. The new machines were quickly delivered to front line units, primarily fighter squadrons that defended vital centers like Berlin, Munich or the Ruhrgebiet. However, even though the Li 383 B-1's performance was sufficient, the type suffered from an inherent weakness against the well-armed Allied bombers: the range of the MK 108 cannon. While this weapon was relatively light and compact, and the four guns delivered an impressive weight of fire, a close attack against massive bomber formations was highly hazardous for the pilots. As a consequence, since bigger guns could not be mounted in the compact Ta 183 airframe, several weapon sets for filed modifications (so-called Rüstsätze) were offered that added a variety of weapons with a longer range and a bigger punch to the Li 383 B-1's arsenal, including unguided and guided air-to-air missiles.
Anyway, the Li 383's overall impact was not significant. Production numbers remained low, and all in all, only a total of 80-100 machines were completed and made operational when the hostilities ended.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 7.78 m (25 ft 5 1/2 in)
Wingspan: 12.67 m (41 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.86 m (12 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 46.8 m² (502.1 ft²)
Empty weight: 4,600 kg (10,141 lb)
Loaded weight: 6,912 kg (15,238 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,100 kg (17,857 lb)
Powerplant:
1× BMW 018A turbojet, 25kN (5.200 lb)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 977 km/h (estimated) (607 mph) at 12,000 meters (39,000 ft)
Service ceiling: 16,000 m (estimated) (52,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 22 m/s (estimated) (4,330 ft/min)
Wing loading: 147.7 kg/m² (20.2 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.34
Armament:
4× 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannons around the air intake with 75 RPG
2x underwing hardpoints for two 300l drop tanks or 2x 250 kg (550 lb) bombs;
alternatively, various weapon sets (Rüstsätze) were available, including racks for 8× (R1) or 12× (R3)
R 65 “Föhn” or for 24x R4M unguided missiles (R2), or for 2× Ruhrstahl X-4 Wire Guided AAMs (R4)
The kit and its assembly:
This fictional Luft ’46 aircraft was inspired by the question what a further developed Ta 183 could have looked like, and it was also influenced by the many tailless Lippisch designs that never left the drawing board.
From the hardware perspective, the design is more or less the salvage of the most useable parts of the PM Model Horten IX/Go 229 kit – namely the outer wing sections. The PM Model Ta 183 is only marginally “better”, and I had one of these in the stash (Revell re-boxing), too. So, why not combine two dreadful kits into something …new?
Well, that was the plan, and building was rather straightforward. In the cockpit, I added simple side consoles, a dashboard, some oxygen flasks, a different seat and a pilot figure (seatbelts simulated with tape strips) – the kit would be finished with closed canopy.
An exhaust pipe was integrated and the air intake filled with a better compressor fan (from an Airfix D.H. Venom, IIRC, fits perfectly). The inner walls of the landing gear wells (well, they are not existent) were cut away and replaced with leftover jet engine parts, so that there was some structure and depth. The landing gear was taken OOB, though, I just used slightly bigger wheels, since the “new” aircraft would have considerably more mass than the Ta 183.
The highly swept, long Ta 183 tail was cut off and replaced by a surplus Me 262 fin and tail section (Matchbox). Despite the different shape and size, and the resulting side view profile reminds strangely of the Saab 29?
The original Ta 183 wings were not mounted and their attachment points on the fuselage cut/sanded away. Instead, I used the outer wing sections from the Go 229, with clipped wing tips for a different shape.
When I held the wings to the fuselage, the whole thing looked …boring. Something was missing, hard to pinpoint. After consulting some Luft ’46 literature I adapted a trick for better stability: a gull wing shape. This was achieved through simple cuts to the wings’ upper halves. Then the wings were bent down, the gap filled with a styrene strip, and finally PSRed away. Looks very dynamic, and also much better!
Another late addition was the underwing armament. I was about to start painting when I again found that something was missing… The new wings made the aircraft pretty large, so I considered some underwing ordnance. Anyway, I did not want to disrupt the relatively clean lines with ugly bombs or drop tanks, so I installed a pair of racks with six launch tubes for R 65 “Föhn” unguided AAMs into the lower wing surfaces, in a semi-recessed position and with a deflector plate for the rocket exhausts.
Painting and markings:
As a high altitude interceptor and late war design, this one was to receive a simple and relatively light livery, even though I stuck with classic RLM tones. The Li 383 was basically painted all-over RLM 76 (Humbrol 247), onto which RLM 75 (from Modelmaster) was added, in the form of highly thinned enamel paint for a cloudy and improvised effect, applied with a big and soft brush. On top of the wings, a typical two-tone scheme was created, while on the fuselage’s upper sides only some thin mottles were added.
In order to lighten the scheme up and add a unique twist, I added further mottles to the flanks and the fin, but this time with RLM 77. This is a very light grey – originally reserved for tactical markings, but also “abused” in the field for camouflage mods, e. g. on high-flying He 177 bombers. I used Humbrol 195 (RAL 7035), again applied with a brush and highly thinned for a rather cloudy finish.
The air intake section and the intake duct were painted in aluminum, while the engine exhaust section as well as the missile racks and the areas around the gun ports were painted with Revell 99 (Iron Metallic) and Steel Metallizer.
The cockpit interior became dark grey (RLM 66) while the landing gear, the wells and the visible engine parts inside became RLM 02.
The kit was lightly weathered with a thin black ink wash and some dry-brushing.
The markings were puzzled together; due to the light basic tones of the model, the upper crosses became black, with only a very small cross on the flanks due to the lack of space, and for the wings’ undersides I used “old school” full color markings in black and white. The red color for the tactical code was basically chosen because it would be a nice contrast to the bluish-grey overall livery.
Finally the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish and some gun soot stains added with grinded graphite, as well as some traces of flaked paint on the wings’ leading edges and around the cockpit.
Well, the attempt to bash two mediocre (at best) kits into something else and hopefully better worked out well – the Li 383 does not look totally out of place, even though it turned out to become a bigger aircraft than expected. However, the aircraft has this certain, futuristic Luft ’46 look – probably thanks to the gull wings, which really change the overall impression from a simple kitbash to a coherent design which-could-have-been. The livery also fits well and looks better than expected. Overall, a positive surprise.
As this mini series is about photographic books that have had a big impact on my photography, I couldn't not include this one. It's not a collection of works like the others, it's a 'technical' book (although not *that* technical).
Until I read this book the whole business of f stops, etc was like a black art to me - but after reading this it was plain as day. It's thanks to this book that the dial on my DSLR is constantly set to 'M'. The photos within it are not the most outstanding you will have ever seen (no insult meant to the author), but they illustrate each chapter and point perfectly well and with clarity.
In short, this is an essential book for anyone new to photography (actually, I seriously think any photographer would probably get 'something' of value from it - even if it's just a re-evaluation of their current way of working). Peterson just has the perfect way of explaining all of this 'stuff' (i.e. the relationshop between shutter speed, and aperture; exposure metering, etc) that it just makes sense.
I owe this book a lot! :) (Although this particular 365 photo is very poor and dull, I know... sorry. Long long day).
www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digit... .... before Stu asks. (Interestingly it's probably the photography book with the most positive feedback on Amazon.co.uk - which says a lot. Those people can be harsh!)
Chairman Inez Tenenbaum signs a Memorandum of Understanding with Brazil. At the signing (from left to right) are: Dean Woodard, the director of the CPSC Office of Education, Global Outreach and Small Business Ombudsman; Rich O'Brien, CPSC’s International Programs director; and Paulo Coscarelli, Director of Conformity Assessment of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
Story and photos by Lee, Seung-bin
seungbin.lee@korea.army.mil
DAEGU GARRISON — Gumi-Cha Hospital International Clinic held a “Memorandum of Understanding” plaque hanging ceremony, March 27 that promises a long-term relationship with the U.S. Army. Soldiers from the the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, along with the Commander 65thMedical Brigade, and several Gumi-Cha hospital directors attended the ceremony.
One of the fastest growing medical groups in Korea, Gumi-Cha hospital is the primary medical center in Southeast Hub that provides a variety of medical services and facilities to U.S.
Soldiers, and is covered under TRICARE. According to Gumi-Cha Hospital International Clinic officials, the medical facility treated more than 2,000 U.S. Army Soldiers and civilian patients in 2011.
U.S. attendees were briefed by Dr. Michael Choi, Director of the International Clinic and Emergency Department of Gumi-Cha hospital, on Gumi-Cha Hospital’s history and its current capabilities. During the briefing, Dr. Cho, Soo-ho, President of Gumi-Cha hospital welcomed all the visitors.
“Gumi-Cha hospital has had a very good relationship with the U.S. Army,” said Dr. Choo. “We will treat more patients in a better and more pleasant environment more efficiently.” Echoing similar sentiments, Dr. Choi added, “We offer many patients, coming in from Camp Carroll, Camp Walker and foreigners in the Gumi area, an effective treatment as well as emergency service.”
“I am so excited to know more about the Gumi-Cha hospital and our long-term relationship, because it makes me feel that we are on the right side and on the way towards delivering the best quality service for our family members and service members here in Area IV,” said Commander, 65th Med. Bde., Col. Rafael De Jesus.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Leong, 19th ESC surgeon, was also pleased with the employees and services from Gumi-Cha hospital, and the strong partnership and health care with U.S. Forces and dependents.
“I am glad that we are here to recognize that, and support them,” he said. “Their efforts represent an increase in the capability of services for U.S. Forces, their dependents and contractors for Area IV.”
Gumi-Cha hospital and USFK in Waegwan have maintained a medical agreement since 2004. It continues to provide high-quality medical services to Soldiers and their dependents. It was selected first grade in the medical institution assessment done by Ministry of Health and Welfare for past seven years and accredited as greatest hospital in region.
Antenna's on NASA's Parker Solar Probe are deployed for testing at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida, near NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, April 19, 2018. The Parker Solar Probe will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida no earlier than Aug. 4, 2018. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun-Earth connection.
Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Fine Art name " Pursuit of Light "
"PURSUIT OF LIGHT PhotoStories SERIES " is set of photographs from SDBWP SunDeep Bhardwaj World Photography . It means "In search of light " . This set is a fine art photography resulting after curation of photographs clicked while playing with light effects through window or door into another space in a fort in India in perfect camera setting with a full frame equipment Canon 5D Mark II using fine lenses by Canon 100-400 mm 4.5-5.6 L IS , 17-40 2.8 and 50mm fixed focal in the process of recording images. The process requires proper understanding of light in its fine form with right setting to capture the light . Fine art results after you have spent enough years perfecting art of photography and its curation and understanding all elements of recording best image and only and only when your heart mind and soul says so with your audience and experience that you are ready to name it as Fine Art . The location here is "The Pink City of India" Jaipur , Rajasthan during my Honeymoon in India when i was on a Honeymoon Tour to Golden Triangle covering AGRA DELHI JAIPUR in UP CAPITAL & RAJASTHAN respectively called as GOLDEN TRIANGLE TOUR . Then i headed to Leh in Jammu & Kashmir for more Photostories. A photographer hardly stays without camera even on Honeymoon tour. God bless All
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Cross-posted from Erudite Expressions on 08/23/2010.
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We are inundated with advice on where to travel to, but we hear little of why and how we should go, even though the art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what the Greek philosophers beautifully termed eudaimonia, or 'human flourishing'.
The above quote appears near the beginning of Alain de Botton's excellent book, The Art of Travel. I finished reading the book earlier this year, and I've been meaning to share some words of wisdom for quite a while here on Erudite Expressions.
After I read that paragraph, I scribbled a note in the margin of the book (I purchase all of my books exactly for this reason: to be able to make notes): is this the thesis of the book? Because this notion is quite compelling, and requires a bit of introspection.
When people ask me to recommend where they should travel, I may be quick to blurt out a response, but the explanatory factor may take a bit more time to ponder. For me, I think walking around with my SLR and photographing the scenes around me is the single most effective method of remembering. I organize my photos by dates in my Lightroom catalog because I remembers dates easily. The photo above I captured on July 15, 2009 in Zürich, Switzerland. The actual date isn't important; it's just my method of organizing my travels in my head...
I am posting an image of Zürich for two reasons. First, it is the birthplace of the author Alain de Botton. But it was also my destination and departure point last year: I flew into Zürich from Atlanta, and flew from Zürich to New York City twenty-one days later. What I remember flying into the airport is picking up my luggage, taking an escalator down to the train ticket booth, and redeeming my Eurail pass. The cashier spoke flawless English, but I forgot to ask him which way I should head to catch my train to Vienna, Austria. So I came back around, stood in line the second time, to ask him another question...
I remember taking a short train ride to get to the central train station in Zürich. I actually arrived early and had the chance to catch the earlier train (departing around 11AM) to Vienna. But I had already made plans (not reservations) to catch the 2PM train, so I ended up walking around the train station, buying a super expensive bottle of Coca-Cola (it cost more than $3 after I converted Swiss Francs to dollars), going into a downstairs mall (to purchase a SIM card for my phone, which I couldn't get to work), and finally finding some alone time on a bench where I paid to get some internet coverage so I could send out an email to friends/relatives that I was safe and sound in Europe.
I mention these seeming trivialities because of this passage in The Art of Travel:
A travel book may tell us, for example, that the narrator journey through the afternoon to reach the hill town of X and after a night in its medieval monastery awoke to a misty dawn. But we never simply 'journey through an afternoon'. We sit in a train. Lunch digests awkwardly within us. The seat cloth is grey. We look out the window at a field. We look back inside. A drum of anxieties revolves in our consciousness. We notice a luggage label affixed to a suitcase in a rack above the seats opposite. We tap a finger on the window ledge. A broken nail on an index finger catches a thread. It starts to rain...We wonder where our ticket might be. We look back out at the field. It continues to rain. At last the train starts to move. It passes an iron bridge, after which it inexplicably stops. A fly lands on the window. And still we may have reached the end only of the first minute of a comprehensive account of the events lurking within the deceptive sentence 'He journey through the afternoon'.Quite lovely, no? I didn't expect all of that to have happened in one minute, but this was a noteworthy inclusion in the text.
Are you the kind of person that tends to be gloomier or sulkier at home compared to when you're on vacation? I wonder if this is the universal truth:We are sad at home and blame the weather and the ugliness of the buildings, but on the tropical island we learn (after an argument in a raffia bungalow under an azure sky) that the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwellings can never on their own either underwrite our joy or condemn us to misery. If you've ever traveled, did you notice how you can (or were) drawn to the mundane, the ordinary? Alain de Botton writes:If we find poetry in the service station and the motel, if we are drawn to the airport or the train carriage, it is perhaps because, despite their architectural compromises and discomforts, despite their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicity feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.I wouldn't disagree.
If you've been following Erudite Expressions, you will know that I love to post detail shots. Perhaps I am walking on a street and a sign catches my fancy. Or I see a peculiar street sign. Or a brick on a cobblestone road which has loosened. While these things may be inconsequential on their own, I believe that collectively they can enamor us. Alain de Botton begins one of my favorite paragraphs in the book:Why be seduced by something as small as a front door in another country? It is here that I pause for a moment and mention that I read The Art of Travel in 2010, long after I photographed the Doors of Prague. If you haven't seen that photo essay, please do so: I think it represents some of my best work.
Moving on, de Botton continues:Why fall in love with a place because it has trams and its people seldom have curtains in their homes? However absurd the intense reactions provoked by such small (and mute) foreign elements may seem, the pattern is at least familiar from our personal lives. There, too, we may find ourselves anchoring emotions of love on the way a person butters his or her bread, or recoiling at his or her taste in shoes. To condemn ourselves for these minute concerns is to ignore how rich in meaning details may be.Wonderful perspective, with which I agree whole-heartedly.
What do you think? Have you ever thought of why you travel (or why you would recommend a certain place to someone)? How about your attention to the mundane? And the details? All of these things, as I read the book, resonated with me and what I photograph...
In my next post, I will profile the second half of the book, in which I explore Alain de Botton's take on photography (and this is where I have a dissenting opinion).
###
Mentioned in this post:
1) Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel
2) My Doors of Prague photo essay
3) My posts from Switzerland, Austria, and Czech Republic.
Genital Autonomy Seminar: Understanding the Psychological Harm of Male Circumcision @ Keele University, UK, 2013
Women and children from Mugeyo, a small village north east of Kigali, in Gasabo district take part in a survey aimed at understanding the links between agriculture and nutrition and determine the specific causes of stunting in children under two.
In Rwanda, agricultural production and GDP have increased yet 43 per cent of children under five suffer chronic malnutrition, and stunting in some areas is as high as 60 per cent. www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/?p=7981
Credit: ©2014CIAT/StefanieNeno
Please credit accordingly and leave a comment when you use a CIAT photo.
For more info: ciat-comunicaciones@cgiar.org
The exhibition "Understanding AI" shows how neural networks are structured and offers visitors the opportunity to train neural networks themselveswith via interactive stations.
Credit: vog.photo
Women and children from Mugeyo, a small village north east of Kigali, in Gasabo district take part in a survey aimed at understanding the links between agriculture and nutrition and determine the specific causes of stunting in children under two.
In Rwanda, agricultural production and GDP have increased yet 43 per cent of children under five suffer chronic malnutrition, and stunting in some areas is as high as 60 per cent. www.ciatnews.cgiar.org/?p=7981 Credit: Stefanie Neno / CIAT
Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-1681), active in Leiden
Cavalier in shop, 1660
The key to understanding of the genre painting provides the ambiguous Latin inscription on the bunting for that different translations are possible, eg. As "buys it, who wants" or "compares it, who wants". This saying refers to the comparative touching of the fabric and the girl chin by the cavalier. The relation of the old man at the fireside to this process remains unclear. The hanging in the background image with the death of Abel can probably be interpreted as a reference to the consequences of original sin.
Frans van Mieris der Ältere (1635-1681), tätig in Leiden Kavalier im Verkaufsladen, 1660
Den Schlüssel zum Verständnis des Genrebildes liefert die doppeldeutige lateinische Inschrift auf dem Fahnentuch, für die verschiedene Übersetzungen möglich sind, z. B. "es kauf, wer will" oder "es vergleicht, wer will". Dieser Spruch bezieht sich auf das vergleichende Befühlen des Stoffes und des Mädchenkinns durch den Kavalier. Die Beziehung des alten Mannes am Kamin zu diesem Vorgang bleibt unklar. Das im Hintergrund hängende Bild mit dem Tod Abels ist wohl als Hinweis auf die Folgen der Erbsünde zu interpretieren.
Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum
Federal Museum
Logo KHM
Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture
Founded 17 October 1891
Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria
Management Sabine Haag
www.khm.at website
Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.
The museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.
History
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery
The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building.
Architectural History
The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währinger street/Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the Opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the Grain market (Getreidemarkt).
From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience of Joseph Semper with the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.
Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.
Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper subsequently moved to Vienna. From the beginning on, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, in 1878, the first windows installed, in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade finished, and from 1880 to 1881 the dome and the Tabernacle built. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.
The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times.
Dome hall
Entrance (by clicking on the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)
Grand staircase
Hall
Empire
The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891, the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol needs another two years.
1891, the Court museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:
Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection
The Egyptian Collection
The Antique Collection
The coins and medals collection
Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects
Weapons collection
Collection of industrial art objects
Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)
Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.
Restoration Office
Library
Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.
1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his "Estensische Sammlung (Collection)" passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d'Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.
The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The Court museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.
Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.
First Republic
The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.
It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain on 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.
On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House", by the Republic. On 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.
Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.
With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the
Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Collection of Ancient Coins
Collection of modern Coins and Medals
Weapons collection
Collection of Sculptures and Crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Picture gallery
The Museum 1938-1945
Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.
With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the German Reich.
After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to bring certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. To this end was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.
The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.
The museum today
Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.
In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.
Management
1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials
1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director
1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director
1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director
1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief, in 1941 as first director
1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections, in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation
1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections, in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation
1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director
1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation
1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director
1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director
1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director
1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director
1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director
1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director
1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director
1990: George Kugler as interim first director
1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director
Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director
Collections
To the Kunsthistorisches Museum also belon the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.
Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)
Picture Gallery
Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Vienna Chamber of Art
Numismatic Collection
Library
New Castle
Ephesus Museum
Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Arms and Armour
Archive
Hofburg
The imperial crown in the Treasury
Imperial Treasury of Vienna
Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage
Insignia of imperial Austria
Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire
Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece
Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure
Ecclesiastical Treasury
Schönbrunn Palace
Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna
Armory in Ambras Castle
Ambras Castle
Collections of Ambras Castle
Major exhibits
Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:
Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438
Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80
Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16
Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526
Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07
Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)
Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75
Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68
Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06
Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508
Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32
The Little Fur, about 1638
Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559
Kids, 1560
Tower of Babel, 1563
Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564
Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565
Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565
Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565
Bauer and bird thief, 1568
Peasant Wedding, 1568/69
Peasant Dance, 1568/69
Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567
Cabinet of Curiosities:
Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543
Egyptian-Oriental Collection:
Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut
Collection of Classical Antiquities:
Gemma Augustea
Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
Gallery: Major exhibits
Leipziger Buchmesse 2015 / Leipzig Book Fair 2015
2015-03-14 (Saturday)
2015_047
2015#170
___ (Maria) ____ as ____ from Warhammer
Thank you for any group invites which I'd be glad to accept. However, if I can't check the content of such groups ("This group is not available to you") I'd rather not add any of my photos. Thanks for your understanding.
Believe nothing (but understand as much as you can)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S8AKHhNehU
Jack Namaste: www.facebook.com/Jacknamaste
Further proof that the people who make Flickr are smart and beautiful and worthy of our admiration: They understand data.
In programming, there's a lot of temptation to make "magic numbers." Like, this value is always a number, except for this one special case, so I'll just set it to -1 (or 99, or 0) in that case, and use the code to check for that. Or maybe, I want to store a date here, but sometimes the users don't know the exact day, so I'll just set the day to the first (or the 15th) of the month in those cases.
No, instead, unknown data is unknown. And that's as it should be. That's what null is for.
In the Organizr, ludicorp demonstrates that they get it. You can enter the date your photo was taken, but you can also be vague. If you choose to be vague, the display page for the photo is also vague. Think of it as avoiding the evils of precision without accuracy. Think of it as maintaining significant figures.
Think of it as beautiful.
HHS Secretary of HHS Alex M. Azar & Polish Minister of Health Szumowski sign a Memorandum of Understanding
Orthodox Christianity became the established church of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom under king Ezana in the 4th century through the efforts of a Syrian Greek named Frumentius who later became its first bishop.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media. Use without permission is illegal.
© Frank Janssens
Gabe stands and reads the protests letter to gain a better idea of the significance of the monument as a sign of Hungary's corrupt and authoritarian government.
World AIDS Day 2010, Windhoek, Namibia
U.S. Army photo
Strengthening relationships. Raising awareness. Learning through partnership. Two U.S. Army Africa chaplains recently traveled more than 4,000 miles to participate in the Ministry of Defence/Namibia Defence Force World AIDS Day ceremony in Windhoek, Namibia.
Col. Jonathan McGraw, U.S. Army Africa’s command chaplain, and Lt. Col. Clyde Scott, deputy command chaplain, stood alongside their chaplain counterparts to gain a better understanding of how the Namibia Defence Force commemorates World AIDS Day. More than 1,000 Namibian soldiers and civilians took part in the celebration.
“We appreciate the positive impact of our joint efforts in the Namibian military,” said Adrienne Fuentes, coordinator for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), in remarks made during the ceremony on behalf of the U.S. Mission in Namibia.
“I applaud the leadership of the Namibian military for your robust leadership where stigma and discrimination is strongly discouraged, and where people who are living openly with HIV are supported without any discrimination,” Fuentes said.
McGraw said his Unit Ministry Team’s close relationship with the Namibian chaplains is an essential part of sharing experiences and techniques to counsel soldiers and families from a spiritual perspective.
“Facing the challenges of AIDS, the Namibian Defence Force has established an impressive commander-led, community-based, chaplain-integrated program that is working,” McGraw said. “I was very impressed with the number of Namibian soldiers lined up to voluntarily test their HIV status during the World AIDS Day event. It was three to four times what was experienced in past years.”
The U.S. chaplains World AIDS Day participation follows a previous visit to Namibia in which the ministry team led a seminar about counseling soldiers and family members about the impact of HIV/AIDS.
In addition to observing the World AIDS Day commemoration, the U.S. chaplains met with several key U.S. Department of Defense partners to discuss possible areas of collaboration. A highlight of the event was an invitation to march in a two-mile AIDS Day Parade sponsored by the Namibian Defence Force. Led by the NDF Army Band, the chaplains marched with more than 800 NDF soldiers, as citizens cheered from the sidewalks.
“Despite the challenges of AIDS/HIV there is optimism about the future and love of their families and country,” said McGraw. “This was a great example of the NDF and USARAF’s shared commitment to AIDS/HIV prevention in Namibia.”
To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil
Official Twitter Feed: www.twitter.com/usarmyafrica
Official YouTube video channel: www.youtube.com/usarmyafrica
Bronze, AD 1-100
This unique model of a biga (two-horse chariot) shows remarkable detail. The left wheel is different from the right, to allow charioteers faster turns - races were mostly decided at the turning-posts. As children, Nero and his friends reportedly played with wooden chariots. Heavy and expensive, this seems an extravagant toy. Perhaps it was a prized scale model for a wealthy supporter or stable owner.
[British Museum]
Nero: the Man Behind the Myth
(May - Oct 2021)
Nero is known as one of Rome's most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty, debauchery and madness.
The last male descendant of the emperor Augustus, Nero succeeded to the throne in AD 54 aged just 16 and died a violent death at 30. His turbulent rule saw momentous events including the Great Fire of Rome, Boudicca's rebellion in Britain, the execution of his own mother and first wife, grand projects and extravagant excesses.
Drawing on the latest research, this major exhibition questions the traditional narrative of the ruthless tyrant and eccentric performer, revealing a different Nero, a populist leader at a time of great change in Roman society.
Through some 200 spectacular objects, from the imperial palace in Rome to the streets of Pompeii, follow the young emperor’s rise and fall and make up your own mind about Nero. Was he a young, inexperienced ruler trying his best in a divided society, or the merciless, matricidal megalomaniac history has painted him to be?
Nero was the 5th emperor of Rome and the last of Rome’s first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians, founded by Augustus (the adopted son of Julius Caesar). Nero is known as one of Rome’s most infamous rulers, notorious for his cruelty and debauchery. He ascended to power in AD 54 aged just 16 and died at 30. He ruled at a time of great social and political change, overseeing momentous events such as the Great Fire of Rome and Boudica’s rebellion in Britain. He allegedly killed his mother and two of his wives, only cared about his art and had very little interest in ruling the empire.
Most of what we know about Nero comes from the surviving works of three historians – Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio. All written decades after Nero’s death, their accounts have long shaped our understanding of this emperor’s rule. However, far from being impartial narrators presenting objective accounts of past events, these authors and their sources wrote with a very clear agenda in mind. Nero’s demise brought forward a period of chaos and civil war – one that ended only when a new dynasty seized power, the Flavians. Authors writing under the Flavians all had an interest in legitimising the new ruling family by portraying the last of the Julio-Claudians in the worst possible light, turning history into propaganda. These accounts became the ‘historical’ sources used by later historians, therefore perpetuating a fabricated image of Nero, which has survived all the way to the present.
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on 15 December AD 37.
He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Both Gnaeus and Agrippina were the grandchildren of Augustus, making Nero Augustus’ great, great grandson with a strong claim to power.
Nero was only two years old when his mother was exiled and three when his father died. His inheritance was taken from him and he was sent to live with his aunt. However, Nero’s fate changed again when Claudius became emperor, restoring the boy’s property and recalling his mother Agrippina from exile.
In AD 49 the emperor Claudius married Agrippina, and adopted Nero the following year. It is at this point that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In Roman times it was normal to change your name when adopted, abandoning your family name in favour of your adoptive father’s. Nero was a common name among members of the Claudian family, especially in Claudius’ branch.
Nero and Agrippina offered Claudius a politically useful link back to Augustus, strengthening his position.
Claudius appeared to favour Nero over his natural son, Britannicus, marking Nero as the designated heir.
When Claudius died in AD 54, Nero became emperor just two months before turning 17.
As he was supported by both the army and the senate, his rise to power was smooth. His mother Agrippina exerted a significant influence, especially at the beginning of his rule.
The Roman historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all claim that Nero, fed up with Agrippina’s interference, decided to kill her.
Given the lack of eyewitnesses, there is no way of knowing if or how this happened. However, this did not stop historians from fabricating dramatic stories of Agrippina’s murder, asserting that Nero tried (and failed) to kill her with a boat engineered to sink, before sending his men to do the job.
Agrippina allegedly told them to stab her in the womb that bore Nero, her last words clearly borrowed from stage plays.
It is entirely possible, as claimed by Nero himself, that Agrippina chose (or was more likely forced) to take her own life after her plot against her son was discovered.
Early in his rule, Nero had to contend with a rebellion in the newly conquered province of Britain.
In AD 60–61, Queen Boudica of the Iceni tribe led a revolt against the Romans, attacking and laying waste to important Roman settlements. The possible causes of the rebellion were numerous – the greed of the Romans exploiting the newly conquered territories, the recalling of loans made to local leaders, ongoing conflict in Wales and, above all, violence against the family of Prasutagus, Boudica’s husband and king of the Iceni.
Boudica and the rebels destroyed Colchester, London and St Albans before being heavily defeated by Roman troops. After the uprising, the governor of Britain Suetonius Paulinus introduced harsher laws against the Britons, until Nero replaced him with the more conciliatory governor Publius Petronius Turpilianus.
The marriage between Nero and Octavia, aged 15 and 13/14 at the time, was arranged by their parents in order to further legitimise Nero’s claim to the throne. Octavia was the daughter of the emperor Claudius from a previous marriage, so when Claudius married Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, Nero and Octavia became brother and sister. In order to arrange their marriage, Octavia had to be adopted into another family.
Their marriage was not a happy one. According to ancient writers, Nero had various affairs until his lover Poppaea Sabina convinced him to divorce his wife. Octavia was first exiled then executed in AD 62 on adultery charges. According to ancient writers, her banishment and death caused great unrest among the public, who sympathised with the dutiful Octavia.
No further motives were offered for Octavia’s death other than Nero’s passion for Poppaea, and we will probably never know what transpired at court. The fact that Octavia couldn’t produce an heir while Poppaea was pregnant with Nero’s daughter likely played an important role in deciding Octavia’s fate.
On 19 July AD 64, a fire started close to the Circus Maximus. The flames soon encompassed the entire city of Rome and the fire raged for nine days. Only four of the 14 districts of the capital were spared, while three were completely destroyed.
Rome had already been razed by flames – and would be again in its long history – but this event was so severe it came to be known as the Great Fire of Rome.
Later historians blamed Nero for the event, claiming that he set the capital ablaze in order to clear land for the construction of a vast new palace. According to Suetonius and Cassius Dio, Nero took in the view of the burning city from the imperial residence while playing the lyre and singing about the fall of Troy. This story, however, is fictional.
Tacitus, the only historian who was actually alive at the time of the Great Fire of Rome (although only 8 years old), wrote that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but returned to the capital and led the relief efforts.
Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all describe Nero as being blinded by passion for his wife Poppaea, yet they accuse him of killing her, allegedly by kicking her in an outburst of rage while she was pregnant.
Interestingly, pregnant women being kicked to death by enraged husbands is a recurring theme in ancient literature, used to explore the (self) destructive tendencies of autocrats. The Greek writer Herodotus tells the story of how the Persian king Cambyses kicked his pregnant wife in the stomach, causing her death. A similar episode is told of Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Nero is just one of many allegedly ‘mad’ tyrants for which this literary convention was used.
Poppaea probably died from complications connected with her pregnancy and not at Nero’s hands. She was given a lavish funeral and was deified.
Centred on greater Iran, the Parthian empire was a major political and cultural power and a long-standing enemy of Rome. The two powers had long been contending for control over the buffer state of Armenia and open conflict sparked again during Nero’s rule. The Parthian War started in AD 58 and, after initial victories and following set-backs, ended in AD 63 when a diplomatic solution was reached between Nero and the Parthian king Vologases I.
According to this settlement Tiridates, brother of the Parthian king, would rule over Armenia, but only after having travelled all the way to Rome to be crowned by Nero.
The journey lasted 9 months, Tiridates’ retinue included 3,000 Parthian horsemen and many Roman soldiers. The coronation ceremony took place in the summer of AD 66 and the day was celebrated with much pomp: all the people of Rome saw the new king of Armenia kneeling in front of Nero. This was the Golden Day of Nero’s rule
In AD 68, Vindex, the governor of Gaul (France), rebelled against Nero and declared his support for Galba, the governor of Spain. Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support.
It was at this point that Nero lost the support of Rome’s people due to a grain shortage, caused by a rebellious commander who cut the crucial food supply from Egypt to the capital. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide.
Following his death, Nero’s memory was condemned (a practice called damnatio memoriae) and the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
After Nero’s death, civil war ensued. At the end of the so-called ‘Year of the Four Emperors’ (AD 69), Vespasian became emperor and started a new dynasty: the Flavians.
[Francesca Bologna, curator, for British Museum]
Taken in the British Museum
With the recent developments in the Human Genome Mapping Project and the new technologies that are developing from it there is a renewal of concern about eugenic applications. Francis Galton (b1822, d1911), who developed the subject of eugenics, suggested that the ancient Greeks had contributed very little to social theories of eugenics. In fact the Greeks had a profound interest in methods of supplying their city states with the finest possible progeny. This paper therefore reviews the works of Plato (The Republic and Politics) and Aristotle (The Politics and The Athenian Constitution) which have a direct bearing on eugenic techniques and relates them to methods used in the present century.Abstract
With the recent developments in the Human Genome Mapping Project and the new technologies that are developing from it there is a renewal of concern about eugenic applications. Francis Galton (b1822, d1911), who developed the subject of eugenics, suggested that the ancient Greeks had contributed very little to social theories of eugenics. In fact the Greeks had a profound interest in methods of supplying their city states with the finest possible progeny. This paper therefore reviews the works of Plato (The Republic and Politics) and Aristotle (The Politics and The Athenian Constitution) which have a direct bearing on eugenic techniques and relates them to methods used in the present century.
(Journal of Medical Ethics 1998;24:263–267)
Keywords: Eugenics; ancient Greeks; Plato; Aristotle; contemporary methods
Introduction
Eugenics (Gk eu-good, well; Gk gen-genesis, creation), a term proposed by Francis Galton, was defined as "the science of improving the inherited stock, not only by judicious matings, but by all other influences ...."¹
With the recent developments in the Human Genome Mapping Project the scope for eugenics has enormously increased because of the development of a very powerful technology for the manipulation of DNA. A multitude of gene sequences and genetic markers are now becoming available to predict risks of developing such common conditions as cancer, ischaemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus and hypertension; and in some cases it is possible to treat such disorders by gene therapy (ie replacement of the LDL-receptor gene in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia).²
Gene manipulation of germ-line cells is currently in use for animal models of human disease and no doubt will soon become available for the supply of donor organs for purposes of human transplantation surgery.
A wider definition of eugenics might therefore be "the use of science applied to the quantitative and qualitative improvement of the human genome"; and this would cover methods of regulating population numbers as well as improving genome quality by selective artificial insemination by donor, gene therapy or gene manipulation of germ-line cells.³
This definition does not include any terms related to the acceptability or otherwise of the means to achieve these ends, ie whether some methods should be made compulsory by the state, or left entirely to the personal choice of the individual.
A major problem for the future will be where to draw the fine line between state control and personal choice for the many genetic issues that will arise with the application of the new DNA technology. This is particularly so as some of the genetic issues related to multifactorial disease are complex and may go beyond the understanding of some citizens who may be involved in such decisions.
Galton's work on eugenics makes very little reference to Greek social theories of eugenics and current standard works on eugenics⁴ make no reference to the Greek contribution.
For example Galton states in a letter, that he had read "Plato's Republic and Laws for eugenic passages; but they don't amount to much beyond the purification of the city by sending off all the degenerates to form what is termed a colony".⁵
It is not clear where Galton obtained this idea of colonisation as a eugenic measure; it does not appear to occur anywhere in Plato's works.
In early ancient Greek history (from the eighth to sixth centuries BC) establishing colonies was a way of coping with population expansion and of establishing trading contacts overseas.
Perhaps Galton may have been recalling Herodotus, Book IV, where Polymnestus, a man of high repute in Thera, had a defective son with a speech impediment named Battus (meaning stammerer); and Battus was dispatched by the citizens with sanctions from the Delphic oracle to found a colony in Libya.⁶
However, Herodotus does not say anything explicitly to suggest that the disability was a motive for sending him to lead a colony.
On the other hand Plato's works do reveal a profound interest in eugenics as a means of supplying the city state with the finest possible progeny.
This was of vital significance for the future of the city, which needed to supply men for its army which was continually at war with other city states.
The purpose of this paper is to describe prevailing ancient Greek views on eugenic methods to improve the quality of their progeny.
Plato's Republic⁷
This work was probably written before 368 BC when the author was in his fourth to fifth decade.
It is a blueprint for the organisation of an ideal society and with regard to eugenics adopts the policy of ensuring "judicious matings".
Plato thought it vital to society that the correct arrangements should be made for such matings.
He proposed that marriage for the guardian classes (guardians were the premier class of Athenian citizens, selected by their natural capacities and attainments to govern the state) be abolished and that provision be made for men and women of the same natural capacities to mate.
He drew an analogy with the selective breeding of sporting dogs and horses in order to obtain the desired stock.
The members of the guardian classes should only be allowed to breed in their primes, for men, after reaching the age of 25 years, for women 20 years.
Inferior members of the guardian classes should be discouraged from reproducing.
Only the best of the offspring should be kept in the guardian class and the inferior children should be relegated to the civilian classes (farmers or craftsmen).
These were the general principles; and in practical terms they could be implemented by the institution of a marriage festival, bringing together suitable young people in the correct age band.
Sacrifices, poetry, songs and dance would set the atmosphere for young couples to "marry" and cohabit during the period of the festival for about one month, after which the marriage would be dissolved and the partners remain celibate until the next festival.
The number of marriages at each festival would be at the ruler's discretion, to keep the population numbers constant, taking into account losses caused by war or epidemics.
Plato was more afraid of a decline than a rise in the birth rate and considered that the civilian classes could breed without restriction so as to keep an average city state with 5,000 citizens (as stated in The Laws).
To prevent marriage of the inferior members of the guardian classes a lottery system would be set up but so rigged that young men acquitting themselves well in war and other duties would be given the first opportunities of having a marriage partner for the term of the festival to produce children whilst the inferior youth would draw lots which "by chance" would not procure a partner for them.
At the end of the festival the marriages would be dissolved but the superior youths would be able to draw by lot another (and different) partner at the next festival.
The newborn children were to be taken from their mothers and reared in special nurseries in a separate quarter of the city.
Family life was to be discouraged as it provided a distraction from the business of governing, of defending or extending the city state by conquest.
Any children born defective would be "hidden away" in some appropriate manner.
This may actually be a euphemism for infanticide.⁸
However neither infanticide nor exposure as practised in Sparta and other Greek cities was recommended by Plato for his republic.
Women should be allowed to bear children from the ages of 20–40 years, and men reproduce from 25–55 years, when the bodily and mental powers are at their best.
Unofficial unions which produced children would be considered as a civil (and divine) offence and appropriate punishments instituted.
Men should only have relations with women of a marriageable age if the rulers had paired them together.
Incestuous unions between parents and children were to be forbidden; but there were no sanctions against brother-sister unions.
Brother-sister marriages were not uncommon in Egypt and the Greeks had probably not noticed the increased frequency of defective children resulting from consanguineous marriages.
The main aim of brother-sister incest as practised by the royal families of Egypt was to keep the throne within the family.
It appears clear from portraits of the Ptolemies of Egypt, the most notorious case of such incest, that some members suffered from inherited endocrine disorders,⁹ but there is no evidence that this was connected by the ancients themselves with the practice of brother-sister incest.
However, if all the newborn Greek children were brought up communally in a crèche, real brothers and sisters would not perhaps know they were so related; especially as there would be so many different marriage pairs from each succeeding festival.
Finally, men and women of the guardian classes past the child-bearing age could form relationships that would fall outside the jurisdiction of the rulers.
Plato's Laws¹⁰
This is the last of Plato's dialogues, written in his eighth decade in about 350 BC, but it is highly likely that he was at work on The Laws for many years during intervals of writing other texts, since it is his longest work and it may well incorporate material for earlier projects at which he hints, but seems never to have completed.
It is a more practical treatment and extension of the political problems raised in The Republic. He attempts to frame a model constitution and legislation that might be adopted by a society of average Greeks marriage festivals, with a community of wives and children, to be impractical. Instead he would legislate for monogamous marriages with strict chastity outside of that. Provision for this should be initially made by arranging sports and dance festivals so the young people of the city could meet each other. If a man of 25 years or more finds a suitable partner he should submit his case to the curator of laws, and if the match is found suitable, should in all cases marry her before the age of 30–35 years. A girl could marry from the age of 16–20 years. With regard to fitness for marriage a man should primarily court a woman for the city's good and not just because she takes his fancy. The origin of the bride and her family should be carefully scrutinised. The wealth or poverty of the bride's family should not play a large part in his choice.
If any fit young men did not, or refused to marry, up to the age of 35 years they then should pay an annual fine of 100 drachmas if belonging to the wealthiest class; 70 drachmas if to the second; 60 if to the third and 30 drachmas if to the fourth class. The fines so collected would be dedicated to the Temple of Hera.
Married couples should make it their first concern to present the city with the best and finest progeny. They should therefore be under the supervision of a board of matrons, appointed by the magistrates, to superintend the conduct of the married couples. For example, expectant mothers should assemble daily for a minimum period of 20 minutes at the Temple of Ilithyia (a goddess identified with Artemis or Hera) to provide sacrifices and rites to the Goddess of Matrimony. Their period of supervision by the board should last ten years and the board would provide advice and guidance on all problems connected with childbirth (for example, if couples were infertile, or producing too many children). Infertile couples could have their marriages dissolved but the relatives of both parties were to have a voice in the terms of the separation. Finally, an official register of births and deaths should be kept and made easily accessible by the recording of its details on whitened walls. Such a record would be required for the proper observance of the laws fixing the ages for marriage, military service or qualifications for various official posts.
Regarding Plato's other political dialogues, The Statesman¹¹ deals with the different forms of government and the nature of political science but makes no reference to eugenics.
Aristotle's Politics¹²
Aristotle initially studied with Plato at the Academy from 367–348 BC, but then left to travel. He returned to Athens in 336 BC and founded the Lyceum. In his book Politics he first criticizes Plato's views and then proposes his own.
He thinks that the community of wives and children for the guardian class is impractical and if anything is better suited to the civilian classes. If the latter have wives and children in common they will be less closely united by bonds of affection and family ties and perhaps remain more obedient to the ruling elite and be less likely to rebel. Also, would mothers in the guardian class voluntarily give up their children to be reared in a communal nursery? If some of their inferior children are relegated to the lower classes and eventually find out their true parents, this may lead to quarrels and recriminations and perhaps would provide more a source of disorder in society.
He also criticises Plato's view that the birth rate should be left unrestricted for the lower classes. If this leads to over-population, the attendant evils of poverty, crime and revolution would most likely follow. In Aristotle's view the birth rate should be regulated even more stringently than was done in c 330 BC. He quotes in support of this idea that Phaedon of Corinth, an early legislator, recommended that land allotments for families and the number of citizens should be kept equal to one another, implying a tight regulation of the birth rate.
Raw material
Aristotle's own views agree in principle with Plato's that conditions should be managed to ensure the highest possible state of health for the city's newborn children. The quality and quantity of their population depends on this and is the first concern of the city state. The population is the raw material on which the statesman works.
Aristotle would therefore legislate for the following proposals.
Strict monogamous marriages should be instituted, with women marrying at about 18 years and men at 37 years, when he considers both sexes to be at their prime.
Pregnant women must take care of their bodies with regular exercise each day by walking to the Temple of Ilithyia to worship at the altar of the gods presiding over childbirth.
Expectant mothers should be given nourishing food and remain as tranquil as possible since the embryo derives its nature from the mother, rather as plants do from the soil in which they grow.
Laws should be introduced to oppose an unrestricted birth rate, but no children should suffer exposure just to limit the population.
If couples are having too many children abortion must be procured before the embryo has reached the stage of "sensitive life".
Infanticide should be practised for any children born with deformities.
(Page 266)
Other proposed ideal constitutions considered by Aristotle, ie those of Phaleas of Chalcedon or Hippodamus of Miletus appear to make no provisions for eugenics.
The actual constitution of Sparta appears to include eugenic measures but these were mainly directed to a single aspect, namely military prowess.¹³ Their practice of child exposure and infanticide was mainly aimed at developing a cadre of good soldiers but this led to a shortage of manpower which proved to be one of Sparta's major social weaknesses. A law had eventually to be passed to encourage population growth in which a father of three sons was exempt from military service and a father of four sons was exempt from all state-imposed obligations, including taxes.
The actual constitution of Crete had measures to regulate the birth rate by segregating women from men. However, Lycurgus, the supposed legislator for both Sparta and Crete, sanctioned sexual intimacy between males as a means of controlling reproductive rates, the morality of which Aristotle appears to question.
Commentary
It is of interest that neither Galton nor many contemporary commentators¹⁴ ¹⁵ appear to give credit to or even mention the Greek contribution to the subject of eugenics. In fact Galton's proposals for the development of the subject³ go very little further than the measures proposed by Plato except that there was almost no element of coercion in the former.
Galton's main proposals were:
Extensive family records should be kept and in competitive examinations for professional posts in, for example the civil service, extra marks should be awarded for "family merit". The family history as well as the personal history of the applicant should be taken into account;
Early marriages for women from "gifted" families should be encouraged by the award of financial endowments, analogous perhaps to the use of grants for higher education for promising young adults;
Rules of celibacy for gifted individuals (for example Fellows at the older universities) should be abolished;
The state should take some form of action (unspecified) against the procreation of the feeble-minded, the insane, and some classes of habitual criminals.
Plato's methods to improve the genetic constitution of the ruling elite class are far more original than those of Aristotle and are in accord with modern genetic theory.
Different choices of partners at serial marriage festivals amongst a selected elite of the population would be expected to lead to an optimal spread of abilities for their offspring.
He recommends systematic deception in the pursuit of these aims by rigging the lottery system for marriage partners, and in Book Three of The Republic he states that deception of citizens for the city's welfare is justified for political ends in the same way that doctors may conceal the truth from their patients for their own good, but patients should conceal nothing from their doctors (if they want a correct diagnosis).
In practice, of course, justifying a means for political ends can be at almost total variance with justification for the benefit of the citizen's welfare.
Aristotle criticised the social implications of a community of wives and children; but both Plato and Aristotle appear to have overlooked the possibility of brother-sister (or half brother-half sister) matings leading to the appearance of deleterious recessive characters that occur at high frequency in the human genome (c 20%).
Perhaps the adverse effects of consanguineous marriages had not been recognised by the Greeks or Egyptians, since brother-sister marriages were condoned.
Plato and Aristotle both recommended legislation of social methods aimed at promoting judicious matings amongst an elite class, methods that would be unacceptable today.
Contemporary genetics has more aimed to discourage injudicious matings in the population by methods that are equally questionable.
In the early half of this century state institutions introduced compulsory measures to improve the "inherited stock" of their society.
For example from 1930 onwards 27 states in the USA passed sterilisation laws to prevent various classes of people from having children.¹⁶ These included the insane, those suffering from epilepsy, and the feebleminded. In some states these laws were applied to habitual criminals and "moral perverts".
Most states did not enforce these laws, but in California compulsory sterilisations reached a total of 9,930 by 1935.
Other countries, including Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and Sweden also passed sterilisation laws for similar categories of people, and between 1935 and 1976 about 60,000 young Swedish women deemed mentally defective or otherwise handicapped, making them incapable of looking after children, were sterilised.
The laws in Sweden remained on the statute books until 1976.¹⁷
Only in Germany have recent attempts been made to "breed" for an elite class.
The Lebensborn (Spring of Life) state programme of the Nazis established Lebensborn homes throughout Germany where SS men and suitable young Aryan women were encouraged to procreate.¹⁸
of the resettlement and extermination programmes.
In the USA between 1969–73 many states organised compulsory schemes to screen for sickle cell heterozygosity which occurs primarily amongst the black population. Carriers, who are entirely healthy, had problems with obtaining marriage certification, employment and access to life insurance. For example, carriers of the sickle cell trait were excluded from positions in the Air Force academy involved with flight training and from flight personnel posts. In the Department of the Navy employees were screened and heterozygote cases excluded from airborne, ranger or flight crew training. Such procedures could be interpreted as racist and a means of discriminating against the black population by preventing their promotion to officer class. This could also have an indirect eugenic effect although there is no demographic evidence that reproductive rates were affected by this policy.¹⁹
More recently insurance companies in the UK (1997) required the declaration of previous genetic tests for susceptibility to such diseases as cancer, heart disease and premature dementias; premiums are adjusted according to the health risks involved.²⁰ Since life insurance is frequently tied to mortgages this would tend to have an effect of discouraging (by financial pressures) individuals possessing an adverse genetic constitution from starting families and therefore could act as a covert eugenic measure.
Currently the trend for eugenics has been very much away from social coercion by various state institutions to providing more education and freedom for citizens to make their own genetic and reproductive choices. For example, mothers can choose to have a disabled child with trisomy 21 even though the state may eventually have to provide for the child's long term care. If there were a genetic "cure" for trisomy 21 the mother could be held responsible for injury to her child for withholding it. If a pregnant mother can take steps to cure a disability affecting her fetus she should do so, or otherwise she could be held responsible for deliberately injuring her child.²¹ The only "cure" at present for trisomy 21 is termination of pregnancy and perhaps a state body should intervene in such cases if the mother is clearly unable to provide economically for the long term care of her handicapped child. However, each particular case of state intervention has to be scrutinised very carefully in view of the gross abuse of such measures in the present century.
Acknowledgements
I am greatly indebted to Professor RW Sharples, Department of Greek and Latin, University College London, for providing two critical reviews of different versions of the manuscript regarding the accuracy of the Greek contents; and to Professor DAG Galton for helpful criticism.
David J Galton MD, FRCP, is Professor of Human Metabolism in the Department of Metabolism and Genetics, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, EC1A 7BE, UK.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1377679/?page=1
UCL eugenics legacy – storytelling with art
Staff and students in the UCL community are engaging with the institution’s eugenics legacy in positive and creative ways. Discover their stories paired with our striking artwork.
On this page: Introducing the campaign | Story 1 - Change or bust | Meet the artist
Other content: Story 2 - From the collections: problematic histories | Story 3 - Anti-eugenics: from pandemic to polarised world | Story 4 - Confronting legacies with object-based learning | Story 5 - From the ground up – the role of students in anti-eugenics work
Introducing the campaign
In 2021, UCL issued a public apology for its role in the development, propagation and legitimisation of eugenics.The Eugenics Legacy Education Project (ELEP) is is a three-year project, ending in 2025, covering the education-related recommendations from the Eugenics Inquiry. We aim to help facilitate positive change in UCL through a number of projects, including looking at how 'difficult knowledge' is taught.
Our campaign aims to showcase stories of inspiring UCL students and colleagues by presenting their efforts to address the eugenics legacy with an original piece of artwork drawn by our ELEP artist Weihong ‘Clover’ Tang. Clover is a student at UCL, although interestingly not in art. The thoughtful illustrations are her reaction to each story. In spring 2025, we are launching five stories. For some of the stories, additional beautiful illustrations are provided by Naomi Chung, a UCL History of Art undergraduate student.This work presents an uchronian reinterpretation of Botticelli's *Birth of Venus*, in which the iconic image becomes the foundation for an entirely new artistic vision. Rather than faithfully reproducing a Renaissance masterpiece, the composition reconfigures its visual language to question the very nature of artistic tradition. This transformation reflects what Hans Belting and Christopher Wood have described as the historical shift from iconic reference to the assertion of individual artistic vision and personal style. The legacy of the past is no longer merely preserved; it is reimagined.
At the heart of this transformation lies the concept of **inganno**—the Italian notion of artistic illusion or deception. Much like Michelangelo's forged *Sleeping Cupid*, which was deliberately fashioned to resemble an ancient sculpture by Praxiteles, this image plays upon the viewer's expectations. At first glance, one recognizes Botticelli's celebrated Venus; upon closer inspection, however, every familiar element has undergone a profound metamorphosis. Venus no longer emerges from a natural shell but rises from a biomorphic technological structure. Her body fuses organic anatomy with mechanical refinement, while the surrounding radiance replaces the sea foam of the Renaissance painting with an almost cosmic energy. Here deception is not an act of falsification but a creative strategy that transforms imitation into invention.
In 2019, Stephanie Dickinson started a professional services role in the Statistical Science department at UCL. An artist by training, Stephanie generally found that she could earn money by doing jobs that other people didn't want to do. So, when she was asked to pause her timetabling work for a moment and tidy up a messy library with a heap of books, papers and a bust in the corner, events moved in a direction she wasn’t expecting with profound results.
UCL’s eugenics legacy is well documented. Sir Francis Galton, who never worked at UCL, coined the phrase “eugenics”, and did much to popularise the racist pseudo-science. When Galton died in 1911, he left money to the University of London to establish a Chair in Eugenics, with the recommendation that Karl Pearson should be the first holder of the chair. Pearson was duly appointed and founded the Department of Applied Statistics at UCL.
Sifting through papers relating to eugenics in a room formally named after Karl Pearson, Stephanie thought back to secondary school and lessons on eugenics through a particularly diligent headteacher. She was shocked that eugenics had found a home at UCL and was eager to learn more, especially why there was a bust of Pearson in the corner of this well used room.
But before she could address the issue there came a series of events including the Covid-19 pandemic, The Black Lives Matter movement, and for Stephanie, the challenge of being a new mother. But even with offices locked up and remote working the “new normal”, things were changing at UCL. On 7 January 2021, UCL issued a formal public apology for its history and legacy of eugenics and amongst several actions de-named the Pearson building. The bust of Pearson in 1-19 Torrington Place remained though.
I like to see the project as admin as art and painting by email (Stephanie Dickinson)
When she returned from maternity leave, Stephanie was fired up, a frustration partly caused by a serious illness associated with the birth of her child. Addressing the Pearson bust would be her first action to try and make sense of this frustration. Worries over whether this was a good career move aside, she took the plunge and went to see her department head. She was so pleased when he was not only supportive, but gave her the time and space to figure out what the right action should be and lead the efforts to address the legacy of the bust.
My department could not have been more supportive (Stephanie Dickinson)
There was lots to consider. If objects linked to difficult histories are removed, is it denying that there was ever an issue, and what is the implication for learning? Stephanie was not in favour of removing the bust, she was drawn to placing a highly visible and lasting educational plaque next to the Pearson bust. A plaque that links to further information on the UCL website and that gives a balanced history. Drawing on expertise within her department, the text was finalised and the plaque should help educate future generations of UCL staff and students.
Interestingly Stephanie sees her action as “admin as art”. Her philosophy is to correct and move on. Art and social justice are not just key parts of her personality but her career too. She has since tackled other projects related to UCL’s eugenics legacy, working directly with the Eugenics Legacy Education Project (ELEP). She would like to explore themes raised by this project in other ways as she continues her career. The bust had been a presence attached to the wall and it took an administrator to tackle the legacy head on and affect change. Will this inspire more of us to question what is around us? Stephanie hopes so.
Meet the artist
Hello! My name is Weihong Tang, also known as Clover. I used to be a communication designer, and I am currently studying for a Master’s degree in Education and Technology at UCL (2024/25). My interests focus on the application of tools and media production in educational settings. I am passionate about discovering innovative ways to inspire learners and enhance learning experiences.
www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/ucl-eugenics-legacy-story...
This approach belongs to a long artistic tradition in which copying was never a passive act. Marcantonio Raimondi's engravings after Dürer's woodcuts, the virtuoso reinterpretations by the Wierix family, and the circulation of Michelangelo's drawings for Vittoria Colonna and Tommaso Cavalieri all demonstrate that replication could become a vehicle for innovation, intellectual exchange, and artistic prestige. Likewise, this work treats Botticelli not as an untouchable model but as a prototype whose visual memory is activated within a contemporary visual language.
Yet this uchronia extends beyond the history of art into the realm of spiritual symbolism. The two lateral figures evoke an initiatory landscape in which visible beauty conceals a deeper reality. On the left, a dense organic and vegetal world suggests the primordial forces of creation; on the right, a veiled feminine figure recalls the motif of hidden wisdom and revelation. Between these two realms stands a transfigured Venus, acting as a mediator between the material and the spiritual, between nature and transcendence.
This interpretation resonates with the traditions of the **Fedeli d'Amore**. In both Dante's poetry and the mystical writings of Rūzbihān Baqlī Shīrāzī, beauty is never an end in itself but a sign leading toward higher knowledge. Visible forms function as veils through which divine reality may be contemplated. Within this framework, Venus is no longer simply the classical goddess of love but becomes an image of theophany—a manifestation in which beauty, love, and illumination converge.
The painting therefore brings together multiple historical horizons: the classical world of Venus, the Renaissance of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the medieval mysticism of Dante and the *Fedeli d'Amore*, and the technological imagination of the contemporary era. These different temporalities coexist within a single visual space, creating an authentic uchronia in which history is not rewritten but reconfigured as an alternative genealogy of images.
The "hidden signs" do not reside in a fixed esoteric code but in the very operation of the image itself. The **inganno** lies in persuading the viewer that this is merely another variation on Botticelli's masterpiece, while the work in fact proposes a meditation on the memory of forms, the creative power of artistic quotation, and the capacity of images to reveal new meanings beneath familiar appearances. As in the mystical traditions of Dante and the Persian masters of love, the visible becomes the threshold of the invisible, where imitation is transformed into creation and the image itself becomes an instrument of revelation.
The shift of imagery from iconic reference to assertion of artistic vision and personal style (cf. Hans Belting and Christopher Wood) generated a tension between reception of venerated visual tradition and artistic transformation. Ancient models became sources of emulation, especially for Michelangelo, whose forgery of an ancient Sleeping Cupid by Praxiteles (1496) is the subject of editor Sally Anne Hickson’s study. Here successful deception became a badge of originality and virtuoso contemporary authenticity. Of course, deceptive copies of prints are well known to HNA members, not only the infamous engravings in Venice by Marcantonio Raimondi after Dürer woodcuts, but also virtuoso reworkings, such as the Wierix engravings after Dürer prototypes, often in the original orientation and even with the same detail executed in miniature. Yet copying and distribution of certain celebrated prototypes, especially the chalk drawings by Michelangelo for both Vittoria Colonna and Tomasso Cavaliere, held special value for the collectors and friendship circles who were proud possessors of those derivative works, some of them in luxury media, as Maria Ruvoldt has demonstrated. Not to mention the burgeoning period interest in engraved reproductions of works in other media by professional printmakers, a topic to which I personally devoted an exhibition two decades ago (Larry Silver and Timothy Riggs, Graven Images, 1993; to be supplemented by various later studies, such as Rebecca Zorach and Elizabeth Rodini, Paper Museums, 2005). As usual when the artworks are chiefly Italian, prints are ignored, despite the importance of Cornelis Cort and the Carracci in this tradition.
hnanews.org/hnar/reviews/inganno-art-deception-imitation-...
There is not doubt that there exist both similarities and contrasts in the history and teachings of Christian and Islamic mysticism. One of the most fascinating periods in the history of the two religions and the mystical schools that appeared in them is the 12th and 13th centuries in which so many great Christians and Muslims mystics lived. In the 13th Century there appeared in Italy the well-known secret organization with its mystical and esoteric teachings called the Fedeli d’amore to which Dante belonged. This organization was not only devoted to esoteric matters but also had a political and social dimension. Nevertheless, mystical and esoteric teachings were at the heart of its concerns and it is history identified with hidden esoteric ideas and doctrines. A century earlier there appeared within the Sufi tradition in Persia a particular school of love mysticism that the famous French scholar of Islamic thought, Henry Corbin, has called “the Fedeli d’amore of Persia”. Among the latter groups Rūzbihān Baqlī Shīrāzī is one of the most celebrated and is considered as one of the most significant figures in the history of Sufism as a whole. As for Europe, among the Western Fedeli d’amore it is of course the figure of Dante that stands out above all others. In our present study we have analyzed the ‘Abhar al-‘āshinqīn of Rūzbihān Baqlī on the one hand and the works of Dante, especially the Divine Comedy and La Vita Nuova, on the other and have then compared and contrasted the thought and style of these two colossal figures. Our goal has been to study and to reveal both the similarities and differences of the manifestation and treatment of Love on different levels in the teachings the Christian and Islamic traditions as crystallized in and associated with the Fedeli d’amore of Italy and of Persia. Some attention has also been paid to the influence of Islamic thought upon the medieval West especially in the domain of symbolism, and our study may therefore said to be both morphological and historical.
scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/concern/gw_etds/m039k4971?lo...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1930s exhibit by the Eugenics Society. Some of the signs read "Healthy and Unhealthy Families", "Heredity as the Basis of Efficiency", and "Marry Wisely".
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Eugenics[a] is a largely discredited set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population.[2][3][4] Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fertility of those considered inferior, often through forced sterilization, or promoting that of those considered superior.[5]
The contemporary history of eugenics began in the late 19th century, when a popular eugenics movement emerged in the United Kingdom,[6] which spread to most European countries (e.g., Sweden and Germany), and many other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia.[7]
Historically, the idea of eugenics has been used to argue for a broad array of practices ranging from prenatal care for mothers deemed genetically desirable to the forced sterilisation and murder of those deemed unfit.[5] To population geneticists, the term has included the avoidance of inbreeding without altering allele frequencies; for example, British-Indian scientist J. B. S. Haldane wrote in 1940 that "the motor bus, by breaking up inbred village communities, was a powerful eugenic agent."[8] Debate as to what qualifies as eugenics continues today.[9]
A progressive social movement promoting eugenics had originated in the 19th century,[10][11][12] with diverse support, but by the mid 20th century the term was closely associated with scientific racism and authoritarian coercion. With modern medical genetics, genetic testing and counselling have become common, and new or liberal eugenics rejects coercive programmes in favour of individual parental choice.[13]
Common distinctions
Lester Frank Ward wrote the early paper: "Eugenics, Euthenics and Eudemics", making yet further distinctions.[14]
Eugenic programmes included both positive measures, such as encouraging individuals deemed particularly "fit" to reproduce, and negative measures, such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilisation of people deemed unfit for reproduction.[5][15][16]: 104–155
Positive eugenics is aimed at encouraging reproduction among the genetically advantaged, for example, the intelligent, the healthy, and the successful. Possible approaches include financial and political stimuli, targeted demographic analyses, in vitro fertilisation, egg transplants, and cloning.[17] Negative eugenics aimed to eliminate, through sterilisation or segregation, those deemed physically, mentally, or morally undesirable. This includes abortions, sterilisation, and other methods of family planning.[17] Both positive and negative eugenics can be coercive; in Nazi Germany, for example, abortion was illegal for women deemed by the state to be superior.[18]
As opposed to "euthenics"
See also: Nature-nurture debate
Ellen Swallow Richards
Julia Clifford Lathrop
Ellen Swallow Richards (left), the first female student and instructor at MIT, was one of the first to use the term, while Julia Clifford Lathrop (right) continued to promote it in the form of an interdisciplinary academic program later to be mostly absorbed into the field of home economics.
Euthenics (/juːˈθɛnɪks/) is the study of the improvement of human functioning and well-being by the improvement of living conditions.[19] "Improvement" is conducted by altering external factors such as education and the controllable environments, including environmentalism, education regarding employment, home economics, sanitation, and housing, as well as the prevention and removal of contagious disease and parasites.
In a New York Times article dated May 23, 1926, Rose Field notes of the description, "the simplest [is] efficient living".[20] It is also described as "a right to environment",[21] commonly as dual to a "right of birth" that correspondingly falls under the purview of eugenics.[22]
In contrast to eugenics, euthenics does not intentionally attempt to alter the composition of the human gene pool. However, improvements to one's quality of life, such as eradication of diseases or access to proper nutrition, can potentially have indirect effects on the genetics of the population.[23]
The influential historian of education Abraham Flexner questions its scientific value in stating:
[T]he "science" is artificially pieced together of bits of mental hygiene, child guidance, nutrition, speech development and correction, family problems, wealth consumption, food preparation, household technology, and horticulture. A nursery school and a school for little children are also included. The institute is actually justified in an official publication by the profound question of a girl student who is reported as asking, "What is the connection of Shakespeare with having a baby?" The Vassar Institute of Euthenics bridges this gap![24]
Eugenicist Charles Benedict Davenport noted in his article "Euthenics and Eugenics", reprinted in Popular Science Monthly:
Thus the two schools of euthenics and eugenics stand opposed, each viewing the other unkindly. Against eugenics it is urged that it is a fatalistic doctrine and deprives life of the stimulus toward effort. Against euthenics the other side urges that it demands an endless amount of money to patch up conditions in the vain effort to get greater efficiency. Which of the two doctrines is true?
The thoughtful mind must concede that, as is so often the case where doctrines are opposed, each view is partial, incomplete and really false. The truth does not exactly lie between the doctrines; it comprehends them both.
[...] [I]n the generations to come, the teachings and practice of euthenics [...] [may] yield greater result because of the previous practice of the principles of eugenics.[25]
Along similar lines, Edward L. Thorndike, a psychologist and early intelligence researcher, argued some two years later for an understanding that better integrates eugenic study:
The more rational the race becomes, the better roads, ships, tools, machines, foods, medicines and the like it will produce to aid itself, though it will need them less. The more sagacious and just and humane the original nature that is bred into man, the better schools, laws, churches, traditions and customs it will fortify itself by. There is no so certain and economical a way to improve man's environment as to improve his nature.[26]
Historical eugenics
Main article: History of eugenics
Ancient and medieval origins
See also: Sparta § Birth and death
Giuseppe Diotti's The selection of the infant Spartans (1840)
In ancient Sparta, according to Plutarch (fl. 50 to 120 CE), the council of elders (the Gerousia) inspected every proper citizen's child and determined whether or not the child was fit to live.[27] A child deemed unfit was allegedly thrown into a chasm.[28][29] Plutarch's account is the sole historical source for the Spartan practice of infanticide motivated by eugenics.[30] While ancient Greeks practiced infanticide, no contemporary sources support Plutarch's claims of infanticide on eugenic grounds.[31] In 2007, the tradition of dumping infants near Mount Taygete was called into question due to a lack of physical evidence: anthropologist Theodoros Pitsios' research of the site found only bodies ranging in age from 18 to 35 years.[32][33]
Plato's political philosophy included the belief that the state should cautiously monitor and control human reproduction through selective breeding.[34][35]
According to Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120), a Roman of the Imperial Period, the Germanic tribes of his day killed any member of their community they deemed cowardly, un-warlike or "stained with abominable vices", usually by drowning them in swamps.[36][37] Modern historians regard Tacitus' ethnographic writing as unreliable in such details.[38][39]
Academic origins
See also: Galton Laboratory and Eugenics Record Office
Francis Galton (1822–1911) was a British polymath who coined the term "eugenics"
The term eugenics and its modern field of study were first formulated by Francis Galton in 1883,[40][41][42][b] directly drawing on the recent work delineating natural selection by his half-cousin Charles Darwin.[44][45][46][c] He published his observations and conclusions chiefly in his influential book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development. Galton himself defined it as "the study of all agencies under human control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations".[48] The first to systematically apply Darwinism theory to human relations, Galton believed that various desirable human qualities were also hereditary ones, although Darwin strongly disagreed with this elaboration of his theory.[49]
Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities and received funding from various sources.[50] Organisations were formed to win public support for and to sway opinion towards responsible eugenic values in parenthood, including the British Eugenics Education Society of 1907 and the American Eugenics Society of 1921. Both sought support from leading clergymen and modified their message to meet religious ideals.[51] In 1909, the Anglican clergymen William Inge and James Peile both wrote for the Eugenics Education Society. Inge was an invited speaker at the 1921 International Eugenics Conference, which was also endorsed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Patrick Joseph Hayes.[51]
Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for eugenicists, with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York City. Eugenic policies in the United States were first implemented by state-level legislators in the early 1900s.[52] Eugenic policies also took root in France, Germany, and Great Britain.[53] Later, in the 1920s and 1930s, the eugenic policy of sterilising certain mental patients was implemented in other countries including Belgium,[54] Brazil,[55] Canada,[56] Japan and Sweden.
Frederick Osborn's 1937 journal article "Development of a Eugenic Philosophy" framed eugenics as a social philosophy—a philosophy with implications for social order.[57] That definition is not universally accepted. Osborn advocated for higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desired traits ("positive eugenics") or reduced rates of sexual reproduction or sterilisation of people with less-desired or undesired traits ("negative eugenics").[58]
In addition to being practiced in a number of countries, eugenics was internationally organised through the International Federation of Eugenics Organisations.[59] Its scientific aspects were carried on through research bodies such as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics,[60] the Cold Spring Harbor Carnegie Institution for Experimental Evolution,[61] and the Eugenics Record Office.[62] Politically, the movement advocated measures such as sterilisation laws.[63] In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness.[64] Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure "Nordic race" or "Aryan" genetic pool and the eventual elimination of "unfit" races.[65][66]
Many leading British politicians subscribed to the theories of eugenics. Winston Churchill supported the British Eugenics Society and was an honorary vice president for the organisation. Churchill believed that eugenics could solve "race deterioration" and reduce crime and poverty.[47][67][68]
As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted[69] various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions, segregation (both racial segregation and sequestering the mentally ill), compulsory sterilisation, forced abortions or forced pregnancies, ultimately culminating in genocide. By 2014, gene selection (rather than "people selection") was made possible through advances in genome editing,[70] leading to what is sometimes called new eugenics, also known as "neo-eugenics", "consumer eugenics", or "liberal eugenics"; which focuses on individual freedom and allegedly pulls away from racism, sexism or a focus on intelligence.[71]
Early opposition
Early critics of the philosophy of eugenics included the American sociologist Lester Frank Ward,[72] the English writer G. K. Chesterton, and Scottish tuberculosis pioneer and author Halliday Sutherland.[d] Ward's 1913 article "Eugenics, Euthenics, and Eudemics", Chesterton's 1917 book Eugenics and Other Evils,[74] and Franz Boas' 1916 article "Eugenics" (published in The Scientific Monthly)[75] were all harshly critical of the rapidly growing movement.
Several biologists were also antagonistic to the eugenics movement, including Lancelot Hogben.[76] Other biologists who were themselves eugenicists, such as J. B. S. Haldane and R. A. Fisher, however, also expressed scepticism in the belief that sterilisation of "defectives" (i.e. a purely negative eugenics) would lead to the disappearance of undesirable genetic traits.[77]
Among institutions, the Catholic Church opposes sterilisation for eugenic purposes.[78] Attempts by the Eugenics Education Society to persuade the British government to legalise voluntary sterilisation were opposed by Catholics and by the Labour Party.[79] The American Eugenics Society initially gained some Catholic supporters, but Catholic support declined following the 1930 papal encyclical Casti connubii.[51] In this, Pope Pius XI explicitly condemned sterilisation laws: "Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the reasons of eugenics or for any other reason."[80]
The eugenicists' political successes in Germany and Scandinavia were not at all matched in such countries as Poland and Czechoslovakia, even though measures had been proposed there, largely because of the Catholic Church's moderating influence.[81]
Eugenic feminism
This section is an excerpt from Eugenic feminism.edit
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904
Eugenic feminism was a current of the women's suffrage movement which overlapped with eugenics.[82] Originally coined by the Lebanese-British physician and vocal eugenicist Caleb Saleeby,[83][84][85] the term has since been applied to summarize views held by prominent feminists of Great Britain and the United States. Some early suffragettes in Canada, especially a group known as The Famous Five, also pushed for various eugenic policies.
Eugenic feminists argued that if women were provided with more rights and equality, the deteriorating characteristics of a given race could be averted.
North American eugenics
American eugenicists generally pursued more public-facing work and accordingly became widely known for their racism in particular. Along these lines, they were often harshly criticised by their British counterparts.[86]
This section is an excerpt from Eugenics in the United States.edit
While its American practice was ostensibly about improving genetic quality, it has been argued that eugenics was more about preserving the position of the dominant groups in the population. Scholarly research has determined that people who found themselves targets of the eugenics movement were those who were seen as unfit for society—the poor, the disabled, the mentally ill, and specific communities of color—and a disproportionate number of those who fell victim to eugenicists' sterilization initiatives were women who were identified as African American, Asian American, or Native American.[87][88] As a result, the United States' eugenics movement is now generally associated with racist and nativist elements, as the movement was to some extent a reaction to demographic and population changes, as well as concerns over the economy and social well-being, rather than scientific genetics.[89][88]
In Mexico
This section is an excerpt from Eugenics in Mexico.edit
Following the Mexican Revolution, the eugenics movement gained prominence in Mexico. Seeking to change the genetic make-up of the country's population, proponents of eugenics in Mexico focused primarily on rebuilding the population, creating healthy citizens, and ameliorating the effects of perceived social ills such as alcoholism, prostitution, and venereal diseases. Mexican eugenics, at its height in the 1930s, influenced the state's health, education, and welfare policies.[90]
Mexican elites adopted eugenic thinking and raised it under the banner of “the Great Mexican family” (Spanish: la gran familia mexicana).[91]
Unlike in other countries, the eugenics movements in Latin America were largely founded on the idea of neo-Lamarckian eugenics.[92] Neo-Lamarckian eugenics stated that the outside effects experienced by an organism, throughout its lifetime, changed its genetics, permanently, allowing the organism to pass acquired traits onto its offspring.[93] In the Neo-Lamarckian genetic framework, activities, such as prostitution and alcoholism, could result in the degeneration of future generations, amplifying fears about the effects of certain social ills. However, the supposed genetic malleability also offered hope, to certain Latin American eugenicists, as social reform would have the ability to transform the population, more permanently.[92]
Nazism and the decline of eugenics
See also: Nazi eugenics, Racial hygiene, Life unworthy of life, and Scientific racism
Schloss Hartheim, a former centre for Nazi Germany's Aktion T4 campaign
Part of a series on
Nazism
The reputation of eugenics started to decline in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin used eugenics as a justification for the racial policies of Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler had praised and incorporated eugenic ideas in Mein Kampf in 1925 and emulated eugenic legislation for the sterilisation of "defectives" that had been pioneered in the United States once he took power.[94] Some common early 20th century eugenics methods involved identifying and classifying individuals and their families. This included racial groups (such as the Roma and Jews in Nazi Germany), the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, and homosexuals as "degenerate" or "unfit". This led to segregation, institutionalisation, sterilisation, and mass murder.[95] The Nazi policy of identifying German citizens deemed unfit and then systematically murdering them with poison gas, referred to as the Aktion T4 campaign, paved the way for the Holocaust.[96][97][98]
"All practices aimed at eugenics, any use of the human body or any of its parts for financial gain, and human cloning shall be prohibited."
— Hungarian Constitution[99]
By the end of World War II, many eugenics laws were abandoned, having become associated with Nazi Germany.[100] H. G. Wells, who had called for "the sterilisation of failures" in 1904,[101] stated in his 1940 book The Rights of Man: Or What Are We Fighting For? that among the human rights, which he believed should be available to all people, was "a prohibition on mutilation, sterilisation, torture, and any bodily punishment".[102] After World War II, the practice of "imposing measures intended to prevent births within [a national, ethnical, racial or religious] group" fell within the definition of the new international crime of genocide, set out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.[103] The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also proclaims "the prohibition of eugenic practices, in particular those aiming at selection of persons".[104]
In Singapore
Main article: Population control in Singapore § Demographic transition and the Graduate Mothers Scheme
Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, actively promoted eugenics as late as 1983.[105] In 1984, Singapore began providing financial incentives to highly educated women to encourage them to have more children. For this purpose was introduced the "Graduate Mother Scheme" that incentivised graduate women to get married as much as the rest of their populace.[106] The incentives were extremely unpopular and regarded as eugenic, and were seen as discriminatory towards Singapore's non-Chinese ethnic population. In 1985, the incentives were partly abandoned as ineffective, while the government matchmaking agency, the Social Development Network, remains active.[107][108][109]
Modern eugenics
See also: New eugenics
Liberal eugenics, also called new eugenics, aims to make genetic interventions morally acceptable by rejecting coercive state programmes and relying on parental choice.[110][13] Bioethicist Nicholas Agar, who coined the term, argues that the state should intervene only to forbid interventions that excessively limit a child’s ability to shape their own future.[111] Unlike "authoritarian" or "old" eugenics, liberal eugenics draws on modern scientific knowledge of genomics to enable informed choices aimed at improving well-being.[13] Julien Savulescu further argues that some eugenic practices, like prenatal screening for Down syndrome, are already widely practiced, without being labelled "eugenics", as they are seen as enhancing freedom rather than restricting it.[112]
UC Berkeley sociologist Troy Duster argued that modern genetics is a "back door to eugenics".[113] This view was shared by then-White House Assistant Director for Forensic Sciences, Tania Simoncelli, who stated in a 2003 publication by the Population and Development Programme at Hampshire College that advances in pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) are moving society to a "new era of eugenics", and that, unlike the Nazi eugenics, modern eugenics is consumer driven and market based, "where children are increasingly regarded as made-to-order consumer products".[114] The United Nations' International Bioethics Committee also noted that while human genetic engineering should not be confused with the 20th century eugenics movements, it nonetheless challenges the idea of human equality and opens up new forms of discrimination and stigmatisation for those who do not want or cannot afford the technology.[115]
In 2025, geneticist Peter Visscher published a paper in Nature, arguing genome editing of human embryos and germ cells may become feasible in the 21st century, and raising ethical considerations in the context of previous eugenics movements.[116][117] A response argued that human embryo genetic editing is "unsafe and unproven".[118] Nature also published an editorial, stating: "The fear that polygenic gene editing could be used for eugenics looms large among them, and is, in part, why no country currently allows genome editing in a human embryo, even for single variants".[117]
Contested scientific status
In the decades after World War II, the term "eugenics" had taken on a negative connotation and as a result, the use of it became increasingly unpopular within the scientific community. Many organizations and journals that had their origins in the eugenics movement began to distance themselves from the philosophy which spawned them, as when Eugenics Quarterly was renamed Social Biology in 1969.
One general concern is that the reduced genetic diversity that may be a feature of long-term, species-wide eugenics plans[119] could eventually result in inbreeding depression,[119] increased spread of infectious disease,[120][121][better source needed] and decreased resilience to changes in the environment.[122][better source needed]
Arguments for scientific validity
See also: Selective breeding, De novo domestication, List of domesticated animals, List of domesticated plants, and Self-domestication
In his original lecture "Darwinism, Medical Progress and Eugenics", Karl Pearson claimed that everything concerning eugenics fell into the field of medicine.[123] Anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička said in 1918 that "[t]he growing science of eugenics will essentially become applied anthropology."[124] The economist John Maynard Keynes was a lifelong proponent of eugenics and described it as a branch of sociology.[125][126]
In a 2006 newspaper article, Richard Dawkins said that discussion regarding eugenics was inhibited by the shadow of Nazi misuse, to the extent that some scientists would not admit that breeding humans for certain abilities is at all possible. He believes that it is not physically different from breeding domestic animals for traits such as speed or herding skill. Dawkins felt that enough time had elapsed to at least ask just what the ethical differences were between breeding for ability versus training athletes or forcing children to take music lessons, though he could think of persuasive reasons to draw the distinction.[127]
Objections to scientific validity
Amanda Caleb, Professor of Medical Humanities at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, says "Eugenic laws and policies are now understood as part of a specious devotion to a pseudoscience that actively dehumanises to support political agendas and not true science or medicine."[128]
The first major challenge to conventional eugenics based on genetic inheritance was made in 1915 by Thomas Hunt Morgan. He demonstrated the event of genetic mutation occurring outside of inheritance involving the discovery of the hatching of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) with white eyes from a family with red eyes,[47]: 336–337 demonstrating that major genetic changes occurred outside of inheritance.[47]: 336–337 [clarification needed] Morgan criticised the view that traits such as intelligence or criminality were hereditary, because these traits were subjective.[129][e]
Pleiotropy occurs when one gene influences multiple, seemingly unrelated phenotypic traits, an example being phenylketonuria, which is a human disease that affects multiple systems but is caused by one gene defect...
James B. Conant - On Understanding Science
Mentor Books M68, 1951
Cover Artist: Stanley Meltzoff
"A famous scientist explains science and its role today."
Understanding the human brain is the main concern of current medical research. New imaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allow to visualise the activity of the brain. The Ars Electronica Center Linz is hosting Science Days on the matter of the human brain.
credit: Martin Hieslmair
A Mentor Paperback--as a geeky kid I bought dozens of books from Mentor (New American Library) on history, art and science. They had stiff paper covers laminated with a thin plastic that tended to split, crack and peel. Does anybody else remember this?
This edition "On Understanding Science," was published in 1951. Author James B. Conant is a "famous scientist" who "explains science and its role today." No creationism in this tome.
Personally, I like the surrealistic cover.
Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition . . . Austen, Jane; Spacks, Patricia Ann Meyer
Pride and Prejudice . . . DVD
The Romance Collection . . . DVD
The Jane Austen . . . DVD
Pride and Prejudice . . . Austen, Jane
Pride and Prejudice: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, and Sources Criticism . . . Austen, Jane; Gray, Donald J.
Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility ... Austen, Jane
All Things Austen: An Encyclopedia of Austen's World . . . Olsen Kirstin
Jane Austen: A Life . . . Nokes, David
England's Jane: The Story of Jane Austen . . . Locke, Juliane
Jane Austen: Her Life . . . Honan, Park
Jane Austen: A Life . . . Tomalin, Claire
Jane Austen . . . Shields, Carol
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist: The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England . . . Pool, Daniel
The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Regency and Victorian England . . . Hughes, Kristine
Jane Austen . . . Bloom, Harold
Pride and Prejudice ... Jane Austen (ed. Bloom, Harold)
Flirting with Pride & Prejudice: Fresh Perspectives on the Original Chick-Lit Masterpiece . . . Crusie, Jennifer
Jane Austen's Novels: Social Change and Literary Form . . . Brown, Julia Prewitt
Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me about Life, Friendship and the Things That Really Matter . . . Deresiewicz, William
Becoming Jane . . DVD
Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field . . . Nathan, Melissa
Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart . . . Pattillo, Beth
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance--Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem . . . Grahame-Smith, Seth; Austen, Jane
Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel . . . Fielding, Helen
Prom and Prejudice . . . Eulberg, Elizabeth; Austen, Jane
All Roads Lead to Austen: A Year-Long Journey with Jane . . . Smith, Amy Elizabeth
Understanding Pride and Prejudice: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources and Historical Documents . . . Teachman, Debra
Symptoms of pregnancy
Understanding the symptoms of pregnancy is important because at first, only the symptoms can help you to know that you are pregnant. When you will see the symptoms of pregnancy, you will have to do some tests (that's called pregnancy tests) for confirmation.
In this article, we will describe the process of getting pregnant, symptoms of pregnancy, instructions for when & which tests you've to do for pregnancy confirmation. Keep reading until the end of this article to know about the risks of pregnancy.
Symptoms of pregnancy at 1 week
Within the first week of pregnancy, some of the symptoms begin to appear. However, most of the women can't understand the symptoms as early as the first week. The symptoms of pregnancy at 1 week are given below:
Nausea and vomiting
Breast swelling, increased tenderness of the breast, and visible veins
Urge to urinate frequently
Headache or dizziness
Rise the body temperature
Annoyance or mood swings
Aversion to food
Feelings of strong odor etc.
Symptoms of pregnancy in the first month
A lot of changes happen in the first month of pregnancy and that's why symptoms appear clearly like
No Menstruation
This is the perfect sign of pregnancy when you have a regular menstrual cycle. You can suspect that you're pregnant when you missed the menstruation but sometimes it may be misleading especially for one who has an irregular period.
Nausea
It's the most prominent symptom of pregnancy that happens for some hormonal change in early pregnancy. Nausea with or without vomiting and dizziness in the morning are called morning sickness.
High blood pressure
Your blood pressure can slightly increase early in the pregnancy because of hormonal changes and increase the blood volume in the body.
Aversions to foods
Pregnant women can't take food properly due to morning sickness and feelings of odor.
Constipation
The rising levels of hormones in early pregnancy can slow down digestive function and thus can lead to constipation. Moreover, the side effects of Iron supplements can be another cause of constipation.
Frequent urination
During pregnancy, the amount of blood in your body has increased. That's why kidneys have to purify the extra fluid and thus produce an excessive amount of urine. Moreover, the size of the uterus is increasing gradually with the progress of pregnancy and that puts pressure on the urinary bladder. To overcome the frequent urination, don't give up drinking water, rather you should drink enough water to stay hydrated during pregnancy.
Insomnia
Frequent urination at night can be a cause of insomnia during pregnancy. But never take medicine (sedative) without the instructions of a physician.
Breast swelling and feeling heavy or full
During pregnancy, the level of the Prolactin hormone goes up which is responsible for breast swelling and feeling heavy. Prolactin is an essential hormone to produce milk in the breast after the delivery of the baby.
Fatigue and depression:
The progesterone hormone increases from early pregnancy which can lead to Fatigue and depression. Moreover, the journey of pregnancy for the first time in a woman's life gives mental pressure.
Acne
The progesterone hormone can stimulate the sebaceous glands in the skin and thus lead to acne problems. But don't worry about that, these will be removed automatically after the delivery process.
How do girls get pregnant?
A woman's pregnancy occurs when a man's sperm fertilizes an egg after sexual intercourse. Pregnancy can occur three minutes after intercourse or up to five days. Within 5 to 10 days after fertilization, the fertilized egg attaches itself to the uterine wall and then starts the pregnancy.
Girls do not menstruate during pregnancy, but in some cases, there may be bleeding similar to menstruation. Such as -
Bleeding for implantation
Infection
Ectopic pregnancy
Miscarriage
Rupture of the uterine lining
A small amount of bleeding is normal as considered to be implantation bleeding but in case of abnormal bleeding, you should consult with a gynecologist immediately.
Pregnancy test
Pregnancy tests mean hCG tests that detect a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin which is produced early in pregnancy and increases as the pregnancy progresses. You can do this test at home by using pregnancy sticks that are available in pharmacies without a prescription. First, you have to collect your urine as a sample and then hold the test stick in the urine. You're pregnant if the result is positive but that's sometimes may be inaccurate. Because hCG hormone can increase in case of ovarian carcinoma without pregnancy. That's why it's a good idea to do an ultrasound (USG) to confirm the pregnancy.
Symptoms of pregnancy in the first month
A lot of changes happen in the first month of pregnancy and that's why symptoms appear clearly like
No Menstruation
This is the perfect sign of pregnancy when you have a regular menstrual cycle. You can suspect that you're pregnant when you missed the menstruation but sometimes it may be misleading especially for one who has an irregular period.
Nausea
It's the most prominent symptom of pregnancy that happens for some hormonal change in early pregnancy. Nausea with or without vomiting and dizziness in the morning are called morning sickness.
High blood pressure
Your blood pressure can slightly increase early in the pregnancy because of hormonal changes and increase the blood volume in the body.
Aversions to foods
Pregnant women can't take food properly due to morning sickness and feelings of odor.
Constipation
The rising levels of hormones in early pregnancy can slow down digestive function and thus can lead to constipation. Moreover, the side effects of Iron supplements can be another cause of constipation.
Frequent urination
During pregnancy, the amount of blood in your body has increased. That's why kidneys have to purify the extra fluid and thus produce an excessive amount of urine. Moreover, the size of the uterus is increasing gradually with the progress of pregnancy and that puts pressure on the urinary bladder. To overcome the frequent urination, don't give up drinking water, rather you should drink enough water to stay hydrated during pregnancy.
Insomnia
Frequent urination at night can be a cause of insomnia during pregnancy. But never take medicine (sedative) without the instructions of a physician.
Breast swelling and feeling heavy or full
During pregnancy, the level of the Prolactin hormone goes up which is responsible for breast swelling and feeling heavy. Prolactin is an essential hormone to produce milk in the breast after the delivery of the baby.
Fatigue and depression:
The progesterone hormone increases from early pregnancy which can lead to Fatigue and depression. Moreover, the journey of pregnancy for the first time in a woman's life gives mental pressure.
Acne
The progesterone hormone can stimulate the sebaceous glands in the skin and thus lead to acne problems. But don't worry about that, these will be removed automatically after the delivery process.
Risks in pregnancy
Pregnancy is a difficult journey in a woman's life because there are a lot of health risks. The chances of getting pregnant are high, especially when you've gotten pregnant at an older age. Some common risks associated with pregnancy are described below:
Ectopic pregnancy
When the implantation happens in the Fallopian tube, that's called Ectopic pregnancy. With the progression of pregnancy, the possibility of rupturing the Fallopian tube is increasing and thus can lead to hemorrhage and even maternal deaths.
Preeclampsia/Eclampsia
This is a very critical condition during pregnancy that is the result of the sudden onset of high blood pressure. To overcome this problem, maintain a healthy lifestyle to prevent hypertension.
Gestational Diabetes
Diabetes during pregnancy is called gestational diabetes (GD) can be the cause of Preterm birth, low birth weight, need for cesarean section, etc. If you have a diagnosis of GD, try to avoid refined carbs and take medication according to your physician's instructions.
Miscarriage
It's a common problem when the fetus is lost before the 20 weeks of pregnancy. The main cause of miscarriage is genetic and that can't be preventable. But the other causes like gestational diabetes, infection, Thyroid disease, etc are preventable. Research shows that there is no link between miscarriage and sexual intercourse during pregnancy.
Placenta previa
It's a rare problem that can cause excessive amounts of bleeding during pregnancy. You need to do a cesarean section according to the planning of your physician.
Maternal death
Maternal death is associated with the delivery process especially when it can be done at home without a gynecologist physician. To prevent maternal death during and after delivery, try to be admitted to the hospital before labor pain.
SOURCE : www.healthinfobd.com
The look that says, 'Whilst I quite understand what you are saying and value your right to say it, I think you are talking pish'
There will never be
Another one like you
There will never be
Another one who can
Do the things you do, oh
Will you give another chance?
Will you try, little try?
Please stop and you remember
We were together, anyway, all right
And if you have a certain evenin'
You could lend to me
I'd give it all right back to you
A how it has to be with you
I know your moves and your mind
MY WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | FLUIDR | BLOG
BC is committed to maintaining leadership on climate change and clean energy by ensuring the cleanest LNG
facilities in the world. As part of the LNG in BC conference, panel of international experts discussed the impact LNG will have on reducing global
emissions.
The Honourable Mary Polak, Minister of Environment, was the moderator.
The second annual international LNG in BC conference provides an opportunity to develop responsible government policy and industry best practices.
READ MORE: engage.gov.bc.ca/lnginbc/lng-conference/
[27/2, 06:28] Salvo Rosa: _*💪💪💪✌️✌️✌️👍👍🇦🇺🇦🇺☮️☮️☮️✌️✌️✌️️♂️️♂️️♂️ *🇦🇺🇦🇺👍👍👍💪💪💪🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏✌️✌️✌️🎯Honor, respect and great gratitude to the president of the UKRAINE republic V. Zelensky, brave, valiant and a true and fearless warrior! President Zelensky, the whole world is with you! Strength and courage to you and all the heroic Ukrainians, who are fighting valiantly like true lions against the invader Putin and Russia!
*
🇺🇦👍👏💪☮️✌️🎯📢️♂️Onore, rispetto e grande gratitudine al presidente della repubblica UCRAINA V. Zelensky, coraggioso, valoroso e un vero e impavido guerriero! Presidente Zelensky, il mondo intero è con te! Forza e coraggio a te e a tutti gli eroici ucraini, che stanno combattendo valorosamente come veri leoni contro l'invasore Putin e la Russia!*_ #Putin #nowar #stopviolence #stop #civilian #massacres #UCRAINA
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4882790315140190&...
[27/2, 06:37] Salvo Rosa: #Putin #nowar #stopviolence #stop #civilian #massacres #UCRAINA
[27/2, 09:12] Salvo Rosa: #Putin #nowar #stopviolence #stop #civilian #massacres #UCRAINA
Dear President Putin, those who sow wind reap storms! Whoever hurts others, sooner or later the evil returns to the sender! "Evil in the world almost always comes from ignorance and good intentions can do as much harm as evil if they lack understanding." "Those who have decided to harm do not struggle to find an excuse to do so." President, you have already lost your battle when you crossed the border and slaughtered INNOCENT and defenseless people! War produces only death and pain and does not solve people's problems, on the contrary it exacerbates them to excess! Thinking that you are stronger and more powerful than others very often causes you to stagger first and then fall quickly! "Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes." David ((apparently he had no way of defending himself)) defeated Goliath, who fell to the ground and, in an instant David was upon him, took his sword and cut off his head. Almost all dictators are finished and beaten equally! HUMILITY IS THE VIRTUE OF THE GREAT!
All this, kind President Putin, must make everyone think !!!
Signed by many European citizens opposed to war and abuses against and against the weakest militarily
[28/2, 10:04] Salvo Rosa: Speriamo che il Patriarca di Mosca #kirill Ecumenical Patriarchate Patriarch Ilia II Patriarcato d'Antiochia PREGHINO insieme con Papa Francesco Papafrancesco Bergoglio perché #Putin si fermi con la #follia della #guerra e si sieda ad un tavolo di #trattative per una #pace condivisa che non non danneggi nessuna delle parti in causa !
🙏🙏🙏💚💟♥️💚💟♥️🇮🇹🇦🇮🇦🇮🇦🇮🇦🇮🇺🇦✌️✌️✌️👏👏👏👌👌👌✌️✌️✌️🗽🗽🗽☮️☮️☮️️️️
We all pray for #UCRAINE, for its President #Zelenskjj and for #pace️☮️ #peace ❗ #Nowar #noarrogance and #noinvasion! #Putin #Putin=Hitler #invasion #Noviolence #Putin #nowar #stopviolence #stop #civilian #massacres #UCRAINA
*Dear President Putin, those who sow wind reap storms! Whoever hurts others, sooner or later the evil returns to the sender! "Evil in the world almost always comes from ignorance and good intentions can do as much harm as evil if they lack understanding." "Those who have decided to harm do not struggle to find an excuse to do so." President, you have already lost your battle when you crossed the border and slaughtered INNOCENT and defenseless people! War produces only death and pain and does not solve people's problems, on the contrary it exacerbates them to excess! Thinking that you are stronger and more powerful than others very often causes you to stagger first and then fall quickly! "Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes." David ((apparently he had no way of defending himself)) defeated Goliath, who fell to the ground and, in an instant David was upon him, took his sword and cut off his head. Almost all dictators are finished and beaten equally! HUMILITY IS THE VIRTUE OF THE GREAT!
All this, kind President Putin, must make everyone think !!!
Signed by many European citizens opposed to war and abuses against and against the weakest militarily . 🙏🙏🙏💚💟♥️💚💟♥️🇮🇹🇦🇮🇦🇮🇦🇮🇦🇮🇺🇦✌️✌️✌️👏👏👏👌👌👌✌️✌️✌️🗽🗽🗽☮️☮️☮️️️️
We all pray for #UCRAINE, for its President #Zelenskjj and for #pace️☮️ #peace ❗ #Nowar #noarrogance and #noinvasion! #Putin #Putin=Hitler #invasion #Noviolence
* m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=476474460745248&i...
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=476474460745248&i...
[1/3, 05:32] Salvo Rosa: We call on all hard-working, peaceful, innocent and friendly Russian people to take vision and conscience and to condemn President Putin, who is sowing pain, misery and death among innocent Ukrainian civilians and destroying buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine. You must stop this genocide of children and innocent people, who have the sole fault of being Ukrainians and wanting to live their lives in freedom. You absolutely must stop Putin, who is committing very serious crimes against weak and defenseless people. Do not watch Russian television, which does not show the true face and cruel reality of this absurd and unwarranted invasion.
[1/3, 05:33] Salvo Rosa: Chiediamo a tutto il popolo russo laborioso, pacifico, innocente e amichevole di prendere visione e coscienza e di condannare il presidente Putin, che sta seminando dolore, miseria e morte tra innocenti civili ucraini e distrugge edifici e infrastrutture in tutta l'Ucraina. Dovete fermare questo genocidio di bambini e persone innocenti, che hanno l'unica colpa di essere ucraini e di voler vivere la propria vita in libertà. Devi assolutamente fermare Putin, che sta commettendo crimini molto gravi contro persone deboli e indifese. Non guardare la televisione russa, che non mostra il vero volto e la crudele realtà di questa assurda e ingiustificata invasione.
[1/3, 06:38] Salvo Rosa: #PUTIN #STOPWAR #UCRAINA #SAVE #CHILDREN #PEOPLE #INNOCENT #STOPCRIMES 📌🎯🙏🙏➡️🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽❣️️ “Vladimir Putin, a nome dei bambini ucraini: ritira le tue truppe!”🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽👍✌️👏🙏🙏⏪📌
[1/3, 06:40] Salvo Rosa: #PUTIN #STOPWAR #UCRAINA #SAVE #CHILDREN #PEOPLE #INNOCENT #STOPCRIMES 📌🎯🙏🙏➡️🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽❣️️ “Vladimir Putin, a nome dei bambini ucraini: ritira le tue truppe!”🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽👍✌️👏🙏🙏⏪📌
We call on all hard-working, peaceful, innocent and friendly Russian people to take vision and conscience and to condemn President Putin, who is sowing pain, misery and death among innocent Ukrainian civilians and destroying buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine. You must stop this genocide of children and innocent people, who have the sole fault of being Ukrainians and wanting to live their lives in freedom. You absolutely must stop Putin, who is committing very serious crimes against weak and defenseless people. Do not watch Russian television, which does not show the true face and cruel reality of this absurd and unwarranted invasion.
[1/3, 11:42] Salvo Rosa: Gli sms del soldato russo alla mamma letti dall’ambasciatore all’Onu: “Stiamo bombardando i civili” www.fanpage.it/esteri/gli-sms-del-soldato-russo-alla-mamm...
#PUTIN #STOPWAR #UCRAINA #SAVE #CHILDREN #PEOPLE #INNOCENT #STOPCRIMES 📌🎯🙏🙏➡️🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽❣️️ “Vladimir Putin, a nome dei bambini ucraini: ritira le tue truppe!”🔉📢🇦🇷☮️☮️🌍🌍🇦🇷❣️️️️🗽🗽🗽👍✌️👏🙏🙏⏪📌
We call on all hard-working, peaceful, innocent and friendly Russian people to take vision and conscience and to condemn President Putin, who is sowing pain, misery and death among innocent Ukrainian civilians and destroying buildings and infrastructure across Ukraine. You must stop this genocide of children and innocent people, who have the sole fault of being Ukrainians and wanting to live their lives in freedom. You absolutely must stop Putin, who is committing very serious crimes against weak and defenseless people. Do not watch Russian television, which does not show the true face and cruel reality of this absurd and unwarranted invasion.
[2/3, 04:18] Salvo Rosa: Tutto questo è intollerabile, inaccettabile e vergognoso ! Il presidente Putin con questa sciagurata guerra di invasione e sottomissione dell'eroico popolo ucraino e della amata e indomabile Ucraina, con le conseguenti morti di migliaia e migliaia di civili disperati e inermi e con le contemporanee distruzione di palazzi residenziali, palazzi governativi, simboli della Shoah, con la distruzione di ospedali, di RSA, di ponti e di strade e con un flusso di milioni di sfollati e rifugiati, per lo più bambini, donne e anziani, che cercano di mettersi in salvo nei vicini Stati di confine (vedere i loro volti intrisi di dolore, sconforto, impotenza e 😭 pianto fa rabbrividire e piangere personali cronisti presenti) con i mercenari russi che sono alla caccia dell'eroico e fiero presidente Zelensky, eletto democraticamente dal popolo ucraino, a differenza del dittatore Putin, per ammazzarlo, sta commettendo una serie di violazioni del diritto internazionale, dei diritti umani e soprattutto sta commettendo una strage di persone innocenti e inermi, che sarà oggetto di giudizio di condanna per Putin ad opera dei tribunali internazionali per i crimini di guerra e contro l'umanità.
[2/3, 04:41] Salvo Rosa: All this is intolerable, unacceptable and shameful! President Putin with this unfortunate and cruel war of invasion and subjugation of the heroic Ukrainian people and the beloved and indomitable Ukraine, which led to the death of thousands and thousands of desperate and defenseless civilians and with the simultaneous destruction of residential buildings, buildings symbols of the Holocaust, with the destruction of hospitals, nursing homes, bridges and roads and with an influx of millions of displaced persons and refugees, mostly children, women and the elderly, trying to flee to neighboring border states (see their faces steeped in grief, despair, helplessness and 😭 tears, which make journalists crying and crying as they recount this drama) with Russian mercenaries chasing the heroic and proud President Zelensky, democratically elected by the Ukrainian people, unlike the dictator Putin, in order to kill him, is committing a series of violations of international law, human rights and above all he is killing many innocent and helpless, which will be the subject of criminal conviction for Putin by international courts for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
[2/3, 04:44] Salvo Rosa: youtu.be/Wv_nbUqunY0
All this is intolerable, unacceptable and shameful! President Putin with this unfortunate and cruel war of invasion and subjugation of the heroic Ukrainian people and the beloved and indomitable Ukraine, which led to the death of thousands and thousands of desperate and defenseless civilians and with the simultaneous destruction of residential buildings, buildings symbols of the Holocaust, with the destruction of hospitals, nursing homes, bridges and roads and with an influx of millions of displaced persons and refugees, mostly children, women and the elderly, trying to flee to neighboring border states (see their faces steeped in grief, despair, helplessness and 😭 tears, which make journalists crying and crying as they recount this drama) with Russian mercenaries chasing the heroic and proud President Zelensky, democratically elected by the Ukrainian people, unlike the dictator Putin, in order to kill him, is committing a series of violations of international law, human rights and above all he is killing many innocent and helpless, which will be the subject of criminal conviction for Putin by international courts for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tutto questo è intollerabile, inaccettabile e vergognoso ! Il presidente Putin con questa sciagurata guerra di invasione e sottomissione dell'eroico popolo ucraino e della amata e indomabile Ucraina, con le conseguenti morti di migliaia e migliaia di civili disperati e inermi e con le contemporanee distruzione di palazzi residenziali, palazzi governativi, simboli della Shoah, con la distruzione di ospedali, di RSA, di ponti e di strade e con un flusso di milioni di sfollati e rifugiati, per lo più bambini, donne e anziani, che cercano di mettersi in salvo nei vicini Stati di confine (vedere i loro volti intrisi di dolore, sconforto, impotenza e 😭 pianto fa rabbrividire e piangere personali cronisti presenti) con i mercenari russi che sono alla caccia dell'eroico e fiero presidente Zelensky, eletto democraticamente dal popolo ucraino, a differenza del dittatore Putin, per ammazzarlo, sta commettendo una serie di violazioni del diritto internazionale, dei diritti umani e soprattutto sta commettendo una strage di persone innocenti e inermi, che sarà oggetto di giudizio di condanna per Putin ad opera dei tribunali internazionali per i crimini di guerra e contro l'umanità.
Deputy Commissioner Troy Miller meets with the Colombian National Police (CNP) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on security personnel with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The two agencies used this opportunity to reaffirm their mutual commitment to continued cooperation and to introduce the leadership of CBP offices who serve as main interlocutors of CNP’s Antinarcotics Division (DIRAN) and flag upcoming cooperative activities in Sterling, VA, Feb. 9, 2022. CBP Photo by Jaime Rodriguez
Approx. 20/30" archival pigment print, signed, unnumbered edition, matted and framed.
©John Reiff Williams, image 2014, words 2015.
Imaging has brought visual empowerment to the common woman and man. At its inception, photography empowered us to see and express what had never before been accessible, including images of ourselves, the common people, and not just the aristocracy. As the record keeper of visual history since 1839, photography has aided us in mapping the world on all levels:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_life_cycle
We have been privileged to witness so much directly through the filters of our eyes, heart and mind and indirectly through the camera's eye. We embrace the camera as if it were a first person substitute of our personal perspective that holds the memory of what we see, when really it is just a different access point to what we imagine and think we see. The camera and the eye's reading of the world is done in different ways (mechanically and physically). There is, for instance, the mechanical perspective versus our physical/psychological perception; the angle of view of the lens (fixed) versus reading beyond the periphery; colors that are determined by materials and mechanical processes versus the color of human perception tinting everything emotionally. The photographic image ultimately helps us see what we don't notice as well as exposes us to what we wish we both had and hadn't seen; it helps us to remember what we want to see and it also reminds us what we are capable of feeling.
Photography as a tool of science has exploded the invisible world beyond anything imaginable, from the world of electrons and sub-atomic particles to evidence of the beginnings of the universe. Our understanding of life would be far less rich without this invention. And yet in the end, as a tool to liberate society, I still see restriction and conformity, all those governments that can't or won't share the truths of everyday life with their own people, much less with the world. And let's not forget the secrets that our democratic governments withhold. Ah, the power of the cellphone, the largest selling camera in the world, and the power of the citizen that holds it at the opportune moment- when have we experienced such power before?
I think what we share and communicate with and through the camera says so much about what is going on on both sides of the box. Is Photography, or image making, a process about taking or giving? Are there unspoken rules or ethics that should be mutually expressed from both sides of the camera? Can you and do you influence the way people perceive and understand the intent of what you are doing in the making of an image or in the submission to being the subject? What is the law in this case? And where you are, sometimes, determines the law of whether you can or can't make an image. Circumstances and laws determine who holds the copyright authorship of such. And then beyond the law, there are implicit rights or wrongs, as every situation is unique, and how you make others feel by bringing photography into a place or a process must always be considered.
Photography is a place to get lost and make discoveries and also a place to get found and acknowledge what you have never seen before, as well as acknowledge what you already know about something. So when should you not make a photograph? And when are you just repeating what you have already done, seen, or felt that someone else has already captured millions of millions of times before? So there is history to consider, and there are reasons to reinvent and reconsider this method of capture.
Please, use your imagination and allow images to speak to you. Bring to the image what you can, in terms of feelings and life experience, listen to the narrative you've created, and the next time you see this image, you may be in a different place and you might see or feel something you've never felt before. For a photograph to become art, it must turn into a living breathing thing that changes and responds and offers you something new on the return visit, perhaps forever.
These personal thoughts are not intent on being complete, but maybe they can serve you as a sort of city map and compass into one man's life. After forty odd years, full time behind the wheel as a photographer, these are a few of my ruminations on the subject.
My, how you've changed.
Thanks to the Englishman, Williams Henry Fox Talbot and to Frenchman, Louis Daguerre for both inventing very different manifestations of photography in 1839 .