View allAll Photos Tagged accept
The KOM League
Flash Report
For
July 19, 2019
Anyone curious as to what possibly could be left to write about, regarding the KOM league, there are two items in this week’s report One contains old news and the other a current event.
www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/48317007492/
Over the course of documenting the history of KOM league players there are some names that have a question mark beside them. In those instances the old batboy is relatively sure he has found the former player but has no conclusive evidence that would stand up in court.
A former player meeting those criteria was a short-term pitcher for the Bartlesville Oilers that was identified as Joseph Radamacher. Many trips have been made through Ancestry.com files and about a half dozen years ago it was believed the fellow was Joseph John Rademacher Jr. of Escanaba, Michigan. That name went on the KOM database with a question mark attached thereto.
In the past week a birth announcement was found in the January 3, 1928 Escanaba Daily Press that Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rademacher of Escanaba had given birth to a 10-pound boy the previous day.
There were numerous references to Joseph Jr. as he made his way through grade and high school. He attended St. Joseph’s High School in Escanaba. The Escanaba Daily Press reported on December 17, 1946 that Joseph Jr. had been accepted to attend the Bartow, Florida baseball school from January 6 through February 13, 1947. The supervisor for the school was George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss, Yankee second baseman www.google.com/search?q=snuffy+stirnweiss&oq=snuffy+s...
He was assisted by Fred Vaughn of the Washington Senators, www.google.com/search?q=Fred+Vaughn+baseball&oq=Fred+...
Burt Shotten of the Brooklyn Dodgers, www.google.com/search?q=burt+shotton+baseball&oq=Bert...
Ed Murphy coach at Holy Cross www.google.com/search?q=Ed+murphy+holy+cross&oq=ed+mu... and Doc Meek the trainer of the Newark Bears.
By January 27, 1947 the Escanaba newspaper reported Rademacher had been tagged as a youngster with talent and was offered a contract by the Pittsburgh Pirates. The article stated he had been given the choice of signing a Class B or C contract and chose the lower classification in order better himself in a career he envisioned would put him in the major leagues later on.
After extensive research all that could be found, for 1947, was his brief appearance with the Bartlesville Oilers.
In a May 18, 1948 article a headline in the Escanaba Daily Press stated “Ford River Hurler Wins First Game in Kentucky: Will Stay.” The article that followed read “Joseph Rademacher Jr. of Ford River, who left a month ago to play baseball with the Jenkins, KY team, has informed friends here that he intends to stay. He pitched the season opener for Jenkins a few days ago and the team won.”
It appears that the stay at Jenkins, in the Mountain States league, was brief for he was back in Michigan for most of the summer of 1948 pitching for Channing, a semi-pro team, in the Northern Wisconsin-Michigan league.
At the start of the 1949 season Rademacher was in the Blue Ridge league playing for the Elkin Blanketeers. He posted a 2-4 record in 11 mound appearances and left that team prior to mid-July. I suspect he was unconditionally released for he was free to try out for another team
On July 14, 1949 the Chicago White Sox held a tryout camp where three boys from Escanaba attended. Of the three only Rademacher made an impression. There were “rave” comments about him in the press and it stated the 6’ 2” 195 pounder had the appearance of the making of a good major league pitcher. The news coming from that tryout was the White Sox signed him for one year and that he would report, in the spring of 1950 to their minor league training facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The word was that when he made it in that organization he would be assigned to the Class C Superior club in the Northern league. Nothing indicates that he played in 1950 but records do show that he was in the Korean War by 1951.
A number of articles, bearing his name, appeared in the Escanaba Daily Press, over the years. He was active in civic affairs and even in building baseball fields for youngsters in his home town. His occupation appeared in city directories as a sheet metal worker.
Joseph John Rademacher died October 25, 2011 in his native hometown. In searching other files something was found that I hadn’t expected. On a family site was his photo which was probably taken when he was in his 60’s. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/48317007492/
A comment was posted on the site where the photo was found and possibly a member of the family will be in touch. No baseball record book shows he ever played in the Mountain States or KOM leagues and its possible no one in his family ever knew about it either. By the time he was married, in 1949, his baseball days were over and his first child was not born until 1957.
If you think the name Rademacher rings a bell, it probably does. The bell rings in a boxing ring when, in 1956, a young man by the name of Pete Rademacher was the. Olympic heavyweight boxing champion. magazine.wsu.edu/2016/04/29/pete-rademacher/
He had a bout with champion, Floyd Patterson, after the Olympics and got his bell rung. Now, if you think I’m going to tell you Pete and Joseph Rademacher were brothers, you would be incorrect. Were they kin in any manner? That I don’t know as the boxing Rademacher was from the State of Washington. But, if they were kin it will probably take me another 25 years to determine. Just as it has taken that long to document some aspects of the life of Joseph John Rademacher.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Bionic Bob Speake
During this past week an e-mail was received from the daughter of Ray Etzel who pitched for the Chanute, Kansas Athletics in 1946. Etzel was a native Topekan and lived there until his passing in May of 2006. My wife got to know his wife while working at the VA Hospital in Topeka but neither realized a common link until they met at a KOM league reunion a number of years later. Since the death of her mother and dad, Sharon has kept in touch with the KOM league news through the Flash Reports. Here is what she shared. “Hi John: We enjoyed your photos of the deer. You probably already know this, but Bob Speake is being inducted into the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame tonight. I’m sending a link to the article in today’s Topeka Capital-Journal.”
www.cjonline.com/sports/.../speake-parlayed-baseball-into...
After opening the aforementioned link I sent the following note to Bob and Joan Speake. “I got a notice on the e-mail a few minutes ago about Bob being inducted into the Shawnee County Ball Hall of Fame tonight. I enjoyed the article except for the part where the writer had Bob playing for Joplin in the KOM league. Hope you are all doing well.”
Upon arising from a night of not much sleep I was made to feel better by this note from Joan Speake. “Haven't been on the computer for a couple of days but was just sitting down to write you and tell you a woman sent Bob a note saying she had sent you a link so you could see the article. There WERE a few mistakes, the first one being Joplin instead of Carthage!! The man was very nice and he and Bob had a long time together here and he was taping their conversation so how he got Joplin I don't know. Also, we have 8 grandchildren, not only 4 and Bob has never called me Joanie ...ever! His family does and all my friends in Springfield but not here because he never called me that and so our friends here always called me Joan. So another ? as to where Joanie came from? Outside of that, the rest of the article was very good, I thought. The event is a fund raiser for youth baseball in Topeka and there was a pretty good turnout.
We are doing ok. Bob is due to have cataract surgery soon, have to get that set up. We have the consultation date set. He has a pace maker now so he is getting close to being the bionic( is that the word?) man.
Hope you both are doing well and still keeping up with those cute little ones. We now have 4 great grandsons and expecting another boy in Jan. which will make 5 under the age of 4. They all live here and pretty close to us which is nice.
We miss the days of the Reunions but could not keep up with it now. Bob isn't much of a traveler any more but lots of good memories. We keep in touch with Frank Hungerford some and Paul Nichols occasionally since they were school buddies of ours and I think Barb and Gale Wade are coming through some time this year but I hope they aren't traveling in this hot weather! 114 heat index today!! Stay cool! Love, Joan and Bob.”
It was my intention to share the Topeka Capital Journal article and then point out the factual errors as it pertained to the KOM league. But, Joan took care of that in her note. In all deference to sportswriters of 2019 it is only fair to point out what transpired in 1949 is now ancient history. However, as the unofficial historian of the KOM league it does seem incumbent upon me to point out obvious errors. It could be that in another few years someone will write about the KOM league and show Joplin as a member of it with Bob Speake being their first baseman. That would cause old Carthage Cub fans to roll over in whatever place they might be by that time.
For those who care to see how Bob Speake appears today and to read the article from the Topeka Capital Journal they can click on the site cited. For those who don’t click on URL’s this is the article.
•
Sluggers capable of chasing Mickey Mantle for a league home run title certainly possess some prodigious power.
Bob Speake, however, used more than just his bat to challenge the Yankees icon. He also engaged the Mick in foot races.
Those skills eventually helped Speake reach the major leagues. On Tuesday, the longtime Topeka resident will be inducted into the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame during a 5:30 p.m. banquet at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center.
While playing for Joplin in the KOM League as a Class D player in 1949, Speake slugged 14 homers to seven for Mantle, who played for Independence. A year later, both played in Topeka while in the Class C Western Association. Mantle flexed his power and topped Speake in homers that year.
However, a different pregame exhibition — this was the minors, after all — is what Speake, 89, remembers best.
First, a 60-yard dash was contested down the baseline.
“Zoom,″ Speake recalled, “I remember seeing that No. 7 on his back. So, he starts giving me the what-for and I told him, ‘I’ll get you on the next one.’ ″
That contest had Speake running from second base to home; Mantle from home to second. The first to get to his destination, running the same distance, prevailed.
“Well, I had a crossover technique in running the bases,″ Speake recalled. “Of course, he’s starting at home plate with a dead start. I’m pushing off the bag. So, I won and I told him, ‘That one’s for you.’ ″
Baseball would not become the kind of career bonanza for Speake that it was for Mantle. But when he retired after the 1959 season, Speake leveraged his time in the game.
As one of the founding executives of American Investors Life, Topeka has been home to Speake. He and his wife, Joanie, raised three children here. They have four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Speake learned all he could about the all-important marketing arm of business when he teamed with other businessmen in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. Automatic pinsetters had just been introduced to bowling centers and the group wanted to capitalize on what was then a growing sport.
“I said, ‘Now, you guys are all businessmen. If you want to talk baseball I can talk all night. But if you want to talk business, talk slow,’ ″ Speake recalled.
“Baseball gave me a front relating to people. Business is all about marketing. My time in the bowling business gave me an education, because when I went into starting the (insurance) company, I could contribute.″
The baseball stories Speake shares to this day are wonderful, beginning with the contests against Mantle after growing up in the same region of the country at the same time.
Both were talented, though the appraisals they received from big-league scouts grew clear one day when both were in line for their Army physicals.
“Mickey had a briefcase and I didn’t have anything,″ Speake said. “I went through, and he went back to New York.″
The Army stint kept Speake out of professional baseball for two years. While training at Fort Riley, Speake played 8-man football for the base team, a natural fit since that sport was his first love and one he played collegiately for one season at what is now Missouri State. While overseas, Speake played baseball for his base team.
Eventually, Speake played all or part of nine professional seasons.
When he got his first crack at the majors in 1955 with the Chicago Cubs, he was asked by manager Stan Hack if he ever played outfield. Hank Sauer, the 1952 MVP of the National League, was out and a replacement was needed. Speake, a first baseman, recognized the opportunity.
“I played outfield one game in the service, but I wasn’t lying to him,″ Speake said. “We were in Brooklyn and after that game I played left field. I went to the public library and picked out books on playing the outfield. So, I became an outfielder. You don’t say no.″
The Cubs were glad he didn’t. That May, Speake slammed 10 home runs, though the left-handed pull hitter was not well-suited for the prevailing wind in Wrigley Field.
Speake eventually bounced between the big leagues and Triple A, hitting .256 at all levels with 137 home runs. During the era in which he played, Speake also saw first-hand the Hall of Fame impact Jackie Robinson had breaking the color barrier.
With the Cubs, Speake played with Ernie Banks. After he was traded to the Giants, he played with Willie Mays. As one of the original San Francisco Giants, the prospect of playing regularly seemed promising — until the Giants brought in Bill White, Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey as first basemen.
“So, my time with the Giants (81 games in 1958 and ’59) is because the Jackie Robinson experiment was successful,″ Speake said. “Now, not successful from my perspective, but for the good of the game. The writing was on the wall.″
As a successful businessman who was one of the original investors in the diamonds that have long housed the Ken Berry League, Speake still made the most of his baseball career. And he made far more than the $400 bonus he received to sign with the Cubs organization and the $10,000 stipulated in his top big-league contract.
“Again, baseball was my front,″ Speake said. “I don’t pretend to be any more than a baseball player with a few good games. My dad, when I signed my first contract, said, ‘Boy, I want to tell you one thing. Always remember, whatever your dream is, there’s always room at the top.’ ″
Eventually, Speake ascended to that very spot, as a businessman.
Ed comment:
One other item catching my eye was Joan Speake’s mention of Barbara and Gale Wade coming this way in the near future. They have to pass through Columbia, Mo. on their way to Topeka and eventually Bremerton, Washington. In times past the Wade’s have called my wife and I and we have met at a local eatery to savor some “great” food such as Scorned Woman hot sauce. Gale loves the tongue scorching, belly burning elixir. When I know his automobile will be headed west on I-70 I’ll be sure to have some on hand and we can douse or breakfast eggs or lunch barbecue with it.
Joan mentioned the past reunions in her note and stated she missed them but it wouldn’t be likely they could attend any if they were held. It dawned on me that the last one was held 11 years ago and if we scheduled one now it would be tough to find enough attendees to fill a telephone booth. But, in the era of cell phones it would be tougher to find a telephone booth than in locating enough people to fill it.
______________________________________________________________________________
That does it for this time around
If any reader has something to share, do so. The old brain of the Flash Report editor has about atrophied to the point where nothing much emanates from it that is worth reporting.
Images accepted by my representing agency Arcangel. www.arcangel.com Available for use through Rights Managed licenses. See more of my work at Arcangel:
Still recovering, thanks for all of the well wishes! It's going to be slow uploading for me, not that there's been much of a change of pace anyway. I'm busy at school with graduation coming up and everything.
On a side note, I'm really enjoying my time at labour and delivery!! This might sound surprising to some of you, but I absolutely feel like pursuing obstetrics/midwifery. I can't explain in words just how magical it is to deliver babies...hahahaha!! Ok, I'll shut up now...
------------------------------
Leica m6 ttl
Voigtlander 35/1,2
Fuji RVP 100F
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
Following World War II the Allies dissolved the Wehrmacht with all its branches on 20 August 1946. However, already one year after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949 and because of its increasing links with the West, the Consultative Assembly of Europe began to consider the formation of a European Defence Community with German participation on 11 August 1950.
By March 1954, plans for a new German army had become concrete and foresaw the formation of six infantry, four armored, and two mechanized infantry divisions, as the German contribution to the defense of Western Europe in the framework of a European Defence Community. Following a decision at the London Nine Power Conference of 28 September to 3 October 1954, Germany's entry into NATO effective from 9 May 1955 was accepted as a replacement for the failed European Defence Community plan.
The official founding date of the German army was 12 November 1955 when the first soldiers began their service in Andernach, even though preparations began earlier. In 1956, the first troops set up seven training companies in Andernach and began the formation of schools and training centers. On 1 April 1957, the first conscripts arrived for service in the army. The first military organisations created were instructional battalions, officer schools, and the Army Academy, the forerunner to the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr in Hamburg. In total twelve armored and infantry divisions were to be established by 1959, as planned in Army Structure I. To achieve this goal, existing units were split approximately every six months. However, the creation of all twelve divisions did not take place until 1965. At the end of 1958 the strength of the army was about 100,000 men.
Concerning vehicles, the German army was equipped at first with American material, such as the M47 Patton main battle tank or M7 Priest SPGs. Lighter vehicles, like the “Schützenpanzer Kurz 11-2” family or the “Schützenpanzer Lang HS-30” AFV, were developed and/or produced with foreign support. Additionally, also as a measure to bring the German industry back into business and to fill equipment gaps, some leftover vehicles from WWII were modernized and put back into service. One of these vehicles was the so-called “Spähpanzer Puma (Neu)”, an update of the highly successful SdKfz. 234/2 8x8 heavy reconnaissance vehicle, one of the best armored scout vehicles during WWII.
Germany had a long and successful history of heavy 8x8 scout cars, starting with the SdKfz. 231 in the Thirties. The Sd.Kfz. 234 was the final development of this vehicle family that actually made it into service. For its time, the Sd.Kfz. 234 incorporated several innovative features, including a monocoque chassis (instead of a classic frame with a hull mounted on top), an independent suspension on each wheel and an air-cooled Tatra 103 diesel engine (at the time of the vehicle’s design all German armored vehicles were powered by gasoline engines) with a net power of 220 hp@2,250 rpm and a very good power-to-weight ratio of 21 hp/ton. This engine gave also the vehicle an extraordinary range of more than 600 miles (1.000 km). The reason behind this was that the SdKfz. 234 was originally intended for use in North Africa, but it came into service in late 1942 and was therefore too late for this theatre of operations. Furthermore, the vehicle featured eight-wheel steering and drive and was able to change direction quickly thanks to a second, rear-facing, driver's seat. Despite its late service introduction, the SdKfz. 234 nevertheless proved useful on the Eastern and Western Fronts. It was quite formidable, commonly used in pairs, one equipped with a long-range radio communications kit while the other possessed only a short-range radio.
A small number of SdKfz. 234s survived the wartime on German soil and had been stashed away as a reserve. Their reactivation for the nascent Bundeswehr in the Fifties covered the replacement of the outdated Tatra engine, for which no spare parts were available anymore, with an air-cooled, supercharged Magirus-Deutz V8 Diesel engine. It had less power (125 kW/180 hp) than the former Tatra V12, but was more reliable and offered more torque and an even better mileage. Furthermore, this was basically a standard engine that was widely used in civil lorries and many other military vehicles of the time, including those operated by the West-German Bundesheer, too. Thanks to the smaller size of the new engine, sound-damping materials could be added and the exhaust system was optimized, so that the vehicle’s noise level was considerably reduced. The additional internal space was also used for two communication kits: a short-range radio was installed in the new turret (see below), while a long-range radio kit was placed into the hull, next to the rear driver.
The suspension was modernized and beefed up, too, with heavy duty shock absorbers, wider wheels and a pressure control system, so that ground pressure could be reduced by the crew from the inside of the vehicle for an adaptable, improved on- and off-road performance. The SdKfz. 234’s crew of four in its former positions was retained, including the second, backwards-facing steering wheel for the radio operator.
Since the West German SdKfz. 234 survivor fleet consisted of different body variants (mostly with open hulls and just two former SdKfz. 234/2s with a closed turret) and vehicles in various states of completion, hull and the armament were unified for the Puma (Neu): all revamped vehicles received a newly developed, welded two-man turret with a low profile. The commander on the left side did not have a cupola, but his position was slightly raised and no less than seven mirrors plus a forward-facing infrared sight for night operations allowed a very good field of view. Both crewmen in the hull also received additional three mirrors above their workstations for a better field of view while driving.
Main weapon of the Puma (Neu) became a 20 mm Rheinmetall MK 20 Rh202 autocannon, a license-built Hispano-Suiza 820 L/85, together with a co-axial 7.62 mm MG42/57 light machine gun. The MK 20 was a common anti-aircraft weapon at the time and mounted to other Bundeswehr vehicles like the HS-30 AFV, too. It could fire HE and AP rounds at 800–1000 RPM, making it efficient against lightly armored vehicles (25-30 mm of armor) at up to 1,500 m range, with a maximum range of 2,000 m. 750 rounds of 20 mm ammunition were carried, even though ammunition feed had to be changed manually. The weapons were not stabilized, but they had a 15x15 periscopic sight and could be elevated between -5° and + 75°, so that it could be aimed at both ground and air targets. Three additional smoke grenade launchers per turret side were provided for tactical and emergency concealment.
Only a small number (40 plus two prototypes) of Spähpanzer Puma (Neu) were eventually converted or re-build from spares, but they became in 1957 the launch equipment of the Bundeswehr’s armored reconnaissance brigades, together with M8 Greyhound scout cars donated by the USA, even though the latter were soon complemented and replaced by tracked vehicles, based on the Schützenpanzer Kurz. However, due to their high road speed and excellent range, the Puma (Neu) scout cars were popular and remained in service until the late Seventies, when a new generation of 8x8 reconnaissance vehicles in the form of the amphibious Spähpanzer Luchs was introduced and replaced all 1st generation Bundeswehr vehicles.
Specifications:
Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/2nd driver)
Weight: 10.500 kg (23,148 lbs)
Length: 6.02 m (19 ft 9 in)
Width: 2.36 m (7 ft 9 in)
Height: 2.84 metres (9 ft 4 in)
Suspension: Independent on each wheel, with leaf springs
Track width: 1.95 m (6 ft 4 1/2 in)
Wading depth: 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in)
Trench crossing capability: 2m (6 ft 6 1/2 in)
Ground clearance: 350 mm (13 3/4 in)
Climbing capability: 30°
Fuel capacity: 240 l
Armor:
9-30 mm (.35-1.18 in) steel armor
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 80 km/h (49 mph)
Operational range: 800 km (500 mi)
Fuel consumption: 30 l/100 km on roads, 45 l/100 km off-road
Power/weight: 17 PS/t
Engine:
Air-cooled, supercharged 10,622 cc (648³ in) Magirus-Deutz F8L 614K V8 diesel engine,
with 132 kW (180 hp) output at 2.500 RPM
Transmission:
Büssing-NAG "GS" with 6 forward and reverse gears, eight-wheel drive
Armament:
1× 20 mm (0.79 in) Rheinmetall (Hispano-Suiza) MK 20 Rh202 autocannon with 750 rounds
1× co-axial 7.62 mm MG42/57 light machine gun 2.000 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This German 8x8 vehicle is a contribution to the “Back into service” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in late 2019. Beyond aircraft I also thought about (armored) vehicles that could fit into this theme, and the SdKfz. 234/2 “Puma” (even though this popular name was never official!) came to my mind, because it was a very effective vehicle with many modern features for its time. So, what could a modernized Puma for the young Bundeswehr look like…?
The starting point became the very nice Hasegawa SdKfz. 234/2 kit, which did not – except for some PSR between the hull halves – pose any complications. I did not want to change too much for the Bundeswehr update, but new/wider wheels and a new, more modern turret with a light post-war weapon appeared sensible.
The wheels come from a ModelTrans aftermarket resin set for the LAV-25 – they are quite modern, but they do not look out of place. Their different, more solid style as well as the slightly bigger diameter and the wider tires change the Puma’s look considerably. In order to mount them, I modified the suspension and cut away the former attachment point on the four axles, replacing them with thin, die-punched styrene discs. This reduced the track width far enough so that the new, wider wheels would fit under the original mudguards. It’s a tight arrangement, but does not look implausible. The spare wheel, normally mounted to the vehicle’s rear, was omitted.
The turret was taken from a Revell “Luchs” Spähpanzer kit, but simplified so that it would have a more vintage look. For instance, the machine gun ring mount above the commander’s hatch was omitted, as well as the rotating warning light and the modern smoke grenade dischargers. The latter were replaced by the WWII triple dischargers from the Hasegawa kit, for a more vintage look.
To my astonishment, the Luchs turret was easy to mate with the Puma chassis: its attachment ring diameter was almost identical! The new part could be attached almost without a problem or modification. I just added some reinforcements to the hull’s flanks, since the Luchs turret is slightly wider than the SdKfz. 234/2’s horseshoe-shaped turret. Beyond that, only small, cosmetic things were added, like mirror fairings for both drivers above their workstations, license plates at the front and the rear and antennae.
Painting and markings:
Creating an early Bundeswehr vehicle is a simple task, because there is only one potential color option until the Eighties: a uniform livery in Gelboliv (RAL 6014). Due to the livery’s simplicity, I used a rattle can to paint hull, turret and wheels separately.
After some detail painting, a very dark brown wash with acrylic paint and some post shading with Revell 42 (also Gelboliv, but a rather greenish and bright interpretation of the tone) as well as dry-brushing with Revell 46 and 45 along the many edges were used to weather the model and emphasize details. After decals had been applied (mostly from a Peddinghaus sheet for early Bundeswehr vehicles, plus some tactical markings from the Revell Luchs), the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
Once dry and completed, some artist pigments were added around the wheels and lower hull in order to simulate dust and dirt. On the lower chassis, some pigments were also "cluttered" onto small patches of the acrylic varnish, so that the stuff soaks it up, builds volume and becomes solid - the perfect simulation of dry mud crusts. I found the uniform livery to look quite dull, so I added some branches (real moss, spray-painted with dark green acrylic paint from a rattle can) to the hull – a frequent field practice.
This was a very quick project – in fact, the model was completed in the course of just one evening, and painting it was a quick affair, too, lasting only another day. However, I like the result. The SdKfz. 234/2 already had a quite modern look in its original guise, but the new wheels and the Luchs turret change its look considerably, it really has an even more modern feel that fits well into the early Bundeswehr era.
ギンモクセイ
Osmanthus fragrans Lour., 1790
This name is accepted. 10/06, 2021.
-------------------------------------------
Family: Oleaceae (APG IV)
-------------------------------------------
Authors:
João de Loureiro
-------------------------------------------
Published In:
Flora Cochinchinensis 1: 29. 1790. (Fl. Cochinch.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
-------------------------------------------
Basionym:
Olea fragrans Thunb., Fl. Jap. (Thunberg) 18, t. 2 (1784).
-------------------------------------------
Synonyms:
Olea fragrans Thunb., Fl. Jap. (Thunberg) 18, t. 2 (1784).
Olea ovalis Miq., Journ. Bot. Neerl. i. (1861) 111.
Osmanthus longibracteatus H.T.Chang, Acta Sci. Nat. Univ. Sunyatseni 1982(2): 5 (1982) (1982).
Osmanthus macrocarpus P.Y.Pai, Acta Bot. Yunnan. 1(1): 153 (1979).
-------------------------------------------
Accepted By:
Flora of China Editorial Committee. 1996. Flora of China (Myrsinaceae through Loganiaceae). 15: 1–387. In C. Y. Wu, P. H. Raven & D. Y. Hong (eds.) Fl. China. Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing & St. Louis.
Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali (eds). 1980-2005. Fl. Pakistan Univ. of Karachi, Karachi.
-------------------------------------------
SONY NEX-5R
Canon New FD Macro 50mm F3.5 (Product Year : 1979)
St. Kitts Marriott Resort and Royal St. Kitts Casino, 858 Frigate Bay Road, St. Kitts
Canadian Vic De Zen turned a small Woodbridge, Ontario plastics company into a worldwide empire in the 1990's known as Royal Group Technologies Ltd. He built it up over the course of 30 years into a publicly traded company with about $2 billion in annual sales and 9,000 employees around the world. While growing the plastics company Vic De Zen met another Toronto developer, Mr. Archie Zuliani, who owned a small hotel on the island of St. Kitts. Zuliani needed a source for building supplies on St. Kitts and on De Zen's first trip to St Kitts the two hit it off and immediately started plans for a resort project featuring Royal Group's products and also a retirement villa for De Zen and his family. According to Zuliani, De Zen wanted the project to be built entirely of plastics! In 1996 a joint venture agreement was signed between Vic De Zen and Archie Zuliani for a $50 million development including hotel, conference center, golf course, casino and an internet gambling operation. In short order the project costs rose to $120 million. Within a year Zuliana became uncomfortable with De Zen's ambitious project and he was happy to accept a $4 million buyout from De Zen in 1998. Mr. De Zen and his brother in law, Fortunato Bordin, who used to work at Royal Group, borrowed $114-million from Scotiabank between 1996 and 2004 to fund construction of the Caribbean resort which when built out cost upwards of $330 million.
On November 3, 2000 a signing ceremony was held involving St Kitts Prime Minister Denzil Douglas, Mr. Vincent Morton, Chairman of the Frigate Bay Development Corporation and Mr. Vic De Zen. The announcement stated that the world class resort was being built by Technologies Limited of Canada. Denzil Douglas was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis, having held the position between 1995 and 2015. He led the Saint Kitts and Nevis Labour Party. Douglas transformed his country’s formerly sugar-based economy into a service-oriented one driven by tourism, offshore medical education, small farm agriculture and the manufacture of electronic components. Prime Minister Douglas succeeded in establishing St. Kitts and Nevis as a tourist destination, giving as evidence his promoting of De Zen's 600-room Marriott hotel project.
Royal Group Technologies growth allowed De Zen vast liberties in pursuing side-bar projects and the doling out bonuses to family and friends. The line between Royal Group Business and De Zen's personal business became a complete blur. De Zen owned over 80% of the shareholders votes. With Zuliana bought out De Zen took the St Kitts project to new heights. He brought in his brother, Angelo De Zen, to head up the construction and Joey Cecchini was in charge of the design build of the Royal St. Kitts Beach Resort & Casino. The architect was Claudio Rabaglino from Toronto. According to the Toronto Mail and Globe "the resort became so important to De Zen that he turned over one of Royal Group's Boardroom - dubbed the war room - to the project. As construction progressed, 16 contractors were involved and about 3,000 shipments of products were made from Toronto. By 2000, roughly 700 workers were on site, some of them connected to Royal Group."
Marriott International announced a soft opening of their 471-room resort, St. Kitts Marriott Royal Beach Resort & Spa, on February 22, 2003. It is the tenth property in Marriott and Renaissance Offshore Resorts’ portfolio. John Toti was the resort's opening General Manager. Marriott said the resort is owned by Royal St. Kitts Beach Resort Ltd. Marriott's opening announcement said the resort’s five-story main building has 237 guestrooms. Between the main building and the beach, a series of three-story garden houses, surround the swimming pools, house an additional 234 rooms. Guestrooms are oversized and well-appointed with most including large, private balconies. Each bathroom of the houses will have a whirlpool bath.
For dining and entertainment, the St. Kitts Marriott Royal Beach Resort has six restaurants, two bars and a disco: La Cucina, an Italian restaurant; Royal Grill Steakhouse, offering outdoor seating; BLU, a seafood restaurant; Bohemia Beach Bar & Grill; Calypso, a family style restaurant, Golf Club House Restaurant; Lobby Bar; Keys, a cigar and rum bar; and Tigers, a disco. Recreational amenities include a 15,000 square foot spa, three swimming pools, tennis courts, retail shopping, Kids Club and a 35,000 square foot casino. A newly-designed 18-hole golf course, operated by Marriott Golf. For conferences and social events, the St. Kitts Marriott Royal Beach Resort & Spa has 12,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, including a 7,100 square foot ballroom that is divisible into three sections; meeting rooms offering 5,000 square feet of space; and a board room and terraces for pre-function receptions and events.
In hindsight Vic De Zen gained a Caribbean luxury resort but lost his billion dollar company. In February 2004 the St Kitts development became the subject of an extensive Ontario Securities Commission and Royal Canadian Mounted Police criminal probe into whether Mr. De Zen used Royal Group money or assets on a private development project. It seems the Royal Group shareholders new virtually nothing about the massive resort project on St Kitts! Vic De Zen was ousted as board chairperson of Royal Group in 2004 after an internal investigation. Two years later, the company was sold to United States-based Georgia Gulf Corp. for $1.7 billion. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) charged De Zen and other former executives with defrauding the company of more than $29 million.
The trial respecting the allegations made against Mr. De Zen and others commenced in April 2010. On December 10, 2010, at the conclusion of the five-month trial, the trial judge acquitted the defendants of the two charges they faced. The trial judge found overwhelming evidence supporting the defense that no fraud, no deceit, no dishonesty and no concealment had taken place. Indeed, the judge indicated that it would be a "travesty of justice" to wait even one day before pronouncing the verdict of not guilty.
Mr. De Zen formed a new company, ZZen Group, which includes the Marriott beach resort that has become the Caribbean island’s largest employer. When Mr. De Zen travels to ZZen’s resort in St. Kitts – his favorite way to relax is to work on small repairs. Joseph Sgro, an assistant to De Zen says he actually has a tool belt when he is at the resort … walking around the resort grounds and he fixes things and talks to the landscapers.
Georgia Gulf Corporation, a large PVC raw-material manufacturer, completed its acquisition of Royal Group on October 3, 2006 for $1.6 billion.
***********
Vic De Zen and his partners Fortunato Bordin and Domenic D’Amico have supported the people of St Kitts and Nevis since their first agreement in 1997 to build the Marriott Resort. This first initiative produced strong economic and social growth within the Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis. Vic De Zen's group continues with investments that have created the following St. Kitts businesses and organizations which collectively employ more than 1,000 persons in the Federation:
*St. Kitts Marriott Resort;
*Marriott Vacation Club;
*Marriott Residences;
*Royal Beach Development Group;
*Royal Beach Casino;
*Royal St. Kitts Golf Club;
*Royal Utilities Limited
***********
The St. Kitts Marriott has had 4 General Managers.
Jacques Hamou, General Manager, ( 2012 - ) St. Kitts Marriott Resort & Royal Beach Casino appointed Jacques Hamou as General Manager in February, 2012. Hamou’s career in the hospitality industry spans 30 years. He joins the property from Montreal where he served as general manager for the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain for thirteen years. Previously, Hamou was at Fortis Hospitality Corporation in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where he held the position of director of operations for Delta Sydney, Holiday Inn Sydney and the Sydney Inn.
Flor Van Der Vaart, General Manager (2008 - 2011) - Flor van der Vaart was appointed General Manager of St. Kitts Marriott Beach Resort on July 6, 2008. Flor began his career with Marriott in 2004 as the Resident Manager of the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino. Prior to joining the Aruba Marriott Resort, Flor was the Operations Manager at the Hyatt Dorado Beach Resort & Country Club in Puerto Rico. Van der Vaart received his Master’s Degree in Business Administration from The University of Phoenix. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from The University of The Hague – Haagshe Hogeschool in Holland.
George Landa, General Manager (2006 - 2008) - St Kitts Marriott Resort & the Royal Beach Casino appointed Cuban-born George Landa as General Manager in April 2006. Most recently he was general manager at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort & Emerald Casino from 2003-2006. Previously he also served as General Manager of the Intercontinental Hotel in Valencia, Venezuela.
John Toti, Opening General Manager ( 2002 - 2006 ) John Toti was named general manager, responsible for overseeing all aspects of operations at the new St. Kitts Marriott Resort. Most recently, Mr. Toti was the general manager at the Guatemala City Marriott. During his 25-year career with Marriott, Mr. Toti held positions in various aspects of hotel operations. In the food and beverage departments, he served as executive chef for Marriott Hotels in the Orlando World Center, Panama City and Puerto Vallarta, and was director of food and beverage at the Marriott Plaza Hotel, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mr. Toti later went on to work in the operations segment, becoming area director of operations for Marriott's Caribbean region and assisting on short and long-term projects for resorts in St. Thomas, Jamaica, Caracas & Costa Rica. He served as director of operations at the Guatemala and Lima Marriott Hotels as well. Mr. Toti was also director of groups and conventions at the Marriott in Puerto Vallarta. Toti is now retired and lives in Naples, Florida.
Wayne Michaelson is the current Executive Chef, (2015 - ) - Executive Chef Wayne Michaelson, previously from the Macon (Georgia) Marriott City Center, is in charge of overseeing daily operations of the resort’s eight onsite restaurants as well as catering for special events. Before his previous job in Macon, where he supervised seven kitchens, a catering facility for 2,500 people, Chef Michaelson owned and operated his own restaurant for a decade. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Michaelson began his career in hospitality at Omni Hotels & Resorts in 1984 in Alabama as an Executive Chef. He then moved to Puerto Rico in 1986 where he worked for prominent hotels such as the Caribe Hilton Hotel & Casino, the Hyatt Regency Cerromar Resort, the Hyatt Dorado Beach Resort & Golf Club, and the El San Juan Hotel & Casino, a Waldorf Astoria Collection hotel.
Arun Maharajh is the Vice President Operations at the resort's Royal Beach Casino. Maharajh started at the casino in 2005 as the Financial Controller. Previously he was a business analyst at the Ontario (Canada) Lottery and Gaming Corporation.
Compiled by Dick Johnson
February, 2016
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
Harper's Weekly May 19, 1906
The Human Drama at San Francisco
The Long Day
The Eighteenth of April in San Francisco
by Cecil Chard
“It is extraordinary how cheerfully we are all accepting the inevitable. Millionaires, shop girls, day laborers, Chinamen — we stand and receive rations. For the time being, we are at city of beggars, but food is plentiful, and now we are able to procure drinking water.” —from the author’s letter
Morning
We had been to the opera the night before to hear Caruso and Fremstad in “Carmen”. The audience was a brilliant one, the Grand Opera House crowded to the roof. We saw familiar faces everywhere and smiled in greeting, with a careless assurance of seeing them all again, on the morrow perhaps. After the opera, we went to the Palm Garden of the Palace Hotel, and lingered over our ices, comparing Fremstad to Calve, with a deep earnestness which we waste upon immaterial things. Then we strolled homeward through the silent streets, commenting on the quiet, star lit beauty of the night, and finally we dropped to sleep with the haunting measures of Bizet’s music in our ears.
There was no beginning to the tragedy. Peaceful slumber was exchanged, by a process too swift for thought, for chaos. One instance of rigid suspense, the struggle of a dreamer in the grip of a horrible nightmare, and then a leap to consciousness, the fierce realization of danger. A thunderous roar is in the ears, so deafening that it is hard to distinguish the crash of furniture, the fall of pictures from the wall; there is a sickening duration of motion, walls, floor, ceiling rock and sway. Everything that a moment before had been inert and motionless is suddenly possessed with hideous life. Books are flying forward from the shelves, plaster fills the air, the chandeliers twist and drop, a piano moves across a wide space with a jingle of notes. In every familiar objects is the threat of death. Fear is the only sensation left in the universe that wheels and shakes like a storm tossed vessel. And escape to the street seems for a moment beyond the wildest hope! Over fallen furniture we go, bare feet cut by splintered glass, hammering at doors that resist, to the rooms from which the best beloved must be dragged, half fainting or paralyzed with fright – and down, down, out of the house.
To gain the street is only to encounter new perils. Here, too, instantaneous terror springs to life. A dreadful grimace controls the familiar faces of the little world we know. Safety is nowhere. It is raining bricks and chimneys, the towers of St. Dominic’s are swaying against the high blue of the sky. The next Instant the air is thick with the dust of flying fragments. We see is each other and run, blindly, madly, but the ground under our feet rises up, the great paving blocks sink – a little low building to which we would go for shelter slides back a foot. Three blocks away, up the steep hills, is a public park, and here at last we pause and take a refuge, a crowd of panic stricken, breathless, speechless people. We wait for a few minutes and unspeakable dread for what may come next. Renewed shock sends us higher up, and at last we relax and stand trembling in the chill morning air.
As in all instances even have terrible tragedy, the moment is not without its humor, grotesque and grim. People have sprung from their beds, they have seized anything in their wild flight; they stand in excited groups as unconscious as children of their remarkable appearance. One woman has had the sleeve of her night dress torn from her shoulder, her feet are bare, she describes her experiences to a group of men. She is quite evidently a woman of refinement, her gestures are quiet, her voice is sweet, she is quite self-possessed. We stand close together, a group of absolute strangers, and smile at each other in attempted courage, with stiff lips. The world stands still again, all that is left of that familiar world, but all sense of security is gone.
From the high hill on which we stand we can see the splendid city stretching to the foothills, and we try to reassure ourselves but sick despair grips us. The sky is dun-colored, and through a pile of smoke and dust the sun burns red.
The city looks like a besieged town, shattered by shot and shell. Is that the dome of City Hall we see, hanging like a birdcage over the fallen walls. What has happened to that row of houses one street below us? Their brick foundations are cracked in every direction, the empty window frames sling crookedly against beams that have snapped off short. Here are a roof has fallen in, there the side of a house hangs into the street; a flight of granite steps stands far out into the sidewalk, the door to which they once led has sunk 5 feet below. The spaces between the houses is a tangle of twisted wires of tipsy telegraph poles.
And what a strange light is everywhere – sunlight through a yellow haze, a heavy mist. – And below us – is it mist or steam that rises thick and curiously dark as from a huge cauldron. Now the sun is obscured, the distance is blotted out, and the black mist moves, rises – something leaps up, shines like a sword blade. From someone in our little crowd comes one word in an awed whisper: “Fire!”
Noon
The morning has gone, somehow the interminable hours have dragged away. The air is stifling, the heat intense, but, mercifully, there is no wind. At the merest breath of air we shudder and turn our eyes to the curtain of smoke that hangs across the sky and hides from us the extent of our misfortune. Nevertheless, realization of the magnitude of the disaster deepens from hour to hour. We know that the fire rages in twenty places, that men are fighting it desperately without the water for which we already thirst.
With every moment some new peril is revealed. The live wires of the trolley lines have dropped into the street, there is a penetrating odor of escaping gas. A man clatters by on horseback, shouting: “martial law has been declared – the regulars are out; light no fires in the houses – by order of General Funston.”
From the first hour there has been no water. There is a run on bakers and groceries for provisions — bread — candles, tinned meet, soda water. The men serve their customers on floors swimming with oil, tomato catsup, wine, and broken glass. They do not ask exorbitant prices. In many cases they give without demanding payment. Instances of extortion are rare except for conveyances with which to remove invalids and household effects from the region of greatest danger.
It is incredible with what swiftness rumors become facts, and still time creeps along on leaden feet, though occurrences multiply and the experiences of a lifetime are crowded into an hour. We have eaten nothing since the night before, but we know no sensation of hunger. The fate of those who are nearest and dearest is still shrouded in darkness. There is no way to discover it – we are cut off from the world!
When from time to time a smoke-blackened figure approaches it is only to report further calamity. This or that public building is gone, one street after another destroyed; now the fire has engulfed a whole section. Soldiers and firemen, millionaires and thieves are fighting desperately. Every now and then there is a terrific explosion. They are blowing up whole blocks with dynamite in the vain hope of saving the city.
The most extraordinary factor in this unprecedented experience is a general calmness, the self-control exhibited. Perhaps the earthquake has exhausted her powers of sensation. Faces show the strain, but there is no complaint. The lesson has been too soul-searching in it’s effect. All have learned the value of mere possessions. They strive to save them instinctively, but failing, they hear with entire composure, that fortune, home, factory, offices, have been swept away. The streets grow more and more crowded as the fire drives the refugees to the hills. A never ending stream of vehicles passes, motors flash by, carriages, express wagons, undertakers’ wagons, and ice carts laden with people and their hastily snatched belongings rumble on. It is pitiable to see solitary old women tottering along under loads that would not tax the strength of a child. Women in opera cloaks drag trunks along the earthquake torn pavements. Bands of Chinese, dazed and helpless, drift along aimlessly. It is incredible what foolish things people have seized and still cling too. It is related that in the fall of the Emporium, a huge structure on Market Street, a man was only held back by force from the blazing ruins. He struggled in the arms of his captors, protesting that he had lost his hat, that he must find his hat. One woman has a large birdcage from which the birds have flown. Whole families pass, in one instance a pet donkey is being led along, free from burden, while even the child in arms clutches a handkerchief of treasures.
The unfortunate have lost their wits. The ring of the ambulance bells and the toot of the automobiles that have been impressed into the service of the Red Cross hardly scatter the crowds, that move on, talking, gesticulating, in wildest excitement. There is little to be done, but that little is accomplished with immense risk and difficulty. Every nerve, every sense is strained for the latest word from those who return, like exhausted soldiers from the front. When will this refuge be declared unsafe, when will we be compelled to move on. The stories that are whispered in low tones, so that the general multitude may not be made more anxious, are harrowing. Stories of women wandering into the ruins, clasping dead children in their arms, of men gone mad, a fireman crushed, of sick and wounded crushed under falling walls, stories of soldiers who have exceeded their orders, of unfortunate civilians who, upon a refusal to leave their treasures, have been shot. They tell, too, of the swift retribution that overtakes those who, under the cover of the prevailing excitement, attempt to rob, to loot, or even to touch the possessions of others. In one place the bodies of a thieves lie where the bullets have dropped them.
And as the sun sank slowly in the west the huge clouds of smoke that all day had obscured the scene, changed to rose color, and, in the reversal of all things, the day that had been darkened by the smoke was exchanged gradually for the wild illumination of the night.
Night
The terraced hillside park had the look of a bivouac. Nondescript shelters, made of blankets, of tablecloths, spread on broom sticks, of women’s opera wraps, of valuable Indian rugs protected those who were fortunate enough to have them. Many had covers and pillows, those who had nothing lay on the ground, or on the broad stone steps along the park walkways. There was not a murmur to be heard, only a child wailed loudly for a forgotten doll. Speculation, even, had given way to a stoical indifference. People spoke little, in low tones. The stillness was acute. Overawed by the terrible magnificence of the spectacle being enacted in the east and along the whole plain to the southern horizon, it was, strangely enough, possible for one to think, to form plans, even to hope– while the work of wholesale annihilation went on.
Nature now and then indulges in pure melodrama. A sea of liquid fire lay beneath us, the sky above it seemed to burn at white heat, deepening into gold, into orange, spreading into a fierce glare. The smoke and gathered into one gigantic cloud that hung motionless, sharply outlined against a vast field of exquisite starry blue. The streets were caverns of darkness, but here in there, from the impenetrable gloom, three or four houses seem to start out, like an illuminated card every cornice, every window shining with reflected blaze.
And as the night advanced it grew cold, and men and women walked up and down between the lines of sleepers, stretching their stiff limbs. Even at midnight, the attempt to sleep was abandoned. Eyes, bloodshot, with weariness and the pain from the constant rain of cinders, tried to turn away from the fire, but it held them with dreadful fascination. How it slipped in and out, flowing like a river, engulfing here a church, there a block of houses! A steeple, flaring high like a torch, toppled and fell in a shower of sparks. The strong square of an office building, black one instant against that ever moving stream of fire, flush the next, shot through and through with flame.
The fire burned on and destroyed and blackened, but it kindled a flame that illuminated the Western world —the spark of a generous kindness that lives in the hearts of the multitude. This is been fanned into a fire at which the victims of this great disaster may find warmth and renewed courage. Hope remains and an undaunted spirit. The eyes that have watched ceaselessly through the night look out over a field of desolation, and, without flinching, face the dawn of another day.
It wasn’t a problem , when he said I was far too pretty and should I dress as his Secretary it could just be the perfect relationship , between him and me , if I’m interested in a relationship with the wealthy CEO of this international financial institute , “Oh yes please” was my eager reply , then we kissed , that’s when I realised I wanted to be his , as well as in the office , in his bed . He’s an amazing lover too !
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama,[note 3] Shakyamuni,[note 4] or simply the Buddha, was a sage[3] on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.[web 2] He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in eastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.[4][note 5]
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age.[note 6] Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the Sramana (renunciation) movement[5] common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.[4][6]
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era in India during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajatshatru who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain teacher.[7] Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential sramana schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jain, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahāvīra, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by.[8][9][note 7] There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques.[10] While the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true,[11] most scholars do not consistently accept all of the details contained in traditional biographies.[12][13]
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE.[1][14] More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death.[1][15][note 5] These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.[20][21][note 9]
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE.[23] It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch.[23] According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in Kapilavastu, which may either be in present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India.[note 1] He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagara.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One edict of Emperor Ashoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edict mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Mauryan era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon.[34][note 11] The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Kharoṣṭhī script and the Gāndhārī language on twenty-seven birch bark scrolls, and they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.[web 10]The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā.[35] Of these, the Buddhacarita[36][37][38] is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE.[35] The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE.[39] The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE.[39] The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra,[40] and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. Lastly, the Nidānakathā is from the Theravāda tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century CE by Buddhaghoṣa.[41]
From canonical sources, the Jātakas, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts.[42] The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma".[43][44][45] Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:[46]
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.
The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist.[47] British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure.[48] Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.[11]The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, present-day Nepal, to be the birthplace of the Buddha.[49][note 1] He grew up in Kapilavastu.[note 1] The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India,[32] or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal.[50] Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.[50]
Siddharta Gautama was born as a Kshatriya,[51][note 13] the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan",[4] whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Queen Maha Maya (Māyādevī) and Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side,[53][54] and ten months later[55] Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak.[56] Buddha's birth anniversary holiday is called "Buddha Purnima" in Nepal and India as Buddha is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great holy man.[57] By traditional account,[which?] this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man.[57] Kaundinya (Pali: Kondañña), the youngest, and later to be the first arahant other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.[58]
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Solar Dynasty of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition.[59] The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic.[60] The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the Shramana-type Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.[61]Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati.[62] By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account,[which?] she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.[62]According to the early Buddhist texts,[web 11] after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way[web 11]—a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta.[web 11] In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata.[web 12] Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.[web 12]
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree—now known as the Bodhi tree—in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth.[70] Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment.[70][web 13] According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths",[web 13] which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states,[web 13] or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) — a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons — immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan — who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.
The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.Dhyana and insight[edit]
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight.[82][95][84] Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36.[85][81][82]
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the "Toy Train", is a 610 mm narrow gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal, India. Built between 1879 and 1881, the railway is about 78 kilometres long. Its elevation level varies from about 100 metres at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 metres at Darjeeling. Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services; however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotives. The railway, along with the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway, is listed as the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site. The headquarters of the railway is in the town of Kurseong. Operations between Siliguri and Kurseong have been temporarily suspended since 2010 following a Landslide at Tindharia.
HISTORY
A broad gauge railway connected Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Siliguri in 1878. Siliguri, at the base of the Himalayas, was connected to Darjeeling by a cart road (the present day Hill Cart Road) on which "Tonga services" (carriage services) were available. Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway Company approached the government with a proposal of laying a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The proposal was accepted in 1879 following the positive report of a committee formed by Sir Ashley Eden, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. Construction started the same year.
Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. constructed the railway. The stretch from Siliguri to Kurseong was opened on 23 August 1880, while the official opening of the line up to Darjeeling was on 4 July 1881. Several engineering adjustments were made later in order to ease the gradient of the rails. Despite natural calamities, such as an earthquake in 1897 and a major cyclone in 1899, the DHR continued to improve with new extension lines being built in response to growing passenger and freight traffic. However, the DHR started to face competition from bus services that started operating over the Hill Cart Road, offering a shorter journey time. During World War II, the DHR played a vital role transporting military personnel and supplies to the numerous camps around Ghum and Darjeeling.
After the independence of India, the DHR was absorbed into Indian Railways and became a part of the Northeast Frontier Railway zone in 1958. In 1962, the line was realigned at Siliguri and extended by nearly 6 km to New Jalpaiguri (NJP) to meet the new broad gauge line there. DHR remained closed for 18 months during the hostile period of Gorkhaland Movement in 1988-89.
The line closed in 2011 due to a 6.8 Magnitude earthquake. The line is currently loss-making and in 2015, Rajah Banerjee, a local tea estate owner, has called for privatisation to encourage investment, which was fiercely resisted by unions.
WORLD HERITAGE SITE
DHR was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1999, only the second railway to have this honour bestowed upon it, the first one being Semmering Railway of Austria in 1998. To be nominated as World Heritage site on the World Heritage List, the particular site or property needs to fulfill a certain set of criteria, which are expressed in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its corresponding Operational Guidelines. The site must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria. The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION
The DHR is justified by the following criteria:
Criterion II - The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is an outstanding example of the influence of an innovative transportation system on the social and economic development of a multi-cultural region, which was to serve as a model for similar developments in many parts of the world.
Criterion IV - The development of railways in the 19th century had a profound influence on social and economic developments in many parts of the world. This process is illustrated in an exceptional and seminal fashion by the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY
Since 1881, the original route has been retained in a remarkable condition. Only minimal interventions of an evolutionary nature, such as the reduction of loops, have been carried out. Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use. Like Tea and the Ghurka culture, the DHR has become not only an essential feature of the landscape but also an enduring part of the identity of Darjeeling.
MANAGEMENT AND LEGAL STATUS
The DHR and all its movable and immovable assets, including the authentic railway stations, the line, and the track vehicles, belong to the Government of India entrusted to the Ministry of Railways. The Northeast Frontier Railway documented all the elements of the DHR in a comprehensive register. Apart from that, it handles the day-to-day maintenance and management. But moreover, several programs, divisions and departments of the Indian Railways are responsible for operating, maintaining and repairing the DHR. This includes technical as well as non-technical work. In principle, the only two legal protection mechanisms that apply to the conservation of the DHR are the provisions of the 1989 Railway Act and that it is a public property which is state-owned and therefore protected.
THE ROUTE
The railway line basically follows the Hill Cart Road which is partially the same as National Highway 55. Usually, the track is simply on the road side. In case of landslides both track and road might be affected. As long parts of the road are flanked with buildings, the railway line often rather resembles urban tramway tracks than an overland line.
To warn residents and car drivers about the approaching train, engines are equipped with very loud horns that even drown horns of Indian trucks and buses. Trains honk almost without pause.
Loops and Z-Reverses (or "zig-zag"s)
One of the main difficulties faced by the DHR was the steepness of the climb. Features called loops and Z-Reverses were designed as an integral part of the system at different points along the route to achieve a comfortable gradient for the stretches in between them. When the train moves forwards, reverses and then moves forward again, climbing a slope each time while doing so, it gains height along the side of the hill.
STATIONS
NEW JALPAIGURI JUNCTION (NJP)
New Jalpaiguri is the railway station which was extended to the south in 1964 to meet the new broad gauge to Assam. Where the two met, New Jalpaiguri was created.
SILIGURI TOWN STATION
Siliguri Town was original southern terminus of the line.
SIIGURI JUNCTION
Siliguri Junction became a major station only when a new metre-gauge line was built to Assam in the early 1950s
SUKNA STATION
This station marks the change in the landscape from the flat plains to the wooded lower slopes of the mountains. The gradient of the railway changes dramatically.
LOOP 1 (now removed)
Loop No.1 was in the woods above Sukna. It was removed after flood damage in 1991. The site is now lost in the forest.
RANGTONG STATION
A short distance above Rangtong there is a water tank. This was a better position for the tank than in the station, both in terms of water supply and distance between other water tanks.
LOOP 2 (now removed)
When Loop 2 was removed in 1942, again following flood damage, a new reverse, No.1, was added, creating the longest reverse run.
REVERSE 1
LOOP 3
Loop No.3 is at Chunbatti. This is now the lowest loop.
REVERSE 2 & 3
Reverses No.2 & 3 are between Chunbatti and Tindharia.
TINDHARIA STATION
This is a major station on the line as below the station is the workshops. There is also an office for the engineers and a large locomotive shed, all on a separate site.
Immediately above the station are three sidings; these were used to inspect the carriage while the locomotive was changed, before the train continued towards Darjeeling.
LOOP 4
Agony Point is the name given to loop No.4. It comes from the shape of the loop which comes to an apex which is the tightest curve on the line.
GAYABARI
REVERSE 6
Reverse No.6 is the last reverse on the climb.
MAHANADI STATION
KURSEONG STATION
There is a shed here and a few sidings adjacent to the main line, but the station proper is a dead end. Up trains must reverse out of the station (across a busy road junction) before they can continue on their climb. It is said that the station was built this way so that the train could enter a secure yard and stay there while the passengers left the train for refreshments.
Above Kurseong station, the railway runs through the bazaar. Trains skirt the front of shops and market stalls on this busy stretch of road.
SONADA STATION
Sonada is a small station which serves town of sonada on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. It is on Siliguri - Darjeeling national highway (NH 55).
JOREBUNGALOW STATION
This is a small location near Darjeeling and a railway station on Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Jorebungalow was store point for tea to Calcutta. This is a strategical place to connect Darjeeling to rest of the country.
GHUM STATION
Ghum, summit of the line and highest station in India. Now includes a museum on the first floor of the station building with larger exhibits in the old goods yard. Once this was the railway station at highest altitude overall and is the highest altitude station for narrow gauge railway.
BATASIA LOOP
The loop is 5 kilometres from Darjeeling, below Ghum. There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Indian Independence in 1947. From the Batasia Loop one can get a panoramic view of Darjeeling town with the Kanchenjunga and other snowy mountains in the back-drop.
DARJEELING STATION
The farthest reach of the line was to Darjeeling Bazaar, a goods-only line and now lost under the road surface and small buildings.
LOCOMOTIVES
CURRENT
STEAM
All the steam locomotives currently in use on the railway are of the "B" Class, a design built by Sharp, Stewart and Company and later the North British Locomotive Company, between 1889 and 1925. A total of 34 were built, but by 2005 only 12 remained on the railway and in use (or under repair).
In 2002, No. 787 was rebuilt with oil firing. This was originally installed to work on the same principle as that used on Nilgiri Mountain Railway No.37395. A diesel-powered generator was fitted to operate the oil burner and an electrically-driven feed pump, and a diesel-powered compressor was fitted to power the braking system. Additionally, the locomotive was fitted with a feedwater heater. The overall result was a dramatic change in the appearance of the locomotive. However, the trials of the locomotive were disappointing and it never entered regular service. In early 2011, it was in Tindharia Works awaiting reconversion to coal-firing.
In March 2001, No.794 was transferred to the Matheran Hill Railway to allow a "Joy Train" (steam-hauled tourist train) to be operated on that railway. It did not, however, enter service there until May 2002.
DIESEL
Four diesel locomotives are in use: Nos. 601-2, 604 and 605 of the NDM6 class transferred from the Matheran Hill Railway.
PAST
In 1910 the railway purchased the third Garratt locomotive built, a D Class 0-4-0+0-4-0.
Only one DHR steam locomotive has been taken out of India, No.778 (originally No.19). After many years out of use at the Hesston Steam Railway, it was sold to an enthusiast in the UK and restored to working order. It is now based on a private railway (The Beeches Light Railway) in Oxfordshire but has run on the Ffestiniog Railway, the Launceston Steam Railway and the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.
IN POPULAR CULTURE
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has long been viewed with affection and enthusiasm by travellers to the region and the Earl of Ronaldshay gave the following description of a journey in the early 1920s:
"Siliguri is palpably a place of meeting . . The discovery that here the metre gauge system ends and the two foot gauge of the Darjeeling-Himalayan railway begins, confirms what all these things hint at... One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk - and starts... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed - unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed.
Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient - so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom."
The trip up to Darjeeling on railway has changed little since that time, and continues to delight travellers and rail enthusiasts, so much so that it has its own preservation and support group, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society.
Several films have portrayed the railway. Especially popular was the song Mere sapno ki rani from the film Aradhana where the protagonist Rajesh Khanna tries to woo heroine Sharmila Tagore who was riding in the train. Other notable films include Barfi!, Parineeta and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. The Darjeeling Limited, a film directed by Wes Anderson, features a trip by three brothers on a fictional long-distance train based very loosely on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
TELEVISION
The BBC made a series of three documentaries dealing with Indian Hill Railways, shown in February 2010. The first film covers the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, the second the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the third the Kalka-Shimla Railway. The films were directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly and produced by Gerry Troyna. The series won the UK Royal Television Society Award in June 2010. Wes Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited also showcases three brothers riding the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
WIKIPEDIA
Mother Sweetie Salome Love Joy Williams Little
It was during a time of great confusion, war, political struggles, and protest against racial injustice, that I arose as a mother in Israel and Supervisor of New York, Southeast.
These were the turbulent 1960's. In 1961 the Church of God in Christ had experienced the departing of their first General Overseer Bishop Charles H. Mason. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was killed by assassination. in 1968 A People of hope lost a great freedom leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, and let us not forget the thousands of lives lost in the Vietnam War.
In the early 1960's I was asked to help Bishop I. G. Glover and his wife to get Victory Temple C.O.G.I.C. on the move. I started a choir there was their first pianist. I put together my program to help with the work. During the summer of 1965 I was doing rare field work with Bishop I. G. Glover called asking me to fill the office of the State Supervisor of the New York southeast. There had been confusion in the state and a split had occurred. Before accepting the office, I spoke with my pastor, from my home church, Bishop Frank Clemmons, and with State Mother Maydie Payton to make sure I had their permission.
These were the dark years, yet light did shine throughout he darkness. A people began to work together for the fulfillment of a dream, and through prayer many barriers were broken.
President Johnson was now in office, and the Church of God in Christ was struggling to regain its composure. A accepted my promotion and was licensed by International Supervisor, Mother Annie Bailey. My father's name is Dempsey Williams, Sr., who wed my mother Sarah. I wed an Elder named Adam Little. We had one child named Miriam Joy Little.
It was during these days that Mother Little sent a letter to to President Johnson asking him to call the nation to prayer. She has a copy of the letter that was mailed back in September of 1965, it reads like this:
Dear President.
Thus saith the Lord to me, Mrs. S. Little to ask the President of United States to call the people of this country to prayer each day. Send out a proclamation, to sound an alarm or ring bells or blow a whistle or traveling pray that God will turn away wrath from us and have mercy and give us peace, because much evil is fast approaching.
Your Servant Praying for the Nations,
Mrs. S. Little History of the PCCNA
Memphis 1994: Miracle and Mandate
Dr. Vinson Synan
It was a day never to be forgotten in the annals of American Pentecostalism‚October 18, 1994‚when the Spirit moved in Memphis to end decades of racial separation and open doors to a new era of cooperation and fellowship between African-American and white Pentecostals. At the time, it was called the ìMemphis Miracleî by those gathered in Memphis as well as in the national press which hailed the historic importance of the event.
It was called a miracle because it ended decades of formal separation between the predominantly black and white Pentecostal churches in America. In its beginnings, the Pentecostal movement inherited the interracial ethos of the Holiness Movement at the turn of the century. One of the miracles of the Azusa Street revival was the testimony that ìthe color line was washed away in the Blood." Here in the worldwide cradle of the movement a black man, William J. Seymour, served as pastor of a small black church in Los Angeles, where from 1906 to 1909, thousands of people of all races gathered to received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the accompanying evidence of speaking in tongues. Often black hands were laid upon white heads to pray down the power of Pentecost. From Azusa Street the movement spread to the nations and continents of the world.
In the beginning, practically all the Pentecostal movements and churches in America were inter-racial with many having thriving black leaders and churches. But from 1908 to 1924, one by one, most churches bowed to the American system of segregation by separating into racially-segregated fellowships. In ìJim Crowî America, segregation in all areas of life ruled the day. Gradually Seymourís Azusa Street dream of openness and equality faded into historical memory.
The PFNA
The separation of black and white Pentecostals was formalized in 1948 with the creation of the all-white Pentecostal Fellowship of North America (PFNA) in Des Moines, Iowa. As incredible as it seems today, no black churches were invited. The races continued to drift further and further apart.
But by the 1990s the climate had changed drastically in the United States. The civil rights movements and legislation of the 1950s and 60s swept away the last vestiges of legal ìJim Crowî segregation in American life. Schools were integrated. Many doors were opened for all to enter into American public life. Most churches, however, remained segregated and out of touch with these currents. The year 1948 also saw the beginnings of the salvation-healing crusades of Oral Roberts and other Pentecostal evangelists. Both blacks and whites flocked together to the big tent services. Along with Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and other Pentecostal evangelists refused to seat the races in separate areas. Although the churches remained separate, there was more interracial worship among blacks and whites who flocked together to the big tent services.
The advent of the charismatic movement in 1960 and the creation of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) in 1970 brought more contacts between black and white Pentecostals. The congresses sponsored by the North American Renewal Service Committee (NARSC) in the 1980s and 1990s also brought many black and white Pentecostal leaders together for the first time while serving on the Steering Committee to plan the massive charismatic rallies in New Orleans, Indianapolis and Orlando.
The Architects Of Unity
The leaders, who above all, brought the races together in Memphis in 1994 were Bishop Ithiel Clemmons of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), and Bishop Bernard E. Underwood of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. These men had met while serving on the NARSC board planning the New Orleans Congress of 1987. With great trust and mutual dedication, these two men were able to lay the groundwork for the 1994 meeting in Memphis.
The process began when Underwood was elected to head the PFNA in 1991. At that time he purposed in his heart to use his term to end the racial divide between the Pentecostal churches. On March 6, 1992, the Board of Administration voted unanimously to ìpursue the possibility of reconciliation with our African-American brethren.î After this, there were four important meetings on the road to Memphis.
The first meeting was on July 31, 1992, in Dallas, Texas, in the DFW Hyatt Regency Hotel where COGIC Bishop O. T. Jones captivated the PFNA leaders with his wit and wisdom. The second meeting was held in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 4-5, 1993, where COGIC pastor Reuben Anderson from Compton, California (represented Bishop Charles Blake) played a key role in bringing understanding of the challenges of urban ministries in America. The third session convened at the PFNA annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 25-27, 1993. Here, Jack Hayford of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and Bishop Gilbert Patterson, of the Church of God in Christ, strongly affirmed the plans for reconciliation. A fourth meeting in Memphis in January 1994 became known as the ì20/20 Meetingî because 20 whites and 20 blacks joined to plan the climactic conference that was planned for October 1994 in Memphis. There, it was hoped, the old PFNA could be laid to rest in order to birth a new fellowship without racial or ethnic boundaries.
The Memphis Miracle
When the delegates arrived in Memphis on October 17, 1994, there was an electric air of expectation that something wonderful was about to happen. The conference theme was ìPentecostal Partners: A Reconciliation Strategy for 21st Century Ministry.î Over 3,000 persons attended the evening sessions in the Dixon-Meyers Hall of the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis. Everyone was aware of the racial strife in Memphis where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Here, it was hoped, a great racial healing would take place. The night services reflected the tremendous work done by the local committee in the months before the gathering. Bishop Gilbert Patterson of the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ, and Samuel Middlebrook, Pastor of the Raleigh Assembly of God in Memphis, co-chaired the committee. Although both men had pastored in the same city for 29 years, they had never met. The Memphis project brought them together.
The morning sessions were remarkable for the honesty and candor of the papers that were presented by a team of leading Pentecostal scholars. These included Dr. Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Assemblies of God, Dr. Leonard Lovett of the Church of God in Christ, Dr. William Turner of Duke University and the United Holy Church, and Dr. Vinson Synan of Regent University and the Pentecostal Holiness Church. In these sessions, the sad history of separation, racism and neglect was laid bare before the 1,000 or more leaders assembled. These sometimes chilling confessions brought a stark sense of past injustice and the absolute need of repentance and reconciliation. The evening worship sessions were full of Pentecostal fire and fervor as Bishop Patterson, Billy Joe Daugherty and Jack Hayford preached rousing sermons to the receptive crowds.
The climactic moment, however, came in the scholarís session on the afternoon of October 18, after Bishop Blake tearfully told the delegates, ìBrothers and Sisters, I commit my love to you. There are problems down the road, but a strong commitment to love will overcome them all.î Suddenly there was a sweeping move of the Holy Spirit over the entire assembly. A young black brother uttered a spirited message in tongues after which Jack Hayford hurried to the microphone to give the interpretation. He began by saying, ìFor the Lord would speak to you this day, by the tongue, by the quickening of the Spirit, and he would sayî:
My sons and my daughters, look if you will from the heavenward side of things, and see where you have been ‚ two, separate streams, that is, streams as at flood tide. For I have poured out of my Spirit upon you and flooded you with grace in both your circles of gathering and fellowship. But as streams at flood tide, nonetheless, the waters have been muddied to some degree. Those of desperate thirst have come, nonetheless, for muddy water is better than none at all.
My sons and my daughters, if you will look and see that there are some not come to drink because of what they have seen. You have not been aware of it, for only heaven has seen those who would doubt what flowed in your midst, because of the waters muddied having been soiled by the clay of your humanness, not by your crudity, lucidity, or intentionality, but by the clay of your humanness the river has been made impure.
But look. Look, for I, by my Spirit, am flowing the two streams into one. And the two becoming one, if you can see from the heaven side of things, are being purified and not only is there a new purity coming in your midst, but there will be multitudes more who will gather at this one mighty river because they will see the purity of the reality of my love manifest in you. And so, know that as heaven observes and tells us what is taking place, there is reason for you to rejoice and prepare yourself for here shall be multitudes more than ever before come to this joint surging of my grace among you, says the Lord.
Immediately, a white pastor appeared in the wings of the backstage with a towel and basin of water. His name was Donald Evans, an Assemblies of God pastor from Tampa, Florida. When he explained that the Lord had called him to wash the feet of a black leader as a sign of repentance, he was given access to the platform. In a moment of tearful contrition, he washed the feet of Bishop Clemmons while begging forgiveness for the sins of the whites against their black brothers and sisters. A wave of weeping swept over the auditorium. Then, Bishop Blake approached Thomas Trask, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, and tearfully washed his feet as a sign of repentance for any animosity blacks had harbored against their white brothers and sisters. This was the climactic moment of the conference. Everyone sensed that this was the final seal of Holy Spirit approval from the heart of God over the proceedings. In an emotional speech the next day, Dr. Paul Walker of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) called this event, ìthe Miracle in Memphis,î a name that struck and made headlines around the world.
That afternoon, the members of the old PFNA gathered for the final session of its history. In a very short session, a motion was carried to dissolve the old, all-white organization in favor of a new entity that would be birthed the next day. But more reconciliation was yet to come!
When the new constitution was read to the delegates on October 19, a new name was proposed for he group-Pentecostal Churches of North America (PCNA). It was suggested that the governing board of the new group have equal numbers of blacks and whites and that denominational charter memberships would be welcomed that very day. But before the constitution came before the assembly for a vote, Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty of Tulsaís Victory Christian Center asked the delegates to include the word ìCharismaticî in the new name. Over a hastily-called luncheon meeting of the ìRestructuring Committee,î it was agreed that those Christians who thought of themselves as ìCharismaticsî would also be invited to join. When the vote was taken, the body unanimously voted to call the new organization the Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA). Thus the Memphis Miracle included the beginning of healing between Pentecostals and Charismatics as well as between blacks and whites.
Another milestone of the day was the unanimous adoption of a ìRacial Reconciliation Manifestoî that was drafted by Bishop Ithiel Clemmons, Dr. Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Dr. Leonard Lovett, and Dr. Harold D. Hunter. In this historic document, the new PCCNA pledged to ìoppose racism prophetically in all its various manifestationsî and to be ìvigilant in the struggle.î They further agreed to ìconfess that racism is a sin and as a blight must be condemnedÖî while promising to ìseek partnerships and exchange pulpits with persons of a different hueÖin the spirit of our Blessed Lord who prayed that we might be one.î
After this, the election of officers took place with Bishop Clemmons chosen as Chairman and Bishop Underwood as Vice-Chairman. Also elected to the Board was Bishop Barbara Amos, whose election demonstrated the resolve of the new organization to bridge the gender gap as well. The other officers represented a balance of blacks and whites from the constituent membership.
The Memphis Mandate
The subsequent meetings of the PCCNA in Memphis in 1996 and Washington, D.C., in 1997 have shown that the road to racial reconciliation in America will not be short or easy. Everyone agrees that there is much more to be done and much to overcome. The incredible ìMemphis Miracleî has now become the ìMemphis Mandateî. All Spirit-filled believers must join in a crusade of love and good will to show the world that when the Spirit moves, those who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit will move forward to bring the lost to Christ, and to full ministry and fellowship, in churches that have no racial, ethnic or gender barriers.
Dr. Vinson Synan, Dean of Regent University School of Divinity, has served as an advisor to the PCCNA Executive. Author of the widely-read Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition, Dr. Synan has served as chair of the North American Renewal Service Committee (NARSC) and is an ordained minister with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.
We accept deli tubs and their lids. Before adding the these to your blue bin, please take the lids off of the tubs. Then, place both the tubs and lids into your bin.
Have a question about our plastics program? Please contact us directly, or leave a comment below.
Donation Information:
If you would like to help those affected by Wednesday's storms, the American Red Cross is accepting donations in a couple of ways.
Make out your check to "American Red Cross - Neighbors in Need", and mail it to:
American Red Cross - Neighbors in Need
300 Chase Park South
Hoover Alabama 35244
If you prefer to make a donation on-line, please click here to visit alredcross.org
-To apply for federal disaster assistance online, go to www.disasterassistance.gov
-To apply over the phone, call 1-800-621-3362 between the hours of 7am and 10 pm.
-The United Way has set up a hotline to help victims find low cost temporary housing. Call 211 for more details.
Volunteer Information:
-United Way's Hands on Birmingham - www.handsonbirmingham.org
-Volunteers in Tuscaloosa are asked to register at St. Matthias Episcopal Church on Skyland Boulevard
-Volunteers in Calhoun County must register at the Ohatchee Police Department
-Volunteers in Concord must register at the YMCA on 4th Avenue South
-Webster's Chapel leaders are looking for volunteers with vehicles who can distribute supplies to tornado victims. Volunteers should go to the Webster's Chapel Fire Station
Drop off Locations:
-Harvest Church in Northport is accepting donations for tornado survivors
-Christian Service Mission at 3600 3rd Ave South is accepting personal care items, baby supplies, and other items of basic need
-First Baptist Church Trussville is a drop off point for donations Monday through Friday 8am to 6pm
-Church of the Highlands on Grants Mill Road is accepting items of basic need
-Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Alexandria is collecting donations of bathing supplies
-Clear Branch United Methodist Church in Argo is a drop off location from 8am to 4pm Monday through Friday
-Mark Ferrier Ministries has a drop off point at 97.7 Fox FM radio in Jasper
-Alabaster First United Methodist Church accepting donations for storm survivors at Restore Building behind the church
-Holy Faith Temple is accepting donations for tornado survivors in Childersburg
-Central Baptist Church of Jasper is collecting supplies for victims in Cordova.
-McAlpine Recreation Center at 1115 Avenue F in Ensley is now a drop off point
-108 Haynes Street in Talladega is collecting donations for survivors in East Alabama
-East Birmingham Church of God on First Avenue North is collecting supplies
-All Books-A-Million stores are collecing monetary donations for the Salvation Army
-East Birmingham Church of God in Christ on 1st Avenue is collecting supplies
-Aldrich Assembly of God is collecting relief supplies at Lucky's Market in Montevallo and Sammy's Fresh Market in Wilsonville.
-Vance town community center is collecting donations for survivors in Vance
-Helena Cumberland Presbyterian Church is accepting donations all week from 9am until 6pm.
-Donations in Calhoun County may be dropped off at Eagle Point Baptist Church in Jacksonville and Word Alive Church in Coldwater.
-Jasper Jaycees are accepting donated items at the fairgrounds on Airport Road. Cash donations can be made at Bank of Walker County. Call 205-221-3928 for more info.
-Hardin's Chapel Church in Ragland is an official EMA site
-Cullman county donation locations: Eagle Point Church, Isaiah 58-Word Alive Church, Piedmont Benevolence and Salvation Army
-UAB is holding blood drives at the North Pavillion from 10am to 5pm Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. 7am to 2pm Tuesday and Friday
Places to pick up items or get help:
-People with disabilities who have lost medication or equipment can call 205-251-2223 ext 102
-United Way has set up a hotline to help victims find low cost temporary housing - call 211
-There will be a physician on site and medicine available at Scott School through Saturday from 7am to 7pm
-Tornado survivors in Hale and Greene counties can get help at Springfield United Methodist Church in Eutaw and at Johnson Hill United Methodist Church in Union
-Toiletries and clothing are available for pick up at Plum Grove Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. If you need transportation, call 205-292-5836
-Food and water stations for victims are set up at the Leland Shopping Center, Forest Lake Baptist relief center and Skyland Elementary.
-Aldridge Community Missionary Baptist Church in Parrish has food, formula, clothes and water for any storm survivors who need help.
-Victims in St. Clair County can get food, water and other supplies at the Shoal Creek Community Center.
-Tarps available in St. Clair County at Odenville Fire Department, Pell City Fire Station One, Reiverside Fire Department
-The Salvation Army has set up mobile canteen operations in Forest Lake, Holt High School and on 15th Street in Alberta City.
-Tornado victims in Hale and Greene Counties can get help at Springfield United Methodist Church in Eutaw and at Johnson Hill United Methodist Church in Union.
-The Masonic Lodge in Pleasant Grove is serving meals and distributing supplies to tornado victims.
-Bethel Baptist Church in Pratt City is providing food and shelter to tornado survivors in that community
-Food, water and other supplies are available at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church in Hueytown.
-The Red Cross has opened feeding stations at Oak Grove Baptist Church, Knighten's Volunteer Fire Department, Webster's Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, First Baptist Church of Williams, Mt. Olive Volunteer Fire Department in Ohatchee and the Ellis Community Fire Department.
-Hardin's Chapel Church in Ragland is an official EMA site
-Free first aid station is open in Pleasant Grove from 9am to 6pm at 615 Pleasant Grove Road Monday through Friday
-Free medical clinic at Scott School in Pratt City 7am to 7pm
Shelters:
-Bethel Baptist Church in Pratt City is providing food and shelter to tornado victims in that community.
-The American Red Cross has set up shelters at the Belk Center in Tuscaloosa, First Baptist Church in Hanceville, the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, the Civic Center in Cullman and First United Methodist Church in Springville.
-American Red Cross shelter in St. Clair County is at Greensport Baptist Church in Ashville
Insurance office locations:
-Allstate Insurance has mobile claims centers set up at the Lowe's in Bessemer, the Winn-Dixie at River Square Plaza in Hueytown and the K-Mart on Skyland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa.
-State Farm has centers set up at Lowe's in Cullman, Tuscaloosa, Bessemer and Fultondale.
-ALFA has centers at the Save-a-Lot in Cullman and the ALFA Service Center in Gadsden.
-Farmers Insurance has centers at Home Depot in Tuscaloosa, the Forest Square Shopping Center in Forestdale, and the Farmers district offices in Vestavia Hills and Pell City.
Misc:
-A battery charging station is set up at the Walmart in Tuscaloosa. Flash lights are also being given away while supplies last.
-If you have loved ones who are still missing in the Birmingham area, call 205-787-1487 or 205-787-1488.
-Greater Birmingham Humane Society lost and found pet hotline open 8am to 5pm daily: 205-397-8534. Hotline is for Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties
-Official FEMA mobile disaster recovery center in Sumter county: Geiger Town Hall 201 Broadway
-Victims in Pratt City are in need of trash bags and baskets to help collect their personal belongings
-Calhoun County needs rope, tools, gloves, masks, tarps, first aid supplies and baby supplies
-Some local contractors in Tuscaloosa are offering free debris removal. Call 205-248-5800.
-Samaritan's Purse in Tuscaloosa is providing free debris removal and free tarps. Call 205-345-7554.
-The McWane Center in Birmingham is offering free admission to anyone who brings supplies for tornado victims.
-A dusk to dawn curfew is in effect for all of Cullman County.
-An 8pm to 6am curfew is in effect in the city of Tuscaloosa.
Meg Tirell with Biogen, Scott Wapner and Jim Cramer accept the Ice Bucket Challenge in support of ALS.
Catch all the Ice Bucket coverage on CNBC.com:
video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000302636&play=1
Another 'thing' that I've driven past a few times, always thinking 'I should take a shot of that', so I did.
Rolleiflex 3.5e
Schneider Kreuznach Xenotar 75mm f3.5
Kodak Tri-X at 3200
12 minutes in Kodak D-76 stock
on the grave of his wife and another son Hugh.
Lt. Col. Edward SHERSON
N.Z.F.A. Auckland
Late Major 2nd Battalion
Auckland Reg. N.Z.E.F.
Beloved husband of
Alice M SHERSON
Killed in Action at Crevecoeur
Sept 30th 1918
Aged 51 years
Alice Mary
Loved wife of the late
Lt. Col. E. SHERSON
Died 10th May 1939
Aged 72 years
Also of
Arthur Noel
Third son of the above
Lost at sea in the S.Y. Aurora
About June 1917 Aged 18 years
Hugh
Beloved son of
Alice M SHERSON
And the late
Lt. Col. SHERSON
Died result of motorbus
Accident June 8th 1921
Aged 24 years
“Till the day breaks and the shadows flee away”
ANGLICAN DIVISION G Row 3, Plot 36
**********************************************
EDWARD
Occupation before enlist: Sanitary inspector
Awarded the Colonial Auxiliary Forces’ Officers’ decoration [10]
New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16982, 16 October 1918, Page 8
Major Edward Sherson, T.D., who has been killed in action, was a well-known Auckland officer. He joined "A" Battery nearly thirty years ago, and passed through every rank in turn from gunner to lieutenant-colonel, commanding the Auckland Field Artillery Brigade, being a commissioned officer for over twenty years. He held the Colonial Auxiliary Forces Officers' Decoration and the Long Service Medal. At the outbreak of the war, although over military age, he offered to serve in any capacity the authorities desired. He was offered an appointment in the infantry with the rank of major, which he accepted, and left New Zealand in command of the twentieth reinforcements in December, 1916. Major Sherson took up his new duties so thoroughly that he quickly qualified for and was appointed to the position of chief musketry instructor in Sling camp, England, where he was kept till April last, when he crossed to France. There he joined the Second Battalion, Auckland Infantry, with which he was serving at the time of his death. Major Sherson leaves a widow and had four sons and one daughter, the youngest son being 14 years of age and the daughter 10. The two eldest sons are serving with the artillery in France, while the third was on the Antarctic ship Aurora when that vessel disappeared in the Pacific last year. [2]
Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 October 1918, Page 10
On September 30 1918, killed in action somewhere in France, Major Edward Sherson late Lieut-Col of Field Artillery Brigade NZEF also Major Twelfth Reinforcements and Second Auckland Infantry Battalion beloved husband of Alice M SHERSON and dearly loved father of Gunners Eric and Hugh Sherson on active service also Noel of missing S.Y. Aurora aged 51 years.
He died for us.[1]
Edwards Cenotaph database record with a splendid portrait photo:
muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/Cenotaph/14342.detail?O...
HUGH
Born c1897[7]
Gunner
Service Number: 66031
Occupation before enlist: Stationer
Occupation at death: Traffic inspector
SHERSON.— On the 5th June, accidentally killed in Khyber Pass Road, Hugh Sherson, second son of Mrs. A. M. Sherson, and the late Lieut.-Colonel E. Sherson, of 14, Haydn Street; aged 24 years. Funeral will leave his late residence, 14, Haydn Street, on Sunday, inst., at 2 p.m.[12]
CHAR-A-BANC CAPSIZES.
COLLISION WITH TRAMCAR.
MAN DIES OF INJURIES.
FIVE OTHER PEOPLE HURT.
A sensational accident, with fatal consequences, occurred in Khyber Pass Road at 10 o'clock yesterday morning, when a large char-a-banc, loaded with passengers for the races at Ellerslie, struck a tramcar and capsized, throwing the passengers into the roadway. Six persons sustained injuries necessitating medical attention, one of them succumbing to his injuries several hours later in the Auckland Hospital. Those who received injuries are: Mr. Hugh Sherson, aged 24. Assistant traffic inspector to the City Council, who resided at 14, Hayden Street, fatal injuries.
Mr. Frank Houser, a married man, aged 28, residing at King's Court, injuries to face and right arm.
Mr. Leonard Brokenshire, a young man residing at Avondale, bruises to face and hands.
Seaton Hammond, a child whose parents reside in Grey Lynn, injuries to right foot.
Delphio Jackson, a thirteen-year-old child, of Te Aroha, injuries to right leg.
Mr. Houser was admitted to the hospital, but the other four mentioned as receiving minor injuries were able to proceed to their homes. Another man, whose name was not ascertained, also received slight injuries, which were treated at the hospital before he went home.
Descent of Park Road Slope.
The char-a-banc, carrying a full complement of passengers, and driven by the owner, Mr. Frederick Charles Cleal, carrier, of Victoria Street West, was proceeding down the slope of Park Road with the engine cut off, when a tramcar, which had stopped immediately above the junction of the road with Khyber Pass Road, moved on again down Khyber Pass toward Newmarket. On seeing the tramcar, the driver of the motor-vehicle instantly applied the brakes, but the slope of the road and the heavy passenger load made a checking of speed and, though the vehicle swerved to avert a collision, it struck the rear of the tramcar and overturned. The passengers were thrown in all directions- Mr. Sherson was said to have been standing on the footboard by the driver's side when the vehicle capsized. The driver himself escaped injury. Dr. A. McG. Grant was summoned to the scene of the accident, and ordered Mr. Sherson, who was suffering from serious internal injuries, to be removed to the hospital. The injured man, however, succumbed at about 4.33 p.m. The char-a-banc sustained damage to the bonnet and minor breakages. The impact as it capsized tore the hood completely off. The vehicle was one of the largest of its class, and was insured. The tramcar, comprising two coupled cars, escaped all other damage than a broken side panel.
View Obscured by Hoarding.
The driver of the char-a-banc, Mr. Cleal, stated yesterday that his view of the tramcar was obscured at first by a large advertising hoarding situated at the side of the car-stop. On noticing the car moving out from the stop he sounded the horn frequently and applied the brakes, but they had no effect in stopping the vehicle's progress. A complaint regarding the same locality was made recently at a meeting of the Grammar School Board of Governors, when it was pointed out that a similar hoarding on the opposite side of the road constituted a danger to traffic emerging from Mountain Road into Khyber Pass.
The record of the family has been a somewhat tragic one, the father having been killed in action during the war, and the youngest of the three sons having lost his life on the Antarctic ship Aurora which disappeared in the Pacific in 1917.
Mr. Hugh Sherson was born in Auckland, and was educated at the Beresford Street School and the Auckland Grammar School. He went to the front in 1918 as a gunner in the 9th Battery, New Zealand Field Artillery. On his return after the armistice he undertook traffic inspector's duties for the City Council. Deceased's father, Major Edward Sherson, a well-known Auckland officer, left for the front in 1916, in command of the 20th served with the Second Battalion, Auckland Infantry, and was killed at Crevecoeur in October, 1918. Before the war he was a lieut.-colonel in the Field Artillery, The eldest son served with the artillery in France, and is now a purser on the Paloona.[13]
ARTHUR
Born c 1898[6]
“Aurora” Antarctic Relief Expedition (report of the proceedings of the)
atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1917-I.2...
Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 142, 15 June 1918, Page 6
The Lost Aurora
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AS...
Son Eric’s Cenotaph database record:
muse.aucklandmuseum.com/databases/Cenotaph/75520.detail?O...
Eric died 31 March 1969 aged 73 and is buried at Waikumete Cemetery [3]
********************************************************
Other SHERSON children:
Other son Harold born c1902[4] appears to have died as an infant on 15 February 1902[5]
Other son Elliott born c1903[9]
Elliott died c1987[11]
Daughter Joy born c1908 [8] According to this site, married Len HOLMES
www.nzlendrums.co.nz/book-two-the-lendrum-daughters/angel...
SOURCES:
[1]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[2]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[3]
waitakere.govt.nz/cnlser/cm/cemeterysearch/cemeterydetail...
[4]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Birth registration 1902/842
[5]
waitakere.govt.nz/cnlser/cm/cemeterysearch/cemeterydetail...
[6]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Birth registration 1898/9813
[7]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Birth registration 1897/4621
[8]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Birth registration 1908/345
[9]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Birth registration 1903/6702
[10]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[11]
NZ Department of Internal Affairs: Death registration1987/52851
[12]
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=s...
[13]
*** RIKKI'S REFUGE IS ACCEPTING JOB APPLICATIONS! ***
MUST APPLY IN PERSON ON SATURDAYS PROMPTLY AT NOON!
(Bring your resume and references with you!)
Rikki’s Refuge in Rapidan, VA. has jobs available!
Compensation $9 an hour during training and $10 thereafter.
Full Time
The positions are for animal sanctuary caretakers that are responsible for the daily feeding of 1300+ animals of 22 species at the refuge. Duties also include daily clean-up (yes, that includes poop scooping!), maintenance/clean-up of refuge structures and facilities, yard work, and hauling/stocking heavy feed bags, cases of food, litter pails, etc. Must follow direction well and be a team player! This is a physically demanding job and requires the ability to work outdoors in all kinds of weather. Must be available on weekends and holidays!
Interested candidates MUST APPLY IN PERSON on SATURDAYS promptly at NOON at the RIKKI’S REFUGE LIFE CENTER, 21410 Constitution Hwy., Rapidan. VA. 22733. Experience with animals is preferred, but we will train the right person!
*************************
RIKKI’S REFUGE LIFE CENTER
Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc.
21410 Constitution Hwy.
Rapidan, VA. 22733
Main 540-395-3534
*** FOR INTERVIEWS 540-395-3339 ***
mail@rikkisrefuge.org
*************************
WE REALLY NEED PEOPLE WHO ARE EXPERIENCED WITH GIVING MEDICATIONS TO VARIOUS ANIMALS!
*************************
Rikki’s Refuge in Orange County, Virginia, is a 400 acre, no-kill, all species peaceful sanctuary supported solely by donations of kind and loving individuals. The refuge is home to over 1300 animals of over 22 different species, including but not limited to cats, dogs, sheep, goats, rabbits, pigs, emus, chickens, ducks, geese, a chukar, peacocks, and more. It is owned and operated by Life Unlimited of Virginia, Inc. an approved not-for profit Virginia Corporation and IRS tax code 501(c)(3) corporation as determined by the IRS. Federal Tax-ID number 54~1911042. A financial statement is available upon written request from the State Office of Consumer Affairs.
Many people call themselves atheists, and it is frequently argued by some that atheism is the only rational viewpoint.
However, it is also often said that there is no such thing as a genuine atheist.
This is supported by the Bible which declares: “the fool hath said in his heart there is no God.”
So which view is correct?
If we give just a little thought to this matter, we can see that there is no argument at all as to whether the qualities and properties usually attributable to God actually exist.
This is certain and beyond dispute.
So really the only disagreement is over the source or origin of these attributes.
Furthermore, we can understand that there are only 2 possible, alternative sources of these attributes.
It is self evident that something material can never come out of (absolute) nothing of its own accord (First Law of Thermodynamics & Law of Cause and Effect). (Something cannot create itself, it would need to pre-exist its own creation to do so).
We know that something material exists (i.e. the universe), therefore something must have always existed, something must be eternal and have had no beginning. This eternal something, can only be:
1. A force or power independent of the material, and thus the Creator of the material, OR
2. The material itself.
So an eternal nature must be possessed by,
EITHER:
1. A Supernatural Power.
OR
2. Matter/energy.
Consequently, all the other qualities, powers and potentialities which exist in the universe must have originally derived from ONE OR OTHER of these two proposed 'eternal' sources.
Some of the qualities existing in the material world.
Laws of Nature, Life, Information & means of information storage (DNA etc.), Consciousness, Intelligence, Design, Order, Motion, Love, Choice, Good, Beauty, Emotion, Kindness, Personality, Morality, Awareness, Justice, Wisdom, Hope, Joy, skill, etc.
There is no disagreement that these qualities are present in the universe.
The only dispute is over the source or origin of these qualities.
THEREFORE ....
Is the stuff of the universe (matter/energy) eternal?
Does this 'eternal matter' intrinsically possess all the above qualities, or the inherent potential to produce them of its own volition?
OR
Is there a power greater than, pre-existing and independent of, the material?
A Supernatural Creator of the material, possessor and originator of all the above attributes evident in the material creation?
IT CAN ONLY BE ONE OR THE OTHER
SO THIS IS THE ONLY DISAGREEMENT, AND IT IS AN AGE-OLD DISAGREEMENT.
No atheist would attempt to claim that mankind is the originator of all these qualities.
We are not eternal, we did not create ourselves or the universe, something greater than us essentially exists.
Is that something a Supernatural Creator God?
Or a purely material power which must intrinsically possess all the qualities, powers & potentialities usually attributed to a Supernatural Creator God?
- - A material god? - - A pagan god!
SO THE CHOICE IS CLEAR,- -
WE MUST FACE THE FACTS! - -
ATHEISM (or even agnosticism) IS NOT AN OPTION.
YOU MUST PAY HOMAGE TO A POWER WHICH IS GREATER THAN YOURSELF,
THAT POWER IS EITHER:
A Creator God as described in the Bible,
OR,
The material pagan god or gods' (represented by natural entities, such as: Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Sun, the Moon, an 'intelligent' Universe, or idols of stone, wood etc.) which you must necessarily imbue with the SAME ATTRIBUTES.
Atheism = the religion of Pagan Naturalism re-invented.
SO NOW CHOOSE YOUR GOD?
Footnote:
An eternally, self-existent universe, or any uncaused, natural entity with no beginning is not possible.
Matter/energy cannot be eternally existent with no beginning.
Why?
Because all natural things are contingent.
Contingency is an inherent property of all natural entities. They have to comply with the law of cause and effect, so they cannot exist independently of causes.
The nearest you could get to eternally, existent matter/energy would be a very, long chain of causes and effects, but a long chain is not eternally existent, it has to have a beginning at some point. At the beginning there would have to be a non-contingent, eternally existent, first cause. A long chain of causes and effects simply pushes a first cause further back in time, it can't eliminate it.
What about an eternally, cyclical universe?
It is obvious that the idea of the universe simply rewinding itself in a never ending cycle, which had no beginning, is unscientific nonsense. As well as the Law of Cause and Effect - the Second Law of Thermodynamics also rules it out
There is no such thing as a free lunch, the idea of a rewinding universe is tantamount to applying the discredited notion of perpetual motion - on a grand scale, to the universe.
Contingent things don't just rewind of their own accord.
Where does the renewed power or renewed energy potential come from?
If you wind up a clock, it doesn't rewind itself after it has stopped.
The universe had a beginning and it will have an end. That is what science tells us, it cannot rewind itself.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us the universe certainly had a beginning and will have an end. The energy potential of the universe is decreasing from an original peak at the beginning of the universe. Even the most fundamentalist atheists seem to accept that. Which is why most of them believe in some sort of beginning event, such as a big bang explosion.
So an eternally existent, god of 'matter/energy' is demonstrably IMPOSSIBLE... that leaves only one POSSIBLE choice of god - the supernatural, creator God, as described in the Bible.
Essential characteristics of the first cause.
Consider this short chain of causes and effects:
A causes B, - B causes C, - C causes D, - D causes E.
'A, B, C & D' are all causes and may all look similar, but they are not, there is an enormous and crucial difference between them.
Causes B, C & D are fundamentally different from cause A.
Why?
Because A is the very first cause and thus had no previous cause. It exists without a cause. It doesn’t rely on anything else for its existence, it is completely independent of causes - while B, C & D would not exist without A. They are entirely dependent on A.
Causes; B, C & D are also effects, whereas A is not an effect, only a cause.
So we can say that the first cause ‘A’ is both self-existent and necessary. It is necessary because the rest of the chain of causes and effects could not exist without it. We also have to say that the subsequent causes and effects B, C, D and E are all contingent. That is; they are not self-existent they all depend entirely on other causes to exist.
We can also say that A is eternally self-existent, i.e. it has always existed, it had no beginning. Why? Because if A came into being at some point, there must have been something other than itself that brought it into being … which would mean A was not the first cause (A could not create A) … the something that brought A into being would be the first cause. In which case, A would be contingent and no different from B, C, D & E.
We can also say that A is adequate to produce all the properties of B, C, D & E.
Why?
Well in the case of E we can see that it relies entirely on D for its existence, E can in no way be superior to D because D had to contain within it everything necessary to produce E. The same applies to D it cannot be superior to C, but furthermore neither E or D can be superior to C, because both rely on C for their existence, and C had to contain everything necessary to produce D & E.
Likewise with B, which is responsible for the existence of C, D & E.
As they all depend on A for their existence and all their properties, abilities and potentials, none can be superior to A whether singly or combined. A had to contain everything necessary to produce B, C, D & E including all their properties, abilities and potentials.
Thus we deduce that; nothing in the universe can be superior in any way to the very first cause of the universe, because the whole universe, and all material things that exist, depend entirely on the abilities and properties of the first cause to produce them.
So to sum up … a first cause must be uncaused, must have always existed and cannot be in any way inferior to all subsequent causes and effects. In other words, the first cause of the universe must be eternally, self-existent and omnipotent (greater than everything that exists). No natural entity can have those attributes, that is why a Supernatural, Creator God MUST exist.
What about polytheism, can there be more than one God or Creator.
It is patently obvious there can only be one supernatural first cause.
The first cause is infinite - and logically, there cannot be more than one infinite entity.
If there were two infinite entities, for example, A and B. The qualities and perfections that are the property of B would be a limitation on the qualities and perfections of A. and vice versa, so neither would be infinite.
If A & B had identical qualities and perfections they would not be two different entities, they would be identical and therefore the same entity, i.e. a single, infinite, first cause. So there can be only one infinite being or entity, only one supernatural, first cause and creator of the universe.
So when atheists keep repeating the claim - that there is no reason to believe the monotheistic, Christian God is any different from the multiple, gods of pagan religions, it simply displays their ignorance and lack of reasoning.
FOUNDATIONS OF SCIENCE
The Law of Cause and Effect. Dominant Principle of Classical Physics. David L. Bergman and Glen C. Collins
www.thewarfareismental.net/b/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/b...
"The Big Bang's Failed Predictions and Failures to Predict: (Updated Aug 3, 2017.) As documented below, trust in the big bang's predictive ability has been misplaced when compared to the actual astronomical observations that were made, in large part, in hopes of affirming the theory."
Graveyard of the Garasia people.
Garasia, an interesting ethnic group inhabiting the Aravali foothills of remote Sabarkatha district in Gujarat has a curious history. Though a depressed class and classified as a de-notified tribe, the Garasias resembles closely with the advanced Rajput clans in many ways. Due to these, the British administration had even categorized the Garasias as a branch of Rajputs who were petty land holders. Even today amidst poverty and deep isolation I was surprised to see Garasias not only as prime agriculturalists but also holders of large chunk of lands in the remote slopes of Aravali Mountains. Their houses are widely dispersed each surround by a large farmstead.
Yet the Garasias are poor and deprived of basic services like, health, education
and safe drinking water. Farming is mostly rain fed. According to historical records, in colonial India as land became scarce both through colonial expansion and slash-and-burn agriculture Garasias became further marginalized and associated themselves with Bhils, a more primitive tribal group. The nationalist movement created further division between groups as the Rajput identity was grounded in traditional customs and their heritage as rulers.
Garasias of Sabarkatha form two distinct groups – the Garasia Rajputs and the
Garasia Bhils.
The Garasia Rajputs: In the medieval time the Rajputs from Rajasthan and surrounding plains of Gujarat had appropriated Bhil territories and in part to strengthen their rule and maintain peace, some of them married to Bhil women.
Their offspring formed a distinct caste – the Garasia Rajputs. They served as delegates between the ruling Rajputs and Bhils. The Garasia Rajputs are a lower
status caste than the Rajputs but consider themselves higher to Bhils with whom
they do not inter marry. Garasia Rajputs see themselves as tribalized Rajputs and they believe that that their Rajput ancestors moved to remote forest to avoid subjugation by a conquering group.
The Garasia Bhils: The Garasia Bhils are those who married to Bhil women and were not accepted into Garasia society because of the lower status of the Bhils. The Bhil Garasias are also called Dungri Garasias.
The Garasias live mostly in huts consisting of two/three rooms with mud wall partitions. The roofs are built of flat tiled roofs. There is a smaller hut attached to the main one meant for cattle. However, for the other animals like goats and hens there
are open air facilities. The Garasia women are known for their colourful attires and silver jewellery. Dhols (drums) and bow-arrows are also part of the material culture of the Garasias.
The huts belonging to various families are widely dispersed and there is no central place where people can meet together. I visited a few houses in the village and while interacting with the inhabitants I discovered the gender divisions - women’s responsibility include cooking, tending to cattle, milking the animals and looking after the children. The men do the physical labour such as ploughing, harvesting and building the houses. There is a strong prevalence of joint family system though there is very little unity or cooperation between the village clans.
Going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York City was a very media influenced and gendered experience. Surrounded by videos, photos, and the belongings of iconic stars with their music blaring in your ears, you are taking in the media and messages of the Rock world. Though we do not always think of it when we are listening to our favorite songs, there are definitely major gender divides in the world of music and Rock and Roll. However what I find most interesting is how in the world of Rock it becomes okay and almost encouraged to “transgress” or experiment with the accepted gender lines, at least when it comes to appearance. Rock and Roll has always been considered a rebellious style and kind of music so I suppose it is only natural that they rebel in this area as well.
When you walk into the museum you are given a small device that plays that adjusts to play the appropriate music as you are walking about the museum. So if you are looking at Michael Jackson’s leather jacket “Bad” will be ringing in your ears. As you walk about the museum you will find that the voices you hear are predominantly male. While Rock and Roll has certainly made a lot of progressive strides it still tends to be a male dominated style. Some of the sections are more overwhelming male than others. For example, the first females we saw were a few feet inside the exhibit and they were given their own section. They were the divas or the women famous for their big voices. People like Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, who was actually named Rolling Stones best singer of all time. However, when you strolled over to the blues rock section with legendary bands like The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin there was not a woman in sight. Similarly in the hall dedicated to great guitarists, there were the likes of Hendrix and Eric Clapton but no females. And I must admit when it comes to rock music it is tough to think of an iconic female guitarist. However, when you look over the art inspired rock with the likes of Blondie and Coldplay things became much more gender neutral. There were lesser known female bands as well as some iconic female figures. The singer song writer section was similarly more balanced though still male dominated. Surprisingly the most gender neutral exhibit was the “icons“ exhibit with people who had changed the face of Rock Music. As it displayed images of the huge memorable names in music, there seemed to be just as many females as there were males. With the likes of Madonna, Janis Joplin, and Arehta next to Prince, Dylan and Michael Jackson.
There are all kinds of gender messages in the way these exhibits are set up and displayed. As there are very few female bands it seems to suggest that woman are more likely to or are more successful at performing solo. Also the lack of female guitarist compared to the exhibit dedicated to women just for their voices seems to suggest that women are better singers while men are better instrumentalists. However, when it comes to performers the museum suggests that women can put on a show just as well as a man can, if not better. Likewise in the people who have changed the face of rock and roll Madonna matches Michael step for step and it seems that although Rock is a male dominated genre it is one that has been clearly shaped by both genders.
Lastly what I found very interesting was the clothing and the style. Here Rock and Roll throws all gender expectations out the window and goes for the loudest, the brightest, and the wildest. Most of the early 1960’s clothing seems to be suits for men and dresses for women. While they are usually mod style suits or short dresses they are still relatively conservative. As the decade progressed into the 70’s and 80’s the fashion got really wild. Most notable has to be the long and big hair for men. Normally associated with women and not worn by anyone outside of the Rock and Roll world or those aiming to be a part of the subcultures, men proudly wore long hair in the 60’s and into the 70’s and had big tweezed out wild hair in the 80’s. In fact the bigger it was the better. As glam rock took center stage, men in rock began to break all preconceived and expected gender notions by wearing bright make up, tons of glitter and sparkles, and outfits that looked like they belonged on a wild woman. Walking around the museum it is almost hard to tell which gender the clothes were for. On of the guys from Cream has thigh high leopard print boots, while princes suit sets are tight flared pants and bedazzled cropped jackets, even Johnny Cash’s cow boy boots are black suede with flowers stitched up the sides. Most notably the Rolling Stones proudly wore one piece jump suits, low cut in the front and flared at the bottom that strongly resemble dresses. While most are bright and covered in sparkles one of Mick Jaggers is white with little blue flowers, it looks like a night dress a grandmother would wear but when Mick wears it, its Rock and Roll. Likewise Madonna’s square suit jackets, top hats, and sometimes military style jump suits take on masculine qualities while still playing up her sex appeal. She transgresses too by overtly displaying her sexuality with pointed bras and tight corseted one pieces. While rock like any thing else has its gender divides and stereotypes, at least in its fashion it is a rebellious place where transgressing is the norm and anything goes.
Spiritos Properties Project Manager Jeff Spiritos accepts the award for "Setting the Stage For Innovation, Engineering and Architecture" at the U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition in New York City, NY on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2015. The U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize Competition is a historic effort to bring tall, sustainable and design-efficient wood buildings to the U.S. The Tall Wood Building Prize Competition seizes upon innovation to promote rural economic development and mitigate climate change and wildfire impacts, while also supporting sustainable forestry. ( L to R standing Project^ Developer Partner Anyeley Hallova, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) Chair Mark Brinkmeyer, New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball, and New York City Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler). USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.