My Dad came round to see me yesterday and fixed my woodturning lathe for me (I have the mechanical aptitude of the average bathroom sponge), so I was finally able to finish this bowl.

 

It was half finished for so long I can't remember what the wood was, though it might be elm.

 

Anyway, I like it, and will use it.

deep inside I knew I had thespian tendencies, but I also knew I had no aptitude for it

Voici les futurs danseuses Aspara. Une école de danse dont ses jeunes filles issue de famille pauvre, suivent des cours assez intense sous le regard et la rigueur de leur professeur. Séparer par petits groupe ou classe, chaque costume indique le niveau d'aptitude. Les nouvelles arrivées sont encore en pyjama ou de simple vêtement, puis le niveau augmente, une tenue bleu ciel et un bas vert, suivie d'un haut rose et un bas violet, puis un haut blanc et un bas rouge. Souplesse, beauté et harmonie.

 

Aspara dancers here are the future. A dance school that her girls from poor families, attend classes under the gaze so intense and rigorous teacher. Separated by small group or class, each suit shows the level of fitness. The new arrivals are still in their pajamas or simple dress, then the level increases, a blue sky and keeping a low green, followed by a pink top and purple bottom and a white top and red stockings. Flexibility, beauty and harmony.

 

Copyright TimDPhotography

 

If you want to use this photo, thank you for contacting me.

Feel free to leave a trace of your visit, comment, favorite, or any constructive criticism.

  

Si vous souhaitez utiliser cette photo, je vous remercie de me contacter.

N'hésitez pas à laisser une trace de votre visite, un commentaire, favori, ou de toute critique constructive.

The stealthy Night Raider prowls the Brikverse to hunt down and disable lost convoys and vulnerable orbital stations. Its shrouded engines and angular design make it nearly undetectable to conventional sensor systems, allowing it to unleash a deadly surprise attack with its multiple cannons and armor-piercing missiles. The Rubrum Crucesignatis has a standing bounty on all Night Raiders, but its uncanny aptitude at hit-and-fade tactics have made it difficult to catch.

 

The Empire of Luchardsko is a cool-looking, if lore-light, faction created by Falk for Brikwars. One of my favorites.

///ACCESSING LOG\\\

 

Identity: CT-3834

 

Identity: Verified

 

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

A Sith acolyte? Command really thinks WE can stop it... They must be crazy or out of their minds if they expect us to put a dent in that thing's plans; Either way we made short work of his B1s, the whole company of them. Why would someone of that caliber need a bodyguard at all

 

CT-6787 (Slasher):Outstanding work gentlemen! Camber Sheer, you two take point

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):Great, why are we always on point?

 

CT-3834(Camber):Pretty sure that you and I are the designated Point-Men; Remember our aptitude assignments on Kamino?

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):I never asked to be the Point-Man

 

CT-3834(Camber):Neither did I, but we ARE the most green outta Gamma. I'm beginning to think the Kaminoans programmed you to complain

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):I'm NOT complaining, I'm just pointing out the fact that my scores are the only thing keeping up front... If I die, I'm just letting you know that is was because I was voluntold for this position

 

The Troopers take point.

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):What the hell is that ominous glow? The red seems kinda off...

 

PT-151 (Bull):It's the acolyte; He's defusing a Sith artifact... I've seen it before.

 

CT-6787 (Slasher):You two shinies be careful, we're getting close to the target. That Sith can do things... Things you didn't think possible

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):Well that is relieving news, any other words before I trek to my inevitable DEATH?

 

The Adjutant smirks

 

CT-6787 (Slasher):Don't miss

 

As Gamma Platoon emerges closer to the Sith Acolyte, Trooper Sheer slips

 

CT-2246 (Sheer):BLAST!

 

CT-3834(Camber):Keep your voice down!

 

UNKNOWN ENTITY:You really think you clones were slick? Even before your own shortcomings I've had a keen eye on you, especially you Protector Class. It's too late for you.

 

PT-151 (Bull):If you thought you could've given us the slip on Rhen Var, you were wrong

 

The Clones raise their weapons to fire, but the Acolyte is faster. With the flick of his fingers, the Clones all missed their shots

 

UNKNOWN ENTITY:You'll have to do better than that clone

 

Laughter fills the space as the Sith takes his artifact and disappears instantly

 

LOG OVER.

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

Final in the Dantooine series!

A Steltian brute with an aptitude for science, Skudder wields an Inika staff, a weapon of his own design, capable of absorbing virtually any kind of energy and repurposing it into dangerous electrical attacks

India has earned about US 100 million dollars by launching the 45 commercial foreign satellites from 19 countries. The income was earned by Antrix, the commercial branch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).This information was given by the Union Science & Technology Minister... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/internationalcurrentaffair...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

- Anton Chekhov.

 

|| insta || blog || photostream ||

 

On our last visit to Zion National Park, I set out to explore the eastern side of Zion Canyon on what felt like one of the coldest mornings that winter. I'd heard about a trail near Checkerboard Mesa and thought the gentle morning light would make it worth exploring. But as soon as I started, I realized it wasn't going to be a simple hike – the entire trail was on slick rocks, with no clear path to follow. The biting cold and wind made it tough to even take the camera out of the bag.

 

Luckily, the light broke through, and I stumbled upon some interesting rock formations that made the trip worthwhile. Even though it was completely in shadow, my favorite subject that morning was a tree clinging to the rock surface. I had to walk around the tree a bit to find a good composition, and with it entirely in shadow, it was tough to capture an image without underexposing it.

iss065e073985 (May 26, 2021) --- NASA astronaut Megan McArthur participates in the Pilote experiment. The experiment from the European Space Agency uses virtual reality gear and tests a crew member’s aptitude when maneuvering a computer-generated robotic arm toward a target. Results may influence the design of workstations and interfaces for future spacecraft and space habitats.

Strange shapes

 

Forms, shapes, lines, colors, motifs, patterns, shades

 

All of these are spiritual friends and help my spiritual development

 

Oh, how much life teaches, the sight, the ever-changing world, everything

  

Everything, everything… Hmm, life gives everything that we need

 

and what we want, but we don’t use those gifts because the desire for pleasure consumes us. Me.

 

Yes, but the beauty and formal space, lines, and colors lift my soul higher and higher and I don’t do anything

 

No need

  

Hmm…, automatic learning? Spontaneous knowledge acquisition? Imprinted impressions?

 

Aptitude? My tendency? Is this quality of mine a gift of life?

 

Part of my fate? Consolation for my sufferings? Life support from God?

 

This is a good question

  

I don’t know, but an inner force or power, an unknown consciousness guides my life

 

I want it, Thank you, God, You instilled this in me so that I could develop one or another way

 

Another way? Everyway. On everyway. Hmm, yes.

 

Forms, shapes, lines, colors, motifs, patterns, shades - all of the way

 

All my way

 

And the thinking

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

  

Különös formák

  

Formák, alakok, vonalak, színek, motívumok, minták, árnyalatok

 

Mind-mind lelki barátaim, életem lelkét viszik, vezetik, fejlődtetik, segítik a

 

Ó, oh, vajon mennyi és mennyi az élet tanítása? A látvány? Az állandóan változó és újat adó világ? Minden.

  

Minden, minden, az élet az nekünk megad mindent, mindent, ami nekünk kell (a fejlődéshez)

 

Mindazt, amit akarunk, de azokat az ajándékokat mi magunktól nem kapjuk, hiszen a vágy tüze bennünk öl mindent, lesz csak hamu

 

Igen, de a tér formavilága, formái és színei azok visznek és visznek tovább, s nem csinálok semmit

 

Nem kell tennem semmit sem

  

Hm, talán önműködő tanulás? Véletlen tanulás? Mély benyomás?

 

Hajlam? Képesség? E tulajdonság az élet ajándéka?

 

Sorsom része? Szenvedéseim vigasza, vigasztalása? Isten támogatása, segedelme az életben?

 

Hát ezek jó kérdések

  

Nem tudom, de egy ismeretlen erő és tudat vezeti és vigyázza életem - lelkembe épült

 

Ezt én akarom, köszönöm Istenem. Ezt te ültetted belém, oh Uram, s így felfedezhetem uamat, s utam útjait. Mind a Tiéd

 

Formák alakok, vonalak, színek, mitívumok, minták, árnyalatok - mind az utam

 

Az összes az enyém

  

És a gondolkodás

  

Firepower!

 

So... just about a year ago, Soulemn over on DA did an amazing commission for me of Kopen and Llortor's Eltanin. While I was redesigning Kopen, it helped a lot as a reference, and it was just so cool to see them all nice and shiny. Thing is, he charged like nothing for them, and I've always wanted to make up the difference. Thus, Cadmus, his self-MOC(?).

Russia’s newest defence satellite EKS Kosmos-2510 successfully launched into space. It was launched using the Russian Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket from the Plesetsk-Cosmodrome which is a military facility in north-western Russia’s Arkhangelsk region. After placing it in dedicated orbit, the control ... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/defence-current-affairs-20...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

The Russian Government has approved a deal of ONGC Videsh limited (OVL) to acquire 15% stake in Vankor oilfield from Rosneft. The deal was signed between the OVL and Rosneft in September 2015 and is worth 1.3 billion US dollars. Vankor is Russia’s second biggest oil field with capacity of total 2... www.sharegk.com/march-2016/russia-approves-ovls-deal-acqu...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

Super-Science Fiction / MagazinReihe

- Daniel F. Galouye [Daniel L. Galouye] / Hostile Life-Form

- Arthur J. Burks / Little America on the Moon

- Richard Hardwick / Special Aptitude

- Robert Silverberg [Eric Rodman] / Slaves of the Tree

- Robert Silverberg [Calvin M. Knox] / Frontier Planet

- Harlan Ellison / No Planet is Safe

- Theodore R. Cogswell / One to a Customer

cover: Frank Kelly Freas

Editor: W. W. Scott

Headline Publications Inc. / USA 1958

Reprint: Comic-Club NK 2010

ex libris MTP

www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?153201

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Science_Fiction

 

Inmortal walks.

A big nod to the fine work by: Seb Przd

 

I don't have Gimp, or MathMap, but I do have Visual C++ and I suppose a certain amount of aptitude for such things.

 

My only wish is that I could do something more original with the idea

Published by H. Morey & Co., New Westminster, B. C. No. 120, 8 / 09 29813

 

Henry Morey was born December 2nd 1862 at New Westminster, the son of Jonathan Morey, one of the Royal Engineers who arrived in 1859. Possessing a fine voice and an aptitude for music, at the age of 13 Morey was sent to study at Leipzig, Germany. On his return to New Westminster, Henry Morey taught piano in a private studio at 8th Street and Agnes. He also served an apprenticeship in the printing business of the Mainland Guardian newspaper. His father died in 1884 and in 1886 Morey went into business as a stationer. Together with the expected complete lines of paper and pens, office supplies, school supplies and artists materials, his shop stocked a wide variety of items including: glassware and fine china from England, hammered brass trays from India, books, cards and calendars, dolls, toys and games. Following the lead of early New Westminster stationer JS Knevett—whose shop complete with "handsome trichord piano," would surely have attracted the attention of young Henry in 1876—Morey sold sheet music and musical instruments. Morey’s also published their own postcards, of which the above is an example. The business occupied various premises on Columbia Street, the last at 601 Columbia. H. Morey & Co. sold out in 1923 to A.C. Nixon.

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The Brunette River runs through East Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam, flowing out of Burnaby Lake and to the Fraser River. According to a map and materials by Heritage Advisory Committee and Environment and Waste Management Committee of the City of Burnaby (1993), the number of native campsites discovered on the shores of the Fraser River, Burrard Inlet and Deer Lake and some petroglyphs suggest that the area was used extensively by local aboriginal peoples such as the Squamish, Musqueam and Kwantlen for hunting and fishing before the arrival of European settlers.

 

The earliest known European immigrant who settled on the banks of the Brunette River near the present-day North Road in 1860 was William Holmes. According to his daughter Charlotte, local native people gathered at their farm each season to catch and dry their winter supplies of salmon. She remembers that the salmon runs were so huge on the Brunette River that the fish actually crowded each other out of the water and if they had remained stationary "you could have walked across the stream without getting your shoes wet." The river was named by Holmes for its peaty brown colour.

 

Photography, (and I'm thinking landscape here), has the unique ability to offer us what we cannot see with our own eyes. It has the aptitude to distort time and present us with new dynamic realities. That is why I love the long exposure so much; it injects us with not only movement and energy into the shot but gives you that special kind of surprise when you see the image. You know that it has been taken by a mechanical process, so there is some kind of logic to the reality, but your never sure what you will get. It mixes a wonderful twist of the surreal into the familiar. For me this is where photography holds its magic. As I've mentioned previously, documentary photography holds only passing interest for me, as I do not want to merely record a place, I want to actively peruse it in as unusual a way as possible, to actively embrace those fringe distortions. I feel a need to push myself into trying to play with alternative realities, attempting to find ways to distort the conventional view and subvert it. But keeping within the realm of the medium, that rubes off some of its perception, that a photograph has some semblance of reality.

 

I come from the school of thought that successful art, be it photography, painting, film literature, has its power from the way in which it inspires emotions in the viewer/ participator. If that emotional response taps into something in the viewer on a deep level then it has been a successful catalyst. A transfer has happened linking the artist through the subject to the viewer, that the artist exploited, be it conscious or subconscious. It is this emotional response (be it positive or negative, powerful or subtle) that in my opinion that makes for successful art. Personally the stronger and more emotional the response for me the better. I personally like to be, knocked over the head and pulled kicking screaming and laughing thought the experience, when engaging with art. The stronger the feelings I have the more successful I consider the piece.

 

Now lots of people say that emotions are important, but I'm not sure they think past this statement. So on holiday (I had a bit more time to reflect), I began trying to fathom why emotion is so important. Why is it that I like to be moved by art? Don't tell anybody…but I actually like to cry, get angry, upset, happy scared, excited whilst engaging with different art. Why?

 

I think on one level I'm letting myself escape from reality. Good art (photography, films, paintings sculpture) take control of you and place you into different realities. They offer you something that is not what you have, something that places you somewhere else you would like to be.

 

I also wonder if it isn't using somebody else's emotional scenario (the art) to catalyse my own emotions in a safe defended way. Kind of letting somebody else move onto the next stepping-stone before you commit to the action, knowing that it's already safe?

 

I wonder if I'm reliving and working out in a safe way emotions that I had as a child, and using the art to help me explore this? Funny but as I get older I find myself gravitating to activities I loved as a child, (man this is getting complicated). On a counter argument, I wonder if I'm using the experience (of the art) to prepare myself for future encounters with that emotion?

 

I wonder if it makes me feel more alive in our increasingly solitary communities?

Man I could really go on here, and for those of you that have made it this far I want to congratulate you…

 

Anyway finally this shot demonstrates for me the more unusual elements of long exposure. It was an unexpected capture at 90 degrees to the sun (unusual for me but the shot into the sun didn't work without movement into the foreground) so the polarizer really picked out the late evening glow. It also was taken with the ten-stop filter so the exposure was 96 seconds at F11 which gives the clouds and swell a nice movement juxtaposed against the sharp rocks. The cliff was about 60 meters high so getting down to the waters edge was impossible without death (again not usual for me) so it represents many departures from my normal photographic practices. I hope the experiment is to your satisfaction…

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched India’s 1st indigenous rotavirus vaccine named Rotavac to combat infant mortality due to diarrhoea. It was launched by the Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda as part country’s ambitious Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). The vaccine is b... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/goverment-current-affairs/...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

¨Your attitude, not your aptitude, determines your altitude. - Zig Ziglar

 

Remembering Amsterdan. I miss this european spirit.

 

ser·en·dip·i·ty

   /ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/ Show Spelled[ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] Show IPA

–noun

1.

an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

 

Watch and listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLEGQ4VO4Uo

Listen

I'm With You - Avril Lavigne

  

I'm Standing on a bridge

I'm waitin in the dark

I thought that you'd be here by now

Theres nothing but the rain

No footsteps on the ground

I'm listening but theres no sound

 

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?

Won't somebody come take me home

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Wont you take me by the hand

take me somewhere new

I dont know who you are

but I... I'm with you

I'm with you

 

im looking for a place

searching for a face

is anybody here i know

cause nothings going right

and everythigns a mess

and no one likes to be alone

 

Isn't anyone tryin to find me?

Won't somebody come take me home

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Wont you take me by the hand

take me somewhere new

I dont know who you are

but I... I'm with you

I'm with you

 

oh why is everything so confusing

maybe I'm just out of my mind

yea yea yea

 

It's a damn cold night

Trying to figure out this life

Wont you take me by the hand

take me somewhere new

I dont know who you are

but I... I'm with you

I'm with you

 

Take me by the hand

take me somewhere new

I dont know who you are

but I... I'm with you

I'm with you

 

Take me by the hand

take me somewhere new

I dont know who you are

but I... I'm with you

I'm with you

I'm with you...

 

Avril Lavigne nació en Belleville y después se mudó a Napanee a los cinco años, ambos pueblos situados al este de la provincia de Ontario, Canadá. Hija de padres devotos cristianos; John Lavigne, de origen francés, y Judy Lavigne, de origen franco-canadiense. Tiene una hermana menor, Michelle y un hermano mayor, Matt. Desde pequeña mostró aptitudes para ser cantante, cuando comenzó a cantar acompañada del piano con su madre una canción religiosa y a los 5 años comenzó a cantar gospel en el coro de la iglesia. En el año 1998, Avril ganó un concurso para cantar con la cantante canadiense Shania Twain en un concierto en Ottawa, en el que cantaron a dúo What Made you say that?.

 

I'm With You es una canción de pop rock escrita por la cantante canadiense Avril Lavigne y The Matrix (Scott Spock, Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards) para Let Go, el álbum debut de Lavigne. Fue la primera balada de Lavigne que fue lanzada como un sencillo.Fue lanzado como el tercer sencillo del álbum en el 2002 (EEUU) y 2003 (RU). Llegó al número uno en México, al top cinco en Billboard Hot 100 de los Estados Unidos (el tercer sencillo de Lavigne en llegar al top diez), en Reino Unido al top diez, y al top veinte en Canadá. "I'm With You" recibió cobertura en la radio y televisión de Australia, pero no fue lanzado allí como sencillo para que las ventas de Let Go aumentaran.

 

In Wordpress In Blogger photo.net/photos/Reinante/ In Onexposure

Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. -Zig Ziglar

 

smart and hot college babe

(C) Photography By Temogen

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the slideshow

  

Qi Bo's photos on Fluidr

  

Qi Bo's photos on Flickriver

  

Qi Bo's photos on FlickeFlu

  

Qi Bo's photos on PICSSR

  

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Easter 2017 in Scicli (Ragusa - Sicily), the "Feast of the Man Alive", but also the "Feast of The Joy" ("The Joy" or even "The Man Alive" are terms used by the people of Scicli (RG) to affectionately call the Risen Christ); this cypress statue, carved at the end of the eighteenth century, is what remains of a classical Spanish tradition Easter rite. In Scicli, it’s possible, in old times, took place on Easter Day "the encounter" between the Virgin and the Risen Christ as happens in other centers of Sicily all the years, but the figure of the Virgin in Scicli in modern times is most likely vanished: there is who suggested that the birth of the modern Easter feast in Scicli could be identified in the workers' revolts that broke out in Sicily post-unity period of Italy: in 1882 Scicli on Easter day broke out a popular uprising against the Real Guards being beatenand, and the rioters arrested, that Easter day, the people rebelled against the new constitutive order by raising a Christ shaking a red flag symbolizing a militant socialism, a model of Christ not accepted by the clergy or the bourgeoisie and aristocracy.

The people had chosen a sacred image, which contradicted the aesthetic, moralistic and political aptitudes of that time, the naked body was just covered with a short pink shroud that then suddenly became red like that flag that impudently shook in its strong closed hand, a beautiful, mediterranean and burning young man, with a galvanizing and engaging look, with the swollen muscles typical of those who worked hard all his live, became the eternal leader expected and dreamed by the onset of the proletariat as a pagan transfiguration Messiah. Every year on Easter Day, "The Joy" returns to live, for a mysterious magical interplay between the bearers and the One who is also called “the Live

Man", is elevated to heaven by devotee, there are "frenetic" runs along the streets, turns around the squares, blesses and approves between shouts of joy: The Joy appropriates Himself of the city that no one can ever tear it for a consolidated and ancient association, in a triumph of thousands of hands destined to support his athletic body of warrior, there are so many anonymous bodies of devotees who find themselves miraculously in one single identity, his is the entire Sciclitan society behind him because he sums up himself and represents for all. The "vucculari" leaders, are the important figures who decide all the movements of the float with the Risen Christ (The "vuccule" are two large iron rings each planted at the front ends of the two long poles on which the float is mounted) , these are the important figures who decide all movement of Christ, prepare the itinerary, command the race or the wait, set the number of laps in the church or in the “square of the Virgin of Carmine”, organize the excursions to unusual places. There are people who remember when, in a very distant Easter, the Live Man suddenly took an alley out of the known path, abandoning the big crowd, coming unexpectedly into a small area of the old town, the devotees deposed the float with The Joy in front of the door of a humble home, where a young mother, consumed by cancer, was preparing to make his last trip. The feast of Easter Sunday opens with the procession of the Venerable, a heavy "silk banner" that bows to the Blessed Sacrament between two big wings of crowds, the statue of Christ kept in the Church of Santa Maria La Nova, the statue goes in procession for the streets of the city, is lifted up with his arms stretched high, first from a high and then on the other, to express the great happiness for the Resurrection, all the day until late. The great effort of the devotees, the frenzied and almost tarantulated, is not without risk: this year the fall of some carriers inside the church of Our Lady of Carmine, it almost provoked a series of falls, some of them finished under the other bearers with their weight of the heavy float (!): fortunately everyone came out unharmed, and … at the joyful scream of "Joy! Joy!" the frantic journey went on. A small curiosity, the songwriter Vinicio Capossela, fascinated with the celebration of Scicli's Live Man, wanted to dedicate a song to Him, infact the name of the song is "the Live Man".

  

Pasqua 2017 a Scicli (Ragusa – Sicilia), la “festa dell’Uomo Vivo” ma anche la “festa del Gioia” (Il "Gioia" o anche "L'Uomo Vivo", sono termini usati dagli sciclitani per chiamare e invocare affettuosamente il Cristo Risorto); questa statua di cipresso, scolpita alla fine del Settecento, è ciò che resta di un rito pasquale di classica tradizione spagnola; anche a Scicli, è ipotizzabile, avveniva nel giorno di Pasqua "l'incontro" tra la Vergine e il Cristo Risorto come avviene in altri centri della Sicilia, nel corso degli anni, però, la figura della Vergine con molta probabilità è scomparsa: c’è chi ha ipotizzato che la nascita della moderna festa di Pasqua a Scicli possa essere individuata nelle rivolte operaie che scoppiarono nella Sicilia post-unità d’Italia: nel 1882 a Scicli, il giorno di Pasqua, scoppiò una rivolta popolare, con Carabinieri Reali malmenati ed arresti dei rivoltosi, quel giorno di Pasqua, il popolo in festa si ribellava al nuovo ordine costituito innalzando un Cristo che agita una bandiera rossa simbolo di un socialismo militante, malvisto dal clero ed alle classi borghesi e aristocratiche,

il popolo aveva scelto un'immagine sacra, che contraddiceva i canoni estetici, moralistici e politici del tempo, il corpo nudo era coperto appena di una sindone rosa che poi diventò improvvisamente rossa come quella bandiera che impunemente agitava nel suo forte pugno chiuso, un popolano bello, mediterraneo e ardente, altero e virile al tempo stesso, dallo sguardo galvanizzante e coinvolgente, con i muscoli gonfi tipici di chi ha lavorato duro per tutta una vita, diventò a furor di popolo l'eterno condottiero atteso e sognato dal proletariato insorgente come un trasfigurantesi messia pagano. Ogni anno il giorno di Pasqua “il Gioia” ritorna a vivere, per una misteriosa compenetrazione magica tra i portatori e Colui che è chiamato anche “l’Uomo vivo”, viene innalzato al cielo da devoti invocanti, imprecanti, “corre” freneticamente per le strade, gira per le piazze, benedice e approva tra urli di gioia e schiamazzi: si appropria della città cui nessuno potrà strapparlo mai per un consolidato e antico sodalizio, in un tripudio di mille mani tese a sorreggere il suo atletico corpo di guerrigliero sono tanti corpi anonimi di devoti che si ritrovano per miracolo in un'unica sola identità, la sua, è l'intera società sciclitana che lo porta sulle spalle perché Lui la ricapitola in se e la rappresenta tutta. I capi "Vucculàri" sono le due figure importanti che decidono ogni movimento della vara con sopra il Cristo Risorto (Le "vùccule" (boccole) sono due grossi anelli di ferro piantati ciascuno alle estremità anteriori delle due lunghe aste, sulle quali è montato il fercolo), queste sono le figure importanti che decidono ogni movimento del Cristo, ne predispongono l'itinerario, comandano la corsa o l'attesa, stabiliscono il numero dei giri in chiesa o in piazza del Carmine, organizzano le fughe verso mete a volte anche inusuali. C’è chi ricorda di quando, in una lontana Pasqua, l’Uomo Vivo svoltò improvvisamente in un vicolo fuori dal percorso noto, abbandonando la ressa della folla, giungendo inatteso in un piccolo quartiere del centro storico, i devoti deposero la vara con sopra ‘U Gioia davanti alla porta di una umile casa, nella quale una giovane madre, consumata dal cancro, si apprestava a compiere il suo ultimo viaggio. La festa della Domenica di Pasqua si apre con la processione del Venerabile, un pesantissimo “stunnardu” (stendardo) di seta, che effettua un inchino al Santissimo Sacramento tra due fitte ali di folla, la statua del Cristo, custodita nella Chiesa di Santa Maria La Nova, viene portata in processione per le vie della città e fatta ondeggiare e ballare, viene sollevata con le braccia tese in alto, prima da un alto e poi dall’altro, per esprimere l’enorme felicità per l’avvenuta resurrezione, tutto il giorno sino a tarda ora. Il grande sforzo compiuto dai devoti, l’andirivieni frenetico e quasi tarantolato, non è esente da rischi: quest’anno nella chiesa della Madonna del Carmine la rovinosa caduta di alcuni portatori, ha quasi causato un effetto domino, che ha fatto temere per l’incolumità di alcuni di loro finiti sotto gli altri portatori col relativo peso del pesante fercolo: fortunatamente tutti ne sono usciti incolumi ed, al grido osannante di Gioia ! Gioia! Il frenetico andirivieni è ripartito. Una piccola curiosità, il cantautore Vinicio Capossela, innamoratosi della festa dell’Uomo Vivo di Scicli, ha voluto dedicargli una sua canzone, che ha per titolo, appunto … “l’Uomo Vivo”.

 

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

  

Pasqua a Scicli 2017. Il Gioia, la corsa, le emozioni

  

Scicli il Cristo Risorto 2017

  

Resuscita 2017 scicli

   

Pasqua a Scicli: Inno di Busacca - Cristo Risorto - Gioia - Uomo Vivo

  

Pasqua a Scicli. "u gioia" cristo risorto!

   

U Gioia, Scicli (Rg), Sicily - Easter 2015

  

Vinicio Capossela - L'uomo vivo (inno al gioia) (Video Live)

  

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

  

L'ultima tentazione di Cristo - Trailer

  

L'ultima tentazione di Cristo - davanti a Pilato

  

L'ultima tentazione di Cristo - La resurrezione di Lazzaro

  

L'ULTIMA TENTAZIONE DI CRISTO - VIA I MERCANTI DAL TEMPIO!

   

dialogo giuda gesù tradimento ultima tentazione

  

L'ultima tentazione di Cristo (1988) • Il regno di Dio

  

L'Ultima Tentazione di Cristo - Gesù e Giovanni Battista

  

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

   

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Tonight however, we are far from Cavendish Mews. We are not even in England as we follow Lettice, her fiancée, Sir John Nettleford Hughes, and her widowed future sister-in-law, Clementine (known preferably now by the more cosmopolitan Clemance) Pontefract on their adventures on their visit to Paris.

 

Old enough to be Lettice’s father, wealthy Sir John was until recently still a bachelor, and according to London society gossip intended to remain so, so that he might continue to enjoy his dalliances with a string of pretty chorus girls of Lettice’s age and younger. After an abrupt ending to her understanding with Selwyn Spencely, son and heir to the title Duke of Walmsford, Lettice in a moment of both weakness and resolve, agreed to the proposal of marriage proffered to her by Sir John. More like a business arrangement than a marriage proposal, Sir John offered Lettice the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of his large fortune, be chatelain of all his estates and continue to have her interior design business, under the conditions that she agree to provide him with an heir, and that he be allowed to discreetly carry on his affairs in spite of their marriage vows. He even suggested that Lettice might be afforded the opportunity to have her own extra marital liaisons if she were discreet about them.

 

The trio have travelled to Paris so that Lettice may attend the ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes’* which is highlighting and showcasing the new modern style of architecture and interior design known as Art Deco of which Lettice is an exponent. Now that Lettice has finished her commission for a feature wall at the Essex country retreat of the world famous British concert pianist Sylvia Fordyce, Lettice is moving on to her next project: a series of principal rooms in the Queen Anne’s Gate** home for Dolly Hatchett, the wife of Labour MP for Towers Hamlets*** Charles Hatchett, for whom she has done work before. Mrs. Hatchett wants a series of stylish formal rooms in which to entertain her husband’s and her own influential friends in style and elegance, and has given Lettice carte-blanche to decorate as she sees fit to provide the perfect interior for her. Lettice hopes to beat the vanguard of modernity and be a leader in the promotion of the sleek and uncluttered lines of the new Style Moderne**** which has arisen as a dynamic new movement at the exhibition.

 

Tonight we are in Saint-Germain, the fashionable 6th Arronissement of Paris, which is between the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris***** and the Pantheon****** in the elegantly appointed apartment Madeline Flanton, the glamorous silent film star actress employed at Cinégraphic*******. Madeline is an old flame of Sir John’s, and a woman that judging by his subtle, yet not subtle enough for Lettice not to notice, overtures indicate, still has Sir John in her thrall in spite of the fact that she is much older than his usual conquests. When Lettice had first mentioned that she wanted to visit the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris to Sir John and asked him to accompany her, his counter proposal involved him attending the exhibition in the mornings, before slipping away and meeting up with Madeline Flanton in the afternoon. Determined not to lose face over this idwea, Lettice suggested that perhaps she could meet Mademoiselle Flanton as well. Rather than balk at the idea, as she had in her heart-of-hearts hoped he might, Sir John warmed quickly to Lettice’s idea, suggesting that if they both went to Mademoiselle Flanton’s apartment for cocktails, the Parisian media wouldn’t question Sir John visiting her, and any whiff of scandal would thus be avoided. He suggested that after a few polite social cocktails with Mademoiselle Flanton, she and Sir John could escort Lettice out via the back entrance to her apartment into a waiting taxi to return her to the hotel that she, Sir John and Clemance have arranged to stay at, leaving Sir John to spend the rest of the night with Mademoiselle Flanton.

 

Thus, we find ourselves in Madeline Flanton’s very smart and select Parisian apartment. Built in a round tower, the flat has a large and spacious central salon, tastefully decorated in the uncluttered Art Deco style Lettice so appreciates, off which are a series of rooms, including a small kitchen which is the domain of her distinguished and unflappable maître d'hôtel********, who is the equivalent of an English butler, an intimate dining room, Mademoiselle Flanton’s boudoir, dressing room and a bathroom. The main salon has large French doors opening up onto a balcony, from which can be seen the Eiffel Tower and is decorated with elegant furnishings and hung with fashionably geometric patterned wallpaper. Overhead a chandelier shimmers and sparkles, its light adding to the diffused golden light of lamps around the room. From a mirror topped demilune table********* overseen by a portrait of the mistress of the house in a thick gilded frame, Madeline Flanton’s maître d'hôtel expertly mixes cocktails from a selection of bottles set out on its surface to a small selection of guests, mostly fellow actors, actresses or staff from the Cinégraphic studio who have been invited to join Madeline as she welcomes Lettice to Paris, and reacquaints herself further with Sir John after beginning the task at a pleasant picnic hosted by Clemance a few days ago.

 

“How appropriate that in Paris, you should request a Parisian********** to drink, mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Mademoiselle Flanton laughs as she tosses her peroxided tresses playfully.

 

Lettice smiles and thanks the maître d'hôtel as she accepts the delicate faceted crystal Marie Antoinette glass*********** from him.

 

“I prefer something à la Américaine, myself,” the French actress goes on, as her maître d'hôtel hands her a soixante quinze************ in a tall highball glass. “I have gathered from mon cher Jean, Mademoiselle Chetwynd, that you have had a very fine classical education.”

 

“Yes, Mademoiselle Flanton.” Lettice replies a little stiffly. “My father the Viscount recognised my thirst for knowledge and my aptitude for learning. His younger sister, my Aunt Eglantyne was also well educated, and he wished me to be able to reach my full potential as a young woman, and not settle for a mediocre marriage because I had no other options.”

 

“Were languages part of your education, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?”

 

“Indeed they were, Mademoiselle Flanton. I can speak fluently in German, partially thanks to my Aunt’s Swiss-German household staff, I can read and speak classical Greek, my Italian is passable,” Lettice pauses. “Oh and of course I speak fluent French. Would you prefer to converse in French, Mademoiselle?”

 

Mademoiselle Flanton smiles gratefully, her expertly painted lips turning upwards at the edges. “How perceptive you are, Mademoiselle Chetwynd. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate it.”

 

“It’s understandable,” Lettice replies, reverting to French immediately with ease. “Speaking one’s native tongue is always easier.”

 

“Oh it isn’t that, Mademoiselle,” Mademoiselle Flanton elucidates with a serious look. “It’s just that I would like you and I to have a little tête a tête without Jean overhearing what we say. Unlike your progressive father, poor Jean’s father, and mother, were really only interested in hunting, and were from all accounts distrustful of all foreigners, so they never learned to speak anything other than English, and Jean is the same as a result.”

 

“Yes they sent his sister to be finished off in Germany, and she does speak French and Greman.”

 

“In their eyes, it made her a more attractive jeune fille à marier*************. Such linguistic qualities are less attractive in the male heir of a rather boorish and terribly English family.” Mademoiselle Flanton smiles with pity at Sir John as he chats politely with another of her animated male guests dressed in black tie. “Shall we?” Mademoiselle Flanton indicates to a high backed red and gold Oriental brocade upholstered sofa, which like everything else in her salon, is smart and select.

 

Clutching her cocktail, Lettice sinks into the soft upholstery, snuggling into a corner of the sofa, whilst her hostess sits at the opposite end, cradling her own cocktail, a thoughtful expression on her face.

 

“So, you are marrying Jean, then.” Mademoiselle Flanton remarks as she stirs her drink with an agate knobbed silver cocktail pick**************.

 

“You know I am Mademoiselle.” Lettice replies, a hint of frustration in her voice.

 

“Are you enjoying your little sojourn to Paris, Mademoiselle Chetwynd? How did you find the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes? I believe you were there this morning.”

 

“I was. It was very interesting, and has given me many wonderful new ideas that I can use in my interior designs for my newest client. However, Mademoiselle Flanton,” Lettice says stiffly with a sigh. “What is this little tête a tête you wish to have, about? It’s not to discuss the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, surely?

 

The French woman doesn’t speak for a moment, continuing to stir her cocktail thoughtfully, not engaging Lettice’s bright blue eyes with her own dark one. Finally she breaks her silence. “You know Jean asked me to marry him once, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.”

 

Lettice’s eyes grow wide in surprise, and her cocktail remains held midway to her lips where she was about to take a sip of it. “No, Mademoiselle Flanton, I didn’t know.” Lettice replies in shock.

 

“Oh yes!” the French actress chuckles. “It was all foolish youthful impetuousness of course. Jean and I met, probably before you were born. Back then, there were no moving pictures, and I certainly wasn’t an actress, at least of that sort.” She adds wistfully.

 

“Yes, John told me that he met you when you were an actress at the Follies Bergère***************.”

 

Mademoiselle Flanton snorts derisively. “If you can call it that. Jean and I were introduced at the Palais de Glace**************** in 1893 by my then lover: a fatal mistake for him, as it spelled the end of our little romantic liaison.” When Lettice doesn’t attempt a reply, she takes a deep draught her cocktail and winces as the feeling and taste of strong alcohol hits her in a wave. “I hate to use the word love, which is a term I think best reserved for the world of the moving picture screen.” She thinks for a moment as she considers how best to describe she and Sir John’s relationship in those early days. “We were besotted with one another, and in his impetuousness he asked me to be his wife two years later. He lowered himself on one knee in a café one night and held up a pretty velvet lined box containing a sparkling diamond ring from Maison Chaumet*****************.”

 

“But you turned him down?” Lettice ventures.

 

“I did, Mademoiselle.”

 

“Why, Mademoiselle? John is a wealthy and influential man.”

 

“I know, Mademoiselle Chetwynd, and he was handsome then.” She looks fondly over at Sir John, her eyes sparkling. “He his handsome still, but perhaps more dignified as an older man. When he was young, oh,” She sighs deeply. “He was so very, very handsome and dashing! And as I said, we were besotted with one another.”

 

“It seems that perhaps there is still an element of that in John now, if not both of you, judging by your flirtations at Clemance’s picnic in the Tuileries******************.”

 

“Oh,” Mademoiselle Flanton mutters. “You noticed that did you?”

 

“You are perhaps not as discreet as you think, Mademoiselle.” Lettice opines flatly.

 

The French actress offers no apology to Lettice, and after another sip of her cocktail, she simply goes on with her story. “I could near have married Jean. We were both too young then, and besides, his parents would never have accepted me. I am French, so a foreigner to begin with, I was dancer at the Follies Bergère, I have no father and my mother was a laundress, so all in all, hardly a dignified or ideal match for the eldest son of such a noble and wealthy family. Besides, even then, Jean had a wandering eye, and wandering hands. I knew he was never going to change his ways, even if I married him. Perhaps,” She considers. “He might have been enamoured enough for a little while to be devoted to me, but it didn’t take him long to claim a new conquest when he returned to England.” She takes another mouthful of her cocktail, gulping loudly. “And that, Mademoiselle Chetwynd is why I wanted to have this little tête a tête with you.”

 

Lettice skins back in her seat with an exasperated sigh. “Surely, you aren’t going to try and talk me out of this marriage to Sir John as well, Mademoiselle?” she asks peevishly. “I have plenty of people back home in London trying to dissuade me.”

 

“Not at all, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” the Frenchwoman replies, holding up her elegant and heavily bejewelled hands, the golden banded backs of her rings gleaming in the electric lamps illuminating the room. “You are free to do what you wish, and Jean has told me that you are already appraised of his la bougeotte*******************.”

 

“Yes, I go into this marriage fully appraised, Mademoiselle Flanton. John has been very forthright and honest about that facet of his life, and I know he won’t stop his liaisons.”

 

“Well, if that is so, then I am puzzled Mademoiselle Chetwynd. What benefits can you possibly reap from such a match?”

 

“That’s very forthright of you, Mademoiselle!” Lettice gasps, surprised at being asked the question outright, her face flushing with embarrassment.

 

Not apologising again for her behaviour, the French actress simply says, “We French are known for our directness, Mademoiselle.” She smiles at Lettice, a look of impatience subtlety changing the features of her face as she awaits a reply.

 

“Our engagement is complex. John doesn’t want jealousy in his relationships. He certainly doesn’t want a jealous wife. He told me from the start that he has no intention of desisting from his dalliances, and that if I said yes to his proposal, I must accept him on those terms. In return I will be allowed freedoms a married woman like Lady Nettleford-Hughes would not usually receive in British society. I can continue to run my own business, which most husbands would never countenance from their wives, taking her working as a slight towards them as the main financial support and head of the family. If a husband cannot provide for his wife, the British male upper-class ego is usually wounded.”

 

“And you would not have received the same courtesy through Monsieur Spencely, the Duke of Walmsford’s son?” Mademoiselle Flanton queries with her head cocked to the side, engaging Lettice’s gaze intently.

 

Lettice gasps at the mention of Selwyn Spencely’s name, the colour quickly draining from her face as quickly as it had flushed it.

 

“What do you know, Mademoiselle?” Lettice asks hostilely.

 

“When Jean told me that he was coming to Paris with his pretty new fiancée, a woman I never thought would, or could exist, he told me that your understanding with Monsieur Spencely came to an abrupt end, and that you took up the proposal of marriage Jean had made to you in passing some weeks before.”

 

“Then you don’t need an explanation from me, Mademoiselle.” Lettice says hotly. “That is the truth of the matter. Selwyn Spencely and I did have an understanding, but it is over now.”

 

“Jean tells me that le Duchesse de Walmsford sent her son off to the Dark Continent******************* with some kind of promise that he wasn’t to contact you, but when he came back, he could marry you if he still loved you.”

 

“That’s right, Mademoiselle. John has appraised you of the crux of Lady Zinnia’s demands. She gave Selwyn an ultimatum after he made his intentions regarding our relationship clear. She made a pact with Selwyn: if he went away for a year, a year during which he agreed neither to see, nor correspond with me, if he came back to England and didn’t feel the same way about me as he did when he left, he agreed that he would marry a woman that Lady Zinnia deemed suitable. If however, he still felt the same way about me when he returned, she agreed that she would concede and will allow Selwyn to marry me.”

 

“And he came back and broke your understanding?”

 

Lettice sighs. “Not exactly. Whilst he was in Durban on his enforced year of exile, he met the daughter and heiress of a Kenyan diamond mine owner, and they became engaged.”

 

Mademoiselle Flanton notices the pain not only in Lettice’s voice, but in her face as it twists and contorts as she shares the details of the sad story. “I’m sorry, Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” she murmurs quietly. “That I am making you relive this most awful situation.”

 

“It was a rather bloody********************* situation.” Lettice replies, reverting to English in her pain.

 

“Bloody?” the French woman queries. “I’m sorry Mademoiselle Chetwynd? I do not understand.”

 

“Oh!” Lettice replies before returning to speaking French. “Beastly. A horrible situation! To be confronted about his engagement like that.”

 

“And who told you about Monsieur Spencely’s engagement, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Mademoiselle Flanton asks kindly.

 

“I don’t see what business that is of yours, Mademoiselle.” Lettice retorts in shock.

 

“Please pardon the intrusion,” Mademoiselle Flanton says in a conciliatory way, looking kindly at Lettice with her warm eyes. “I mean no disrespect. The only reason why I ask,” She looks down at her now drained cocktail glass which she fumbles and plays with in her hands as she holds it in her lap. “And I have a confession to make.”

 

“A confession, Mademoiselle Flanton?”

 

“Oui. Jean, he… he did tell me what transpired – a slightly abridged version of your tale, but enough of it to know – and I asked my secretary, Louise,” She nods in the direction of a pretty brunette with stylishly marcelled waves********************** and translucent skin dressed in a smart beaded chartreuse satin evening frock, chatting with a redheaded gentleman in black tie wearing tortoiseshell rimmed spectacles. “To find out more about Monsieur Spencely and Mademoiselle Avendale’s engagement.”

 

“Why?” Lettice asks in shocked surprise.

 

“Well, when Jean became engaged to you, and it was announced in the British papers, I saw your photograph.” She pauses. “I get some of your London papers, you see,” she adds by way of explanation. “I like to keep up my practice of English, reading, writing and speech, because I have been contracted out by Cinégraphic to British film companies, like your Gainsborough Studios*********************** in London. So, I looked in the social pages to see who it was that had snared my unattainable Jean. When I read how well connected you are, and saw how pretty you are, I was intrigued to know what this Mademoiselle Avendale was like since she stole Monsieur Spencely from you.”

 

Lettice blushes at the French woman’s compliments about her looks and connections.

 

“And I can’t say I could find out very much about her.”

 

“Well, there wouldn’t be anything reported about her in the British papers. This all took place in Durban. I was shown photographs of Miss Avendale and Selwyn together from the Durban newspapers, Mademoiselle Flanton.”

 

“Again, I ask you, by whom, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Mademoiselle Flanton urges. “Who showed them to you?”

 

“Well, Selwyn’s mother, Lady Zinnia.” Lettice admits.

 

“Ahh.” Mademoiselle Flanton says knowingly, her expertly plucked and shaped eyebrows arch high over her eyes.

 

“Lady Zinnia summoned me to her Park Lane mansion.” Lettice goes on. “She showed me a whole cache of articles. It announced they were engaged.”

 

“Did they, Mademoiselle?” the actress asks, looking Lettice directly in the eye. “Did they really say that?”

 

“Yes, they did.”

 

Lettice casts her mind back to that horrible day when she arrived at Lady Zinnia’s palatial Park Lane mansion and was shown into her grand white drawing room where every surface was covered in exquisite and expensive antiques and objets d'art. She remembers Lady Zinnia’s haughty and cruel spectre: the thin streak of red on her lips, the pale powder on her cheeks, the single streak of silvery grey through her waved, almost raven black hair, the piercing stare from her cold and mirthless eyes. Lettice recalls the pink cardigan of Lady Zinnia’s secretary as she handed her mistress a buff envelope, but she cannot recall her name. She can picture Lady Zinnia opening the folder and presenting a selection of articles showing a smiling Selwyn with Kitty Avendale at dances, riding together and in fancy dress to Lettice, a smug smile on her face. She recalls the word engaged printed beneath some of them. After that, her memory becomes very blurred and unreliable, and to this day, Lettice still does not know how she managed to get the short distance between Park Lane and her home at Cavendish Mews.

 

“Yes…” Lettice falters. “They did. They did.”

 

“You see, from what Louise has gleaned, this Kitty Avendale only arrived in Durban last year after Monsieur Spencely did. No-one had ever heard of her before. For the heiress to a diamond mine, that seems a little odd, don’t you think, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?”

 

“Perhaps her father the Australian only recently made his fortune.” Lettice offers in explanation.

 

“There is no mention of Mr. Avendale anywhere at all. The closest Louise could find was an Australian jockey called Dickie Avendale who was banned from racing horses in Durban after some kind of scandal involving race fixing************************, when he deliberately lost the Durban Handicap*************************, and it was found that he was paid a great deal of money for not winning riding one of the favourites in the race. And try as she might, to date Louise has found no announcement of the engagement of Mademoiselle Avendale and Monsiuer Spencely, in either the Durban, or the London papers. There are reports of Monsieur Spencely choosing to stay on in Durban to see a few of his architectural projects through to fruition, but there is nothing about his engagement. Not one printed word. Indeed, coincidentally, Mademoiselle Avendale seems to disappear from the newspapers in Durban altogether after the announcement of your engagement to Jean being published in The Times in London. Don’t you think that a little strange too? Perhaps more than a little odd?”

 

Lettice feels a curdling in her stomach as she listens to the French actress speak, all the while trying to recall the exact wording printed underneath the photographs of Selwyn and Kitty Avendale. It’s so hard. Her mind is addled; her heart is racing. Her breathing is becoming shallow and more laboured.

 

“No, I distinctly remember ‘Mr. Selwyn Spencely and Miss Kitty Avendale, engaged’ on the bottom of one photograph.” Lettice says, remembering now.

 

“What was in the rest of the article, Mademoiselle Chetwynd? Do you remember?” Mademoiselle Flanton asks.

 

“I… I…” Lettice stammers. She tried to recall the articles. As far as she can recall, she only saw the photographs of Selwyn and Kitty with the caption for the photo beneath it. “I’m sure there was another caption that mentioned Kitty’s father being a diamond mine owner.”

 

“Yes, but what about the rest of the article, Mademoiselle Chetwynd?” Mademoiselle Flanton persists. “What did it say?”

 

“I… I… I don’t think there was any more of the article.” Lettice shakes her head. “No. There were just the photographs from the newspapers and the caption below.”

 

“So, no articles then?”

 

“No, but that’s hardly unusual in the society pages of a newspaper. Usually there are only two or three lines captioning it.”

 

“But you only saw the first lines?”

 

“I did.” Lettice begins to feel nauseous. She hasn’t felt this ill since that afternoon at Lady Zinnia’s Park Lane mansion.

 

“So, please correct me if I am wrong, Mademoiselle Chetwynd, but from what you are telling me, the information you received came directly from the woman who did not want you to marry her son, and all you have been shown are a selection of social page photographs with what may possibly be only part of a caption on it.” When Lettice nods shallowly, her face riddled with guilt, the French woman continues. “Then if I were you, I would return home post haste and do a bit of your own research.”

 

“Why mademoiselle Flanton?”

 

“Well, the fact that the engagement hasn’t been announced in the London papers strikes me as particularly odd, Mademoiselle Chetwynd. The son of a Duke, and such a fine match! Le Duchesse would surely announce it with pride! Could it be that you were fed lies, or only a half-truth by le Duchesse de Walmsford? I would not trust her to tell you the whole truth.”

 

Lettice doesn’t answer immediately, as bile rises and roils in her stomach. When she does finally speak it is to ask her hostess the direction to bathroom. Once inside the bright pink tiled room with its frieze of black and white alternate tiles, Lettice locks the door behind her and barely makes it to the toilet before she throws up the selection of savories and oysters that her hostess has been feeding her guests throughout the soirée into the bowl. She retches, and retches until there is nothing left to vomit, thinking all the while of what Mademoiselle Flanton has revealed to her, and she wonders whether what she says is true. Lettice doesn’t read the list of engagements in The Times. It could be there, and Mademoiselle Flanton’s secretary, Louise, may simply have missed it. As she sits down in a crumpled heap of bespangled midnight blue************************** satin next to the toilet bowl that matches its pink surroundings, kohl*************************** stained tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, she ponders the French actress’ other suggestion. Could she have been lied to? Would Lady Zinnia stoop that low to claw her son away from Lettice? Feeling the flutter of heartbeats in her chest, Lettice knows the answer to that. She must go home, to London, and as quickly as possible to investigate Lady Zinna’s claims more thoroughly for herself.

 

Scrambling up off the floor, Lettice shakily walks the few paces to the pink vanity and looks in horror at her smeared face and red eyes reflected in the mirror. Turning on the taps, she washes her face, leaving Kohl, rouge and lipstick traces on the luxuriantly fluffy white towel, but she doesn’t care. She carefully withdraws her lipstick and eyeshadow cases from her small black and silver beaded reticule**************************** and reapplies just enough makeup to avoid raised eyebrows from John, her hostess or any of the other guests.

 

Taking a few deep and calming breaths, she unlocks the door and walks back out into Mademosielle Flanton’s central salon and walks with as much composure as she can muster, up to Sir John who is still in the midst of the small coterie of actors, actresses and film making guests.

 

“John dear,” she interrupts him as he talks about the London Stock Exchange’s latest results with a father bookish looking man in black tie with slicked down dark hair that is parted sharply and precisely down the middle.

 

He turns and looks at his fiancée, his eyes widening a little with concern as he sees her rather wan face. “Are you alright, Lettice my dear?”

 

“John, I think I might just take myself back to hotel, if you don’t mind.”

 

Sir John leans down and whispers in her ear, “But it isn’t time yet, Lettice my dear.”, thinking this is all part of the ruse that he and Lettice have agreed to that they will arrive together at Madeline Flanton’s, but then Lettice will discreetly slip away through the back entrance of the apartment into a waiting taxi, allowing him to remain with Mademoiselle Flanton and spend the evening with her, rekindling their former liaison.

 

“No, John,” Lettice whispers back. “I genuinely do feel ill. I think I’d like to go back to the hotel now, please. If you could get Mademoiselle Flanton to have her butler flag me a taxi, I’d be most grateful.” She squeezes his arm. “I’ll leave you here.”

 

“Will you be alright, my dear?” Sir John asks as concern clouds his face. “I can come back to the hotel with you.”

 

“No. No.” she assures him with a dismissive wave. “I’m sure it is probably just something that I had for luncheon disagreeing with me. I will only go home to sleep. I think that’s what I require. I don’t wish to spoil your plans. You stay here and enjoy yourself.”

 

A short while later, her fiancée and her hostess escort Lettice into a waiting taxi, flagged by Mademoiselle Flanton’s maître d'hôtel.

 

“Bon chance, mon cher Mademoiselle Chetwynd.” Mademoiselle Flanton whispers in Lettice’s ear.

 

“Merci, Mademoiselle Flanton.” Lettice replies quickly in a returned whisper, before the maître d'hôtel closes the door and instructs the driver of the name of the hotel where Lettice is staying.

 

*International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was a specialized exhibition held in Paris, from April the 29th (the day after it was inaugurated in a private ceremony by the President of France) to October the 25th, 1925. It was designed by the French government to highlight the new modern style of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, glass, jewellery and other decorative arts in Europe and throughout the world. Many ideas of the international avant-garde in the fields of architecture and applied arts were presented for the first time at the exposition. The event took place between the esplanade of Les Invalides and the entrances of the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, and on both banks of the Seine. There were fifteen thousand exhibitors from twenty different countries, and it was visited by sixteen million people during its seven-month run. The modern style presented at the exposition later became known as “Art Deco”, after the exposition's name.

 

**Queen Anne’s Gate is a street in Westminster, London. Many of the buildings are Grade I listed, known for their Queen Anne architecture. Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner described the Gate’s early Eighteenth Century houses as “the best of their kind in London.” The street’s proximity to the Palace of Westminster made it a popular residential area for politicians.

 

***The London constituency of Tower Hamlets includes such areas and historic towns as (roughly from west to east) Spitalfields, Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Wapping, Shadwell, Mile End, Stepney, Limehouse, Old Ford, Bow, Bromley, Poplar, and the Isle of Dogs (with Millwall, the West India Docks, and Cubitt Town), making it a majority working class constituency in 1925 when this story is set. Tower Hamlets included some of the worst slums and societal issues of inequality and poverty in England at that time.

 

****"Style Moderne," often used interchangeably with "Streamline Moderne" or "Art Moderne," is a design style that emerged in the 1930s, characterized by aerodynamic forms, horizontal lines, and smooth, rounded surfaces, often inspired by transportation and industrial design. It represents a streamlined, less ornate version of Art Deco, emphasizing functionality and sleekness. It was first shown at the Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts of 1925.

 

*****Notre-Dame de Paris, often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, in the 4th Arrondissement of Paris. It is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris.

 

******The Paris Pantheon is a neoclassical monument in the city's Latin Quarter, originally commissioned as a church but now serving as a secular mausoleum for prominent French citizens. Built between 1758 and 1790 by architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, it holds the tombs of figures like Voltaire, Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas. Following the French Revolution, the building was repurposed to honour national heroes, a role it continues to hold today.

 

*******Cinégraphic was a French film production company founded by director Marcel L'Herbier in the 1920s. It was established following a disagreement between L'Herbier and the Gaumont Company, a major film distributor, over the film "Don Juan et Faust". Cinégraphic was involved in the production of several films, including "Don Juan et Faust" itself. Cinégraphic focused on more experimental and artistic films.

 

********The maître d'hôtel title is usually associated head waiter, host, waiter captain, or maître d' manages the public part, or "front of the house", of a formal restaurant. However, it is also the term used to describe the English equivalent of a butler. The position of "butler" in a household was comparable to the English role, but with different terminology. The French term maître d'hôtel referred to the senior servant in charge of a household. The duties of a domestic maître d'hôtel included overseeing other servants, managing finances, and ensuring the smooth running of the home.

 

*********A demilune table is a console table or accent table with a half-moon or semi-circular top, designed to sit flush against a wall. The name "demilune" is French for "half-moon" and refers to the table's defining curved shape. These tables are often slender and feature a flat back, making them a practical choice for entryways, hallways, or tight spaces where a traditional rectangular table would be cumbersome.

 

**********The Parisian cocktail dates from the 1920s and consists of one third French Vermouth, one third Crème de Cassis and one third gin, shaken well and strained into wide cocktail glass. It falls into a category of drinks that often feature French ingredients or have Parisian connections. Several notable cocktails have gained recognition for their ties to Paris or French culture.

 

***********A "Marie Antoinette glass" typically refers to a champagne coupe, a shallow, bowl-shaped glass with a short stem. While the shape has been linked to Marie Antoinette's breast in popular culture, historical records debunk this claim. The coupe was popular during Marie Antoinette's reign due to the sweeter champagne produced at the time, and its shape was also favoured for its ability to dip cakes in the beverage.

 

************A soixante quinze, more commonly known as a French 75 is a cocktail made from gin, champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. It is also called a 75 cocktail, or in French simply known as a soixante quinze. The drink dates to World War I, when in 1915 an early form was created at the New York Bar in Paris — later Harry's New York Bar — by barman Harry MacElhone.

 

*************A jeune fille à marier was a marriageable young woman, the French term used in fashionable circles and the upper-classes of Edwardian society before the Second World War.

 

**************A cocktail pick is a small, often pointed utensil, typically made of stainless steel or bamboo, used to skewer and hold garnishes like olives, cherries, or fruit for cocktails and appetisers. These reusable picks elevate drink presentation, secure ingredients, and offer a more convenient and stylish alternative to simply dropping garnishes into a drink. They also come in various designs and sizes to match different glasses and events.

 

***************The Follies Bergère is a cabaret music hall in Paris, France. Located at 32 Rue Richer in the 9th Arrondissement, the Folies Bergère was built as an opera house by the architect Plumeret. It opened in May 1869 as the Folies Trévise, with light entertainment including operettas, comic opera, popular songs, and gymnastics. It became the Folies Bergère in September 1872, named after nearby Rue Bergère. The house was at the height of its fame and popularity from the 1890s Belle Époque through the 1920s. Revues featured extravagant costumes, sets and effects, and often nude women. In 1926, Josephine Baker, an African-American expatriate singer, dancer and entertainer, caused a sensation at the Folies Bergère by dancing in a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas and little else. The institution is still in business, and is still a strong symbol of French and Parisian life.

 

****************The Palais de Glace was a prominent ice-skating rink located on the Champs-Élysées in Paris during the Belle Époque era. Designed by architect Gabriel Davioud, it was known as the “Rotonde du Panorama National” before being converted into the “Palais de Glace” in 1893. The building later became "”he Palace of Nero” during the Universal Exhibition of 1900.

 

*****************Maison Chaumet's history began in Paris in 1780 with jeweller Marie-Étienne Nitot, who became a favourite of Empress Joséphine. The business grew under his successors, eventually being named Chaumet by Joseph Chaumet in the late Nineteenth Century and moving to its iconic Place Vendôme address in 1907. The 1890s saw the continuation of the Maison's legacy, embodying elegance and high-craftsmanship in a period of significant history for the brand. The workshop of the Maison was a hub of activity, with fourteen artisans under the direction of their foreman, continuing the tradition of exquisite jewellery-making. The firm, which still operates from this location, was acquired by the LVMH luxury group in 1999 and continues to pass down its high jewellery expertise through generations of artisans.

 

******************The Tuileries Garden is a public garden between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the first arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. Since the Nineteenth Century, it has been a place for Parisians to celebrate, meet, stroll and relax.

  

*******************The French term “la bougeotte” means restlessness, with a need to move. Although usually used to refer to travel, it can also be used when someone has a desire to seek alternatives elsewhere in their lives and move on from current situations.

 

********************"The Dark Continent" is an outdated term historically used to refer to Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, due to its perceived mystique and lack of exploration by Europeans in the Nineteenth Century.

 

*********************The old fashioned British term “looking bloody” was a way of indicating how dour or serious a person or occasion looks.

 

**********************Marcelling is a hair styling technique in which hot curling tongs are used to induce a curl into the hair. Its appearance was similar to that of a finger wave but it is created using a different method. Marcelled hair was a popular style for women's hair in the 1920s, often in conjunction with a bob cut. For those women who had longer hair, it was common to tie the hair at the nape of the neck and pin it above the ear with a stylish hair pin or flower. One famous wearer was American entertainer, Josephine Baker.

 

***********************Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.

 

************************We usually think of match or race fixing as a modern day thing, but one of the earliest examples of this sort of match fixing in the modern era occurred in 1898 when Stoke City and Burnley intentionally drew in that year's final "test match" so as to ensure they were both in the First Division the next season. In response, the Football League expanded the divisions to eighteen teams that year, thus permitting the intended victims of the fix (Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers) to remain in the First Division. The "test match" system was abandoned and replaced with automatic relegation. Match fixing quickly spread to other spots that involved high amounts of gambling, including horse racing.

 

*************************The Durban July Handicap is a South African Thoroughbred horse race held annually on the first Saturday of July since 1897 at Greyville Racecourse in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. Raced on turf, the Durban July Handicap is open to horses of all ages. It is South Africa's premier horse racing event. When first held in July 1897, the race was at a distance of one mile. The distance was modified several times until 1970 when it was changed to its current eleven furlongs.

 

**************************Midnight blue is darker than navy blue and is generally considered to be the deepest shade of blue, one so dark that it might be mistaken for black. Navy blue is a comparatively lighter hue.

 

***************************Kohl is a cosmetic product, specifically an eyeliner, traditionally made from crushed stibnite (antimony sulfide). Modern formulations often include galena (lead sulfide) or other pigments like charcoal. Kohl is known for its ability to darken the edges of the eyelids, creating a striking, eye-enhancing effect. Kohl has a long history, with ancient Egyptians using it to define their eyes and protect them from the sun and dust, however there was a resurgence in its use in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1920s, kohl eyeliner was a popular makeup trend, particularly among women embracing the "flapper" aesthetic. It was used to create a dramatic, "smoky eye" look by smudging it onto the lash line and even the inner and outer corners of the eyes. This contrasted with the more demure, natural looks favoured in the pre-war era.

 

****************************A reticule also known as a ridicule or indispensable, was a type of small handbag or purse, typically having a drawstring and decorated with embroidery or beading, similar to a modern evening bag, used mainly from 1795 to before the Great War.

 

This rather elegant scene, showing a corner of Mademoiselle Flanton’s smart and select Parisian flat with its up-to-date Art Deco styling may look real to you, but it is in fact made up entirely of 1:12 size miniatures from my collection.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The glass topped demilune table in the background is a hand made miniature artisan piece, which sadly is unsigned.

 

The bottles covering Mademoiselle Flanton’s mirrored glass bar surface are all 1:12 of Gordon’s Dry Gin, the bottle of Crème de Menthe, Cinzano, Campari and Martini are also 1:12 artisan miniatures, made of real glass. Most came from Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, who are well known for the detail and correctness of their labelling, which they pay close attention to. The bottle of Gordon’s Dry Gin came from a specialist stockist in Sydney.

 

Gordon's London Dry Gin was developed by Alexander Gordon, a Londoner of Scots descent. He opened a distillery in the Southwark area in 1769, later moving in 1786 to Clerkenwell. The Special London Dry Gin he developed proved successful, and its recipe remains unchanged to this day. The top markets for Gordon's are (in descending order) the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. Gordon's has been the United Kingdom’s number one gin since the late Nineteenth century. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin.

 

Crème de menthe (French for "mint cream") is a sweet, mint-flavored alcoholic beverage. Crème de menthe is an ingredient in several cocktails popular in the 1920s, such as the Grasshopper and the Stinger. It is also served as a digestif.

 

Cinzano vermouths date back to 1757 and the Turin herbal shop of two brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano, who created a new "vermouth rosso" (red vermouth) using "aromatic plants from the Italian Alps in a recipe which is still secret to this day.

 

Campari is an Italian alcoholic liqueur, considered an apéritif. It is obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) in alcohol and water. It is a bitters, characterised by its dark red colour.

 

Made from hand blown ruby glass, the soda syphon was made by Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The clear glass soda syphon and the porcelain ice bucket and tongs was made by M.W. Reutter Porzellanfabrik in Germany, who specialise in making high quality porcelain miniatures. The glass featuring sparkling gin and tonic water with a slice of lemon on it is also a 1:12 miniature which came, along with the silver cocktail shaker behind it from an online stockist of dollhouse miniatures on E-Bay. The other glasses, the silver basket of roses and the portrait of Mademoiselle Flanton come from Kathleen Knight’s Doll’s House Shop in the United Kingdom.

 

The Art Deco pattern on the wall behind the demilune table, I created myself.

Indigenously developed Prithvi-2 missile was successfully test fired from the Chandipur, off Odisha coast.

Test-It was conducted by the Strategic Force Command and was monitored by the scientists from Defence Research & Development Organisation. As part of a user trial, the missile test was... www.sharegk.com/technology/prithvi-2-missile-successfully...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

Constantin Brâncuși (Romanian: [konstanˈtin brɨŋˈkuʃʲ]; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of modernism, Brâncuși is called the patriarch of modern sculpture. As a child he displayed an aptitude for carving wooden farm tools. Formal studies took him first to Bucharest, then to Munich, then to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1905 to 1907. His art emphasizes clean geometrical lines that balance forms inherent in his materials with the symbolic allusions of representational art. Brâncuși sought inspiration in non-European cultures as a source of primitive exoticism, as did Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and others. However, other influences emerge from Romanian folk art traceable through Byzantine and Dionysian traditions.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Brâncuși

Tamil Nadu state tops in organ donation in the india by harvesting organs of 683 persons and donating them to over 3000 beneficiaries.The statement was announced on 13 August 2015 by Tamil Nadu Health Minister C.V. Bhaskar after the state observed Organ Donation Day.

In Tamil Nadu,overall organ... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/latest/tamil-nadu-has-topp...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

:: CACIB INTERNATIONAL DOG SHOW – CELJE/CELEIA, SLOVENIA 2009 (Sept 26 – 27 '09) ::

 

Firstly, this isn't my dog! (Click the 'All sizes' button above for a bigger picture.)

 

I've only attended the CACIB* International dog show in my town as a visitor and hobby photographer. Needless to say, it was an amazing opportunity to capture lots and lots of beautiful dogs on camera. :-) Two days full of dogs of all sorts of breeds – what more can a dog lover ask for?

 

See the rest of the set for all the pictures. There are also pics from my first CACIB show last year. I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

* Certificat d'Aptitude au Championat International de Beauté (French: Certificate of Aptitude for International Champion of Beauty; dog show title)

  

©Jane Brown2015 All Rights Reserved. This image is not available for use on websites, blogs or other media without explicit written permission.

 

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We collected Elsie from school. Today she had her first knitting lesson. . . and she is showing great aptitude . . . it will not be long before she is better than me!

 

I shall be catching up tomorrow evening . . .

:: CACIB INTERNATIONAL DOG SHOW – CELJE/CELEIA, SLOVENIA 2009 (Sept 26 – 27 '09) ::

 

Firstly, this isn't my dog! (Click the 'All sizes' button above for a bigger picture.)

 

I've only attended the CACIB* International dog show in my town as a visitor and hobby photographer. Needless to say, it was an amazing opportunity to capture lots and lots of beautiful dogs on camera. :-) Two days full of dogs of all sorts of breeds – what more can a dog lover ask for?

 

See the rest of the set for all the pictures. There are also pics from my first CACIB show last year. I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

* Certificat d'Aptitude au Championat International de Beauté (French: Certificate of Aptitude for International Champion of Beauty; dog show title)

  

With the increasing use of smartphones and availability of mobile apps on almost any issue you can think off, our team at the GATE Academy has designed a GATE exam preparation mobile app. GATE preparation app not only tests the technical skills and science aptitude of the engineering students in their respective field but also checks their relative performance in comparison to other students. For more details log on to our website and get the link for the mobile app at: gateacademy.co.in/

 

Named for their propensity to nest in tree cavities, the Tree Swallow is one of the avian world’s most talented aerial acrobats. They live a life at levels of speed and agility that make even the most talented human gymnasts appear like lumbering mammoths. Their ability to track moving objects is exponentially faster than that of humans and their finely adjusted flight patterns provide them with the skill to carve out intricate and finite paths through thin air. Somehow the name “tree,” for all the beauty and grace it exemplifies, does not do justice to the exceptional aptitudes of the bird that it helps represent; for the motion of trees could not be more stationary then when compared to that of the swallow.

 

Harold Edward Elliott, was born at West Charlton in north-west Victoria on 19 June 1878. He was the fifth of eight children of Thomas Elliott and his wife Helen, née Janverin, who had arrived in Victoria during the gold rushes of the 1850s. Thomas and Helen, both English-born, married at St Michael’s Church of England, Talbot, in 1867 and settled in nearby Cockatoo. After years of adventurous gold-seeking had produced meagre returns, Thomas selected a block of land five miles from Charlton and switched to farming, which he found just as arduous and unremunerative. Young Harold grew up in an impoverished environment dominated by the perpetual struggle to extract a living from the soil. Life was a constant battle against the elements; bushfires, snakes, rabbits and too much or too little water were just some of them. He acquired a rudimentary primary education at the one-teacher outpost at West Charlton known as the Rock Tank School.

 

In 1894 his life was transformed. His father, who had never lost his fascination with the pursuit of gold, had ventured to Western Australia, where he ‘struck it rich in a big way’. Thomas purchased a stately residence, ‘Elsinore’, in Ballarat and the whole family moved there the following year, when Harold and his younger brothers began attending Ballarat College. Having been unexpectedly plucked from rural poverty and presented with a marvellous opportunity, Harold was determined to make the most of it.

 

Supplementing considerable aptitude with great dedication, he excelled scholastically at Ballarat College and in 1897 was dux of the school. At the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Ormond College, he again demonstrated that he could harness his above-average intellect with exceptional self-discipline and powers of concentration. In 1906 he crowned the successful completion of his law degree with the award of the Supreme Court prize for the top final-year student. He was called to the Victorian Bar in 1907. (In 1920 he completed his BA and LL M.)

 

Elliott was interested in sport—football and athletics principally—but his main recreational activity during these years was his involvement in military pursuits. He had a passionate interest in all aspects of soldiering. He read widely about military history, participated purposefully in peacetime defence units, and dreamed about emulating the feats of the great commanders of the past. During the Boer War he interrupted his scholarly endeavours at the university to serve in South Africa. Enlisting as a private, he returned as a lieutenant with the Distinguished Conduct Medal, which he had been awarded for a particularly daring exploit.

 

On 27 December 1909 Elliott married Catherine Frazer Campbell, under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church, at the Melbourne suburb of Northcote. They had two children, Violet Isabel in 1911 and Neil Campbell the following year. Now a partner in the firm of solicitors, Roberts and Elliott, he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in Australia’s militia forces. A conventional middle-class conservative, he read the Argus and agreed with its advocacy of free trade rather than the protectionist views of the more progressive Age. He supported the White Australia policy. Like many other Protestants of Anglo-Scottish descent, he was inclined to be suspiciously hostile to Roman Catholics.[1]

 

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Elliott enlisted immediately and was away for almost five years. He returned as Brigadier General ‘Pompey’ Elliott, a household name, after commanding the 7th Battalion at Gallipoli and the 15th Brigade at the Western Front. The nickname, which he acquired early in the war, endured for the rest of his life; it was derived from a well-known pre-war footballer in Melbourne, Fred ‘Pompey’ Elliott (no relation).

 

His reputation as one of the AIF’s most famous commanders was founded on his capacity and temperament. He was intelligent, well informed, energetic and decisive. His own bravery was exceptional, but he was vigilant and frank when assessing the advisability of proposed enterprises involving the men under him. It became an article of faith that he would never send a man anywhere he was not prepared to go himself. Emotional and tempestuous, he was also a real character. Anecdotes about him flourished, amusing the men he led and sometimes disconcerting his superiors.

 

In April 1915 he was wounded at the Gallipoli landing, and rejoined the 7th Battalion in June. In the desperate fighting at Lone Pine in August his battalion performed outstandingly; four of his men were awarded the Victoria Cross. Promoted to brigadier in 1916, he protested with characteristic forcefulness about the inadequacies, in his opinion, of three of the four battalion commanders allotted to his brigade. Having arrived at the Western Front, he saw his carefully prepared brigade butchered in an appallingly botched attack at Fromelles, which he had opposed and tried to prevent. This disaster affected him profoundly, but he soldiered on and rebuilt the brigade once more. His fine leadership was particularly evident at the battle of Polygon Wood, where his brigade overcame severe difficulties arising from the retreat of a British unit and, according to the historian C. E. W. Bean, ‘snatched complete success from an almost desperate situation’. It was, Bean continued, ‘the driving force of this stout-hearted leader’ that ‘was in a large measure responsible for this victory’. His crowning achievement as a commander was his prominent role in the famous counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

 

Elliott was devastated to learn in May 1918 that three other brigadiers had been preferred to him for promotion to divisional command. He was overlooked, despite his outstanding record, because of what his superiors regarded as his intermittently erratic judgment. Pompey nursed this deeply felt and enduring grievance, which he referred to as his supersession, while leading his brigade with customary fire until the end of the war. He arrived back in Melbourne in mid-1919. Later that year Nationalist representatives invited a number of prominent soldiers to stand as candidates at the next federal election.[2]

 

To the Nationalist powerbrokers Pompey was a highly desirable recruit. He had appropriately conservative political attitudes. His extraordinary popularity among returned soldiers and their families was underlined by the rapturous receptions he was given at the various welcome home functions he attended. And his political usefulness was also demonstrated after a disturbing incident in July when Harry Lawson, the Victorian Premier, was invaded in his office by an angry group of returned soldiers, one of whom hurled an inkstand at him. Pompey played a leading role in pacifying the aggrieved soldiers. Senior Nationalist strategists were concerned about the volatility and disruptive tendencies of the returned soldiers. They were keen to make use of leaders such as Elliott, who had sound, ‘right-thinking’ views as well as popularity and influence in AIF circles.

 

Pompey was flattered, but wary. The year 1919 was a worrying one for many Australians, who were understandably concerned about the Spanish influenza pandemic, widespread industrial unrest, bitter political conflict and the thousands of soldiers struggling to adjust to their peacetime circumstances. In this unsettling environment Elliott felt he could make a worthwhile contribution. However, the way the party system required politicians to commit themselves in advance to numerous detailed policies was abhorrent to him. ‘If any one wants me to stand for Parliament’, he told a friend in August, ‘they must have sufficient confidence in me as an honest man to trust me to run straight without binding me or attempting to bind me body and soul’. The Nationalist strategists were not deterred. The risk that Elliott might take an independent stance on some issues was outweighed by the electoral advantages accruing from his reputation as a charismatic, courageous commander.

 

The strategists were sufficiently flexible for him to acquiesce, although another factor may have affected his decision. As recorded by his friend, Frank Green, Elliott confided years afterwards that part of the stimulus for him to stand for the Senate in 1919 was to join a group secretly committed to supporting S. M. Bruce as party leader rather than W. M. Hughes, then Prime Minister. While this is an intriguing notion, there is no doubt that Elliott felt acutely motivated to do what he could to assist returned soldiers, and was influenced by the encouragement he received from many of them to go into Parliament to help ‘fix things up’. Nevertheless one 7th Battalion veteran urged him to avoid Parliament because it was ‘no place for an honest man’.

 

His campaign tour around Victoria was an odd mixture. There were tumultuous reunions with soldiers who had served under him interspersed with less exhilarating meetings of the political variety, where he laboured in workmanlike fashion through essentially the same lacklustre speech in every district. But the election result confirmed the wisdom of the Nationalists’ strategy. Not only did he top the poll himself; his candidature was instrumental in the election of his colleagues, Frank Guthrie and Ted Russell, giving the Nationalists success in all three Senate vacancies in Victoria.[3]

 

Entering the Senate in July 1920, Elliott lost no time in living up to his pre-election assertions about his political independence. He called on the Government to ‘revise drastically’ some of its proposals to overhaul public service administration, on one occasion coming up against another lawyer, Senator Keating, over definitions of terms used in the legislation. In August Elliott moved an amendment to the War Service Homes Bill, managing to convince the Minister for Repatriation, Senator E. D. Millen, that the amendment was necessary. The amended clause meant that returned soldiers who had commenced building their houses before the bill’s enactment would not be disadvantaged.

 

In October he and Guthrie vigorously denounced the expenditure on Canberra proposed by the Government. Amid testy exchanges with Nationalist colleagues Elliott declared: ‘I feel so strongly upon this matter that I have no desire to sit behind the Ministry if they are going to incur this expenditure. I would rather form a party of my own’. Elliott did not carry out this threat, but did rapidly establish a reputation for outspokenness in Parliament. This was dramatically reinforced the following year. Embittered by being again passed over for a divisional vacancy (this time in the postwar militia force), Elliott vented his spleen in a series of extraordinary Senate speeches during debate on the Government’s amending Defence Bill. Pompey repeatedly had his Senate colleagues, who included several fellow generals, on the edge of their seats as he lifted the lid on numerous controversial anecdotes about his wartime experiences and made some remarkable allegations about certain AIF individuals. He was repeatedly scathing about the leaders he blamed for his supersession, the AIF commander General Birdwood and his influential chief staff officer, Brudenell White.

 

Elliott made headlines when he alleged in the Senate on 21 April 1921 that he had been overlooked for promotion in 1918, after being the chief architect of the stunningly successful Australian counter-attack at Villers‑Bretonneux. He claimed this was because of an earlier incident during those desperate days of defence against the ominous German onslaught. He described how he and his brigade, having been rushed to the rescue, had been flung into a series of alarming situations, and on more than one occasion had to march all night. He went on to tell how his men had been hampered by the unauthorised occupation of a village by a detachment of British ‘fugitives’, his own forceful intervention causing the staff officer in charge of these ‘renegades’ to protest to his superiors. Three weeks later, Elliott told the Senate, his divisional commander paid him a visit:

 

He said, ‘I want to speak to you privately’, and took me out into the garden. He then said to me, ‘General, I have instructions to tell you that while you are in the Australian Imperial Force you will receive no further promotion by reason of your conduct to the [British] officers’. When he said that, I turned away rather dumbfounded, and he struck me on the back and said, ‘I have got to tell you that; but by God! you were right’. It turned out that this staff officer was the son of a Duke, and ‘put the acid’ on General Birdwood for my conduct, and you see the result.

 

With numerous other senior commanders in the Senate, the response to Elliott’s barrage of startling revelations was almost as interesting as the revelations themselves. ‘Fighting Charlie’ Cox, a Light Horse brigadier, consistently unleashed vacuous disapproval, but there were more discerning responses from other generals, such as E. A. Drake‑Brockman. Longstanding defence minister George Pearce was unsettled by Elliott’s account of the campaign and did not conceal his distaste. As for ‘Jupp’ Gardiner, Labor’s solitary senator in 1921, he concluded that ‘whoever is engaged in writing up the history of the war should be supplied with a special desk in this chamber and should be given a special invitation to be in regular attendance in the Senate, because matters of the greatest interest to them may crop up here at any time’. That observation by Gardiner had been triggered by one of Elliott’s more astonishing outbursts:

 

In France, one of the biggest ‘duds’ I know of commanded a regiment of Light Horse, and he was stationed in a village behind the lines for the whole period of the war. During practically the whole of the time he was there he was intoxicated, and the villagers, in pity and contempt, named him ‘Le Toujours Zig-Zag’, by which they meant that he was always drunk . . . He returned to Australia and is now in command of the troops in Tasmania.

 

Elliott did not name the commander concerned, but it was Brudenell White’s brother, whose lameness and slight speech impediment stemmed from a pre-war accident—he had not been repeatedly drunk at all. After this, Pompey had to eat humble pie, though not for the first or last time. His tendency to lash out rashly, at times relying on inadequately checked information, left him vulnerable to sharp criticism and sometimes undermined his credibility, but his extraordinary exposés were rarely without foundation.[4]

 

Such contentious contributions confirmed his reputation as a redoubtable gladiator. Throughout his postwar years he was inundated with requests for assistance from returned soldiers. In the main he sought to do good by stealth, but sometimes he raised grievances in Parliament. One such episode led to the formation of the Senate select committee that investigated the case of Warrant Officer J. R. Allen. Elliott chaired it. A majority of the committee concluded that the treatment of Allen by his commander had been justified. Elliott, still convinced that Allen had been unfairly treated, submitted a minority report jointly with Senator Allan McDougall. Elliott was also a member of the Royal Commission on the Navigation Act (1923–25), participating in most of its extensive investigations and contributing to its main report before resigning in August 1924.[5]

 

At one stage Elliott was single-handedly—though inadvertently—responsible for a change in government policy. One memorable day he was hurrying across King’s Hall when he happened to slip on the highly polished jarrah floor. His burly frame executed a dramatic tumble, reputedly rocking the Parliament House foundations; he accomplished such a spectacular slide on his back that he ended up entering the Senate chamber in arrestingly horizontal style, feet first. This amusing incident led to a less zealous polishing regime. When it was suggested that cleaning costs at Parliament House had been reduced, the press announced that ‘“Pompey” Elliott’s Slip May Save Australia Money’.

 

In view of Elliott’s forthrightness and maverick tendencies, it is unlikely that he was ever considered ministerial material even though he was in Parliament for over a decade and his party in government for almost all that time. That some of his strident utterances were detrimental to the Nationalist cause does not seem to have resulted in any significant pressure for him to be disowned by his party. His immense popularity—confirmed at the 1925 election when he again topped the Senate poll in Victoria—was simply too valuable to the Nationalists. Besides, apart from some characteristically idiosyncratic outbursts and his occasional willingness to cross the floor in the Senate, he was generally a wholehearted supporter of the Hughes and Bruce–Page governments. During the interminable 1921 tariff debates which resulted in considerable increases to Australian levels of protection, Elliott admitted publicly that he had abandoned his previous faith in free trade. With the zeal of the convert he consistently aligned himself with manufacturers and Victoria’s traditional adherence to the protectionist cause. Whether it was beer or malted milk, corsets or chamois leather, explosives or porcelain insulators, Elliott wanted the local product protected.

 

Moreover, when Bruce suddenly informed his government backbenchers of his intention to announce an about-turn on arbitration policy in 1929, Elliott responded with an immediate assurance to the Prime Minister that he would support the new policy absolutely. And when the Scullin Labor Government took office without a majority in the Senate later that year, Elliott was one of the opposition senators whose remorseless obstructionist tactics did much to demoralise the government. Nevertheless, as Senator Dooley remarked, Labor senators ‘always knew that with him the political fight was over as soon as he left the chamber’, although Elliott and D. C. McGrath, the ALP Member for Ballarat, had a sustained mutual enmity.[6]

 

Elliott’s parliamentary career ended with his death on 23 March 1931. The huge toll inflicted by the war on his nervous system, aggravated by the distress and misery of the Depression together with his deeply felt sense of injustice about his supersession grievance (and also, it seems, by a head injury incurred in a horse-riding accident) had undermined his mental and emotional stability. At the age of fifty-two Elliott committed suicide in hospital. His wife Kate and their children, Violet and Neil, survived him. The funeral was an extraordinary event; few, if any, in Melbourne had been bigger. Thousands lined the four-mile route the cortège travelled between his Camberwell home and Burwood Cemetery where he was buried with Presbyterian rites. Many returned soldiers marched sombrely behind the gun carriage bearing the coffin. One of them, Bruce, wrote that he had ‘never seen a greater tribute paid to a man’. Several of the parliamentary obituaries referred to Elliott’s geniality and friendliness as well as his outstanding military leadership. Opposition Leader, J. G. Latham, who had known Elliott well throughout his adult life, captured the essence of Pompey in this brief description: ‘He was a fearless man, of remarkable resolution and tenacity of purpose’. The manner of Elliott’s death was muzzled until it was controversially revealed a few weeks later by Smith’s Weekly.

 

Pompey Elliott was one of the best-known parliamentarians of his decade in federal politics. The characteristics and temperament which had won him extraordinary fame as a soldier ensured that his political career would prove lively and interesting, but he was clearly more suited to soldiering than Parliament.[7]

"No domestic animal can be as still as a wild animal. The civilized people have lost the aptitude of stillness, and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it.” – Karen Blixen.

Copyright © Dave DiCello 2012 All Rights Reserved.

 

"Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience."

~George-Louis de Buffon

 

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Today we head back to the Top of the Rock, looking towards Central Park and you can really get a sense for how massive it really is. Somehow though, I feel like walking through Central Park doesn’t really feel as far as walking the same distance along the streets. Maybe it is all the hills and twists and turns that make it more interesting!

 

Original size

 

As always, you can read about the processing I've done on this shot and all my images on on my website.

 

New blog post today, Gloomy day in the Park! Check it out if you have a chance!

 

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Post Processing Workflow

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Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 14. Photo: United Artists.

 

Cross-eyed silent comedian Ben Turpin (1869-1940) was not born that way. Supposedly his right eye slipped out of alignment while playing the role of the similarly afflicted Happy Hooligan in vaudeville and it never adjusted. Ironically, it was this disability that would enhance his comic value and make him a top name in the silent film era. Turpin's true forte was impersonating the most dashingly romantic and sophisticated stars of the day and turning them into clumsy oafs. He also invented a Hollywood tradition by being the first actor to receive a pie in his face.

 

Bernard 'Ben' Turpin was born in New Orleans in 1869, the son of a French-born confectionery store owner, Ernest Turpin, and Sarah Buckley. When 7 years old, his father moved to New York's Lower East Side. A wanderlust fellow by nature, Turpin lived the life of a hobo in his early adult years. He started up his career by chance while bumming in Chicago where he drew laughs at parties. An ad in a newspaper looking for comedy acts caught his eye and he successfully booked shows along with a partner. Going solo in the 1880s, he performed on the burlesque circuit as well as under circus tents and invariably entertained his audiences by doing tricks, vigorous pratfalls, and, of course, crossing his eyes. One of his more familiar sight gags was a backward tumble he called the "108." He happened upon the Happy Hooligan persona while playing on the road and kept the hapless character as part of his routine for 17 years. In 1907, he started in films at age 38. He joined the Essanay Studios shortly after the company began operating in Chicago. He also worked as a carpenter and janitor for Essanay. In the short comedy Mr. Flip (Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, 1909), Turpin receives what is believed to have been the first pie-in-the-face. He stayed with the company for two years but remained on the edges of obscurity. Appearing sporadically in silent comedy shorts, he typically played dorky characters who always did something wrong. Charlie Chaplin joined the Essanay company in 1915, and the studio made Turpin his second banana. Chaplin was maturing as a filmmaker, working slowly and intuitively. Turpin, however, was impatient with Chaplin's methods. The earthy Turpin understood straightforward slapstick more than comic subtlety. The Chaplin–Turpin duo did not last long, with Chaplin abandoning Chicago for California. Turpin does share one additional credit with Chaplin: after Chaplin filmed Burlesque on Carmen in two reels, Essanay filmed new scenes with Turpin to pad the picture into a featurette, doubling its length. Turpin left for the Vogue comedy company, where he starred in a series of two-reel comedies. Former Essanay comedian Paddy McQuire supported him. Many of Turpin's Vogue comedies were re-released under different titles, to cash in on Turpin's subsequent stardom.

 

In 1917 Ben Turpin joined the leading comedy company, the Mack Sennett studio. Turpin's aptitude for crude slapstick suited the Sennett style perfectly, and Sennett's writers often cast the ridiculous-looking Turpin against type (a rugged Yukon miner; a suave, worldly lover; a stalwart cowboy; a fearless stuntman, etc.) for maximum comic effect. Turpin became a top comedy draw. With his small wiry frame, brush mustache, and crossed eyes, he made scores of slapstick films alongside the likes of Mabel Normand and 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle'. One of his specialties was a forward tumble he called the "hundred an' eight". It was basically an interrupted forward somersault initiated by kicking one leg up, turning over 180 degrees to land flat on the back or in a seated position. Most notable were Ben Turpin's films that parodied hit films of the day such as his comedy The Shriek of Araby (F. Richard Jones, 1923), in which his character lampooned Rudolph Valentino. G. Hawke at IMDb: "This movie is a spoof of Valentino's phenomenally popular movie The Sheik and it does a very good job at it. Some of the effects and stunts are impressive. The scenes of Turpin being chased by a lion and riding an ostrich were especially good." Turpin retired from full time acting in 1924 to care for his ailing wife Canadian comedy actress Carrie Turpin (nee LeMieux). After her death the following year he returned but his marquee value had slipped drastically. In 1929, when the Mack Sennett Studios began turning to sound, his kind of comedy became less in demand. During this period he made films for the low budget Weiss Brothers Studio appearing in short comedies for about 2 years.

 

When sound came Ben Turpin more or less retired. Having invested in real estate he'd become quite wealthy. He began taking small comical roles in films for $1,000 per appearance. Among the most memorable of these cameos was in Paramount's Million Dollar Legs (Edward F. Cline, 1932) starring W. C. Fields, and Jack Oakie. He starred in only one more film, the short Keystone Hotel (Ralph Staub, 1935) for Warner Bros, a short subject compilation of footage of the old-time comedians. His final screen appearance was in the Laurel and Hardy film Saps at Sea (Gordon Douglas, 1940) as a cross-eyed plumber. Ben Turpin died of heart disease in 1940. Death prevented his scheduled appearance in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940). Turpin is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California. He was married three times: to Norma Koch (1898-1904; her death), Carrie Turpin(1907-1925; her death), and Babette Elizabeth Dietz (1926-1940; his death). In 1960, he was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1651 Vine Street in Hollywood.

 

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), G. Hawke (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and TRAFFIC-India, the wildlife trade monitoring network released in August 2015. It revealed that between January & 9 August 2015, India lost about 41 tigers.This Count is similar to the count in the same period in 2014.It says that despite the... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/latest/india-lost-41-tiger...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

The Union Government has imposed anti-dumping duty on import of cold-rolled flat products of stain-less-steel for Five years from Seven countries. The government’s decision comes on the re-commendation of the Directorate General of Anti-dumping & Allied Duties in the wake of rising incidence ... www.sharegk.com/curent-affairs/actandbill/union-governmen...

 

‪#‎gk‬ ‪‪#‎EntranceExam‬ ‪#‎OnlineTest‬ ‪#‎Aptitude‬‬

Satisfaction Véhémente.

Idées apparentes importuné résumé d'aptitude reflète l'amour,

ipsum confluebant fame imminente processus dividitur in altum,

betäubt Übersetzungen reflektieren Ruf umständlich,

adembenemende oppervlak eeuwigheid mirroring oneindige leegte staren,

scontri saluti serena distrazioni esistenza di ripascimento,

dealltwriaethau fulfillments dymuno cwblhau'r lleihau,

συμφωνίες επαναλαμβανόμενες ενεργειακά θέματα περιέπλεξε τις προσπάθειες,

brisant incroyables ailes scintillant rêver,

occhi ardenti deriva gialli maree in aumento,

sine constantia, rupti sunt aquae liquoribus greges florum,

flautas inocência delicados acoplamento vinha encantadoras sobrepõe,

fringant parfum parfumé passions calmes du monde bliss,

Gealacha dlús ciorcail thuisceanach fiáin,

Des visages radieux des multitudes de pulvérisation rayons eaux,

調和のとれたスリープの内側に晴れやかにはスレンダーな曲を聖別.

Steve.D.Hammond.

a bit creepy, isn't it?

 

confession: sometimes I think I have some serial killer aptitudes.

I often side with the evils.

dexter (from the tv series with the same name) and kira (from the manga/anime death note) are my favourite 'heroes' ever.

[don't] be scared.

 

un pò raccapricciante, nevvero?

confessione:

a volte penso che c'ho qualche attitudine da serial killer.

spesso tifo per i cattivi.

dexter (dall'omonimo telefilm) e kira (death note) sono i miei 'eroi' preferiti di sempre.

[non] abbiate paura. e leggetevi le tags.

 

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CABALLO CRIOLLO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Criollo (Argentina, Uruguay) , Costeño , Morochuco (Peru) , Corralero (Chile) , Llanero (Venezuela)

Cavalo crioulo , raça crioula (Brasil) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Argentine Criollo Horse , Crioulo Horse ................................

 

Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758

Orden: Perissodactyla (Perisodáctilos) ... Familia: Equidae (Équidos)

 

Durante el pleistoceno existían caballos autóctonos en casi toda América.

El territorio que corresponde a la Argentina fue particularmente rico en estos "paleocaballos" ( principalmente hipiddiones y Equus), empero la llegada del ser humano hace más de 11.000 años parece haber sido un factor decisivo (junto tal vez a alguna epizootia) para la extinción de los equinos autóctonos de América.

A la llegada de los europeos (fines del siglo XV e inicios del siglo XVI) al parecer solo quedaban sus fósiles y las pinturas rupestres que los amerindios dibujaban en los aleros y cuevas de la patagonia, tal vez el último baluarte de las últimas tropillas del caballo americano, en algún recóndito valle...

Apoyan esta audaz teoría diversos científicos, historiadores, y antropólogos, los que creen que el criollo absorbió estas tropillas de Equus rectidens por hibridación, fusionándolas a su acervo genético.

Algunos de ellos son Aníbal Cardoso, Vicente Rossi, G. Ochoa, Sarústegui, Federico C. Remondeau, Daniel Vidart, Rodolfo Parodi Bustos, etc.

Un rasgo típico es clave: el desarrollo en prolongación de la cresta occipital, en una forma tan saliente que sobrepasa las del Hippydion y Onohippidion ya bastante notables.

Comparada la cabeza del Equus rectidens con la del caballo criollo primitivo, se nota la semejanza del perfil y el abovedado de la frente que existe entre ambas.

Este carácter, llamado "cabeza acarnerada" (por los conocidos "abultamientos" en la parte posterior de la nariz y frente que tan eficazmente eran exagerados en las obras del dibujante Molina Campos), es un lazo de unión entre las dos especies, demostrando el abolengo netamente americano del caballo criollo, pues las razas equinas ibéricas tienen el perfil recto, la frente plana y la cabeza poco voluminosa.

Llama la atención que esta característica morfológica es muy frecuente en los caballos pampeanos fotografíados en el siglo XIX, y principios del XX; pero hoy está ausente en el criollo moderno...

 

Pero la hipótesis más aceptada es la cual indica que el Caballo Criollo es descendiente del caballo ibérico traído por los conquistadores españoles a América.

Un compuesto genético de caballos de sangre caliente derivado del caballo berbérisco del norte de África, del caballo del Valle del Guadalquivir en Andalucía, y otros que se agrupaban en el grupo de caballos de trabajo llamados "jacas" o "rocines".

Ya en América, algunos de ellos escaparon de las haciendas y misiones religiosas, o fueron robados por los indios.

En el campo, formaron grandes tropas y expuestos a un entorno salvaje, la fuerte selección natural y la endogamia, les fijaron características genéticas propias.

Cabe indicar que estas líneas genéticas están total o virtualmente extintas en la actual península ibérica.

Los especímenes equinos traídos a América no eran caballos seleccionados para la reproducción, eran caballos rústicos y valientes usados en España para el trabajo.

No había licencia real para exportar caballos de selección que pudiesen constituir lotes de fundación, exceptuando los regalados por los reyes a otros gobernantes de la Europa del siglo XV y XV, como los caballos usados para la formación del Lepizzaner.

Hasta que no se reprodujeron en abundancia, los caballos traídos a América poseían un elevadísimo costo debido a su gran valor práctico y táctico y a su escasez inicial.

Los caballos entraron en la Argentina a través del Perú, del puerto de Buenos Aires y de Brasil.

Pero la corriente introducida por Buenos Aires es considerada la más importante.

Fueron traídos por Pedro de Mendoza al fundar la Ciudad de Buenos Aires en 1536.

Más tarde, Mendoza debió abandonar Buenos Aires obligado por la defensa de los pueblos originarios, y dejó los caballos, que una vez sueltos se reprodujeron prodigiosamente merced al bioma de praderas y pastizales y clima templado típico de la Pampa Húmeda.

Lo hicieron tanto, que al llegar Juan de Garay, en 1580 al Río de la Plata consideró a las caballadas tan abundantes como montañas, y cubrian todo el territorio hasta la cordillera...(esta curiosa multiplicación es otro pie para la teoría americana del criollo).

Azara dice: "Entre las muchas cimarronadas que me han pasado por delante, no he visto otro color sino el castaño que en algunos baja a zaino y en otros se acerca a alazán; y cuando se ve uno bayo, pío, tordillo ó de otro tinte, ya se sabe que fué uno doméstico que se escapó".

Sólo los más fuertes lograron sobrevivir y reproducirse, aprendiendo a defenderse de los peligros tales como pumas y yaguaretés, soportando además climas extremos.

Los pueblos aborígenes, increíblemente adaptables al "monstruo invasor", aprendieron primero a alimentarse de su carne, y después lograron una relación simbiótica con el caballo, a tal extremo que en el presente se sigue ampliando el estudio de la "doma india".

Volviendo a la reproducción y origen de los caballos en el territorio argentino: si ya desde inicios del siglo XVI quedaron caballos libres y se reprodujeron masivamente, estos caballos o baguales cimarrones pasaron a ser considerados "realengos", es decir posesión de la corona española, aunque en la práctica eran utilizables por cualquier persona habilitada, como los campesinos libres -luego gauchos-, que hicieron de sus "pingos" uno de sus principales medios de subsistencia y un símbolo de prestigio.

En cuanto a los indígenas, especialmente los del sur, si por un lado amansaban a los caballos de un modo casi nada violento, era común que consumieran como un manjar la carne de las yeguas.

Por otra parte ciertas características de algunos caballos criollos ha hecho suponer que pudieran poseer algún acervo genético asnal debido a un incidental cruce con una mula fértil (recordemos que el territorio argentino fue centro de crianza masiva de mulas para el transporte de minerales preciosos hacia las montañosas regiones de la actual Bolivia).

Aclaremos que el caballo Persa, el tártaro, o el árabe, tienen seis vértebras lumbares; en tanto que las mulas, el caballo berberisco, y el criollo, sólo tienen cinco vértebras lumbares, por hallarse soldada la última al sacro .

En la guerra de la independencia argentina se utilizaron casi exclusivamente caballos criollos, ya que hasta ese momento la llegada de otras razas desde Europa era muy reducida.

Después de 1816, tras la independencia y debido a la creciente europeización en todos los ámbitos de la vida argentina, el caballo criollo fue dejado de lado como raza y mestizado con sangres extranjeras en la creencia de que así se lo mejoraría.

Es así que durante todo el siglo XIX una gran proporción de los caballos se cruzaron con ejemplares de pura sangre importados de Europa.

Se lograron caballos de mayor altura y más veloces, pero todo ello en detrimento de la resistencia a la fatiga y a las condiciones extremas.

Parecía que el fin había llegado para esos nobles caballos.

A principios del Siglo XX, pese a todo, aún existían caballadas salvajes en la Patagonia, y también cerca de Buenos Aires, en relictos de las Sierras de Ventania o Ventana, y en las Sierras de Tandilia.

Hubo un grupo de estancieros leales a las aptitudes del caballo criollo, que mantuvo sus animales sin mestizar, con las características adquiridas a través de 400 años de selección natural.

La recuperación del caballo criollo, con una selección científica, la lideró Emilio Solanet.

Con un grupo de criadores fundó la Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Criollos, recuperando la raza, convirtiendo al caballo criollo en un caballo versátil, económico, rústico y dócil.

En 1918, los criadores de la Argentina decidieron crear un registro de los ejemplares criollos de raza pura .

Se produjeron desacuerdos entre los que apoyaban a Emilio Solanet, que promovia un criollo de fenotipo "asiático", versus los de Enrique Crotto, que bregaban por un fenotipo"Africano", más alto, con una cabeza convexa, grupa caída y delgadas crines y colas.

No fue sino hasta 1934, que el Dr. Solanet fue capaz de tomar firmemente el control de la Asociación de Criadores y fijó un nuevo objetivo para la raza como un caballo de corta acción más compacto que emulaba, de alguna manera, a la raza de caballos del centro de Chile, por los cuales él tenia admiración, los cuales contaban con registro genealógico ya desde alrededor de 1870!.

 

En 1938, el 70% de la Criollos registrados fueron castrados o sacrificados, debido a que no poseían el fenotipo aspirado por el Dr. Solanet y sus seguidores.

Empezó a seleccionar en la zona de Ayacucho y partidos vecinos, yeguas y potrillos que le parecían que respondían a las condiciones de la raza, comprando también algunos a los indios tehuelches, traidos desde la patagonia.

El nuevo estándar racial, que él había escrito en 1928, fue finalmente puesto a disposición del público recién cuando estuvo realmente seguro que los criadores estaban más persuadidos en brindar apoyo a su objetivo para la raza.

No sería hasta 1957 que el registro se cerró para la raza argentina, pero el registro se ha mantenido abierto para el caballo de raza chilena, el que ha tenido importante influencia en mejorar ciertas cualidades, para ayudar a dar forma al Criollo moderno.

Sin embargo, la raza mantiene su propia identidad, con una conformación del cuerpo más alta, y cuadrada, con un corvejón más angular que le permite un paso largo, el que se requiere para cubrir las grandes distancias en las planicies de la Argentina (conocidas como "pampas").

La cabeza del Criollo moderno se prefiere con un perfil de la cara recta y un hocico más corto y más largas orejas que en el caballo de raza chilena típico.

 

La Asociación Criadores de Caballos Criollos, fue fundada por un grupo de 40 criadores de la Raza el 16 de junio de 1923, bajo en nombre de “Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Criollos Argentino".

Funciona en Larrea 670, 2do. piso, de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Simultáneamente, diversos deportes criollos ya definitivamente arraigados, como las "Pruebas de Rodeos", las "Pruebas de Rienda", la "competencia de Aparte", las "Cabalgatas de Criadores", el "Aparte Campero", la muy rigurosa "Marcha Anual", congregan miles de entusiastas participantes que, en Jornadas Clasificatorias, van intentando obtener promedios que los acerquen a la fiesta máxima del Criollo: Las Finales de los Campeonatos Nacionales de las distintas disciplinas que culminan en la Exposición de Otoño de cada año, dentro del marco de la mega-exposición llamada “Nuestros Caballos”, en el predio ferial de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, en el barrio de Palermo.

Por otra parte, la tradicional exposición de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, en el mismo predio, constituye la muestra más importante de la genética del Criollo en el mundo.

Con 150 reproductores de primerísimo nivel que colman las instalaciones del mítico Pabellón 8, superando con su sola presencia a todas las demás Razas equinas sumadas.

Numerosos criadores extranjeros de Brasil, Chile, Uruguay, también se dan cita en esta muestra, aportando sus ejemplares.

Sus dos ejemplares más famosos, Mancha y Gato, recorrieron el Continente Americano desde Buenos Aires a Nueva York, guiados por Aimé F. Tschiffelly, batiendo récords de distancia y altura.

Actualmente, en el Brasil, es más común en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul, principalmente en la región sudoeste gracias a los ejemplares producidos en "La Invernada Hornero", de Uruguayana (Uruguaiana).

 

CARACTERÍSTICAS GENERALES:

Eumétrico y mesoformo (medidas y formas medianas).

Su tipo se corresponde con el de un caballo de silla, equilibrado y armónico.

Bien musculado y de furte constitución, con su centro de gravedad bajo.

De buen pie y andares sueltos, ágil y rápido en sus movimientos.

De carácter activo, enérgico y dócil, su característica racial está definida por su rusticidad, longevidad, fertilidad, resistencia, valentía, poder de recuperación y aptitud para trabajos ganaderos.

 

BIOMETRÍA:

a) ----- Talla: Ideal 1,44 m. Las fluctuaciones máximas para los machos serán entre 1,40 m. y 1,48 m

pudiendo aceptarse como excepción hasta de 1,50 m. y no menos de 1,38m.

Previa resolución de jurado de admisión o inspector actuante. Hembras 2 cm menos.

b) ----- Perímetro torácico: ideal 1,78 m. Hembras 2 cm. Más.

c) ----- Perímetro de la caña: ideal 0,19 m. Hembras 1 cm. Menos.

  

Las fluctuaciones de las medidas deberán guardar la debida armonía con las indicadas para la talla.

 

PELAJES:

Con excepción del “pintado” y el “tobiano” se aceptan todos los pelajes, procurándose la paulatina eliminación de animales con tendencia avanzada hacia la despigmentación y albinismo.

 

CABEZA:

De perfil preferentemente rectilíneo o subconvexilíneo.

En conjunto corta, liviana, de base ancha y vértice fino proporcionalmente mucho cráneo y poca cara.

Frente ancha y mas bien plana.

Carrillos destacados y separados entre si ojos vivaces y expresivos, orejas chicas, anchas en su base, separadas y paralelas.

Ollares medianos.

La cabeza debe denotar la pureza racial, el carácter y la natural diferenciación sexual entre machos y hembras.

 

CRINES, CERDAS DE COLA, Y CERNEJAS O RANILLAS:

Tuse y cola más bien anchos y bien poblados de cerdas abundantes y gruesas.

Cernejas de mediano desarrollo y solo sobre la parte posterior del nudo

 

CUELLO, PESCUEZO O COGOTE:

De suficiente largo flexibilidad. Musculado en su inserción superior con la cabeza. Ligeramente convexo en su línea superior y recto en la inferior. Su eje se unirá al tronco en un ángulo casi recto con las paletas.

 

CRUZ:

Medianamente perfilada y musculada. Larga e insensiblemente unida.

 

DORSO:

De largo mediano, fuerte, fuerte, firme y ancho y musculado hacia el posterior. Suavemente unido a la cruz y al riñón con los que conformará una correcta línea superior.

 

RIÑÓN:

Corto, ancho, musculoso, fuerte, bien unido al dorso y a la grupa con los cuales deberá guardar armonía en conjunto.

 

GRUPA:

De buen largo y musculada, de ancho de ancho mediano y suavemente inclinada.

Vista del posterior, redondeada, sin protuberancias óseas ni hendiduras perceptibles.

 

COLA:

De maslo corto, debe continuar suavemente la linea superior de la grupa con una inserción mas bien baja.

 

PECHO:

Medianamente ancho, musculado, y bien descendido. El esternón se ubicará aproximadamente al la mitad de la alzada del animal.

 

TRONCO:

Visto de costado, profundo desde la cruz a la cinchera y de frente, de forma oval.

De buen desarrollo en su perímetro y cerca del suelo.

Costillas moderadamente arqueadas y abiertas hacia abajo y hacia atrás.

Vientre amplio, continuando insensiblemente el perfil interior del tórax.

 

FLANCOS:

Cortos y llenos.

 

ESPALDAS O PALETAS:

Medianamente largas e inclinadas. Separadas entre sí y bien musculadas.

 

BRAZOS Y CODOS:

Paralelos al plano medio del cuerpo. Brazos de buen largo, inclinación y musculatura. Codos visiblemente separados del tórax.

 

ANTEBRAZO:

Bien aplomados, largos, de buen ancho y musculatura.

 

RODILLAS:

Cerca del suelo, anchas, medianamente largas, nítidas, sin desviaciones ni fuera del eje.

 

MUSLOS:

Anchos y bien musculados, de nalgas largas y descendidas.

 

PATAS TRASERAS:

Largas, anchas, musculosas, con los tendones del corvejón fuertes, separados y nítidos.

 

GARRONES O CORVEJONES:

Fuertes, anchos, nítidos, paralelos al plano mediano del cuerpo y cerca del suelo.

 

CAÑAS:

Cortas, con cuerdas fuertes, nítidas y bien destacadas.

 

NUDOS:

Fuertes y nítidos.

 

CUARTILLAS O PICHICOS:

Fuertes, de longitud e inclinación medianas.

 

CASCOS O VASOS:

Relativamente chicos, lisos, tensos, resistentes: de talones adecuadamente altos y separados

entre sí.

 

( 24 de Marzo de 2009 )

Mega-exposición: “Nuestros Caballos”,

en el predio ferial de la Sociedad Rural Argentina,

en el barrio de Palermo, ciudad de Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA.

 

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CABALLO CRIOLLO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Criollo (Argentina, Uruguay) , Costeño , Morochuco (Peru) , Corralero (Chile) , Llanero (Venezuela)

Cavalo crioulo , raça crioula (Brasil) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Argentine Criollo Horse , Crioulo Horse ................................

 

Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758

Orden: Perissodactyla (Perisodáctilos) ... Familia: Equidae (Équidos)

 

Durante el pleistoceno existían caballos autóctonos en casi toda América.

El territorio que corresponde a la Argentina fue particularmente rico en estos "paleocaballos" ( principalmente hipiddiones y Equus), empero la llegada del ser humano hace más de 11.000 años parece haber sido un factor decisivo (junto tal vez a alguna epizootia) para la extinción de los equinos autóctonos de América.

A la llegada de los europeos (fines del siglo XV e inicios del siglo XVI) al parecer solo quedaban sus fósiles y las pinturas rupestres que los amerindios dibujaban en los aleros y cuevas de la patagonia, tal vez el último baluarte de las últimas tropillas del caballo americano, en algún recóndito valle...

Apoyan esta audaz teoría diversos científicos, historiadores, y antropólogos, los que creen que el criollo absorbió estas tropillas de Equus rectidens por hibridación, fusionándolas a su acervo genético.

Algunos de ellos son Aníbal Cardoso, Vicente Rossi, G. Ochoa, Sarústegui, Federico C. Remondeau, Daniel Vidart, Rodolfo Parodi Bustos, etc.

Un rasgo típico es clave: el desarrollo en prolongación de la cresta occipital, en una forma tan saliente que sobrepasa las del Hippydion y Onohippidion ya bastante notables.

Comparada la cabeza del Equus rectidens con la del caballo criollo primitivo, se nota la semejanza del perfil y el abovedado de la frente que existe entre ambas.

Este carácter, llamado "cabeza acarnerada" (por los conocidos "abultamientos" en la parte posterior de la nariz y frente que tan eficazmente eran exagerados en las obras del dibujante Molina Campos), es un lazo de unión entre las dos especies, demostrando el abolengo netamente americano del caballo criollo, pues las razas equinas ibéricas tienen el perfil recto, la frente plana y la cabeza poco voluminosa.

Llama la atención que esta característica morfológica es muy frecuente en los caballos pampeanos fotografíados en el siglo XIX, y principios del XX; pero hoy está ausente en el criollo moderno...

 

Pero la hipótesis más aceptada es la cual indica que el Caballo Criollo es descendiente del caballo ibérico traído por los conquistadores españoles a América.

Un compuesto genético de caballos de sangre caliente derivado del caballo berbérisco del norte de África, del caballo del Valle del Guadalquivir en Andalucía, y otros que se agrupaban en el grupo de caballos de trabajo llamados "jacas" o "rocines".

Ya en América, algunos de ellos escaparon de las haciendas y misiones religiosas, o fueron robados por los indios.

En el campo, formaron grandes tropas y expuestos a un entorno salvaje, la fuerte selección natural y la endogamia, les fijaron características genéticas propias.

Cabe indicar que estas líneas genéticas están total o virtualmente extintas en la actual península ibérica.

Los especímenes equinos traídos a América no eran caballos seleccionados para la reproducción, eran caballos rústicos y valientes usados en España para el trabajo.

No había licencia real para exportar caballos de selección que pudiesen constituir lotes de fundación, exceptuando los regalados por los reyes a otros gobernantes de la Europa del siglo XV y XV, como los caballos usados para la formación del Lepizzaner.

Hasta que no se reprodujeron en abundancia, los caballos traídos a América poseían un elevadísimo costo debido a su gran valor práctico y táctico y a su escasez inicial.

Los caballos entraron en la Argentina a través del Perú, del puerto de Buenos Aires y de Brasil.

Pero la corriente introducida por Buenos Aires es considerada la más importante.

Fueron traídos por Pedro de Mendoza al fundar la Ciudad de Buenos Aires en 1536.

Más tarde, Mendoza debió abandonar Buenos Aires obligado por la defensa de los pueblos originarios, y dejó los caballos, que una vez sueltos se reprodujeron prodigiosamente merced al bioma de praderas y pastizales y clima templado típico de la Pampa Húmeda.

Lo hicieron tanto, que al llegar Juan de Garay, en 1580 al Río de la Plata consideró a las caballadas tan abundantes como montañas, y cubrian todo el territorio hasta la cordillera...(esta curiosa multiplicación es otro pie para la teoría americana del criollo).

Azara dice: "Entre las muchas cimarronadas que me han pasado por delante, no he visto otro color sino el castaño que en algunos baja a zaino y en otros se acerca a alazán; y cuando se ve uno bayo, pío, tordillo ó de otro tinte, ya se sabe que fué uno doméstico que se escapó".

Sólo los más fuertes lograron sobrevivir y reproducirse, aprendiendo a defenderse de los peligros tales como pumas y yaguaretés, soportando además climas extremos.

Los pueblos aborígenes, increíblemente adaptables al "monstruo invasor", aprendieron primero a alimentarse de su carne, y después lograron una relación simbiótica con el caballo, a tal extremo que en el presente se sigue ampliando el estudio de la "doma india".

Volviendo a la reproducción y origen de los caballos en el territorio argentino: si ya desde inicios del siglo XVI quedaron caballos libres y se reprodujeron masivamente, estos caballos o baguales cimarrones pasaron a ser considerados "realengos", es decir posesión de la corona española, aunque en la práctica eran utilizables por cualquier persona habilitada, como los campesinos libres -luego gauchos-, que hicieron de sus "pingos" uno de sus principales medios de subsistencia y un símbolo de prestigio.

En cuanto a los indígenas, especialmente los del sur, si por un lado amansaban a los caballos de un modo casi nada violento, era común que consumieran como un manjar la carne de las yeguas.

Por otra parte ciertas características de algunos caballos criollos ha hecho suponer que pudieran poseer algún acervo genético asnal debido a un incidental cruce con una mula fértil (recordemos que el territorio argentino fue centro de crianza masiva de mulas para el transporte de minerales preciosos hacia las montañosas regiones de la actual Bolivia).

Aclaremos que el caballo Persa, el tártaro, o el árabe, tienen seis vértebras lumbares; en tanto que las mulas, el caballo berberisco, y el criollo, sólo tienen cinco vértebras lumbares, por hallarse soldada la última al sacro .

En la guerra de la independencia argentina se utilizaron casi exclusivamente caballos criollos, ya que hasta ese momento la llegada de otras razas desde Europa era muy reducida.

Después de 1816, tras la independencia y debido a la creciente europeización en todos los ámbitos de la vida argentina, el caballo criollo fue dejado de lado como raza y mestizado con sangres extranjeras en la creencia de que así se lo mejoraría.

Es así que durante todo el siglo XIX una gran proporción de los caballos se cruzaron con ejemplares de pura sangre importados de Europa.

Se lograron caballos de mayor altura y más veloces, pero todo ello en detrimento de la resistencia a la fatiga y a las condiciones extremas.

Parecía que el fin había llegado para esos nobles caballos.

A principios del Siglo XX, pese a todo, aún existían caballadas salvajes en la Patagonia, y también cerca de Buenos Aires, en relictos de las Sierras de Ventania o Ventana, y en las Sierras de Tandilia.

Hubo un grupo de estancieros leales a las aptitudes del caballo criollo, que mantuvo sus animales sin mestizar, con las características adquiridas a través de 400 años de selección natural.

La recuperación del caballo criollo, con una selección científica, la lideró Emilio Solanet.

Con un grupo de criadores fundó la Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Criollos, recuperando la raza, convirtiendo al caballo criollo en un caballo versátil, económico, rústico y dócil.

En 1918, los criadores de la Argentina decidieron crear un registro de los ejemplares criollos de raza pura .

Se produjeron desacuerdos entre los que apoyaban a Emilio Solanet, que promovia un criollo de fenotipo "asiático", versus los de Enrique Crotto, que bregaban por un fenotipo"Africano", más alto, con una cabeza convexa, grupa caída y delgadas crines y colas.

No fue sino hasta 1934, que el Dr. Solanet fue capaz de tomar firmemente el control de la Asociación de Criadores y fijó un nuevo objetivo para la raza como un caballo de corta acción más compacto que emulaba, de alguna manera, a la raza de caballos del centro de Chile, por los cuales él tenia admiración, los cuales contaban con registro genealógico ya desde alrededor de 1870!.

 

En 1938, el 70% de la Criollos registrados fueron castrados o sacrificados, debido a que no poseían el fenotipo aspirado por el Dr. Solanet y sus seguidores.

Empezó a seleccionar en la zona de Ayacucho y partidos vecinos, yeguas y potrillos que le parecían que respondían a las condiciones de la raza, comprando también algunos a los indios tehuelches, traidos desde la patagonia.

El nuevo estándar racial, que él había escrito en 1928, fue finalmente puesto a disposición del público recién cuando estuvo realmente seguro que los criadores estaban más persuadidos en brindar apoyo a su objetivo para la raza.

No sería hasta 1957 que el registro se cerró para la raza argentina, pero el registro se ha mantenido abierto para el caballo de raza chilena, el que ha tenido importante influencia en mejorar ciertas cualidades, para ayudar a dar forma al Criollo moderno.

Sin embargo, la raza mantiene su propia identidad, con una conformación del cuerpo más alta, y cuadrada, con un corvejón más angular que le permite un paso largo, el que se requiere para cubrir las grandes distancias en las planicies de la Argentina (conocidas como "pampas").

La cabeza del Criollo moderno se prefiere con un perfil de la cara recta y un hocico más corto y más largas orejas que en el caballo de raza chilena típico.

 

La Asociación Criadores de Caballos Criollos, fue fundada por un grupo de 40 criadores de la Raza el 16 de junio de 1923, bajo en nombre de “Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Criollos Argentino".

Funciona en Larrea 670, 2do. piso, de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Simultáneamente, diversos deportes criollos ya definitivamente arraigados, como las "Pruebas de Rodeos", las "Pruebas de Rienda", la "competencia de Aparte", las "Cabalgatas de Criadores", el "Aparte Campero", la muy rigurosa "Marcha Anual", congregan miles de entusiastas participantes que, en Jornadas Clasificatorias, van intentando obtener promedios que los acerquen a la fiesta máxima del Criollo: Las Finales de los Campeonatos Nacionales de las distintas disciplinas que culminan en la Exposición de Otoño de cada año, dentro del marco de la mega-exposición llamada “Nuestros Caballos”, en el predio ferial de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, en el barrio de Palermo.

Por otra parte, la tradicional exposición de la Sociedad Rural Argentina, en el mismo predio, constituye la muestra más importante de la genética del Criollo en el mundo.

Con 150 reproductores de primerísimo nivel que colman las instalaciones del mítico Pabellón 8, superando con su sola presencia a todas las demás Razas equinas sumadas.

Numerosos criadores extranjeros de Brasil, Chile, Uruguay, también se dan cita en esta muestra, aportando sus ejemplares.

Sus dos ejemplares más famosos, Mancha y Gato, recorrieron el Continente Americano desde Buenos Aires a Nueva York, guiados por Aimé F. Tschiffelly, batiendo récords de distancia y altura.

Actualmente, en el Brasil, es más común en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul, principalmente en la región sudoeste gracias a los ejemplares producidos en "La Invernada Hornero", de Uruguayana (Uruguaiana).

 

CARACTERÍSTICAS GENERALES:

Eumétrico y mesoformo (medidas y formas medianas).

Su tipo se corresponde con el de un caballo de silla, equilibrado y armónico.

Bien musculado y de furte constitución, con su centro de gravedad bajo.

De buen pie y andares sueltos, ágil y rápido en sus movimientos.

De carácter activo, enérgico y dócil, su característica racial está definida por su rusticidad, longevidad, fertilidad, resistencia, valentía, poder de recuperación y aptitud para trabajos ganaderos.

 

BIOMETRÍA:

a) ----- Talla: Ideal 1,44 m. Las fluctuaciones máximas para los machos serán entre 1,40 m. y 1,48 m

pudiendo aceptarse como excepción hasta de 1,50 m. y no menos de 1,38m.

Previa resolución de jurado de admisión o inspector actuante. Hembras 2 cm menos.

b) ----- Perímetro torácico: ideal 1,78 m. Hembras 2 cm. Más.

c) ----- Perímetro de la caña: ideal 0,19 m. Hembras 1 cm. Menos.

  

Las fluctuaciones de las medidas deberán guardar la debida armonía con las indicadas para la talla.

 

PELAJES:

Con excepción del “pintado” y el “tobiano” se aceptan todos los pelajes, procurándose la paulatina eliminación de animales con tendencia avanzada hacia la despigmentación y albinismo.

 

CABEZA:

De perfil preferentemente rectilíneo o subconvexilíneo.

En conjunto corta, liviana, de base ancha y vértice fino proporcionalmente mucho cráneo y poca cara.

Frente ancha y mas bien plana.

Carrillos destacados y separados entre si ojos vivaces y expresivos, orejas chicas, anchas en su base, separadas y paralelas.

Ollares medianos.

La cabeza debe denotar la pureza racial, el carácter y la natural diferenciación sexual entre machos y hembras.

 

CRINES, CERDAS DE COLA, Y CERNEJAS O RANILLAS:

Tuse y cola más bien anchos y bien poblados de cerdas abundantes y gruesas.

Cernejas de mediano desarrollo y solo sobre la parte posterior del nudo

 

CUELLO, PESCUEZO O COGOTE:

De suficiente largo flexibilidad. Musculado en su inserción superior con la cabeza. Ligeramente convexo en su línea superior y recto en la inferior. Su eje se unirá al tronco en un ángulo casi recto con las paletas.

 

CRUZ:

Medianamente perfilada y musculada. Larga e insensiblemente unida.

 

DORSO:

De largo mediano, fuerte, fuerte, firme y ancho y musculado hacia el posterior. Suavemente unido a la cruz y al riñón con los que conformará una correcta línea superior.

 

RIÑÓN:

Corto, ancho, musculoso, fuerte, bien unido al dorso y a la grupa con los cuales deberá guardar armonía en conjunto.

 

GRUPA:

De buen largo y musculada, de ancho de ancho mediano y suavemente inclinada.

Vista del posterior, redondeada, sin protuberancias óseas ni hendiduras perceptibles.

 

COLA:

De maslo corto, debe continuar suavemente la linea superior de la grupa con una inserción mas bien baja.

 

PECHO:

Medianamente ancho, musculado, y bien descendido. El esternón se ubicará aproximadamente al la mitad de la alzada del animal.

 

TRONCO:

Visto de costado, profundo desde la cruz a la cinchera y de frente, de forma oval.

De buen desarrollo en su perímetro y cerca del suelo.

Costillas moderadamente arqueadas y abiertas hacia abajo y hacia atrás.

Vientre amplio, continuando insensiblemente el perfil interior del tórax.

 

FLANCOS:

Cortos y llenos.

 

ESPALDAS O PALETAS:

Medianamente largas e inclinadas. Separadas entre sí y bien musculadas.

 

BRAZOS Y CODOS:

Paralelos al plano medio del cuerpo. Brazos de buen largo, inclinación y musculatura. Codos visiblemente separados del tórax.

 

ANTEBRAZO:

Bien aplomados, largos, de buen ancho y musculatura.

 

RODILLAS:

Cerca del suelo, anchas, medianamente largas, nítidas, sin desviaciones ni fuera del eje.

 

MUSLOS:

Anchos y bien musculados, de nalgas largas y descendidas.

 

PATAS TRASERAS:

Largas, anchas, musculosas, con los tendones del corvejón fuertes, separados y nítidos.

 

GARRONES O CORVEJONES:

Fuertes, anchos, nítidos, paralelos al plano mediano del cuerpo y cerca del suelo.

 

CAÑAS:

Cortas, con cuerdas fuertes, nítidas y bien destacadas.

 

NUDOS:

Fuertes y nítidos.

 

CUARTILLAS O PICHICOS:

Fuertes, de longitud e inclinación medianas.

 

CASCOS O VASOS:

Relativamente chicos, lisos, tensos, resistentes: de talones adecuadamente altos y separados

entre sí.

 

( 24 de Marzo de 2009 )

Mega-exposición: “Nuestros Caballos”,

en el predio ferial de la Sociedad Rural Argentina,

en el barrio de Palermo, ciudad de Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA.

 

◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘◘

 

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His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

 

Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009 and has achieved commercial success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his book A Brief History of Time appeared on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

 

Hawking has a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that has gradually paralysed him over the decades. He now communicates using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device.

  

PRIMARY and SECONDARY SCHOOL YEARS

 

Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate, London. He later blamed its "progressive methods" for his failure to learn to read while at the school.In St Albans, the eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for a few months. At that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses.

Hawking attended Radlett School, an independent school in the village of Radlett in Hertfordshire, for a year, and from September 1952, St Albans School, an independent school in the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. The family placed a high value on education. Hawking's father wanted his son to attend the well-regarded Westminster School, but the 13-year-old Hawking was ill on the day of the scholarship examination. His family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans. A positive consequence was that Hawking remained with a close group of friends with whom he enjoyed board games, the manufacture of fireworks, model aeroplanes and boats, and long discussions about Christianity and extrasensory perception. From 1958 on, with the help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta, they built a computer from clock parts, an old telephone switchboard and other recycled components.

Although known at school as "Einstein", Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific subjects and, inspired by Tahta, decided to read mathematics at university. Hawking's father advised him to study medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He also wanted his son to attend University College, Oxford, his own alma mater. As it was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a scholarship after taking the examinations in March 1959.

  

UNDERGRADUATE YEARS

 

Hawking began his university education at University College, Oxford in October 1959 at the age of 17. For the first 18 months, he was bored and lonely – he was younger than many of the other students, and found the academic work "ridiculously easy". His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said, "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it." A change occurred during his second and third year when, according to Berman, Hawking made more of an effort "to be one of the boys". He developed into a popular, lively and witty college member, interested in classical music and science fiction. Part of the transformation resulted from his decision to join the college boat club, the University College Boat Club, where he coxed a rowing team. The rowing trainer at the time noted that Hawking cultivated a daredevil image, steering his crew on risky courses that led to damaged boats.

Hawking has estimated that he studied about a thousand hours during his three years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his finals a challenge, and he decided to answer only theoretical physics questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge. A first-class honours degree was a condition of acceptance for his planned graduate study in cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Anxious, he slept poorly the night before the examinations, and the final result was on the borderline between first- and second-class honours, making a viva (oral examination) necessary. Hawking was concerned that he was viewed as a lazy and difficult student. So, when asked at the oral to describe his future plans, he said, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First." He was held in higher regard than he believed; as Berman commented, the examiners "were intelligent enough to realise they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves". After receiving a first-class BA (Hons.) degree in natural science and completing a trip to Iran with a friend, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in October 1962.

  

GRADUATE YEARS

 

Hawking's first year as a doctoral student was difficult. He was initially disappointed to find that he had been assigned Dennis William Sciama, one of the founders of modern cosmology, as a supervisor rather than noted astronomer Fred Hoyle, and he found his training in mathematics inadequate for work in general relativity and cosmology. After being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, Hawking fell into a depression – though his doctors advised that he continue with his studies, he felt there was little point. However, his disease progressed more slowly than doctors had predicted. Although Hawking had difficulty walking unsupported, and his speech was almost unintelligible, an initial diagnosis that he had only two years to live proved unfounded. With Sciama's encouragement, he returned to his work. Hawking started developing a reputation for brilliance and brashness when he publicly challenged the work of Fred Hoyle and his student Jayant Narlikar at a lecture in June 1964.

When Hawking began his graduate studies, there was much debate in the physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of the universe: the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe; and, during 1965, he wrote his thesis on this topic. There were other positive developments: Hawking received a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College; he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology, in March 1966; and his essay entitled "Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time" shared top honours with one by Penrose to win that year's prestigious Adams Prize.

  

CAREER

 

1966–1975

In his work, and in collaboration with Penrose, Hawking extended the singularity theorem concepts first explored in his doctoral thesis. This included not only the existence of singularities but also the theory that the universe might have started as a singularity. Their joint essay was the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation competition. In 1970 they published a proof that if the universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of the models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann, then it must have begun as a singularity. In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created Fellowship for Distinction in Science to remain at Caius.

In 1970, Hawking postulated what became known as the second law of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller.[83] With James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics. To Hawking's irritation, Jacob Bekenstein, a graduate student of John Wheeler, went further—and ultimately correctly—to apply thermodynamic concepts literally.[85][86] In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter, Werner Israel and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's no-hair theorem that no matter what the original material from which a black hole is created, it can be completely described by the properties of mass, electrical charge and rotation.[87][88] His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971.[89] Hawking's first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with George Ellis, was published in 1973.

Beginning in 1973, Hawking moved into the study of quantum gravity and quantum mechanics. His work in this area was spurred by a visit to Moscow and discussions with Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich and Alexei Starobinsky, whose work showed that according to the uncertainty principle, rotating black holes emit particles. To Hawking's annoyance, his much-checked calculations produced findings that contradicted his second law, which claimed black holes could never get smaller,and supported Bekenstein's reasoning about their entropy.His results, which Hawking presented from 1974, showed that black holes emit radiation, known today as Hawking radiation, which may continue until they exhaust their energy and evaporate. Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. However, by the late 1970s and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a significant breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1974, a few weeks after the announcement of Hawking radiation. At the time, he was one of the youngest scientists to become a Fellow.

Hawking was appointed to the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1970. He worked with a friend on the faculty, Kip Thorne, and engaged him in a scientific wager about whether the dark star Cygnus X-1 was a black hole. The wager was an "insurance policy" against the proposition that black holes did not exist. Hawking acknowledged that he had lost the bet in 1990, which was the first of several that he was to make with Thorne and others.Hawking has maintained ties to Caltech, spending a month there almost every year since this first visit.

 

1975–1990

Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a more academically senior post, as reader in gravitational physics. The mid to late 1970s were a period of growing public interest in black holes and of the physicists who were studying them. Hawking was regularly interviewed for print and television. He also received increasing academic recognition of his work. In 1975, he was awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal, and in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Prize and the Hughes Medal. He was appointed a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977. The following year he received the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford.

In the late 1970s, Hawking was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.His inaugural lecture as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics was titled: "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics" and proposed N=8 Supergravity as the leading theory to solve many of the outstanding problems physicists were studying. His promotion coincided with a health crisis which led to his accepting, albeit reluctantly, some nursing services at home. At the same time, he was also making a transition in his approach to physics, becoming more intuitive and speculative rather than insisting on mathematical proofs. "I would rather be right than rigorous", he told Kip Thorne. In 1981, he proposed that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when a black hole evaporates. This information paradox violates the fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics, and led to years of debate, including "the Black Hole War" with Leonard Susskind and Gerard 't Hooft.

Cosmological inflation – a theory proposing that following the Big Bang, the universe initially expanded incredibly rapidly before settling down to a slower expansion – was proposed by Alan Guth and also developed by Andrei Linde. Following a conference in Moscow in October 1981, Hawking and Gary Gibbons organized a three-week Nuffield Workshop in the summer of 1982 on "The Very Early Universe" at Cambridge University, which focused mainly on inflation theory. Hawking also began a new line of quantum theory research into the origin of the universe. In 1981 at a Vatican conference, he presented work suggesting that there might be no boundary – or beginning or ending – to the universe. He subsequently developed the research in collaboration with Jim Hartle, and in 1983 they published a model, known as the Hartle–Hawking state. It proposed that prior to the Planck epoch, the universe had no boundary in space-time; before the Big Bang, time did not exist and the concept of the beginning of the universe is meaningless. The initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models was replaced with a region akin to the North Pole. One cannot travel north of the North Pole, but there is no boundary there – it is simply the point where all north-running lines meet and end. Initially, the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, which had implications about the existence of God. As Hawking explained, "If the universe has no boundaries but is self-contained... then God would not have had any freedom to choose how the universe began."

Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?" In his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense. In A Brief History of Time he wrote: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God." In the same book he suggested that the existence of God was not necessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the existence of God was also compatible with an open universe.

Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorising that if the no-boundary proposition were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards. A paper by Don Page and independent calculations by Raymond Laflamme led Hawking to withdraw this concept. Honours continued to be awarded: in 1981 he was awarded the American Franklin Medal, and in 1982 made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Awards do not pay the bills, however, and motivated by the need to finance the children's education and home expenses, in 1982 Hawking determined to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the general public. Instead of publishing with an academic press, he signed a contract with Bantam Books, a mass market publisher, and received a large advance for his book. A first draft of the book, called A Brief History of Time, was completed in 1984.

One of the first messages Hawking produced with his speech-generating device was a request for his assistant to help him finish writing A Brief History of Time. Peter Guzzardi, his editor at Bantam, pushed him to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language, a process that required many revisions from an increasingly irritated Hawking. The book was published in April 1988 in the US and in June in the UK, and it proved to be an extraordinary success, rising quickly to the top of bestseller lists in both countries and remaining there for months. The book was translated into many languages, and ultimately sold an estimated 9 million copies. Media attention was intense, and a Newsweek magazine cover and a television special both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also the challenges of celebrity status. Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying and dancing into the small hours. He had difficulty refusing the invitations and visitors, which left limited time for work and his students. Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability. He received further academic recognition, including five more honorary degrees,[149] the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985), the Paul Dirac Medal (1987) and, jointly with Penrose, the prestigious Wolf Prize (1988). In 1989, he was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH). He reportedly declined a knighthood.

  

1990–2000

Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited a book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons and published a collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big Bang. In 1994, at Cambridge's Newton Institute, Hawking and Penrose delivered a series of six lectures that were published in 1996 as "The Nature of Space and Time". In 1997, he conceded a 1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech. Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of a "cosmic censorship conjecture" – that there could be no "naked singularities" unclothed within a horizon – was correct. After discovering his concession might have been premature, a new, more refined, wager was made. This one specified that such singularities would occur without extra conditions. The same year, Thorne, Hawking and Preskill made another bet, this time concerning the black hole information paradox. Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by Hawking radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole event horizon. Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be rewritten. Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way.

Hawking also maintained his public profile, including bringing science to a wider audience. A film version of A Brief History of Time, directed by Errol Morris and produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered in 1992. Hawking had wanted the film to be scientific rather than biographical, but he was persuaded otherwise. The film, while a critical success, was, however, not widely released. A popular-level collection of essays, interviews, and talks titled Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays was published in 1993, and a six-part television series Stephen Hawking's Universe and a companion book appeared in 1997. As Hawking insisted, this time the focus was entirely on science.

  

2000–present

 

Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing The Universe in a Nutshell in 2001, and A Briefer History of Time, which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his earlier works with the aim of making them accessible to a wider audience, and God Created the Integers, which appeared in 2006. Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN and Jim Hartle, from 2006 on Hawking developed a theory of "top-down cosmology", which says that the universe had not one unique initial state but many different ones, and therefore that it is inappropriate to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state. Top-down cosmology posits that the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question.

Hawking continued to travel widely, including trips to Chile, Easter Island, South Africa, Spain (to receive the Fonseca Prize in 2008),] Canada, and numerous trips to the United States. For practical reasons related to his disability, Hawking increasingly travelled by private jet, and by 2011 that had become his only mode of international travel. By 2003, consensus among physicists was growing that Hawking was wrong about the loss of information in a black hole. In a 2004 lecture in Dublin, he conceded his 1997 bet with Preskill, but described his own, somewhat controversial solution to the information paradox problem, involving the possibility that black holes have more than one topology. In the 2005 paper he published on the subject, he argued that the information paradox was explained by examining all the alternative histories of universes, with the information loss in those with black holes being cancelled out by those without such loss. In January 2014 he called the alleged loss of information in black holes his "biggest blunder".

As part of another longstanding scientific dispute, Hawking had emphatically argued, and bet, that the Higgs boson would never be found.[182] The particle was proposed to exist as part of the Higgs field theory by Peter Higgs in 1964. Hawking and Higgs engaged in a heated and public debate over the matter in 2002 and again in 2008, with Higgs criticising Hawking's work and complaining that Hawking's "celebrity status gives him instant credibility that others do not have." The particle was discovered in July 2012 at CERN following construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Hawking quickly conceded that he had lost his bet and said that Higgs should win the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he did in 2013.

 

In 2007, Hawking and his daughter Lucy published George's Secret Key to the Universe, a children's book designed to explain theoretical physics in an accessible fashion and featuring characters similar to those in the Hawking family.[188] The book was followed by sequels in 2009, 2011 and 2014.

In 2002, following a UK-wide vote, the BBC included Hawking in their list of the 100 Greatest Britons.[190] He was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is America's highest civilian honour (2009), and the Russian Special Fundamental Physics Prize (2013).

Several buildings have been named after him, including the Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador, the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge, and the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute in Canada.Appropriately, given Hawking's association with time, he unveiled the mechanical "Chronophage" (or time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge in September 2008.

During his career, Hawking has supervised 39 successful PhD students. As required by Cambridge University regulations, Hawking retired as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 2009. Despite suggestions that he might leave the United Kingdom as a protest against public funding cuts to basic scientific research, Hawking has continued to work as director of research at the Cambridge University Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and indicated in 2012 that he had no plans to retire.

On 28 June 2009, as a tongue-in-cheek test of his 1992 conjecture that travel into the past is effectively impossible, Hawking held a party open to all, complete with hors d'oeuvres and iced champagne, but only publicized the party after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party.

On 20 July 2015, Hawking helped launch Breakthrough Initiatives, an effort to search for extraterrestrial life. In 2015, Richard Branson offered Stephen Hawking a seat on the Virgin Galactic spaceship for free. While no hard date has been set for launch, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is slated to launch at the end of 2017. At 75, Hawking will not be the oldest person ever to go to space (John Glenn returned to space at age 77), but he will be the first person to go to space with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). While this will be Hawking's first time in space, it will not be the first time he will have experienced weightlessness: in 2007, he had flown into zero gravity aboard a specially-modified Boeing 727-200 aircraft. Hawking created Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth, a documentary on space colonization, as a summer 2017 episode of Tomorrow's World.

In August 2015, Hawking said that not all information is lost when something enters a black hole and there might be a possibility to retrieve information from a black hole according to his theory.

Unfortunately the cloning process didn't produce any beneficial mutations like a propensity for non-stop nudity or aptitude for cooking. Maybe version 3.0?

Jim Boatskum, founder of Trash Aviation unincorporated, holds in his left hand, the prototype radio controlled stunt flier made from a plastic pop bottle, styrofoam cup, styrofoam meat trays, tape and bubble rap & in Jim's right hand, a balsa glider I made for $2. While the battery in T-1 charges, we launched the free-flight glider on this fine day on the grassy hill in Bellingham WA.

 

An now, a message from the President:

DOWNWARD BOUND - with Hippie Jim

Permalink +

Mon, Jun 14, 2010, 11:34 am // Kamalla Rose Kaur

  

Bums don't quit when they hit bottom...

Bums don't quit when they hit bottom, they punch right through and keep going. Quitting is for addicts.

 

With the ongoing harvest, processing, and export of the middle class you may find yourself canned, fired, baked, fried, or just burnt out. You imagine you'll just become a bum, but it's not that easy. You need training to live like me. Takes skill, study, and aptitude to be a bum. Bumming has its traditions and techniques because there are ways to do things... well, sometimes there aren't. We used to be hobos and tramps. Can't be a hobo no more because you can't hop a train to India or China where the jobs are. Can't be a tramp these days without silicone and botox. So I'm going to teach a poverty survival class called DOWNWARD BOUND, because the poor and destitute are the fastest growing market in the USA! We don't buy anything, but we can make up for it in volume. DOWNWARD BOUND charges no money, but you have to want to be a bum. Like any other job, you won't get hired if you're not enthusiastic.

 

Around Puget Sound, we've had bums for as long as we've had people who disapprove of them. To hear the missionaries talk, the fur traders were bums. Dirty Dan was a bum. We have old bums from the days of freighthopping, middle-aged bums from the Vietnam and Gulf wars, young bums from Jerry's death, little kids in bum schools, and we've got fitness freaks losing bums all over the place. We got 'em moving here in droves, running from the weather in Florida and Texas, running from predators in California, bummed out by Enron and Arnold. These folks ain't raised up to be poor, they got no experience and no life skills except paying for things. It's hard work not working, for those used to not working in corporations.

 

Like how bums got no water cooler. No cubicles. No daily commute. No boss. With no boss, who's going to tell you what to do? Glenn Beck? Earth First!? People tell the homeless what to do, they always say, “Get a job!” What do you say to someone who sees a “will work for food” sign and says “get a job”? Like the bum's hoping to be rescued by aliens with that sign? Or score hot babes? That only works on the Internet. Seriously, when's the last time YOU saw a sign saying, Bums Wanted?

 

Without a cubicle, where are you going to sleep? Where are you going to get dates off Craigslist, post videos of co-workers breaking the law, or get your WoW fix? Where are you going to get Post-It notes? How are you going to keep your online resume up to date, not to mention Facebook? And no water cooler – people have hung around water coolers since there were village wells. Where do bums get to hang? Where do they find drinking water?

 

There IS free coffee for bums, but it's not worth what you pay for it.

 

You gotta be creative to be poor. Times change and you adapt. I used to live at the airport under a plane, but those days flew. I lived on a boat once. I lived under a boat once. Under was better. I had a high rise apartment inside the old Oeser chimney. What a view! Then one night some amateur scientist decides to shoot fireworks up that chimney. I got down the ladder alive and we both fled the scene before the uniforms got there. After that I slept in the planter box at the Bank of America. That worked great for me because I get up early, and they sleep in.

 

Actually this town is a peaceful resting place. If you can snooze while sitting upright, holding a book, you can sleep anywhere in Bellingham.

 

Food here in the Pacific Northwest is no problem either, especially for meat-eating bums like me. With a carrot in one hand and a big stick in the other, bagging Bambi is easy. I used to use a snare to catch deer but I caught hippies that way. Do you know how hard it is to clean one of them?

 

Beside venison, there's lots of other local food. Have you noticed more black squirrels around town? That's because the gray ones taste better. And I eat lots of birds. I made me a bird zapper on a cell tower in the woods. Works good on hotdogs too, but it's hard to find hotdogs off-leash. So how do bums roast game without a stove? Forget about fires, you can't get wood, you can't burn, and you can't smoke. Again you got to move with the times. When I lived under that jet plane, when they fired her up I'd heave a venison roast, or food bank turkey, through the engine. It came out cooked, sliced, and smoked. I got a patent for spiral sliced sandwich meat too. Or you can take a long bamboo pole, stick something on the end and poke it into a substation. Pow! Takes the fur and feathers right off.

 

Now my favorite way to cook salmon is to lay it in the back window of a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda. That was the best salmon-cooking car ever. You just lay that fish under the sloping back window on a sunny day, set a can of pepper spray next to it and when the can explodes, the fish is done – AND seasoned! Used to use Mace, but people like hot pepper nowadays.

 

Bathing is no problem for bums in these parts. I get showered-on most everyday. On rare hot days the lawn sprinklers come on at 4 a.m. Or if you want a real long hot soak, I recommend the executive bathroon at the Port of Bellingham. It is some sort of temple with this huge, I mean 8 feet across, fancy imitation marble sink. It looks like a giant bird bath, or communal baptismal font, with a big brass shower head above squirting warm water. I figure Port commisioners use that sink to wash their hands after signing dirty deals. Once when they weren't there, I plugged the drain, stripped naked and climbed in. Heavenly, but don't use their soap.

 

Back when you were middle class you needed to know who's who. Now you need to know what's what.

 

With Hippie Jim's poverty survival course, DOWNWARD BOUND, you will also learn:

 

1. Who works for you and who doesn't. (Hint: people wearing uniforms don't work for you anymore. Not even if the uniform says “Burger King” on the pocket.)

 

2. The banks don't work for you any more either, so you can learn to keep your money on your body somewhere no one will go, even for money. (Hint: after a month, your sock is sufficient).

 

3. How to tell companies that want to kill you from those that just don't want you around? (Hint: the first group have “General,” “Corporation,” or “Limited” in their name, and the second have someone's first name”)

 

4. Food Bank, good; Blood Bank, bad; Sperm Bank, good; Data Bank, bad. More about banks...

 

5. Mullen, good; nettles, bad: toiletries from nature. Do Bums Shit in the Woods? Sanitation without sewers. Health without medicine. Dreads without head lice.

 

With so many of us in economic freefall, we're going to need expert advice in poverty survival. Call Hippie Jim, or stay tuned for more details.