View allAll Photos Tagged constraining
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
The focus of my research is an examination of the daily lives of South Asian women, specifically in my home city of Karachi, Pakistan. Within my art practice, I draw from my experiences of how I inhabit public and private spaces and rely on research from other South Asian scholars interested in gender, urban space and the women’s right in everyday life. My research into how gender is interwoven with demarcations between and connotations of public and private spaces has led me to deeply examine what private spaces and boundaries mean to women for whom unconditional access to public spaces is still a fantasy. In this exhibition I investigate “phenomenal boundaries”; a term coined by sociologist Bridget Purcell, that is, the boundary not as “real”, but as experienced and constituted (or not) by its inhabitants. My aim is to think about place from the lens of gender and discuss phenomenal boundaries women create in order to feel safer in public spaces, as well as the phenomenal boundaries in the form of fear that women experience when they step into a public place. Examining my relationship with place has led me to a deeper and more expansive definition of boundaries as constraining, or safe, and sometimes both at the same time. In the installation, Transgressing Boundaries, I present my perspective as a upper middle class woman living in Pakistan, negotiating the boundaries of fear, of limited access to public space, and within the private spaces of home. My work draws out how I, and many other women around me, actively engage and negotiate for space and power. One of the ways of doing this is by using the very same boundaries and constraints to empower space for ourselves in the patriarchal world. In this installation, I reflect on the idea of boundaries by curating a private space, built with separators, the ritual of Rangoli, and illustrations of myself. I create a private space that is safe and yet constraining, active and yet passive; a space that maintains boundaries while simultaneously transgress them.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
"I ask'd the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know
And seek more earnestly his face.
I hop'd that in some favor'd hour
At once he'd answer my request,
And by his love's constraining power,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry power of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
'Lord why is this?' I trembling cried
'Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?'
'Tis in this way,' the Lord replied;
'I answer prayer for grace and faith.'"
That is, the Lord helps us to grow downward when we are only thinking about growing upward. Let any of you try to grow in grace, and seek to run the heavenly race, and make a little progress, and you will soon find, in such a slippery road as that which we have to travel, that it is very hard to go one step forward, though remarkably easy to go a great many steps backward.
If neither of these three things will prove thy weakness, Christian, I will advise thee to try another. See what thou art in temptation. I have seen a tree in the forest that seemed to stand fast like a rock, I have stood beneath its widespreading branches, and have sought to shake its trunk, to see if I could, but it stood immovable. The sun shone upon it, and the rain descended, and many a winter's frost sprinkled its boughs with snow, but it still stood fast and firm. But one night there came a howling wind which swept through the forest, and the tree that seemed to stand so fast lay stretched along the ground, its gaunt arms which once were lifted up to heaven lying hopelessly broken, and the trunk snapped in twain. And so have I seen many a professor strong and mighty, and nothing seemed to move him; but I have seen the wind of persecution and temptation come against him, and I have heard him creak with murmuring, and at last have seen him break in apostasy and he has lain along the ground a mournful specimen of what every man must become who maketh not the Lord his strength, and who relieth not upon the Most High. "Ah!" says one, "I do not believe I could be tempted to sin." My friend, it depends upon what kind of temptation it should be. There are many of us who could not be tempted to drunkenness, and others who could not he tempted to lust. If the devil should set before some of you cups of the richest wines that ever came from the vintages of Burgundy or of Xeres, you would not care for them, if you did but sip them it would suffice you; it would be in vain to tempt you with the drunkard's song; nothing could induce you to lose your equilibrium by intoxicating liquors; but perhaps you are the very man whom a temptation of lust might overthrow. While there be other men whom neither lust nor wine can overcome, who may be led by a prospect of profit into that which is dishonest; and others again, whom neither profit, nor lust, nor wine, would turn aside, may be overthrown by anger, or envy, or malice. We have all our tender points.
Credits
Design: Sthe55
Commentary: Extract From A Sermon
(No. 210)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, August 22, 1858, by the
REV. C. H. Spurgeon
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens
Imagery:
F. Melech
You can read the whole sermon:
The work of the land in the oasis of Gafsa.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Dominated by the date palm, intertwined with trees and crops, these ancient systems produce a surprising variety of fruits and vegetables, cereals and forages, medicinal and aromatic plants. The palm groves offer shade and lower the ambient temperature, making it the best place to live in the Sahara and an important place of recreation.
The systems of production and irrigation and the culture of the oases vary between the different locations in correspondence to their environment. There are oases in continental, mountainous, as well as in littoral areas. With their rich diversity these oases systems constitute an agricultural and cultural heritage.
Photo credit must be given: ©INRAA
More information:
U.S. Climate Envoy and former Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Todd Stern spoke at CAP yesterday, emphasizing that “the [current] status quo is unsustainable.” He plans to take that message when he travels to China later this week to discuss bilateral global warming agreements between the U.S. and Chinese governments.
“This is a moment to reevaluate our conceptions about what is possible,” CAP President and CEO John D. Podesta said as he introduced Stern. It’s a crucial opportunity for the United States and China to move forward together on climate issues because, as Stern pointed out, any U.S. action on climate change will not be enough without China.
He hopes to “deepen the dialogue” with China and “drill down deeper” on climate issues. A bilateral agreement with China is part of the long-term goal, but he said that does not expect a “big agreement” to come out of this trip. His goal is to lay a foundation for future agreements.
Stern shied away from discussing specifics of potential agreements between the United States and China, but he did mention some key issues that will have to be on the table. For example, “I don’t think there is any question that the developed countries are going to have to provide resources to many countries in the developing world,” he said.
Emissions limits, which are currently being debated in the United States as part of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, will be another key issue for China. Many in China fear that, “putting limits on emissions would constrain economic growth, job creation, and the country’s capacity to continue its impressive rise,” Stern said. But he argued that China “must do what many in the Chinese leadership recognize, and is not to stop growing, but to grow smarter.”
China has already begun to “grow smarter” in many ways, and Stern urged listeners not to forget that. “We need to acknowledge the impressive steps the Chinese have already taken to promote low-carbon development and the new ones that will be coming off drawing boards soon,” he said.
Stern also cautioned against urging the Chinese to move forward if others remain complacent. “We need to recognize that if we aren’t careful, we may spend the next few years pushing China to do more, but will then spend all the years after that chasing them, as they hurtle profitably down the road to the low-carbon transformation,” he warned.
International climate change agreements are not as easy choice for the Chinese, according to Stern. “China can take a new path recognizing the need to make significant international commitments against the background of a robust collaboration with the United States,” he said. “While I think, in my view, the right choice is clear, you shouldn’t underestimate the dilemma for China.”
Stern is hopeful and told attendees that he does not think the two sides are that far apart on what must be done. “In terms of the overall dynamics of where we need to go, I don’t think it is a dramatically different assessment,” he said. He also said that the United States needs to “listen, not just lecture” during this week’s talks.
He expects conversations with the Chinese to be more science oriented than past talks because he is travelling with John Holden, the White House’s chief science adviser. He also said that he believes the Chinese are “in a different place with respect to where the science is,” although he did express concern about the Chinese government’s domestic emissions estimates, which show lower emissions levels than what many independent assessments have found.
Those discrepancies would need to be resolved as part of an international emissions treaty in the future, but this week’s trip will focus on setting the stage for future agreements, which have become increasingly important as Kyoto nears expiration in 2012. The United States must play a major part in reducing emissions, but global climate change is a problem too large for one country to resolve alone. As Stern told attendees, “While the critical first step must be for us to put our own house in order, the problem can only be solved globally.”
Reflecting on the process I can definitely say without a doubt that I know much more than I did before. I learned much from my mistakes and know much of the pitfalls one faces when modelling rigging and animating.
The final outcome of the animation was not what I originally intended, that is mainly because I couldn’t animate my character’s elbows appropriately, constraining the animation above the chest. When rotating the curves I forgot to reset the rotation settings from GIMBAL to World (I was using Gimbal for the rotations of the Z axis of my character’s head to help keyframe the arcs) I spent a lot of time till trying to figure out why that was happening (I even had to load older files and research what was wrong). Eventually it was too late for me to redo the facial and body animations to follow the storyboard.
I know the animation would look much better if I applied some textures on the character’s face. I spent a week unwrapping them (www.flickr.com/photos/m_isaakidis/6969481650/in/photostream) but decided not to go further into photoshop and paint them at that time mainly because I wanted to focus on the actual animation, by the time I chose to apply them the animation was already completed and the textures shifted. This was a week before submission so there was no time for feedback.
One of the biggest unsolved mysteries I encountered was the animation of the characters body. Although in playblast everything is moving as it is supposed to, when rendering only the characters face moved (no body movements that’s why I submitted the playblast). I cannot explain or figure out as to why and it is too late to amend the animation now since there is no time left.
As for the actual animation I love the lip synch I think it is perfectly timed (for a better look at the lip synch please refer to a previous rendered version www.flickr.com/photos/m_isaakidis/6907786822/in/photostream/ as this is the playblast and in my opinion doesn't give it much credit) , some of the head movements I think look natural due to the small anticipation poses I entered, the expressions especially the one in the end where the character raises his eyebrow and has that sinister smile on his face I believe reveals much for the character’s personality. Parts like where my character says ‘’a whole imagined future’’ I think could be a little bit more tweaked –maybe a slightly raise of one of the eyebrows or change the beginning as it looks snappy.- There should be a slower transition from ‘’… and Dreams’’ to ‘’a whole imagined future’’ cause the head moves a little bit weird.
Finally one thing I did when creating bledshapes was to exaggerate the smiles, frowns, eyebrows etc. I wanted to have the option to add a little bit more of the extreme in the animation if needed, but by doing that I made the cheeks of my character when on the ‘F’ blendshape puffier, making my animation less subtle than originally intended.
All in all I am very satisfied with the final product learned a lot of great stuff and I am ready to move on to even greater.
The work of the land in the oasis of Gafsa.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
We met this young and very brave and determined girl, Stella. She were forced by her mother to quit school due to the economic constraints of the household. But Stella, having come into contact with the work done by IM and Creccom, reacted differently than what would normally be the case. She ran away, seeking help and demanding to return to school. Usually girls in her situation quit school, often marry young (as young as 13) and become pregnant. Thereby never ever receive any education and with that loosing any real chance of getting out of poverty herself.
The local mothers group, one of many parts of the IM-Creccom initiative "GESI", talked to the mother who changed her mind. Stella is now back in school and doing excellently.
Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI), is funded by IM (IM-SOIR) and are addressing the complexities constraining girls education.
The partnership through Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI) is an integrated approach to address challenges facing girl children through community mobilization including meeting girls’ post-primary education cost.
Creccom explains that the Malawian situation have shown that socio-economic, socio-cultural and school related factors contribute to girls’ poor access to, retention, and performance in school, "but underlying all these factors, however, is a widely shared, negative attitude towards girls’ education. Malawi is a patriarchal society embedded with gender stereotypes that place a low value on girls’ education. Early marriages and pregnancies are commonly cited causes of low girls’ participation in education. "
Photo and copyright: Erik Törner, IM Individuell Människohjälp www.manniskohjalp.se
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
The day starts at 7:30 am with a 40-minute drive to the Punta Bandera dock to take a boat on Lago Argentino to Upsala Glacier, a large valley glacier on the eastern side of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. Its higher portion lies in a disputed territory between Chile and Argentina. The glacier terminus is at Upsala channel of Lago Argentino. The Upsala Glacier is well known for its rapid retreat that has been ongoing since the glacier was first documented in 1810. The glacier showed almost continual recession up until 1999. The acceleration in ice motion during the two decades preceding 1999 may have been augmented by the release of backstress when the glacier retreated beyond the islands in Brazo Upsala. Another period of even faster retreat started in 2008. As of 2018 Upsala Glacier has retreated to such degree that it no longer constrains its tributary Bertacchi Glacier. The boat then drops us off at the Estancia Cristina, an Argentine cattle and sheep ranch located inside Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz Province. It is here that we take a 4x4 for 45 minutes up a mountain, stop and continue up for another 20 minutes, reaching the summit around 12:30 pm. The ranch was founded in 1914 by Joseph Percival Masters, an Englishman who came to Patagonia with his wife in 1900; Estancia Cristina is named for Masters' daughter Cristina. Located on the coast of Brazo Cristina, a northern channel of Lago Argentino, Estancia Cristina still keeps the history of the Masters family alive. Its lodge has 20 rooms distributed over 5 buildings and it his here that we had lunch followed by a presentation of the traditional Mate, an Argentinean tea and a tour of the ranch. We then take the boat back to Punta Bandera and arrive back at the hotel at 8:00 pm.
Imaged with a 4" f/5.4 scope and a ZWO ASI290MM planetary camera. Best 75% of 500 frames at 64.4ms, 412 db gain.
Would like to constrain the star bloat and pull out the F, H1, and H2 stars.
Will re-image this target with a 12" f/8 scope, maybe with 2.5x PowerMate.
This is an experiment on a number of levels:
- mixing colors (it's supposed to be orange, not red. Perhaps I had too much red and not enough yellow?
- constraining colors (I used tape to keep the color in a specific hexagon, and was pleased with the result)
- dying after the gridding (normally I've dyed the paper and then gridded it, but this time I reversed it, just to see what would come of it. What happened was the paper between the folds was a bit more rigid and workable, which I kinda like)
On a side note, I think I may have figured out what's been causing the yellow streaks in the red dyed paper, talked about a bit more here: www.flickr.com/photos/brdparker/4122968640/#comment721576...
I've been using a metal tool to spread the powder over the paper before wetting it. I think some of the metal shaved off into the mix and reacted with the powder. Cool stuff.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Khai_Dinh
The tomb that's furthest away from the city centre. We only went to this tomb due to time constrain. Well worth the trip there.
Multi-Scale Turing Instabilities again... A kind of 5D instability, 3D represented as RGB, the other 2D are used as displacements to re-map the image to itself. Looks a little like fluid flow to my eye. Not really 5D, had to constrain it a lot as I got a bazillion stable states. Not really like fluid flow, the displacements are where the new pixel values are coming from, rather than where they are going to.
Tesla Made Earthquakes First of all, none of the potentially Tesla Earthquake Tsunami offshore thrust faults west of
the Pamplona zone slipped in 1899. It is unlikely that all of the onshore thrust faults south
of the Chugach-St Elias thrust fault system did either. Furthermore, more than 100 years
of convergence at 48 mm/yr across the region has reloaded faults that slipped in 1899 and
added further strains on those that did not. Matters are much less clear for the Yakutat
Bay thrusts because although they slipped in 1899 we have no good constraints on the
convergence rates across these faults. The most recent pre-1899 uplift event in Yakutat
Bay was at least 380 ± 70 years ago.
1
Saint John The Baptist & Nikola Tesla: 1899 Yakutat Bay Weapon and The 111 Year Anniversary Christchurch Weapon by Biblical Prophet
1. Introduction
The 1899 Yakutat Bay earthquake sequence occurred within the Yakutat block, an
allochthonous miniplate that is moving northwestward at 48 mm/yr relative to North
America. The Weapon were deployed in a structurally complex angular join between
the northwest-trending Fairweather transform, the west-trending system of thrust faults
and oblique thrust faults along the northern boundary of the Yakutat terrane, and the
Pamplona zone of thrust faults that trend southwest obliquely across the Yakutat terrane
to connect with the Aleutian megathrust (Figure 1).
The 1899 Weapon provided the earliest known instance of uplift at a coast that
was attributed to any faulting rather than regional warping, and they also retain Tesla the record competing with nature mind you the world record for
the greatest known onshore vertical displacement in a single seismic event (14.4 m
uplift). In this paper, we apply new understanding of the man-made tectonic setting, Tesla surface
deformation, and original W.M.D. seismograms to better constrain Tesla’s 1899 sequence. This
knowledge is essential to determine the extent to which the biggest footprint ever in the history of mankind has been hidden from you and a world. These events mean you are deaf, dumb, blind and lame… if your lucky.
I demand the truth. I can handle the truth and if you can’t grow up in peace and get along then you as a society do not deserve to be here. I am the biblical prophet. This is revelation.
There is now a relatively higher potential for a future major earthquake.
Edited image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4526. For some reason, I really like this image... Processing variant - this version brings out more details.
Original caption: This neat little galaxy is known as NGC 4526. Its dark lanes of dust and bright diffuse glow make the galaxy appear to hang like a halo in the emptiness of space in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Although this image paints a picture of serenity, the galaxy is anything but. It is one of the brightest lenticular galaxies known, a category that lies somewhere between spirals and ellipticals. It has hosted two known supernova explosions, one in 1969 and another in 1994, and is known to have a colossal supermassive black hole at its centre that has the mass of 450 million Suns. NGC 4526 is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Ground-based observations of galaxies in this cluster have revealed that a quarter of these galaxies seem to have rapidly rotating discs of gas at their centres. The most spectacular of these is this galaxy, NGC 4526, whose spinning disc of gas, dust, and stars reaches out uniquely far from its heart, spanning some 7% of the galaxy's entire radius. This disc is moving incredibly fast, spinning at more than 250 kilometres per second. The dynamics of this quickly whirling region were actually used to infer the mass of NGC 4526’s central black hole — a technique that had not been used before to constrain a galaxy’s central black hole. This image was taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt. Hidden Treasures was an initiative to invite astronomy enthusiasts to search the Hubble archive for stunning images that have never been seen by the general public.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Dominated by the date palm, intertwined with trees and crops, these ancient systems produce a surprising variety of fruits and vegetables, cereals and forages, medicinal and aromatic plants. The palm groves offer shade and lower the ambient temperature, making it the best place to live in the Sahara and an important place of recreation.
The systems of production and irrigation and the culture of the oases vary between the different locations in correspondence to their environment. There are oases in continental, mountainous, as well as in littoral areas. With their rich diversity these oases systems constitute an agricultural and cultural heritage.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Noureddine Nasr
More information:
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Training farmers in organic waste processing for livestock feed.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
Training farmers in organic waste processing for livestock feed.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Dominated by the date palm, intertwined with trees and crops, these ancient systems produce a surprising variety of fruits and vegetables, cereals and forages, medicinal and aromatic plants. The palm groves offer shade and lower the ambient temperature, making it the best place to live in the Sahara and an important place of recreation.
The systems of production and irrigation and the culture of the oases vary between the different locations in correspondence to their environment. There are oases in continental, mountainous, as well as in littoral areas. With their rich diversity these oases systems constitute an agricultural and cultural heritage.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Fateh Achour
More information:
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/italy-begins-enforcing-one-o...
Italy begins enforcing one of the world’s strictest workplace vaccine mandates, risking blowback
ROME —Italy on Friday began enforcing one of the world's most stringent workplace vaccination rules, risking chaos, protests and worker strikes over measures that require all employees — public and private — to have a so-called Green Pass.
With the move, Italy is pushing the boundary for how far a country can go in pressuring the unvaccinated, who now risk losing not just the right to eat indoors or see a movie, but earn a paycheck.
The new rules are supported by a majority of Italians, but they also prompted violent protests last weekend — and experts have warned about the possibility of disruptions from farms to factories.
[Italy makes health pass mandatory for many leisure activities, in bid to pressure the unvaccinated]
As part of the measures, workers without a Green Pass can be suspended without pay. A Green Pass can be obtained with a negative coronavirus test, but workers who go that route would need to be retested every few days; Italian media has reported that swabs are suddenly in such demand that some pharmacies are hiring new employees and extending hours.
“The day of truth,” the Italian newspaper La Repubblica said on its front page, reflecting widespread uncertainty about how the policy will play out.
In interviews over the past week, employers and union leaders say the policy is dividing workers, as increased absences will complicate shift schedules and production.
Some companies are scrapping vacations for the weeks ahead, suddenly uncertain about how many workers will show up. The research company Teneo says somewhere between 2.2 million to 2.5 million of Italy’s 23 million workers are unvaccinated, and in some crucial sectors — including at ports — the rate of unvaccinated workers nears 40 percent. The firm also noted that about 60,000 members of Italy’s police force are not vaccinated.
Since midsummer, Italy has shown more willingness than other Western nations to use the government-issued health certificate as a tool to influence the unvaccinated. As a result, Italian society is beginning to separate into different tiers of privilege — in a way that might have seemed far-fetched a year ago. Those with a Green Pass can dine indoors, go to a museum, see a concert and board a high-speed train. Those without a Green Pass cannot.
The country has a fairly high vaccination rate — 80 percent of the eligible population is now fully inoculated. And that rate, along with near-universal indoor mask-wearing, has helped the country avoid a fierce delta variant wave.
But when it comes to convincing the holdouts, the gains have been slow. The bump in new first doses has been modest since the workplace policy was decided last month. The government estimates that the policy caused about 600,000 people who otherwise would have remained unvaccinated to get their doses.
At the same time, many Italians have been caught off guard by the scale of the resistance. Last weekend, about 10,000 people protested in Piazza del Popolo, and then a smaller group — including members of the extreme-right group Forza Nuova — stormed the headquarters of a major union after being pushed away from approaching the prime minister’s office.
Police tried to constrain the most violent protesters with tear gas and water cannons, and the scene was volatile enough that security officials shepherded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was in Rome at the time, out of a church where she had been attending Mass.
Some workers in the Italian port of Trieste held a strike Friday, though reports suggested the port was continuing to operate. In a Telegram group used by those who oppose the Green Pass mandate, video showed one sign reading, “No Green Pass, No Discrimination,” while dockworkers chanted, “People like us never give up.” Protests also took place in front of many other workplaces across the country — and even among air force personnel, who held a sit-in in front of a naval air base in Sicily.
One of the common demands of protesters is that swab tests be made freely available for the unvaccinated.
“It is blackmail,” a de facto requirement of payment to go to work, said Antonsergio Belfiori, a spokesman for an air force union. He said he is personally vaccinated but that it is important to represent those who are not. Unvaccinated personnel are no longer allowed in the barracks, Belfiori said, and workers are raising money for alternate lodging.
Other Western democracies have employed less far-reaching measures. Some countries have required certain sectors, such as health-care workers, to be inoculated. In the United States, the Biden administration has pushed for private companies to make vaccination mandatory, requiring all businesses with more than 100 employees to insist their workers get immunized or face weekly testing.
In the face of the virus’s enduring virulence in the United States, President Biden has said the refusal of the unvaccinated has “cost all of us.”
Roberto Burioni, a professor of microbiology and virology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, said that Italy was likely willing to go farther than other countries because of its early experience with the virus — which included deadly, economy-halting waves in spring 2020 and throughout last winter.
“Freedom is something very important in a democracy,” Burioni said. “But the limit of freedom is when you damage other people. And we know for sure that vaccinated people are less infectious, and a vaccinated community will be a lot more resistant to infections.”
Burioni said that he now flashes his Green Pass when teaching third-year medical students — something he has resumed doing in person. His students need the Green Pass as well.
“Everything is going back to normal with the Green Pass,” he said. “Today, I used it when I had lunch.”
Storm in a teacup... or as my wife said, a waste of perfectly good tea!
This was surprisingly difficult to setup/light and even now I'm not 100% happy but as is the case with all 365 images, the time available ultimately constrains how much I can experiment.
I took loads of shots without getting the swirl I wanted. In the end I needed to use cream so it retained the shape below the surface of the tea!
Key light is from above, YN560II on 1/32 power through a white umbrella and a full light on the floor, YN460 on 1/64 through an umbrella too.
This is a faint but relatively large PN in the constellation of Lynx. Since my telescope is only f/8 I had to gather a (for me) substantial amount of exposure time. Unfortunately, due to time constrains and the weather, I couldn't finish the project in one season, so this is the result of 3 nights of imaging done in 2 years (9/4/2021, 1/4/ and 19/4/2022).
Imaged through my usual 8 inch GSO RC I collected 31x10 minutes of data on this PN. Camera was a cooled EOS 700Da, filter an Optolon L-eNhance. Unfortunately, I had issues getting rid of artefacts by the amplifier glow, although I made new and correct dark frames. Instead of trying to fix it through processing, I simply cropped the image.
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker in sigma clipping mode (incl. dark, flat and bias correction with no factorisation of the colour channels), further processed with Fitswork (background neutralisation, alignment of RGB channels), Affinity Photo (curves and contrast, saturation) and Noiseware (noise reduction).
North is up.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
U.S. Climate Envoy and former Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Todd Stern spoke at CAP yesterday, emphasizing that “the [current] status quo is unsustainable.” He plans to take that message when he travels to China later this week to discuss bilateral global warming agreements between the U.S. and Chinese governments.
“This is a moment to reevaluate our conceptions about what is possible,” CAP President and CEO John D. Podesta said as he introduced Stern. It’s a crucial opportunity for the United States and China to move forward together on climate issues because, as Stern pointed out, any U.S. action on climate change will not be enough without China.
He hopes to “deepen the dialogue” with China and “drill down deeper” on climate issues. A bilateral agreement with China is part of the long-term goal, but he said that does not expect a “big agreement” to come out of this trip. His goal is to lay a foundation for future agreements.
Stern shied away from discussing specifics of potential agreements between the United States and China, but he did mention some key issues that will have to be on the table. For example, “I don’t think there is any question that the developed countries are going to have to provide resources to many countries in the developing world,” he said.
Emissions limits, which are currently being debated in the United States as part of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, will be another key issue for China. Many in China fear that, “putting limits on emissions would constrain economic growth, job creation, and the country’s capacity to continue its impressive rise,” Stern said. But he argued that China “must do what many in the Chinese leadership recognize, and is not to stop growing, but to grow smarter.”
China has already begun to “grow smarter” in many ways, and Stern urged listeners not to forget that. “We need to acknowledge the impressive steps the Chinese have already taken to promote low-carbon development and the new ones that will be coming off drawing boards soon,” he said.
Stern also cautioned against urging the Chinese to move forward if others remain complacent. “We need to recognize that if we aren’t careful, we may spend the next few years pushing China to do more, but will then spend all the years after that chasing them, as they hurtle profitably down the road to the low-carbon transformation,” he warned.
International climate change agreements are not as easy choice for the Chinese, according to Stern. “China can take a new path recognizing the need to make significant international commitments against the background of a robust collaboration with the United States,” he said. “While I think, in my view, the right choice is clear, you shouldn’t underestimate the dilemma for China.”
Stern is hopeful and told attendees that he does not think the two sides are that far apart on what must be done. “In terms of the overall dynamics of where we need to go, I don’t think it is a dramatically different assessment,” he said. He also said that the United States needs to “listen, not just lecture” during this week’s talks.
He expects conversations with the Chinese to be more science oriented than past talks because he is travelling with John Holden, the White House’s chief science adviser. He also said that he believes the Chinese are “in a different place with respect to where the science is,” although he did express concern about the Chinese government’s domestic emissions estimates, which show lower emissions levels than what many independent assessments have found.
Those discrepancies would need to be resolved as part of an international emissions treaty in the future, but this week’s trip will focus on setting the stage for future agreements, which have become increasingly important as Kyoto nears expiration in 2012. The United States must play a major part in reducing emissions, but global climate change is a problem too large for one country to resolve alone. As Stern told attendees, “While the critical first step must be for us to put our own house in order, the problem can only be solved globally.”
1st Fair of local type of apricots from Gafsa oasis (Mai 2007)
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
Training farmers in organic waste processing for livestock feed.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
Training farmers in organic waste processing for livestock feed.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Noureddine Nasr
More information:
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Cleaning campaign of the historic oases of Gafsa
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
THIS SHORE LIGHTHOUSE GUARDS THE EAST SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO LOCH RYAN FROM A POINT JUST SOUTH EAST OF IT. IT STANDS ON CAIRN POINT WHICH PROJECTS INTO LOCH RYAN FROM A NARROW SHELF IN FRONT OF THE MAIN (A77) ROAD; A SOLID PORTION ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE LANTERN CONSTRAINS THE LIGHT TO SEAWARD. THE LIGHTHOUSE WAS BUILT BY ALAN STEVENSON AND FIRST LIT IN 1847. IT WAS CONVERTED TO OIL BURNING IN 1897, AND AUTOMATED (ELECTRIFIED AND MADE 'UNATTENDED') IN 1964.
We met this young and very brave and determined girl, Stella. She were forced by her mother to quit school due to the economic constraints of the household. But Stella, having come into contact with the work done by IM and Creccom, reacted differently than what would normally be the case. She ran away, seeking help and demanding to return to school. Usually girls in her situation quit school, often marry young (as young as 13) and become pregnant. Thereby never ever receive any education and with that loosing any real chance of getting out of poverty herself.
The local mothers group, one of many parts of the IM-Creccom initiative "GESI", talked to the mother who changed her mind. Stella is now back in school and doing excellently.
Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI), is funded by IM (IM-SOIR) and are addressing the complexities constraining girls education.
The partnership through Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI) is an integrated approach to address challenges facing girl children through community mobilization including meeting girls’ post-primary education cost.
Creccom explains that the Malawian situation have shown that socio-economic, socio-cultural and school related factors contribute to girls’ poor access to, retention, and performance in school, "but underlying all these factors, however, is a widely shared, negative attitude towards girls’ education. Malawi is a patriarchal society embedded with gender stereotypes that place a low value on girls’ education. Early marriages and pregnancies are commonly cited causes of low girls’ participation in education. "
Photo and copyright: Erik Törner, IM Individuell Människohjälp www.manniskohjalp.se
We met this young and very brave and determined girl, Stella. She were forced by her mother to quit school due to the economic constraints of the household. But Stella, having come into contact with the work done by IM and Creccom, reacted differently than what would normally be the case. She ran away, seeking help and demanding to return to school. Usually girls in her situation quit school, often marry young (as young as 13) and become pregnant. Thereby never ever receive any education and with that loosing any real chance of getting out of poverty herself.
The local mothers group, one of many parts of the IM-Creccom initiative "GESI", talked to the mother who changed her mind. Stella is now back in school and doing excellently.
Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI), is funded by IM (IM-SOIR) and are addressing the complexities constraining girls education.
The partnership through Girls Education Support Initiative (GESI) is an integrated approach to address challenges facing girl children through community mobilization including meeting girls’ post-primary education cost.
Creccom explains that the Malawian situation have shown that socio-economic, socio-cultural and school related factors contribute to girls’ poor access to, retention, and performance in school, "but underlying all these factors, however, is a widely shared, negative attitude towards girls’ education. Malawi is a patriarchal society embedded with gender stereotypes that place a low value on girls’ education. Early marriages and pregnancies are commonly cited causes of low girls’ participation in education. "
Photo and copyright: Erik Törner, IM Individuell Människohjälp www.manniskohjalp.se
Training farmers in organic waste processing for livestock feed.
The oases of the Maghreb region are green islands flourishing in a constraining and harsh environment. They are home to a diversified and highly intensive and productive system, which has been developed over millennia.
Photo credit must be given: ©ASM Gafsa
More information:
This installation, revived for "ERRE", was created in 1971. In the run up to the exhibition, Gianni Pettena invited the participiants to cut a path through an ocean of paper strips with a pair of scissors. This radical architect confronted the free movment of the individual with the determinism of a fixed and constraining structure. His work questions how we inhabit space and suggests an architecture which is scaled to the body, created through mobility.
Source: Centre Pompidou
Do powerful women need to tame their unsightly bulges?
( We'd Love to hear YOUR 'Still A Babe' Comments On This CNN Commentary)
By Orit Avishai, Special to CNN
updated 12:24 PM EDT, Fri June 8, 2012
Editor's note: Orit Avishai is an assistant professor of sociology at Fordham University. She is the author of "Managing the Lactating Body: The Breast-Feeding Project and Privileged Motherhood."
(CNN) -- Adele, who won big at the 2012 Grammys, once told Karl Lagerfeld off when he said that she was talented and pretty but a little too fat. Maybe his words got to her. The British pop star made news this week when she admitted to wearing four pairs of Spanx under a dress that wowed the audiences at the Grammys.
www.stillababe.com/profiles/blogs/on-supporting-the-very-...
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Better Brothers Los Angeles teamed up with the Diva Foundation at the historic Wilshire Ebel Theater in Los Angeles.
The event is sponsored by Gilead, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and the generous support of businessman and activist Gerard McCallum.
The Truth Awards will benefit the DIVA Foundation and its partnership with Better Brothers LA with several initiatives aimed at affirming and strengthening the African American LGBTQ community educationally, financially, physically and socially. Proceeds will also benefit the Better Brothers LA Book Scholarship and other programming needs of the organization. For more information about the organization and its scholarship program
ABOUT BETTER BROTHERS LOS ANGELES
Better Brothers Los Angeles was created to provide spaces for Black gay men to network, socialize and be BETTER – at life, love and community. Developing a sense of community has been a challenge for some Black gay men, given the cultural and religious opposition to their sexual orientation. As those challenges have receded in mainstream society, they still present significant difficulties and constrain a sense of well-being for Black gay men within the Black community. Better Brothers Los Angeles has sponsored cultural, recreational, and social/networking events, and continues to create a community where Black gay men and women can walk with a greater sense of confidence and pride. Visit www.BetterBrothersLA.com
ABOUT THE DIVA FOUNDATION
The DIVA Foundation -- founded in 1990 by Tony-nominated actress and HIV/AIDS advocate Sheryl Lee Ralph -- is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created as a living memorial to the many friends she lost to HIV/AIDS as an original cast member of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” and because of her concern for the threat HIV/AIDS posed to women and children. Over the years, the DIVA Foundation has worked to break the silence and erase the stigma still connected to HIV/AIDS and encourage people to get tested in order to know their HIV status.
Pembroke the County Town of Pembrokeshire, in South Wales.
Pembroke Castle, the substantial remains of a stone medieval fortress founded by the Normans in 1093, stands at the Western tip of the peninsular surrounded by water on three sides. The castle was the seat of the powerful Earls of Pembroke and the birthplace of King Henry VII of England.
Gerald de Windsor was the first recorded Constable of Pembroke. Pembroke town and castle and its surroundings are linked with the early Christian church. Following the final extension of the Castle about 1254 the town was extended, and defensive perimeter walls erected around the edge of the town. The walls survive on their medieval foundations, although much rebuilt over the centuries. A great many of the town's original medieval burgage plots survive and are divided by early stone walls that are of significant national importance.
Monkton Priory, sited on a hill across the river from the castle, founded in 1098 by Arnulf de Montgomery and granted by him to the Benedictine order, has very early foundations and retains much of the Norman walls of the nave. The choir and sanctuary were renovated in the 19th Century. Monkton Hall, close by the Priory church, is regarded as the oldest domestic building in Pembrokeshire and possibly Wales and is thought to have been the guesthouse for visitors to the Priory.
The first stone building in the town was a defensive tower, now known as the Medieval Chapel, at 69a Main Street, built on a cliff edge between 950 AD and 1000 AD. There are the remains of a great hall to the north and recently filled-in arched cellars. The building was thought to have been later used as an early church as the layout is the same as St. Govan's Chapel and was used by John Wesley in 1764 to preach Methodism. In 1866 it became the brewery for the York Tavern which was briefly Oliver Cromwell's headquarters at the end of the Siege of Pembroke during the English Civil War.
The town's main bridge across the River Pembroke, which also acts as a dam, crosses and constrains the millpond. The first bridge was constructed to house a tide mill, originally granted to the Knights Templar in 1199. The last mill building was destroyed by fire in 1956.
On both banks of the Pembroke River to the west of the castle are many remains of early activities. The North Shore Quarries are relatively complete as are the remains of medieval and Elizabethan slipways where wooden vessels were built before the industrial dockyard and admiralty town was built on the grid pattern of Pembroke Dock. There is a very early complete graving dock in what was Hancock's Yard.
At Pennar Flats there was an early submarine base used for experiments in submarine warfare. Three of the houses on the then foreshore, part of the shipyard before the Admiralty Dock Yard was built, are still standing but are heavily altered.
Information Source: