View allAll Photos Tagged constraining
Decision overhead
Sunday lunch.
Sometimes I dont have time to make lunch so I eat cold beans. Sometimes I have more time and I make something more elaborate. But when it comes to doing something and I need to make a decision, I choose less, not more.
'... anything that constrains choice is a benifit. ...' [ITConversations, Barry Shwartz, Less is More, 53Min, 25Mb.]
So which tastes better? Am I happy eating beans over the plate above? The cold beans or the elaboratly created plate of different foods? Well both, but the decision overhead for the beans is nothing!
[expand on choice]
One of my favourite photography books is NY JS DB 62.
www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bailey-NY-JS-DB/dp/3...
In 1962 David Bailey convinced Vogue to send him and Jean Shrimpton to New York. Armed with his 35mm camera and no lighting they took to the streets and shot fashion wherever they wanted free from the constrains of a studio where most fashion shoots were held. I love the atmosphere of the shots and the fact that passers by are sometimes included. Some of the shots have been scanned into this Flickr Set (not by me)...
www.flickr.com/photos/27032340@N00/sets/721...
Today I met up with a Polish model called Malwina and we were inspired to create some similar shots in the streets of Croydon.
On May 15, Brookings hosted the inaugural conference of the Global Research Network on Terrorism and Technology, a new independent consortium that aims to better understand the linkages between terrorism and technology. Led by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom, the Global Research Network seeks to explore how new technologies enable and constrain terrorist activity. How do terrorist networks operate online? What are the ethics of content moderation for technology companies? What is the interplay between online content and offline actions?
The inaugural symposium of the Global Research Network showcased original research on these and related issues. Drawing on independent research from think tanks and universities across the world, the full-day conference featured panels and policy debates from leading experts and analysts on terrorism and technology, and brought together officials and leaders from academia, civil society, government, and the technology sector. By presenting the latest research on terrorism and technology to a wide array of stakeholders, the event aimed to inform policy and technology audiences not just about how terrorist groups exploit technology, but what can be done about it.
Photo Credit: Paul Morigi
CXBN-2 Flight and Engineering Units in the Morehead State University Space Science Center Spacecraft Integration and Assembly Facility. The Cosmic X-Ray Background NanoSat-2 (CXBN-2) CubeSat Mission developed by Morehead State University and its partners the Keldysh Institute (Moscow, Russia), the Maysville Community and Technical College (Morehead, KY) and KYSpace LLC (Lexington, KY) will increase the precision of measurements of the Cosmic X-Ray Background in the 30-50 keV range to a precision of <5%, thereby constraining models that attempt to explain the relative contribution of proposed sources lending insight into the underlying physics of the early universe. The mission addresses a fundamental science question that is central to our understanding of the structure, origin, and evolution of the universe by potentially lending insight into both the high-energy background radiation and into the evolution of primordial galaxies. Launched by NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative on the May 24, 2017, ELaNa XVII mission on the seventh Orbital-ATK Cygnus Commercial Resupply Services (OA-7) to the International Space Station and deployed on TBD. Photo credit: Morehead State University
A re-analysis showed fewer staybolts were needed. Other fabrication improvements include using hex staybolt nuts for better control over tightening, pricking the staybolt nuts for control over the nut and surface joint gap, turning down and bending the smoke tube ends to lock them into the inside firebox sheet, and making the door ring with a larger inside diameter to provide a soldering ledge and to constrain the door joints.
PRESS RELEASE August 27, 2016
Through scholarships, US-based IMRC helps thousands of poor students complete their studies
Hyderabad: For Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC), education has always been one of the core objectives of their mission for all those who can’t afford to pay their fees. Along with establishing high quality Challenger International schools, Indo-US schools and Jahangirabad Institute of Engineering & Technology (JIT) in rural Uttar Pradesh with an aim to educate students from weak financial backgrounds, IMRC is also providing scholarships to hundreds of students who don’t have means to pay their fees.
This provides an opportunity to thousands of students in pursuing their respective dreams and eliminating cost barriers which discourage them from completing their education.
Sameena Tasleem, a resident of Bandlaguda, Moinabad in Hyderabad, had always dreamt of becoming a doctor. The reality was however, much different. After finishing her 12th standard from MS Junior College, Malakpet with a good percentile, Sameena couldn’t could not figure out how to finance her MBBS studies.
She had selected a medical college, but her father, MD Jamaluddin was a low-rung government employee in water supplies department and earned barely enough to make ends meet. There was no way he could have afforded to pay the annual fee of the college.
“I had always dreamt of becoming a doctor and I had put lot of efforts in my studies to get into the medical college. When I could join one, the financial constrains cropped in and jeopardized my dream,” says Sameena.
Through one of her references, Sameena came to know about the IMRC scholarship programme being implemented by its sister organisation, Sahayata Trust based in Hyderabad. She applied and got selected.
The annual fee of Rs 70,000 is paid by IMRC to Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences where Sameena is now in her third year of MBBS.
“If they (IMRC) hadn't helped me, I could not have realized my dream,” she adds.
The story of Khaja Uzair Hasan, who lives in Tolichowki, Hyderabad, is similar. He wanted to do Bachelors in Pharmacy but financial condition of his home didn’t allow him to opt for the course. At the brink of dropping the course, he saw a ray of hope which was going to help him pursue his dream.
His education is also being funded under the IMRC Scholarship programme.
“For me pursuing this course was way more important because I wanted to improve the financial condition of my family. Scholarship from IMRC has not only helped me in saving my career but it has also given hope to my family, a hope of a good future,” says Uzair.
Uzair is presently studying in 3rd year of B.Pharmacy in Deccan School of Pharmacy.
As of now IMRC had provided scholarships to 376 students mostly from Telangana, including 40 students from Manipur for this academic year starting from March.
Last year, IMRC scholarship benefitted 6,254 students from various states of India.
The scholarship amount ranges from Rs 1,500 ($25) to Rs 70,000 ($1200) depending upon the courses which the needy students are opting.
Sameena wants to do MD after finishing her MBBS. But after completing MD, the young girl aims to help poor people.
“I want to help the people in the similar way like I was helped by IMRC,” says Sameena with a confident voice.
Apart from the general scholarships, IMRC also helps the needy students in payment of fees on merit cum need basis who secure admission in Jahangirabad Institute of Engineering & Technology (JIT).
IMRC also paid one year school fee of 1,100 flood affected students of Kashmir valley in 2015-2016.
Manzoor Ghori, Executive Director of Indian Muslim Relief and Charities (IMRC) said , “We have been sponsoring and giving scholarships to students in various parts of India who come from poor backgrounds and do not have financial means to go for the higher education. A philanthropic passion develops in these children’s who get support. They after completing their studies and securing their goals not only help people in their surroundings but create a huge positive impact on the community as whole.”
IMRC's approach has been to provide quality education from elementary school up to the university level. This will help a child transition into a self-sufficient adult who can support themselves, their family, community and give back to their society.
For more details or media related queries:
media@imrcusa.org<
Website: www.imrcusa.org/
R.Hameed: +91 9650349612
Waheed Qureshi: +91 9494442242
The majestic rock formations of Zion constrain the flow of the Virgin River to a fertile valley through the Park.
Session 1: Engaging the Private Sector
Understanding how companies and markets can create more economic opportunities, and the barriers that constrain the creation of additional jobs and self-employment opportunities is essential to addressing the current challenges of youth underemployment and unemployment.
This session discussed how three private sector organizations are putting youth at the centre of agricultural transformation.
Moderator: Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin – CEO and Founder, blueMoon
Panelists: Julie Greene – Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Manager, Olam International; Eric Kaduru – Co-founder, KadAfrica; Farouk Jiwa – Co-founder, Farm Shop
MasterCard Foundation YAW2017 - Day Two 17/02/2017
Kigali, Rwanda
On May 15, Brookings hosted the inaugural conference of the Global Research Network on Terrorism and Technology, a new independent consortium that aims to better understand the linkages between terrorism and technology. Led by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom, the Global Research Network seeks to explore how new technologies enable and constrain terrorist activity. How do terrorist networks operate online? What are the ethics of content moderation for technology companies? What is the interplay between online content and offline actions?
The inaugural symposium of the Global Research Network showcased original research on these and related issues. Drawing on independent research from think tanks and universities across the world, the full-day conference featured panels and policy debates from leading experts and analysts on terrorism and technology, and brought together officials and leaders from academia, civil society, government, and the technology sector. By presenting the latest research on terrorism and technology to a wide array of stakeholders, the event aimed to inform policy and technology audiences not just about how terrorist groups exploit technology, but what can be done about it.
Photo Credit: Paul Morigi
The Province of B.C. has released its annual disclosure of public-sector executive compensation, showing that measures announced last year to constrain pay, perks and benefits are starting to take effect.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2013/07/progress-made-on-controlli...
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.
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:
Materials used in the reconstruction of the Miwok village are entirely authentic. This detail shows part of a vine used to constrain the long bark pieces that constitute a house's walls.
574 - John III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1174 - Scottish King William, William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173-1174, is captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England.
1522 - Hunger appeal by women of Utrecht
1558 - Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Count Lamoral of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul des Thermes at Gravelines.
1568 - Dean of St Paul's Cathedral perfects a way to bottle beer
1573 - Haarlem surrenders after 7 months to Spanish army
1643 - Battle at Roundway Down: Royalists beat parliamentary armies
1645 - Aleksei Romanov succeeds his father Michael as czar of Russia
1657 - Oliver Cromwell constrains English army leader John Lambert
1668 - Van Marco Cesti's opera "Il Pomo d'Oro," premieres in Vienna
1700 - Russian-Turkish peace
1772 - Capt James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas
1787 - Congress establishes Northwest Territory (excludes slavery)
1787 - Ord of 1787-a territory can become 3 to 5 states at 60,000 pop
1794 - Battle of the Vosges between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria
1832 - Source of Mississippi River discovered (Henry R Schoolcraft)
1836 - US patent #1 (after 9,957 unnumbered patents), for locomotive wheels
1837 - Queen Victoria is 1st monarch to live in present Buckingham Palace
1851 - John F Loudon discovers tin on East Indian Island of Billiton
1854 - US forces shell & burn San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua
1854 - In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General Jose Maria Yanez stops the French invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset Boulbon.
CONTINUE READING HERE:
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.
"The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill." —Ai Weiwei
El periodista Franklin Mirabal conduce la edición especial de Impacto Deportivo en Radio desde el Restaurante El Nuevo Caridad en Manhattan, Nueva York. Figuran Ricardo Ramón, Daniel Reyez, Miguel Montás, Luis Ramón Polanco y Miguel Rodríguez.
Top: Lightweight multipurpose laser. The back half is devoted almost entirely to the replaceable battery pack, attached to a smaller laser model. Battery pack charger not shown.
Bottom: Heavy multipurpose model, with the similarly slotted battery packs for quick replacement and use. Wider, heavier laser can cut more quickly through steel and into rock, but is not as light nor as easy on the batteries.
Both:
Both models have a mid-infrared carbon dioxide laser (with a reflective iris to constrain beam width), and a simple control computer. The five switches (from left to right) can be used to: adjust beam width, intensity, indicator function, safety interlock, and activate/deactivate Bluetooth.
(Speaking of which, thanks to N3cronomicon for the display!)
The display can indicate remaining battery charge in remaining percentage, spent percentage, and milliampere-hours.
The tab just behind the forward grip is the safety interlock- double-tap it to disengage the safety, once to engage it, and use the fourth button to set the automatic safety engage as 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds. The button just above it activates a guide light.
The triggering assembly is large enough for a gloved finger yet not quite comfortable for a marksman's grip. This was done on purpose to ensure that the laser is unwieldy as a weapon.
What it is good for is welding in and out of atmospheric environments, metal cutting, non-kinetic mining, etc.
UPDATE:
IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE A GRIP OR THUMBHOLE, DAMNIT. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE AWKWARD TO FIRE. IT IS A TOOL.
www.cagnz.org/true-salvation-and-once-saved-always-saved....
What Is True Salvation? Why Once Saved Doesn’t Mean Always Saved
May 20, 2018
Hello brothers and sisters of Spiritual Q&A:
As is known to us believers, the Lord Jesus carried out a stage of work of redemption for mankind. The pastors and elders often preach that we are saved as long as we acknowledge the Lord Jesus with our mouth and believe in Him in our hearts. Just as the Bible says, “That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10:9–10). So, they believe as long as we acknowledge the Lord’s name, confess and repent to the Lord, we are saved. And once we are saved, we are eternally saved. However, recently I’ve heard some brothers and sisters who had went out to listen to sermons say that believing in the Lord Jesus only means receiving His redemption and having one’s sins pardoned, but not truly attaining salvation. As for what true salvation is, our church’s brothers and sisters often discuss it, but we haven’t got a certain answer. And I still don’t understand it. So I wonder how you understand it. Looking forward to your reply!
Yours sincerely,
Kewang
Hello Kewang:
Peace be with you! Thank the Lord! The question you raise is very crucial. It’s fair to say, understanding the truth of salvation is related to the important issue of whether or not we can receive salvation and enter the heavenly kingdom. May the Lord lead our fellowship today.
First, let’s see what the Old Testament says about salvation. “Whoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). “Hold you me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect to your statutes continually” (Psalms 119:117). These verses show us that, being saved in the Age of Law results from calling on Jehovah God’s name and following the laws and commandments issued by God. Joining the work God did in the Age of Law and the result achieved by it, we can better understand the real meaning of the salvation in that age. As is known to us, in the beginning when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, the earth was full of harmony, without corruption or conflict. And under God’s care and protection they lived happily. However, since they defied God’s command and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man became sinful. After Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, the earth began to be filled with violence. For example, Cain killed his brother Abel because of jealousy, yet he didn’t know he had committed sin. Afterward, mankind became more and more corrupted and slaughtered each other, to the point that their evil and immorality reached the peak. So, God destroyed them with a flood. Only Noah’s family of eight was graced before Jehovah God and survived, for Noah obeyed and worshiped God, and man continued to exist and develop forward. Afterward, in the time of Lot, because man became too evil, corrupt and licentious in nature, worshiped idols and evil spirits, and committed murder, robbery and theft, God destroyed the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by the fire from heaven, and saved only Lot and his two daughters. If mankind continued like this, they would be destroyed by God again and return to nothingness. Therefore, to save them, Jehovah God began the work of the Age of Law, and proclaimed the laws and commandments to constrain their behavior and guide them to live normally on earth. If people observed God’s laws, they would gain God’s blessings; if not, they would receive the fitting punishment. Because of the laws and commandments, the Israelites gradually begot God-fearing hearts. Besides, they gained God’s care and protection on account of following these laws and commandments. At that time, if people sinned, they could make burnt offerings for atonement. This way, they could avoid death because of being forgiven of sins. This is the true meaning of salvation in the Age of Law. In that age, the Israelites were saved because of calling on Jehovah God and following the laws and commandments, but that didn’t mean they were saved forever.
Image Source: Daily Devotionals
Source from: Our Daily Devotionals
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BioReactor Sub Assembly Component Designed to Position UltraThin nanoDiamond Nutrient/Protein Filter while Constraining Non Self Donor Cells behind nD Physical Isolation Barrier.
In July, Cheryl and I took Dad to the south coast for a long weekend to celebrate his Birthday and support him through a tough time. He'd recalled a visit to the New Forest in his youth, and we thought it would be nice to take him to some of the places he'd mentioned, and especially the Knightwood Oak.
England was experiencing its first heat wave of the summer, but the weather forecast suggested that the south coast would be the coolest region during our stay. This lower temperature combined with a coastal breeze and the forest cover meant we kept as cool we possible.
As Dad had enjoyed his recent visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales, we thought we'd take him to Exbury Gardens and expose him to the wonderful trees on display. We walked around the gardens for hours enjoying the beautiful colours, scents, river views and formal gardens. We enjoyed visiting an art exhibition with my personal favourites being several local oil and watercolour paintings.
As the sun made landscape photography difficult, I should have spent a bit more time looking for smaller detail. I noticed these wonderful leaf structures and took my favourite shot of the day. Next visit I will constrain my photography by taking my macro lens to capture both macro and these more intimate compositions.
Other highlights included beautiful ponds, views of the Georgian Exbury House, and a light lunch before returning to the New Forest for a drive along the ornamental drives.
After a great second day out, we enjoyed dinner in Christchurch.
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.
Took another trip down to chi-town with some friends to wander around and take photos. I wanted to constrain myself for the day so just used my 50 f/1.8 lens. It was nice because it makes you think about the composition a little more and the DoF is very nice. But i did pop on the 70-200 f/2.8 while we sat at the bean. It's always fun to try new styles and to people watch :)
She was our waitress at Duo's pizza place. When she came up to check on us she asked how everything was. I sarcastically said "it was horrible, how could anybody stomach this?!". she had a very shocked, sad, and scared face. i told her i was just joking and i do it to all the places i eat. but then she told me a story of how an older gentleman did the same thing but he was serious and actually through the slice of pizza at her...but we talked a little bit and she wants to get into photography and gave us directions to a local camera store.
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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.
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.
The Spanish missions in California (Spanish: Misiones españolas en California) formed a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. The missions were established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order to evangelize indigenous peoples backed by the military force of the Spanish Empire. The missions were part of the expansion and settlement of New Spain through the formation of Alta California, expanding the empire into the most northern and western parts of Spanish North America. Civilian settlers and soldiers accompanied missionaries and formed settlements like the Pueblo de Los Ángeles.[2]
Indigenous peoples were forced into settlements called reductions,[3] disrupting their traditional way of life and negatively affecting as many as one thousand villages.[2] European diseases spread in the close quarters of the missions, causing mass death.[4] Abuse, malnourishment, and overworking were common.[5] At least 87,787 baptisms and 63,789 deaths occurred.[6] Indigenous peoples often resisted and rejected conversion to Christianity.[7] Some fled the missions while others formed rebellions.[7] Missionaries recorded frustrations with getting indigenous people to internalize Catholic scripture and practice.[7] Indigenous girls were taken away from their parents and housed at monjeríos.[8] The missions' role in destroying Indigenous culture has been described as cultural genocide.[5]
By 1810, Spain's king had been imprisoned by the French, and financing for military payroll and missions in California ceased.[9] In 1821, Mexico achieved independence from Spain, yet did not send a governor to California until 1824. The missions maintained authority over indigenous peoples and land holdings until the 1830s. At the peak of their influence in 1832, the coastal mission system controlled approximately one-sixth of Alta California.[10] The First Mexican Republic secularized the missions with the Mexican secularization act of 1833, which emancipated indigenous peoples from the missions. Mission lands were largely given to settlers and soldiers, along with a minority of indigenous people.[7]
The surviving mission buildings are the state of California's oldest structures and most-visited historic monuments, many of which were restored after falling into near disrepair in the early 20th century. They have become a symbol of California, appearing in many movies and television shows, and are an inspiration for Mission Revival architecture. Concerns have been raised by historians and Indigenous peoples of California about the way the mission period in California is taught in educational institutions and memorialized.[8] The oldest European settlements of California were formed around or near Spanish missions, including the four largest: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz were also formed near missions, and the historical imprint reached as far north as Sonoma in what became the wine country.
Alta California mission planning, structure and culture
Coastal mission chain, planning and overview
Prior to 1754, grants of mission lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown. But, given the remote locations and the inherent difficulties in communicating with the territorial governments, he delegated authority to make grants to the viceroys of New Spain.[11] During the reign of King Charles III, they granted lands to allow establishing the Alta California missions. They were motivated in part by presence of Russian fur traders along the California coast in the mid 1700s.[12]
The missions were to be interconnected by an overland route which later became known as the Camino Real. The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar Junípero Serra, O.F.M. (who, in 1767, along with his fellow priests, had taken control over a group of missions in Baja California Peninsula previously administered by the Jesuits). After Serra's death, Rev. Fermín Francisco de Lasuén established nine more mission sites, from 1786 through 1798; others established the last three compounds, along with at least five asistencias (mission assistance outposts).[13]
Shelved plans for additional mission chains
Work on the coastal mission chain was concluded in 1823, completed after Serra's death in 1784. Plans to build a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled.[notes 1][citation needed]
The Rev. Pedro Estévan Tápis proposed establishing a mission on one of the Channel Islands in the Pacific Ocean off San Pedro Harbor in 1784, with either Santa Catalina or Santa Cruz (known as Limú to the Tongva residents) being the most likely locations, the reasoning being that an offshore mission might have attracted potential people to convert who were not living on the mainland, and could have been an effective measure to restrict smuggling operations.[14] Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga approved the plan the following year; however, an outbreak of sarampión (measles) killing some 200 Tongva people coupled with a scarcity of land for agriculture and potable water left the success of such a venture in doubt, so no effort to found an island mission was ever made.[citation needed]
In September 1821, the Rev. Mariano Payeras, "Comisario Prefecto" of the California missions, visited Cañada de Santa Ysabel east of Mission San Diego de Alcalá as part of a plan to establish an entire chain of inland missions. The Santa Ysabel Asistencia had been founded in 1818 as a "mother" mission. However, the plan's expansion never came to fruition.[citation needed]
Mission sites, selection and layout
Main article: Architecture of the California missions
Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, circa 1910. This mission is architecturally distinctive because of the strong Moorish lines exhibited.
The Missionaries as They Came and Went. Franciscans of the California missions donned gray habits, in contrast to the brown that is typically worn today.[15]
In addition to the presidio (royal fort) and pueblo (town), the misión was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. Asistencias ("satellite" or "sub" missions, sometimes referred to as "contributing chapels") were small-scale missions that regularly conducted Mass on days of obligation but lacked a resident priest;[16] as with the missions, these settlements were typically established in areas with high concentrations of potential native converts.[17] The Spanish Californians had never strayed from the coast when establishing their settlements; Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad was located farthest inland, being only some thirty miles (48 kilometers) from the shore.[18] Each frontier station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a colony of any size. California was months away from the nearest base in colonized Mexico, and the cargo ships of the day were too small to carry more than a few months' rations in their holds. To sustain a mission, the padres required converted Native Americans, called neophytes, to cultivate crops and tend livestock in the volume needed to support a fair-sized establishment. The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the missionaries to employ simple building materials and methods in the construction of mission structures.
A drawing of Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo prepared by Captain George Vancouver depicts the grounds as they appeared in November 1792. From A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World.
Although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish hierarchy, the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of "priestly whim." The founding of a mission followed longstanding rules and procedures; the paperwork involved required months, sometimes years of correspondence, and demanded the attention of virtually every level of the bureaucracy. Once empowered to erect a mission in a given area, the men assigned to it chose a specific site that featured a good water supply, plenty of wood for fires and building materials, and ample fields for grazing herds and raising crops. The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their military escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes, roofed with thatch or reeds (cañas). It was these simple huts that ultimately gave way to the stone and adobe buildings that exist to the present.
The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church (iglesia). The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east–west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior illumination; the exact alignment depended on the geographic features of the particular site. Once the spot for the church had been selected, its position was marked and the remainder of the mission complex was laid out. The workshops, kitchens, living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped in the form of a quadrangle, inside which religious celebrations and other festive events often took place. The cuadrángulo was rarely a perfect square because the missionaries had no surveying instruments at their disposal and simply measured off all dimensions by foot. Some fanciful accounts regarding the construction of the missions claimed that tunnels were incorporated in the design, to be used as a means of emergency egress in the event of attack; however, no historical evidence (written or physical) has ever been uncovered to support these assertions.[19][notes 2]
Franciscans and native conscription
An illustration depicts the death of the Rev. Luís Jayme by angry locals at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, November 4, 1775.[20] The independence uprising was the first of a dozen similar incidents that took place in Alta California during the Mission Period; however, most rebellions tended to be localized and short-lived due to the Spaniards' superior weaponry (native resistance more often took the form of non-cooperation (in forced labor), return to their homelands (desertion of forced relocation), and raids on mission livestock).[21][22][notes 3][23][notes 4]
The Alta California missions, known as reductions (reducciones) or congregations (congregaciones), were settlements founded by the Spanish colonizers of the New World with the purpose of totally assimilating indigenous populations into European culture and the Catholic religion. It was a doctrine established in 1531, which based the Spanish state's right over the land and persons of the Indies on the Papal charge to evangelize them. It was employed wherever the indigenous populations were not already concentrated in native pueblos. Indians were congregated around the mission proper through forced resettlement, in which the Spanish "reduced" them from what they perceived to be a free "undisciplined'" state with the ambition of converting them into "civilized" members of colonial society.[24] The civilized and disciplined culture of the natives, developed over 8,000 years, was not considered. A total of 146 Friars Minor, mostly Spaniards by birth, were ordained as priests and served in California between 1769 and 1845. Sixty-seven missionaries died at their posts (two as martyrs: Padres Luis Jayme and Andrés Quintana), while the remainder returned to Europe due to illness, or upon completing their ten-year service commitment.[25] As the rules of the Franciscan Order forbade friars to live alone, two missionaries were assigned to each settlement, sequestered in the mission's convento.[26] To these the governor assigned a guard of five or six soldiers under the command of a corporal, who generally acted as steward of the mission's temporal affairs, subject to the priests' direction.[27]
Indians were initially attracted into the mission compounds by gifts of food, colored beads, bits of bright cloth, and trinkets. Once a Native American "gentile" was baptized, they were labeled a neophyte, or new believer. This happened only after a brief period during which the initiates were instructed in the most basic aspects of the Catholic faith. But, while many natives were lured to join the missions out of curiosity and sincere desire to participate and engage in trade, many found themselves trapped once they were baptized.[28] On the other hand, Indians staffed the militias at each mission[29] and had a role in mission governance.
Georg von Langsdorff, an early visitor to California, sketched a group of Costeño dancers at Mission San José in 1806. "The hair of these people is very coarse, thick, and stands erect; in some it is powdered with down feathers," Langsdorff noted. "Their bodies are fantastically painted with charcoal dust, red clay, and chalk. The foremost dancer is ornamented all over with down feathers, which gives him a monkey-like appearance; the hindermost has had the whimsical idea of painting his body to imitate the uniform of a Spanish soldier, with his boots, stockings, breeches, and upper garments."[30]
To the padres, a baptized Indian person was no longer free to move about the country, but had to labor and worship at the mission under the strict observance of the priests and overseers, who herded them to daily masses and labors. If an Indian did not report for their duties for a period of a few days, they were searched for, and if it was discovered that they had left without permission, they were considered runaways. Large-scale military expeditions were organized to round up the escaped neophytes. Sometimes, the Franciscans allowed neophytes to escape the missions, or they would allow them to visit their home village. However, the Franciscans would only allow this so that they could secretly follow the neophytes. Upon arriving to the village and capturing the runaways, they would take back Indians to the missions, sometimes as many as 200 to 300 Indians.[31]
On one occasion," writes Hugo Reid, "they went as far as the present Rancho del Chino, where they tied and whipped every man, woman and child in the lodge, and drove part of them back.... On the road they did the same with those of the lodge at San Jose. On arriving home the men were instructed to throw their bows and arrows at the feet of the priest, and make due submission. The infants were then baptized, as were also all children under eight years of age; the former were left with their mothers, but the latter kept apart from all communication with their parents. The consequence was, first, the women consented to the rite and received it, for the love they bore their children; and finally the males gave way for the purpose of enjoying once more the society of wife and family. Marriage was then performed, and so this contaminated race, in their own sight and that of their kindred, became followers of Christ.[28]
A total of 20,355 natives were "attached" to the California missions in 1806 (the highest figure recorded during the Mission Period); under Mexican rule the number rose to 21,066 (in 1824, the record year during the entire era of the Franciscan missions).[32][notes 5] During the entire period of Mission rule, from 1769 to 1834, the Franciscans baptized 53,600 adult Indians and buried 37,000. Dr. Cook estimates that 15,250 or 45% of the population decrease was caused by disease. Two epidemics of measles, one in 1806 and the other in 1828, caused many deaths. The mortality rates were so high that the missions were constantly dependent upon new conversions.[28]
Young native women were required to reside in the monjerío (or "nunnery") under the supervision of a trusted Indian matron who bore the responsibility for their welfare and education. Women only left the convent after they had been "won" by an Indian suitor and were deemed ready for marriage. Following Spanish custom, courtship took place on either side of a barred window. After the marriage ceremony the woman moved out of the mission compound and into one of the family huts.[33] These "nunneries" were considered a necessity by the priests, who felt the women needed to be protected from the men, both Indian and de razón ("instructed men", i.e. Europeans). The cramped and unsanitary conditions the girls lived in contributed to the fast spread of disease and population decline. So many died at times that many of the Indian residents of the missions urged the priests to raid new villages to supply them with more women.[6]
Death rate at the missions
As of December 31, 1832 (the peak of the mission system's development) the mission padres had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.[6] The death rate at the missions, particularly of children, was very high and the majority of children baptized did not survive childhood.[34][35] At Mission San Gabriel, for instance, three of four children died before reaching the age of two.[36]
The high rate of death at the missions have been attributed to several factors, including disease, torture, overworking, malnourishment, and cultural genocide.[5] Forcing native people into close quarters at the missions spread disease quickly. While being kept at the missions, native people were transitioned to a Spanish diet that left them more unable to ward off diseases, the most common being dysentery, fevers with unknown causes, and venereal disease.[4]
The death rate has been compared to that of other atrocities. American author and lawyer Carey McWilliams argued that "the Franciscan padres eliminated Indians with the effectiveness of Nazis operating concentration camps."[37] At least 90,000 Indigenous peoples were kept in well-guarded mission compounds throughout the state as de facto slaves.[39] The policy of the Franciscans was to keep them constantly occupied. Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells. The daily routine began with sunrise Mass and morning prayers, followed by instruction of the natives in the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith. After a breakfast of atole, the able-bodied men and women were assigned their tasks for the day. The women were committed to dressmaking, knitting, weaving, embroidering, laundering, and cooking, while some of the stronger girls ground flour or carried adobe bricks (weighing 55 lb, or 25 kg each) to the men engaged in building. The men worked a variety of jobs, having learned from the missionaries how to plow, sow, irrigate, cultivate, reap, thresh, and glean. They were taught to build adobe houses, tan leather hides, shear sheep, weave rugs and clothing from wool, make ropes, soap, paint, and other useful duties.[citation needed]
"Ya Viene El Alba" ("The Dawn Already Comes"), typical of the hymns sung at the missions.[40]
The work day was six hours, interrupted by dinner (lunch) around 11:00 a.m. and a two-hour siesta, and ended with evening prayers and the rosary, supper, and social activities. About 90 days out of each year were designated as religious or civil holidays, free from manual labor. The labor organization of the missions resembled a slave plantation in many respects.[41][notes 6] Foreigners who visited the missions remarked at how the priests' control over the Indians appeared excessive, but necessary given the white men's isolation and numeric disadvantage.[42][notes 7] Subsequently, the Missions operated under strict and harsh conditions; A 'light' punishment would've been considered 25 lashings (azotes).[43] Indians were not paid wages as they were not considered free laborers and, as a result, the missions were able to profit from the goods produced by the Mission Indians to the detriment of the other Spanish and Mexican settlers of the time who could not compete economically with the advantage of the mission system.[44]
The Franciscans began to send neophytes to work as servants of Spanish soldiers in the presidios. Each presidio was provided with land, el rancho del rey, which served as a pasture for the presidio livestock and as a source of food for the soldiers. Theoretically the soldiers were supposed to work on this land themselves but within a few years the neophytes were doing all the work on the presidio farm and, in addition, were serving domestics for the soldiers. While the fiction prevailed that neophytes were to receive wages for their work, no attempt was made to collect the wages for these services after 1790. It is recorded that the neophytes performed the work "under unmitigated compulsion."[28]
In recent years, much debate has arisen about the priests' treatment of the Indians during the Mission period, and many believe that the California mission system is directly responsible for the decline of the native cultures.[42][notes 8] From the perspective of the Spanish priest, their efforts were a well-meaning attempt to improve the lives of the heathen natives.[45][notes 9][46][notes 10]
The missionaries of California were by-and-large well-meaning, devoted men...[whose] attitudes toward the Indians ranged from genuine (if paternalistic) affection to wrathful disgust. They were ill-equipped—nor did most truly desire—to understand complex and radically different Native American customs. Using European standards, they condemned the Indians for living in a "wilderness," for worshipping false gods or no God at all, and for having no written laws, standing armies, forts, or churches.[47]
Franciscan violence against the native population
The Franciscan arrival to Alta California came with a wave of torture, rape, and murder towards the native population of California.[citation needed] Native Californians, attracted to the Missions by the promise of food and gifts,[citation needed] were forcibly prevented from leaving. Any who attempted to escape was usually given a severe beating and put in shackles. Any form of Native rebellion was met with force due to numerical disadvantage facing the Franciscans.[48]
When Native Women attempted to abort their unborn children – which they had conceived as a byproduct of rape, the Friars would have them beaten, chained in iron, shaved, and stipulated to stand in-front of the altar each mass with a decorated wooden newborn.[48]
This trend of violence was due to the Franciscans' desire for a greater Hispanicized population in Alta California, both for protection against a foreign invasion and for a labor force to benefit the Spanish Empire. As a result a higher emphasis of Native reproduction was a duty taken on by the Spanish Fransicans. Tejana born feminist historian Antonia Castañeda wrote about the treatment that would occur in Mission Santa Cruz:[49]
Father Olbes at Mission Santa Cruz ordered an infertile couple to have sexual intercourse in his presence because he did not believe they could not have children. The couple refused, but Olbes forcibly inspected the man's penis to learn 'whether or not it was in good order' and tried to inspect the woman's genitalia. She refused, fought with him, and tried to bite him. Olbes ordered that she be tied by the hands, and given fifty lashes, shackled, and locked up in the monjerío (women's dormitory). He then had a monigote made and commanded that she "treat the doll as though it were a child and carry it in the presence of everyone for nine days." While the woman was beaten and her sexuality demeaned, the husband, who had been intimate with another woman, was ridiculed and humiliated. A set of cow horns was tied to his head with leather thongs, thereby converting him into a cuckold, and he was herded to daily Mass in cow horns and fetters.
Franciscan Priests would also forbid any form of native culture in the Mission system. This would include but not be limited to, songs, dances, and ceremonies. They objectified the destruction of any form of morality, ideology or personality that characterized the Native life. Women, in particular, would face a higher degree of punishment. Those who did not comply with the Missions demands would be labeled a witch, dehumanizing them for further violence.[citation needed]
University of Chicago Professor Ramon Guttiriez wrote:[49]: 701
One can interpret the whole history of the persecution of Indian women as witches ... as a struggle over [these] competing ways of defining the body and of regulating procreation as the church endeavored to constrain the expression of desire within boundaries that clerics defined proper and acceptable.
Mission industries
A view of the Catalan forges at Mission San Juan Capistrano, the oldest existing facilities (circa 1790s) of their kind in the State of California. The sign at the lower right-hand corner proclaims the site as being "...part of Orange County's first industrial complex."
The goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. Farming, therefore, was the most important industry of any mission. Barley, maize, and wheat were among the most common crops grown. Cereal grains were dried and ground by stone into flour. Even today, California is well known for the abundance and many varieties of fruit trees that are cultivated throughout the state. The only fruits indigenous to the region, however, consisted of wild berries or grew on small bushes. Spanish missionaries brought fruit seeds over from Europe, many of which had been introduced from Asia following earlier expeditions to the continent; orange, grape, apple, peach, pear, and fig seeds were among the most prolific of the imports. Grapes were also grown and fermented into wine for sacramental use and again, for trading. The specific variety, called the Criolla or Mission grape, was first planted at Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1779; in 1783, the first wine produced in Alta California emerged from the mission's winery. Ranching also became an important mission industry as cattle and sheep herds were raised.[citation needed]
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel unknowingly witnessed the origin of the California citrus industry with the planting of the region's first significant orchard in 1804, though the commercial potential of citrus was not realized until 1841.[50] Olives (first cultivated at Mission San Diego de Alcalá) were grown, cured, and pressed under large stone wheels to extract their oil, both for use at the mission and to trade for other goods. The Rev. Serra set aside a portion of the Mission Carmel gardens in 1774 for tobacco plants, a practice that soon spread throughout the mission system.[51][notes 11]
It was also the missions' responsibility to provide the Spanish forts, or presidios, with the necessary foodstuffs, and manufactured goods to sustain operations. It was a constant point of contention between missionaries and the soldiers as to how many fanegas[52] of barley, or how many shirts or blankets the mission had to provide the garrisons on any given year. At times these requirements were hard to meet, especially during years of drought, or when the much anticipated shipments from the port of San Blas failed to arrive. The Spaniards kept meticulous records of mission activities, and each year reports submitted to the Father-Presidente summarizing both the material and spiritual status at each of the settlements.[citation needed]
Natives utilize a primitive plow to prepare a field for planting near Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
Livestock was raised, not only for the purpose of obtaining meat, but also for wool, leather, and tallow, and for cultivating the land. In 1832, at the height of their prosperity, the missions collectively owned:[53]
151,180 head of cattle;
137,969 sheep;
14,522 horses;
1,575 mules or burros;
1,711 goats; and
1,164 swine.
All these grazing animals were originally brought up from Mexico. A great many Indians were required to guard the herds and flocks on the mission ranches, which created the need for "...a class of horsemen scarcely surpassed anywhere."[27] These animals multiplied beyond the settler's expectations, often overrunning pastures and extending well-beyond the domains of the missions. The giant herds of horses and cows took well to the climate and the extensive pastures of the Coastal California region, but at a heavy price for the California Native American people. The uncontrolled spread of these new herds, and associated invasive exotic plant species, quickly exhausted the native plants in the grasslands,[54] and the chaparral and woodlands that the Indians depended on for their seed, foliage, and bulb harvests. The grazing-overgrazing problems were also recognized by the Spaniards, who periodically had extermination parties cull and kill thousands of excess livestock, when herd populations grew beyond their control or the land's capacity. Years with a severe drought did this also.[citation needed]
Mission kitchens and bakeries prepared and served thousands of meals each day. Candles, soap, grease, and ointments were all made from tallow (rendered animal fat) in large vats located just outside the west wing. Also situated in this general area were vats for dyeing wool and tanning leather, and primitive looms for weaving. Large bodegas (warehouses) provided long-term storage for preserved foodstuffs and other treated materials.[citation needed]
Mission Santa Barbara's lavandería was constructed by Chumash neophytes around 1806.
Each mission had to fabricate virtually all of its construction materials from local materials. Workers in the carpintería (carpentry shop) used crude methods to shape beams, lintels, and other structural elements; more skilled artisans carved doors, furniture, and wooden implements. For certain applications bricks (ladrillos) were fired in ovens (kilns) to strengthen them and make them more resistant to the elements; when tejas (roof tiles) eventually replaced the conventional jacal roofing (densely packed reeds) they were placed in the kilns to harden them as well. Glazed ceramic pots, dishes, and canisters were also made in mission kilns.[citation needed]
Prior to the establishment of the missions, the native peoples knew only how to utilize bone, seashells, stone, and wood for building, tool making, weapons, and so forth. The missionaries established manual training in European skills and methods; in agriculture, mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock. Everything consumed and otherwise utilized by the natives was produced at the missions under the supervision of the padres; thus, the neophytes not only supported themselves, but after 1811 sustained the entire military and civil government of California.[55] The foundry at Mission San Juan Capistrano was the first to introduce the Indians to the Iron Age. The blacksmith used the mission's forges (California's first) to smelt and fashion iron into everything from basic tools and hardware (such as nails) to crosses, gates, hinges, even cannon for mission defense. Iron in particular was a commodity that the mission acquired solely through trade, as the missionaries had neither the know-how nor technology to mine and process metal ores.[citation needed]
No study of the missions is complete without mention of their extensive water supply systems. Stone zanjas (aqueducts, sometimes spanning miles, brought fresh water from a nearby river or spring to the mission site. Open or covered lined ditches and/or baked clay pipes, joined together with lime mortar or bitumen, gravity-fed the water into large cisterns and fountains, and emptied into waterways where the force of the water was used to turn grinding wheels and other simple machinery, or dispensed for use in cleaning. Water used for drinking and cooking was allowed to trickle through alternate layers of sand and charcoal to remove the impurities. One of the best-preserved mission water systems is at Mission Santa Barbara.[56]
History
Beginning in 1492 with the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Kingdom of Spain sought to establish missions to convert indigenous people in Nueva España (New Spain), which consisted of the Caribbean, Mexico, and most of what is now the Southwestern United States) to Catholicism. This would facilitate colonization of these lands awarded to Spain by the Catholic Church, including that region later known as Alta California.[notes 12][notes 13][57][notes 14]
Early Spanish exploration
Only 48 years after Columbus discovered the Americas for Europe, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado set out from Compostela, New Spain on February 23, 1540, at the head of a large expedition. Accompanied by 400 European men-at-arms (mostly Spaniards), 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, several Indian and African slaves, and four Franciscan friars, he traveled from Mexico through parts of the southwestern United States to present-day Kansas between 1540 and 1542.[58][59] Two years later on 27 June 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo set out from Navidad, Mexico and sailed up the coast of Baja California and into the region of Alta California.[60]
Secret English claims
Unknown to Spain, Sir Francis Drake, an English privateer who raided Spanish treasure ships and colonial settlements, claimed the Alta California region as Nova Albion for the English Crown in 1579, a full generation before the first English landing in Jamestown in 1607. During his circumnavigation of the world, Drake anchored in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, establishing friendly relations with the Coastal Miwok and claiming the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. However, Drake sailed back to England and England (and later Britain) never pressed for any sort of claim regarding the region.[61][62][63][64]
Russian exploration
However, it was not until 1741 that the Spanish monarchy of King Philip V was stimulated to consider how to protect his claims to Alta California. Philip was spurred on when the territorial ambitions of the Russian Empire were expressed in the Vitus Bering expedition along the western coast on the North American continent.[65][66][notes 15][67][notes 16]
Spanish expansion
California represents the "high-water mark" of Spanish expansion in North America as the last and northernmost colony on the continent.[68] The mission system arose in part from the need to control Spain's ever-expanding holdings in the New World. Realizing that the colonies required a literate population base that the mother country could not supply, the Spanish government (with the cooperation of the Church) established a network of missions to convert the indigenous population to Christianity. They aimed to make converts and tax-paying citizens of those they conquered.[46][notes 17] To make them into Spanish citizens and productive inhabitants, the Spanish government and the Church required the indigenous people to learn Spanish language and vocational skills along with Christian teachings.[69]
Estimates for the pre-contact indigenous population in California are based on a number of different sources and vary substantially, from as few as 133,000,[70] to 225,000,[71] to as many as 705,000 representating more than 100 separate tribes or nations.[72][73][notes 18][notes 19]
On January 29, 1767, Spain's King Charles III ordered the new governor Gaspar de Portolá to forcibly expel the Jesuits, who operated under the authority of the Pope and had established a chain of fifteen missions on the Baja California Peninsula.[74][notes 20] Visitador General José de Gálvez engaged the Franciscans, under the leadership of Friar Junípero Serra, to take charge of those outposts on March 12, 1768.[75] The padres closed or consolidated several of the existing settlements, and also founded Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá (the only Franciscan mission in all of Baja California) and the nearby Visita de la Presentación in 1769. This plan, however, changed within a few months after Gálvez received the following orders: "Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain."[76] The Church ordered the priests of the Dominican Order to take charge of the Baja California missions so the Franciscans could concentrate on founding new missions in Alta California.
Mission period (1769–1833)
The first recorded baptisms in Alta California were performed in "The Canyon of the Little Christians."[77]
On July 14, 1769, Gálvez sent the Portolá expedition out from Loreto to explore lands to the north. Leader Gaspar de Portolá was accompanied by a group of Franciscans led by Junípero Serra. Serra's plan was to extend the string of missions north from the Baja California peninsula, connected by an established road and spaced a day's travel apart. The first Alta California mission and presidio were founded at San Diego, the second at Monterey.[78]
En route to Monterey, the Rev. Francisco Gómez and the Rev. Juan Crespí came across a Native settlement wherein two young girls were dying: one, a baby, said to be "dying at its mother's breast," the other a small girl suffering of burns. On July 22, Gómez baptized the baby, naming her Maria Magdalena, while Crespí baptized the older child, naming her Margarita. These were the first recorded baptisms in Alta California.[79] Crespi dubbed the spot Los Cristianos.[77][notes 21] The group continued northward but missed Monterey Harbor and returned to San Diego on January 24, 1770. Near the end of 1769 the Portolá expedition had reached its most northerly point at present-day San Francisco. In following years, the Spanish Crown sent a number of follow-up expeditions to explore more of Alta California.
Spain also settled the California region with a number of African and mulatto Catholics, including at least ten of the recently re-discovered Los Pobladores, the founders of Los Angeles in 1781.[80]
Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada violated ecclesiastical asylum at Mission San Diego de Alcalá on March 26, 1776, when he forcibly removed a 'neophyte' in direct defiance of the padres. Missionary Pedro Font later described the scene: "...Rivera entered the chapel with drawn sword...con la espada desnuda en la mano." Rivera y Moncada was subsequently excommunicated from the Catholic Church for his actions.[81]
Organization
The original intent was for each mission to be turned over to a secular clergy and all the common mission lands distributed amongst the native population within ten years after its founding. This policy was based upon Spain's experience with the more advanced tribes in Mexico, Central America, and Peru.[82]
In time, it became apparent to the Rev. Serra and his associates that the natives on the northern frontier in Alta California required a much longer period of acclimatization.[27] None of the California missions ever attained complete self-sufficiency, and required continued (albeit modest) financial support from mother Spain.[83]
Financial support
Mission development was financed out of El Fondo Piadoso de las Californias (The Pious Fund of the Californias to enable the missionaries to propagate the Catholic faith in the area then known as California. The fund originated in 1697 and consisted of voluntary donations from individuals and religious bodies in Mexico to members of the Society of Jesus.[84]
With the onset of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, support from the Pious Fund largely disappeared. Missions and converts were left on their own.[85]
Indigenous labor
In 1800, native labor conprised the backbone of the colonial economy. Possibly "the worst epidemic of the Spanish Era in California" occurred between March and May of 1806 when a measles epidemic and related complications killed one-quarter of the mission native population in the San Francisco Bay Area.[86]
In 1811, the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico sent an interrogatorio (questionnaire) to all of the missions in Alta California regarding the customs, disposition, and condition of the Mission Indians.[87] The replies varied greatly in the length, spirit, and even the value of the information provided. They were collected and prefaced by the Father-Presidente with a short general statement or abstract; the compilation was thereupon forwarded to the viceregal government.[88][notes 22] The contemporary nature of the responses, no matter how incomplete or biased some may be, are nonetheless of considerable value to modern ethnologists.
Pablo Tac, who lived at Mission San Luis Rey in the 1820s and 1830s, penned this drawing depicting two young men wearing skirts of twine and feathers with feather decorations on their heads, rattles in their hands, and (perhaps) painted decorations on their bodies.[89]
Russian settlements
Russian colonization of the Americas extended as far south as present-day Graton, Point Arena, and Tomales Bay. Chernyk, the farming community near Graton, was about 30 miles (48 km) from present-day Sonoma, California. It had a barracks, agricultural buildings, fields of grain and vegetables, an orchard and a vineyard.[90] Their primary location was at Fort Ross (krepost' rus), an agricultural, scientific, and fur trading settlement located on the coast.[91] When they exterminated the sea otter and seal populations, they failed in the ambition to supply Russia’s Alaskan settlements from California and left the area.[90]
Pirate attacks
In November and December 1818, several of the missions were attacked by Hipólito Bouchard, "California's only pirate."[notes 23] A French privateer sailing under the flag of Argentina, Pirata Buchar (as Bouchard was known to the locals) worked his way down the California coast, conducting raids on the installations at Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Juan Capistrano, with limited success.[92] Upon hearing of the attacks, many mission priests (along with a few government officials) sought refuge at Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, the mission chain's most isolated outpost. Ironically, Mission Santa Cruz (though ultimately ignored by the marauders) was ignominiously sacked and vandalized by local residents who were entrusted with securing the church's valuables.[93]
Expansion stopped
By 1819, Spain decided to limit its "reach" in the New World to Northern California due to the costs involved in sustaining these remote outposts; the northernmost settlement therefore is Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in Sonoma in 1823.[94][notes 24]
An attempt to found a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 was aborted.[94][notes 25][notes 26][95][notes 27] In 1833, the final group of missionaries arrived in Alta California. These were Mexican-born (rather than Spaniards), and had been trained at the Apostolic College of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Zacatecas. Among these friars was Francisco García Diego y Moreno, who would become the first bishop of the Diocese of Both Californias. These friars would bear the brunt of the changes brought on by secularization and the U.S. occupation, and many would be marked by allegations of corruption.[96]
Chumash revolt
The Chumash people revolted against the Spanish presence in 1824. The Chumash planned a coordinated rebellion at three missions. Due to an incident with a soldier at Mission Santa Inés, the rebellion began on Saturday, February 21. The Chumash withdrew from Mission Santa Inés upon the arrival of military reinforcements, then attacked Mission La Purisima from inside, forced the garrison to surrender, and allowed the garrison, their families, and the mission priest to depart for Santa Inés. The next day, the Chumash of Mission Santa Barbara captured the mission from within without bloodshed, repelled a military attack on the mission, and then retreated from the mission to the hills. The Chumash continued to occupy Mission La Purisima until a Mexican military unit attacked people on March 16 and forced them to surrender. Two military expeditions were sent after the Chumash in the hills; the first did not find them and the second negotiated with the Chumash and convinced a majority to return to the missions by June 28.[97]
Secularization
Further information: Mexican secularization act of 1833
As the Mexican republic matured, calls for the secularization ("disestablishment") of the missions increased.[98][notes 28]
José María de Echeandía, the first native Mexican elected Governor of Alta California issued a "Proclamation of Emancipation" (or "Prevenciónes de Emancipacion") on July 25, 1826.[99] All Indians within the military districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey who were found qualified were freed from missionary rule and made eligible to become Mexican citizens. Those who wished to remain under mission tutelage were exempted from most forms of corporal punishment.[100][101][notes 29] By 1830, even the neophyte populations themselves appeared confident in their own abilities to operate the mission ranches and farms independently; the padres, however, doubted the capabilities of their charges in this regard.[102]
Accelerating immigration, both Mexican and foreign, increased pressure on the Alta California government to seize the mission properties and dispossess the natives in accordance with Echeandía's directive.[103][notes 30] Despite the fact that Echeandía's emancipation plan was met with little encouragement from the novices who populated the southern missions, he was nonetheless determined to test the scheme on a large scale at Mission San Juan Capistrano. To that end, he appointed a number of comisionados (commissioners) to oversee the emancipation of the Indians.[104] The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20, 1827 that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than sixty years of age from Mexican territories; Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on behalf of some of the missionaries to prevent their deportation once the law took effect in California.[105]
Upon arriving in Monterey, California in April 1832,[106][107] Thomas O. Larkin found the economics of land and commerce were controlled by the Spanish missions, presidios, pueblos, and a few ranchos.[108]
The lands of each mission joined those of other missions on either side, so that all were connected, or, in other words, the missionaries occupied all the land along the coast, except the presidios, the three pueblos and their lands, and a few ranchos which were held by virtue of grants from the King of Spain.... The missionaries objected to any settlements in the country but the missions; the presidios they regarded as a necessary evil.
Governor José Figueroa (who took office in 1833) initially attempted to keep the mission system intact, but the Mexican Congress passed An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California on August 17, 1833 when liberal Valentín Gómez Farías was in office.[109][notes 31]
The Act also provided for the colonization of both Alta and Baja California, the expenses of this latter move to be borne by the proceeds gained from the sale of the mission property to private interests.
For instance, after Mexican independence, the Mexican government confiscated Franciscan lands and decommissioned them. This, however, did not see the end of Native plight since further dislocation and abuse occurred under Mexican control. Most of the confiscated Franciscan lands were given out as grants to white settlers or well connected Mexicans, while Native Californians continued to occupy the land as a labor force.[110]
Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first to feel the effects of secularization when, on August 9, 1834 Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation."[111] Nine other settlements quickly followed, with six more in 1835; San Buenaventura and San Francisco de Asís were among the last to succumb, in June and December 1836, respectively.[112] The Franciscans soon thereafter abandoned most of the missions, taking with them almost everything of value, after which the locals typically plundered the mission buildings for construction materials. Former mission pasture lands were divided into large land grants called ranchos, greatly increasing the number of private land holdings in Alta California.
Rancho period (1834–1849)
Main article: Ranchos of California
The Indian towns at San Juan Capistrano, San Dieguito, and Las Flores continued for some time under a provision in Gobernador Echeandía's 1826 Proclamation that allowed for the partial conversion of missions to pueblos.[113]
According to one estimate, the native population in and around the missions proper was approximately 80,000 at the time of the confiscation; others claim that the statewide population had dwindled to approximately 100,000 by the early 1840s, due in no small part to the natives' exposure to European diseases, and from the Franciscan practice of cloistering women in the convento and controlling sexuality during the child-bearing age. (Baja California Territory experienced a similar reduction in native population resulting from Spanish colonization efforts there).[114]
Illuminated choir missals on display at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia in 1913.[115]
Pío de Jesús Pico, the last Mexican Governor of Alta California, found upon taking office that there were few funds available to carry on the affairs of the province. He prevailed upon the assembly to pass a decree authorizing the renting or the sale of all mission property, reserving only the church, a curate's house, and a building for a courthouse. The expenses of conducting the services of the church were to be provided from the proceeds, but there was no disposition made as to what should be done to secure the funds for that purpose.
After secularization, Father-Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the missions' headquarters to Santa Bárbara, thereby making Mission Santa Bárbara the repository of some 3,000 original documents that had been scattered through the California missions. The Mission archive is the oldest library in the State of California that still remains in the hands of its founders, the Franciscans (it is the only mission where they have maintained an uninterrupted presence). Beginning with the writings of Hubert Howe Bancroft, the library has served as a center for historical study of the missions for more than a century. In 1895, journalist and historian Charles Fletcher Lummis criticized the Act and its results, saying:
Disestablishment—a polite term for robbery—by Mexico (rather than by native Californians misrepresenting the Mexican government) in 1834, was the death blow of the mission system. The lands were confiscated; the buildings were sold for beggarly sums, and often for beggarly purposes. The Indian converts were scattered and starved out; the noble buildings were pillaged for their tiles and adobes...[116]
California statehood (1850 and beyond)
Hugo Reid, an outspoken critic of the mission system and its effects on the native populations, at Rancho Santa Anita circa 1850.
Precise figures relating to the population decline of California indigenes are not available. One writer, Gregory Orfalea, estimates that pre-contact population was reduced by 33 percent during Spanish and Mexican rule, mostly through introduction of European diseases, but much more after the United States takeover in 1848. By 1870, the loss of indigenous lives had become catastrophic. Up to 80 percent died, leaving a population of about 30,000 in 1870. Orfalea claims that nearly half of the native deaths after 1848 were murder.[71]
In 1837–38, a major smallpox epidemic devastated native tribes north of San Francisco Bay, in the jurisdiction of Mission San Francisco Solano. General Mariano Vallejo estimated that 70,000 died from the disease.[117] Vallejo's ally, chief Sem-Yeto, was one of the few natives to be vaccinated, and one of the few to survive.
When the mission properties were secularized between 1834 and 1838, the approximately 15,000 resident neophytes lost whatever protection the mission system afforded them. While under the secularization laws the natives were to receive up to one-half of the mission properties, this never happened. The natives lost whatever stock and movable property they may have accumulated. When California became a U.S. state, California law stripped them of legal title to the land. In the Act of September 30, 1850, Congress appropriated funds to allow the President to appoint three Commissioners, O. M. Wozencraft, Redick McKee and George W. Barbour, to study the California situation and "...negotiate treaties with the various Indian tribes of California." Treaty negotiations ensued during the period between March 19, 1851 and January 7, 1852, during which the Commission interacted with 402 Indian chiefs and headmen (representing approximately one-third to one-half of the California tribes) and entered into eighteen treaties.[118]
California Senator William M. Gwin's Act of March 3, 1851 created the Public Land Commission, whose purpose was to determine the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.[119] On February 19, 1853 Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany filed petitions for the return of all former mission lands in the state. Ownership of 1,051.44 acres (4.2550 km2) (essentially exact area of land occupied by the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens) was subsequently conveyed to the Church, along with the Cañada de los Pinos (or College Rancho) in Santa Barbara County comprising 35,499.73 acres (143.6623 km2), and La Laguna in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of 4,157.02 acres (16.8229 km2).[120] As the result of a U.S. government investigation in 1873, a number of Indian reservations were assigned by executive proclamation in 1875. The commissioner of Indian affairs reported in 1879 that the number of Mission Indians in the state was down to around 3,000.[121]
Legacy and Native American controversy
Main articles: California mission clash of cultures and Population of Native California
The California Department of Education's treatment of the missions in the department's elementary curriculum is controversial. In the tradition of historical revisionism, it has been alleged[who?] that the curriculum "waters down" the harsh treatment of Native Americans.[citation needed] Some modern anthropologists cite a cultural bias on the part of the missionaries that blinded them to the natives' plight and caused them to develop strong negative opinions of the California Indians.[122][notes 32] European diseases like influenza, measles, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and dysentery caused a significant population reduction from the first encounter through the 19th century as California Native Americans had no immunity to these diseases.[123] These deaths, however, where only made worse by the treatment Native Californians faced at the hands of Settlers. Associate professor Benjamin Madly at the University of California, Los Angeles wrote:[124]
Between 1846 and 1870, California's Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Diseases, dislocation, and starvation caused many of these deaths. However, abduction, unfree labor, mass death on reservations, individual homicides, battles, and massacres also took thousands of lives and hindered reproduction.
The impact that the original Spanish system of colonization had on modern day California cannot be overstated.[citation needed] Although the certain cooperation between Church and State that was part and parcel of the original California mission system was soon discarded by the Mexican government, it nonetheless provided a foundation upon which later forms of government would soon be established.[125] The early missions and their sub-missions formed the nuclei of what would later become the major metropolitan areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as many other smaller municipalities.[126]
In addition to clearing the way for Spanish, Mexican, and later American settlers, the early Spanish mission system established the viability of the early Western economies of cattle and agriculture which survive in modern form in the state to this day. The Spanish mission system acted to "settle and Westernize" California, but did so very much at the expense of the earlier Native American Culture of California that had preceded the Spanish mission system.[127][128] Wikipedia
320/365 (351)
I'm still on the hunt for 365 On the Road Again Treasure Hunt titles, and this is #15 Abandoned. It's steps from a garden down to the beach but looks as if they've not been used in a while, hence the Abandoned title.
Also, throughout my 365 challenge I've tried to constrain myself to the same crop ratio, which was a bit of problem with this image of mostly twigs, so I had a bit of play.
On May 15, Brookings hosted the inaugural conference of the Global Research Network on Terrorism and Technology, a new independent consortium that aims to better understand the linkages between terrorism and technology. Led by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom, the Global Research Network seeks to explore how new technologies enable and constrain terrorist activity. How do terrorist networks operate online? What are the ethics of content moderation for technology companies? What is the interplay between online content and offline actions?
The inaugural symposium of the Global Research Network showcased original research on these and related issues. Drawing on independent research from think tanks and universities across the world, the full-day conference featured panels and policy debates from leading experts and analysts on terrorism and technology, and brought together officials and leaders from academia, civil society, government, and the technology sector. By presenting the latest research on terrorism and technology to a wide array of stakeholders, the event aimed to inform policy and technology audiences not just about how terrorist groups exploit technology, but what can be done about it.
Photo Credit: Paul Morigi
Taken late 2019.
I made this photo after a small relationship that developed quickly last year. It is free in multiple terms. As some things aren’t meant to be, and to be freed up from issues. It’s a self reflection of the mistakes I made in that relationship and how I did it to just feel free. I got into just to feel free from something else. When all of it lead to me constraining myself even more.
For "free" I used many methods to come up with the final product.
I used a technique I used on a lot of this project of double exposures.
Here's a thing I wrote regarding "Freedom".
Freedom.
Bonded to a way I’m used to.
Shackles across my hands weighing heavy.
To many easy outs for a hard entrance.
To many people with expectations.
They all see me.
Too much time.
Time I’ll waste.
Shackles in my bedroom.
Rope alongside my bed.
Kicked down and running away.
Avoiding the sun for the comfort of the moon.
Turning away the right, to not confirm the wrongs.
How can I redeem when I can’t forgive.
Anger bred through my confusion.
Change.
So afraid of what’s to come, that I miss what’s behind.
Walking a gravel road when there’s a clear path.
When there’s help.
When there’s more.
Staying still is easier than walking.
Easier than running.
No action is an action.
I’ve lost so much through protection.
When I had nothing to protect.
My toxic views.
My jaded ideals.
I’ve lost so much through my past.
Denying the future any merit.
Change.
I could leave any moment.
They need me now.
When I don’t need myself.
Through my lies and misconceptions.
Losing worth in my own mind.
A house with no furniture.
No need to continue.
Except for the stated reason.
Exempt my past.
They’ve moved on, so can I.
Through all of these issues.
Old and new.
A place to go.
Escaping just to escape.
Crippling myself so I can’t run.
Through all of these issues.
Change.
My chance to move on.
Petroglyph of inscribed on basalt by Native Americans of the Coso Culture. One of the figures appears to be a hunter using bow and arrow. The figures were superimposed on an older, fainter image of a Bighorn Sheep. Most of the images in this area date from 2000 B.C. to about 1300 A.D., though some may be much older. The inclusion of the bow and arrow constrains the date of these images to some time after 200 A.D. Little Petroglyph Canyon. Coso Range. Inyo Co., Calif.
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.
Well here it is...
Don't think I have ever had so much fun with photography...kudos and thanks David.
Bottle and Glass placed on a Pyrex plate surrounded by ice.
Plate placed on top of gel that was on a large inverted tupperware container with an SB800 beneath at 1/16 Power.
Blanket surrounding container to constrain light emission.
Strobist snoot on SB28 right aiming at label and ice at 1/4 power.
ebay radio slaves fired all strobes.
White card at right, angled away from glass out of camera view.
Manual, Exposure 1/100 @ f5.6 Focal length 86mm on 24-200mm Zoom.
By the way the gels were $20 from my local music/guitar/DJ store. 10 sheets of DJ Pack 1 Lee Filters
ebay slaves using CR2's have to date worked flawlessly...Hmm just tempted Providence I suspect.
Feel free to comment, always prepared to learn.
This article simply demonstrates the main purpose of the U.S. export controls is not to stop the Chinese military developments, as it can't. The more advanced chips aren't used in military hardware. In fact, one of the worries is that China will flood the market with inexpensive older chips.
The main purpose seems to be an attempt to starve off commercial competition from China and bring manufacturing activities back to the U.S.
The U.S. should know first hand how clever the smugglers are, with the illicit drug smuggling at the southern border. As long as there is demand, the smugglers will find a way.
www.ft.com/content/a59224da-e86d-4289-aa95-41e6b7a04c0d
A fake baby bump shows the limits of US chip sanctions on China
Smuggling boom suggests ban will complicate but not halt the flow of technology, while raising prices for all
Guards on the Zhuhai border between Macau and mainland China recently intercepted a woman wearing a fake baby bump.
In many parts of the world authorities would expect to find drugs in such an appendage. But this one contained 202 processors and nine smartphones.
Chip smuggling into China is booming, creating a lucrative black market that could threaten the effectiveness of US export curbs introduced this year.
The main objective of the US measures is to prevent China from accessing high-end chips for military purposes. The latest controls are comprehensive enough to significantly slow the progress of China’s military and technological development.
Yet just 1 per cent of global chip demand is from governments, including for military use. The overwhelming majority are destined for consumer products. Even accounting for the chips designed for communication or machinery purposes that may be diverted for military use, a tiny proportion of imported chips are critical for military purposes.
Most chips needed for military use are based on older technology. Radars, for example, only need so-called 65nm process technology, which was developed two decades ago. Older automotive chips can be repurposed for most of those that go into aircraft, drones, and missiles, and they can be made at home by China’s local chipmakers. A fraction of the chips needed for military devices are the high-end variety that China needs to bring in from overseas.
The country imported $350bn worth of chips a year before the US export controls were implemented, amounting to 50bn units each month.
The sheer amount of chips traded and the comprehensive scope of the US ban mean there are not many options for China to find a workaround.
But historically, countries under sanctions have always adapted, for example by importing goods through foreign affiliates of local companies or setting up shell companies to acquire products, then smuggling them into the country.
Russia and North Korea have for decades evaded sanctions on devices much bigger than chips, such as thermal imaging devices. Smugglers hide them among shipments of non-controlled products, using fake companies, addresses and shipping labels to cover their tracks.
China has a vast black market, initially established to help people evade high import taxes on foreign goods, that can facilitate this. Its scale and efficiency has been proved in industries as varied as Swiss luxury watches, Korean cosmetics and refined oil.
The global chip shortage since 2020 had already fuelled a black market for chips, along with significant mark-ups. After the US move, with chips fetching prices up to 500 times their original level, there is even more incentive to smuggle them.
China has no hope of entirely circumventing the ban through clandestine trade. But nor should the US fool itself that it can completely cut off Chinese access to its technology.
Relatively few chips are needed to keep China’s military advancement on track. The illicit trade raises the possibility that US sanctions will cost more than they achieve.
An analogy can be drawn between chips and drugs that extends beyond small size, high value and the scope for transporting them in a fake baby bump.
In both cases, prohibition reduces supply, increases prices and fosters criminality. Contraband US technology will still dribble into China in the same way that South American cocaine trickles into the US.
www.tomshardware.com/news/ai-and-tech-sovereignity-drive-...
The Rise of China GPU Makers: AI and Tech Sovereignty Drive New GPU Entrants
The number of GPU startups in China is extraordinary as the country tries to gain AI prowess as well as semiconductor sovereignty, according to a new report from Jon Peddie Research.
The mid-2010s found the number of China-based PC GPU developers increasing rapidly, fueled by the country's push for tech self-sufficiency as well as the advent of AI and high-performance computing (HPC) as high-tech megatrends.
Being the world's second largest economy, China inevitably competes against the U.S. and other well-developed countries in terms of pretty much everything, including technology. China did a lot to lure engineers from around the world and make it worthwhile to establish various chip design startups in the country. In fact, hundreds of new IC design houses emerge in China every year. They develop all kinds of things from tiny sensors to complicated communication chips, thus enabling the country's self-sufficiency from Western suppliers.
"AI training was the big motivator [for Chinese GPU companies], and avoidance of Nvidia's high prices, and (maybe mostly) China's desire for self-sufficiency," said Jon Peddie, the head of JPR.
GPUs are inherently parallel, which means there are loads of compute units inside that can be used for redundancy, which makes it easier to get a GPU up and running (assuming that per transistor costs are relatively low and overall yields are decent). Also, since GPUs are fundamentally parallel, it is easier to parallelize them in scale-out manner. Keeping in mind that China-based SMIC does not have production nodes as advanced as those of TSMC, this way of performance scaling looks good enough. In fact, even if Chinese GPU developers lose access to TSMC's advanced nodes (N7 and below), at least some of them could still produce simpler GPU designs at SMIC and address AI/HPC and/or gaming/entertainment market.
From China's perspective as a country, AI and HPC-capable GPUs may be arguably more important than CPUs too since AI and HPC can enable all-new applications, such as autonomous vehicles and smart cities as well as advanced conventional arms. The U.S. government of course restricts exports of supercomputer-bound CPUs and GPUs to China in a bid to slowdown or even constrain development of advanced weapons of mass destructions, but a fairly sophisticated AI-capable GPU can enable an autonomous killer drone, and drone swarms represent a formidable force, for instance.
Some of the Faculty members, University of Manila. The excursion was at Balara Filter. At that time, there could not have been any other place, given the time constrain. There was a time we even went to the Hundred Island in Pangasinan.
CenUSA and Iowa NSF EPSCoR agronomy researcher Emily Heaton (left, red shirt) introduces congressional staffers to biomass crop miscanthus. (8/14/13)
The fifth annual “Biofuels: Science & Sustainability Tour” for congressional staffers stopped at the Iowa State University Sorenson Farm and Biocentury Research Farm (BCRF) for tours and presentations August 14. Staffers experienced how the bills they help draft influence Iowa farmers, guide crop choice, constrain or enhance bioenergy research, and impact the environment.
I had all kinds of trouble with focus, both auto and manual, so I chose f/11 and focused on the leaf closest to me. The spiderlet's construction brought to mind the Lilliputian bonds constraining Gulliver! I am wondering if this sight will visit my dreams during the coming night ...
'Our challenge. How do we create organisational coherence...how do we create structures that move with change, that are flexible and adaptive...that enable rather than constrain? How do we resolve the need for personal freedom and autonomy with organisational needs for prediction and control' Margaret Wheatley
'Biological systems are adaptable, resilient, and capable of generating perpetual novelty. That's not a bad list of attributes ...' M Wheatley
Here I was trying to balance and focus my SLR with one hand to take a sharp shot whilst feeling the suction pads of this gentle creature's feet on my skin of the other hand and being awestruck at its ability to adapt to its surroundings...a magical experience...
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.
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.
Pictured is an immature flower from a cotton plant that contains "alien genes" from a non-cultivated related species. Here Y1, an alien gene, causes the emerging petals to be yellow rather than cream-colored. Other alien genes affect distribution and characteristics of "gossypol glands," the dark spots visible along veins and margins of the green bracts. The glands protect against insects and herbivores, but also constrain use of cottonseed as dairy cattle feed. David M. Stelly, professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, conducts research on transferring genes from wild related species to cotton, to improve the efficiency of production, conserve resources, reduce pollution, enhance economic yield and improve end-products. While bringing about tangible improvements to cotton, he studies the breeding process scientifically, so that future efforts are not effective and efficient.
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This was a brutal build. The medium blue and light royal blue colours were perfect for her (yes, Bluey is female), but there is a dearth of moulds in these colours, so I had to employ a lot of weird building techniques make this match my vision.
I wanted to avoid hard corners on the body, arms, and legs, while simultaneously trying to avoid bricklinking too much and constraining myself to what I had in my collection. So I had to turn bricks sideways, leading to some questionable connections and increased instability compared to if I had just built a big blue cube. The center of the body is a mess of clips and bars holding everything in place.
The translation of a 2D figure into a 3D object made it difficult to effect colour transitions, particularly in the middle of the head where medium blue meets dark blue.
I was trying to give her excited face (as opposed to surprised, scared, or stoned.
Overall, I think I did an okay job of capturing her expression.
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.
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