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United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov shook hands at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
People Are People, Depeche Mode, 1984
People are people so why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
So we're different colours
And we're different creeds
And different people have different needs
It's obvious you hate me
Though I've done nothing wrong
I never even met you
So what could I have done
I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand
People are people so why should it be
You and I should get along so awfully
Help me understand
Now you're punching and you're kicking
And you're shouting at me
I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced
But I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel
From your head to your fist
I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand
Bush Hill FC and Infinity went into the last game of the season in the Hampshire Premier League locked on 75 points apiece. On the day Bush Hill won easily in a 4-0 scoreline. I loved it at the end where both sets of players and benches shook hands and embraced and Infinity even had the decency to watch Bush Hill pick up the cup. Great Sportsmanship, it was a pleasure to be there
Press conference after 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Rovaniemi with Iceland’s Foreign Minister Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson (left) and Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini (right).
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Press conference by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Timo Soini, Secretary General Thorbjørn and Secretary of State for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin.
The Session of the Committee of Ministers, to be held at Finlandia Hall on 17 May 2019, will mark the end of Finland’s Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. At the meeting, Finland will hand over the Presidency to France. More than 30 ministers from the member States of the Council of Europe will attend the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by Foreign Minister Timo Soini.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Kimmo Räisänen / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
After the shock of Donald Trump’s inauguration day, when millions of Americans (and visiting foreigners like me) felt understandably distraught, bereft, dismayed, as the grotesque, narcissistic, predatory, corrupt fraud that is Donald Trump delivered a bleak and graceless inauguration speech, it was nothing short of a delight on Saturday, Jan. 21, Day 2 of the aberrant Trump presidency, when, across the country and around the world, millions of women (plus large numbers of supportive men) marched in protest against Trump and all he and his administration stand for — his disdain for women, his racism, his xenophobia, his adherence to intolerant white Christian fundamentalism, and, last but not least, his opaque, but very obviously corrupt business practices. Two US academics have estimated that between 3.3m and 4.6m people marched in total across the US, with New York’s turnout estimated at between 400,000 and 500,000 people.
Stepping out of Grand Central Station into a river of protest, with more clever, witty and insightful handmade posters than you could imagine, and with chants and cheers punctuating the general hubbub at regular intervals was to feel that perhaps this dystopian vision of America can indeed be overthrown before it wreaks untold havoc at home and abroad. And with no beginning or end of the protest in sight, it was easy to believe that the number marching was much larger than even the academics’ estimate.
It will take more than one day, of course, as the people of America need to unite like never before — everyone who didn’t vote for Trump, everyone threatened by Trump, everyone appalled by Trump, including, of course, those who voted for him but might already be having second thoughts. This could be a disastrous presidency, or it could be even worse than that, but people need to put aside any notions of complacency, and work out how to resist. This was a great start, and a historic moment that everyone there will remember, but now there needs to be much more action and organizing.
As you look at these photos, however, I hope they are a reminder of a day of hope across the US and around the world, when ordinary people demonstrated that fundamental decency will not be silenced, and that a tolerant, multi-racial society, featuring, at its heart, equality between women and men, and between people whatever their race, creed or color, has humour, intelligence and compassion that throw into even sharper relief how troublingly miserable, negative and ungenerous Donald Trump and his advisors are.
For an article by US Uncut about the numbers attending the protests, see: usuncut.com/news/womens-march-largest-protest-us-history/
For the turnout estimates, see: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xa0iLqYKz8x9Yc_rfhtmSOJQ2...
For an article in New York Daily News, which ran a front page devoted to the protests, under the headline, “See them roar,” see: www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/women-march-washington-...
For my website, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk
For my Facebook posts after Trump’s inauguration, see:
www.facebook.com/andyworthingtonUK/posts/1015497574252380...
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154975238073804&set...
For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook / Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Timo Soini and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Anders Samuelsen.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
My girlfriends sense of humour recently in my kitchen, some unfinished toy projects are "positioned" in an immoral way!
I found this waiting for me after I had been upstairs!
I had to pixelate an area for decency!
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Kimmo Räisänen/ Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
It may seem harsh to want to flush away Campbell Newman (Queensland Premier) and his shameful LNP government. However together they have flushed away the lives of many Queenslanders.
Campbell Newman and his LNP government have :
Flushed away the jobs of 14,000+ Queenslanders;
Flushed away any decency of living for many Queenslanders living on the poverty line and struggling to find food and accommodation;
Flushed away and mercy and justice with the Offender Tax and the removal of all special courts:
Flushed away all justice for Aboriginal Queenslanders with their decision to fund the legal cost and a policeman who actions and lack of duty of care cost the life of an Aboriginal.
My statement may seem harsh to you; though the actions of the sinister and godless LNP government of Campbell Newman are far more shameful and harsh.
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.
These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.
It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.
Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.
“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders
For more information:
claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Merseybus Atlantean 1628 HTJ 628P seen on Kings Parade at New Brighton on 6th October 1994 - new to Seaview Road garage in August 1975 - now banned advertising on its decency panels
At least the typographic provocateurs of Volksbühne Berlin had the decency not to hang the two broken ‘S’s directly side by side.
This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.
These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.
It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.
Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.
“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders
For more information:
claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...
My offical purpose in Japan is to observe and study the
juxtiposition of technology and spirituality. I walked to the
bus station and I basically finished my project. The shinto
paper hangie-thingies waving wildly in the whooshing wind of
a passing train? Can you handle that alliteration?
I had to find an ATM that accepted foreign cards, so I
followed the train tracks down two stations through suburban
town houses. I passed no fewer than four shinto shrines.
Playgrounds and parks are also a dime a dozen out here in the
light residential area around the Kotesashi station (where
I'm staying).
Apparently I still have some vestiges of social awareness. I
didn't know. I saw a Japanese midget hoing in a garden (like,
using a ho --- like, weeding with a garden tool) and I
didn't take a picture. I was amazed too.
For those of you who have some sense of decency and don't
find imaginary hoing midgets funny, I have a picture that you
don't have to imagine. I'm sure that it has some deep and
inviolate religious meaning, but I don't know what it is. I'm
pretty sure that it isn't the end result of some crass panty-
raid at the local retirement home. I doubt they would have
matching red underwear, anyway.
I'll have to ask someone about religion in Japan. From
everything I've heard, they are religiously atheists;
religion is more of a cultural thing. You can pay for
churches in America by telling people that they'll go to
heaven if they write you a check. I wonder where all the
money to maintain the shrines comes from?
Superlatives:
Best T-Shirt:
GET COMMON: Read a Book
Best Alliteration:
Jason puts the "J" in Japanese Jaywalking
Best Waste of Money Today
Accidentally paying three times the required fair to get
home and drink a glass of water after walking for five hours.
The fact that I actually made it home is awesome too.
with much Japanese-y typing difficulty,
--Jason McKim
362 - Emperor Julianus of Constantinople ends education laws
626 - Avaren/Slaves under khagan Bajan begin siege of Constantinople
1014 - Battle of Strumitsa-valley: Byzantine destroys Bulgarian armies
1030 - Battle at Stiklestad (Trondheim)
1179 - Lando Sittino proclaimed (anti-)pope Innocent III
1560 - Turkish fleet recaptures Djerba on Spanjaarden
1563 - League of High Nobles routes King Philip II
1565 - Mary Queen of Scots marries her cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
1567 - James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
1579 - Antwerp request union with of Utrecht
1579 - King Philip II arrests plotters Antonio Perez & princess van Eboli
1585 - Friese academy opens
1588 - Attacking Spanish Armada defeated & scattered by English defenders
1588 - Duke Farneses troops ready for invasion of England
1634 - Dutch fleet under Johannes van Walbeeck lands on Curacao
1655 - Biggest townhall in the world opens in Amsterdam
1676 - Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians
1693 - Battle at Neerwinden: French beats English/Dutch army
1693 - War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen - France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
1696 - French king Louis XIV & Victor Amadeua van Savoye signs peace
1715 - 10 Spanish treasure galleons sinks off Florida coast by hurricane
1751 - 1st international world title prize fight-Jack Stack of England, beats challenger M Petit of France in 29 mins in England
1773 - 1st schoolhouse west of Allegheny Mtns completed, Schoenbrunn, OH
1783 - Skaptar Volcano on Iceland erupts killing about 9,000
1786 - 1st newspaper published west of Alleghenies, Pitts Gazette
1793 - John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
1835 - 1st sugar plantation in Hawaii begins
1836 - Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
1844 - NY Yacht Club forms
1847 - Cumberland School of Law founded in Lebanon, Tennessee, USA. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
1848 - Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - in Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police.
1851 - Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
1858 - 1st commercial treaty between US & Japan signed
1858 - US citizens allowed to live anywhere in Japan
1858 - United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
1864 - 3rd & last day of battle at Deep Bottom Run, Virginia
1864 - Battle of Macon, GA (Stoneman's Raid)
1864 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
1874 - Major Walter Copton Wingfield patents a portable tennis court
1899 - 1st motorcycle race, Manhattan Beach, NY
1899 - Southern Calif Golf Assn forms
1899 - The First Hague Convention is signed.
1900 - In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
1902 - Union of Orthodox Rabbis of US & Canada forms
1907 - 1st helicopter ascent in Douai, France
1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms Boy Scouts in England
1908 - St Louis Browns Rube Waddell strikes out 16 Phila Athletics
1910 - JWEL Hilgers is 1st Dutchman to fly above Dutch territory
1911 - Boston Red Sox Joe Wood no-hits St Louis Browns, 5-0
1913 - Albania becomes sovereignty under prince Wilhelm von Wied
1914 - 1st transcontinental phone link made between NYC & SF
1914 - Austrian-Hungary bombs Belgrade
1914 - British fleet leaves Portland/passes Straits of Dover
1914 - Russia mobilize troops along Austrian boundary
1915 - Pirate Honus Wagner at 41, hits a grand slam HR
1916 - Postal check & Girodienst establishes
1920 - 1st transcontinental airmail flight from NY to SF
1920 - Mexican rebel Pancho Villa surrenders
1920 - Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
1921 - Cleveland's 125th anniversary celebration: Cy Young, 54, pitches 2 inn
1921 - New rules of language assumed (equal rights Flemings/Walen Belgium)
1921 - Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
1923 - Albert Einstein speaks on pacifism in Berlin
1923 - KPD holds struggle day against fascism, in Germany
1924 - Paul Runyan wins PGA golf championship
1927 - 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)
1927 - Bellevue Hospital in NY installs 1st iron lung
1927 - Phil Mead scores his 100th 100, Hampshire v Northants
1928 - Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" is released
1928 - Cleve Indians score 17 in 1st 2 inns to beat Yanks 24-6 at Dunn Field they also set a record with 24 singles in 1 game
1929 - Belgium Maurice Dewaele wins Tour de France
1930 - 115°F (46°C), Holly Springs, Mississippi (state record)
1930 - Airship R100, 1st passenger-carrying flight from England to Canada
1932 - Great Depression: in Washington, DC, U.S. troops disperse the last of the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans.
1934 - 17th PGA Championship: Paul Runyan at Park CC Williamsville NY
1936 - RCA shows 1st real TV program (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion show & monologue from Tobacco Road & comedy)
1937 - Japanese troops occupies Peking & Tientsin
1937 - Tongzhou Incident
1938 - Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears
1938 - Olympic National Park forms
1940 - Urk soccer team forms
1942 - Eastern Blvd in the Bronx renamed Bruckner Blvd
1943 - 1 million inhabitants flee Hamburg
1943 - Nazi's evacuate Hollandsche Theater in Amsterdam
1944 - Allied air force bomb Germany for 6 hours
1944 - Frank McCormick (Reds) HR off Ace Adams (Giants) in both games of DH
1944 - US 4th Armour division occupies Avranches
1945 - After delivering the Atomic Bomb across the Pacific, the cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed & sunk by a Japanese submarine
1947 - Gas leak explodes in a beauty parlor, 10 women die in Harrisonburg Va
1948 - King George VI opens 14th modern Olympic games in London
1949 - Airlift in West-Germany to West-Berlin ends
1949 - BBC radio begins broadcasting
1950 - Pee Wee Reese, hits the 3,000th Dodger home run
1952 - 1st nonstop transpacific flight by a jet
1953 - US bombers shot down at north of Wladiwostok
1955 - Smokey Burgess hits 3 HRS to help Pirates beat Reds 16-5
1955 - USSR performs nuclear Test
1956 - 11th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Kathy Cornelius
1956 - Jacques Cousteau's Calypso anchors in 7,500 m of water (record)
1956 – WKT (now WSVN) TV channel 7 in Miami, FL (IND) begins broadcasting
1957 - Floyd Patterson TKOs Tommy Jackson in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
1957 - International Atomic Energy Agency forms by UN
1957 - Jack Paar's Tonight show premieres
1958 - Pres Eisenhower signs NASA & Space Act of 1958
1958 - Southern Pacific Bay ferries stop running
1959 - First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
1961 - Bob Dylan injured in car accident
1961 - Phillies lose 1st of 23 straight games
1961 - Wallis & Futuna Islands become a French overseas territory
1965 - Beatles movie "Help" premieres, Queen Elizabeth attends
1965 - Gemini 5 returned after 12d 7h 11m 53s
1965 - Major league record 26 strikeouts, Phillies (16), Pirates (10)
1965 - USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1966 - Bob Dylan hurt in motorcycle accident near Woodstock NY
1966 - Nigerians chief of staff Jakubu Gowon makes coup
1967 - Fire aboard carrier USS Forrestal in Gulf of Tonkin kills 134
1967 - Moderate quake (6.5) strikes Caracas, Venezuela causing severe damage
1967 - USS Forrestal explodes kills 134. $100 million damage
1968 - Cincinnati Red George Culver no hits Phillies, 6-1
1968 - Gram Parson refuses to play with the Byrds in South Africa
1968 - Mount Arenal, Costa Rica kills 80 in Pelee-type eruption
1968 - Pope Paul VI, in an encyclical entitled "Humanae Vitae" (Of Human Life), declares any artificial forms of birth control prohibited
1968 - Wash DC Ron Hansen makes unassisted triple play vs Cleve
1969 - Mariner 6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars
1970 - 6 days of race rioting in Hartford Ct
1972 - France performs nuclear Test at Muruora Island
1973 - $180,000 in Led Zeppelin receipts are robbed from NY Hilton
1973 - Greek plebiscite chooses republic over monarchy
1974 - 2nd impeachment vote against Nixon by House Judiciary Committee
1974 - Episcopal Church ordained female priests
1974 - France performs nuclear Test at Muruora Island
1974 - St Louis Card Lou Brock steals his 700th base
1975 - Ford became 1st US pres to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz
1975 - Military coup by Gen Mohammed/Pres Jakubu Gowon fired
1976 - USSR performs underground nuclear Test
1976 - In New York City, the "Son of Sam" kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
1978 - 600,000 attend "Summer Jam" rock festival, Watkins Glen, NY
1978 - Penny Dean swims English Channel in record 7h40m
1978 - Pioneer 11 transmits images of Saturn & its rings
1978 - On Old Timer's Day, NY Yankees announce that Billy Martin will return as NY Yankee manager in 1980 & Bob Lemon will become GM
1979 - 7th du Maurier Golf Classic (Peter Jackson Classic): Amy Alcott
1981 - Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Amphitheater is dedicated
1981 - Iran ex-president Bani Sadr flees to Paris
1981 - Prince Charles of England weds Lady Diane Spencer
1982 - Andy Taylor of rock group Duran Duran weds Tracie Wilson
1983 - "Friday Night Videos" premieres on NBC TV
1983 - Steve Garvey ends his NL record 1,207 consecutive game streak
1984 - 12th du Maurier Golf Classic: Juli Inkster
1984 - 23rd Summer Olympics opens in LA
1985 - 19th Space Shuttle Mission (51-F)-Challenger 8-launched
1986 - Bomb attack in West-Beirut, 30 killed
1986 - Dennis Amiss scores his 100th 100, Warwickshire v Lancashire
1986 - NY jury rules NFL violated antitrust laws, awards USFL $1 in damages
1987 - Ben & Jerry's & Jerry Garcia agree on a new flavor Cherry Garcia
1988 - FDIC bails out 1st Republic Bank, Dallas, with $4 billion
1988 - Gorbachev pushes plan electing president & parliament in March, 1989
1988 - Judge orders NASA to release unedited tape from Challenger cockpit
1988 - Last US Playboy Club (Lansing Mich) closes
1988 - South African govt bans anti-apartheid film "Cry Freedom"
1988 - Baltimore trades Mike Boddicker to the Red Sox for Brady Anderson & Curt Schilling
1988 - Rick Sutcliffe swipes home, 1st pitcher since Pascual Perez in 1984 to steal home
1989 - Javier Sotomayor of Cuba sets high jump record (8'0") in San Juan
1989 - Phillies retire Steve Carlton's # 32
1989 - Vince Coleman, record streak stopped at 50 straight stolen bases
1989 - White Sox trade Harold Baines to Rangers for Scott Fletcher & Sam Sosa
1990 - 26th Curtis Cup: US wins 14-4
1990 - 28th Tennis Fed Cup: USA beats USSR in Atlanta Georgia (2-1)
1990 - 36th Mazda LPGA Championship won by Beth Daniel
1990 - Boston Red Sox set major league record with 12 doubles in a game
1990 - South Africa Communist Party begins 1st legal conference
1991 - 1st Sunday Night game at Shea Stadium (Mets beat Cubs 6-0)
1991 - Donald Trump gives Marla Maples a 7½ carat engagement ring
1991 - Yankee Stadium fans throw cups & blowup dolls at Jose Canseco
1992 - "Chinese Coffee" closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 18 perfs
1992 - Evgueni Sadovyi swims world record/OR 400m freestyle (3:45.00)
1992 - Ray Sharkey, actor (Wiseguys), arrested for narcotic possession
1993 - Cin Red pitcher Thomas Browning arrested for marijuana possession
1993 - Walter Koenig (Checkov-Star Trek) suffers a mild heart attack
1993 - Israeli Court of Appeal overturns (5-0) conviction of John Demjaujuk, saying not enough evidence he is Concentration Camp Ivan the Terrible
1994 - 200,000 Moslems demand death to feminist Taslima Nasrin
1994 - Corrupt Italian ex-premier Craxi gets 8½ year jail sentenced
1994 - H Emans Arubaanse Peoples Party wins parliamentary election
1994 - India army kills 27 Moslem militants
1994 - Jesse Timmedequas, rapes & murders Megan Kanka, 7 (Megan's Law)
1994 - Parliamentary election in Aruba
1995 - Monica Seles beats Martina Naratilova in her return to tennis
1995 - Carolina Panthers beat Jacksonville Jaguars in their 1st NFL exhibition game 20-14
1996 - The controversial child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a U.S. federal court.
1997 - US Senior Golf Open ends at Olympia Fields GC Ill
2005 - Astronomers announce their discovery of Eris.
"Yous' guys skedaddle!"
3 frogfish in one dive, and two of them had the decency to "swim" together.... Constantly shooting wide-angle does have its built-in 'missed opportunities', but sometimes you have subjects who are cooperative enough to stay put while you shove a huge camera in their face!.....
© All Rights Reserved Terry Goss/The Forever Engine
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
07 November 2018 — The Philippines and Japan signed exchange of notes on two official development assistance (ODA) projects geared towards enhancing defense and transport capabilities at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on 7 November 2018.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. and Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda signed the Exchange of Notes on the Grant Aid of the Government of Japan to the Philippines of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) UH-1H Parts and Maintenance Equipment to the Philippine Air Force (PAF); and on the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) Rehabilitation.
In his remarks, Secretary Locsin noted how Japan has supported the Philippines’ development objectives.
“Throughout the years, Japan has vigorously and unfailingly supported the priorities of the Philippine government for the wellbeing of the Filipino people—and in particular through economic and development assistance as well as in enhancing our defense and security capabilities. It is help that has no agenda but friendship, decency, and a deep and abiding regard, as much for the safety and wellbeing of neighbors, as for oneself,” Secretary Locsin said.
“This is why we have elevated our relationship with Japan to a strategic partnership. Today’s Exchange of Notes affirms this ever-growing, mutually beneficial and gratifying relationship between our two countries and our two peoples,” he added.
For his part, Ambassador Haneda reflected on the successes of Philippine-Japan partnership, and how it remains to be committed to its “joint work”.
“With the signing of these two projects, let me assure you that we do not only mark our commitments on paper, we also pledge our all-out efforts in bringing these projects into successful completion,” Ambassador Haneda stated.
The Grant Aid on UH-1H parts and maintenance equipment to the PAF, involves Japan’s grant of some ¥5.31 billion (around PhP2.46 billion) worth of spare parts and maintenance equipment of UH-1H helicopters by the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) consisting of the following categories: airframe structure; dynamic power system, control system; rotor system; hydraulic system; electrical system; instrument system; accessory equipment; and others.
The UH-1H helicopters are used in the PAF’s activities related to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, transport, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Meanwhile, the Project on the MRT-3 rehabilitation involves the complete rehabilitation of MRT-3 to restore its design capacity and reliability, the general overhaul of MRT-3's entire fleet of 72 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), and day-to-day maintenance.
The ¥38-billion (around PhP17.79 billion) loan facility will be used to cover the railway line’s trains, power supply system, overhead catenary system, radio system, closed-circuit television system, public address system, signalling system, rail tracks, road rail vehicles, depot equipment, elevators and escalators and other station-building equipment.
The Project will have a duration of 43 months, with the rehabilitation to be completed in the first 26 months, and the general overhaul to be completed by the 43rd month.
The exchanges of notes were witnessed by Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorezana, Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy John Batan, Finance Undersecretary for the International Finance Group Atty. Mark Dennis Joven, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-Tokyo Senior Vice President Yasushi Tanaka, JICA-Philippines Chief Representative Yoshio Wada and officials from the DFA, the Departments of Finance, Transportation, and National Defense, the Japanese Embassy and JICA.
Japan is the Philippines’ top ODA partner and has contributed significantly to the country’s development and capacity building measures in areas that include infrastructure, security, health, trade, tourism, human resources, agriculture, education, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, among many others.
The two countries celebrated the 60th anniversary of the normalization of their diplomatic relations in 2016. END
~*Photography Originally Taken By: www.CrossTrips.Com Under God*~
"The young men we remember today did not live to be called veterans,'' President Bush said today at a memorial for "fallen soldiers'' at American Legion Post 121 in Waco, Texas.
"They died in a distant land fighting terror, spreading freedom, and protecting their fellow citizens from danger,'' Bush said. "The valor and selfless devotion of these men fills their families with immeasurable pride.
"Yet this pride cannot fill the hole in their loved ones' aching hearts, or relieve the burden of grief that will remain for a lifetime,'' he said. " In their sorrow, these families need to know, and families all across the nation of the fallen need to know that your loved ones served a cause that is good, and just, and noble.
"And as their Commander-in-Chief,'' the president said, with an oft-repeated promise about his commitment to the war, "I make you this promise: their sacrifice will not be in vain.
"I know all the veterans gathered here and across the nation feel a special bond with our fallen soldiers and their families,'' Bush said. "Many experienced the heartbreak and tragic losses of war. Our veterans know that -- what it's like to lose a brother on the field of battle. And many of them recall the determination they felt when a beloved comrade fell, the determination to pick up the mantle, to carry on the fight, and to complete the mission.
"That's precisely what today's generation of soldiers is doing in the war on terror. Since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, more than 2 million Americans have stepped forward to put on our nation's uniform -- and during that same period, 1.5 million American troops have made the courageous decision to re-enlist and to stay in the fight.
"These men and women saw the future the terrorists intend for our country, and they said with clear voices: "Not on my watch." America is blessed to have such brave defenders. They are tomorrow's veterans -- and they're bringing pride to our country.
"Their service is noble, and it is necessary. The enemies who attacked us six years ago want to strike our country again -- and next time, they hope to kill Americans on a scale that will make 9/11 pale by comparison. By fighting this enemy in foreign lands, the men and women of our Armed Forces are helping to ensure we do not have to face them in our own land.
"And by spreading the hope of liberty to nations that have not known it, our troops are helping to defeat the ideology of the terrorists -- and secure a future of peace for generations to come.
"As veterans, you have confidence in freedom's cause -- because you have seen with your own eyes the power of liberty to transform nations and secure the peace. The men and women gathered before me took an oath to defend America -- and you upheld that oath with honor, and decency, and valor. You humbled tyrants, liberated continents, and freed millions from unspeakable oppression. And because of your service and sacrifice, the world has been transformed in once unimaginable ways.
"Today, across Europe and Asia, former adversaries in war have become allies in the cause of peace. And in towns and villages on both continents, there are still men and women who talk of the day when the Americans arrived to free them from tyranny.
"I thank our nation's veterans for the fine example that you have set for our country. I thank you for your courage and your patriotism and your devotion to duty. I thank you for standing up for the men and women of our Armed Forces -- and I thank you for all you do to support the families they leave behind during this time of war.
"May God bless and keep all who have made the ultimate sacrifice,'' the president said, "May God bless and keep our brave and honored veterans. May God bless those who are in harm's way. And may God continue to bless our nation. Thank you.''
Stockport 5 has been nicely restored, but modern values insisted the restoration had higher upper deck "decency panels" than originally used. Nonetheless a good example of a typical 1900s British tram.
Automobile Repairing and Service Business on MLK Blvd. in Augusta, GA
G & O Auto Repair aka Malibu’s Performance Shop
2207 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Augusta, GA
30904-4925
(706) 738-0031
maps.google.com/maps?q=2207+Martin+Luther+King+Blvd.+++Au...
This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.
These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.
It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.
Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.
“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders
For more information:
claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...
This is one of the photos from a Power Point presentation explaining a study in Augusta, Georgia about a street named for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Claiming A Street Named King” Project is the brainchild of Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.
These photos depict homes, building and abandoned structures along Martin Lutheran King, Jr. Boulevard in Augusta, Georgia.
It began with research in Athens and Augusta (Georgia) through the University Of Georgia School Of Environmental Design.
Research was led by Dr. Mary Anne Akers in collaboration with Georgia Legal Services Program, Georgia State Trade Association of Non-profit Developers (G-STAND) and Neighborhood Works America, INC.
“Claiming A Street Named King” Project study in Augusta, Georgia – conducted along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard - shows areas that need economic assistance – and that’s the same issue in many American cities that have streets named for civil rights leaders
For more information:
claimingastreetnamedking.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/Claimin...
This was a cartoon for a class about the way public decency laws change over time. I was petty much the only person who saw it like this.
Welcome Reception hosted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Timo Soini and the Mayor of Rovaniemi Mr Esko Lotvonen on the occasion of the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting at Lappia Hall.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
+3 in comments
Bello was born to do it. These are some older photos from when I first got my new lens (100-400mm L series) and was taking them to the park alot to take pictures. Jessica (Chuppy's owner) was asking me why I didn't have close up action pictures taken with it... the answer is simple. Bello with any ounce of freedom uses it to run and run. And then run some more and quickly is as far away as he can get and at 400mm, I'm still not close. This one was cropped even though taken at 400mm. And knowing this fact about him, it's why I went with 400mm instead of the 70-200mm L series.
The weather is cooling off today, and he has been quite vocal. I think he likes it. So I might go skating with him later. This morning he woke me up by curling against my chest and demanding a belly rub. And then snuggling closer. Kinda hard to be mad at him. He at least had the decency to wait until about 8:50.
Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Anders Samuelsen.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
After the shock of Donald Trump’s inauguration day, when millions of Americans (and visiting foreigners like me) felt understandably distraught, bereft, dismayed, as the grotesque, narcissistic, predatory, corrupt fraud that is Donald Trump delivered a bleak and graceless inauguration speech, it was nothing short of a delight on Saturday, Jan. 21, Day 2 of the aberrant Trump presidency, when, across the country and around the world, millions of women (plus large numbers of supportive men) marched in protest against Trump and all he and his administration stand for — his disdain for women, his racism, his xenophobia, his adherence to intolerant white Christian fundamentalism, and, last but not least, his opaque, but very obviously corrupt business practices. Two US academics have estimated that between 3.3m and 4.6m people marched in total across the US, with New York’s turnout estimated at between 400,000 and 500,000 people.
Stepping out of Grand Central Station into a river of protest, with more clever, witty and insightful handmade posters than you could imagine, and with chants and cheers punctuating the general hubbub at regular intervals was to feel that perhaps this dystopian vision of America can indeed be overthrown before it wreaks untold havoc at home and abroad. And with no beginning or end of the protest in sight, it was easy to believe that the number marching was much larger than even the academics’ estimate.
It will take more than one day, of course, as the people of America need to unite like never before — everyone who didn’t vote for Trump, everyone threatened by Trump, everyone appalled by Trump, including, of course, those who voted for him but might already be having second thoughts. This could be a disastrous presidency, or it could be even worse than that, but people need to put aside any notions of complacency, and work out how to resist. This was a great start, and a historic moment that everyone there will remember, but now there needs to be much more action and organizing.
As you look at these photos, however, I hope they are a reminder of a day of hope across the US and around the world, when ordinary people demonstrated that fundamental decency will not be silenced, and that a tolerant, multi-racial society, featuring, at its heart, equality between women and men, and between people whatever their race, creed or color, has humour, intelligence and compassion that throw into even sharper relief how troublingly miserable, negative and ungenerous Donald Trump and his advisors are.
For an article by US Uncut about the numbers attending the protests, see: usuncut.com/news/womens-march-largest-protest-us-history/
For the turnout estimates, see: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xa0iLqYKz8x9Yc_rfhtmSOJQ2...
For an article in New York Daily News, which ran a front page devoted to the protests, under the headline, “See them roar,” see: www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/women-march-washington-...
For my website, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk
For my Facebook posts after Trump’s inauguration, see:
www.facebook.com/andyworthingtonUK/posts/1015497574252380...
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154975238073804&set...
For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...
Topping and Company, where they have the decency and good taste to offer you a coffee as you walk in. Topping.
I am in an art survey class, from Sumerian to modern. I have done two presentations, one on an Italian artists and last one was on a painting by Goya. The nice thing about the class is part of the assignments was I had to go to 5 art galleries and go at least three times to the Met Art museum. It has been lots of fun. And of course all the other students want to be like me and want to hear my voice. Of course because of the demand I have to oblige. It is just decency that demands it.
Check this out...............
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs produces photo material for media representatives. Please feel free to use the photos for journalistic purposes, considering the following restrictions: One-time picture publishing right, no archiving or reselling. Editorial use only. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organisation shall be mentioned as a source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. The publisher is not entitled to transfer rights to a third party. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall also obtain the permissions needed for any names, persons, works of art, trademarks, and proprietary rights shown in the pictures. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity. Photo: Atte Kajova
United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo held a press conference at the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Timo Soini and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Margot Wallström.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
The venue for the meeting in Rovaniemi is Lappi Areena.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, with the expertise of WWF Finland, has created guidelines for environmentally sustainable meetings. These guidelines will be followed for all Arctic Council meetings in Finland.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
I see Alberto Grando the friend and motorcycle companion to Che Guevara has died today at the age of 88. Born in Argentina he was a childhood friend of Che Guevara. He took the now famous 8 month trip with Che around the whole of Latin America by motorbike. This trip exposed the two young medical students to the political oppression and extreme poverty that the people of that region suffered at the time. It turned Che Guevara into a revolutionary.
Their trip is immortalized in the film ['The Motorcycle Diaries'](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u0U3dbVMHk) that is based on the diaries that both men kept of that time.
After Che had helped Castro overthrow the disgusting Batista regime in Cuba he invited his old friend Alberto Grando to join him in Havana. Alberto spent his time there teaching biochemistry and was still living in Cuba at the time of his death.
Alberto's death is a reminder of the decency and hope that that motivated some early revolutionaries. Even Guevara who is accused of unwarranted executions and cruelty was genuinely motivated by a struggle against injustice and poverty.
Its sad how little the Cuban revolution amongst others has actually delivered in this regard. Che remains the only credible hero of that revolution still bathed in the glow of its glorious early days as he was killed attempting to ferment revolution in Bolivia back in 1967.
He did not go on to be sullied by the 50 year rule of Fidel Castro with all its suppression of dissidents and writers and the grinding poverty for the people of Cuba.
Today two events occurred as if to underscore the difference between the long gone radical hopeful days of the motorcycle diaries and the present heavy repression and autocracy of the Communist/Fascist Cuban state run by the diktat of the Castro brothers. Today Alberto Grando died. Today the two day trial of 61 year old Alan Goss ends. Goss is an American and a human rights activist working to promote democracy, through bringing information and connection to the outside world, he currently faces 20 years in prison.
He is charged with having illegally connected people to the internet. It is feared will receive the full sentence of 20 years imprisonment. He has already been held in prison for over a year.............. For connecting people to the net......... think about it.
Sadly Che and even Alberto lent their support to a regime they thought would bring freedom from oppression and [poverty](http://www.windsorstar.com/Cuba+poverty+obvious+pride/4351172/story.html)......... but in the long run it [really did nothing of the sort](http://www.dailybits.com/top-10-countries-censoring-the-web/).
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS.............. Harv always suggests some great stuff......... this is the contact sheet of Korda's amazing Che image........ the horizontal in the second bottom row is the image that made Che the icon as you see him above........... Harv is right his politics his revolutionary zeal his life and achievements ........ combine with ......... but are almost surpassed by this massive iconic image of him that lives on. [http://www.alscotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Guevara02.jpg](http://www.alscotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Guevara02.jpg)
PPS........... Here is more about the afterlife of Che and the photographer Korda and his famous photograph ........ how Che has lived on through this image ....... how this iconic image has a life of it's own ............ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrillero_Heroico)
I’d been standing outside of the courtroom in that suit for hours.
It was the only suit I’d owned.
I was really starting to hate that suit.
I wore it for my wedding, a bunch of funerals, too many trials and through my divorce.
I promised myself I was gonna burn it after the divorce was finalized.
I never wanted to wear that suit again.
Ditching it, I thought… it might cleanse me of the residue of this whole sordid series of events.
The whole thing made me feel so dirty.
Burning that suit would be a personal symbol of me opening a new chapter in my life.
Nobody knew who I was out there in the hallway and I was pretty grateful that it spared me from any small talk.
There were none of those courtroom artists who make pastel sketches for the news like at the first trial.
I remembered how that hit me... when I saw that there were three people sitting in the courtroom to sketch my wife's first trial for the television news...
you know you're in a world of shit when they come to 'sketch' your trial.
The media was never leaked information about this lawsuit… and against my better judgement I kept it quiet... Blake made that call... which I think was a mistake because it really was the media all along that made things happen… but it was nice not to have to deal with them right now.
I wanted to focus on what I had to say on that stand.
I wanted to stay sharp and honed like a razor for the combat I knew I was about to find myself engaged in.
This was gonna get ‘intellectually twisty.’
They were gonna try and destroy me on that stand and I knew it.
The Mole must've told me that a thousand times already.
My wife’s attorney was starting to see it too.
I was standing in the corridor by the big darkly stained and worn wooden doors of the courthouse when I heard the muffled words ‘the defense calls Mr. View Minder.’
A split second later my wife’s attorney Blake straight arms both doors open with a really pissed off look on his face.
I noticed that he was sweating and I’d never seen that before.
He looked nervous too.
Blake was a kick ass lawyer… he won the biggest lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department in history… for something like twenty eight million dollars… he specialized in cases of police misconduct and he was a big defender of civil rights.
The guy believed in the constitution and I really admired him.
He was always usually calm and collected… the guy was the definition of cool… I can’t remember ever have seeing him display any emotion.
Seeing him emotional right now... I guess that alarmed me.
For some reason I turned around and walked the other way… away from the doors to the courtroom.
Blake kinda caught up with me and put his arm around my shoulder…
He used his arm to slow down my flight and he stopped me there in the corridor and turned me to face him and the courtroom doors.
It seemed from the look on his face that he’d come to accept what he’d rejected for so many months in preparing for this trial.
I had told Blake that he wasn’t so much arguing a case in a lawsuit for the damages that my wife sustained in what they said was her false arrest at the Super Store that night… I told him that they were fighting what I did.
They were trying to slaughter the ‘whistle-blower.’
Blake looked me in the eyes with both of his hands on my shoulders now… the kind of grip that someone lays on you when they want to be sure that you understand what they’re saying… and he took in a deep breath.
The kind of breath somebody takes when they’re gonna give you some really bad news.
Between the grip and the breath I knew I was fucked.
Like when the doctor gives you that look right before he says ‘we’ve done all that we can do.’
I knew what he had to say was really gonna be bad and I tried to prepare myself mentally.
‘I don’t know what you did to these people’ he said as he spun me towards the doors of the courtroom… ‘but you are walking into your own execution here… you’re about to be crucified man.’
God… you never want to hear your attorney say those words to you.
It was obvious that he’d conceded the case to loss and he conceded it based on what he figured was gonna happen when I got up on that stand.
He knew what was coming.
Blake pulled open one of the big heavy doors and sort of began to push me through it…
‘Don’t fight’ it he said… ‘and it will be much easier on you’ and he gave me that wink and that look that said ‘let it go… and go peacefully... blade of grass deeply rooted.’
Fuck.
I felt like I’d just been sentenced to death.
Blake made sure that he timed the completion of that statement with his final push of my body into the courtroom so that there was no possibility of me replying.
He really pissed me off with that statement and the way that he said it.
I was mad… because all along I’d told him that the case was gonna head in this direction… I knew it… I knew these people now… I’d seen their playbook.
By the time he realized that I was right it all seemed too late.
The case seemed lost.
I took the chair in the witness stand one very pissed off man.
I wasn’t even afraid anymore.
Pure adrenaline was pumping through my veins where blood was circulating only moments ago.
Fuck Blake and his ‘don’t fight it shit’ I thought.
I wanted this fight.
I’d waited for this fight.
I waited for this fight for a long time.
I was gonna fight it.
And I was gonna fight it hard.
If the case was lost I was gonna fight even harder because I knew that in the grand scheme of things this was just the opening salvo in what was gonna be the mother of all legal battles.
And I was the guy that started it.
They didn't care if they hadda give my wife a million bucks...
the goal was to destroy me.
That's what would help them down the line.
I was sorry that Blake seemed to misread the whole thing but the way I figured it… now was my time to show ‘em what I was made of.
This was my time to shine.
This was my time to throw a few punches instead take ‘em like a punching bag.
I leaned forward in that seat and thought ‘bring it on.’
Slipping on my 'mental brass knuckles' was what I visualized.
I was ready.
I was ready to kick some ass.
When the defense brought out that letter… the one I’d emailed to the Chief of Police the month after my wife was arrested… as soon as the defense’s attorney asked me to read it to the jury from the stand, Blake objected.
He and I, the defense attorney and the judge went back into the judges chambers and discussed the legal merits of the letter I’d written and signed with my name.
I never denied sending that letter.
In fact, I was kind of proud of it.
I sent it to the Chief of Police to let him know not only how I’d felt about the whole case against my wife and what they’d done to my family, but how I knew that I had his ‘nuts in the nutcracker and I wasn’t gonna let go until he did the right thing.’
Which was to drop the bullshit charges against my wife and have those officers apologize to my kids.
That’s what I’d wanted all along was an apology.
Blake always hated when I said that.
‘I don’t work for ‘apologies’, I do this for money’ he’d say.
I wanted the police to right a wrong and make it up to my kids.
It really pissed me off that they were afraid of the cops now.
When the judge read the letter in his chambers he took a couple of those ‘oh boy’ gasps.
He seemed to be a decent guy.
He reminded me of my grandpa and in my head I liked to think that he saw the honor in what I was doing, the decency in the fight that I fought.
‘Mistuh Viewminder’ he began… almost inhaling as he spoke the words… ‘in my fifty years on the bench I have nevah… evah seen such a horrible letter written to any public official.’
‘This lettah is so bad that I’m afraid that if I allow the jury to even see it that it would only be predjudicial… that means that this lettah is so bad that if the jury were to see it I think it would make your wife lose her case’ the judge remarked with a confounded shake of his head.
Then he looked at the attorneys… givin’ them that ‘whaddaya wanna do look.’
The defense wanted the letter brought in to show that I’d contacted a witness in the case before the criminal trial against my wife.
Several of them in fact.
The Mole had ‘accidentally’ forwarded me a copy of one of those funny chain emails that just happened to have the email of just about everybody in the department on it.
So I thought I’d send a few of the officers some Christmas wishes if you know what I mean.
Some people might be inclined to call that ‘witness tampering’ but I liked to think of it as just ‘venting.’
The defense was not shy about trying to say that I was blackmailing the Chief of Police.
Maybe I was.
If telling a guy that if he doesn’t do ‘the right thing’ that you’re gonna squeeze his balls until they pop is blackmail… then indeed I was guilty.
I didn’t tell him what the ‘right thing’ to do was… I mean I knew that’d be crossing a line.
‘The right thing’ was up to him to decide… although I was pretty specific about squeezing his nuts in a nutcracker until they popped.
I preferred to think that the letter really showed just how dedicated that I was to the pursuit of justice in this case and for my family.
I swear his honor wanted to laugh as he pondered my audacity in even writing the letter but he struggled not to and he maintained the decorum of the court even though we were still in his chambers.
The judge came up with a pretty good solution.
We would black out every line of the letter… all that stuff about me squeezin’ the Chief’s balls until they popped and the like and that we’d leave the part that said ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog… and black out all of the body of the letter except for the part where I wrote ‘have a merry Christmas’ and signed it ‘View Minder.’
That way the defense could prove I’d tried to ‘tamper with a witness’ and all that juicy stuff about nutcrackin’ wouldn’t reflect poorly on my wife’s case.
Blake seemed relieved at this compromise and the defense attorney seemed pissed.
I would have really liked to have had the opportunity to have read that letter to the jury.
Even there I’d fantasized about how I would have read it with ‘feeling’ and verve.
I would have read it like I was reading the Emancipation Proclamation.
Unfortunately that was not to be.
We’d been in chambers for about a half hour and when we’d come out the jury looked sleepy and bored as hell.
The defense's tactic was sound... bore the jury to death with technicalities, objections and conferences in the judges chambers and they'll really begin to resent even being there.
I took my seat on the witness stand, adjusted my tie and tried to think of that 'blade of grass deeply rooted.'
The defense attorney handed me the letter and asked if I wrote it.
I admitted that I did without hesitation.
She asked me to read the letter to the jury.
I read them the first line… ‘Dear Chief Hot Dog’… then I told them that the judge had us black out the body of the letter because he said it wasn't relevant… and I read the signoff… ‘have a merry Christmas, Viewminder.’
The jury only returned puzzled and quizzical looks.
The defense attorney asked me if I knew that the Chief of Police was a 'witness' in the case.
I told her that since there was no crime commited, that there couldn't be any 'witness''
It went around and around and I wasn't gonna let her corner me like that.
By the time it was over she would accuse me of 'witness tampering' and 'manufacturing evidence.'
When she accused me of 'manufacturing evidence' I fought back hard... I almost stood up on the stand... I raised my voice and pointed right at her... I actually asked her a couple of times 'which media outlet used those numbers?'
Blake told me over dinner that night that he'd never seen a witness get away with questioning an attorney like that from the witness stand... and the judge let it go... he really couldn't believe it.
He admitted that before I went up there he'd figured that the case was lost.
But he was impressed by my testimony and he still saw some hope.
The defense attorney who was questioning me on the stand seemed shaken by my will to go head to head with her like that.
It seemed to get her flustered to lose her point in that way and I was excused from the stand.
'No further questions' she'd said.
Right at the point where her attack on me and my character was supposed to crescendo she fizzled.
My wife's attorney was smiling and he gave me 'the nod' as I walked past him on the way out of the courtroom.
That the judge said that what I'd written was the worst letter he’d ever seen on his fifty years on the bench indicated to me that he’d never seen the letter that the Illinois EPA wrote to the village in 1986.
The one where they told the Old Man that the village’s drinking water well was contaminated with a very toxic cancer causing chemical called vinyl chloride.
Nor did the judge see the letter that the village wrote back to the Illinois EPA that year… the one that said ‘we will stop using this well to provide drinking water for the residents of the village and keep this well online as a backup well only.’
That letter and the lie that I exposed behind it was the worst letter I’d ever seen written.
It might not have been relevant in this case…
But it was relevant to the thousands of people in that village who had no idea that they’d been drinking poisoned water for twenty one years until I told them.
It was relevant to all those people who had unexplainable cases of cancer and other health maladies from drinking that water.
It was even more relevant to the families of those that died.
The people I believe were murdered.
Queens Of The Stone Age, Make It Wit Chu video shoot, Joshua Tree, California
p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.
"I am an incurable romantic. I believe in hope, dreams and decency, love tenderness and kindness. I believe in mankind."
- Leonard Nimoy
Suomen ulkomaanedustustojen päälliköt kokoontuvat vuosittaiseen tapaamiseensa Helsinkiin 19.–22. elokuuta. Kokous järjestetään Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamolla Töölössä. #slsk19
Kuvat: Petri Krook/ Ulkoministeriö
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Arctic Council Ministerial Dinner at Artikum Glass Hall. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov.
Finland hosts the 11th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting on 7 May in Rovaniemi. Minister-level representatives from the eight Arctic States will convene to review and approve work completed under the two-year Finnish Chairmanship to improve sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs provides photo material for media representatives, participants and organisers of the meeting. Please feel free to use the photos, considering the following restrictions: Not for commercial purposes nor reselling. When publishing the pictures, the name of the photographer and organization shall be mentioned as the source. No picture manipulation is permitted. The holder of the picture rights and/or the organisation shall at all times retain the copyright to the picture. When publishing the pictures, the publisher shall ensure the legality of the context where the pictures are used, obtain the permissions and consents required for their publication, and observe the generally established practices and decency. The publisher shall ensure that publication of the pictures does not insult anyone’s privacy or dignity.
Photo: Jouni Porsanger / Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
1-Feb-11 Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie (nook)
"Papa Poirot comforts my soul every time. This book, replete with plot twists and a great cast of characters, also finds time to thumb its nose at pseudo-Sherlock Holmes types. Inspite of the title, golf does not play much of a role thankfully. Most marvelous of all, Hastings finally falls truly in love and is all set to betray even Poirot, or at least to try to betray him to save the woman he loves.
Quotes from the book:
""It is love that has come - not as you imagined it, all cock-a-hoop with fine feathers, but sadly, with bleeding feet.""
And Poirot's passionate insults are beautifully crafted as always.
""You are an old woman completely imbecile! and Leonie and Denise are no better. All of you are triple idiots!""
""Even I did not suspect - triple imbecile that I was!""
And best of all was when Poirot bets he could find the murderer before the snide ""modern"" clue-centric police detective Giraud. And wins, of course.
""Shortly after we got back to London, I noticed a magnificent model of a foxhound adorning Poirot's mantelpiece.
In answer to my inquiring glance, Poirot nodded.
'Mais oui! I got my five hundred francs! Is he not a splendid fellow? I call him Giraud!'"""
3-Feb-11 A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (nook)
"All of the above takes place in 13 chapters covering 40 years or so, ranging backward and forward across time, each composed from a different point of view, which means 13 different centers, 13 different peripheries. And yet everything hangs together, connected by a tone of simmering regret arising from love’s wreckage and time’s relentless devouring.
- The New York Times, Sunday Book Review
Funny and chilling at times, this is a collection of short stories where characters criss cross through the pages, and you frequently go through the thrill of meeting an old aquaintance you hadn't see or thought of for a while.
Quotes from the book:
In fact the whole apartment, which six years ago had seemed like a way station to some better place, had ended up solidigying around Sasha, gathering mass and weight, until she felt both mired in it and lucky to have it - as if she not only couldn't move on but didn't want to.
But the deep thrill of these old songs lay, for Bennie, in the rapturous surges of sixteen-year-old-ness they induced.
She hates Mindy, but Mindy doesn't take it personally - it's Structural Hatred, a term she coined herself and is finding highly useful on this trip. A single woman in her forties who wears high-collared shirts to conceal the thready sinews of her neck will structurally despise the twenty-three-year-old girlfriend of a powerful male who not only employs said middle-aged female but is paying her way on this trip.
Mindy feels a jold of attraction roughly akin to having someone seize her intestines and twist.
Structural Dissatisfaction: Returning to circumstances that once pleased you, having experienced a more thrilling or opulent way of life, and finding that you can no longer tolerate them.
He watched Stephanie anxiously: a big, ailing man with one bold idea left, ablaze with hope that she would like it.
Yet each disappointment Ted felt in his wife, each incremental deflation, was accompanied by a seizure of guilt.
In the distance, Mount Vesuvius reposed beingnly, Ted pictured the slightly different version of Susan standing near him, taking it in.
In the dusk, a chorus line of palm trees vamped against a Bellini sky.
Being away from his niece felt like opening a window, loosening an airless oppression. But what was the problem, exactly? Sasha had been having a ball, seeing the world; hell, she'd done more in two years than Ted had done in twenty. So why was he so eager to escape her?
After following a narrow street to its wriggling conclusion, he emerged onto a thoroughfare lined with a gauntlet of weary palazzi, their bottom floors gouged open to accommodate cheap clothing and shoe stores.
He'd let her go, conserving himself for - what? It frightened Ted that he had no idea. But he'd let her go, and she was gone.
What I suddenly understand. My job is to make people uncomfortable. I will do it all my life. My mother, Sasha Blake, is my first victim.
English was full of these empty words - """"friend"""" and """"real"""" and """"story"""" and """"change"""" - words that had been shucked of their meanings and reduced to husks. Some, like """"identity"""", """"search"""", and """"cloud"""" had clearly been drained of life by their Web usage. With others, the reasons were more complex, how had """"American"""" become and ironic term? How had """"democracy"""" come to be used in an arch, mocking way?
Strollers were prohibited at public gatherings - they hampered evacuation.
…a self-administered poultice that arrived in the form of a brain-T: no1 nOs about me. Im invysbl.
…children: the incarnation of faith in those who werent aware of having any left.
if thr r children, thr mst b a fUtr, rt?"
5-Feb-11 Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (nook)
"Another fast paced installment of the Hunger Games, this one ends in a rather gimicky way. If the heroine remains the same age, the villain remains the same, and so does the plot, then is it really a trilogy? Or is it just one story, published in three parts?
And as for Katniss's pendulum act with her two suitors... decide already!!
Quotes from the book:
""President Snow takes a seat at the large desk of polished wood where Prim does her homework and my mother her budgets. Like our home, this is a place that he has no right, but ultimately every right, to occupy.""
""It will require at least an hour. this sends Effie into a state. She pulls out her schedule and begins to work out how the delay will impact every event for the rest of our lives.""
""I walk along the track, squinting against the bright sunlight, already regretting my words to Effie. She's hardly to blame for my current predicament. I should go back and apologize. My outburst was the height of bad manners, and manners matter deeply to her. But my feet continue on along the track, past the end of the train, leaving it behind.""
""What happens next is not an accident. It is too well executed to be spontaneous, because it happens in complete unison. Every person in the crowd presses the three middle fingers of their left hand against their lips and extends them to me. It’s our sign from District 12, the last goodbye I gave Rue in the arena.""
""I weaken again at a clear green broth that I can only describe as tasting like springtime.""
""We are what no one wants to miss at the party. I act delighted, but I have zero interest in these Capitol people. They are only distractions from the food.""
""When I wake up, I barely get to the toilet before the white liquor makes its reappearance. It burns just as much coming up as it did going down, and tastes twice as bad.""
""Since I don’t plan on making it back alive a second time, the sooner Gale lets me go, the better. I do plan on saying one or two things to him after the reaping, when we're allowed an hour for goodbyes. To let Gale know how essential he's been to me all these years. How much better my life has been for knowing him. For living him, even if it's only in the limited way that I can manage.
But I never get the chance.""
""There's the classically beautiful brother and sister from District 1 who were victors in consecutive years when I was little.""
""The woman from 8 who Effie calls Cecelia, who looks about thirty, has to detach herself from the three kids who run up to cling to her.""
""I can't argue that Finnick isn't one of the most stunning, sensuous people on the planet. But I can honestly say he's never been attractive to me. Maybe he's too pretty, or maybe he's too easy to get, or maybe it's really that he'd be just too easy to lose."""
8-Feb-11 Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (nook)
"Well, lots of nice people die, not so nice people die, and all the downright evil people die. And the rest of them live happily ever after.
Quotes from the book:
And it takes too much energy to stay angry with someone who cries so much.
""Oh no. It costs a lot more than your life. To murder innocent people?"" says Peeta. ""It costs everything you are.""
Lies, once discovered, would be severely punished. with all the advancement, you'd think they'd have invented truth serum by now.
Maybe everyone is just trying to protect me by lying to me. I don’t care. I'm sick of people lying to me for my own good. Because really it's mostly for their own good.
""My words hang in the air. I look to the screen, hoping to see them recording some wave of reconciliation going through the crowd.
Instead I watch myself get shot on television.""
Underground. Which I hate. Like mines and tunnels and 13. Underground, where I dread dying, which is stupid because even if I die aboveground, the next thing they'll do is bury me underground anyway.
That's despicable, but I'm not sure it's beneath me.
The bed's stripped to the mattress, the closet gapes open, showing the emptiness inside, but I'd know this room anywhere.
""Oh, not now. Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,"""" he says. """"But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.""
""What?"" I ask.
""The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that."""
12-Feb-11 Flavia De Luce Mystery 03 - A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (nook)
"A whodunnit, this one reads like a visit to an English country village, replete with a muddled vicar, a gossippy housekeeper, and a huge country house in a state of disrepaire and on the brink of bankruptcy. Add a quirky eleven year old chemist to the mix, and a few mysterious strangers, and you have a nice little cozy murder mystery.
Quotes from the book:
""My ruffled glance must have made him feel guilty. Why is it that eleven-year-old girls are always treated as servants?""
""Hopefully, while muttering the Girl Guide's Prayer (""Burn, blast you!""), I lit one of the matches I had found in the caravan's locker. As the flame touched the twigs, it sizzled and went out. Another did the same.""
""Right now, even a slice of Mrs. Mullet's stomach-churning cabbage cake would probably be bearable if taken with a glass of ice-cold milk to freeze the taste buds.""
""with Feely prattling endlessly on about the muddy Mississippi, its length, its twists and bends, and how to spell it prperly without making a fool of oneself. We were given the distinct impression that she had personally conceived and executed the formation of that great river, with God standing helplessly on the sidelines, little more than a plumber's assistant.""
""He knocked his rib cage with a clenched fist and forced a cough that, since I had done it so often myself, didn't fool me for an instant.""
""It was a magnificent performance, if I do say so. As I had been forced to learn at a very young age, there's no better way to mask a lie - or at least a glaring omission - than to wrap it in an emotional outpouring of truth.""
""If I'd had my way, he'd have been sanctified on the spot: Saint Detective Sergeant Graves. Coem to think of it, I didn't even know his given name, but now was not the time to ask.""
""I have no fear of the dead. Indeed, in my own limited experience I have found them to produce in me a feeling that is quite the opposite of fear. A dead body is much more fascinating than a live one, and I have learned that most corpses tell better stories. I'd had the good fortune of seeing several of them in my time; in fact Brookie was my third.""
""And because water boils at only 212 degrees Fahrenheit, while nylon doesn't melt until it is heated to 417 degrees, I had verified my theory that one of Feely's percious stockings would make a perfect pudding bag.""
"" ""If I'd wanted to kill her, I'd have killed her, "" I said, exasperated. ""I'd have kept at it until I was finished. I wouldn't have botched it. Do you understand?"" ""
""I was sweing an invisible seam between truth and untruth, a skill of which I was especially proud. One of the tricks of the trade when doing this is to volunteer fresh information before your questioner has time to ask another.""
""As a token of goodwill, I would not be fut off by her childish behaviour - nor would I take offense. I would forgive her whether she liked it or not."""
17-Feb-11 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (nook)
"A lively kiddie-ghostie tale, for an easy read. Gaiman's writing is entertaining as always.
Quotes from the book:
""It doesn’t hurt,"" said the Honorable Archibald Fitzhugh, ""not so much as you'd notice. And after, think how happy you'll be.""
""One way or another,"" said the Bishop of Bath and Wells, cheerily, ""you'll become one of us. The other way is messier, involves being digested, and you're not really around very long to enjoy it.""
Mr. Owens himself was more evasive and less imaginative. ""It's not a good place, "" was all he said.
""You're as plain as the nose on your face,"" said Mr. Pennyworth. ""And your nose is remarkably obvious. As is the rest of your face, young man. As are you.""
You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anuthing, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change.
In on evening, he had had his first real argument with Silas, had attempted to run away from home, had failed to run away, and now failed to return home."
18-Feb-11 Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne (nook)
"Sheer fun. Escapist reading at its best.
Quotes from the book:
'I do remember, and then when I try to remember, I forget.'
And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one.
That was the first verse. When he had finished it, Eeyore didn’t actually say he didn’t like it, so Pooh very kindly sang the second verse to him.
Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.
Because my spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.
'I ought to say,' explained Pooh as they walked down to the shore of the island, 'that it isn't just an ordinary sort of boat. Sometimes it's a Boat, and sometimes it's more of an Accident. It all depends.'
'Depends on what?'
'On whether I'm on top of it or underneath it.'
"
21-Feb-11 Jeffery Deaver by Garden of Beastsown collection
"A fast paced novel set during Hitler times, this one is among Deaver's best. Memorable characters, and chilling twists, it has so much more than the last 2 rather anemic novels that Deaver has written.
Quotes from the book:
This is a perfect example of how trust works here: You must either bribe someone or threaten him, and I prefer to do both simultaneously.
But he also knew that since Hitler had come to power three years ago, blindness had become the national malady.
Every establishment must have a radio to broadcast the Party leaders' speeches and must turn the sound up when thry are transmitting. It's illegal not to.
The minister loved Adolf Hitler the way Peter loved Christ. But Jesus eventually got nailed to a T of wood and Peter took over the operation.
""Ach, I have been married three times, possibly four,"" the German said. ""And I now have a … complicated arrangement. Expect no advice from me on matters of the heart.""
a great nation at heart, whose truths and ideals had somehow tragically been stolen by thieves."""
24-Feb-11 Little Bee by Chris Cleave (nook)
"The original title - On The Other Hand, was much more apt than the silly sounding Little Bee. And I am not sure whether the spectacular last two chapters were word plodding through the first nine tedious ones.
A dual narrative book, in which neither of the two protagonists' character rings quite true at times, this book is perhaps somewhat over-hyped. Going in with lower expectations, a reader might have enjoyed it more.
A child-woman Nigerian refugee, and a modern day Englishwoman - they come to find hidden strenght by the end in a rather breath-taking way. It could have been a bit written a little more convincingly, but instead of building up to the self-discovery of the characters, Cleave spends almost the entire book rehashing their tragic past.
All in all I liked the story, but found the writing to be a bit uneven in terms of put-downability. Cleave's quirky turns of phrase relieve the tedium somewhat though.
Quotes from the book:
Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar mean, I survived.
That was always my trouble when I was learning to speak your language. Every word can defend itself. Just when you go to grb it, it can split into two separate meanings so the understanding closes on empty air.
I was torn between two kinds of shame. On the one hand, the disgrace of not discharging a human obligation . On the other hand, the madness of being the first in the crowd to move.
Everything was happiness and singing when I was a little girl. There was plenty of time for it. We did not have hurry. We did not have electricity or fresh water or sadness either, because none of these had been connected to our village yet.
Truly, there is no flag for us floating people. We are millions, but we are not a nation. We cannot stay together. Maybe we get together in ones and twos, for a day or a month or even a year, but then the wind changes and carries the hope away.
She was the kind of girl the men said could make them forget their troubles. She was a kind of girl the women said was trouble.
My first real choice was what to take at university. My teachers all said I should study law, so naturally I chose journalism.
"
26-Feb-11 Listen by Rene Gutteridge (nook)
"A vibrant tale of a small community, torn apart by gossip and rumors, a heartwarming tale of parenting, of love, strength, faith, friendship, human decency, and an unlikely whodunnit, all combined in one. I really loved this book.
Quotes from the book:
Computers irritated Damien. They cheapened society, caused social unrest, not to mention contributed to the butchering of the English language and the rendering of grammar obsolete.
He had certain self-assurance you normally didn't find among pale-skinned, superskinny, hairless males with a Bluetooth sticking out of unusually large ears."