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à destination de Paris, Porte d’Orléans, place du 25 août 1944, Paris (14ème arrondissement, Île-de-France, France, FR)
Go-Go for a wild ride with the action girls! Russ Meyer, the king of exploitation, directs this lurid thrill-ride starring Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams as a trio of dancers who turn to murder and mayhem on a road trip from hell. Varla is well-endowed, beautiful, physically powerful, savvy and conniving. She lives for kicks, but she's also got a serious mad on for the world, and anyone who crosses her finds out the hard way. Her job as a go-go dancer, supplemented by a part time career in petty crime has afforded her a sleek and fast sports car, which she enjoys riding in the desert with her fellow dancers. One of them, Rosie, has a crush on Varla, which she happily encourages, even if Varla is really more interested in the control it gives her over Rosie than in Rosie herself. The other dancer, Billie, is a little harder for Varla to manage, but Billie isn't bright enough to outmaneuver Varla.
When the little gang run into a square drag racer, he winds up getting into a fight with Varla, losing of course. Varla makes sure he never talks back again, then kidnaps his girlfriend and makes a run for it. BIllie and Rosie tag along, and they soon become involved in intrigue with an old letch in the desert rumored to have a stash of cash hidden away somewhere. When Varla starts to lose control of the situation, things (again) become violent, leading to a revved-up climax! Three strippers seeking thrills encounter a young couple in the desert. After dispatching the boyfriend, they take the girl hostage and begin scheming on a crippled old man living with his two sons in the desert, reputedly hiding a tidy sum of cash. They become houseguests of the old man and try and seduce the sons in an attempt to locate the money, not realizing that the old man has a few sinister intentions of his own.
synopsis
Exploitation maven Russ Meyer created a cult classic with this turbo-charged action film. Three curvaceous go-go dancers in a cool sports car go on a desert crime spree, led by Varla (the amazing Tura Satana), a busty, nasty woman dressed entirely in black. Varla's lesbian moll, Rosie (Haji) -- who has an extremely overwrought accent -- and reluctant bimbo Billie (Lori Williams) are along for the ride. When they meet a naïve young couple, Tommy and Linda (Ray Barlow and Sue Bernard), Varla challenges the man to a race then kills him by breaking his back. They take Linda hostage and drive to a house owned by a crippled old lecher (Stuart Lancaster) and his muscular but retarded son, Vegetable (Dennis Busch). Varla discovers that the old man has money hidden on the property, so the girls try to find it. Meanwhile, Vegetable's perverted father tries to trick him into assaulting one of the girls as he watches, but his other son (Paul Trinka) finally shows up to save the day. A great deal of bloodshed, campy catfighting, and funny dialogue fills the bulk of this fast-paced comic book of a movie.
Born 1946 Quebec,Canada
Passed on 2013
Birth Name - Barbarella Catton Nickname - Haji
Haji was a Cando-American actress renowned for starring in Russ Meyer's sexploitation classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), in which she made her theatrical film debut. Barbarella Catton was born in Quebec City, Quebec on January 24, 1946, and at the age of 14, began dancing topless. The renamed Haji caught the eye of cinema's "King Leer" while performing as an exotic dancer.
He also cast her as one of three go-go dancers who turn into avenging furies in "Pussycat", which was her theatrical film debut as it was released before Motor Psycho (1965). She also appeared in Meyer's potboiler Good Morning... and Goodbye! (1967), his big budget Hollywood sextravaganza Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), and his cartoonish amalgamation of sex and violence, Supervixens (1975).
Haji died on August 10, 2013 at the age of 67.
Was a fervent supporter of animal rights and environmentalism. Interviewed in the book "Invasion of the B-Girls" by Jewel Shepard. Began as an exotic dancer. Moved to California at the age of fourteen and was discovered by filmmaker Russ Meyer performing in a topless bar. Her only child, a daughter she had at age 15, is named Cerlette. Haji was of British and Filipino descent, and her nickname was bestowed on her by an uncle. Was a friend and co-star of former stripper and long-time Russ Meyer paramour Kitten Natividad.
Haji, an Actress Featured in Cult Films by Russ Meyer, Dies at 67
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Published: August 17, 2013
Haji, a voluptuous actress who played one of three homicidal go-go dancers in Russ Meyer’s 1965 cult film “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,” died on Aug. 9 in Southern California. She was 67.
Her death was confirmed by the dancer and actress Kitten Natividad, a friend, who said she did not know the cause. She said Haji had high blood pressure and heart problems in recent years and was taken to a hospital after falling ill at a restaurant in Newport Beach.Haji, a brunette of Filipino and British descent, met Meyer, the celebrated B-movie director, in the mid-1960s while she worked in a strip club in California. He cast her as the lead in his biker movie “Motorpsycho” (1965) even though she had no acting experience.Later that year Haji appeared in “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!,” the tale of three dancers who beat a young man to death, kidnap his girlfriend and flee into the desert. She played the lesbian paramour of the lead character, Varla, played by Tura Satana. The film has acquired a devoted following and has been embraced by the filmmakers John Waters and Quentin Tarantino and even some feminists, including the film critic B. Ruby Rich, who praised it in The Village Voice as a “female fantasy.”“You just didn’t see women taking over and beating up men in those days,” Haji said in an interview posted on Russ Meyer’s Ultravixens, a Web site devoted to Meyer, who died in 2004, and his films. “Russ did something no one else had the imagination to do. And he was smart to use three bodied-up women, so whether the picture’s good or not, you still sort of stare at it.”Haji played a scantily clad bartender in Meyer’s “Supervixens” in 1975 and appeared in “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” the story of an all-woman rock band’s descent into debauchery. It was the first of Meyer’s films produced by a mainstream studio. She also acted in John Cassavetes’s gritty drama “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” in 1976.
Haji was born in Quebec on Jan. 24, 1946. Ms. Natividad said that Haji’s last name at birth was Catton, and that she thought her given name was Cerlette. (The name Haji, she said, was a nickname given to her by an uncle.) Haji left school before finishing the sixth grade and began stripping at 14. She had a daughter, also named Cerlette, at 15. She lived in Oxnard, Calif. Her survivors include her daughter and a granddaughter. Haji’s last screen role was in the 2003 comedy “Killer Drag Queens on Dope.”
www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/arts/haji-an-actress-featured-...;
Avec ses 670 hectares, entre terre et mer, et ses 14 km de côtes bordées par l’Atlantique, le Fier d’Ars et les marais salants, la presqu’Ile de Loix est reliée au reste de l’Île de Ré par deux pistes cyclables, celle du port longeant la mer et offrant à chaque virage un regard et des lumières différentes sur Loix.
Très peu de marais salants étaient exploités sur l’île avant 1375, mais à Loix, quelques-uns ont été aménagés au sud du village par les religieux de l’Abbaye de saint-Michel-en-l’Herm, permettant la création de la paroisse en 1379. L’exploitation salicole connaît un véritable essor au début du XVe siècle grâce à l’endiguement des parcelles prises sur le domaine maritime. Si au XIXe siècle, les sauniers étaient plus de 1000, il n'en reste aujourd'hui qu'une centaine. Ils y récoltent l’or blanc, notamment la délicate fleur de sel à l’odeur de violette et dont la couleur rosée contraste avec celle du gros sel, teinté par la terre argileuse du marais.
A l’extrémité du village, la Pointe du Grouin se loge une petite plage en forme d’anse aux eaux calmes et claires surveillées en été, le fort du Grouin surplombant les lieux et rehaussant le caractère pittoresque de ce havre de paix (cf. wikipédia).
Véhicule : HEULIEZ BUS GX 327 Hyb EEV
Identification : 1136 (CM-992-SA)
Exploitant : Keolis Bordeaux Métropole
Dépôt : Dépôt de Lescure
Réseau : TBM (Bordeaux Métropole)
Ligne : 17 NAVETTE FESTIVAL ANIMASIA
Voiture : n.c.
Destination : hors service
Véhicule : HEULIEZ BUS GX 327 Hyb EEV
Identification : 1132 (CM-420-SA)
Exploitant : Keolis Bordeaux Métropole
Dépôt : Dépôt de Lescure
Réseau : TBM (Bordeaux Métropole)
Ligne : 17 NAVETTE FESTIVAL ANIMASIA
Voiture : 1701
Destination : LE HAILLAN Collège Émile Zola
À chaque édition du Festival Animasia au Haillan, TBM met en place une Navette Spéciale reliant "LE HAILLAN Collège Émile Zola" (arrêt le plus proche du festival) au terminus "LE HAILLAN Rostand" du Tram A, afin d'assurer une correspondance. Les véhicules utilisés sont tous les ans des HEULIEZ BUS GX 327 Hyb, au nombre de 2 sur la journée. À noter pour l'édition 2019 un changement du numéro de ligne : elle circule sous l'indice 17, en lieu et place du 12 pour les précédentes années.
27/04/2019 16:06
Avenue Jean Mermoz ; F-33 LE HAILLAN
The rain will fall soon …
* * *
Algérie. Région de Boufarik. La Ferme Javal sous un ciel d'orage. Octobre 1962.
En arrière plan, les chais avec une inscription sur le Fronton :" Clos xxxx" … (indéchiffrable).
Cette fermes produisait des agrumes et du raisin.
Fotos del Tour of Chaos 2014 organizado por la gente del Resurrection Fest para REVOLVER España
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"Calvary"
Eglise du XVIIe de Saint François d'assise - Monterosso al Mare - Cinque Terre (Ligurie - Italie 2017
Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21
"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved
HMS Exploit on its way up the River Thames yesterday: it moored at Tilbury landing stage just beyond this.
HMS Exploit is one of 14 "Archer" class patrol vessels and in based at Portsmouth. It has a crew of 5. It was commissioned in 1988 and built in the UK.
The recent commemorations of the Dunkirk evacuations were marked by a fleet of Dunkirk Little Ships sailing from Ramsgate to Dunkirk last week: they are returning this week. The were accompanied by a number of Navy patrol vessels (7, I believe) and I imagine HMS Exploit was one of these. Another was further down the river a I shot this (I left when it began to rain...). I'd been hoping to see any of the Little Ships which were returning but wasn't successful.
The Little Ships were private vessels that sailed from Ramsgate across the channel to help in the evacuation of over 300,000 Allied troops. There were over 800 Little Ships. One of the owners of a surviving vessel made the point that, with the passage of time, the Little Ships themselves are our last link with an extraordinary episode from a terrible time. I love to see them, whatever the reason.
(Just visible behind the greenery across the river: 3 tower blocks, masked by smoke from a fire a short distance up river).
[IMG_2227a]
Exploitant : Transdev Val d'Europe Airports
Réseau : Magical Shuttle
Lieu : Centre Opérationnel Bus de Bailly-Romainvilliers (Bailly-Romainvilliers, F-77)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/27300
Véhicule : IRISBUS Récréo C955 €3
Identification : 4087 (CY-793-NS)
Exploitant : Citram Aquitaine (Groupe Transdev)
Dépôt : Libourne
Réseau : Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Ligne : n.a.
Service : n.a.
Destination : n.a.
26/12/2020 17:00
Gare Routière de Libourne
Avenue Gallieni ; F-33 LIBOURNE
Exploitant : Transdev TVO
Réseau : R'Bus (Argenteuil)
Ligne : 502
Lieu : Parmentier (Sartrouville, F-78)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/30424
The phone conversation took longer than anticipated and when I came back ice in my drink has melted.
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© Margarita Komine | All Rights Reserved
All of my images are copyright protected. You may not use, copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, display, alter or in any way exploit any of my images without my expressed, written permission.
Véhicule : RENAULT.V.I. GBC 180 €?
Identification : _ (6063 0298)
Exploitant : Armée de Terre Française
Dépôt : n.c.
Véhicule : RENAULT.V.I. GBC 180 €?
Identification : _ (6023 0279)
Exploitant : Armée de Terre Française
Dépôt : n.c.
Véhicule : RENAULT.V.I. GBC 180 €?
Identification : _ (6033 0051)
Exploitant : Armée de Terre Française
Dépôt : n.c.
Réseau : n.a.
Ligne : n.a.
Service : Maintenance
Destination : n.a.
Merci à Anthony Levrot.
27/03/2019 14:38
Garage Vasseur Renault Trucks
Rue de la Prairie ; F-73 VOGLANS
A now thoroughly excited Beth walked up the hill. Her prickling senses becoming more alert with each step. Innocently unaware that she was no longer playing a role in Dare’s game.
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We appreciate the courtesy of Chatwick University Archives for letting us use the journals in our research, and for permission to use parts for the genesis of “Dare’s Game”.
Dare’s Game
Beth, eagerly looking for Dare, walked straight into Seth’s cunning snare…..
Suffix, circa late 1900’s. It was during this time a fanciful young lady, whom we will call Beth, started a journal which she would faithfully keep over the course of almost 50 years. She led quite an adventuresome life for a lady of that time, and her journals were filled with many tales and observations of her exploits. The following story is derived from events that she penned down in the early years in her journal.
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Beth had known Dare since their childhood. Dare was a handsome free spirited youth only two years her senior, who lived for the games his life had to offer. As his cherished nickname inferred, Dare was always trying to find the thrill out of anything he could think up, relishing to go beyond the pale in anything he attempted. Dare always a little different, harboring feelings and ideas way beyond his years, almost as if he had lived a previous life and retained something from it in his being.
Beth would remember times playing dress up with Dare’s sister Diana in some old gowns of their mothers. It was always then that Dare and his friends seemed to appear and talk them into playing hide n seek, tag or cops n robbers. Dare seemed to take pleasure in cajoling the girls into playing with them in this manner. Eyeing them as they played with a far off look that suggested the game they were playing had more meaning to him than he could ever venture to say. It was hard for Beth to explain it, but she did find it pleasurable (almost erotic using a word whose term she would learn much later) to be observed by him in this way.
One warm fall day Diana and Beth headed down to an old shack located near some railroad tracks at the back of a cornfield. Diana was dressed in a long satin play gown with her mother’s jewelry, which Dare had called rhinestones. Beth, herself dressed in a long flowing dress, loved the way Diana’s jewels twinkled and sparkled as she walked. They were going to pretend the shack was a ballroom and they were one their way to a fancy dance, like Beth’s and Diana’s parents had recently attended. Diana wasn’t supposed to be wearing her mother’s jewelry outside the house, but as a result of Dare’s teasing, had done so anyway.
They had reached the shack, an old white brick building with a wooden roof half fallen in, when a man’s voice suddenly said behind them, what are you two ladies up to? Turning they were confronted by a happily sneering drifter. The grubby man looked around, alone is we, and advanced towards them. The two girls stood petrified, he reached out and probed Diana along her side, pretty dress missy, he said, sparsely toothed mouth grinning like a pumpkin. He suddenly reached up and tore the necklace away from Diana’s throat, sending her falling backwards. Beth screamed bloody murder, as the vagrant turned heel, running off towards the tracks. Suddenly Dare appeared, and Beth, meaning to yell for help, exclaimed instead “help honey” to Dare. Dares eyes took on a very different look, almost of a burning yearning. Beth told him what had happened and he took off down towards the tracks in hot pursuit. For Beth, the look he had given her and the way he had dashed off excited her beyond measure. Even for someone that young, Beth now knew what Dare meant to her. From then on, playing games with Dare took on a heightened meaning for Beth.
But, nothing really changed in their relationship until Beth’s sophomore year of high school. Beth was sixteen at the time, a whimsical being, passionate, innocent, not particularly attractive, but radiating with a love of life. A living free spirit, developing into a very sexual being by the time her and Diana decided to attend their schools prom in their sophomore year. Beth dressed in a fuchsia coloured satin dress with dangling rhinestone earrings that had been” borrowed” from Diana’s Mother, the same ones Diana had been wearing when they had run into the drifter at the shack. Diana slipped into the slinky blue spaghetti strap gown and matching cover-all that she had worn as her cousin’s bridesmaid. She was wearing sapphire costume jewels patterned after the hope diamond. Their parents had given them a hard time when they saw their made up girls in their gowns and finery , admonishing them for looking way too mature. They smiled, consoling their parents fears, and went off on their adventure.
Their eyes were dazzled by the display of lights, the cheerfully student filled room, the band. They had stopped and were letting it all sink in, when Beth felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and came face to face with Dare, who once again had the same yearning fire in his eyes as on that fateful day at the old shack. A veil was lifted from between the two, and Beth spent the whole evening encompassed in Dare’s arms. Soon after that the two had begun seeing much more of one another. Their relationship was still going strong eight years later.
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8 Years Later
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Come on Dare, let’s go to the Riverside, it will be fun she urged. She had been trying to get her fiancé’ to take her to the exclusive five star resorts for some time. And now she had a free overnight room card she had won at work! Dare looked into Beth’s wide, hope filled eyes, knowing her passion for attending these types of affairs. Ever hopeful she would see someone rich. Dare knew how to use this to his advantage. Finally he buckled, all right, only if we play the game afterwards he bargained. She squirmed inwardly with passion, nodding her agreement. Beth found the game exciting, though she would never let on to Dare. And, you must wear the gold bridesmaid gown and jewels you wore to your friend’s wedding last week , he added, a wistful smile lighting up his thin face.. Okay she agreed, trying to sound reluctant, but truthfully feeling multiple tingles of delight.
Dare was handsome, in a scrawny, thin bearded, sort of way ( From an old photo that survives he resembled a young Johnny Depp… the eds), with a witty writers imagination and a playful disposition. He could always make Beth laugh, feeling his excitement as he drew her into his stories and games. She would never admit to it, but found the game delightfully erogenous. She smiled to herself, so Dare had liked the satin gown after all, he had not shown any interest in her wearing it since the wedding. And the jewelry, the small rhinestone pendent and earrings had been pretty, but Beth soon came up with another idea. She would knock his socks off by wearing the glittering diamonds and emeralds that had been inherited from her grandmother. The set had laid collecting dust in a safety deposit box all these years, unworn. She had never told Dare about them, waiting for the perfect occasion. She could just imagine the look in his eyes when he saw her wearing them. Okay then, game on, Beth thought, wickedly sending shivers up and down her spine.
Dare’s Game was based on role playing:
Dare would give Beth money to purchase a new outfit, something rich and shiny, like silk or satin. With the new outfit, Beth would wear the good gold jewelry she had received from Dare on her birthdays. The idea was to acting like a bored rich girl out for a good time, alone and vulnerable.
Dare would be at the hotel bar, waiting for Beth to make her entrance, then make her acquaintance , playing a debonair, suited gentleman with a mysterious past and a hidden agenda. They would make a date later, usually to dance and have drinks.
Then that evening, she would go down to the bar. Dressed in one of the long gowns Dare favored, fitting in with the usual spillover from a wedding reception that had been held in one of the Ballrooms. Sometimes she would wear the rhinestone jewelry they had purchased together at various antique stores. Then Beth would wait for Dare to make his entrance, signaling the time for Dare’s game. He would assume one of several roles, or possibly a new one that Beth had never seen. In the past Dare had played:
A spy who would dance with Beth, then disappear. Sending a note to Beth via a third person that would have her meet him clandestinely in a remote location…
A highwayman who would come across Beth on the castle grounds , usually the resorts empty gardens at night….
A rich millionaire looking for romance…
A kidnapper hired by an evil uncle, who after tying up Beth and removing her valuables would have a change of heart….
A Jewel thief who would be cunningly after her valuables…
A handsome prince rescuing Beth’s damsel in distress ….
Or Dare’s favorite, centered on their old childhood game of cops and robbers. Dare would play the thief, and steal something from Beth, usually while dancing. He would then leave preset clues around the grounds that she would have to follow to catch him.
All of the games usually led to some playful groping and then escalating into the upper echelons of erotic pleasure. Sometimes they never made out of the woods, or barely out of the ballroom. Beth shivered at these thoughts, wishing she didn’t have to wait….
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Three weeks later at the Riverside Resort.
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In the Bar:
At the bar, Dare smiled to himself, pleased. He had dropped Beth off to check in by herself. She would change into her new outfit and wear it down to the bar for lunch. She would come in acting like a complete stranger to the area. Dare would make her acquaintance, invite her to lunch, and make plans to see her that evening at the resorts dance room. There were two wedding receptions going on, and that dance room should be filled with well-dressed patrons. Beth would fit right in; clad that pretty gown she had promised to wear.
Dare had been sitting at the bar, thinking about ways to play out the game that evening, when the answer came to him, in the form of a stranger who had come with his drink and sat next to him. The stranger introduced himself as Seth, and shaking Dare’s hand sat on the stool next to him. After they had had couple of drinks, they had become quite chummy. Seth explaining he had come up for one of the weddings, and assumed Dare was doing the same. Seth did not fail to observe Dare’s secretive smile, but did not question it. Their conversation was distracted only when a newcomer appeared at the entrance. Beth walked in, a long flowing silky skirt swishing down to her leather sandals. A shiny, long sleeved satin top fitting tightly along her perky figure, with bright gold jewelry complementing the ensemble. Real gold, Seth observed silently to himself.
Beth went to a table, both men going silent as they watched her move through the room. Good-looking one, that, Seth commented, looking at Dare who was deep in thought as his eyes were fixed on the sexy newcomer. Seth teasingly offered Dare a penny for his thoughts. Dare smiled mischievously, letting lose his plans. Seth listened to the young man, smiling as a light went on in his steal grey eyes. When Dare finished he offered up a suggestion as to how Dare could make it really interesting for Beth. The two co-conspirators worked it out: Seth told Dare about a stone hut and wall that was located on the back nine of the resorts golf course. He suggested that he, Seth, would meet Beth that evening and pass a note onto her from Dare saying that he was in trouble and needed her help, with directions to the spot. Dare liked the idea, and wrote the note on a cocktail napkin, cementing the plan by handing it to Seth.
Off you go old chap, let Uncle Seth take care of his end, he said grinning, giving Dare a sporting clap on the back. With a wink, Dare left his fellow collaborator, and went over to Beth, who had since been seated by a male waiter, now standing drooling over her shoulder as she looked at the menu.
Later that same evening, inside the crowded club:
Seth had stopped by the bar for a last drink. His business venture had been concluded earlier than he had expected. With the change in his plans, he had checked out early, his kit packed, boot loaded and the car ready. He now sat at the bar Causley watching young lass of about seventeen who had literally ran into him at one of the receptions. He watched her flirting about the club, weaving in and out of the guests. With a long swishing gown flowing provocatively along her lithe figure, abundant, solid white gold chains swinging out in an alluringly eye catching manner as she scurried about. A diminutive gold ring its half caret diamond flickered playfully from the petite pinky it loosely surrounded once again welcomed his contemplation. The lass presented quite an intriguing gold feathered fledgling, just begging to be plucked. He looked around, spying her parents on the dance floor. The father/husband, despite being an excellent dancer, gave him no interest. It was his partner, the wife/ mother, decked out in a iridescent suit and long swishing satin skirt upon which he now was reexamining. He again studied under the bright dance floor lights her fine pearls dangling from her ears, throat, and wrists. But it was the Ladies’ two rings that stole the show for him; an engagement ring with a rock of at least 2 carets surrounded by numerous shimmering half caret stones and a pinky ring similar to her daughters, that proudly displayed a single white solitaire diamond of at least one caret that had garnered his consideration. He also reconsidered the facts that he had been able to garnish about the lady who wore them, and her husband. The wife/mother was a heavy drinker who would not be expected to make any kind of appearance before noon. Hubby was a golfer, who would be out for breakfast at five am before being on the links at 6 am the next morning . At 5 :15 Seth was planning to pay a visit to his suite, and relieve his two ladies of their expensive trinkets. It should be an easy straight forward caper, that had Seth bristling with anticipation at the prospect.
As he was tossing down the last of his drink he remembered about Dare and the note he still had in his pocket. Setting down the empty glass, he pulled the note out and looked at it, kids he smirked, and was preparing to crinkle toss it on the bar and leave, when his eyes caught sight of Beth. He had felt his breath taken away when he saw her. Not at all what he had expected, he would say to Beth much later in the evening. He looked over the note, stirrings of a plan began formulating. All thoughts of the dancing couple and his plans fled his mind, as He rose, throwing a fiver on the bar and went off to intercept Beth.
Seth held Beth in his arms, she was a vivacious little thing he thought, while smiling charmingly into her eyes. She seemed a little apprehensive at first, but had settled right in when he had told her this had been set up by Dare, remember me at the bar with him this afternoon he had consoled her, she had smile brightly into his eyes in answer. He relished in the feel of her warm satin gown, and allowed himself to be mesmerized by the shimmer of her diamonds.
It reminded him of the diamonds that had been worn by one of his dance partners earlier that evening at a reception. He had forgotten her name, but not her diamonds, one of which now resided in a hidden compartment of his roadsters boot, along with the diamond pin he had slipped off the satin cape he had cordially help a well-dressed lady put on. He had also shelved his plans for his 5:15 am “meeting” at the golf playing husbands hotel room, Beth’s jewels were a much more lucrative prospect.
When the dance had ended he took her to the bar and sat her down, ordering her a drink. She seemed a little perplexed, Seth kissed her gloved hand; wait for it he told her mysteriously, winking into her eyes. Beth had winked back, the fire in her heart reflecting deep in her eyes. Seth left, smiling cleverly to himself as he took in his surroundings. He looked around as he walked away, now where had the little imp gotten off too?
He had decided that the seventeen year old in the long flirting gown would play a very different role in his plans. He approached her, with Dares note and a twenty. Thought for a moment about the pair of thick platinum gold chains dangling from her throat down the open neckline of the girl’s glossy gown, then banished the though, he had bigger fish to filet. The twenty caught her attention and she eagerly listened as he explained to her what to do, pointing out Beth sitting, waiting in earnest at the bar. Wait until she finishes her drink, Seth told her as she listened eagerly. She took the twenty into her hand, the half caret diamond on her pinky ring flashing, and her gold chain bracelets jangled as she grasped it. Seth left, figuring he had about twenty minutes to stop at his car, get a few items from the boot, and put his plan in motion.
Beth had curiously received the note from the attractively shy young lady, clad a slinky gown that made her appear years older. Reading it she folded it and was just getting up when a man wearing a suit came up to her and offered to let her dance with him. It took her some time, before she was finally able to ward him off and leave the brilliantly lit clubroom for the dark, forbidding grounds outside.
Now, a thoroughly excited Beth walked up the hill. Her senses becoming more prickling alert with each step. Innocently unaware that she was no longer playing a role in Dare’s game!
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Epilogue:
As Seth walked away admiring the shimmery necklace, his thoughts travelled back to the gold burdened impish youngster in the swirling gown, and her pearl and diamond laden mother. Revisiting his original plans he decided that he liked the odds, especially since they would be against him. With the father leaving early to meet his cronies for breakfast the Mother should be still sleeping off her drink induced stupor, the hyperactive girl should still be out cold, but presented no risk if she awoke, he had more rope. The ladies jewels should be lying about in the apartment, or handedly on their persons( the pairs of diamond pinky rings, as well as the multi-diamond engagement ring flashed once again across his memory with all their brilliant glory),as he caught fire with the vision. There could be a safe he reasoned, but with a tied up daughter and a knife in his hand, the mother should have no issue opening it for him, or disclosing anywhere else her jewels may have been hidden . But if there was no safe, and the rings, pearls and solid white gold chains were somewhere in the room, he knew he would be able to noiselessly break in, find and slip the jewels from wherever they were perched, and be safely on his way without even causing the slightest stir from the sleeping woman and her daughter. It was a road Seth had travelled down many times. He prickled at the thought, as he foresightedly tallied up the potential haul while making his way to the car. The Mother/wife’s diamond rings, would easily fetch him at least three grand, probably close five with her pearls and the whelp’s jewelry added in. About a quarter of what he probably would get for the jewels now in his procession, so he mused inquisitively to himself, so ,was it worth the risk of his 20,000 bird in hand? Yes he answered himself, as all too familiar and welcome tingling sensation overwhelmed Seths muscular body. Like Dare, Seth like to play risky games, especially those which promised to be somewhat profitable. It would be a tantalizingly chancy gamble of his own; to wait a safe distance away while things cooled down and then return to break into the un protected sleeping ladies chamber.. He knew just the place to hide , and it would be a perfect spot to watch events unfold around Beth and Dare, while making his plans! It also afforded a nicely secret hiding nook for the ill-gotten gains collected so far that evening in case something went wrong, which it wouldn’t..
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Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives
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DISCLAIMER
All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents
The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.
No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.
These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.
As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment and/or educational purposes only, and should never be attempted in real life.
We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.
********************************************************************************
All rights and copyrights observed by Chatwick University, Its contributors, associates and Agents
The purpose of these chronological photos and accompanying stories, articles is to educate, teach, instruct, and generally increase the awareness level of the general public as to the nature and intent of the underlying criminal elements that have historically plagued humankind.
No Part of this can reprinted, duplicated, or copied be without the express written permission and approval of Chatwick University.
These photos and stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to people, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.
As with any work of fiction or fantasy the purpose is for entertainment only, and should never be attempted in real life.
We accept no responsibility for any events occurring outside this website.
***************************
Exploitant : STIVO
Réseau : STIVO
Ligne : 34
Lieu : La Marnière (Vauréal, F-95)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/vehicule/8781
Isfandiyâr's fifth exploit - he kills the sîmurgh
Shahnama de Firdawsi
Copenhagen, David Collection
Miniature from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnama.
‘Isfandiyar’s Fifth Ordeal; He Must Slay the Simurgh’
Exploitant : Transdev Valmy
Réseau : IDF Mobilités – Vallée de Montmorency
Lieu : Gare d'Enghien-les-Bains (Enghien-les-Bains, F-95)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/vehicule/14907
This came from our garden yesterday, and I brought it inside to exploit in a more controlled environment.
Lighting stuff: Lit with a YN560-III in an 8.6 inch Lastolite soft box positioned at camera left, and just out of the frame. The flash, in manual mode, was triggered by a Yongnuo RF-603N. I converted it to black and white using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pto.
Other black and white images that I've attempted can be seen in my Black And White Album.
www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157644989606939/
Other plants, flowers, fruit or thingys that I've photographed using strobes can be seen in my Strobe Lit Plant set. In the description for that set, I list resources that I've used to learn how to light with off camera flash. www.flickr.com/photos/9422</a</a</a
Véhicule : HEULIEZ BUS GX 117 €2
Identification : 86753 (BL-874-JY)
Exploitant : Cars de Bordeaux (Groupe Keolis)
Réseau : TBM (Transports Bordeaux Métropole)
Dépôt : Bastide - Quai de la Souys
Ligne : n.a.
Voiture : n.a.
Destination : n.c.
27/05/2016 16:01
Dépôt Cars de Bordeaux Bastide ; Bordeaux
ENGLISH :
On the track towards the viaduct Polvorilla, remember that this is at 4200 m altitude we cross a funny exploitation and a few abandoned buildings. Is it the copper mine at open sky, operated by Siemens once?
Exploitant : Cars Perrier
Réseau : SQYBUS
Ligne : 463
Lieu : Gare de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (Montigny-le-Bretonneux, F-78)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/54336
Eglise Saint Antoine de Fixey - Hameau de Fixin (Côte d'Or)
Slideshow "Hameau de Fixin" : www.flickr.com/photos/pat21/sets/72157632987396502/show/
Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21
"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
The Internet Archives of the original text
Viral Marketing phenomenon explained.
(Original version published in the Netscape M-Files, May 1, 1997. Edited Version published in Business 2.0, November 1998)
A lot of the energy behind the Internet is the ability for everyone to be a publisher. Consequently, we are in a land grab for precious spectrum - people's attention. Attention is finite. Rising above the noise of a thousand voices requires creativity. Shouting is not very creative. Just hanging up a web shingle and hoping for visitors is not very creative. Rather, new companies can structure their businesses in a way that allows them to grow like a virus and lock out the existing bricks and mortar competitors through innovative pricing and exploitation of these competitors' legacy distribution channel conflict.
In 1996, Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith pioneered a great new product category -- free web-based email. But many great ideas and great products have withered on the vine. The special catalyst for Hotmail's torrid growth is what we at Draper Fisher Jurvetson have come to call "Viral Marketing" -- not because any traditional viruses are involved, but because of the pattern of rapid adoption through word-of-mouth networks. Viral Marketing powerfully compounds the benefits of a first-mover advantage. And it's something we eagerly look for when evaluating any Internet startup company. As a founding investor in Hotmail and a member of their board of directors, we think Hotmail is a great case study on the impact of the Viral Marketing strategy over its full life cycle.
Hotmail's Amazing Growth:
Hotmail grew a subscriber base more rapidly than any company in the history of the world ...faster than any new online, Internet, or print publication ever.
Hotmail is the largest email provider in the world.
In its first 1.5 years, Hotmail signed up over 12 million subscribers.
A traditional print publication would hope to reach a total of 100,000 subscribers within a few years of launch. Hotmail signs up more than 150,000 subscribers every day, seven days a week.
Every Hotmail subscriber, without exception, has filled out a detailed demographic and psychographic profile including occupation and salary. This is an unprecedented supply of personal information.
Yet, from company launch to 12 million users, Hotmail spent less than $500K on marketing, advertising and promotion. This compares to over $20 million spent on advertising and brand promotion by Juno, Hotmail's closest competitor with a fraction of the users.
Other companies may have distributed more unit volume of product than Hotmail did in their first year - especially when releasing upgrades or brand extensions to an established franchise. But for a new entrant with a new product, the challenge is more daunting. "Subscriptions" have their own challenges as well. Users face a trust decision in deciding to share their private information and email with an online entity. And the user may not be certain that the end product is worth the effort. These are barriers to adoption in the subscription model. How did Hotmail overcome these barriers as an undercapitalized startup? Viral Marketing.
Hotmail originally approached us as JavaSoft, Inc., a web database tools company, and, as Business Week recounted: Sabeer and Jack went to see "Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but the investor was unimpressed by their idea for database software for the Net. As they were packing up to leave, [the VCs] asked: 'Do you have any other ideas?' Sabeer said they'd noodled over a scheme to offer free, advertising-supported E-mail over the Web. A week and a half later, the venture capitalists ponied up $300,000, and Hotmail was born." (BW, August 25, 1997)
In our next meeting, Tim Draper suggested that they should append an advertising message to every outbound email: "P.S. Get your free email at Hotmail. It was very contentious at the time. Would users balk at having this automatic addition to the content of their private messages? Hotmail tempered the idea by clearly demarcating the promotional plug, and removing the "P.S." Nevertheless, every outbound message still conveyed an advertisement and a subtle implied endorsement by the sender - the recipient knew that the sender was a Hotmail user, and that this new free email thing seemed to work for them. Each new user becomes a company salesperson, and the message spreads organically.
Hotmail's business model maps well to the medium. By contrast, Juno does not map well to the medium, and they have already spent $20 million in advertising. Hotmail did not spend the money, yet gained over three times as many users in half the time.
Elements of Viral Marketing:
The Hotmail adoption pattern is that of a virus - with spatial and network locality. People typically send e-mails to their associates and friends; many of them are geographically close, and others are scattered around with clusters in areas of high Internet connectivity. We would notice the first user from a university town or from India, and then the number of subscribers from that region would rapidly proliferate. The beauty of it is that none of this required any marketing dollars. Customers do the selling.
Digital viruses can spread internationally more rapidly than biological viruses that rely on the physical proximity of hosts for their spread - via a sneeze or handshake. Hotmail is the largest email provider in Sweden and India despite the fact that they have done no marketing of any sort in these countries. It's a happy day when you discover your business has displaced several entrenched competitors to become the market share leader in a country you have never visited. What's more, Hotmail is used in over 220 countries, despite the limitation that it is only available in English.
Viral Marketing captures the essence of multi-level-marketing and applies it to all customers - the "word-of-mouth" spread of the Hotmail message is involuntary. And it's more powerful than many other marketing techniques that lack the implied endorsement from a friend. Hotmail had "Free Email" buttons on several other highly-trafficked web sites, but they generated comparatively negligible numbers of subscriptions. Juno has shown that advertising is relatively cost-ineffective. It is hard to spend your way to Hotmail-like growth. The snowball effect is a mechanism to greatly leverage a first-mover advantage. Whenever a product involves people other than the purchaser, then there is an opportunity to market to potential new customers. It is no surprise that Amazon encourages its customers to send a book as a gift to a friend. When the recipient receives the gift book, the packaging contains a flyer for the amazon.com service. Similarly, whenever someone uses iShip.com to send a package, the recipient will learn about how iShip.com can save them money on their shipping needs.
As more Internet and Intranet applications move beyond computation to embrace communication, the Viral Marketing strategy has wide applicability. E-commerce, groupware, community, messaging and promotions businesses can all use these techniques to further the Internet explosion.
In addition to Hotmail, we have seen a similar viral communications approach taken by Mirabilis, an Israeli-based company that signed up twelve million instant messaging subscribers to its ICQ service before its acquisition by AOL for almost $300 million. To use ICQ, both parties need to download the client software. So each subscriber ends up emailing their friends to solicit them to engage in this new communication channel. The friends in turn, experience the product first hand, and may repeat the pattern. It's like the old shampoo commercial refrain "they told two friends who told two friends, and so on." While powerful, these dyadic communication products recruit new customers one by one.
Viral Broadcasts:
A sneeze releases two million aerosol particles. In the digital domain, this can get very interesting. For example, Tumbleweed Software enables secure e-mail delivery of documents or newsletters to a huge numbers of recipients. Every recipient also gets a web link to the enabling Tumbleweed service. So when a single new customer starts to use Tumbleweed, thousands of potential new customers receive the Tumbleweed pitch.
This viral broadcast model can be creatively applied to a variety of products, such as web-hosted address books, calendars, list servers and news group readers. Homestead enables families, sports teams, alumni organizations, and other affinity groups to create rich and private "community" web sites. When someone builds a Homestead, the system facilitates them to broadcast an invitation to the members they would like to recruit to participate in their Homestead. A new recruit may belong to several affinity groups, and may find the service compelling enough to replicate in these other circles - thus proliferating the Homestead platform.
The power of this approach has been demonstrated in the junk email domain. Have you ever gotten one of those email chain letters that urge you to forward it to as many people as possible? Often shrouded with a bogus virus warning or a charitable cause, these messages rapidly spread throughout the globe until people have received multiple copies.
These junk e-mails are like digital graffiti in that the people that create them want their "tag" or message to be seen by as many people as possible. Traditional graffiti "artists" choose targets like trains and buses to maximize their exposure. Similarly, many computer virus authors are seeking to promote their name, and they seek maximum exposure - on the PC. You don't see many viruses on niche computer platforms (as the Macintosh market share has dwindled, so too have the number of new Mac viruses). This personal quest for fame, while annoying, is not too different from the desire of many businesses for brand awareness.
New businesses also want to let the world know their name, but they do not want to be annoying, and thus, they must provide a compelling reason for customers to help spread the word. In all of these viral businesses, the balance between the customer value provided by the network and the concerns surrounding privacy will be a delicate one.
For many network applications - from ICQ to the traditional fax machine - the value of the network, and the value that each member realizes increases disproportionately as more people join the network. The first fax machine customers were delighted to see more people buy compatible machines. A company that can provide a strong enough incentive for customers to share their massive lists of personal contacts - whether for communications or community - will have a powerful viral opportunity at their disposal. A good virus will look for prolific hosts (such as students) and tie to their high-frequency social interactions (such as email and messaging). Viral Marketing is most powerful when it taps into the breadth of its customers' weak connections to others. Tapping the customer's entire address book is more valuable than just reaching their best friend.
Viral Marketing Strategies:
The typical viral entry strategy is to minimize the friction of market entry and proliferation with an eye to building in hooks and barriers to switching for customers. If the service is trying to blatantly monetize its subscriber base in every way imaginable, new users will be reluctant to spread the word. Therefore, many of these services are free and light on the revenue generation in the early days of their rapid proliferation. When we first invested in Four11 and Hotmail, we could not say with certainty how they would ultimately monetize their subscribers. We brainstormed several possible scenarios for how they might eventually exploit their large audience and market position as a communications hub. But in the viral growth phase, the simple banner ad seemed the most innocuous.
In an extreme example, prior to their acquisition by America OnLine, ICQ's CEO took delight in the fact that they not only had no revenue, but had no current plan for revenue. This is not to say that businesses without revenue prospects are necessarily attractive - just that people's attention (or "eyeballs") have proven to be monetizable in every media.
A company that can choose to delay revenue maximization (e.g., by not burdening their service's clarity of purpose and speed of download with excessive ads and promotions) may find that they can exploit a first mover advantage in the Internet land grab to gain a dominant market position. This is one of the reasons so much VC money flows into these Internet start-ups.
The Internet is a wonderful substrate or petri dish for the proliferation and replication of intellectual property. A good idea can spread more quickly over the Internet than had ever been possible before in the physical world, where manufacturing and distribution fundamentally limit the rate of product adoption. Especially in the Internet era, a company's competitiveness seems to depend on its velocity of thought and action. Companies can grow more rapidly than ever before, but so too may they suddenly die from obsolescence. The critical differentiator is whether the company has built in switching barriers for its customers and barriers to entry for its competitors. Rapid growth is of no value without customer retention.
Whenever we consider an investment in an Internet startup company, we strategize about customer switching barriers, and the impact of the inevitable arrival of competitive imitators. We have witnessed a particular entrepreneur that has used an offshore development team to quickly copy one of our portfolio companies' lead into a new market - three times in a row! First they copied Four11's directory services, then Hotmail's free email, and now Kana Communications' wildly successful email-based customer support software. The Internet supports an ecology of organisms, and the "fast follower" is a classic form.
The ability to rapidly recruit subscribers creates market value - but only if a company can retain these customers over multiple visits to their site. In the public markets, many of these consumer Internet companies are being valued at $20 to $100 per subscriber. Investors and bankers are approximating the lifetime economic value of these subscribers discounted back to the present day. How many ad dollars will they generate over lifetime? How much will they buy? A huge variable in this economic equation will be the customer retention rate.
Are you like a subway station with banner ads flying by the commuters who are just trying to get to their destination, or are you like a cafe where customers mingle and feel like they belong? Web communities, e-mail, personalization, contact lists, calendars, personal web pages - these are all "sticky" applications that help retain customers. This is where most of Yahoo and the other portals' energy has gone in the last two years. That's why Yahoo bought Four11 for its RocketMail service and Microsoft bought Hotmail.
Hyper-Growth:
An interesting side effect of geometric growth is that by the time a virus spreads to the point of being an epidemic, its growth curve relative to a new entrant is somewhat daunting. Hotmail was doubling in size each month, but it took several months to reach one million users. Until then, they were under the radar screen of many potential competitors and acquirers. By the time the industry came to realize that free web-based email was indeed a hot idea, Hotmail was adding one million new subscribers per month, and that growth rate was accelerating. A new fast follower would start small and have to grow for several months to reach one million subscribers. But in that same time, Hotmail would have grown to 10 million subscribers. So although Hotmail's followers grew geometrically as well, the absolute difference in subscriber bases widened every month (while the ratio remained approximately constant).
Absolute size matters. One significant effect of Hotmail's absolute size is that their efficiencies of scale allowed them to be the lowest-cost e-mail provider on the planet. Server utilization and bandwidth pricing improved with growth. Also, the perceived gorilla in a category tends to get the dominant share of the business and financial partnerships. Many advertisers and media companies do not want to spend time with sub-scale properties. All of this makes it tougher for the smaller new entrant. It also skews the make vs. buy decision toward "buy" for the large portal companies, which realized en masse that they wanted an email solution with proven scalability. A similar buying frenzy is currently underway for "community-building" web sites, such as Tripod, PlanetAll and Homestead.
A challenge for the hyper-growth gorilla is scalability. On a technology level, server scalability is a critical concern. Fortunately, companies like Hotmail are turning software into a service. What was sold as email servers and clients is now offered as a web-based service where the customer need only have a standard web browser. This makes product upgrades a lot easier; Hotmail can upgrade its server software several times a month without involving or in many cases, even notifying its large customer base. The customer still uses the same browser.
But once one problem is solved, hyper-growth tends to uncover new scalability bottlenecks. Often the young Internet company finds that its growth is constrained by its ability to hire good people. This is why many of these companies try to engineer around people-intensive elements of their business.
New Distribution Channels:
New companies are often the primary beneficiaries of new distribution channels, as Dell has shown in the PC industry. Dell just passed Compaq to become #1 in desktop PC shipments. Compaq's legacy channel partners prevent it from entering the lower-cost mail order channel. For many businesses, the Internet is a still lower cost channel of distribution.
By lowering prices or offering free products, and employing a "market shrink" strategy, the new entrant can make it very painful for established companies with established distribution relationships to follow them. Although the new market size may be smaller, driven by Internet price efficiencies, the new entrant can gain significant share by restructuring the basis of competition. There may be less revenue in a free email market, but it's tough for Eudora and companies based on selling client software to follow Hotmail's lead.
Viral Marketing provides a new distribution channel for almost any Internet application. Although it naturally lends itself to free "communications" or network applications, Viral Marketing could also be applied to traditional stand-alone software to accelerate the word-of-mouth spread of good software. How might this work? Release Software can embed in just about any software application an e-commerce engine for electronic software distribution and "try before you buy" purchasing. When a customer gives the application to a friend, it triggers the embedded sales agent to offer a 30-day trial period, after which the new user has to pay for the software. It turns software piracy into a sales opportunity.
Release can also credit multiple distribution partners involved in the sale with a percentage of the transaction. To engage viral marketing, the customer would be treated like a distribution partner. So, in the ultimate pyramid scheme, if a software company were willing to pay a two percent sales commission, a customer could be credited 1% of the sales price for a copy she gives to friend when they buy, and 0.5% for her friend's friends, and 0.25% for three levels down, and so on - thereby spending no more than 2% of sales on "word-of-mouth" promotions. Netcentives, a web currency innovator, could be added to this equation to allow users to accumulate frequent flyer miles for spreading a software application to colleagues and friends.
This could lead to some interesting consumer behavior. Customers would have an incentive to post software to their favorite download sites or other distribution outlets to maximize the total sales of their copy of the application. Not only would the customers help resell product directly, they would innovate and discover new distribution networks. Perhaps these should be called "self-organizing viral distribution networks." Established companies are unlikely to experiment with them, because of channel conflict with their legacy partners.
Where might this all lead? We are still looking for the emergent intelligence of the hive. An ant colony exhibits a higher order of intelligence than that of its individual members. We don't look at a neuron and think of it as being very smart. In many ways, we are the neurons on the Net, and the network applications that take advantage of that collective intelligence have not been developed yet. The Santa Fe Institute argues that computer viruses are a form of artificial life. Perhaps viral marketing can also find an evolutionary form.
But in the meantime, the Hotmail juggernaut just keeps on growing - quietly, and consistently on its own momentum. Hotmail now has over 30 million subscribers. As a technological dislocation, we believe that the Internet provides an unfair competitive advantage to nimble startup companies. A good idea can spread like wildfire if its business model maps to the medium. Viral Marketing adds fuel to the fire.
Exploitant : Transdev TVO
Réseau : R'Bus (Argenteuil)
Ligne : 8
Lieu : Gare d'Argenteuil (Argenteuil, F-95)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/37468
Véhicule : IRISBUS Agora L GNV
Identification : 2278 (DD-352-KR)
Exploitant : Keolis Bordeaux Métropole
Réseau : TBM (Bordeaux Métropole)
Dépôt : Centre d'Exploitation du Lac (CEL)
Ligne : 14 NAVETTE RELAIS TRAM C
Voiture : 1411
Destination : LE BOUSCAT Place Ravezies
Du Lundi 15 au Jeudi 25 Avril 2019, 2 phases d'interruptions se sont succédé sur la ligne Tram C, pour que les équipes de maintenance effectuent des travaux sur les voies.
Durant la première phase, la ligne était coupée entre les stations "Grand Parc" et "Gare Saint-Jean". Lors de la seconde phase, l'interruption a été réduite à la section de "Quinconces" à "Gare Saint-Jean".
17/04/2019 15:56
Allée de Bristol ; Bordeaux
Véhicule : HEULIEZ BUS GX 327 GNV
Identification : 2711 (BM-755-NL)
Exploitant : Keolis Bordeaux Métropole
Dépôt : n.c.
Réseau : TBM (Bordeaux Métropole)
Ligne : Flexo 48
Voiture : 4803
Destination : PESSAC Bougnard - via Zones Flexo
À partir du 4 Novembre 2019, la Flexo 48 a été remplacée par la Corol 39. "Sur son itinéraire, des couloirs bus et priorités aux feux lui seront dédiés", avec notamment un couloir de bus mis en place sur la Bande d'Arrêt d'Urgence de la Rocade, entre les échangeurs 12 et 13. Bordeaux Métropole met également en avant la "correspondance avec le TER à la gare de Pessac Alouette" pour se rendre de l'Aéroport à la Gare Saint-Jean (et inversement), pour les usagers souhaitant "éviter les centre-villes de Bordeaux et Mérignac".
Dernière semaine de circulation pour la Flexo 48 avant son remplacement par la Corol 39, qui gardera les mêmes véhicules sur ce nouveau parcours.
30/10/2019 13:44
Arrêt TBM "MÉRIGNAC Diesel"
Avenue Rudolf Diesel ; F-33 MÉRIGNAC
Exploitant : Keolis CIF
Réseau : GoBus
Lieu : Centre Opérationnel Bus de Goussainville (Goussainville, F-95)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/vehicule/81512
"Light Box"
Notre Dame de Paris (Ile de la Cité - 4ème arrondissement de Paris)
Website : www.fluidr.com/photos/pat21
picssr.com/photos/pat21?ref=user
"Copyright © – Patrick Bouchenard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained here in for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
Twinned with Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
A site blessed by nature
A special destiny has permitted a town with origins that reach far into the past to exploit all the resources of a site blessed by nature, knowing how to seize opportunities and how to survive through the centuries while remaining always of its own time.
A lock town at the exit from a lake on a road crossing the great routes from Italy to Geneva, its site puts in contact with two zones: the pre-Alpine mountains of the Bornes and the Bauges on one side and the plain with the Albanais district on the other.
Its site is particularly blessed with the lake which has become its symbol, the Thiou, a former industrial route that has become a tourist attraction, the huge Semnoz forest which has remained wild, the spacious Fins plain well-suited to unlimited urban development, and finally the sloping border of Annecy-le-Vieux, the pleasant beginning of the northern landscape.
As for its history, the nearness of Geneva was to be the cause of successive rises in status as the town became in succession capital of Geneva county when the Counts chased from that city settled there in the 13th century, then a bishopric after the triumph of Calvinism in the 16th century.
Promoted in the 15th century to capital of an attached territory of the House of Savoie, it was to experience a radical transformation at the beginning of the 19th century by becoming an active industrial centre, a role which grew stronger in the 20th century without slowing the growth of tourism.
3100 years before Jesus Christ : a village on the shore-line
Annecy is probably one of the oldest inhabited sites in the Northern Alps. In fact, the recent digs carried out by the Department of Sub-Aquatic and Sub-marine Archaeological research, set up in Annecy, have allowed us to date the lakeside village which has been identified off the bank at Annecy-le-Vieux at 3,100 years before Christ.
The station known as “the Port” located near the Swan Island ; could be used to fix the date at 2,500 years before Christ.
Boutae in the Gallo-roman period
The Gallo-romain period started about years before our own and saw the rapid emergence of a “village” of about 2,000 people given the name Boutae whose expansion into a town on the Fins plain let enough remains to let us know the precise location of the Forum, Temple, Thermal baths (to be seen at 36 avenue des Romains), and of the theatre, the final element which could be restored.
The triangular shape of this town shows the importance of the traffic routes converging on this crossroads: points leading to Faverges (Casuaria), Aix Les Bains (Aquae) and Geneva.
After the dispersal of the inhabitants of Boutae in the 6th century, a new stage was begun from the 12th century with the progressive occupation of the banks of the Thiou at the lake mouth, an advantageous position controlling a vital part of the great north-south axis, crossing the river at the level of the island which was very quickly converted into a stronghold.
The medieval town
From that moment the medieval town began to be built on both sides of the Thiou protected by the fortifications which would become the castle. This was the beginning of “New Annecy” which is mentioned in a text of 1107.
The growing township was given an unexpected boost when it became the residence of the Count of Geneva when he was chased out of his capital after disputes with the Bishops.
Annecy becomes Savoyarde
This event triggered the building of the castle which became the prince’s residence until the extinction of the Geneva family in 1394 when the last member, Robert of Geneva, who had become anti-Pope at Avignon under the name of Clement VII, died. A few years later, in 1401, Annecy became Savoyarde with the absorption of the County of Geneva into the Savoyard state under its most prestigious ruler, Amadeus VIII, the first Duke of Savoie.
The former capital of the Geneva district, having lost its title, went through a period of sharp decline caused by a series of terrible fires which destroyed the greater part of the town in 1412 and then again in 1448. Amadeus VIII, realising the seriousness of the situation, took action to help the city to rise from its own ruins, undertaking reconstruction of the castle and the town.
He then completed these signs of regard for the town by creating an attached territory of Geneva for his son Philippe in 1444. And so Annecy rose from the ashes and regained its title of capital of a county including the districts of Geneva, Faucigny and Beaufort.
This brilliant dynasty of princes formed matrimonial connections with the royal family of France and received from Francis I the Duchy of Nemours (near Fontainebleau), conferring on these new princes the title of Dukes of Geneva-Nemours.
Annecy as a bishopric
This period left a permanent mark on the history of Annecy, when it became a bishopric after the Bishop of Geneva decided to leave the town after the Protestant Reformation in 1535. He was followed by several religious communities who further reinforced Annecy’s importance as a religious centre, which was such that some historians called it “The Rome of Savoie”.
From this period Annecy has preserved some beautiful buildings which permanently enriched its heritage: the Nemours Lodge, St Peter’s Cathedral, the Lambert House, the Note Dame de Liesse bell-tower. If we add to this the glorious history of the episcopate of St François de Sales, the opening of the Chappuisian College, and the creation of the Florimontane Academy, we can speak without doubt of a golden age for our town.
The occupation of Savoie by the French Revolutionary Army (1792) shook the town even though we notice a decline in religious fervour from the beginning of the 18th century.
An industrial destiny
Now open to new ideas, the town experienced a transformation for industrial uses of the sites vacated by the clergy, which was a considerable economic boost. Factories of all sorts were started, powered by hydraulic force from the Thiou.
It was a also a revolutionary vision which inspired the town plan drawn up by Thomas-Dominique Ruphy in 1794 in which a wide rectilinear road on the main traffic routes was designed to divert circulation from the historic town centre.
During the period of Sardinian rule (1815-1860), the industrial destiny of the town was confirmed by the plan for hydro-electric power carried out at the end of the century.
But from the middle of the century, the new sensibility concerning Alpine sites opened the region to the fashion for tourism attracting ever-growing numbers of visitors to our lake.
HMS Exploit (P167) is an Archer-class (P2000) patrol vessel of the British Royal Navy, built in Woolston by Vosper Thornycroft and commissioned in 1988.
She is assigned to the Royal Navy Coastal Forces Squadron, carrying out a range of activities both in the U.K. and overseas.
Pictured here returning to Gosport marina during sea trials after maintenance.
The Spice Island Inn at Old Portsmouth is in the background of the image.
The term circus freak is a tough one to discern. Deemed barbaric and exploitive by modern terms, it was actually the preferred expression…by the “freaks” themselves during the long 100 year heyday of the American traveling circuses and sideshows. These were individuals who made a living (in most cases) the only way they could…by exhibiting their unusual attributes…even playing up their abnormalities to fearful crowds. By most accounts I’ve read, many of the intelligent ones were treated well. In fact some were revered in the highest regard; they were well paid, lived as extravagantly as Hollywood celebrities of their day, traveled the world and made acquaintances with royalty and the social elite. They found love, often with other freaks from the traveling shows, but it wasn’t uncommon to marry normal patrons who frequented the shows. Freaks with limited mental capabilities, however, didn’t fare as well as their smarter counterparts. Some had compassionate handlers but most were deemed less than human and were subject to physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.
In the heyday of the traveling circus there were several kinds of freaks and most of which I tried to portray in this painting…your biological freaks…were born with (or later acquired) physical abnormalities they couldn’t do anything about. These were your giants, dwarfs, fully or partially conjoined twins, your lobster boys and bearded ladies.
Another category are your self made freaks…often with an unwavering desire to be a part of the circus life, folks would cover themselves in tattoos or piercing and play up an exotic or monstrous persona. Often ticket sales dictated something more compelling than a clever name and tattooed flesh so frequently these folks also gained “acquired” skills like sword swallowing, acrobatics or fire juggling.
Another category are your exotic freaks. An individual would qualify into this theme simply by being of a faraway land or culture different from what was deemed as modern or civilized. Tribesmen from Africa, South America, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines and the Polynesian islands were often exhibited as head hunters, cannibals, witch doctors, voodoo priests, and savages whether or not they actually engaged in these practices in their homelands. The most extreme and controversial case of this was an African Pygmy tribesman named Ota Benga who was exhibited in a cage in the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo from 1903-1906. He was dressed in animal print loincloths, had apes as companions and was encouraged to act wild whenever patrons drew near. He was played up as “The Missing Link”, bridging the gap between apes and man.
A type of freak I chose not to portray in this painting but are still important to note were the carnival geeks. The term geek nowadays describes a nerdy type or someone extremely interested in a particular brainy subject but in the original meaning, these were considered the lowest of the low; they were not permitted to socialize with other carnival folk. These were vagrant drunks or drug addicts, often picked up when the carnival came to town and left there as the show departed. Its known that addicts of the worst order will usually do anything for their next fix…even act like a maniac in a cage, sling their own urine and excrement around, fight each other and most notably…bite the heads off chickens. This was undoubtedly the most exploitive facet of the traveling freak show but it was well proven that people would pay good money to see people in such a depraved state.
Not really freaks but an equally important part of the traveling show was the pickled punks and other curios. These were often malformed fetuses and animals preserved in jars. Usually they were fakes created to instill awe…most notably the fearsome Fiji Mermaid.
I did this painting with no intent to exploit but only to learn more about our strange world and history. Purposefully I wanted an eerie, yet whimsical representation of the traveling freak show but with a respectful, uplifting, celebratory message. Here we have a freak show owned and operated by Dr. Z…a freak himself (see if you can spot him in the detail pics). In spite of my good intentions, I did meet with what I figured to be weird karma as I was doing the research for this piece. I approached a lady at the town library with an extensive list of books…all of them with “freak show” and “circus freaks” in their titles. As I handed her the list, she looked up from her computer and I saw that she had a severely disfigured face and malformed hands. My gut instinct was to retract the list and maybe approach someone else (or leave and nix this project altogether!) but she seemed unfazed with my list of questionable reading material. She called her associate on another floor, read off the list of books (much to my embarrassment), smiled happily and told me her co-worker was gathering the books now and I should take the stairs or the elevator to find him. I thanked her, then followed her instructions to retrieve my books. It turns out her associate was a severe hunchback, nearly bent in half with his affliction but he happily located and gathered my books for me. Both did an excellent job at their work but had me leaving there with an uneasy feeling of guilt.
In 1984 an “uppity Madison Avenue woman with lofty connections and who has never been to a freak show”…(every book I read made it a point to mention that)…lobbied her connections in congress to pass a law that would deem it illegal to exploit, exhibit or make money off of any type of physical abnormality. Already waning out of popularity, the freak show was deemed illegal with both freaks and patrons alike subject to arrest. Freaks were suddenly at a loss. Even “self-made” heavily tattooed or pierced individuals were at a loss for work. Some had lost considerable incomes, large homes, all of their possessions and the sense of belonging, love and community that the circus life once provided. In some cases, without the means to purchase the expensive medications they required, some have even died or endured the loss of spouses or children. Currently some folks with severe abnormalities are institutionalized, living a solitary life or at best eking a living on welfare or disability.
Whether deemed exploitive or a place for the different among us to find fame, love and a sense of community and belonging, the traveling freak show was an undeniable part of American…and world history. Incidentally, I’ve logged more hours on this painting (about 66) than any other. I hope you enjoy it and if you’ve made it this far…thanks for reading.
Exploitant : Transdev TVO
Réseau : Valmy
Ligne : 16
Lieu : Gare d'Argenteuil (Argenteuil, F-95)
Lien TC Infos : tc-infos.fr/id/14765
Ravages de l'exploitation forestière : parcours en 76 vues www.blurb.fr/b/11953283-usine-bois
#photobook
#boisnoirs #livradoisforezphotograhie
#BlurbBooks
HMS Exploit
Pennant number: P167
Operator: Royal Navy
Builder: Vosper Thornycroft
Commissioned:1988
Identification
MMSI number: 235009900
Callsign: GABD
Motto: Actis Inclitis - With Illustrious Deeds
Status: In active service
Class and type: Archer-class patrol vessel
Displacement: 54 tonnes
Length: 20.8 m (68 ft 3 in)
Beam: 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Draught: 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)
Propulsion: 2 shafts, Rolls-Royce M800T diesels, 1,590 bhp
Speed: 20 kn (37 km/h)
Range: 550 nmi (1,020 km)
Complement: 5 ship's company plus up to 1 training officer and 12 URNU students
Sensors and
processing systems: Decca 1216 navigation radar
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.
Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.
ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES
Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.
The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).
Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).
A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".
In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.
In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.
ICONOGRAPHY
Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.
Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.
The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.
COMMON ATTRIBUTES
Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.
Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.
VAHANAS
The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.
Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.
The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.
ASSOCIATIONS
OBSTACLES
Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."
Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.
BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)
Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".
AUM
Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:
(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).
Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.
FIRST CHAKRA
According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".
FAMILY AND CONSORTS
Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.
The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.
Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.
The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.
WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS
Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.
Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).
Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.
Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."
GANESH CHATURTI
An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.
TEMPLES
In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.
There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.
T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.
RISE TO PROMINENCE
FIRST APEARANCE
Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:
What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.
POSSIBLE INFLUENCES
Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:
In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.
Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."
One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.
A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.
First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).
VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE
The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .
Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".
Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.
PURANIC PERIOD
Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.
In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:
Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.
Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.
SCRIPTURES
Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.
The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.
R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.
BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM
Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.
Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.
Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.
Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.
Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.
The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
WIKIPEDIA
In a sky tormented the lisbon christ indicates light.
"Copyright © – Nikola Bernard
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained herein for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."
We appreciate the courtesy of Chatwick University Archives for letting us use the journals in our research, and for permission to use parts for the genesis of “Dare’s Game”.
Dare’s Game
Beth, eagerly looking for Dare, walked straight into Seth’s cunning snare…..
Suffix, circa 1910?. It was during this time a fanciful young lady, whom we will call Beth, started a journal which she would faithfully keep over the course of almost 50 years. She led quite an adventuresome life for a lady of that time, and her journals were filled with many tales and observations of her exploits. The following story is derived from events that she penned down in the early years in her journal.
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Beth had known Dare since their childhood. Dare was a handsome free spirited youth only two years her senior, who lived for the games his life had to offer. As his cherished nickname inferred, Dare was always trying to find the thrill out of anything he could think up, relishing to go beyond the pale in anything he attempted. Dare always a little different, harboring feelings and ideas way beyond his years, almost as if he had lived a previous life and retained something from it in his being.
Beth would remember times playing dress up with Dare’s sister Diana in some old gowns of their mothers. It was always then that Dare and his friends seemed to appear and talk them into playing hide n seek, tag or cops n robbers. Dare seemed to take pleasure in cajoling the girls into playing with them in this manner. Eyeing them as they played with a far off look that suggested the game they were playing had more meaning to him than he could ever venture to say. It was hard for Beth to explain it, but she did find it pleasurable (almost erotic using a word whose term she would learn much later) to be observed by him in this way.
One warm fall day Diana and Beth headed down to an old shack located near some railroad tracks at the back of a cornfield. Diana was dressed in a long satin play gown with her mother’s jewelry, which Dare had called rhinestones. Beth, herself dressed in a long flowing dress, loved the way Diana’s jewels twinkled and sparkled as she walked. They were going to pretend the shack was a ballroom and they were one their way to a fancy dance, like Beth’s and Diana’s parents had recently attended. Diana wasn’t supposed to be wearing her mother’s jewelry outside the house, but as a result of Dare’s teasing, had done so anyway.
They had reached the shack, an old white brick building with a wooden roof half fallen in, when a man’s voice suddenly said behind them, what are you two ladies up to? Turning they were confronted by a happily sneering drifter. The grubby man looked around, alone is we, and advanced towards them. The two girls stood petrified, he reached out and probed Diana along her side, pretty dress missy, he said, sparsely toothed mouth grinning like a pumpkin. He suddenly reached up and tore the necklace away from Diana’s throat, sending her falling backwards. Beth screamed bloody murder, as the vagrant turned heel, running off towards the tracks. Suddenly Dare appeared, and Beth, meaning to yell for help, exclaimed instead “help honey” to Dare. Dares eyes took on a very different look, almost of a burning yearning. Beth told him what had happened and he took off down towards the tracks in hot pursuit. For Beth, the look he had given her and the way he had dashed off excited her beyond measure. Even for someone that young, Beth now knew what Dare meant to her. From then on, playing games with Dare took on a heightened meaning for Beth.
But, nothing really changed in their relationship until Beth’s sophomore year of high school. Beth was sixteen at the time, a whimsical being, passionate, innocent, not particularly attractive, but radiating with a love of life. A living free spirit, developing into a very sexual being by the time her and Diana decided to attend their schools prom in their sophomore year. Beth dressed in a fuchsia coloured satin dress with dangling rhinestone earrings that had been” borrowed” from Diana’s Mother, the same ones Diana had been wearing when they had run into the drifter at the shack. Diana slipped into the slinky blue spaghetti strap gown and matching cover-all that she had worn as her cousin’s bridesmaid. She was wearing sapphire costume jewels patterned after the hope diamond. Their parents had given them a hard time when they saw their made up girls in their gowns and finery , admonishing them for looking way too mature. They smiled, consoling their parents fears, and went off on their adventure.
Their eyes were dazzled by the display of lights, the cheerfully student filled room, the band. They had stopped and were letting it all sink in, when Beth felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and came face to face with Dare, who once again had the same yearning fire in his eyes as on that fateful day at the old shack. A veil was lifted from between the two, and Beth spent the whole evening encompassed in Dare’s arms. Soon after that the two had begun seeing much more of one another. Their relationship was still going strong eight years later.
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8 Years Later
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Come on Dare, let’s go to the Riverside, it will be fun she urged. She had been trying to get her fiancé’ to take her to the exclusive five star resorts for some time. And now she had a free overnight room card she had won at work! Dare looked into Beth’s wide, hope filled eyes, knowing her passion for attending these types of affairs. Ever hopeful she would see someone rich. Dare knew how to use this to his advantage. Finally he buckled, all right, only if we play the game afterwards he bargained. She squirmed inwardly with passion, nodding her agreement. Beth found the game exciting, though she would never let on to Dare. And, you must wear the gold bridesmaid gown and jewels you wore to your friend’s wedding last week , he added, a wistful smile lighting up his thin face.. Okay she agreed, trying to sound reluctant, but truthfully feeling multiple tingles of delight.
Dare was handsome, in a scrawny, thin bearded, sort of way ( From an old photo that survives he resembled a young Johnny Depp… the eds), with a witty writers imagination and a playful disposition. He could always make Beth laugh, feeling his excitement as he drew her into his stories and games. She would never admit to it, but found the game delightfully erogenous. She smiled to herself, so Dare had liked the satin gown after all, he had not shown any interest in her wearing it since the wedding. And the jewelry, the small rhinestone pendent and earrings had been pretty, but Beth soon came up with another idea. She would knock his socks off by wearing the glittering diamonds and emeralds that had been inherited from her grandmother. The set had laid collecting dust in a safety deposit box all these years, unworn. She had never told Dare about them, waiting for the perfect occasion. She could just imagine the look in his eyes when he saw her wearing them. Okay then, game on, Beth thought, wickedly sending shivers up and down her spine.
Dare’s Game was based on role playing:
Dare would give Beth money to purchase a new outfit, something rich and shiny, like silk or satin. With the new outfit, Beth would wear the good gold jewelry she had received from Dare on her birthdays. The idea was to acting like a bored rich girl out for a good time, alone and vulnerable.
Dare would be at the hotel bar, waiting for Beth to make her entrance, then make her acquaintance , playing a debonair, suited gentleman with a mysterious past and a hidden agenda. They would make a date later, usually to dance and have drinks.
Then that evening, she would go down to the bar. Dressed in one of the long gowns Dare favored, fitting in with the usual spillover from a wedding reception that had been held in one of the Ballrooms. Sometimes she would wear the rhinestone jewelry they had purchased together at various antique stores. Then Beth would wait for Dare to make his entrance, signaling the time for Dare’s game. He would assume one of several roles, or possibly a new one that Beth had never seen. In the past Dare had played:
A spy who would dance with Beth, then disappear. Sending a note to Beth via a third person that would have her meet him clandestinely in a remote location…
A highwayman who would come across Beth on the castle grounds , usually the resorts empty gardens at night….
A rich millionaire looking for romance…
A kidnapper hired by an evil uncle, who after tying up Beth and removing her valuables would have a change of heart….
A Jewel thief who would be cunningly after her valuables…
A handsome prince rescuing Beth’s damsel in distress ….
Or Dare’s favorite, centered on their old childhood game of cops and robbers. Dare would play the thief, and steal something from Beth, usually while dancing. He would then leave preset clues around the grounds that she would have to follow to catch him.
All of the games usually led to some playful groping and then escalating into the upper echelons of erotic pleasure. Sometimes they never made out of the woods, or barely out of the ballroom. Beth shivered at these thoughts, wishing she didn’t have to wait….
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Three weeks later at the Riverside Resort.
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In the Bar:
At the bar, Dare smiled to himself, pleased. He had dropped Beth off to check in by herself. She would change into her new outfit and wear it down to the bar for lunch. She would come in acting like a complete stranger to the area. Dare would make her acquaintance, invite her to lunch, and make plans to see her that evening at the resorts dance room. There were two wedding receptions going on, and that dance room should be filled with well-dressed patrons. Beth would fit right in; clad that pretty gown she had promised to wear.
Dare had been sitting at the bar, thinking about ways to play out the game that evening, when the answer came to him, in the form of a stranger who had come with his drink and sat next to him. The stranger introduced himself as Seth, and shaking Dare’s hand sat on the stool next to him. After they had had couple of drinks, they had become quite chummy. Seth explaining he had come up for one of the weddings, and assumed Dare was doing the same. Seth did not fail to observe Dare’s secretive smile, but did not question it. Their conversation was distracted only when a newcomer appeared at the entrance. Beth walked in, a long flowing silky skirt swishing down to her leather sandals. A shiny, long sleeved satin top fitting tightly along her perky figure, with bright gold jewelry complementing the ensemble. Real gold, Seth observed silently to himself.
Beth went to a table, both men going silent as they watched her move through the room. Good-looking one, that, Seth commented, looking at Dare who was deep in thought as his eyes were fixed on the sexy newcomer. Seth teasingly offered Dare a penny for his thoughts. Dare smiled mischievously, letting lose his plans. Seth listened to the young man, smiling as a light went on in his steal grey eyes. When Dare finished he offered up a suggestion as to how Dare could make it really interesting for Beth. The two co-conspirators worked it out: Seth told Dare about a stone hut and wall that was located on the back nine of the resorts golf course. He suggested that he, Seth, would meet Beth that evening and pass a note onto her from Dare saying that he was in trouble and needed her help, with directions to the spot. Dare liked the idea, and wrote the note on a cocktail napkin, cementing the plan by handing it to Seth.
Off you go old chap, let Uncle Seth take care of his end, he said grinning, giving Dare a sporting clap on the back. With a wink, Dare left his fellow collaborator, and went over to Beth, who had since been seated by a male waiter, now standing drooling over her shoulder as she looked at the menu.
Later that same evening, inside the crowded club:
Seth had stopped by the bar for a last drink. His business venture had been concluded earlier than he had expected. With the change in his plans, he had checked out early, his kit packed, boot loaded and the car ready. He now sat at the bar Causley watching young lass of about seventeen who had literally ran into him at one of the receptions. He watched her flirting about the club, weaving in and out of the guests. With a long swishing gown flowing provocatively along her lithe figure, abundant, solid white gold chains swinging out in an alluringly eye catching manner as she scurried about. A diminutive gold ring its half caret diamond flickered playfully from the petite pinky it loosely surrounded once again welcomed his contemplation. The lass presented quite an intriguing gold feathered fledgling, just begging to be plucked. He looked around, spying her parents on the dance floor. The father/husband, despite being an excellent dancer, gave him no interest. It was his partner, the wife/ mother, decked out in a iridescent suit and long swishing satin skirt upon which he now was reexamining. He again studied under the bright dance floor lights her fine pearls dangling from her ears, throat, and wrists. But it was the Ladies’ two rings that stole the show for him; an engagement ring with a rock of at least 2 carets surrounded by numerous shimmering half caret stones and a pinky ring similar to her daughters, that proudly displayed a single white solitaire diamond of at least one caret that had garnered his consideration. He also reconsidered the facts that he had been able to garnish about the lady who wore them, and her husband. The wife/mother was a heavy drinker who would not be expected to make any kind of appearance before noon. Hubby was a golfer, who would be out for breakfast at five am before being on the links at 6 am the next morning . At 5 :15 Seth was planning to pay a visit to his suite, and relieve his two ladies of their expensive trinkets. It should be an easy straight forward caper, that had Seth bristling with anticipation at the prospect.
As he was tossing down the last of his drink he remembered about Dare and the note he still had in his pocket. Setting down the empty glass, he pulled the note out and looked at it, kids he smirked, and was preparing to crinkle toss it on the bar and leave, when his eyes caught sight of Beth. He had felt his breath taken away when he saw her. Not at all what he had expected, he would say to Beth much later in the evening. He looked over the note, stirrings of a plan began formulating. All thoughts of the dancing couple and his plans fled his mind, as He rose, throwing a fiver on the bar and went off to intercept Beth.
Seth held Beth in his arms, she was a vivacious little thing he thought, while smiling charmingly into her eyes. She seemed a little apprehensive at first, but had settled right in when he had told her this had been set up by Dare, remember me at the bar with him this afternoon he had consoled her, she had smile brightly into his eyes in answer. He relished in the feel of her warm satin gown, and allowed himself to be mesmerized by the shimmer of her diamonds.
It reminded him of the diamonds that had been worn by one of his dance partners earlier that evening at a reception. He had forgotten her name, but not her diamonds, one of which now resided in a hidden compartment of his roadsters boot, along with the diamond pin he had slipped off the satin cape he had cordially help a well-dressed lady put on. He had also shelved his plans for his 5:15 am “meeting” at the golf playing husbands hotel room, Beth’s jewels were a much more lucrative prospect.
When the dance had ended he took her to the bar and sat her down, ordering her a drink. She seemed a little perplexed, Seth kissed her gloved hand; wait for it he told her mysteriously, winking into her eyes. Beth had winked back, the fire in her heart reflecting deep in her eyes. Seth left, smiling cleverly to himself as he took in his surroundings. He looked around as he walked away, now where had the little imp gotten off too?
He had decided that the seventeen year old in the long flirting gown would play a very different role in his plans. He approached her, with Dares note and a twenty. Thought for a moment about the pair of thick platinum gold chains dangling from her throat down the open neckline of the girl’s glossy gown, then banished the though, he had bigger fish to filet. The twenty caught her attention and she eagerly listened as he explained to her what to do, pointing out Beth sitting, waiting in earnest at the bar. Wait until she finishes her drink, Seth told her as she listened eagerly. She took the twenty into her hand, the half caret diamond on her pinky ring flashing, and her gold chain bracelets jangled as she grasped it. Seth left, figuring he had about twenty minutes to stop at his car, get a few items from the boot, and put his plan in motion.
Beth had curiously received the note from the attractively shy young lady, clad a slinky gown that made her appear years older. Reading it she folded it and was just getting up when a man wearing a suit came up to her and offered to let her dance with him. It took her some time, before she was finally able to ward him off and leave the brilliantly lit clubroom for the dark, forbidding grounds outside.
Now, a thoroughly excited Beth walked up the hill. Her senses becoming more prickling alert with each step. Innocently unaware that she was no longer playing a role in Dare’s game!
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Epilogue:
As Seth walked away admiring the shimmery necklace, his thoughts travelled back to the gold burdened impish youngster in the swirling gown, and her pearl and diamond laden mother. Revisiting his original plans he decided that he liked the odds, especially since they would be against him. With the father leaving early to meet his cronies for breakfast the Mother should be still sleeping off her drink induced stupor, the hyperactive girl should still be out cold, but presented no risk if she awoke, he had more rope. The ladies jewels should be lying about in the apartment, or handedly on their persons( the pairs of diamond pinky rings, as well as the multi-diamond engagement ring flashed once again across his memory with all their brilliant glory),as he caught fire with the vision. There could be a safe he reasoned, but with a tied up daughter and a knife in his hand, the mother should have no issue opening it for him, or disclosing anywhere else her jewels may have been hidden . But if there was no safe, and the rings, pearls and solid white gold chains were somewhere in the room, he knew he would be able to noiselessly break in, find and slip the jewels from wherever they were perched, and be safely on his way without even causing the slightest stir from the sleeping woman and her daughter. It was a road Seth had travelled down many times. He prickled at the thought, as he foresightedly tallied up the potential haul while making his way to the car. The Mother/wife’s diamond rings, would easily fetch him at least three grand, probably close five with her pearls and the whelp’s jewelry added in. About a quarter of what he probably would get for the jewels now in his procession, so he mused inquisitively to himself, so ,was it worth the risk of his 20,000 bird in hand? Yes he answered himself, as all too familiar and welcome tingling sensation overwhelmed Seths muscular body. Like Dare, Seth like to play risky games, especially those which promised to be somewhat profitable. It would be a tantalizingly chancy gamble of his own; to wait a safe distance away while things cooled down and then return to break into the un protected sleeping ladies chamber.. He knew just the place to hide , and it would be a perfect spot to watch events unfold around Beth and Dare, while making his plans! It also afforded a nicely secret hiding nook for the ill-gotten gains collected so far that evening in case something went wrong, which it wouldn’t..
Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives
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Lahemaa literally mean "Land of Bays", and is obvious just by checking a map. Much of the current park was actually slated for resource exploitation by the Soviet government. At the end, the area was saved partly due to environmental protests, but most importantly simply due to lack of capital funds.
Navya is a French company specialized in the design and construction of
Source :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navya_SAS
Translation / Traduction 🇫🇷 Fr.
Navya est une entreprise française spécialisée dans la conception et la construction de véhicules autonomes, électriques et robotisés. En 2015, elle a lancé la navette autonome Arma, premier véhicule autonome de série sans chauffeur à être commercialisé.
Véhicule
La Navya Arma est le premier véhicule électrique et autonome de série disponible à la vente : l’Arma a été présentée en opération en première mondiale à l’ITS World Congress de Bordeaux en octobre 2015, où elle a par ailleurs circulé sur route ouverte.
Il s’agit d’une navette à l’habitacle fermé, conçue pour l’autonomie et fabriquée en France : elle comporte lidars, caméras stéréovision, GPS RTK, GNSS, capteurs infra-rouge7 et est doté d’un système de navigation lui permettant de suivre un itinéraire dans un environnement pré-cartographié.
Sur la route, l’Arma distingue tous types d’obstacles, qu’ils soient fixes ou mobiles et adapte sa trajectoire. Des systèmes d’arrêt d’urgence sont accessibles si besoin.
Véhicule de Navya à La Défense, expérimentation du STIF entre juin 2017 et décembre 20178
Dotée de feux, d’écrans, de panneaux LED et haut-parleurs internes et externes, elle interagit avec ses passagers et son environnement extérieur de manière visuelle ou sonore7.
L’Arma est au service de la mobilité du dernier kilomètre. Elle est, dans un premier temps, destinée à circuler principalement sur sites fermés5, comme les aéroports, les sites industriels, les universités et les parcs d’attraction. En zones urbaines, l’Arma circule sous condition d’autorisation, la législation autour des véhicules autonomes n'étant pas encore en place.
Elle a été rebaptisée « Autonom Shuttle » le mardi 7 novembre 2017 lors de la présentation du nouveau produit Navya, « Autonom Cab », le premier robot-taxi autonome, à la Cité du Cinéma (ville de Saint-Denis).
Caractéristiques de l'Autonom Shuttle
Les caractéristiques du véhicule sont les suivantes :
Dimensions et capacité
•Places : 11 assises et 4 debout
•Poids à vide : 1 800 kg
•Poids total en charge : 3 000 kg
•Dimensions (L x l x h) : 4,80 m x 2,05 m x 2,60
Moteur
•Puissance : 15 kW (25 kW en crête)
•Vitesse maximum : 45 km/h
•Vitesse de croisière : 25 km/h
•Pente maximale : 15 %
•Batteries : LiFePO4
•Énergie stockée : 33 kW•h
Motricité
•Roues motrices : 2
•Roues directrices : 4
•Rayon de braquage : < 4 m
Caractéristiques de l'Autonom Cab.
Les caractéristiques du véhicule sont les suivantes :
Dimensions et capacité
•Place: 6 Passagers
•Poids à vide: 2000 kg
•Poids total autorisé en charge: 2500 kg.
•Dimensions (L x l x h): 4,65m x 1,95m x 2,10 m
Moteur
•Puissance : 15 kW (25 kW en crête)
•Vitesse maximum : 90 km/h
•Vitesse d'exploitation: 50 km/h
•Pente maximale : 13%
•Batteries : LiFePO4
•Énergie stockée : 22 ou 33 kW•h
Motricité
•Roues motrices : 2
•Roues directrices : 2
•Rayon de braquage : 5,50 m
Source :
AUTONOM SHUTTLE, la solution qui révolutionne les déplacements du premier et dernier kilomètre
Autonome, sans conducteur et électrique : la navette développée par NAVYA est au service des villes et sites privés pour toujours plus de mobilité.
En ville ou sur site privé, la navette conçue par NAVYA est une solution inédite de mobilité performante, propre et intelligente. AUTONOM SHUTTLE garantit, sur le premier et le dernier kilomètre, la performance du transport autonome et le confort du voyage grâce à sa navigation douce.
Pouvant transporter jusqu’à 15 personnes, AUTONOM SHUTTLE conjugue les avantages à différents niveaux. Les flottes de AUTONOM SHUTTLES permettent aux opérateurs de développer des gains de productivité sur les sites privés et participent au désengorgement des centres urbains. Parallèlement, elles permettent aux passagers d’optimiser leurs temps de transport et leur assurent un voyage en toute sérénité.
Une technologie de pointe au service de l’expérience
La conception de AUTONOM SHUTTLE répond aux besoins spécifiques d’un véhicule autonome sans conducteur tout en optimisant les fonctions de navigation et de sécurité. Sans volant ni pédale, AUTONOM SHUTTLE exploite des systèmes de guidage et de détection performants qui associent plusieurs technologies de pointe. Lidars, caméras, GPS RTK, IMU et odométrie : c’est par la fusion des données de ces différents capteurs associés aux logiciels de « deep learning » que AUTONOM SHUTTLE peut se déplacer efficacement et prendre les décisions les plus adaptées. Et cela, sans conducteur.
Avant, pendant et après le trajet, AUTONOM SHUTTLE propose une solution globale de mobilité continue et fluide.
Source :
Navette autonome : nouvelle expérimentation de la RATP à Saclay
Après le succès de plusieurs expérimentations (pont Charles-de-Gaulle, Vincennes, Boulogne-sur-Mer et Austin aux États-Unis), le groupe RATP, en partenariat avec BMCP, Bureau Veritas, CEA List, EasyMile et Sherpa Engineering, a lancé, de février à mi-avril 2018, sa 5ème expérimentation au CEA Paris-Saclay (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique)………
Source :
www.ratp.fr/groupe-ratp/linnovation-dans-tous-les-domaine...
These striking trees occupying the steeply v-shaped valley of the Afon Rheidol (not quite the Rheidol Gorge, slightly further upstream towards Ponterwyd), and the accompanying acidophile undergrowth, are the primary reason why this is the Coedydd a Cheunant Rheidol (Rheidol Woods & Gorge) SSSI/SAC, an example of ancient western upland oak woodland. From a distance, the white bare twigs look like smoke rising from the moss- and lichen-covered branches.
Much of the valley was exploited for timber, particularly for nearby lead mines (it was nearly clearfelled during the First World War), but stands like this, on the steepest slopes, were less managed and closer to a natural ecosystem fed by humidity, both from rain (it is Mid Wales...) and spray from the fast-flowing Afon Rheidol.
Début août j'ai appris par hasard que les chapelles du canton étaient ouvertes les mercredis après-midi . Quelle aubaine ! Il en est encore que je n'ai pu visiter ou que je n'ai pu revisiter depuis bien longtemps .
Mercredi 23 août .
Depuis la chapelle du Kreisker, si vous voulez rejoindre l'Odet il suffit de descendre tout droit : Sur la route, puis un chemin d'exploitation, puis un sentier qui passe entre de gros blocs de granite .
La carte a perdu l'Odet !!
Briec, Ergué-Gabéric,Finistère, Bretagne, France .
Photographie J-P Leroy, tous droits réservés .