NOLA 2018 - Easter Sunday Parades

 

The story goes that the daughter of Count Arnaud started the Historic French Quarter Parade close to 100 years ago. Today the parade starts at 9:45 a.m. at Antoine's Restaurant (715 Rue St. Louis). It includes a stop for the 11 a.m. mass at the St. Louis Cathedral and resume parading at noon after a promenade in Jackson Square.

 

The parade features stylish ladies in lovely hats handing out goodies via both carriages and convertibles and disbands in front of Antoine's where the ladies promenade through the main dining room handing out stuffed bunnies and Easter trinkets to the patrons.

 

Easter Sunday's lineup of parades starts early that morning with The Historic French Quarter Easter Parade from Antoine's Restaurant at 9:45 a.m. to St. Louis Cathedral for 11:00 a.m. Mass. The parade, consisting largely of mule-drawn carriages and old convertibles, makes its leisurely, roundabout way through the French Quarter, handing out stuffed Easter bunnies to the kids, along with other trinkets.

 

Following Mass, participants in the parade promenade to Jackson Square opposite the Cathedral to show off their Easter bonnets and other finery before returning to Antoine's. Awards are given out for the best Easter bonnets, Easter baskets and overall Easter attire.

 

Later, around 1:00 p.m. is the Chris Owens French Quarter Easter Parade. This tradition, which began back in the early 1980s, features renowned French Quarter singer, dancer and all-around entertainer Chris Owens as the Grand Duchess. She stands proudly on her gaily decorated float, assisted by elegantly attired attendants while decked out in one of her stunning, tight-fitting outfits.

 

The parade starts at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets and makes its way through the French Quarter, past the Chris Owens Club at 500 Bourbon, with colorful floats and vintage convertibles and accompanied by one or more of the city's famous brass bands. Plus dance groups and other entertainers. And, of course, since this is a New Orleans parade, there will be plenty of throws - Easter-themed - to catch from the floats and the open-top cars. This parade is a sight you'll never forget!

 

Then, later in the afternoon, is yet another parade, the Gay Easter Parade, put on by the city's GLBT community. Being nowhere near as wild or extravagant as a Mardi Gras parade, but rather family-friendly, the Gay Easter Parade takes a leisurely route through the French Quarter, passing every gay bar and many gay-owned restaurants and retail shops. The paraders ride horse-drawn carriages or floats while wearing showy versions of their Easter Sunday finest. Don't be surprised if you see a gaggle of motorcycle dudes in leather and Easter bonnets might roar by. Spectators can expect to see (and catch!) plenty of beads and other throws.

 

( Deux semaines a Nola pour la ville et pour WWE Wrestlemania XXXIV

Two weeks Nola for the city and for WWE Wrestlemania XXXIV )

The Moscow Kremlin or simply the Kremlin is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, it is the best known of the kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall along with the Kremlin towers. Within the complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace, which served as the royal residence of the Emperor of Russia. It is now the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin overlooks the Moskva River to the south, Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square to the east, and Alexander Garden to the west.

 

The name kremlin means 'fortress within a city' in Russian, and is often also used metonymically in international politics to refer to the Government of the Russian Federation. Likewise, during the Cold War, it referred to the Government of the Soviet Union, which operated out of the city in the erstwhile Russian SFSR. The term "Kremlinology" is related to the metonym and refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics.

 

Largely open to the public, the Kremlin offers supervised tours; the accompanying Moscow Kremlin Museums reportedly attracted 1,024,610 visitors in 2023.

Final Project:

You will be required to work on a project that includes photographing (a minimum of) five different individuals in the style of your choice. Once you have selected the style, keep it consistent throughout the series.

 

You will also need:

 

1. an establishing shot (an image that tells us something about your idea. For example if you were to do a series of chefs the establishing shot could be a close-up of a measuring spoons.)

2. a self-portrait, with a brief artist statement

   

Side Note: A lot of thing didn't come through like I had wanted. Had flakey models, then scored on a really expressive friend of a friend, and I got these new to me models that showed up and kicked ass, then I got severely sick and ended up in urgent care Monday, etc. But hopefully I was able to get domestic abuse portrayed like I wanted to. I decided not to try for sexual abuse because no matter how I tried it, it could be construed as porn, and that isn't something I wish to ever touch upon.

 

Artist's Statement:

Emmy's work is influenced by elements in the world that most people consider to be imperfect, broken, or weak. She builds upon imperfection because it is the only true indicator of character and beauty. She captures imperfection as the summit of her art. She is inspired by things that surround her every day, and uses them as a creative base. As the proud divorced, single mother of five closely spaced children she has no shortage of material from which to draw.

 

With her work, it is difficult to ignore the obvious experience and background Emmy has in graphic design. In addition to photography and graphic design, she is an entrepreneur, business ideas person, CEO of a small assessment corporation, movie scriptwriter, mother, and friend to all, even those pesky telemarketers if they happen to catch her on the telephone at home.

 

The most important thing to Emmy is the opportunity to create art. To be an artist, even an unknown one, is more important to her than going forth and finding notoriety. She feels the only way for her to create is to continue growing as an artist whether by introducing new techniques, new mediums, or a combination of both. Her primary focus is on creating art that reaches across boundaries. She creates art that speaks figuratively and demands its own place within its world. She tries to create art that will link people to her, and with her.

 

Fast Facts on Domestic Violence

 

Battering on women is the most under reported crime in America.

 

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the United States; more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. "Violence Against Women, A Majority Staff Report," Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 102nd Congress, October 1992, p.3.

 

Three to four million women in the United States are beaten in their homes each year by their husbands, ex-husbands, or male lovers. "Women and Violence," Hearings before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, August 29 and December 11, 1990, Senate Hearing 101-939, pt. 1, p. 12.

 

One woman is beaten by her husband or partner every 15 seconds in the United States. Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1991.

 

About 1 out of 4 women are likely to be abused by a partner in her lifetime. Sara Glazer, "Violence, Against Women" CO Researcher, Congressional Quarterly, Inc., Volume 3, Number 8, February, 1993, p. 171.

 

Approximately 95% of the victims of domestic violence are women. Statistics, National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women, Ruth Peachey, M.D. 1988.

 

Police report that between 40% and 60% of the calls they receive, especially on the night shift, are domestic violence disputes. Carrillo, Roxann "Violence Against Women: An Obstacle to Development," Human Development Report, 1990.

 

Battering occurs among people of all races, ages, socio-economic classes, religious affiliations, occupations, and educational backgrounds.

 

Fifty percent of all homeless women and children in this country are fleeing domestic violence. Senator Joseph Biden, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Violence Against Women: Victims of the System, 1991.

 

A battering incident is rarely an isolated event.

 

Battering tends to increase and become more violent over time.

 

Many batterers learned violent behavior growing up in an abusive family.

 

25% - 45% of all women who are battered are battered during pregnancy.

 

Domestic violence does not end immediately with separation. Over 70% of the women injured in domestic violence cases are injured after separation.

 

Domestic violence is not only physical and sexual violence but also psychological. Psychological violence means intense and repetitive degradation, creating isolation, and controlling the actions or behaviors of the spouse through intimidation or manipulation to the detriment of the individual. "Five Year State Master Plan for the Prevention of and Service for Domestic Violence." Utah State Department of Human Services, January 1994.

Venezuela (there in white) looks a bit different on this crest than what we see on maps outside Venezuela. Official maps in Venezuela show a country that includes 70% of Guyana, which Venezuela claims, all land west of the Essequibo river, aka 'el zona en reclamacion'. Venezuela has claimed this territory since 1788, and it's been in dispute with Britain, and now with Guyana, since 1835. Because of this claim there's no road between Venezuela and Guyana, and no direct flights either (!). When I flew from Georgetown to Caracas I had to have a layover in Trinidad (which was fine by me). The Venezuela/Guyanese border could be the world's longest without a crossing (that's my guess).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guayana_Esequiba

 

- Update Dec. 4, '23: For what little it's worth, I believe that Crimea, and Luhansk and Donetsk, former Ukrainian territories, should be recognized internationally as Russian if the best evidence (including the events and history of the civil war that raged from 2014 to '22) confirms that a large majority of the locals feel strongly that that's what they want. That sentiment might be expected in light of the hardnosed policies and approach taken by the succession of governments in Kyiv since 2014 (re language rights for example, access to Russian-language schools and newspapers. In Canada, if our government told les Quebecois to "speak English!" [just as Kyiv had said "Speak Ukrainian, this is Ukraine!"], they'd tell us where to go.) Most in the West focus on the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine to confront an expansive NATO and seek Kyiv's neutrality but forget that the invasion was also an intervention in an intractable and quite brutal civil war, one set to ramp up at the time of the invasion with Western arms. There's no good evidence for any claim that indigenous people in the far East of Ukraine or the former Ukraine, who happen to be ethnic Russians, weren't the vast majority of those prosecuting, fighting and dying in that civil war (although Western media was loath to refer to it as a civil war), whether or not they had help from Russia. The impression I had when I was in Crimea was that Crimeans, the vast majority of whom are ethnically Russian, had much more affinity with Russia than Ukraine.

- I also believe that Nagorno-Karabakh should be Armenian. A majority of Armenians have lived there for millenia and their express preference is to be governed by and with Armenia and their fellow Armenians. Armenia's eastern border was badly drawn.

- And as I gather that a large majority of Taiwanese wish to maintain their independence from the P.R.O.C., Taiwan should remain independent and gain international recognition as an independent country. The island has been an independent country, effectively, for more than 2 generations, a long time, and has grown, matured and flourished with an increasingly unique culture, notwithstanding that 90% of the island's pop. is ethnically, linguistically, and was historically Chinese. But I think the Taiwanese should return the splendid collection of items in 'the Palace museum' in Taipei, the greatest treasures from 'the Forbidden City' in Beijing, looted by Chiang Kai-shek and his 'National Revolutionary Army' in the civil war in 1949. youtu.be/05Ff7tUUbvc?si=TghxnbkKqpuknJZo youtu.be/-GhQeo0A7Kw?si=wE7ob0J4eZmoEb5N That collection was to remain in Taiwan, renamed the 'Republic of China', for safekeeping until Chiang Kai-shek and co. could effect their plans to conquer the mainland, a ship that sailed 70 yr.s ago. Taiwan might also relinquish its claims to some tiny islands that sit just off the Chinese coast. I should add that the Chinese might have an argument for annexation if they can prove that the Americans and the CIA are using the island as a base to provoke and threaten China (although any threat should be considered in context; the Chinese have nukes and massive military power, the Taiwanese don't). I've heard a pundit or 2 argue on-line that the Chinese have such evidence, but haven't read much on the issue.

- I realize that such situations are often complex. Factors other than current demographics can weigh against independence. Eg.: I was sympathetic with the Serbs in the 90s at the time of the secession of Kosovo. Not long before then, the significant minority Serb population had lived on that land for many centuries as a majority (up until the mid to late 19th cent.). Kosovo had been Serbia's heartland and is home to many of the oldest and greatest of Serbia's Christian monuments, although a vast number of churches have been destroyed since independence. Albanian immigration into Kosovo and Albanian population growth had made the difference, and where and when this can happen that risk is one argument that can be made by nationalists against immigration, unfortunately.

- By the same argument, and again for what little it's worth, I believe that Venezolanos should recognize the 'disputed' 'Guayana Esequiba' territory, or at least most of the said region north of the northernmost Brazilian border, and all of it south and east of that point, as Guyanese (as Chávez is reported to have done informally on a visit to Georgetown in 2004). Whether or not there was an injustice in the arbitration 124 yr.s ago, that's the point, the 'Arbitral award' was made 124 yr.s ago and the inhabitants today in a pop. of @ 240,000 consider themselves to be Guyanese. They speak English, they have a rich mixed-indigenous culture and history that's removed from Venezuela, and those Venezolanos who voted in the referendum yesterday in support of the Venezolano claim to what the rest of the world (and most importantly the local inhabitants) consider to be 70% of Guyana, have failed to consider what those local inhabitants feel or want for themselves. The 'Guayana Esequiba' territory includes the city of Lethem, the Rupununi, the infamous former 'Jonestown', Orinduik, the lands of the 16th cent. Dutch Pomeroon colony, and regions and frontier towns that are distinctly Guyanese in their own way. Unlike Donetsk with its ethnic-Russian majority and Ukrainian minority, there isn't a population of Venezolanos in the region who would seek to join with Venezuela. (In fact, most of the 'disputed territory' is bordered to the west by Brazil.) I suspect that at least part of the basis for the reaffirmation of this claim yesterday is that it had been made firmly for Venezuela by Bolivar, el Libertador. 'Nuff said. He could do no wrong. And it might serve as a reliable and welcome distraction from the travails resulting from the entirely unjust and cynical sanctions imposed by the Americans et al.

 

Update - Dec. '25: It SHOULD go without saying, but "Venezuela Regime Change Helps Exxon [and Chevron] - not Americans". www.theamericanconservative.com/venezuela-regime-change-h... But so many MSM ghouls and members of the spook-fest posing as much of the "alternative independent media" online have been taking pains recently to explain that the current war footing of U.S. forces in the Caribbean has more to do with Marco Rubio's whims, etc. than run-of-the-mill boardroom greed. It was the same script in the lead-up to Iraq 2.0, that Dubya had ill feelings towards Saddam Hussein following some alleged plot against Bush Sr., etc. Local journalist Linda McQuaig confirmed the obvious (well after the fact) with her review of the ample record in her book "It's the crude, dude". archive.org/details/itscrudedudewarb0000mcqu_n3t4 Listen to Saagar and Krystal (Feds? "Controlled opposition"?) on 'Breaking Points' who oppose the latest developments, but when a congresswoman slips up and says the quiet part out loud (it's for the OIL), they explain that Nope, tney know better. youtu.be/gO8qOGdiic8?si=8cWPCE0B7buBLPnG Saagar claims (at the 1:08 min. pt.) that Maduro has said "You [the U.S.] can [just] have all the oil." Rather, Venezuela SELLS its oil, of course. "The state-owned oil company PDVSA [Petróleos de Venezuela S.A.] has been locked out of global oil markets by U.S. sanctions. It sells most of its exports at a steep discount in the black market in China." (Google A.I.) Any profits from the sale of Venezuelan oil currently go to state coffers. Maria Machado has dutifully promised to privatize the oil industry (and everything else in Venezuela) and sell PDVSA to Exxon, Chevron et al. "Stephen Miller [has] suggest[ed] Venezuelan oil belongs to the US" as the "US created the oil industry in Venezuela." www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/17/trump-aide-stephen-mill... But back to Saagar and Krsytal, from 1:46: "It's not about the oil, it's a completely ideological war pushed by the contingent of South Florida", so the fact that Venezuela sits on the largest reserves of the black stuff ANY-where is just a crazy coincidence. (Btw, there was a law on the books until 2012, the 'Smith-Mundt Act' of 1948, that the CIA and co. weren't permitted to propagandize the American public, but which was effectively revoked that year via the 'Smith–Mundt Modernization Act'.) Of course if Big Oil can (easily) afford to pay the Trump admin. to start an unconscionable war of choice with Venezuela or Iran for oil, it can pay the media (via the spook-fest), including so many "influencers" and "independents", to spin it as something that has little to nothing to do with oil. These "independents" who are so outspoken re Gaza (and it's great that they are, although they're responding to Tiktok), are worse than the MSM on another level as they campaign for your trust and betray you every time. Listen to Saagar and Krystal as they correct that congresswoman (who says "Venezuela for the American oil co.s will be a field day ...") on Fox, and try not to throw up in your mouth. After they show the clip, Saagar, who just finished explaining that "it's not about the oil," slips up, thinks out loud for a moment, and blurts out (at 3:42) that "the one thing I appreciate, as opposed to Iraq, is at least this time they just say it. They're like "Yeah, it's about the oil"." Krystal, to the rescue, immediately interrupts him.: "[Exnay, exnay.] A crazy thing is that it's not even really true, [to] your point", and he says "Yeah, no, it's not true at all, right" and while she continues with this ridiculous b.s., he shakes his head, looks down, and for a brief second or two from the 3:58 min. pt. looks into the camera with a penitential expression that says "I'm sorry boss. It won't happen again."

- The interests and evidence of influence of oil co. exec.s has been a third rail with these "independents" and everyone else in the media in the context of both Venezuela and Iran, as well as the abundance of evidence of cheating in American and international elections with computer voting machines (and here in Ontario with computer vote-counting machines). It'll get worse before it gets worse.

Update Jan. 26: Trump has been so indiscrete since I wrote the last two paragraphs that everyone, "controlled opposition" included, has been talking about the oily elephant in the room these past couple of weeks. And just over a week after I wrote the 3rd-last sentence above, Lee Camp (possibly my favourite of these "independents") finally spoke out about computer voting machines, almost a year into Trump's 2nd admin. In fact he devoted a whole episode of his show 'Redacted Tonight' to it. youtu.be/HyD15S5a1S8?si=r24VffkooXYiZxmH Watch it and marvel at how little has been said about this issue online and otherwise (and by Camp too until now. That said, Camp and his co-podcaster Eleanor Goldfield discouraged his audience from attending 'No Kings' protests [!?], one of the few things people can do to help to expose fraudulent polling and put some pressure on this administration. He tried to qualify that recently and now takes the position that protests are worth-while, but only when they disrupt business and "the flow of this machinery of fascism [How exactly? Protesters?] ... or else they're just parades ... [and] don't change anything." Nope. The Arabs have an adage I like: that "the dogs bark while the caravan passes," ie. talking or complaining while doing nothing does little to alter the course of the caravan. But mass protests put politicians and, importantly, pollsters on the defensive, and can and often do make a difference. Camp's smart enough to know that his anti-protest message can come off as a bit creepy, so he takes pains to try to defend or to "explain" it. Jimmy Dore, who poses as Mr. anti-establishment, is even more derisive of the 'No Kings' protests and protesters, w/o explaining why. But it's obvious why.)

- Kim Iversen, an "anti-establishment", outspoken critic of Israel, put out a video yesterday (Jan. 16, '26) re the apparent hold on WWIII (another ploy I fear) entitled "Trump CHICKENS OUT: Halts Iran Strike". Lol. youtu.be/CiJjiABJ2SE?si=n40HW9DlQ699O9Yp Whatever she says in this piece, she mocks Trump for NOT starting a war with Iran in the title, something "controlled opposition" would do. And Col. MacGregor's schtick for a year now on Judge Napolitano's show and elsewhere has been to bemoan the current situation and even plead Iran's case, while solemnly intoning that Trump has no choice but to follow Israel into war with Iran, that his hands are tied, etc. ?? Again, Big Oil = Big $$$ = Wall-to-wall propaganda. Iran may have less oil than Venezuela, but it's a LOT more accessible, much better quality, and much cheaper to drill and deliver. In fact, Iran is 2nd only to Saudi Arabia in volume of proven reserves of such quality crude, a prize indeed.

 

Update Feb. 10, '26: I'm quite creeped out at the almost non-existent coverage in the MSM AND in much of the "Independent" media online re the precipice of this massive war with Iran that we've arrived at, and the chaos to ensue with the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, the bombing of American regional bases and aircraft carriers, and the risk of a greater conflict with China and Russia. Iran is a BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, with beautiful, cultured people, which a select, well-placed cadre of sadists would like to destroy, but the real impetus is OIL, as ever. This discussion with Douglas MacGregor is at least discouraging (I like the 'Daniel Davis Deep Dive' btw [while 'Democracy Now' is even worse controlled opposition than I thought; they refer to such people as "Feds" stateside]), but I haven't heard a word as to how Big Oil might benefit from the overthrow of the mullahs, nor re the control Big Oil clearly wields with the GOP, to the point of loud, ranting climate denial, etc. www.youtube.com/live/NAfUTVwcaCs?si=yPqly7neixz9AHpK It's all about the theatre, Israeli sensibilities allegedly, just as Dubya was said to have a personal resentment against Saddam Hussein in the early naughts. It's simpler than all the b.s. When Exxon-Mobil earns 20-30 billion a year, and can buy congress, the White house, the MSM and more for a fraction of that amount, everyone "in power" or with influence in the West goes to work for them. It's just business. It wouldn't make the war less palatable to Americans, et al. if they knew this approaching horror-show is all for oil, as many do, but it shields those pulling the strings to a degree, and which they should appreciate as the fall-out with global warming looms around the corner, which begins with the failure of agriculture, projections for which they're more aware of than any non-climatologist. In fact this is entirely predictable. Chevron, BP, etc. and their friends at Palantir, Lockheed Martin, etc. expect to make bank with this upcoming war, and if they're spokesmen were honest, they'd say "It's nothing personal, all the death and demolition, it's just business. 20-30 billion just isn't nearly enough." And all those CIA, Mossad and CSIS types who are working to get this war going are really just whores for big oil and the $$, whether they want to know it or not. One would think this is needless to say, after Iraq, etc., but I'm hearing crickets. And to think that our lives appear to be set to change almost over night.

 

- March 8, '26: "Americans are very lucky, because wherever they go to bring freedom ..., they find oil." Michele Serra, Italian journalist.

- The elephant in the room is finally getting some (but only some) acknowledgement. Yesterday (March 7), a white house official revealed that the "US will seize ALL the oil from Iran." "What we want to do is get such massive oil reserves in Iran out of the hands of terrorists, and so what we're going to experience here in the short term is highly outweighed by the long-term benefit. ..."

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Bell AH-1 SuperCobra is a twin-engined attack helicopter that was developed on behalf of, and primarily operated by, the United States Marine Corps (USMC). The twin Cobra family, itself part of the larger Huey family, includes the AH-1J SeaCobra, the AH-1T Improved SeaCobra, and the AH-1W SuperCobra. The Super Cobra was derived from the single-engine AH-1 Cobra, which had been developed during the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army. The USMC had quickly taken an interest in the type but sought a twin-engine arrangement for greater operational safety at sea, along with more capable armaments. While initially opposed by the Department of Defense, who were keen to promote commonality across the services, in May 1968, an order for an initial 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras was issued to Bell. The type entered service during the final months of the US's involvement in the Vietnam War, seeing limited action in the theatre as a result.

 

The USMC promptly sought greater payload capacity than that provided by the original Sea Cobra; thus the AH-1T, equipped with the dynamic systems of the Model 309 and a lengthened fuselage, was produced by Bell during the 1970s. In the following decade, in response to the denial of funding to procure the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the USMC opted to procure a more capable variant of the AH-1T; equipped with revised fire control systems compatible with new munitions, such as the AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile, the new model, designated AH-1W, commenced delivery in 1986.

 

In the early 1980s, the Marine Corps sought a new navalized helicopter. Accordingly, it evaluated the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter as first choice over a two-week period in September 1981, which included shipboard operation tests. Furthermore, various concepts were studied at this time. However, the service's request for funding to purchase the AH-64 was denied by Congress that same year. As an alternative option, the Marines procured a more powerful version of the AH-1T. Other changes included modified fire control systems to carry and fire AIM-9 Sidewinder and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The new version, which was funded by Congress, received the AH-1W designation. During March 1986, deliveries of the AH-1W SuperCobra commenced, eventually totaling 179 new-built helicopters along with the upgrading of 43 existing AH-1Ts.

 

This development also fell into the period when Great Britain was looking for a potential attack helicopter for the British Army, and Western Germany was - together with France - about to mutually develop a new attack helicopter that would in Germany replace the PAH-1, the light Bo 105 helicopter armed with six HOT anti-tank missiles. In 1984, the French and West German governments had issued a requirement for an advanced antitank helicopter, with one variant desired by the French dedicated to the escort and antihelicopter role. As originally planned, both countries would procure a total of 427 helicopters called “Tiger”. The West Germans planned on acquiring 212 models of the anti-tank variant named PAH-2 (Panzerabwehrhubschrauber or "Anti-tank helicopter"), with deliveries starting at the end of 1992. The French wanted 75 HAPs (Hélicoptère d'Appui Protection or "Support and Escort Helicopter") and 140 HACs (Hélicoptère Anti Char or "Anti-Tank Helicopter"), with deliveries starting at the end of 1991 and 1995, respectively. In the meantime, the USA also offered both the AH-1 as well as the more modern AH-64 as alternatives.

 

Development of the Tiger started during the Cold War, and it was initially intended as a pure anti-tank helicopter platform to be used against a Soviet ground invasion of Western Europe. A joint venture, consisting of Aérospatiale and MBB, was subsequently chosen as the preferred supplier, but in 1986 the development program was already canceled again due to spiraling costs: it had been officially calculated that supplying the German forces with an equivalent number of US-produced McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache attack helicopters would have been a considerably cheaper alternative to proceeding with the Tiger’s development, which became a more and more complex project because the helicopter would have to be able to fulfill more roles, and the duty profiles of Germany and France became significantly different. According to statements by the French Defence Minister André Giraud in April 1986, the collaborative effort had become more expensive than an individual national program and was also forecast to take longer to complete.

 

This opened the door for American proposals even wider, and beyond the state-of-the-art AH-64 Bell proposed a further upgraded two-engine AH-1W. Bell had been working as a private initiative with both the AH-1T+ demonstrator and the AH-1W prototype, and developed a new experimental hingeless rotor system with four composite blades, designed to withstand up to 23 mm rounds and thus greatly improving battlefield survivability. This new main rotor was manually foldable, reduced vibrations and allowed the engine power to be increased, thus greatly improving the SuperCobra’s performance and load capabilities. The twin engine’s power had until then been restricted, but in the AH-1-4BW the power was liberated to full 1,800 shp (1,342 kW), with a reinforced gearbox that could even cope with 2.400 shp. Top speed climbed by 23 mph/37 km/h, rate of climb improved, and the load capability was raised by 1.000 lb (450 kg). The AH-1-4BW was now able to fly a full looping, something the AH-1 had not been able to do before. However, empty weight of this demonstrator helicopter climbed to 12,189 lb (5,534 kg) and the maximum TOW to 18,492 lb (8.391 kg).

 

Other changes included a different position for the stabilizers further aft, closer to the tail rotor, which furthermore received small end plates to improve directional stability. The modified AH-1W prototype was aptly re-designated “AH-1-4BW” (4BW standing for “4-blade whiskey”), and there were plans to upgrade the type even further with a fully digitalized cockpit to meet contemporary requirements, e.g. for the British Army.

 

The West-German Bundesluftwaffe’s interest in the “outdated” AH-1 was initially only lukewarm, but when Bell offered to lend the AH-1-4BW prototype for evaluations and as a development mule for the eventual integration of the European HOT missile and indigenous sensors and avionics, a mutual agreement was signed in late 1987 to have the AH-1-4BW tested by the Luftwaffe in the environment where the type would be operated.

The AH-1-4BW prototype (s/n 166 022) was delivered to Manching in Southern Germany in summer 1988 on board of a C-5 Galaxy. It was operated by the Luftwaffe’s Wehrtechnische Dienststelle (WTD, Technical and Airworthiness Center for Aircraft) 61 for two years and successfully made several tests. This program was divided into three “Phases”. “Phase I” included focused on flight characteristics, tactical operations, and mock air-to-air combat against Luftwaffe CH-53s which acted as Mi-24 aggressors. Upon program start the AH-1-4BW received German markings, the registration 98+11, and a new, subdued paint scheme in Luftwaffe colors instead of the original USMC scheme in an overall medium green.

 

In “Phase I” the AH-1-4BW retained its American weapon systems, as the flight testing did not involve weapon deployment or integration. Instead, dummies or target designators were carried. After these initial tests that lasted almost a year Bell agreed to let the WTD 61 modify the AH-1-4BW further with European avionics to deploy the HOT 3 anti-tank missile, which would be the helicopter’s primal weapon in the German Heeresflieger’s service, since Germany did at that time neither use the similar American TOW nor the more sophisticated AGM-114 Hellfire, even though the German PARS 3 LR missile (also known as TRIGAT-LR: Third Generation AntiTank, Long Range) was already under development since 1988. This upgrade and test program section received the designation “Phase II”. Outwardly, the newly modified AH-1 was recognizable through a different sensor turret in the nose and a modified HOT missile sight for the gunner in the front seat.

 

In late 1989 the helicopter underwent another modification by WTD 61, which was to test equipment already intended for the PAH-2. Under the trials’ final “Phase III” the AH-1-4BW received a globular fairing on a mast on top of the main rotor, to test the tactical value of observing, identifying, and selecting targets while the helicopter would remain in cover. This sensor mast combined a panoramic IR camera with a targeting sight for anti-tank missiles and the gun turret, and it functionally replaced the standard chin sensor turret (which was brought back to AH-1W standard). Another novel feature was a streamlined, sugar scope-shaped exhaust diffusor with two chambers which guided hot gases upwards into the main rotor’s downwash, as an alternative to the original diffusors which only mixed cold ambient air with the hot efflux. It turned out to be very effective and was subsequently adapted for the Tiger. Other changes included a new hingeless three-blade tail rotor that was supposed to reduce operational noise and frequency issues with the new 4-blade main rotor, and the endplate stabilizers were enlarged to compensate for the huge “eyeball” on top of the main rotor which significantly changed the AH-1’s flight characteristics, especially at high speed.

 

Further tests of the Phase III SuperCobra lasted until summer 1990 and provided both Bell as well as the Luftwaffe with valuable benchmark data for further weapon system developments. When the lease contract ended in 1991, the AH-1-4BW was sent back to the United States. In the meantime, though, the political situation had changed dramatically. The USSR had ceased to exist, so that the Cold War threat especially in Europe had ended almost overnight after the Aérospatiale/MBB joint venture, now officially called Eurocopter, had signed an agreement in 1989 which financially secured the majority of the Tiger’s pending development through to serial production, including arrangements for two assembly lines to be built at Aerospatiale's Marignane plant and MBB's Donauwörth facility. This eventually saved the Tiger and in 1991 it had become clear that no American attack helicopter would be bought by either Germany or France. Great Britain as another potential European customer also declined the AH-1 and eventually procured the more modern AH-64 in the form of the license-built AgustaWestland Apache.

 

In 1992, the Eurocopter Group was officially established, and the Tiger moved closer to the hardware stage; this led to considerable consolidation of the aerospace industry and the Tiger project itself. A major agreement was struck in December 1996 between France and Germany that cemented the Tiger's prospects and committed the development of supporting elements, such as a series of new generation missile designs for use by the new helicopter. National political issues continued to affect the prospects of the Tiger, however. A proposed sale of up to 145 Tigers to Turkey proved a source of controversy; Turkey selected the Tiger as the preferred option, but conflicting attitudes between Eurocopter, France and Germany regarding military exports led to Turkey withdrawing its interest. Eventually, Turkey procured AH-1s and started an indigenous attack helicopter program.

 

However, the AH-1-4BW’s development and its vigorous testing in Germany were not in vain: Lacking a USMC contract, Bell developed this new design into the AH-1Z with its own funds during the 1990s and 2000s. By 1996, the Marines were again prevented from ordering the AH-64: developing a marine version of the Apache would have been expensive and it was likely that the Marine Corps would be its only customer. Instead, the service signed a contract for the upgrading of AH-1Ws into AH-1Zs, which incorporated many elements from the AH-1-4BW.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: Two (pilot, co-pilot/gunner)

Length: 58 ft 0 in (17.68 m) overall

45 ft 7 in (14 m) for fuselage only

Width: 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) for stub wings only

Height: 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)

13 ft 9 in (4.19 m) incl. Phase III sensor mast

Main rotor diameter: 42 ft 8 in (13.00 m)

Airfoil: blade root: DFVLR DM-H3; blade tip: DFVLR DM-H4

Main rotor area: 1,428.9 sq ft (132.75 m2)

Empty weight: 12,189 lb (5,534 kg)

Max. take-off weight: 18,492 lb (8.391 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× General Electric T700-401 turboshaft engine, with 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 190 kn (220 mph, 350 km/h)

Never exceed speed: 190 kn (220 mph, 350 km/h)

Range: 317 nmi (365 mi, 587 km)

Service ceiling: 12,200 ft (3,700 m)

Rate of climb: 1,620 ft/min (8.2 m/s)

 

Armament:

1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M197 3-barreled Gatling cannon

in the A/A49E-7 chin turret (750 rounds ammo capacity)

4× hardpoints under the stub wings for a wide range of weapons, including…

- 20 mm (0.787 in) autocannon pods

- Twenty-two round pods with 68 mm (2.68 in) SNEB unguided rockets,

- Nineteen or seven round pods with 2.75” (70 mm) Hydra 70 or APKWS II rockets,

- 5” (127 mm) Zuni rockets – 8 rockets in two 4-round LAU-10D/A launchers

- Up to 8 TOW missiles in two 4-round XM65 missile launchers, on outboard hardpoints, or

up to 8 HOT3

up to 8 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles in 4-round M272 missile launchers, on outboard hardpoint,

- Up to 2 AIM-9 Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, launch rails above each outboard hardpoint or

up to 2 Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS) air-to-air missiles in single launch tubes

  

The kit and its assembly:

This what-if model was inspired by the real attempts of Bell to sell a twin-engine Cobra variant to Germany as a replacement for the light PAH-1/Bo 105 helicopter, while plans were made to build an indigenous successor together with France which eventually became the PAH-2/Tiger. These proposals fell well into the time frame of the (also) real AH-14BW project, and I imagined that this specific helicopter had been lent to the Luftwaffe for evaluation?

 

The basis is the Italeri 1:72 AH-1W kit, a solid basis which requires some work, though. And because I had the remains of a French Tigre at hand (which gave its cockpit for my recent JASDF A-2 build) I decided to use some of the leftover parts for something that borders a kitbashing. This includes the 4-blade main and 3-blade tail rotor, and I integrated the Tiger’s scoop-shaped exhaust diffusor behind the main rotor – a tricky task that require a lot of PSR, but the result looks very natural, if not elegant? The Tiger’s end plate stabilizers were used, too, mounted to the AH-1’s trim stabilizers that were mounted further back, as on the real AH-1-4BW.

 

To change the look even further I decided to add a sensor pod on top of the main rotor, and this required a totally new mechanical solution to hold the latter. Eventually I integrated a sleeve for a fixed metal axis which also holds the sensor ball (from a MisterCraft Westland Lynx – a bit oversized, but suitable for a prototype), and the PAH-2 rotor received an arrangement of levers that hold it in place and still allow it to spin.

 

The ordnance was also taken from the Italeri Tigre, with HOT quadruple launchers for the outer weapon stations, the inner hardpoints were left empty and I also did not mount the American chaff/flare dispensers on top of the stub wings.

  

Painting and markings:

The Luftwaffe did a LOT of interesting camouflage experiments in the early Eighties, adopting several standardized schemes for aircraft, but the Heeresflieger were less enthusiastic and retained the overall Gelboliv (RAL 6014) scheme before a three-color camouflage, consisting of two green tones and a dirty black was gradually introduced – even though apparently not in a uniform fashion, because there were variations for the darker shade of green (retaining RAL 6014 or using FS 34079, as on the Luftwaffe Norm ’83 scheme that was applied to Tornado IDSs, RF-4Es, some Starfighters and to the Transall fleet).

 

My fictional AH-1-4BW would fall into that transitional phase and I decided to give the helicopter an experimental scheme, which was used/tested on early Tornado IDS, consisting of RAL 7021 (Teerschwarz), RAL 7012 (Basaltgrau) and RAL 6014 (Gelboliv) – on aircraft with undersides in RAL 7000 (Silbergrau), but on a helicopter rather as a wraparound scheme. However, inspired by Luftwaffe F-4Fs with a modified Norm ‘72 splinter scheme that added a simple light grey fin to break up the aircrafts’ profile in a side view, I used RAL 7030 (Steingrau) on the tail tip to achieve the same effect, and the light grey was also used, together with Basaltgrau und Gelboliv mottles on the sensor ball – looks a bit like WWII Luftwaffe style, but appeared plausible for the system’s tactical use from behind some ground cover. The cockpit interior became very dark grey, just like the rotor blades, which were adorned with orange warning markings at the tips – seen on some Luftwaffe helicopters instead of classic yellow or red-white-red bands.

 

The decals were puzzled together from various sources. National markings came from generic Luftwaffe sheets from TL Modellbau, the light blue WTD 61 emblems behind the cockpit were taken from a Peddinghaus decal sheet with early Luftwaffe unit markings. The dayglo panels were created with generic decal material (TL Modellbau, too) and stencils came mostly from a Fujimi AH-1 sheet, procuring German or even multi-language material appeared too tedious and costly.

The photo calibration markings on nose and fins were improvised from black and white decal sheet material, punched out, cut into quarters, and then applied as circles. Adds an experimental touch to the Cobra!

 

The kit received a light black ink washing and some post-panel-shading, esp. to brighten up the grey and increase the contrast between the camouflage tones, which appeared even more murky after the dayglow stripes had been added. Finally, the Cobra received an overall coat wit matt acrylic varnish, position lights were added/painted, and the sensor ball received sights made from yellow chrome PET foil, simply punched out and fixed into place with some Humbrol Clearfix.

  

This one took a while to materialize and was more work than one might expect at first glance. But it looks quite cool, esp. the PAH-2/Tiger’s exhaust fairing fits very well into the Cobra’s lines and adds an elegant touch to the helicopter. The “Eye ball” is a bit large, yes, but IMHO acceptable for a prototype or test vehicle. And the livery certainly conveys a German touch.

More from the Lewes Bonfire celebrations.

The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.

 

The Royal Exchange was heavily damaged in the Manchester Blitz and in the 1996 Manchester bombing. The current building is the last of several buildings on the site used for commodities exchange, primarily but not exclusively of cotton and textiles.

 

The cotton industry in Lancashire was served by the cotton importers and brokers based in Liverpool who supplied Manchester and surrounding towns with the raw material needed to spin yarns and produce finished textiles. The Liverpool Cotton Exchange traded in imported raw cotton. In the 18th century, the trade was part of the slave trade in which African slaves were transported to America where the cotton was grown and then exported to Liverpool where the raw cotton was sold. The raw cotton was processed in Manchester and the surrounding cotton towns and Manchester Royal Exchange traded in spun yarn and finished goods throughout the world including Africa. Manchester's first exchange opened in 1729 but closed by the end of the century. As the cotton industry boomed, the need for a new exchange was recognised.

 

Thomas Harrison designed the new exchange of 1809 at the junction of Market Street and Exchange Street. Harrison designed the exchange in the Classical style. It had two storeys above a basement and was constructed in Runcorn stone. The cost, £20,000, was paid for in advance by 400 members who bought £50 shares and paid £30 each to buy the site. The semi-circular north façade had fluted Doric columns. The exchange room where business was conducted covered 812 square yards. The ground floor also contained the members' library with more than 15,000 books. The basement housed a newsroom lit by a dome and plate-glass windows, its ceiling was supported by a circle of Ionic pillars spaced 15 feet (4.6 m) from the walls. The first-floor dining-room was accessed by a geometrical staircase. The exchange opened to celebrate the birthday of George III in 1809. It also contained other anterooms and offices.

 

As the cotton trade continued to expand, larger premises were required and its extension was completed in 1849. The Exchange was run by a committee of notable Manchester industrialists. From 1855 to 1860, the committee was chaired by Edmund Buckley.

 

The second exchange was replaced by a third designed by Mills & Murgatroyd, constructed between 1867 and 1874. It was extended and modified by Bradshaw Gass & Hope between 1914 and 1931 to form the largest trading hall in England.The trading hall had three domes and was double the size of the current hall. The colonnade parallel to Cross Street marked its centre. On trading days merchants and brokers struck deals which supported the jobs of tens of thousands of textile workers in Manchester and the surrounding towns. Manchester's cotton dealers and manufacturers trading from the Royal Exchange earned the city the name, Cottonopolis.

 

The exchange was seriously damaged during World War II when it took a direct hit from a bomb during a German air raid in the Manchester Blitz at Christmas in 1940. Its interior was rebuilt with a smaller trading area. The top stages of the clock tower, which had been destroyed, were replaced in a simpler form. Trading ceased in 1968, and the building was threatened with demolition.

 

The exchange has four storeys and two attic storeys built on a rectangular plan in Portland stone. It was designed in the Classical style. Its slate roof has three glazed domes and on the ground floor an arcade orientated east to west. It has a central atrium at first-floor level. The ground floor facade has channelled rusticated piers and the first, second and third floors have Corinthian columns with entablature and a modillioned cornice. The first attic storey has a balustraded parapet while the second attic storey has a mansard roof. At the north-west corner is a Baroque turret and there are domes over other corners. The west side has a massive round-headed entrance arch with wide steps up and the first and second floor windows have round-headed arches. The third floor and first attic storey have mullioned windows.

 

The building remained empty until 1973, when it was used to house a theatre company (69 Theatre Company); the company performed in a temporary theatre but there were plans for a permanent theatre whose cost was then estimated at £400,000. The Royal Exchange Theatre was founded in 1976 by five artistic directors: Michael Elliott, Caspar Wrede, Richard Negri, James Maxwell and Braham Murray. The theatre was opened by Laurence Olivier on 15 September 1976.In 1979, the artistic directorship was augmented by the appointment of Gregory Hersov.

 

The building was damaged on 15 June 1996 when an IRA bomb exploded in Corporation Street less than 50 yards away. The blast caused the dome to move, although the main structure was undamaged. That the adjacent St Ann's Church survived almost unscathed is probably due to the sheltering effect of the stone-built exchange. Repairs, which were undertaken by Birse Group, took over two years and cost £32 million, a sum provided by the National Lottery. While the exchange was rebuilt, the theatre company performed in Castlefield. The theatre was repaired and provided with a second performance space, the Studio, a bookshop, craft shop, restaurant, bars and rooms for corporate hospitality. The theatre's workshops, costume department and rehearsal rooms were moved to Swan Street. The refurbished theatre re-opened on 30 November 1998 by Prince Edward. The opening production, Stanley Houghton's Hindle Wakes was the play that should have opened the day the bomb was exploded.

 

In 1999 the Royal Exchange was awarded "Theatre of the Year" in the Barclays Theatre Awards, in recognition of its refurbishment and ambitious re-opening season.

 

In 2014 Sarah Frankcom was appointed the sole artistic director.

 

In January 2016, the Royal Exchange was awarded Regional Theatre of the Year by The Stage. In announcing the award, The Stage said: "This was the year that artistic director Sarah Frankcom really hit her stride at the Royal Exchange. The Manchester theatre in the round's output during 2015 delivered its best year in quite some time."

 

In January 2018, the Royal Exchange Young Company won the "School of the Year" award at The Stage Awards 2018.

 

On 28 March 2019, the Royal Exchange announced that Frankcom was stepping down as artistic director of the theatre to take up a new post as director of the prestigious drama school LAMDA. On 8 July 2019, the theatre announced the appointment of Bryony Shanahan and Roy Alexander Weise as joint artistic directors.

 

The theatre features a seven-sided steel and glass module that squats within the building's Great Hall. It is a pure theatre in the round in which the stage area is surrounded on all sides, and above, by seating. Its unique design conceived by Richard Negri of the Wimbledon School of Art is intended to create a vivid and immediate relationship between actors and audiences. As the floor of the exchange was unable to take the weight of the theatre and its audience, the module is suspended from the four columns carrying the hall's central dome. Only the stage area and ground-level seating rest on the floor. The 150-ton theatre structure opened in 1976 at a cost of £1 million amid some scepticism from Mancunians.]

 

The theatre can seat an audience of up to 800 on three levels, making it the largest theatre in the round in the world. There are 400 seats at ground level in a raked configuration, above which are two galleries, each with 150 seats set in two rows.]

 

The Studio is a 90-seat studio theatre with no fixed stage area and moveable seats, allowing for a variety of production styles (in the round, thrust etc.) Prior to 2020, the studio acted as host to a programme of visiting touring theatre companies, stand-up comedians and performances for young people.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Exchange,_Manchester

From a wander around the Arctic Snow Hotel, near Rovaniemi, Finland. They have cosy looking cabins with glass roofs to give that sleeping under the stars feel. Inside the cold part, there are designer rooms, an ice bar, restaurant and chapel

Components of a functional exercise program

 

To be effective a functional exercise program should include a number of different elements:

Specific to the sport - Any program must be sport specific, working to develop and maintain sport specific strength.

Integrated – It should include a variety of exercises that work on flexibility, core, balance, strength and power.

Increases Core Stability – Core stability is crucial for any sport or activity. A stable core allows for more efficient transference of power from the lower to upper body, and an increased ability to maintain correct athletic posture over long periods of time.

Progressive – Progressive training steadily increases the strength demand from workout to workout. While most people are aware of the need for this in relation to traditional strength training, it is sometimes overlooked in functional training. For functional training is also means varying speed of movement to make it more sport specific.

Periodized – Functional training for competitive athletes needs to fit into their competitive cycle of competition. In broad terms this means that they will vary their program throughout the year to achieve optimal results, peaking for competitions or races and building in recovery time also.

Individualized – An athlete’s program needs to be designed for them. The only way to do this is to work with a coach or trainer who specializes in the particular sport and can custom design a program. A qualified personal trainer can easily include functional training in their clients' exercise programs, whether they are recovering from an injury or preparing for competition.

This vast museum includes a large collection of railway exhibits, appropriately housed inside a former railway Works. The 33 tracks are accessed by the two massive turntables outdoors that are shown on my photo. The carriage visible is a bit too long for the tracks inside! Exhibits include electric, diesel and steam engines, and passenger rolling stock. Some of the steam engines are in "as withdrawn" condition, demonstrating the reality of the steam era: My photo of one of those work-stained engines can be seen here:

www.flickr.com/photos/93936890@N02/33757181515/in/album-7...

 

Rail enthusiasts should set aside a day to look around this, or much more to do justice to aircraft, ships, cars and the other sections of this huge, wonderful museum.

  

Canada Day July 2021,, Canada's National day of pride, celebration and glory aka Canada Day has been interrupted this year by disturbing religious intolerance and a wave of hate and arson. This has caused property damage and in many cases the burning to the ground of 100 year old historic churches and total loss of enclosed historic artifacts .

 

And the list keeps on growing..

  

Pictured,,

  

Sacred Heart Mission Church

St. Gregory Mission Church

St. Ann’s Catholic Church

Our Lady of Lourdes Church Chopaka

St. Paul's Anglican Church

St George Coptic Orthodox Church

  

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Canada 2021 - Many uf Canada's hundred year old plus historic Christian Churches fall victim to arsonists.

   

They're Burning down the Churches.

 

Canada Day July 1st 2021, The traditional proud and celebratory Canadian national holiday, aka Canada Day, has been interrupted this year by a disturbing string of violent acts and massive property destruction. Arsonists have attacked defenseless Christian Churches causing severe damage and in many cases the burning to the ground of 100 year old historic churches and their contents that include irreplaceable documents and invaluable historic artifacts .

  

And the list is growing..

  

A prayer ,

“If this fire was deliberately set, we ask for you to forgive whoever set it, and heal them, and bring them into your family with us, so that they may learn of your love for them, the same love that you have overwhelmed us with in our lives,”

  

No offer as yet by the NDP Liberal Government to help rebuild the burned Christian churches nor any sincere attempt by them to apprehend and charge the perpetrator(s) ?

  

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some major news clippings :

 

Apr 22, 2021 The century-old St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Attawapiskat Ontario First Nation burned to the ground on the evening of April 21, 2021 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/attawapiskat-church-fire-1...

 

June 21 - Suspicious fires destroy the Sacred Heart Mission Catholic Church on Penticton Indian Band land Penticton B.C. burnt to the ground. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51430521370/in/album-7...

 

June 26 - St. Ann’s Catholic Church ( 110 yrs old ) on the Hedley Native Reserve of the Upper Similkameen Band near Oliver B.C. - Catholic church was burned to the ground by arson. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51432230804/in/album-7...

 

June 26 - Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church ( 1896 ) on the Chopaka Native Reserve - Lower Similkameen Indian Band, near Osoyoos. was burned to the ground by arson and totally destroyed. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51427903261/in/album-7...

 

June 26 - St. Paul’s Anglican Church ( 108 yrs old ) on Gitwangak First Nations land, between Terrace and New Hazelton. B.C. fire damaged

 

June 28 - Siksika First Nation Catholic Church Calgary

 

June 29 - Siksika Anglican Church east of Calgary damage

 

Wed June 30th - century old St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville Alberta ( oldest Catholic Church in Alberta ), community centrepiece and Town meeting hall totally destroyed when burned to the ground by an asonist . www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51427903261/in/album-7...

 

June 30th Nova Scotia St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church on Sipekne'katik First Nation northwest of Halifax damaged by arson

 

July 1st - Downtown Yellowknife.. St. Patrick's Co-Cathedral Parish heavy interior and smoke damage

 

Many more Churches were vandalized with windows broken, small fires started, and paint thrown on them ( 11 in Calgary alone )

 

July 1st - St. Paul’s Anglican Church ( 108 yrs old ) on Gitwangak First Nations land, between Terrace and New Hazelton. B.C. - burned to the ground and totally destroyed by arson. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51434008805/in/album-7...www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51434052775/in/album-7...

 

July 9th Kelowna BC The Grace Lutheran Church’s garage went up in flames but saved by local FD,

 

Jul 19 Surrey BC - St George Coptic Orthodox Church was burnt to the ground - completely destroyed by arson, www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51433426473/in/album-7...

 

St. Theresa Point Roman Catholic Church - An earlier Church fire took place in Manitoba Apr 5, 2021, when a Roman Catholic church was burned to the ground in St. Theresa Point First Nation Manitoba. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51745130236/in/album-7...

 

Central Heights Church, Abbotsford, BC. Abbotsford Police are investigating a July 21 arson incident at Central Heights Church. A suspect described as 30-40 years old, male, dark-skinned and wearing a bright yellow rain jacket with a grey baseball hat is being sought by authorities.

 

Little Flower Mission Church, Fox Lake, AB.,

RCMP are investigating an arson incident after a fire was deliberately set at Fox Lake Community Church on Saturday, August 7, 2021. The building sustained significant interior damage.

 

St. Mary’s Parish, Prince George, BC.

On July 26, a suspect placed two containers of gasoline near St Mary’s Parish church and lit them on fire. The incident caused the side of the church to catch aflame. Police are still investigating the incident.

 

Knox United Church, Prince George, BC.

Police responded to a report of an individual spraying flammable material and spray painting an alley near the church. Messages made reference to the residential school findings.

 

Aug 25, 2022 Suspicious fire destroys century-old church in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-alberta-fort-chipe...

 

St. Andrew’s United Church, Prince George, BC.

Fire services responded to a structure fire at St. Andrew’s United Church on July 4. The outside of the building was damaged as a result of the fire. Police are still investigating the matter.

 

Upper Pine Gospel Chapel, Rose Prairie, BC.

According to Fort St. John RCMP a report was received at 12:34 a.m. of a fire engulfing Upper Pine Gospel Chapel. Police are investigating the incident.

 

St Joseph’s Lutheran Church, Armena, AB.

Camrose RCMP responded to a fire on Dec. 31, 2022 at the small parish St. Joseph Lutheran Church near the village of Hay Lakes. When first responders arrived the church was completely engulfed in flames. Police believe the fire is suspicious and are investigating it as an intentional act.

 

May 22, 2023 St. Bernard Catholic Church, Grouard, AB. St. Bernard Catholic Church was completely engulfed in flames after fires were intentionally set within its premises. The RCMP have since arrested two suspects as a result of the fire. The building remains unsalvageable.

 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cherry Grove, AB.,

On Apr 28, 2023 a fire was intentionally set at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Police are investigating the fire as suspicious after the church was razed to the ground by the flames.

 

On Feb. 13, RCMP responded to a fire at the historic St. Michael’s Hungarian Church. When they arrived the church had completely burnt to the ground. Police have since arrested and charged two suspects.

 

Okotoks Alliance Church, Okotoks, AB.,

On Feb. 5, 2023 the Fire Department was called to deal with a fire at Okotoks Alliance Church. Police are investigating the fire as suspicious and have ruled that it is related to arson.

 

Feb. 22, 2023 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church,, A deliberately set fire destroys over a century of history in Barrie Ontario,

barrie.ctvnews.ca/barrie-church-officials-seek-to-rebuild...

 

St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Hamilton, ON.,

On Dec. 31, 2022 police arrived at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church where they discovered incendiary materials and evidence of arson. One suspect is currently facing arson charges in connection with the incident.

 

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Catholic Church, Fort Chipewyan, AB.,

On Aug. 25, 2022 firefighters responded to a church arson at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Catholic Church. One suspect was arrested in Oct. of that year for the fire. The church was completely destroyed.

 

June 13 th 2021 - St. John's Tuscaroras Anglican Church ( 1817 ) on Six Nations of the Grand River Ontario attacked by arsonist !

 

Dec 17, 2023 - St. Gabriel Catholic Mission - Yet another historic church was burned down in Alberta

www.lifesitenews.com/news/another-historic-church-burns-d...

 

Dec 11 2023 Barrhead, Alberta — Two more historic Christian churches intentionally set on fire late last week in what police said were suspected acts of arson. More than 100 churches have been targeted by criminal acts of arson and vandalism since 2021. www.lifesitenews.com/news/two-more-historic-churches-in-c...

 

Dec 20th 2023 - RCMP say fire that destroyed Beiseker Seventh-day Adventist Church early Wednesday was arson,

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/beiseker-church-fire-1.706...Sep 30, 2024, Loon Lake Sask - St. George Anglican Church (1939) has been burnt to the ground.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/mayor-loon-lake-churc...

 

Jun 9, 2024 Fire ravages historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto, destroying Group of Seven murals

ottawa.citynews.ca/2024/06/09/fire-destroys-part-of-histo...

 

Sep 30, 2024, Loon Lake Sask - St. George Anglican Church (1939) has been burnt to the ground.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/mayor-loon-lake-churc...

 

Mar 13, 2025 Congregation 'devastated' after fire wrecks Grace-St. John's Anglican Lutheran Church in Carman Man.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/carman-church-grace-st-jo...

  

A new study reveals that arson attacks on Canadian churches have more than doubled since 2021, with most cases linked to public reaction over reports of unmarked graves at former residential schools-not anti-religious sentiment. Despite nearly 100 churches damaged or destroyed, fewer than 4% of arsonists have been charged, leaving communities searching for answers and healing. www.facebook.com/100069681242082/posts/978055547860478/?_rdr

  

Although the vast majority of residents in cities across Canada like Halifax, Montreal, Victoria, Hamilton and Calgary had wanted to just simply retain their history by just leaving local statues and artifacts alone, unfortunately, these historical artifacts were shown total disrespect and disregard when either destroyed by lawless vigilante mobs while police stood by and watched, or else hastily torn down and then hidden away by order of local Mayors and council without public consultation or permission ? Many other historic Statues such as Queen Elizabeth ll, Queen Victoria, and even Captain Cook were also mutilated or torn down by lawless vigilante mobs ?

  

2011 - A National Household Survey of Statistics Canada, of 1,400,685 persons who self-identified as Aboriginal in private households, 889,315, or 63 percent identified as Christian. Of these, over 500,000 identified as Roman Catholic.

     

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,

  

news clippings :

 

Feb 3rd, 2022 - after the first week of the strike Trudeau and Singh are quick to react and both are quick to immediately condemn the new Truckers Strike as a hate crime ? At Least 45 Christian Churches have been set afire in the last 2 years as the attacks and turnings escalate and this subject has not yet been raised by Trudeau and Singh in Parliament ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51864639114/

 

July 25, 2023, luckily, there was only minimal damage in the Mississauga Mosque Attack ? Under new Liberal legislation. hate is considered to be an extremely serious crime in Canada. And as such, this attack is well publicized and even receives a personal visit by the P.M. himself along with a massive CBC news media coverage . A heavy penalty of 8 yrs in prison was handed down to the perpetrator ? Luckily there was no serious property damage to the structure nor life threatening injury to worshipers in the bear spray attack ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mississauga-mosque-attacke...

 

Arson causing property damage is an extremely serious crime - Sep 09, 2022 - Alberta Arsonist gets 10 years ? Arson causing property damage is an extremely serious crime and nets this arsonist 10 years in prison for torching car dealerships, a pet shop and a gas station.

calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/edson-arsonist-who-torc...

 

At Least 45 Christian Churches are Set afire as the attacks and burnings escalate !

www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2021/july/number-of-canadian-christi...

 

Montreal will not replace the mutilated and then toppled Sir John A. MacDonald statue (circa 6th June 1895), back to where it had stood for 130 years before being destroyed by a gang like lawless vigilante mob ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/john-a-macdonald-statue-m...

 

There have been 83 Churches that have been vandalized or burned to the ground since the start of hateful protests based on residential school viewpoints ?

tnc.news/2023/07/04/a-map-of-every-church-burnt-or-vandal...

 

Arson is understandable according to Justin Trudeau ? The Prime Minister of Canada says "anger towards Catholic Church is understandable " ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKMNTMPhhs&t=0s

 

July 1,2021 - We order you to ban Canada Day celebration ? 'hold those fireworks' The official itinerary of Justin Trudeau ( the Prime Minister of Canada ), does not include July 1st Canada Day celebrations claiming that for some, Canada Day is not a day to celebrate ? rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-day-political-reaction-1.....

 

Church Arson & Vandalism ? www.rebelnews.com/tags/church_arson_vandalism

 

Mohawk-language Bible is finally published after decades-long effort by one Quebec man,

montreal.ctvnews.ca/mohawk-language-bible-published-after...

 

Many prominent Canadian Politicians remain oddly silent and unconcerned about a recent rash of Church arson burnings ?

capforcanada.com/christianity-under-attack-in-canada-as-p...

 

Nov 11th 2023 - Canada's Military has been ordered by the NDP/Liberal Government not to use or recite Christian prayers like the Lord's Prayer in Remembrance Day ceremonies this year ?

www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/gunter-we-will-always-pray-f...

 

Nov 08, 2024 - Canadian Military uniforms - Sackville Heights Elementary school in Halifax asks Military service members to hide their uniforms and to wear only civilian during Remembrance Day ceremonies ? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/remembrance-day-unifor...

 

Nov, 2023 - Girl Guides of Canada tell their Chapters not to participate in Santa Clause Parades this year due to the diversity and inclusion issue ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKixRjRvW7s

 

Trudeau explains away the arson attacks on Christian churches ?

torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-explains...

 

On being White and Christian and male in Canada ? A Lawyer discusses the question of ; are heavier sentences now being imposed on certain Canadian citizens ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4S2H3L-vjU&t=41s

 

NDP National Convention Hamilton 2023 - Can it really be Canada ? The NDP seem to be using a caste system like they have in India ? Delegates given yellow or white tags with the white tags identifying white Christian males who must go to the back of the line ? Others are given yellow tags and can go to the front and given the priority to speak first ?

www.reddit.com/r/CanadianConservative/comments/17a0qh2/ho...

 

Christmas 2023 - Children not to be shown the nativity story ? The traditional Christmas Concerts in some grade Schools in Halifax are cancelled due to nclusion and diversity issue ?

atlantic.ctvnews.ca/more/n-s-after-school-concert-cancell...

 

The Canadian Human Rights Commission ( fully funded by the Liberal government) declares the celebration of Christmas is evidence of Canada’s colonialist religious intolerance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmuDidYTiY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmuDidYTiY

 

Nov 2022 - Unusual democracy in Terrace B.C. ? The Nativity scene was banned by Council this year even though 73 % of the local citizens want it shown just as it always has been ? www.agassizharrisonobserver.com/news/nativity-scene-banne...

 

Christmas Dec 2023 Moncton, N.B.- Moncton City Council had decided in private that the nativity scene and the Menorah remain in storage and not allowed shown or displayed this Christmas ? Both Christian and Jewish communities are, ‘profoundly hurt’ www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/moncton-jewish-community-...

 

Dec 2023 - Jyoti Gondek current mayor of Calgary has created a political storm and has upset the Jewish community in Calgary at Christmas time ? She has refused to attend the City's annual menorah lighting, saying that the event has become too political for her ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-5e1LEV1pU

 

Dec 31 2023, Is celebrating New Years Eve in Canada now considered to be somehow inappropriate by the CBC ? Happy New Year Canada from your taxpayer owned CBC ? For the first time ever in memory, CBC will not broadcast the traditional New Years Eve Party,, stage show or countdown ? CBC says they can't afford it ? www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/other/cbc-to-skip-new-yea...

 

CBC Jan 09, 2024 - After 3 years of relative silence on a story about the current epidemic of Christian Churches burnings by arson, CBC finally air a brief approx 8 minute documentary story covering this ongoing national disgrace ? A local First Nations chief, who is quite vocal about his personal animosity towards the Church, serves as the co-host in the first segment of the program ? Another individual who is currently studying at UofA in Edmonton explains why Christian Church arson by her First Nations people is understandable and justifiable ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxkX6NPpe14&t=51s

 

Jan 10, 2024 - A newspaper article on Christian Church arson in Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-fires-canada-1.705...

 

Jan 28 2024 Fredericton NB Canada, Citizens gather together arm in arm in solidarity showing community outrage over an attack on a local Jewish Sgoolai Israel Synagogue . Over 100 residents join arms to show sympathy and support against an attack on a place of worship . ca.news.yahoo.com/community-unites-support-vandalized-fre...

 

Is Bill C-367 designed to eventually make Christianity illegal in Canada ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_VQe0z6ghk

 

Bill C-367 - Speaking the Biblical message as truth could get you arrested in Canada ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1NY_YsF35k

 

No one is denying the existence of residential schools. And so why are Leah Gazan (NDP) Lindsay Mathyssen (NDP) and Kimberley Murray (Liberal Government investigator) so unsatisfied and why are they trying to force their own unique personal and job related viewpoint on everyone else ? Why do they want you to think the same way that they think, believe what they believe, and to be forced to accept what they want or else be called a denier and sent to jail ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZU7NEzs3Gk

 

Jan 10, 2024- At least 33 Canadian churches have been burned to the ground since May 2021. So far, 24 confirmed as arson ? .

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-fires-canada-1.705...

 

Aug 24, 2024 - ' Church arson is Terrorism in France' - French anti-terrorism team is investigating attempted arson against a French synagogue. The Country of France is viewing Church burning as internal Terrorism, yet Canada does nothing as over 100 historic churches in Canada are attacked ? Dec/2024 Trudeau not invited to the official Notre Dame opening ceremony in France ?

www.cbc.ca/news/world/arson-attempt-france-1.7304198

 

Is Christianity under attack in Canada ? Our NDP Liberal political leaders hide, downplay and don't seem bothered at all by the epidemic of Christian Church Arson ?

capforcanada.com/christianity-under-attack-in-canada-as-p...

 

Apr 11, 2024, Winnipeg Manitoba - Manitoba's NDP premier Wab Kinew wants to change the current prayer recited in the legislature to make it more inclusive of people who practice faiths other than Christianity, or those holding no faith at all ? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prayer-legislature-questi...

 

Good Friday Easter 2024 - Did Prime Minister Trudeau snub a longtime Canadian religious holiday ? www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/warmington-prime-minister-ac...

 

fire set in doorway possible 'hate crime' - Vancouver, May 31, 2024, - Police say the fire set in the doorway of the Schara Tzedeck synagogue May 30th is arson and are treating it as a possible 'hate crime' and will immediately launch a criminal investigation into suspected Church arson

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-fire-sy...

  

Aug 21, 2024 - Alleged Catholic church arsonist immediately let out on bail ? Vernon man is arrested Monday after trying to start fires outside a Catholic church has been released on bail, and barred from possessing lighters or matches. Suspect granted bail following hearing Tuesday afternoon in Kamloops provincial court.

www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/502364/Bail-granted-to-man-a...

  

Apr 16th 2025 Montreal - Scrum following the French-language leaders' debate - NDP leader Jagmeet Singh won't address questions on Christian church arson attacks in Canada ? Dismisses this as misinformation and disinformation and dismisses person asking question as extremist ? Refuses to answer ?

nowtoronto.com/news/canadians-react-to-ndp-leader-jagmeet...

  

Trump is protecting history - enacts 10 years in jail penalty for harming or defacing historical statues,,

www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-signs-executive-order-enactin...

 

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Dec 3rd 2025, University of Victoria B.C. - Challenging the status quo and oferring an alternate opinion is not allowed in a B.C. University ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=u53G5WBpVmc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSRn8BzpvLc

 

Dec 3rd 2025, University of Victoria B.C. - simply asking for evidence on a very serious accusation gets you called a hater and thrown out of this (so called) institution of higher learning in British Columbia ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GhT6dMerdo

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Lime Rock Park Weathertech IMSA weekend July 2017. Classes include IMSA WeatherTech and the Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge.

【Maiko, January 19, 2020】

Maiko is Miwako.

Shooting location is Chionsha.

Photo by Kunihiko_Takenaka.

 

【舞妓, 2020-01-19】

舞妓は美羽子さんです。

撮影場所はちおん舎。

Photo by Kunihiko_Takenaka.

 

[Comment]

美しい舞

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

About reprint of photograph :

The reproduction and use of photographs are welcome, but please be sure to include the following information.

写真の転載について :

写真の転載・使用は歓迎いたしますが、その際に必ず 次の記載をしていただくようお願いします。

 

Maiko is Miwako.

Photo by Photographer name/撮影者名.

(licensed CC BY-SA 2.0)

55maiko.net

Include the four 8x10 photos. Really neat stuff.

7 Cars 7 Countries 7 Days

 

A group of car enthusiasts, cars of which include six Porsches, a 991 50th anniversary, a 991 Carrera 2s, a 997 Targa 4S, 2 x 981 Boxster S and a 987 Cayman S plus one BMW Z4M roadster endeavour to travel 7 countries UK, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Monaco & Italy in 7 days (10 day trip).

 

Along the way driving many of the best known French & Swiss mountain passes, drive around the Monaco public racetrack, Alfa Romeo, Porsche and Mercedes Museums.

 

Great friends, many laughs, long days, high speeds and incredible memories. Eurotrip 2017.

 

Website

www.tomscottphotography.co.uk

 

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Email me: tomscottphotography@hotmail.com

 

All rights reserved, permission must be granted for any use (including website posting)

Includes pedestrian landscaping far in excess of what the local area currently merits

This Collection includes events from Saturday, May 30, 2015. .

7:00 p.m. Class Reception 1990: Hogan Campus Center Courtyard.

8:00 p.m. .

Class Dinners.

1990: Hogan Ballroom (Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J., President, will welcome the 25th Reunion class).

1995: Hogan Crossroads (Basement of Hogan).

2000: Hogan Jenks Suites B & C (Hogan 4th floor).

 

Lauderdale County, AL

Listed: 02/24/2000

 

The Forks of Cypress Cemetery is significant under criterion C for Art as it contains many fine examples of grave markers that represent the high end of antebellum funerary expressions in the western Tennessee River Valley in Alabama. Many fine obelisks and several tombstones illustrate the stone-carving skills of both local craftsmen and workshops from around the eastern United States. Limestone markers were more likely from local sources, as were the limestone bases of many of the marble markers. Among the marble markers are several that are signed by their makers or workshops. These include an obelisk by J. Sloan of Nashville, an obelisk by A. Gary of Boston, an obelisk by Hughes & Sharrod of Philadelphia, and an obelisk by L.H. and J.B. Fuller of St. Louis. A range of stylistic influences is evident in many of the markers, including Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, and Renaissance Revival motifs (as well as one twentieth century stone with some restrained Art Deco details). In addition to more geometric (and architectural) details, some of the stones feature fine representational and particularly floral relief sculpture.

The Forks of Cypress Cemetery is significant under criterion C for Architecture as the Jackson family cemetery wall is an exceptional example of the stonemason's art in early Alabama. The massive dimensions, stile, and sturdy dry-laid construction all characterize a structure which stands out among the walls around other family cemeteries in the Tennessee River Valley, which were more frequently of brick or less substantial stone construction. Only about six or so walls of similar sizable and dressed appearance are known to exist in northern Alabama.4 The wall displays both the skill of local craftsmen and the material predilections of a family whose patriarch was a first generation Irish immigrant and who perhaps opted for a wall which imitated or recalled the quintessential boundary markers of his homeland. Although the exact date of construction of the wall is unknown, location of early graves in relation to the wall indicates a probable date of before 1840 and a positive date of before 1865.

The Forks of Cypress Cemetery is significant under criterion A for Ethnic Heritage: Black as it contains one of the largest identified African American/slave cemeteries in northwest Alabama. With around 250 burials, slave cemetery was the final resting place for the Jackson family's substantial enslaved workforce. The burials, though unmarked, do reveal to some degree that a status hierarchy existed among the enslaved inhabitants of the Forks of Cypress and perhaps the Jacksons' other plantations. Traditionally slave jockeys were the only African Americans allowed to be buried within the walls of the family cemetery. A few depressions nearer the family cemetery probably mark the graves of treasured domestic servants. The majority of the field slaves and those without distinctive status within the household were buried on the bluff further away from the family cemetery. One headstone/footstone pairing in the center of the slave section of the cemetery shows at least one person who, while not important enough to be buried with the jockeys, had a high enough position to warrant a permanent stone marker. The slave cemetery has taken on somewhat mythical associations in recent years as it is almost certainly the interment place of African American author Alex Haley's great-grandmother, Ester or Queen Ester. Traditionally, James Jackson, Jr., (son and heir to James Jackson, the builder of the Forks), had at least one child with Queen Ester, who was the Jackson's cook. Their daughter, Queen, was Haley's grandmother and the subject of Haley's unfinished book Queenie. The depth and regularity of the depressions in the slave cemetery also indicate that it was highly probable that the slaves at least on this plantation were actually buried in coffins rather than simply interred in shrouds. This cemetery continued to be used by descendants of the Jackson slaves in the late-19th- and eariy-20th centuries.

The Forks of Cypress Cemetery is significant under criterion A for Social History as the placement of monuments and graves within both the family and slave sections illustrate social structures of an extended elite frontier planter family and its enslaved workforce. The cemetery also offers a temporal display of changing attitudes towards death and commemoration in the transition from conspicuous and showy markers to low-profile and plain markers over a period of 130 years. The monuments of James Jackson and his immediate and contemporary family serve as the focal points of the cemetery (both because of placement and because of scale). In spatial terms, the core of the cemetery, with many of the earlier monuments, form a line from east to west slightly south of the centerline of the rectangular plot created by the wall. The planter patriarch, James Jackson, and several of his siblings form this axis. James' brothers, John and Alexander, are buried near the center, with James' own grave near the front and his wife's grave to his south. The offspring of James Jackson's sister, Eleanora Jackson Kirkman (who herself is buried in New Orleans), are interred just to the north of his grave. Another of Jackson's sisters, Sarah Jackson Hanna, and many of her family members (including at least one daughter-in-law and one son-in-law) are buried to the west of the main axis formed by the older markers. Though within the family, there is not a great deal of differentiation as to burial place excepting the grouping of Sarah Jackson Manna's family to the west of James, most of his descendants and his other siblings, a distinction is made between the core of the extended family and more distant relations or social connections. The earlier burials along the back wall are burials of people with somewhat tenuous connections to the family. William O'Neal Perkins and Pocahontas Bowling Perkins, whose monuments are the most impressive on the western end of the cemetery, appear to be the parents of one of James Jackson's daughters-in- law. Alexander Larrimer, buried in the southwest corner, appears to have no familial connection whatsoever to the Jacksons. Two uninscribed slabs traditionally marking the burials of slave jockeys are on alignment with the old main axis of the cemetery but along the west wall. The social units in this extended planter family, therefore, come out in their burial locations-the planter patriarch, James Jackson, his offspring, and his siblings without or with few offspring are buried towards the front of the cemetery in an intermixed fashion. Jackson's sister Sarah Hanna had a large enough extended family of her own to warrant a contiguous section of burials in the southwest quarter of the cemetery. People with more tenuous connections with the family were buried along the rear (west) wall. In addition, the hierarchy of slave burials, mentioned above, reveals more aspects of the social organization of Jackson's plantation. Finally, the burials in the cemetery after the 1870s are consistently of James Jackson's direct descendants. Their attitudes towards commemoration varies drastically with that of their antebellum ancestors' conspicuous consumption via tall and elaborated monuments. Later monuments of the deceased are rather low to the ground and inscribed with little other than the descendants' names and vital dates. These burials are consistently in the northern half of the cemetery as well.

The Forks of Cypress Cemetery meets criterion exception D as it derives its primary importance both from distinctive design features and association with historic events.

 

National Register of Historic Places

 

National Historic Landmarks

7/9/16 #1346. The medieval chateau dominates the pleasant town of Langeais

From a visit to Goodwood, where the Summer Sprint was underway on the track.

~ This outfit set includes outer dress, inner dress, inner skirt, hat, bag, and one pair of socks.

 

~ They're suitable for Volks MSD, SDM, Luts KDF, RosenLied Wednesday, Holiday, and other similar MSD sizes.

 

~ I tried them in this photo above for one-time only. After that, I've keeping them in the box. So, all of items in this set are in very excellent condition (no damage).

  

Please contact me via FlickrMail or email [miakyouathotmaildotcom] if you're interested. Thanks!

The swallows were streaming down the narrow streets of San Gimignano this evening. I managed to catch this one as it passed low in front of me

Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. The terms and epithets found in Indian culture, that are translated as deity, varies with the text and diverse traditions within Hinduism, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Bhagavan and Bhagavathi.[1][2][note 1]

 

The deities of Hinduism have evolved from Vedic era (2nd millennium BCE) through medieval era (1st millennium CE), regionally within India and in southeast Asia, and across Hinduism's diverse traditions.[3][4] The Hindu deity concept varies from a personal god as in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy,[5][6] to 33 Vedic deities,[7] to hundreds of Puranic deities, to millions of deities in Tantra traditions of Hinduism.[8] Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Sri (Lakshmi), Shiva, Parvati (Durga), Brahma and Saraswati. These deities have distinct and complex personalities, yet often viewed as aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman.[9][note 2] From ancient times, the idea of equivalence has been cherished in Hinduism, in its texts and in early 1st millennium sculpture with concepts such as Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu),[10] Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati) or Vaikuntha Kamalaja (half Vishnu, half Lakshmi),[11] with mythologies and temples that feature them together, declaring they are the same.[12][13][14] Major deities have inspired their own Hindu traditions, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism.[15][16][17] Some Hindu traditions such as Smartism from mid 1st millennium CE, have included multiple major deities as henotheistic manifestations of Saguna Brahman, and as a means to realizing Nirguna Brahman.[18][19][20]

 

Hindu deities are represented with various icons and anicons, in paintings and sculptures, called Murtis and Pratimas.[21][22][23] Some Hindu traditions, such as ancient Charvakas rejected all deities and concept of god or goddess,[24][25][26] while 19th-century British colonial era movements such as the Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj rejected deities and adopted monotheistic concepts similar to Abrahamic religions.[27][28] Hindu deities have been adopted in other religions such as Jainism,[29] and in regions outside India such as predominantly Buddhist Thailand and Japan where they continue to be revered in regional temples or arts.[30][31][32]

 

In ancient and medieval era texts of Hinduism, the human body is described as a temple,[33][34] and deities are described to be parts residing within it,[35][36] while the Brahman (Absolute Reality, God)[18][37] is described to be the same, or of similar nature, as the Atman (self, soul), which Hindus believe is eternal and within every living being.[38][39][40] Deities in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.[41][42][43]

Deities in Hinduism are referred to as Deva (masculine) and Devi (feminine).[44][45][46] The root of these terms mean "heavenly, divine, anything of excellence".[47] According to Douglas Harper, the etymological roots of Deva mean "a shining one," from *div- "to shine," and it is a cognate with Greek dios "divine" and Zeus, and Latin deus (Old Latin deivos).[48]

 

In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Asuras.[49][50] By the late Vedic period (~500 BCE), benevolent supernatural beings are referred to as Deva-Asuras. In post-Vedic texts, such as the Puranas and the Itihasas of Hinduism, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad.[3][4] In some medieval Indian literature, Devas are also referred to as Suras and contrasted with their equally powerful, but malevolent half-brothers referred to as the Asuras.[51]

 

Hindu deities are part of Indian mythology, both Devas and Devis feature in one of many cosmological theories in Hinduism.[52][53]

 

Characteristics of Vedic era deities[edit]

In Vedic literature, Devas and Devis represent the forces of nature and some represent moral values (such as the Adityas, Varuna, and Mitra), each symbolizing the epitome of a specialized knowledge, creative energy, exalted and magical powers (Siddhis).[54][55]

The most referred to Devas in the Rig Veda are Indra, Agni (fire) and Soma, with "fire deity" called the friend of all humanity, it and Soma being the two celebrated in a yajna fire ritual that marks major Hindu ceremonies. Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra (later given the exclusive epithet of Shiva), and Prajapati (later Brahma) are gods and hence Devas.[30]

 

The Vedas describes a number of significant Devis such as Ushas (dawn), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Saraswati (river, knowledge), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night), Aranyani (forest), and bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati, Mahi among others are mentioned in the Rigveda.[58] Sri, also called Lakshmi, appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era.[59] All gods and goddesses are distinguished in the Vedic times, but in the post-Vedic texts (~500 BCE to 200 CE), and particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Brahman, the Supreme power.[59][60]

 

Ananda Coomaraswamy states that Devas and Asuras in the Vedic lore are similar to Angels-Theoi-Gods and Titans of Greek mythology, both are powerful but have different orientations and inclinations, the Devas representing the powers of Light and the Asuras representing the powers of Darkness in Hindu mythology.[61][62] According to Coomaraswamy's interpretation of Devas and Asuras, both these natures exist in each human being, the tyrant and the angel is within each being, the best and the worst within each person struggles before choices and one's own nature, and the Hindu formulation of Devas and Asuras is an eternal dance between these within each person.[63][64]

 

The Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and powers of Darkness in Rigveda, although distinct and opposite in operation, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter not of essence but of orientation, revolution or transformation. In this case, the Titan is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness; whence the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same Person according to the mode of operation, as in Rigveda 1.163.3, "Trita art thou (Agni) by interior operation".

 

— Ananda Coomaraswamy, Journal of the American Oriental Society[65]

Characteristics of medieval era deities[edit]

In the Puranas and the Itihasas with the embedded Bhagavad Gita, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad.[3][4] According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6-16.7), all beings in the universe have both the divine qualities (daivi sampad) and the demonic qualities (asuri sampad) within each.[4][66] The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita states that pure god-like saints are rare and pure demon-like evil are rare among human beings, and the bulk of humanity is multi-charactered with a few or many faults.[4] According to Jeaneane Fowler, the Gita states that desires, aversions, greed, needs, emotions in various forms "are facets of ordinary lives", and it is only when they turn to lust, hate, cravings, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, hypocrisy, violence, cruelty and such negativity- and destruction-inclined that natural human inclinations metamorphose into something demonic (Asura).[4][66]

The Epics and medieval era texts, particularly the Puranas, developed extensive and richly varying mythologies associated with Hindu deities, including their genealogies.[67][68][69] Several of the Purana texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi.[67] Other texts and commentators such as Adi Shankara explain that Hindu deities live or rule over the cosmic body as well in the temple of human body.[33][70] They remark that the Sun deity is the giver of vision, the Vayu deity the nose, the Prajapati the sexual organs, the Lokapalas (directions) are the ears, moon deity the mind, Mitra deity is the inward breath, Varuna deity is the outward breath, Indra deity the arms, Brhaspati the speech, Vishnu whose stride is great is the feet, and Maya is the smile.[70]

 

Symbolism[edit]

Edelmann states that gods and anti-gods of Hinduism are symbolism for spiritual concepts. For example, god Indra (a Deva) and the antigod Virocana (an Asura) question a sage for insights into the knowledge of the self.[71] Virocana leaves with the first given answer, believing now he can use the knowledge as a weapon. In contrast, Indra keeps pressing the sage, churning the ideas, and learning about means to inner happiness and power. Edelmann suggests that the Deva-Asura dichotomies in Hindu mythology may be seen as "narrative depictions of tendencies within our selves".[71] Hindu deities in Vedic era, states Mahoney, are those artists with "powerfully inward transformative, effective and creative mental powers".[72]

 

In Hindu mythology, everyone starts as an Asura, born of the same father. "Asuras who remain Asura" share the character of powerful beings craving for more power, more wealth, ego, anger, unprincipled nature, force and violence.[73][74] The "Asuras who become Devas" in contrast are driven by an inner voice, seek understanding and meaning, prefer moderation, principled behavior, aligned with Ṛta and Dharma, knowledge and harmony.[73][74][75]

 

The god (Deva) and antigod (Asura), states Edelmann, are also symbolically the contradictory forces that motivate each individual and people, and thus Deva-Asura dichotomy is a spiritual concept rather than mere genealogical category or species of being.[76] In the Bhāgavata Purana, saints and gods are born in families of Asuras, such as Mahabali and Prahlada, conveying the symbolism that motivations, beliefs and actions rather than one's birth and family circumstances define whether one is Deva-like or Asura-like.[76]

Another Hindu term that is sometimes translated as deity is Ishvara, or alternatively various deities are described, state Sorajjakool et al., as "the personifications of various aspects of one and the same Ishvara".[77] The term Ishvara has a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism.[78][79][80] In ancient texts of Indian philosophy, Ishvara means supreme soul, Brahman (Highest Reality), ruler, king or husband depending on the context.[78] In medieval era texts, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal god, or special Self depending on the school of Hinduism.[2][80][81]

 

Among the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya and Mimamsa do not consider the concept of Ishvara, i.e., a supreme being, relevant. Yoga, Vaisheshika, Vedanta and Nyaya schools of Hinduism discuss Ishvara, but assign different meanings.

 

Early Nyaya school scholars considered the hypothesis of a deity as a creator God with the power to grant blessings, boons and fruits; but these early Nyaya scholars then rejected this hypothesis, and were non-theistic or atheists.[25][82] Later scholars of Nyaya school reconsidered this question and offered counter arguments for what is Ishvara and various arguments to prove the existence of omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent deity (God).[83]

 

Vaisheshika school of Hinduism, as founded by Kanada in 1st millennium BC, neither required nor relied on creator deity.[84][85] Later Vaisheshika school adopted the concept of Ishvara, states Klaus Klostermaier, but as an eternal God who co-exists in the universe with eternal substances and atoms, but He "winds up the clock, and lets it run its course".[84]

 

Ancient Mimamsa scholars of Hinduism questioned what is Ishvara (deity, God)?[86] They considered deity concept unnecessary for a consistent philosophy and moksha (soteriology).[86][87]

 

In Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, Isvara is neither a creator-God, nor a savior-God.[88] This is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars.[89][90][91] Others, such as Jacobsen, state that Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic.[92] Deity is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.[93]

 

In Yoga school of Hinduism, it is any "personal deity" (Ishta Deva or Ishta Devata)[94] or "spiritual inspiration", but not a creator God.[81][89] Whicher explains that while Patanjali's terse verses in the Yogasutras can be interpreted both as theistic or non-theistic, Patanjali's concept of Isvara in Yoga philosophy functions as a "transformative catalyst or guide for aiding the yogin on the path to spiritual emancipation".[95]

 

The Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism asserted that there is no dualistic existence of deity (or deities).[96][97] There is no otherness nor distinction between Jiva and Ishvara.[98][99] God (Ishvara, Brahman) is identical with the Atman (soul) within each human being in Advaita Vedanta school,[100] and there is a monistic Universal Absolute Oneness that connects everyone and everything, states this school of Hinduism.[39][99][101] This school, states Anantanand Rambachan, has "perhaps exerted the most widespread influence".[102]

 

The Dvaita sub-school of Vedanta Hinduism, founded in medieval era, Ishvara is defined as a creator God that is distinct from Jiva (individual souls in living beings).[40] In this school, God creates individual souls, but the individual soul never was and never will become one with God; the best it can do is to experience bliss by getting infinitely close to God.[20]

 

Number of deities[edit]

Yāska, the earliest known language scholar of India (~ 500 BCE), notes Wilkins, mentions that there are three deities (Devas) according to the Vedas, "Agni (fire), whose place is on the earth; Vayu (wind), whose place is the air; and Surya (sun), whose place is in the sky".[107] This principle of three worlds (or zones), and its multiples is found thereafter in many ancient texts. The Samhitas, which are the oldest layer of text in Vedas enumerate 33 devas,[note 3] either 11 each for the three worlds, or as 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 Vasus and 2 Ashvins in the Brahmanas layer of Vedic texts.[7][47]

 

The Rigveda states in hymn 1.139.11,

 

ये देवासो दिव्येकादश स्थ पृथिव्यामध्येकादश स्थ ।

अप्सुक्षितो महिनैकादश स्थ ते देवासो यज्ञमिमं जुषध्वम् ॥११॥[111]

 

O ye eleven gods whose home is heaven, O ye eleven who make earth your dwelling,

Ye who with might, eleven, live in waters, accept this sacrifice, O gods, with pleasure.

– Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith[112]

 

Gods who are eleven in heaven; who are eleven on earth;

and who are eleven dwelling with glory in mid-air; may ye be pleased with this our sacrifice.

– Translated by HH Wilson[113]

 

— Rigveda 1.139.11

Millions, one or one-ness?[edit]

Thirty-three divinities are mentioned in other ancient texts, such as the Yajurveda,[114] however, there is no fixed "number of deities" in Hinduism any more than a standard representation of "deity".[115] There is, however, a popular perception stating that there are 330 million (or "33 crore") deities in Hinduism.[116] Most, by far, are goddesses, state Foulston and Abbott, suggesting "how important and popular goddesses are" in Hindu culture.[115] No one has a list of the 330 million goddesses and gods, but all deities, state scholars, are typically viewed in Hinduism as "emanations or manifestation of genderless principle called Brahman, representing the many facets of Ultimate Reality".[115][116][117]

 

This concept of Brahman is not the same as the monotheistic separate God found in Abrahamic religions, where God is considered, states Brodd, as "creator of the world, above and independent of human existence", while in Hinduism "God, the universe, human beings and all else is essentially one thing" and everything is connected oneness, the same god is in every human being as Atman, the eternal Self.[117][118]

Hinduism has an ancient and extensive iconography tradition, particularly in the form of Murti (Sanskrit: मूर्ति, IAST: Mūrti), or Vigraha or Pratima.[22] A Murti is itself not the god in Hinduism, but it is an image of god and represents emotional and religious value.[124] A literal translation of Murti as idol is incorrect, states Jeaneane Fowler, when idol is understood as superstitious end in itself.[124] Just like the photograph of a person is not the real person, a Murti is an image in Hinduism but not the real thing, but in both cases the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer.[124] When a person worships a Murti, it is assumed to be a manifestation of the essence or spirit of the deity, the worshipper's spiritual ideas and needs are meditated through it, yet the idea of ultimate reality or Brahman is not confined in it.[124]

 

A Murti of a Hindu deity is typically made by carving stone, wood working, metal casting or through pottery. Medieval era texts describing their proper proportions, positions and gestures include the Puranas, Agamas and Samhitas particularly the Shilpa Shastras.[21] The expressions in a Murti vary in diverse Hindu traditions, ranging from Ugra symbolism to express destruction, fear and violence (Durga, Kali), as well as Saumya symbolism to express joy, knowledge and harmony (Saraswati, Lakshmi). Saumya images are most common in Hindu temples.[125] Other Murti forms found in Hinduism include the Linga.[126]

 

A Murti is an embodiment of the divine, the Ultimate Reality or Brahman to some Hindus.[21] In religious context, they are found in Hindu temples or homes, where they may be treated as a beloved guest and serve as a participant of Puja rituals in Hinduism.[127] A murti is installed by priests, in Hindu temples, through the Prana Pratishtha ceremony,[128] whereby state Harold Coward and David Goa, the "divine vital energy of the cosmos is infused into the sculpture" and then the divine is welcomed as one would welcome a friend.[129] In other occasions, it serves as the center of attention in annual festive processions and these are called Utsava Murti.[130]

In Hinduism, deities and their icons may be hosted in a Hindu temple, within a home or as an amulet. The worship performed by Hindus is known by a number of regional names, such as Puja.[134] This practice in front of a murti may be elaborate in large temples, or be a simple song or mantra muttered in home, or offering made to sunrise or river or symbolic anicon of a deity.[135][136][137] Archaeological evidence of deity worship in Hindu temples trace Puja rituals to Gupta Empire era (~4th century CE).[138][139] In Hindu temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples, it may be occasional.[140][141]

 

The Puja practice is structured as an act of welcoming, hosting, honoring the deity of one's choice as one's honored guest,[142] and remembering the spiritual and emotional significance the deity represents the devotee.[124][134] Jan Gonda, as well as Diana L. Eck, states that a typical Puja involves one or more of 16 steps (Shodasha Upachara) traceable to ancient times: the deity is invited as a guest, the devotee hosts and takes care of the deity as an honored guest, praise (hymns) with Dhupa or Aarti along with food (Naivedhya) is offered to the deity, after an expression of love and respect the host takes leave, and with affection expresses good bye to the deity.[143][144] The worship practice may also involve reflecting on spiritual questions, with image serving as support for such meditation.[145]

 

Deity worship (Bhakti), visiting temples and Puja rituals are not mandatory and is optional in Hinduism; it is the choice of a Hindu, it may be a routine daily affair for some Hindus, periodic ritual or infrequent for some.[146][147] Worship practices in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist.[41]

 

Examples[edit]

Main articles: List of Hindu deities and Rigvedic deities

Major deities have inspired a vast genre of literature such as the Puranas and Agama texts as well their own Hindu traditions, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism.[16][17] Vishnu and his avatars are at the foundation of Vaishnavism, Shiva for Shaivism, Devi for Shaktism, and some Hindu traditions such as Smarta traditions who revere multiple major deities (five) as henotheistic manifestations of Brahman (absolute metaphysical Reality).[116][148][149]

 

While there are diverse deities in Hinduism, states Lawrence, "Exclusivism – which maintains that only one's own deity is real" is rare in Hinduism.[116] Julius Lipner, and other scholars, state that pluralism and "polycentrism" – where other deities are recognized and revered by members of different "denominations", has been the Hindu ethos and way of life.[16][150]

 

Trimurti and Tridevi[edit]

The concept of Triad (or Trimurti, Trinity) makes a relatively late appearance in Hindu literature, or in the second half of 1st millennium BCE.[151] The idea of triad, playing three roles in the cosmic affairs, is typically associated with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (also called Mahesh); however, this is not the only triad in Hindu literature.[152] Other triads include Tridevi, of three goddesses – Lakshmi, Saraswati and Durga in the text Devi Mahatmya, in the Shakta tradition, who further assert that Devi is the Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and it is her energy that empowers Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.[151] The other triads, formulated as deities in ancient Indian literature, include Sun (creator), Air (sustainer) and Fire (destroyer); Prana (creator), Food (sustainer) and Time (destroyer).[151] These triads, states Jan Gonda, are in some mythologies grouped together without forming a Trinity, and in other times represented as equal, a unity and manifestations of one Brahman.[151] In the Puranas, for example, this idea of threefold "hypostatization" is expressed as follows,

 

They [Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva] exist through each other, and uphold each other; they are parts of one another; they subsist through one another; they are not for a moment separated; they never abandon one another.

 

— Vayu Purana, 5.17, Translated by Jan Gonda[151]

The triad appears in Maitrayaniya Upanishad, for the first time in recognized roles known ever since, where they are deployed to present the concept of three Guṇa – the innate nature, tendencies and inner forces found within every being and everything, whose balance transform and keeps changing the individual and the world.[152][153] It is in the medieval Puranic texts, Trimurti concepts appears in various context, from rituals to spiritual concepts.[151] The Bhagavad Gita, in verses 9.18, 10.21-23 and 11.15, asserts that the triad or trinity is manifestation of one Brahman, which Krishna affirms himself to be.[154] However, suggests Bailey, the mythology of triad is "not the influence nor the most important one" in Hindu traditions, rather the ideologies and spiritual concepts develop on their own foundations.[152]

 

Avatars of Hindu deities[edit]

Hindu mythology has nurtured the concept of Avatar, which represents the descent of a deity on earth.[155][156] This concept is commonly translated as "incarnation",[155] and is an "appearance" or "manifestation".[157][158]

 

The concept of Avatar is most developed in Vaishnavism tradition, and associated with Vishnu, particularly with Rama and Krishna.[159][160] Vishnu takes numerous avatars in Hindu mythology. He becomes female, during the Samudra manthan, in the form of Mohini, to resolve a conflict between the Devas and Asuras. His male avatars include Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki.[160] Various texts, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, discuss the idea of Avatar of Vishnu appearing to restore the cosmic balance whenever the power of evil becomes excessive and causes persistent oppression in the world.[156]

 

In Shaktism traditions, the concept appears in its legends as the various manifestations of Devi, the Divine Mother principal in Hinduism.[161] The avatars of Devi or Parvati include Durga and Kali, who are particularly revered in eastern states of India, as well as Tantra traditions.[162][163][164] Twenty one avatars of Shiva are also described in Shaivism texts, but unlike Vaishnava traditions, Shaiva traditions have focussed directly on Shiva rather than the Avatar concept.[155]

 

Mid Century Modern Style Dining Set of Table & 4 Chairs, Contemporary copy of Herman Miller furniture designed by Eero Saarinen, Includes white chairs w/ red cushions & white marbelized round table by Euro-Style, Inc., Great condition - (table) 39"d x 29"h (chairs) each 33"h

Master suite features include:

 

- Separate shower;

- Prewire for ceiling fan;

- Dehumidistat sensor at Owner's Bath;

- Private water closet with elongated toilet;

- Oversized walk-in closet with wood shelves;

- Kohler® body contoured design soaking tub;

- 6 inch x 6 inch ceramic tile vanity tops with 6" backsplash; and

- Dual vanity sinks with Kohler® chrome plumbing fixtures; and

- Water saving WaterSenseSM labeled bath faucets, showerheads, & high efficiency toilets.

 

This bundle includes:

-Spartan Rails Kit

-Durus Follow Focus

-Simplis Quick Release Plate

-Atlas FLT Camera Slider with All Terrain Legs

-Benro B1 Ball Head

 

*Camera and lens not included.

 

Check cinevate.com/festivus for the full list of products and videos available.

Includes various sculptures and the Seaton Tramway

A Text in english:

Blue-black Grassquit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blue-black Grassquit

Conservation status

 

Least Concern

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Emberizidae

Genus: Volatinia

Reichenbach 1850

Species: V. jacarina

Binomial name

Volatinia jacarina

(Linnaeus, 1766)

 

The Blue-black Grassquit, Volatinia jacarina, is a small bird of the family Emberizidae, which also includes the buntings. It breeds from southern Mexico through Central America, and South America as far as northern Chile, Argentina and Paraguay, and on Trinidad and Tobago. It is the only member of the genus Volatinia.

This is a common bird in semi-open areas, including cultivation and gardens. It makes a small cup nest, with a typical clutch of one to three pale green eggs blotched with reddish brown. Both sexes incubate for 9–10 days, with about the same period again for the young to fledge.

Adult Blue-black Grassquits are 10.2cm long and weigh 9.3g. They have a slender conical black bill. The male is glossy blue-black, with a black tail and wings; the white inner underwing is visible in flight or display. Female and immature birds have brown upperparts and dark-streaked buff underparts.

Blue-black Grassquit feeds mainly on seeds. It is quite gregarious, and forms communal evening roosts.

The male has a jumping display, often performed for long periods, which gives rise to the local name Johnny Jump-up. This is accompanied by a persistent wheezing jweeee call.

 

Um texto em português:

O Tiziu, nome vulgar utilizado para identificar Volatinia jacarina, é um passarinho da Família Emberizidae, que mede cerca de 11,4cm. Estes pequenos pássaros são vistos com grande freqüência, geralmente aos pares, em áreas alteradas, descampados, savanas, campos e capoeiras baixas da América do Sul, exceto no extremo sul. Alimentam-se principalmente de sementes verdes, encontradas no próprio colmo das gramíneas ou no chão, ou de insetos. Adultos e jovens, fora da época reprodutiva, são pardo-oliváceos no dorso e levemente amarelados no abdômen, com estrias no peito e flancos. Os machos adultos, durante a época de acasalamento, assumem uma brilhante plumagem nupcial preto-azulada, com uma mancha branca nas penas axilares. Estes são facilmente reconhecidos nesse período pois, além da coloração nupcial vistosa, executam uma exibição que consiste de pequenos vôos verticais, ao mesmo tempo em que fazem vocalização da qual resultou seu nome: "tis-ziu". o vôo é repetido seguidamente, sobre o mesmo puleiro, em média cerca de 12 a 14 vezes por minuto, e com pequenos intervalos entre as repetições. Essa exibição é executada principalmente durante a época reprodutiva: todo ano em Belém, no Pará, e restrito ao verão em regiões meridionais, em função da alteração na oferta de recursos alimentares. Através das exibições, os machos delimitam seus pequenos territórios, que podem variar de cerca de 13 a 73m2, também atraindo as fêmeas para o acasalamento. O ninho, feito com raízes emaranhadas e com formato de taça, é construído dentro do território do macho, sempre a 50cm ou menos do chão, recebendo normalmente uma postura de dois ovos. Tanto o macho quanto a fêmea participam dos cuidados com os filhotes.

Os vários nomes vulgares deste pássaro, como tiziu, bate-estaca, serrador e serra-serra, fazem alusão ao canto e ao pulo vertical de cerca de 1 m que o macho executa na época da reprodução, partindo de um galho seco. Durante estes saltos, ele canta, bate as asas, expões a mancha branca das penas axilares e produz um ruído característico com as rêmiges. O macho delimita um território tão pequeno que está entre os menores observados para os pássaros. É uma espécie migratória, desaparecendo de São Paulo durante o inverno.

 

JULIANA BOSI DE ALMEIDA Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia Universidade de Brasília

 

o macho adulto é inconfundível por ser todo preto, exceto por uma pequena mancha branca na parte inferior das asas, já as fêmeas e imaturos são quase idênticas a várias outras espécies da família, especialmente às fêmeas dos papa-capins ( gênero Sporophila ).

Espécie muito conhecida em nosso país, principalmente pelo hábito dos machos fazerem apresentações de corte e defesa do território boa parte do ano. Estas apresentações são geralmente feitas a partir de poleiros não muito altos como mourões de cerca e arbustos. O macho voa verticalmente cerca de 60cm e em seguida solta o corpo, mostrando as manchas brancas nas asas e retornando ao poleiro. Esses movimentos são muito rápidos e repetitivos e a ave vocaliza enquanto voa, lembrando seu nome popular ``tiziu´´.

Alimenta-se principalmente de sementes de gramíneas como a braquiária, mas também captura insetos.

É muito comum nas áreas rurais e também em cidades, especialmente em terrenos baldios.

A fêmea constrói o ninho em forma de bola entrelaçando gravetos finos e folhas de gramíneas. Geralmente são postos 3 ovos. Os pais se revezam na alimentação dos filhotes. A mesma fêmea pode ter mais de uma cria no mesmo ano.

 

The Tiziu, popular name for the Volatinia jacarina, is a bird of the Emberizidae family, whose size is 11.4 centimeters. These small birds, usually in pairs, are frequently seen in plains, prairies, open fields and cleared tracts of land in South America, except in its Southernmost part. They feed mainly upon insects or green seeds, which are collected in the stem of gramineous plants or on the ground. Whenever they are out of their reproductive season, the adult and young bird's back looks dark gray with shades of olive green, while its abdomen looks yellowish with lines on the chest and flank. During their breeding season, the adult male takes up a shiny bluish black nuptial feathering, with white spots in the axillary feathers. They are easily recognized in this period because, besides wearing their showy nuptial feathering, they perform vertical flights, while singing the sound they are named for: "tis-ziu". These flights are repeated over the same spot, at a rate of 12 to 14 times a minute, with short intervals among them. This performance takes place mainly during their reproductive season, which lasts basically all year round in Belém, State of Pará, and is restricted to the summertime in Southern regions. due to variations in food resource. Through these performances, males draw the lines of their small territories, which may range from 13 to 73 square meters, and also attract females for breeding. The nest is built with woven roots in the shape of a cup. It is within the male's territory, always up to 50-centimeter high, and usually receives an offspring of two eggs. Both male and female take part in looking after their issue.

 

JULIANA BOSI DE ALMEIDA Graduation Program in Ecology University of Brasília

These very rich earrings include all the warm shades of cocoa, and remind me of the unique taste of cocoa and its delicious aroma..

 

At the top there's a huge and beautiful microfaceted botswana agate round bead, framed by copper wire and surrounded by tiny round copper beads.

 

Just below there's a very rich bunch of beautiful and flawless smoky quartz faceted rondelles which is atop a black rose made of oynx stone: it's so beautiful and rich in colour!

 

They're 2.16 inches (5.5 cm) long - real copper french wire earring hooks (with coil and daisy) excluded.

 

Very comfortable earrings with vivid and brilliant colours!

 

In Midhurst today for the Independent Goodwood Photographers Guild photo exhibition/competition. One of my images won the "repetition" category. 2 others were short listed in their category, but missed out.

 

As last time, I thought a sepia treatment on the Cowdray ruins suited the scene.

Grasshoppers are insects of the suborder Caelifera within the order Orthoptera, which includes crickets and their allies in the other suborder Ensifera. They are probably the oldest living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshoppers are typically ground-dwelling insects with powerful hind legs which enable them to escape from threats by leaping vigorously. They are hemimetabolous insects (they do not undergo complete metamorphosis) which hatch from an egg into a nymph or "hopper" which undergoes five moults, becoming more similar to the adult insect at each developmental stage. At high population densities and under certain environmental conditions, some grasshopper species can change colour and behaviour and form swarms. Under these circumstances they are known as locusts.

 

Insects in the group are plant-eaters, with a few species at times becoming serious pests of cereals, vegetables and pasture, especially when they swarm in their millions as locusts and destroy crops over wide areas. They protect themselves from predators by camouflage; when detected, many species attempt to startle the predator with a brilliantly-coloured wing-flash while jumping and (if adult) launching themselves into the air, usually flying for only a short distance. Other species such as the rainbow grasshopper have warning coloration which deters predators. Grasshoppers are affected by parasites and various diseases, and many predatory creatures feed on both nymphs and adults. The eggs are the subject of attack by parasitoids and predators.

 

Grasshoppers have had a long relationship with humans. Swarms of locusts can have devastating effects and cause famine, and even in smaller numbers, the insects can be serious pests. They are used as food in countries such as Mexico and Indonesia. They feature in art, symbolism and literature.

 

CHARACTERISTICS

Grasshoppers have the typical insect body plan of head, thorax and abdomen. The head is held vertically at an angle to the body, with the mouth at the bottom. The head bears a large pair of compound eyes which give all-round vision, three simple eyes which can detect light and dark, and a pair of thread-like antennae that are sensitive to touch and smell. The downward-directed mouthparts are modified for chewing and there are two sensory palps in front of the jaws.

 

The thorax and abdomen are segmented and have a rigid cuticle made up of overlapping plates composed of chitin. The three fused thoracic segments bear three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings. The forewings, known as tegmina, are narrow and leathery while the hindwings are large and membranous, the veins providing strength. The legs are terminated by claws for gripping. The hind leg is particularly powerful; the femur is robust and has several ridges where different surfaces join and the inner ridges bear stridulatory pegs in some species. The posterior edge of the tibia bears a double row of spines and there are a pair of articulated spurs near its lower end. The interior of the thorax houses the muscles that control the wings and legs.

 

The abdomen has eleven segments, the first of which is fused to the thorax and contains the tympanal organ and hearing system. Segments two to eight are ring-shaped and joined by flexible membranes. Segments nine to eleven are reduced in size; segment nine bears a pair of cerci and segments ten and eleven house the reproductive organs. Female grasshoppers are normally larger than males, with short ovipositors. The name of the suborder "Caelifera" comes from the Latin and means chisel-bearing, referring to the shape of the ovipositor.

 

Those species that make easily heard noises usually do so by rubbing a row of pegs on the hind legs against the edges of the forewings (stridulation). These sounds are produced mainly by males to attract females, though in some species the females also stridulate.

 

Grasshoppers may be confused with Ensifera (crickets, etc.), but they differ in many aspects; these include the number of segments in their antennae and the structure of the ovipositor, as well as the location of the tympanal organ and the methods by which sound is produced. Ensiferans have antennae that can be much longer than the body and have at least 20–24 segments, while caeliferans have fewer segments in their shorter, stouter antennae.

 

PHYLOGENY

Grasshoppers belong to the suborder Caelifera. Although, "grasshopper" is sometimes used as a common name for the suborder in general, some sources restrict it to the more "advanced" groups. They may be placed in the infraorder Acrididea and have been referred-to as "short-horned grasshoppers" in older texts to distinguish them from the also-obsolete term "long-horned grasshoppers" (now bush-crickets or katydids) with their much longer antennae. The phylogeny of the Caelifera, based on mitochondrial ribosomal RNA of thirty-two taxa in six out of seven superfamilies, is shown as a cladogram. The Ensifera, Caelifera and all the superfamilies of grasshoppers except Pamphagoidea appear to be monophyletic.

 

In evolutionary terms, the split between the Caelifera and the Ensifera is no more recent than the Permo-Triassic boundary; the earliest insects that are certainly Caeliferans are in the extinct families Locustopseidae and Locustavidae from the early Triassic, roughly 250 million years ago. The group diversified during the Triassic and have remained important plant-eaters from that time to now. The first modern families such as the Eumastacidae, Tetrigidae and Tridactylidae appeared in the Cretaceous, though some insects that might belong to the last two of these groups are found in the early Jurassic. Morphological classification is difficult because many taxa have converged towards a common habitat type; recent taxonomists have concentrated on the internal genitalia, especially those of the male. This information is not available from fossil specimens, and the palaentological taxonomy is founded principally on the venation of the hindwings.

 

The Caelifera includes some 2,400 valid genera and about 11,000 known species. Many undescribed species probably exist, especially in tropical wet forests. The Caelifera have a predominantly tropical distribution with fewer species known from temperate zones, but most of the superfamilies have representatives worldwide. They are almost exclusively herbivorous and are probably the oldest living group of chewing herbivorous insects.

 

The most diverse superfamily is the Acridoidea, with around 8,000 species. The two main families in this are the Acrididae (grasshoppers and locusts) with a worldwide distribution, and the Romaleidae (lubber grasshoppers), found chiefly in the New World. The Ommexechidae and Tristiridae are South American, and the Lentulidae, Lithidiidae and Pamphagidae are mainly African. The Pauliniids are nocturnal and can swim or skate on water, and the Lentulids are wingless. Pneumoridae are native to Africa, particularly southern Africa, and are distinguished by the inflated abdomens of the males.

 

BIOLOGY

DIET AND DIGESTION

Most grasshoppers are polyphagous, eating vegetation from multiple plant sources, but some are omnivorous and also eat animal tissue and animal faeces. In general their preference is for grasses, including many cereals grown as crops. The digestive system is typical of insects, with Malpighian tubules discharging into the midgut. Carbohydrates are digested mainly in the crop, while proteins are digested in the ceca of the midgut. Saliva is abundant but largely free of enzymes, helping to move food and Malpighian secretions along the gut. Some grasshoppers possess cellulase, which by softening plant cell walls makes plant cell contents accessible to other digestive enzymes.

 

SENSORY ORGANS

Grasshoppers have a typical insect nervous system, and have an extensive set of external sense organs. On the side of the head are a pair of large compound eyes which give a broad field of vision and can detect movement, shape, colour and distance. There are also three simple eyes (ocelli) on the forehead which can detect light intensity, a pair of antennae containing olfactory (smell) and touch receptors, and mouthparts containing gustatory (taste) receptors. At the front end of the abdomen there is a pair of tympanal organs for sound reception. There are numerous fine hairs (setae) covering the whole body that act as mechanoreceptors (touch and wind sensors), and these are most dense on the antennae, the palps (part of the mouth), and on the cerci at the tip of the abdomen. There are special receptors (campaniform sensillae) embedded in the cuticle of the legs that sense pressure and cuticle distortion. There are internal "chordotonal" sense organs specialized to detect position and movement about the joints of the exoskeleton. The receptors convey information to the central nervous system through sensory neurons, and most of these have their cell bodies located in the periphery near the receptor site itself.

 

CIRCULATION AMD RESPIRATION

Like other insects, grasshoppers have an open circulatory system and their body cavities are filled with haemolymph. A heart-like structure in the upper part of the abdomen pumps the fluid to the head from where it percolates past the tissues and organs on its way back to the abdomen. This system circulates nutrients throughout the body and carries metabolic wastes to be excreted into the gut. Other functions of the haemolymph include wound healing, heat transfer and the provision of hydrostatic pressure, but the circulatory system is not involved in gaseous exchange. Respiration is performed using tracheae, air-filled tubes, which open at the surfaces of the thorax and abdomen through pairs of valved spiracles. Larger insects may need to actively ventilate their bodies by opening some spiracles while others remain closed, using abdominal muscles to expand and contract the body and pump air through the system.

 

JUMPING

A large grasshopper, such as a locust, can jump about a metre (twenty body lengths) without using its wings; the acceleration peaks at about 20 g. Grasshoppers jump by extending their large back legs and pushing against the substrate (the ground, a twig, a blade of grass or whatever else they are standing on); the reaction force propels them into the air. They jump for several reasons; to escape from a predator, to launch themselves into flight, or simply to move from place to place. For the escape jump in particular there is strong selective pressure to maximize take-off velocity, since this determines the range. This means that the legs must thrust against the ground with both high force and a high velocity of movement. However, a fundamental property of muscle is that it cannot contract with both high force and high velocity at the same time. Grasshoppers overcome this apparent contradiction by using a catapult mechanism to amplify the mechanical power produced by their muscles.

 

The jump is a three-stage process. First, the grasshopper fully flexes the lower part of the leg (tibia) against the upper part (femur) by activating the flexor tibiae muscle (the back legs of the grasshopper in the top photograph are in this preparatory position). Second, there is a period of co-contraction in which force builds up in the large, pennate extensor tibiae muscle, but the tibia is kept flexed by the simultaneous contraction of the flexor tibiae muscle. The extensor muscle is much stronger than the flexor muscle, but the latter is aided by specializations in the joint that give it a large effective mechanical advantage over the former when the tibia is fully flexed. Co-contraction can last for up to half a second, and during this period the extensor muscle shortens and stores elastic strain energy by distorting stiff cuticular structures in the leg. The extensor muscle contraction is quite slow (almost isometric), which allows it to develop high force (up to 14 N in the desert locust), but because it is slow only low power is needed. The third stage of the jump is the trigger relaxation of the flexor muscle, which releases the tibia from the flexed position. The subsequent rapid tibial extension is driven mainly by the relaxation of the elastic structures, rather than by further shortening of the extensor muscle. In this way the stiff cuticle acts like the elastic of a catapult, or the bow of a bow-and-arrow. Energy is put into the store at low power by slow but strong muscle contraction, and retrieved from the store at high power by rapid relaxation of the mechanical elastic structures.

 

STRIDULATION

Male grasshoppers spend much of the day stridulating, singing more actively under optimal conditions and being more subdued when conditions are adverse; females also stridulate, but their efforts are insignificant when compared to the males. Late-stage male nymphs can sometimes be seen making stridulatory movements, although they lack the equipment to make sounds, demonstrating the importance of this behavioural trait. The songs are a means of communication; the male stridulation seems to express reproductive maturity, the desire for social cohesion and individual well-being. Social cohesion becomes necessary among grasshoppers because of their ability to jump or fly large distances, and the song can serve to limit dispersal and guide others to favourable habitat. The generalised song can vary in phraseology and intensity, and is modified in the presence of a rival male, and changes again to a courtship song when a female is nearby. In male grasshoppers of the family Pneumoridae, the enlarged abdomen amplifies stridulation.

 

LIFE CYCLE

In most grasshopper species, conflicts between males over females rarely escalate beyond ritualistic displays. Some exceptions include the chameleon grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis), where males may fight on top of ovipositing females; engaging in leg grappling, biting, kicking and mounting.

 

The newly emerged female grasshopper has a preoviposition period of a week or two while she increases in weight and her eggs mature. After mating, the female of most species digs a hole with her ovipositor and lays a batch of eggs in a pod in the ground near food plants, generally in the summer. After laying the eggs, she covers the hole with soil and litter. Some, like the semi-aquatic Cornops aquaticum, deposit the pod directly into plant tissue. The eggs in the pod are glued together with a froth in some species. After a few weeks of development, the eggs of most species in temperate climates go into diapause, and pass the winter in this state. Diapause is broken by a sufficiently low ground temperature, with development resuming as soon as the ground warms above a certain threshold temperature. The embryos in a pod generally all hatch out within a few minutes of each other. They soon shed their membranes and their exoskeletons harden. These first instar nymphs can then jump away from predators.

 

Grasshoppers undergo incomplete metamorphosis: they repeatedly moult (undergo ecdysis), each instar becoming larger and more like an adult, with the wing-buds increasing in size at each stage. The number of instars varies between species but is often six. After the final moult, the wings are inflated and become fully functional. The migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes, spends about 25 to 30 days as a nymph, depending on sex and temperature, and lives for about 51 days as an adult.

 

SWARMING

Locusts are the swarming phase of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. Swarming behaviour is a response to overcrowding. Increased tactile stimulation of the hind legs causes an increase in levels of serotonin. This causes the grasshopper to change colour, feed more and breed faster. The transformation of a solitary individual into a swarming one is induced by several contacts per minute over a short period.

 

Following this transformation, under suitable conditions dense nomadic bands of flightless nymphs known as "hoppers" can occur, producing pheromones which attract the insects to each other. With several generations in a year, the locust population can build up from localised groups into vast accumulations of flying insects known as plagues, devouring all the vegetation they encounter. The largest recorded locust swarm was one formed by the now-extinct Rocky Mountain locust in 1875; the swarm was 2,900 km long and 180 km wide, and one estimate puts the number of locusts involved at 3.5 trillion. An adult desert locust can eat about 2 g of plant material each day, so the billions of insects in a large swarm can be very destructive, stripping all the foliage from plants in an affected area and consuming stems, flowers, fruits, seeds and bark.

 

PREDATORS, PARASITES D PAHOGENS

Grasshoppers have a wide range of predators at different stages of their lives; eggs are eaten by bee-flies, ground beetles and blister beetles; hoppers and adults are taken by other insects such as ants, robber flies and sphecid wasps, by spiders, and by many birds and small mammals.

 

The eggs and nymphs are under attack by parasitoids including blow flies, flesh flies, and tachinid flies. External parasites of adults and nymphs include mites. Female grasshoppers parasitised by mites produce fewer eggs and thus have fewer offspring than unaffected individuals.

The grasshopper nematode (Mermis nigrescens) is a long slender worm that infects grasshoppers, living in the insect's hemocoel. Adult worms lay eggs on plants and the host becomes infected when the foliage is eaten. Spinochordodes tellinii and Paragordius tricuspidatus are parasitic worms that infect grasshoppers and alter the behaviour of their hosts. When the worms are sufficiently developed, the grasshopper is persuaded to leap into a nearby body of water where it drowns, thus enabling the parasite to continue with the next stage of its life cycle, which takes place in water.

 

Grasshoppers are affected by diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. The bacteria Serratia marcescens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa have both been implicated in causing disease in grasshoppers, as has the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana. This widespread fungus has been used to control various pest insects around the world, but although it infects grasshoppers, the infection is not usually lethal because basking in the sun has the result of raising the insect's temperature above a threshold tolerated by the fungus. The fungal pathogen Entomophaga grylli is able to influence the behaviour of its grasshopper host, causing it to climb to the top of a plant and cling to the stem as it dies. This ensures wide dispersal of the fungal spores liberated from the corpse.

 

The fungal pathogen Metarhizium acridum is found in Africa, Australia and Brazil where it has caused epizootics in grasshoppers. It is being investigated for possible use as a microbial insecticide for locust control. The microsporidian fungus Nosema locustae, once considered to be a protozoan, can be lethal to grasshoppers. It has to be consumed by mouth and is the basis for a bait-based commercial microbial pesticide. Various other microsporidians and protozoans are found in the gut.

 

ANTI-PREDATOR DEFENCES

Grasshoppers exemplify a range of anti-predator adaptations, enabling them to avoid detection, to escape if detected, and in some cases to avoid being eaten if captured. Grasshoppers are often camouflaged to avoid detection by predators that hunt by sight; some species can change their coloration to suit their surroundings.

 

Several species such as the hooded leaf grasshopper Phyllochoreia ramakrishnai (Eumastacoidea) are detailed mimics of leaves. Stick grasshoppers (Proscopiidae) mimic wooden sticks in form and colouration. Grasshoppers often have deimatic patterns on their wings, giving a sudden flash of bright colours that may startle predators long enough to give time to escape in a combination of jump and flight.

 

Some species are genuinely aposematic, having both bright warning coloration and sufficient toxicity to dissuade predators. Dictyophorus productus (Pyrgomorphidae) is a "heavy, bloated, sluggish insect" that makes no attempt to hide; it has a bright red abdomen. A Cercopithecus monkey that ate other grasshoppers refused to eat the species. Another species, the rainbow or painted grasshopper of Arizona, Dactylotum bicolor (Acridoidea), has been shown by experiment with a natural predator, the little striped whiptail lizard, to be aposematic

 

RELATIONSHIP WITH HUMANS

IN ART AND MEDIA

Grasshoppers are occasionally depicted in artworks, such as the Dutch Golden Age painter Balthasar van der Ast's still life oil painting, Flowers in a Vase with Shells and Insects, c. 1630, now in the National Gallery, London, though the insect may be a bush-cricket.

 

Another orthopteran is found in Rachel Ruysch's still life Flowers in a Vase, c. 1685. The seemingly static scene is animated by a "grasshopper on the table that looks about ready to spring", according to the gallery curator Betsy Wieseman, with other invertebrates including a spider, an ant, and two caterpillars.

 

Grasshoppers are also featured in cinema. The 1957 film Beginning of the End portrayed giant grasshoppers attacking Chicago.[59] In the 1998 Pixar film A Bug's Life, the heroes are the members of an ant colony, and the lead villain and his henchmen are grasshoppers.

 

SYMBOLISM

Grasshoppers are sometimes used as symbols, as in Sir Thomas Gresham's gilded grasshopper in Lombard Street, London, dating from 1563;[a] the building was for a while the headquarters of the Guardian Royal Exchange, but the company declined to use the symbol for fear of confusion with the locust.

 

When grasshoppers appear in dreams, these have been interpreted as symbols of "Freedom, independence, spiritual enlightenment, inability to settle down or commit to decision". Locusts are taken literally to mean devastation of crops in the case of farmers; figuratively as "wicked men and women" for non-farmers; and "Extravagance, misfortune, & ephemeral happiness" by "gypsies".

 

AS FOOD

In some countries, grasshoppers are used as food. In southern Mexico, grasshoppers, known as chapulines, are eaten in a variety of dishes, such as in tortillas with chilli sauce. Grasshoppers are served on skewers in some Chinese food markets, like the Donghuamen Night Market. Fried grasshoppers (walang goreng) are eaten in the Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta, Java in Indonesia. In Native America, the Ohlone people burned grassland to herd grasshoppers into pits where they could be collected as food.

 

It is recorded in the Bible that John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey (Greek: ἀκρίδες καὶ μέλι ἄγριον, akrídes kaì méli ágrion) while living in the wilderness; attempts have been made to explain the locusts as suitably ascetic vegetarian food such as carob beans, but the plain meaning of ἀκρίδες is the insects.

 

AS PESTS

Grasshoppers eat large quantities of foliage both as adults and during their development, and can be serious pests of arid land and prairies. Pasture, grain, forage, vegetable and other crops can be affected. Grasshoppers often bask in the sun, and thrive in warm sunny conditions, so drought stimulates an increase in grasshopper populations. A single season of drought is not normally sufficient to stimulate a massive population increase, but several successive dry seasons can do so, especially if the intervening winters are mild so that large numbers of nymphs survive. Although sunny weather stimulates growth, there needs to be an adequate food supply for the increasing grasshopper population. This means that although precipitation is needed to stimulate plant growth, prolonged periods of cloudy weather will slow nymphal development.

 

Grasshoppers can best be prevented from becoming pests by manipulating their environment. Shade provided by trees will discourage them and they may be prevented from moving onto developing crops by removing coarse vegetation from fallow land and field margins and discouraging luxurious growth beside ditches and on roadside verges. With increasing numbers of grasshoppers, predator numbers may increase, but this seldom happens sufficiently rapidly to have much effect on populations. Biological control is being investigated, and spores of the protozoan parasite Nosema locustae can be used mixed with bait to control grasshoppers, being more effective with immature insects. On a small scale, neem products can be effective as a feeding deterrent and as a disruptor of nymphal development. Insecticides can be used, but adult grasshoppers are difficult to kill, and as they move into fields from surrounding rank growth, crops may soon become reinfested.

 

Some grasshopper species, like the Chinese rice grasshopper, are a pest in rice paddies. Ploughing exposes the eggs on the surface of the field, to be destroyed by sunshine or eaten by natural enemies. Some eggs may be buried too deeply in the soil for hatching to take place.

 

Locust plagues can have devastating effects on human populations, causing famines and population upheavals. They are mentioned in both the Koran and the Bible and have also been held responsible for cholera epidemics, resulting from the corpses of locusts drowned in the Mediterranean Sea and decomposing on beaches. The FAO and other organisations monitor locust activity around the world. Timely application of pesticides can prevent nomadic bands of hoppers from forming before dense swarms of adults can build up. Besides conventional control using contact insecticides, biological pest control using the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium acridum, which specifically infects grasshoppers, has been used with some success.

 

IN LITERATURE

The Egyptian word for locust or grasshopper was written snḥm in the consonantal hieroglyphic writing system. The pharaoh Ramesses II compared the armies of the Hittites to locusts: "They covered the mountains and valleys and were like locusts in their multitude."

 

One of Aesop's Fables, later retold by La Fontaine, is the tale of The Ant and the Grasshopper. The ant works hard all summer, while the grasshopper plays. In winter, the ant is ready but the grasshopper starves. Somerset Maugham's short story "The Ant and the Grasshopper" explores the fable's symbolism via complex framing. Other human weaknesses besides improvidence have become identified with the grasshopper's behaviour. So an unfaithful woman (hopping from man to man) is "a grasshopper" in "Poprygunya", an 1892 short story by Anton Chekhov, and in Jerry Paris's 1969 film The Grasshopper.

In mechanical engineering

 

The name "Grasshopper" was given to the Aeronca L-3 and Piper L-4 light aircraft, both used for reconnaissance and other support duties in World War II. The name is said to have originated when Major General Innis P. Swift saw a Piper making a rough landing and remarked that it looked like a "damned grasshopper" for its bouncing progress.

 

Grasshopper beam engines were beam engines pivoted at one end, the long horizontal arm resembling the hind leg of a grasshopper. The type was patented by William Freemantle in 1803.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Ein Gedi nature reserve includes two spring-fed streams with flowing water year-round: Nahal David and Nahal Arugot.

 

The reserve is a sanctuary for many types of plant, bird and animal species.

 

The many species of resident birds are supplemented by over 200 additional species during the migration periods in the spring and fall. Mammal species include the ibex and the hyrax.

 

To see all images taken at that place, click on : Fullscreen photo slideshow or photo set

Location: Ein Gedi Nature Reserve - שמורת טבע עין גדי , Israel

 

For fave F | To view in LARGE press L | To comment C

Fun and chaos at the annual Easter Bank Holiday Bolney Pram Race. Two races - one for the kids and one for the adults. All in aid of some very good charitable causes. The Legomen were the slowest, but deservedly won the prize for the best costume and pram. Thanks to Niki for the suggestion

www.bolneypramrace.co.uk/

Always includes a long walk around the ranch.

\

  

About the late Community member policy,,.

 

Jan 7, 2022, Andrew H. McCain Arena, Acadia University Wolfville N.S. - Acadia has answered the call, and changed the discriminating Covi era membership Gym access policy to instead include the Community members with the same equal rights as the student males. females, trans and bi members have .

 

.. much appreciated.

  

.

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Feb 24, 2022 - Wolfville, N.S. Acadia University. The Acadia University Professors strike enters its 4th week ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51901774104

 

Sept 30th 2022 - Acadia Axeman hockey at Andrew H. McCain Arena goes paperless ? The Official program is no longer handed out to the customer ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52395343477

 

January 22, 2024 - Canada sets two-year cap on foreign students. The cap will result in a decrease of 35% in approved study permits.

www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68059996

 

Dec 14,2021 - Don't all members matter at Acadia Athletics ? Discrimination shown against community members during Covi. A posted official notice reads : "The Athletics complex will be closed to community drop-ins, community memberships, and external rentals until further notice , However,, Acadia staff, faculty and students, with proof of double vaccination, will continue to access the fitness center, the pool and the arena for skating. "

 

International student fallout hits the bottom line.. Atlantic universities depend on international students for about 30 per cent of their enrollment.

universityaffairs.ca/news/international-student-fallout-h...

 

Feb. 28, 2026. Dalhousie inks new nursing degree agreement with university in India to create dual-degree program in nursing.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-dual-nursing...

 

May 11th 2023 - A new policy has been announced at Acadia where almost half the available seats for a new Course are to be set aside and reserved only for members of certain racial or ethnic groups as specified by the University ? The PC Government announced that a new nursing program is to be offered at Acadia University where approximately 50 percent of the seats are reserved only for African, Mi'kmaq and Indigenous students. The total number of annual seats is set to increase to 63 ? Bearing in mind a current health care system worker crisis and urgent need for nursing grads, is it really wise or responsible to install race or ethnic restrictions that can eliminate many of those wanting to be a nurse ? www2.acadiau.ca/about-acadia/newsroom/news-reader-page/ac...

 

Dec 27, 2021 - Playing the race card ? The Liberal Provincial Government of Nova Scotia could be on a slippery slope when using race to determine and to cull applicants for vital health services due to limited supplies during a national public health emergency ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51782360402/in/album-7...

 

The Supreme Court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission,

www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/politics/affirmative-action-suprem...

 

Free University for some ? B.C. university waives tuition for local First Nation students,

bc.ctvnews.ca/that-s-reconciliation-b-c-university-waives...

 

Aug 2023 - A new physician assistant program at Dalhousie U open to 24 students per year with preference given to applicants from Nova Scotia, atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-s-invests-5-6-million-for-first-phy...

 

Oct 10, 2025 - The race card has been played in setting membership pricing rates ? A local Halifax gym R-Studio executes exclusive lower race-based membership charge ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsHpxm3yb7c&t=20s

 

June 11, 2025 - Maritime students struggle to find summer jobs,

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/article/mission-impossible-mariti...

 

Tim Horton's appears to use racial profiling in its hiring policies ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54605482350/in/album-7...

 

Canada's Gen Z can't find jobs,, www.cbc.ca/news/business/youth-unemployment-rate-1.7549979

 

The concerned Kentvillian must ask, " why is it that every time that you gas up at Milne Court Petro-Can, New Minas Ultramar, KVille Ultramar, and now the Big Stop, or go to the KFC for chicken, or Mary Browns, or the Burger King, or Subway, or all of the 3 Timmies for coffee, or Walmart, oe Needs, or receive a parcel from amazon, or attend the cash register post to pay a bill at many other downtown stores, it feels like you're suddenly in a foreign country ? " What has happened to all of the friendly locals that used to man these positions and was one of the main reasons we frequented these business establishments ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54418705157/

 

Chamber of Commerce Kentville, NS

448 Main St, Kentville NS B4N

annapolisvalleychamber.ca/-

Kody Bloise . Liberal Party

 

Can there be an identity crisis looming in the town of Kentville ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52094330358/in/album-7...

 

Canada's post-secondary industry predicts a storm ahead, as budget cuts shrink courses, staff,

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/post-secondary-cuts-1.7387175

 

U of T Toronto, Jun 27, 2023 - " She Sung it her Way "

Jully Black sings her own personalized, politicized, 'our home on native land' version of the Canadian National anthem in a performance at Toronto university graduation. Black was asked to perform her new way of singing Canada's national anthem to reflect the core values of their law program ? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jully-black-tmu-law-school...

 

March 18, 2025 - Professors, students say Nova Scotia university bill threatens academic freedoms,

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nova-scotia/article/professors-st...

 

March 4th, 2025 - Trump issues ban on 'illegal' college protests as he threatens students with arrest and deportation

www.lbc.co.uk/usa/politics/trump-issues-ban-on-illegal-co...

 

April 9, 2025 - Trump administration freezes $1 billion in funding for Cornell University, $790 million for Northwestern University ,,

www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/us/cornell-northwestern-federal-fu...

 

Jan 20,2026 - Trump hates wind turbines ? ‘so pathetic and so bad’ .. And so does Hall's Harbour ,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wkHCSbSwkw

 

5th Mar 5th, 2025 - U.S. funding freeze affecting both American and international exchange students and major US scholarship funders

monitor.icef.com/2025/03/us-funding-freeze-affecting-both...

 

Trump protecting historic statues - enacts 10 years in jail penalty for harming or defacing historical statues,,

www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-signs-executive-order-enactin...

 

February 10, 2025 - Acadia University in Wolfville announces permanent pool closure, discontinues varsity swim team - will close its swimming pool on June 15, 2025,

Students chose Acadia because of the swim team and many parents got calls “from their kids – in tears – devastated.”

Acadia Aquatics,

recreation.acadiau.ca/aquatics.html

 

How not to park at Hennigers farm Market Greenwich,

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54788130883

 

April 13, 2025 - Eight programs suspended at P.E.I. college over drop in international students,

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/prince-edward-island/article/pei-...

 

Sept 13th, 2025 - Acadia Axemen and Dal Tigers hockey teams ignore the Dal strikers picket line to play an Exhibition game at Dalhousie University ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54784598896/in/photost...

 

Town of Wolfville breaking the law, obstructing traffic, while creating a safety hazard ? And making trip to and from hockey games a real challenge ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54710009955/in/photost...

 

Sep 29, 2025 - Wolfville now studying ways to solve traffic congestion along Main Street ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/wolfville-nova-scotia-...

 

CBC launches Olympic games gambling ? In a groundbreaking move and for the first time ever, CBC has introduced and will include gambling in its coverage of the 2024 Olympic games ?

2024 Paris Olympics - It appears that CBC has partnered with one particular online Casino company and BetRivers is running sports betting ads during the televising of Olympic sporting events ? Is the inclusion of a casino and a Sports betting parlor that runs betting ads during Olympic events appropriate to the principles and high moral standard exemplified by the Olympic Games ?

 

Are University student loans being gambled away ?

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54775209530/in/photost...

 

Feb 4th 2025, Bell Let's Talk ? Abandoning your Unionized telephone workers, refusing to talk to them and leaving them out on the Street for 5 Months does not contribute to good mental health ? U Ottawa Scotty suggests that the internet, mobile phones and Social media are also taking a heavy toll on the mental health and overall mental well being of today's society ? And so maybe there's some hypocrisy shown by the giant media mogul Bell Canada who could be the biggest contributor and profit taker from this national crisis ? www.youtube.com/shorts/31f3sZndK6w

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51844732131/in/album-7...

 

This year Canadian Taxpayers will pay $1.5 billion dollars to subsidize the CBC ?

site-cbc.radio-canada.ca/documents/impact-and-accountabil...

 

June 28,2021, O Canada at Stanley Cup Finals ? CBC plays upsetting version of the Canadian National Anthem on the World stage ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51829474529/in/album-7...

 

January 11-22, 2023 - CBC doesn't seem to want to push or promote the men's hockey leagues like AHL, ECHL, or the University level ASU and U Sports hockey ? Canada has won both Golds at the recent 2023 international University Hockey FISU tournament. But Gold medal final games, in fact the whole tournament, were not telecast on CBC ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/52640201721/in/datepos...

 

July 5th, 2024 Jacob Shaffelburg (Pt Williams Nova Scotia) Men's soccer - Unfortunately, CBC doesn't seem to support or sponsor men's soccer and will not be broadcasting the Men's Copa soccer tournament ? However, you can still enjoy soccer on CBC as they will be giving support and full coverage to the Women's National team and to the new start-up Women's pro soccer league ? www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/cbc-radio-canada-broadcast-agree... ? -

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53839077022/in/photost...;

 

June 29th, 2024 - Bailey Feltmate (Acadia U, Wolfville N.S.) - CBC doesn't appear to support men's football anymore, and so most Canadians won't be able to watch graduating male university athletes like Bailey perform in the pros ? However, fans will be able to watch graduating university female athletes perform as CBC is providing cross Canada media support and live coverage of the new start-up Women's pro soccer league, the new Women's pro hockey league, and the upcoming Women's pro basketball league ? www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/53855066488/in/datepos...

 

Jun 11, 2024 - Acadia's Mya Harnish joins new Women's Pro soccer team, the Halifax Tides. CBC will provide full media support and full coverage for the brand new start-up Women's Pro soccer league. CBC will broadcast eight regular-season matches. A "Game of the Week" will co-stream simultaneously on CBC Gem and NSL.ca,

www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/cbc-radio-canada-broadcast-agree...

Thanks to CBC, fans will now be able to follow female Acadia University athletes like Mya Harnish, who has now turned Pro . www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/54482565652/in/photost...

  

Lost in Space________Episode # 1_______Death to Deniers !

 

Danger - Will Robinson, Danger ! Sensors detecting thought-police !

 

These fine ladies want prison sentences handed down to individuals who dare to be themselves and to think differently from them calling anyone with a different opinion from theirs to be a denier or a hater ?

No one can deny the existence of residential schools. And so why are an infinitesimal tiny minority like Leah Gazan (NDP), Lindsay Mathyssen (NDP), Nahanni Fontaine (NDP) and Kimberley Murray (Liberal Government investigator) so dissatisfied and why are they trying to force their own radical ego-driven personal viewpoint based on unproven allegations on everyone else ? Why do they want you to think the same way that they think, believe in the same way that they believe, and be forced by law into accepting their individual self-centred and self-serving narrative, (that they get paid to expound) as being Gods' truth, and if you dare resist them you are then to be called a hater and a denier and a criminal that could be sent to jail for up to life in prison under the law enshrined in their new Bill C-63 or C-9 ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZU7NEzs3Gk

 

Was it a hoax ? Residential schools. After three years of searching for bodies, at the cost to taxpayers of $216.5 million, not a single set of human remains have been found.

thecatholicherald.com/article/failure-to-find-bodies-ends...

 

What Is Truth ?

"If you are strictly one-sided with any opinion, you’re incredibly ignorant".

UBC Jan 22, 2026 - Many students that grew up attending the Canadian public school system during the Trudeau Liberal era ( 2015 thru 2025 ) are now reaching post secondary age and are arriving at University in a heavily indoctrinated state with coercive and one-sided my-opinion-only attitudes ? Violent gangs of masked and gagged orange shirted student protestors, tribalism, far left activism and propaganda posters hanging in an Authoritarian environment where free will, open debate or speaking the truth is has become a crime are now being seen in our Canadian institutes of higher learning ? This scenario may sound Orwellian, but it's actually the billion dollar public funded University of B.C. campus in Vancouver ?

Frances Widdowson, "Without truth and without freedom, our Universities will die." Frances visits UBC. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihsLPodE9R0

 

U of Vic claims 250 vs Frances and Dallas who say Zero ?

What Is Truth ?

Dec 3rd 2025, Frances and Dallas visit the University of Victoria B.C. and discover that U of Vic is conducting mass indoctrination of impressionable young minds ? Open free thinking and free speech are discouraged here ? Asking questions that might ruffle some feathers or challenge the status quo no longer wanted on this campus - By challenging the indoctrinated dogma taught at this publicly owned B.C. University can bring on abuse and the Police called in to cart you off to jail ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=u53G5WBpVmc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSRn8BzpvLc

 

Feb 24th, 2026 - "You're not welcome here !" Welcome to the University of Lethbridge where they ignore manners, disregard etiquette and the students use loud ancient tribal war cries and the continuous monotone of Indian tom-tom drumming to drown out the opposition during debate ? Once you take UofL's Indoctrination 101 course, 2 plus 2 may no longer equal 4 ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Moi7VM7xI

 

Mar 23,2026 - " my spider sense is tingling "

Is Mt. Royal College in Calgary making the kids Crazy ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQNM063-lY

 

UBC Jan 22,2026 - Counter viewpoint reporters attacked and must run for their lives ?

 

UBC zombie apocalypse, Jan 22,2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfIpTnyH_Zg

 

"What are they doing to our kids" ?

Many Parents contribute for years into Registered Education Savings Plans that are turned over to the Universities on behalf of their Children,

www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/education/education-sa...

  

March 12, 2026 - They're Selling out Vancouver ? NDP Provincial Government insults all Canadian veterans who fought to secure this Nation ? Spencer Herbert and his NDP party appears to have self-appointed themselves to give away Canada without permission ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVTzJWE86go

 

March 12, 2026 - What Spencer Herbert is doing to his Province and his Country is illegal in other Canadian Provinces ? www.fasken.com/en/knowledge/2026/01/new-brunswick-court-o...

 

March 12, 2026 - Secret liberal backroom land transfer deals snuck in while the Eby provincial NDP government pretends to look the other way ? Indians may now own rights to Vancouver ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT2DqPzulos

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/musqueam-rights-r...

 

March 09, 2026, Canada’s Bill C-3 ("An Act to amend the Citizenship Act") - New Liberal legislation allowing Canadian citizenship to be passed down over multiple generations from as far back as caveman days, means many millions all over the world are now eligible to be Canadian. www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7120945

March 14, 2026 - Italy Restricts citizenship for those born abroad. Italy has enacted ruling that tells millions with Italian roots that they have lost the right to citizenship -

www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/italy-ruling-tells-millions-...

 

March 12, 2026 - Acadia University reducing staff levels amid ‘financial pressures’ ? 31 positions were eliminated.

www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nova-scotia/article/acadia-univer...

 

Mar 4th, 2026 - Canada grants $100 million in scholarships for India students ? This comes on the heels of PM Carney's trip to India.

www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx1VHElLBjsSwpz5-CK3P4SsNdrZmGdelS

 

feb 25, 2026 - Drastic University cuts are implemented in latest Provincial budget. Tim Houston's PC government is reducing funding for all Universities in Nova Scotia incl the PhD programs in education at Acadia,

www.halifaxexaminer.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Grant-R...

 

February 26, 2026 - Vulnerable hard hit Nova Scotia university students who struggle daily with the high cost of living in Nova Scotia prepare for a week-long strike to protest the provincial education cut, the cuts to advanced education grants, and they are demanding tuition reductions and divestment from fossil fuel dollars,

globalnews.ca/video/11708934/n-s-university-students-prep...

 

March 15, 2026 - Dalhousie University students vote to join the Nova Scotia student strike, www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nova-scotia/article/dalhousie-uni...

 

March 13, 2026 - Nova Scotia First Nation asserts Indian control over cannabis-related activities on their traditional lands, tells government and RCMP to stay out of cannabis and tobacco sales ? www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/nova-scotia/article/ns-first-nati...

 

Closed museums, torn down statues, are all erasing a peoples' proud history ? March 04, 2026 - Halifax Nova Scotia - P. C. Provincial Government minimizes the importance of preserving the Provinces history and dismisses those who strive to preserve, protect, honor and record it ? Artists, cultural and heritage workers, arts organizers, and their allies rally in Halifax over the latest Tim Houston PC worst in history 130 M cuts to the essential funding needed for arts, culture, tourism, and heritage sector programs ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjKntnV55c

www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/55129846907/in/dateposted

 

Mar 10, 2026 - Following a loud public outcry, the Premier agrees to restore some of the funding cuts made. The disabled, some seniors, some first nation Indigenous, and ( although we just finished celebrating Black History for a Month ) the African Nova Scotians will be granted reprieves and their funding will be RESTORED, however, the arts, culture and heritage communities will NOT be getting their CUTS IN FUNDING back ?

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tim-houston-budget-cut...

   

Action from the Forest Rally Stage at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

When becoming these frames on the web, you get a likelihood to secure a item to match the type or even the vogue assertion which you want. Apart in the plastic or the steel frames, this eye use also includes out frames or acknowledged as rimless. There are various kinds of methods and hues to decide on from. This facility offers you the probability to examine these frames on the web and then make your range as for every your prerequisite.Polo Ralph Lauren sunglasses arrive in 1 or a great deal more groups. one can choose as for polos-outlet each the persona. One can find gigantic frames in addition to smaller frames. These give an exceptionally effective model declaration. Ordering Polo Ralph Lauren frames and Polo Ralph Lauren eye put on facilitates cause you to standout amidst a crowd!Ralph Lauren polo outlet is not one of the best learn to find low cost clothes. I loathe to become the bearer of undesirable facts, but your days of hopping within the automotive and driving to some polo outlet are concluded. Why would you squander the time of piling into your motor vehicle and investing an insane sum of funds, just to go and strike the outlet hold.

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This is a photograph from the Forest Marathon festival 2013 which was held in the beautiful Coillte forest of Portumna in Co. Galway, Ireland on Saturday 15th June 2013. The event includes a 10k, a full marathon, a half marathon and two ultra-running events - a 50k and 100k race. The races started at 08:00 with the 100KM, the 50KM at 10:00, and subsequent races at two hour intervals onwards. All events started and finished within the forest with the exception of the half marathon and marathon which started outside of the forest. All events see participants complete 5KM loops of the forest which start and end at the car-park/amenity end of the forest. There is an official Refreshment/Handling Zones at this point on the loop.

 

The event was organised by international coach Sebastien Locteau from SportsIreland.ie and his fantastic team of volunteers from Galway and beyond. Congratulations to Seb on organising a very professionally run event and an event which is growing bigger and more prestigious with each passing year. There was an incredible atmosphere amongst the runners, the spectators, and the organisers. Hats off to everyone involved.

 

The marathon, 50KM, and 100KM events are sanctioned by Athletics Ireland and AIMS (the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races). The event has also achieved IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) Bronze Label status for 2013.

 

Electronic timing was provided by RedTagTiming: www.redtagtiming.com/

Energy Bars, Gels, Drinks etc were provided by Fuel4Sport: www.fuel4sport.ie/

 

This is a set of photographs taken at various points on the 5KM loop in the Forest and contains photographs of competitors from all of the events except the 10KM race.

 

Viewing this on a smartphone device?

If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".

 

Overall Race Summary

Participants: Approximately 600 people took part across all of the events which were staged: 10km, half marathon, marathon, 50km, and 100KM.

Weather: The weather was unfortunately not what a summer's day in June should be like - there was rain, some breeze, but mild temperatures.

Course: This is a fast flat course depending on your event. The course is left handed around the Forest and roughly looks like a figure of 8 in terms of routing.

Location Map: Start/finish area on Google StreetView [goo.gl/maps/WWTgD] are inside the parklands and trails

Refreshments: There are no specific refreshments but the race organizers provide very adequate supplies for all participants.

 

Some Useful Links

Official Race Event Website: www.forestmarathon.com/

The Boards.ie Athletics Forum Thread for the 2013 Event: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056874371

A GPS Garmin Trace of the Course Profile (from the 50KM event) connect.garmin.com/activity/189495781

Our Flickr Photographs from the 2012 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630146344494/

Our Flickr Photographs from the 2011 Events: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157626865466587/

Title Sponsors Sports Ireland Website: sites.google.com/a/sportsireland.ie/welcome-sports-irelan...

A VIDEO of the Course: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2FLxE...

Google StreetView of the Entrance to Portuma Forest: goo.gl/maps/MX62O

Wikipedia: Read about Portumna and Portumna Forest Park: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portumna#Portumna_Forest_Park

Coilte Ourdoors Website: www.coillteoutdoors.ie/?id=53&rec_site=115

Portumna Forest on EveryTrails: www.everytrail.com/guide/portumna-forest-park-woodland-tr...

More about the IAU Bronze Label: www.iau-ultramarathon.org/index.asp?menucode=h07&tmp=...

 

How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?

 

All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available offline, free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.

 

If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

  

Neanderthals are our closest extinct human relative. Some defining features of their skulls include the large middle part of the face, angled cheek bones, and a huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air. Their bodies were shorter and stockier than ours, another adaptation to living in cold environments. But their brains were just as large as ours and often larger - proportional to their brawnier bodies.

 

Neanderthals made and used a diverse set of sophisticated tools, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing, were skilled hunters of large animals and also ate plant foods, and occasionally made symbolic or ornamental objects. There is evidence that Neanderthals deliberately buried their dead and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings, such as flowers. No other primates, and no earlier human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.

 

SOURCE: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Human Origins Program

Includes visa stamps from China, Malaya, Colombia, and Pakistan.

Now includes bearings replimat.com

Hymenoptera include wasps, bees and ants. All have thin waists between their abdomen and thorax. Some hymenoptera are social creatures but not so for the thread- waisted wasp. The thread-waisted wasp are solitary. The adults feed on small insects and nectar. They dig burrows for their eggs. They paralyzed sawfly larvae and caterpillars and stuff them into their burrows as food for their offspring. They are sphecid wasps of the family sphecidae and order hymenoptera.

Sawfly: flickr.com/photos/24135011@N08/2825648819/

My Blog 37photomoto.blogspot.com

I had to include these chick-a-dees in the making of my 365 this week... too fun! They had a great time goofing around with me.

 

We found this awesome net abandoned behind the building our conference was held in. The bus drivers were totally staring at us, hahahhaha, too funny. One even came over and asked for directions to a restaurant, but then of course, no one ever left to go to this restaurant....

 

This was so awesome, we had to give each other boosts and then somersault into the net. I felt like a circus performer. : )

 

Just was trying to decide on what color scheme to go with and ended up leaving all three different...

 

We go HOME TOMORROW!!!!!! I can't wait to see my honey-bunches!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo

  

A glass of water on my desk at home. I chose to work from home today, laid low by a bug. I wasn't very productive though.

USPS's AMERICAN COMIC CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED STAMP BOOK

 

American Comic Classics Book (Item No. 8923) United States Postal Service

  

Includes a book envelope and a page to affix your Comic Strip Classics 32 cents stamps (stamps not included).

 

The softbound book of 87 pages of beautiful color complements the colorful Classic Collection series of US Postal Service commemorative stamps, featuring 20 of the most beloved characters in comics' first 50 years (including Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, the Katzenjammer Kids, Blondie, Flash Gordon, Little Orphan Annie and Prince Valiant).

   

Special foreword by Johnny Hart, creator of BC and The Wizard of Id

  

Book Description

Publication Date: 1995

U.S. Postal Service, U.S.A., 1995. Softcover, with protective outer case.

Book Condition: Brand new, never used.

Outer Case book envelope Condition: slight wear, good condition with some bumps and wear along corners.

 

Illustrated (illustrator). Oblong Quarto. No stamps included. Book is in mint condition; Outer Case has slight wear, good condition with some bumps and wear along corners).

  

Includes Sheer and Shiny Strapless Top (lola appliers), Black Latex Laced sides mesh pants (7 sizes), black thong

and a pair of Black studded stilettos,

Includes details of objects on exhibition at Burns' House, Dumfries, and various illustrations.

 

Digital Number: BHBN097n

 

(Copyright) We're happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of the Attribution licence. Please cite ‘Dumfries & Galloway Museums’ when reusing. Certain restrictions on high quality reproductions and commercial use of the original physical version apply though; if you're unsure please email dumfries.museum@dumgal.gov.uk

The Spirit of Aviation at the Goodwood Revival