‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by John Conkle

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

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Saturday, February 11, 2012.Recap: No. 15 C'Town 87, No. 19 WC 69.By Brendan Hall..CHARLESTOWN, Mass. -- At this time last year, Charlestown made the trek West, down Route 146, to deliver a haymaker to a Whitinsville Christian squad considered the state's tallest lineup. ..This afternoon, the Crusaders came East to Bunker Hill, with a different look for the Townies -- smaller, quicker, more surgical -- and the result was very nearly a different outcome. The Crusaders hung with Charlestown through three quarters, before the Townies pulled away in the fourth, outscoring Whitinsville 31-14 in the final frame en route to an 87-69 victory. .."That team's very good, I thought that was the best shooting team we saw," Charlestown head coach Edson Cardoso said. "They're very well balanced, with a real good point guard, big man, two-guard, so I knew coming into this game it was going to be a battle. I told the guys, 'You're going to see a team like this in the state tournament, eventually down the line." ..The Townies (14-3), played just seven due to health (Jawhari Dawan-Abdullah, stomach bug) and off the court issues (Gary Braham, suspension). But they saw all five of their regular starters reach double-figures, with senior point guard Rony Fernandez (26 points, four assists) leading the way. Senior forward Tyrik Jackson (12 points, 13 rebounds) came up big on the glass again, while Tyrese Hoxter (16 points, seven assists), Omar Orriols (13 points) and Iser Barnes (12) contributed some big shots from the perimeter to keep the defense stretched out. ..But early on, the Crusaders (12-2) gave them fits with the methodical way they broke through the Townie's 2-3 zone with some of the most disciplined and precise ball movement they'd seen in a while. Junior point guard Colin Richey (23 points) funneled the offense down to the baseline, finding a player planted right in the heart of the zone and kicking to either the baseline or either wing. ..Whitinsville shot nearly 40 percent from the field, getting good looks from the short side from Tyler VandenAkker (12 points, eight rebounds) and Jesse Dykstra. Grant Brown (10 points) came up with some big shots from the perimeter as well. .."We decided to extend a little bit more on the short corner, because they hit about four shots in a row from the short corner," Cardoso said. "We also decided to have the opposite guard extend even more on shooter No. 2 (Tim Dufficey). So we made some extensions in the second half, did a little better job -- not a great job, but it helped us get the victory." ..To start the fourth quarter, Barnes completed a 6-0 run by ripping the ball out of his defender's hands at midcourt and landing a breakaway layup. A few possessions later, Hoxter found Jackson underneath the rim for an easy tip-in and 68-59 advantage. ..Then with 1:37 to go, sophomore Taris Wilson hit the first of two monster breakaway slams, this one making it 76-63 to essentially put the game in hand. ..Hot from the field: The Townies outrebounded the Crusaders 16-7 in the final frame, giving way to many key transition points that helped ice the lead and the win. From the glass, WC still held a slim 35-33 advantage. ..But down at the other end, the Townies had a terrific night from the field, shooting nearly 58 percent overall. That was aided by a 7-for-17 effort from three-point range, including three 3's each from Fernandez and Orriols. ..Praise for Richey: Last season, New Mission head coach Cory McCarthy was throwing around high praise for the then-sophomore Richey, calling him "a suburban kid that plays urban". ..Consider Cardoso another Boston City League coach that's a fan. .."He's tough," Cardoso said. "He's one of the toughest guards coming out of his league, and I think he's going give a lot of teams problems in the state tournament, because how do you stop a kid like that?" ..Turning point? Following last season's loss to Charlestown in its home gym, WC coach Jeff Bajema greeted his players in the locker room and told them, "Guys, we can win states." ..Sure enough, the Crusaders never lost another game the rest of the way, picking up their first Division 3 state title since 2005 at the DCU Center in Worcester. After that game, Bajema spoke to reporters about how much the whitewashing by Charlestown seasoned them for what to expect in the state tournament. ..Given how much more competitive the Crusaders were this time around, could this be seen as another momentum shift? .."Hopefully, a game like this will lead us to better things," Bajema said. "But we've got a tough one Tuesday (against Holy Name), so we'll see."

Shot at ISO 1600, Aperture of 3.2, Shutter speed of 1/400 and Focal Length of 28.0 mm

Taken with a 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM lens and processed by Aperture 3.2.2 on Saturday February-11-2012 16:23 EST PM

Marienhof

Object ID: 32935 Main Street 46

Three winged with Baroque building with figure of Mary Immaculate from the first half of the 18th century.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_denkmalgesch%C3%BCtzten_O...

(further information you can get by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

History

Plaque to the founder of the Hyrtl'schen orphanage Joseph Hyrtl and Joseph Schöffel

© IMAREAL / E. Vavra

The Biedermeier-influenced city on the edge of the Vienna Woods is the capital of the district Mödling in the south of Vienna. The town has experienced in its 1100-year history since the first mention very different phases: in the Middle Ages briefly Babenberg residence, for centuries an economically potent wine market, from the 19th Century summer resort and industrial center, since 1875 town, in the 20th Century for almost two decades XXIVth district of Vienna, since 1954 again an independent municipality of Lower Austria and as a school and garden city popular residential area in the vicinity of Vienna.

Mödling has partnerships with cities in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, Bulgaria and Italy.

The historical tradition of Mödling goes back far beyond the first written mention, how settlement finds from the Neolithic Age, Hallstatt period (eg calendar mountain) and Roman times as well as the great Avar burial ground "at the Golden Staircase" from the 7/8th Century BCE prove. In the year 903 Mödling is first mentioned (Medilihha). The later settlement was probably made in the 11th Century beneath an early castle building on the church mountain (Kirchenberg), where later a Romanesque predecessor of Othmar church was built.

In the late 12th century Mödling was for a few decades the residence of a Babenberg branch line. Henry the Elder, a brother of Duke Leopold V., had since the 1170 century belongings in and around Mödling. He and his son Henry the Younger, calling himself "Duke of Mödling", resided on the castle probably built around 1150 in the Klausen, among whose most famous visitors was Walther von der Vogelweide. With the death of Henry the Younger in 1236 extinguished the Mödlinger line of the Babenberg and the reign became princely domain. The time of the Babenberg commemorates the in late 12th Century built Romanesque ossuary at Othmar church - a circular building with an apse - as well as the denomination "Babenberg".

In the late Middle Ages, Medlich developed into a major wine market (1343 mention of market town) which in the 15th Century as one of the four princely spell markets was also represented in the Parliament - in addition to Gumpoldskirchen, Langenlois and Perchtoldsdorf. For centuries shaped the wine-growing the economy and social structure. The Mödlinger wine was good and helped the market particularly in the 15th and 16th Century to its prosperity. The settlement reached at the end of the Middle Ages that extent, which until the 19th Century should remain essentially unchanged. The center formed ​​the area around the Schrannenplatz with a dense stand of late medieval and early modern town houses that bear evidence of the wealth and self-confidence of the citizens of the market town. From the late medieval Schrannen building, the official residence of the market judge, was created in 1548 the representative Renaissance town hall with loggia.

The elevated lying Othmar church became in the 15th Century by transferring the rights of the church of St. Martin parish church of Mödling. The massive late Gothic church was built in a nearly 70-year construction period from 1454 to 1523 on the walls of six predecessors and able to resist fortified. As Mödling was destroyed in 1529 by the Ottomans, the just completed church lost its roof and remained for over a century till the restoration in 1660/70 a ruin. On the Merian engraving from 1649 the uncovered Othmar church on the left side is clearly visible. As a temporary parish church served the about 1450 built late-Gothic hospital church.

The internal conditions at this time were mainly marked of the clashes of the market with the princely rule Burg Mödling - since 1558 combined with the rule of Liechtenstein - which reached its climax in 1600 under the energetic administrator Georg Wiesing (1593-1611). During the Reformation, the market largely became Protestant. In the course of recatholicization a Capuchin monastery was founded in 1631, which served as a factory after the repeal under Joseph II and was then bought by the Thonet family (so-called Thonet Schlössel, today Bezirksmuseum).

In Türkenjahr 1683 (besiegement of the Turks) took place in the Othmar church a horrific bloodbath, in which hundreds of people who had sought refuge there were killed. The church was destroyed again, but this time built up rapidly with the market judge Wolfgang Ignaz Viechtl in a few years.

End of the 18th Century occurred in Mödling the settlement of industrial enterprises, especially textile mills that took advantage of the cheaper production possibilities and also its proximity to Vienna. Was decisively shaped the character of the place but by the rise to a summer resort, initiated by Prince Johann I of Liechtenstein beginning of the 19th Century, which acquired in 1807 the rule of Liechtenstein-Mödling with the former family ancestral home. He had the area under enormous cost reforested (Schirmföhren/pinus mugo, acacia, etc.) and transformed to a public park in Romantic style with promenade paths, steep paths and artificial constructions (Black tower, amphitheater, Husarentempel). The ruined castles Mödling and Liechtenstein were restored. The former Liechtenstein'sche landscape park is considered a remarkable example of the garden culture in 1800 and is now a popular tourist destination (1974 Natural Preserve Föhrenberge).

Since the Biedermeier Mödling in the summer was an extremely popular artist hangout. Among the most famous artists of the 19th Century who were inspired by the romantic nature here, were Franz Schubert, Franz Grillparzer, Ferdinand Waldmüller, Ferdinand Raimund and Ludwig van Beethoven, who here worked on one of his major works, the "Missa Solemnis". In the 20th Century settled inter alia Arnold Schönberg, Anton von Webern, Anton Wildgans, Franz Theodor Csokor and Albert Drach temporarily or permanently down. To Beethoven, Schönberg and Wildgans memorials have been established (Beethoven House, Schönberg House, Wildgans archive).

In the second half of the 19th Century Mödling became administrative center (District Court, District administration) and an industrial site and educational location with high schools and colleges (eg educational establishment Francisco-Josephinum). The good traffic situation at the southern railway, the progressive industrialization and the expansion of health facilities (park, Kursalon) led to a rapid expansion of the hitherto for centuries unchanged market. Under mayor Joseph Schöffel (1873-1882), who became famous because of his successful engagement against the deforestation of the Vienna Woods as the "savior of the Vienna Woods", followed the methodical installation of the so-called Schoeffel(before) city - Schöffelvorstadt (New Mödling) east of the Southern Railway and the establishment of workers' settlements. Later followed the exclusive residential areas of the turn of the century with their representative residential buildings. Probably the most important building of the late 19th Century is the Hyrtl'sche orphanage (1886-1889), founded by the Viennese anatomist, Joseph Hyrtl and Joseph Schöffel. The Orphanage church St. Joseph was built on the in 1787 demolished Martin Church.

On 18th November 1875 the emerging market town was raised to the status of a city, two years later the incorporation of Klausen and Vorderbrühl took place. Through the establishment of Great-Vienna under the Nazi regime on 15th October 1938 the young city for 16 years lost its municipal autonomy; 1954 it became again a part of Lower Austria.

Symbol for the characteristic environment of Mödling was the "width pine" on the Anninger whose age goes back to the 16th Century (around 1550). It was a well-known natural landmark and has become the symbol of the city. 1988 died the tree and it had to be removed in 1997 for safety reasons. The remains are now in the Lower Austrian Provincial Museum.

geschichte.landesmuseum.net/index.asp?contenturl=http://g...

David IV also known as David the Builder, from the House of Bagrationi, was King of Georgia from 1089 to 1125.

Popularly considered as the greatest Georgian king and the most successful Georgian ruler, he succeeded in driving the Seljuk Turks out of the country winning the major Battle of Didgori in 1121. His reforms of the army and administration enabled him to reunite the country and bring most Caucasian lands under Georgia’s control. A friend of the church and a notable promoter of Christian culture, he was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Early life

The only son of King George II (1072–1089) by his wife Helena, he was born in Kutaisi, western Georgia in 1073. David was raised during one of the darkest chapters of Georgian history, amidst the strife of the so-called Great Turkish Onslaught (didi turkoba) when the Seljuk tribes began massive migrations to the southern Caucasus. King Giorgi II was unable to cope with the problem, and in a bloodless coup in 1089, he was forced to resign in favor of his 16-years-old son.

David's revival of the Georgian State

later depiction of King David by an unknown artistDespite his age, he was actively involved in Georgia’s political life. David IV pursued a purposeful policy, taking no unconsidered step. He was determined to bring order to the land, bridle the unsubmissive secular and ecclesiastic feudal lords, centralize the state administration, form a new type of army that would stand up better to the Seljuk Turkish military organization, and then go over to a methodical offensive with the aim of expelling the Seljuks first from Georgia and then from the whole Caucasus. Between 1089–1100, King David organized small detachments of his loyal troops to restore order and destroy isolated enemy troops. He began the resettlement of devastated regions and helped to revive major cities. Encouraged by his success, but more importantly the beginning of the Crusades in Palestine, he ceased payment of the annual contribution to the Seljuks and put an end to their seasonal migration to Georgia. In 1101, King David captured the fortress of Zedazeni, a strategic point in his struggle for Kakheti and Hereti, and within the next three years he liberated most of eastern Georgia.

In 1093, he arrested the powerful feudal lord Liparit Baghvashi, a long-time enemy of the Georgian crown, and expelled him from Georgia (1094). After the death of Liparit’s son Rati, David abolished their duchy of Kldekari in 1103.

He slowly pushed the Seljuk Turks out of the country, recovering more and more land from them as they were now forced to focus not only on the Georgians but the newly begun Crusades in the eastern Mediterranean [3]. By 1099 David IV's power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to the Turks. By that time, he also rejected a Byzantine title of panhypersebastos [4] thus indicating that Georgia would deal with the Byzantine Empire only on a parity basis.

In 1103 a major ecclesiastical congress known as the Ruis-Urbnisi Synod was held at the monasteries of Ruisi and Urbnisi. David succeeded in removing oppositionist bishops, and combined two offices: courtier’s (Mtzignobartukhutsesi, i.e. Chief Secretary) and clerical (Bishop of Tchqondidi) into a single institution of Tchqondidel-Mtzignobartukhutsesi corresponding roughly to the post of prime minister.

Next year, David’s supporters in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti captured the local king Aghsartan II (1102–1104), a loyal tributary of the Seljuk Sultan, and reunited the area with the rest Georgia.

Military campaigns

Kingdom of Georgia under David IV. Copyright©2004 Andrew AndersenFollowing the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, David routed a Seljuk punitive force at the Battle of Ertzukhi, leading to momentum that helped him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lorri between 1110 and 1118.

Problems began to crop up for David now. His population, having been at war for the better part of twenty years, needed to be allowed to become productive again. Also, his nobles were still making problems for him, along with the city of Tbilisi which still could not be liberated from Arab grasp. Again David was forced to solve these problems before he could continue the reclamation of his nation and people. For this purpose, David IV radically reformed his military. He resettled a Kipchak tribe of 40,000 families from the Northern Caucasus in Georgia in 1118–1120. Every family was obliged to provide one soldier with a horse and weapons. This 40,000 strong Kipchak-army was entirely dependent on the King. Kipchaks were settled in different regions of Georgia. Some were settled in Inner Kartli province, others were given lands along the border. They were quickly assimilated into Georgians.

In 1120 David IV moved to western Georgia and, when the Turks began pillaging Georgian lands, he suddenly attacked them. Only an insignificant Seljuk force escaped. King David then entered the neighbouring Shirvan and took the town of Qabala.

In the winter of 1120–1121 the Georgian troops successfully attacked the Seljuk settlements on the eastern and southwestern approaches to the Transcaucasus.

Muslim powers became increasingly concerned about the rapid rise of a Christian state in southern Caucasia. In 1121, Sultan Mahmud b. Muhammad (1118–1131) declared a holy war on Georgia and rallied a large coalition of Muslim states led by the Artuqid Najm al-din El-ğazi and Toğrul b. Muhammad. The size of the Muslim army is still a matter of debate with numbers ranging from fantastic 600,000 men (Walter the Chancellor’s Bella Antiochena, Matthew of Edessa) to 400,000 (Smbat Sparapet’s Chronicle) to modern Georgian estimates of 180,000–250,000 men. Although all these numbers are exaggerated, all sources agree that the Muslim powers gathered an army that was much larger than the Georgian force of 56,000 men. However, August 12, 1121, King David routed the enemy army on the fields of Didgori, achieving what is often considered the greatest military success in Georgian history. The victory at Didgori signaled the emergence of Georgia as a great military power and shifted the regional balance in favor of Georgian cultural and political supremacy.

Following his success, King David captured Tbilisi, the last Muslim enclave remaining from the Arab occupation, in 1122 and moved the Georgian capital there. A well-educated man, he preached tolerance and acceptance of other religions, abrogated taxes and services for the Muslims and Jews, and protected the Sufis and Muslim scholars. In 1123, David’s army liberated Dmanisi, the last Seljuk stronghold in southern Georgia. In 1124, David finally conquered Shirvan and took the Armenian city of Ani from the Muslim Emirs, thus expanding the borders of his kingdom to the Araxes basin. Armenians met him as a liberator providing some auxiliary force for his army. It was when the important component of "Sword of the Messiah" appeared in the title of David the Builder. It is engraved on a copper coin of David's day:

“ King of Kings, David, son of George, Sword of the Messiah. ”

Humane treatment of the Muslim population, as well as the representatives of other religions and cultures, set a standard for tolerance in his multiethnic kingdom. It was a hallmark not only for his enlightened reign, but for all of Georgian history and culture.

David the Builder died on January 24, 1125, and upon his death, King David was, as he had ordered, buried under the stone inside the main gatehouse of the Gelati Monastery so that anyone coming to his beloved Gelati Academy stepped on his tomb first, a humble gesture for a great man. He had three children, the son Demetre, who succeeded him and continued his father's victorious reign; and two daughters, Tamar, who was married to the Shirwan Shah Akhsitan (Aghsartan in Georgian), and Kata (Katai), married to Isaakios Comnenus, the son of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus. Beside his political and military skills, King David earned fame as a writer, composing Galobani sinanulisani (Hymns of Repentance, c. 1120), a powerful work of emotional free-verse psalms, which reveal the king’s humility and religious zeal.

Cultural life

King David the Builder gave close attention to the education of his people. The king selected children who were sent to the Byzantine Empire "so that they be taught languages and bring home translations made by them there". Many of them later became well-known scholars.

At the time of David the Builder there were quite a few schools and academies in Georgia, among which Gelati occupies a special place. King David's historian calls Gelati Academy

“ a second Jerusalem of all the East for learning of all that is of value, for the teaching of knowledge - a second Athens, far exceeding the first in divine law, a canon for all ecclesiastical splendors. ”

Besides Gelati there also were other cultural-enlightenment and scholarly centers in Georgia at that time, i.e. the Academy of Ikalto.

King David was an author of a religious poem “Galobani Sinanulisani” (Psalms of Regret).

Family

Marriages

Rusudan, an Armenian princess (divorced in 1107)

Gurandukht, daughter of the Kipchak chief Atraka (ca. 1107)

Children

Demetre I

Prince Vakhtang (Tsuata)

Prince George (From Rusudan)

Princess Tamar, who married Abul Muzaffar Manuchahr II, Shirvanshah (d. ca 1154), and became a nun in widowhood.

Princess Katay (Irene), who married the Byzantine prince Isaakios Comnenus Sebastocrator.

Princess Tamar who was married to Prince Jadaros of Ossetia

Title

H.M. The Most High King David, son of George, by the will of our Lord, King of Kings of the Abkhazians, Kartvelians, Ranians, Kakhetians and the Armenians, Shirvanshah and Shahanshah of all the East and West, Sword of Messiah.

Legacy

David the Builder’s epoch greatly influenced the national perception of the Georgians. They are still proud of David’s victories and dream of his glorious reign.

The nation’s current flag is based on David’s standard. The Order of David the Builder is one of the most prestigious decorations awarded by Georgia.

After being elected President of Georgia, Georgia’s current leader Mikheil Saakashvili took an oath at David the Builder’s tomb at Gelati Monastery on the day of his inauguration on January 25, 2004. Mikheil Saakashvili said it was a symbol of his dedication to follow in David's footsteps, who brought unity and prosperity to Georgia. Many across the impoverished country hope that Saakashvili will manage to do the same.

"François Gabart, 29, is seen as one of the most gifted yachtsmen of his generation. He is a friendly and methodical skipper with a rigorous and scientific approach to his job, which does not prevent him from enjoying offshore racing with an enthusiastic freshness."

IN: www.vendeeglobe.org/en/skipper/31/francois-gabart.html

Capitainerie, Les Sables d'Olonne, Vendée, France, 01/2013

During the process of making an orb web, the spider will use its own body for measurements.

Many webs span gaps between objects which the spider could not cross by crawling. This is done by first producing a fine adhesive thread to drift on a faint breeze across a gap. When it sticks to a surface at the far end, the spider feels the change in the vibration. The spider reels in and tightens the first strand, then carefully walks along it and strengthens it with a second thread. This process is repeated until the thread is strong enough to support the rest of the web.

After strengthening the first thread, the spider continues to make a Y-shaped netting. The first three radials of the web are now constructed. More radials are added, making sure that the distance between each radial and the next is small enough to cross. This means that the number of radials in a web directly depends on the size of the spider plus the size of the web. It is common for a web to be about 20 times the size of the spider building it.

After the radials are complete, the spider fortifies the center of the web with about five circular threads. It makes a spiral of non-sticky, widely spaced threads to enable it to move easily around its own web during construction, working from the inside, outward. Then, beginning from the outside and moving inward, the spider methodically replaces this spiral with a more closely spaced one made of adhesive threads. It uses the initial radiating lines as well as the non-sticky spirals as guide lines. The spaces between each spiral and the next are directly proportional to the distance from the tip of its back legs to its spinners. This is one way the spider uses its own body as a measuring/spacing device. While the sticky spirals are formed, the non-adhesive spirals are removed as there is no need for them any more.

After the spider has completed its web, it chews off the initial three center spiral threads then sits and waits. If the web is broken without any structural damage during the construction, the spider does not make any initial attempts to rectify the problem.

The spider, after spinning its web, then waits on or near the web for a prey animal to become trapped. The spider senses the impact and struggle of a prey animal by vibrations transmitted through the web. A spider positioned in the middle of the web makes for a highly visible prey for birds and other predators, even without web decorations; many day-hunting orb-web spinners reduce this risk by hiding at the edge of the web with one foot on a signal line from the hub or by appearing to be inedible or unappetizing.

Spiders do not usually adhere to their own webs, because they are able to spin both sticky and non-sticky types of silk, and are careful to travel across only non-sticky portions of the web. However, they are not immune to their own glue. Some of the strands of the web are sticky, and others are not. For example, if a spider has chosen to wait along the outer edges of its web, it may spin a non-sticky prey or signal line to the web hub to monitor web movement.

CANOGA PARK- The Los Angeles Fire Department battled a Major Emergency Structure Fire in the west San Fernando Valley on Monday, October 18, 2021.

The fire at 8423 Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park, was first noted at 12:18 PM by an LAFD Paramedic Ambulance crew returning from a nearby emergency. Within moments of their reporting the fire, flames were through the roof of the 125' x 125' one-story industrial building that also housed an adjoining but unrelated business at 8425 Canoga Avenue.

As that first-arriving LAFD Paramedic crew circled the structure to gain situational awareness and guide fellow responders, they encountered the first of three adult male civilians with severe burn injuries outside the burning building. Two proved to be in critical condition and the other in serious condition. All three were taken to area hospitals. Sadly, one of the critically injured men died later while undergoing hospital care.

The rapid spread of intense flames and multiple explosions heard within the building guided first-arriving firefighters to quickly commence defensive operations, applying multiple large diameter hose streams from the exterior, including two from atop extended aerial ladders, to prevent flames from extending beyond the well involved structure.

With the exception of a forty square-foot section of the roof at 8427 Canoga Avenue destroyed by surface fire, the tactics proved successful in holding the blaze to the pair of unrelated businesses under one roof at 8423 and 8425 Canoga Avenue.

It took 150 Los Angeles Firefighter just 75 minutes to extinguish the flames.

Firefighters remained active through the night extinguishing hotspots and minimizing hazards at the structurally compromised building with the help of LAFD's robotic firefighting vehicle and heavy equipment.

At daylight Tuesday, LAFD crews resumed a systematic search within the largely destroyed premises. During their methodical search among tons of burnt debris inside the structure, firefighters discovered the remains of an adult male, bringing the overall patient count to four, with a total of two deceased and two remaining hospitalized.

No other injuries were reported.

Scientific testing of materials inside the building of fire origin yielded positive results for hemp, and it appears that the operation inside involved the extraction from hemp, not dissimilar to that used in the Butane Honey Oil extraction process.

Though the business was a legal enterprise, the operation inside appeared to be illegal, as it did not adhere to established permitting processes and safety requirements.

Pursuant to protocol, the fire's cause remains the focus of a joint active investigation by the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force (L.A. Impact).

A positive identification of the dead men, as well as the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by Mike Meadows

LAFD Incident 101821-0791

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

With its telltale “Z” stripe showing, the aft center section of the Ares I-X first stage booster is hoisted into place. Using a 325-ton capacity crane, the aft center is being lifted so it can be joined to the aft section already in place on mobile launch platform 1.

Last week the aft section was placed on MLP 1 and locked down by four huge bolts – each of which has 750,000 pounds of tension in them when torqued down. The 100 foot horizontal and 90 foot vertical journey from the center transfer aisle of the VAB into VAB high bay 3 takes many hours due to the methodical nature of handling and moving solid rocket motor segments loaded with hundreds of tons of explosive propellant.

Once the aft center section is in place, the forward center section will soon be brought over and finally the forward section will be joined to the other three. Once we have all 4 sections stacked, we will be ready for the first non-rocket motor section called Super Stack 1.

Image credit: NASA

More about Ares I-X:

www.nasa.gov/aresIX

p.s. You can see all of the Ares photos in the Ares Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/ares/ We'd love to have you as a member!

To the 10,000 people who viewed this progress shot (including the one mean guy who actually took the time to post "if this is interesting, I am the Pope" -- he doesn't know what's what): well, I am sorry, but Rachel's beautiful Sewing Room Swap package migrated its way to me, of all people! I really am considering buying a lottery ticket tomorrow:)

I was having fun in the SRS, round 2 group, but when Rachel posted this earlier progress shot, I really was completely smitten by it. I recall being overcome by admiration for Rachel's fabric and colour selection skills (I could never have pulled these fabrics together myself), her obvious ability to sew thin strips together without them going all wonky (see also her latest project, Irish chain quilt a la Denyse), and her clearly methodical work process. But most of all, I remember feeling greedy, and I remember thinking about how badly I wanted this for myself! In my head, I started wondering who my "competition" was (basically everyone) and what I could do to get this mini from them (basically nothing). But lo and behold, it's here! I can't say that I deserve it, with all the "me me me" feelings that I experienced over the past few weeks, but I sure am thrilled. I've been on a pretty good karma kick lately and just about ready to pay it forward, and I'll remember to do that every time I look at these two beauties.

Thank you so much again, Rachel, and Linda, Sue, and Rachel (again)! I can't stop smiling:)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.

"In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

According to the study, Bush and seven top officials -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice -- made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years.

The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources -- mainly quotes from major media organizations. See CNN viewers' reactions to the study »

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda.

Bush has consistently asserted that at the time he and other officials made the statements, the intelligence community of the U.S. and several other nations, including Britain, believed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

He has repeatedly said that despite the intelligence flaws, removing Hussein from power was the right thing to do.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer each made 109 false statements, it says. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made 85, Rice made 56, Cheney made 48 and Scott McLellan, also a press secretary, made 14, the study says.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," the report reads, citing multiple government reports, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the 9/11 Commission and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, which reported that Hussein had suspended Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to revive it.

The overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets didn't do enough to investigate the claims.

"Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical," the report reads. "These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

The quotes in the study include an August 26, 2002, statement by Cheney to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/index.html

Arthur Edward Waite (October 2, 1857 - May 19, 1942) was an American-British occultist. A.E. Waite joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1891 and the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge.[5] In 1893 he withdrew from the Golden Dawn. In 1896 he rejoined the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1899 he entered the Second order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901,and entered the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. Waite was interested in the higher grades of Freemasonry and saw initiation into Craft Masonry as a way to gain access to these rites. After joining the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Knights Templar, Waite traveled to Switzerland in 1903 to receive the Régime Ecossais Rectifié or the Rectified Scottish Rite and its grade of Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cité Sainte (C.B.C.S.). Waite believed that the Rectified Scottish Rite, more than any other Masonic Rite, represented the "Secret Tradition" of mystical spiritual illumination.

In 1903 Waite founded the Independent and Rectified Order R. R. et A. C. This Order was disbanded in 1914. The Golden Dawn was torn by internal feuding until Waite's departure in 1914; in July 1915 he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross,[7] not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By that time there existed some half-dozen offshoots from the original Golden Dawn, and as a whole it never recoveredWhen he became Grand Master of the Order in 1903, changing its name to the "Holy Order of the Golden Dawn", many members rejected his ideas on the primacy of mysticism over magic, and a rival group, the "Morning Star", seceded under the leadership of William Butler Yeats. The Golden Dawn was torn apart by numerous internal conflicts until Waite's departure in 1914. Arthur Edward Waite was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith or Waite–Smith deck). As his biographer R. A. Gilbert described him, "Waite's name has survived because he was the first to attempt a systematic study of the history of Western occultism—viewed as a spiritual tradition rather than as aspects of protoscience or as the pathology of religion."

He was a Freemason, as well as being a member of the SRIA and Golden Dawn.

He spent most of his life in or near London, connected to various publishing houses and editing a magazine, The Unknown World.

Waite was a prolific author of occult texts on divination, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, black and ceremonial magic (goétie and théurgie), Kabbalah and alchemy; he also translated and republished several mystical and alchemical works. His work on the Holy Grail, influenced by his friendship with Arthur Machen, is remarkable. Some of these books, such as the "Book of Ceremonial Magic", "The Holy Kabbalah", and the "New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry", have recently gone out of print.

René Guénon dissociates himself from this somewhat arranged Grail: "Mr. Arthur Edward Waite has published a work on the legends of the Holy Grail which is impressive in its scope and in the amount of research it represents, and in which all those interested in this question will find a very complete and methodical exposition of the content of the many texts that refer to it, as well as of the various theories that have been proposed to explain the origin and the meaning of these highly complex legends, which are sometimes even contradictory in some of their elements. It should be added that Mr. Waite did not intend his work to be purely scholarly, and he is to be commended for this, for we fully agree with him that any work that does not go beyond this point of view is of little value and can only be of "documentary" interest; his aim was to bring out the real, "inner" meaning of the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the "quest". Unfortunately, we have to say that this side of his work is the least satisfactory; in fact, the conclusions he reaches are rather disappointing, especially when we consider all the hard work that went into reaching them; and it is on this point that we'd like to make a few observations, which will naturally relate to questions we've already dealt with on other occasions". ...

"It's no insult to Mr. Waite, we believe, to say that his work is somewhat one-sighted. to say that his work is somewhat one-sighted. "partial"? That might not be strictly accurate, and in any case, we don't we don't mean that it's intentionally one-sided; rather, it's something of that...There would rather be something of the fault so common among those who, having "specialized" in a certain order of study, are inclined to reduce everything to it, or to neglect that which cannot be reduced to it. That the Grail legend is Christian is certainly not in dispute, and Mr. Waite is right to affirm it; but does this necessarily prevent it from being something else at the same time? Those who are aware of the fundamental unity of all traditions will see no incompatibility here; but Mr. Waite, for his part, only wants to see what is specifically Christian, thus locking himself into a particular traditional form whose relationship with the others, precisely because of its "inner" side, seems to escape him.It's not that he denies the existence of elements of another origin, probably pre-dating Christianity, for that would be to go against the evidence; but he accords them very little importance, and seems to regard them as "accidental", as having been added to the legend "from outside", and simply as a result of the environment in which it developed. These elements are therefore regarded by him as belonging to what is commonly called folk-lore, not always out of disdain as the word itself might suggest, but rather to satisfy a kind of contemporary "fashion", and without always realizing the intentions involved; and it's perhaps worth stressing this point a little."..."The very concept of folklore, as it is usually understood, is based on a radically false idea, the idea that there are "popular creations", spontaneous products of the mass of the people; and we can immediately see the close relationship of this way of seeing things with "democratic" prejudices. As has been rightly said, "the profound interest of all so-called popular traditions lies above all in the fact that they are not popular in origin"; and we would add that, if they are, as is almost always the case, traditional elements in the true sense of the word, however distorted, diminished or fragmentary they may sometimes be, and things of real symbolic value, all this, far from being of popular origin, is not even of human origin. What can be popular is only the fact of "survival and, in this respect, the term folk-lore takes on a meaning quite similar to that of "paganism", taking into account only the etymology of the latter, and with less "polemical" and insulting intent. The people thus retain, without understanding them, the remnants of ancient traditions, even

Sometimes, these traditions go back so far as to be impossible to determine, and for this reason, they are often considered to belong to the obscure realm of "prehistory"; in this way, they fulfil the function of a kind of more or less "subconscious" collective memory, the content of which has clearly come from elsewhere. What may seem the most astonishing is that, when we get to the bottom of things, we find that what is preserved in this way contains above all, in a more or less veiled form, a considerable amount of esoteric data, i.e. precisely everything that is inherently less popular; and this fact suggests an explanation that we will limit ourselves to indicating in a few words. When a traditional form is on the verge of extinction, its last representatives may well voluntarily entrust to this collective memory what would otherwise be lost without return; in short, this is the only way to save what can be saved to a certain extent; and, at the same time, the natural incomprehension of the mass is a sufficient guarantee that what once possessed an esoteric character will not be stripped of it for that reason, but will remain only, as a kind of testimony of the past, for those who, in other times, will be able to understand it. Having said this, we see no reason to attribute to folk-lore, without further examination, everything that belongs to traditions other than Christianity, the latter alone being an exception; such seems to be Mr. Waite's intention, when he accepts this denomination for the "pre-Christian", and particularly Celtic, elements found in the Grail legends. In this respect, there are no privileged traditional forms; the only distinction to be made is between those that have disappeared and those that are currently alive; and, consequently, the whole question would come down to knowing whether the Celtic tradition had really ceased to live when the legends in question were formed. This is at least questionable: on the one hand, this tradition may have been maintained for longer than is generally believed, with a more or less hidden organization, and, on the other hand, these legends themselves may be older than the "critics" think, not because there were necessarily texts now lost, in which we have little more faith than M. Waite, but because they may first have been the object of oral transmission, which may have lasted several centuries. Waite, but because they may first have been the subject of oral transmission, which may have lasted for several centuries, which is far from exceptional. For our part, we see here the mark of a "junction" between two traditional forms two traditional forms, one ancient and the other new at the time, the Celtic

and the Christian tradition, a junction by which what had to be preserved from the of the former was incorporated into the latter, albeit modified to some extent to a certain extent, in outward form, by adaptation and assimilation, but not by being transposed onto another plane, as Mr. Waite would have us believe, for there are equivalences between all regular traditions.

than a simple question of "sources" in the scholarly sense. It

It may be difficult to pinpoint exactly where and when this junction took place, but this is of secondary interest and almost exclusively historical; it's easy to see, moreover, that these are the sort of things that leave no trace in written "documents". Perhaps the "Celtic" or "Culdean" Church deserves more attention in this respect than Mr. Waite seems inclined to give it; its very name might suggest as much; and there's nothing implausible in the fact that behind it there was something of another order, no longer religious, but initiatory, for, like everything that relates to the links existing between different traditions, what we're dealing with here necessarily belongs to the initiatory or esoteric domain. Exotericism, religious or otherwise, never goes beyond the limits of the traditional form to which it properly belongs; what goes beyond these limits cannot belong to a "Church" as such, but the latter can only be its external "support"; and this is a remark to which we shall have occasion to return later. We should therefore do here exactly the opposite of what Mr. Waite does, who, stopping at external and superficial explanations, which he accepts with confidence as long as it is not a question of Christianity, sees meanings radically different and unrelated to each other where there are only more or less multiple aspects of the same symbol or its

various applications; no doubt it would have been different if he had not been hampered by his preconceived idea of a sort of heterogeneity of Christianity in relation to other traditions. Likewise, Mr. Waite rightly rejects, with regard to the legend of the Grail, theories which appeal to so-called “gods of vegetation”; but it is regrettable that it is much less clear with regard to ancient mysteries, which never had anything in common with this “naturalism” of completely modern invention; the “gods of vegetation” and other stories of the same kind only ever existed in the imagination of Frazer and his ilk, whose anti-traditional intentions are not in doubt."...? "There is no doubt that Arthur Edward Waite was a master at symbolic interpretation of ancient symbolism, both pre christian and christian. The book of "The Holy Grail: History, Legend And Symbolism" is to accent the research that Waite has compiled on the search for the Holy Grail. An excellent work, well worth the effort for study and like Indiana Jones father, you can undertake the pursuit from this point." :) It is at the core of all Western culture: the story of the Holy Grail, the secret history of Christianity and the grand quest to find it that informs everything from tales steeped in centuries, such as the legend of King Arthur, to the most modern popular fiction, like The Da Vinci Code. In this highly readable but densely informative work, Waite, a preeminent 19th-century expert in esoterica, explores all the literature dedicated to this "legend of the soul" from both an intellectual and a spiritual perspective, seeking out the elemental through-lines of this most fundamental of stories as well as a mystical essence of Christianity itself. Students of folklore, readers of fantasy-quest fiction, and seekers after religious truth will all find this a vital resource. American-born British occultist and author ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.

"The true legitimacies are for the most part in exile, or otherwise with their rights in abeyance. The real canons of literature can be uttered only behind doors or in the secrecy of taverns. The secrets of the great orthodoxies are very seldom communicated, even to epopts on their advancement. The highest claims of all are not so much wanting in warrant as wanting those spokesmen who are willing to utter them. We shall not be surprised, therefore, to find that the custodians of the Holy Graal, which was a mystery of all secrecy, "there where no sinner can be," despite the kingly titles ascribed to them, sometimes abode in the utmost seclusion. Let us seek in the first instance to realise the nature and the place of that Castle or Temple which, according to the legend, was for a period of centuries the sanctuary of the Sacred Vessel and of the other hallowed objects connected therewith. It is in the several locations of the Hallows that we shall come at a later time into a fuller understanding of their offices and of the meanings which may lie behind them. They are not to be regarded exactly as part of the mystery of the Castle; but at least this is more than a casket, and between the container and the things contained, distinct though their significance may be, there are points of correlation, so that the one throws light on the other. We have seen that the Vessel itself was brought from Salem to Britain, and it follows from the historical texts that the transit had a special purpose, one explanation of which will be found ready to our hands when the time comes for its consideration. The Castle is described after several manners, the later romances being naturally the more specific, and we get in fine a geographical settlement and boundary. In the Chrétien portion of the

p. 129 [paragraph continues] Conte del Graal, Perceval discovers the Castle in a valley, wherein it is well and beautifully situated, having a four-square tower, with a principal hall and a bridge leading up to the chief entrance. In some of the other legends the asylum is so withdrawn that it is neither named nor described. The Early History of Merlin speaks of it not less simply as the place where they had the Holy Vessel in keeping. According to the Didot Perceval, it is the house of the Rich King Fisherman; it is situated in a valley; it has a tower, and is approached by a bridge. It might be a tower merely, for the description is not less vague than many accounts of the Cup. One of the late Merlin texts says merely that the Holy Vessel is in the West--that is, in the Land of Vortigern, or that it abides in Northumbria. Another says that the Castle is Corbenic; but though we hear a good deal concerning it, there is no description whatever. The section of the Conte del Graal which is referable to Gautier de Doulens says that it is situated on a causeway tormented by the sea. The building is of vast extent and is inhabited by a great folk. We hear of its ceiling, emblazoned with gold and embroidered with silver stars, of its tables of precious metal, its images and the rich gems which enlighten it. In a word, we are already in the region of imaginative development and adornment, but it is all mere decoration which carries with it no meaning beyond the heavy tokens of splendour. Manessier furnishes no special account, and Gerbert, who has other affairs at heart than solicitude about a material building or desire to exalt it into allegory, leaves it unsketched entirely. The Book of the Holy Graal is the only French text which contains in a methodical account the building of the Holy House. The first wardens have passed from the land of the living, and Alain le Gros is the keeper of the Blessed Vessel. The actual builder is a certain converted king of Terre Foraine, and there is a covenant between him and Alain, one condition of which p. 130

is that the Graal shall remain in his kingdom. The Castle on its completion is given the mystic name of Corbenic, in obedience to an inscription which is found blazoned on one of the entrance gates. The name is said to signify the Treasury of the Holy Vessel. The Graal is placed in a fair chamber of the Castle, as if on an altar of repose, but, all his munificence notwithstanding and all the sacramental visions which he sees in the Holy Place, beating of birds' wings and chanting of innumerable voices, the king is visited speedily for his mere presence and receives his death-wound at the very altar: it is the judgment of the sanctuary on those who desecrate the sanctuary by carrying, however unwittingly, an unhallowed past therein, and it recalls the traditional conclusion of the Cabiric Mysteries, wherein the candidate was destroyed by the gods. Setting aside an analogy on which I am by no means insisting, the event was the beginning of those wonders which earned for Castle Corbenic the name of the Palace Adventurous, because no one could enter therein, and no one could sleep, its lawful people excepted, without death overtaking them, or some other grievous penalty. The prose Lancelot is in near correspondence with Chrétien, representing the Castle as situated at the far end of a great valley, with water encircling it. On another occasion it is named rather than described, and visited but not expounded, but we learn that it is situated in a town which has many dwellers therein. In the Quest of Galahad it is a rich and fair building, with a postern opening towards the sea, and this was guarded by lions, between which a man might pass only if he carried the arms of faith, since the sword availed nothing and there was no protection in harness. For the visitor who was expected or tolerated, it would seem that all doors stood open, except the door of the sanctuary. But this would unclose of itself; the light would issue from within; the silver table would be seen; and thereon the Holy Vessel, covered with drapery of samite. There also on a day p. 131 might be celebrated, with becoming solemnity, the Great Mass of the Supersanctified, and this even in the presence of those who were not clean in their past, so only that they had put away their sin when they entered on the Quest. It was thus beheld by Lancelot, though he lay as one dead afterwards, because of his intrusion. So also the welcome guest had reason to know that the court of King Pelles held a great fellowship in the town of Corbenic. But there were other visitors at times and seasons who saw little of all this royalty, like Hector de Marys, who--brother as he was to my lord Sir Lancelot--found the doors all barred against him and no warden to open, long as he hailed thereat. The most decorative of all the accounts is, however, in the Longer Prose Perceval, where the Castle is reached by means of three bridges, which are horrible to cross. Three great waters run below them, the first bridge being a bow-shot in length and not more than a foot in width. This is the Bridge of the Eel; but it proves wide and a fair thorough-way in the act of crossing. The second bridge is of ice, feeble and thin, and it is arched high above the water. This is transformed on passing into the richest and strangest ever seen, and its abutments are full of images. The third and last bridge stands on columns of marble. Beyond it there is a sculptured gate, giving upon a flight of steps, which leads to a spacious hall painted with figures in gold. When Perceval visited the Castle a second time he found it encompassed by a river, which came from the Earthly Paradise and proceeded through the forest beyond as far as the hold of a hermit, where it found peace in the earth. To the Castle itself there were three names attributed: the Castle of Eden, the Castle of Joy and the Castle of Souls. In conclusion as to this matter, the location, in fine, is Corbenic--not as the unvaried name, but as that which may be called the accepted, representing the Temple at its highest, and corresponding in French romance to Montsalvatch, in p. 132

[paragraph continues] German--which our late redaction of the Book of the Holy Graal mentions specifically, and which, all doubtful clouds of mystic adventure notwithstanding, looms almost as a landmark in the Lancelot and the Quest of Galahad.

must speak very lightly of the German cycle, because, through all these branches, it is understood that I shall deal with it again. In the Parsifal and Titurel the Temple is completely spiritualised, so that it has ceased almost to be a house made with hands, though the descriptions on the external side are here and there almost severe in their simplicity. On that side it has the strength of a feudal fortress, turret by turret rising. In the master-hall of the palace there is something of Oriental splendour--carpets and couches and cushions, marble hearths burning strange fragrant woods, and a great blazing of lights. So far the Parsifal of Wolfram, but we must turn to other texts for the building of the Temple--which is after another manner than anything told of Corbenic in the Northern French cycle. The building was the work of Titurel, the first King of the Graal, and in answer to his prayers the High Powers of Heaven prepared the ground-plan of the Holy Place and furnished the raw material. Over the construction itself the powers of earth toiled by day and the Powers of Heaven by night. The floor was of pure onyx; at the summit of the tower there was a ruby surmounted by a cross of crystal, and carbuncles shone at the meeting-points of the great arches within. The roof was of sapphire, and a pictured starry heaven moved therein in true order. We are on a different level when we have recourse to the poem of Heinrich, which presents several anomalies in respect of the literature as a whole. The road leading to the Graal Castle was one of harsh and hazardous enterprise--world without end; but it brought the questing hero at some far point into a plenteous and gracious land, where rose the Palace of Desire, looking p. 133 beautiful exceedingly, with a meadow before it which was set apart for joust and tournament. A great concourse of knights and gentlewomen abode in the burg, and for the Castle itself we are told that there was none so fair. Though it will be seen that there is nothing distinctive in this account, as it is here reduced into summary, the design is among many things strange, for if it is not the Castle of Souls it is that of a Living Tomb, as the story concerning it will show at the proper time. So did the place of the mysteries, from a dim and vague allusion, become "A wilderness of building, sinking far

And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth

Far sinking into splendour." [paragraph continues] We can scarcely say whether that which had begun on earth was assumed into the spiritual place, or whether the powers and virtues from above descended to brood thereon. I have left over from this consideration all reference to another spiritual place, in Sarras on the confines of Egypt, where the Graal, upon its outward journey, dwelt for a period, and whither, after generations and centuries, it also returned for a period. As this was not the point of its origin, so it was not that of its rest; it was a stage in the passage from Salem and a stage in the transit to heaven. What was meant by this infidel city, which was yet so strangely consecrated, is hard to determine, but its consideration belongs to a later stage. It is too early again to ask what are the implicits of the great prose Perceval when it identifies the Castle of the Graal with the Earthly Paradise and the Place of Souls; but we may note it as a sign of intention, and we shall meet with it in another connection where no one has thought to look for it.

THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND, SECONDLY, THE VARIATIONS OF THE CUP LEGEND

We have seen that the secret of the Graal, signifying the super-substantial nourishment of man, was communicated by Christ to His chosen disciple Joseph of Arimathæa, who, by preserving the body of his Master after the Crucifixion, became an instrument of the Resurrection. He laid it in the sepulchre, and thus sowed the seed whence issued the arch-natural body. On Ascension Day this was removed from the world, but there remained the Holy Vessel, into which the blood of the natural body had been received by Joseph. Strangely endued with the virtues of the risen Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost, it sustained him spiritually, and by a kind of reflection physically, during forty years of imprisonment, through which period he was in that condition of ecstasy which is said by the Christian masters of contemplation to last for half-an-hour--being that time when there is silence in heaven. We find accordingly that Joseph had no sense of duration in respect of the years; he was already in that mystery of God into which the ages pass. After his release the Holy Vessel became a sign of saving grace, instruction and all wonder to that great company which he was elected to take westward. He committed it in fine to another keeper, by whom it was brought into Britain, and there, or otherwhere, certain lesser Hallows were added to the Hallow-in-chief, and were held with it in the places of concealment. Those which are met with most frequently, as we have p. 90 seen, are four in number, but the mystery is really one, since it is all assumed into that vessel which is known for the most part as the Cup of legend. It is understood that for us at least this Cup is a symbol, seeing that the most precious of all vessels are not made with hands. It is in such sense that the true soul of philosophy is a cup which contains the universe. We shall understand also the ministry of material sustenance, frequently attributed to the Holy Graal, after another manner than that which can be presumed within the offices of folk-lore. It is in this sense that the old fable concerning the Bowl of Plenty, when incorporated by the Graal Mystery, may prove to have a profound meaning. Some things are taken externally; some are received within; but the food of the body has analogies with that of the soul. So much may be said at the moment concerning certain aspects which encompass the literature of the Graal, as the hills stand round Jerusalem. The four Hallows are therefore the Cup, the Lance, the Sword and the Dish, Paten or Patella--these four, and the greatest of these is the Cup. As regards this Hallow-in-chief, of two things one: either the Graal Vessel contained the most sacred of all relics in Christendom, or it contained the Secret Mystery of the Eucharist. Now, the first question which arises is whether the general description which obtains concerning it--as I was almost about to say, in the popular mind--reposes on the authority of the texts. Here also will be found our first difficulty. I may not be pardoned such flippancy, but the Psalmist said: Calix meus quam inebrians est, and this has rather a bearing on the Graal chalice; for the variety of the accounts concerning it may produce in the mind a sense of having visited some inn of strange description where those who come to ask questions are served with strong measures, and full at that. There are three available sources of information concerning the Sacred Vessel, including those which are purely of the Eucharistic office. (1) The apocryphal p. 91 legends concerning Joseph of Arimathæa which are distinct from those that have been incorporated with the romances of chivalry and with the histories leading up to these. (2) The romances themselves and their prolegomena, which are the chief bases of our knowledge, but on the understanding that there is no criterion for the distinction between that which is traditional and that which is pure invention. (3) Some archæological aspects of sacramental practice. The apocryphal legends which connect Joseph with the cultus of the Precious Blood are late, and they lie under the suspicion of having been devised in the interests of Glastonbury, or through Glastonbury of ecclesiastical pretensions on the part of the British Church at or about the period of Henry II. Above these as a substratum of solid fact--I refer to the fact of the inventions--there has been of late years superposed an alleged dream of a pan-Britannic Church, which belongs, however, more particularly to the romance of history. The chivalrous romances themselves have so overlaid the Graal object with decorations and wonder-elements that the object itself has been obscured and its nature can, in some cases, be extricated scarcely. Eucharistic archæology remains as a source of information on which it is possible to rely implicitly, but while this can satisfy us as to the variations in the form and matter of the Sacred Vessel used in the Sacrifice of the Mass, it does not offer us, except indirectly, much or perhaps any assistance to determine the relic of legend.

The Evangelium Nicodemi, Acta [vel Gesta] Pilati, and some other oriental apocryphal documents are the authorities for the imprisonment of Joseph by the Jews because he had laid the body of Christ in the sepulchre. William of Malmesbury, John of Glastonbury and similar makers of chronicles are responsible for referring the first evangelisation of Britain to Joseph of Arimathæa. From these, however, we must except Geoffrey of Monmouth, and William of Malmesbury has nothing p. 92 to tell us of the Graal, though he has the story of two phials containing the Precious Blood. The reference to relics of any kind is also late in the chronicles. An English metrical life of Joseph, belonging to the first years of the sixteenth century, but drawing from previous sources, shows how the precious blood was collected by that saint and received into two cruets, which we find figuring at a later period in the arms of Glastonbury Abbey. One of these sources, though perhaps at a far distance, may have been the lost book attributed to Melkin or Mewyn, which gives an account of these cruets. The tradition supposes (1) that they were buried at Glastonbury, (2) that they will be discovered concurrently with the coffin of Joseph, and (3) that thereafter there will be no more drought in Britain. John of Glastonbury is one of the authorities for the existence of a book of Melkin--sometimes identified with the Chronicle of Nennius. The more immediate antecedent of the metrical story is, however, the Nova Legenda Angliæ of Capgrave, and it represents Joseph as living with twelve hermits at Glastonbury, where he also died and was buried. The Oxford Vernon MS., written in verse about 1350, shows that there was a sacred vessel containing blood. The Chronicle of Helinandus describes the Graal as a wide and shallow vessel, wherein meats in their juice are served to wealthy persons. The Historia Aurea, written by John of Tynemouth, connects Joseph with the Holy Vessel, which it describes as that large dish or platter in which the Lord supped with His disciples, with which concurs one entire cycle of the legend. It may be added, for what it is worth, that the Armorican Gauls seem to have had a sacred vessel used in certain rites from a very early period. An object of this kind is thought to be depicted on Armorican coins, being semicircular in shape, held by means of thongs and devoid of stem or base. Under Roman domination the vessel was figured with a pedestal.

We come now to the putative historical romances and p. 93 the poems and tales of chivalry which contain the developed legend of the Graal. The Conte del Graal, which is the first text for our consideration, has many decorative descriptions of the Sacred Vessel, but they present certain difficulties, as will be exhibited by their simple recitation in summary. (1) It was covered with the most precious stones that are found in the world, and it gave forth so great a light that the candles at the table were eclipsed, even as are the stars of heaven in the glory of the sun and moon (Chrétien de Troyes). (2) It passed to and fro quickly amidst the lights, but no hand appeared to hold it (Gautier de Doulens, or, as he is now termed, Wauchier de Denain). (3) It was borne uplifted by a beautiful maiden, who was discounselled and weeping (Montpellier MS.). (4) It was carried to and fro before the table by a maiden more beautiful than flowers in April (second account of Gautier, with which compare the similar recital of Gerbert). (5) It was carried amidst a great light by an angel, to heal Perceval (Manessier). (6) It was carried in the pageant by a maiden through the castle chamber (ibid.). (7) It was carried openly at the coronation of Perceval, also by a maiden (ibid.). (8) It was, in fine, ravished with the soul of Perceval, and has never since been seen so openly:-- "Ne jà mais nus hommes qui soit nés" Nel vera si apiertement." [paragraph continues] What follows from these citations will have occurred to the reader--that in all these several sections of the Conte del Graal there is no intelligible description of the sacred object; that the writers knew of it at a far distance only; that some of their references seem to indicate a brilliant lamp rather than a chalice; and, when they allocated it to Christian symbolism, that they may have wavered in their meaning between the idea of the Paschal Dish and the Cup in which Christ consecrated the wine of the first Eucharist; but we cannot tell. I should p. 94 add that the prologue, which is certainly the work of a later or at least of another hand, and embodies some curious material, mentions, but very briefly, the pageant of the Graal procession, saying that the Vessel appears at the Castle without sergeant or seneschal, but again there is no description of the Vessel. In conclusion of this account, the alternative ending of Gerbert retells with variations part of the story of Joseph, and although there is once again no intimation as to the form of the Graal, an account of the service performed at an altar over "the holy, spiritual thing"--the Vessel more beautiful than eye of man has seen--is there recounted, while it leaves no doubt in the mind that this service was a Mass of the Graal. It is the only suggestion of the kind which is afforded by the vast poem, though the origin and early history of the sacred object is in accordance with the received tradition. The fuller memorials of this tradition are embodied, as we have seen, in two cycles of literature, but the text which is first in time and chief in importance is the metrical Romance of the Graal, or Joseph of Arimathæa, by Robert de Borron. A French and a German critic have said that this is the earliest text of the Graal literature proper, and an English writer has concluded, on the contrary, that it is not: mais que m’importe? I will not even ask for the benefit of the doubt, so far as enumeration is concerned. The metrical Joseph says that the Graal was a passing fair vessel, wherein did Christ make His sacrament. This is vague admittedly, and assuming a certain confusion in the mind of the writer, it might have been that Dish mentioned by John of Tynemouth in which the Paschal Lamb was eaten by Christ and His disciples. In place of the words mout gent, which are given by the original French editor of the only text, Paulin Paris, following I know not what authority, or imagining a variant reading, substituted the words mout grant, which might well apply to the Paschal Dish. But Robert de Borron certifies to his own meaning when he

p. 95 recites an utterance of Christ in His discourse to Joseph, for it is there said that the vessel which has served as the reliquary shall be called henceforth a chalice:--

"Cist vaisseau où men sanc méis,

Quant de men cors le requeillis,

Calices apelez sera."

[paragraph continues] It is impossible to read the later verses in which the Eucharistic chalice is compared with the sepulchre of Christ, the mass corporal with the grave-clothes, and the paten with the stone at the mouth of the tomb, without concluding that by the Graal was intended the first Eucharistic chalice, and the presence of this symbolism in the mind of Robert de Borron suggests a symbolical intention on his part in the whole legend which he presented. If it is said that his idea of a chalice does not correspond to a vessel the content of which is sacramental wine, it should be remembered that the ciborium which contains consecrated Hosts is still at this day replaced on occasion by a chalice of the ordinary form. The idea of the devotional poet, supposing it to have been as purely mystical as he was himself deeply religious, might have embodied an attempt to shadow forth in the perpetuation of the most precious of all reliquaries the sacramental mystery of the Real Presence. It seems certain, in any case, that when Robert de Borron speaks of the Graal as that vessel in which Christ made his sacrament, this must not be understood as referring to the Paschal Dish, though one probable derivation of the word Graal would support the latter view. In the dialect of Languedoc, Grazal signified a large vessel, usually of clay; in the dialect of Provence, Grasal was a bowl or platter; in Anglo-Norman, or its connections, Graal was a dish made of some costly material for the purpose of great feasts, which, as we have seen, is the description of Helinandus. With all this some of the later romancers were dissatisfied, and, following Robert de Borron, they exalted the vessel into a chalice, so p. 96 that they might bring it into line with the Eucharistic side of the legend, with which side a paschal dish--whether that of Christ or another--offered little analogy. The material of such a chalice would have been probably glass. It follows from Tertullian that in Rome at the beginning of the third century they used glass chalices; so did the Bishop of Toulouse at the end of the fourth century; and about A.D. 550 the same custom prevailed, as appears by the life of Cesarius, Bishop of Arles. A council of Rheims in the days of Charlemagne is said to have forbidden glass chalices because they were brittle. The Lesser Holy Graal does not depart from the rendering which I have here given in respect of the metrical romance, but it seems to make the assurance of the poet more certain by elucidating further the application of the secret words to the consecration and administering of the Eucharist. Where the poem says that there is a great book in which has been written the great secret called the Graal, the Lesser Holy Graal says: This is the secret uttered at the great sacrament performed over the Graal--that is to say, over the chalice. The vessel is otherwise described as the one in which Christ sacrificed, as if He actually celebrated the first Mass, and from the Eucharistic standpoint this seems much stronger than the corresponding feisoit son sacrement, which are the words of Robert de Borron. The repetition of the experience of the sacred table which is enjoined by Joseph in both texts is in both termed the service of the Graal, but in the prose version alone is it adjudged to the hour of tierce, as if the Mass of the day were celebrated, and as if certain persons, evidently in a state of grace, were sustained in the body by the sacramental nutriment of the soul. The Early Merlin and the Didot Perceval neither reduce nor increase the evidence; but it may be hazarded, for what it is worth, that the original disclosure of the secret words may have had some office in preserving the content of the great relic. In the Early Merlin there is no allusion to the office p. 97 of secret words, and no Graal Hallows are mentioned excepting the Cup, as it is obvious that we cannot include the sword of Merlin, through which Arthur was chosen to be king. It does not appear that this weapon had any antecedent history. In the Didot Perceval the rumour and the wonder of the Graal moves pageant-like through all the pages, but it is more shorn of descriptive allusions than anything that has preceded it in the quests. When the predestined Knight visits the castle, tower, or hold in which the Hallow has been preserved through so many centuries, he sees it plainly enough at the supper-table, along which it passes, carried with no ostentation by a mere page of the chamber; but he is said only to hold a vessel wherein the blood of our Saviour reposed. This is at the first visit, and at the second, when Perceval is initiated into the whole mystery and becomes the Lord of the Graal, the description is repeated merely, as if it were a counsel of perfection to maintain and even to increase in the third text of the trilogy whatsoever could be called vague and dubious in the first.

The Book of the Holy Graal, even when it reproduces with several variations the prose version of Robert de Borron's poem, gives, in some of its codices, an explanation of the Sacred Vessel which is the antithesis of his own. It is described as that Dish in which the Son of God partook of the Last Supper before He gave to the disciples His own flesh and blood. It was, therefore, the Paschal Dish. Certain manuscripts, however, differ so widely that it is difficult to determine the original state of the text. Another codex follows the account of the Lesser Holy Graal. According to a third codex, it was the content and not the Vessel which was called the Holy Graal; but, speaking generally, most versions concur in describing it as the Holy Dish. The connection with the Eucharist is, however, sufficiently close, for he who is elected to say the first Mass and to consecrate the unspotted elements is he also to whom by Divine instruction p. 98 [paragraph continues] Joseph surrenders the vessel. But the Blessed Reliquary would seem to have been rather the outward witness to the presence within those elements. For example, in the first unveiled vision of the Holy Graal which is granted to any one outside Joseph himself, we hear of an altar, on one side of which were the nails used for the Crucifixion, together with the hallowed Lance; on the other side was the Dish; and in the centre there was an exceeding rich vessel of gold in the semblance of a goblet--obviously the chalice of consecration: it had a lid after the manner of a ciborium. More astonishing still, the cup of the Eucharist is placed within the Graal during a ceremony which corresponds to the Mass. In a romance so overcharged with decoration and so lavish in episodes of wonder, we should expect, and shall not be disappointed, that many pageants and ornaments would collect about the Holy Vessel, and that it should work many marvels. The Sacrament consecrated within it reveals the mysteries of Christ openly to chosen eyes, but thereon can no man look until he is cleansed from sin. It gives also on occasion the vision of an Eternal Eucharist and a great company sitting at the high table in the Paradise which is above. So far as concerns the authority of the text itself, it would appear that the Mass of the Graal is not like that of the Church without--an office which recurs daily; it is rather an arch-natural sacrifice, at which the incarnate Christ figures as the sensible oblation and subsequently as the Melchisedech of the rite, communicating Himself to the witnesses, while a thousand voices about him give thanks to God amidst a great beating of birds' wings, and

"Young men whom no one knew went in and out

With a far look in their eternal eyes."

The texts of the later Merlin have several references to the Graal, and it is the chief purpose which moves through the dual romance, leading up, as it does obviously, to a Quest of the Sacred Vessel; but what is p. 99 understood thereby must be gathered chiefly from its reflections of the Joseph legend. We shall see that in certain codices the account differs from that of Robert de Borron. The Vulgate Merlin has one very remarkable passage, which tells how the tidings of the Holy Graal spread through the realm of King Arthur, and how the Graal was that Vessel in which Joseph of Arimathæa received the blood from the side of Jesus Christ when He hung upon the Cross. It represents, therefore, a tradition which is familiar enough not only in the literature of romance, but in that of religious legend, though it is the antithesis of the account given in the Lesser Chronicles, wherein we are told that the blood was drawn into the Vessel after Joseph and Nicodemus had taken down the Body of the Lord. Secondly, the Graal was that Holy Vessel which came from Heaven above into the city of Sarras. We have here a reflection only, and that at a far distance, of the Book of the Holy Graal in the form which is now extant. Thirdly, and to us most important, the Graal was that Vessel in which Christ first sacrificed His Blessed Body and His Flesh by the mediation of His bishop, the Second Joseph, whom He ordained with His own hands. According to the Huth Merlin the Graal was that Vessel in which Jesus and His Apostles ate the Last Supper. It was again, therefore, the Paschal Dish. The Longer Prose Perceval has many descriptions of the vessel, all of which are designed to connect it with the chalice, but they are highly mystical in their nature. As one of the most express attempts to relate the Graal with the Eucharist, it must be regarded as important for the subject of the Hallow-in-chief. This romance and the great Quest of Galahad are both texts of transubstantiation, and they must rank also among the latest documents of the literature. The Lesser Chronicles, even in the prose version of De Borron's poem, offer no suggestion concerning this doctrine, the Graal Vessel being simply a Hallow containing a precious relic. About p. 100 the period of the Quest and the High History, the tide of ecclesiastical feeling, which long previously had set towards the definition of the dogma, must have permeated the mind of the laity, prepared as it also was by the desire of things sensible and tangible in matters of religion. It was, this notwithstanding, still long to the establishment of the high, symbolical festival of Corpus Christi, which provided an external epilogue to the closed canon of the Graal, as if by a final substitution that which was taken away, or at least ex hypothesi, was to be in perpetuity memorialised about the precincts of the gate by the wardens thereof. In connection with transubstantiation, it may be remarked that the religious office of Knighthood was above all things to hear mass, and, next, to confess sins. There are few records in the Graal romances that the chivalry of Logres communicated, except in the Quest of Galahad, and then only in the case of the elect knights. All high festivals were observed, all penances fulfilled; but to participate in the Eucharistic mystery seemed apart from the life of the world and withdrawn into the sphere of sanctity. However this may be, the Longer Prose Perceval has two cryptic descriptions of the Graal Vessel, which, on account of their complexity, but for the moment only, I must present as they stand actually in the story. (1) It is said concerning Gawain, when he looked at the Graal in his wonder, that it seemed to him a chalice was therein, "albeit there was none at this time." It was, therefore, an ark or a tabernacle which was designed to contain a cup, but when the latter was removed it still held the shadow or semblance thereof. (2) In the course of the same episode a change was performed in the aspect of the external object, and it appeared to be "all in flesh," meaning that it was transformed into a vision of Christ crucified. Towards the close of the story, when a certain Queen Jandree relates her visions to Perceval, she sees, in one of these, an image of the crucifixion from which people collect the Blood into a most Holy Vessel, elevated p. 101 for that object by one of them. There are no names mentioned, but for purposes of simplicity we may assume that they were Joseph and Nicodemus. In the castle of King Fisherman the office of the Cup was to receive the Blood which fell from the point of the Sacred Lance. The priest who officiated at the Graal service is said to begin his sacrament, with which expression we may compare the words feisoit son sacrement, which are those of Robert de Borron. There is indubitably reference to the Eucharist in both cases, and perhaps the Graal Mass Book was a traditional version of the Mass, supposed, ex hypothesi, to follow the Last Supper. Speaking generally, the historical account of the Cup follows the Book of the Holy Graal rather than De Borron's poem, for the blood which flowed from the wounds of Christ when He was set upon the Cross is said to have been received into the Sacred Vessel. There is no ministry in respect of material sustenance attributed to the Graal in this spiritual romance. It is, therefore, in one sense the antithesis of the Quest of Galahad, which dwells with equal fulness on the food giving properties of the Vessel and on its connection with the mystery of such a mass and such an office of the Eucharist as never before or after was said in the wide world, apart from this sacred object. When the Holy Graal enters the court of King Arthur and into the banqueting-hall it is clothed in white samite, but neither the Vessel nor the bearer are visible to human eyes. On a later occasion it manifests as a Holy Vessel on a table of silver in an old chapel. Elsewhere it is observed that the Flesh and Blood of God are present in the Graal. When it appears to Lancelot in the Castle of Corbenic, it is still upon a table of silver, but this time the object is covered with red in place of white samite, and it is surrounded by angels. In the course of the ceremony Lancelot sees three men, who represent the Trinity, exalted above the head of the officiating priest. Two of them place the youngest between the hands of p. 102 the priest, who again exalts him. On another occasion a child enters visibly into the substance of the Mass-bread. A man is also elevated, bearing the signs of the Passion of Christ, and this Personage issues out of the Vessel, coming subsequently among the knights present, and causing them to communicate sacramentally. It is after this episode that the Graal is removed to the spiritual city of Sarras. There Christ appears to Galahad and his companions, and this is the last manifestation in connection with the Sacred Vessel. It is the viaticum of the haut prince, who thereafter exercises the high option which has been granted previously and demands that he should be taken away. As the chief Hallow in the Parsifal of Wolfram differs from all the other romances, it will be left for more full consideration in dealing with the German cycle; but seeing that in this cycle there are correspondences outside this great poem with the Northern French accounts, one of these may be placed here so as to illustrate the Germanic allusions to the Sacred Vessel in the general understanding thereof. Diu Crône, the poem of Heinrich, says that it was borne on a cloth of samite and had a base of red gold, on which a reliquary of gold and gems was superposed. It was carried by a crowned maiden. There is here, however, a fresh departure from the Graal in Christian symbolism, for as, on the one hand, it is the quest of a feigned and impossible hero, so, on the other, the content ascribed to the reliquary is not the true content. It holds the semblance of bread, as if that of the Divine Body, but the wine or royal blood, which corresponds to the second element of the Eucharist, is distilled from the Lance of the legend. We are now approaching the term of the inquiry allocated to this section, and it will be seen on reflection that we have three possible hypotheses regarding the precious vessel: (1) that it was a cruet or phial, wherein the blood of Christ was reserved permanently--in which case we can understand the legend on the score of comparative p. 103 possibility; (2) that it was an open platter or bowl, which, it is obvious, could have had no permanent content, much less the precious or indeed any other blood; (3) that it corresponded to the notion of a chalice, but probably with a cover, after the manner of a ciborium. It is in late texts that the vessel appears most indubitably in connection with the sacrifice of the Mass; it was and could be only that which was recognised by Diu Crône of Heinrich and by John of Tynemouth--namely, a reliquary; but the mystic side of the legend, reflecting in the minds of the romancers many conflicting issues, took it over to the Eucharist, influenced by the irresistible connection between the sacramental blood and the sang réal poured out at the Crucifixion. There is evidence that this view is almost coincident with the marriage of the legend to romance. The mind of romance connected the vessel and its office with secret words of consecration and a wonderful grade of priesthood, the root-matter of which must have been drawn from some source wherein relics could have counted for little in the presence of the higher secrets of sanctity. In conclusion as to this matter, the Holy Graal, according to the Greater Chronicles, was not the only Hallow which was brought into Britain by those whose mission was to preach first the gospel therein, but it was more especially the exotic of the legend, as this was developed in Northern France. In several cases the other Hallows, as we shall see, were either present in Britain or arrived some centuries later. As regards the Lesser Chronicles, it is warrantable to decide that, in the mind of Robert de Borron, the Sacred Vessel was a ciborium or covered chalice, and that in some manner which is not clearly declared it was connected with a sacramental service performed in great seclusion. As regards the Greater Chronicles, it was originally a Dish, and that Dish in which the Paschal Lamb was eaten at the Last Supper; but from the very beginning of this ascription the notion of a cup was essential to the Eucharistic office p. 104 which also resided in the Vessel; in the Book of the Holy Graal a cup is inserted therein, but in later texts of the cycle the Dish sometimes undergoes transmutation and reappears as a chalice.

Waite is best known as the co-creator of the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith or Rider-Waite (en) tarot deck, widely used in the English-speaking world mainly for divinatory purposes, and as the author of the accompanying manual, Pictorial Key to the Tarot. To design the deck, he collaborated with symbolist artist Pamela Colman-Smith, also a member of Golden Dawn. The Waite-Smith is known as one of the first tarot decks to have all 78 cards fully illustrated, unlike almost all traditional decks1 where only the 22 major arcana are illustrated. The Rider-Waite tarot was first offered for sale in 1910. This Tarot is renowned for being one of the first to have all 78 cards fully illustrated, unlike almost all traditional decks where only the 22 major arcana are illustrated. It is certainly a Tarot that allows you to decode the divinatory meaning of the arcana with great acuity, especially the Minor Arcana. As far as the Minor Arcana are concerned, these are personalized interpretations, which do not necessarily translate the meaning found in the Marseilles Tarot. Waite has fixed the meaning of the arcana, and the illustrations with which he has endowed them, eloquent though they may be, leave little room for imagination, for pure inspiration... And... There's another snag... Waite has inverted the arcana "8" and "11", and in this Tarot we find JUSTICE to be arcana "11" and FORCE to be "8".

Golden Dawn Or Or aurore

Waite joined the Outer Order of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in January 1891 after being introduced by E.W. Berridge. In 1893, he withdrew from the Golden Dawn. In 1896, he rejoined the Outer Order of the Golden Dawn. In 1899, he joined the Second Order of the Golden Dawn. He became a Freemason in 1901,[6][2] and joined the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia in 1902. In 1903, Waite founded the Independent Rectified Order R. R. and A. C. This order was dissolved in 1914. The Golden Dawn was torn apart by internal quarrels until Waite left in 1914; in July 1915, he formed the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, not to be confused with the Societas Rosicruciana. By this time, there were half a dozen offshoots of the original Golden Dawn, which never re-established itself in its entirety self-destroyed.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._E._Waite

With so few flowers in bloom at this time, I had to really be on the lookout for Hummers. The foraging Hummers also have to be on the lookout for any blooming plant.This lady was methodically sampling all of these red blooms on an ornamental shrub in my daughter's back yard. I saw only a few flying Hummers species (mostly female Anna's and Costa's). These ladies are segregated from each other for IDs mainly on their bill shapes. This bill is said to be straighter... but there is overlap.

IMG_0119; Anna's Hummingbird

Click & Listen

"Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

- Herman Melville, Moby Dick

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‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by Mike Meadows

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

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‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by John Conkle

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

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CANOGA PARK- The Los Angeles Fire Department battled a Major Emergency Structure Fire in the west San Fernando Valley on Monday, October 18, 2021.

The fire at 8423 Canoga Avenue in Canoga Park, was first noted at 12:18 PM by an LAFD Paramedic Ambulance crew returning from a nearby emergency. Within moments of their reporting the fire, flames were through the roof of the 125' x 125' one-story industrial building that also housed an adjoining but unrelated business at 8425 Canoga Avenue.

As that first-arriving LAFD Paramedic crew circled the structure to gain situational awareness and guide fellow responders, they encountered the first of three adult male civilians with severe burn injuries outside the burning building. Two proved to be in critical condition and the other in serious condition. All three were taken to area hospitals. Sadly, one of the critically injured men died later while undergoing hospital care.

The rapid spread of intense flames and multiple explosions heard within the building guided first-arriving firefighters to quickly commence defensive operations, applying multiple large diameter hose streams from the exterior, including two from atop extended aerial ladders, to prevent flames from extending beyond the well involved structure.

With the exception of a forty square-foot section of the roof at 8427 Canoga Avenue destroyed by surface fire, the tactics proved successful in holding the blaze to the pair of unrelated businesses under one roof at 8423 and 8425 Canoga Avenue.

It took 150 Los Angeles Firefighter just 75 minutes to extinguish the flames.

Firefighters remained active through the night extinguishing hotspots and minimizing hazards at the structurally compromised building with the help of LAFD's robotic firefighting vehicle and heavy equipment.

At daylight Tuesday, LAFD crews resumed a systematic search within the largely destroyed premises. During their methodical search among tons of burnt debris inside the structure, firefighters discovered the remains of an adult male, bringing the overall patient count to four, with a total of two deceased and two remaining hospitalized.

No other injuries were reported.

Scientific testing of materials inside the building of fire origin yielded positive results for hemp, and it appears that the operation inside involved the extraction from hemp, not dissimilar to that used in the Butane Honey Oil extraction process.

Though the business was a legal enterprise, the operation inside appeared to be illegal, as it did not adhere to established permitting processes and safety requirements.

Pursuant to protocol, the fire's cause remains the focus of a joint active investigation by the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force (L.A. Impact).

A positive identification of the dead men, as well as the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by Mike Meadows

LAFD Incident 101821-0791

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The unemployed of Marienthal (valley). A sociographic experiment on the effects of long-term unemployment (1933) is the title of a study by Marie Jahoda, Paul Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel on the consequences of unemployment, which is one of the classics of empirical sociology. The study pointed to the socio-psychological effects of unemployment and made it clear that long-term unemployment is not - as is often assumed - leading to revolt, but to passive resignation.

The investigation

Today, the project executed by a team around Marie Jahoda and Paul Lazarsfeld is considered a milestone in the development of empirical social research (see also participant observation and field research) and as a model of theory formation in combination of quantitative, qualitative, encountered and collected data. Even if those concepts are younger than the work on the unemployed of Marienthal, have been here - under the term of sociography - set foundations for those methods.

The workers' settlement Marienthal is located in Gramatneusiedl, a village near Vienna. After the closure of a factory, after whose commissioning the community was founded, arose suddenly an extensive unemployment during the Great Depression around 1931. Otto Bauer, who was then the leading man of the Austrian Social Democrats, proposed Lazarsfeld and Zeisel to conduct a study on this topic and also named the locality of Marienthal.

To gain access to the people in Marienthal, the authors of this study not only have sought contact with political and social groups and clubs, but also carried out collections of cloth, medical consultations, education consultations, gymnastics and drawing classes. The aim was to win the people for the research project. At the same time, each of those means (inclusively the in this regard ethically questionable consultation hours) also served the purpose by participant observation to obtain information about the Marienthal population.

For each family in Marienthal cadastral sheets were created, on which the various observations and interviews were recorded, from the ordered or disordered condition of the apartment when visiting because of the clothes collection to things in the educational counseling, visits to the doctor or during observation in the "Workers' House" were discussed. There were about thirty in-depth interviews conducted, made some journals about the time management and created food lists. Official statistics also have been used. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger played a big part in this work. In the work team but apparently tensions of personal and political nature occurred, so that Danzinger was not included in the publication as a co-author.

The published results of the study provide a broad and deep overview into the life of that form of unemployment benefits, with no early prospect of employment. In particular, is traced how as a result of the hopelessness because of unemployment the time budget changes. If actually a task had to be fulfilled, it nevertheless is left unattended. It is missing the time management, the fixed grid, a daily structure.

Implications of the study

By a combination, determined by each state of the research process, of qualitative with quantitative methods of social research (observation, structured observation protocols, household surveys, questionnaires, use of time sheets, interviews, conversations and simultaneous assistance), this work, in 1933 first published, methodically is pointing the way - even if its reception in German-speaking area only years or decades later followed. The group of Austrian research sociologists through the example of small town of Marienthal, marked by the decline of textile industry, in its field research study for the first time in this form, precision and depth proved socio-psychological effects of unemployment and showed in the main result that unemployment is not (as hitherto mostly expected) leading to active revolution, but rather leads to passive resignation.

However, the unemployed of Marienthal is not only a with many examples illustrated dense empirical description, but also a social-theoretically stimulating work with view at the four attitude types of the also internally unbroken, the resigned, the desperate and the neglected apathetic - only the first type yet knowing "plans and hopes for the future", while the resignation, despair and apathy of the other three types "led to the renunciation of a future that not even in the imagination as plan plays a role". As a crucial dimension proved to be the ability to preserve and develop "plans and hopes for the future" and, therefore, not to lose a fundamental dimension of human attitude: the anticipation of possible developments.

The written by Marie Jahoda research report in the print edition (1975) is complemented by a "preamble" written in the 1950s by Lazarsfeld, in which the study is classified in its relation to former and contemporary trends in sociology, and by the written for the first edition methodological annex from Zeisel on history of sociography.

After the authors of the study are in Vienna in the 17th district Hernals the Marie-Jahoda alley, in the 21nd district Floridsdorf the Lazarsfeld alley and in the 22nd district Danube city the Schenk-Danzinger alley named.

Filming

Meanwhile it is becoming noon is an Austrian television film about the Marienthal study by Karin Brandauer (first broadcast May 1, 1988 in the ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: The unemployed of Marienthal, The Social Study of 1933, Austria in 2009, and on 3Sat.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal. Ein soziographischer Versuch über die Wirkungen langandauernder Arbeitslosigkeit (1933) ist der Titel einer Untersuchung von Marie Jahoda, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld und Hans Zeisel zu den Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit, die zu den Klassikern der empirischen Soziologie gehört. Die Studie zeigte die sozio-psychologischen Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit auf und machte deutlich, dass Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit nicht – wie vielfach angenommen – zu Revolte, sondern zu passiver Resignation führt.

Die Untersuchung

Heute gilt das von einem Team rund um Marie Jahoda und Paul Lazarsfeld ausgeführte Projekt als Meilenstein in der Entwicklung der empirischen Sozialforschung (vgl. auch: Teilnehmende Beobachtung, Feldforschung) und als Musterbeispiel der Theoriebildung in Kombination von quantitativen, qualitativen, vorgefundenen und erhobenen Daten. Auch wenn diese Konzepte jünger sind als die Arbeit über die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, wurden hier – unter dem Begriff Soziographie – Grundsteine für diese Methoden gesetzt.

Die Arbeitersiedlung Marienthal liegt in Gramatneusiedl, einem Ort in der Nähe Wiens. Nach der Schließung einer Fabrik, nach deren Inbetriebnahme die Gemeinde gegründet worden war, entstand während der Weltwirtschaftskrise um 1931 jäh eine umfangreiche Arbeitslosigkeit. Otto Bauer, der damals führende Mann der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie schlug Lazarsfeld und Zeisel vor, eine Studie über dieses Thema durchzuführen und nannte auch den Ort Marienthal.

Um Zugang zu den Menschen in Marienthal zu gewinnen, haben die Autoren dieser Studie nicht nur Kontakt zu politischen und gesellschaftlichen Gruppen und Vereinen gesucht, sondern auch Kleidersammlungen, ärztliche Sprechstunden, Erziehungsberatungen, Turn- und Zeichenkurse durchgeführt. Ziel war es, die Menschen für das Forschungsprojekt zu gewinnen. Zugleich diente jedes dieser Mittel (inkl. der in dieser Hinsicht ethisch fragwürdigen Sprechstunden) auch dazu, durch teilnehmende Beobachtung Informationen über die Marienthaler Bevölkerung zu erlangen.

Für jede Familie in Marienthal wurden Katasterblätter angelegt, auf denen die verschiedenen Beobachtungen und Interviews festgehalten wurden, vom ordentlichen oder ungeordneten Zustand der Wohnung beim Besuch wegen der Kleidersammlung bis hin zu Dingen, die bei der Erziehungsberatung, beim Arztbesuch oder bei der Beobachtung im „Arbeiterheim“ besprochen wurden. Es wurden etwa dreißig ausführliche Interviews geführt, einige Journale über die Zeiteinteilung angefertigt und Essenslisten erstellt. Die amtliche Statistik wurde ebenfalls herangezogen. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger hatte großen Anteil an diesen Arbeiten. In dem Arbeitsteam sind aber offenbar Spannungen persönlicher und politischer Art aufgetreten, sodass Danzinger in der Publikation nicht als Co-Autorin berücksichtigt wurde.

Das veröffentlichte Ergebnis der Studie gibt einen breiten und tiefgehenden Überblick in das Leben mit der damaligen Form von Arbeitslosenunterstützung, ohne baldige Aussicht auf Beschäftigung. Insbesondere wird nachgezeichnet, wie sich aufgrund der Hoffnungslosigkeit durch die Arbeitslosigkeit das Zeitbudget verändert. Wenn eigentlich eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen wäre, wird sie trotzdem liegen gelassen. Es fehlt die Zeiteinteilung, das feste Raster, eine Tagesstruktur.

Auswirkungen der Studie

Durch eine vom jeweiligen Stand des Forschungsprozesses bestimmte Kombination qualitativer mit quantitativen Methoden der Sozialforschung (Beobachtung, Strukturierte Beobachtungsprotokolle, Haushaltserhebungen, Fragebögen, Zeitverwendungsbögen, Interviews, Gespräche und gleichzeitige Hilfestellungen) ist diese 1933 erstveröffentlichte Arbeit methodisch richtungsweisend – auch wenn ihre Rezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum erst Jahre bzw. Jahrzehnte später erfolgte. Die Gruppe österreichischer Forschungssoziologen wies am Beispiel der von der niedergegangenen Textilindustrie geprägten Kleinstadt Marienthal in ihrer Feldforschungsuntersuchung erstmals in dieser Form, Präzision und Tiefe sozio-psychologische Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit nach und zeigte im Hauptergebnis, dass Arbeitslosigkeit nicht (wie bis dahin meist erwartet) zur aktiven Revolution, sondern vielmehr zur passiven Resignation führt.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal ist aber nicht nur eine mit vielen Beispielen illustrierte dichte empirische Beschreibung, sondern auch eine sozialtheoretisch anregende Arbeit mit Blick auf die vier Haltungstypen der auch innerlich Ungebrochenen, der Resignierten, der Verzweifelten und der verwahrlost Apathischen – wobei lediglich der erste Typus noch „Pläne und Hoffnungen für die Zukunft“ kannte, während die Resignation, Verzweiflung und Apathie der drei anderen Typen „zum Verzicht auf eine Zukunft führte, die nicht einmal mehr in der Phantasie als Plan eine Rolle spielt“. Als entscheidende Dimension erwies sich die Fähigkeit, „für die Zukunft Pläne und Hoffnungen“ bewahren und entwickeln zu können, also eine grundlegende Dimension humanen Gestaltungsvermögens nicht zu verlieren: die Antizipation möglicher Entwicklungen.

Der von Marie Jahoda geschriebene Forschungsbericht wird in der Buchausgabe (1975) durch einen in den 1950er Jahren geschriebenen „Vorspruch“ von Lazarsfeld, in dem die Studie in ihrem Verhältnis zu damaligen und zeitgenössischen Strömungen der Soziologie eingeordnet wird, und den für die Bucherstausgabe geschriebenen methodischen Anhang von Zeisel zur Geschichte der Soziografie ergänzt.

Nach den Autoren der Studie sind in Wien im 17. Bezirk Hernals die Marie-Jahoda-Gasse, im 21. Bezirk Floridsdorf die Lazarsfeldgasse und im 22. Bezirk Donaustadt die Schenk-Danzinger-Gasse benannt.

Verfilmung

Einstweilen wird es Mittag ist ein bedeutender österreichischer Fernsehfilm über die Marienthalstudie von Karin Brandauer (Erstsendung 1. Mai 1988 im ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, Die Sozialstudie von 1933, Österreich 2009, und auf 3sat.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Arbeitslosen_von_Marienthal

www.ebay.com/itm/Judo-seminar-Hiroshi-Katanishi-8-dan-201...

kfvideo.ru/

kfvideo.com/

www.youtube.com/user/kallistafilm/

Hiroshi Katanishi is an expert of the European Judo Federation. Specialist of the highest class. Conducts seminars around the world in the framework of the project "Improve your club". Winner of the 8th dan. This is the most sought-after expert compared to 20 other specialists working on this project. It is easier to name the countries where he has not been yet than to list his seminars. It should be noted that the judo technique, which he demonstrates at the seminar, is completely based on the Japanese school of education. Date of birth March 11, 1952. At the time of the seminar in Canada (Vancouver), he was 65 years old, although it is difficult to believe in it.

Judo technique, which Katanishi analyzed at the seminar.

It should be noted that all technical actions were in the standing position from the NAGE WAZA section.

Disc 1 - the technique of the tricks okuri-ashi-barai, ko-uchi-gari, okuri-ashi-harai.

Disk 2 - the technique of o-uchi-gari tricks.

Disk 3 – the technique of ippon-seoi-nage tricks.

Disk 4 – the technique of okuri-ashi-barai, de-ashi-barai, ko-uchi-gari tricks.

Disk 5 – the technique of o-soto-gari tricks.

Disk 6 – the technique of o-soto-gari tricks.

In addition to these tricks, another technique was considered. Katanischi is a good demonstrator. He always supports all his explanations with a real throws. The seminar is designed for coaches working with children of 8 years and older.

Short biography of Hiroshi Katanishi.

8th dan is an expert at Tenri University (Japan).

Technical consultant of the Swiss Judo Federation, as well as technical consultant of the judo magazine "Lesprit-ju-judo". H. Katanishi teaches Judo in Lausanne, Switzerland.

03.11.1952 - Born in Kobe - Hero - Japan.

1970 - 1974 - Studied at the University of Tenri in Japan. 1974 - 1976 - coach of the French team.

Since 1976 - professional trainer and technical director of JKL.Since 1978 - an expert of Swiss dana in judo and jiu-jitsu.1979 - 1985 - National coach of the Swiss women's team.1992 - 1997 - coach of the Swiss national men's team.Since 1999 - Technical Advisor to the Swiss team.Currently he regularly holds seminars on judo techniques and methodics.

Look: Judo seminar

Time: 331 min. / 6 DVDs

Author: Pavlov D.

Language: French. English.

Format: PAL (DVD: 0/All)

Year: 2017

Shooting: Canada

With its telltale “Z” stripe showing, the aft center section of the Ares I-X first stage booster is hoisted into place. Using a 325-ton capacity crane, the aft center is being lifted so it can be joined to the aft section already in place on mobile launch platform 1.

Last week the aft section was placed on MLP 1 and locked down by four huge bolts – each of which has 750,000 pounds of tension in them when torqued down. The 100 foot horizontal and 90 foot vertical journey from the center transfer aisle of the VAB into VAB high bay 3 takes many hours due to the methodical nature of handling and moving solid rocket motor segments loaded with hundreds of tons of explosive propellant.

Once the aft center section is in place, the forward center section will soon be brought over and finally the forward section will be joined to the other three. Once we have all 4 sections stacked, we will be ready for the first non-rocket motor section called Super Stack 1.

Image credit: NASA

More about Ares I-X:

www.nasa.gov/aresIX

p.s. You can see all of the Ares photos in the Ares Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/ares/ We'd love to have you as a member!

‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by Mike Meadows

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

DUMBO Afternoon. Brooklyn, New York. August 8, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

People along the waterfront, DUMBO, Brooklyn Bridge Park

I think I was vaguely aware at the time when I made this photograph that I was being affected by a painting that I had seen a few days earlier in Chicago. We traveled from California to New York City by train on this visit, and we stopped for a couple of days in Chicago — since we had to switch trains we figured that this gave us an excuse to visit that city a bit. Among other attractions, the Art Institute of Chicago is there, located in Millennium Park, which was just a short walk from where we were staying. There was a lot to see there, but one of the more famous pieces is Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte," so we had to go see it. I was already familiar with other paintings by Seurat and with this one by means of reproductions, but it is a very different experience to see such a thing in person. I have a habit (perhaps annoying to friends and family members!) of taking a lot of time with original work like this — I can never know when or if I'll see it again, so I spend enough time going over it, somewhat methodically, that I can begin to see features that aren't visible with a quicker look and I can also fix many elements of the thing in my mind so that I can recall them later.

As we walked along the Brooklyn waterfront a few days later and paused near the river taxi terminal, I began to look at the people who were busy walking, standing, and making photographs of themselves along the water from a sort of personal Seurat perspective. I waited for a group with an interesting set of clothing colors to arrange themselves in an interesting composition and perhaps create a sense that each of them, individually or in groups, might have a story: a woman stands alone, another looks toward other people, a man squats to make a photograph, a couple in purple and orange converse near the fence, two young women are exercising their dogs, a couple at the right (both of whom wear green) look out of the frame.

* For those who many not know, "DUMBO" is the name of an area in Brooklyn — it is located Directly Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.

Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Saturday, February 11, 2012.Recap: No. 15 C'Town 87, No. 19 WC 69.By Brendan Hall..CHARLESTOWN, Mass. -- At this time last year, Charlestown made the trek West, down Route 146, to deliver a haymaker to a Whitinsville Christian squad considered the state's tallest lineup. ..This afternoon, the Crusaders came East to Bunker Hill, with a different look for the Townies -- smaller, quicker, more surgical -- and the result was very nearly a different outcome. The Crusaders hung with Charlestown through three quarters, before the Townies pulled away in the fourth, outscoring Whitinsville 31-14 in the final frame en route to an 87-69 victory. .."That team's very good, I thought that was the best shooting team we saw," Charlestown head coach Edson Cardoso said. "They're very well balanced, with a real good point guard, big man, two-guard, so I knew coming into this game it was going to be a battle. I told the guys, 'You're going to see a team like this in the state tournament, eventually down the line." ..The Townies (14-3), played just seven due to health (Jawhari Dawan-Abdullah, stomach bug) and off the court issues (Gary Braham, suspension). But they saw all five of their regular starters reach double-figures, with senior point guard Rony Fernandez (26 points, four assists) leading the way. Senior forward Tyrik Jackson (12 points, 13 rebounds) came up big on the glass again, while Tyrese Hoxter (16 points, seven assists), Omar Orriols (13 points) and Iser Barnes (12) contributed some big shots from the perimeter to keep the defense stretched out. ..But early on, the Crusaders (12-2) gave them fits with the methodical way they broke through the Townie's 2-3 zone with some of the most disciplined and precise ball movement they'd seen in a while. Junior point guard Colin Richey (23 points) funneled the offense down to the baseline, finding a player planted right in the heart of the zone and kicking to either the baseline or either wing. ..Whitinsville shot nearly 40 percent from the field, getting good looks from the short side from Tyler VandenAkker (12 points, eight rebounds) and Jesse Dykstra. Grant Brown (10 points) came up with some big shots from the perimeter as well. .."We decided to extend a little bit more on the short corner, because they hit about four shots in a row from the short corner," Cardoso said. "We also decided to have the opposite guard extend even more on shooter No. 2 (Tim Dufficey). So we made some extensions in the second half, did a little better job -- not a great job, but it helped us get the victory." ..To start the fourth quarter, Barnes completed a 6-0 run by ripping the ball out of his defender's hands at midcourt and landing a breakaway layup. A few possessions later, Hoxter found Jackson underneath the rim for an easy tip-in and 68-59 advantage. ..Then with 1:37 to go, sophomore Taris Wilson hit the first of two monster breakaway slams, this one making it 76-63 to essentially put the game in hand. ..Hot from the field: The Townies outrebounded the Crusaders 16-7 in the final frame, giving way to many key transition points that helped ice the lead and the win. From the glass, WC still held a slim 35-33 advantage. ..But down at the other end, the Townies had a terrific night from the field, shooting nearly 58 percent overall. That was aided by a 7-for-17 effort from three-point range, including three 3's each from Fernandez and Orriols. ..Praise for Richey: Last season, New Mission head coach Cory McCarthy was throwing around high praise for the then-sophomore Richey, calling him "a suburban kid that plays urban". ..Consider Cardoso another Boston City League coach that's a fan. .."He's tough," Cardoso said. "He's one of the toughest guards coming out of his league, and I think he's going give a lot of teams problems in the state tournament, because how do you stop a kid like that?" ..Turning point? Following last season's loss to Charlestown in its home gym, WC coach Jeff Bajema greeted his players in the locker room and told them, "Guys, we can win states." ..Sure enough, the Crusaders never lost another game the rest of the way, picking up their first Division 3 state title since 2005 at the DCU Center in Worcester. After that game, Bajema spoke to reporters about how much the whitewashing by Charlestown seasoned them for what to expect in the state tournament. ..Given how much more competitive the Crusaders were this time around, could this be seen as another momentum shift? .."Hopefully, a game like this will lead us to better things," Bajema said. "But we've got a tough one Tuesday (against Holy Name), so we'll see."

Shot at ISO 1600, Aperture of 3.2, Shutter speed of 1/400 and Focal Length of 70.0 mm

Taken with a 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM lens and processed by Aperture 3.2.2 on Saturday February-11-2012 16:29 EST PM

A thangka, also known as tangka, thanka or tanka (Nepali pronunciation: [ˈt̪ʰaŋka]; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा) is a painting on cotton, or silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala of some sort. The thangka is not a flat creation like an oil painting or acrylic painting but consists of a picture panel which is painted or embroidered over which a textile is mounted and then over which is laid a cover, usually silk. Generally, thangkas last a very long time and retain much of their lustre, but because of their delicate nature, they have to be kept in dry places where moisture won't affect the quality of the silk. It is sometimes called a scroll-painting.

These thangka served as important teaching tools depicting the life of the Buddha, various influential lamas and other deities and bodhisattvas. One subject is The Wheel of Life, which is a visual representation of the Abhidharma teachings (Art of Enlightenment).

Thangka, when created properly, perform several different functions. Images of deities can be used as teaching tools when depicting the life (or lives) of the Buddha, describing historical events concerning important Lamas, or retelling myths associated with other deities. Devotional images act as the centerpiece during a ritual or ceremony and are often used as mediums through which one can offer prayers or make requests. Overall, and perhaps most importantly, religious art is used as a meditation tool to help bring one further down the path to enlightenment. The Buddhist Vajrayana practitioner uses a thanga image of their yidam, or meditation deity, as a guide, by visualizing “themselves as being that deity, thereby internalizing the Buddha qualities (Lipton, Ragnubs).”

Historians note that Chinese painting had a profound influence on Tibetan painting in general. Starting from the 14th and 15th century, Tibetan painting had incorporated many elements from the Chinese, and during the 18th century, Chinese painting had a deep and far-stretched impact on Tibetan visual art. According to Giuseppe Tucci, by the time of the Qing Dynasty, "a new Tibetan art was then developed, which in a certain sense was a provincial echo of the Chinese 18th century's smooth ornate preciosity."

HISTORY

Thangka is a Nepalese art form exported to Tibet after Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal, daughter of King Lichchavi, married Songtsän Gampo, the ruler of Tibet imported the images of Aryawalokirteshwar and other Nepalese deities to Tibet. History of thangka Paintings in Nepal began in the 11th century A.D. when Buddhists and Hindus began to make illustration of the deities and natural scenes. Historically, Tibetan and Chinese influence in Nepalese paintings is quite evident in Paubhas (Thangkas). Paubhas are of two types, the Palas which are illustrative paintings of the deities and the Mandala, which are mystic diagrams paintings of complex test prescribed patterns of circles an square each having specific significance. It was through Nepal that Mahayana Buddhism was introduced into Tibet during reign of Angshuvarma in the seventh century A.D. There was therefore a great demand for religious icons and Buddhist manuscripts for newly built monasteries throughout Tibet. A number of Buddhist manuscripts, including Prajnaparamita, were copied in Kathmandu Valley for these monasteries. Astasahas rika Prajnaparamita for example, was copied in Patan in the year 999 A.D., during the reign of Narendra Dev and Udaya Deva, for the Sa-Shakya monastery in Tibet. For the Nor monastery in Tibet, two copies were made in Nepal-one of Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita in 1069 A.D. and the other of Kavyadarsha in 1111 A.D. The influence of Nepalese art extended till Tibet and even beyond in China in regular order during the thirteenth century. Nepalese artisans were dispatched to the courts of Chinese emperors at their request to perform their workmanship and impart expert knowledge. The exemplary contribution made by the artisans of Nepal, specially by the Nepalese innovator and architect Balbahu, known by his popular name Araniko bear testimony to this fact even today. After the introduction of paper, palm leaf became less popular, however, it continued to be used until the eighteenth century. Paper manuscripts imitated the oblong shape but were wider than the palm leaves.

From the fifteenth century onwards, brighter colours gradually began to appear in Nepalese.Thanka / Thangka. Because of the growing importance of the Tantric cult, various aspects of Shiva and Shakti were painted in conventional poses. Mahakala, Manjushri, Lokeshwara and other deities were equally popular and so were also frequently represented in Thanka / Thangka paintings of later dates. As Tantrism embodies the ideas of esoteric power, magic forces, and a great variety of symbols, strong emphasis is laid on the female element and sexuality in the paintings of that period.

Religious paintings worshipped as icons are known as Paubha in Newari and Thanka / Thangka in Tibetan. The origin of Paubha or Thanka / Thangka paintings may be attributed to the Nepalese artists responsible for creating a number of special metal works and wall- paintings as well as illuminated manuscripts in Tibet. Realizing the great demand for religious icons in Tibet, these artists, along with monks and traders, took with them from Nepal not only metal sculptures but also a number of Buddhist manuscripts. To better fulfil the ever - increasing demand Nepalese artists initiated a new type of religious painting on cloth that could be easily rolled up and carried along with them. This type of painting became very popular both in Nepal and Tibet and so a new school of Thanka / Thangka painting evolved as early as the ninth or tenth century and has remained popular to this day. One of the earliest specimens of Nepalese Thanka / Thangka painting dates from the thirteenth /fourteenth century and shows Amitabha surrounded by Bodhisattva. Another Nepalese Thanka / Thangka with three dates in the inscription (the last one corresponding to 1369 A.D.), is one of the earliest known Thanka / Thangka with inscriptions. The "Mandalaof Vishnu " dated 1420 A.D., is another fine example of the painting of this period. Early Nepalese Thangkas are simple in design and composition. The main deity, a large figure, occupies the central position while surrounded by smaller figures of lesser divinities.

Thanka / Thangka painting is one of the major science out the five major and five minor fields of knowledge. Its origin can be traced all the way back to the time of Lord Buddha. The main themes of Thanka / Thangka paintings are religious. During the reign of Tibetan Dharma King Trisong Duetsen the Tibetan masters refined their already well-developed arts through research and studies of different country's tradition. Thanka painting's lining and measurement, costumes, implementations and ornaments are mostly based on Indian styles. The drawing of figures is based on Nepalese style and the background sceneries are based on Chinese style. Thus, the Thanka / Thangka paintings became a unique and distinctive art. Although the practice of thanka painting was originally done as a way of gaining merit it has nowadays only evolved into a money making business and the noble intentions it once carried has been diluted. Tibetans do not sell Thangkas on a large scale as the selling of religious artifacts such as thangkas and idols is frowned upon in the Tibetan community and thus non Tibetan groups have been able to monopolize on its (thangka's) popularity among Buddhist and art enthusiasts from the west.

Thanka / Thangka have developed in the northern Himalayan regions among the Lamas. Besides Lamas, Gurung and Tamang communities are also producing Tankas, which provide substantial employment opportunities for many people in the hills. Newari Thankas (Also known as Paubha) has been the hidden art work in Kathmandu valley from the 13th century. We have preserved this art and are exclusively creating this with some particular painter family who have inherited their art from their forefathers. Some of the artistic religious and historical paintings are also done by the Newars of Kathmandu Valley.

TYPES

Based on technique and material, thangkas can be grouped by types. Generally, they are divided into two broad categories: those that are painted (Tib.) bris-tan—and those made of silk, either by appliqué or embroidery.

Thangkas are further divided into these more specific categories:

- Painted in colors (Tib.) tson-tang - the most common type

- Appliqué (Tib.) go-tang

- Black Background - meaning gold line on a black background (Tib.) nagtang

- Blockprints - paper or cloth outlined renderings, by woodcut/woodblock printing

- Embroidery (Tib.) tsem-thang

- Gold Background - an auspicious treatment, used judiciously for peaceful, long-life deities and fully enlightened buddhas

- Red Background - literally gold line, but referring to gold line on a vermillion (Tib.) mar-tang

Whereas typical thangkas are fairly small, between about 18 and 30 inches tall or wide, there are also giant festival thangkas, usually Appliqué, and designed to be unrolled against a wall in a monastery for particular religious occasions. These are likely to be wider than they are tall, and may be sixty or more feet across and perhaps twenty or more high.

Somewhat related are Tibetan tsakli, which look like miniature thangkas, but are usually used as initiation cards or offerings.

Because Thangkas can be quite expensive, people nowadays use posters of Thangkas as an alternative to the real thangkas for religious purposes.

PROCESS

Thangkas are painted on cotton or silk. The most common is a loosely woven cotton produced in widths from 40 to 58 centimeters. While some variations do exist, thangkas wider than 45 centimeters frequently have seams in the support. The paint consists of pigments in a water soluble medium. Both mineral and organic pigments are used, tempered with a herb and glue solution. In Western terminology, this is a distemper technique.

The composition of a thangka, as with the majority of Buddhist art, is highly geometric. Arms, legs, eyes, nostrils, ears, and various ritual implements are all laid out on a systematic grid of angles and intersecting lines. A skilled thangka artist will generally select from a variety of predesigned items to include in the composition, ranging from alms bowls and animals, to the shape, size, and angle of a figure's eyes, nose, and lips. The process seems very methodical, but often requires deep understanding of the symbolism involved to capture the spirit of it.

Thangka often overflow with symbolism and allusion. Because the art is explicitly religious, all symbols and allusions must be in accordance with strict guidelines laid out in Buddhist scripture. The artist must be properly trained and have sufficient religious understanding, knowledge, and background to create an accurate and appropriate thangka. Lipton and Ragnubs clarify this in Treasures of Tibetan Art:

“Tibetan art exemplifies the nirmanakaya, the physical body of Buddha, and also the qualities of the Buddha, perhaps in the form of a deity. Art objects, therefore, must follow rules specified in the Buddhist scriptures regarding proportions, shape, color, stance, hand positions, and attributes in order to personify correctly the Buddha or Deities.”

WIKIPEDIA

‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by John Conkle

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk

(Dallas, TX – July 24, 2014) A 57-year old Dallas man falsely convicted of sexual assault will be exonerated as a result of systematic DNA testing by a district attorney’s office, even though he was not actively proclaiming his innocence or requesting DNA testing. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, this is the first time in the United States an exoneration of this nature has occurred.

Mr. Michael Phillips, an African-American, served 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 for raping a 16-year-old Caucasian girl at a Dallas motel where both of them lived. Mr. Phillips says his defense attorney told him not to risk going to trial – fearing a jury would not side with a black man accused of raping a white girl who picked Mr. Phillips out of a photo line- up.

However, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ ongoing project of reviewing untested rape kits without defendants initiating the request revealed Mr. Phillips was innocent. DA Watkins signed off on this proactive screening project, which tests DNA preserved by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences. The Dallas area crime lab tested sexual assault kits from the year 1990 that met certain criteria, which paved the way for Mr. Phillips’ exoneration.

“Mr. Phillips is very lucky that we tested rape kits from the year in which the heinous crime took place,” said Craig Watkins. There was no DNA profile from Mr. Phillips to compare to the profile derived from the semen found in the rape kit, because in 1990 DNA samples were not routinely collected from sexual assault suspects as they are now. The semen found in the rape kit was put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which identified Lee Marvin Banks as the real perpetrator. Mr. Banks also lived at the same motel where the 1990 rape took place. “DNA tells the truth, so this was another case of eyewitness misidentification where one individual’s life was wrongfully snatched and a violent criminal was allowed to go free. We apologize to Michael Phillips for a criminal justice system that failed him,” said Mr. Watkins.

Michael Phillips’ case will become the 34th exoneration by the Dallas DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit. The exoneration hearing is scheduled on July 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. CST at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Criminal District Court 3. Mr. Phillips is in a wheel chair due to his fight with sickle cell anemia, but he is looking forward to his day in court.

“I never imagined I would live to see my name cleared. Six of my siblings died from the same disease, so I thank God for sustaining me in prison. I always told everyone I was innocent and now people will finally believe me,” said Mr. Phillips.”

The exoneration would not have been possible without the assistance of Samuel Gross, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and Editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, and Professor Colin Starger of the University of Baltimore School of Law. Both professors worked without compensation under the supervision of the Dallas County Conviction Integrity Unit to test the untested sexual assault kits.

“On one hand this was like finding a needle in a haystack because Michael Phillips had given up on pressing his claim of innocence, but on the other hand this was a methodical approach that can be replicated nationwide. Untested rape kits should not just sit on a shelf and collect dust. The exoneration continues to expose the past weakness in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Watkins.

Mr. Phillips was released from prison in 2002, but failure to register as a sex offender landed him back in jail for six months. It’s been one hurdle after another – not being able to find a place to live or get a job. He now lives in a nursing home, but that could soon change. The State of Texas awards an exoneree $80,000 for each year of wrongful conviction.

(Dallas, TX – July 24, 2014) A 57-year old Dallas man falsely convicted of sexual assault will be exonerated as a result of systematic DNA testing by a district attorney’s office, even though he was not actively proclaiming his innocence or requesting DNA testing. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, this is the first time in the United States an exoneration of this nature has occurred.

Mr. Michael Phillips, an African-American, served 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 for raping a 16-year-old Caucasian girl at a Dallas motel where both of them lived. Mr. Phillips says his defense attorney told him not to risk going to trial – fearing a jury would not side with a black man accused of raping a white girl who picked Mr. Phillips out of a photo line- up.

However, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ ongoing project of reviewing untested rape kits without defendants initiating the request revealed Mr. Phillips was innocent. DA Watkins signed off on this proactive screening project, which tests DNA preserved by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences. The Dallas area crime lab tested sexual assault kits from the year 1990 that met certain criteria, which paved the way for Mr. Phillips’ exoneration.

“Mr. Phillips is very lucky that we tested rape kits from the year in which the heinous crime took place,” said Craig Watkins. There was no DNA profile from Mr. Phillips to compare to the profile derived from the semen found in the rape kit, because in 1990 DNA samples were not routinely collected from sexual assault suspects as they are now. The semen found in the rape kit was put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which identified Lee Marvin Banks as the real perpetrator. Mr. Banks also lived at the same motel where the 1990 rape took place. “DNA tells the truth, so this was another case of eyewitness misidentification where one individual’s life was wrongfully snatched and a violent criminal was allowed to go free. We apologize to Michael Phillips for a criminal justice system that failed him,” said Mr. Watkins.

Michael Phillips’ case will become the 34th exoneration by the Dallas DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit. The exoneration hearing is scheduled on July 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. CST at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Criminal District Court 3. Mr. Phillips is in a wheel chair due to his fight with sickle cell anemia, but he is looking forward to his day in court.

“I never imagined I would live to see my name cleared. Six of my siblings died from the same disease, so I thank God for sustaining me in prison. I always told everyone I was innocent and now people will finally believe me,” said Mr. Phillips.”

The exoneration would not have been possible without the assistance of Samuel Gross, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and Editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, and Professor Colin Starger of the University of Baltimore School of Law. Both professors worked without compensation under the supervision of the Dallas County Conviction Integrity Unit to test the untested sexual assault kits.

“On one hand this was like finding a needle in a haystack because Michael Phillips had given up on pressing his claim of innocence, but on the other hand this was a methodical approach that can be replicated nationwide. Untested rape kits should not just sit on a shelf and collect dust. The exoneration continues to expose the past weakness in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Watkins.

Mr. Phillips was released from prison in 2002, but failure to register as a sex offender landed him back in jail for six months. It’s been one hurdle after another – not being able to find a place to live or get a job. He now lives in a nursing home, but that could soon change. The State of Texas awards an exoneree $80,000 for each year of wrongful conviction.

It has been quite a journey since the last post. I thought this puzzle would be a bit above average in difficulty if only for the Epoch cut on these small pieces. But this one may end up being my most difficult cardboard one yet, which is a little shocking.

The sky was extremely slow with so many pieces of the same wavy lines of blue and white, which started playing tricks on my eyes. I ended up reverting to a very organized approach to setting up the pieces, but it was a slow grind until the number of remaining pieces reduced to a certain point.

It's the kind of puzzle that might be tolerable in the dead of winter, but this time of year it's almost sad to be working on something so dull and methodical, especially just after having gotten lost in the wild brushstrokes and textures of Prendergast. Still, I do love the image and would like to see this through.

And now on to the "hard part," the remaining 250-or-so red-orange Fuji pieces!

Total time so far: 21 hr. 45 mins.

With its telltale “Z” stripe showing, the aft center section of the Ares I-X first stage booster is hoisted into place. Using a 325-ton capacity crane, the aft center is being lifted so it can be joined to the aft section already in place on mobile launch platform 1.

Last week the aft section was placed on MLP 1 and locked down by four huge bolts – each of which has 750,000 pounds of tension in them when torqued down. The 100 foot horizontal and 90 foot vertical journey from the center transfer aisle of the VAB into VAB high bay 3 takes many hours due to the methodical nature of handling and moving solid rocket motor segments loaded with hundreds of tons of explosive propellant.

Once the aft center section is in place, the forward center section will soon be brought over and finally the forward section will be joined to the other three. Once we have all 4 sections stacked, we will be ready for the first non-rocket motor section called Super Stack 1.

Image credit: NASA

More about Ares I-X:

www.nasa.gov/aresIX

p.s. You can see all of the Ares photos in the Ares Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/ares/ We'd love to have you as a member!

Bonhams : the Zoute Sale

Estimated : € 50.000 - 80.000

Sold for € 51.750

Zoute Grand Prix 2018

Knokke - Zoute

België - Belgium

October 2018

'The Mustang can be tailored to be anything from a gentle in-town ladies' car to an impressive 130mph highway performer. Undoubtedly its almost infinitely variable personality is one of the car's chief attractions...' - William S Stone, 'The Ford Mustang'.

Ford created a new class of car almost overnight with the introduction of the Mustang sports coupé part way through the 1964 season, catching the rest of the US auto industry off guard. Brainchild of Lee Iacocca - subsequent saviour of the Chrysler Corporation – the Mustang is one of the most remarkable automotive success stories of modern times and arguably the pinnacle of his long career with Ford. Aimed at the affluent young, for whom a car was as much a lifestyle statement as means of transport, the Mustang succeeded brilliantly, achieving sales in excess of a quarter million by the end of '64. This remarkable debut was followed by a staggering 524,791 sales in 1965, earning Ford a fortune.

The secret of the Mustang's success was a broad appeal that extended beyond the target market thanks to a great value-for-money package combining sporty looks, decent economy and brisk performance. Mustangs could be ordered in specifications ranging from six-cylinder 'economy' to V8-powered luxury, while customers could choose from an extensive range of factory options, with the result that seldom are two Mustangs identical.

In 1994, Mr John Wilson from Hillsborough, California was looking for an original rust-free, undamaged and all matching numbers Ford Mustang. He found this car in San Francisco and purchased it from the original owner. The Mustang had covered relatively few miles and had not been run for the preceding ten years. Mr Wilson drove the Mustang for three years, and in 1998 decided to restore it to factory-original show standard, commissioning one of the West Coast's most renowned specialists, Potts Restorations of Burlingame, to carry out the work. Working with Potts, the owner spared no expense in his pursuit of perfection. The Potts team methodically disassembled the Mustang down to the bar bodyshell and carefully worked their way upwards, incorporating all 'new-old-stock' parts. Noteworthy features include automatic transmission, power brakes, power steering, electric hood, radio, 'Pony' wheels, and whitewall tyres.

This car is fully matching and correct in every detail, having been restored to the same state it left the factory in 1965. Completed in 2000, the Mustang was shown widely across the USA for the next few years, winning the 'Best in Show' award at every event entered. For two years in a row, it was the MCS Grand National winner as the best Mustang in the country – the ultimate accolade. Other important awards include: Gold AACA Grand National (2001, 2002); ISCA Best Antique Restored Senior Award (2002); ISCA Eastern Division Class Champion (2003); and Carolina Grand National Gold (2000-2003). Over 30 awards come with the car, which 15 years later is still in effectively 'as new' condition, exactly as it left the factory in 1965. Offered with California Certificate of Title and Netherlands registration papers, this breathtaking Mustang is worthy of the closest inspection.

Catacombs, Montparnasse, Paris

'Stop! here begins Death's Empire'

I decided that today was a day for going underground, and I set off to Montparnasse to visit the catacombs. These are a vast maze of tunnels under Paris originally used for quarrying the stone out of which the city's main buildings are constructed. In the late 18th Century, the state of the city's churchyards had become so disgusting that the city removed the bones from all of them. They were brought here at night, the carts coming from the centre of the city accompanied by torch-bearing acolytes and priests chanting the requiem Mass. A skull count showed that almost six million corpses were removed in this way. They were buried deep underground, but these people being Parisians the skulls and bones were arranged in a neat and methodical way, a meaningful chaos. Layers of tibia and femurs are crowned by a layer of pelvises and skulls, and so on. Each churchyard was grouped together, and a plaque shows which parish provided the skeletons.

The work was interrupted by the French Revolution,which provided plenty more corpses for when the work was resumed. Altogether about a kilometre and a half of tunnels were filled with the remains of dead Parisians, and you can walk through them on a winding route under the streets around Montparnasse station. In fact, this is just a tiny fraction of the tunnels. The catacombs extend for hundreds of kilometres under the city, many of them rarely explored and difficult of access. Because of this, they are regularly broken into by intrepid adventurers, and many legends have grown up about parts of the network. However, my favourite story is one which is true.

In 2004, a group of police cadets on a training exercise were given the task of tracking an imaginary criminal in a part of the network which was little known. They got into the system through a manhole, and when they were about a hundred feet underground something rather odd happened. They triggered a motion sensor which set off the sound of barking dogs. Thinking that it was part of the exercise, they headed onwards only to come out into a vast cavern which had been fully equipped as a cinema. An anteroom had been equipped and fully stocked as a bar, and there was also a film storage room. When the cadets reported what they had seen, the electricity board were sent in to work out where the invaders were getting their electricity from. Instead, they found the wires all cut, the equipment removed, and a sign saying 'Don't try to follow us. You'll never find us.'

Perhaps the cineastes had got fed up with waiting to get into the system officially, because this was the only place all week that I encountered a serious queue. Worse, I was just in front of a small group of people who talked constantly in very loud voices. She was an American who obviously lived in Paris, and they appeared to be young relatives who'd come to stay. She was taking them down the catacombs, and the price to be paid for this by the poor kids was to suffer her pretentious nonsense. She went on about spirituality, and homeopathy, and psychoanalysis, and the inner energy, and so on. Fair play to the kids, they responded enthusiastically enough.

And then she got out some of her stream of consciousness poetry, and started reading it in a loud voice. Well, goodness me. I was put in mind of something the graphic artist Alan Moore said when he was in Hollywood helping turn his 'V for Vendetta' into a film, and he was asked at a director's lunch why he lived in Northampton, England. "Because it keeps me grounded", he replied, and I thought that this was exactly right. It was like the opposite of this pompous woman, although to be fair to her I expect that if I went to live in Paris I would also disappear up my own backside.

The catacombs are brilliant, worth every minute of the queuing time, worth every insufferable stream of consciousness adjective. And then I went and did some shopping.

You can read my account of my travels at pariswander.blogspot.co.uk.

Q606 was northbound on the P&A subdivision when it experienced a mechanical after passing the siding on which Q601 was sitting.

After much discussion with the dispatcher and higher ups in Jacksonville the solution came down to the following: Q601 would uncouple from it's cars and pull forward onto the main track. He would then back down to 606 and couple to the last 49 cars which included the offending auto rack car, couple up and then pull forward so as to be able to drop the car onto a third track they called the "house" track. That done, 601 pulled back onto the main track with the remaining cars, backed down to 606 which was then coupled back together.

601 would pull forward again then back onto the siding recouple then I assume everyone went on his way as I had to leave before this scenario was complete.

I was very impressed with the methodical manner in which this problem was handled. No one got in a hurry, the crews on site was very specific about what was to be done. Safety seemed to be uppermost in their minds.

Another view of the study at the Charles Dickens Museum – the author's former home at 48 Doughty Street in London. This photo of focuses on Dickens' desk top and a glass case featuring some Dickens memorabilia.

Informational signage in the room provided details on the desk:

This is the desk where Dickens wrote many of his best works, including A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. It stood in the bay window of the study at his home in Gad's Hill Place, overlooking the front lawn with its sweeping drive.

Various items used by and given to Dickens can be seen on his desk. Included in these are: a pottery container given to him at Brighton as a thank you for handling his landlord's mental collapse, the ivory paper knife which features in the painting The Empty Chair by Luke Fildes and a silver cup presented to him in Montreal when he took part in a theatrical performance with the Garrison Players in aid of charity. The octagonal wooden ruler and taper stand are items known to have stood on the desk during Dickens' time at Gad's Hill Place.

A few details about the study, as listed in the museum's guide book:

Dickens' working day followed a strict routine. His writing time was between breakfast and lunch and there were no distractions that could pull him from his writing. 'His mind was essentially methodical and in his labour he was governed by rules laid down by himself and rarely departed from,' wrote one of his friends. After lunch Dickens might spend time at his club, look after his charitable projects or go for a long walk. The author drew much inspiration from exploring his surroundings and meeting people, so even when he was not at his writing desk his mind was creating new plots and characters.

A visitor to this room during Dickens' time here remarked on the author's vast collection of books. Today, the book cases are filled with early editions of Dickens' works and books owned by Dickens. These form part of the National Dickens Library which is held here at the museum.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released Tuesday by two nonprofit journalism groups.

"In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003," reads an overview of the examination, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and its affiliated group, the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

According to the study, Bush and seven top officials -- including Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice -- made 935 false statements about Iraq during those two years.

The study was based on a searchable database compiled of primary sources, such as official government transcripts and speeches, and secondary sources -- mainly quotes from major media organizations. See CNN viewers' reactions to the study »

The study says Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein's possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq's links to al Qaeda.

Bush has consistently asserted that at the time he and other officials made the statements, the intelligence community of the U.S. and several other nations, including Britain, believed Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

He has repeatedly said that despite the intelligence flaws, removing Hussein from power was the right thing to do.

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Press Secretary Ari Fleischer each made 109 false statements, it says. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made 85, Rice made 56, Cheney made 48 and Scott McLellan, also a press secretary, made 14, the study says.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," the report reads, citing multiple government reports, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the 9/11 Commission and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, which reported that Hussein had suspended Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to revive it.

The overview of the study also calls the media to task, saying most media outlets didn't do enough to investigate the claims.

"Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical," the report reads. "These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

The quotes in the study include an August 26, 2002, statement by Cheney to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/index.html

Catacombs, Montparnasse, Paris

I decided that today was a day for going underground, and I set off to Montparnasse to visit the catacombs. These are a vast maze of tunnels under Paris originally used for quarrying the stone out of which the city's main buildings are constructed. In the late 18th Century, the state of the city's churchyards had become so disgusting that the city removed the bones from all of them. They were brought here at night, the carts coming from the centre of the city accompanied by torch-bearing acolytes and priests chanting the requiem Mass. A skull count showed that almost six million corpses were removed in this way. They were buried deep underground, but these people being Parisians the skulls and bones were arranged in a neat and methodical way, a meaningful chaos. Layers of tibia and femurs are crowned by a layer of pelvises and skulls, and so on. Each churchyard was grouped together, and a plaque shows which parish provided the skeletons.

The work was interrupted by the French Revolution,which provided plenty more corpses for when the work was resumed. Altogether about a kilometre and a half of tunnels were filled with the remains of dead Parisians, and you can walk through them on a winding route under the streets around Montparnasse station. In fact, this is just a tiny fraction of the tunnels. The catacombs extend for hundreds of kilometres under the city, many of them rarely explored and difficult of access. Because of this, they are regularly broken into by intrepid adventurers, and many legends have grown up about parts of the network. However, my favourite story is one which is true.

In 2004, a group of police cadets on a training exercise were given the task of tracking an imaginary criminal in a part of the network which was little known. They got into the system through a manhole, and when they were about a hundred feet underground something rather odd happened. They triggered a motion sensor which set off the sound of barking dogs. Thinking that it was part of the exercise, they headed onwards only to come out into a vast cavern which had been fully equipped as a cinema. An anteroom had been equipped and fully stocked as a bar, and there was also a film storage room. When the cadets reported what they had seen, the electricity board were sent in to work out where the invaders were getting their electricity from. Instead, they found the wires all cut, the equipment removed, and a sign saying 'Don't try to follow us. You'll never find us.'

Perhaps the cineastes had got fed up with waiting to get into the system officially, because this was the only place all week that I encountered a serious queue. Worse, I was just in front of a small group of people who talked constantly in very loud voices. She was an American who obviously lived in Paris, and they appeared to be young relatives who'd come to stay. She was taking them down the catacombs, and the price to be paid for this by the poor kids was to suffer her pretentious nonsense. She went on about spirituality, and homeopathy, and psychoanalysis, and the inner energy, and so on. Fair play to the kids, they responded enthusiastically enough.

And then she got out some of her stream of consciousness poetry, and started reading it in a loud voice. Well, goodness me. I was put in mind of something the graphic artist Alan Moore said when he was in Hollywood helping turn his 'V for Vendetta' into a film, and he was asked at a director's lunch why he lived in Northampton, England. "Because it keeps me grounded", he replied, and I thought that this was exactly right. It was like the opposite of this pompous woman, although to be fair to her I expect that if I went to live in Paris I would also disappear up my own backside.

The catacombs are brilliant, worth every minute of the queuing time, worth every insufferable stream of consciousness adjective. And then I went and did some shopping.

You can read my account of my travels at pariswander.blogspot.co.uk.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) was a French botanist. He was born to a well-to-do family in Aix-en-Provence. Tournefort initially took up studies in theology. However, as he had a marked inclination towards natural sciences, he turned to medicine. He completed his studies at the University of Montpellier. In 1681, he was in Barcelona doing research in botany. In 1694 Tournefort published his first three-volume work, in which he classified 8846 plants. In 1698 he became Doctor in Medicine of the University of Paris. At that time his treatise was also translated into Latin. Tournefort became a famous physician and naturalist. He travelled extensively in Western Europe (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, England). He had published a number of works on botany, and had acquired a fabulous collection of nearly 50.000 books, as well as costumes, arms, minerals, shells and various curiosities. Thus, he already had a very important career behind him when Louis XIV entrusted him with the mission to bring new plants to the Royal Botanical Garden.

Tournefort started out on his voyage to the Near East in the spring of 1700, at the age of 44, accompanied by a painter and a doctor. He visited thirty-eight islands of the Greek archipelago, as well as Northern Anatolia, Pontus and Armenia, and reached Tiflis in Georgia. Tournefort returned to Marseilles in June 1702.

His manuscript, composed of his letters to the Minister of the Exterior Count de Pontchartain, was published posthumously in 1717. A number of re-editions followed, while his work was also translated into English, German and Flemish. There is also a Greek translation of the first part. The fact that Tournefort had discovered new plants in his journey led him to publish a supplement to his main work of botanical classification in 1703. He taught Botany in the Académie, while continuing to practice medicine; at the same time, he was in charge of the Royal Gardens, where many plants he brought from his travels were cultivated with success. Having survived a multitude of adventures, Tournefort died of an accident in 1708. He did not live to see the publication of his travel chronicle, which in the following three centuries became the basic manual to all travellers to these regions. Until today, researchers from numerous fields turn to Tournefort’s text, as it remains an invaluable source of information. He describes the places he visited in a particular systematic manner.

The systematic way he organizes his information on topography, economy, administration, ethnic composition, customs and habits of everyday life shows how one can arrive at truth and knowledge through research, methodical study, classification and generalisation. To document his research, Tournefort cites a hundred and thirty-five texts by Greek and Latin authors as well as Byzantine writers, Humanists, and earlier travel accounts.

He methodically narrates his visit to each island, and describes the locations as well as events that he witnessed and encounters with locals. He then continues with the island’s history from ancient times to the current age, citing the corresponding myths, and comparing with the information provided by ancient coins. Subsequently, he writes on the island’s administration and taxes, commerce, products and prices thereof. An entire chapter is dedicated to the Greek church. Tournefort also writes on monasteries and churches, house architecture and caves. He also describes the customs, the dress and the occupations of the inhabitants. He concludes his chapters with geographical observations from the highest point of each main region.

Naturally, his work includes engravings of city views, locations and monuments as well as plants, instruments and costumes. The text becomes alive with vivid descriptions of his encounters with islanders, be it Turks, Franks, Greeks or privateers. Of special interest are his descriptions of fortresses, ports, safe havens and his information on map drawing.

The second volume is a publication of his thoroughly documented manuscripts. It was not edited by Tournefort himself as had happened with the first. On numerous occasions he refers to the politics, administration and ethnic composition of the Ottoman Empire. He continues with his journey on the southern coast of the Black Sea to Armenia. The work closes with a short description of Smyrna and Ephesus.

Tournefort is considered the first to have shown the islands of the Archipelago to be “travel material”, as he offered information which inspired the interest for further research, and also highlighed each location’s wealth and uniqueness.

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

Fransız botanikçi Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) Aix-en-Provence'da varlıklı bir aile içinde doğar, ilk önce tanrıbilim (teoloji) dersleri izler ancak genç yaştan beri doğa bilimlerine eğilim gösterir. Bu yüzden Montpellier'de tıp öğrenimi görüp 1681'de botanik araştırmaları yapmak üzere Barcelona'ya gelir. 1694 yılında üç ciltlik ve 8.846 bitkinin sınıflandırmasına ilişkin ilk eserini yayınlar; 1698'de Paris Tıp Fakültesinden doktor unvanını alır ve bu kazanımı yapıtının latince çevirisi izler. Doktor ve doğa bilimcisi olarak ün salmış, Batı Avrupa'da (İspanya, Portekiz, Hollanda, İngiltere'ye) seyahat etmiş, botanoloji ile ilgili kitaplar yayınlamış, 50.000'e yakın kitaptan meydana gelen bir kitaplık oluşturmuş, ayrıca yerel kıyafet, silah, mineral, deniz kabuğu ve daha başka ilginç şeylerden oluşan hayranlık uyandıran koleksiyonlar sahibi olmuşken, kral 14. Louis ona Kraliyet Botanik Bahçesine yeni bitkiler getirme görevini verir. Tournefort 1700 yılının ilkbaharında, 44 yaşındayken, yanına yoldaş olarak bir ressam ve bir doktor alarak Yakın Doğu'ya doğru yola çıkar.

Ege adalarından 38 tanesini ziyaret eder, Kuzey Anadolu'nun her tarafını gezip Karadeniz ve Ermenistan yörelerine gelir, Tiflis'e varır. Tournefort, 1702 yılının Haziran ayında Marsilya'da karaya ayak basar.

Kaleme aldığı metin (Dışişleri bakanı Kont de Pontchartain'e yolladığı mektuplar biçiminde) ilk olarak 1717'de yayınlanır, bu ilk yayını bir çok yeni baskı izler ve eser ingilizce, almanca ve flamanca gibi dillere- ilk kısmı yunancaya da - çevrilir. Yeni keşfettiği bitkilerin daha önce belirlemiş olduğu sınıflandırma sistemine eklenmesi sonucu olarak 1703'te yeni bir cilt yayınlar. Tournefort botanik profesörü sıfatıyla Akademide dersler verir, doktorluk mesleğini ve bunlara koşut olarak Kraliyet Bahçesinin sorumluluğu görevini sürdürür. Gezilerinden getirmiş olduğu birçok yeni bitki bu bahçede başarılı bir şekilde yetiştirilir. Tournefort geçirdiği birçok maceradan kefeni yırtmışken, üç asır boyunca her gezginin bu bölge için başucu kitabı olacak seyahatnamesinin yayınlanmasını göremeden 1708'de bir kaza sonucu ölür. Bugün hâlâ çeşitli dallardan araştırmacılar Tournefort'un metnine başvurup son derece değerli bilgilerinden faydalanmak durumundalar. Eseri anında ingilizce, hollandaca ve almancaya çevrilmişti.

Gezdiği yerleri betimlerken belirli bir yöntem izleyerek topoğrafya, ekonomi, yönetim, milletler sentezi ve günlük yaşamdaki örf ve adetlere ilişkin bilgiler verirken, Tournefort, bilginin gerçeğe uyup uymadığı konusuna araştırma, düzenli okuma, sınıflandırma ve genelleştirme yoluyla yanaşılabileceğini kanıtlıyor. Kanıtlayıcı belgeleri arasında antik Yunan ve Latin yazarlarından, ayrıca Bizans yazarlarından ve daha eski hümanist bilgin ve gezginlerden 135 tane metin bulunmakta.

Ziyaret ettiği her ada için düzenli olarak ziyaretini anlatıp birçok yeri ve olayı hatta yerlilerle olan görüşmelerini de betimler. Bunlara ek olarak, adanın eski çağlardan gününe dek tarihi ve bununla ilintili efsaneler, sikkeler hakkında, yönetim, vergilendirme usulleri, ticaret, ürünler ve fiyatları hakkında bilgiler verir. Ayrıca Yunanistan'ın dinî (kilise) yaşamına başlıbaşına bir bölüm ayırır. Manastırlar, kiliseler, evlerin mimarisi, mağaralar hakkında yazar, adetler ve kıyafetleri betimleyip halkın uğraşlarından sözeder ve önemli yörelerin her birinin en yüksek irtifasından yaptığı coğrafya gözlemleri ile anlatımını bitirir.

Doğal olarak eserinde şehir, yer, anıt, bitki, alet, ve kıyafet görünümleri ile ilgili gravürler de yer almakta. Ayrıca metni ada halkıyla (Türkler, Latinler, Yunanlılar, korsanlarla) ilişkilerinden çarpıcı betimlemelerle de çeşitlenir. Kitabında hisarlar, gemi barınakları, güvenli limanlar hakkında yaptığı betimlemeler ve harita çizimi ile ilgili verdiği bilgiler özel ilgi uyandıran kısımlar arasındadır.

Eserinin birinci cildinin yayına hazırlığını kendisi denetlemişken ikinci cilt kendi ayrıntılı yazılarına sadık kalınarak basılır. Bu cildin başındaki birçok bölüm Osmanlıların siyasal, yönetimsel ve etnografik durumuna ayrılmıştır. Bunun devamında Karadeniz'in güney kıyılarında yaptığı Ermenistan'a kadar varan yolculuğunu anlatıp kitabı İzmir ve Efes'in kısa bir betimlemesi ile bitirir.

Böylece Tournefort, başkalarında arayış isteğini besleyecek nitelikte malzeme sağlamanın yanısıra, gördüğü her yerin sonsuz zengiliğini ve kendine özgü niteliklerini yüzeye çıkarması açısından Ege adalarına bir "yolculuk uknumu" veren ilk şahıs olarak bilinir.

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

This sow has emerged as the dominant female along this little stretch of Thornapple river, she has methodically gone about the task of running off every subordinate male, and most subordinate females, since the end of July!

via

The Pilates Approach and workout is an activity that includes physical elements; it is essential to keep in mind that it is not a cardiovascular exercise. With this, you will not need to stress over applying yourself. The Pilates Technique and workouts were created and established as an organized practice that increases your body’s core through balancing, extending, enhancing and breathing. It’s not surprising that then that the Pilates Approach is frequently advised in addition to aerobic exercises along with resistance training.

Everybody is doing Pilates Approach today, from the Hollywood stars to your next door next-door neighbor. Well, Pilates is a fast growing phenomenon that’s predestined to stay attractive. It is widely known throughout the world as a type of workout, however much to that, the Pilates Approach and workout is not simply a kind of plain workout, however is a series of regulated motions that enhance and condition the body.

How Does the Pilates Technique Work?

The Pilates Approach and workout is more vibrant than yoga. The factor for this is that this approach presses the body through extending and after that targets versatility, strength and posture.

On its a lot of fundamental, the Pilates Technique and workout works by method of integrating breathing strategies with unique stretches and a maker. As pointed out previously, it is a technique of workout and regulated motions that concentrates on boosting the core of the body by making it more powerful and versatile.

Professionals state that using the Pilates device, people need to go through methodical relocations, while holding their upper body in location and moving their limbs in various instructions. It is these motions that challenge the individual’s strength, versatility and balance.

Advantages of Pilates Approach and Workout

Lots of have additional affirmed that the Pilates Technique and workout is mild and really efficient. It is a perfect exercise for professional athletes recuperating from injury, older individuals who might not have the capability to carry out laborious workout, or the pregnant females who want to obtain back fit after pregnancy.

The advantages of the Pilates Technique and workout are extremely obvious. A great deal of Pilates lovers have actually reported and declared that by going to routine Pilates classes or sessions, their bodies get toner, more powerful, and healthy. As typically stated, they feel the distinction in their abs, backs and legs immediately after doing the Pilates Technique and workout.

There likewise other associated advantages to the Pilates Technique. Among those is weight-loss. A number of individuals who attempted the Pilates reported a boost in energy levels and a basic sense of wellness.

To sum it up, here are the advantages of the Pilates Approach and workout:

Having stated all these, I might state that the Pilates Approach and workout is however a fantastic supplement to any healthy regimen.

Assists in lining up the body

Assists in rehab of injuries

An excellent technique for abdominals

Stretches and reinforces the body

Great for pregnant females

Great for weight-loss

Helps basic wellness

Improves energy levels

pilatesworkoutvideo.com/understanding-the-pilates-method-...

by KGW.com Staff

Posted on December 11, 2012 at 4:29 PM

Updated today at 6:16 PM

PORTLAND – A gunman and two victims were dead after a man went on a shooting rampage inside the Clackamas Town Center mall Tuesday afternoon.

A witness told KGW that up to 60 shots were fired by a man wearing a white mask and body armor, armed with a large assault-type rifle. The shooting took place at about 3:30 p.m. at the Southeast Portland area mall.

“All of a sudden, I just heard a series of gunshots… boom, boom, boom, boom, boom… whatever the shooter was shooting at, they continued to shoot,” said shopper Bill Hoff.

Several witnesses reported hearing the suspect announce "I am the shooter," before he began firing.

Witnesses said the suspect fired several times until the rifle jammed and he the dropped a magazine onto the floor, then ran into the Macy's store.

“It was just shot after shot after shot. It was terrible. It was like a massacre,” witness Kira Rowland said.

Deputies said that the shooting suspecct and two victims were dead and another victim was taken to the hospital with traumatic injuries. Multiple other people were hurt, according to deputies.

Lieutenant James Rhodes of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said at a news conference just before 5 p.m. that the suspect had been "neutralized." Later police said the shooter was dead but did not identify him or the weapon used.

“We believe there was one and only one shooter involved and that shooter is deceased,” Rhodes later said. Police did not think there were any other suspects.

Any witnesses were asked to contact police at (503) 655-8211.

Family members seeking info can call CCSO non-emergency number: 503-655-8211

Hundreds of people were evacuated and police officers were methodically searching the mall for any injured or hidden customers and employees.

KGW reporter Abbey Gibb said people were crying and shaking as they came out of the mall.

Dax McMillan, a former police officer, said a friend of his was right next to one of the victims. He said she told him that the gunman aimed at her but his gun jammed and she ran.

Witness Benjamin Christensen, who works in the mall, said he was also there when the shooting began. He heard one shot, then six or seven more. He then began helping to evacuate others out of the rear exits.

“There were just cops everywhere and sirens and ambulances coming in. I hope everyone is okay,” said a shopper named Isabel, who fled after the shooting. “It’s so close to a holiday. It’s terrible.”

Another witness told KGW she heard several gunshots near Nordstrom, before people ran for cover.

Reporter Pat Dooris described a heavy police and emergency vehicle presence as well as "a lot of chaos." One witness told him security forces helped shoppers get down to the ground and out of site after the shots were fired.

“A deputy is about 50 yards away from me. He has a shotgun out, he’s hiding behind a car,” said John Canzano, a well-known local sports columnist who happened to be at the mall at the time said.

The mall exit from Interstate 205 was closed by police until just after 5 p.m. Police said the mall would remain closed during the investigation.

This was not written by me. All of this was written by KGW Local News.

I was near the area when this happened and was frightened out of my mind. I was so scared that I just went silent. In fact, The Clackamas Town Center was our next stop. My heart goes out to all those involved in this scene.

(Dallas, TX – July 24, 2014) A 57-year old Dallas man falsely convicted of sexual assault will be exonerated as a result of systematic DNA testing by a district attorney’s office, even though he was not actively proclaiming his innocence or requesting DNA testing. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, this is the first time in the United States an exoneration of this nature has occurred.

Mr. Michael Phillips, an African-American, served 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 for raping a 16-year-old Caucasian girl at a Dallas motel where both of them lived. Mr. Phillips says his defense attorney told him not to risk going to trial – fearing a jury would not side with a black man accused of raping a white girl who picked Mr. Phillips out of a photo line- up.

However, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ ongoing project of reviewing untested rape kits without defendants initiating the request revealed Mr. Phillips was innocent. DA Watkins signed off on this proactive screening project, which tests DNA preserved by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences. The Dallas area crime lab tested sexual assault kits from the year 1990 that met certain criteria, which paved the way for Mr. Phillips’ exoneration.

“Mr. Phillips is very lucky that we tested rape kits from the year in which the heinous crime took place,” said Craig Watkins. There was no DNA profile from Mr. Phillips to compare to the profile derived from the semen found in the rape kit, because in 1990 DNA samples were not routinely collected from sexual assault suspects as they are now. The semen found in the rape kit was put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which identified Lee Marvin Banks as the real perpetrator. Mr. Banks also lived at the same motel where the 1990 rape took place. “DNA tells the truth, so this was another case of eyewitness misidentification where one individual’s life was wrongfully snatched and a violent criminal was allowed to go free. We apologize to Michael Phillips for a criminal justice system that failed him,” said Mr. Watkins.

Michael Phillips’ case will become the 34th exoneration by the Dallas DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit. The exoneration hearing is scheduled on July 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. CST at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Criminal District Court 3. Mr. Phillips is in a wheel chair due to his fight with sickle cell anemia, but he is looking forward to his day in court.

“I never imagined I would live to see my name cleared. Six of my siblings died from the same disease, so I thank God for sustaining me in prison. I always told everyone I was innocent and now people will finally believe me,” said Mr. Phillips.”

The exoneration would not have been possible without the assistance of Samuel Gross, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and Editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, and Professor Colin Starger of the University of Baltimore School of Law. Both professors worked without compensation under the supervision of the Dallas County Conviction Integrity Unit to test the untested sexual assault kits.

“On one hand this was like finding a needle in a haystack because Michael Phillips had given up on pressing his claim of innocence, but on the other hand this was a methodical approach that can be replicated nationwide. Untested rape kits should not just sit on a shelf and collect dust. The exoneration continues to expose the past weakness in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Watkins.

Mr. Phillips was released from prison in 2002, but failure to register as a sex offender landed him back in jail for six months. It’s been one hurdle after another – not being able to find a place to live or get a job. He now lives in a nursing home, but that could soon change. The State of Texas awards an exoneree $80,000 for each year of wrongful conviction.

💡HOW 🔽

🔥ACTION ONE (3✔️) (👨‍🔧Toaster) Heat your toaster. Then light your cigarette :

👣Step 1 (1✔️) 0:07

👣Step 2 (2✔️) 0:21

✅Finish 0:39

➕3 ✔️Experience Point in Trick

👩‍🔬eXplanation : Plug your toaster into an electricity source. Then turn on your toaster at a relatively high power. Afterwards, take your cigarette and rub it on the hot, red surface while making circles. Until you see smoke coming out of your cigarette. Repeat the operation until your cigarette is fully lit. Do not hesitate to smoke your cigarette to light your cigarette more easily, you can repeat that too.

ℹ️Electric source for the toaster. Difficult in an outdoor environment ...

⚠️Check before if your toaster is not faulty.

⚠️Pay attention to electricity.

⚠️Do not use any liquid or metal objects if you can not reach the hot surface of your toaster with your hand ... Drop it. Your toaster just does not adaper.

⏳ Trick In Less Than 1 Minute : www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCnt1yP-rsmnHfa303pV2rX5nC...

🏆Difficulty :Very Easy (Level 1)

🎓Skills : No skills required

️Senses : 👀Vision 👆To Touch 💃Proprioception Equilibrioception ♨️Thermoception

👩‍🏫Intelligences : Kinesthetic Body Intelligence

🔢Intelligence Logic Mathematics

💡Imagination

🙇State of Mind : 😶Focus

😵Methodical

😉Organize

😷Careful

💞Context (Example) : 🔥No Lighter

️Tools (🔨2)

🔨Toaster

🔨Cigarette

📋WHAT 🔽

💡How To Be Astute {1} Step by Step

🌟Light a Cigarette with a Toaster

💫Cigarette/Toaster World

🌌Light Up/Smoke Galaxy

✨Trick Universe (💡)

📝Type : Light a cigarette without a lighter (⚡Electricity & 🚬Cigarette)

🎨Style : Light a cigarette with a toaster.

️Language : International (🇬🇧 description and steps in English, but comprehensible by the whole world)

️You can use your playlists as filters, to find what you're looking for exactly : www.youtube.com/channel/UCb1N-vNT8Y1-qx0PdlvLRpg/playlists

📖HOW MUCH 🔽

👣2 Steps

🔥1 Action

✔️3 Experience Points

️2 tools

⏱️Preparation Time : 5 Secondes Minimum - 2 Minutes Maximum

⏰Waiting Time : 30 Secondes Minimum - 5 Minutes Maximum

🎬Action Time : 5 Secondes Minimum - 3 Minutes Maximum

️5 Senses

👩‍🏫3 Intelligences

🙇4 State of Mind

WHO 🔽

👍Tip by LG

🎥Filmed by LG : Go Pro Hero 5

📡Posted by LG

️Video made by LG (Windows Movie Maker 2017)

©Etoile Copyright (Cooking)

©Ikson (Music)

🎵Music Used Ikson - Reflect

Support Ikson :

ℹ️ How to use music : iksonmusic.wordpress.com/

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🎼Music promoted 📂 by eMotion

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❓WHY 🔽

Learn How To Light a Cigarette with a Toaster

📍WHERE 🔽

Pontault Combault (🇫🇷 France)

🇸🇪Sweden Music

🕓WHEN 🔽

📅23 December 2017

⌚Duration : 40 Secondes Minimum ~ 10 Minutes Maximum

⚠️The duration depends on the performance and tools used by the author. That is why this is indicated from the minimum to the maximum

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v.2.003

A thangka, also known as tangka, thanka or tanka (Nepali pronunciation: [ˈt̪ʰaŋka]; Tibetan: ཐང་ཀ་; Nepal Bhasa: पौभा) is a painting on cotton, or silk appliqué, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene, or mandala of some sort. The thangka is not a flat creation like an oil painting or acrylic painting but consists of a picture panel which is painted or embroidered over which a textile is mounted and then over which is laid a cover, usually silk. Generally, thangkas last a very long time and retain much of their lustre, but because of their delicate nature, they have to be kept in dry places where moisture won't affect the quality of the silk. It is sometimes called a scroll-painting.

These thangka served as important teaching tools depicting the life of the Buddha, various influential lamas and other deities and bodhisattvas. One subject is The Wheel of Life, which is a visual representation of the Abhidharma teachings (Art of Enlightenment).

Thangka, when created properly, perform several different functions. Images of deities can be used as teaching tools when depicting the life (or lives) of the Buddha, describing historical events concerning important Lamas, or retelling myths associated with other deities. Devotional images act as the centerpiece during a ritual or ceremony and are often used as mediums through which one can offer prayers or make requests. Overall, and perhaps most importantly, religious art is used as a meditation tool to help bring one further down the path to enlightenment. The Buddhist Vajrayana practitioner uses a thanga image of their yidam, or meditation deity, as a guide, by visualizing “themselves as being that deity, thereby internalizing the Buddha qualities (Lipton, Ragnubs).”

Historians note that Chinese painting had a profound influence on Tibetan painting in general. Starting from the 14th and 15th century, Tibetan painting had incorporated many elements from the Chinese, and during the 18th century, Chinese painting had a deep and far-stretched impact on Tibetan visual art. According to Giuseppe Tucci, by the time of the Qing Dynasty, "a new Tibetan art was then developed, which in a certain sense was a provincial echo of the Chinese 18th century's smooth ornate preciosity."

HISTORY

Thangka is a Nepalese art form exported to Tibet after Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal, daughter of King Lichchavi, married Songtsän Gampo, the ruler of Tibet imported the images of Aryawalokirteshwar and other Nepalese deities to Tibet. History of thangka Paintings in Nepal began in the 11th century A.D. when Buddhists and Hindus began to make illustration of the deities and natural scenes. Historically, Tibetan and Chinese influence in Nepalese paintings is quite evident in Paubhas (Thangkas). Paubhas are of two types, the Palas which are illustrative paintings of the deities and the Mandala, which are mystic diagrams paintings of complex test prescribed patterns of circles an square each having specific significance. It was through Nepal that Mahayana Buddhism was introduced into Tibet during reign of Angshuvarma in the seventh century A.D. There was therefore a great demand for religious icons and Buddhist manuscripts for newly built monasteries throughout Tibet. A number of Buddhist manuscripts, including Prajnaparamita, were copied in Kathmandu Valley for these monasteries. Astasahas rika Prajnaparamita for example, was copied in Patan in the year 999 A.D., during the reign of Narendra Dev and Udaya Deva, for the Sa-Shakya monastery in Tibet. For the Nor monastery in Tibet, two copies were made in Nepal-one of Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita in 1069 A.D. and the other of Kavyadarsha in 1111 A.D. The influence of Nepalese art extended till Tibet and even beyond in China in regular order during the thirteenth century. Nepalese artisans were dispatched to the courts of Chinese emperors at their request to perform their workmanship and impart expert knowledge. The exemplary contribution made by the artisans of Nepal, specially by the Nepalese innovator and architect Balbahu, known by his popular name Araniko bear testimony to this fact even today. After the introduction of paper, palm leaf became less popular, however, it continued to be used until the eighteenth century. Paper manuscripts imitated the oblong shape but were wider than the palm leaves.

From the fifteenth century onwards, brighter colours gradually began to appear in Nepalese.Thanka / Thangka. Because of the growing importance of the Tantric cult, various aspects of Shiva and Shakti were painted in conventional poses. Mahakala, Manjushri, Lokeshwara and other deities were equally popular and so were also frequently represented in Thanka / Thangka paintings of later dates. As Tantrism embodies the ideas of esoteric power, magic forces, and a great variety of symbols, strong emphasis is laid on the female element and sexuality in the paintings of that period.

Religious paintings worshipped as icons are known as Paubha in Newari and Thanka / Thangka in Tibetan. The origin of Paubha or Thanka / Thangka paintings may be attributed to the Nepalese artists responsible for creating a number of special metal works and wall- paintings as well as illuminated manuscripts in Tibet. Realizing the great demand for religious icons in Tibet, these artists, along with monks and traders, took with them from Nepal not only metal sculptures but also a number of Buddhist manuscripts. To better fulfil the ever - increasing demand Nepalese artists initiated a new type of religious painting on cloth that could be easily rolled up and carried along with them. This type of painting became very popular both in Nepal and Tibet and so a new school of Thanka / Thangka painting evolved as early as the ninth or tenth century and has remained popular to this day. One of the earliest specimens of Nepalese Thanka / Thangka painting dates from the thirteenth /fourteenth century and shows Amitabha surrounded by Bodhisattva. Another Nepalese Thanka / Thangka with three dates in the inscription (the last one corresponding to 1369 A.D.), is one of the earliest known Thanka / Thangka with inscriptions. The "Mandalaof Vishnu " dated 1420 A.D., is another fine example of the painting of this period. Early Nepalese Thangkas are simple in design and composition. The main deity, a large figure, occupies the central position while surrounded by smaller figures of lesser divinities.

Thanka / Thangka painting is one of the major science out the five major and five minor fields of knowledge. Its origin can be traced all the way back to the time of Lord Buddha. The main themes of Thanka / Thangka paintings are religious. During the reign of Tibetan Dharma King Trisong Duetsen the Tibetan masters refined their already well-developed arts through research and studies of different country's tradition. Thanka painting's lining and measurement, costumes, implementations and ornaments are mostly based on Indian styles. The drawing of figures is based on Nepalese style and the background sceneries are based on Chinese style. Thus, the Thanka / Thangka paintings became a unique and distinctive art. Although the practice of thanka painting was originally done as a way of gaining merit it has nowadays only evolved into a money making business and the noble intentions it once carried has been diluted. Tibetans do not sell Thangkas on a large scale as the selling of religious artifacts such as thangkas and idols is frowned upon in the Tibetan community and thus non Tibetan groups have been able to monopolize on its (thangka's) popularity among Buddhist and art enthusiasts from the west.

Thanka / Thangka have developed in the northern Himalayan regions among the Lamas. Besides Lamas, Gurung and Tamang communities are also producing Tankas, which provide substantial employment opportunities for many people in the hills. Newari Thankas (Also known as Paubha) has been the hidden art work in Kathmandu valley from the 13th century. We have preserved this art and are exclusively creating this with some particular painter family who have inherited their art from their forefathers. Some of the artistic religious and historical paintings are also done by the Newars of Kathmandu Valley.

TYPES

Based on technique and material, thangkas can be grouped by types. Generally, they are divided into two broad categories: those that are painted (Tib.) bris-tan—and those made of silk, either by appliqué or embroidery.

Thangkas are further divided into these more specific categories:

- Painted in colors (Tib.) tson-tang - the most common type

- Appliqué (Tib.) go-tang

- Black Background - meaning gold line on a black background (Tib.) nagtang

- Blockprints - paper or cloth outlined renderings, by woodcut/woodblock printing

- Embroidery (Tib.) tsem-thang

- Gold Background - an auspicious treatment, used judiciously for peaceful, long-life deities and fully enlightened buddhas

- Red Background - literally gold line, but referring to gold line on a vermillion (Tib.) mar-tang

Whereas typical thangkas are fairly small, between about 18 and 30 inches tall or wide, there are also giant festival thangkas, usually Appliqué, and designed to be unrolled against a wall in a monastery for particular religious occasions. These are likely to be wider than they are tall, and may be sixty or more feet across and perhaps twenty or more high.

Somewhat related are Tibetan tsakli, which look like miniature thangkas, but are usually used as initiation cards or offerings.

Because Thangkas can be quite expensive, people nowadays use posters of Thangkas as an alternative to the real thangkas for religious purposes.

PROCESS

Thangkas are painted on cotton or silk. The most common is a loosely woven cotton produced in widths from 40 to 58 centimeters. While some variations do exist, thangkas wider than 45 centimeters frequently have seams in the support. The paint consists of pigments in a water soluble medium. Both mineral and organic pigments are used, tempered with a herb and glue solution. In Western terminology, this is a distemper technique.

The composition of a thangka, as with the majority of Buddhist art, is highly geometric. Arms, legs, eyes, nostrils, ears, and various ritual implements are all laid out on a systematic grid of angles and intersecting lines. A skilled thangka artist will generally select from a variety of predesigned items to include in the composition, ranging from alms bowls and animals, to the shape, size, and angle of a figure's eyes, nose, and lips. The process seems very methodical, but often requires deep understanding of the symbolism involved to capture the spirit of it.

Thangka often overflow with symbolism and allusion. Because the art is explicitly religious, all symbols and allusions must be in accordance with strict guidelines laid out in Buddhist scripture. The artist must be properly trained and have sufficient religious understanding, knowledge, and background to create an accurate and appropriate thangka. Lipton and Ragnubs clarify this in Treasures of Tibetan Art:

“Tibetan art exemplifies the nirmanakaya, the physical body of Buddha, and also the qualities of the Buddha, perhaps in the form of a deity. Art objects, therefore, must follow rules specified in the Buddhist scriptures regarding proportions, shape, color, stance, hand positions, and attributes in order to personify correctly the Buddha or Deities.”

WIKIPEDIA

‎WESTLAKE - It took nearly 150 ‪Los Angeles‬ ‪Firefighters‬ nearly two and a half hours to extinguish a major emergency fire in a vacant 2 story office building west of downtown Los Angeles Monday evening.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was summoned at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2016 to a structure fire at 2411 West 8th Street in the Westlake neighborhood not far from MacArthur Park. LAFD responders arrived quickly to find intense fire on the upper floor of a long vacant 14,351 square-foot two story office building, the site of previous blazes.

Firefighters used ground ladders to assist several imperiled persons at windows of the burning structure, with LAFD responders entering the building to performing the rescue of three others.

While extending hoselines to aggressively battle the flames within, LAFD crews sadly discovered and retrieved a dead man from the inferno, before the failing structure forced then to switch to defensive exterior operations twenty minutes into the firefight.

A total of 147 LAFD personnel under the command of Battalion Chief Jaime Moore, confined the blaze to the heavily damaged building of fire origin - which had no functional fire sprinklers, extinguishing the bulk of flame in just 2 hours and 22 minutes.

As a result of witnesses statements, Los Angeles Police Department Officers later detained and arrested an adult male suspected of starting the fire. He and one of the persons earlier rescued by firefighters, were taken to an area hospital by ambulance for evaluation of non-life threatening injuries.

With the flames extinguished well past darkness, firefighters remained at the structurally unsound premises to douse hotspots, prevent public harm and prepare for a further search at daybreak.

Early Tuesday, investigation teams from the LAFD Arson/Counter-Terrorism Section methodically processed the large and still-smoldering site to determine the fire's cause and origin, as highly-trained Human Remains Detection Dog and Handler teams performed a relentless search of the collapsed structure for deceased victims.

With the canines' help, firefighters discovered the remains of four adult victims, two men and two women, amid the rubble on the second floor of the building. Their discovery, combined with the male victim found deceased by firefighters battling the blaze, brought the death tally to five, all of whom appeared to be transients.

No firefighters sustained injury in the firefight, investigation or recovery operations.

A positive identification of the dead persons, to include the cause, time and manner of their death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.

© Photo by John Conkle

LAFD Incident: 061316-1267

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(Dallas, TX – July 24, 2014) A 57-year old Dallas man falsely convicted of sexual assault will be exonerated as a result of systematic DNA testing by a district attorney’s office, even though he was not actively proclaiming his innocence or requesting DNA testing. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, this is the first time in the United States an exoneration of this nature has occurred.

Mr. Michael Phillips, an African-American, served 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in 1990 for raping a 16-year-old Caucasian girl at a Dallas motel where both of them lived. Mr. Phillips says his defense attorney told him not to risk going to trial – fearing a jury would not side with a black man accused of raping a white girl who picked Mr. Phillips out of a photo line- up.

However, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins’ ongoing project of reviewing untested rape kits without defendants initiating the request revealed Mr. Phillips was innocent. DA Watkins signed off on this proactive screening project, which tests DNA preserved by the Southwest Institute of Forensic Sciences. The Dallas area crime lab tested sexual assault kits from the year 1990 that met certain criteria, which paved the way for Mr. Phillips’ exoneration.

“Mr. Phillips is very lucky that we tested rape kits from the year in which the heinous crime took place,” said Craig Watkins. There was no DNA profile from Mr. Phillips to compare to the profile derived from the semen found in the rape kit, because in 1990 DNA samples were not routinely collected from sexual assault suspects as they are now. The semen found in the rape kit was put into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which identified Lee Marvin Banks as the real perpetrator. Mr. Banks also lived at the same motel where the 1990 rape took place. “DNA tells the truth, so this was another case of eyewitness misidentification where one individual’s life was wrongfully snatched and a violent criminal was allowed to go free. We apologize to Michael Phillips for a criminal justice system that failed him,” said Mr. Watkins.

Michael Phillips’ case will become the 34th exoneration by the Dallas DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit. The exoneration hearing is scheduled on July 25, 2014 at 9 a.m. CST at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Criminal District Court 3. Mr. Phillips is in a wheel chair due to his fight with sickle cell anemia, but he is looking forward to his day in court.

“I never imagined I would live to see my name cleared. Six of my siblings died from the same disease, so I thank God for sustaining me in prison. I always told everyone I was innocent and now people will finally believe me,” said Mr. Phillips.”

The exoneration would not have been possible without the assistance of Samuel Gross, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and Editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, and Professor Colin Starger of the University of Baltimore School of Law. Both professors worked without compensation under the supervision of the Dallas County Conviction Integrity Unit to test the untested sexual assault kits.

“On one hand this was like finding a needle in a haystack because Michael Phillips had given up on pressing his claim of innocence, but on the other hand this was a methodical approach that can be replicated nationwide. Untested rape kits should not just sit on a shelf and collect dust. The exoneration continues to expose the past weakness in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Watkins.

Mr. Phillips was released from prison in 2002, but failure to register as a sex offender landed him back in jail for six months. It’s been one hurdle after another – not being able to find a place to live or get a job. He now lives in a nursing home, but that could soon change. The State of Texas awards an exoneree $80,000 for each year of wrongful conviction.

Saturday, February 11, 2012.Recap: No. 15 C'Town 87, No. 19 WC 69.By Brendan Hall..CHARLESTOWN, Mass. -- At this time last year, Charlestown made the trek West, down Route 146, to deliver a haymaker to a Whitinsville Christian squad considered the state's tallest lineup. ..This afternoon, the Crusaders came East to Bunker Hill, with a different look for the Townies -- smaller, quicker, more surgical -- and the result was very nearly a different outcome. The Crusaders hung with Charlestown through three quarters, before the Townies pulled away in the fourth, outscoring Whitinsville 31-14 in the final frame en route to an 87-69 victory. .."That team's very good, I thought that was the best shooting team we saw," Charlestown head coach Edson Cardoso said. "They're very well balanced, with a real good point guard, big man, two-guard, so I knew coming into this game it was going to be a battle. I told the guys, 'You're going to see a team like this in the state tournament, eventually down the line." ..The Townies (14-3), played just seven due to health (Jawhari Dawan-Abdullah, stomach bug) and off the court issues (Gary Braham, suspension). But they saw all five of their regular starters reach double-figures, with senior point guard Rony Fernandez (26 points, four assists) leading the way. Senior forward Tyrik Jackson (12 points, 13 rebounds) came up big on the glass again, while Tyrese Hoxter (16 points, seven assists), Omar Orriols (13 points) and Iser Barnes (12) contributed some big shots from the perimeter to keep the defense stretched out. ..But early on, the Crusaders (12-2) gave them fits with the methodical way they broke through the Townie's 2-3 zone with some of the most disciplined and precise ball movement they'd seen in a while. Junior point guard Colin Richey (23 points) funneled the offense down to the baseline, finding a player planted right in the heart of the zone and kicking to either the baseline or either wing. ..Whitinsville shot nearly 40 percent from the field, getting good looks from the short side from Tyler VandenAkker (12 points, eight rebounds) and Jesse Dykstra. Grant Brown (10 points) came up with some big shots from the perimeter as well. .."We decided to extend a little bit more on the short corner, because they hit about four shots in a row from the short corner," Cardoso said. "We also decided to have the opposite guard extend even more on shooter No. 2 (Tim Dufficey). So we made some extensions in the second half, did a little better job -- not a great job, but it helped us get the victory." ..To start the fourth quarter, Barnes completed a 6-0 run by ripping the ball out of his defender's hands at midcourt and landing a breakaway layup. A few possessions later, Hoxter found Jackson underneath the rim for an easy tip-in and 68-59 advantage. ..Then with 1:37 to go, sophomore Taris Wilson hit the first of two monster breakaway slams, this one making it 76-63 to essentially put the game in hand. ..Hot from the field: The Townies outrebounded the Crusaders 16-7 in the final frame, giving way to many key transition points that helped ice the lead and the win. From the glass, WC still held a slim 35-33 advantage. ..But down at the other end, the Townies had a terrific night from the field, shooting nearly 58 percent overall. That was aided by a 7-for-17 effort from three-point range, including three 3's each from Fernandez and Orriols. ..Praise for Richey: Last season, New Mission head coach Cory McCarthy was throwing around high praise for the then-sophomore Richey, calling him "a suburban kid that plays urban". ..Consider Cardoso another Boston City League coach that's a fan. .."He's tough," Cardoso said. "He's one of the toughest guards coming out of his league, and I think he's going give a lot of teams problems in the state tournament, because how do you stop a kid like that?" ..Turning point? Following last season's loss to Charlestown in its home gym, WC coach Jeff Bajema greeted his players in the locker room and told them, "Guys, we can win states." ..Sure enough, the Crusaders never lost another game the rest of the way, picking up their first Division 3 state title since 2005 at the DCU Center in Worcester. After that game, Bajema spoke to reporters about how much the whitewashing by Charlestown seasoned them for what to expect in the state tournament. ..Given how much more competitive the Crusaders were this time around, could this be seen as another momentum shift? .."Hopefully, a game like this will lead us to better things," Bajema said. "But we've got a tough one Tuesday (against Holy Name), so we'll see."

Shot at ISO 1600, Aperture of 3.5, Shutter speed of 1/500 and Focal Length of 50.0 mm

Taken with a 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM lens and processed by Aperture 3.2.2 on Saturday February-11-2012 16:41 EST PM

The unemployed of Marienthal (valley). A sociographic experiment on the effects of long-term unemployment (1933) is the title of a study by Marie Jahoda, Paul Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel on the consequences of unemployment, which is one of the classics of empirical sociology. The study pointed to the socio-psychological effects of unemployment and made it clear that long-term unemployment is not - as is often assumed - leading to revolt, but to passive resignation.

The investigation

Today, the project executed by a team around Marie Jahoda and Paul Lazarsfeld is considered a milestone in the development of empirical social research (see also participant observation and field research) and as a model of theory formation in combination of quantitative, qualitative, encountered and collected data. Even if those concepts are younger than the work on the unemployed of Marienthal, have been here - under the term of sociography - set foundations for those methods.

The workers' settlement Marienthal is located in Gramatneusiedl, a village near Vienna. After the closure of a factory, after whose commissioning the community was founded, arose suddenly an extensive unemployment during the Great Depression around 1931. Otto Bauer, who was then the leading man of the Austrian Social Democrats, proposed Lazarsfeld and Zeisel to conduct a study on this topic and also named the locality of Marienthal.

To gain access to the people in Marienthal, the authors of this study not only have sought contact with political and social groups and clubs, but also carried out collections of cloth, medical consultations, education consultations, gymnastics and drawing classes. The aim was to win the people for the research project. At the same time, each of those means (inclusively the in this regard ethically questionable consultation hours) also served the purpose by participant observation to obtain information about the Marienthal population.

For each family in Marienthal cadastral sheets were created, on which the various observations and interviews were recorded, from the ordered or disordered condition of the apartment when visiting because of the clothes collection to things in the educational counseling, visits to the doctor or during observation in the "Workers' House" were discussed. There were about thirty in-depth interviews conducted, made some journals about the time management and created food lists. Official statistics also have been used. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger played a big part in this work. In the work team but apparently tensions of personal and political nature occurred, so that Danzinger was not included in the publication as a co-author.

The published results of the study provide a broad and deep overview into the life of that form of unemployment benefits, with no early prospect of employment. In particular, is traced how as a result of the hopelessness because of unemployment the time budget changes. If actually a task had to be fulfilled, it nevertheless is left unattended. It is missing the time management, the fixed grid, a daily structure.

Implications of the study

By a combination, determined by each state of the research process, of qualitative with quantitative methods of social research (observation, structured observation protocols, household surveys, questionnaires, use of time sheets, interviews, conversations and simultaneous assistance), this work, in 1933 first published, methodically is pointing the way - even if its reception in German-speaking area only years or decades later followed. The group of Austrian research sociologists through the example of small town of Marienthal, marked by the decline of textile industry, in its field research study for the first time in this form, precision and depth proved socio-psychological effects of unemployment and showed in the main result that unemployment is not (as hitherto mostly expected) leading to active revolution, but rather leads to passive resignation.

However, the unemployed of Marienthal is not only a with many examples illustrated dense empirical description, but also a social-theoretically stimulating work with view at the four attitude types of the also internally unbroken, the resigned, the desperate and the neglected apathetic - only the first type yet knowing "plans and hopes for the future", while the resignation, despair and apathy of the other three types "led to the renunciation of a future that not even in the imagination as plan plays a role". As a crucial dimension proved to be the ability to preserve and develop "plans and hopes for the future" and, therefore, not to lose a fundamental dimension of human attitude: the anticipation of possible developments.

The written by Marie Jahoda research report in the print edition (1975) is complemented by a "preamble" written in the 1950s by Lazarsfeld, in which the study is classified in its relation to former and contemporary trends in sociology, and by the written for the first edition methodological annex from Zeisel on history of sociography.

After the authors of the study are in Vienna in the 17th district Hernals the Marie-Jahoda alley, in the 21nd district Floridsdorf the Lazarsfeld alley and in the 22nd district Danube city the Schenk-Danzinger alley named.

Filming

Meanwhile it is becoming noon is an Austrian television film about the Marienthal study by Karin Brandauer (first broadcast May 1, 1988 in the ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: The unemployed of Marienthal, The Social Study of 1933, Austria in 2009, and on 3Sat.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal. Ein soziographischer Versuch über die Wirkungen langandauernder Arbeitslosigkeit (1933) ist der Titel einer Untersuchung von Marie Jahoda, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld und Hans Zeisel zu den Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit, die zu den Klassikern der empirischen Soziologie gehört. Die Studie zeigte die sozio-psychologischen Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit auf und machte deutlich, dass Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit nicht – wie vielfach angenommen – zu Revolte, sondern zu passiver Resignation führt.

Die Untersuchung

Heute gilt das von einem Team rund um Marie Jahoda und Paul Lazarsfeld ausgeführte Projekt als Meilenstein in der Entwicklung der empirischen Sozialforschung (vgl. auch: Teilnehmende Beobachtung, Feldforschung) und als Musterbeispiel der Theoriebildung in Kombination von quantitativen, qualitativen, vorgefundenen und erhobenen Daten. Auch wenn diese Konzepte jünger sind als die Arbeit über die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, wurden hier – unter dem Begriff Soziographie – Grundsteine für diese Methoden gesetzt.

Die Arbeitersiedlung Marienthal liegt in Gramatneusiedl, einem Ort in der Nähe Wiens. Nach der Schließung einer Fabrik, nach deren Inbetriebnahme die Gemeinde gegründet worden war, entstand während der Weltwirtschaftskrise um 1931 jäh eine umfangreiche Arbeitslosigkeit. Otto Bauer, der damals führende Mann der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie schlug Lazarsfeld und Zeisel vor, eine Studie über dieses Thema durchzuführen und nannte auch den Ort Marienthal.

Um Zugang zu den Menschen in Marienthal zu gewinnen, haben die Autoren dieser Studie nicht nur Kontakt zu politischen und gesellschaftlichen Gruppen und Vereinen gesucht, sondern auch Kleidersammlungen, ärztliche Sprechstunden, Erziehungsberatungen, Turn- und Zeichenkurse durchgeführt. Ziel war es, die Menschen für das Forschungsprojekt zu gewinnen. Zugleich diente jedes dieser Mittel (inkl. der in dieser Hinsicht ethisch fragwürdigen Sprechstunden) auch dazu, durch teilnehmende Beobachtung Informationen über die Marienthaler Bevölkerung zu erlangen.

Für jede Familie in Marienthal wurden Katasterblätter angelegt, auf denen die verschiedenen Beobachtungen und Interviews festgehalten wurden, vom ordentlichen oder ungeordneten Zustand der Wohnung beim Besuch wegen der Kleidersammlung bis hin zu Dingen, die bei der Erziehungsberatung, beim Arztbesuch oder bei der Beobachtung im „Arbeiterheim“ besprochen wurden. Es wurden etwa dreißig ausführliche Interviews geführt, einige Journale über die Zeiteinteilung angefertigt und Essenslisten erstellt. Die amtliche Statistik wurde ebenfalls herangezogen. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger hatte großen Anteil an diesen Arbeiten. In dem Arbeitsteam sind aber offenbar Spannungen persönlicher und politischer Art aufgetreten, sodass Danzinger in der Publikation nicht als Co-Autorin berücksichtigt wurde.

Das veröffentlichte Ergebnis der Studie gibt einen breiten und tiefgehenden Überblick in das Leben mit der damaligen Form von Arbeitslosenunterstützung, ohne baldige Aussicht auf Beschäftigung. Insbesondere wird nachgezeichnet, wie sich aufgrund der Hoffnungslosigkeit durch die Arbeitslosigkeit das Zeitbudget verändert. Wenn eigentlich eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen wäre, wird sie trotzdem liegen gelassen. Es fehlt die Zeiteinteilung, das feste Raster, eine Tagesstruktur.

Auswirkungen der Studie

Durch eine vom jeweiligen Stand des Forschungsprozesses bestimmte Kombination qualitativer mit quantitativen Methoden der Sozialforschung (Beobachtung, Strukturierte Beobachtungsprotokolle, Haushaltserhebungen, Fragebögen, Zeitverwendungsbögen, Interviews, Gespräche und gleichzeitige Hilfestellungen) ist diese 1933 erstveröffentlichte Arbeit methodisch richtungsweisend – auch wenn ihre Rezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum erst Jahre bzw. Jahrzehnte später erfolgte. Die Gruppe österreichischer Forschungssoziologen wies am Beispiel der von der niedergegangenen Textilindustrie geprägten Kleinstadt Marienthal in ihrer Feldforschungsuntersuchung erstmals in dieser Form, Präzision und Tiefe sozio-psychologische Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit nach und zeigte im Hauptergebnis, dass Arbeitslosigkeit nicht (wie bis dahin meist erwartet) zur aktiven Revolution, sondern vielmehr zur passiven Resignation führt.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal ist aber nicht nur eine mit vielen Beispielen illustrierte dichte empirische Beschreibung, sondern auch eine sozialtheoretisch anregende Arbeit mit Blick auf die vier Haltungstypen der auch innerlich Ungebrochenen, der Resignierten, der Verzweifelten und der verwahrlost Apathischen – wobei lediglich der erste Typus noch „Pläne und Hoffnungen für die Zukunft“ kannte, während die Resignation, Verzweiflung und Apathie der drei anderen Typen „zum Verzicht auf eine Zukunft führte, die nicht einmal mehr in der Phantasie als Plan eine Rolle spielt“. Als entscheidende Dimension erwies sich die Fähigkeit, „für die Zukunft Pläne und Hoffnungen“ bewahren und entwickeln zu können, also eine grundlegende Dimension humanen Gestaltungsvermögens nicht zu verlieren: die Antizipation möglicher Entwicklungen.

Der von Marie Jahoda geschriebene Forschungsbericht wird in der Buchausgabe (1975) durch einen in den 1950er Jahren geschriebenen „Vorspruch“ von Lazarsfeld, in dem die Studie in ihrem Verhältnis zu damaligen und zeitgenössischen Strömungen der Soziologie eingeordnet wird, und den für die Bucherstausgabe geschriebenen methodischen Anhang von Zeisel zur Geschichte der Soziografie ergänzt.

Nach den Autoren der Studie sind in Wien im 17. Bezirk Hernals die Marie-Jahoda-Gasse, im 21. Bezirk Floridsdorf die Lazarsfeldgasse und im 22. Bezirk Donaustadt die Schenk-Danzinger-Gasse benannt.

Verfilmung

Einstweilen wird es Mittag ist ein bedeutender österreichischer Fernsehfilm über die Marienthalstudie von Karin Brandauer (Erstsendung 1. Mai 1988 im ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, Die Sozialstudie von 1933, Österreich 2009, und auf 3sat.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Arbeitslosen_von_Marienthal

The unemployed of Marienthal (valley). A sociographic experiment on the effects of long-term unemployment (1933) is the title of a study by Marie Jahoda, Paul Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel on the consequences of unemployment, which is one of the classics of empirical sociology. The study pointed to the socio-psychological effects of unemployment and made it clear that long-term unemployment is not - as is often assumed - leading to revolt, but to passive resignation.

The investigation

Today, the project executed by a team around Marie Jahoda and Paul Lazarsfeld is considered a milestone in the development of empirical social research (see also participant observation and field research) and as a model of theory formation in combination of quantitative, qualitative, encountered and collected data. Even if those concepts are younger than the work on the unemployed of Marienthal, have been here - under the term of sociography - set foundations for those methods.

The workers' settlement Marienthal is located in Gramatneusiedl, a village near Vienna. After the closure of a factory, after whose commissioning the community was founded, arose suddenly an extensive unemployment during the Great Depression around 1931. Otto Bauer, who was then the leading man of the Austrian Social Democrats, proposed Lazarsfeld and Zeisel to conduct a study on this topic and also named the locality of Marienthal.

To gain access to the people in Marienthal, the authors of this study not only have sought contact with political and social groups and clubs, but also carried out collections of cloth, medical consultations, education consultations, gymnastics and drawing classes. The aim was to win the people for the research project. At the same time, each of those means (inclusively the in this regard ethically questionable consultation hours) also served the purpose by participant observation to obtain information about the Marienthal population.

For each family in Marienthal cadastral sheets were created, on which the various observations and interviews were recorded, from the ordered or disordered condition of the apartment when visiting because of the clothes collection to things in the educational counseling, visits to the doctor or during observation in the "Workers' House" were discussed. There were about thirty in-depth interviews conducted, made some journals about the time management and created food lists. Official statistics also have been used. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger played a big part in this work. In the work team but apparently tensions of personal and political nature occurred, so that Danzinger was not included in the publication as a co-author.

The published results of the study provide a broad and deep overview into the life of that form of unemployment benefits, with no early prospect of employment. In particular, is traced how as a result of the hopelessness because of unemployment the time budget changes. If actually a task had to be fulfilled, it nevertheless is left unattended. It is missing the time management, the fixed grid, a daily structure.

Implications of the study

By a combination, determined by each state of the research process, of qualitative with quantitative methods of social research (observation, structured observation protocols, household surveys, questionnaires, use of time sheets, interviews, conversations and simultaneous assistance), this work, in 1933 first published, methodically is pointing the way - even if its reception in German-speaking area only years or decades later followed. The group of Austrian research sociologists through the example of small town of Marienthal, marked by the decline of textile industry, in its field research study for the first time in this form, precision and depth proved socio-psychological effects of unemployment and showed in the main result that unemployment is not (as hitherto mostly expected) leading to active revolution, but rather leads to passive resignation.

However, the unemployed of Marienthal is not only a with many examples illustrated dense empirical description, but also a social-theoretically stimulating work with view at the four attitude types of the also internally unbroken, the resigned, the desperate and the neglected apathetic - only the first type yet knowing "plans and hopes for the future", while the resignation, despair and apathy of the other three types "led to the renunciation of a future that not even in the imagination as plan plays a role". As a crucial dimension proved to be the ability to preserve and develop "plans and hopes for the future" and, therefore, not to lose a fundamental dimension of human attitude: the anticipation of possible developments.

The written by Marie Jahoda research report in the print edition (1975) is complemented by a "preamble" written in the 1950s by Lazarsfeld, in which the study is classified in its relation to former and contemporary trends in sociology, and by the written for the first edition methodological annex from Zeisel on history of sociography.

After the authors of the study are in Vienna in the 17th district Hernals the Marie-Jahoda alley, in the 21nd district Floridsdorf the Lazarsfeld alley and in the 22nd district Danube city the Schenk-Danzinger alley named.

Filming

Meanwhile it is becoming noon is an Austrian television film about the Marienthal study by Karin Brandauer (first broadcast May 1, 1988 in the ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: The unemployed of Marienthal, The Social Study of 1933, Austria in 2009, and on 3Sat.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal. Ein soziographischer Versuch über die Wirkungen langandauernder Arbeitslosigkeit (1933) ist der Titel einer Untersuchung von Marie Jahoda, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld und Hans Zeisel zu den Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit, die zu den Klassikern der empirischen Soziologie gehört. Die Studie zeigte die sozio-psychologischen Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit auf und machte deutlich, dass Langzeitarbeitslosigkeit nicht – wie vielfach angenommen – zu Revolte, sondern zu passiver Resignation führt.

Die Untersuchung

Heute gilt das von einem Team rund um Marie Jahoda und Paul Lazarsfeld ausgeführte Projekt als Meilenstein in der Entwicklung der empirischen Sozialforschung (vgl. auch: Teilnehmende Beobachtung, Feldforschung) und als Musterbeispiel der Theoriebildung in Kombination von quantitativen, qualitativen, vorgefundenen und erhobenen Daten. Auch wenn diese Konzepte jünger sind als die Arbeit über die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, wurden hier – unter dem Begriff Soziographie – Grundsteine für diese Methoden gesetzt.

Die Arbeitersiedlung Marienthal liegt in Gramatneusiedl, einem Ort in der Nähe Wiens. Nach der Schließung einer Fabrik, nach deren Inbetriebnahme die Gemeinde gegründet worden war, entstand während der Weltwirtschaftskrise um 1931 jäh eine umfangreiche Arbeitslosigkeit. Otto Bauer, der damals führende Mann der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie schlug Lazarsfeld und Zeisel vor, eine Studie über dieses Thema durchzuführen und nannte auch den Ort Marienthal.

Um Zugang zu den Menschen in Marienthal zu gewinnen, haben die Autoren dieser Studie nicht nur Kontakt zu politischen und gesellschaftlichen Gruppen und Vereinen gesucht, sondern auch Kleidersammlungen, ärztliche Sprechstunden, Erziehungsberatungen, Turn- und Zeichenkurse durchgeführt. Ziel war es, die Menschen für das Forschungsprojekt zu gewinnen. Zugleich diente jedes dieser Mittel (inkl. der in dieser Hinsicht ethisch fragwürdigen Sprechstunden) auch dazu, durch teilnehmende Beobachtung Informationen über die Marienthaler Bevölkerung zu erlangen.

Für jede Familie in Marienthal wurden Katasterblätter angelegt, auf denen die verschiedenen Beobachtungen und Interviews festgehalten wurden, vom ordentlichen oder ungeordneten Zustand der Wohnung beim Besuch wegen der Kleidersammlung bis hin zu Dingen, die bei der Erziehungsberatung, beim Arztbesuch oder bei der Beobachtung im „Arbeiterheim“ besprochen wurden. Es wurden etwa dreißig ausführliche Interviews geführt, einige Journale über die Zeiteinteilung angefertigt und Essenslisten erstellt. Die amtliche Statistik wurde ebenfalls herangezogen. Lotte Schenk-Danzinger hatte großen Anteil an diesen Arbeiten. In dem Arbeitsteam sind aber offenbar Spannungen persönlicher und politischer Art aufgetreten, sodass Danzinger in der Publikation nicht als Co-Autorin berücksichtigt wurde.

Das veröffentlichte Ergebnis der Studie gibt einen breiten und tiefgehenden Überblick in das Leben mit der damaligen Form von Arbeitslosenunterstützung, ohne baldige Aussicht auf Beschäftigung. Insbesondere wird nachgezeichnet, wie sich aufgrund der Hoffnungslosigkeit durch die Arbeitslosigkeit das Zeitbudget verändert. Wenn eigentlich eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen wäre, wird sie trotzdem liegen gelassen. Es fehlt die Zeiteinteilung, das feste Raster, eine Tagesstruktur.

Auswirkungen der Studie

Durch eine vom jeweiligen Stand des Forschungsprozesses bestimmte Kombination qualitativer mit quantitativen Methoden der Sozialforschung (Beobachtung, Strukturierte Beobachtungsprotokolle, Haushaltserhebungen, Fragebögen, Zeitverwendungsbögen, Interviews, Gespräche und gleichzeitige Hilfestellungen) ist diese 1933 erstveröffentlichte Arbeit methodisch richtungsweisend – auch wenn ihre Rezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum erst Jahre bzw. Jahrzehnte später erfolgte. Die Gruppe österreichischer Forschungssoziologen wies am Beispiel der von der niedergegangenen Textilindustrie geprägten Kleinstadt Marienthal in ihrer Feldforschungsuntersuchung erstmals in dieser Form, Präzision und Tiefe sozio-psychologische Wirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit nach und zeigte im Hauptergebnis, dass Arbeitslosigkeit nicht (wie bis dahin meist erwartet) zur aktiven Revolution, sondern vielmehr zur passiven Resignation führt.

Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal ist aber nicht nur eine mit vielen Beispielen illustrierte dichte empirische Beschreibung, sondern auch eine sozialtheoretisch anregende Arbeit mit Blick auf die vier Haltungstypen der auch innerlich Ungebrochenen, der Resignierten, der Verzweifelten und der verwahrlost Apathischen – wobei lediglich der erste Typus noch „Pläne und Hoffnungen für die Zukunft“ kannte, während die Resignation, Verzweiflung und Apathie der drei anderen Typen „zum Verzicht auf eine Zukunft führte, die nicht einmal mehr in der Phantasie als Plan eine Rolle spielt“. Als entscheidende Dimension erwies sich die Fähigkeit, „für die Zukunft Pläne und Hoffnungen“ bewahren und entwickeln zu können, also eine grundlegende Dimension humanen Gestaltungsvermögens nicht zu verlieren: die Antizipation möglicher Entwicklungen.

Der von Marie Jahoda geschriebene Forschungsbericht wird in der Buchausgabe (1975) durch einen in den 1950er Jahren geschriebenen „Vorspruch“ von Lazarsfeld, in dem die Studie in ihrem Verhältnis zu damaligen und zeitgenössischen Strömungen der Soziologie eingeordnet wird, und den für die Bucherstausgabe geschriebenen methodischen Anhang von Zeisel zur Geschichte der Soziografie ergänzt.

Nach den Autoren der Studie sind in Wien im 17. Bezirk Hernals die Marie-Jahoda-Gasse, im 21. Bezirk Floridsdorf die Lazarsfeldgasse und im 22. Bezirk Donaustadt die Schenk-Danzinger-Gasse benannt.

Verfilmung

Einstweilen wird es Mittag ist ein bedeutender österreichischer Fernsehfilm über die Marienthalstudie von Karin Brandauer (Erstsendung 1. Mai 1988 im ORF).

Günter Kaindlstorfer: Die Arbeitslosen von Marienthal, Die Sozialstudie von 1933, Österreich 2009, und auf 3sat.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Arbeitslosen_von_Marienthal

Here is a cute little fellow, whom I have dubbed "Elephant Nosed Sipper"... I have no idea what it actually is. It is obviously in the beetle group, which has more species than any other group on Earth.

This little guy is in the center of a daisy, carefully going from one tiny yellow flower to the next, and inserting its long proboscis down into the nectar.

It had to stick its whole head into the flower tube to reach the nectar, but it was determined and methodical.

On some of the below photos you can see the distant white of the daisy petals, and more of this remarkable little nectar sipper.

I chose this one as the main photo because you could see most of the insect here, including part of its long proboscis, and its eyes.

These were taken by holding a 50 mm lens, reversed, in front of my telephoto lens which was set at 70mm. (If I tried to zoom in with my telephoto, I couldn't get close enough to the object to focus on it.) It is super magnified.

PS... Anybody know what happened to the quality of our maps on "Add this photo to your map" function? You used to be able to zoom way in on the satellite view and now you can't anymore! (whine)

Hand colouring using Photoshop is one of those things that I'd been deterred from trying because of unconvincing work seen elsewhere but, quite honestly, it's not that difficult with a methodical approach. The greatest challenges is knowing where to start - either it all seems too complicated (so no start is made at all) or else there's a tendency to rush in and tackle the interesting bits first. Experience has told me to start with the background and work forward - no matter how tempting the reverse may be. This is especially so with detail that will be revealed through windows, as it's more difficult to deal with this later. The background doesn't need to be too precise and 'overspills' of colour can be overpainted later provided there has been no tonal changes (this wouldn't happen by the application of colour alone). The best starting point is often a simple wash of a very muted greyish-brown and greyish-blue across the lower and upper parts of the image respectively.

Top Left

The iis shows the source image, a monochrome view of a Northern General Marshall-bodied Leyland Leopard. This was a fairly high-resolution scan from a good quality 9x6" print so there wasn't much preparation needed.

Top Right The background is almost complete. This was the most complex stage, requiring more effort than the main subject itself. The method was to apply the basic colours (sky, road, brickwork, and grass), ignoring details such as house windows - it's easier to simply paint over these than to work around them. The image starts to come to life when you go back and pick out the detail later.

Bottom LeftThe main subject colour has been applied - again ignoring details such as chrome work and headlights, which can be easily picked out out afterwards. The interior has also been coloured prior to applying the cream window surrounds.

Bottom RightThis shows the finished image. With practice, it's possible to complete a project like this in about an hour, depending on the complexity of the background (05-Feb-10).

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