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The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
BOX DATE: 1994
MANUFACTURER: Hasbro
VARIATIONS: Blonde; African American
BODY TYPE: No date; straight arms; straight, non-bending legs
HEAD MOLD: 1993 "AA Tiffany"; pierced ears
PERSONAL FUN FACT written by my sister: I truly considered the chance to buy this doll a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had no idea when I was eight years old that this version of Twist 'n Style Tiffany existed! She is so beautiful! First of all, my particular doll has the nicest, most perfect hair. (I'd say it's because I got her boxed, as an adult, but that doesn't necessarily mean luscious locks.) I love the way her pink outfit and purple eyeshadow pop against her dark skin. She also gives me a new appreciation for the lip color. Aside from the hair and skin color, she is exactly like the blonde I got for Christmas 1995. Shelly and I were reminded of Tiffany when we found our Wellie Wishers in April 2021. I think it was Shelly who realized who we were thinking of and first said, "Tiffany" aloud. It is possible that I also realized what the Wellies were reminding me of before she said it (we're weirdly in sync like that). What I do know is that I'd taken to holding Camille, who was sort of hanging around because she needed a stain lifted from her face, for no reason, and that she reminded me of someone. When we realized we were both missing my blonde Tiffany, who I hadn't had in about fifteen years, we took to eBay. Well...there was a slight progression to that. First, Shelly went to write on a Wellie doll or fashion and wanted to make a reference to Tiffany and, of course, needed to figure out who she was to do that properly. Shelly identified my childhood doll as Twist 'n Style Tiffany, which didn't surprise either of us--it was a name we only half forgot. (If you'd asked me, I'd have said her name was 100% Tiffany and that it was something like "Styling Tiffany.") It didn't take Shelly long to figure out who Tiffany was...and it only took a few hours before we were looking, not for identification, but for shopping purposes. In her shopping travels, Shelly found this EXACT Tiffany on eBay. She showed her to me and, though the asking price was close to eighty bucks and this wasn't even the exact doll I had, we were both intrigued. I'd even suggested bidding on her. Shelly talked me out of it because she didn't think there was a lot of competition and figured that the seller may, eventually, lower their expectations. However, we agreed--having been able to see only ONE OTHER African American Tiffany pictured online (and she was someone's family, not on a shopping site)--that the asking price wasn't actually unreasonable. I was, however, reluctant to not overpay and jump at the chance to have this doll because I was afraid the seller might not relist her or someone else might buy her. I consider this Tiffany to be a rare item. Rare is a term I avoid using because I feel it is often misused and overused. A lot of people call things "rare," when what they really mean is "desirable." Supply versus demand. For example, a lot of first editions of things--Bratz, Monster High, Ever After High--are NOT rare, they are more populous than later lines from those franchises. They are, however, desirable, because a lot of collectors want the "first" of different things. This Tiffany is genuinely, in my opinion, rare, because, while mass produced, dolls like this were often played with and discarded. Most people, even if they have these floating around, don't bother to list them on eBay--they wind up in secondhand stores, toy chests, and (sadly) dumpsters. People don't often buy toddler type dolls like this to resell. There aren't, when you really look at it, that many buying options for the blonde and this girl was the ONLY one like her that was available for purchase anywhere I looked. I thought she was really special and, even though I hadn't even gotten around to replacing my childhood blonde yet, I wanted this doll. I fixated. I watched her get relisted a couple times. At first, it was like watching paint dry--the price didn't lower substantially. The thing is, while this doll was, in fact, a rare find, she is not, by most people's standards, desirable. Very few people would be looking for this doll, or her blonde counterpart, so, while my options were limited, the competition was nonexistent. I gave up checking on this doll every day. I thought to check one night in July and realized that the "Buy it Now" price was lower AND there was a "make offer" option. I figured my chance had FINALLY come! Knowing this beauty had been listed for several months and there was no interest, I figured the seller would take a reasonable offer. I wound up getting this radiant beauty for about fifty dollars, as opposed to what would've been about $80 if I hadn't been so patient. Shelly and I became REALLY BAD at buying dolls online after the 2020 school closure and it was made worse by a very dry 2021 flea market season. Tiffany came during a time when we were ordering a lot of things and expecting a lot of packages--but she was probably my most highly anticipated package! I was able to buy a used blonde shortly after she got here, and the blonde arrived a mere five days later. However, THIS was the first Twist 'n Style Tiffany that I'd seen in about fifteen years! Opening her was a truly special experience. She smelled really good to me...like the sort of cardboard/plastic combo that makes me feel nostalgic. She still sealed in her plastic bag--meaning I was the first person to get to touch this doll. (Her tray was pulled out of the box in the listing, but everything was still in bags.) She was lucky she didn't suffer hair or skin decay from years of being encased in a plastic bag. I think it is testament to her quality--she is a very sturdy doll. Opening her was truly magical, though I have to say the box, and the doll, felt bigger in 1995! It was like meeting an old friend in so many ways. She definitely reminded me of my childhood doll, even though she's the other variation. But, by that point, she also felt like an old friend because I'd been looking at her on eBay so long! I really felt, back when I found this listing, that this Tiffany was meant to be my girl. I really do think she was a once in a lifetime find--if I hadn't been thinking of Tiffany at the right time, this doll may not have happened. I didn't know that this variation existed, therefore, I wouldn't have been actively seeking her if she hadn't been listed (or relisted, she could've been listed before) on the day Shelly was trying to find the name of a childhood favorite, she'd never have even seen her! She is a cherished part of my collection and lives with my American Girl dolls and, of course, her blonde counterpart!
Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.
No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.
The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.
Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")
When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.
This rather shapely girl is painted on the side of a M7 Priest self-propelled artillery vehicle at the National Museum of Military Vehicles in Dubois, Wyoming. Though "nose art" was by no means unusual on Army vehicles, it was somewhat uncommon due to the difficulty of maintaining it. Army vehicles of all types get filthy, and trying to keep up the artwork would be difficult. (A similar problem accounts for the rarity of nose art on US Navy aircraft, though there the problem is saltwater.) Still, it did exist, and much like nose art on aircraft, has largely become nonexistent on modern vehicles--though naming vehicles is still done quite often in the field. It may not be an aircraft, but it still counts, so I got a picture of "Black Widow" in September 2021.
I guess the 'questioning of reality' theme comes up quite a bit in my photography.
It's one of the reasons I was drawn to shoot closeups on the street of strangers.
If you do a keyword search on flickr of my photostream using the word 'reality' some fifty eight images come up.
It becomes clear to me at least that 'reality' is a subject on which I often dwell.
For almost seven years I lived with someone who had a mental illness that caused her grip on reality to become 'detached' and at times nonexistent.
Diagnosed as 'psychotic' she never seemed to be able to dial in to treatment that allowed her to live a normal life.
'Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired functioning, and a distorted or nonexistent sense of objective reality.'
A psychotic can be intelligent, attractive, highly functioning and for all intents and purposes appear to all of us to be what we would consider 'normal.'
In many people afflicted with psychosis or schizophrenia the symptoms often don't come to manifest themselves until they're in their mid thirties.
And they often appear without warning... sometimes due to significant stressful events in that person's life.
When you're in a relationship with someone given a diagnosis as a psychotic it doesn't mean they're evil or wrong or even 'broken'... it just means that they don't have a grasp on reality.
They believe sometimes that the things they feel are real... and they respond to those things as if they in fact do exist... when very often they are creations of a delusional mind.
This can lead life to get pretty crazy.
And when you're trying to relate to someone like this I'll tell you what...
you are going to question reality on a daily basis.
You will be in effect living a 'psychotic life.'
When I look back I don't know how I managed to survive the experience.
I struggled with dealing with this diagnosis as much as she did and I did everything I could to be a supportive partner...
until things progressed to a point where my children were in danger and my own 'sanity' was threatened.
Psychosis is a very powerful thing.
Because 'perception' is a very powerful thing.
And seeing someone you care about fall into the darkness of psychosis and be unable to bring themselves back out of it is a crushing moment.
I'm not sure anyone knows why exactly it happens...
but my years of being exposed to it were the biggest challenge of my life.
That experience made me think about what 'reality' really is... and how it is perceived by others... how two or more people can have an experience that for each of them is completely understood and believed to be 'different.'
Intelligent psychotics are particularly interesting because they can function at a high level in society but they genuinely believe their own lies and psychotic perceptions.
A mentally balanced person loses their medicine and they wonder where they put it.
Someone suffering from psychosis loses their medicine and they might really believe that the neighborhood kids in some kind of conspiracy to hurt them took the medicine away.
When a psychotic believes things like that then those children may be in danger.
According to statistics there are almost 400,000 people living in the US with this affliction.
Individually many people suffer from psychosis and schizophrenia.
Some are diagnosed with both.
That was the challenge that I had to deal with.
Collectively I've come to see that society itself manifests signs of psychosis and schizophrenia too.
Think about the Salem Witch Trials and some of the other terrible things society has done to itself.
Those people who think the newscaster on tv is talking directly to them... in code... they really believe that.
I mean... they TRULY BELIEVE it I swear to gahd.
I've seen it.
And I've never seen anything like it.
If you try to tell them that the tv newscaster is not talking directly to them they may lash out at you in some unfathomable way.
Having survived this encounter with what I can only call 'surreality' I am left wondering very often how tightly people and society itself actually grip reality.
I've never come up with any kind of definitive answer but I know this...
people and society are not ENTIRELY in touch with reality.
There's this grey area in almost every situation where the reality perceived by some isn't what it is supposed to be.
Those grey areas are where the whack shit that goes down in society are generally germinated.
We should always question what others present to us as 'reality.'
The media... the internet... our friends...
No one can always see 'reality'...
but what differentiates the healthy mind from the psychotic or schizophrenic mind the most I think is that the healthy mind does not react instinctively to their perceptions of reality until they're pretty certain that those perceptions are indeed valid.
That's why some very intelligent and mentally healthy people when faced with the actions of a psychopath in that theater in Colorado didn't react to the shooters psychotic actions immediately as if they were real.
As much as the psychotic mind finds great difficulty in dealing with reality...
the mentally balanced mind can never truly understand the mind of a psychotic.
12/25/2012
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I wish you a Merry Christmas!
First time using heart bokeh and what better way than on Christmas where lights and colors make an awesome picture. The picture is really grainy since it was shot in almost nonexistent light other than the lights from this well decorated Christmas house.
From day 3 exploring and photographing the historic city of Segovia. Check out the video at youtu.be/nJ1cN3mz9dE
The iconic Aqueduct of Segovia. A Roman aqueduct in Spain, built around the first century AD.In attempt to get some images with fewer people I headed out early and captured this image shortly after (a nonexistent due to clouds) sunrise
Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.
No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.
The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.
Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")
When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.
"Squirt VIII" is P-47D 45-49205, a restored Thunderbolt based at the Palm Springs Air Museum, in the colors of the 405th Fighter Group, based at RAF Christchurch, UK during World War II. One of the great things about PSAM is that most of its aircraft have nose art--even some of the more modern aircraft, like its F-106B Delta Dart. "Squirt" shows off some appropriate World War II nose art, based on a Varga Girl who looks like she's had a rough day at the office. Naturally, in deference to modern sensibilites, none of the PSAM aircraft have nudes--which are nonexistent on even modern warbirds.
It's always nice for me too see old Volvos as they're pretty much nonexistent in Greece, especially in estate form.
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
Vitis (grapevine) is a genus of 81 accepted species of vining plants in the flowering plant family Vitaceae. The genus consists of species predominantly from the Northern Hemisphere. It is economically important as the source of grapes, both for direct consumption of the fruit and for fermentation to produce wine. The study and cultivation of grapevines is called viticulture.
Most cultivated Vitis varieties are wind-pollinated with hermaphroditic flowers containing both male and female reproductive structures, while wild species are dioecious. These flowers are grouped in bunches called inflorescences. In many species, such as Vitis vinifera, each successfully pollinated flower becomes a grape berry with the inflorescence turning into a cluster of grapes. While the flowers of the grapevines are usually very small, the berries are often large and brightly colored with sweet flavors that attract birds and other animals to disperse the seeds contained within the berries.
Grapevines usually only produce fruit on shoots that came from buds that were developed during the previous growing season. In viticulture, this is one of the principles behind pruning the previous year's growth (or "One year old wood") that includes shoots that have turned hard and woody during the winter (after harvest in commercial viticulture). These vines will be pruned either into a cane which will support 8 to 15 buds or to a smaller spur which holds 2 to 3 buds.
Description
Flower buds are formed late in the growing season and overwinter for blooming in spring of the next year. They produce leaf-opposed cymes. Vitis is distinguished from other genera of Vitaceae by having petals which remain joined at the tip and detach from the base to fall together as a calyptra or 'cap'. The flowers are mostly bisexual, pentamerous, with a hypogynous disk. The calyx is greatly reduced or nonexistent in most species and the petals are joined together at the tip into one unit but separated at the base. The fruit is a berry, ovoid in shape and juicy, with a two-celled ovary each containing two ovules, thus normally producing four seeds per flower (or fewer by way of aborted embryos).
Other parts of the vine include the tendrils which are leaf-opposed, branched in Vitis vinifera, and are used to support the climbing plant by twining onto surrounding structures such as branches or the trellising of a vine-training system.
In the wild, all species of Vitis are normally dioecious, but under domestication, variants with perfect flowers appear to have been selected.
The genus Vitis is divided into two subgenera, Euvitis Planch. have 38 chromosomes (n=19) with berries borne on clusters and Muscadinia Planch. 40 (n=20) with small clusters.
Wild grapes can resemble the single-seeded Menispermum canadense (moonseed), which is toxic.
Species
Most Vitis species are found mostly in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in North America and eastern Asia, exceptions being a few in the tropics and the wine grape Vitis vinifera which originated in southern Europe and southwestern Asia. Grape species occur in widely different geographical areas and show a great diversity of form.
Their growth makes leaf collection challenging and polymorphic leaves make identification of species difficult. Mature grapevines can grow up to 48 centimetres (19 inches) in diameter at breast height and reach the upper canopy of trees more than 35 metres (115 feet) in height.
Many species are sufficiently closely related to allow easy interbreeding and the resultant interspecific hybrids are invariably fertile and vigorous. Thus the concept of a species is less well defined and more likely represents the identification of different ecotypes of Vitis that have evolved in distinct geographical and environmental circumstances.
The exact number of species is not certain. Plants of the World Online states 81 species are accepted, but lists 84. More than 65 species in Asia are poorly defined. Approximately 25 species are known in North America and just one, V. vinifera has Eurasian origins; some of the more notable include:
Vitis aestivalis, the summer grape, native to the Eastern United States, especially the Southeastern United States
Vitis amurensis, native to the Asian continent, including parts of Siberia and China
Vitis arizonica, The Arizona grape is native to Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Northern Mexico.
Vitis berlandieri, native to the southern North America, primarily Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas. Primarily known for good tolerance against soils with a high content of lime, which can cause chlorosis in many vines of American origin
Vitis californica, the California wild grape, or Northern California grape, or Pacific grape, is a wild grape species widespread across much of California as well as southwestern Oregon
Vitis coignetiae, the crimson glory vine, a species from East Asia grown as an ornamental plant for its crimson autumn foliage
Vitis labrusca L., the fox grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the Eastern United States and Canada. The Concord grape was derived by a cross with this species
Vitis riparia, the riverbank grapevine, sometimes used for winemaking and for jam. Native to the entire Eastern United States and north to Quebec
Vitis rotundifolia (syn. Muscadinia rotundifolia), the muscadine, used for jams and wine. Native to the Southeastern United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico
Vitis rupestris, the rock grapevine, used for breeding of Phylloxera resistant rootstock. Native to the Southern United States
Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine. Native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia.
Vitis vulpina, the frost grape, native to the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and west to Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas Treated by some as a synonym of V. riparia.
Plants of the World Online also includes:
Vitis acerifolia Raf.
Vitis amoena Z.H. Chen, Feng Chen & WW.Y. Xie
Vitis baihuashanensis M.S.Kang & D.Z.Lu
Vitis balansana Planch.
Vitis bashanica P.C.He
Vitis bellula (Rehder) W.T.Wang
Vitis betulifolia Diels & Gilg
Vitis biformis Rose
Vitis blancoi Munson
Vitis bloodworthiana Comeaux
Vitis bourgaeana Planch.
Vitis bryoniifolia Bunge
Vitis × champinii Planch.
Vitis chunganensis Hu
Vitis chungii F.P.Metcalf
Vitis cinerea (Engelm.) Millardet
Vitis davidi (Rom.Caill.) Foëx
Vitis × doaniana Munson ex Viala
Vitis erythrophylla W.T.Wang
Vitis fengqinensis C.L.Li
Vitis ficifolia Bunge
Vitis flavicosta Mickel & Beitel
Vitis flexuosa Thunb.
Vitis girdiana Munson
Vitis hancockii Hance
Vitis heyneana Schult.
Vitis hissarica Vassilcz.
Vitis hui W.C.Cheng
Vitis jaegeriana Comeaux
Vitis jinggangensis W.T.Wang
Vitis jinzhainensis X.S.Shen
Vitis kaihuaica Z.H.Chen, Feng Chen & W.Y Xie
Vitis kiusiana Momiy.
Vitis lanceolatifoliosa C.L.Li
Vitis longquanensis P.L.Chiu
Vitis luochengensis W.T.Wang
Vitis menghaiensis C.L.Li
Vitis mengziensis C.L.Li
Vitis metziana Miq.
Vitis monticola Buckley
Vitis mustangensis Buckley
Vitis nesbittiana Comeaux
Vitis × novae-angliae Fernald
Vitis novogranatensis Moldenke
Vitis nuristanica Vassilcz.
Vitis palmata Vahl
Vitis pedicellata M.A.Lawson
Vitis peninsularis M.E.Jones
Vitis piasezkii Maxim.
Vitis pilosonervia F.P.Metcalf
Vitis popenoei J.L.Fennell
Vitis pseudoreticulata W.T.Wang
Vitis quinlingensis P.C.He
Vitis retordii Rom.Caill. ex Planch.
Vitis romanetii Rom.Caill.
Vitis ruyuanensis C.L.Li
Vitis saccharifera Makino
Vitis shenxiensis C.L.Li
Vitis shizishanensis Z.Y.Ma, J.Wen, Q.Fu & X.Q.Liu
Vitis shuttleworthii House
Vitis silvestrii Pamp.
Vitis sinocinerea W.T.Wang
Vitis sinoternata W.T.Wang
Vitis tiliifolia Humb. & Bonpl. ex Schult.
Vitis tsoi Merr.
Vitis wenchowensis C.Ling
Vitis wenxianensis W.T.Wang
Vitis wilsoniae H.J.Veitch
Vitis wuhanensis C.L.Li
Vitis xunyangensis P.C.He
Vitis yunnanensis C.L.Li
Vitis zhejiang-adstricta P.L.Chiu
There are many cultivars of grapevines; most are cultivars of V. vinifera. One of them includes, Vitis 'Ornamental Grape'.
Hybrid grapes also exist, and these are primarily crosses between V. vinifera and one or more of V. labrusca, V. riparia or V. aestivalis. Hybrids tend to be less susceptible to frost and disease (notably phylloxera), but wine from some hybrids may have a little of the characteristic "foxy" taste of V. labrusca.
The Latin word Vitis is feminine,[19] and therefore adjectival species names take feminine forms, such as V. vinifera.
Ecology
Phylloxera is an American root aphid that devastated V. vinifera vineyards in Europe when accidentally introduced in the late 19th century. Attempts were made to breed in resistance from American species, but many winemakers and customers did not like the unusual flavour profile of the hybrid vines. However, V. vinifera grafts readily onto rootstocks of the American species and their hybrids with V. vinifera, and most commercial production of grapes now relies on such grafts.
Commercial distribution
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 75,866 square kilometres of the world is dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world grape production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit, and 2% as dried fruit. A portion of grape production goes to producing grape juice to be used as a sweetener for fruits canned "with no added sugar" and "100% natural". The area dedicated to vineyards is increasing by about 2% per year.
Domestic cultivation
Grapevines are widely cultivated by gardeners, and numerous suppliers cater specifically for this trade. The plants are valued for their decorative foliage, often colouring brightly in autumn; their ability to clothe walls, pergolas and arches, thus providing shade; and their fruits, which may be eaten as dessert or provide the basis for homemade wines. Popular varieties include:-
Buckland Sweetwater' (white dessert)
'Chardonnay' (white wine)
'Foster's Seedling' (white dessert)
'Grenache' (red wine)
'Muscat of Alexandria' (white dessert)
'Müller-Thurgau' (white wine)
'Phoenix' (white wine)
'Pinot noir' (red wine)
'Regent' (red wine)
'Schiava Grossa' (red dessert)
'Seyval blanc' (white wine)
'Tempranillo' (red wine)
The following varieties have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
'Boskoop Glory' (dessert/wine)
'Brant' (black dessert)
'Claret Cloak' or 'Frovit' (ornamental)
'New York Muscat' (black dessert)
'Purpurea' (ornamental)
Uses
The fruit of several Vitis species are grown commercially for consumption as fresh grapes and for fermentation into wine. Vitis vinifera is the most important such species.
The leaves of several species of grapevine are edible and are used in the production of dolmades and Vietnamese lot leaves.
Culture
The grapevine (typically Vitis vinifera) has been used as a symbol since ancient times. In Greek mythology, Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was god of the vintage and, therefore, a grapevine with bunches of the fruit are among his attributes. His attendants at the Bacchanalian festivals hence had the vine as an attribute, together with the thyrsus, the latter often entwined with vine branches. For the same reason, the Greek wine cup (cantharos) is commonly decorated with the vine and grapes, wine being drunk as a libation to the god.
The grapevine has a profound symbolic meaning in Jewish tradition and culture since antiquity. It is referenced 55 times in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), along with grapes and wine, which are also frequently mentioned (55 and 19, respectively). It is regarded as one of the Seven Species, and is employed several times in the Bible as a symbol of the Israelites as the chosen people. The grapevine has a prominent place in Jewish rituals: the wine was given a special blessing, "creator of the fruit of the vine", and the Kiddush blessing is recited over wine or grape juice on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. It is also employed in various parables and sayings in rabbinic literature. According to Josephus and the Mishnah, a golden vine was hung over the inner chamber of the Second Temple. The grapevine is featured on Hasmonean and Bar Kokhba revolt coinage, and as a decoration in mosaic floors of ancient synagogues.
In Christian iconography, the vine also frequently appears. It is mentioned several times in the New Testament. We have the parable of the kingdom of heaven likened to the father starting to engage laborers for his vineyard. The vine is used as symbol of Jesus Christ based on his own statement, "I am the true vine (John 15:1)." In that sense, a vine is placed as sole symbol on the tomb of Constantia, the sister of Constantine the Great, and elsewhere. In Byzantine art, the vine and grapes figure in early mosaics, and on the throne of Maximianus of Ravenna it is used as a decoration.
The vine and wheat ear have been frequently used as symbol of the blood and flesh of Christ, hence figuring as symbols (bread and wine) of the Eucharist and are found depicted on ostensories. Often the symbolic vine laden with grapes is found in ecclesiastical decorations with animals biting at the grapes. At times, the vine is used as symbol of temporal blessing.
In Mandaeism, uthras (angels or celestial beings) are often described as personified grapevines (gupna).
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
212
Please view this on Safari, Firefox, IE, or anything else besides Chrome. The colors are incredibly desaturated on Chrome. I'm currently using Chrome, and the reds are virtually nonexistent. I've never had a problem on Flickr with the colors. Guess there's a first for everything.
Another from the shoot on Saturday. Didn't have time to shoot today, so I edited instead.
Looks pretty good large on white.
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The greatest LEGO Space theme that never was, Seatron was conceived right after Futuron and would have given us our first (and more creative and interesting) LEGO aliens most of a decade before the UFO theme released.
All we have is some intriguing preliminary shots of a fascinating theme with a white, black and trans red "surface" palate and an Aquanauts-like yellow, black and trans blue "underwater" palate.
Anyway, I think it would have been a great theme, and it's well worth a MOC or several. And it being FebRovery let's make a rover.
Probably the Seatron faction minifigures would have been more Futuron-like than CS-like, but my Futuron minifig supplies are practically nonexistent.
I've done some Seatron-like MOCs before, connected with the Ice Planet faction as explorers of a subsurface ocean within Planet Krysto (a subtheme I call "Ice Planet: Aquarius Project"), but this is my first actual Seatron MOC.
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.
No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.
The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.
Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")
When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.
This nose art is painted on the nose of FM-2P Wildcat Bureau Number 86777, which flies with the Texas Flying Legends Museum. It's a hilarious depiction of a pitchfork-wielding bulldog riding in a bottle of booze--the former a reference to the Marines' nickname of Devil Dogs, and the latter probably to the Wildcat's rather portly shape. (Or the reference that one would have to be blind drunk to fly one.) This is a personal marking; the squadron, VMF-114, carried its squadron insignia on the starboard side: that depicted "aces and eights," the infamous "Dead Man's Hand"--appropriate for a unit nicknamed the "Death Dealers." I didn't think to get a picture of that one...
The Mongol horse (Mongolian Адуу, aduu: "horse" or mori; or as a herd, ado, or in Northern Khalka, tabun is the native horse breed of Mongolia. The breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, which outnumber the country's human population. Despite their small size, they are horses, not ponies.
In Mongolia, the horses live outdoors all year at 30 °C (86 °F) in summer down to −40 °C (−40 °F) in winter, and search for food on their own. The mare's milk is processed into the national beverage airag, and some animals are slaughtered for meat. Other than that, they serve as riding animals, both for the daily work of the nomads and in horse racing.
Mongol horses are of a stocky build, with relatively short but strong legs and a large head. They weigh about 600 lbs. and range in size from 12 to 14 hands (48 to 56 inches, 122 to 142 cm) high and have a cannon bone external circumference of about 8 inches (200 mm). They have a slight resemblance to Przewalski's horse and were once believed to have originated from that subspecies. However, that theory was disproven in 2011. The Przewalski's horse has been conclusively shown not to be an ancestor of any domestic horse, even though the two can hybridize and produce fertile offspring. Of the caballine equines, E. ferus, it is E. ferus ferus, also known as the European wild horse or "tarpan" that shares ancestry with the modern domestic horse.
The mane and tail are very long, and the strands are often used for braiding ropes; the tail hair can be used for violin bows. Mongolian horses have great stamina: although they have small bodies, they can gallop for 10 km without a break. Because the horses are allowed to live much the same as wild horses, they require little in the way of hoof care. The hooves are left untrimmed and unshod and farriers are basically nonexistent. Despite the lack of attention, Mongol horses have hard, strong hooves and seldom experience foot problems. Sometimes, but not always, horses will be branded. Mongol horses are also very strong. When pulling a cart, a team of four Mongol horses can draw a load of 4400 lbs for 50–60 km a day.
Horse from different regions of Mongolia are considered to have different traits. Desert horses are said to have larger feet than average ("like camel's feet"). Mountain horses are short and particularly strong. Steppe horses are the tallest, fastest variety of Mongol horse. Specifically, the eastern Khentii Province and Sükhbaatar Province steppe provinces are widely considered to produce the fastest horses in the country. Darkhad horses are known for their strength. A Darkhad horse weighing only 250 kg. can carry a load of 300 kg—the equivalent of carrying another horse on its back. On a broader level, some Mongolian provinces are considered to be more suitable for horse rearing than others. The eastern steppe provinces are informally known as the "horse provinces" because of their suitability for horse breeding, while the northern mountain provinces are considered "cow provinces," though horses are reared there as well.
A wide variety of horse colorations exists. Different regions of Mongolia favor different colors of horses and breed accordingly. The Darkhad ethnic group prefers white horses, while the Nyamgavaa prefer dun, bay or black horses and shun white colored animals.[6] Some horses are bred for the preferences of foreign markets. Elizabeth Kendall, travelling through southern Mongolia in 1911, wrote, "I was struck by the number of white and grey ponies, and was told that horses are bred chiefly for the market in China, and this is the Chinese preference." She also observed that the northern Mongolian herds near Tuerin seemed to consist mainly of black and chestnut horses.
--- Wikipedia
Ludwigsdorf is a wealthy and conservative Windhoek East suburb, popular with business owners, professionals, farmers, diplomats and retirees. Bearing no relationship to the Ludwigsdorf village in Saxony, this area was named after John Ludwig, a German restaurateur, regarded as the founder of the former colonial town and now neighbouring suburb of Klein Windhoek in 1892. Life in Ludwigsdorf is very private with residents keeping mostly to themselves, family and friends and socialising at braai (barbecue) parties inside their homes. In the absence of sidewalks and public venues, street life is nonexistent and the only people who can be seen outside of houses and cars are out-of-area workers and joggers. Most streets in Ludwigsdorf have female first names. For example, we live on Cathy Street, and surrounding us are Anna, Dorothy and Franciska Streets. I'm not sure if this is true, but I was once told that at the time when Ludwisdorf was planned in the 1960s, City Council members (all men indeed) ran our of ideas for street names and decided to name them after their wives.
A popular and visually dominant feature of Ludwigsdorf are the surrounding hills. The hills are criss crossed by paths laid by hikers and wildlife, providing great evening walking opportunities. Security incidents have taken place there, but not to us, and my main concern in the hills was usually keeping away from the resident baboons, as these powerful animals can be extremely hostile towards dogs. Other than baboons, the hills are populated by kudus, springbock and other antilopes. I heard rumors of the occasional leopard coming to prey on the herbivores, but large cats are nearly impossible to spot. This is an evening view of Annaberg, a hill next to our house between August 2006 and February 2013.
This gun atop a massive wall is aimed at the channel into Pensacola Bay. With a fifty-pound charge of black powder It could hurl a 450-pound ball three miles. The shoreline on the right of the screen is three miles distant. Nonexistent sights, I don't know how they hit their target.
Same morning as the previous upload, Sterkstroom to Indwe behind 24 no 3635 and 19D no 2698.
This is one of the coldest regions of South Africa in winter, the steam effects were almost nonexistent and any smoke got blown all over the show in the wind.
Steam & Safaris 1995 tour struggling photographically on the Maclear line again.
Operation “Salt City" resulted in the arrest of 248 individuals from May through September 2015. Of those arrested, 124 were active gang members. During the operation 22 firearms, more than $237,000 in U.S. currency, 70 grams of heroin, 266 grams of cocaine, and 723 grams of marijuana with a total estimated street value of almost $44,000 was taken off Syracuse streets by participating agencies.
Operation Salt City is part of the U.S. Marshals nation-wide “Triple Beam” gang reduction initiative. Triple Beam partners federal, state, and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime and take dangerous offenders off the streets. The goal of the U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is to seek out and disrupt illegal gang activity in areas of the country with smaller or nonexistent gang enforcement units by providing manpower, funding and the Marshals’ renowned fugitive tracking abilities.
Photo by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana
The Roman Bridge crosses the old course of the Jarama River This 148-meter-long civil construction, composed of five arches (four small and one large) nestled among poplars and other deciduous trees that lend it an evocative image each autumn, is called a Roman bridge. But only the foundations and some studies of the ashlar blocks remain from Roman times because, in reality, it dates from the Middle Ages with significant additions during the 16th
century that gave it its current appearance.
Visitors who arrive at this point always ask themselves the same question: But where is the Jarama River? Is this thin trickle of water? It is indeed surprising to find such a large bridge supporting an almost nonexistent flow of water. But the answer lies in the fact that, as has happened so many times throughout history, the riverbed was displaced for various reasns, in this case by almost half a kilometer. Therefore, the Jarama River should be sought further west because what flows there (when it does) is a meager irrigation canal, the Caz stream, which carries less water than a canteen with holes in it.
Nearby, there is a recreational area, right next to the actual Jarama, known as "La Chopera" (The Poplar Grove), where families come "with their picnic blankets and Tupperware" to spend the morning or afternoon in the shade and sit down to eat at one of the tables while the children play.
In honor of April Fool’s Day I decided to tell a true story of an odd political event in the United States. You may have read that the State of Colorado passed a law to legalize marijuana, and because they wanted to keep Big Business out of it and make it difficult for major crime syndicates from profiting, the state requires pot shops to be small and for most of their products to be locally grown. Colorado also places a hefty tax on pot but not enough to drive the business underground where it couldn’t be regulated. This is very wise, but it is not the point of this story.
The satirical National Report posted a fake story entitled “Colorado Pot Shop Accepting Food Stamps – Taxpayer Funded Marijuana for Welfare Recipients.” For those not familiar, “food stamps” is the common name of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, an anti-poverty program that once issued stamps but now uses debit cards to enable poor people to buy food and a very limited amount of non-food items like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. I used the Texas Lone Star Card for a couple of very tough years in the 1990s. Another alarming story was the “Colorado Pot Shop Attempts To Disarm Citizens With ‘Weed for Guns’ Buyback Program.” Now there are some police departments that have “cash for guns” campaigns to help get guns off the street. These stories alarmed a Colorado state legislator known for her Right Wing Nut Job politics into submitting bills aimed at curbing these nonexistent commercial practices. Then she found out afterwards from her colleagues that the stories were fake. I read about this in the January 13, 2014 edition of The Daily Kos. See www.dailykos.com if you are a progressive. Here is my own fake news story.
Pregnant post-op transsexual women have been using food stamps to pay for abortions. According to the Texas Institute for Transsexual Support, “Most transsexual women under the age of 35 get pregnant within two years of their sex change operations because they usually work as prostitutes after they are fired from their jobs as IT administrators due to discrimination against LGBT people. You commonly see them on street corners or beneath freeway underpasses carrying signs that say, ‘I will work for food.’ They often get paid in food stamps for sex and get pregnant by their customers. Since they must maintain their trim figures to stay competitive in this business, transsexual women must get abortions and typically pay for them with food stamps. Due to the massive cutbacks in the Medicaid program, many Texas abortion clinics depend on food stamps from transsexuals to stay open.” There is a special provision in NAFTA that allows stem cells taken from aborted fetal tissue to be shipped to Mexico to be used in life extension drugs to keep aging oil billionaires alive.
"The problem with posting quotes off the Internet is you never know if they're genuine." -- Gen. George Washington at the Battle of Gettysburg, February 30, 1908
Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.
No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.
The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.
Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")
When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.
"Bob's Bear," a restored F8F-2 Bearcat, shows a bear--who is either smiling or getting ready to devour someone--in World War II-era Navy flight gear, against an American flag. This was done with an airbrush (and therefore would be of somewhat better quality than the hand brushed nose art of World War II). Most Navy aircraft did not carry nose art due to the difficulty of maintaining it around saltwater, but since "Bear" is landbound, that's less of a problem. It's named for Bob Pond, the founder of the Palm Springs Air Museum, where the "Bear" resides.
"Traveller's daily life in China."
In China, several hotel chains offer their guests well-equipped laundry rooms: washing machines, dryers, irons, and complimentary consumables, including laundry detergent. It's worth remembering that vandalism is virtually nonexistent in China, and guests take care of the equipment provided.
* * *
"La vie quotidienne du voyageur en Chine."
En Chine, plusieurs chaines hotelières proposent des lingeries bien équipées à leurs clients : machines à laver, machines à sécher le linge, fers à repasser et consommables gratuits, dont le lessive.
Il faut rappeler qu'en Chine, le vandalisme est quasi inexistant et que les clients prennent soin du matériel mis à leur disposition.
Well, the other day I decided to go forth and make images, and so I did. This image was made near the Punta Gorda boat ramp where i used to launch my boat for fishing. Ponce Parks,as it is called for the thoughts that Ponce de Leon as landed there when he found Charlotte Harbor. I can't confirm this landing as I was busy that day and could not meet up with him and cell phone service was nearly nonexistent.
I wanted to try to find some male fiddler crabs while it was low tide. There is a boardwalk that takes you through the mangrove forest. I actually saw all three mangrove trees, the Red, White and Black. I made a few multi-image panoramas while hunting for the fiddler crabs. I never have seen the lighter colored fiddle crab before,usually they are the orange/yellow color.
Once again, my images are only licensed for reproduction and web use by directly contacting me. Please do not use them yourself or through any other organization without my expressed written permission.
Many of my Nature & Wildlife images are now available in beautiful canvas wrap prints as well as canvas prints in a natural wood floater frame. Please go to my web site below or email for details and pricing. jmwnaturesimages@comcast.net
If you wish you can also find me here:
www.jmwnaturesimages.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/floridaphotographicadventuretours
www.ipernity.com/jmwnaturesimages
A heavy duty truck from Toyota; the double-cabin variant is very rare, probably nonexistent in Indonesia.
Truk Toyota, varian double kabin diduga tidak dijual di Indonesia.
A five-dimensional space is a space with five dimensions. If interpreted physically, that is one more than the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time used in relativistic physics. It is an abstraction which occurs frequently in mathematics, where it is a legitimate construct. In physics and mathematics, a sequence of N numbers can be understood to represent a location in an N-dimensional space. Whether or not the universe is five-dimensional is a topic of debate.Three Logical Proofs: The Five-Dimensional Reality of Space-Time
West Virginia University at Parkersburg Physics, 300 Campus Drive Parkersburg, West Virginia 26104 e-mail: jebcolst@aol.com
Abstract- A century and a half ago, a revolution in human thought began that has gone largely unrecognized by modern scholars: A system of non-Euclidean geometries was developed that literally changed the way that we view our world. At first, some thought that space itself was non-Euclidean and four-dimensional, but Einstein ended that 'speculation' when he declared that time was the fourth dimension. Yet our commonly perceived space is four-dimensional. Einstein unwittingly circumvented that particular revolution in thought and delayed its completion for a later day, although his work was also necessary for the completion of that revolution. That later day is now approaching. The natural progress of science has brought us back to the point where science again needs to consider the physical reality of a higher-dimensional space. Science must acknowledge the truth that space is four-dimensional and space-time is five- dimensional, as required by accepted physical theories and observations, before it can move forward with a new unified fundamental theory of physical reality.
Keywords: four-dimensional-five-dimensional-space-time-Einstein- Clifford- Kaluza- Kaluza-Klein- magnetic vector potential- electromagnetism- Yukawa potential- xpanding universe- general relativity-unification-superstrings-branes-Randall-Sundmm
Introduction
Individual scientists have been searching for evidence of a fourth dimension of space for more than a century and a half. That search subsided somewhat after Albert Einstein identified time as the fourth dimension and developed the theories of relativity. However, Theodor Kaluza added a fifth dimension to space-time in 1921. Others have contributed to this line of scientific devel- opment, but not to as high an extent. Given the fact the physicists have now developed 10- and 11-dimensional theories of reality, it would seem that the search for a fourth dimension of space would have taken on a new and sig- nificant meaning, but it has not. Yet several generally accepted scientific theories and concepts do imply the existence of a fourth spatial dimension.
On the other hand, a growing number of scientists have acknowledged and embraced the simple fact that physics needs a single fundamental theory to
524 J. E. Beichler
continue its astonishing rate of progress. A complete unification of the funda- mental forces of nature has itself been a long process predating the 1970s, but that unification was made basically from the relativistic point-of-view by Einstein and a few other scientists before the 1960s. Einstein searched for a successful unification of gravity and electromagnetism for the last three decades of his life, hoping that the quantum and quantum effects would emerge from the mathematical formalisms of his unified field theory, but most other scientists shared neither his optimism nor his goal. During the 1970s, quantum physicists finally adopted Einstein's goal, but not his emphasis on a unification based upon general relativity and a continuous view of the ultimate nature of reality. Quantum theorists began their own long search for unification with the discovery of the standard model, then the electroweak force and finally the hope that gravity would eventually submit to quantum analysis. They have utterly failed to achieve this last step toward unification.
All that science can say for certain is that there are presently two theories that can claim to represent the most fundamental nature of reality: Quantum theory and relativity. Unfortunately, these two are mutually incompatible. The near complete dominance of the quantum paradigm over the last century has led most physicists to conclude that any future theory that unifies physics must be based upon a discrete quantum model rather than a continuous relativistic model. The attitude that discreteness can replace continuity at all levels of reality is prob- lematic: It reflects a general disregard for the depth and extreme nature of the major differences between the two theories. This disregard has led scientists to speculate on the structure of reality at as small a level as the Planck length, resulting in the development of quantum loop theories and other attempts to find a quantum gravity theory. Whether the existence of a major conflict between the discrete and continuous is acknowledged or not, the fact that these two models of reality are mutually incompatible is generally minimized or belittled by many theoretical scientists who overwhelmingly assume that discreteness offers the only possible solution to the problem of unification.
Recent attempts to overcome this incompatibility, such as the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, have relied heavily upon the concept of hyper- dimensional spaces. These models have been unsuccessful, yet the overall notion of hyper-dimensionality still offers a way out of the dilemma. Einstein first rendered the notion of a higher-dimensional reality plausible in 1905, but the revolution that Einstein began when he unified three-dimensional space with time to form a four-dimensional space-time continuum has never been fully realized. In the meantime, the opposing quantum concept may have fully run its course and reached its inherent theoretical limits. The modem unification theories based upon the quantum model do not seek to rectify the fundamental differences between the quantum theory and special relativity. Quantum field theories only calculate quantum effects in the relativistic limit; they do not unify the theories at the necessary fundamental level that is often claimed. Many scientists ignore the extent and importance of the differences between continuity
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 525
and the discrete and instead worry about the insignificant problems of inde- terminism and counting bits of information. So the latest attempts at unification have failed utterly even though the quantum theory has been attempting to quantize gravity for several decades.
There are many levels to the hyper-dimensionality problem, many of which have not yet been explored even though the central problem of dimensionality for present day science dates back a century and a half. Science has been misled and has failed to recognize the significance of a far more fundamental revolution that began in the 1850s when Bernhard Riemann developed a generalized system of non-Euclidean geometries (Riemann, 1854). Riemann's work directly implied that space is four-dimensional as well as continuous. His new system of geometry remained relatively unknown for more than a decade and was only popularized within the scientific community in the late 1860s. Simultaneously, James Clerk Maxwell developed Michael Faraday's field concept of electro- magnetism into a complete theory of electromagnetism. Whether the timing of these developments was coincidental or not, and only a careful review of historical documents can determine if the simultaneous development of these theories was truly a coincidence, the two fundamental concepts of the continuity of the electromagnetic field and the four-dimensionality of space are physically related. There are three logical proofs that this fact is true.
The first logical proof derives directly from Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and deals directly with the inability of science to sufficiently explain the nature of the vector or magnetic potential used to explain magnetic induction. The second logical proof deals with the nature of matter itself as represented by the Yukawa potential and the atomic nucleus. The Yukawa potential is normally used to explain how electrical repulsion is overcome to bind particles within the nucleus. However, the mathematical expression for the potential also matches the general shape of space-time curvature within the individual particles that combine to form the nucleus. And finally, the last proof is a more general argu- ment dealing with the simple three-dimensional orientations of spiral galaxies relative to the Riemannian curvature of the universe as a whole. Although these proofs are independent of any particular modern hyper-dimensional theory, they are supported by Kaluza's theory of five-dimensional space-time.
Electromagnetism Speaks Up
The popular concept of a 'force field' is completely erroneous. Even in a classical sense, no force is associated with a field until a material particle or body interacts with it. Force is not a characteristic of the field alone. The interaction of the field and matter results in the force, but the interaction can also be characterized by a potential energy. The energy results from the force acting on the particle in one sense, or from the relative position of the particle in the field in another sense. What exists at any particular position in the field before the interaction takes place is called the potential. So a physical field is char- acterized by the potential of the field, not a force.
526 J. E. Beichler
Gravity presents a good example for the concept of potential. Gravitational field strength decreases radially outward from the center of gravity of a material body like the earth according to the inverse square law. All points that are equidistant from the center of gravity form a surface in three-dimensional space along which the gravitational potential is constant, an equipotential surface. At each point on this surface, the surface is perpendicular to a radial line drawn from the center of gravity. A material body orbiting the earth would have a constant speed along any equipotential surface. Electricity presents another simple example. In this case, the units of potential are 'volts', a common electrical unit with which everyone is familiar. Equipotential surfaces representing specific volt measurements are a commonly accepted fact of electrical fields. The fact that an equipotential surface can be formed and that the surface is perpendicular to the radius of curvature at each and every point where they intersect is a general property of fields. From a theoretical point-of-view, equipotential surfaces must exist for all physical fields. For any field, successive equipotential surfaces form onionskin-like concentric surfaces around point charges or charged bodies.
There is a direct equivalence between electricity and magnetism and that equivalence forms the basis of the electromagnetic theory. Any physical quan- tities or properties of electricity correspond to similar quantities and properties for magnetism. But that equivalence has not yet been fully realized since there is no such thing as magnetic 'volts' or measurable magnetic potential. Magnetic potential has been, is now and will be in the future a mathematical entity alone, given the three-dimensionality of space. Consider a simple magnetic field, per- haps that of a bar magnetic. An equipotential surface cannot be drawn or represented visually as it can for an electric field, although magnetic field lines can still represent the field. A line perpendicular to any field line through a given point on that field line, representing the magnetic vector potential at that point, cannot be connected to neighboring points of equal potential on other field lines to form a continuous surface. In other words, an equipotential surface cannot be formed in the three-dimensional space of the magnetic field represented by the field lines. All equipotential surfaces would go through the same point on a field line in three-dimensional space, which is impossible, but no other conclusion can be reached from the given physical geometry of the magnetic field.
According to Roger Penrose, the magnetic potential is "not uniquely determined by the field F, but is fixed to within the addition of a quantity dO where O is some real scalar field." The scalar field is taken to be a purely mathematical entity, such that the magnetic potential A "is not a locally mea- surable quantity" (Penrose, 2005).The magnetic potential A exists, but no phys- ical experiment can measure or otherwise determine the value of A plus the additional quantity dO, so the value of A alone cannot be uniquely determined. In a sense then, the magnetic potential exists only at the point of intersection, not beyond that point in three-dimensional space. Magnetic potential is purely a point phenomenon in three-dimensional space no matter what its value. It is a mathematical paradox, but the paradox can be solved if a higher dimension to
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 527
space is used. Any connection between a given potential on one field line and neighboring field lines must be in another dimension (orthogonal direction) other than the three normal directions of common space, in order for there to exist an equipotential surface. The 'gauge factor' dO mentioned by Penrose actually represents a minuscule measurement or perturbation in the fourth direction that does not otherwise affect normal three-dimensional field variations in the local environment. This fact can also be seen in the equations that are commonly used to express and model magnetic potential.
Although it cannot be described or measured in a normal three-dimensional space, the magnetic potential can be expressed mathematically, by its rela- tionship to the field, as
and
where B is the magnetic field strength. In this form, the quantity A is known as the magnetic vector potential or just the vector potential. Since the operator
V= (dldxi,dldyj,d/dzk),
taking the curl of A would be the mathematical equivalent of constructing the magnetic field B point-by-point by simultaneously looking at the perpendicular components to A in each of the three dimensions of space. These equations may seem trivial to physicists, but they have far more physical meaning than they have been given in the normally accepted electromagnetic interpretation.
The potential A must be simultaneously perpendicular to all three coordinates used to represent a point in space according to these formulations. However, the only 'thing' that can be perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simulta- neously would be a fourth orthogonal dimension. Therefore, changes in the magnetic potential as well as magnetic potential itself are perpendicular to all three directions at any spatial position in our normally perceived physical space. Different equipotential surfaces would still be expressed by three-dimensional equations even though they are displaced in the fourth direction because they would act like three-dimensional spaces that are parallel to or stacked on top of our common three-dimensional space in the fourth direction. Given the con- tinuity of space, our three-dimensional material world is actually embedded in a four-dimensional space (or manifold). Bernhard Riemann's original develop- ment of the generalized formulations of non-Euclidean geometry posited that an n-dimensional space would be embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold, which implies that the physical reality of our three-dimensional space (where n= 3) requires the existence of a higher-dimensional manifold. In present theories of higher-dimensional spaces, such as the various superstring theories, several higher embedding dimensions are used, but the Riemannian mathematics used in general relativity only 'requires' one higher embedding dimension.
528 J. E. Beichler
The fact that magnetism implies a fourth dimension is not new. William Kingdom Clifford, a British geometer, tried to express Maxwell's electromag- netic theory using a four-dimensional space model in the 1870s. Clifford is better known for offering the first translation of Riemann's Habilitationsschrift lecture, " On the hypotheses which lie at the bases of geometry" , into English in 1873, among other things. Based on his understanding and interpretation of Riemann's geometry, Clifford claimed that what we sense as matter is nothing more than three-dimensional space curved in a fourth dimension and what we conceive as matter in motion is no more than variations in that curvature (Clifford, 1870). For having stated this, Clifford's geometrical model of space is normally regarded as a precursor to Einstein's model of space-time curvature in the general theory of relativity. Most twentieth century scholars have also concluded that Clifford never developed a theory and had no followers (Eddington, 1921; d'Abro, 1927; Bell, 1940; Jammer, 1954; Hoffman, 1972; Kilmister, 1973; Swenson, 1979)' so his theoretical work is viewed in this regard as a historical footnote and no more. The mathematician and historian E.T. Bell has gone so far as to characterized Clifford's anticipation of Einstein as little more than a case of some lucky person hitting "the side of a barn at forty yards with a charge of buckshot" (Bell, 1937), but this view of history is completely false. While Clifford's physical theories have gone unnoticed, Clifford numbers and his system of bi-quaternions have found new uses in some modern interpretations of quantum theory and relativity (Power, 1970; Gurney, 1983; Chisholm and Common, 1985) even though they were originally developed to describe his four-dimensional space, a fact that should imply new ways of interpreting the quantum.
Many modern scholars have mistakenly interpreted Clifford's theoretical model of a four-dimensional space in physics against a historical mindset biased by an early twentieth century view of general relativity (Beichler, 1996). Clifford's main purpose was not to develop a new theory of gravity, as did Einstein several decades later. Clifford's original theoretical work only dealt with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory even though he planned to add gravity to his theory at a later date (Clifford, 1887), if he had not died. Actually, Clifford was developing what we would today consider a unified field theory or better yet a theory of everything. He was fond of saying that he was " solving the universe" (Pollock in Clifford, 1879),which was his way of describing a single theory that covered all of the natural forces. Clifford attempted first to explain magnetic induction, not gravity, with his four-dimensional geometry (Pearson in Clifford, 1885). Magnetic induction is governed by the equation B = V@A, providing a direct link between the current logical argument for a four-dimensional space and Clifford's interpretation of Maxwell's electromagnetic induction.
Clifford published numerous mathematical papers on the motion of three- dimensional matter in four-dimensional elliptical (single polar Riemannian) spaces. He also published a book that actually presented his first step in building a proper theory, that is, for any of his peers who understood what he was trying to do. Historians and scholars today do not understand what Clifford was
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 529
attempting to accomplish, so they only see the book as a simple introductory trea- tise on kinematics. Anyone looking for a completed gravity theory in Clifford's work simply will not find it. Nearly all modern historians have mistakenly claimed that he never published his theory because they are looking for a nonexistent gravity theory with time as a fourth dimension.
Clifford expressed the opinion that all energies are either potential or kinetic (Clifford, 1880), but he also believed that kinetic energies in three-dimensional space would become potential energies in his four-dimensional spatial frame- work. In other words, forces in three-dimensional space would reduce to constant variations in position along paths in a four-dimensional curved space, an idea that was made current in general relativity. However, the modern concept only deals with gravity as modeled by modem relativity theory while Clifford meant to apply the concept to all forces in his model. Upon this hypothesis, he published the first volume of a series of books titled Elements of Dynamic (Clifford, 1878). His first volume was subtitled Kinematics. Everyone that knew Clifford or his work knew that dynamics in three-dimensional space is just kinematics in Clifford's four-dimensional space, that is why he referred to his explanation of Dynamics as Kinematics in the book title. He was writing about four-dimensional kinematics, which was equivalent to three-dimensional dynamics in his mind and theoretical model. Coincidentally, this same book is recognized by historians as the first published statement by a mathematician that distinguished between the cross and dot products in vector algebra (Crowe, 1967), the same dot and cross products that are used in the vector and scalar representations of magnetic potential given above. It should be clear then that Clifford understood the four- dimensionality of magnetic potential a full century before the modem scientific community took the unification of gravity and electromagnetism seriously.
In developing his theory, Clifford faced the problem that no mathematical formalism existed to express his four-dimensional ideas. So he used a form of quaternions of his own invention (bi-quaternions) to express his four- dimensional model of space (Clifford, 1882). Unfortunately, quaternions lost favor in the late nineteenth century to vectors and their use was largely aban- doned during the first few decades of the twentieth century. So no one today would even recognize that Clifford's mathematics represented his four- dimensional theory of physical reality. Einstein's theoretical work on a theory of gravity used the Levi-Civita tensor formalisms that had developed along a different line of reasoning than Clifford used for his quaternion algebra. The tensor calculus used by Einstein was only developed after Clifford's death.
As stated above, Clifford did not ignore the effect of his four-dimensional model of matter on the Newtonian theory of gravity. Clifford died of consumption in 1879 at the age of 34 and never completed his research, but it is still possible to discover what he planned to eventually accomplish with his four-dimensional model. His colleagues were so impressed with his theoretical ideas that both his published and unpublished works were collected, edited and published within a decade after his death. His followers and colleagues
530 J. E. Beichler
published everything that they could find, including lecture notes of classes that he taught, because they thought that his theoretical work was important enough to save for posterity and the future. Clifford's outline for the second volume of his Elements of Dynamic was among the unfinished works that were published. His student Robert Tucker edited this book. In it, Clifford stated his views on the theory of gravity and outlined how he would change gravity given his new four- dimensional geometry, thus indicating the fact that he was searching for, and may have found but never published, a unified field theory. But we will never know that fact for sure.
Of course, philosophical and mathematical arguments are not as valuable in science as observation and experimental verification. Yet there is some experi- mental evidence supporting the existence of magnetic potential in the Aharonov- Bohm effect (Aharonov & Bohm, 1959). In the Aharonov-Bohm experiment, an electron beam is split in such a manner that the two resulting beams pass on either side of an upright solenoid before coming back together on a screen. The solenoid is oriented in such a way that the twin beams cut across the field lines (perpendicular to B) and thus the net force acting on them is zero. Yet when the beams come together at the screen they interfere with each other. The interference clearly shows that the wave functions associated with the electron beams are out of phase, yet they should not be out of phase by the normal standards of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. Although the effect is somewhat paradoxical, it is normally interpreted as evidence that the magnetic potential associated with the magnetic field is real even though it cannot be measured or experimentally determined. While the net force is zero, an integration of the potential A in a closed loop around the coil is not zero. The common interpretation of this experiment introduces a quantum solution (Bohm & Hiley, 1993). However, this effect can be simply explained and understood within the four-dimensional framework of electromagnetic induction. In other words, a classical electromagnetic interpretation can be used to explain the results if a physically real four-dimensional space that is associated with the magnetic vector potential is assumed.
While the net force is zero on either of the electron beams, the electrons are moving at a constant speed through different portions of the coil's mag- netic field. So they each follow paths of varying potential (surfaces) in four- dimensional space corresponding to the portions of the magnetic field through which they travel. Since they are following four-dimensional paths of different lengths, they are out of phase when they reach the screen and interfere with each other. The principle is similar to a satellite orbiting the earth at a constant speed. The constant speed holds the satellite to a path along a gravitational equi- potential surface. When the speed changes, the satellite follows a path through different equipotential surfaces. The orbital speed determines the altitude of the orbit and the potential path (surface) along which the satellite travels. The electrons in the beam also follow curved potential paths in the fourth dimension, which are different according to the portions of the magnetic field through which
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 531
they pass in three-dimensional space. The difference in curved paths in four- dimensional space puts them out of phase at the end of the trip even though their paths in three-dimensional space, the projections of their paths in four- dimensional space, are not curved.
And finally, given a real fourth dimension of space that is characterized by magnetic potential, anything that emits a normal transverse electromagnetic wave in three-dimensional space would also cause a corresponding compressive wave of magnetic potential variation in the fourth direction of space. Numerous scientists have claimed to show the mathematical possibility of such longitudinal electromagnetic waves. Edmund T. Whittaker's model of 1903 is perhaps the best known of these attempts (Whittaker 1903, 1904). According to Whittaker,
... thus we have the result, that the general solution of Laplace's equation
wheref is an arbitrary function of the two arguments z+ix cos u+iy sin u and u.
Moreover, it is clear from the proof that no generality is lost by supposing thatf is a periodic function of u (Whittaker, 1903).
The variable u actually represents the fourth dimension of space while V is the magnetic potential. This interpretation renders Whittaker's formulation com- patible with modem advances in the laws of electromagnetism without surren- dering the possibility of a longitudinal electromagnetic wave. The function f is periodical with respect to u, which means that the fourth dimension is closed with respect to the other three dimensions of space. This closure corresponds completely to Kaluza's closure condition for the fifth dimension of space-time, while the factor of du over which the function f is integrated corresponds to Penrose's gauge invariance dO.
In this respect, the fourth dimension of space is independent of the length of the extension in the fourth direction, such that the fifth direction of space-time can be either microscopic or macroscopic in extent. There is no difference between the two in the functionf as long as the fourth dimension of space is closed. Whittaker then analyzed the general form of the differential equations for wave motion
to demonstrate that the mathematical model can account for a longitudinal
532 J. E. Beichler
electromagnetic wave. However, if V is taken to mean the magnetic potential in the fourth direction of space, then the magnetic potential V can be related directly to the concept of proper time in special relativity. Whittaker's concept
I of a longitudinal component of electromagnetic waves can thus be rendered
~
in relativistic terms, which implies that the concept is actually a wave of changing magnetic potential propagating in the fifth direction of a five- dimensional space-time continuum.
Whether or not Maxwell's electromagnetic theory requires a longitudinal wave in its classical three-dimensional interpretation is open to debate, but the existence of a fourth dimension to space would require a corresponding longi- tudinal wave that propagates throughout the fourth dimension relative to the normal three dimensions of space. No one has ever detected a three-dimensional longitudinal wave, but that does not mean the wave cannot be four-dimensional. After all, no one has ever detected or measured a 'magnetic-volt' of potential in three-dimensional space either, even though the potential exists in four- dimensional space.
The Yukawa Field
Modern physics also requires the existence of a fourth spatial dimension, but this time the culprit is the Yukawa potential. The Yukawa potential normally takes the form
The quantity g is real. It represents the coupling constant between the meson field and the fermion with which it interacts, at least in the normal quantum interpretation. The Yukawa potential itself arises from the exchange of a massive scalar field or particle such as the pi meson or pion (Yukawa, 1935). The nega- tive sign guarantees that the force between particles in the nucleus is always attractive.
This potential is associated with the extremely short-range strong nuclear force and it is usually only interpreted as a quantum phenomenon. The potential associated with the Yukawa field decreases exponentially, guaranteeing the short range of the Yukawa field to little more than the outer boundaries of the nucleus. It is simply assumed that the Yukawa field cannot be interpreted within a non-quantum context, yet there is no hard and fast rule that states that the Yukawa potential cannot be interpreted geometrically. Classical fields are nor- mally interpreted geometrically, so it would seem that the Yukawa field should also have a geometrical interpretation. Even the modern view of gravity as resulting from the curvature of space-time is geometrical in nature.
According to a simple interpretation of physical laws, the field strengths of both electric and gravitational fields vary as llr2. Traditionally, this inverse square law has been interpreted as resulting from the three-dimensionality of
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 533
this may seem, the inverse square law has been used in the past to explain the necessity of a three-dimensional space to the laws of physics (Whitrow, 1955; Abramenko, 1958; Biichel, 1963; Freeman, 1969). In other words, the inverse square law is normally thought to imply (if not prove) that space 'must be' three-dimensional. It has also been a common practice in the past to criticize higher-dimensional theories by pointing out that gravity would not work in a higher-dimensioned space because the inverse square law would not apply. However, we commonly accept the notion of a four-dimensional space-time without any alteration to the inverse square law without realizing that we do so. The fourth dimension of time is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from the normal three dimensions of space, so it does not affect the inverse square law. By the same token, there is no hard and fast rule that unequivocally requires that a fourth dimension of space would be both quantitatively and qualitatively the same as our normal three dimensions of space. In fact, given the reality of a fourth dimension of space, nature seems to have ordained that the fourth dimension is different from our normal three dimensions of space and nature rules physics instead of the other way around. So there is no valid or compelling reason to assume that a fourth spatial dimension would have any effect on the inverse square law and gravity. In fact there are reasons to believe that the opposite is true.
Many scientists have long believed that matter is electrically constituted and electricity acts according to the inverse square law. Our perception of space is dependent on the relative positions of matter in that space. So if matter is three- dimensional we sense space as three-dimensional. The three-dimensional surface curvature of a material particle or material body may be sufficient to determine the three-dimensionality of space, but the complete three- dimensionality of the particle is not necessary according to how it outwardly appears. Nor is it complete. The interior portion of a material particle could still be higher dimensional. For instance, the interior of a proton could be a physical singularity stretching into a higher fourth dimension even though the exterior surface of the proton is still curved spherically in three-dimensional space. Space
1 could have any number of dimensions while three-dimensional matter only determines that part of the space or manifold in which the electrical field acts and reacts. Our normal senses evolved in the three-dimensional material world of nature, so they would be limited to detect only the three-dimensionality of matter even given a real fourth dimension. Since gravity acts between material particles, which are three-dimensional due to their electrical nature, it would also act three-dimensionally even if space had four or more dimensions. While it is commonly argued that space is three-dimensional because of the inverse square law, it could also be argued that we only sense three out of a greater number of dimensions because of the inverse square law by which gravity and electricity act as they do in three dimensions.
It seems that the inverse square law only guarantees the three-dimensional actions and interactions of matter, not the other way around. The forces
534 J. E. Beichler
associated with common fields act three-dimensionally and no more. The inverse square law does not guarantee that either space itself or fields in general are three-dimensional or otherwise limited to three dimensions. Fields could be higher-dimensional entities just as space could be higher dimensional even though we only sense three dimensions of space. Matter reacts with fields in three- dimensional space because matter is outwardly three-dimensional, not because fields are three-dimensional. If fields are higher dimensional, there may be field- field interactions that occur only in the higher dimensions of space and thus remain undetected in the three-dimensional material space except by their sec- ondary effects. An effect such as quantum entanglement could be explained in this manner. When all is taken into account, neither physical fields nor space need be limited to three dimensions by either the laws of nature or logic and reason.
On the other hand, the potentials associated with fields vary as llr. So
a physical field associated with a particular potential has one more factor of the
2
variable 'r' than the potential itself because fields vary as l/r . The dimen-
sionality of the space that the field occupies is generally two greater than the exponent of the variable 'r' in the denominator of the formula representing the potential. This logic also follows for the Yukawa potential: The variable 'r' in the denominator reflects the three-dimensionality of the field, but there is another term with an 'r-' factor in the exponent in the numerator of the formula. The variable 'r' in the numerator of the formula could easily represent another dimension, so the Yukawa potential would require that the space occupied by the Yukawa field is four-dimensional, not three-dimensional. The exponential term eKkrrepresents both the geometrical structure of the particle and its associated field as extended into the fourth dimension of space. The extension of a particle in the fourth direction would occur internally relative to three-dimensional space so that the part of the material particle that we sense or detect remains the three- dimensional exterior surface of the particle.
In this model of the Yukawa potential and field, the variable 'r' in the denominator would account for the spherical shape of elementary particles and the nucleus itself. By analogy, this would indicate that the exponential term in the numerator would refer to the geometrical shape of the Yukawa field in the higher fourth dimension. If the Yukawa field conforms to the shape of an exponential curve in the higher dimension, as opposed to the spherical shape in three-dimensional space, then the fourth dimension of space is most certainly different from the other three dimensions of normal space, as noted above.
In fact, elementary particles such as protons and neutrons would be small singularities according to the general theory of relativity; or rather they would be singular at their centers. They would therefore follow curved space-time in a shape similar to a rotated exponential curve, as shown in a normal drawing of the curved metric of a singularity (see Figure 1).
So the Yukawa field would correspond to the shape of a nucleus or elementary particles predicted by relativity theory, if general relativity is taken to depict a real curvature of three-dimensional space in a higher embedding fourth
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 535
Exponential curves define the outer shape of the singularity in
Fig. 1. The internal curvature of an elementary particle.
dimension of space. At this point, there is no need to assume a dimensionality greater than four as used in some recent theories, although there are no re- strictions on space having more than four dimensions. Moreover, the curvature of space-time in general relativity is a function of the mass of a particle or body. The constant k in the Yukawa potential is also related to the mass of the exchange particle between nucleons. In both cases, the mass is related to the curvature explicit in the mathematical model, which indicates that the Yukawa potential could be modeled by the curvature of space-time as expressed by the theory of relativity rather than the particle exchange concept of quantum field theory. In either case, the Yukawa potential logically requires that space is four- dimensional and thus the space-time continuum of relativity is five-dimensional. The relationship between the Yukawa potential and general relativity leads to the third logical proof that space is four-dimensional, only this time the proof deals with the macroscopic world of the greater universe rather than the microscopic world of the quantum.
The Cosmological Connection
In the late 1920s, Edwin Hubble observed that other galaxies were receding from our Milky Way galaxy with increasing speed as the distance to the other galaxies increased. These observations indicated that our universe is expanding. Georges-Henri Lemaitre and others who developed the expansion hypothesis by a theoretical application of general relativity had already predicted the expansion. The marriage of observation and theory in this case produced one of the most spectacular successes for science in the twentieth century. The simple notion of an expanding universe is usually explained by analogy to a two- dimensional surface expanding in a third dimension.
A good example would be a balloon with spirals drawn on its surface to represent galaxies. When the balloon is blown up and expands, the spirals spread
536 J. E. Beichler
apart and move away from each other in the same pattern of motion that the receding galaxies show during astronomical observation. The expanding surface of the balloon is analogous to our expanding universe, the difference being that the balloon is a two-dimensional surface expanding outward in a third direction while the universe is a three-dimensional surface expanding into 'who knows what'. Although the phrase 'who knows what' is not an appropriate phrase for scientific use, it does represent how science views the question of what the universe is expanding into.
Some versions of modern brane theory postulate variously dimensioned branes curved in higher-dimensional bulks, so brane theorists could claim that the universe is expanding into the embedding bulks. However, brane theories have other problems to overcome: There is a discontinuity between the branes and the bulks in which they are embedded, such that the branes and bulks are separate things. As such, they break the continuity of the space-time continuum. The brane theories are based upon Klein's interpretation of Kaluza's five-dimensional theory of space-time, but they violate the basic assumptions upon which Kaluza unified electromagnetism and gravity as expressed by general relativity: Kaluza assumed the continuity of four-dimensional space-time with the fifth and higher dimension. So it would seem that the brane theories as well as the superstring theories upon which they were conslrucled are at odds with their own basic premise.
However, the balloon analogy gives more information about the expansion than ordinarily suspected, which implies an answer to this unanswered question about what the universe is expanding into. The spirals drawn on the balloon's surface are all rotating and expanding relative to a single point, the geometric center of the balloon, rather than any center on the surface of the balloon. This part of the analogy is often used to argue that our universe has no center within its three-dimensional expanse, which is true. The curvature of space-time in general relativity has always been considered an intrinsic property of space-time such that a higher embedding dimension has been unnecessary to explain observed and suspected phenomena. However, a higher embedding dimension, demonstrating that the curvature of space-time is an extrinsic property, is still perfectly compatible with general relativity (Misner et al., 1973). Extrinsic curvature is sufficient to explain the effects of general relativity, but has never been considered necessary as long as the idea of intrinsic curvature was con- sidered more likely. But if the concept of extrinsic curvature and a higher embedding spatial dimension does not represent our true reality, simple rela- tivity will be violated in the case of the expanding universe and other astronomical observations.
In the balloon analogy, as stated above, the plane of rotation of the spirals and the recession of the spirals as the balloon expands are all oriented relative to a single point, the center of curvature of the balloon's surface. In the real three-dimensional spatially extended universe, all of the galaxies rotate and recede from each other at all possible angles or orientations in three-dimensional space. Yet you cannot have a mathematical property true for one configuration
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 537
of spatial dimensions (two dimensions embedded in three-dimensional space) that is not true for another configuration (three dimensions embedded in a four- dimensional space). Such an inconsistency would destroy the validity of the mathematical model. The general geometric properties are the same for all spaces and embedding manifolds for an n-dimensional geometry embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold. Riemannian geometry is based upon this simple idea. So, there is a logical necessity that the orientation of all of the galaxies in the expanding universe be relative to a single point or center of curvature of the universe. The natural rotations of galaxies in the universe are all relative to the same point, and the planes of galactic rotation are all tangential to the three- dimensional surface that is our space, which is perpendicular to the real extrinsic radii drawn between them and the center of a physically real curvature of our universe in a fourth spatial dimension.
In this case, it is illogical to speak of the overall curvature of the universe and then deny the reality of the higher embedding dimension because of a human sensory and perceptual bias against the possibility of a fourth spatial dimension. Perhaps local spatial curvature can be explained away as an intrinsic charac- teristic of the space-time continuum, but the concept of intrinsic curvature on a global level is untenable. The notion of an intrinsic radius of curvature for the whole of the universe is illogical. The three-dimensional surface of our universe is closed such that it forms a Riemannian sphere, which would require a higher embedding dimension to account for the closure. Once again, the only way to derive a direction perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simultaneously would be to adopt the geometry of a real four-dimensional embedding space. That fourth dimension or direction is orthogonal to the normal three dimensions of space. So the observed three-dimensional orientation of astronomical bodies directly requires the reality of a fourth spatial dimension. In effect, our three- dimensional universe is expanding into a fourth dimension of space. The simple fundamental notions of relative motion and actual observation, rather than any specific theory, logically require that our space is four-dimensional and thus space-time is five-dimensional.
The Kaluza Confirmation
While these logical proofs may not be completely persuasive or even persuasive enough to sway the attitudes of many within the general scientific community, there are other extenuating factors and circumstances that should be persuasive given the validity of the logical proofs. Also, these three logical proofs should be considered independent of any particular hyper-dimensional theory of space-time. They only indicate that some higher-dimensional theory would give a more correct picture of our physical reality without specifying the exact theory to be used. Yet there is already a specific scientific theory that successfully utilizes a five-dimensional space-time geometry to unify general relativity and electromagnetism: Kaluza's 1921 theory. Kaluza's theory has been largely ignored in spite of its successful derivation of Maxwell's electromagnetic
538 J. E. Beichler
theory from the general relativity of a five-dimensional space-time continuum. Most modern scientists are only familiar with Kaluza's theory through its association with the work of Oskar Klein, altering the theory to the Kaluza-Klein model of space-time. Little is known of Kaluza's original theory under these circumstances. Klein's subsequent adaptation of the theory (Klein 1926a, 1926b, 1927) was an attempt to incorporate quantum theory into the geometry of space-
time. But Kaluza's theory can stand alone on its own merits, without considering 7
Klein s extended version of the theory into the realm of the quantum. Kaluza's original theory had nothing to do with the quantum.
According to Kaluza's original theory, two mathematical conditions are necessary to unify general relativity and electromagnetic theory. All points in the four-dimensional space-time continuum are extended orthogonally into the fifth dimension along what Kaluza called A-lines. The A-lines follow circular paths in the fifth direction back to our space-time continuum, so they are closed with respect to the fifth direction. Kaluza's first condition was to close the system in the fifth direction, but the A-lines were also required to be of equal length, giving the second condition. Kaluza also suggested that the A-lines are infinitesimally short to guarantee that we could not detect the fifth dimension, although this suggestion was not a required mathematical condition. The two conditions were necessary to guarantee the mathematical consequences of add- ing the fifth dimension: Deriving the equations of general relativity by applying a four-transformation while obtaining the equations of electromagnetism by applying a cut-transformation.
If either of the initial conditions were to be changed or relaxed in any manner, it is possible and even likely that the results of the change would render electromagnetism and gravity incompatible if not break Kaluza's link between them altogether. But Kaluza also assumed, without so stating, a third condition of continuity in the fifth direction. Continuity was built into the calculus that Kaluza used to develop his geometrical model. So if continuity is forfeited, then Kaluza's theory could still fall apart. Before any of these conditions is changed in new extensions of Kaluza's theory, it must be shown that any of these changes, or any combination of them, does not alter Kaluza's results, the unifi- cation of gravity and electromagnetism. There are no middle roads to take here; it is all either black or white. If Kaluza's initial conditions were altered in any manner that breaks or weakens the link between gravity and electromagnetism, then the extension would be invalid for having destroyed the very foundations upon which the new theory is based. Yet changes in these conditions have been made to expedite the development of modern theories and thus could have a direct bearing on the validity of the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, all of which depend on extended versions of the Kaluza-Klein model.
When Klein adopted Kaluza's theory in an attempt to quantize the unified field, he did not relax or alter Kaluza's conditions. He merely followed Kaluza's suggestion that the extension in the fifth direction must be extremely small since we cannot detect the extra dimension. Klein equated the periodicity in the
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 539
'closed loop' condition to the quantum of action. At the time, Klein's version of the theory was largely ignored by the scientific community, which was mesmer- ized by other developments in quantum theory such as quantum mechanics and wave mechanics. Unfortunately, Klein could not make his theory work. He rejected his first theory and made two later attempts to rectify the errors in his theory, in 1939 and 1947 (Klein 1939, 1947), but eventually rejected his basic hypothesis and gave his theory up as a lost cause.
Klein's adaptation of Kaluza's theory, the Kaluza-Klein theory, was re- discovered in the 1970s and adopted by supergravity theorists as a method to unify gravity with the latest versions of the quantum field theories and the standard model of elementary particles. The superstring theorists adopted the Kaluza-Klein theory a few years later, but both groups of theorists have expanded the number of dimensions to 10,11or more. However, these scientists have never demonstrated that adding the extra dimensions above Kaluza's original five would remain consistent with the original purpose of Kaluza's theory to unify general relativity and electromagnetism. These theories are untenable and speculative and they will remain so until superstring theorists can demonstrate that adding the extra dimensions does not alter the connection between Einstein and Maxwell's theories that Kaluza's five-dimensional structure established.
On the other hand, any extension of the Kaluza-Klein theory that is super- imposed on a quantum field theory should also suffer from fundamental problems because quantum field theories are by their very nature based upon a discrete model that is at odds with the assumed condition of continuity in Kaluza's original theory. Nor have the superstring theorists explained how the curvature of space-time fits into their theories, even though they take general relativity for granted as the basis of their theories. Any Kaluza or Kaluza-Klein theory that retains the infinitesimal (or Planck) extension of length in the fifth direction must deal with the same fundamental problem. The adoption of a real physical five-dimensional space-time structure, instead of a limited purely mathematical model, implies that curvature is an extrinsic characteristic of our common four-dimensional space-time continuum. However, an infinitesimally extended fifth direction seems to retain the intrinsic nature of the four- dimensional space-time by not explaining how the concept of curvature fits into the model, creating a paradox.
The superstring theories have evolved into the more general 'brane' theories. Several 'brane' theorists have speculated on all types of structures including dual three-dimensional branes, five-dimensional branes, colliding branes and curved branes within a bulk, to mention only a few examples. But it seems that they have yet to demonstrate whether these geometrical structures conform to the basic hypotheses upon which their theories depend, Kaluza's initial derivation of the general relativity and electromagnetic formulas from an extremely limited and conditional five-dimensional mathematical model of a continuous space- time. The Randall-Sundrum theory offers a case in point (Randall & Sundrum,
1999a, 1999b). In the Randall-Sundrum model, two branes are separated
1
540 J. E. Beichler
by a higher-dimensional bulk. One of the branes represents our common three-dimensional curved space, while gravitons traveling from our brane to the other brane are the only direct links between the branes. In one model, the second brane is an infinite distance away, effectively limiting our world to the single brane embedded in the bulk and guaranteeing a weak gravitational force. However, this model is in direct violation of Kaluza's condition that our four- dimensional world is closed with respect to the higher fifth dimension. Brane theories of this type must be required to demonstrate that their models do not disrupt the unification of electromagnetism and gravity in the Kaluza model upon which they are based. Yet no one has ever argued or even explored how such changes would affect the basic underlying principles of the original mathematical unification model developed by Kaluza.
The only theoretical research ever conducted to determine the mathematical consequences of changing Kaluza's theory only considered the relaxation of his initial suggestion of an infinitesimal extension, rather than changing any of his initial conditions. Einstein and Peter G. Bergmann completed this change in 1938 (Einstein & Bergmann, 1938). Einstein, Bergmann and Valentine Bargmann again considered it in 1941 (Einstein et al., 1941). They retained the 'closed loop' and 'equal length' conditions and remained within a continuous mathematical model of five-dimensional space-time, but allowed for the possibility of macroscopically extended lengths of the A-lines. Under these conditions, they were still able to derive Maxwell's formulas and thus maintain Kaluza's unification. But Einstein eventually gave up this avenue of research toward his goal of a unified field theory because he could not justify the notion of a normal sized fifth dimension that could not be sensed or detected in any manner. Even so, Einstein listed the five-dimensional approach as one of three possibilities to develop a unified field theory in his last published book before he died (Einstein, 1956). He stipulated that the five-dimensional hypothesis would only be tenable if it could be explained why the fifth dimension cannot be detected.
Conclusion
These three logical proofs, in themselves, will not immediately change the course of science. Science has ignored the implied existence of a real fourth spatial dimension for more than a century, so it will not be so easily compelled to accept it now. However, it is not just the three logical proofs that indicate the existence of a fourth spatial dimension to our universe. It is a preponderance of the evidence that will soon force science to accept the four-dimensional reality of space. The value of these three logical proofs will only become evident over [he lvnger term of scientific advances.
While logically proving the existence of a fourth dimension to space, these proofs also imply the geometric structure of that dimension relative to the other three. First of all, the fourth dimension of space would be different, like time, from the other three common dimensions of space. Otherwise, four- dimensionality would adversely affect the inverse square law and thus conflict
Five Dimensions of Space-Time 541
with normally accepted physical laws. Instead, the fourth dimension should be characterized by changing magnetic potential except inside elementary particles where the space curvature corresponding to matter would assume the shape of an exponential curve. Both of these characteristics imply that the total extension of space in the fourth direction cannot be infinitesimally small or even microscopic as in Klein's version of Kaluza's theory. The exponentially shaped singularity at the center of elementary particles such as protons would require a non- infinitesimal extension of space in the higher dimension.
In other words, if the magnetic potential and Yukawa potential exist in nature as described, then the fourth dimension of space, or the fifth dimension of space- time, cannot be infinitesimally extended. Both logical arguments imply that the extra higher dimension is macroscopically extended as Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann demonstrated. It is provident that Kaluza's theory has already been developed as the basis for a new unification, but the macroscopic extension in the fourth direction of space means that the present unification theories that are based upon Kaluza's suggestion and Kaluza-Klein models are not valid. The path of unification that science must follow is the path that physics and nature leads us down, not the path that some scientists decide that nature must logically follow, no matter how 'beautiful' or aesthetically pleasing those theories might be. The path that nature has decided for science is the one that leads to the four- dimensionality of space (the Clifford model) and the five-dimensionality of the space-time continuum (the Einstein-Kaluza model).
Much of the early work on five-dimensional space was in an attempt to develop a theory that unifies the four fundamental interactions in nature: strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity and electromagnetism. German mathematician Theodor Kaluza and Swedish physicist Oskar Klein independently developed the Kaluza–Klein theory in 1921, which used the fifth dimension to unify gravity with electromagnetic force. Although their approaches were later found to be at least partially inaccurate, the concept provided a basis for further research over the past century.
Space-time--time couples Kaluza's five-dimensional geometry with Weyl's conformal space-time geometry to produce an extension that goes beyond what either of those theories can achieve by itself. Kaluza's ``cylinder condition'' is replaced by an ``exponential expansion constraint'' that causes translations along the secondary time dimension to induce both the electromagnetic gauge transformations found in the Kaluza and the Weyl theories and the metrical gauge transformations unique to the Weyl theory, related as Weyl had postulated. A space-time--time geodesic describes a test particle whose rest mass, space-time momentum, and electric charge q, all defined kinematically, evolve in accord with definite dynamical laws. Its motion is governed by four apparent forces: the Einstein gravitational force, the Lorentz electromagnetic force, a force proportional to the electromagnetic potential, and a force proportional to a scalar field's gradient d(ln phi). The test particles exhibit quantum behavior: (1) they appear and disappear in full-blown motion at definite events; (2) all that share an event E of appearance or disappearance do so with the same charge magnitude |q| = phi(E); (3) conservation of space-time--time momentum at such an event entails conservation of electric charge in addition to conservation of space-time momentum, among the participating particles; (4) at such events the d(ln phi) force infinitely dominates the other three --- this strongly biases the appearance and disappearance events to be concentrated deep in the discretely spaced potential wells of ln phi, and sparse elsewhere.
To explain why this dimension would not be directly observable, Klein suggested that the fifth dimension would be rolled up into a tiny, compact loop on the order of 10-33 centimeters. Under his reasoning, he envisioned light as a disturbance caused by rippling in the higher dimension just beyond human perception, similar to how fish in a pond can only see shadows of ripples across the surface of the water caused by raindrops.[2] While not detectable, it would indirectly imply a connection between seemingly unrelated forces. The Kaluza–Klein theory experienced a revival in the 1970s due to the emergence of superstring theory and supergravity: the concept that reality is composed of vibrating strands of energy, a postulate only mathematically viable in ten dimensions or more. Superstring theory then evolved into a more generalized approach known as M-theory. M-theory suggested a potentially observable extra dimension in addition to the ten essential dimensions which would allow for the existence of superstrings. The other 10 dimensions are compacted, or "rolled up", to a size below the subatomic level. The Kaluza–Klein theory today is seen as essentially a gauge theory, with the gauge being the circle group.
The fifth dimension is difficult to directly observe, though the Large Hadron Collider provides an opportunity to record indirect evidence of its existence. Physicists theorize that collisions of subatomic particles in turn produce new particles as a result of the collision, including a graviton that escapes from the fourth dimension, or brane, leaking off into a five-dimensional bulk. M-theory would explain the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces of nature, as can be seen, for example, when using a magnet to lift a pin off a table — the magnet is able to overcome the gravitational pull of the entire earth with ease.
Mathematical approaches were developed in the early 20th century that viewed the fifth dimension as a theoretical construct. These theories make reference to Hilbert space, a concept that postulates an infinite number of mathematical dimensions to allow for a limitless number of quantum states. Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann later tried to extend the four-dimensional spacetime of general relativity into an extra physical dimension to incorporate electromagnetism, though they were unsuccessful.[1] In their 1938 paper, Einstein and Bergmann were among the first to introduce the modern viewpoint that a four-dimensional theory, which coincides with Einstein-Maxwell theory at long distances, is derived from a five-dimensional theory with complete symmetry in all five dimensions. They suggested that electromagnetism resulted from a gravitational field that is “polarized” in the fifth dimension.
www.scientificexploration.org/docs/21/jse_21_3_beichler.pdf
The main novelty of Einstein and Bergmann was to seriously consider the fifth dimension as a physical entity, rather than an excuse to combine the metric tensor and electromagnetic potential. But they then reneged, modifying the theory to break its five-dimensional symmetry. Their reasoning, as suggested by Edward Witten, was that the more symmetric version of the theory predicted the existence of a new long range field, one that was both massless and scalar, which would have required a fundamental modification to Einstein's theory of general relativity. Minkowski space and Maxwell's equations in vacuum can be embedded in a five-dimensional Riemann curvature tensor.
In 1993, the physicist Gerard 't Hooft put forward the holographic principle, which explains that the information about an extra dimension is visible as a curvature in a spacetime with one fewer dimension. For example, holograms are three-dimensional pictures placed on a two-dimensional surface, which gives the image a curvature when the observer moves. Similarly, in general relativity, the fourth dimension is manifested in observable three dimensions as the curvature path of a moving infinitesimal (test) particle. 'T Hooft has speculated that the fifth dimension is really the spacetime fabric.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-dimens
When the 75th Anniversary Dorothy Gale doll came out, let’s just say doll collectors had some…. very unkind words for her face, especially her forehead/brow area, which I thought the same.
It wasn’t until I had one in my hands I realised the only reason why she looks so bad is because her eyebrows are almost nonexistent and the heavy eye make up made her eyes look more sunken in and emphasises her brow sculpt really badly.
After giving her actual eyebrows I think she looks perfect now which is funny cuz I was going to change some other bits about her face but they look better now her eyebrows are visible.
Winter was pretty much nonexistent here until this latest round of truly cold weather.Finally some solitary snowflakes instead of large aggregate flakes.
“A Little Tale”…
He was born to two very powerful wizards. Both his parents were highly respected for their strong abilities and gifts. Other wizards were in awe of what each could do alone and together. They were a force no one dared to reckon with.
Unfortunately, as life does, it extracts a price for every gift received. Maybe that is Universal Laws’ “Law of Balance”. In the case of the young wizard, he was the price his parents had to pay for their great wizardly and other abilities. You see, their son, their only child, had very little, okay, truth be told, almost no wizardly abilities. And, the ones he did possess were uncontrollable and weak.
Rather ironic, don’t you think? The two most powerful wizards produced an offspring who was barely a wizard; and, they were ashamed of him. He shamed them because they felt they failed to continue the long line of superior wizards, and thus, to them, that meant that they had flaws and were not as perfect as they considered themselves to be. They felt that the other wizards took delight in their son’s lack of powers and abilities and that they were ridiculed behind their backs. So, they regarded their son, their own child, as something less and an abomination. They also believed he was dumb and simple minded.
And, he, their son, knew how they felt and rather than being in their loving sunlight, as their son, he was cast into their shadows. No matter what he did, it never succeeded in pleasing his parents. He always fell short of their mark in some way.
The way his parents felt about and regarded him alienated them from him…He saw each time they glanced at him, they saw failure…his and theirs. But, in truth, it was no one’s failure or fault, but, rather, nature’s doing. But, they did not see him that way. He was an enormous embarrassment and burden to them.
Thus, they avoided him as much as possible and when in his presence, treated him as if were simple minded. And, that could not be farther from the truth. He was, in fact, quite brilliant, in spite of his lack of wizard super powers and abilities. He would have been considered a genius among humans. But, sadly, he was not human and so, his parents were blind to the gifts he was given…all of them.
He had the ability to invent and create gadgets, machines, gizmos, and the like at a time in history when there were no electronics, computer was not nonexistent and neither were many of today’s taken for granted conveniences. Some of his creations, which I am certain you have heard of, include…the Time Reversenum, the Magnifyometer, and the Energy Directiumus.
More than once, he tried to share his inventions with his parents, but they always waved him off like a mere fly. They had no need for gadgets or machinery. They had their powers. Plus, they had, in reality, disowned him, unofficially, as their son. They simply didn’t care about him or want him.
Hurt badly to his very core by his parents’ feelings toward him and their treatment of and disregard for him, he made a vow to himself that he would not let them make him feel as if he was a failure, a nothing or a loser. They, in fact, were the ones, in spite of their super powers, who fell short of the mark as sentient beings. They were conceited, small minded, self involved and self absorbed, vain, and looked down on others. He was grateful he was nothing like them. He was his own person.
So, he packed his things, left them a brief note of goodbye, which he knew would bring them great joy, and set out to follow his own life plan and destiny. He settled in the Enchanted Woods where he was immediately accepted. He found a very old, huge, and dead Oak tree, which had been abandoned. Inside it had so many floors going up to the top of the tree; each connected by spiral branch staircases. But best of all, it had, below the ground, where its dead roots were, a cellar. It was enormous. This was the ideal place to set up his lab and create his inventions.
His neighbors in the Enchanted Woods-elementals, fairies, witches, hobbits, gnomes, squirrels, wizards, and others, delighted in each of his “odd”, scary, and “magical” inventions. They loved to see them work and try them out. They were fascinated by them and by him. The wizards and witches especially loved his Energy Directiumus because it helped them direct the energy needed for difficult or complicated spells.
They would “pop” in unexpected from time to time just to see what he was working on. This was fine with him. He enjoyed hearing the fairies giggle, the gnomes snort in glee, and the wizards and witches saying, “OOOO! or “Hmmmm”. Their reactions gave him great pleasure and a sense of worth. He was accepted for himself and respected for his gifts. The hurt and the pain of his early years with his parents fell away and his life was one of accomplishment, friendship, and happiness.
~ Marsha J. West, Author~ edited for Flickr
(This is my original story or “A Little Tale”. It is my personal property and cannot be copied or used in any medium either online or written without prior approval.)
Leamington is a municipality in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. With a population of 28,403, it is the second largest municipality in the Windsor-Essex County area (after the separated municipality of Windsor, Ontario). It includes Point Pelee, the southernmost point of mainland Canada.
Known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada", it is the location of a tomato processing factory owned by Highbury-Canco, previously owned until 2014 by the Heinz Company. Due to its location in the southernmost part of Canada, Leamington uses the motto "Sun Parlour of Canada". In 2006, MoneySense Magazine ranked Leamington as the No. 1 best place to live in Canada.
Leamington enjoys the second warmest climate in Canada, after the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
Leamington has been known for its tourism and attractions and is known as the tomato capital of Canada. Leamington's attractions include cycle paths and nearby Point Pelee National Park. Leamington also has a large and modern marina. The town's water tower, visible for miles in the flat southern Ontario landscape, is also in the shape and colour of a giant tomato. Celebrating its position as an agricultural powerhouse and its heritage as the H. J. Heinz Company's centre for processing "red goods," the city hosts a "Tomato Festival" each August, as a kickoff of the tomato-harvesting season. Car shows, beauty pageants, parades, and a fair are featured at the festival.
Leamington's position on the north shore of Lake Erie makes it an important recreational centre. The tourist information booth in the centre of town is a large fiberglass tomato.
Leamington is also home to Point Pelee National Park, which contains the southernmost point on mainland Canada and draws thousands of visitors annually and is also home to one of the largest migrations of Monarch butterflies annually.
Known as the tomato capital of Canada, Leamington became the home of the H. J. Heinz factory in 1908. The Heinz products are shipped from Leamington, with English and French labels, mostly to the United States. Ketchup and baby food are the main products. In November 2013 Heinz announced that it would close the Leamington plant in 2014, meaning job losses for 740 employees at the plant and hundreds more support workers.
Due to a 54-year-old law in Canada, which bans the use of tomato paste in tomato juice, Highbury Canco still produces tomato juice and other products for Heinzs. Around 250 workers still process canned products at the over 100 year old factory.
Leamington has also been known for its greenhouses, and now has the largest concentration of commercial greenhouses in all of North America, with 1,969 acres (797 ha) of greenhouse vegetable production in the general area. Major products of the greenhouse industry, in addition to tomatoes, are peppers, cucumbers, roses, and other flowers. Hydroponic farming has been very successfully adopted by many greenhouse operators in Leamington. Historically, tobacco was an important crop in the area, but tobacco production declined in the 1960s and today is virtually nonexistent.
Migrant workers, mostly Mexican and Caribbean seasonal labourers, annually arrive in the region to work in Leamington's greenhouses and farms. Several Mexican and Jamaican shops and a Mexican consulate have opened to service the migrants.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leamington,_Ontario
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Leamington is a municipality in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. With a population of 28,403, it is the second largest municipality in the Windsor-Essex County area (after the separated municipality of Windsor, Ontario). It includes Point Pelee, the southernmost point of mainland Canada.
Known as the "Tomato Capital of Canada", it is the location of a tomato processing factory owned by Highbury-Canco, previously owned until 2014 by the Heinz Company. Due to its location in the southernmost part of Canada, Leamington uses the motto "Sun Parlour of Canada". In 2006, MoneySense Magazine ranked Leamington as the No. 1 best place to live in Canada.
Leamington enjoys the second warmest climate in Canada, after the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
Leamington has been known for its tourism and attractions and is known as the tomato capital of Canada. Leamington's attractions include cycle paths and nearby Point Pelee National Park. Leamington also has a large and modern marina. The town's water tower, visible for miles in the flat southern Ontario landscape, is also in the shape and colour of a giant tomato. Celebrating its position as an agricultural powerhouse and its heritage as the H. J. Heinz Company's centre for processing "red goods," the city hosts a "Tomato Festival" each August, as a kickoff of the tomato-harvesting season. Car shows, beauty pageants, parades, and a fair are featured at the festival.
Leamington's position on the north shore of Lake Erie makes it an important recreational centre. The tourist information booth in the centre of town is a large fiberglass tomato.
Leamington is also home to Point Pelee National Park, which contains the southernmost point on mainland Canada and draws thousands of visitors annually and is also home to one of the largest migrations of Monarch butterflies annually.
Known as the tomato capital of Canada, Leamington became the home of the H. J. Heinz factory in 1908. The Heinz products are shipped from Leamington, with English and French labels, mostly to the United States. Ketchup and baby food are the main products. In November 2013 Heinz announced that it would close the Leamington plant in 2014, meaning job losses for 740 employees at the plant and hundreds more support workers.
Due to a 54-year-old law in Canada, which bans the use of tomato paste in tomato juice, Highbury Canco still produces tomato juice and other products for Heinzs. Around 250 workers still process canned products at the over 100 year old factory.
Leamington has also been known for its greenhouses, and now has the largest concentration of commercial greenhouses in all of North America, with 1,969 acres (797 ha) of greenhouse vegetable production in the general area. Major products of the greenhouse industry, in addition to tomatoes, are peppers, cucumbers, roses, and other flowers. Hydroponic farming has been very successfully adopted by many greenhouse operators in Leamington. Historically, tobacco was an important crop in the area, but tobacco production declined in the 1960s and today is virtually nonexistent.
Migrant workers, mostly Mexican and Caribbean seasonal labourers, annually arrive in the region to work in Leamington's greenhouses and farms. Several Mexican and Jamaican shops and a Mexican consulate have opened to service the migrants.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leamington,_Ontario
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
Had a thought today that one thing that has really changed here on the West Point Route in the last few years is how run-thru foreign power has become almost nonexistent in the years since the PSR virus swept through the railroad industry like wildfire. After moving to Auburn in 2003 and at least through 2015 or so, there were times where it would be hard to tell that this was a CSX line given all the UP power on trains from the New Orleans interchange bound for Atlanta, Hamlet, and Waycross. Here on a February morning in 2010, a pair of SD70Ms with the leader being one of the 25 former SP units put on a good show dragging Q606 up the hill and out of Opelika. Q606 bound for Waycross wasn't one of our regular trains back then but it showed up occasionally when trackwork was happening on the panhandle line, however now it is routed through here after that more direct route from New Orleans to south Georgia was shortlined and sold off several years ago.
Philadelphia, PA, est. 1682; pop. 1,567,442 (metro 6MM)
• built in 1740 • earliest known photograph is dated 1859 — bldg. was then 119 yrs. old [photo] • Georgian-Colonial trinity aka "bandbox" design • typically, trinity houses had 1 room per floor & were built facing each other in rows of 4 identical bldgs. • in addition to the room on each floor, this house had a walkable attic room & a cellar
• served as both business & residence for shopkeepers & artisans for over 150 yrs. • among the occupants in the 18th c. were a shoemaker, apothecary & an upholsterer named Betsy Ross, who is said to have sewn the first American flag in this building • estimates of when & how long she lived here have her arriving in 1773 at the earliest & departing as late as 1791
• over time the house changed in appearance [photos] as neighborhood houses were razed & replaced w/larger commercial buildings —Where's Betsy
Betsy Ross
• Elizabeth "Betsy" Griscom (1752-1836) was a fourth-generation American • daughter of Samuel Griscom (1717-1793) & Rebecca James (c. 1730-1793) • the 8th of their 17 children • great granddaughter of Andrew Griscom (c. 1654-1694), a Quaker carpenter who migrated from England to New Jersey in 1680, 1 yr. before William Penn founded Philadelphia
"She often laughed at the curious fact that she was born on the first day of the week, the first day of the month, the first day of the year, and the first year of the 'new style' [which was] the dividing line between the old way of measuring the years time and the new method under the [Gregorian calendar… She was also] the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter." —C.B. Satterthwaite, great grandson, The Des Moines Register, 07 Jan, 1906
• at age 3 Betsy's family moved to a large home at 4th & Arch Sts. • went to a Friends (Quaker) public school • 8 of her siblings died before adulthood • lost her mother, father & sister, Deborah, to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic
• upon completion of her schooling at age 12, her father apprenticed her to upholsterer John Webster • fell in love with fellow apprentice John Ross (1752-1773), son of an Episcopal asst. rector at Christ Church • defying her parents, in 1773 Betsy, age 21, eloped w/John
• Betsy's sister Sarah & her husband Capt. Wm. Donaldson rowed the couple across the Delaware River, heading 5 miles downstream to Gloucestertown, NJ • they were married at family friend William Hugg Jr.'s tavern & inn, known locally as Hugg's …more: The New Jersey Hugg Line
• because her marriage to a non-Quaker was considered an act of "disorderly and undutiful conduct," Betsy was split from her family & read out of meeting, i.e., disowned by her Quaker community • became a member of Christ Church • the Ross's pew No. 12 [photo] was adjacent to Martha & George Washington's No. 56 & not far from Deborah & Benjamin Franklin's No. 70
• the newlyweds — now trained upholsterers — opened their own business • c. 1773 they rented a house, probably at what is today 239 Arch St. although the exact site is still debated by historians • most records point to this house or one next door at No. 241, long since razed
"The identity of the location was always preserved in the family, which agrees with the records in the old Philadelphia directories… from 1785, the first published, to the removal of Betsy Ross and her husband from 239 Arch Street, in 1791" —Betsy Ross grandson George Canby, New York Times, 05 July, 1908
• Benjamin Franklin & Benjamin Chew were among the Rosses' customers • business slowed during the Revolutionary War as fabric was in short supply • John Ross joined the Pennsylvania militia • mid-Jan., 1776, he was gravely wounded by a powder explosion at a Delaware River ammunition cache, apparently while standing guard • Betsy nursed him in their home, but he died within days
• in June, 1777, Betsy married girlhood suitor Joseph Ashburn, a privateer who commanded the sailing sloop Swallow • the couple had 2 daughters • the 1st, Aucilla ("Zillah"), died in infancy
• British troops entered Philadelphia on 26 Sep., 1777 after their victory at the Battle of Brandywine • the Ashburn home was forcibly shared with British occupation soldiers as the Continental Army suffered through the killing winter at Valley Forge • the British soldiers nicknamed Betsy "Little Rebel" —US History•org
• Betsy was pregnant with Elizabeth ("Eliza") when Joseph accepted a job offer & shipped out as first mate on the 6-gun brigantine, Patty • returned to be present for the Feb., 1781 birth of their 2nd daughter
• Joseph became master of the 18-gun Lion & took her to sea late in the summer of 1781 • on 31 Aug., his ship was captured off the coast of France by a 44-gun British frigate, the HMS Prudente
• prior to March, 1782, the British refused to designate captured rebels as prisoners of war, thus the captives from the Lion were viewed as traitors, charged with high treason & committed to Plymouth, England's Mill Prison [images] • while incarcerated, Ashburn met fellow prisoner John Claypoole, a longtime friend of the Ross family
• Claypoole, a Continental Army vet, had been wounded at Germantown & consequently discharged • in 1781 he signed on to man the 18-gun Pennsylvania privateer Chevalier de la Luzerne & was captured in April • in the spring of 1782 Ashburn died in prison, leaving Betsy a 2-time war widow at age 30 —Betsy Ross and the Making of America
"In the Night of the 3d of March Mr Joseph Ashburn departed this life after an illness of about a week which he bore with amazing fortitude & resignation" —John Claypoole, Mill Prison
"The story goes that Ashburn, while in Mill Prison, often talked with John Claypoole about his wife, Betty*, and at his death sent farewell messages by him to her. Claypoole, on his arrival in Philadelphia, hastened to deliver these messages, and inside of eight months he married her." —John Claypoole's Memorandum-Book *Betsy is referred to as "Betty" in some 18th, 19th & early 20th c. books & media
• in 1782 Claypoole returned to Philadelphia, called on Betsy & married her the following year • gave up his seafaring career to join her at the Arch St. upholstery shop • though renamed "John Claypoole, upholsterer," to customers the shop remained Betsy's place • the couple had 5 daughters: Clarissa, Susanna, Rachel, Jane & Harriet, who died at 9 months • sometime after Susanna's birth in 1786, the Claypooles moved from Arch St. to a larger house on 2nd
• Betsy returned to her Quaker roots, albeit with the Free (Fighting) Quakers, a group exiled from the main Quaker community when their support for the Revolution was ruled a violation of the faith's peace testimony • the couple became members c. 1785 • image: Betsy Claypoole signature taken from the Meeting House roster
• it is widely believed that when the Free Quaker Meeting House shut down in 1834, it was its last attending members — Elizabeth Claypoole & Samuel Wetherill — who closed the doors
• in 1817, after a long illness, John Claypoole died • Betsy never remarried • after retiring, she moved to the home of her daughter, Susanna • she died on 30 Jan, 1836, age 84
The American Flags
"Flags were a rare sight on land in the British North American colonies," —Wooden Teachout, Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism
• American flags were seldom used in parades or displayed by private citizens • colors were flown mainly in battle, over government institutions & on ships, where they were essential to identifying other vessels & determining friend or foe
• this changed after America's 1876 Centennial Exposition, which explains why "flags made prior to the Civil War are extremely rare, and flags made before 1820 are practically nonexistent." —Jeff R. Bridgeman, Stars and Stripes, Early American Life, Aug. 2011
• with the onset of the Revolutionary War, a flag for the "United Colonies" was created without the sanction of the Continental Congress • this 1775 flag was known as the Continental Colors, aka Grand Union, Congress Flag, Cambridge Flag
• on 2 Dec., 1775, the 1st Continental Colors flag was hand sewn by milliner Margaret Manny, who had begun making flags & ensigns the previous year
"Everyone knows about Betsy Ross, why do we know nothing about Margaret Manny? Probably for no better reason than that she had fewer articulate friends and relatives to build a story around her." —historian Barbara Tuchman, The First Salute
• the Continental Colors had 13 alternating red & white stripes with the British Union crosses in the canton • was created to replace the use of individual colony flags • prior to the Declaration of Independence, it was probably the most used unofficial flag of the revolution • American Flag Timeline
• the inclusion of the British Jack in the design signals that this flag was intended not for a civil war of secession, but rather a crusade to secure the American colonists' rights as Englishman • prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Gen. George Washington, still hoping for reconciliation with Mother England, would occasionally toast the King —The Forgotten Flag of the American Revolution and What It Means
• on 3 Dec, 1775, the new flag was raised by 1st Lt. John Paul Jones (1747-1792) on the 30-gun Continental Navy frigate USS Alfred [painting], the 1st national ensign to fly on an American fighting vessel —Naval History Blog
• the flag later flew over the signing of the Declaration of Independence & according to tradition (contested by some scholars), it was raised on a ship's mast atop Charlestown's Prospect Hill [painting] during Washington's 1 Jan., 1776 siege of Boston
• spotting the hybrid British/American flag for the first time, confused British observers took it as a signal of submission: “By this time, I presume, they begin to think it strange that we have not made a formal surrender of our lines,” Washington wrote • his psychological weaponry also included an early form of war propaganda
• absent a single government-mandated flag design, a variety of others were used • within a yr. after Prospect hill, the Continental Colors' Union Jack was replaced by a blue field w/13 white stars in various arrangements, e.g., rows, or possibly a circle?
• on 14 June, 1777, now celebrated as Flag Day, the American Flag was born by resolution of the Continental Congress, the country’s 1st flag law • during the Revolutionary period that followed, the stars on most American flags were arranged in rows of 4-5-4 with the number of points on most stars ranging from 4 to 8 • compared to the Continental Colors, the rows of stars made it easier to identify the flag/ship/nationality at sea —The 13 Stars & Stripes
The Story
• about a year before the Flag Resolution of 1777 Betsy Ross, 5-months a widow & struggling to make a ends meet, is said to have received a visit from a Continental Congress flag committee (apparently a secret one as there are no records of its existence)
• according to the well known Betsy Ross story, in late May of 1776 (but possibly 1777) 3 heroes of the revolution — George Ross, the uncle of Betsy's late husband, financier/slave trader Robert Morris & Betsy's pew neighbor Gen. George Washington [portraits] — called on her to discuss a flag for the new nation
• Rachel Fletcher (Betsy's daughter) recalled that "…she was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag." —Rachel's affidavit
• as told by Betsy, Gen. Washington, then head of the Continental Army, showed her a rough design of a flag with 6-pointed stars • she offered suggestions for modifications & stated a preference for 5-pointed stars • when her visitors expressed concern over the difficulty of producing them, she replied, "Nothing easier," which she then proved by cutting a 5-pointed star in a single snip • video: Make a perfect star with ONE cut! (1:15) • Two Conundrums Concerning the Betsy Ross Five-Pointed Star
• changes approved, Washington redrew the flag w/a pencil • Betsy's friend & collaborator William Barrett, a Cherry St. ornamental painter created a water color copy of the drawing for her to work from • 1-2 other seamstresses sewed alternate designs for the committee, but only Betsy's was approved & used
• what is known today as the "Betsy Ross flag" has 13 red & white stripes & a ring of 13, white 5-pointed stars • though the design may have been in use by 1777, vexillologists believe that between 1777-1795, (the yrs. the official flag had 13 stars) most flags displayed stars in rows, which are easier to produce than a circle
• None of the surviving flags from the 18th century exhibit the Betsy Ross pattern • however a few examples are depicted in the art of the era (although period art is notoriously unreliable for flag research)
• the flag depicted in Chas. Willson Peale's 1779 George Washington at the Battle of Princeton is generally considered credible & "may be the only evidence in a painting… that suggests that a circle-pattern flag may have existed in colonial times… Otherwise, you won't see an American flag with a perfect circle of stars made before the 1890s." —Jeff R. Bridgeman, loc. cit.13 Stars in the Betsy Ross Pattern • historically significant the American flags [images]
• though known as an upholsterer, there is no doubt that Betsy made flags, having sewn pennants & ensigns for the Pennsylvania State Navy Board (as did Margaret Manning & Rebecca Young, whose daughter Mary Pickersgill would go on to sew the enormous flag that inspired the U.S. National Anthem, Francis Scott Key's The Star-Spangled Banner)
• a month before Congress passed the Flag Resolution, Betsy was paid 14 pounds, 12 shillings, 2 pence (~$2,300 in 2017 USD) for what must have been a prodigious quantity of Pennsylvania Navy flags • there is no hard evidence that any of these were American flags • "...today we are reasonably convinced that Betsy’s flag was a naval flag, with a simple ‘in line’ arrangement of the stars…" —John B. Harker, Historian & Betsy Ross descendent
• Betsy (Elizabeth Claypool) was now in the business of producing flags & ensigns for the federal govt. • throughout the Jefferson & Madison admins. the skilled needlewoman made flags as large as 18' x 24' for American military installations, with demand peaking during the War of 1812
• for the rest of her life she — in her words — "never knew what it was to want employment" • her oldest daughter, Clarissa Sidney Wilson (1785-1864) [portrait], succeeded her, supplying arsenals, navy yards & the mercantile marine with flags for years —Betsy Ross•org
"In the last years of her life, Ross was neither more nor less important than other aging women who had lived through the Revolution. That she became famous while others were forgotten exposes the interlocking power of family history, local memory, and national politics." —How Betsy Ross Became Famous by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Historian
The Legend
"…at a time of great historic import such as that time when the Declaration was signed, people have no leisure to think about the minor events which are taking place. Thus, during the revolution no one thought of Betsy Ross as a national heroine, and it was not, in fact until 1870 that William J. Canby (1825-1890) first brought the story of how the first flag was made into general prominence." —Dr. Lloyd Balderston, great-grandson of Betsy Ross, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 3 Jul, 1908
• there is no record of the the Betsy Ross story prior to 1870 • that year — 34 years after her death — Betsy's 45 yr. old grandson, a title processor named William Jackson Canby, presented a paper titled The History of the Flag of the United States to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania • the document, accompanied by sworn affidavits, was an oral history passed on by descendants of Betsy Ross, including Canby himself who was 11 yrs. old when she died • …more: The Evolution of the American Flag by (Betsy Ross descendants) George Canby (1829-1907), Lloyd Balderston, Ph.D (1863-1933)
• the story was largely ignored until it was mentioned in historian George Henry Preble's 1872 book Our Flag & appeared in the July, 1873 Harper's Monthly [illustration] • with Civil War wounds slowly healing & the 1876 centennial celebration fast approaching, Betsy Ross & the flag entered American consciousness • in the 1880's her story began to appear in textbooks • by the mid 1890s it was often illustrated by an engraving of The Birth of Our Nation’s Flag, an 1893 painting by Charles H. Weisgerber (1856-1932)
• oral tradition has it that in 1892 Weisgerber, a 36 yr. old aspiring artist, was bent on winning a forthcoming art competition • walking along Arch St., he noticed a plaque at No. 239 which identified the bldg. as the site where Betsy Ross sewed the 1st American flag
• inspired, Weisgerber envisioned a scene of Betsy & the 1st flag set in her shop • to fill in details of the story, characters & setting, he drew on period portraits, the testimony of living descendants & the 22 yr. old Canby paper
• with no authentic image of Betsy in existence (according to her relatives), Weisgerber painted a composite taken from images of 4 of her daughters & a granddaughter who was said to closely resemble her • the resulting portrait was critiqued by relatives who had known her & modified accordingly • Weisgerber then created a massive 9' x 12' painting • portrayed the young Widow Ross, saintly matriarch of a new nation, as she presents the 1st American flag to 3 revered American patriarchs
• "the image was [said] …by Mrs. Ross' grandson, George Canby, to be the only correct likeness of [her]" — he was 7 yrs. old when Betsy Ross died —The Times (Philadelphia) 15 Jun 1893
• the flag depicted in the painting — with no evidence to support the authenticity of its design — has since been known as the "Betsy Ross flag," the standard for celebrating the U.S.A.'s birthday each 4th of July
The Apotheosis
• Weisgerber's painting won the $1,000 prize & in 1893 was showcased in the Pennsylvania Building at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition • seen by millions of visitors • contributed to the nascent reverence for Betsy Ross & the flag as sacred symbols of the emerging, quasi-religious American civil religion • politicians, patriotic societies & public sentiment propelled the flag's transformation into an object of veneration, its role expanding well beyond the customary military & govt. functions
On Flag Day, 1894, the Colonial Dames gathered 500 schoolchildren to honor “the adoption by Congress . . . of the flag made by Betsy Ross from the design submitted to her by Gen. Washington” • by 1895, 10 states had laws requiring public schools to display the flag on all school days — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, loc. cit.
• in 1897 the City of New York bought thousands of lithographs of Weisgerber’s painting for its public schools: “It is thought that the representation which is declared historically correct, together with such lectures as the teachers may deliver, will add much to the pupil’s knowledge and keep alive a proper reverence for the country’s emblem.” —New York Times, 14 Feb, 1897
• in 1885, NYC school principal George T. Balch (1821-1908), a vet. of the Indian & Civil Wars, wrote Salute to the Flag, the U.S.A.'s first pledge of allegiance
"I give my hand and my heart to my country — one nation, one language, one flag."
• the heightened patriotism of the era inspired a movement to organize schoolyard flag raising ceremonies • the American Flag Assn. was founded in 1897 for the "fostering of public sentiment in favor of honoring the flag in our country and preserving it from desecration" • Natl. Flag Day was proclaimed in 1917
• Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), who worked in the premium dept. of The Youth's Companion magazine, wrote a new U.S. Pledge of Allegiance (1892) for his employer • created as part of the magazine's campaign to sell American flags to public schools • goal was a flag in every classroom • 25,000 schools acquired flags the 1st yr. • though priced "at cost," banner sales proved profitable
• Bellamy also choreographed a salute — the "Bellamy Salute" — to accompany the pledge • because of its similarity to the Nazi heil it was replaced by a right-hand-over-heart gesture during World War II • another Youth's Companion employee, James Upham, headed a flag-centric project designed to engage public schools in the commemoration of the U.S.A.'s 1st Columbus Day (Oct. 1892)
The Verdict
• for nearly a century-and-a-half, historians have debated the available evidence in an attempt to prove that Betsy Ross either did or did not produce the 1st American flag: "There’s no good historical evidence that she did. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t. There’s simply a lack of documentation. Most historians believe the story is apocryphal." —Marc Leepson, author of Flag: An American Biography, The Truth About Betsy Ross
• the identity of the woman who sewed America's 1st flag may never be certain, but there is good reason to believe that its designer may have been Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) • the NJ representative to the Continental Congress & signer of the Declaration of Independence is the only person entered into the Congressional record for designing the 1st American flag
• it has been speculated that on 14 June, 1777, it was Hopkinson who replaced the British crosses in the Continental Colors with white stars on a blue field • no original sketch of a Hopkinson flag exists, but surviving rough sketches including his design for the Great Seal of the U.S. incorporate elements of 2 of his flag designs —Wikipedia
On 25 May, 1780, Hopkinson wrote to the Continental Board, requesting "a Quarter Cask of the public Wine" as payment for several itemized "patriotic designs" he had completed, most notably, "the flag of the United States of America" • submitted another bill on 24 June for "drawings and devices," including "the Naval Flag of the United States"
• the Treasury Board rejected his request for payment because he "was not the only person consulted on those exhibitions of Fancy" & furthermore was not entitled to compensation as he was already on the government payroll —Did Francis Hopkinson Design Two Flags?, Earl P. Williams, Jr.
• Hopkinson is also considered America's 1st poet-composer • written at age 21, his song My Days have been so Wondrous Free (1759) is regarded as the earliest surviving American secular composition [listen] —UPen•edu
Saving Betsy's House
• by 1859, 239 Arch St. was occupied by the family of German immigrant (Carl) Philip Mund (1822-1883), who operated a tailor's shop on the 1st floor • the landlord, after collecting rent for the first year, never returned • over the succeeding rent-free decades, the Munds operated a variety of businesses in their retail space
• after Canby's 1870 speech identified the location of Betsy Ross's house as Arch between 2nd & 3rd, the Munds — occupants of the block's last standing colonial house — posted a sign: "First Flag of the US Made in this House" • in 1876, as visitors poured into the city for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, the Munds ran an ad for their latest 1st floor business: "Original Flag House, Lager, Wine and Liquors. This is the house where the first United States flag was made by Mrs. John Ross." —Historic Philadelphia
• after Philip Mund died his wife Amelia, who objected to running a saloon, converted the space into a cigar store & candy shop which operated until 1892 — her son Charles then devoted the space to a museum/souvenir shop [photo] —The Betsy Ross House Facts, Myths, and Pictures by G.A. Anderson
• c. 1897 citizens led by Charles Weisgerber organized the American Flag Soc. & Betsy Ross Memorial Assn. • goal was to rescue the house from imminent demolition • intended to purchase it from Charles Mund, restore it to its 18th-c. appearance, preserve the memory of Betsy Ross & honor the American flag
• to raise the funds for purchasing the Betsy Ross "American Flag House," the Association devised a rudimentary multi-level marketing strategy • sold lifetime memberships for 10 cents • each member was encouraged to recruit others & form a group of 30; each group founder received a chromolithographograph of Weisgerber's painting • over 2 million monochrome certificates were sold at ten cents each • the colorful chromoliths were available at addl. cost (frame not included) —Enjoying Philadelphia
• the Association leased the house in 1898, purchased it in 1903 • Weisgerber & his family moved in • lived upstairs, kept the museum & a souvenir shop on the 1st floor • in 1902 they named their newborn son Charles Vexil Domus, Latin for "flag house" [photo] • he would later replace his parents as custodian of the house —G.A. Anderson, loc. cit.
• by 1936 the house was on the verge of ruin • in 1937 Philadelphia Mayor Davis Wilson proposed a restoration by WPA workers • this provoked "a storm of protest" from critics
• Pennsylvania Historical Soc. members wrote off the Betsy Ross story as "hokum" and "the bunk" • the protests from scholars & historians sparked an unwinnable faith vs. reason culture war with patriotic organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution & the Patriotic Order Sons of America
• amid the controversy, Philadelphia radio manufacturer & philanthropist A. Atwater Kent (1873-1949) offered to pay up to $25K for the restoration • Historical architect, Richardson Brognard Okie (1875-1945) won the commission
• the design for the restoration was derived from evidence & conjecture • goal was to return the bldg. to its c. 1777 appearance • surviving architectural elements were preserved when possible • materials salvaged from demolished colonial era homes were also used • in 1941, the Association gave the property to the city • the house now stands as one of Philadelphia's most popular tourist attractions
Postscript
• in 1929 Hugg's tavern, where Betsy Griscom defied family & church to marry John Ross, was demolished to make way for the Proprietor's Park swimming pool, which no longer exists • the Revolutionary War-era Hugg-Harrison-Glover House (1764), built on property owned by the Hugg family as early as 1683, was razed in the face of fervent opposition, March, 2017 —Facebook
• 178 yrs. after Betsy's wedding & just 5 blocks from where Hugg's once stood, another American legend was born at the Twin Bar [photo] when Bill Haley (and the Saddlemen) performed there in the early 1950s [poster] • in 1952 Haley's band laid down a cover of Rock the Joint [listen], an historic 1949 recording by Jimmy Preston & His Prestonians [listen] • each of these recordings has been cited as a candidate for the title of first rock 'n' roll song • Gloucester City thus became one of several U.S. sites that claims the title "Cradle of Rock 'n Roll"
Charles H. Weisgerber died in 1932 • his magnum opus, The Birth of the American Flag lay rolled up & hidden away in a barn loft & later in the back of a South Jersey dye-making workshop • his grandson Stuart (son of Vexil Domus) found it — still rolled up — in his mother's basement • its poor condition precluded exhibition: in the 50s, hanging in the old State Museum at Harrisburg, it had been vandalized, then incurred additional damage from repeated unrolling
• Weisgerber sought a Philadelphia home for the massive work but was unsuccessful • after a $40K restoration in 2002 the painting, it's appraised market value just $50K, returned to the State Museum at Harrisburg
• in 1976 the remains of Betsy Ross & 3rd husband John Claypoole were moved from Mount Moriah cemetery, Yeadon, PA, to the garden on the west side of the Betsy Ross House courtyard
"Turn it Off" - Paramore
"I scraped my knees when I was praying
And found a demon in my safest haven, seems like
It's getting harder to believe in anything
Than just to get lost in all my selfish thoughts
I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
Or turn it off in all my spite
In all my spite i'll turn it off
"And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
"The tragedy, it seems unending
I'm watching everyone I looked up to break and bending
We're taking shortcuts and false solutions
Just to come out the hero
Well I can see behind the curtain (I can see, yeah yeah)
The wheels are cranking, turning,
It's all wrong the way we're working
Towards a goal, that's nonexistent
It's nonexistent, but we just keep believing
"I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
and turn it off in all my spite
in all my spite i'll turn it off
Just turn it off again"
I'm pretty sure this song explains exactly how I feel right now. EXACTLY.
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Nikon D90
18-105mm VR
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Photoshop CS4
Arkham goes back as far as the 1910's, but about half of it's history was written with closed doors. During those times, The Alan Moore Psychiatric Hospital basically played it's role from the 40's t0 the 70s. It's track record was a helluva lot better than Arkham's as of now, but alot of unfortunate events killed it from within. Financial issues, patient abuse, poor worker conditions lead to what it is now. Worse (at least to me) is it's just a stone's throw away from Wayne Manor. Scarecrow was literally walk down the road away from us. Anyway, This place's final nail in it's coffin was overcrowding issues. Arkham was bigger and it's kept getting bigger since then. What happened to this place? The building still stands but everything was left to rot and die. Steph and I are at the entrance, and there's not even doors. Just empty frames. And there's old plywood boards covering broken windows. Dirt and plantlife from the outside are breaking in and reclaiming the place, covering the dusty, stained walls and cracked floors. There's old stuff scattered on the floor from when this place was still up and running. First thing I saw looking in was some handcuffs. Then I walked through the nonexistent door and a teddybear was looking at me. Christ, there were children here? Mustn't have gotten a good look last time when we chased Hush through here. Needless to say I really don't like this place. And now Scarecrow's somewhere in here. This is just gonna be so much fun...wait, are those voices?....
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 2169. Photo: Rapid / Gloria / Marhoffer. Publicity still for Die Flusspiraten vom Mississippi/Pirates of the Mississippi (1963, Jürgen Roland).
American stuntman Brad Harris (1933) became one of the muscular action heroes of the European genre films in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Brad Harris was born Bradford Harris in St. Anthony, a small town in eastern Idaho, USA in 1933. His family moved to California where he attended Burbank High School. He came from a family in the banking business and intended to make a career in the same area. In the early 1950’s, he received an athletic scholarship to UCLA where he studied economics. When he injured his knee playing football he was advised to take up weight lifting to strengthen the injury. This developed his interest in bodybuilding. His studies may have been intended as the groundwork for a career in his family's banking business, but Harris instead drifted into the fringes of Los Angeles' movie industry, and secured employment as a stunt man. He also played a small role in Monkey on My Back (1957, André De Toth) starring Cameron Mitchell as a World War II hero and champion professional boxer, who became addicted to morphine. He also appeared in the western 13 Fighting Men (1960, Harry W. Gerstad) with Grant Williams. Harris travelled to Rome to watch the 1960 Summer Olympics and perform stunts as a gladiator in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) starring Kirk Douglas. He stayed in Europe and found himself working as a second-unit director for the short film Eco nel villaggio/Echo in the village (1961, Themistocles Hoetis). Harris was invited to join the ranks of American actors and body-builders in the peplum genre (sword and sandal films) - following in the wake of Steve Reeves' successful portrayal of Hercules. Harris first starring role was as Goliath in the peplum Goliath contro i giganti/Goliath Against the Giants (1961, Guido Malatesta) opposite Fernando Rey. He then played Samson in Sansone/Samson (1961, Gianfranco Parolini), and Hercules in La furia di Ercole/The Fury of Hercules (1962, Gianfranco Parolini), both with bodybuilder Sergio Ciani a.k.a. Alan Steel and French musician Serge Gainsbourg. His good looks and muscular build kept Harris in demand. Of the muscular peplum heroes, Brad Harris was the first to branch out into other film genres. When the genre began to fade away, he moved into a spate of action films. In Germany he appeared in Heißer Hafen Hong Kong/Hong Kong Hot Harbor (1962, Jürgen Roland) with Marianne Koch, and Weiße Fracht für Hongkong/Operation Hong Kong (1964, Helmut Ashley, Giorgio Stegani) featuring Maria Perschi. Harris discovered that stunt coordinators were nonexistent in Germany and he often did extra duties as a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and second unit director. During the shooting of Das Geheimnis der chinesischen Nelke/Secret of the Chinese Carnation (1964 Rudolf Zehetgruber), he fell in love with his co-star, Czech actress Olga Schoberová. They married in 1967, but divorced already two years later.
In 1963, Brad Harris co-starred with Hansjörg Felmy in the early Euro-western Die Flusspiraten vom Mississippi/Pirates of the Mississippi (1963, Jürgen Roland). It lead to more parts in westerns like the West-German-Italian-French coproduction Die Goldsucher von Arkansas/Massacre at Marble City (1964, Paul Martin) with Mario Adorf, another West-German-Italian-French coproduction Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe/Black Eagle of Santa Fe (1965, Ernst Hofbauer) with Tony Kendall, the Spanish-Italian Un hombre vino a matar/Rattler Kid (1967, León Klimovsky) and the Italian Wanted Sabata (1970, Roberto Mauri). Another popular European genre in which he often starred was the Euro-spy-thriller. Examples are A 001, operazione Giamaica/Our Man in Jamaica (1965, Ernst R. von Theumer, Mel Welles) starring Larry Pennell and Barbara Valentin, and the Kommissar X film series (1966-1971), six films featuring Tony Kendall. By 1970, Harris was writing and producing films and headed his own production company, Three Star Films, including distribution and foreign sales in Rome, Italy. In addition, he acted as creative consultant for various German film companies. He also continued to work in genre films like the Giallo La casa della paura/The Girl in 2A (1974, William Rose) with Raf Vallone, and the horror comedy Lady Dracula (1978, Franz Josef Gottlieb), for which he had also written the story. He also served as executive producer on several of his films such as the sci-fi horror The Mutations (1974, Jack Cardiff) starring Donald Pleasence. In the following decades he guest starred in popular series as the German Krimi series Derrick (1979) and the American soap operas Dallas (1984-1989) and Falcon Crest (1984-1989). He also appeared in a new version of Hercules (1983, Luigi Cozzi), now starring TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno. At the 4th Golden Raspberry Awards, Hercules was nominated for five awards: worst screenplay, worst supporting actress (Sybil Danning), worst actor (Lou Ferrigno), worst new star (Ferrigno), and worst picture. It won Raspberries for worst supporting actress and worst new star. Since then Harris only incidentally returned for the cameras. He invented an exercise machine called AB-OrigOnals, and owns a fitness products company called Modern Body Design. At the Muscle Beach Bodybuilding Championship in 2001, Harris received a special achievement award along with other ‘Legends of Hercules’ - Mark Forest, Ed Fury, Mickey Hargitay, Richard Harrison, Reg Lewis, Peter Lupus and Gordon Mitchell. Recently he returned to the screen in the American thriller Shiver (2012, Julian Richards) starring Caspar van Dien, for which he also served as executive producer, and in the German comedy Die X-Männer schlagen zurück/The X-Men Strike Back (2012, Reginald Ginster), for which he was reunited with Tony Kendall. Brad Harris is a member of the Stuntman's Hall of Fame. He and his ex-wife Olga Schoberová have a daughter, Sabrina (Babrinka) Harris.
Sources: Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Brian J. Walker (Brian’s Drive-In Theater), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
After a while you get to know the forest like you know the city. The trees are high rise buildings, the paths are streets and alleyways that take you from one neighborhood to another.
Unlike the city, the forest is a private kingdom. Traffic is almost nonexistent, and most often, when you meet another human being, he or she is going in the opposite direction. The encounter is brief, the way it should be. You both continue in your own private ways, in a world based on fantasy and wishful thinking and deserted islands.
Inside the forest the world of the mind is what matters. The reality is what you make it to be.
officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands are part of Eritrea. Its size is just under 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of 5 million. The capital is Asmara.
History
Eritrea is an ancient name, associated in the past with its Greek form Erythraía (Greek alphabet Ερυθραία), and its derived Latin form Erythræa. In the past, Eritrea had given its name to the Red Sea, then called the Erythræan Sea. The Italians created the colony of Eritrea in the 19th century around Asmara, and named it with its current name. After World War II Eritrea was annexed to Ethiopia.In 1991 the People's Liberation Front defeated the Ethiopian government. Eritrea officially celebrated its independence on May 24, 1992.
Prehistory
One of the oldest hominids, representing a possible link between Homo erectus and an archaic Homo sapiens, was found in Buya (Eritrean Danakil) in 1995 by Italian scientists. The cranium was found to be over 1 million years old. Furthermore, in 1999, the Eritrean Research Project Team discovered some of the earliest evidence of human tool-use in the harvesting of marine resources. The site contained obsidian tools dated to the paleolithic era, over 125,000 years old.
Epipaleolithic or mesolithic cave paintings in central and northern Eritrea attest to early hunter-gatherers in this region. An American paleontologist, William Sanders of the University of Michigan, also discovered a possible missing link between ancient and modern elephants in the form of the fossilized remains of a pig-sized creature in Eritrea. The fossil, which is 27 million years old, pushes the origins of elephants and mastodons five million years further into the past and indicates that modern elephants originated in Africa.
Antiquity
The oldest written reference to the territory now known as Eritrea is the chronicled expedition launched to the fabled Punt (or Ta Netjeru, meaning land of the Gods) by the Ancient Egyptians in the twenty-fifth century BC under Pharaoh Sahure. Later sources from the Pharaoh Hatshepsut in the fifteenth century BC present a more detailed portrayal of an expedition in search of frankincense. The geographical location of the missions to Punt is described as roughly corresponding to the southern west coast of the Red Sea. The name Eritrea is a rendition of the ancient Greek name Ἐρυθραία, Erythraía, meaning the "Red Land". The earliest evidence of agriculture, urban settlement and trade in Eritrea was found in the western region of the country consisting of archaeological remains dating back to 3500 BC in sites called the Gash group. Based on the archaeological evidence, there seems to have been a connection between the peoples of the Gash group and the civilizations of the Nile Valley namely Ancient Egypt and Nubia.
In the highlands, especially in Asmara's suburbs, scores of ancient sites have been documented, including Sembel, Mai Chiot, Ona Gudo, Mai Temenai, Weki Duba and Mai Hutsa. Mostly dating to the early and mid-1st millennium BCE (800 to 350 BCE), these communities consisted of small towns, villages, and hamlets built of stone. The proximity of these ancient communities to gold mines suggest that part of their prosperity was linked to the mining and processing of gold. Around the mid-1st millennium, several sites with Sabaean remains (inscriptions, artifacts, and monuments) seem to emerge in the central highlands, for example, at Keskese. Between the eighth and fifth century BCE, a kingdom known as D'mt was supposedly established in what is today Eritrea and the Tigray province of northern Ethiopia.
After D'mt's decline around the fifth century BC, the state of Aksum arose in much of Eritrea and the northern Ethiopian Highlands. It grew during the fourth century BC and came into prominence during the first century AD, minting its own coins by the third century, and converting in the fourth century to Christianity, thereby becoming the second official Christian state (after Armenia), and the first country to feature the cross on its coins. According to Mani, it grew to be one of the four greatest civilizations in the world, on a par with China, Persia, and Rome. In the seventh century, with the advent of Islam across the Red Sea in Arabia and the Arab invasion and subsequent destruction of Adulis, Aksum's main port city, Aksum's trade and power on the Red Sea began to decline and the empire gradually diminished and was overtaken by smaller rival kingdoms.
Medieval period
During the medieval period, contemporary with and following the gradual disintegration of the Aksumite state between the 9th and 10th centuries, several states as well as tribal and clan lands emerged in the area known today as Eritrea. Between the eighth and thirteenth century, northern and northwestern Eritrea had largely come under the domination of the Beja, a Cushitic people from northeastern Sudan. The Beja brought Islam to large parts of Eritrea and connected the region to the greater Islamic world. Nonetheless, Christians of the Axumite era continued to inhabit these areas and retain their religion.
In the main highland area and adjacent coastline of what were previously Muslim (Beja) ruled areas, a Christian Kingdom called Midir Bahr or Midri Bahri (Tigrinya for land of the sea) arose, ruled by the Bahr Negus or Bahr Negash, ("ruler of the sea") emerged in the 15th century. The southeastern parts of Eritrea, inhabited by the independent Afar since ancient times, came to form part of the Islamic Adal Sultanate. Parts of the southwestern lowlands of Eritrea were under the dominion of the then Christian/Animist Funj Sultanate of Sinnar.
An invading force of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, under Suleiman I, conquered Massawa in 1557 from the Christians, building what is now considered the "old town" of Massawa on Batsi island. They also conquered the towns of Hergigo and Debarwa, the capital city of Yeshaq, the contemporary Christian Bahr Negus, before being driven back to the coast by 1578. The Ottomans remained in control of the important ports of Massawa and Hergigo and their environs, and maintained their dominion over the coastal areas for nearly 300 years, absorbing the coastal areas of the disintegrated Adal Sultanate as vassals in the 16th century. The Funj Sultanate of Sinnar converted to Islam in the 16th century but maintained independent control of the southwestern areas of Eritrea until being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century.
With the feudal rule of the Bahr Negus in the predominantly Christian highland interior severely weakened from the 17th century up until modern times, the area was dubbed Mereb Mellash by locals and neighboring Ethiopians alike, meaning "beyond the Mereb" (in Tigrinya). This name defined the territory as being north of the Mareb River which to this day is a natural boundary between the modern states of Eritrea and Ethiopia.[18] Roughly the same area also came to be referred to as Hamasien, a name that survived until modern times, designating a much smaller area (province) immediately surrounding the capital Asmara, until being absorbed into the new administrative divisions in 1994. In these areas, feudal authority was particularly weak or nonexistent, and the autonomy of the landowning peasantry was particularly strong; a kind of republican rule was prevalent, governed by local customary laws legislated by elected elder's councils (shimagile). In 1770, the Scottish researcher James Bruce describes Hamasien and Abyssinia as "different countries who are often fighting" (SUKE, p. 25).
Colonialism
Italian colonisation arguably began with the purchase of the locality of Assab by a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Giuseppe Sapeto acting on behalf of a Genovese shipping company called "Rubattino" who bought the land from the Afar Sultan of Obock (a vassal of the Ottomans) in 1869. This happened in the same year as the opening of the Suez Canal.
With the approval of the Italian parliament and King Umberto I of Italy (later succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel III), the government of Italy in 1879 bought the Rubattino company's holdings and from 1882 expanded its possessions northward along the Red Sea coast toward and beyond Massawa, encroaching on and quickly expelling previous 'Egyptian' possessions but meeting stiffer resistance in the Eritrean highlands from the invading army of the Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia.
Italy declared Eritrea a territory of Italy as of New Years Day 1890. The Kingdom of Italy ruled Eritrea from 1890 to 1941. Approximately 100,000 Italian colonists settled during the 1930s in the Colonia Primigenia (as Eritrea was called by the Italians, meaning they considered Eritrea their first and most important colony). Some of the greatest feats accomplished by the Italian colonialists in Eritrea was the building of Eritrea's modern capital; Asmara, and the Eritrean railway.
Between 1936 and 1941, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini briefly created the Italian Empire, with the short-lived union of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland. Eritrea enjoyed considerable industrialization and development of modern infrastructure during Italian rule (such as roads and the Eritrean Railway). The Italians remained the colonial power in Eritrea throughout the lifetime of Fascism and the beginnings of World War II, until they were defeated by Allied forces in 1941, and Eritrea came under British administration.
In the Peace Treaty of February 1947, Italy surrendered all her colonies, including Eritrea. While under British trusteeship, the United Nations decided to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia in 1950 after a lengthy inquiry regarding the status of Eritrea.
Eritrean War of Independence
The sandals worn by the fighters of independence have become iconic. A monument in central Asmara of such sandals was erected in memoriam. Barely 10 years into the federation with Ethiopia, in 1961, the 30-year Eritrean Struggle for Independence began, following the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I's dissolution of the federation and shutting down of Eritrea's parliament.
The Emperor declared Eritrea the fourteenth province of Ethiopia in 1962.[22] Eritreans formed the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and rebelled.
The ELF was initially a conservative grass-roots movement dominated by Muslim lowlanders. The ELF received backing from Nasser's Egypt as part of a policy of expanding Arab Nationalist political influence in the region (some Eritreans were Arabic-speakers - one of the rather loose conditions for being part of the 'Arab Nation'). Ethiopia's imperial government received support from the United States which had established a radio listening base, called the Kagnew Station, in Eritrea's Ethiopian-occupied capital, Asmara. Internal divisions within the ELF based on religion, ideology, ethnicity, clan and, sometimes, personalities, led to the weakening and factioning of the ELF from which sprang the Eritrean People's Liberation Front.
The EPLF professed Marxism and egalitarian values devoid of gender, religion, or ethnic bias. Its leadership was educated in China. It came to be supported by a growing Eritrean diaspora. Bitter fighting broke out between the ELF and EPLF during the late 1970s and 1980s for dominance over Eritrea. The ELF continued to dominate the Eritrean landscape well into the 1970s when the struggle for independence neared victory due to Ethiopia's internal turmoil caused by a socialist revolution against the monarchy there.
The ELF's gains suffered when Ethiopia's ailing US-backed Emperor was deposed and replaced by the Derg, a Marxist military junta with backing from the Soviet Union and other communist countries, who continued the Ethiopian policy of repressing Eritrean "separatists" with increased military assistance and fervor. Nevertheless, the Eritrean resistance, which saw itself forced to retreat from most of the Eritrean countryside it had previously occupied, became instead entrenched in the northern parts of the country around the Sudanese border from where the most important supply lines came. The heavily bombarded and embattled northern town of Nakfa came to symbolize the Eritrean struggle. (The Eritrean currency is named after it.)
The numbers of the EPLF swelled in the 1980s. The EPLF relied largely on armaments captured from the Ethiopian army itself as well as financial and political support from the Eritrean diaspora and the cooperation of neighboring states hostile to Ethiopia's government Somalia and Sudan (although the support of the latter turned into hostility in agreement with Ethiopia during the Gaafar Nimeiry administration between 1971 and 1985) as well as Ethiopian resistance and separatist movements. Drought, famine, and intensive offensives launched by the Ethiopian army on Eritrea took a heavy toll on the population — more than half a million fled to Sudan as refugees. In 1985, Eritrean elite commandos infiltrated the Ethiopian- and Soviet-held air force base in Asmara and destroyed all 30 fighter jets there, suffering only one casualty. In 1988, a massive Ethiopian military offensive against Eritrean rebels backfired with a third of the Ethiopian army annihilated in the northern Eritrean town of Afabet.
Following the decline of the Soviet Union in 1989 and diminishing support for the Ethiopian war, Eritrean rebels advanced further, capturing the port of Massawa and putting the Ethiopian and Soviet naval capabilities there out of action. By 1990 and early 1991 virtually all Eritrean territory had been liberated by the EPLF except for the capital, whose only connection with the rest of government-held Ethiopia during the last year of the war was by an air-bridge. In 1991, the Ethiopian army finally capitulated and its leader Mengistu Hailemariam fled to Zimbabwe where he resides to this day. Eritrean rebels entered the capital Asmara and began to govern Eritrea on May 24, 1991. The new Ethiopian government, consisting of a coalition of Ethiopian resistance and separatist movements allied with Eritrea's rebels, conceded Eritrea's demand to have an internationally (UN) supervised referendum dubbed UNOVER to be held in Eritrea. This took place in April 1993 with an overwhelming vote by Eritreans for independence. Independence was declared on May 24, 1993.
Independence
Upon Eritrea's declaration of independence, the leader of the EPLF, Isaias Afewerki, became Eritrea's first Provisional President, and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (later renamed the People's Front for Democracy and Justice, or PFDJ) created a government.
Faced with limited economic resources and a country shattered by decades of war, the government embarked on a reconstruction and defense effort, later called the Warsai Yikalo Program, based on the labour of national servicemen and women. It is still continuing and deploys the conscripted, which is drawn from anyone male or female who has graduated high school, into a combination of duties ranging from military service to construction projects, health care, teaching and training/education as well as agricultural work to improve the country's food security.
The government also attempts to tap into the resources of the Eritreans living abroad by levying a 2% tax on the gross income of those who wish to gain full economic rights and access as citizens in Eritrea (land ownership, business licenses and other privileges for nationals etc), while at the same time encouraging tourism and investment both from Eritreans living abroad and other foreign investors. This has been complicated by Eritrea's tumultuous relations with its neighbours, lack of stability and subsequent political problems.
Eritrea severed diplomatic relations with Sudan in 1994, citing that the latter was hosting Islamic terrorist groups to destabilize Eritrea, and both countries entered into an acrimonious relationship, each accusing the other of hosting various opposition rebel groups or "terrorists" and soliciting outside support to destabilize the other. Diplomatic relations were resumed in 2005 following a reconciliation agreement reached with the help of Qatar's negotiation in 1999.[29][30] Eritrea now plays a prominent role in the internal Sudanese peace and reconciliation effort.
Perhaps the conflict with the deepest impact on independent Eritrea has been the renewed hostility with Ethiopia. In 1998, a border war with Ethiopia over the town of Badme occurred. The Eritrean-Ethiopian War ended in 2000 with a negotiated agreement known as the Algiers Agreement, which assigned an independent, UN-associated boundary commission known as the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), whose task was to clearly identify the border between the two countries and issue a final and binding ruling. Along with the agreement the UN established a temporary security zone consisting of a 25-kilometre demilitarized buffer zone within Eritrea, running along the length of the disputed border between the two states and patrolled by UN troops in the mission named UNMEE. Ethiopia was to withdraw to positions held before the outbreak of hostilities in May 1998. The peace agreement would be completed with the implementation of the Border Commission's ruling, also ending the task of the peacekeeping mission of UNMEE. The EEBC's verdict came in April 2002, which awarded Badme to Eritrea. However, Ethiopia refused to withdraw its military from positions in the disputed areas, including Badme, and also refused to implement the EEBC's ruling, and the dispute is ongoing.
Eritrea's diplomatic relations with Djibouti were briefly severed during the border war with Ethiopia in 1998 due to a dispute over Djibouti's intimate relation with Ethiopia during the war but were restored and normalized in 2000. Relations are again tense due to a renewed border dispute. Similarly, Eritrea and Yemen had a border conflict between 1996 to 1998 over the Hanish Islands and the maritime border, which was resolved in 2000 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.
Geography
Eritrea is located in Northeast Africa, more specifically in the Horn of Africa, and is bordered on the northeast and east by the Red Sea. The country is virtually bisected by one of the world's longest mountain ranges, formed by the processes that formed the Great Rift Valley, with fertile lands to the west, descending to desert in the east. Eritrea, at the southern end of the Red Sea, is the home of the fork in the rift. The Dahlak Archipelago and its fishing grounds are situated off the sandy and arid coastline. The land to the south, in the highlands, is slightly drier and cooler.
The Afar Triangle or Danakil Depression of Eritrea is the probable location of a triple junction where three tectonic plates are pulling away from one another: the Arabian Plate, and the two parts of the African Plate (the Nubian and the Somali plate) splitting along the East African Rift Zone (USGS). The highest point of the country, Emba Soira, is located in the center of Eritrea, at 3,018 meters (9,902 ft) above sea level.
The main cities of the country are the capital city of Asmara and the port town of Asseb in the southeast, as well as the towns of Massawa to the east, and Keren to the north.
Other Info
Oficial Name:
tir: ሃግሬ ኤርትራ (Hagəre Ertra)
ara: دولة إرتريا (Dawlâtu Iritriyā)
Hagere Ertra
Independence:
May 24, 1991
-de jure May 24, 1993
Area:
121.320 km2
Inhabitants:
4.906.585
Language:
Afar [aar] 160,000 in Eritrea (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). Southern Eritrea. May also be in Somalia. Alternate names: Afaraf, "Danakil", "Denkel". Dialects: Central Afar, Northern Afar, Aussa, Ba'adu. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, East, Saho-Afar
More information.
Arabic, Hijazi Spoken [acw] Red Sea coast. Alternate names: Hijazi. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
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Arabic, Standard [arb] Middle East, North Africa. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
More information.
Bedawi [bej] 150,000 in Eritrea (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). Population includes 20,000 Hadendoa (1970 Bendor). Alternate names: Bedàwie, Beja, Bedawiye, Bedawye, Bedauye, Bedwi, Bedya, Bedja, Lobat. Dialects: Hadareb (Hadaareb), Bisharin (Bisarin, Bisariab), Hadendoa (Hadendowa), Beni-Amir, Ababda, Amara. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, North
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Bilen [byn] 70,000 (1995). Central Eritrea, in and around the town of Keren. Alternate names: Bogo, Bogos, Bilayn, Bilin, Balen, Beleni, Belen, Bilein, Bileno, North Agaw. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, Central, Northern
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English [eng] Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
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Italian [ita] A few monolinguals. Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Italo-Dalmatian
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Kunama [kun] 107,000 in Eritrea (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). Population includes 1,000 in Ilit, 600 in Odasa. Population total all countries: 108,883. Western Eritrea, on the Gash and Setit rivers, Sudan border and into Tigray Province. Barka is south of Barentu; Marda is north, northeast, and east of Barentu and in Barentu; Aimara is west of Barentu; Laki-Tukura is south of Aimara, west of Barka; Tika is south of Laki-Tukura, west of Barka. None in Sudan. Also spoken in Ethiopia. Alternate names: Baza, Baaza, Bazen, Baazen, Baazayn, Baden, Baaden, Bada, Baada, Cunama, Diila. Dialects: Barka (Berka), Marda, Aimara (Aaimasa, Aymasa, Odasa), Tika (Tiika, Lakatakura-Tika), Ilit (Iliit, Iiliit, Iilit), Bitama (Bitaama), Sokodasa (Sogodas, Sogadas), Takazze-Setiit (Setiit, Setit), Tigray. Bitama and Ilit are nearly unintelligible to speakers of other Kunama. Barka is the largest dialect and intelligible to speakers of all others. Classification: Nilo-Saharan, Kunama
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Nara [nrb] 80,000 (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). In and north of Barentu, western Eritrea, adjoining Kunama territory which is to the south. Alternate names: Nera, "Barea", "Barya", "Baria", Higir, Koyta, Mogareb, Santora. Dialects: Considerable dialect variation within the four main groups: Higir, Mogareb, Koyta, Santora. Little intelligibility of Kunama. Classification: Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Eastern, Nara
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Saho [ssy] 180,000 in Eritrea (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). Population total all countries: 202,759. Southern Eritrea. Also spoken in Ethiopia. Alternate names: Sao, Shaho, Shoho, Shiho. Dialects: Very close to Afar. The Irob dialect is only in Ethiopia. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, East, Saho-Afar
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Tigré [tig] 800,000 in Eritrea (1997 census). Also spoken in Sudan. Alternate names: Khasa, Xasa. Dialects: Mansa' (Mensa). Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
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Tigrigna [tir] 1,200,000 in Eritrea (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk). South and central Eritrea. Alternate names: Tigrinya, Tigray. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
More information.
Extinct languages
Geez [gez] Extinct. Alternate names: Ancient Ethiopic, Ethiopic, Ge'ez, Giiz. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Capital city:
Asmara
Meaning country name:
Named by Italian colonizers, from the Latin name for the Red Sea "Mare Erythraeum" ("Erythraean Sea") which in turn derived from the ancient Greek name for the Red Sea: "Erythrea Thalassa".
Description Flag:
The current flag of Eritrea was adopted on December 5, 1995, and uses the basic layout of the flag of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, with the wreath with upright olive branch symbol derived from the 1952 flag.
The flag is dominated by a red triangle extending from the hoist to the fly with complementary green and blue triangles above and below. Green stands for the fertility of the country respectively for agriculture; blue stands for the ocean and red for the blood lost in the fight for freedom. In the red triangle a yellow wreath symbol with 14 leaves on each side derived from the 1952 flag replaces the yellow star of the EPLF flag. The use of triangles is also important, because reading the flag from left to right it is important to note that the red shrinks which represents that in the end Eritrea will see peace and blood will no longer be spilled for the nation.
Coat of arms:
The Coat of Arms of Eritrea was adopted May 24, 1993, on the date of declaration of independence. It shows a dromedary in natural colors surrounded by an olive wreath. On the bottom is a band with the name of the nation in the official languages - English in the middle, Tigrinya on the left and Arabic on the right.
National Anthem: Ertra, Ertra, Ertra ,
Tigrinya: ኤርትራ ኤርትራ ኤርትራ
Tigrinya
ኤርትራ ኤርትራ ኤርትራ፡
በዓል ደማ እናልቀሰ ተደምሲሱ፡
መስዋእታ ብሓርነት ተደቢሱ።
መዋእል ነኺሳ ኣብ ዕላማ፡
ትእምርቲ ጽንዓት ኰይኑ ስማ፡
ኤርትራ'ዛ ሓበን ውጹዓት፡
ኣመስኪራ ሓቂ ከምትዕወት፡
ኤርትራ ኤርትራ (ክልተ ግዜ)
ኣብ ዓለም ጨቢጣቶ ግቡእ ክብራ።
ናጽነት ዘምጽኦ ልዑል ኒሕ፡
ንህንጻ ንልምዓት ክንሰርሕ፡
ስልጣኔ ከነልብሳ ግርማ
ሕድሪ'ሎና ግምጃ ክንስልማ፡
ኤርትራ ኤርትራ (ክልተ ግዜ)
ኣብ ዓለም ጨቢጣቶ ግቡእ ክብራ።
Tigrinya with Romanization
Ertra, Ertra, Ertra,
Beal dema'nalkese tedemsisu,
Meswaéta bharnet tdebisu.
Mewaél nekhisa'b élame,
TémErti tsnt koynu sma,
Ertra za haben wtsuAt,
Ameskira haki kem téwet.
Ertra, Ertra,
Abalem chebitato gbué kbra.
Natsänet zemtsä’ lä‘ul nihh,
N'hntsa n'lm‘at k'serihh,
S'lthane k'nelbsa grma,
Hihdri-lena gmja k'nslma.
Ertra, Ertra,
Abalem chebitato gbué kbra.
English translation
Eritrea, Eritrea, Eritrea,
Her enemy decimated,
and her sacrifices vindicated by liberation.
Steadfast in her goal,
symbolizing endurance,
Eritrea, the pride of her oppressed people,
proved that the truth prevails.
Eritrea, Eritrea,
holds her rightful place in the world.
Dedication that led to liberation,
Will buildup and make her green,
We shall honour her with progress,
We have a word to her to embellish.
Eritrea, Eritrea,
holds her rightful place in the world.
Internet Page: www.eritreaeritrea.com
eritrea in diferent languages
eng | afr | arg | ast | bre | cat | ces | cor | cym | dan | est | eus | fao | fin | glg | glv | hun | ibo | ina | ita | jav | jnf | lim | lld | mlg | mlt | nld | nor | roh | rup | slk | sme | spa | sqi | srd | swa | swe | tgl | vor: Eritrea
dsb | hrv | hsb | lav | slv: Eritreja
crh | kaa | uzb: Eritreya / Эритрея
deu | ltz | nds: Eritrea / Eritrea; Erythräa / Erythräa
hat | tur | zza: Eritre
hau | kin | run: Eritreya
ind | msa: Eritrea / اريتريا
pol | szl: Erytrea
aze: Eritreya / Еритреја
bam: Eritire
bos: Eritreja / Еритреја
epo: Eritreo
fra: Érythrée
frp: Èritrê
fur: Eritree
gla: Ertra
gle: An Eiritré / An Eiritré
haw: ʻElikilea
isl: Erítrea
kmr: Êrîtrê / Еритре / ئێریترێ
kur: Erître / ئەریترە
lat: Erythraea
lin: Elitré
lit: Eritrėja
mol: Eritreea / Еритрея
nrm: Éritraée
oci: Eritrèa
por: Eritreia / Eritréia
que: Iritrya
rmy: Eritreya / एरित्रेया
ron: Eritreea
scn: Eritrìa
slo: Eritrea / Еритреа
smg: Eritrėjė
smo: Eriteria
som: Ereteeriya; Eriteeriya; Eretareeya
tet: Eritreia
tuk: Eritreýa / Эритрея
vie: Ê-ri-tơ-rê-a
vol: Lerüträn
wln: Eritrêye
wol: Eritere
abq | alt | che | chm | kir | kjh | kom | krc | kum | rus | tyv | udm: Эритрея (Ėritreja)
bak: Эритрея / Eritreya
bel: Эрытрэя / Erytreja
bul: Еритрея (Eritreja)
chv: Эритрейӑ (Ėritrejă)
kaz: Эритрея / Erïtreya / ەريترەيا
kbd: Эритрея (Ăritreja)
mkd: Еритреа (Eritrea)
mon: Эритрей (Äritrej)
oss: Эритрей (Ėritrej)
srp: Еритреја / Eritreja
tat: Эритрея / Eritreä
tgk: Эритрея / اریتریه / Eritreja
ukr: Еритрея (Erytreja)
ara: إريتريا (Irītriyā); أريتريا (Arītriyā); إرتريا (Iritriyā); أرتريا (Aritriyā); إرتيريا (Irtīriyā); أرتيريا (Artīriyā)
fas: اریتره (Erītre)
prs: اریتریا (Erītriyā)
pus: اريتريا (Irītriyā); اېريتريا (Erītriyā)
uig: ئېرىترېيە / Éritréye / Эритрея
urd: اریٹریا (Irīṫriyā); ارٹریا (Iriṫriyā); اریٹیریا (Irīṫīriyā)
div: އެރިތްރިއާ (Eritri'ā)
heb: אריטראה (Erîṭreʾah); אריטריאה (Erîṭrêʾah); אריתריאה (Erîtrêʾah)
lad: איריטריאה / Eritrea
yid: עריטרײאַ (Eritreya)
amh | tir: ኤርትራ (Ertra)
ell-dhi: Ερυθραία (Eryṯraía)
ell-kat: Ἐρυθραία (Eryṯraía)
hye: Էրիտրեա (Ēritrea)
kat: ერიტრეა (Eritrea)
hin: इरिट्रिया (Iriṭriyā); एरिट्रिया (Eriṭriyā); एरीट्रिया (Erīṭriyā)
ben: ইরিত্রিয়া (Iritriyā); এরিট্রিয়া (Eriṭriyā)
pan: ਈਰਿਟਰੀਆ (Īriṭrīā)
kan: ಎರಿಟ್ರಿಯ (Eriṭriya)
mal: എരിട്രിയ (Eriṭriya)
tam: எரித்திரியா (Erittiriyā); எரித்ரியா (Eritriyā)
tel: ఎరిట్రియా (Eriṭriyā)
zho: 厄立特里亞/厄里特尼亚 (Èlǐtèlíyà)
jpn: エリトリア (Eritoria)
kor: 에리트레아 (Eriteuraea)
mya: အီရီထရီးယား (Iẏitʰáẏìyà)
tha: เอริเทรีย (Ēritʰriya)
khm: អេរីទ្រា (Erītrā)
Geocache container I found yesterday on a hard 6 mile hike through thick brush on an, almost, nonexistent trail.
Link to the geocaching page: coord.info/GC5DM1Z
"A SentenceMe Challenge Quote from Tryggvi Már.
"The journey itself was her positive action, her destination vague, unimagined, perhaps nonexistent."
My short-term memory in matters of school and work is nonexistent, and entirely dependent on the information recorded in my Field Notes. Sadly when an item of note is brought to my attention, I rarely have a pen with me.
Operation “Salt City" resulted in the arrest of 248 individuals from May through September 2015. Of those arrested, 124 were active gang members. During the operation 22 firearms, more than $237,000 in U.S. currency, 70 grams of heroin, 266 grams of cocaine, and 723 grams of marijuana with a total estimated street value of almost $44,000 was taken off Syracuse streets by participating agencies.
Operation Salt City is part of the U.S. Marshals nation-wide “Triple Beam” gang reduction initiative. Triple Beam partners federal, state, and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime and take dangerous offenders off the streets. The goal of the U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is to seek out and disrupt illegal gang activity in areas of the country with smaller or nonexistent gang enforcement units by providing manpower, funding and the Marshals’ renowned fugitive tracking abilities.
Photo by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals
The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!
The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.
Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!
Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D
Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana