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Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

Very good idea having the Seasonal merchandise in the Garden Shop. I believe the Olean, NY Kmart has also done the same.

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 Barren Antenna by Sheikh Shahriar Ahmed

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Once upon a time, when cable network was nonexistent in this parts, this antenna was used to catch clear signal for the Television . Now it is out of service. Yet it is there, tolerating the battering of sun,rain,dew.

A part of the following series. If you find this photo interesting, please do pay a visit.

sheikhshahriarahmed.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/my-universit...

Oolick 520 - 5 Found Object Robot Assemblage Sculpture By Brian Marshall by Brian Marshall

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Oolick is a rambunctious little guy that never shuts up! He is the worst gossip in Hollywood. Racing around on those little wheels of his, he can spread news like a wildfire. The only trouble is that his memory is shot and his attention span is nonexistent. So, he gets all his stories mixed up. How did you think Tabloids get all their crazy stories?

Robot sculpture assembled from found objects by Brian Marshall - Wilmington, DE. Items included in my sculptures vary from vintage household kitchen items to recycled industrial scrap. Some of my favorite items to use are old oil cans, aluminum measuring spoons, electrical meters, retro blenders, anodized cups, and pencil sharpeners.

wading pool 2008-04-01 13-35-05 675 redt by Václav Kramář

Re-edit from archive. Wading pool of nowadays already nonexistent town swimming pools.

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

Twice as many checkouts as the Anderson store are here in Richmond! Hopefully that means the store is still quite healthy...as it can get, anyways...

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

11/06/09:310/365 after{rain} by DJHuber

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It rained yesterday evening, but the wind was calm to nonexistent. This morning, all of the trees were sparkling with little droplets.

Looks nice decluttr-ed.

Sony DSLR-A200

0.013 sec (1/80); f/1.8; 50 mm; ISO 250

SOOC

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Ghost Spider_2024.10.02 (2 of 2) by Steve Leitkam

Ghost spider (Wulfila sp.), its underside visible within its silken retreat on the underside of a leaf. The silk retreats of these spiders are often so shear that they appear to be virtually nonexistent.

Size: ~0.25 inch (6 mm)

October 02, 2024

Brownsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Approaching Point Pelee National Park, Leamington, Ontario, Canada by Ken Lund

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_...

THE INDIAN FOREIGN SERVICE IS ONE OF THE OLDER AND BETTER-ORGANIZED DIPLOMATIC SERVICES AMONG DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. BY KISHAN S. RANA by The Gateway to South Asian Diplomacy

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AMONG DEVELOPING COUNTRIES,THE INDIAN FOREIGN SERVICE IS ONE Of THE OLDER AND BETTER-ORGANIZED DIPLOMATIC SERVICES. AN INSIDER DISCUSSES THE IFS’S ORIGINS AND CURRENT CONTOURS. (2002)

BY KISHAN S. RANA

Among the countries of the developing world, India has one of the older and better-organized diplomatic services. Part heir to the ‘Political Service’ of the renowned colonial Indian Civil Service, the Indian Foreign Service was established in 1948, a year after independence. From the outset the IFS was imbued with a sense of uniqueness and relative isolation from the rest of the central government, due primarily to the circumstances of its cre- ation as virtually a personal project of India’s first prime minister, the urbane and worldly national movement leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1946, on the eve of independence, Jawaharlal Nehru articulated India’s commitment to approach the world with “clear and friendly eyes” and spoke of the newly liberated country’s right to choose an external pol- icy that reflected its independence and was not a pawn in the hands of others — the basic policy of nonalignment. Nehru functioned as his own foreign minister for his entire prime ministership, from 1947 until his death in 1964. It was Nehru who set up the Indian Foreign Service and, with his towering personality and penchant for micro-management, stamped it indelibly with his style as well as his worldview. For nearly two decades, both the IFS and the Ministry of External Affairs basked in Nehru’s reflected glory.

It is not our purpose to discuss the Nehruvian foreign policy legacy, but some instances of his passion for detail help shed light on facets of the Indian Foreign Service. It was not unusual, for example, for Nehru to write replies to incoming cipher telegrams from ambassadors, which were then sent out in the name of heads of territorial divi- sions, or even their deputies. In the very readable mem- oirs written by Badr-ud-din Tyabji, former ambassador and secretary in the MEA, Memoirs of an Egoist (Roli Books, 1988), this has been described as the syndrome of the time: “leave it to Panditji” — pushing up all decisions to Nehru, however minor.

Working on the staff of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1981-82, I came upon a set of long notes exchanged in the mid-1950s between Nehru and the Civil Service head of MEA, called the Foreign Secretary in Indian termi- nology. Nehru sent him a four-page note describing the criteria that should be applied to the selection of ambas- sadors. The Foreign Secretary sent a two-page rejoinder the same day, gently pointing to the practical difficulties in finding ideal choices, to which Nehru sent a further long response the next day. No decision was taken, the more so as selection of envoys was principally the prime minister’s prerogative, with the Foreign Secretary acting as his adviser. The exchange reflected Nehru’s passion for philosophical debate and his speed of thought, but also a certain disinclination for hard decisions.

The fact that for the first 30 years new entrants had to rank among the top 20 to 40 individuals in the Union Public Service Commission annual combined Civil Services examination merit list, out of the 20,000 to 40,000 who sat for the exam (which was the only entry route into the high civil services, including the sister ser- vice, the Indian Administrative Service), reinforced the sense of elitism.

In recent years career opportunities in India have greatly expanded. Yet the civil service, and the IFS in particular, continue to attract top talent. What are the contours of this diplomatic service today? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

The IFS Today

Structure.

The first thing to note about the Indian Foreign Service is that it is exceptionally small in size, by comparison with not just India’s needs but also the func- tions performed. To operate some 115 embassies and permanent missions and 40-odd consulates abroad, plus man the MEA, there are only some 750 officials of the rank of desk-officers and above (i.e., third secretaries and higher). By comparison the “tail” is much longer, consist- ing of about 2,800 non-diplomatic support personnel, according to the MEA Annual Report published each March.

MEA simply does not have the personnel it needs for vital tasks, and the number of missions abroad is too large. Ideally, looking to the experience of other major services, the ratio of officers at headquarters to missions should be around 1-to-1.5 or -2: in India it is 1-to-4. The IFS cadre needs urgent expansion to at least 1,000, and with it a pruning of support staff, via upgrading many to function as junior desk officials. With this must come also a reduction in the number of missions and posts. But as long as assignments abroad are seen as an essential “right,” vested interests block these cutbacks.

The results are plain to see. Public diplomacy, for example, is in its infancy in India, not because its meth- ods are not understood, but because the structure for handling this work does not exist. Today, the official head- ing the external publicity division is the MEA spokesper- son; this same person heads the entire publicity and information apparatus, and handles some aspects of public diplomacy as well, as there is no dedicated unit for this purpose.

Further, although all but one of the foreign ministries of the 19 countries of the E.U. and the G-8 have carried out structural changes since 1990 to cope with changes in the post-Cold War world (according to a comparative study by the Italian

Foreign Ministry), MEA has so far limited itself to adding a new territorial division to handle relations with the strategically important Central Asian countries. Deeper structural change has yet to materialize, though some reforms are under consideration.

There has always been an abundance of ideas — the problem is with action! The initiative of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to re-examine the Service’s struc- tures, set into motion at the end of 2000, was moving slowly toward concrete action until he and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha swapped jobs in July, and it is now unclear if the planned actions will be implemented. These included creation of a Foreign Service inspec- torate (vital to undertake periodic inspection of all mis- sions, ensure uniformity of standards, and help to enhance their performance) and placement of IFS offi- cials within the administration of some states to help in their international contacts. There are also plans to expand the strength of the cadre, though not to the level needed; that would require a major decision of the gov- ernment, especially to link the expansion with cuts in the support staff.

Still, there is some expectation that the Jaswant Singh initiative may yet lead to some real improvements; the new minister has not revealed his thinking as yet. The recent reform proposals echo suggestions contained in the Pillai Committee Report of 1966, the only public doc- ument on the IFS and its reform. But the exercise that Jaswant Singh launched was different in one important respect — it was the first effort that originated at the min- isterial level, and from within MEA.

Training. Training for new entrants has improved dramatically in the past 15 years, with the establishment of the Foreign Service Institute in 1986 in New Delhi (set to move to its new campus in a year or so), and with a continuous improvement in training content. New entrants spend three months attending a common foundation course with all other entrants to the civil services for that year at the National Academy of Adminis- tration, located in the Himalayan hill-resort town of Mussourie, and then come to the Institute for a year. Their program encompasses lec- tures, workshops and visits to many partner agencies, including forma-tions of the army, navy and air force. It also calls for about five months of travel to different locations in the country to see the challenges of economic and social develop- ment, as well as two separate tours to neighboring coun- tries. Concerning languages, new recruits undergo train- ing in the assigned foreign language at the first station of assignment, and are confirmed in service after passing the language test.

What the IFS misses, however, is mid-career training — the Institute does nothing at all at this level, nor for senior officials. MEA is simply not able to spare anyone.

Recruitment and personnel management. The examination system for selection of civil servants, admin- istered by the Union Public Service Commission, now has some 300,000 applicants annually competing for about 300 to 400 jobs in all the “central services” — the other services are the Administrative Service, the Customs, Audit and Accounts, and the Police Service. The written exam is at two levels, with only about 20,000 who qualify at the first stage (the serious candidates) appearing for the second exam. Within a couple of months after the results announcement, all Civil Service entrants join the “foundation course” at Mussourie men- tioned earlier, and thereafter separate to attend training at their own services.

The IFS takes an average of around 10 new entrants each year, though in 2001 the number was stepped up to 18. A notable feature of recent years is the progressive widening of the intake — in terms of the regions and groups represented, the educational background and the presence of rural candidates. Around 20 percent of new recruits are women.

British colonial administrators borrowed the con- cept of a single open examination for the Civil Services from China. It has provided India with a stable, unified administrative structure, which has its faults — princi-pally that it has become a vehicle for corruption, and a victim of political pressures, and the two are inter- twined — but no one has come up with a remotely comparable or viable method of selection for new entrants into the Service.

Human resource management is the key issue for all organizations, the more so for diplomatic services that mainly deal in intangibles. Throughout the Indian admin- istration promotion by seniority is the norm; the only obstacle to promotion is outstanding incompetence. Since 1950 the constitutionally-mandated affirmative action pol- icy of reserving 22.5 percent of government service jobs for individuals from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been in effect. Now some even demand that this policy ought to apply also to promotions.

Against this background, maintaining the traditional systems of rotation among “hard” and “soft” posts and motivating individuals to perform their best are chal- lenges. Many of us lament that the system does not work optimally, but we should be thankful that it works at all.

A Learning Curve

Like many other diplomatic services, the MEA is still on a learning curve when it comes to coping with the new domestic players in diplomacy. Today as it shifts from the classic gatekeeper role in external affairs to that of the privileged coordinator, every foreign ministry has to han- dle three broad clusters of players — the official agencies beyond the foreign ministry, the non-state agents (cham- bers of commerce, academic institutions, think tanks, NGOs and the like), and the ordinary citizens who too are involved players in virtually every country. (The best definition of these new roles is provided in the opening essay by Brian Hocking in the book he has edited,

All government agencies are autonomous actors in the foreign arena. They will accept the foreign ministry as a coordinator only if they perceive this brings value to their interests and concerns. It is entirely possible for the Indian foreign ministry to do this, but to win credibility it needs to cultivate an inclusive attitude, and modify the past mindset of exclusivity and the corresponding turf- warfare reflex. There are exceptional senior MEA offi- cials who are able to get other ministries on board on spe- cific issues, but this is not the general practice as yet. Cooperation with non-state players is good in some areas, such as with the apex bodies of business and some branches of non-official international organizations, but almost nonexistent with high-profile NGOs and human rights activists.

Though performance enhancement methods, many of them borrowed from business management, have crept into the diplomatic work arena, the infrastructure to max- imize productivity is not uniformly in place. Methods to improve performance encompass annual action plans, benchmarking and service optimization (for example, in consular work, public affairs, and commercial promo- tion). MEA uses annual plans, but has not got around to tying resources into these, or carrying out a real delega- tion of financial powers. (This is a general weakness of the Indian system: even the budgeted funds of ministries, duly approved by parliament, can be spent only with the approval of the Finance Ministry, either directly for big- ticket items, or through the “financial advisers” it appoints and supervises in each ministry.) A ministry- wide computer network does not exist, though most ter- ritorial divisions have their own local area networks; they do not talk to one another, or to the higher officials. An intranet or virtual private network linking MEA and the missions remains on the drawing board.

Strengths and Weaknesses

What are the accomplishments of the IFS, and its points of strength? What might one expect from this set of professionals? My comments are necessarily subjec- tive, because within a “brotherhood” one may not find the distance for dispassionate scrutiny, and also because there exist no real tools for comparing foreign ministries and diplomats. With these caveats I offer the following.

Indians are individualists for the most part, and this

The IFS is exceptionally small in size, by comparison with India’s needs and the functions performed. shows in a huge variation between the best and the worst among diplomats. Major missions are natural concentra- tion points for talent, not just at the level of the head of mission. Anyone who has dealt with Indian counterparts in Washington, D.C., New York or Paris will bear witness that the best can hold their own against anyone. But if the true measure of a good system is that it evens out the peaks and troughs by ele- vating the performance of the lower half, then the IFS has a way to go.

In multilateral diplomacy during the 1970s and 1980s, in what we might call the heyday of declaratory diploma- cy, Indians seized the high ground at conferences, U.N. assemblies and committees — alas, not all of it very pro- ductively. In bilateral diplomacy, which is necessarily practiced on a much broader canvas, there are the bright stars, and the rest. And it is often noted that the discrep- ancy between the peaks and troughs of ability and perfor- mance among different persons is glaring. Management and business culture specialists observe the same trait of individualism, and a relative weakness at teamwork, when they look at the Indian corporate world.

One of the strong features of the IFS was an early shift to economic diplomacy. The first oil shock of 1973 deliv- ered a body blow to the Indian economy at a time when it had barely recovered from the disastrous droughts of the late 1960s (when P.L. 480 provided succor, before the Green Revolution became a reality), and from the Bangladesh War of 1971. Economic diplomacy became a matter of survival for India, and the IFS adapted rapidly, quickly learning to blend political and economic objec- tives, and practice integrated diplomacy.

The service produced role models like Bimal Sanyal and Vishnu Ahuja, both senior heads of MEA’s Economics Division, who demonstrated that being proactive involved a vast amount of internal diplomacy with the other min- istries and agencies, but reliably produced results. The two mobilized public-private partnerships at home, at a time when even this concept was in its infancy, to push for project and consultancy contracts in the Gulf region, and to win placement for Indian technicians. Simultaneously, they motivated Indian missions to blend political and eco- nomic diplomacy, a craft I, too, learnt in my first ambas- sadorship in Algeria (1975-79). Today there is hardly a diplomat or a mission that fails to treat economics as virtually the first priority at the majority of posts, on the premise that good political relations are a given condition in most countries but it is economics that explores the full enve- lope of action, and valorizes the politi- cal relationship as well. Is there an Indian negotiating style? Stephen Cohen, one of the gurus of South Asia scholarship in the U.S., has a brilliant chapter in his book,

India: Emerging Power (Brookings Institution, 2001), titled “The India That Can’t Say Yes.” Cohen’s thesis is, first, that Indians are intent on establishing the moral and political equality of the two sides and are especially touchy over “status”; second, they are patient and will wait till the terms improve; third, they negotiate for information; and fourth, they tend to have a good institutional memory, better than that of the Americans. Cohen also speaks of “a defensive arrogance and acute sensitivity to real and perceived slights,” and concludes that India seems to relish “getting to no.” He adds that MEA has tight control over foreign negotiations and is difficult to bypass.

Behind the “Indian Negotiating Style”

Some of the above criticism comes from experience with India-U.S. relations of the pre-1991 era, when India’s South-centered diplomacy (including leadership of the Nonaligned Movement, G-77 and the like) produced inevitable confrontation with much of the West. However, Strobe Talbott, whose 10-odd rounds of discussion with Jaswant Singh between 1998 and 2000 are the most inten- sive dialogue carried out by India with the U.S. or any other partner, may not agree with all of Cohen’s character- ization.

Indian negotiators are often hemmed in by an impos- sible brief, which is relatively rigid, to the point that no fallback positions are provided or flexibility given to the negotiators. The result is “positional bargaining” and an impression of negativism. For example, this was the case in the past with WTO meetings and other multilateral economic fora. By contrast, at Doha in November 2001, a strong Cabinet minister leading the Indian delegation, with the personal clout to obtain flexible instructions, managed to produce a good result, overcoming the rigidi-ties of the brief and past policy. Many individual negotiators are bril-liant, adept at winning trust and work- ing to achieve results. And generally, in multilateral settings Indians are often a popular consensus choice as rappor- teurs and committee chairmen. But in regional diplomacy, being adept at tac-tics is not enough when policy has been unimaginative or defensive. This has been the case, for example, in India’s past stance vis-à-vis ASEAN, when opportunities for close association were passed up in the 1980s. Defensiveness has crippled India’s approach to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, where a fear of all the smaller neighbors ganging up blocked innovative ideas to overcome the impasse created by Pakistan’s obduracy.

India’s economic reforms, launched in 1991, coincided with the end of the Cold War. Both have affected the way India looks at the world, and the goals it pursues external- ly, in bilateral, regional and multilateral settings. India

remains nonaligned in the original sense of the term, but real Indian involvement with NAM and G-77 has waned. Instead, there is a clearer per- ception of self-interest, and a willing- ness to say so. This translates into hard-headed pragmatism, where ideo- logical rhetoric of the past is absent, and does not cloud actions. This is especially visible in pursuit of eco-political objectives. In the Sept. 11 attacks, India finds vindication of the battle it has long waged against terrorism, plus the opportunity to pursue new relationships in Central Asia and elsewhere that move beyond a fixation with Pakistan.

As a service, the IFS has no political bias and it is well harnessed in the pursuit of national goals. Yet it has the latent capacity to perform far better, provided that real reform can be implemented in the MEA and its process- es incrementally — for that is the only “Indian way” that produces results. ■

(Kishan S. Rana joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1960 and served in Hong Kong, Beijing (twice) and Geneva. He specialized in Chinese affairs and, later, economic diplomacy. He was ambassador to Algeria, Czechoslovakia, Kenya, Mauritius and Germany, retir- ing in 1995. He is Professor Emeritus at the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi, and the author of Inside Diplomacy (Manas Publications, 2000) and Bilateral Diplomacy ( F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 2)

1111_1865 White-tailed Deer by James R. Page

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Yesterday morning I was out in the park early to see what animals might want to pose for me. Notice that almost all the recent snow has melted; once again the brown look is back. This whitetail buck gave me about two seconds to frame a shot, then took off running. Whitetails are a little rarer in these parts than mule deer, and nonexistent on the West Coast where I've done much of my photography in years past, so I'm always happy with a close encounter... Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan.

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission.

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, USA. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.

The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.

Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.

Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.

In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.

Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.

Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.

Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.

Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.

During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.

In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.

During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.

Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.

During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.

Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.

The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.

A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.

In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.

It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.

S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.

The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.

During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.

The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:

Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea

Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains

Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.

The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.

The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:

Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water

Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment

Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.

Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.

Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.

Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.

The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.

There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.

A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.

Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:

Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.

Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.

Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.

Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.

Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.

Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:

Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.

Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.

Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.

Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.

It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.

Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).

One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

Floating by Maxwell Hall '14

1/400

ƒ/5.6

ISO 100

300 mm

I took this photo while snapping some pictures in my backyard. I really loved this one because how the leaf appeared to be floating/sailing in air/water. I was very happy that the tiles in the background became almost nonexistent. With such emphasis on the leaf it is hard to tell whether it is in the water or in the air. A problem I had with it, however, was that the leaf was somewhat difficult to get to look green. Luckily I managed to boost the green tones leaving it slightly more vibrant. I really enjoy the simplicity of this photo and the effect created by the pool.

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Dachau - Death March sculpture by SteveProsser

A cast of the memorial by Hubertus von Pilgrim to remember the evacuation marches the Dachau concentration camp prisoners were forced to embark on. The sculpture is complemented by a map showing the routes of the death marches and the locations of memorials along the way.

Most of the men spent the last months of the war in forced labor camps on the outskirts of Dachau. They lived in primitive semicircular arching shelters resembling Quonset huts. Food and other necessities of life were almost nonexistent. They suffered terribly throughout their imprisonment, but some of their strongest memories center on the final hours before liberation.

During the last days of the war these men were among the 8,000 prisoners forced from Dachau and its outer camps and marched toward the Bavarian Alps. Some believed they were to be part of a prisoner exchange arranged by the Red Cross. Other prisoners thought the plan was to kill them out of sight of the rapidly advancing U.S. military. It is possible the Nazis planned to use the prisoners to build fortifications in the mountains of Tyrol for a last-ditch defence. Whatever the reasons, German guards forced a brutal pace, and thousands of marchers died in just a few short days. Fortunately, the march never reached its final destination.

In the last days of April 1945, the American army swept through southern Germany. General Patton's troops were credited with liberating the main camp of Dachau, but there were other forces in the area. Elements of the Japanese American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion were heading toward Hitler's headquarters in Berchtesgarden. In the early morning, forward observers came upon strangely shaped mounds in the snow near the resort town of Bad Toelz. When the soldiers looked closer, they discovered thinly dressed creatures under the thin layer of snow. Some had been shot, some had frozen to death. Those who were alive looked like starved and beaten skeletons. The men of the Association of Survivors remember this scene vividly even after 50 years. They were among those found in the snow.

The Death March passed directly through many towns near Dachau, including Allach, Pasing, Graefelfing, Planegg, Krailling, Gauting, Berg, Icking, Wolfratshausen, Geretsried, Bad Toelz, Waakirchen, Fuerstenfeldbruck, and Gruenwald. Many marchers literally died at the front doors of townspeople. There might have been a temptation to forget this awful part of local history, but after numerous discussions and a good deal of soul searching, citizens chose another course.

The towns, lead by the mayor and citizens of Gauting, decided to mark the march route so that people passing by will know what once happened there. A competition was held, and Professor Hubertus von Pilgrim was selected to create the monuments to the victims of Nazism. The bronze statues were in place by the spring of 1995, in time for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau. Although the final chapter on Germany's Nazi past hasn't been written, it appears we are moving nearer to closure. and Solly Ganor joined in their pledge to the future: Never Again. Genocide is still very much with us today, for example the recent slaughters in Africa and the Balkans. But hopefully in Germany, lessons have been learned.

Ice Skating on Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park by Andy Kee

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I took the rare opportunity to go ice skating in the Yosemite high country right before Christmas last year. Essentially nonexistent snowfall and cold temperatures allowed the lakes to freeze solid while also keeping the Tioga Road open.

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Fortune Global Forum 2018 by Fortune Global Forum

024

Fortune Global Forum 2018

October 16th, 2018

Toronto, Canada

3:30 PM

THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY

The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.

Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim

Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay

Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase

Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune

Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune

LT. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Park Lake Ronkonkoma Long Island New York 11779 USA August 2020 by RyanReporting

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LT. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Park Lake Ronkonkoma Long Island New York 11779 USA August 2020

Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island's largest freshwater lake, is in Suffolk County, New York, United States, and has a circumference of about 2 miles (3.2 km), and is 0.65 miles (1.05 km) across on average. A kettle lake formed by retreating glaciers, it is owned by the Town of Islip under the terms of the Nichols Patent. The land around it is controlled by three town governments - Smithtown, Islip and Brookhaven. The name Ronkonkoma comes from an Algonquian expression meaning "boundary fishing-lake", also earlier written as Raconkumake and Raconkamuck

Lake Ronkonkoma served as a boundary between lands occupied by four Native American communities: Nissequogues Setaukets Secatogues and Unkechaugs

The lake was created by a retreating glacier.

The primary gamefish is bass

The most prevalent legend is about Princess Ronkonkoma, an Indian princess who died at the lake in the mid-1600s. One version of the story is that she was walking across the ice one winter when she met and fell in love with an English woodcutter named Hugh Birdsall, who lived across the lake. However, her father—chief of the Setauket tribe—forbade their relationship. So every day for 7 years, she would write letters on pieces of bark, row to the middle of the lake, and float the letters across the lake to Hugh. Then, after all those years of being kept apart from her love, she rowed to the middle of the lake and stabbed herself to death.

There are variations on this particular story, such as that the princess drowned herself after learning about her lover's death, and that her body washed up in Connecticut (which ties into the idea that the lake is bottomless, and that there are underground channels to other lakes). While there's no proof the princess ever existed, Hugh Birdsall was a real person who eventually moved back to England and got married there.

In any case, the story goes that she claims a boy's life every year either to avenge her lover's death, or to try to find herself a soulmate in death. And the statistics back up this "curse": of all the recorded drownings on this lake, the vast majority have been young males.

Dr. David S. Igneri was the head lifeguard at Lake Ronkonkoma for 32 summers, and says there were at least 30 deaths during that time, all males. On the program Weird U.S., which aired on the History Channel in 2005, Igneri explains that one of the biggest challenges was that visibility in the lake is nonexistent after about the first 10 feet; if anyone submerges lower than that, no one will be able to rescue the person because the lake becomes enveloped in total blackness.

In 1965, Igneri had a recurring nightmare about trying to complete a rescue. He dove deep into the lake and panicked because he lost his orientation. When he got to the surface, he heard fireworks. Although Igneri was not previously interested in the paranormal, he believed this dream was a warning that someone was going to drown on the Fourth of July. He warned his staff of 11 lifeguards—and sure enough, late that afternoon, an epileptic 15-year-old boy had a seizure and went down in the water. The lifeguards dove for 45 minutes and did everything they could, but could not find the boy. As Igneri swam back to the surface after his last dive, fireworks went off.

Author Michael R. Ebert, who must be the foremost authority on the legends of Lake Ronkonkoma. He published the spiral-bound book "The Curse of Lake Ronkonkoma" in 2002, and it is available at the Sachem, Connetquot and Smithtown libraries.

The first time he remembers hearing about the lake's "curse" was when he attended Ronkonkoma Junior High School in the early 1990s and one of his classmates drowned in the lake.

"If I remember correctly, he and some friends were supposedly drinking beer on a rowboat and were horsing around when he fell in and was unable to swim to shore due to his bulky winter clothes."

After Ebert's college graduation, he searched for more information about the lake's legends in local history books, but found little—which convinced him to write his own book. He spent about six months visiting libraries and the Lake Ronkonkoma Historical Society to research articles, maps and geographical studies dating back to the early 1900s.

In addition to the stories about Princess Ronkonkoma and the bottomless lake, Ebert also found several other mysteries, such as the way the lake rises and falls with no relation to local rainfall. "The Indians believed it to be the work of Manitos, the great spirit of the lake," he says. "One study showed that over 7 years in the early 1900s, the rainfall on Long Island was below the usual average by about 52 inches, yet the lake rose 7 feet."

Then there were the rumors of "healing properties" of the lake, supposedly started by a Brooklyn businessman who wanted to capitalize on the lake's appeal as a local tourist attraction in the 1900s. "The guy even reportedly sold 'lake juice' in small vials, and I found an old ad promoting the lake as a health resort that cured diseases," says Ebert.

So whether you believe the lake will heal what ails you, or that a vengeful princess spirit is out there waiting to drown you, there's no denying that Lake Ronkonkoma is one of Long Island's most whispered-about points of interest.

Hashtags

#LakeRonkonkoma

#Lake

#Ronkonkoma

#TheCurseOfLakeRonkonkoma

#CurseOfLakeRonkonkoma

#MichaelEbert

#DavidIgneri

#PrincessRonkonkoma

#LadyOfTheLake

#TheLadyOfTheLake

#IndianPrincess

#PrincessTuskawanta

#Princess

#Tuskawanta

#SetauketIndian

#Sachem

#ChiefOfTheSetauketTribe

#ChiefSetauket

#SetalcottTribe

#Setalcott

#AlgonquinNation

#Algonquin

#EnglishSettlers

#HughBirdsall

#Whirlpool

Curse

Cursed

CursedLake

NewYorkFolkloreSociety

NewYorkFolklore

Folklore

FolkloreSociety

Superstition

Paranormal

ParanormalActivity

FourthOfJuly

#TheWitchesOfLakeRonkonkoma

#WitchesOfLakeRonkonkoma

#APicnicWithoutSnacks

#PicnicWithoutSnacks

#LongIslandNY

5 Foods to Prevent or Reverse Diabetes by suneel Singh

Many conventional diabetes diets rely on meat or grains as the major source of calories. This strategy has serious drawbacks. This type of diet is rich in macro nutrients, but lacking in micro nutrients, especially those derived from green vegetables. Micro nutrients are necessary for the body’s cells to function properly. Even modest micro nutrient insufficiency can lead to DNA damage, mitochondrial decay and telomere deterioration, promoting premature cellular aging.

A high-nutrient, low glycemic diet is the most effective method of preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes. In a recent study of type 2 diabetics following this type of diet, 90 percent of the participants were able to come off all diabetic medications and their mean HbA1c after one year was 5.8 percent, which is within the non-diabetic (normal) range. A diet rich in vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and fresh fruits can prevent and reverse disease, while fostering long-term health. These five types of foods are optimal for diabetics, and can even help prevent the disease from occurring in the first place.

Green Vegetables

These nutrient-dense vegetables are the most important foods to focus on for diabetes prevention and reversal. Higher green vegetable consumption is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and among those who have the disease, a higher intake is associated with lower HbA1c levels, which measures average blood glucose over a three-month period. A recent meta-analysis found that greater leafy green vegetable consumption was associated with a 14 percent decrease in the risk of type 2 diabetes. One study reported that each serving of leafy greens produces a 9 percent decrease in risk. This category of vegetable includes lettuces, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower. I always advise eating at least one large salad each day to be sure of getting a good supply of these important vegetables.

Non-starchy Vegetables

Non-green, non-starchy veggies like mushrooms, onions, garlic, eggplant, and peppers are essential. These foods have almost nonexistent effects on blood sugar and are packed with fiber and phytochemicals.

Beans

Eating beans daily will help to stabilize your blood sugar, reduce your appetite, and protect against colon cancer. An ideal carbohydrate source, beans are low in glycemic load due to their abundant soluble fiber and resistant starch, making them an ideal weight-loss food because they are digested slowly. The fiber in beans promotes satiety and helps prevent food cravings and the resistant starch is fermented by bacteria in the colon, forming products that protect against colon cancer.

Nuts and Seeds

The Nurses’ Health Study found a 27 percent reduced risk of diabetes in nurses who ate five or more servings of nuts per week. Among nurses who had diabetes, this same quantity reduced the risk of heart disease by 47 percent. Nuts are low in glycemic load, promote weight loss, and have anti-inflammatory effects that may prevent insulin resistance.

Fresh Fruit

To satisfy sweet cravings, fresh fruit is an excellent choice. Rich in fiber, antioxidants, and nutrient-dense, eating three servings of fresh fruit a day is associated with an 18 percent decrease in the risk of developing diabetes. If you are already diabetic, I recommend selecting only the low-sugar fruits like berries, kiwi, oranges, and melon to minimize glycemic effects.

If you are committed to improving your health and reducing your risk of disease or reversing your disease so that your medications can be reduced or eliminated, a nutritional approach works. Source BY JOEL FUHRMAN. To know more visit www.yogagurusuneelsingh.com

Dodge "Magnum Opus" by Lino Martins

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This month’s challenge called I Smell A (Modern) Rat asks us what would rat rodding be like if we applied the same principles to modern cars. For this I chose a Dodge Magnum with a V-8 Hemi. Instead of a more predictable post-apoc Mad Max look, I went with a beach combing car with rugged tires, wood paneling, and a nonexistent roof and tailgate. Just enough rust and patina adds a bit of well loved character while a wooden deck and benches gives this “Magnum Opus” a boat-like appearance that’s suitable for fishing, surfing, or just soaking up some rays. Its the perfect modern rat rod for a hot summer day!

The Story of Bonnie & Clyde ( in brief ) by Joe Vance

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this one depicts Bonnie & Clyde the notorious Bank Robbers....had to look more glamorous than they really were

In fact they spent most of their time living in motorcars that they'd stolen.....after a Bank job Clyde thought nothing of driving 1000 miles in a day & usually drove 500 miles a day the rest of the time...for a number of months

Just think....that was on the old dirt tracks of the day too

It was the Depression & not many people had jobs or even homes....that was one of the reasons Bonnie & Clyde were so popular with a lot of folks...especially the ones kicked out of their homes by the Ruthless Banks of the the time

Clyde had been caught robbing a shop as a young man & was sent to a pretty dreadful Prison Farm....it was so bad prisoners cut their own toes & fingers off just to get in the hospital wing away from their sadistic guards for a while....

Anyway on release ( he served his full term ) vowed never to return...he'd rather die than return to that Prison..it had been his elder brother that took him to the robbery as a look out

The reason he & the gang lasted so long as Bank Robbers & fugitives was his choice of getaway vehicle...it was always a Ford V6 or V8 at a time when most cars were much slower & local Police Officers were expected to use their own...so all manner of old bangers were being used

The same criteria was in force when it came to firearms too...each officer had to use his own gun...ones they used for shooting vermin mainly

On the other hand the gang had robbed an Army Reservist Camp when it was closed & stolen Military weapons including Machine Guns Side Arms & Grenades along with enough live ammunition to fight an army

Communications were also nonexistent in many places & information wasn't shared so by Clyde driving hundreds of miles a day the gang were far away before news spread

It was with the onset of Prohibition & a vast increase in armed gangs ( Prohibition was of course the cause of the crime wave ) that the FBI had taken shape but Federal Laws were still more about Tax Evasion than Gangsters...unless they weren't paying their Taxes or were Smuggling Booze across State Lines

After a while the FBI had set up offices in Towns & Cities close to the most high risk Criminal areas but met a lot of resistance....they were asked why catching one dangerous Gangster cost a lot more than they'd ever made from crime

Hoover was seen as an inexperienced administrator who'd never arrested anybody in his life so his new "G" men didn't get the equipment they needed till a while later

Anyway Bonnie & Clyde along with Clyde's elder brother Buck....yep the one that got Clyde into crime to begin with & his wife Blanche Barrow were the notaries Barrow Gang....2 couples that took every Lawman in the area & the FBI over 3 years to catch/Kill & they'd been robbing Banks Petrol Stations & Stores on a weekly basis...funny old world....

thanks for looking in......appreciated......best bigger....hope you have a Great Weekend

Lake Ronkonkoma Long Island New York 11779 USA August 2020 by RyanReporting

Lake Ronkonkoma Long Island New York 11779 USA August 2020

Lake Ronkonkoma served as a boundary between lands occupied by four Native American communities: Nissequogues Setaukets Secatogues and Unkechaugs

The lake was created by a retreating glacier.

The primary gamefish is bass

The first time he remembers hearing about the lake's "curse" was when he attended Ronkonkoma Junior High School in the early 1990s and one of his classmates drowned in the lake.

"If I remember correctly, he and some friends were supposedly drinking beer on a rowboat and were horsing around when he fell in and was unable to swim to shore due to his bulky winter clothes."

Hashtags

#LakeRonkonkoma

#Lake

#Ronkonkoma

#TheCurseOfLakeRonkonkoma

#CurseOfLakeRonkonkoma

#MichaelEbert

#DavidIgneri

#PrincessRonkonkoma

#LadyOfTheLake

#TheLadyOfTheLake

#IndianPrincess

#PrincessTuskawanta

#Princess

#Tuskawanta

#SetauketIndian

#Sachem

#ChiefOfTheSetauketTribe

#ChiefSetauket

#SetalcottTribe

#Setalcott

#AlgonquinNation

#Algonquin

#EnglishSettlers

#HughBirdsall

#Whirlpool

Curse

Cursed

CursedLake

NewYorkFolkloreSociety

NewYorkFolklore

Folklore

FolkloreSociety

Superstition

Paranormal

ParanormalActivity

FourthOfJuly

#TheWitchesOfLakeRonkonkoma

#WitchesOfLakeRonkonkoma

#APicnicWithoutSnacks

#PicnicWithoutSnacks

#LongIslandNY

Dark-branded Bushbrown (Mycalesis mineus, Satyrinae, Nymphalidae) by itchydogimages

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Many of the tropical butterflies have distinctive seasonal forms. This phenomenon is termed seasonal polyphenism and the seasonal forms of the butterflies are called the dry-season and wet-season forms. How the season affects the genetic expression of patterns is still a subject of research.

The dry-season forms are usually more cryptic and it has been suggested that the protection offered may be an adaptation. Some also show greater dark colours in the wet-season form which may have thermoregulatory advantages by increasing ability to absorb solar radiation.

The wet-season form has large, very apparent multiple eyespots whereas the dry-season forms have very reduced, oftentimes nonexistent, eyespots. Larvae that develop in hot, wet conditions develop into wet-season adults whereas those growing in the transition from the wet to the dry season, when the temperature is declining, develop into dry-season adults. This polyphenism probably has an adaptive role. In the dry-season it is disadvantageous to have conspicuous eyespots because they blend in with the brown vegetation better without eyespots. By not developing eyespots in the dry-season they can more easily camouflage themselves in the brown brush. This minimizes the risk of visually mediated predation. In the wet-season, these brown butterflies cannot as easily rely on cryptic coloration for protection because the background vegetation is green. Thus, eyespots, which may function to decrease predation, are beneficial for Satyrine butterflies like the Bushbrown to express.

This individual is transitional between dry and wet season forms. See comments for additional images of the seasonal extremes…..

Pu'er, Yunnan, China

Waiting for Surf Waikiki 1962 by Kamaaina56

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There always seems to be a crowd at “Canoes” surf break no matter how small or nonexistent the waves may be. You can certainly see how Canoes got its name here. Vintage “Kodachrome Transparency Processed by Kodak” slide produced between 1959 and 1962 date stamped Aug 62.

Photo details

- 1951 Kapahulu Groin sand wall, center left

- 1946 Queen’s Surf nightclub and restaurant, right of Kuhio Groin

- 1931 Public Bath House, right of Queen’s Surf

- 1956 Waikiki Aquarium, right of Publics

- 1960 Sans Souci Condominiums, far right

- 1927 Waikiki Natatorium, left of San Souci

"WE KNOW ONLY ONE THING FOR SURE AND THAT IS WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING" by Carl 'Megashear' Copek

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Everything I know I forget on Guru Road as instructed by the seeds sewn by the stones of complete and total self doubt.

Further analysis of the 'known' and information in general by the eminent American logician Donnie Brasco - tell us to 'Forget About It'

E.g. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf0ZyoUn7Vk

However being constitutionally unable to ever 'forget about it' or anything completely and hence therefore consequently have found formal logical use for that 'issue' as answer to being driven ceaselessly to attempt to compute comprehensively the 'billion dollar question that solves for X,Y, and Z: Power, Expansion, and Shrink of the Universe in the micro to macro -- so as to go for broke (and be 'first v. last') in the Dark Matter and Energy Derby -- well well what the hell, then' lets be the first to reconcile the quantum dynamic with the quantum mechanic by means the gears of nature to explain the manufacture, combustion, and bending of light as the best set of questions worth answering in science which might be very well be concluded in the; 'Abstract' by considering en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter as 100% presently accounted for in the form of atomic bits of Bacteria. Primarily the family of Bacteria know as en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanobacteria which serves as the common subatomic denominator (complimentary quark loop repair - as cosmic glue+fuel) for both food and combustion chains by means of its role the natural manufacture and fixation of Nitorgen in the form of N2O that can be seen powering this photo as the Dark Matter and Energy of contained in the atomic stack of examples of reality in search of a theory that drives the expansion of the Universe and a burger chain, whereby it is possible 'Billions' are successfully 'Served' so much Bacterial Dark Matter that proves fuel as Energy as expressed as so many 'Big Macs' and or 'Happy Meals' or plates of pasta + the decision process over which to choose as dinner which results in a chain reaction of Hiesenburgian proportions rippling though the micro economics of the BTU (British and or Bacterial Thermal Units) of calories and bacteria as slow and fast food to power a world served by the billion by the 'Golden Arches' and iron skillet as examples of how my reasoning flows from the following data set and where it points after being clued into the role of bacteria and its large role in the combustion chain of N20 mfg. (c/o reading reporting in the Science News over the years and drawing conclusions from that, confirmed by) what wikipedia has condensed as the entire 'nutshell' of the case (which makes possible nutshells): "Nitrous oxide is emitted by bacteria in soils and oceans, and thus has been a part of Earth's atmosphere for millennia. ... Nitrous oxide reacts with ozone in the stratosphere. Nitrous oxide is the main naturally occurring regulator of stratospheric ozone. Nitrous oxide is a major greenhouse gas. Considered over a 100-year period, it has 298 times more impact per unit weight than carbon dioxide. Thus, despite its low concentration, nitrous oxide is the fourth largest contributor to these greenhouse gases. It ranks behind water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. Control of nitrous oxide is part of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. " - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide . In addition there is the world of undersea Bacteria which seems to be massive as source of gasses, energy and life as explored in; moreintelligentlife.com/content/ideas/some-it-very-hot?pa...

Thus, in the quest to complete the Dark Energy and Matter puzzle the need to grab the 'keys to the car' of conceptually total comprehension of the 'bits of information' scooped up over the million miles of the road 'less traveled' at high and low speed on the highway of life in a peddle to the metal race to complete the General Unified Theory, and having had and idea or two, while being singularly motivated by a clear understanding of 'the need for speed' in completing as a thought started explained in the sports terms of the 'mantra' of the movie 'Talladaga Nights' as ultra apt metaphor for the race to identify Dark Matter and Energy;

"If you ain't first, you're last!"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talladega_Nights:_The_Ballad_of_Ric...

Ergo, therefore, hence, consequently I reason ("the old fashioned way"; between my ears for days, weeks and years) and take detailed -- note (in this space) that; phys.org/news/2012-12-dark.html "The excitement now is that we are closing in on an answer, and only once in the history of humans will someone discover it. There will be some student or postdoc or experimentalist someplace who is going to look in the next 10 years at their data, and of the seven or so billion people in the world that person will discover what galaxies are mostly made of. It's only going to happen once."

One more time with meaning; It is hypothesised here that the bactarial subatomic bits and bonds of the; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phylogenetic_tree.svg whose branches are gaseous and or part of the combustion/food chain as discovered/understood, 'that therefore, in the words of the late Carl Woese;

“Imagine walking out in the countryside and not being able to tell a snake from a cow from a mouse from a blade of grass,” he said. “That’s been the level of our ignorance.” on the subject as understood best ' by the late great Carl Woese ( www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discov... ) who was able to "prove that all life on earth was related.” It is suggested here (again) that light and thus life is made possible by single celled life running the combustion chain by means nitrous oxide manufacture without which combustion is not possible is the singular candidate for being Dark Matter begets Dark Energy due to its immutable nature of the nuclear core of the nucleus of Bacteria.

Accordingly every angle of a drop of something such as: salsa in the micro should bend light by the same 'dark material/energy' means of 'economic activity of biological growth drawn from the Sun and the field by the roots reaching for energy and drawing them to a plant to form sugar that creates the shade being cast by Phylogenetic tree as so much gas/power as a by product in the process that moves at near the speed of light as observed and made a example of the micro case of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractometry that corresponds to the macro of 'cosmic microwaves' (which act as break and limit on the speed of light [in another evolving story line located at] -->);

flic.kr/p/8zt3aQ

This is set of data points in process for for the best possible explanation of cosmic expansion in terms of Dark Matter and Energy being made possible by the interplay of the nuclear material of the Phylogenetic tree burning to bring the light while explaining how the grow the Universe at the variable speed of -1 which is not constant see graphic and apply this logic to the fluctuations inherent in the construct presented in conjunction with the notion of a cyclical super vast redundant Universe we are at some random point in the 'Grande Scheme of Things' as well illustrated, and described, with the Dark Matter piece well described, but alas the missing variable that my Theory here now and for all time offers up as the nuclear head of cyanobacteria on a pike as the little prick that is responsible for all N20 in nature, hence combustion. Therefore, working in conjunction with that nuclear illumination running the logic and providing a set of clues to run down the road to find every last stone that could possibly be Dark Matter and Energy in the Math of the Solar System, and find every thing we need to know according to the he words of Andrew Liddle who wrote; "the cosmological principle [means that] the universe looks the same whoever and wherever you are." in Darkness on the Edge of the Universe

By BRIAN GREENE Published: January 15, 2011) www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/opinion/16greene.html?scp=6&am...

Some disagree and say Dark Matter is nonexistent and or immaterial. I respectful disagree, and hopefully have provided additional information in order to assist with understanding how my view came to be on this subject, such that some some new common ground can be broken by bacteria being the dark energetic means and motor of forging the fabric of the food and combustion chains by means algaes bloom as the base note to the mass fixation and productions of the nitrogen that is the gas of the Universe -- which therefore permits and powers the rest of life as we know it over time and space by means forming the basis food pyramid that enables combustion and thus gearing perfectly the solar to black hole ongoing process -- in this solar system and every other.

As more data is generated in understanding how perspective can never stay the same as per the logic contained in a draconian application of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_transformation to a unwillingness to see the shadow as being cast by the flip side of a reflection, as light is consumed by and transformed by the power of life the is the foam of space which are quarks of bacterial nuclei in repair.

Details in the photo captions herein.

That the same transformation that powers the light switch where I might find enough between my ears to communicate the understanding that the bugs have been digesting themselves into energy per this chart; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:080998_Universe_Content_240.jpg

If in the words of Bronkowski: "All science is the search for unity in hidden likeness." as being understood to be what makes the world go round in the compost heap, vineyard, farm that power a food chain, that provides a Inn and given Industry with the bill of fare via the "Stars that power" them c/o the means of 'paired quark technology' that recompose itself atomically to 'key' the light -- which furthers expand our understanding by means of the power of light and dark matter to producing 'grey matter' which is consciousness. That the grass is not 'greener' or made of substantively some wonder material of a Dark Nature in another galaxy, therefore Dark Matter, and Energy 'is what it is' the immutable atomic information of 'microorganisms' cycling at relative light speed as so many 'cups of tea', or conceptual coffee, 'primordial soup' to perhaps nuts -- or maybe, just maybe, the 'hidden likeness' is before us in the form of Microorganisms nuclear core that make up the macro.

There is a possibility that this particular pointy and self seeking 7th now up to 8th billionth odd needle in the haystack of discovery has made most of the case in this long improbable form and location that the seeds of nuclear material that keep and make us all connected as singular and a planet grade life/being/form and function -- is the Dark Energy and Matter which is the basic building blocks of life which are ID'ed here and now for all time by me - 'like I have been sayin' as the three families of Bacterial life which produce combustion gasses, as best understood by the late great Carl Woese; www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discov... which contains the seeds/strings if you will* of a expanding en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry

with the nuclei of bacteria standing in for Dark Matter in a Universe at the speed of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_constant with enough force to power back the sun in resolution of the Faint Young Star Paradox, and bending light with enough economic activity to explain the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_transformation by dint of glare of the photons on the matter that it transforms bringing them to life as measured by growth of waters expansion in the 'foam of space' when heated by the addition of light, or measured from any given distance -- one notices a relative difference this is due to the presence of the nuclei of bacterial matter or their radiological remains as rendered as the unpaired quarks/photon gas/ of the foam of space in mid re-mix of its perpetual quantum dynamic seeking a natural release and propulsion which explains the roads to and fro, the tides, as well as both the past and presents process of quantum tunneling whereby “we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” with a eye toward the west and what that brings thus therein lays the answer to the riddle of the ages. Energy is yin and yang forward and backward moving of quarks in motion over time and space under power of the Sun that set the chain of events and matter in motion will that Sun never set as a series of consequences beating ceaselessly into the past against the current to bring the light found shining at approximately my end of the conceptual quantum tunnel of a nitrogen rich solar system where in a Universe full of Dark Energy and accordingly full of potential life, with therefore accordingly the magic to run the both the food, and combustion chains - while turning worlds in the quantum dynamic process; organically by means the power of light to be the gearbox of life in the mechanical dynamic of the process of Nature, sorting the matter of matter and energy over Time -- to produce the Universe as at the present rate with the math holding the reality of this theory together to be found in the ground breaking work of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether and her en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether%27s_theorem if I am not completely unclear on the concept; applied.

Ending by Noting:

That if this hypothesis that comports with my reality jibes with that of the Universe then that is my aim which seeks to be 'true' so as to best serve to better focus the tuning out the noises in the signal, that impair this singular quest for multiple answers on Dark Matter and Energy along with the consequences of riddle the behavior patterns of the Universe understood as clues to answer this rather vexing and formerly huge mystery -- which suites me perfectly.

I'll be all over this limb (that makes limbs) with the logic to process the roll of material over Time and Space with more detailed answers as they become wildly obvious.

Presented: as a easy read for free buried deep in the bowels of flickr waiting; and getting glacially self edited -- while I get the totality of this picture 'dialed', so as to relearn the ways of writing a science paper, and get the movie and record recorded on my shoestring so as to communicate on the broadest possible band my message in several 'flavors' of media mixed; and served on the platters of the day -- not unlike -- the one you behold.

So the whole thing does not stand as a photo essay w/ captions, a 'one in a million' more or less unread arxiv.org/ paper, or any other form factor of media that is worth mailing from one in stream of conscious though a modified megaphone and Fender Twin stereo pair; to a bongo/trombone surf combo bounced off as well quantum tunneled through a mountain to gather ever so much more 'foam of space rock' on a standing wave of sound powering the present, by means of the past, with a eye to the future -'Coming Soon' to bring the whole thing home in a nutshell so dynamic as to perhaps be led to completely: 'forget about it' -- by dint of having put in the 'dirty work' of intuitively thinking the process through to the point then freshly connecting that with known science as proof of a fabric in need of being stitched together providing the corresponding logical + academic strength to help everybody concerned balance the cosmic accounting that powers the 'big equation' in the macro to micro forward and backward that completes the chain of material logic with lock tight answers for the OS of the 'semi steady state' Universe; expanding at a rate of -1 such that the physical to electrochemical to radiological relationship between the Stars, planets, and Black Holes can be filed in and out of a black hole by means a finely tuned theory that is completely Universally Theoretically Physically 'forget about it' -- then again personally I "KNOW ONLY ONE THING... [I] DON'T KNOW ANYTHING" until my crazy intuition is vetted by a better set of combined minds than my own.

Until then -- work continues on these essays and 'the problem'.

The bride and her maids by Truman Terrell

5 16

Even though my new daughter-n-law was hanging back in this picture I love how it came out. I took this about 15 minutes before Shannon walked down the isle to be wed to my son Mark...had to be one of the happiest days of my life. The church, Saint Vincent De Paul in Los Angeles, was an absolutely amazing piece of architecture. I wish I had taken more pictures of the chapel but my photo taking has been nonexistent. Hope everyone is well and I'll try to catch up on your streams.

Siamese Submarine in 1938 by BuNiKa Chatakul

7 26

In 1936, about 128 Siamese (Thai) naval officers were sent to japan for training by the Japanese Navy, and to bring back 4 new submarines with them to Siam. -- However, there were 32 officers, sent earlier that year for a secret training, in a separate mission - they were a crew of a nonexistent Submarine Number 5.

No record / document about 32 officers and their submarine can be found in Thailand today. No one can really be sure what their secret mission was - only rumor that Submarine No.5 vanished without a trace by the end of 1945 - if they really existed..that is.

Not until 2006 that some photographs, by laws, were uncovered / declassified by the US. government, and quickly disappeared again. But before then, there was an article in a small / local magazine in Portland, Oregon, related some unrelated events mixed up all together,from Tunguska event in Russia (1908) to strange little things around the world in the past century. The article would have been regarded as bullshit by a pot head writer until the guy is dead from a simple fall from his fixed gear bike.

and the story continues ..

about photographs :

classified documents ..hmmm..

Actually it's a totally fake document.. a little bit here and there.

We put some real photograph of Siamese submarine in 1938 with her crew,

and twisted around with our way of manipulation. Then, we made up story

that you just read..

We think this is a fun story that we can do something with, except that

we're too lazy to do anything right now. But i think we should something

with it -- a fiction or comics ?? hmmm..

History : this is what really happened.

Before and during the first half of World War II, with close relation

with japan and Germany, the Siamese government (Thailand) commissioned

4 small / diesel submarines to be used as coastal protection and war

with the French in Indochina.

The submarines were designed and built at the Mitsubishi Naval Dockyards

in Kobe. All four submarines were delivered to Siam on July 19, 1938.

However, submarines never engaged in a real war, and used from time to

time as emergency electricity generators during the allied bombing of Bangkok.

The power house in the city was frequently bombed to pieces by the

American bombers. And at that time, Japan had some anti aircraft guns but none of

fighter planes stationed in Siam (Thailand).

info from axis forum

FANTASY CITY ± by Renno Hokwerda

6 1

Vliste

Gateway city on a large island, 1-2 hours sailing from a mainland. All resembles The Netherlands. 2011.

The Nonexistence of Evil by Terri Turner tteerriitt

5 3

“The true explanation of this subject is very difficult.

Know that beings are of two kinds: material and spiritual, those perceptible to the senses and those intellectual.

Things which are sensible are those which are perceived by the five exterior senses;

thus those outward existences which the eyes see are called sensible.

Intellectual things are those which have no outward existence but are conceptions of the mind.

For example, mind itself is an intellectual thing which has no outward existence.

All man’s characteristics and qualities form an intellectual existence and are not sensible.

Briefly, the intellectual realities, such as all the qualities and admirable perfections of man,

are purely good, and exist.

Evil is simply their nonexistence. So ignorance is the want of knowledge; error is the want of guidance; forgetfulness is the want of memory; stupidity is the want of good sense.

All these things have no real existence.

In the same way, the sensible realities are absolutely good, and evil is due to their nonexistence—that is to say, blindness is the want of sight, deafness is the want of hearing, poverty is the want of wealth, illness is the want of health, death is the want of life, and weakness is the want of strength.

Nevertheless a doubt occurs to the mind—that is, scorpions and serpents are poisonous.

Are they good or evil, for they are existing beings?

Yes, a scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man;

but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves. But as the elements of their poison do not agree with our elements—that is to say, as there is antagonism between these different elements, therefore, this antagonism is evil; but in reality as regards themselves they are good.

The epitome of this discourse is that it is possible that one thing in relation to another may be evil,

and at the same time within the limits of its proper being it may not be evil.

Then it is proved that there is no evil in existence; all that God created He created good.

This evil is nothingness; so death is the absence of life. When man no longer receives life, he dies. Darkness is the absence of light: when there is no light, there is darkness.

Light is an existing thing, but darkness is nonexistent.

Wealth is an existing thing, but poverty is nonexisting.

Then it is evident that all evils return to nonexistence.

Good exists; evil is nonexistent.

‘Abdu’l-Baha: Some Answered Questions p 263-264

Leamington, Ontario by Ken Lund

Leamington enjoys the second warmest climate in Canada, after the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.

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.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leamington,_Ontario

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

in our separate space. by nicole leigh.

6 4

Day Two

+1 in comments.

sorry this is an hour late! A friend of mine showed up in the middle of editing and because my social life is nonexistent 90% of the time I of course couldn't refuse.

I had an awesome time with him, he taught me how to longboard and I'm officially addicted!! We boarded to the Pioneer Cemetery that's behind my house and overlooks the river bottoms and lied in the grass and looked at the stars and talked about our lives. It was really romantic and then the sprinkles came on. Awesome. But it was a super great night. I live for summer nights like these.

I think I live for the sky as well. I could spend hours looking at it, any time of the day or the night. The sky's colors fill the world and determine so much. It holds so much power over the way each day looks. You look up and you see infinity. The sky holds your thoughts and goals and dreams and when you look at it, you become small again. That's kind of wonderful, isn't it?

Spanish Fork Fiesta Days started today and I am so stoked!!

PS THATBOYKISSEDME AHHHH :)

facebook. twitter. formspring. tumblr.

Springhare (Pedetes capensis) by Dallas Krentzel

Despite their name, the springhare, or the springhaas, is not a hare or lagomorph, but an anomaluromorph rodent in the family Petetidae. Although springhares are highly hystricomorphous, with a greatly englarged infraorbital foramen (large hole anterior to the orbit above, which serves as an attatchment site for the medial masseter muscle), they are more closely related to the strange scaly-tailed squirrels (Anomaluridae) than to Hysticomorpha (which includes the porcupines, capybaras, guinea pigs, chinchillas, among many others). Springhares are highly convergent to rabbits and hares, both superficially with their saltatorial locomotion (jumping behavior), large hind feet, and elongated ears, but also in some of the fine details of the skull, such as a highly reduced temporalis muscle with a small to nonexistent coronoid process on the mandible (blocked by the zygomatic arch here, but you can tell it doesn't extend upward very high, and notice how small the area is for insertion of the temporalis on the skull compared with most mammals). Massively enlarged auditory bullae (the inflated bones in the back of the skull that house the ear bones) are indicators of the jumping lifestyle, and are seen in other rodent jumpers such as jerboas (Dipodidae), kangaroo rats (Heteromyidae), and the vischachas and chinchillas (Chinchillidae).

Despite the fact that I cited one of the similarities between true hares and springhares as jumping, the type of saltatorial locomotion they practice is distinctly different. Springhares jump like the previous groups of rodents I mentioned (jerboas, kangaroo rats) and macropods (true kangaroos), in that they hop bipedally consecutively before allowing their forelimbs to touch the ground again, and usually can remain in a bipedal position indefinitely, and are not obligated to stand quadrupedally, like hares and rabbits are (although I'm sure a hare or rabbit could manage stand up right for a while, but then again, so could my pet dashund). Hares and rabbits are more like anurans (frogs, toads, etc.), in that they can jump well, but must land on all fours before jumping again (Pumas are the cat analog of this behavior, in a sense, as they're hind legs are more proportionately longer than their forelegs than any other cat, and they leap rather well).

To see their living cuteness (and they are very very cute), see: animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/lazette_gif...

Or to see some beautiful CT cut-aways of one of these skulls, see: www.digimorph.org/specimens/Pedetes_capensis/

President Baseball by Spenser.Cat

4 1

Fake movie poster and a piece of fan art. This dreadful--and nonexistent---film is mentioned in a comedy routine that aired on WFMU's Best Show on WFMU hosted by Tom Scharpling.

Kmart in Richmond, IN - September 30 by RetailPhotos2014

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

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

Untitled by davidvinnie

neon-pink

Subj.: RE: Gleitzeit (Oil painting by Jaisini) Jaisini,

Date: 4/17/00 1:15:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time

If one examines the pre dialectic paradigm of discourse, one is faced with a choice: either accepts post textual dialectic theory or conclude that discourse comes from the collective unconscious. The characteristic theme of Sargeant’s model of the predialectic paradigm of discourse is the role of the observer as poet. Abian holds that the works of Fellini are not postmodern. However, Marx promotes the use of the predialectic paradigm of discourse to modify and analyze class. When you state, ”Paintings with a capacity to change visually by the artistic magic changing your subconscious mind" I’m sure you will agree that the paradigm, and some would say the collapse, of patriarchialist situationism depicted in Fellini’s 8 1/2 is also evident in La Dolce Vita. It could be said that several patriarchialisms concerning the common ground between narrativity and sexual identity may be revealed. The premise of subcultural modernism suggests that truth is intrinsically elitist. In a sense, Lyotard suggests the use of subcultural modernism to attack the status quo. The primary theme of the works of Fellini is the role of the observer as participant. Marx uses the term ‘patriarchialist situationism’ to denote the economy, and subsequent stasis, of presemiotic class. It could be said that in Satyricon, Fellini deconstructs cultural theory; in 8 1/2 he denies the predialectic paradigm of discourse. “Truth is part of the dialectic of consciousness,” says Lyotard; however, according to Pickett, it is not so much truth that is part of the dialectic of consciousness, but rather the Rubicon, and eventually the economy, of truth. Lacan’s essay on posttextual socialism suggests that the significance of the observer is significant form. However, if Derrida uses the term ‘the predialectic paradigm of discourse’ to denote a subsemiotic whole, which it seems you hint at when you state, ”a disorganized absolute harmony of everything expected from a “nonexistent” picture. It depends upon the pattern of line as a primal creator of whatever associated or disassociated from the theme.” But an abundance of appropriations concerning subcultural capitalist theory exists. The characteristic theme of the critique of the predialectic paradigm of discourse is not desublimation, but postdesublimation. Dahmus holds that the works of Fellini are reminiscent of Eco. The subject is contextualised into a subcultural discourse that includes consciousness as a paradox, as I’m sure you agree. Marx uses the term ‘the predialectic paradigm of discourse’ to denote a self-justifying totality. The subject is interpolated into a preconstructe deappropriation that includes consciousness as a paradox. It could be said that the premise of subcultural capitalist theory states that the purpose of the poet is social comment. Subcultural capitalist theory holds that society has intrinsic meaning. Much materialism concerning the role of the artist as poet may be found. In a sense, Bataille uses the term 'patriarchialist situationism' to denote the bridge between sexual identity and class. Any number of theories concerning the predialectic paradigm of discourse exists. However, Sartre promotes the use of subcultural capitalist theory to deconstruct sexual identity. Do you agree?

(via paul-jaisini-gleitzeit)

Korea - Coreia by Hugo Carriço

Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam

english

Religion in Korea encompasses a number of different traditions. Traditional Buddhism, Mugyo with a background of Korean Confucianism and later Christianity all play a role in Korea's religious tradition. The modern separation of Korea into North and South Korea has also shaped religious practice, especially in the communist North.

Religion in South Korea

Just over 53 percent of South Koreans profess religious affiliation. That affiliation is spread primarily among three traditions - Buddhism (43 percent), Christianity (55 percent), and Mugyo (0.2 percent).[6] These numbers should be treated with some caution, however, as (with the exception of Christianity) there are few if any meaningful distinctions between believers and nonbelievers in Buddhism and Confucianism, which comprise more of a set of ethical values than a religion. The cultural impact of these movements is far more widespread than the number of formal adherents suggests. A variety of "new religions" have emerged since the mid-19th century, including Cheondogyo. Very small Muslim and Bahá'í minorities also exist due to the emigration of South Asians.

Religion in North Korea

Traditionally, Koreans have practiced Buddhism and observed the tenets of Korean Confucianism. Besides a number of practicing Buddhists (about 11.4 million, under the auspices of the official Korean Buddhist Federation), the population also includes some Christians (about 10,000 Protestants and 4,000 Roman Catholics, under the auspices of the Korean Christian Federation) and an indeterminate number of native Cheondogyo (Heavenly Way) adherents. However, religious activities in North Korea are almost nonexistent. North Korea has 300 Buddhist temples, but they are considered cultural relics rather than active places of worship. Several schools for religious education exist, including three-year religious colleges for training Protestant and Buddhist clergy. In 1989 Kim Il Sung University established a religious studies program, but its graduates usually go on to work in the foreign trade sector. Although the constitution provides for freedom of religious belief, in practice the government severely discourages organized religious activity except as supervised by the aforementioned officially recognized groups. Constitutional changes made in 1992 allow authorized religious gatherings and the construction of buildings for religious use and deleted a clause about freedom of anti-religious propaganda. The constitution also stipulates that religion "should not be used for purposes of dragging in foreign powers or endangering public security."

Mugyo

Koreans, like other East Asians, have traditionally been eclectic rather than exclusive in their religious commitments. Their religious outlook has not been conditioned by a single, exclusive faith but by a combination of indigenous beliefs and creeds imported into Korea. Belief in a world inhabited by spirits is probably the oldest form of Korean religious life, dating back to prehistoric times. There is a rather unorganized pantheon of literally millions of gods, spirits, and ghosts, ranging from the "god generals" who rule the different quarters of heaven to mountain spirits (sansin). This pantheon also includes gods who inhabit trees, sacred caves, and piles of stones, as well as earth spirits, the tutelary gods of households and villages, mischievous goblins, and the ghosts of persons who in many cases met violent or tragic ends. These spirits are said to have the power to influence or to change the fortunes of living men and women.

Shamans, most of whom are women, are enlisted by those who want the help of the spirit world. Female shamans (mudang) hold kut, or services, in order to gain good fortune for clients, cure illnesses by exorcising evil spirits, or propitiate local or village gods. Such services are also held to guide the spirit of a deceased person to heaven.

Often a woman will become a shaman very reluctantly—after experiencing a severe physical or mental illness that indicates "possession" by a spirit. Such possession can allegedly be cured only through performance of a kut. Once a shaman is established in her profession, she usually can make a good living.

Many scholars regard Korean shamanism as less a religion than a form of medicine in which the spirits are manipulated in order to achieve human ends. There is no notion of salvation or moral and spiritual perfection, at least for the ordinary believers in spirits. The shaman is a professional who is consulted by clients whenever the need is felt. Traditionally, shamans had low social status and were members of the ch'ommin class. This discrimination has continued into modern times.

Korean folk beliefs are strongly associated with the culture of fishing villages and are primarily a phenomenon found in rural communities. Shamans also treat the ills of city people, however, especially recent migrants from the countryside who find adjustment to an impersonal urban life stressful. The government has discouraged belief in shamanism as superstition and for many years minimized its persistence in Korean life. Yet in a climate of growing nationalism and cultural self-confidence, the dances, songs, and incantations that compose the kut have come to be recognized as an important aspect of Korean culture. Beginning in the 1970s, rituals that formerly had been kept out of foreign view began to resurface, and occasionally a Western hotel manager or other executive could even be seen attending a shamanistic exorcism ritual in the course of opening a new branch in Seoul. Some of these aspects of kut have been designated valuable cultural properties that should be preserved and passed on to future generations.

The future of shamanism itself was uncertain in the late 1980s. Observers believed that many of its functions in the future probably will be performed by the psychiatric profession as the government expands mental health treatment facilities. Given the uncertainty of social, economic, and political conditions, however, it appears certain that shamans will find large numbers of clients for some time to come.

Buddhism and Confucianism

Buddhism was the dominant religious and cultural influence during the Silla (668–935) and Koryo (918–1392) dynasties. Confucianism also was brought to Korea from China in early Three Kingdoms period, but it occupied a subordinate position until the establishment of the Choson Dynasty where it became the state ideology.

Christianity

Roman Catholic missionaries did not arrive in Korea until 1794, a decade after the return of the first baptized Korean from a visit to Beijing. However, the writings of the Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, who was resident at the imperial court in Beijing, had been brought to Korea from China in the seventeenth century. It appears that scholars of the Sirhak, or practical learning, school were interested in these writings. Largely because converts refused to perform ancestor rites, the government prohibited the proselytization of Christianity. Some Catholics were executed during the early nineteenth century, but the anti-Christian law was not strictly enforced. By the 1860s, there were some 17,500 Roman Catholics in the country. There followed a more rigorous persecution, in which thousands of Christians died, that continued until 1884.

Protestant missionaries entered Korea during the 1880s and, along with Catholic priests, converted a remarkable number of Koreans. Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries were especially successful. They established schools, universities, hospitals, and orphanages and played a significant role in the modernization of the country. During the Japanese colonial occupation, Christians were in the front ranks of the struggle for independence. Factors contributing to the growth of Protestantism included the disorganized state of Korean Buddhism, the efforts made by educated Christians to reconcile Christian and Confucian values (the latter being viewed as purely a social ethic rather than a religion), the encouragement of self-support and selfgovernment among members of the Korean church, and the identification of Christianity with Korean nationalism.

A large number of Christians lived in the northern part of the peninsula where Confucian influence was not as strong as in the south. Before 1948 P'yongyang was an important Christian center: one-sixth of its population of about 300,000 people were converts. Following the establishment of a communist regime in the north, however, most Christians had to flee to South Korea or face persecution.

New religions

Ch'ondogyo, generally regarded as the first of Korea's "new religions," is another important religious tradition. It is a synthesis of Confucian, Buddhist, shamanistic, Daoist, and Catholic influences. Ch'ondogyo grew out of the Donghak Movement (also called Eastern Learning Movement) established by Choe Je-u, a man of yangban background who claimed to have experienced a mystic encounter with God, who told him to preach to all the world. Ch'oe was executed by the government as a heretic in 1863, but not before he had acquired a number of followers and had committed his ideas to writing. Tonghak spread among the poor people of Korea's villages, especially in the Cholla region, and was the cause of a revolt against the royal government in 1894. While some members of the Tonghak Movement-- renamed Ch'ondogyo (Teachings of the Heavenly Way)--supported the Japanese annexation in 1910, others opposed it. This group played a major role, along with Christians and some Confucians, in the Korean nationalist movement. In the 1920s, Ch'ondogyo sponsored Kaebyok (Creation), one of Korea's major intellectual journals during the colonial period.

Ch'ondogyo's basic beliefs include the essential equality of all human beings. Each person must be treated with respect because all persons "contain divinity;" there is "God in man." Moreover, men and women must sincerely cultivate themselves in order to bring forth and express this divinity in their lives. Self-perfection, not ritual and ceremony, is the way to salvation. Although Ch'oe and his followers did not attempt to overthrow the social order and establish a radical egalitarianism, the revolutionary potential of Ch'ondogyo is evident in these basic ideas, which appealed especially to poor people who were told that they, along with scholars and high officials, could achieve salvation through effort. There is reason to believe that Ch'ondogyo had an important role in the development of democratic and anti-authoritarian thought in Korea. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ch'ondogyo's antecedent, the Tonghak Movement, received renewed interest among many Korean intellectuals.

Apart from Ch'ondogyo, major new religions included Taejonggyo, which has as its central creed the worship of Tangun, legendary founder of the Korean nation. Chungsanggyo, founded in the early twentieth century by Chungsan Kang, emphasizes magical practices and the creation of a paradise on earth. It is divided into a great number of competing branches, the largest being Jeungsando and Daesun Jinrihoe.[7] Wonbulgyo, or Won Buddhism, attempts to combine traditional Buddhist doctrine with a modern concern for social reform and revitalization. There are also a number of small sects which have sprung up around Mount Kyeryong in South Ch'ungch'ong Province, the supposed future site of the founding of a new dynasty originally prophesied in the eighteenth century.

Several new religions derive their inspiration from Christianity. The Chondogwan, or Evangelical Church, was founded by Pak T'ae-son. Pak originally was a Presbyterian, but was expelled from the church for heresy in the 1950s after claiming for himself unique spiritual power. By 1972 his followers numbered as many as 700,000 people, and he built several "Christian towns," established a large church network, and managed several industrial enterprises.

Because of its overseas evangelism, the Hold Spirit Association for the Unification of the World Christianity, or Unification Church (T'ongilgyo), founded in 1954 by Reverend Sun Myong Moon (Mun Son-myong), also a former Christian, is the most famous Korean new religion. During its period of vigorous expansion during the 1970s, the Unification Church had several hundred thousand members in South Korea and Japan and a substantial (although generally overestimated) number of members in North America and Western Europe. Moon claimed that he was the "messiah" designated by God to unify all the peoples of the world into one "family," governed theocratically by himself. Like Pak's Evangelical Church, the Unification Church has been highly authoritarian, demanding absolute obedience from church members. Moon, for example, has arranged marriages for his younger followers; United States television audiences were treated some years ago to a mass ceremony at which several hundred young "Moonies" were married. Also like Pak, Moon has coupled the church's fortunes to economic expansion. Factories in South Korea and abroad manufacture arms and process ginseng and seafood, artistic bric-a-brac, and other items. Moon's labor force has worked long hours and been paid minimal wages in order to channel profits into church coffers. Virulently anticommunist, Moon has sought to influence public opinion at home and abroad by establishing generally unprofitable newspapers such as the Segye Ilbo in Seoul, the Sekai Nippo in Tokyo, and the Washington Times in the United States capital, and by inviting academics to lavish international conferences, often held in South Korea. At home, the Unification Church was viewed with suspicion by the authorities because of its scandals and Moon's evident desire to create a "state within a state." His influence, however, had declined by the late 1980s.

Islam

The number of Muslims in South Korea is estimated at about 35,000 mainly consisting of people who converted during the Korean War and their descendents and not including migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia. The largest mosque is the Seoul Central Mosque in the Itaewon district of Seoul; smaller mosques can be found in most of the country's major cities.[8]

In addition to native Korean Muslims, there are some 100,000 foreign workers from Muslim countries,[9] particularly Bangladesh and Pakistan.[

Judaism

The Jewish presence in South Korea effectively began with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. At this time a large number of Jewish soldiers, including the chaplain Chaim Potok, came to the Korean peninsula. Today the Jewish community is very small and limited to the Seoul metropolitan area. There have been very few Korean converts to Judaism.

Old Newgate - Jack Sheppard's Chains. And his Remarkable Criminal Career. by pepandtim

2 3

The Postcard

A Shurey's postcard, on the back of which is printed:

'This beautiful Series of Fine Art Post Cards

is supplied free exclusively by Shurey's

Publications, comprising "Smart Novels",

"Yes or No", and "Dainty Novels".

The publications are obtainable throughout

Great Britain, the Colonies and Foreign

Countries'.

The claim of world-wide availability seems somewhat misplaced - can you imagine walking into a shop in, e.g. Port Saïd or Manila in the early 1900's and asking for a copy of 'Yes or No'?

Does anyone out there know what the ominous-looking box is for? If so, please let us know.

The Card was posted in Luton on Thursday the 16th. June 1910 to:

Miss Boston,

Brightwell,

Morden,

Surrey.

The message on the divided back was as follows:

"The box came quite safely,

Dad fetched it on Saturday.

I should not get a pin Dear

as they are not worn now.

You are behind the times.

Leave it until you come

home, also your hat unless

you are hard up.

Dad, Mum and I went up to

the Hoo on Tuesday - we did

enjoy ourselves.

We will write a letter next

week.

Much love,

H."

Jack Sheppard

Jack Sheppard, also known as 'Honest Jack', who was born on the 4th. March 1702, was a notorious English thief and prison escapee of early 18th. century London.

Born into a poor family, he was apprenticed as a carpenter, but took to theft and burglary in 1723, with little more than a year of his training to complete.

He was arrested and imprisoned five times in 1724, but escaped four times from prison, making him a notorious public figure, and wildly popular with the poorer classes.

Ultimately, he was caught, convicted, and hanged at Tyburn, ending his brief criminal career after less than two years.

The inability of the notorious "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild to control Sheppard, and injuries suffered by Wild at the hands of Sheppard's colleague Joseph "Blueskin" Blake led to Wild's downfall.

Sheppard was as renowned for his attempts to escape from prison as he was for his crimes. An autobiographical "Narrative", thought to have been ghostwritten by Daniel Defoe, was sold at his execution, quickly followed by popular plays.

The character of Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) was based on Sheppard, keeping him in the limelight for over 100 years.

He returned to public consciousness around 1840, when William Harrison Ainsworth wrote a novel entitled Jack Sheppard, with illustrations by George Cruikshank. The popularity of his tale, and the fear that others would be drawn to emulate his behaviour, led the authorities to refuse to license any plays in London with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.

Jack Sheppard - The Early Years

Sheppard was born in White's Row, in London's Spitalfields. He was baptised on the 5th. March, the day after he was born, at St Dunstan's, Stepney, suggesting a fear of infant mortality by his parents, perhaps because the newborn was weak or sickly.

His parents named him after an older brother, John, who had died before his birth. In life however, he was better known as Jack, or even "Gentleman Jack" or "Jack the Lad".

Jack had a second brother, Thomas, and a younger sister, Mary. Their father, a carpenter, died while Sheppard was young, and his sister died two years later.

Unable to support her family without her husband's income, Jack's mother sent him to Mr Garrett's School, a workhouse near St Helen's Bishopsgate, when he was six years old.

Jack was sent out as a parish apprentice to a cane-chair maker, taking a settlement of 20 shillings, but his new master soon died. He was sent out to a second cane-chair maker, but Sheppard was treated badly.

Finally, when Sheppard was 10, he went to work as a shop-boy for a wool draper who had a shop on the Strand. The draper was called William Kneebone. (... the origin of 'The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone'? ... Maybe not ...)

Sheppard's mother had been working for Kneebone since her husband's death. Kneebone taught Sheppard to read and write, and apprenticed him to a carpenter appropriately named Owen Wood, in Wych Street, off Drury Lane in Covent Garden. Sheppard signed his seven-year indenture on the 2nd. April 1717.

By 1722, Jack Sheppard was showing great promise as a carpenter. Aged 20, he was a small man, only 5'4" (1.63 m) and lightly built, but deceptively strong. He had a pale face with large, dark eyes, a wide mouth and a quick smile. Despite a slight stutter, his wit made him popular in the taverns of Drury Lane. He served five unblemished years of his apprenticeship, but then began to be led into crime.

Jack Sheppard's Criminal Career

Joseph Hayne, a button-moulder who owned a shop nearby, also ran a tavern named the Black Lion off Drury Lane, which he encouraged the local apprentices to frequent.

The Black Lion was visited by criminals such as Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, Sheppard's future partner in crime, and self-proclaimed "Thief-Taker General" Jonathan Wild, secretly the linchpin of a criminal empire across London and later Sheppard's implacable enemy.

According to Sheppard's autobiography, he had been an innocent until going to Hayne's tavern, but there began an attachment to strong drink and the affections of Elizabeth Lyon, a prostitute also known as Edgeworth Bess from her place of birth at Edgeworth in Middlesex.

In his History, Defoe records that:

"Bess was a main lodestone

in attracting of him up to this

Eminence of Guilt."

Such, Sheppard claimed, was the source of his later ruin. Peter Linebaugh offers a more romantic view:

"Sheppard's sudden transformation

was a liberation from the dull drudgery

of indentured labour.

He progressed from pious servitude to

self-confident rebellion and levelling."

Jack Sheppard threw himself into a hedonistic whirl of drinking and whoring. Inevitably, his carpentry suffered, and he became disobedient to his master.

With Edgeworth Bess's encouragement, Sheppard took to crime in order to augment his legitimate wages. His first recorded theft was in Spring 1723, when he engaged in petty shoplifting, stealing two silver spoons while on an errand for his master to the Rummer Tavern in Charing Cross.

Sheppard's misdeeds initially went undetected, and he moved on to larger crimes, often stealing goods from the houses where he was working.

Finally, he quit the employ of his master on the 2nd. August 1723, with less than two years of his apprenticeship left, although he continued to work as a journeyman carpenter. He progressed to burglary, falling in with criminals in Jonathan Wild's gang.

He moved to Fulham, living as husband and wife with Edgeworth Bess at Parsons Green, before moving to Piccadilly. When Bess was arrested and imprisoned at St. Giles's Roundhouse, the beadle, a Mr Brown, refused to let Sheppard visit, so he broke in and took her away.

Two Arrests and Two Escapes

Sheppard was first arrested after a burglary he committed with his brother, Tom, and his mistress, Bess, in Clare Market on the 5th. February 1724.

Tom, also a carpenter, had already been convicted once for stealing tools from his master the previous autumn and burned in the hand. Tom was arrested again on the 24th. April 1724. Afraid that he would be hanged this time, Tom informed on Jack, and a warrant was issued for Jack's arrest.

Jonathan Wild was aware of Sheppard's thefts, as Sheppard had fenced some stolen goods through one of Wild's men, William Field.

Wild asked another of his men, James Sykes (known as "Hell and Fury") to challenge Sheppard to a game of skittles at Redgate's public house near Seven Dials. Sykes betrayed Sheppard to a Mr Price, a constable from the parish of St. Giles, to gather the usual £40 reward for giving information leading to the conviction of a felon.

The magistrate, Justice Parry, had Sheppard imprisoned overnight on the top floor of St Giles's Roundhouse pending further questioning, but Sheppard escaped within three hours by breaking through the timber ceiling and lowering himself to the ground with a rope fashioned from bedclothes.

Still wearing irons, Sheppard coolly joined the crowd that had been attracted by the sounds of his breaking out. He distracted their attention by pointing to the shadows on the roof and shouting that he could see the escapee, and then swiftly departed.

On the 19th. May 1724, Sheppard was arrested for a second time, caught in the act of picking a pocket in Leicester Fields (near present-day Leicester Square). He was detained overnight in St Ann's Roundhouse in Soho and visited there the next day by Bess; however she was recognised as his wife, and locked in a cell with him.

They appeared before Justice Walters, who sent them to the New Prison in Clerkenwell, but they escaped from their cell within a matter of days. By the 25th. May, they had filed through their manacles. They removed a bar from the window and used their knotted bed-clothes to descend to ground level.

Finding themselves in the yard of the neighbouring Bridewell, they clambered over the 22-foot-high (6.7 m) prison gate to freedom. This feat was widely publicised, not least because Sheppard was only a small man, and Bess was a large, buxom woman.

Jack Sheppard's Third Arrest, Trial, and Third Escape

Sheppard's thieving abilities were admired by Jonathan Wild, who demanded that Sheppard surrender his stolen goods for Wild to fence, and so take the greater profits, but Sheppard refused.

Instead Jack began to work with Joseph "Blueskin" Blake, and they burgled Sheppard's former master, William Kneebone, on the 12th. July 1724. However Wild could not permit Sheppard to continue outside his control, and began to seek Sheppard's arrest.

Unfortunately for Sheppard, his fence, William Field, was one of Wild's men. After Sheppard had a brief foray with Blueskin as highwaymen on the Hampstead Road on the 19th. and 20th. July, Field informed on Sheppard to Wild.

Wild believed that Bess would know Sheppard's whereabouts, so he plied her with drinks at a brandy shop near Temple Bar until she betrayed him. Sheppard was arrested for a third time at Blueskin's mother's brandy shop in Rosemary Lane, east of the Tower of London on the 23rd. July by Wild's henchman, Quilt Arnold.

Sheppard was imprisoned in Newgate Prison pending his trial at the next Assize. He was prosecuted on three charges of theft at the Old Bailey, but was acquitted on the first two due to lack of evidence.

Kneebone, Wild and Field gave evidence against him on the third charge, the burglary of Kneebone's house. He was convicted on the 12th. August, the case "being plainly prov'd", and sentenced to death.

However, on the 31st. August, the very day when the death warrant arrived from the court in Windsor setting the 4th. September as the date for his execution, Sheppard escaped.

Having loosened an iron bar in a window used when talking to visitors, he was visited by Bess and Poll Maggott, who distracted the guards while he removed the bar. His slight build enabled him to climb through the resulting gap in the grille, and he was smuggled out of Newgate in women's clothing that his visitors had brought him.

He took a coach to Blackfriars Stairs, then a boat up the River Thames to the horse ferry in Westminster, near the warehouse where he hid his stolen goods, and made good his escape.

Jack Sheppard's Fourth Arrest and Final Escape

By this point, Sheppard was a hero to a segment of the population, being a cockney, non-violent, handsome and seemingly able to escape punishment for his crimes at will.

He spent a few days out of London, visiting a friend's family in Chipping Warden in Northamptonshire, but was soon back in town. He evaded capture by Wild and his men, but was arrested again on the 9th. September by a posse from Newgate as he hid out on Finchley Common, and was returned to the condemned cell at Newgate.

Jack's fame had increased with each escape, and he was visited in prison by the great, the good and the curious. His plans to escape in September were thwarted twice when the guards found files and other tools in his cell.

Jack was accordingly transferred to a strong-room in Newgate known as the "Castle", clapped in leg irons, and chained to two metal staples in the floor to prevent further escape attempts.

After demonstrating to his gaolers that these measures were insufficient, by showing them how he could use a small nail to unlock the horse padlock at will, he was bound more tightly and handcuffed. In his History, Defoe reports that Sheppard made light of his predicament, joking that:

"I am the Sheppard, and all the Gaolers

in the Town are my Flock, and I cannot

stir into the Country, but they are all at

my Heels Laughing after me".

Meanwhile, "Blueskin" Blake was arrested by Wild and his men on the 9th. October, and Tom, Jack's brother, was transported for robbery on the 10th. October 1724.

New court sessions began on the 14th. October, and Blueskin was tried on the 15th. October, with Field and Wild again giving evidence. Their accounts were not consistent with the evidence that they gave at Sheppard's trial, but Blueskin was convicted anyway.

Enraged, Blueskin attacked Wild in the courtroom, slashing his throat with a pocket-knife and causing an uproar. Wild was lucky to survive, and his grip over his criminal empire started to slip while he recuperated.

Taking advantage of the disturbance, which spread to Newgate Prison next door and continued into the night, Sheppard escaped for the fourth time. He unlocked his handcuffs and removed the chains.

Still encumbered by his leg irons, he attempted to climb up the chimney, but his path was blocked by an iron bar set into the brickwork. He removed the bar, and used it to break through the ceiling into the "Red Room" above the "Castle", a room which had last been used some seven years before to confine aristocratic Jacobite prisoners after the Battle of Preston.

Still wearing his leg irons as night fell, he then broke through six barred doors into the prison chapel, then to the roof of Newgate, 60 feet (20 m) above the ground. He went back down to his cell to get a blanket, then back to the roof of the prison, and used the blanket to reach the roof of an adjacent house, owned by William Bird, a turner.

He broke into Bird's house, and went down the stairs and out into the street at around midnight without disturbing the occupants. Escaping through the streets to the north and west, Sheppard hid in a cowshed in Tottenham (near modern Tottenham Court Road).

Spotted by the cowshed's owner, Sheppard told him that he had escaped from Bridewell Prison, having been imprisoned there for failing to support a (nonexistent) bastard son. Jack's leg irons remained in place for several days until he persuaded a passing shoemaker to accept the considerable sum of 20 shillings to bring a blacksmith's tools and help him remove them, telling him the same tale.

His manacles and leg irons were later recovered in the rooms of Kate Cook, one of Sheppard's mistresses. This latest escape astonished everyone. Daniel Defoe, working as a journalist, wrote an account for John Applebee, The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard. In his History, Defoe reports the belief in Newgate that the Devil came in person to assist Sheppard's escape.

The Final Capture of Jack Sheppard

Sheppard's final period of liberty lasted just two weeks. He disguised himself as a beggar and returned to the city. He broke into Rawlins brothers' pawnbroker's shop in Drury Lane on the night of the 29th. October 1724, taking a black silk suit, a silver sword, rings, watches, a wig, and other items.

He dressed himself as a dandy gentleman, and used the proceeds to spend a day and the following evening on the tiles with two mistresses. He was arrested a final time in the early morning of the 1st. November, blind drunk:

"In a handsome Suit of Black, with a

Diamond Ring and a carnelian ring

on his Finger, and a fine Light Tye

Peruke".

This time, Sheppard was placed in the Middle Stone Room, in the centre of Newgate next to the "Castle", where he could be observed at all times. He was also loaded with 300 pounds of iron weights. He was so celebrated that the gaolers charged high society visitors four shillings to see him:

"The Concourse of People of tolerable

Fashion to see him was exceeding Great,

he was always Chearful and Pleasant to a

Degree, as turning almost everything as

was said onto a Jest and Banter."

To a Reverend Wagstaffe who visited him, he said, according to Defoe:

"One file's worth all the Bibles

in the World".

The King's painter James Thornhill painted his portrait.

Several prominent people sent a petition to King George I, begging for his sentence of death to be commuted to transportation.

Sheppard came before Mr Justice Powis in the Court of King's Bench at Westminster Hall on the 10th. November. He was offered the chance to have his sentence reduced by informing on his associates, but he scorned the offer, and the death sentence was confirmed. The next day, Blueskin was hanged, and Sheppard was moved to the condemned cell.

The Execution of Jack Sheppard

The following Monday, 16th. November, Sheppard was taken to the gallows at Tyburn to be hanged. He had planned one more escape, but his pen-knife, intended to cut the ropes binding him on the way to the gallows, was found by a prison warder shortly before he left Newgate for the last time.

A joyous procession passed through the streets of London, with Sheppard's cart drawn along Holborn and Oxford Street accompanied by a mounted City Marshal and liveried Javelin Men.

The occasion was as much as anything a celebration of Sheppard's life, attended by crowds of up to 200,000 (one third of London's population). The procession halted at the City of Oxford tavern on Oxford Street, where Sheppard drank a pint of sack.

A carnival atmosphere pervaded Tyburn, where his "official" autobiography, published by Applebee and probably ghostwritten by Defoe, was on sale. Sheppard handed a paper to someone as he mounted the scaffold, perhaps as a symbolic endorsement of the account in the "Narrative".

Jack's slight build had aided his previous prison escapes, but it condemned him to a slow death by strangulation from the hangman's noose. After hanging for the prescribed 15 minutes, his body was cut down.

The crowd pressed forward to stop his body from being removed, fearing dissection; their actions inadvertently prevented Sheppard's friends from implementing a plan to take his body to a doctor in an attempt to revive him. His badly mauled remains were recovered later, and buried in the churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields that evening.

Jack Sheppard's Legacy

There was a spectacular public reaction to Sheppard's deeds. He was even cited (favourably) as an example in newspapers, pamphlets, broadsheets, and ballads which were all devoted to his amazing exploits, and his story was adapted for the stage almost immediately.

Harlequin Sheppard, a pantomime by John Thurmond (subtitled "A Night Scene in Grotesque Characters"), opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on the 28th. November, only two weeks after Sheppard's hanging.

In a famous contemporary sermon, a London preacher drew on Sheppard's popular escapes as a way of holding his congregation's attention:

"Let me exhort ye, then, to open the locks

of your hearts with the nail of repentance!

Burst asunder the fetters of your beloved

lusts! - mount the chimney of hope! - take

from thence the bar of good resolution! -

break through the stone wall of despair!"

The account of his life remained well-known through the Newgate Calendar, and a three-act farce was published but never produced. However when mixed with songs, it became The Quaker's Opera, later performed at Bartholomew Fair.

An imagined dialogue between Jack Sheppard and Julius Caesar was published in the British Journal on the 4th. December 1724, in which Sheppard favourably compares his virtues and exploits to those of Caesar.

The most prominent play based on Sheppard's life is John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728). Sheppard was the inspiration for the figure of Macheath; his nemesis, Peachum, is based on Jonathan Wild. The play was spectacularly popular, restoring the fortune that Gay had lost in the South Sea Bubble, and was produced regularly for over 100 years.

An unperformed but published play The Prison-Breaker was turned into The Quaker's Opera (in imitation of The Beggar's Opera) and performed at Bartholomew Fair in 1725 and 1728. Two centuries later The Beggar's Opera was the basis for The Threepenny Opera of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (1928).

Sheppard's tale may have been an inspiration for William Hogarth's 1747 series of 12 engravings, Industry and Idleness. These show the descent of an apprentice, Tom Idle, into crime and eventually to the gallows, beside the rise of his fellow apprentice, Francis Goodchild. Goodchild marries his master's daughter and takes over his business, becoming wealthy as a result, eventually emulating Dick Whittington to become Lord Mayor of London.

A melodrama, Jack Sheppard, The Housebreaker, or London in 1724, by W. T. Moncrieff was published in 1825.

More successful was William Harrison Ainsworth's third novel, entitled Jack Sheppard, which was originally published in Bentley's Miscellany from January 1839 with illustrations by George Cruikshank, overlapping with the final episodes of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.

An archetypal Newgate novel, it generally remains close to the facts of Sheppard's life, but portrays him as a swashbuckling hero. Like Hogarth's prints, the novel pairs the descent of the "idle" apprentice into crime with the rise of a typical melodramatic character, Thames Darrell, a foundling of aristocratic birth who defeats his evil uncle to recover his fortune.

Cruikshank's images perfectly complemented Ainsworth's tale - Thackeray wrote that:

"Mr Cruickshank really created the tale,

and Mr Ainsworth, as it were, only put

words to it."

The novel quickly became very popular: it was published in book form later that year, before the serialised version was completed, and even outsold early editions of Oliver Twist. Ainsworth's novel was adapted into a successful play by John Buckstone in October 1839 at the Adelphi Theatre.

Indeed, it seems likely that Cruikshank's illustrations were deliberately created in a form that would be easy to repeat as tableaux on stage. The play has been described as:

"The exemplary climax of the

pictorial novel dramatized

pictorially".

Jack Sheppard's story generated a form of cultural mania, embellished by pamphlets, prints, cartoons, plays and souvenirs, not repeated until George du Maurier's Trilby in 1895.

By early 1840, a cant song from Buckstone's play, "Nix My Dolly, Pals, Fake Away" was reported to be "deafening us in the streets". Public alarm at the possibility that young people would emulate Sheppard's behaviour led the Lord Chamberlain to ban, at least in London, the licensing of any plays with "Jack Sheppard" in the title for forty years.

The fear may not have been entirely unfounded: Courvousier, the valet of Lord William Russell, said in one of his several confessions that the book had inspired him to murder his master.

Frank and Jesse James wrote letters to the Kansas City Star signed "Jack Sheppard".

Burlesques of the story were written after the ban was lifted, including a popular Gaiety Theatre, London, piece called Little Jack Sheppard (1886) by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, which starred Nellie Farren as Jack.

The Sheppard story has been revived three times on film in the 20th century: The Hairbreadth Escape of Jack Sheppard (1900), Jack Sheppard (1923), and Where's Jack? (1969), a British costume drama directed by James Clavell with Tommy Steele in the title role.

Jake Arnott features him in his 2017 novel The Fatal Tree.

In 1971 the British pop group Chicory Tip paid tribute to Sheppard in "Don't Hang Jack", the B-side to "I Love Onions". The song, apparently sung from the viewpoint of a witness in the courtroom, describes Jack's daring exploits as a thief, and futilely begs the judge to spare Sheppard because he was loved by the women of the town, and idolised by the lads who "made him their king."

In Jordy Rosenberg's 2018 novel Confessions of the Fox, a 21st-century academic discovers a manuscript containing Sheppard's "confessions", which tell the story of his childhood and his love affair with Edgeworth Bess, and make the unlikely revelation that he was a transgender man.

Charles Mackay in Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds wrote:

"Whether it be that the multitude, feeling the

pangs of poverty, sympathise with the daring

and ingenious depredators who take away

the rich man's superfluity, or whether it be the

interest that mankind in general feel for the

records of perilous adventure, it is certain that

the populace of all countries look with admiration

upon great and successful thieves."

A Hungarian Cloudburst

So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?

Well, on the 16th. June 1910, a cloudburst in Hungary added to existing flood waters, killing 800 people in villages in the Kronstadt district, another 180 in Temesvar and 100 in Moldava.

Arizona and New Mexico

Also on that day, the United States Senate unanimously passed a bill extending statehood to the territories of Arizona and New Mexico.

Admission as a state still required adopting a proposed state constitution, subject then to the approval of Congress and the President, as well as other procedures.

everything will be okay (explored) by maria rassie

10 12

FF: im a little hesitant about this picture. whatever, this is how im feeling. i want hide from everything. can you guys see the words? anyone know where thats from?! whoever guesses it right is a freakin' genius.

so there's this person that i'm thinking about, &i've tried so hard not to think about him, but its soooo daaaammn haaarrrd! sometimes i just want to punch him in the face just for being there, sometimes when i catch myself thinking of him i punch him in the face, in my mind of course. ugh, i just hate it. i just want to hide from him.

oh yeah, i constantly have this feeling that i am nonexistent , someone out there please make me feel aliveeee.

ahaha, flickr is like my blog. lol. btw, can you guys spot my scar?

so much better if you View On Black

**explored #27 june 7

vote for my photo: brickfrish!

i need the money, you want me to go to college, riiight?

Was the 2004 Election abducted by UF-Faux? Voter mutilations and more..... by Eliud Martinez

5 9

(Photo montage using Illustration by Matt Mahurin)

The complete article ( www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_ele... ), with Web-only citations, follows. Talk about it in our National Affairs blog, or see exclusive documents, sources, charts and comment www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/?p=171ary.

Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House. BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush -- and the next day, lacking enough legal evidence to contest the results, Kerry conceded. Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's victory as nut cases in ''tinfoil hats,'' while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as ''conspiracy theories,''(1) and The New York Times declared that ''there is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale.''(2)

But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)

The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.(11)

Any election, of course, will have anomalies. America's voting system is a messy patchwork of polling rules run mostly by county and city officials. ''We didn't have one election for president in 2004,'' says Robert Pastor, who directs the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University. ''We didn't have fifty elections. We actually had 13,000 elections run by 13,000 independent, quasi-sovereign counties and municipalities.''

But what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 2004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election. A review of the available data reveals that in Ohio alone, at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004(12) -- more than enough to shift the results of an election decided by 118,601 votes.(13) (See Ohio's Missing Votes) In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots.(14) And that doesn?t even take into account the troubling evidence of outright fraud, which indicates that upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush. That alone is a swing of more than 160,000 votes -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.(15)

''It was terrible,'' says Sen. Christopher Dodd, who helped craft reforms in 2002 that were supposed to prevent such electoral abuses. ''People waiting in line for twelve hours to cast their ballots, people not being allowed to vote because they were in the wrong precinct -- it was an outrage. In Ohio, you had a secretary of state who was determined to guarantee a Republican outcome. I'm terribly disheartened.''

Indeed, the extent of the GOP's effort to rig the vote shocked even the most experienced observers of American elections. ''Ohio was as dirty an election as America has ever seen,'' Lou Harris, the father of modern political polling, told me. ''You look at the turnout and votes in individual precincts, compared to the historic patterns in those counties, and you can tell where the discrepancies are. They stand out like a sore thumb.''

I. The Exit Polls

The first indication that something was gravely amiss on November 2nd, 2004, was the inexplicable discrepancies between exit polls and actual vote counts. Polls in thirty states weren't just off the mark -- they deviated to an extent that cannot be accounted for by their margin of error. In all but four states, the discrepancy favored President Bush.(16)

Over the past decades, exit polling has evolved into an exact science. Indeed, among pollsters and statisticians, such surveys are thought to be the most reliable. Unlike pre-election polls, in which voters are asked to predict their own behavior at some point in the future, exit polls ask voters leaving the voting booth to report an action they just executed. The results are exquisitely accurate: Exit polls in Germany, for example, have never missed the mark by more than three-tenths of one percent.(17) ''Exit polls are almost never wrong,'' Dick Morris, a political consultant who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats, noted after the 2004 vote. Such surveys are ''so reliable,'' he added, ''that they are used as guides to the relative honesty of elections in Third World countries.''(18) In 2003, vote tampering revealed by exit polling in the Republic of Georgia forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down.(19) And in November 2004, exit polling in the Ukraine -- paid for by the Bush administration -- exposed election fraud that denied Viktor Yushchenko the presidency.(20)

But that same month, when exit polls revealed disturbing disparities in the U.S. election, the six media organizations that had commissioned the survey treated its very existence as an embarrassment. Instead of treating the discrepancies as a story meriting investigation, the networks scrubbed the offending results from their Web sites and substituted them with ''corrected'' numbers that had been weighted, retroactively, to match the official vote count. Rather than finding fault with the election results, the mainstream media preferred to dismiss the polls as flawed.(21)

''The people who ran the exit polling, and all those of us who were their clients, recognized that it was deeply flawed,'' says Tom Brokaw, who served as anchor for NBC News during the 2004 election. ''They were really screwed up -- the old models just don't work anymore. I would not go on the air with them again.''

In fact, the exit poll created for the 2004 election was designed to be the most reliable voter survey in history. The six news organizations -- running the ideological gamut from CBS to Fox News -- retained Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International,(22) whose principal, Warren Mitofsky, pioneered the exit poll for CBS in 1967(23) and is widely credited with assuring the credibility of Mexico's elections in 1994.(24) For its nationwide poll, Edison/Mitofsky selected a random subsample of 12,219 voters(25) -- approximately six times larger than those normally used in national polls(26) -- driving the margin of error down to approximately plus or minus one percent.(27)

On the evening of the vote, reporters at each of the major networks were briefed by pollsters at 7:54 p.m. Kerry, they were informed, had an insurmountable lead and would win by a rout: at least 309 electoral votes to Bush's 174, with fifty-five too close to call.(28) In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair went to bed contemplating his relationship with President-elect Kerry.(29)

As the last polling stations closed on the West Coast, exit polls showed Kerry ahead in ten of eleven battleground states -- including commanding leads in Ohio and Florida -- and winning by a million and a half votes nationally. The exit polls even showed Kerry breathing down Bush's neck in supposed GOP strongholds Virginia and North Carolina.(30) Against these numbers, the statistical likelihood of Bush winning was less than one in 450,000.(31) ''Either the exit polls, by and large, are completely wrong,'' a Fox News analyst declared, ''or George Bush loses.''(32)

But as the evening progressed, official tallies began to show implausible disparities -- as much as 9.5 percent -- with the exit polls. In ten of the eleven battleground states, the tallied margins departed from what the polls had predicted. In every case, the shift favored Bush. Based on exit polls, CNN had predicted Kerry defeating Bush in Ohio by a margin of 4.2 percentage points. Instead, election results showed Bush winning the state by 2.5 percent. Bush also tallied 6.5 percent more than the polls had predicted in Pennsylvania, and 4.9 percent more in Florida.(33)

According to Steven F. Freeman, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in research methodology, the odds against all three of those shifts occurring in concert are one in 660,000. ''As much as we can say in sound science that something is impossible,'' he says, ''it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote count in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error.'' (See The Tale of the Exit Polls)

Puzzled by the discrepancies, Freeman laboriously examined the raw polling data released by Edison/Mitofsky in January 2005. ''I'm not even political -- I despise the Democrats,'' he says. ''I'm a survey expert. I got into this because I was mystified about how the exit polls could have been so wrong.'' In his forthcoming book, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count, Freeman lays out a statistical analysis of the polls that is deeply troubling.

In its official postmortem report issued two months after the election, Edison/Mitofsky was unable to identify any flaw in its methodology -- so the pollsters, in essence, invented one for the electorate. According to Mitofsky, Bush partisans were simply disinclined to talk to exit pollsters on November 2nd(34) -- displaying a heretofore unknown and undocumented aversion that skewed the polls in Kerry's favor by a margin of 6.5 percent nationwide.(35)

Industry peers didn't buy it. John Zogby, one of the nation's leading pollsters, told me that Mitofsky's ''reluctant responder'' hypothesis is ''preposterous.''(36) Even Mitofsky, in his official report, underscored the hollowness of his theory: ''It is difficult to pinpoint precisely the reasons that, in general, Kerry voters were more likely to participate in the exit polls than Bush voters.''(37)

Now, thanks to careful examination of Mitofsky's own data by Freeman and a team of eight researchers, we can say conclusively that the theory is dead wrong. In fact it was Democrats, not Republicans, who were more disinclined to answer pollsters' questions on Election Day. In Bush strongholds, Freeman and the other researchers found that fifty-six percent of voters completed the exit survey -- compared to only fifty-three percent in Kerry strongholds.(38) ''The data presented to support the claim not only fails to substantiate it,'' observes Freeman, ''but actually contradicts it.''

What's more, Freeman found, the greatest disparities between exit polls and the official vote count came in Republican strongholds. In precincts where Bush received at least eighty percent of the vote, the exit polls were off by an average of ten percent. By contrast, in precincts where Kerry dominated by eighty percent or more, the exit polls were accurate to within three tenths of one percent -- a pattern that suggests Republican election officials stuffed the ballot box in Bush country.(39)

''When you look at the numbers, there is a tremendous amount of data that supports the supposition of election fraud,'' concludes Freeman. ''The discrepancies are higher in battleground states, higher where there were Republican governors, higher in states with greater proportions of African-American communities and higher in states where there were the most Election Day complaints. All these are strong indicators of fraud -- and yet this supposition has been utterly ignored by the press and, oddly, by the Democratic Party.''

The evidence is especially strong in Ohio. In January, a team of mathematicians from the National Election Data Archive, a nonpartisan watchdog group, compared the state's exit polls against the certified vote count in each of the forty-nine precincts polled by Edison/Mitofsky. In twenty-two of those precincts -- nearly half of those polled -- they discovered results that differed widely from the official tally. Once again -- against all odds -- the widespread discrepancies were stacked massively in Bush's favor: In only two of the suspect twenty-two precincts did the disparity benefit Kerry. The wildest discrepancy came from the precinct Mitofsky numbered ''27,'' in order to protect the anonymity of those surveyed. According to the exit poll, Kerry should have received sixty-seven percent of the vote in this precinct. Yet the certified tally gave him only thirty-eight percent. The statistical odds against such a variance are just shy of one in 3 billion.(40)

Such results, according to the archive, provide ''virtually irrefutable evidence of vote miscount.'' The discrepancies, the experts add, ''are consistent with the hypothesis that Kerry would have won Ohio's electoral votes if Ohio's official vote counts had accurately reflected voter intent.''(41) According to Ron Baiman, vice president of the archive and a public policy analyst at Loyola University in Chicago, ''No rigorous statistical explanation'' can explain the ''completely nonrandom'' disparities that almost uniformly benefited Bush. The final results, he adds, are ''completely consistent with election fraud -- specifically vote shifting.''

II. The Partisan Official

No state was more important in the 2004 election than Ohio. The state has been key to every Republican presidential victory since Abraham Lincoln's, and both parties overwhelmed the state with television ads, field organizers and volunteers in an effort to register new voters and energize old ones. Bush and Kerry traveled to Ohio a total of forty-nine times during the campaign -- more than to any other state.(42)

But in the battle for Ohio, Republicans had a distinct advantage: The man in charge of the counting was Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of President Bush's re-election committee.(43) As Ohio's secretary of state, Blackwell had broad powers to interpret and implement state and federal election laws -- setting standards for everything from the processing of voter registration to the conduct of official recounts.(44) And as Bush's re-election chair in Ohio, he had a powerful motivation to rig the rules for his candidate. Blackwell, in fact, served as the ''principal electoral system adviser'' for Bush during the 2000 recount in Florida,(45) where he witnessed firsthand the success of his counterpart Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state who co-chaired Bush's campaign there.(46)

Blackwell -- now the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio(47) -- is well-known in the state as a fierce partisan eager to rise in the GOP. An outspoken leader of Ohio's right-wing fundamentalists, he opposes abortion even in cases of rape(48) and was the chief cheerleader for the anti-gay-marriage amendment that Republicans employed to spark turnout in rural counties(49). He has openly denounced Kerry as ''an unapologetic liberal Democrat,''(50) and during the 2004 election he used his official powers to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens in Democratic strongholds. In a ruling issued two weeks before the election, a federal judge rebuked Blackwell for seeking to ''accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000.''(51)

''The secretary of state is supposed to administer elections -- not throw them,'' says Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Cleveland who has dealt with Blackwell for years. ''The election in Ohio in 2004 stands out as an example of how, under color of law, a state election official can frustrate the exercise of the right to vote.''

The most extensive investigation of what happened in Ohio was conducted by Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.(52) Frustrated by his party's failure to follow up on the widespread evidence of voter intimidation and fraud, Conyers and the committee's minority staff held public hearings in Ohio, where they looked into more than 50,000 complaints from voters.(53) In January 2005, Conyers issued a detailed report that outlined ''massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio.'' The problems, the report concludes, were ''caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell.''(54)

''Blackwell made Katherine Harris look like a cupcake,'' Conyers told me. ''He saw his role as limiting the participation of Democratic voters. We had hearings in Columbus for two days. We could have stayed two weeks, the level of fury was so high. Thousands of people wanted to testify. Nothing like this had ever happened to them before.''

When ROLLING STONE confronted Blackwell about his overtly partisan attempts to subvert the election, he dismissed any such claim as ''silly on its face.'' Ohio, he insisted in a telephone interview, set a ''gold standard'' for electoral fairness. In fact, his campaign to subvert the will of the voters had begun long before Election Day. Instead of welcoming the avalanche of citizen involvement sparked by the campaign, Blackwell permitted election officials in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo to conduct a massive purge of their voter rolls, summarily expunging the names of more than 300,000 voters who had failed to cast ballots in the previous two national elections.(55) In Cleveland, which went five-to-one for Kerry, nearly one in four voters were wiped from the rolls between 2000 and 2004.(56)

There were legitimate reasons to clean up voting lists: Many of the names undoubtedly belonged to people who had moved or died. But thousands more were duly registered voters who were deprived of their constitutional right to vote -- often without any notification -- simply because they had decided not to go to the polls in prior elections.(57) In Cleveland's precinct 6C, where more than half the voters on the rolls were deleted,(58) turnout was only 7.1 percent(59) -- the lowest in the state.

According to the Conyers report, improper purging ''likely disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters statewide.''(60) If only one in ten of the 300,000 purged voters showed up on Election Day -- a conservative estimate, according to election scholars -- that is 30,000 citizens who were unfairly denied the opportunity to cast ballots.

III. The Strike Force

In the months leading up to the election, Ohio was in the midst of the biggest registration drive in its history. Tens of thousands of volunteers and paid political operatives from both parties canvassed the state, racing to register new voters in advance of the October 4th deadline. To those on the ground, it was clear that Democrats were outpacing their Republican counterparts: A New York Times analysis before the election found that new registrations in traditional Democratic strongholds were up 250 percent, compared to only twenty-five percent in Republican-leaning counties.(61) ''The Democrats have been beating the pants off us in the air and on the ground,'' a GOP county official in Columbus confessed to The Washington Times.(62)

To stem the tide of new registrations, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party attempted to knock tens of thousands of predominantly minority and urban voters off the rolls through illegal mailings known in electioneering jargon as ''caging.'' During the Eighties, after the GOP used such mailings to disenfranchise nearly 76,000 black voters in New Jersey and Louisiana, it was forced to sign two separate court orders agreeing to abstain from caging.(63) But during the summer of 2004, the GOP targeted minority voters in Ohio by zip code, sending registered letters to more than 200,000 newly registered voters(64) in sixty-five counties.(65) On October 22nd, a mere eleven days before the election, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett -- who also chairs the board of elections in Cuyahoga County -- sought to invalidate the registrations of 35,427 voters who had refused to sign for the letters or whose mail came back as undeliverable.(66) Almost half of the challenged voters were from Democratic strongholds in and around Cleveland.(67)

There were plenty of valid reasons that voters had failed to respond to the mailings: The list included people who couldn't sign for the letters because they were serving in the U.S. military, college students whose school and home addresses differed,(68) and more than 1,000 homeless people who had no permanent mailing address.(69) But the undeliverable mail, Bennett claimed, proved the new registrations were fraudulent.

By law, each voter was supposed to receive a hearing before being stricken from the rolls.(70) Instead, in the week before the election, kangaroo courts were rapidly set up across the state at Blackwell's direction that would inevitably disenfranchise thousands of voters at a time(71) -- a process that one Democratic election official in Toledo likened to an ''inquisition.''(72) Not that anyone was given a chance to actually show up and defend their right to vote: Notices to challenged voters were not only sent out impossibly late in the process, they were mailed to the very addresses that the Republicans contended were faulty.(73) Adding to the atmosphere of intimidation, sheriff's detectives in Sandusky County were dispatched to the homes of challenged voters to investigate the GOP's claims of fraud.(74)

Birthday chair! by Johŋ

Well lookie here, it's my birthday. 16 and all. Apparently I can now play the lottery, choose my own doctor, and have legal sex with my nonexistent girlfriend.

My main pressie this year was the beautiful Panton chair, my all-time favourite chair (or overall design), as readers of my blog know all too well. Now I have one all to myself. It's bloody gorgeous.

With some more dosh from my friends, I'll place a massive Bricklink order and get some pieces in order to finish JCiii. Until then, just leave me alone with my chair :P

~John

[blog]

[twitter]

Skills SN53 EUX by timothyr673

The relatively rare sight of an ALX400 in Nottingham... the type never really gained a stronghold in the city since NCT preferred East Lancs products at the time and Trent/Barton haven't bought new deckers since something like the 80s. A trickle of them appear from the coach operators, like this ex-London United example from Skills, which is one of just two you'd regularly find in the city when employed on the UoN student contract. The ex-Dublin B7TL ones are gaining traction in roles formerly fulfilled by their Olympian predecessors, Dennis ones are about with the likes of Redfern but don't seem to touch the city and DAF ones are pretty much nonexistent round here. Shame they didn't build them on Scania chassis; I'd have liked those!

The UoN shuttle is run by Littles nowadays, who appear to be using some ex-Lothian things. I saw one recently.

South Sherwood Street, 18.4.19

USS Wisconsin (BB64) 2 by Alex Gillespie

USS Wisconsin (BB64) at Norfolk, VA on August-10th-2018.

USS Wisconsin is an Iowa-class battleship, the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. She was built at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and launched on 7 December 1943 (the second anniversary of the Pearl Harbor raid), sponsored Margaret Goodland, wife of Governor Walter Goodland of Wisconsin.

During her career, Wisconsin served in the Pacific theater of World War II, where she shelled Japanese fortifications and screened United States aircraft carriers as they conducted air raids against enemy positions. During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned. She was reactivated on 1 August 1986; after a modernization program, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991.

Wisconsin was last decommissioned in September 1991 after a total of 14 years of active service in the fleet, and having earned a total of six battle stars for service in World War II and Korea, as well as a Navy Unit Commendation for service during the January/February 1991 Gulf War. She currently functions as a museum ship operated by Nauticus, The National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Wisconsin was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) 17 March 2006, and was donated for permanent use as a museum ship. On 15 April 2010, the City of Norfolk officially took over ownership of the ship.

Wisconsin was one of the "fast battleship" designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was the third of four completed ships of the Iowa class of battleships. Her keel was laid down on 25 January 1941, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was launched on 7 December 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Goodland, wife of Walter S. Goodland, the Governor of Wisconsin, and commissioned on 16 April 1944, with Captain Earl E. Stone in command.

Wisconsin's main battery consisted of nine 16 in (406 mm)/50 cal Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) armor-piercing shells some 20 mi (32 km). The secondary battery consisted of 20 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal guns in 10 twin turrets, which could fire at targets up to 10 mi (16 km) away. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of allied aircraft carriers; to this end, Wisconsin was fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm antiaircraft guns to defend allied carriers from enemy airstrikes. When reactivated in 1986, Wisconsin had her 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns removed, and was outfitted with Phalanx CIWS mounts for protection against enemy missiles and aircraft, and armored box launchers and quad cell launchers designed to fire Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, respectively.Wisconsin and her sister ship Missouri were fitted with thicker transverse bulkhead armor, 14.5 inches (368 mm), compared to 11.3 inches (287 mm) in the first two ships of her class, the Iowa and New Jersey.

Wisconsin is numerically the highest-numbered US battleship built. Although her keel was laid after USS Missouri's, she was commissioned before Missouri's commissioning date. Thus, Wisconsin's construction began after Missouri's, and finished earlier. Iowa and Wisconsin were finally stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 March 2006, making them the last battleships on a navy list in the world.

After the ship's trials and initial training in the Chesapeake Bay, Wisconsin departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 7 July 1944, bound for the British West Indies. Following her shakedown cruise (conducted out of Trinidad), she returned to the builder's yard for alterations and repairs.

On 24 September 1944, Wisconsin sailed for the West Coast, transiting the Panama Canal, and reporting for duty with the Pacific Fleet on 2 October. The battleship later moved to Hawaiian waters for training exercises and then headed for the Western Caroline Islands. Upon reaching the Caroline Island Ulithi, she joined Admiral William F. Halsey's 3rd Fleet on 9 December.

Wisconsin tied up alongside the hulk of Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor in November 1944, prior to her departure to join up with the 3rd Fleet

Due to the time it took needed to build her, Wisconsin missed much of the initial thrust into Japanese-held territory, having arrived at a time when the reconquest of the Philippines was well underway. As a part of that movement, the planners had envisioned landings on the southwest coast of Mindoro, south of Luzon. From that point, American forces could threaten Japanese shipping lanes through the South China Sea. In preparation for the coming invasion of Mindoro, Wisconsin was assigned to protect the 3rd Fleet's Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38), as they conducted air raids at Manila to soften up Japanese positions.

On 18 December, the ships of TF 38 unexpectedly found themselves in a fight for their lives when Typhoon Cobra overtook the force–seven fleet and six light carriers, eight battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers–during their attempt to refuel at sea. At the time, the ships were operating about 300 mi (480 km) east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea.The carriers had just completed three days of heavy raids against Japanese airfields, suppressing enemy aircraft during the American amphibious operations against Mindoro in the Philippines. The task force met with Captain Jasper T. Acuff and his fueling group 17 December with the intention of refueling all ships in the task force and replacing lost aircraft.Although the sea had been growing rougher all day, the nearby cyclonic disturbance gave relatively little warning of its approach. On 18 December, the small but violent typhoon overtook the task force while many of the ships were attempting to refuel. Many of the ships were caught near the center of the storm and buffeted by extreme seas and hurricane-force winds. Three destroyers, Hull, Monaghan, and Spence, capsized and sank with nearly all hands, while a cruiser, five aircraft carriers, and three destroyers suffered serious damage. About 790 men were lost or killed, with another 80 injured. Fires occurred in three carriers when planes broke loose in their hangars and some 146 planes on various ships were lost or damaged beyond economical repair by fires, impact damage, or being swept overboard. Wisconsin reported two injured sailors as a result of the typhoon,but otherwise proved her seaworthiness as she escaped the storm unscathed.

Wisconsin's next operation was to assist with the occupation of Luzon. Bypassing the southern beaches, American amphibious forces went ashore at Lingayen Gulf, the scene of initial Japanese assaults to take Luzon nearly three years before.

Wisconsin, armed with heavy antiaircraft batteries, performed escort duty for TF 38's fast carriers during air strikes against Formosa, Luzon, and the Nansei Shoto to neutralize Japanese forces there and to cover the unfolding Allied Lingayen Gulf operations. Those strikes, lasting from 3–22 January 1945, included a thrust into the South China Sea, in the hope that major units of the Imperial Japanese Navy could be drawn into battle.

Wisconsin's carrier group launched air strikes between Saigon and Camranh Bay, French Indochina, on 12 January, resulting in severe losses for the enemy. TF 38's warplanes sank 41 ships and heavily damaged docks, storage areas, and aircraft facilities. Formosa, already struck on 3–4 January, was raided again on 9 January, 15 January, and 21 January. Throughout January Wisconsin shielded the carriers as they conducted air raids at Hong Kong, Canton, Hainan Island, the Canton oil refineries, the Hong Kong Naval Station, and Okinawa

Wisconsin was assigned to the 5th Fleet when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance relieved Admiral Halsey as commander of the fleet. She moved northward with the redesignated TF 58 as the carriers headed for the Tokyo area. On 16 February, the task force approached the Japanese coast under cover of adverse weather conditions and achieved complete tactical surprise. As a result, Wisconsin and the other ships shot down 322 enemy planes and destroyed 177 more on the ground. Japanese shipping, both naval and merchant, also suffered drastically, as did hangars and aircraft installations.

Wisconsin and the task force moved to Iwo Jima on 17 February to provide direct support for the landings slated to take place on 19 February. They revisited Tokyo on 25 February and hit the island of Hachino off the coast of Honshū the next day, resulting in heavy damage to ground facilities; additionally, American planes sank five small vessels and destroyed 158 planes.

Wisconsin's task force stood out of Ulithi on 14 March bound for Japan. The mission of that group was to eliminate airborne resistance from the Japanese homeland to American forces off Okinawa. Enemy fleet units at Kure and Kobe, on southern Honshū, reeled under the impact of the explosive blows delivered by TF 58's airmen. On 18–19 March, from a point 100 mi (160 km) southwest of Kyūshū, TF 58 hit enemy airfields on that island; unfortunately, allied antiaircraft fire on 19 March failed to stop an attack on the carrier Franklin. That afternoon, Wisconsin and the task force retired from Kyūshū, screening the blazing and battered flattop, and shooting down 48 attackers.

On 24 March, Wisconsin trained her 16 in (406 mm) guns on targets ashore on Okinawa. Together with the other battleships of the task force, she pounded Japanese positions and installations in preparation for the landings. Japanese resistance, while fierce, was doomed to failure by dwindling numbers of aircraft and trained pilots.[5]

Wisconsin escorting Essex-class aircraft carriers in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. The tail crane was used to recover reconnaissance planes launched by Wisconsin.

While TF 58's planes were dealing with Yamato and her escorts, enemy aircraft attacked the American surface units. Combat air patrol (CAP) shot down 15 enemy planes, and ships' gunfire shot down another three, but not before one kamikaze attack penetrated the CAP and screen to crash on the flight deck of the fleet carrier Hancock. On 11 April, the Japanese renewed their kamikaze attacks; and only drastic maneuvers and heavy barrages of gunfire saved the task force. CAP shot down 17 planes, and ships' gunfire shot down 12. The next day, 151 enemy aircraft attacked TF 58, but Wisconsin, together with other units of the screens for the vital carriers, kept the kamikaze pilots at bay and destroyed them before they could reach their targets. Over the days that ensued, Japanese kamikaze attacks managed to crash into three carriers—Intrepid, Bunker Hill, and Enterprise—on successive days.

By 4 June, a typhoon was swirling through the fleet. Wisconsin rode out the storm unscathed, but three cruisers, two carriers, and a destroyer suffered serious damage. Offensive operations were resumed on 8 June with a final aerial assault on Kyūshū. The Japanese aerial response was virtually nonexistent; 29 planes were located and destroyed. On that day, one of Wisconsin's floatplanes landed and rescued a downed pilot from the carrier Shangri-La.

Wisconsin ultimately put into Leyte Gulf and dropped anchor there on 13 June for repairs and replenishment. Three weeks later, on 1 July, the battleship and her escorts sailed once more for Japanese home waters for carrier air strikes on the enemy's heartland. Nine days later, carrier planes from TF 38 destroyed 72 enemy aircraft on the ground and smashed industrial sites in the Tokyo area. Wisconsin and the other ships made no attempt whatsoever to conceal the location of their armada, due in large part to a weak Japanese response to their presence.

On 16 July, Wisconsin fired her 16 in (406 mm) guns at the steel mills and oil refineries at Muroran, Hokkaido. Two days later, she wrecked industrial facilities in the Hitachi Miro area, on the coast of Honshū-, northeast of Tokyo itself. During that bombardment, British battleships of the British Pacific Fleet contributed their heavy shellfire. By that point in the war, Allied warships such as Wisconsin were able to shell the Japanese homeland almost at will.

TF 38's planes subsequently blasted the Japanese naval base at Yokosuka, and put the former fleet flagship Nagato out of action, one of the two remaining Japanese battleships. Throughout July and into August, Admiral Halsey's airmen visited destruction upon the Japanese, the last instance being against Tokyo on 13 August. Two days later, the Japanese surrendered, ending World War II.

Wisconsin, as part of the occupying force, arrived at Tokyo Bay on 5 September, three days after the formal surrender occurred on board the battleship Missouri. During Wisconsin's brief career in World War II, she had steamed 105,831 mi (170,318 km) since commissioning, shot down three enemy planes, claimed assists on four occasions, and fueled her screening destroyers on some 250 occasions.

Shifting subsequently to Okinawa, the battleship embarked homeward-bound GIs on 22 September 1945, as part of Operation Magic Carpet staged to bring soldiers, sailors, and marines home from the far-flung battlefronts of the Pacific. Departing Okinawa on 23 September, Wisconsin reached Pearl Harbor on 4 October, remaining there for five days before she pushed on for the West Coast on the last leg of her state-side bound voyage. She reached San Francisco on 15 October.

Heading for the East Coast of the United States soon after the start of the new year, 1946, Wisconsin transited the Panama Canal from 11 to 13 January and reached Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 18 January. Following a cruise south to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the battleship entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for overhaul. After repairs and alterations that consumed the summer, Wisconsin sailed for South American waters.

Over the weeks that ensued, the battleship visited Valparaíso, Chile, from 1–6 November; Callao, Peru, from 9–13 November; Balboa, Canal Zone, from 16 to 20 November; and La Guaira, Venezuela, from 22 to 26 November, before returning to Norfolk on 2 December 1946.

Wisconsin spent nearly all of 1947 as a training ship, taking naval reservists on two-week cruises throughout the year. Those voyages commenced at Bayonne, New Jersey, and saw visits conducted at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and the Panama Canal Zone. While underway at sea, the ship would perform various drills and exercises before the cruise would end where it had started, at Bayonne. During June and July 1947, Wisconsin took United States Naval Academy midshipmen on cruises to northern European waters.

In January 1948, Wisconsin reported to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Norfolk for inactivation. Placed out of commission, in reserve on 1 July, Wisconsin was assigned to the Norfolk group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

Buck, Wisconsin, and Saint Paul steam in close formation during operations off the Korean coast, 1952

Her sojourn in "mothballs", however, was comparatively brief, due to the North Korean invasion of South Korea in late June 1950. Wisconsin was recommissioned on 3 March 1951 with Captain Thomas Burrowes in command.[5] After shakedown training, the revitalized battleship conducted two midshipmen training cruises, taking the officers-to-be to Edinburgh, Scotland; Lisbon, Portugal; Halifax, Nova Scotia; New York City; and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before she returned to Norfolk. While leaving New York, Wisconsin was accidentally grounded on mud flats in New York Harbor, but was freed on 23 August 1951 with no damage to the ship.

Wisconsin departed Norfolk on 25 October, bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 29 October and reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 21 November. There, she relieved New Jersey as flagship for Vice Admiral H. M. Martin, Commander, 7th Fleet.

On 26 November, with Vice Admiral Martin and Rear Admiral F.P. Denebrink, Commander, Service Force, Pacific, embarked, Wisconsin departed Yokosuka for Korean waters to support the fast carrier operations of TF 77. She left the company of the carrier force on 2 December, and screened by the destroyer Wiltsie, provided gunfire support for the Republic of Korea (ROK) Corps in the Kasong-Kosong area. After disembarking Admiral Denebrink on 3 December at Kangnung, the battleship resumed station on the Korean "bombline", providing gunfire support for the American 1st Marine Division. Wisconsin's shelling accounted for a tank, two gun emplacements, and a building.[5] She continued her gunfire support task for the 1st Marine Division and 1st ROK Corps through 6 December, accounting for enemy bunkers, artillery positions, and troop concentrations.[5] On one occasion during that time, the battleship received a request for call-fire support and provided three star-shells for the 1st ROK Corps, illuminating an enemy attack that was consequently repulsed with a considerable number of enemy casualties

After being relieved on the gunline by the heavy cruiser Saint Paul on 6 December, Wisconsin briefly retired from gunfire-support duties. She resumed them, however, in the Kasong-Kosong area on 11 December screened by the destroyer Twining. The following day, 12 December, had the helicopter embarkation on Wisconsin of Rear Admiral H. R. Thurber, Commander, Battleship Division 2 (BatDiv 2), as part of his inspection trip in the Far East.

Wisconsin continued her naval gunfire-support duties on the bombline, shelling enemy bunkers, command posts, artillery positions, and trench systems through 14 December. She departed the "bombline" on that day to render special gunfire support duties in the Kojo area shelling coastal targets in support of United Nations (UN) troops ashore. That same day, Wisconsin returned to the Kasong-Kosong area. On 15 December, she disembarked Admiral Thurber by helicopter. The next day, Wisconsin departed Korean waters, heading for Sasebo to rearm.

Returning to the combat zone on 17 December, Wisconsin embarked United States Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan on 18 December. That day, the battleship supported the 11th ROK invasion with night illumination fire that enabled the ROK troops to repulse a North Korean assault with heavy enemy casualties.Departing the "bombline" on 19 December, the battleship transferred Ferguson by helicopter to the carrier Valley Forge.

On 20 December, Wisconsin participated in a coordinated air-surface bombardment of Wonsan to neutralize selected targets in its area. The ship shifted its bombardment station to the western end of Wonsan harbor, hitting boats and small craft in the inner swept channel with her 5-inch (127 mm) guns during the afternoon and helping forestall attempts to assault the friendly held islands nearby. Wisconsin then made an antiboat sweep to the north, firing her 5-inch batteries on suspected boat concentrations. She then provided gunfire support to UN troops operating at the bombline until 22 December, when she rejoined the carrier task force.

Wisconsin shells North Korean targets during the Korean War

On 28 December, Cardinal Francis Spellman, on a Korean tour over the Christmas holidays, helicoptered aboard the ship to celebrate Mass for the Catholic members of the crew. He left as he came, off Pohang. On New Year's Eve day, Wisconsin put into Yokosuka.

Wisconsin departed that port on 8 January 1952 and returned to Korean waters. She reached Pusan the following day and entertained the president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, and his wife, on 10 January. The couple received full military honors as they came on board, which Rhee reciprocated by awarding Vice Admiral Martin the ROK Order of the Military Merit.

Wisconsin returned to the bombline on 11 January, and over the ensuing days, delivered heavy gunfire support for the 1st Marine Division and the 1st ROK Corps. As before, her primary targets were command posts, shelters, bunkers, troop concentrations, and mortar positions. As before, she stood ready to deliver call-fire support as needed, shelling enemy troops in the open on 14 January at the request of the ROK 1st Corps.

Rearming once more at Sasebo, she shortly joined TF 77 off the coast of Korea and resumed support at the bombline on 23 January. Three days later, she shifted again to the Kojo region, to participate in a coordinated air and gun strike. That same day, the battleship returned to the bombline and shelled the command post and communications center for the 15th North Korean Division during call-fire missions for the 1st Marine Division.

Returning to Wonsan at the end of January, Wisconsin bombarded enemy guns at Hodo Pando before she was rearmed at Sasebo. The battleship rejoined TF 77 on 2 February, and the next day blasted railway buildings and marshaling yards at Hodo Pando and Kojo before rejoining TF 77. After replenishment at Yokosuka a few days later, she returned to the Kosong area and resumed gunfire support. During that time, she destroyed railway bridges and a small shipyard while conducting call-fire missions on enemy command posts, bunkers, and personnel shelters, making numerous cuts on enemy trench lines in the process.

On 26 February, Wisconsin arrived at Pusan, where Vice Admiral Shon, the ROK chief of naval operations; United States Ambassador J.J. Muccio; and Rear Admiral Scott-Montcrief, Royal Navy, Commander, Task Group 95.12 (TG 95.12), visited the battleship. Departing that South Korean port the following day, Wisconsin reached Yokosuka on 2 March, and a week later, she shifted to Sasebo to prepare to return to Korean waters.

Wisconsin arrived off Songjin, Korea, on 15 March and concentrated her gunfire on enemy railway transport. Early that morning, she destroyed a communist troop train trapped outside a destroyed tunnel. That afternoon, she received the first direct hit in her history, when one of four shells from a North Korean 152 mm gun battery struck the shield of a starboard 40 mm mount; although little material damage resulted, three men were injured.Wisconsin subsequently destroyed that battery with a full 16-inch (406 mm) salvo before continuing her mission.After again supporting 1st Marine Division with her heavy rifles, the battleship returned to Japan on 19 March.

Relieved as flagship of the 7th Fleet on 1 April by sister ship Iowa, Wisconsin departed Yokosuka, bound for the United States. En route home, she touched briefly at Guam, where she took part in the successful test of the Navy's largest floating dry dock on 4–5 April, the first ever to accommodate an Iowa-class battleship. She continued her homeward-bound voyage via Pearl Harbor and arrived at Long Beach, California, on 19 April before continuing on for Norfolk.

On 9 June, Wisconsin resumed her role as a training ship, taking midshipmen to Greenock, Scotland, Brest, France, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before returning to Norfolk. She departed Hampton Roads on 25 August and participated in the NATO exercise Operation Mainbrace, which was held out of Greenock, Scotland. After her return to Norfolk, Wisconsin underwent an overhaul in the naval shipyard there. Wisconsin remained in the Atlantic fleet throughout 1952 and into 1953, training midshipmen and conducting exercises. After a month of routine maintenance Wisconsin departed Norfolk on 9 September 1953, bound for the Far East.

Sailing via the Panama Canal to Japan, Wisconsin relieved New Jersey as 7th Fleet flagship on 12 October. During the months that followed, Wisconsin visited the Japanese ports of Kobe, Sasebo Navy Yard, Yokosuka, Otaru, and Nagasaki. She spent Christmas at Hong Kong and was ultimately relieved of flagship duties on 1 April 1954 and returned to the United States soon thereafter, reaching Norfolk, via Long Beach and the Panama Canal, on 4 May.

Entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 11 June, Wisconsin underwent a brief overhaul and commenced a midshipman training cruise on 12 July. After revisiting Greenock, Brest, and Guantánamo Bay, the ship returned to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for repairs. Shortly thereafter, Wisconsin participated in Atlantic Fleet exercises as flagship for the commander, Second Fleet. Departing Norfolk in January 1955, Wisconsin took part in Operation Springboard, during which she visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Then, upon returning to Norfolk, the battleship conducted another midshipman's cruise that summer, visiting Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Guantánamo Bay before returning to the United States.

Upon completion of a major overhaul at the New York Naval Shipyard, Wisconsin headed south for refresher training in the Caribbean Sea, later taking part in another Springboard exercise. During that cruise, she again visited Port-au-Prince and added Tampico, Mexico, and Cartagena, Colombia, to her list of ports of call. She returned to Norfolk on the last day of March 1955 for local operations.On 19 October, while operating in the East River in New York Harbor, Wisconsin was accidentally grounded, but the ship was freed in about an hour without any serious damage.

Throughout April 1956 and into May, Wisconsin operated locally off the Virginia Capes. On 6 May, the battleship collided with the destroyer Eaton in a heavy fog; Wisconsin put into Norfolk with extensive damage to her bow, and one week later entered dry dock at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.A novel experiment sped her repairs and enabled the ship to carry out her scheduled midshipman training cruise that summer. A 120-ton, 68 foot (21 m) section of the bow of Wisconsin's incomplete sister ship Kentucky was transported by barge, in one section, from Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation of Newport News, Virginia, across Hampton Roads to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Working around the clock, Wisconsin's ship's force and shipyard personnel completed the operation that grafted on the new bow in 16 days. On 28 June 1956, the ship was ready for sea.

The bow of Kentucky was transported in one section, by barge, to repair Wisconsin.

Wisconsin resumed her midshipman training on 9 July 1956. That autumn, Wisconsin participated in Atlantic Fleet exercises off the coast of the Carolinas, returning to port on 8 November 1956. Entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard a week later, the battleship underwent major repairs that were not finished until 2 January 1957.

After local operations off the Virginia capes on 3–4 January 1957 and from 9–11 January, Wisconsin departed Norfolk on 16 January, reporting to the commander, Fleet Training Group, at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay. Wisconsin served as Admiral Henry Crommelin's flagship during the ensuing shore bombardment practices and other exercises held off the isle of Culebra, Puerto Rico, from 2–4 February. Sailing for Norfolk upon completion of the training period, the battleship arrived on 7 February and resumed local operations off Norfolk. On 27 March, Wisconsin sailed for the Mediterranean Sea, reaching Gibraltar on 6 April, she pushed on that day to rendezvous with TF 60 in the Aegean Sea before reporting to Turkey for the NATO exercise Red Pivot.

Departing Xeros Bay on 14 April, she arrived at Naples four days later, and conducted exercises in the eastern Mediterranean. In the course of those operational training evolutions, she rescued a pilot and crewman who survived the crash of a plane from the aircraft carrier Forrestal.[6] Wisconsin reached Valencia, Spain, on 10 May, and three days later, entertained prominent civilian and military officials of the city.

Departing Valencia on 17 April, Wisconsin reached Norfolk on 27 May. En route, she was called upon to sink a Boeing KC-97F-55-BO Stratofreighter, 51-0258, which had ditched in the Atlantic on 9 May, 550 km (343.8 mi) southeast of the Azores Islands following a double engine failure, and subsequently floated for 10 days.

On 27 May, Rear Admiral L.S. Parks relieved Rear Admiral Crommelin as Commander, BatDiv 2. Departing Norfolk on 19 June, the battleship, over the ensuing weeks, conducted a midshipman training cruise through the Panama Canal to South American waters, and reached Valparaiso on 3 July. Eight days later, the battleship headed back to the Panama Canal and the Atlantic.

After exercises at Guantánamo Bay and off Culebra, Wisconsin reached Norfolk on 5 August and conducted local operations that lasted into September. She then participated in NATO exercises, which took her across the North Atlantic to the British Isles.

Wisconsin's days as an active fleet unit were numbered, and she prepared to make her last cruise. On 4 November, she departed Norfolk with a large group of prominent guests on board. Reaching New York City on 6 November, the battleship disembarked her guests, and on 8 November, headed for Bayonne, New Jersey, to commence a preinactivation overhaul. She was placed out of commission at Bayonne on 8 March 1958, and joined the United States Navy reserve fleet (better known as the "mothball fleet") there, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.[5] Subsequently, taken to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Wisconsin remained there with her sister ship Iowa into the 1980s. While berthed in the Philadelphia Naval Yard, an electrical fire damaged the ship and left her as the Iowa-class battleship in the worst material condition prior to her 1980s reactivation.

As part of President Ronald Reagan's Navy Secretary John F. Lehman's effort to create a "600-ship Navy," Wisconsin was reactivated 1 August 1986, a precommissioning unit (PCU) crew established, and the ship moved under tow to the Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans, Louisiana, to commence pre-recommissioning workups. The battleship was then towed from the Avondale Shipyard and arrived at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 2 January 1987 to receive weapons system upgrades for her modernization. During the modernization, Wisconsin had all of her remaining 20 mm Oerlikon and 40 mm Bofors antiaircraft guns removed, due to their ineffectiveness against modern jet fighters and enemy antiship missiles; additionally, the two 5 in (127 mm) gun mounts located at midship and in the aft on the port and starboard sides of the battleship were removed.

Wisconsin alongside Saratoga (CV-60) during her 1990–91 Mediterranean cruise

Over the next several months, the ship was upgraded with the most advanced weaponry available. Among the new weapon systems installed were four MK 141 quad cell launchers for 16 RGM-84 Harpoon antiship missiles, eight armored box launcher mounts for 32 BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles, and four of the United States Navy's Phalanx Close-in weapon system 20 mm Gatling guns for defense against enemy antiship missiles and enemy aircraft. Wisconsin also received eight RQ-2 Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicles, remotely controlled drones that replaced the helicopters previously used to spot for her nine 16 in (406 mm) guns.Also included in her modernization were upgrades to radar and fire control systems for her guns and missiles, and improved electronic warfare capabilities. Armed as such, Wisconsin was formally recommissioned on 22 October 1988 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, under the command of Captain Jerry M. Blesch, USN. Assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet, she was subsequently homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, where she became the centerpiece of her own surface action group (SAG), also referred to as a battleship battle group (BBBG).

Wisconsin spent the first part of 1989 conducting training exercises in the Atlantic Ocean and off the coast of Puerto Rico before returning to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for a post-recommissioning shakedown that lasted the rest of the year. In mid-1990, the battleship participated in a fleet exercise.

Wisconsin launched a BGM-109 Tomahawk missile against a military target in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. In the middle of the month, President George H. W. Bush, in keeping with the Carter Doctrine, sent the first of several hundred thousand troops, along with a strong force of naval support, to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf area to support a multinational force in a standoff with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. On 7 August, Wisconsin and her battle group were ordered to deploy in defense of Kuwait for Operation Desert Shield, and they arrived in the Persian Gulf on 23 August.[6] On 15 January 1991, Operation Desert Storm commenced operations, and Wisconsin found herself serving alongside her sister Missouri, just as she had done in Korea 40 years previously. Both Wisconsin and Missouri launched Tomahawk missile attacks against Iraq; they were among the first ships to fire cruise missiles during the 1991 Gulf War. Wisconsin served as the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) strike commander for the Persian Gulf, directing the sequence of launches that marked the opening of Operation Desert Storm and firing a total of 24 of her own TLAMs during the first two days of the campaign.] Wisconsin also assumed the responsibility of the local antisurface warfare coordinator for the Northern Persian Gulf Surface Action Group.

Wisconsin fired her big guns on Iraqi positions in then Iraqi-occupied Kuwait during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Wisconsin, escorted by Nicholas, relieved Missouri on 6 February, then answered her first combat call for gunfire support since March 1952. The most recently recommissioned battleship sent 11 shells 19 mi (31 km) to destroy an Iraqi artillery battery in southern Kuwait during a mission called in by USMC OV-10 Bronco aircraft. Using an RQ-2 Pioneer UAV as a spotter in combat for the first time, Wisconsin pounded an Iraqi communications compound on 7 February. Her main guns lobbed 24 shells on Iraqi artillery sites, missile facilities, and electronic-warfare sites along the coast. That evening, she targeted naval sites with her 16 in (406 mm) guns, firing 50 rounds, which severely damaged or sank 15 Iraqi boats, and destroyed several piers at the Khawr al-Mufattah marina.[6] In response to calls for fire support from US and coalition forces, Wisconsin's main battery was used again on 9 February, blasting bunkers and artillery sites, and shelling Iraqi troop positions near Khafji after the Iraqis were ousted from the city by Saudi and Qatari armor. On 21 February, one of Wisconsin's UAVs observed several trucks resupplying an Iraqi command post; in response, Wisconsin trained her 16 in (406 mm) guns on the complex, leveling or heavily damaging 10 of the buildings. Wisconsin and Missouri alternated positions on the gun line, using their 16 in (406 mm) guns to destroy enemy targets and soften defenses along the Kuwait coastline for a possible amphibious assault.

A technician moved a Pioneer RPV across the fantail of Wisconsin.

On the night of 23 February, Missouri and Wisconsin turned their big guns on Kuwait's Faylaka Island to support the US-led coalition ground offensive to free Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation forces. The two ships were to conduct a diversionary assault aimed at convincing the Iraqi forces arrayed along the shores of Faylaka Island that coalition forces were preparing to launch an amphibious invasion.As part of this attack, Missouri and Wisconsin were directed to shell known Iraqi defensive positions on the island. Shortly after Missouri completed her shelling of Faylaka Island, Wisconsin, while still over the horizon (and thus out of visual range of the Iraqi forces) launched her RQ-2 Pioneer Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to spot for her 16 in (406 mm) guns. As Wisconsin's drone approached Faylaka Island, the pilot of the drone was instructed to fly the vehicle low over Iraqi positions so that the soldiers would know that they were once again being targeted by a battleship.[20] Iraqi troops on the ground heard the Pioneer's distinctive buzzing sound, and having witnessed the effects of Missouri's artillery strike on their trench line, the Iraqi troops decided to signal their willingness to surrender by waving makeshift white flags, an action dutifully noted aboard Wisconsin. Amused at this sudden development, the men assigned to the drone's aircrew called Wisconsin's commanding officer, Captain David S. Bill III, and asked, "Sir, they want to surrender, what should I do with them?"This surrender to Wisconsin's Pioneer has since become one of the most remembered moments of the Gulf War; the incident was also the first-ever surrender of enemy troops to an unmanned aircraft controlled by a ship.Wisconsin drone also carried out a number of reconnaissance missions on occupied Kuwait before the coalition's ground offensive.

The next day, Wisconsin answered two separate call-fire support missions for coalition forces by suppressing Iraqi troops barricaded in two bunkers. After witnessing the effects of Wisconsin's strike against the Iraqi positions, an elated Saudi marine commander commented over the radio, "I wish we had a battleship in our navy."

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the absence of a perceived threat to the United States came drastic cuts in the defense budget. The high cost of maintaining and operating battleships as part of the United States Navy's active fleet became uneconomical; as a result, Wisconsin was decommissioned on 30 September 1991 after 14 total years of active service, and joined the Reserve Fleet at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) on 12 January 1995, then on 15 October 1996, she was moved to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and on 12 February 1998, she was restored to the Naval Vessel Register. On 7 December 2000, the battleship was towed from Portsmouth, Virginia and berthed adjacent to Nauticus, The National Maritime Center in Norfolk. On 16 April 2001 the battleship's weather decks were opened to the public by the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, a U.S. Navy museum charged with Wisconsin's interpretation and public visitation. The ship was still owned by the Navy and was considered part of the mothball fleet.

Wisconsin was named (along with Iowa) as one of two US Navy battleships to be maintained in the United States Navy reserve fleets in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act of 1996 as shore-bombardment vessels. However, Wisconsin was then over 60 years old and would have required extensive modernization to return to the fleet since most of her technology dated back to World War II, and the missile and electronic-warfare equipment added to the battleship during her 1988–89 modernization were considered obsolete. In addition, the cost of modernizing the battleships was estimated to be around $500 million for reactivation and $1.5 billion for a full modernization program.

On 17 March 2006, the Secretary of the Navy exercised his authority to strike Iowa and Wisconsin from the NVR, which cleared the way for both ships to be donated for use as museums; however, the U.S. Congress remained "deeply concerned" over the loss of naval surface-gunfire support that the battleships provided, and noted, "...navy efforts to improve upon, much less replace, this capability have been highly problematic."Partially as a consequence, Congress passed Pub.L. 109–163 (text) (PDF), the National Defense Authorization Act 2006, requiring that the battleships be kept and maintained in a state of readiness should they ever be needed again.[Congress had ordered that the following measures be implemented to ensure that Wisconsin could be returned to active duty if needed:

She must not be altered in any way that would impair her military utility.

The battleship must be preserved in her present condition through the continued use of cathodic protection, dehumidification systems, and any other preservation methods as needed.

Spare parts and unique equipment, such as the 16 in (406 mm) gun barrels and projectiles, must be preserved in adequate numbers to support Wisconsin, if reactivated.

The Navy must prepare plans for the rapid reactivation of Wisconsin should she be returned to the Navy in the event of a national emergency.

These conditions closely mirror the original three conditions that the Nation Defense Authorization Act of 1996 laid out for the maintenance of Wisconsin while she was in the mothball fleet.These conditions would be unlikely to impede a plan to turn Wisconsin into a permanent museum ship at her berth in Norfolk.

On 14 December 2009, the US Navy officially transferred Wisconsin to the city of Norfolk, ending the requirement for the ship to be preserved for possible recall to active duty. The US Navy had paid the city of Norfolk $2.8 million between 2000 and 2009 to maintain the ship.A formal ceremony transferring the ship to the city of Norfolk took place on 16 April 2010. Wisconsin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 28 March 2012.

Wisconsin earned five battle stars for her World War II service via the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Metal , and one for the Korean War Campaign Metal . The ship also received the Combat Action Ribbon and Navy Unit Commendation for actions in the Korean War and Operation Desert Storm in 1991. She also received over a dozen more awards for World War II, the Korean War, and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm including the World Two Victory Metal.

Clearance SALE! Clearance SALE! by IamHOuSeOfZION

Hey lovelies, I will be retiring some of my older work (2yrs+) for good.. They can be found inworld at the mainstore for 25$L each.

Group members: Wear the group tag and fain these items for 1$L (Group is pay to join) - maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Jupiter/164/74/2812

LM- maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vogue/224/186/22

V.I.P Group - world.secondlife.com/group/baa590dc-5e51-850b-abda-35eaca...

~~ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY WILL BE NONEXISTENT INWORLD AND ON MARKETPLACE~~

#Sl #Secondlife

Salt City 32.jpg by Office of Public Affairs

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

City Rhythms by Clint Midwestwood

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Editor's Note: Here is a story about a somewhat traumatic thing I saw yesterday on the Chicago Transit Authority's Green Line. If you are a person negatively affected by reading accounts of somewhat traumatic things, you should perhaps not read on.

I had a strange and sad experience on the Green Line on the way home yesterday afternoon. Here's a picture I took in the middle of it, as I was standing with a bunch of people beneath the Green Line tracks at the Pulaski Station. I never get off at Pulaski. Here, I'd gotten off with everybody else on the train.

Here's what happened.

I got lucky when I climbed up onto the platform at Clinton just as the train pulled into the station, and I almost hopped onto the car that stopped right in front of me. Instead, I moved one car forward, and I'm glad I did. For one thing, one of the backward-facing seats by the window was open, and I always prefer those to the aisle-facing seats. For another thing, I avoided directly experiencing what happened here.

The ride was normal for a while, though we stopped for an unusual amount of time at the Garfield Park Conservatory station. It wasn't much. We sat for maybe an extra minute or two before we moved on, and I now suspect that's because people were talking to the train operator over the intercom. But then at the next station, Pulaski, we sat for a good five minutes. The doors were open, and it was cold, and I was starting to get concerned. And then somebody from the next car walked into the door and said, "If you all are wondering why we're sitting here, it's because somebody just died in the next car. That's why we're stopped."

Now, that's just not the kind of thing you regularly hear on a commute, and it took a minute for it to sink in. I heard a woman's voice behind me call out, "For real?" And the guy, visibly shaken, just kind of nodded. "For real," he said. "I think it's a heart attack or a drug overdose or something. But he's dead."

A large group of loud high school kids had gotten on a couple of stops earlier, and they got all excited and jumped off the car to go see. They wound up intermingled with all the people who'd been on the next car and had exited but were still gathered around the doorway. One woman who'd been on that car shook her head and stared at the kids in exasperation. "He is dead, you all," she said. "He is blue. For real. Why do you want to see that?"

But everybody except me and a couple of other people had left my car by that time and joined the crowd by the door of the next car up, craning their necks to take a look. So after about five minutes, I went to take a look, too.

Each CTA car is equipped with a little compartment on one end that can be closed to create a driver compartment. If a car isn't driving the train, this compartment is left open so that people can go in there and sit. A lot of people call this the "hobo corner," because you often find homeless people camped out there. That compartment was empty on my car, so I got up and went into the compartment to see what I could see of the next car through the windows.

The next car was empty, all except for one person. He was facing me, slumped against the window in one of the forward-facing seats. He was a small man, maybe my age, maybe younger if he'd had a rough life. Color seemed to have left him, and he almost didn't look real, almost as if he'd come from a black-and-white world. I've never seen a dead person outside of a funeral home, when they've been prepared by people skilled at making a body mimic life. There was no mimicry here. This person was obviously gone.

The paramedics finally arrived as I was standing there, and I watched them flood the car and lift the man from his seat, lay him on the floor, and start chest compressions, and it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should have been doing that all along. I don't know that it would have made a difference. I don't know how long he'd been gone by the time the train stopped, and we had been stopped ten minutes before I got up and saw him. He'd looked so unreal that it had never occurred to me that maybe there was something to be done. About that time, somebody shoved in next to me with a telephone to film the thing, and that's when I decided I'd seen enough and went back to sit down.

I sat for another ten minutes and thought about the world while the train driver made periodic announcements about the possibility of shuttle buses coming to take us along the route. I texted Robin at one point to let her know I was stuck on the train and that getting home might be an ordeal, then my phone battery died. And then finally, the train operator told us all to go down to the street to catch shuttle buses, which turned out not to be there. And that's where I took this picture, as everybody was standing around looking for nonexistent shuttle buses.

Robin got online after I texted her to check the CTA status board. The Green Line was experiencing "significant delays between Ashland and Harlem because of a sick passenger at Pulaski," and was shut down in both directions. I looked this morning to see what the news had to say about this, but evidently this wasn't a significant enough event to make the news. That's just the kind of city this is.

Fantasy map - by Renno Hokwerda

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Eidi or Eide. Peninsular city on a plain adjacent to a mountain (a bit like Gibraltar). 2009.

101.365 In a Blur by Miss Sassy

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My grandmother sent me a letter today. It read (or some of it did anyway):

"Study hard these next few weeks of school. High School in the fall. Can you believe it?"

Uhm. No. No I can't. xDD

Anyway, prepare for an extremely long description.

I've made it to my 100th 365 day! But since it took me so long, I’m posting this list on my 101st photo.

My 100th photo didn’t really relate to 100. But this project is about learning more about yourself, right? Sorta. Well, I thought I would take the time to write down 100 random facts about myself (and my beliefs) at the moment.

1. I'm disgusted at how huge my shadow is in my 100th picture. So I've made a new commitment of losing at least 5 pounds every month. I need to get a scale so I can track it.

2. What inspired me to lose weight was a Dove Chocolate wrapper that had a message inside. It read: "If they can do it, so can't you."

3. I believe that my soul mate could be anyone, regardless of gender (age, race, you get the picture :P).

4. "Right Down the Line" by Gerry Rafferty and "Faithfully" by Journey are two of my favorite love songs.

5. I can lip-sync to the movie National Treasure word for word.

6. I met both of my best friends online. I've known them for about 3 years.

7. I'm not very good expressing myself through talking, and I often offend people because I don't explain myself clearly.

8. I'm a very different person online and often taken advantage of the fact that no one can reach me through my computer screen.

9. I have the logic of a five year old. If you can't see it, it can't see you. That is the sentence that repeats through my head after I have watched a horror film and I'm trying to sleep.

10. Movies that animals die in (such as Mighty Joe Young and King Kong) make me bawl. But I don't cry when humans die. D:

11. I want to get snake bite piercings.

12. I watch movies online that I probably shouldn't.

13. Although I really like scary movies, I can't watch anything that has a possessed character in it (like the Exorcist). I've only seen clips of that movie and I bet I won't see it until I'm a lot older. Possession scares the crap out of me.

14. I think Dita Von Teese and Liv Tyler are two of the most beautiful women in the world. Anthony Hopkins and Joaquin Phoenix are two of the most handsome men. :P

15. Guys should have the long hair and girls should have the short.

16. When I was little, I had to get my tonsils out. I used to hide my medicine in my favorite recliner so I wouldn't have to take it. I have a fear of medicine going into my body. I even refuse to take tylenol or advil for a headache unless it's extremely painful.

17. When people used to ask me where my dad was, I would always make a story up. Two of the ones I can remember are “He drowned in his boat” and “When he was making something in his workshop he cut off his hand died.” Yes, my mind morbid even when I was young.

18. Metallica was my first ever obsession. I have posters, CDs, a t-shirt, magazines, a purse, and stickers all with their logo.

19. In my lifetime, I think I have completed only two stories that I started writing. They were both for school projects.

20. I think that serial killers are interesting. Not for what they did, but how they explain what they did and why they did it.

21. I despise cleanliness. My room is filled with clutter and I like it that way. Usually it’s not filthy (like I don’t have food under my bed and mold growing on my pillows) but I like it when there is stuff on the floor.

22. I’ve considered abandoning the thought of becoming a CSI and becoming an actress or musician instead.

23. I’m a very jealous person and I used to flip every time someone commented on my friend’s Myspace page (hence why I never will go on that site again).

24. I would like to become nocturnal but it’s nearly impossible for me to sleep during the day.

25. I spent 6 years of my life playing Neopets and I still can’t believe how much time I wasted on there.

26. When I was in pre-school, I remember I used to kiss the boys and pretend they were my boyfriends. Yes, very sad, I know.

27. I would really like to learn French and would probably make the compromise of going to public school if I could learn it.

28. If I am interested in a certain subject or person I will learn as much as I can about it/them. Hopefully it’s not considered like… stalking or something but I know a lot about certain celebrities.

29. I like having crooked teeth, but a lot of my family dislikes them.

30. Thinking about the future makes my stomach really weak. I’m often worried what this world is coming to.

31. I would like to become an old rodent lady. I want to have rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, rats, chinchillas, hamsters, mice… all that jazz. I really like little fuzzy things like that.

32. One of my favorite things to do when I’m in Maine is watch reality TV shows with my brother. Parental Control and Sweet 16 are two of the ones we like watching.

33. I don’t have a lot of motivation and I’m not proud of most of the things I have done that other people are proud of me for doing. I’m not even sure how I was motivated enough to get this far in my list!

34. I often have to stop myself in the middle of conversations to rethink what I was going to say without chatspeak.

35. I feel that some people take advantage of me, but I never do anything about it. Like I worry that people are just talking to me to rant to me so I can give them advice. But it stinks because then their problems become mine and I get extremely frustrated.

36. Even though I’m a very fortunate person, I often find myself wanting more or wanting to get away and lead a different life.

37. Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite books, but I’ve only read it once.

38. One of the things that turns me off about people I meet is how they have to bring God into a conversation or they have to make everything they do somehow… revolve around God. Although I find myself to be an open-minded person, I’m somewhat offended when people think that everyone is religious and those that aren’t need to be ‘saved’.

39. Again, I find myself a very open-minded person, but two of the things I refuse to try to understand are Republican beliefs and Scientology.

40. You know how some people are racist, prejudice, sexist, etc.? Well, I’ve been told that I’m a ‘cliquest’ because strongly dislike the emo and scene styles.

41. I usually don’t finish things that I have started. For example, (like I mentioned above) I don’t usually finish stories I begin writing. I don’t finish many art projects I start, it takes me a long time to finish a movie, and it takes me a really long time to finish cleaning my room.

42. One of the reasons why I hate writing reports for school is because of the program Microsoft Word. It frustrates me greatly.

43. I consider myself to me a pretty good liar. I’m good with eye contact when I need to lie, but I usually end up blushing in the end which gives it away.

44. One of my dreams is to marry a retired actor and live in the woods in a house with a tower, away from the rest of the word.

45. I have an interest in a wide range of music. I listen to pop, R&B, metal, soundtrack stuff, rock, oldies, etc. The only genres I really can’t stand are opera, jazz, and orchestra like stuff unless it’s EXTREMELY powerful.

46. Unlike music, I don’t have a very wide range of movies I’m interested in. I like watching horrors and thrillers with this occasional comedy or romance. I’m also a sucker for any 80s film.

47. One of my worst fears is dying while I’m asleep. I like to be fully aware of what’s happening.

48. Another one of my worst fears is becoming attached to people. When I become attached to a person, it means that I’ll become very jealous if anyone else is involved with them. I worry that if they see how jealous I am, that they won’t think I’m a safe person to be around.

49. I don’t really understand why people are offended by nudity. D: Especially when they think that life is such a gift and all.

50. I dislike pretty much everything that has to do with the mouth except for the tongue. Teeth and chewing noises gross me out.

51. It’s hard for me to feel bad for people who have died during natural disasters. Like in hurricanes or tornados. I figure that there is a reason for it.

52. My dream wedding would take place on the rocks that Merry, Pippin, Frodo, Sam, Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli (is that all of them?) grieved for Gandalf. I think the location is in New Zealand.

53. The form of my nonexistent future children’s names is a family name and a musician’s name.

54. I have a birthmark near an unmentionable place that I discovered a couple months ago. xD

55. The movie Requiem for a Dream is more powerful than D.A.R.E., and is one of my favorite movies. Seriously. If you have a teenage child you should watch it with them. That movie is one of the reasons why I will never consider doing drugs.

56. I like putting glue on my fingers and letting it dry to peel it off.

57. Another one of my favorite bands in Shiny Toy Guns. My best friend and I dubbed them ‘our band’ because it’s the only band that we both can agree we like. (I listen to the heavier stuff and he listens to more pop).

58. My step-dad says that I have a thing for guys named Andrew. I know three guys named Andrew and at some point, I’ve had a crush on each of them.

59. I have a fear of going over to other people’s houses to eat if they eat meat. Over the summer, my dad and step-mom didn’t accept that I ate meat and I had to survive off poptarts and chips. D: That’s part of the reason.

60. When I think, nearly every other word is a swear.

61. My favorite drink is a Strawberry Daiquiri. Virgin, of course. ;o

62. A video I found on YouTube narrated by Pamela Anderson is what inspired me to become a vegetarian.

63. Two of my most prized possessions are a seashell box given to me by my grandmother and Rollin’ Stone interviews with Axel Rose from May of ’92 given to me by my Mom.

64. When I was younger I used to watch a show called Big Wolf On Campus. One of the characters drove a hearse and that has been my dream car since then.

65. My aunt Lisa is my role-model.

66. I often scare my friend because I tell her the ideas I have of contraptions and traps similar to the ones in Saw.

67. My first CD ever was Britney Spears’ Oops… I Did it Again.

68. One of my favorite memories is of a day at the beach with two of mom’s friends and my old babysitters. J, I’ll call him, and I went for a walk on the beach and left our shoes in some random place. When we went to try to find them, we walked past them several times on accident because a couple had set up their spot and were making out. When J finally saw the shoes, we both couldn’t stop laughing.

69. I’ve looked into how much it costs to get pointed caps for your teeth so I could be a ‘vampire’.

70. I have glasses, but I barely wear them. They’re for reading.

71. I like to be confined into small places and don’t freak out in small areas, unless I can barely breathe.

72. AXE deodorant is the only kind that I’ve tired that doesn’t make me itch. ):

73. I often begin following trends once they’re considered ‘so last year’.

74. My guitars are named Griffin and Kadae.

75. My favorite smilie is ‘xD’ and I usually use it after every sentence when I am talking online, and sometimes even accidentally use it in my stories. xDD I’ll go through and be like, “’xD’? Why is this here? xDD”

76. I have a very strong conscience. Once, in third grade, a group of my friends (I guess you could call us the popular bullies) took a girl’s lunch box and hid it behind a trash can. I was so upset and felt so guilty that when I got him, I called the girl to tell her where her box was.

77. When I was around three or four, we lived in Maine in an apartment complex. One day while I was out playing, these teenagers decided it would be a good idea to put me in the baby swing and leave me there. I was a chunky toddler, so I got stunk in there and had to scream at the top of my lungs for my mom to come and get me. If I remember correctly my mom and the man helping to pull me out discussed calling the fire department. Since then I have always hated those swings.

78. One of my biggest pet-peeves is when people call black and white colors. Example:

Person 1: “What’s your favorite color?”

Person 2: “Black.”

Person 3: “Oh. You’re so badass. ;o”

-enters the chat- Me: “Psh. No. They’re not. Black isn’t a color.”

79. I used to walk around the house pretending to be Xena. I put a butterknife in my underwear and walked around. One time, I cut my chest and I have a bit of a scar.

80. My Top 10 most played songs on iTunes are:

I’m the Man – Anthrax (94 plays)

Du hast – Rammstein (91)

All Over You – Live (81)

Would? – Alice in Chains (74)

Touch, Peel & Stand – Days of the New (69)

Iris – Live (66)

More Than a Feeling – Boston (65)

DotA – Basshunter (50)

Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex – CSS (50)

Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey (49)

81. My favorite food is a dish that my mom makes with pasta, peppers, black beans, onions and some other stuff. I think I’ve asked for it for my birthday the past two years.

82. One of my goals as an adult is to build a huge collection of movies. (Like, 1000+ movies.)

83. Depression started to kick in with me when I was about 11.

84. I probably think about something related to death as much as guys think about sex (studies say that’s almost every 8 seconds).

85. I’m jealous of how Canadians are so proud of their country.

86. I learned the ‘f’ word at a hockey game when I was like 8 or 9.

87. I’ve been brainstorming of ideas of what to paint on the rock in Lee for nearly 2 years.

88. Another reason why I would like to lose weight and keep it off is so I can get a huge tattoo on my back when I’m older.

89. I have a mannequin chest in my room that I stick needles into. I’ve considered dying patches of it red, but decided against it because mom might use it to model her bags.

90. I’ve nearly trained myself not to dream. For about a week, I was afraid to go to sleep because I killed someone in one. My dreams are often very clear and graphic, so I was tired of seeing the things I was and just told myself to stop. One dream I can remember was a dream of a wolf/beaver/fox thing that was chasing after me, and it has scared me for pretty much ever.

91. I’m afraid to go into my grandmother’s backroom in her house because I used to believe (and still kind of do) that there are evil white unicorn type creatures in there. They’re actually really cool, in my mind. I should try using them in a story sometime.

92. I think that 365 is one of the most challenging things that I’ve ever tried to do by myself! My set isn’t very exciting, but I am learning more about myself through my pictures and I’ve begun to see the world in a different way. Maybe that’s just because I am getting older, but I am not sure.

93. One of the first things people tell me online is “Holy cow? You’re 14? I thought you were like… 18 or something.” It gets on my nerves.

94. I’ve always wanted a dog but I’ve pretty much stopped begging my parents for one. My cats and Brooke would probably gang up on it.

95. I was in a fire when I was younger, but I can’t remember any of it. I think that’s one of the things that I’m most upset about not remembering. Maybe the smoke inhalation did something to my brain. That would explain a lot.

96. I have a blanket that I’ve had since I was a baby. Luckily it was rescued from the fire mentioned above. I seriously don’t know how different my life would be without that blanket. XD We call it the ‘ABC’ blanket because it has the alphabet all over it. It used to be really bright, but now it’s… pastel. xD

97. I purposefully burned the side of my eye to see what it would feel like. (Shoot… I don’t think I ever admitted that to mom…)

98. Even though barely anyone knows, I have a very perverted mind. I often find it very hard not to laugh at little things and have a laughing fit every time I see condoms in a store.

99. I like country/hick boys (men? I dunno if you can call them that) a lot for some reason. There are a lot of my dad’s friends that I’d probably like if they weren’t so stupid. xD

100. And… ugh. Last one. This is hard. Ohoh! My first celebrity crush was Hayden Christensen in the first Star Wars. I was so in love with that kid. 8D

Okay. This is a very boring list. If you actually made it through this all, cheers to you!

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