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Offered as a mail away premium with the Kool Aid Wacky Warehouse. May have also been sold in stores.
Looks like Kool Aid Man themed nunchuks.
Nyungwe National Park offers a rare and important habitat for many species, especially primates and birds. And at over 1000 km2, Nyungwe is Africa’s largest protected mountain rainforest.
With about 310 bird species, 26 of which are endemic, Nyungwe is one of the most important — and still undiscovered — birdwatching destinations in Africa. Reaching to almost 3000 meters above sea level with Mount Bigugu the highest point in the Park, Nyungwe’s forests extend to altitudes occupied by few other forests in Africa.
Nyungwe is also home to one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of chimpanzees and a sometimes noisy, acrobatic combination of other primates such as Ruwenzori colobus and L’Hoest’s monkeys.
A variety of hiking and walking trails criss-cross the Park leading to a canopy walk, primate tracking adventures, the southernmost source of the Nile and ecotourism attractions. The park includes a colorful array of orchids, butterflies, moths and other insects.
. . . 2. 3. 2007 - this is the first day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week. Today we will see the showing of the water buffalos, pigs, cow, horse, deer and chicken. All these animals are offered to be the servants of the died woman in her new life after death in Puya. We will see buffalo fighting. Men bet for the winner of those fightings. Two buffalos fight each other - the one running away lost the fight!
If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.
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The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to
CHRISTIANITY
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
WIKIPEDIA
This is a photograph from the second annual running of The Lough Lene Gaels Hurling and Camogie Clubs "New Year's Resolution Run" which was held in Collinstown, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Sunday 12th January 2014 at 13:00. There were two races on offer today - a 10KM road race and a 5KM road race, fun run, and walk. This is one of the first road races in the midlands of the New Year. As this was a community orientated event families were especially welcome in the 5KM race. The race was organised to raise funding for the development of the GAA pitches for the Lough Lene Gaels Hurling and Camogie Clubs. Overall this was a very successful event with a very large field of well over 300 participants in both races combined. The great local effort was exemplified by a very big local contingent from Collinstown and neighbouring areas.
The 5KM race was an out and back course on the Collinstown to Fore Road. The 10KM was also on an out and back course with a deviation between 2KM and 7KM for the longer race. There were several tough hills but an equal amount of down-hill. The turn around on the course for the 10KM came at Doyle's Pub [goo.gl/maps/WxPSy - Google Streetview] at Glenidan.
Refreshments were served afterwards in the Lough Lene Inn where the prize ceremony was also held.
Note: Due to the inclement weather and poor lighting we had to, unfortunately, delete a lot of our photographs as there were very many blurs and fuzzy pictures. You will find lots more photographs and race results on the Facebook pages outlined below.
However, we have an extensive set of photographs from today's event on the following Flickr Photoset Page: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157639654608496/
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Some useful Internet links
Lough Lene Inn Pub Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/loughleneinn.collinstown?ref=ts&fref=ts
Lough Lene Gaels GAA Club on Facebook: www.facebook.com/loughlene.gaels.1?ref=ts&fref=ts
Our Flickr Photographs from Lough Lene Gaels 5KM New Year's Resolution Run 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157632508354317/
Our Flickr Photographs from the Lough Lene Gaels 5KM Road Challenge - July 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157630562888662/
Lough Lene Gaels GAA Club on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lough_Lene_Gaels_GAA
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account?
Yes - of course you can. Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
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All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.
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Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
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I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
The gentle Yakima River winds through massive basalt cliffs and rolling desert hills for 27 miles. The canyon offers excellent wildlife watching, plant viewing, fishing in a Blue Ribbon trout stream, family-friendly rafting and camping. The BLM manages over 9,000 acres in the Yakima River Canyon area, including four developed river access sites: Umtanum (a footbridge at the site provides the only pedestrian access to the west side of the river within the Yakima River Canyon), Lmuma Creek, Big Pines, and Roza (the main take out for all river floaters due to the Roza dam a half mile downstream of the site.)
Know Before You Go:
-The recreation sites are open YEAR ROUND.
-There are overnight ($15/site) and day-use ($5/vehicle) fees.
-Reservations for campsites may be made at recreation.gov from May 15 to September 15.
-The Umtanum Recreation Site contains six RV/tent campsites.
-Lmuma Creek contains seven RV/tent campsites.
-Big Pines contains 41 (38 RV and three walk in only) campsites.
-Roza contains six RV/tent campsites.
-Roza also has a concrete boat launch to accommodate motorized boat users for use downstream of the boat launch.
-Amenities at all four sites include: picnic tables and fire rings, vault toilets, a river put-in/take-out site and garbage collection.
-Hookups and potable water are not provided at any site.
-Cellular phone coverage is limited in many areas of the Yakima River Canyon.
Directions: From Ellensburg, Washington, take Hwy 821 (Canyon Road) south into the Yakima River Canyon. Umtanum is located at milepost 16, Lmuma Creek is located at milepost 12, Big Pines is located at milepost 10 and Roza is located at milepost 7, a half mile above Roza dam and about 25 miles south of Ellensburg.
Point of Interest: Located just south of Ellensburg, the non-motorized trails at Ringer Road offer visitors glimpses of the wildlife and birds that inhabit the riparian areas next to the Yakima River.
Contact:
Wenatchee BLM Field Office
915 N. Walla Walla Ave.
Wenatchee, WA 98801
(509) 665-2100
Photo by Jeff Clark/BLM
Just south of the yard at Cranston, RI a pile of debris offered enough elevation to get above the fence. After switching here the train backed down the spur into the Port of Providence and we gave up the chase.
Associated Stairlifts offer rental service for the majority of straight staircases.
There are numerous attractive advantages to stairlift rental .To know more please visit us at www.associatedstairlifts.co.uk/
Our program, Spanish in the Rainforest, offers the unique opportunity to study Spanish in the Peruvian Amazon, in the Tambopata National Park.
Tambopata is internationally acclaimed as one of the most bio-diverse areas on earth. It is in this "green paradise" that AMAUTA offers Spanish group classes on different levels, including daily tours and all accommodation and meals. A wonderful week of Spanish immersion in Peru, in the Peruvian jungle! The Tambopata Area is famous for its unique wildlife spectacle and the biggest mineral clay lick in the world can be found here, where thousands of birds come congregate daily. This is an amazing experience! Our Spanish program in the jungle also includes a visit to a local community of native people, who live in small villages along the Tambopata River.
The Sandoval Lake is a wonderfull place for observing a wide diversity of wildlife. Here you can find, parrots, gazelles, giant otters, macaws, caimans, and turtles, among others.
The big Macaw´s clay lick – the biggest of the Amazone in Peru - is famous for its great wildlife spectacle. Thousands of parrots, parakeets and macaws meet here lick the clay! An amazing spectable! The Tambopata National Park comprises of 1.5 million hectares of the Madre de Dios and Puno regions.
Spanish Group courses are offered in combination with excursions in the jungle with an experienced Peruvian guide. Part of the conversation topics in the Spanish class will be adapted to the environment and studying the ecology of the amazing tropical rainforest of Tambopata. AMAUTA teachers from Cusco will accompany students during the whole trip.
Our lodge is located approximately one hour by boat from Puerto Maldonado and is set in the beautiful rainforest beside the flowing Tambopata river. There are a total of 24 spacious bungalows with panoramic views and private bathrooms. The lodge is in a lovely environment and there is a large common room with a bar and a swimming pool.
There is 900 hectares of land around the lodge that offers the enthusiastic explorer miles of trails to walk that traverse a variety of different habitats.
A week of Spanish course in Tambopata includes transportation from the airport in Puerto Maldonado to the lodge, accommodation, all meals, daily activities and excursions and Spanish lessons!
Starting Dates in 2013:
Apr 14, May 5, Jun 9, Jul 7, Jul 21, Aug 18, Sep 8, Oct 13, Nov 3 - 2013
This is a photograph from the 5th annual Craughwell 10 Mile Road Race which took place in Craughwell Village, Co. Galway, Ireland on Sunday 23rd March 2014 at 13:00. The 'Craughwell 10' has grown quickly to become not just one of Connaught's best known and attended road races but one of Ireland's best road races. Rather uniquely for road races in Ireland today the Craughwell 10 Mile road race offers a fully traffic free route for participants. The fast primarily flat course brings participants on the network of rural country roads to the west of Craughwell village. This year's event attracted a record number of over 650 participants building on the 600+ finishers from last year's race (results available below).
Reading on a Smartphone or tablet? Don't forget to scroll down further to read more about this race and see important Internet links to other information about the race! You can also find out how to access and download these photographs.
Results are available on RedTagTiming's website www.redtagtiming.com who provided the chip timing for the event.
Our photographs from the Craughwell 10 2014 are available on our Flickr photostream at: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157642744431035/
You are also likely to find photographs from the race from edenhill77 at www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/
The organisation team of Craughwell AC and a huge team of volunteers from the local community deserve great praise and congratulations on the excellent work that they put into making the Craughwell 10 such an outstanding success. A race of this size is a mammoth undertaking and it's flawless organisation is a tribute to the volunteer work behind the scenes.
Route Description
The race starts in Craughwell Village and then heads west on country roads. The route takes a right turn after 1KM and heads north towards Caheradine. The route then takes a left and heads west again towards the N18. After 4 miles the race takes another left (goo.gl/maps/khTi4) heading south. Just before 6 miles another left turn brings the race back towards Craughwell village. This leaves the runners with a straight run to the finish area from here and the finish in the Primary School. There was a stiff cold breeze at different parts of the course but for the most part there was good stretches of tail winds also. There were water stations at two points in the course.
The AAI County Galway 10 mile Road Race Championships took place in conjunction with the race today which ensured that there was great competition amongst Co. Galway based clubs at all categories.
The spread of refreshments after the race was incredible. Every taste was catered for. The organisers were thoughtful enough to include a wide range of gluten free goodies for participants after the race.
Useful Web Links
Where is Craughwell? (OpenStreetMap): www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.2261&mlon=-8.7331&...
Where is Craughwell? (Google Maps): goo.gl/maps/vfIia
Craughwell 10 Mile - Race Headquarters at the National School (Google StreetView) goo.gl/maps/nTr5F
Craughwell 10 Mile Route on MapMyRun: www.mapmyrun.com/sc/victoria-english-river/craughwell-10-...
Craughwell 10 Mile Route on Garmin Connect: connect.garmin.com/jsPlayer/27008273
Craughwell 10 Mile Facebook Event Page www.facebook.com/events/1426933890856519/?ref=22 (requires Facebook logon and access)
Craughwell 10 Mile 2014: Results www.redtagtiming.com/results/Craughwell10_2014.pdf
Results from previous years.
2013: Results: www.redtagtiming.com/results/Craughwell10_2013.pdf
2012: www.redtagtiming.com/results/Craughwell_10Mile_2012.pdf
Photographs from previous years by edenhill77
2012: www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/72157629283834474/
2012: www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/72157629267117098/
2011 www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/72157626365451542/
2011: www.flickr.com/photos/edenhill77/sets/72157626387107196/
We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs
We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?
The explaination is very simple.
Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.
ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.
Creative Commons aims to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?
Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.
This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
How can I download these pictures to my computer or device?
You can download the photographic image here direct to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. However - look for a symbol with three dots 'ooo' or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.
How can I get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?
If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.
I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
International School of Brooklyn (2010)
Ex-St. Mary Star of the Sea School (1856)
477 Court St.
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
The parish school closed in 1988.
The International School was chartered in 2004 and took over the vacant school here in 2010. The school offers a multicultural program for nursery through 8th grade.
© Matthew X. Kiernan
NYBAI14-1277
1967 Griffith Series 600 Coupe
OFFERED WITHOUT RESERVE
Sold for US$80,640 inc. premium
From the catalog:
Chassis no. 600/6/009
273 cubic inch Plymouth Commando V8 Engine
Single Carburetor
304bhp at 6,500 rpm
3-speed Plymouth TorqueFlite automatic transmission
Independent Front Suspension with Ford 9" rear differential
4-Wheel Disc Brakes
*One of just 6 Griffith Series 600 models built
*One of only 2 Griffith Series 600 models equipped with automatic transmission
*Documented 2021 restoration and rebuild at Griffith Motorcar Co. restoration shop
*Delivered new at Griffith factory in 1966
*Spent most of its life in California
THE GRIFFITH SERIES 600
Since its introduction to the motoring world at the 1966 New York Automobile Show, this hand-formed all-metal bodied sports car, the third in a production series of the Griffith Motorcar, took the automotive world on with its futuristic sleek design from Frank Reisner's Carrozzeria Intermeccanica studios in Italy.
Originally designed to accept a Ford-based driveline, a prolonged east coast dock strike forced the Griffith organization into a downward financial spiral and a change of engine and transmission over to the Chrysler Corporation's newly introduced 273 cubic inch Commando V-8 engine. Of the six Series 600 vehicles produced all but two were equipped with a 4-speed transmission and two with the automatic.
With Griffith Motor Company on the ropes no further cars were built but this classic design did not stop there. This magnificent design went on to have another life, albeit with the originally planned Ford driveline, as the Omega, the Torino and finally the Italia.
Intermeccanica went on to build several similarly-sleek European designed motorcars including the one-off Phoenix that was commissioned and built for the indomitable John Fitch.
The classic lines of the Griffith 600 was born from an original design from Reisner's studio, the Apollo 2+2 which was shown at the '66 New York Auto Show alongside the earlier fiberglass-bodied Griffith Series 200 and 400 TVR-based coupes. Jack Griffith's dream of a more European design brought the two together to produce the 2-seater 600.
THE MOTORCAR OFFERED
This beautiful automobile is equipped with independent front suspension, Koni shock absorbers and a live rear Ford 9" rear axle. During the rebuild, Wilwood disc brakes were installed on all four corners and the UniRoyal Tiger Paw tires are mounted on Torq Thrust styled wheels. The interior features fixed-back bucket seats that are trimmed in black leather and body paint-matching red inserts. New carpets and door panels are fitted, a retro-styled sound system complete with Bluetooth technology and the machine-turned sill plates sporting the Intermeccanica logo design.
A heater, lap safety seat belts, power windows, a three-spoke wood-rimmed steering wheel and a dash-mounted rear-view mirror complete the interior appointments. The dashboard offers Stewart-Warner gauges complete with a 160-mph speedometer mounted in a machine-turned panel. The original engine, which is included with the sale, was replaced with a completely rebuilt Chrysler Corporation 273 cubic inch 4.5L engine which achieves 304 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 288 lb-ft of torque at 2,800 rpm.
This stunning motorcar was stripped, repaired and repainted in its current Ferrari red livery during which time in restoration it received meticulous work on body panels in 2021. A pair of body-color rear view mirrors were mounted, and a side-exhaust system installed. The original bumpers were carefully brought back to life with new re-chroming, the front and rear both with the trademark Intermeccanica split design.
The engine rebuild included the heads receiving ported and polished intake and
exhaust runners for additional power.
Recording a mere few miles since a complete restoration and refurbishment at the Griffith Motorcar Company, this Griffith Series 600 is in premier condition and ready for the show circuit or simply driving an automotive work of art. The documentation of the restoration will be included with the vehicle showing the detailed work which was performed on this extraordinary example. Outside of the John Fitch's Intermeccanica-built Phoenix, this, example of automotive history is one of the rarest products born from Frank Reisner's creative imagination. It is truly a unique motorcar and a pleasure to drive. These Griffith 600 models are rarely seen in public and perfectly falls under the known moniker of "Good luck finding another one."
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It's Bonhams day!
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This year I was able to escape the snow and join Fred in Scottsdale for sunshine, cars, and music! I also drove down to Tucson to meet Doug for lunch and spend a nice evening visting with Richard and Lola.
Nyungwe National Park offers a rare and important habitat for many species, especially primates and birds. And at over 1000 km2, Nyungwe is Africa’s largest protected mountain rainforest.
With about 310 bird species, 26 of which are endemic, Nyungwe is one of the most important — and still undiscovered — birdwatching destinations in Africa. Reaching to almost 3000 meters above sea level with Mount Bigugu the highest point in the Park, Nyungwe’s forests extend to altitudes occupied by few other forests in Africa.
Nyungwe is also home to one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of chimpanzees and a sometimes noisy, acrobatic combination of other primates such as Ruwenzori colobus and L’Hoest’s monkeys.
A variety of hiking and walking trails criss-cross the Park leading to a canopy walk, primate tracking adventures, the southernmost source of the Nile and ecotourism attractions. The park includes a colorful array of orchids, butterflies, moths and other insects.
This is a photograph from the Clane and Rathcoffey Parishes annual 10KM and 5KM Road Races and Fun Runs which were held in Clane village, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Sunday 19th of October at 14:30. This year's event follows on from the very successful staging last year (see link to photographs below). The organisers offer both a 5km and 10km race and the event provides an opportunity for runners, joggers, and walkers of all abilities to take part in the event. The 5KM has a particular emphasis on family entrants. There was a wonderful atmosphere around the Village as both races started and finished on the main street outside the parish hall. The directly out-and-back routes provided an opportunity for a fast time on a good course and made for a great finish line atmosphere as runners, joggers, and walkers crossed the line. Great praise must be extended to the whole organising committee who organised a very efficiently run event. The events provide some runners with an opportunity to have a final race effort session in the week leading up to the Dublin City Marathon.
Event Management and Electronic Timing was provided by Irish company Precision Timing. Their website is here with links to results from the race www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer
This photograph is part of a larger set of photographs taken at today's event. Photographs were taken at the start, 400 meters gone, 400 meters to go, 1km gone, and at the 9KM/4KM mark. The URL of the full set of photographs is www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157636717081724/
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary and Logistics
Participants: There were about 200 competitors combined in the two events.
Weather: The weather was very changeable for all of the events. During the 10KM race there was a heavy rain shower around the area of the 6KM mark but this didn't actually fall in the town. There was a strong headwind against competitors in the 10KM on the return part of the course between 6KM and 8KM.
Race Course:
This summary includes information on both the 5KM and 10KM races.
Both races start in the same place - just outside the Race HQ on the main street of the town. The races then proceed north eastwards out the Dublin Road towards Straffan and Celbridge. Just after 400 meters the races take a left up a small local road and proceeds along this road until it takes a tight left hand turn at the end of the lane at Capdoo goo.gl/maps/aPo26 (Google Streetview). The route proceeds until it shortly meets the Clane-Kilcock Road - College Road R407 goo.gl/maps/SGcPa. Both races will divert into Clane Business and Industrial Park goo.gl/maps/EQMf0 . The 5KM turns around and returns on the same route to the finish. However the 10KM race continues (taking a left) back onto College Road. Soon afterwards it passes the famous entrance to Clongowes Wood College on the right the race takes the next left (goo.gl/maps/zUhrJ) and brings runners onto the road known locally as the 'Long Road' (R408 Between Rathcoffey and Prosperous) at this point goo.gl/maps/fHKr2. The race proceeds northward until runners meet the Clane Kilcock Road once again. With the exception of the partial run into the Industrial Estate the race returns to the finish on the main street in Clane via the same route as the outward part of the route.
Location Map:
Clane Parish Hall (Race HQ) goo.gl/maps/MgakJ
Start and Finish Location of both races goo.gl/maps/0wiZp
Refreshments:
There was a really wonderful array of refreshments provided in the parish hall after the race for all participants.
Some Useful Links Associated with this Race Event
Facebook Page of the Clane and Rathcoffey Parish: www.facebook.com/ParishOfClaneRathcoffey (May require Facebook login)
Homepage of the Parish of Clane and Rathcoffey: www.claneparish.com/2013/09/parish-run-sunday-20th-octobe...
Garmin Connect GPS Trace of the 2013 Clane 10KM Race: connect.garmin.com/activity/391624847
Garmin Connect GPS Trace of the 2013 Clane 5KM Race: connect.garmin.com/activity/381169067
Boards.ie Athletics Forum Discussion on the 2013 Race: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057062190
Our Flickr Set of Photographs from the 2012 Clane 5KM and 10KM Races: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157631820732362/
Please note: These links are provided for information purposes. Some of these links might become obselete or dead links as time passess. We cannot be responsible for the content on these external websites. All websites were checked before posting here to ensure that they 'did what they said on the tin'.
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account?
Yes - of course you can. Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
How can I get full resolution copies of these photographs?
To prevent missue of these photographs there is a watermark embedded into the images. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution without the watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images without the watermark: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.
This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
De Wallen (Dutch pronunciation: [də ˈʋɑlə(n)]) is the largest and best known red-light district in Amsterdam. It consists of a network of alleys containing approximately 300 one-room cabins rented by prostitutes who offer their sexual services from behind a window or glass door, typically illuminated with red lights and blacklight. Window prostitution is the most visible and typical kind of red-light district sex work in Amsterdam.
De Wallen, together with prostitution areas Singelgebied and Ruysdaelkade, form the Rosse Buurt (red-light areas) of Amsterdam. Of these, De Wallen is the oldest and largest area. It is one of the city's major tourist attractions. Thursday through Sunday access to De Wallen is restricted at 1:00 am, with bars and restaurants closing at 2:00 am and brothels at 3:00 am.
The area also has a number of sex shops, sex theatres, peep shows, a sex museum, a cannabis museum, and a number of coffeeshops that sell cannabis.
History
The Rokin and Damrak run along the original course of the river Amstel. These two roads meet in Dam Square which marks the spot where a bridge was built across the river in 1270. It had doors which were used to dam the river at certain times to avoid flooding. The Damrak then became a harbor and it was around this area that the red-light district first appeared. The walled canals led to the names De Wallen and Walletjes (little walls).
Historically because of proximity to the harbor the area has attracted both prostitution and migrant populations and these are the features it is best known for today.
From late medieval times, the trade started to be restricted. Married men and priests were forbidden to enter the area. In 1578 during the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule a Protestant city board was formed with fornication deemed punishable. Sex workers were banned and forced underground. They would work for a madam who provided room and board, protection and advice. Often the madam and girls would venture out at night visiting pubs and inns to pick up clients. Parlours remained illegal but tolerated if kept hidden. Trade remained small-scale though spread across the city. Well-known areas were De Haarlemmerdijk, De Houttuinen, Zeedijk and around the harbor.
In the 18th century, wealthy men would meet prostitutes at gambling houses on De Gelderskade and Zeedijk. The women would then take the men back to the parlors where they came from. However, these were often unappealing to a gentleman of means. A solution to this problem was for the gambling houses to provide board for the women. This suited everyone including the authorities. The gambling houses invested in luxury furnishings and gradually they became brothels employing up to 30 women. Famous brothels included De Pijl in Pijlstraat, De Fonteyn in Nieuwmarkt and Madame Therese on the Prinsengracht. For those who could not afford entry to these houses, there were still women to be found around Oudekerksplein and unofficial policies of tolerance remained, although prostitution was technically illegal.
In 1811 the ban on prostitution was lifted. In this Napoleonic era, men from the French Imperial Naval Corps were the main clients for prostitutes in De Wallen. Regulation was introduced and there were compulsory health checks to protect soldiers from venereal diseases. They were given a red card which was a permit to work. If found to be infected the card was taken until they could prove they were disease free. Because there was no reliable treatment for syphilis at this time this led to dangerous treatments such as mercury baths to ease symptoms.
In the early 20th century religious organizations ran campaigns to try to end prostitution. In 1911 a law was passed banning brothels and pimping, but prostitution was not outlawed. Once again it was driven underground and tolerated as long it did not cause a disturbance. With the closure of many parlors in De Wallen some women moved to De Pijp. In 1935 it was estimated that there were around 150 disguised parlors. Fronts included massage, pedicure, manicure, and beauty treatments. Sex workers continued to work around the Oudekerksplein. Instead of being visible as they are today they would stand behind closed curtains and peer through a small crack looking for customers. If they stood in the doorway they would be arrested.
Location
The total area is approximately 6,500 square metres (1.6 acres), limited by the Niezel in the north, the sea dike/Nieuwmarkt in the east, the Sint Jansstraat in the south and the Warmoesstraat in the west. Prostitution takes place within this area in the following streets: Barndesteeg, Bethlehemsteeg, Bloedstraat, Boomsteeg (now closed), Dollebegijnensteeg, Enge Kerksteeg, Goldbergersteeg, Gordijnensteeg, Molensteeg, Monnikenstraat, Oudekerksplein, Oudekennissteeg, Oudezijds Achterburgwal, Oudezijds Voorburgwal, Sint Annendwarsstraat, Sint Annenstraat, Stoofsteeg, and Trompettersteeg.[citation needed]
Between Sint Jansstraat and Sint Annenstraat and running parallel to them are Leidekkerssteeg, Gooijersteeg, Blaauwlakensteeg, and Zwartlakensteeg. At least three of these had red light windows which were closed in the 1970s. Today these alleys are blocked by locked gates although the remains of some bricked over windows can be seen in the architecture. In the 1990s Slapersteeg was also closed and a gate now blocks the alley.
In the 1990s parts of Sint Annenstraat and Sint Annendwarsstraat were demolished. The rooms in Goldbergersteeg were opened after this time.
Sex work
Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, with the exception of street prostitution, but work permits are not issued in the form of a green card for prostitution; therefore legally working in the trade is limited mostly to EU citizens or foreign permanent residents. A non-EU citizen can work legally in the Netherlands without a work permit in certain circumstances, for instance, if they are the spouse of a local citizen. From January 2013 the legal working age of a prostitute in the Netherlands was raised from 18 to 21.
There is no compulsory requirement for sex workers to undergo sexually transmitted disease (STD) or HIV testing in the Netherlands. Some brothels and clubs have their sex workers screened at a regular basis, but no formal guidelines exist. Brothel owners and room operators often require health certificates such as the SERVSAFE test before employing or leasing rooms.
To counter negative publicity, Mariska Majoor, founder of the Prostitution Information Center, organized two "open days" in February 2006 and March 2007, allowing visitors access to some window brothels and peep shows and informing them about the working conditions there. Majoor was also instrumental in having the world's first monument to sex workers installed in the red light district. The bronze statue was unveiled on the Oudekerksplein in front of the Oude Kerk at the open day in March 2007 and shows a woman standing in a doorway.
Red lights and blue lights
In De Wallen, female sex workers illuminate their windows with red lights, while transgender women sex workers use blue lights. This is to help customers differentiate between the two. Bloedstraat, a street in De Wallen, has numerous transgender women working in it using blue lights.
Men cannot be found in the red light district at all. Instead, they offer their services in parks or gay clubs or through various sex-related websites. These are called "paydates" & refer to websites such as "bullchat.nl" and "chatboy.nl". Men are not referred to as prostitutes, as only women can use this term.
There is one day, however, in recent years where men have been showcased in windows to promote equality. They have notoriously done this on August 3, the day that coincides with Amsterdam's pride celebration. Men are in the window for the day not to actually work in any way other than model, but to raise awareness for the Red Light District's lack of male and gay representation, as the vast majority of its sex workers are cisgender, straight women.
The police close down several male brothels each year, so it is difficult to determine how many still operate in the country. However, there is only one legal brothel still in use, called "Club 21".
Cannabis coffeeshops
Cannabis coffeeshops in the RLD and elsewhere in the Netherlands are licensed to sell cannabis and serve soft drinks. Some may serve small packaged food, or even whole meals infused with cannabis. The sale of tobacco on its own is not permitted, but many offer pre-rolled joints filled with a mix of cannabis and tobacco. Alcoholic beverages are not permitted inside of coffeeshops.[
Before the onset of coffeeshop licensing, some began openly selling cannabis. The first coffee shops opened in the 1970s. These faced trouble from police and the local councils with frequent closures. In 1976, the government of the Netherlands began to take steps to decriminalize the use and possession of cannabis by changing the law so that possession of up to 30 grams (1 oz) of cannabis was no longer a criminal offense.
The gedoogbeleid or tolerance policy gave rise to coffeeshop licensing which meant that as long as coffeeshops did not sell hard drugs, they were allowed to operate. Coffeeshops were not allowed to operate in certain cities near the borders of Germany and Belgium because it was felt soft drug use might raise crime there.
The government of Netherlands has continually been under pressure from different western countries to rein in coffeeshops, leading to several coffeeshops being shut down for flouting rules, with no licenses issued to new operators. This approach has continued since 1995. In the 1990s, the coffeeshop owners organized themselves into a union, the Bond van cannabis Detaillisten or BCD, set up to represent the interests of the coffeeshops which were under constant pressure from local councils.
A recent policy meant that 26 coffeeshops in the De Wallen area had to close their doors between 1 September 2012 and 31 August 2015.
Abuses, human rights and tourism nuisance
Netherlands has been listed by a report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime as a top destination for victims of human trafficking:
According to Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam, "We've realized this is no longer about small-scale entrepreneurs, but those big crime organizations are involved here in trafficking women, drugs, killings, and other criminal activities".
Groups of sex workers have also worked to raise awareness of their rights. The Prostitute Information Centre, founded in the 1990s, is a prostitute-led organisation offering tours of the area and information concerning safety and the rights of the people involved. While sex workers in brothels currently have to register, it has been suggested making escorts and kamer workers register, which has been opposed by some sex worker groups out of concern it would favor pimps over the workers themselves. Jan Fisher of Red Thread commented: "The ones who want to work know how devastating the stigma could be, and will be. They will try to work outside this system and they'll be vulnerable when they're detected by the police and tax office, and the ones who are trafficked may be forced by their pimps to register so they have a kind of legal status."
In 2007 a statue called "Belle" was unveiled on the Oudekerksplein with the inscription "Respect sex workers all over the world".
About 75% of Amsterdam's prostitutes are from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, according to a former prostitute who produced a report about the sex trade.
European citizens of the 27 member EU states have the legal right under internal market to employment in the Netherlands in any work. Citizens of other countries must already have a valid residence permit (not visitor visa) to work legally in the sex trade as work permits are not issued for the jobs.
TAMPEP research into the origin of migrant sex workers records 60% of workers in the Netherlands are foreign-born, with the highest proportion of these (43%) from elsewhere in Europe. This represents a decrease from 70% migrants in sex work as recorded in 2006. The report cites high internal mobility within the EU as the reason for this decrease.
In 2004, Amsterdam authorities commissioned research into pimping and human trafficking in Amsterdam. The Willem Plompe institution took up that job. The researchers, under the leadership of professor Frank Bovenkerk, found that women under the control of a pimp can be easily put to work in the legal brothels with the brothel owners being aware that the women are controlled by pimps. The general setup of window prostitution was said to be helpful to pimps, as it facilitates the direct control of the women by their pimp.
A Christian organization of aid workers named the 'Scharlaken Koord' (in English, Scarlet Cord) has set up a special 'pal'-program for prostitutes in which the pals help the women build a new social network.
In September 2007, the city council of Amsterdam at the behest of mayor Job Cohen, concerned about trafficking and pimping in the area, forced the owner Charlie Geerts to close 51 prostitution windows, reducing the total number of windows in De Wallen by a third. Amsterdam authorities bought 18 properties from Geerts, with the aim of developing the area with fashion designers and other upscale businesses.
Mariska Majoor of the Prostitution Information Center and representatives of the sex worker rights group De Rode Draad have decried the decision, claiming it would not reduce crime but would only lead to higher rent and more competition for the remaining windows.
In January 2008, the city council announced plans to close the Rosso live sex theatre and the Banana bar strip club in the area. Local business owners have formed the group "Platform 1012" (named after the zipcode of the area) to oppose the efforts of the Amsterdam government. In the end, the actions of the city government resulted in the closure of the Yab Yum brothel.
At the end of 2008, mayor Job Cohen announced plans to close half of the city's 400 prostitution windows because of suspected criminal gang activity; part of the city's 70 cannabis cafes and sex clubs will also be closed. Mayor Job Cohen: "It is not that we want to get rid of our red-light district. We want to reduce it. Things have become unbalanced and if we do not act we will never regain control".
In 2009, the Dutch justice ministry announced plans to close 320 prostitution "windows" from Amsterdam.
Karina Schaapman, a former Amsterdam prostitute who is now a city councilor said: "There are people who are really proud of the red light district as a tourist attraction. It's supposed to be such a wonderful, cheery place that shows just what a free city we are. But I think it's a cesspit. There's a lot of serious criminality. There's a lot of exploitation of women, and a lot of social distress. That's nothing to be proud of."
But in 2013 Metje Blaak, who worked in the sex trade for 25 years before turning to filmmaking, says closing legal brothels will push women out onto the streets. "In the window is safe, open. You can see your clients. You can see everything," she says.
2019
In July 2019, more than ten years after Asscher's efforts to bring change to the Red Light District, new mayor Femke Halsema announced a different approach.
She proposed several different options for residents, sex workers, business owners and everyone else involved. A report called "The Future of Window Prostitution in Amsterdam" outlined four changes to the district that would become under serious consideration. "We must dare to think big – also about ending prostitution in the Red Light District", said Mayor Femke Halsema. "Unacceptable situations have arisen, and the council is ready to consider far-reaching solutions."
The Red Light District, in general, has been controversial since its existence. The internal struggles have differed from the desire to increase inclusion & LGBTQ+ influence into the district & therefore promote safe sex work for all types of people & all types of identities, to those who want to end sex work in general. Some argue that sex work is the reason for Amsterdam's rising sex trafficking issues. According to a 2019 article representing this problem, no one is aware just how many women are in the industry, and it is described as a "dark number". They also say that many of these girls are doing so against their will: "Some researchers say 4,000, others say 8,000. Some say 10% are trafficked, others say 90%. Even with that lowest figure, 400 girls are selling sex against their will." It raises questions about whether or not it is a positive idea to try to bring different types of people into an industry that keeps a lot in the dark.
(Wikipedia)
De Wallen (auch: De Walletjes genannt) ist ein Rotlichtbezirk in Amsterdam-Centrum. Er ist in einem der ältesten Teile Amsterdams gelegen. Er ist besonders dafür bekannt, eines der weltweit ersten Gebiete zu sein, wo die Prostituierten legal arbeiten und organisiert sind. Die Wallen umfassen vor allem das Gebiet östlich vom Damrak, das von Warmoesstraat, Zeedijk dem Nieuwmarkt und dem angrenzenden Chinatown-Viertel umschlossen wird. Die wichtigsten Straßen im Viertel sind der Oudezijds Voorburgwal und der Oudezijds Achterburgwal.
Prostitution
Gemeinsam mit dem Singelgebied und der Ruysdaelkade bilden die Wallen die Rosse Buurt („Rotlichtviertel“) von Amsterdam. Viele Sexarbeiterinnen (landesweit rund 20 Prozent) machen Gebrauch von der für die Prostitution in den Niederlanden typischen Raamprostitutie (Fensterprostitution).
In De Wallen beleuchten die Sexarbeiterinnen ihre Fenster mit rotem Licht. In der Bloedstraat, einer Straße in De Wallen, arbeiten zahlreiche Transgender-Frauen, die blaues Licht verwenden. Die Prostituierten kommen fast ausschließlich aus Osteuropa. Die Stadtverwaltung hat mehrfach versucht die Anzahl der Fenster und der Sexarbeiter zu reduzieren. Die Schließzeiten wurden bereits auf drei Uhr vorgezogen.
2019 wurde bekannt, dass der Amsterdamer Gemeinderat die Prostitution von De Wallen in ein Erotikzentrum an einem anderen Ort am Stadtrat umziehen will. Die Sexarbeiter organisierten sich daraufhin im Verband Red Light United. Sie demonstrieren gegen den geplanten Umzug und geben an, Sexarbeit hinter dem Fenster sei eine der sichersten Formen der Sexarbeit, vor allem aufgrund ihres öffentlichen Charakters. Sie appellierten an die Stadtverwaltung, direkt gegen den übermäßigen Tourismus und die Kriminalität vorzugehen.
Rezeption
Die 1961 veröffentlichte italienisch-französische Co-Produktion Mädchen im Schaufenster von Regisseur Luciano Emmer mit Bernard Fresson, Lino Ventura, Marina Vlady und Magali Noël in den Hauptrollen, spielt teilweise an Originalschauplätzen in De Wallen.
(Wikipedia)
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ENAI SWIM offers swimming and survival skills lessons for babies and young children with real results in as little as 4 weeks. Lessonsn offered in Thibodaux and Houma, Louisiana.
ENAI ofrece clases de natacion y sobrevivencia en el agua a bebes y niños con resultados reales en tan poco como 4 semanas. Las clases las damos en Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
Selwicks bay by Flamborough Head has something to offer almost everyone. Access down to the beach is by steps and chalk paths. The beach is sand / gravel and at low tide a long stretch of chalk platform is exposed containing lots of rock pools.
L for black
Miller Street Studios offers the highest quality recording and mixing capabilities at low rates in the Chicago area. Our acoustic quality rivals top studios with our state-of-the-art control room featuring Pro Tools HD 8, an Alesis X2 analog 24-track console, Avalon VT737, Lynx A/D Converters, and a long list of Plug-ins. We have a large live room as well as two isolation booths. The Miller Street Studios standard is ensuring the artist is in the right vibe to get the best results possible.
Included with your session is a private parking space, a fully furnished kitchen w/ speakers linked to the control room, and all the amenities needed to make musical magic happen!
If you would like to book your recording/mixing/mastering session, rehearsal space, private listening party, studio tour, or if you have any other inquires please call 773.789.9553 and ask for Joe "Dante" Gallagher (owner/chief engineer) or John B. (business manager). We look forward to arranging your next musical experience at Miller Street Studios. Visit us on the web at millerstreetstudios.com and follow us on Twitter @MillerStStudios
Improved Civilian Education System offers Army employees new opportunities for professional development
By Amanda Rodriquez, U.S. Army Installation Management Command
SAN ANTONIO – Thirty-four Army civilians from Joint Base San Antonio’s Fort Sam Houston graduate Feb. 15 from the first U.S. Army Civilian Education Course offered by the Army Management Staff College at the U.S. Army Installation Management Academy.
The course marks the initial venture of AMSC’s year-old mobile training team away from its Fort Leavenworth, Kan., headquarters.
“Our first class offered at IMCOM is the Intermediate course,” Mark Smith, a human resources specialist and IMCOM’s CES registrar, said. “A team of instructors from Fort Leavenworth is here now and will return again to offer the CES Basic course in June and September. It’s a great opportunity for our local Army civilians and with classes quickly filling, we’re optimistic about hosting more in 2014.”
The three-week course, which began Jan. 28, is full. In fact, the June Basic course is nearly full as well, thanks to IMCOM’s effort to promote seats, seeking students from other commands. According to Army training staff, strong partnerships among the JBSA Army commands and U.S. Army Management Staff College, which oversees CES, benefit all involved. CES plays a critical role in career development at every level. All eight courses are in demand because they are prerequisites for admission into other military schools and directly impact a civilian employee’s career progression.
“The Civilian Education System is increasingly important to employees for career progression and entrance into senior leader schools,” said Smith. “It’s also a chance to work cooperatively with people from a variety of backgrounds, meeting people you might rarely have the chance to and applying team building skills to multiple scenarios.”
CES courses include online modules followed by classroom instruction. Until establishing the new mobile training teams, classroom time meant temporary duty at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Each course, ranging from foundation level to advanced, is tailored to specific pay grades. Central funding and flexible course delivery methods, like the mobile training team, makes CES more accessible to local Army civilians, according to developers.
While IMCOM invited AMSC and offered to host the course, Smith included all Army commands here in the request for slots. U.S. Army Medical Command headquarters Workforce Development Specialist, Ray Mendoza stressed that a mobile training team teaching the course on-site saves money and increases the number of available training slots.
“By partnering with IMCOM, all local commands and Army civilians benefit,” Mendoza said. “This is a great opportunity for development and networking for civilians. It’s also a less expensive way to get 34 people trained all at once. MEDCOM is sending 16 people over for training – it would take several years to train 16 people, from the same installation, by sending them individually to Leavenworth.”
For employees like Anthony Riddick of IMCOM G-6, participation in training is possible because travel is no longer necessary.
“This works out really well for me,” Riddick said. “My wife is away right now and I’ve got two teenagers at home. I jumped at this opportunity.”
Other recent changes in the program pertain to equivalency credits and transferrable credit for graduate and undergraduate students. “Previously, students who had taken equivalent training had to navigate through Army Training Requirements and Resources System or the Civilian Human Resource Training Application System and request a review in order to receive credit for similar training and development,” said Smith.
The new equivalency process takes place automatically when students register, avoiding redundancy and ensuring each employee’s Army professional development growth is accurately documented. The credit is granted regardless of when the equivalent course was completed. The previous ten-year cap on equivalency training is now obsolete, Smith added.
For employees enrolled in accredited graduate and undergraduate programs, some colleges and universities accept CES courses as transfer credits, depending on school and program of study. Webster, Phoenix and DeVry universities are among those that award credit for CES, according Smith.
For more information about the latest CES courses, visit the course catalog on the Army Training Requirements and Resource system at www.atrrs.army.mil. Civilians wishing to register for courses or request more detailed information about credit equivalency and transfers should contact their local training representative.
SL Frees & Offers in Second Life
Credits: slfreeworldforall.blogspot.com.es/2012/12/santas-lil-help...
Perfect Wardrobe
Mirror's Enigma - [:ME:]
*Alice Project*
*{ SeVered GarDeN }*
Pure Poison - PP
Maxi Gossamer - MG -
[Bamboo] Nails
Focus Poses
Zoka offers a ton of single cup varietals brewed with a Clover so I opted for one of those. I ended up with an Ethiopian one that tastes of blueberries and cherries. The barrista said it also had chocolate notes but I'm not getting that - of coursemy tastebuds are likely also trashed by this point. While walking around the place I noticed the best latte art I've ever seen in person - a triple rosetta and something that looked like a curved sawtooth!
The United States Army Heritage Center Museum, Carlisle, PA, offers the public an overview of life in the Army throughout its history. Two Vietnam-era helicopters are part of the outdoor collection.
Young Thai woman offers a taste of two teas produced by the 101 Tea Plantation. This tea plantation is on Doi Mae Salong Mountain, located in Chiang Rai province outside Santikhiri (สันติคีรี), near the Golden Triangle. High Mountain Oolong teas are cultivated here in ideal growing conditions at elevations ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 meters. Santikhiri (formerly Mae Salong) is also noteworthy in that most of the residents are Chinese, descended from the Republic of China's 93rd Army Division that eventually found asylum here after the Kuomintang lost the Chinese civil war in 1949. (Brian K. Smith photo.)
101 Tea Plantation
29/1 Moo 1, Mae Salong Nok
Mae Fah Luang
Chiang Rai Province, Thailand 57110
Tel: +66 (053) 710 029/30
Travel services provided by:
All Points East
47/1 Nimmanhemin Road, Soi 9
T. Suthep, A. Muang
Chiang Mai, Thailand 50000
Tel: +66 (081) 885 9490
Bonsoni is proud to present this Halvin Double Bed Frame 4ft6 by Lloyd Phillip & Delric which has Assembled Dimension: 2070 x 1480 x 1165. Thanks to its seemingly timeless appeal, Pine simply never goes out of fashion. So to ensure youre able to capitalise on the enduring popularity and undiminishing demand we are able to offer the Halvin bedroom range. Boasting simple, understated almost shaker style lines, and a rich colour tone enhanced by an Aztec wax finish, the Collection is aimed at individuals wanting a contemporary twist on a principally traditional design theme. The bedroom section has a wide range to choose from, TV beds, Fabric covered beds, Metal beds, Kids beds & Pine beds. Contemporary or traditional there is something for every taste & budget.
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Bonsoni is proud to present this Halvin Double Bed Frame 4ft6 by Lloyd Phillip & Delric which has Assembled Dimension: 2070 x 1480 x 1165. Thanks to its seemingly timeless appeal, Pine simply never goes out of fashion. So to ensure youre able to capitalise on the enduring popularity and undiminishing demand we are able to offer the Halvin bedroom range. Boasting simple, understated almost shaker style lines, and a rich colour tone enhanced by an Aztec wax finish, the Collection is aimed at individuals wanting a contemporary twist on a principally traditional design theme. The bedroom section has a wide range to choose from, TV beds, Fabric covered beds, Metal beds, Kids beds & Pine beds. Contemporary or traditional there is something for every taste & budget.
Sir Ove Nyquist Arup, CBE, MICE, MIStructE, FCIOB (16 April 1895 – 5 February 1988) was an English engineer who founded Arup Group Limited, a multinational corporation that offers engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for building systems. Ove Arup is considered to be among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time.
Personal life and education
Arup was born in Newcastle, England, in 1895, to the Danish veterinary surgeon Jens Simon Johannes Arup and his Norwegian wife, Mathilde Bolette Nyquist.
Arup attended the Sorø Academy in Denmark, a boarding school with many influences from Thomas Arnold of the Rugby School in the United Kingdom.
In 1913, he began studying philosophy at University of Copenhagen and in 1918 enrolled for an engineering degree at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, specialising in reinforced concrete. He completed his studies in 1922. At this time Ove Arup was influenced by Le Corbusier and his publication Vers une architecture, published that year; and also by Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement.[citation needed]
Arup married Ruth Sørensen, known as Li, on 13 August 1925.
Working life
Before WWII
In 1922, Ove Arup began work with a Danish firm in Hamburg called Christiani & Nielsen, and in December 1923 he moved to their London office as chief engineer.
He designed the Labworth Café—a café with two integrated shelters set on the promenade of the neighbouring Essex seaside resort of Canvey Island. The café exists as the only building solely designed by Arup.
He then worked as a structural consultant to the Tecton partnership, notably on the Penguin Pool at London's Regent's Park Zoo, Whipsnade Zoo, Dudley Zoo, as a construction supervisor for a villa in Heath Drive, Romford, Essex and on Highpoint I, Highgate (a building he was later highly critical of). The close working relationship that Arup developed with Tecton's senior partner Berthold Lubetkin, proved to be highly important in the development of both men's careers.
He moved next to a London construction company, J. L. Kier & Co. in London, as director and chief designer from 1934 to 1938, and during the 1930s he also worked with Ernő Goldfinger, Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry, Yorke, Rosenberg & Mardall and Marcel Breuer.
He became a member of the executive committee of the MARS Group in 1935. In 1938, he and his cousin Arne founded Arup & Arup Limited, a firm of engineers and contractors.
World War II
Before the war, Ove Arup was on the Air Raid Precautions organising committee and he advised Finsbury Council on the provision of bomb shelters. During the war he published a number of papers on shelter policy and designs, mainly advocating reinforced concrete mass shelters, rather than the government policy of dispersing the population in small domestic shelters. Largely for political reasons most of his recommendations were never adopted, although some wealthy Londoners were able to build concrete shelters according to his design.
Arup played a significant part in the design of the Mulberry temporary harbours used during the D-Day landings. The Mulberry Harbour was a type of temporary harbour developed to offload cargo on the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy. The sections for two prefabricated or artificial military harbours were taken with the invading army from Britain across the English Channel and assembled off the coast of Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion of France in 1944.
Arup & Partners
In 1946, after dissolving Arup & Arup Ltd, he created a team of Civil and Structural Engineering consultants. In the same year, he formed his first partnership with Ronald Jenkins, Geoffrey Wood and Andrew Young called Arup and Partners.
A further company, Arup Associates, was formed in 1963 as a new partnership, a body of Architects and Engineers working on an equal basis as Building Designers: the engineer Ove Arup, the architects Francis Pym and Philip Dowson, and the former partners of Arup and Partners. It was a multi-disciplinary company providing engineering, architectural, and other services for the built environment. Arup said himself that ultimately, all of the Arup names resulted in a firm called simply Arup.
Notable projects
Highpoint I, built in 1935, was an important experiment in high-rise residential design, and was one of Arup's most significant collaborations with Lubetkin. Arup later criticised the project as having significant flaws.
Kingsgate Bridge
Ove Arup personally supervised the design and construction of Durham's Kingsgate Bridge in 1963. The firm's first bridge, Arup was particularly attached to the project and had his ashes scattered from it following his death. A bust of Arup that was placed at one end of the Bridge was stolen in the summer of 2006 but has since been replaced. Kingsgate Bridge was the last structure designed by Arup.
Van Ginkel Footbridge
The mid-century Van Ginkel Footbridge is in Bowring Park, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is a cantilever bridge, meaning it is anchored to the ground on only one end while the other side hovers. The bridge received heritage designation in 2020. The architect of the bridge was Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, who received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's gold medal for lifetime achievement.
Sydney Opera House
Arup was the design engineer for the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia from the project's start in 1957 to its completion in 1973 An iconic building making groundbreaking use of precast concrete, structural glue and computer analysis, this made Arup's reputation, and that of his firm, despite the extremely difficult working relationship with the architect, Jørn Utzon.
Honours
1953 Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
1965 Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog
1966 Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects
1971 Knight Bachelor (United Kingdom)
1973 Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers
1975 Knight Commander First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog
1976 Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University
1987 Royal Academician
Durham is a cathedral city and civil parish in the county of Durham, England. It is the county town and contains the headquarters of Durham County Council, the unitary authority which governs the district of County Durham. It had a population of 48,069 at the 2011 Census.
The city was built on a meander of the River Wear, which surrounds the centre on three sides and creates a narrow neck on the fourth. The surrounding land is hilly, except along the Wear's floodplain to the north and southeast.
Durham was founded in 995 by Anglo-Saxon monks seeking a place safe from Viking raids to house the relics of St Cuthbert. The church the monks built lasted only a century, as it was replaced by the present Durham Cathedral after the Norman Conquest; together with Durham Castle it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the 1070s until 1836 the city was part of the County Palatine of Durham, a semi-independent jurisdiction ruled by the prince bishops of Durham which acted as a geopolitical buffer between the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross was fought half a mile west of the city, resulting in an English victory. In 1650, the cathedral was used to house Scottish prisoners after their defeat at the Battle of Dunbar. During the Industrial Revolution, the Durham coalfield was heavily exploited, with dozens of collieries operating around the city and in nearby villages. Although these coal pits have now closed, the annual Durham Miners' Gala continues and is a major event for the city and region. Historically, Durham was also known for the manufacture of hosiery, carpets, and mustard.
The city is the home of Durham University, which was founded in 1832 and therefore has a claim to be the third-oldest university in England. The university is a significant employer in the region, alongside the local council and national government at the land registry and passport office. The University Hospital of North Durham and HM Prison Durham are also located close to the city centre. The city also has significant tourism and hospitality sectors.
Toponymy
The name "Durham" comes from the Brythonic element dun, signifying a hill fort and related to -ton, and the Old Norse holme, which translates to island. The Lord Bishop of Durham takes a Latin variation of the city's name in his official signature, which is signed "N. Dunelm". Some attribute the city's name to the legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who in legend guided the monks of Lindisfarne carrying the body of Saint Cuthbert to the site of the present city in 995 AD. Dun Cow Lane is said to be one of the first streets in Durham, being directly to the east of Durham Cathedral and taking its name from a depiction of the city's founding etched in masonry on the south side of the cathedral. The city has been known by a number of names throughout history. The original Nordic Dun Holm was changed to Duresme by the Normans and was known in Latin as Dunelm. The modern form Durham came into use later in the city's history. The north-eastern historian Robert Surtees chronicled the name changes in his History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham but states that it is an "impossibility" to tell when the city's modern name came into being.
Durham is likely to be Gaer Weir in Armes Prydein, derived from Brittonic cajr meaning "an enclosed, defensible site" (cf. Carlisle; Welsh caer) and the river-name Wear.
History
Early history
Archeological evidence suggests a history of settlement in the area since roughly 2000 BC. The present city can clearly be traced back to AD 995, when a group of monks from Lindisfarne chose the strategic high peninsula as a place to settle with the body of Saint Cuthbert, that had previously lain in Chester-le-Street, founding a church there.
City origins, the Dun Cow story
Local legend states that the city was founded in A.D. 995 by divine intervention. The 12th-century chronicler Symeon of Durham recounts that after wandering in the north, Saint Cuthbert's bier miraculously came to a halt at the hill of Warden Law and, despite the effort of the congregation, would not move. Aldhun, Bishop of Chester-le-Street and leader of the order, decreed a holy fast of three days, accompanied by prayers to the saint. During the fast, Saint Cuthbert appeared to a certain monk named Eadmer, with instructions that the coffin should be taken to Dun Holm. After Eadmer's revelation, Aldhun found that he was able to move the bier, but did not know where Dun Holm was.
The legend of the Dun Cow, which is first documented in The Rites of Durham, an anonymous account about Durham Cathedral, published in 1593, builds on Symeon's account. According to this legend, by chance later that day, the monks came across a milkmaid at Mount Joy (southeast of present-day Durham). She stated that she was seeking her lost dun cow, which she had last seen at Dun Holm. The monks, realising that this was a sign from the saint, followed her. They settled at a wooded "hill-island" – a high wooded rock surrounded on three sides by the River Wear. There they erected a shelter for the relics, on the spot where Durham Cathedral would later stand. Symeon states that a modest wooden building erected there shortly thereafter was the first building in the city. Bishop Aldhun subsequently had a stone church built, which was dedicated in September 998. This no longer remains, having been supplanted by the Norman structure.
The legend is interpreted by a Victorian relief stone carving on the north face of the cathedral and, more recently, by the bronze sculpture 'Durham Cow' (1997, Andrew Burton), which reclines by the River Wear in view of the cathedral.
Medieval era
During the medieval period the city gained spiritual prominence as the final resting place of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Bede the Venerable. The shrine of Saint Cuthbert, situated behind the High Altar of Durham Cathedral, was the most important religious site in England until the martyrdom of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury in 1170.
Saint Cuthbert became famous for two reasons. Firstly, the miraculous healing powers he had displayed in life continued after his death, with many stories of those visiting the saint's shrine being cured of all manner of diseases. This led to him being known as the "wonder worker of England". Secondly, after the first translation of his relics in 698 AD, his body was found to be incorruptible. Apart from a brief translation back to Holy Island during the Norman Invasion the saint's relics have remained enshrined to the present day. Saint Bede's bones are also entombed in the cathedral, and these also drew medieval pilgrims to the city.
Durham's geographical position has always given it an important place in the defence of England against the Scots. The city played an important part in the defence of the north, and Durham Castle is the only Norman castle keep never to have suffered a breach. In 1314, the Bishopric of Durham paid the Scots a 'large sum of money' not to burn Durham. The Battle of Neville's Cross took place around half a mile west of the city on 17 October 1346 between the English and Scots and was a disastrous loss for the Scots.
The city suffered from plague outbreaks in 1544, 1589 and 1598.
Bishops of Durham
Owing to the divine providence evidenced in the city's legendary founding, the Bishop of Durham has always enjoyed the formal title "Bishop by Divine Providence" as opposed to other bishops, who are "Bishop by Divine Permission". However, as the north-east of England lay so far from Westminster, the bishops of Durham enjoyed extraordinary powers such as the ability to hold their own parliament, raise their own armies, appoint their own sheriffs and Justices, administer their own laws, levy taxes and customs duties, create fairs and markets, issue charters, salvage shipwrecks, collect revenue from mines, administer the forests and mint their own coins. So far-reaching were the bishop's powers that the steward of Bishop Antony Bek commented in 1299 AD: "There are two kings in England, namely the Lord King of England, wearing a crown in sign of his regality and the Lord Bishop of Durham wearing a mitre in place of a crown, in sign of his regality in the diocese of Durham". All this activity was administered from the castle and buildings surrounding the Palace Green. Many of the original buildings associated with these functions of the county palatine survive on the peninsula that constitutes the ancient city.
From 1071 to 1836 the bishops of Durham ruled the county palatine of Durham. Although the term "prince bishop" has been used as a helpful tool in the understanding the functions of the bishops of Durham in this era, it is not a title they would have recognised. The last bishop to rule the palatinate, Bishop William Van Mildert, is credited with the foundation of Durham University in 1832. Henry VIII curtailed some of the bishop's powers and, in 1538, ordered the destruction of the shrine of Saint Cuthbert.
A UNESCO site describes the role of the bishops in the "buffer state between England and Scotland":
From 1075, the Bishop of Durham became a Prince-Bishop, with the right to raise an army, mint his own coins, and levy taxes. As long as he remained loyal to the king of England, he could govern as a virtually autonomous ruler, reaping the revenue from his territory, but also remaining mindful of his role of protecting England’s northern frontier.
Legal system
The bishops had their own court system, including most notably the Court of Chancery of the County Palatine of Durham and Sadberge. The county also had its own attorney general, whose authority to bring an indictment for criminal matters was tested by central government in the case of R v Mary Ann Cotton (1873). Certain courts and judicial posts for the county were abolished by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873. Section 2 of the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 and section 41 of the Courts Act 1971 abolished others.
Civil War and Cromwell (1640 to 1660)
The city remained loyal to King Charles I in the English Civil War – from 1642 to the execution of the king in 1649. Charles I came to Durham three times during his reign of 1625–1649. Firstly, he came in 1633 to the cathedral for a majestic service in which he was entertained by the Chapter and Bishop at great expense. He returned during preparations for the First Bishops' War (1639). His final visit to the city came towards the end of the civil war; he escaped from the city as Oliver Cromwell's forces got closer. Local legend stated that he escaped down the Bailey and through Old Elvet. Another local legend has it that Cromwell stayed in a room in the present Royal County Hotel on Old Elvet during the civil war. The room is reputed to be haunted by his ghost. Durham suffered greatly during the civil war (1642–1651) and Commonwealth (1649–1660). This was not due to direct assault by Cromwell or his allies, but to the abolition of the Church of England and the closure of religious institutions pertaining to it. The city has always relied upon the Dean and Chapter and cathedral as an economic force.
The castle suffered considerable damage and dilapidation during the Commonwealth due to the abolition of the office of bishop (whose residence it was). Cromwell confiscated the castle and sold it to the Lord Mayor of London shortly after taking it from the bishop. A similar fate befell the cathedral, it being closed in 1650 and used to incarcerate 3,000 Scottish prisoners, who were marched south after the Battle of Dunbar. Graffiti left by them can still be seen today etched into the interior stone.
At the Restoration in 1660, John Cosin (a former canon) was appointed bishop (in office: 1660–1672) and set about a major restoration project. This included the commissioning of the famous elaborate woodwork in the cathedral choir, the font cover and the Black Staircase in the castle. Bishop Cosin's successor Bishop Lord Nathaniel Crewe (in office: 1674–1721) carried out other renovations both to the city and to the cathedral.
18th century
In the 18th century a plan to turn Durham into a seaport through the digging of a canal north to join the River Team, a tributary of the River Tyne near Gateshead, was proposed by John Smeaton. Nothing came of the plan, but the statue of Neptune in the Market Place was a constant reminder of Durham's maritime possibilities.
The thought of ships docking at the Sands or Millburngate remained fresh in the minds of Durham merchants. In 1758, a new proposal hoped to make the Wear navigable from Durham to Sunderland by altering the river's course, but the increasing size of ships made this impractical. Moreover, Sunderland had grown as the north east's main port and centre for shipping.
In 1787 Durham infirmary was founded.
The 18th century also saw the rise of the trade-union movement in the city.
19th century
The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 gave governing power of the town to an elected body. All other aspects of the Bishop's temporal powers were abolished by the Durham (County Palatine) Act 1836 and returned to the Crown.
The Representation of the People Act 2000 and is regarded as the second most senior bishop and fourth most senior clergyman in the Church of England. The Court of Claims of 1953 granted the traditional right of the bishop to accompany the sovereign at the coronation, reflecting his seniority.
The first census, conducted in 1801, states that Durham City had a population of 7,100. The Industrial Revolution mostly passed the city by. However, the city was well known for carpet making and weaving. Although most of the mediaeval weavers who thrived in the city had left by the 19th century, the city was the home of Hugh MacKay Carpets’ factory, which produced the famous brands of axminster and tufted carpets until the factory went into administration in April 2005. Other important industries were the manufacture of mustard and coal extraction.
The Industrial Revolution also placed the city at the heart of the coalfields, the county's main industry until the 1970s. Practically every village around the city had a coal mine and, although these have since disappeared as part of the regional decline in heavy industry, the traditions, heritage and community spirit are still evident.
The 19th century also saw the founding of Durham University thanks to the benevolence of Bishop William Van Mildert and the Chapter in 1832. Durham Castle became the first college (University College, Durham) and the bishop moved to Auckland Castle as his only residence in the county. Bishop Hatfield's Hall (later Hatfield College, Durham) was added in 1846 specifically for the sons of poorer families, the Principal inaugurating a system new to English university life of advance fees to cover accommodation and communal dining.
The first Durham Miners' Gala was attended by 5,000 miners in 1871 in Wharton Park, and remains the largest socialist trade union event in the world.
20th century
Early in the 20th century coal became depleted, with a particularly important seam worked out in 1927, and in the following Great Depression Durham was among those towns that suffered exceptionally severe hardship. However, the university expanded greatly. St John's College and St Cuthbert's Society were founded on the Bailey, completing the series of colleges in that area of the city. From the early 1950s to early 1970s the university expanded to the south of the city centre. Trevelyan, Van Mildert, Collingwood, and Grey colleges were established, and new buildings for St Aidan's and St Mary's colleges for women, formerly housed on the Bailey, were created. The final 20th century collegiate addition came from the merger of the independent nineteenth-century colleges of the Venerable Bede and St Hild, which joined the university in 1979 as the College of St Hild and St Bede. The 1960s and 70s also saw building on New Elvet. Dunelm House for the use of the students' union was built first, followed by Elvet Riverside, containing lecture theatres and staff offices. To the southeast of the city centre sports facilities were built at Maiden Castle, adjacent to the Iron Age fort of the same name, and the Mountjoy site was developed, starting in 1924, eventually containing the university library, administrative buildings, and facilities for the Faculty of Science.
Durham was not bombed during World War II, though one raid on the night of 30 May 1942 did give rise to the local legend of 'St Cuthbert's Mist'. This states that the Luftwaffe attempted to target Durham, but was thwarted when Cuthbert created a mist that covered both the castle and cathedral, sparing them from bombing. The exact events of the night are disputed by contemporary eyewitnesses. The event continues to be referenced within the city, including inspiring the artwork 'Fogscape #03238' at Durham Lumiere 2015.
'Durham Castle and Cathedral' was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. Among the reasons given for the decision were 'Durham Cathedral [being] the largest and most perfect monument of "Norman" style architecture in England', and the cathedral's vaulting being an early and experimental model of the gothic style. Other important UNESCO sites near Durham include Auckland Castle, North of England Lead Mining Museum and Beamish Museum.
Historical
The historic city centre of Durham has changed little over 200 years. It is made up of the peninsula containing the cathedral, palace green, former administrative buildings for the palatine and Durham Castle. This was a strategic defensive decision by the city's founders and gives the cathedral a striking position. So much so that Symeon of Durham stated:
To see Durham is to see the English Sion and by doing so one may save oneself a trip to Jerusalem.
Sir Walter Scott was so inspired by the view of the cathedral from South Street that he wrote "Harold the Dauntless", a poem about Saxons and Vikings set in County Durham and published on 30 January 1817. The following lines from the poem are carved into a stone tablet on Prebends Bridge:
Grey towers of Durham
Yet well I love thy mixed and massive piles
Half church of God, half castle 'gainst the Scot
And long to roam those venerable aisles
With records stored of deeds long since forgot.
The old commercial section of the city encompasses the peninsula on three sides, following the River Wear. The peninsula was historically surrounded by the castle wall extending from the castle keep and broken by two gatehouses to the north and west of the enclosure. After extensive remodelling and "much beautification" by the Victorians the walls were removed with the exception of the gatehouse which is still standing on the Bailey.
The medieval city was made up of the cathedral, castle and administrative buildings on the peninsula. The outlying areas were known as the townships and owned by the bishop, the most famous of these being Gilesgate (which still contains the mediaeval St Giles Church), Claypath and Elvet.
The outlying commercial section of the city, especially around the North Road area, saw much change in the 1960s during a redevelopment spearheaded by Durham City Council; however, much of the original mediaeval street plan remains intact in the area close to the cathedral and market place. Most of the mediaeval buildings in the commercial area of the city have disappeared apart from the House of Correction and the Chapel of Saint Andrew, both under Elvet Bridge. Georgian buildings can still be found on the Bailey and Old Elvet most of which make up the colleges of Durham University.
We offer outstanding pike fishing in our remote lakes because of the amazing vitality in our area and our careful fisheries management and care with catch and release policy in effect on many of our lakes. It seem as though the best trophy size northern pike fishing pictures seem to get bigger every year!
Well this weekend I kindly offered to help my mate Bill out who has just started a photography course at uni, and he asked if I'd do a bit of modeling for him, haha well I shouldn't really call it modeling more just doing random things around house, as the topic was domestic bliss. So yeah, when he puts the shots up I'll be shure to post a link for anyone interested! ;) haha
I suppose I should tell you how this shot came about then. I visited the Cathedral San Fransisco in Lima, with Pamela last year. So I had some shots of the inside of the church and Bill being the great HDR man (I've never attempted one in my life) I asked if he'd take the shots from the cathedral and when he's got some free time process a few for me. Well I arrived home from my indoor soccer final (which we won :D ) to find this in my inbox :) Thanks Bill, you've done a beautiful job of this shot of the main alter.
Shot By Ben Schablon
Processed by William Bullimore
Details:
Camera: Canon EOS 400D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Exposure: 3 exposures (-2,0,+2 EV)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 10mm
ISO Speed: 100
Accessories: Tripod, Shutter release cable
Date and Time: 28 October 2009 4.56pm
Post Processing:
Imported into Lightroom
Exported 3 exposures to Photomatix
Tonemap generated HDR using detail enhancer option
Exported tonemapped image to CS3
Contrast layer
Noise Reduction filter
Exported back to Lightroom
Crop tool
Added keyword metadata
Exported as JPEG
This is a photograph from the Clane and Rathcoffey Parishes annual 10KM and 5KM Road Races and Fun Runs which were held in Clane village, Co. Kildare, Ireland on Sunday 19th of October at 14:30. This year's event follows on from the very successful staging last year (see link to photographs below). The organisers offer both a 5km and 10km race and the event provides an opportunity for runners, joggers, and walkers of all abilities to take part in the event. The 5KM has a particular emphasis on family entrants. There was a wonderful atmosphere around the Village as both races started and finished on the main street outside the parish hall. The directly out-and-back routes provided an opportunity for a fast time on a good course and made for a great finish line atmosphere as runners, joggers, and walkers crossed the line. Great praise must be extended to the whole organising committee who organised a very efficiently run event. The events provide some runners with an opportunity to have a final race effort session in the week leading up to the Dublin City Marathon.
Event Management and Electronic Timing was provided by Irish company Precision Timing. Their website is here with links to results from the race www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer
This photograph is part of a larger set of photographs taken at today's event. Photographs were taken at the start, 400 meters gone, 400 meters to go, 1km gone, and at the 9KM/4KM mark. The URL of the full set of photographs is www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157636717081724/
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary and Logistics
Participants: There were about 200 competitors combined in the two events.
Weather: The weather was very changeable for all of the events. During the 10KM race there was a heavy rain shower around the area of the 6KM mark but this didn't actually fall in the town. There was a strong headwind against competitors in the 10KM on the return part of the course between 6KM and 8KM.
Race Course:
This summary includes information on both the 5KM and 10KM races.
Both races start in the same place - just outside the Race HQ on the main street of the town. The races then proceed north eastwards out the Dublin Road towards Straffan and Celbridge. Just after 400 meters the races take a left up a small local road and proceeds along this road until it takes a tight left hand turn at the end of the lane at Capdoo goo.gl/maps/aPo26 (Google Streetview). The route proceeds until it shortly meets the Clane-Kilcock Road - College Road R407 goo.gl/maps/SGcPa. Both races will divert into Clane Business and Industrial Park goo.gl/maps/EQMf0 . The 5KM turns around and returns on the same route to the finish. However the 10KM race continues (taking a left) back onto College Road. Soon afterwards it passes the famous entrance to Clongowes Wood College on the right the race takes the next left (goo.gl/maps/zUhrJ) and brings runners onto the road known locally as the 'Long Road' (R408 Between Rathcoffey and Prosperous) at this point goo.gl/maps/fHKr2. The race proceeds northward until runners meet the Clane Kilcock Road once again. With the exception of the partial run into the Industrial Estate the race returns to the finish on the main street in Clane via the same route as the outward part of the route.
Location Map:
Clane Parish Hall (Race HQ) goo.gl/maps/MgakJ
Start and Finish Location of both races goo.gl/maps/0wiZp
Refreshments:
There was a really wonderful array of refreshments provided in the parish hall after the race for all participants.
Some Useful Links Associated with this Race Event
Facebook Page of the Clane and Rathcoffey Parish: www.facebook.com/ParishOfClaneRathcoffey (May require Facebook login)
Homepage of the Parish of Clane and Rathcoffey: www.claneparish.com/2013/09/parish-run-sunday-20th-octobe...
Garmin Connect GPS Trace of the 2013 Clane 10KM Race: connect.garmin.com/activity/391624847
Garmin Connect GPS Trace of the 2013 Clane 5KM Race: connect.garmin.com/activity/381169067
Boards.ie Athletics Forum Discussion on the 2013 Race: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057062190
Our Flickr Set of Photographs from the 2012 Clane 5KM and 10KM Races: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157631820732362/
Please note: These links are provided for information purposes. Some of these links might become obselete or dead links as time passess. We cannot be responsible for the content on these external websites. All websites were checked before posting here to ensure that they 'did what they said on the tin'.
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account?
Yes - of course you can. Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
How can I get full resolution copies of these photographs?
To prevent missue of these photographs there is a watermark embedded into the images. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution without the watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images without the watermark: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.
This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
offers complete sim/parcel design, landscaping and interior design. LICK is dedicated to creating beautiful, enchanting spaces for your home or business. Dare to Dream
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Taken at LICK Sim Designs - The End of the World as We Know It, Oyster Bay (114, 116, 29)
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Adjacent Walnut Acres, this home is nestled near million dollar homes on a quiet, tree-lined well lit cul-de-sac, where many have lived for twenty plus years. Within walking distance to stores, banks, movies and more… 3 miles to Woodland Hills Elementary, 2 miles to Topanga Plaza & Westfield Malls, 5 miles to Pierce College with easy access to 101 freeway 2 miles away. The home is located 10 minutes from Warner Center and 20 minutes to many local beaches.
This is a fantastic home that has been well taken care of featuring more custom upgrades than can even be mentioned in a beautiful neighborhood adjoining Walnut Acres…
one of the nicest areas in Woodland Hills.
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SL Frees & Offers in Second Life
Credits: slfreeworldforall.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/rock-girl-v2.html
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SL Fashion Week
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. . . 2. 3. 2007 - this is the first day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week. Today we will see the showing of the water buffalos, pigs, cow, horse, deer and chicken. All these animals are offered to be the servants of the died woman in her new life after death in Puya. We will see buffalo fighting. Men bet for the winner of those fightings. Two buffalos fight each other - the one running away lost the fight!
If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.
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The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to
CHRISTIANITY
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
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