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Optimistically entitled, this treaty promised an alliance between England and Scotland, sealed with a marriage alliance. James IV of Scotland was betrothed to Princess Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII of England. The borders of this document illustrate the thistle (James’ emblem), the Tudor rose and the marguerete representing Margaret.

 

This document is held in the National Archives.

 

Some times you need a little help to stay optimistic. :)

ODC: Positive Thinking

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,

there will be an answer, let it be.

For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,

there will be an answer. let it be.

 

Let It Be ~ The Beatles

 

Nicole and I had a lil' photo shoot yesterday :) FLIPPING COLD hahaha

 

I feel extremely optimistic about anything and everything in my life. 2011 is a good year. I already know it, and I know it because I am making it the best it can be. I can't even explain how amazing I feel. It's not like anything exciting is happening or will happen. Who really knows? I'm just so incredibly optimistic and that is all that truly matters.

Optimistic? Or being let down over the phone?

Joey was hoping there would be at least one piece left over from his big brothers' pizza snack.

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.

 

"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.

 

That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.

 

"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."

 

Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.

 

Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.

 

“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.

 

When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.

 

“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”

 

Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.

 

The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.

 

The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.

 

Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.

 

Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.

 

“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.

 

Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.

 

Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.

 

In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.

 

Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.

 

There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”

 

www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.

 

"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.

 

That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.

 

"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."

 

Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.

 

Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.

 

“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.

 

When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.

 

“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”

 

Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.

 

The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.

 

The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.

 

Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.

 

Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.

 

“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.

 

Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.

 

Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.

 

In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.

 

Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.

 

There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”

 

www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...

Optimistically headboarded Peckett 0-4-0ST no 2111 'Lytham St Anne's' fair belts along with the Midland Railway Centre vintage train.

- Pigeons are a common sight in the UK and are often seen as pests due to their reputation in urban areas and it's easy to forget them as doting parents. As I was working today I watched this Wood Pigeon spend twenty minutes or so struting about the lawn inspecting numerous twigs and sticks which might pass the judgement of his nesting partner, discarding many as either not the correct length or thickness. Clearly impressed with this selection it ultimately proved too much to manage and more appropriate building material was eventually chosen. Thurnham Court, Devizes.

An overly optimistic photographer was waiting for one more ray of sun.

 

He told me he had seen photos of the arch lit from the underneath at sunset. Well, he may have to wait there till a different time of the year, because on that day the sun definitely was not going to jump up a little higher in the sky just to humor him!.

 

The strange thing to his right is a shrub, though it looks more like a lying matted wild boar.

 

"Mesa Arch is perched on the east rim of the Island in the Sky plateau (or mesa) high above the middle fork of Buck Canyon. The view through the arch, looking out towards the distant and often snow-covered La Sal Mountains, is one of the most photographed in the park, especially at sunrise."

 

The Island in the Sky district of the Canyonlands National Park, Utah. November 2019

(Everything about this shot - from the angle to shoot it at, to perfecting the pose, to choosing the right body position - was a pain in my ass but I really liked the idea of this shot & do love the outcome so I guess it's worth it ;3)

Savemart tee, Carlson sample-sale skirt.

unfortunately i had no time to mount my zoom lens, so the always mounted 50mm gave its best for another time

A MKU3A visit to the Chinese New Year in London.

 

My old photostream is at www.flickr.com/photos/emaybe/

A positive attitude is important, but it is only part of the story. Understanding how to surmount pain, doubt, and failure is a vital component in winning the game of life.

- Chin-Ning Chu

Your optimistic eyes

Seem like paradise

To someone like

Me

I want to take you

In my arms

Forgetting all I couldn't do today

Black Celebration.

 

Depeche Mode/Gore

 

OM4

Vivitar 19/3.8

Fomapan 100@200

No filter

Rodinal R09 1:100 60mins@20c

 

Выставка “Этюды оптимизма”

Параллельная программа европейской бьеннале современного искусства

“Манифеста 10″, Санкт Петербург, 2014

 

“Optimistic studies” exhibition

Parallel program of European biennale of Contemporary Arts

“Manifesta 10″, Saint-Petersburg, 2014

 

Автор фотографии: Владислав Ефимов

anvilrosenkreuz.ru/projects/optimistic-studies/

As it would turn out for Charleston in 2017, the last place where the eclipse would be in the USA, there was rain that happened right as the event came around.

Banbury, UK

ISO1600 f4.4 10mm

 

Testing out the higher ISO capabilities of the new Olympus OM-D. Massively improved from the Pen series where anything above ISO800 was a recipe for disaster. Like many have found, the default noise reduction and sharpening (used here) is too aggressive leading to a slight smudginess when viewed at 100%. I am optimistic that tweaking the settings or shooting in RAW will alleviate this minor grievance.

taken at the nokia store downtown. the walls change colors every once in a while.

 

A toy car dumped in a local pond. The reflection completes its smile, seems like an optimistic type.

 

184. My middle name is: Hoenugget.

183. My great grandma's nickname: Nana (I hate the other one)

182. I was born in: TN

181: I am really: Optimistic >_>

180. My cellphone company is: Verizon

179. My eye color is: Black

178. My shoe size: A women's 11.

177. My ring size is: Who knows. ;P

176. My height: 5'something

175. I'm allergic to: Nothing

174. My first job: Havent had one yet, suckas. ;P

173. My first car: Havent had any. .___.

172. My bed is: Well I have a bunk bed with random blankets on it.

171. My pet: 7 kitties.

170. My best friend: Avabumpbe! :D

169. My favorite shampoo: Lol, whatever my mom buys, but I prefer scented kinds, like strawberries. Yeah, those smell nice.

168. AIM name: Dont have one.

167. Piggy banks are: For 5-year-old's.

166. In my pockets: Various chapsticks and lipglosses. And my phone.

165. On my calender: Nothing really. I dont care. Lol. ;P

164. Marriage is: Trouble for everyone. e_e

163. My mom is: She's very close to me, even though she grounds me a lot for dumb reasons, I wouldnt have anything without her.

162. The last CDs I bought were: Gorillaz albums

161. The last video I watched: Jenna Marbles video. Lol.

160. How many cousins I have: A lot. e_____e

159. Do you have any siblings? An older sister and an older brother who is a lumberjack. Lol. (Only Ava would understand)

158. Are your parents divorced? Yuppers.

157. Are you taller than yo momma? Nupe. -.- My whole family is tall.

156. Do you play instruments? I want to but my mom refuses to let me.

155. What did you do yesterday? Go to art class alone because mah best friend, Ava, is out of town. D;

 

~Belive in~

154. Love at first site? Yus.

153. Luck? Um, sometimes.

152. Fate? I have a different definition of fate. e.e

151. Yourself? Not really. :P

150. Aliens? Yup.

149. Heaven? I believe that Im going to come back as a different life form. I'm Buddhist.

148. Hell? ^^

147. God? Buddha.

146. Horoscopes? Not really but I read them.

145. Soulmates? My friends. Forever and Always.

144. Ghosts? Yushhhh.

115. Six flags or Disney? Disney.

114. Yankees or Red socks? I really dont care.

 

~Here's what I think About~

113. War: Bull Shissa.

112. George Bush: An old white guy.

111. Gay marrige? I support gay rights. Theres nothing wrong with happiness.

110: Presidentiol election: I really do not care.

109. Abortion: I dont care. ;P

108. MySpace: Lol, I hacked my sisters. Dead.

107. Reality TV: Never watched it.

106. Parents: I love my dad and my mom even though theyre a real pain sometimes.

105. Backstabbers: Call me when you grow up.

104. eBay: _>

86. Got your nails done: First week of summer.

85. Went to a wedding: Um like in 12 years.

84: Broke a bone: Never! Wooh.

83: Got a piercing: 3rd grade.

82. Broke a law: A while ago when I was with Ava. Lol Walmart.

81. Texted: Just now.

 

~Misc~

80. Who makes you laugh most? Ava. XDDDD

79. Something I really miss when I leave home: My phone charger and the loneliness of being locked in my room.<3

78. The last movie I saw: Napoleon Dynamite for the 1700000000000 time.

77. The thing I am looking for most: Self peace.

76. The thing I am not looking forward to: Going to a new school.

75. People call me: Annoying, loud, funny. Yup.

74. The most difficult thing to do: Take math tests.

73. When getting a speeding ticket: HAH, never got one.

72. My zodiac sign: An Aquarius.

71. The first person I talked to today: My mom.

70. First time you had a crush? Hmmm, Ive never really had a crush. Every guy I know hates me.

69. The one person you can't hide anything from: Ava and Ally.

68. Last time you said something you were thinking: LOL.

67. Right now I'm talking to: Ava!

66. What are you going to be when you grow up? A Liger.

65. I have/will get a job: When I turn 16 hopefully.

64. Tomorrow: I will be doing nothing Soon to be green.

53. TV show I watch: I watch anime online.

52. Favorite website: Google+ Facebook and Flickr.

51. Dream Vacation: London or Africa.

50. The worst pain you were in: When ever I see or hear my grandma's name.

49. How do you like your steak cooked? I dont like steak.

48. My room is: Pink and yellow.

47. Favorite celebrities: Gorillaz, Blur. Nuff said.

46. Where would you like to be? With Ava.<3

45. Do you want kids? No, then Id have to spend money on them. Unless my husband did.

44. Ever been in love? Well not really with a person.

43. Your best friend? Ava, and Ally.

42. More guy friends or girl friends? Girl. I go to an all girls school but Im moving to a co-ed school next year. .____. Im scurred.

41. One thing that makes you feel great is: When I get B's or higher in math.

40. One person you wish you could see right now: Ava and Ally. I miss them.

39. One place you'd like to move: Africa or London.

38: I wish I was a personal: e_e No idea.

 

~Favorites~

37. Candy: Jujubees.

36. Vehicle: Geep.

35.President: I dont give a crap.

34. City visited: LA

33.Cellphone provider: Verizon?

32. Athelete: Dont care. Lol.

31. Actress: I dunno.

30. Actor: JON HEDER, CAN I MARRY YOU?

29. Singer: Gorilllllazzzzzzzzz and Blur. So basically Damon Alabrn, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Emilie Autumn.

28. Bands: Gorillaz and Blur.

27. Clothing store: I dont care.

26. Grocery store: Lol Target?

25. TV show: NAPOLEON DYNAMITE/

24. Movie: NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.

23. Website: Flickr, Google+, Facebook.

22. Animal: CATS, AND CATS ONLY.

21. Theme park: Ahhh Universal Studios. <3 So fun.

20. Holiday: Christmas and Halloween.

19. Sport to watch: I hate watching sports.

18. Sport to play: Tennis.

17. Magazine: ...Dont read them.

16. Book: Vampire Knight.

15. Day of the week: Friday.

14. Beach: Beaches disgust me. I prefer private swimming pools.

13. Concerts atended: Well Ive only been to a Miley Cyrus concert and a Heart concert. e_e

12. Thing to cook: Pffft, I dont cook.

11. Food: FRUIT<3

10. Resturant: Um...?

9. Radio station: My earbuds.

8. Yankee Candle scent: I like the smell of coconuts.

7. Clogne: Rihanna perfumeeeee.

6. Flower: Japanese Cherry Blossoms<3

5. Color: Yellow!<3

4. Talk show host: Lol No one.

3. Comedians: I like my friends who are funny. e3e

2. Dog breed: I. HATE. DOGS. A LOT.

1. Are you happy this is over: Oh, sure.

  

Boy, it was this kind of day when you look back at it, you think...oh yeah Inferno.

Despite the detailed manual (in german), we were pretty optimistic on our chances to complete the process.

Fools that we were ! I don't know why we decided to lunch at Interlaken with a couple of french pals, but from that point the race for the park was on...In Oberhofen (T1 road bike park, checking in), everything was going smoothly in this heavenly haven. we were kind of just amazed by the "swissness" of the place, clinical neatness, yeah... anything has a place and a place for anything. We are French don't forget, land of revolution and some endemic allergies to rules (especially littering).

While we were heading to the next park (T2 - Mountain bike, Grindelwald), I saw a women running, some frantic discussion with the staff that I did not hear however it was definitely not a small talk, her body gesture was suggesting a sort of emergency. We continue our recon of the water exit path when clearly people in front of us next to the shore were literally freezing, (hum...not moving). Something weird was happening, this kind of moment that your unconscious mind know before it hits the frontal lobes. I through a glance above the parapet and there was this French guy with his swim goggles on in the water asking loudly (in french) where ? And then he dived...F...k drowning situation here, I called my buddies, swimmer gear now !

 

Don't panic, everybody was calling the rescue services (kudo for mobile phone era), check.

everyone out of the water (except the french rescuers) check.

 

the first guy pulled out a man (80 kg minimum) from the blue, not an easy task especially if the drown man was down under 5 meters. It feels that he knew how to proceed, my friends Jean Francois, Cyril and Raphael helped him out to put

the poor guy next to the wall. Unfortunately, it was not on waterfree environment, a shallow water was enough to perform CPR.

The guy started to vomit, that is good, no water in the lungs, some pulses were even there. The crowd (ok only 10 people max, it was sort of strange to know that 50 meters away triathlete were unaware of this situation) was encouraging the guy, come on, hang in there, fight dammit, as if he was racing against ...death ?

Unfortunately they lost the pulse, and then we went silenced, just like if we were praying in our head. Cyril shouted at me, Where is that bloody oxygen ?

Ok, it should have been here (the mandatory equipment in Switzerland should include an oxygen tank, did the women explain properly the situation to the person in charge of the swimming pool ?) time to move, I ran to the swimming pool and gosh...where did my proficient English go ? Finally, the women in charge at the swimming pool was looking into it at...snail pace. Frustration, that was my state of mind.

I came back to the scene, and they were still performing CPR, then a person from the swimming pool came with a defibrillator...ok, no oxy, and you know what ? can't perform a defib in shallow water. So they have to drag the body 50 meters to a dry location. In the meantime, some people succeeded to have crucial info on the timing. 5 minutes that was the time his girlfriend realized he was missing, 2 more minutes the diver needed to find him. 7 minutes accrued, it was still worth a try but it was a lot of minutes for the brain without O2.

The defib said ...continue to CPR (thank you dude !), time is an elastic concept and this kind of situation proved it, where are the goddamn rescue ? They came by boat and road, and installed a security perimeter, started to CPR with a stronger stance, but still no recovery. We were sort of depressed I have to confess, nothing we can do at this point, the slight pre race pressure we could have was gone for sure. We were meditating on the fragile line of life of our existence. Of course we need to prove our mortality through all kind of stuff (Inferno triathlon is one of them) but just a simple lack of air reminds us our condition.

 

Inferno or paradisio ? We have to move on, leave the drama, persuading ourselves that we did our best.

that's the best I can say about events in today's world; if I felt otherwise, my pessimism might get the best of me

An optimistic sign points to a construction fence.

 

East Decatur Greenway

Decatur (Winnona Park), Georgia, USA.

15 March 2019.

 

**************

▶ (Temporary) northern terminus of the East Decatur Greenwayhiker/biker trail, at Derrydown Way and E. Freeman Street, just east of nearly completed Avondale MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transit Authority) mixed-use "transit oriented development."

▶ The trail will eventually terminate just northwest of this spot at "a state of the art pedestrian/cyclist plaza," providing connection to MARTA transit and the PATH Stone Mountain Trail.

 

****************

▶ Completed in late 2019. See it in 2021: here.

▶ How it appeared in 2017: here.

▶ The other end of the trail: here.

 

****************

▶ Photo by Yours For Good Fermentables.com.

— Follow on Twitter: @Cizauskas.

— Follow on Facebook: YoursForGoodFermentables.

— Follow on Instagram: @tcizauskas.

▶ For a larger image, type 'L' (without the quotation marks).

▶ Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1.

— Lens: Fujian 35mm ƒ/1.6 CCTV II cine lens

— Focal length: 35.0 mm

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— ISO: 200

— Edit: Photoshop Elements 15.

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Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to successfully adapt to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or other highly adverse conditions.Adversity and stress can come in the shape of family or relationship problems, health problems, or workplace and financial worries, among others. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from a negative experience with "competent functioning". Resilience is not a rare ability; in reality, it is found in the average individual and it can be learned and developed by virtually anyone. Resilience is a process, rather than a trait to be had. It is a process of individuation through a structured system with gradual discovery of personal and unique abilities. A common misconception is that resilient people are free from negative emotions or thoughts, and remain optimistic in most or all situations. To the contrary, resilient individuals have, through time, developed proper coping techniques that allow them to effectively and relatively easily navigate around or through crises. In other words, people who demonstrate resilience are people with optimistic attitudes and positive emotionality; they are, in practice, able to effectively counter negative emotions with positive emotions. Compare the pressures you face in a typical week with a few years ago: have they increased? Now think about the years ahead: are the pressures likely to keep growing? If you’re answering 'yes', this could be a good time to review and renew your strategies for resilience. Alan Heeks has many years’ experience of exploring how people can raise their wellbeing and resilience through contact with nature.Resilience is generally thought of as a "positive adaptation" after a stressful or adverse situation. When a person is "bombarded by daily stress, it disrupts their internal and external sense of balance, presenting challenges as well as opportunities." Resilience is the integrated adaptation of physical, mental and spiritual aspects in a set of "good or bad" circumstances, a coherent sense of self that is able to maintain normative developmental tasks that occur at various stages of life. The Children's Institute of the University of Rochester explains that "resilience research is focused on studying those who engage in life with hope and humor despite devastating losses". It is important to note that resilience is not only about overcoming a deeply stressful situation, but also coming out of the said situation with "competent functioning". Resiliency allows a person to rebound from adversity as a strengthened and more resourceful person. “One of the themes that emerges from these groups is that people feel increasingly depleted by everyday life and work, and it’s getting worse.

"There are many reasons for this, including the many hours spent with smartphones and screens, which mean that they are constantly overloaded with too much information, and alarming news from across the globe. Medical School quotes many research studies showing how long hours in front of screens put people in a continual state of alert, which makes it hard for them both to concentrate, and also to relax. An example of what we can learn from nature is composting: in woods, as in organic farms and gardens, the major source of future growth is waste, dead matter which can be transformed into nutrition for future growth.Resilience is generally thought of as a "positive adaptation" after a stressful or adverse situation.[8] When a person is "bombarded by daily stress, it disrupts their internal and external sense of balance, presenting challenges as well as opportunities." Resilience is the integrated adaptation of physical, mental and spiritual aspects in a set of "good or bad" circumstances, a coherent sense of self that is able to maintain normative developmental tasks that occur at various stages of life. The Children's Institute of the University of Rochester explains that "resilience research is focused on studying those who engage in life with hope and humor despite devastating losses". It is important to note that resilience is not only about overcoming a deeply stressful situation, but also coming out of the said situation with "competent functioning". Resiliency allows a person to rebound from adversity as a strengthened and more resourceful person. You could do the same: imagine recycling negative feelings and anxious thoughts, and using their energy to give you insights and growth. Another theme which emerges for some people at the wood is their concerns for the state of the world, climate change, and damage to the environment. Many people feel helpless about such problems, and simply stuff their worries down. Alan said: “I find that these deep, denied worries affect a lot of people, and sap their energy and resilience. We offer a range of processes, such as composting and deep ecology, to help people face these anxieties, and find a more positive outlook.” The way to positive change for the state of our world begins with dreams. He points out that dreams, in the sense of inspiring visions, and myths, in the sense of prevailing beliefs, have a huge influence in our world. It believes that the wisdom of Gaia, planet earth, can team up with the inventiveness of humans, to find solutions even to the current threats. The mega-crisis represents a mega-opportunity. You could look at it as a chance for humans to grow dramatically in resilience, and in their connection with Nature. We have to dare to dream: if we can at least carry a vision of the future we hope for, it starts to gather momentum.” He provides organic growth approaches for people and their work that help to build resilience. Jane has many years’ experience of working with mindfulness, deep ecology and other approaches to wellbeing, and is part of the Wisdom Tree team.Resilience is generally thought of as a "positive adaptation" after a stressful or adverse situation.[8] When a person is "bombarded by daily stress, it disrupts their internal and external sense of balance, presenting challenges as well as opportunities." Resilience is the integrated adaptation of physical, mental and spiritual aspects in a set of "good or bad" circumstances, a coherent sense of self that is able to maintain normative developmental tasks that occur at various stages of life.The Children's Institute of the University of Rochester explains that "resilience research is focused on studying those who engage in life with hope and humor despite devastating losses". It is important to note that resilience is not only about overcoming a deeply stressful situation, but also coming out of the said situation with "competent functioning". Resiliency allows a person to rebound from adversity as a strengthened and more resourceful person.Three notable bases for resilience, self-confidence, self-esteem and self-concept, all have roots in three different nervous systems—respectively, the somatic nervous system, the autonomic nervous system and the central nervous system. An emerging field in the study of resilience is the neurobiological basis of resilience to stress. For example, neuropeptide Y (NPY) and 5-Dehydroepiandrosterone (5-DHEA) are thought to limit the stress response by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation and protecting the brain from the potentially harmful effects of chronically elevated cortisol levels respectively. In addition, the relationship between social support and stress resilience is thought to be mediated by the oxytocin system's impact on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. "Resilience, conceptualized as a positive bio-psychological adaptation, has proven to be a useful theoretical context for understanding variables for predicting long-term health and well-being".There is some limited research that, like trauma, resilience is epigenetic—that is, it may be inherited—but the science behind this finding is preliminary.Studies show that there are several factors which develop and sustain a person's resilience: The ability to make realistic plans and being capable of taking the steps necessary to follow through with them

Confidence in one’s strengths and abilities

Communication and problem-solving skills

The ability to manage strong impulses and feelings

Resilience is negatively correlated with personality traits of neuroticism and negative emotionality, which represents tendencies to see and react to the world as threatening, problematic, and distressing, and to view oneself as vulnerable. Positive correlations stands with personality traits of openness and positive emotionality, that represents tendencies to engage and confront the world with confidence in success and a fair value to self-directedness.There is significant research found in scientific literature on the relationship between positive emotions and resilience. Studies show that maintaining positive emotions whilst facing adversity promote flexibility in thinking and problem solving. Positive emotions serve an important function in their ability to help an individual recover from stressful experiences and encounters. That being said, maintaining a positive emotionality aids in counteracting the physiological effects of negative emotions. It also facilitates adaptive coping, builds enduring social resources, and increases personal well-being. Formation of conscious perception and monitoring one's own socioemotional factors is considered as a stablity aspect of positive emotions.[citation needed] This is not to say that positive emotions are merely a by-product of resilience, but rather that feeling positive emotions during stressful experiences may have adaptive benefits in the coping process of the individual. Empirical evidence for this prediction arises from research on resilient individuals who have a propensity for coping strategies that concretely elicit positive emotions, such as benefit-finding and cognitive reappraisal, humor, optimism, and goal-directed problem-focused coping. Individuals who tend to approach problems with these methods of coping may strengthen their resistance to stress by allocating more access to these positive emotional resources.Social support from caring adults encouraged resilience among participants by providing them with access to conventional activities.Positive emotions not only have physical outcomes but also physiological ones. Some physiological outcomes caused by humor include improvements in immune system functioning and increases in levels of salivary immunoglobulin A, a vital system antibody, which serves as the body’s first line of defense in respiratory illnesses. Moreover, other health outcomes include faster injury recovery rate and lower readmission rates to hospitals for the elderly, and reductions in a patient’s stay in the hospital, among many other benefits. A study was done on positive emotions in trait-resilient individuals and the cardiovascular recovery rate following negative emotions felt by those individuals. The results of the study showed that trait-resilient individuals experiencing positive emotions had an acceleration in the speed in rebounding from cardiovascular activation initially generated by negative emotional arousal, i.e. heart rate and the like.A study was conducted among high achieving professionals who seek challenging situations that require resilience. Research has examined 13 high achievers from various professions, all of whom had experienced challenges in the workplace and negative life events over the course of their careers but who had also been recognized for their great achievements in their respective fields. Participants were interviewed about everyday life in the workplace as well as their experiences with resilience and thriving. The study found six main predictors of resilience: positive and proactive personality, experience and learning, sense of control, flexibility and adaptability, balance and perspective, and perceived social support. High achievers were also found to engage in many activities unrelated to their work such as engaging in hobbies, exercising, and organizing meetups with friends and loved ones. Several factors are found to modify the negative effects of adverse life situations. Many studies show that the primary factor is to have relationships that provide care and support, create love and trust, and offer encouragement, both within and outside the family. Additional factors are also associated with resilience, like the capacity to make realistic plans, having self-confidence and a positive self image,developing communications skills, and the capacity to manage strong feelings and impulses. Temperamental and constitutional disposition is considered as a major factor in resilience. It is one of the necessary precursors of resilience along with warmth in family cohesion and accessibility of prosocial support systems. There are three kinds of temperamental systems that play part in resilience, they are the appetitive system, defensive system and attentional system. Another protective factor is related to moderating the negative effects of environmental hazards or a stressful situation in order to direct vulnerable individuals to optimistic paths, such as external social support. More specifically a 1995 study distinguished three contexts for protective factors:personal attributes, including outgoing, bright, and positive self-concepts; the family, such as having close bonds with at least one family member or an emotionally stable parent; and the community, such as receiving support or counsel from peers. Furthermore, a study of the elderly in Zurich, Switzerland, illuminated the role humor plays as a coping mechanism to maintain a state of happiness in the face of age-related adversity. Besides the above distinction on resilience, research has also been devoted to discovering the individual differences in resilience. Self-esteem, ego-control, and ego-resiliency are related to behavioral adaptation. For example, maltreated children who feel good about themselves may process risk situations differently by attributing different reasons to the environments they experience and, thereby, avoid producing negative internalized self-perceptions. Ego-control is "the threshold or operating characteristics of an individual with regard to the expression or containment"[49] of their impulses, feelings, and desires. Ego-resilience refers to "dynamic capacity, to modify his or her model level of ego-control, in either direction, as a function of the demand characteristics of the environmental context"Maltreated children who experienced some risk factors (e.g., single parenting, limited maternal education, or family unemployment), showed lower ego-resilience and intelligence than nonmaltreated children. Furthermore, maltreated children are more likely than nonmaltreated children to demonstrate disruptive-aggressive, withdraw, and internalized behavior problems. Finally, ego-resiliency, and positive self-esteem were predictors of competent adaptation in the maltreated children. Demographic information (e.g., gender) and resources (e.g., social support) are also used to predict resilience. Examining people's adaptation after disaster showed women were associated with less likelihood of resilience than men. Also, individuals who were less involved in affinity groups and organisations showed less resilience.

Certain aspects of religions and spirituality may, hypothetically, promote or hinder certain psychological virtues that increase resilience. Research has not established connection between spirituality and resilience. According to the 4th edition of Psychology of Religion by Hood, et al., the "study of positive psychology is a relatively new development...there has not yet been much direct empirical research looking specifically at the association of religion and ordinary strengths and virtues".In a review of the literature on the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and PTSD, amongst the significant findings, about half of the studies showed a positive relationship and half showed a negative relationship between measures of religiosity/spirituality and resilience. The United States Army has received criticism for promoting spirituality in its new [Comprehensive Soldier Fitness] program as a way to prevent PTSD, due to the lack of conclusive supporting data. In military studies it has been found that resilience is also dependent on group support: unit cohesion and morale is the best predictor of combat resiliency within a unit or organization. Resilience is highly correlated to peer support and group cohesion. Units with high cohesion tend to experience a lower rate of psychological breakdowns than units with low cohesion and morale. High cohesion and morale enhance adaptive stress reactions.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience

Optimistic destination chalking...

www.usaraf.army.mil

  

On the front line against malaria: Army medical researchers in Kenya mark World Malaria Day 2010

 

By Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Africa

 

KISUMU, Kenya – Hundreds of local people gathered Sunday at Kit Mikayi primary school to mark World Malaria Day 2010 with educational skits, songs and dance.

 

Among them was Lt. Col. Maria Bovill, director of U.S. Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya’s Kombewa Clinical Research Center – where research into the world’s first phase three clinical trial of a malaria vaccine is underway.

 

The daylong event offered a great opportunity for the people to share information about the advances of malaria research and reiterate prevention measures with the community, Bovill said.

 

“This is important for the community where we work, to recognize the advancements in malaria research and prevention,” Bovill said. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

 

Crowds danced on the school’s soccer field to live music performed by local musicians who tailored their lyrics to the day’s message – wiping out malaria in Africa. People presented skits to dispel malaria myths and stress preventative measures. Screenings for malaria and HIV were available, as were immunizations and pharmacy prescriptions.

 

“We all hope that one day this disease will no longer be a reality of everyday life for so many people,” Bovill said, during her remarks at the event.

 

In the U.S., malaria campaigns over the weekend ranged from photo exhibits to baseball stadiums. In several cities, people slept outside under mosquito nets to raise awareness. Media events were held in Europe, Asia and Africa.

 

But the front line in the fight against malaria is arguably near Kisumu, along the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya’s Nyanza province. Home to the Luo people, the area is where President Barack Obama’s father came from. Some of Obama’s paternal family still lives nearby. The World Malaria Day event took place a stone’s throw from Kit-Mikayi, a 70-foot tall rock formation sacred to the Luo people.

 

“We took time to come here today to show our local community that we are dedicated, to be here with them and recognize the fight against malaria,” said Agnes Onyango, who works alongside Bovill at the Kombewa Clinical Research Center. “We let people know that adding vaccine trials to other efforts can work, so malaria stops killing the innocent.”

 

In a statement released Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a new six-year strategy to combat malaria. The goal is to cut malaria illnesses and deaths by 50 percent in most affected countries of sub-Saharan Africa by 2014.

 

U.S. Army medical researchers have been combating disease in East Africa for more than four decades. In 1969, Kenya invited the U.S. Army to study trypanosomiasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by the tsetse fly. In 1973, the unit was permanently established in Nairobi, working through an agreement with the Kenya Medical Research Institute.

 

USAMRU-K has a staff of 12 U.S. Army Soldiers, two Army civilians and over 500 Kenyan contractors – a mix of doctors, nurses, scientists, laboratory technicians and administrative staff who work together to research, test and prevent disease. They collaborate with Kenyan health officials, U.S. civilian and military organizations, private companies and universities, plus nongovernmental organizations and non-profit foundations.

 

With the establishment of U.S. Army Africa, USAMRU-K is now coordinating its established missions with new Army initiatives on the continent. USAMRU-K, known locally as the Walter Reed Project, is named for U.S. Army Maj. Walter Reed, who in 1900 discovered mosquitoes transmit yellow fever. Now, USAMRU-K efforts are focused on malaria – another disease transmitted through infected mosquitoes.

 

With U.S. Army Africa Soldiers and U.S. Africa Command service members performing more missions on the continent, USAMRU-K’s role in Africa serves as a model for interaction in Kenya and elsewhere. Additionally, USAMRU-K studies infectious diseases those troops will face in order to determine what force health measures to implement and subsequently, protect the Soldier.

 

Currently, USAMRU-K is taking part in a vaccine trial that may produce the world’s first malaria vaccine for children. Research participants receive free healthcare for the duration of the three-year study, known to researchers as MAL-55. Later this year, USAMRU-K will undertake another study to gauge the vaccine’s effectiveness specifically in HIV-infected children.

 

Bovill, an Army dietitian with two-decades in uniform, hails from Raceland, La., a small town roughly 60 miles southwest of New Orleans. In Aug. 2009, she became the head of USAMRU-K’s Muriithi-Wellde Clinical Research Center in Kombewa, just as MAL-55 began.

 

Fueled by two decades of research, MAL-55 is the first malaria vaccine trial to reach this phase of study. Once proven safe and effective, the vaccine could be marketed to others, she said. The current study is the result of a partnership that includes the nonprofit Malaria Vaccine Initiative and the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Smith Kline.

 

At Kombewa, 1,000 children, from five to 17 months , already take part. The next step is to find 1,000 more participants as young as six weeks. That means building trust with new mothers in rural villages, who often give birth at home, Bovill said.

 

“Community relations is very important,” Bovill said. “The key ingredient is our staff of 70 field workers, whom we rely upon to explain the study to local people.”

 

During World Malaria Day, the study’s field workers – young Kenyans who interact with potential study volunteers from the community – performed a dramatic scene and recited a poem in Luo, before declaring loudly to the disease itself that they were there to “push you out of Kenya, Africa and the whole world.”

 

Like most people in the community, Calvin Odhiambo, 23, has firsthand experience with the disease. That motivates him as he explains the vaccine research to others.

 

“Today, we celebrate efforts made together to take initiative, measures to reduce or eradicate malaria – from mosquito nets and drug tests to further vaccine research,” Odhiambo said. “The community here is very optimistic.”

 

Sometimes people are hard to persuade, which is the reason why public events such as World Malaria Day are so important, said Maureen Ochieng, a 25-year-old field representative who is often going door-to-door to explain the study to mothers of young children.

 

“To one woman I said ‘go listen to the briefing, see where you end up. She went, understood what she heard and consented. She is now a very cooperative volunteer.”

 

In a few months, Tom Onyano Oludhe will be a father. The 25-year-old field representative for USAMRU-K's malaria vaccine research grew up hearing of people crippled with polio, a disease he saw eliminated in his lifetime. When he is out in the community discussing the malaria study with potential participants, he often thinks about how his own child may not have to endure the effects of malaria.

 

“It’s satisfying to know that malaria may one day be out of the question, like measles or polio,” Oludhe said. “Even more satisfying is to know that I was a part of it and how I can tell my children that. I’m privileged. “

 

To learn more about U.S. Army Africa visit our official website at www.usaraf.army.mil

 

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Location: Ibsley in the New forest.

Camera: fujifilm X-T1 with 18-55mm f/2.8 lens.

Graffiti’s Cozy, Feminine Side

By MALIA WOLLAN-ny times

 

THE bronze statue of Rocky near the Philadelphia Museum of Art irked Jessie Hemmons. She found the statue too big, too macho and too touristy, so last month Ms. Hemmons, a 24-year-old artist, bombed him. With pinkish yarn.

   

Using a stepladder and a needle, Ms. Hemmons stitched a fuchsia-colored hooded vest on the fictional boxer with the words “Go See the Art” emblazoned across the front, to prod tourists to visit the museum that so many skip after snapping their photo with the statue.

   

She calls the act of artistic vandalism “yarn bombing,” adapting a term for plastering an area with graffiti tags.

   

“Street art and graffiti are usually so male dominated,” Ms. Hemmons said. “Yarn bombing is more feminine. It’s like graffiti with grandma sweaters.”

   

Yarn bombing takes that most matronly craft (knitting) and that most maternal of gestures (wrapping something cold in a warm blanket) and transfers it to the concrete and steel wilds of the urban streetscape. Hydrants, lampposts, mailboxes, bicycles, cars — even objects as big as buses and bridges — have all been bombed in recent years, ever so softly and usually at night.

   

It is a global phenomenon, with yarn bombers taking their brightly colored fuzzy work to Europe, Asia and beyond. In Paris, a yarn culprit has filled sidewalk cracks with colorful knots of yarn. In Denver, a group called Ladies Fancywork Society has crocheted tree trunks, park benches and public telephones. Seattle has the YarnCore collective (“Hardcore Chicks With Sharp Sticks”) and Stockholm has the knit crew Masquerade. In London, Knit the City has “yarnstormed” fountains and fences. And in Melbourne, Australia, a woman known as Bali conjures up cozies for bike racks and bus stops.

   

To record their ephemeral works (the fragile pieces begin to fray within weeks), yarn bombers photograph and videotape their creations and upload them to blogs, social networks and Web sites for all the world to see.

   

Sometimes called grandma graffiti, the movement got a boost, and a manifesto, in 2009 with the publication of the book “Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti,” by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain, knitters from Vancouver, Canada. It is part coffee-table book, with color photographs of creative bombs, and part tutorial, with tips like wearing “ninja” black to avoid capture.

   

The book borrows from the vernacular of street graffiti and half-jokingly positions yarn bombing as an illicit alternative for knitters bored making yet another Christmas sweater. It asks readers to get off their rocking chairs and “take back the knit.”

   

Since the book’s publication, Ms. Prain said, she has been getting dozens of e-mails a week from yarn bombers from as far away as Russia, Morocco and Iran. The last month has been particularly busy ever since a Canadian knitter declared June 11 International

   

Yarn Bombing Day on Facebook.

   

Three film crews contacted her about making yarn bombing documentaries, and several graduate students e-mailed her about writing theses on the subject.

   

Many of these people also reached out to Magda Sayeg, a 37-year-old Texan who is considered by many to be the mother of yarn bombing. By her recollection, it started on a slow day in 2005 at Raye, her quirky boutique in Houston. On a lark, she knitted a blue-and-pink cozy for the shop’s door handle, a piece she now calls “alpha.”

   

Passers-by loved it, stopping to admire her handiwork. “People got out of their cars just to come look at it,” she said.

   

Next, she knitted what looked like a leg warmer for a stop sign down the street; from there she slowly infiltrated Houston with her stitchery. Within a few years, she had tagged dozens of lampposts and stop signs and assembled a crew of fellow yarn bombers she called Knitta Please.

   

Soon, Ms. Sayeg was commissioned to do larger projects. Photographs of her pieces spread online, inciting other knitters to take up the budding art form.

   

Yarn bombing grows out of the larger D.I.Y. movement, which seeks to resurrect traditional handicrafts “more typically associated with grandmothers, like knitting, canning, gardening and even raising chickens,” said Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, a curator at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Tex. In March it commissioned Ms. Sayeg to cover the trunks of 99 trees in front of the museum.

   

“You see the resurgence of handicrafts in art, too,” Ms. Carlozzi said. “It is part of the appeal of yarn bombing: the surprising juxtaposition of something that is clearly personal, labor-intensive and handmade in an urban, industrial environment.”

   

Not all artists who use yarn in their work are thrilled with the woolly trend.

   

“I don’t yarn bomb, I make art,” said Agata Oleksiak, 33, an artist in New York who has been enshrouding humans, bicycles and swimming pools in neon-colored crochet since 2003. Last Christmas Eve, Olek, as she prefers to be called, blanketed the “Charging Bull” statue near Wall Street in a pink and purple cozy, and uploaded a video of it to YouTube. “If someone calls my bull a yarn bomb, I get really upset,” she added.

   

Olek, whose work has been shown in museums and galleries worldwide, considers yarn bombing to be the trite work of amateurs and exhibitionists.

   

“Lots of people have aunts or grandmas who paint,” she said. “Do you want to see that work in the galleries? No. The street is an extension of the gallery. Not everyone’s work deserves to be in public.”

   

Whether yarn bombing is the work of artists or glorified knitters, the view of law enforcement is clear: it is considered vandalism or littering. Still, the police seem to tolerate it. Yarn bombers say they rarely have run-ins with the law. And in the few instances when they are stopped, yarn bombers say, the police are more likely to laugh at them than issue a summons.

   

Ms. Prain once tried to yarn bomb a sign post in Washington, in front of F.B.I. headquarters. A security guard wearing a bulletproof vest approached her, she said, and demanded that she stop immediately. “Ma’am,” she recalled him saying, “step away with the knitting.”

   

Still, yarn bombing seems to be having its moment in pop culture. Fortune 500 companies have paid Ms. Sayeg as much as $20,000 to wrap their wares in yarn. Toyota hired her to knit a Prius a Christmas sweater last year for a promotional video. The makers of the Smart car flew her to Rome to wrap a car in what looked like 1970s-inspired throw blankets, and Mini Cooper recently commissioned a similar ad.

   

Ms. Sayeg has so much work that she closed her shop in 2009, moved to Austin and turned her hobby into a full-time job. Clients have included the Montague Street Business Improvement District in Brooklyn, which paid Ms. Sayeg to knit covers for 69 parking meters, and Insight, an Australian company that sells surfing clothing, which has an ad featuring a scantly clad woman riding a yarn-covered scooter. Last month, Ms. Sayeg wrapped all the heating ducts at the Brooklyn offices of Etsy.com.

   

Companies seem to be attracted to the retro handcrafted cheeriness of yarn. Toyota chose Ms. Sayeg for the Prius sweater project because her work is “optimistic and community oriented,” Sona Iliffe-Moon, a marketing executive for Toyota, wrote in an e-mail.

   

Ms. Sayeg now has five assistants to help her knit, which she now does primarily on looms rather than needles to meet the demand.

   

“In the early years I identified with underground graffiti artists,” she said. “Now the very people I feared I would get in trouble with are the ones inviting me to do this work for them.”

   

Well, if you give up

You'll get what you deserve

Paramore

 

Mi único propósito para este año es ser más optmista

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.

 

"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.

 

That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.

 

"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."

 

Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.

 

Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.

 

“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.

 

When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.

 

“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”

 

Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.

 

The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.

 

The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.

 

Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.

 

Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.

 

“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.

 

Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.

 

Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.

 

In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.

 

Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.

 

There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”

 

www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...

#projectlife365 #optimistic I'm optimistic about my MIL making a full recovery & being able to go back to her home.

I was too optimistic in planning M64 shot to that night. Strictly speaking the white nights have already arrived washing faint stuff away and this nonsence will last till the beginning of August. Hello Sun, Moon, planets and double stars!

 

This one is definitely not the best among the bunch of my recent shots of M globular clusters but here is a feature that I want to boast: Baader Planetarium MPCC MkIII coma corrector works!!

And it's fun to try coma corrector on the object in constellation Coma Berenices :D

 

Acquisition time (start of a session): JD2556802.389086 (25.05.2014, around 01:20:18 MSK)

Equipment:

Canon EOS 60D (unmodded) running Magic Lantern firmware override fitted with Baader Planetarium MPCC MkIII coma corrector on Celestron OMNI XLT 150 mm Newtonian riding on Skywatcher NEQ-6 Pro mount with counterweight shaft extention.

Aperture 150 mm

Focal length 750 mm

Tv = 30 seconds

Av = f/5

ISO 1600

Exposures: 66% of 60 (plus 50 dark frames plus respective master offset and master flatfield images from the library (old flatfield made without corrector works better than the "proper" one :)).

Processing: Images were converted into .DNG and fed to DSS. "Superpixel" color generation mode was used, so the final image is two times smaller than the original subs. Final touches were "creatively" done in Photoshop. I have tried to protocol the processing in order to adhere to it next time, so in gereral it looks like:

1) setting gamma to 2,75;

2) setting black level rougly 8-10 8-bit units below actual minimum;

3) applying higly assimmetric sigma-like curve (that's "creative" :);

4) fine-tuning the background to 1-2 8-bit units;

5) setting gamma to 1,2.

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.

 

"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.

 

That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.

 

"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."

 

Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.

 

Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.

 

“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.

 

When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.

 

“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”

 

Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.

 

The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.

 

The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.

 

Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.

 

Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.

 

“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.

 

Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.

 

Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.

 

In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.

 

Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.

 

There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”

 

www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...

Outside of the Town Hall theater on West 43rd Street in Manhattan, a crowd of smiling and optimistic people Friday overflowed into the one-way street. Delivery trucks and yellow taxi cabs creeped by, their engines engaged in a shouting match with Bennet Weiss, a man who bore a fleeting resemblance to the Democratic presidential candidate they were all there to support.

 

"We don't have billions of dollars! All we have are people wearing Bernie pins," Weiss yelled, a large black umbrella covered in Bernie Sanders campaign pins at his feet, catching drops of sweat from his brow. The Occupy Wall Street protester-turned-Sanders supporter urged the crowd to wear the pins at all times with no exception -- even in the shower -- and gave them away freely to anyone who said they didn't have enough cash to afford to pay the suggested donation.

 

That's the kind of populist support Sanders' campaign has steadily been attracting since the U.S. senator from Vermont formally announced his candidacy in late April. Friday was no exception, with passion-filled people who think Sanders has proved himself the worthy champion of causes they care about the most, such as income inequality, climate change, Wall Street reform and further healthcare reforms. But, perhaps most importantly, they also think he can win the White House.

 

"Absolutely" he can win, said Joe Trinolone, 30, a former finance industry worker from Long Island, New York, who is studying mathematics at St. Joseph's University. "I mean, he's winning right now."

 

Sanders, during a fundraising speech Friday, ticked through the policies he cares about and areas of change he wants to see in Washington should he become president. At each turn, his blend of outrage, optimism and sly sarcasm brought raucous cheers from the crowd of 1,100. He rejected recent Wall Street Journal criticism of the high price tag of his proposals, including making public colleges and universities free, lowering so-called real unemployment by pumping funding into infrastructure repairs for the nation’s roads and bridges and implementing a universal healthcare system.

 

Instead, he pointed to European nations that already have those programs. He implored the crowd to think about what many of them were already talking about: that taking on the big-money interests in the United States that impede those sorts of policy changes is a shared moral obligation.

 

“Welcome to the revolution,” Sanders said, describing what he believes must happen to American politics. “We can accomplish all of this and more.” And the crowd ate it up.

 

When asked why they support Sanders, many described his candidacy as a movement. They love his policies, and have a hard time thinking of much they don’t like about him. They especially like that he has been a consistent voice during his time in Washington. That’s a big perceived difference between Sanders and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Those "feeling the Bern" were split on whether they would consider voting for her if she becomes the nominee. Many were newcomers to political action but felt compelled to join the fray when they heard Sanders and his message.

 

“I’ve never been excited about a politician my entire life,” said Meira Marom, 34, a Brooklyn third-grade teacher with a master's degree in creative writing. When Marom started seeing social media posts about Sanders and reading about him, she decided to stop focusing her personal time on writing for herself. She now writes and publishes something about Sanders every day -- Dr. Seuss themes every Sunday, poems and parodies. “I decided this is the most worthy cause to put my rhymes to use.”

 

Sanders has seen an unexpected rise in the polls since he joined the race for the Democratic nomination shortly after the current national front-runner Clinton announced her candidacy. While Sanders was trailing Clinton by 21.4 percent in national averages of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics, a look at early nominating states like Iowa and New Hampshire paints a different picture of vulnerability for Clinton and strength for Sanders.

 

The two candidates are tied in Iowa, which constitutes a dramatic drop for Clinton and an impressive surge for Sanders, who has been distancing himself from Clinton in New Hampshire at the top of the Democratic pack since Aug. 25, when he jumped past her in the state for the first time. He currently leads there by 10.5 points.

 

The candidates are noticeably different in many ways, from policy prescription to fundraising strategy.

 

Clinton has moved leftward since announcing her candidacy, but she is still threatened by the populist appeal of Sanders, who has long championed the causes that seem to be coming into grace for the Democratic Party. While the candidates currently hold some very similar positions on issues such as immigration reform, gay rights, gun control and campaign finance reform, Sanders has been able to stake out positions to the left of Clinton on other issues that excite some vocal voters.

 

Among them are his strong anti-war and anti-government surveillance positions as well as his distaste for President Barack Obama's Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders also has been a vocal critic of Wall Street and champion of financial reforms, and his stance on those issues has drawn attention to Clinton's cozy relationship with Wall Street executives and the huge paychecks she has received for speeches to large banks since leaving the U.S. State Department. For some Sanders supporters, though, the perception that Sanders has been a consistent proponent of these liberal policies, and cares about them more than winning, is key.

 

“It’s the message that supporting Bernie Sanders is not just voting on a horse in the race” that attracts Brian Dillon, a 28-year-old self-employed Web designer and developer for e-commerce, said Friday. Dillon has voted just one time in his life, but he has been organizing meetings to drum up support for Sanders.

 

Sanders's fundraising portfolio also is the reverse of Clinton's. While the former secretary of state is expected to spend somewhere north of $1 billion should she win the primary and head into the general election for 2016, the same has not been said of Sanders. Currently, Clinton has raised, through her campaign committee and super PACs associated with the campaign, $47.5 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Sanders, on the other hand, has raised just shy of $16.5 million, according to CRP data.

 

Their most startling difference in fundraising, however, can be seen in the size of the donations they're receiving. The Clinton campaign received 82 percent of its donations from large contributors, and her top industry donors, not including retired people, so far have been lawyers, business services and the financial industry.

 

In contrast, Sanders relies much more on small donations, which are defined as donations totaling $200 or less. So far, 69 percent of his contributions have come from small donors, and the biggest industries that have given to his campaign have been from the education, legal and healthcare sectors.

 

Who are those small donors? The types of people who showed up Friday. Some said they donate $25 to $30 a month to Sanders. Some said they have donated several hundred dollars since he jumped into the presidential race. Nearly all of them mentioned they don't earn a ton of money personally. One in particular, Machumu Sakulira, said he donated $500 before attending Friday’s event.

 

There is “no way” he would support a Clinton ticket, said Sakulira, a 31-year-old senior political science student at the University at Buffalo. He got on a bus Thursday night at 11 p.m. and arrived in New York at 7 a.m. for the Sanders speech. He said he was going back Friday night. “Bernie represents my interest. My vote is a moral choice, I don’t give it to somebody who doesn’t deserve it.”

 

www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-bernie-sanders-nyc-fundrais...

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