Client: Proactive Chiropractic & Physical Therapy

www.prochiromed.com/about-us/about-dr-joe-pollack

The auto start and stop feature combined with the Kenworth Idle Management System for the Kenworth T680 76-inch sleeper enables truck operators to more effectively manage climate control and other hotel loads during truck downtime. The battery-based APU system for air conditioning is linked directly into the T680 ducting system. An optional fuel-fired heater provides full engine-off heating capability. The integrated system extends air conditioning performance and is appreciated by drivers who want cool comfort in their sleepers during their rest period.

“Men-women equality and the gender division of responsibility were discussed in our Dimitra Club for the first time. We have realized that women can also play a proactive role in fishing activities”, Henri Esenge Ngessi, member of FAO Dimitra Club, village of Isangi, Tshopo Province, DRC

FAO/Yannick De Mol

If you are a new Australian, a recent graduate or a professional with years of experience, it has become increasingly difficult to secure a customer service or call centre role. Most advertisements in this field receive scores of applications for the selection panel to wade through. Can you put yourself in their shoes? If you saw a mediocre cover letter, resume or key selection criteria responses, you can see how easily your submission would be thrust aside. That’s why it is imperative to have your cover letter, resume or criteria responses professionally written and designed by Public Service Resumes. Be proactive and do your best to make that happen, call right now.

 

Skills that are valued for call centre and customer service employees are excellent verbal communication skills, good levels of computer literacy, ability to think on your feet, as well as the being a team player. If that is you, great! Federal roles within the Australian Public Service (APS), as well as roles within local council and state government, include titles such as Team Leader, Support Centre Operator, Customer Service Officer, Inbound Contact Representative, along with a selection of others.

  

Your resume needs to include your relevant and transferable skills, without being too long or too short. Additionally, the content needs to be set out in such a way that it easy to read and in logical order, otherwise you will appear incoherent. Are you familiar with those aspects of resume writing? To secure a customer service – call centre role, requires that you hit the mark, showing that you are worth an interview. The Public Service team of experts can design and write your resume in a masterful way. A way that will get you noticed. Why wait?

Wishing you all a merry Christmas & prosperous New year !

 

Have fun, be proactive !

 

info:

 

Its Gangtok, Sikkim & kanjanjunga in the back ground. (Taken from Hanuman Tok, Gangtok)

 

DSC_1140_1

Getting out and shooting is everything when your trying to improve your photography but if your anything like me there are a lot of other things that take precedence over what is essentially a hobby. A hobby I'm passionate about but in the end a hobby nonetheless.

 

Lately rather than bemoaning the fact I can't get out and shoot I've been using the small snippets of time I can carve out to spend on photography on educating myself. Formal courses, short tips on youtube or just looking at others work they've all contributed to what I feel are the improved and more consistent results I am getting from those few chances I do get to go out and shoot.

 

Of course there will always be things that are only going to improve by getting out and shooting. The diversity of what I'm shooting and composition to name but two but it's nice to be proactive in whatever way I can rather than bemoan the lack of time with camera in hand.

 

Cheers, Chris

SPORTS DYNAMICS

 

Integrating both braking and torque control systems, the LFA’s sophisticated sports Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management (VDIM) has been tuned to support a broad range of driving skills. Rather than simply combining the independent functions of Traction Control and Vehicle Stability Control, VDIM manages these systems proactively to not only enhance the driving experience but also provide an invisible safety net. This in turn gives the driver greater freedom and the confidence to experience the LFA’s potential to the full.

Nine days before this photo was taken I was looking to kill time before Fantasmic and found myself on Sunset Boulevard with 40 minutes to spare. The wait time at the Tower of Terror was only 20 minutes, so I queued up. I’ve ridden this ride more times than I can count, so I wasn't expecting much out of the ordinary as I made my way from the entrance to the loading area. From here riders are placed on small numbered squares to wait for a cast member to come forward and direct you into the elevator, instruct you on properly fastening your seat belt (left to right, in case you're curious), and send you up to your room. This is the point the evening became suddenly entertaining. The woman in front of me was standing to the side of her square, and didn’t notice she was blocking an approaching bellhop who stood silently behind her. The woman’s husband noticed first and nodded behind his wife, who gave quite a start when she turned and saw the bellhop.

As a consequence of having dropped in to the Tower so many times, I've seen a slew of bellhops. Most all of them do a fine job in one of the extremely rare Disney roles where a deadpan demeanor is encouraged over the trademark cheer. They all approach it in their own way, and it's easy enough to go to one extreme or the other and be lifeless or chew up the scenery. This particular cast member, however, had the performance perfected in my book. The best bellhop I’ve encountered and a prime example of how an exemplary CM can be just as important as a meticulously detailed queue in making the ride experience memorable.

I was hoping to bump into her again to get a picture during a later visit, but cut to the last night of the trip 9 days later and it appeared I was going to leave disappointed. I was in the Studios to photograph the Tower at sunset and decided it was time for proactive measures. I walked to the unloading area and told the first CM I came to about the great bellhop I’d run into earlier and that I’d love to get a picture if she was there that evening. I don’t know how often they get inquiries of this type, but this CM was most accommodating. My luck finally turned; she was working, and a phone call later I was whisked to a run-of-the-mill elevator behind the scenes and taken to the front of the line. I was a bit taken aback that they were doing this for me and self-conscious about spoiling the ride experience for the other guests after I'd already jumped the line on them, so I generally failed at coherent sentences throughout the interaction. In attempting to keep that fourth wall solid, I didn’t tell her then how great she was in her role, but after the first visit I tweeted @WDWToday a #CastCompliment (twitter.com/WDWToday/status/732010702244851712) & was later able to get in touch and pass along my compliments.

The new reality. Proactively Vancouver Police using City dump trucks to block all (road) entry and exit points to the CNY parade to stop any potential attack on the crowd with a large vehicle as we have seen elsewhere in the world.

Peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) patrol a town in North Kivu Province. Proactive military and police posture, mindset and operations serve to prevent and deter threats from materializing, while taking all efforts to minimize harm to civilians. (2013)

(Photo by Sylvain Liechti)

   

If you look carefully, you can see a map of Greenland, North America, Central America, South America, and the Gulf of Mexico. That's called pareidolia.

 

Pareidolia is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific but common type of apophenia (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas).

 

Common examples include perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon or the Moon rabbit. The concept of pareidolia may extend to include hidden messages in recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing voices (mainly indistinct) or music in random noise, such as that produced by air conditioners or by fans.[3][4] Face pareidolia has also been demonstrated in rhesus macaques.[5]

Etymology

 

The word derives from the Greek words pará (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead [of]") and the noun eídōlon (εἴδωλον, "image, form, shape").[6]

 

Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum introduced the German term Pareidolie in his 1866 paper "Die Sinnesdelierien"[7] ("On Delusion of the Senses"). When Kahlbaum's paper was reviewed the following year (1867) in The Journal of Mental Science, Volume 13, Pareidolie was translated into English as "pareidolia", and noted to be synonymous with the terms "...changing hallucination, partial hallucination, [and] perception of secondary images."[8]

Link to other conditions

 

Pareidolia correlates with age and is frequent among patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.[9]

Explanations

 

Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadow, as faces.[10] A 2009 magnetoencephalography study found that objects perceived as faces evoke an early (165 ms) activation of the fusiform face area at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas other common objects do not evoke such activation. This activation is similar to a slightly faster time (130 ms) that is seen for images of real faces. The authors suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late cognitive reinterpretation phenomenon.[11]

 

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in 2011 similarly showed that repeated presentation of novel visual shapes that were interpreted as meaningful led to decreased fMRI responses for real objects. These results indicate that the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli depends upon processes similar to those elicited by known objects.[12]

 

Pareidolia was found to affect brain function and brain waves. In a 2022 study, EEG records show that responses in the frontal and occipitotemporal cortexes begin prior to when one recognizes faces and later, when they are not recognized.[13] By displaying these proactive brain waves, scientists can then have a basis for data rather than relying on self-reported sightings. [clarification needed]

 

These studies help to explain why people generally identify a few lines and a circle as a "face" so quickly and without hesitation. Cognitive processes are activated by the "face-like" object which alerts the observer to both the emotional state and identity of the subject, even before the conscious mind begins to process or even receive the information. A "stick figure face", despite its simplicity, can convey mood information, and be drawn to indicate emotions such as happiness or anger. This robust and subtle capability is hypothesized to be the result of natural selection favoring people most able to quickly identify the mental state, for example, of threatening people, thus providing the individual an opportunity to flee or attack preemptively.[14] This ability, though highly specialized for the processing and recognition of human emotions, also functions to determine the demeanor of wildlife.[15][self-published source?]

Pareidolia and creative thinking

 

Pareidolia plays a significant role in creative cognition, enabling artists and viewers to perceive novel forms and meanings in ambiguous stimuli.[16] Joanne Lee highlights that this phenomenon has been harnessed in artistic practices for centuries (Da Vinci for example).[17] The phenomenon was particularly important to surrealism, where artists like Salvador Dali, influenced by André Breton, embraced pareidolic ambiguity to challenge rationalist perceptions and provoke new ways of seeing.[18]

Examples

Mimetoliths

A more detailed photograph taken in different lighting in 2001 clarifies the "face" to be a natural rock formation.

 

A mimetolithic pattern is a pattern created on rocks that may come to mimic recognizable forms through the random processes of formation, weathering and erosion. A well-known example is the Face on Mars, a rock formation on Mars that resembled a human face in certain satellite photos. Most mimetoliths are much larger than the subjects they resemble, such as a cliff profile that looks like a human face.

 

Picture jaspers exhibit combinations of patterns, such as banding from flow or depositional patterns (from water or wind), or dendritic or color variations, resulting in what appear to be miniature scenes on a cut section, which is then used for jewelry.

 

Chert nodules, concretions, or pebbles may in certain cases be mistakenly identified as skeletal remains, egg fossils, or other antiquities of organic origin by amateur enthusiasts.

 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese researcher Chonosuke Okamura self-published a series of reports titled Original Report of the Okamura Fossil Laboratory, in which he described tiny inclusions in polished limestone from the Silurian period (425 mya) as being preserved fossil remains of tiny humans, gorillas, dogs, dragons, dinosaurs and other organisms, all of them only millimeters long, leading him to claim, "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm."[19][20] Okamura's research earned him an Ig Nobel Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize) in biodiversity in 1996.[21][22]

 

Some sources describe various mimetolithic features on Pluto, including a heart-shaped region.[23][24][25]

Clouds

 

Seeing shapes in cloud patterns is another example of this phenomenon. Rogowitz and Voss (1990) showed a relationship between seeing shapes in cloud patterns and fractal dimension.[clarification needed] They varied the fractal dimension of the boundary contour from 1.2 to 1.8, and found that the lower the fractal dimension, the more likely people were to report seeing nameable shapes of animals, faces, and fantasy creatures.[26] From above, pareidolia may be perceived in satellite imagery of tropical cyclones. Notably hurricanes Matthew and Milton gained much attention for resembling a human face or skull when viewed from the side.[27]

Mars canals

Map of Martian "canals" by Percival Lowell

Main article: Martian canals

 

A notable example of pareidolia occurred in 1877, when observers using telescopes to view the surface of Mars thought that they saw faint straight lines, which were then interpreted by some as canals. It was theorized that the canals were possibly created by sentient beings. This created a sensation. In the next few years better photographic techniques and stronger telescopes were developed and applied, which resulted in new images in which the faint lines disappeared, and the canal theory was debunked as an example of pareidolia.[28][29]

Lunar surface

Pareidolias in the moon

 

Many cultures recognize pareidolic images in the disc of the full moon, including the human face known as the Man in the Moon in many Northern Hemisphere cultures[30][31] and the Moon rabbit in East Asian and indigenous American cultures.[32][33] Other cultures see a walking figure carrying a wide burden on their back,[31] including in Germanic tradition,[34] Haida mythology,[35] and Latvian mythology.[36]

Projective tests

 

The Rorschach inkblot test uses pareidolia in an attempt to gain insight into a person's mental state. The Rorschach is a projective test that elicits thoughts or feelings of respondents that are "projected" onto the ambiguous inkblot images.[37] Rorschach inkblots have low-fractal-dimension boundary contours, which may elicit general shape-naming behaviors, serving as vehicles for projected meanings.[26]

Banknotes

 

Owing to the way designs are engraved and printed, occurrences of pareidolia have occasionally been reported in banknotes.

 

One example is the 1954 Canadian Landscape Canadian dollar banknote series, known among collectors as the "Devil's Head" variety of the initial print runs. The obverse of the notes features what appears to be an exaggerated grinning face, formed from patterns in the hair of Queen Elizabeth II. The phenomenon generated enough attention for revised designs to be issued in 1956, which removed the effect.[38]

Literature

 

Renaissance authors have shown a particular interest in pareidolia. In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, for example, Prince Hamlet points at the sky and "demonstrates" his supposed madness in this exchange with Polonius:[39][40]

 

HAMLET

Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?

POLONIUS

By th'Mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed.

HAMLET

Methinks it is a weasel.

POLONIUS

It is backed like a weasel.

HAMLET

Or a whale.

POLONIUS

Very like a whale.

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a short story called "The Great Stone Face" in which a face seen in the side of a mountain (based on the real-life The Old Man of the Mountain) is revered by a village.[41]

Art

The Jurist by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566. What appears to be his face is a collection of fish and poultry, while his body is a collection of books dressed in a coat.

Salem by Sydney Curnow Vosper (1908), a painting notorious for the belief that the face of the devil was hidden in the main character's shawl

See also: Hidden face

 

Renaissance artists often used pareidolia in paintings and drawings: Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Hans Holbein, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, and many more have shown images—often human faces—that due to pareidolia appear in objects or clouds.[42]

 

In his notebooks, Leonardo da Vinci wrote of pareidolia as a device for painters, writing:

 

If you look at any walls spotted with various stains or with a mixture of different kinds of stones, if you are about to invent some scene you will be able to see in it a resemblance to various different landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys, and various groups of hills. You will also be able to see divers combats and figures in quick movement, and strange expressions of faces, and outlandish costumes, and an infinite number of things which you can then reduce into separate and well conceived forms.[43]

 

Salem, a 1908 painting by Sydney Curnow Vosper, gained notoriety due to a rumour that it contained a hidden face, that of the devil. This led many commentators to visualize a demonic face depicted in the shawl of the main figure, despite the artist's denial that any faces had deliberately been painted into the shawl.[44][45]

 

Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would intentionally use pareidolia in their works, often in the form of a hidden face.

Architecture

Illusory woman in the Niğde Alaaddin Mosque portal

 

Two 13th-century edifices in Turkey display architectural use of shadows of stone carvings at the entrance. Outright pictures are avoided in Islam but tessellations and calligraphic pictures were allowed, so designed "accidental" silhouettes of carved stone tessellations became a creative escape.

 

Niğde Alaaddin Mosque in Niğde, Turkey (1223), with its "mukarnas" art where the shadows of three-dimensional ornamentation with stone masonry around the entrance form a chiaroscuro drawing of a woman's face with a crown and long hair appearing at a specific time, at some specific days of the year.[46][47][48]

Divriği Great Mosque and Hospital in Sivas, Turkey (1229), shows shadows of the three-dimensional ornaments of both entrances of the mosque part, to cast a giant shadow of a praying man that changes pose as the sun moves, as if to illustrate what the purpose of the building is. Another detail is the difference in the impressions of the clothing of the two shadow-men indicating two different styles, possibly to tell who is to enter through which door.[49]

 

Religion

Further information: Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena

 

There have been many instances of perceptions of religious imagery and themes, especially the faces of religious figures, in ordinary phenomena. Many involve images of Jesus,[37] the Virgin Mary,[50] the word Allah,[51] or other religious phenomena: in September 2007 in Singapore, for example, a callus on a tree resembled a monkey, leading believers to pay homage to the "Monkey god" (either Sun Wukong or Hanuman) in the monkey tree phenomenon.[52]

 

Publicity surrounding sightings of religious figures and other surprising images in ordinary objects has spawned a market for such items on online auctions like eBay. One famous instance was a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of the Virgin Mary.[53]

 

During the September 11 attacks, television viewers supposedly saw the face of Satan in clouds of smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center after it was struck by the airplane.[54] Another example of face recognition pareidolia originated in the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, when a few observers claimed to see Jesus in the flames.[55]

 

While attempting to validate the imprint of a crucified man on the Shroud of Turin as Jesus, a variety of objects have been described as being visible on the linen. These objects include a number of plant species, a coin with Roman numerals, and multiple insect species.[56] In an experimental setting using a picture of plain linen cloth, participants who had been told that there could possibly be visible words in the cloth, collectively saw 2 religious words. Those told that the cloth was of some religious importance saw 12 religious words, and those who were also told that it was of religious importance, but also given suggestions of possible religious words, saw 37 religious words.[57] The researchers posit that the reason the Shroud has been said to have so many different symbols and objects is because it was already deemed to have the imprint of Jesus prior to the search for symbols and other imprints in the cloth, and therefore it was simply pareidolia at work.[56]

Computer vision

Further information: Hallucination (artificial intelligence)

Given an image of jellyfish swimming, the DeepDream program can be encouraged to "see" dogs.

 

Pareidolia can occur in computer vision,[58] specifically in image recognition programs, in which vague clues can spuriously detect images or features. In the case of an artificial neural network, higher-level features correspond to more recognizable features, and enhancing these features brings out what the computer sees. These examples of pareidolia reflect the training set of images that the network has "seen" previously.

 

Striking visuals can be produced in this way, notably in the DeepDream software, which falsely detects and then exaggerates features such as eyes and faces in any image. The features can be further exaggerated by creating a feedback loop where the output is used as the input for the network. (The adjacent image was created by iterating the loop 50 times.) Additionally, the output can be modified such as slightly zooming in to create an animation of the images perspective flying through the surrealistic imagery.

Auditory

 

In 1971 Konstantīns Raudive wrote Breakthrough, detailing what he believed was the discovery of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). EVP has been described as auditory pareidolia.[37] Allegations of backmasking in popular music, in which a listener claims a message has been recorded backward onto a track meant to be played forward, have also been described as auditory pareidolia.[37][59] In 1995, the psychologist Diana Deutsch invented an algorithm for producing phantom words and phrases with the sounds coming from two stereo loudspeakers, one to the listener's left and the other to his right, producing a phase offset in time between the speakers. After listening for a while, phantom words and phrases suddenly emerge, and these often appear to reflect what is on the listener's mind.[60][61]

Deliberate practical use

Medical education, radiology images

Cross-section of nematode worm Ascaris

 

Medical educators sometimes teach medical students and resident physicians (doctors in training) to use pareidolia and patternicity to learn to recognize human anatomy on radiology imaging studies.

 

Examples include assessing radiographs (X-ray images) of the human vertebral spine. Patrick Foye, M.D., professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rutgers University, New Jersey Medical School, has written that pareidolia is used to teach medical trainees to assess for spinal fractures and spinal malignancies (cancers).[62] When viewing spinal radiographs, normal bony anatomic structures resemble the face of an owl. (The spinal pedicles resemble an owl's eyes and the spinous process resembles an owl's beak.) But when cancer erodes the bony spinal pedicle, the radiographic appearance changes such that now that eye of the owl seems missing or closed, which is called the "winking owl sign". Another common pattern is a "Scottie dog sign" on a spinal X-ray.[63]

 

In 2021, Foye again published in the medical literature on this topic, in a medical journal article called "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans".[64] Here, he introduced a novel way of visualizing the sacrum when viewing MRI magnetic resonance imaging and CT scans (computed tomography scans). He noted that in certain image slices the human sacral anatomy resembles the face of "Baby Yoda" (also called Grogu), a fictional character from the television show The Mandalorian. Sacral openings for exiting nerves (sacral foramina) resemble Baby Yoda's eyes, while the sacral canal resembles Baby Yoda's mouth.[65]

In popular culture

See also: Among Us § Memes and mods

Many Internet memes about the online game Among Us exploit pareidolia, by showing everyday items (in this case, a trashcan) that look similar to characters from the game.

 

In January 2017, an anonymous user placed an eBay auction of a Cheeto that looked like the gorilla Harambe. Bidding began at US$11.99, but the Cheeto was eventually sold for US$99,000.[66]

 

Starting from 2021, an Internet meme emerged around the online game Among Us, where users presented everyday items such as dogs, statues, garbage cans, big toes, and pictures of the Boomerang Nebula that looked like the game's "crewmate" protagonists.[67][68] In May 2021, an eBay user named Tav listed a Chicken McNugget shaped like a crewmate from Among Us for online auction. The Chicken McNugget was sold for US$99,997 to an anonymous buyer.[69]

Related phenomena

 

A shadow person (also known as a shadow figure, shadow being or black mass) is often attributed to pareidolia. It is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living, humanoid figure, particularly as interpreted by believers in the paranormal or supernatural as the presence of a spirit or other entity.[70]

 

Pareidolia is also what some skeptics believe causes people to believe that they have seen ghosts.[71]

See also

 

Clustering illusion – Erroneously seeing patterns in randomness

Conspiracy theory – Attributing events to improbable causes (another example of apophenia)

Eigenface – Set of eigenvectors used in the computer vision problem of human face recognition

Hitler teapot – Kettle perceived to resemble Adolf Hitler

Madonna of the Toast – 2007 book about pareidolia

Mondegreen – Misinterpretation of a spoken phrase

Musical ear syndrome – similar to auditory pareidolia, but with hearing loss

Optical illusion – Visually perceived images that differ from objective reality

Perceptions of religious imagery in natural phenomena

Signal-to-noise ratio – Ratio of the desired signal to the background noise

 

References

 

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[2] Kitchin, C. R. Astrophysical Techniques, Sixth Edition. Taylor & Francis (2013). ISBN 9781466511156 p. 3

Lane, K. Maria. Geographies of Mars: Seeing and Knowing the Red Planet. University of Chicago Press (2011). p. 52-63. ISBN 9780226470788

Harley, Timothy (1885). Moon Lore, London; Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowry. p. 21.

Evans, Ben (2010). Foothold in the Heavens: The Seventies. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 143. ISBN 1441963421.

Xueting Christine Ni (2018). From Kuan Yin to Chairman Mao: The Essential Guide to Chinese Deities. Red Wheel/Weiser. pp. 40–43. ISBN 1578636256.

Smith, Michael (2012). The Aztecs (3rd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-4051-9497-6.

Baring-Gould, Sabine. "The Man in the Moon", Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, London. Rivington's, 1877, p. 190Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

Harrison, Charles (c. 1884). The Hydah mission, Queen Charlotte's Islands. An account of the mission and people, with a descriptive letter from the Rev. Charles Harrison. p. 20 – via University of British Columbia Library.

Šmits, Pēteris (1936). "Latvian folktales and legends (Latviešu pasakas un teikas) Vol. 13". Latviešu valodas resursi. Valters un Rapa. Retrieved 27 October 2023. "Legends from 8 to 14 cover different variations of this legend. (Latvian language only)"

Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 77–79. ISBN 978-0-8058-0508-6. Retrieved 6 April 2007.

"1954 series". www.bankofcanada.ca. Retrieved 29 June 2023.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 3.3.367-73

Raber, Karen. Shakespeare and Posthumanist Theory. Arden Shakespeare (2018) pp. 80–1 ISBN 978-1474234436

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Raber, Karen. Shakespeare and Posthumanist Theory. Arden Shakespeare (2018) pp. 81–2 ISBN 978-1474234436

Da Vinci, Leonardo (1923). John, R; Don Read, J (eds.). "Note-Books Arranged And Rendered Into English". Empire State Book Co.

"Nostalgic image still fascinates, a hundred years on". Wales Online. Media Wales Ltd. 15 October 2010.

"Salem painting memories on show at Gwynedd Museum". BBC Wales News. BBC. 29 June 2013.

"Niğde Alaaddin Camii 'nin Kapısındaki Kadın Silüetinin Sırrı?". Nevşehir Kentrehberim (in Turkish). 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

"Camiler, ALÂEDDİN CAMİ". Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı (in Turkish). Retrieved 21 April 2019.

"HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF NIGDE". World Heritage Academy. 2013. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

"DİVRİĞİ ULU CAMİİ'NDE 'NAMAZ KILAN İNSAN' SİLÜETİ". Haberler (in Turkish). 14 July 2014. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

Schweber, Nate (23 July 2012). "In New Jersey, a Knot in a Tree Trunk Draws the Faithful and the Skeptical". The New York Times. p. 16. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

Ibrahim, Yahaya (2 January 2011). "In Maiduguri, a tree with engraved name of God turns spot to a Mecca of sorts". Sunday Trust. Abuja. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2012.

Ng, Hui Hui (13 September 2007). "Monkey See, Monkey Do?". The New Paper. pp. 12–13. Archived from the original on 14 October 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

"'Virgin Mary' toast fetches $28,000". BBC News. BBC. 23 November 2004. Retrieved 27 October 2006.

Emery, David (2 September 2018). "Does the Devil's Face Appear in the Smoke on 9/11?". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

Moye, David (17 April 2019). "People Claim To See Jesus In Flames Engulfing Notre Dame Cathedral". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 April 2019 – via Yahoo! Lifestyle.

Sheen, Mercedes; Jordan, Timothy R. (July 2016). "Believing is Seeing: A Perspective on Perceiving Images of Objects on the Shroud of Turin". Archive for the Psychology of Religion. 38 (2): 232–251. doi:10.1163/15736121-12341320. ISSN 0084-6724. S2CID 147803332.

Sheen, Mercedes; Jordan, Timothy R. (December 2015). "Effects of Contextual Information on Seeing Pareidolic Religious Inscriptions on an Artifact: Implications for the Shroud of Turin". Perception. 44 (12): 1427–1430. doi:10.1177/0301006615607156. ISSN 0301-0066. PMID 26562867. S2CID 27845771.

Chalup, Stephan K., Kenny Hong, and Michael J. Ostwald. "Simulating pareidolia of faces for architectural image analysis." brain 26.91 (2010): 100.

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Deutsch, D. (1995). "Musical Illusions and Paradoxes". Philomel Records.

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Foye, P; Abdelshahed, D; Patel, S (July 2014). "Musculoskeletal pareidolia in medical education". The Clinical Teacher. 11 (4): 251–3. doi:10.1111/tct.12143. PMID 24917091. S2CID 206318208.

Hacking, Craig (28 October 2020). "Scottie dog sign (spine)". radiopedia.com. Retrieved 2 November 2021.

Foye, PM; Koger, TJ; Massey, HR (February 2021). "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans". PM&R: The Journal of Injury, Function, and Rehabilitation. 13 (2): 217–218. doi:10.1002/pmrj.12496. PMID 32969166. S2CID 221887340.

Foye, Patrick (20 February 2021). "Baby Yoda: Pareidolia and Patternicity in Sacral MRI and CT Scans | Tailbone Doctor". tailbonedoctor.com. Retrieved 21 February 2021.

"Burbank man sells Harambe-shaped Cheeto for nearly $100K on eBay". ABC7. KABC Television LLC. ABC News. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2023.

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Ahlquist, Diane (2007). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Life After Death. US: Penguin Group. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-59257-651-7.

 

Carroll, Robert Todd (June 2001). "pareidolia". skepdic.com. Retrieved 19 September 2007.

 

External links

Look up pareidolia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Pareidolia

at Wikipedia's sister projects

 

Definitions from Wiktionary

Media from Commons

Data from Wikidata

 

Skepdic.com Skeptic's Dictionary definition of pareidolia

A Japanese museum of rocks which look like faces

Article in The New York Times, 13 February 2007, about cognitive science of face recognition

Article in Scientific American, 25 March 2022, "Does This Look like a Face to You?"

 

vte

 

Hidden messages

Main

 

Subliminal message

 

Audio

 

Backmasking

list Hidden track

list pregap list Phonetic reversal Reverse speech

 

Numeric

 

Chronogram Numerology Theomatics Bible code Cryptology

 

Visual

 

Fnord Hidden text Paranoiac-critical method Pareidolia Psychorama Sacred geometry Steganography Visual cryptography

 

Other

 

Apophenia Asemic writing Clustering illusion Cryptic crossword

Anagram Easter egg Observer-expectancy effect Pattern recognition Palindrome Simulacrum Synchronicity Unconscious mind

 

Categories:

 

Pareidolia1860s neologismsAuditory illusionsCognitive biasesOptical illusionsVisual perception

   

Paph. delenatii x P. Supersuk (William Mathews x sukhakulii)

Orchidaceae (Orchid family)

 

Closeup of staminode

www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/4735149010/in/photolist-...

 

Registered by David W. Eickhoff and named for my wife Cindy. HAPPY 34th!

 

**NOTE**

While I enjoy orchids, as an environmentally conscious orchid grower in Hawaiʻi, I am proactive when it comes to removing and properly destroying any and all seed pods from the plants so as not to encourage their spreading into our fragile native Hawaiian forests.

 

Mayor Bill de Blasio announces the newly created Tenant Support Unit resolved its 1,000th tenant case since it launched in July 2015, keeping tenants in their homes and protecting affordable housing in fast-changing neighborhoods. The proactive unit goes door-to-door in neighborhoods across the city, informing tenants of their rights, documenting building violations, soliciting complaints related to harassment and eviction, and making referrals to free legal support whenever necessary. Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Washington Heights. Monday, February 29, 2016. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

 

This photograph is provided by the New York City Mayoral Photography Office (MPO) for the benefit of the general public and for dissemination by members of the media. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial materials, advertisements, emails, products or promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the City of New York, the Mayoral administration, or the de Blasio family without prior consent from the MPO (PhotoOffice@cityhall.nyc.gov). Any use or reprinting of official MPO photographs must use the following credit language and style: “Photographer/Mayoral Photography Office”, as listed at the end of each caption.

let's find constellations

in the most hidden places.

  

(please note that i will not be appearing in the next proactive commercial,

those are freckles.)

 

The graduation of four officers of the 19th Mounted Patrol Academy ceremony took place on Friday, April 29, 2016 at the Mounted Patrol facility located at 2089 Indian River Road.

 

During the ten-week Basic Riding Academy, officers learned equitation and sensory riding skills along with how to enforce and apprehend criminals while mounted on their horse. Each officer and horse is carefully matched according to his or her personalities and temperaments to form a good partner relationship.

 

The Virginia Beach Mounted Patrol Unit operates year round and performs many valuable functions for the department and the citizens of Virginia Beach. Throughout the tourist season, you will see the officers on horseback patrolling the oceanfront and resort areas on proactive, high visibility patrol. They assist with crowd management, finding lost children and providing enhanced public relations. Throughout the rest of the year, Mounted Patrol officers are active in patrolling many other areas of the city as possible such as town center, major shopping districts during the holiday season and neighborhoods where necessary due to crime concerns and citizen requests.

 

Photography - Craig McClure

16155

 

© 2016

ALL Rights reserved by City of Virginia Beach.

Contact photo[at]vbgov.com for permission to use. Commercial use not allowed.

I liked the decorative placards for each of the offices... as seen at their San Franscisco HQ today.

 

I also saw Soft Wired, a pre-print of the founder's new book on brain plasticity and how to proactively sculpt the sensory cortex to be a better learner

 

I was reminded of an interesting article I read recently in the MIT Tech Review on Daniela Schiller's research on memory consolidation and fear training:

 

"memories are reshaped and rewritten every time we recall an event. And, the research suggested, if mitigating information about a traumatic or unhappy event is introduced within a narrow window of opportunity after its recall—during the few hours it takes for the brain to rebuild the memory in the biological brick and mortar of molecules—the emotional experience of the memory can essentially be rewritten."

 

In animal studies, a Pavlovian response can be erased with one ECT timed to occur right after the trigger event. And by interfering with protein synthesis in the amygdala, memories could be erased after their recall.

 

The biochemical work suggested that "memories essentially had to be neurally rewritten every time they were recalled."

 

And "intervening during the brief window when the brain was rewriting its memory offered a chance to revise the initial memory itself while diminishing the emotion (fear) that came with it. By mastering the timing, the NYU group had essentially created a scenario in which humans could rewrite a fearsome memory and give it an unfrightening ending. And this new ending was robust: when Schiller and her colleagues called their subjects back into the lab a year later, they were able to show that the fear associated with the memory was still blocked."

 

And the enigmatic conclusion: "if we are all rewriting our memories every time we recall an event, the memory exists not as a file in our brain but only as the most recent rewrite of a scenario. Every memoir is fabricated, and the past is nothing more than our last retelling of it. Archival memory data is mixed with whatever new information helps shape the way we think—and feel—about it. “My conclusion,” says Schiller, “is that memory is what you are now. Not in pictures, not in recordings. Your memory is who you are now.”

 

“The safest memories are those you never remember.”

 

And that, well, that blew my mind.

Christian Inspirational Movie | ''Awoken'' | What Is the Meaning of Life? (English Dubbed Movie)

 

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/awoken/

 

Her name is Chen Xi, and since she was little the education and influence of her parents and her schooling made her always want to stand out from the crowd and seek to be above others, so she was diligent in her studies and would spare no effort. After believing in God Chen Xi read a great deal of God's words and came to understand some truths. She saw that the only correct path in life is to believe in and follow God and became an enthusiastic seeker, and was very proactive in performing her duty. Chen Xi went abroad in 2016 to escape the pursuit and persecution of the Chinese Communist government, and needed to use English when performing her duty of spreading the gospel and bearing witness to God's work in

the last days. She felt honored, and that she was a rare talent. Just as she was filled with confidence and was thinking of really making a place for herself in the church, she discovered that her brothers and sisters shared fellowship on God's words with light and that they had a better grasp of English than her. She didn't want to fall behind, so in order to surpass others and be looked up to and commended by them, she redoubled her learning efforts. A bit of time passed but she still didn't match up to the others. Chen Xi could not accept this reality and she found herself living every day within the pain of struggling for her name and personal benefit. She no longer had the heart to pursue the truth or focus on entry into life, and she was particularly unable to perform her duty well. She fell into pessimism and disappointment…. It was then that she came in front of God in prayer and read His words—the judgment and chastisement of His words awakened her soul and allowed her to clearly see the essence of reputation and status as well as the consequences of her being bound and afflicted by these things. She came to understand the significance of performing her duty, the true value of life, and what kind of life is true happiness. From then on she began to have proper goals to pursue and no longer be subject to the strictures of face or status. She also began to focus on pursuing the truth and fulfilling the duty of a creature to repay God's love …

  

Publix #220

Hernando West Plaza

1400 Pinehurst Dr.

Spring Hill, FL 34606

 

Opened on June 19, 1980, the first Publix in Spring Hill and the 239th store in the chain.

 

Before this store opened, Spring Hill residents desiring to shop at a Publix had to either travel to # 10 (the third) in Brooksville 18 miles northeast, or #172 (the first) in Bayonet Point/Hudson 10 miles south.

 

Built as a 1970s version 2 store, instead of the typical raised white wood panels and gray stone on the facade, this store's facade featured a flat, natural wood look with a river rock panel.

 

Being the first major shopping center in Hernando County along US 19 and wanting to avoid the hodgepodge commercial development patterns further south in Pasco and Pinellas counties (and the traffic-choked highway which resulted from that), developers proactively extended Pinehurst Drive south from Spring Hill Drive to Applegate Drive in 1979. As a result, Pinehurst became a de facto frontage road for US 19 so shoppers wanting to enter the plaza would not need to get on US 19. Driving through Hernando County along US 19, most major commercial centers are served by frontage roads, with access mostly at stoplights.

 

Hernando West's original anchors in 1980 were Publix, Eckerd's (later a Dollar General and now Sheriffs Ranches Thrift Store), and Masters catalog showroom (now Bealls Outlet).

 

In 1992, Publix sought to acquire the rest of the southern end of the plaza (11 storefronts) for expansion, but was met with much resistance. As a compromise, Publix acquired the lease to one adjacent storefront, did some creative reshuffling along the frozen food wall, and did without a pharmacy (the only non-pharmacy store in Hernando County) in order to expand from 36,000 sq. ft. to 46,000 sq. ft. in 1994. As a result, Deli, Bakery, and Dairy moved into the new addition, Customer Service and restrooms were moved to the front wall from the old south/right wall, a new entrance was constructed with all display windows removed, and Frozen Food took over the old Bakery space.

 

====================

The original left-hand mural from 1980 still stands, by Pati Mills. In the late 1970s, Mills had transitioned from the typical cornucopia murals requested by Publix and started designing murals reflecting what the area was known for. As Hernando County was still mostly rural and had a natural beauty in 1980, she painted these natural beach scenes for #220.

 

I understand the murals were intended to block sunlight, reducing energy cost. Because this store faces west, it received two murals.

possible titles (please continue):

 

(1. satori)

(2. Stanlio's proactive contribution)

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

DNS Associates is a national accounting company offering specialist accounting services to contractors. Our proactive approach and expert guidance will guarantee you the best results. Learn more at: www.dnsassociates.co.uk/

 

tmtl.us/2csS9usTRUEMTLOCAL

My first 52 week installment into the new year. It feels glorious.

 

In the last picture I uploaded on Flickr I made mention that I was going to make French Onion Soup today. Being the proactive fellow that I am, I made a grocery run yesterday evening in preparation for today.

 

One of the main ingredients in this "French Onion soup" is well ... onions. Recently, I've been dreading cutting onions because the caustic fumes have been killing my eyes (never really bothered me before). Hey, I'm here to keep it real. I ain't no chump, but this little bulbous root kicked my butt! The onions don't even necessarily make me cry, though sometimes my eyes do get watery; more than anything, my eyes burn. Last time my eyes burned so bad, I found myself in the bathroom flushing my eyes out with water for ten minutes. Bad times.*

 

Now that you all know about the lovely attachment I have to onions, I can easily say that I was naturally a bit hesitant to cut three large onions for todays soup. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad this time around. I was wrong. So wrong.

 

My eyes burned for a good while (only one onion in!). My tears were invisible, believe me. But it had to be done. This soup was not about to make itself, right? Right! Marching onwards, soon as I got these bad boys [onions] all chopped up I sautéed them for half an hour. They smelled so good as they slowly began to caramelize.

 

To make a long story short, the soup turned out awesome. My mom liked it too -and this says a lot. My mom and I ended up having this soup for dinner with a some mean grilled cheese sandwiches we whipped up. In addition to the soup, I toasted some slices of french bread topped with a melted a parmesan and gruyere cheese mix.

 

What is your favorite soup? French Onion soup is pretty high on my list, next to fresh clam chowder!

 

I am getting a bit excited for a trip to Las Vegas -I will be leaving for on the 15th of this month.

I haven't been there since I was ... four feet tall, haha. I am going with Molly, and her sister. Quite frankly, I don't remember much of anything pertaining to Las Vegas. So I have that to look forward to later this month.

 

I hope this new year has started off well for all of you! I also look forward to following all of you this year! Keep shootin' everyone!

 

Oh, and by the way, while on the brief topic of shooting. I thought it might be kind of cool to meet some of you. Maybe, some of you fellow Flickr-roo's from the Bay Area. Not that I don't want to meet those of you who don't hail from the Bay Area (I would love to), but understand I'm coming from a reasonable local point of view for convenience and practicality sake. We should all get together and shoot sometime.

 

*insert face palm

---------------------------------

Lighting: Ambient from skylight pictured, window subject right camera left, Canon 430EX immediate camera right shoot thru @ 1/4 triggered via poverty wizards.

 

52

Department store Brown Thomas have been very proactive with their window displays since the lock down, between messages of hope during the closure & now, as the shop gets ready to re open this coming week, some positive messages have appeared on the windows in the form of Irish proverbs.

Full kudos to them for their efforts & updates.

  

A Heartfelt Thank You

We are very pleased to announce that in line with the Irish Government Reopening Plan we will reopen our Dublin store on Wednesday 10th June ( 2020 ) and our Cork, Limerick and Galway stores on Thursday 11th June. ( 2020 )

 

On behalf of the Brown Thomas family we wish to express our utmost gratitude to our customers, partners and team members whose kindness, loyalty and support has made this day possible.

Proactive Acne Treatment Vending Machine, 9/2014, by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube.

Special constables were out in force on Friday 15 November 2013 to highlight the vital role they play in police operations.

 

Over 50 special constables from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) assisted throughout the day with various operations across the North Manchester area. They targeted the small groups of people who bring harm to our communities.

 

There was a large element of proactive work undertaken coupled with high visibility reassurance patrols, especially during the evening.

 

Special Chief Inspector Michael Walmsley, who coordinated the resources for the day said: "This is a way of highlighting the varied work that special constables undertake within our communities. The additional police resources provided by the special constabulary were utilised for intelligence lead operations and executing warrants.”

 

The special constabulary are trained volunteers who provide a valuable link between the public and the police, having the same powers, training, uniform and equipment as regular police officers.

 

Chief Superintendent for North Manchester, Nick Adderley, said: “The commitment and dedication that our specials have to policing is inspirational. Their volunteering provides additional police resources to keep our communities safe.

 

“Being a special enables individuals to gain hands on experience in dealing with challenging situations, something they may not encounter in any other career.”

 

There was also a recruitment event at The Arndale Centre running from 10am-6pm where people could find out more information about becoming a special constable in GMP.

 

Rob Kelly has been a special constable since January 2012. He described his experience: “As a retired Fire-fighter. I needed to keep busy, so what better way than to give something back to the community and serve as a special.

 

“I really enjoy the variety of jobs we go to, working with great people and good friends and working within a neighbourhood policing team gives you the confidence to go out and help the public."

 

For more information on becoming a special constable please visit www.gmp.police.uk or email special.constabulary@gmp.police.uk.

 

To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website.

www.gmp.police.uk

You should call 101, the new national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.

       

Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

 

--

It's so sad to read some posts in flickr wherein our big brothers are misinterpreted. They

are just by all means want to share bright ideas in order to get into explore which somehow makes flickring more inspiring, exciting, enjoyable and rewarding-- not just like other sites. What's wrong with learning with other people? What's wrong with growing up with them? What's wrong with finding new friends? I have encountered secret terrorists accounts in flickr, mentally harassing me and even destroyed my friendships with other groups. I was so young in flickr then that in a way, the said accounts affected me.

I took the advice of Mr. CEO who is in flickr...that was just to IGNORE them. Many thanks to my flickrmates and flickr who made swift action to discipline them.

 

I can proudly say that through flickr with the help of my flickrmates I myself have improved much in the field of photography. I become more interested in this field as proven by my great interest in reading magazines about photography. My curiosity of some terms (in photography) being used is awakened --improving my vocabulary..hehehe, such as bokeh, macro, depth-of-field,..etc.

 

I only hope that flickr will be more fair in imposing discipline among us.

Client: Proactive Chiropractic & Physical Therapy

www.prochiromed.com/kathryn-gitthens

 

Our Proactive Property Crimes Unit wrapped up another busy week with the arrest of two residential burglary suspects and the recovery of a stolen gun in ‪#‎SouthHill‬. Last week, the victims called to report that their house had been burglarized and several items had been taken. The suspects had pried open the back door to gain entry. A neighbor’s surveillance video captured the suspects arriving and leaving in a white Cadillac sedan.

 

One of the victims later found her fiancé’s unique pair of Jordan shoes listed for sale online. The seller’s account also had a listing for the victim’s laptop, but it showed the laptop had already been sold. Deputies from the Proactive Property Crimes Unit contacted the seller and arranged to purchase the Jordan shoes. The seller told deputies he would be waiting for them at a parking lot in a white Cadillac sedan.

 

When deputies arrived and approached the car, they saw one of the suspects shoving a gun between the seats. The suspects were taken out of the car at gunpoint and arrested. One of them complained that cops are crazy for wasting time with small-time criminals like them.

 

The suspects had attempted to scratch the serial number off of the gun, but deputies were still able to read it. The gun had been reported stolen one week earlier.

‪#‎NotInOurCounty

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via Synthetic Turf Pitch Maintenance syntheticturfpitch.tumblr.com/post/146552839233

Another 365 days to let the dust settle. To revel in complacency and apathetic affectations. A year to accomplish nothing, to waylay achievement and allow proactivity to deteriorate. Twelve months to stymie action and productivity... a vacation from propagation where the wheels fail to roll. To set upon garbage heaps and declare ourselves kings of passivity, vacationeers of privilege, pioneers of indifference. Another calendar's cycle to hide from accomplishment and disregard our individual hemispheres. Blankets of deception and false comfort.

 

But maybe for some others a time to grasp our lives and make them into something purer and better thought. Good intentions acted upon and selflessly carried out. Adopting causes, compassion, activity, and empathy. Aspiring to be more than what we are, and better than we know ourselves to be. A coming year to strive for achievment... to embrace fellowship and better our relationships. A time during which we can spend reflecting on our spirits, and compelling ourselves to be a model. To stand out, to impress without self-flattery or expect reward. To inpsire and fulfill not just goals but spiritual challenges and curb distress.

 

It's easy to get caught up in the former rather than work to live up to the latter.

 

Terrified

 

"A painful awakening hurting like never before

How to process the pressure and stress?

How to give everyone more than they can take?

We are terrified to live... We are terrified to die"

Week #47

 

This week, I had another opportunity to work on a fashion photoshoot.

Laurelle got in touch in september asking me if I was interested shooting with her. Well if you have a look on her portfolio, you'll see that she is the kind of model that make your life easy on set. She is very proactive, need very little direction and bring a real presence in front of the camera.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't make it in September so we booked something for October.

I build a team around this project with Kim (the makeup Artist) and Weena (the hairstylist).

I wanted to work with Kim for a while and I'm happy we finally had a chance to work together on this project. And Weena…well, she is just amazing. She continues to amaze me since our first gig last week.

 

So everything was perfect. I even got some time to go out and scout for location.

We met a the studio for the makeup and hair (and some clean studio shots) and then we moved to the location. The only parameter that was wrong was…the WEATHER! Yes again!

It was freezing and there was an insane wind… Believe me really insane. Did I mentioned that at some point, the rain decided to join us?

No need to say that we had some tough times.

 

Anyway we were able to do 3 different looks and to pull something out of it!

Thanks again to Kim and Weena who also helped me with the lights.

 

Have a nice week

 

--

 

Semaine #47

 

Cette semaine, j'ai encore eu l'opportunité de réaliser un photoshoot fashion.

Laurelle m'a contacté au mois de septembre me demandant si j'étais intéressé à shooter avec elle. Et bien si vous jetez un coup d'oeil à son portfolio, vous verrez que c'est le genre de model qui vous rend la vie facile sur un shoot. Elle est très proactive, n'a presque pas besoin d'être dirigée, et a une vraie présence devant la caméra.

 

Malheureusement, je ne pouvais pas en Septembre, du coup on a booké quelque chose pour le mois d'octobre.

J'ai construit mon équipe autour de ce projet avec Kim (la maquilleuse) et Weena (la coiffeuse).

Je voulais travailler avec Kim depuis un moment et je suis heureux que nos agenda aient finalement pu coïncider. Et Weena…eh bien, elle est juste extraordinaire. Son travail n'arrête pas de m'impressionner depuis notre premier shoot la semaine dernière.

 

Tout était donc parfait. J'avais même eu un peu de temps pour aller repérer l'endroit du shoot.

On s'est retrouvé au studio pour le maquillage et la coiffure (et quelques images clean en studio), puis nous nous sommes rendus au lieu du shoot. Le seul paramètre qui n'était pas comme on le souhaitait était…la MÉTÉO! Oui encore!

Il faisait froid and il avait un de ces vents de folie… croyez-moi un vent de folie. Ai-je mentionné que la pluie s'est jointe aux festivités à un moment?

Pas besoin de vous dire qu'on a galéré.

 

Enfin, on a quand même pu shooter 3 looks et en sortir quelque chose de potable!

Merci encore à Kim et Weena qui m'ont également assisté avec les lumières.

 

Passez une bonne semaine.

 

Model: Laurelle

Makeup: Kim Lachapelle

Hair: Weena Jerome

 

Strobist info

Key Light 430EX @ 24mm, 1/4 power with full CTO gel in a 43" Westcott Qpollo Orb, camera left @8:00

Kick Light 430 EXII @50mm, 1/4 power with blue gel, camera right @3:00

 

Triggered by Pixel Pawn

Canon 5D MKII + EF 35MM F1.4 L | F1.4 | 1/30 | Iso 400

 

Lighting Diagram

 

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Your comments and favs are always appreciated!

Biker&buildings, reflected in a puddle in Amsterdam.

 

This biker is a typical specimen/woman of us proud, proactive Amsterdammers, we bike through the toughest Winters, we pass&ignore hundreds of pretty Prostitutes sitting in their windows, waving their merchandise at us and we smash into the ever-present&stoned tourists when they stumble into our path on a daily basis, while all we want to do is bike home and chill out on the couch!

 

One personal piece of advise for all the visitors to Amsterdam: If you hear the 'Bell-of-death' playing her old song in your back, jump aside and save both of us ugly scenes in our beloved streets in the best city in the world ;-P

 

More wicked reflections

 

www.amstersam.com

Proactive Acne Treatment Vending Machine, 9/2014, by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announces the newly created Tenant Support Unit resolved its 1,000th tenant case since it launched in July 2015, keeping tenants in their homes and protecting affordable housing in fast-changing neighborhoods. The proactive unit goes door-to-door in neighborhoods across the city, informing tenants of their rights, documenting building violations, soliciting complaints related to harassment and eviction, and making referrals to free legal support whenever necessary. Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation, Washington Heights. Monday, February 29, 2016. Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

 

This photograph is provided by the New York City Mayoral Photography Office (MPO) for the benefit of the general public and for dissemination by members of the media. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial materials, advertisements, emails, products or promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the City of New York, the Mayoral administration, or the de Blasio family without prior consent from the MPO (PhotoOffice@cityhall.nyc.gov). Any use or reprinting of official MPO photographs must use the following credit language and style: “Photographer/Mayoral Photography Office”, as listed at the end of each caption.

Bonkers asleep on my chair (proactively covered with a wee-wee mat in case the cats get, uh, excited).

The Ministry of Health’s committee on Zika in Trinidad has determined that any pregnant woman that tests positive for Zika is to be referred to the Mount Hope Women’s Hospital, a hospital that dedicates itself to obstetrics. Mothers and babies are monitored on a weekly basis to detect any anomaly in the fetus that might have been caused by the virus. The Ministry of Health’s committee on Zika has been proactively informing the general population on how to prevent the spread of the virus and how to eradicate breeding sites, with a special emphasis on informing pregnant women or women planning to get pregnant. So far, only one case of Zika has been referred to this hospital.

Read the full report

www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/11/10/report-the-two-car...

We no longer live in or accept being a proactive society, we rather have a reactive society which is guided by emotions and slower progress than a proactive society that can move faster.

 

Anders Hallundbæk Mortensens oversigt

Nuværende Owner hos Uppercase (www.uppercase.dk)

Frontend Developer hos Aarstiderne A/S

Tidligere Frontend Developer hos ProActive A/S

eBusiness Manager hos Hestbæk Consult

Web Developer hos Kontrapunkt Online

  

Intern hos Kontrapunkt Online

Freelance mediadesigner hos Ventus (www.ventus.dk)

Web Developer hos Hello Group

Student Assistant, Web production hos Saxo Bank

Student web consultant hos Aalborg Universitet, Institute of Architecture & Design

Freelance webdesigner hos kjeldsen.it

  

Anders Hallundbæk Mortensen's report

Current Owner at Upper Case (www.uppercase.dk)

Frontend Developer at Aarstiderne A/S

Former Frontend Developer at ProActive A / S

eBusiness Manager at Hestbæk Consult

Web Developer at Counterpoint Online

 

Intern at Counterpoint Online

Freelance media designer at Ventus (www.ventus.dk)

Web Developer at Hello Group

Student Assistant, Web Production at Saxo Bank

Student web consultant at Aalborg University, Institute of Architecture & Design

Freelance web designer at kjeldsen.it

 

Formulated with baking soda and scented with fresh mint, the Arm & Hammer Advanced Pet Care Toothpaste and Brush Set effectively clean your canine's mouth, making for healthy, white teeth and pleasant breath. The included double-sided toothbrush and finger toothbrush let you easily reach every last molar, ensuring a convenient, yet thorough cleaning. From playing games of tug to chowing down on bones, your playful pooch depends on his teeth to support a fun, healthy life. Help support your pup's pearly whites in return by keeping them clean with this Arm & Hammer Advanced Care Fresh Breath & Whitening Toothpaste & Toothbrush Set for Dogs.

 

Features: Toothpaste made with baking soda, 1 double-sided toothbrush and 1 finger toothbrush, this kit gives you everything you need to take a proactive stance on your dog's oral health

we no longer live in or accept being a proactive society, we rather have a reactive society which is guided by emotions and slower progress than a proactive society that can move faster.

 

Yesterday (Monday 8 November) officers from GMP's Bury Neighbourhood Policing Team, alongside Bury community safety partners and other agencies launched Operation Saturn - a multi-agency proactive response aimed at tackling anti-social behaviour and other crimes across the district.

 

The launch follows a recent increase in anti-social behaviour and crime involving young people across the district, including a series of knife point robberies in Bury town centre and a violent disorder at Radcliffe Metrolink station last month, both of which resulted in arrests.

 

The high-visibility operation will see neighbourhood and specialist officers working closely alongside partners and community stakeholders including youth services and TFGM staff to target specific hotspot areas of ASB & crime across the district.

 

The operation launched yesterday on the Central Neighbourhood and focused on Bury town centre, Bury East, Redvales and Moorside areas including the Bury transport interchange.

 

Chief Superintendent Chris Hill of GMP's Bury District said: "Operation Saturn is about getting back to basics and working with partners and communities in the right place and the right time to really make a difference.

 

"This is about high visibility and getting officers out onto the streets to listen to what our communities have to say and to help provide that protective and reassuring presence. It's also about sending a message to offenders that GMP is here and we will take action wherever it's needed to bring this type of offending right down.

 

"Yesterday's launch was a really positive step in our commitment to protecting our community and I very much look forward to seeing how this develops and improves over time."

 

Chief Inspector Jamie Collins of GMP's Bury district said: "The feedback from the Bury communities is that they don’t see enough neighbourhood officers policing there areas."

 

"Operation Saturn is about putting high visibility uniformed officers into the areas of concern and is just one of the positive steps forward in our pledge to prevent and reduce crime, harm and ASB.

 

"This operation goes back to the basics of policing and focuses on the importance of high-visibility patrols on our streets and ensuring we are engaging with members of the community, to both understand their concerns for the area and also offer advice and tips of how best to stay keep safe from harm.

 

"Our communities expect to see us on foot across the district and in their neighbourhoods and we are committed to making this a normality and making our Borough a safe and welcoming place to live."

 

Bury Council’s cabinet member for communities Councillor Richard Gold said: "We know there have been increasing concerns from residents about anti-social behaviour and it's important that residents feel safe and secure when they're out and about in their own homes. This initiative is great because will help to target those hot spot locations, and with lots of visible officers, will help in the overall fight against anti-social behaviour.

 

"Seeing more police out on the streets is definitely the way forward and very much helps with community reassurance and I look forward to seeing regular repeat operations of this kind in the area."

  

Client: Proactive Chiropractic & Physical Therapy

Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

Proactive Acne Treatment Vending Machine, 9/2014, by Mike Mozart of TheToyChannel and JeepersMedia on YouTube.

Mission Statement: Protecting Florida's natural resources and people through proactive and responsive law enforcement services.

 

Vision: To be recognized as the leading conservation law enforcement agency in the nation, set apart by strategic vision, clear missions, strong leadership and a professional officer corps.

 

Motto: Patrol, Protect, Preserve

 

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