View allAll Photos Tagged rebuke
Big Bend NP, TX
These are wild pigs. Morons who visit the park in motor homes and trailers feed these pests, who then hang around looking for food, including knocking down your tent and shredding it. (This is despite your tent not having any food in it)
The morons don't have to worry about it, since they're up off the ground. It's a daily ongoing problem for the park. Strangely, the park service (at that time) wouldn't do anything about it - I was shocked when I got rebuked by a ranger for suggesting they live-capture the javalinas and release them miles away in the wilds. They do this for bears, why not pigs? (These things have 4" tusks they can bite you with!)
Psalm 9:2-3, 6, 8-9, 16
R. The Lord will judge the world with justice…
I will give thanks to You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will declare all Your wondrous deeds.
I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, Most High. R.
You rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; their name You blotted out forever and ever.
The nations are sunk in the pit they have made; in the snare they set, their foot is caught. R.
But the Lord sits enthroned forever; HE has set up HIS throne for judgment.
HE judges the world with justice; HE governs the peoples with equity. R.
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This watercolor painting is 5”x7”. These are front and back sections (see next image) of little booklets or cards that I make and give away. Cards unfolded are 10”x7”.
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Following the Son...
Blessings,
Sharon 🌻
God's Beauty In Nature is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him...
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Bloggers are welcome to use my artwork with, “Image from Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon under Creative Commons license”, and a link back to the images you use, and please let me know in the comment section below, thank you...
Art4TheGlryOfGod Photography by Sharon
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Faith, Hope & Love in daily Art meditations...
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The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan addressed MEPs in the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
In his address, Mr Pashinyan expressed his staunch defence of democratic principles against the backdrop of the multifaceted crises Armenia has been confronted with in recent years, particularly highlighting the turbulent aftermath of the 2020-2021 war and border conflict with Azerbaijan. He sought to defy those claiming that Armenia is suffering because it is a democracy, instead saying that his country would be paralysed and lose its independence and sovereignty if it was not democratic.
Referring to Azerbaijan’s recent attack and recapture of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said that Baku did so in “fulfilment of its long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing”. He also described the horrible humanitarian situation created by Azerbaijan’s long blockade of the Lachin corridor and offered a sharp rebuke to Moscow after Baku’s latest offensive.
"When hundreds of thousands of Armenians were fleeing from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, not only did our allies in the security sector refuse to help us, but they also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government", he said. "But the people of Armenia united for their own independence, sovereignty, democracy, and another conspiracy against our state failed".
Outlining in detail previous and so far failed attempts to achieve lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mr Pashinyan stated his willingness to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Baku by the end of the year. "We must move steadily towards peace", he said (..) "To do this, political will is necessary and I have that political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union, and the countries of our region should support us, do everything to make this opportunity real for us".
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231013IPR0712...
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This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2023 – Source: EP".
The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan addressed MEPs in the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
In his address, Mr Pashinyan expressed his staunch defence of democratic principles against the backdrop of the multifaceted crises Armenia has been confronted with in recent years, particularly highlighting the turbulent aftermath of the 2020-2021 war and border conflict with Azerbaijan. He sought to defy those claiming that Armenia is suffering because it is a democracy, instead saying that his country would be paralysed and lose its independence and sovereignty if it was not democratic.
Referring to Azerbaijan’s recent attack and recapture of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said that Baku did so in “fulfilment of its long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing”. He also described the horrible humanitarian situation created by Azerbaijan’s long blockade of the Lachin corridor and offered a sharp rebuke to Moscow after Baku’s latest offensive.
"When hundreds of thousands of Armenians were fleeing from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, not only did our allies in the security sector refuse to help us, but they also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government", he said. "But the people of Armenia united for their own independence, sovereignty, democracy, and another conspiracy against our state failed".
Outlining in detail previous and so far failed attempts to achieve lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mr Pashinyan stated his willingness to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Baku by the end of the year. "We must move steadily towards peace", he said (..) "To do this, political will is necessary and I have that political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union, and the countries of our region should support us, do everything to make this opportunity real for us".
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231013IPR0712...
____
This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2023 – Source: EP".
The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan addressed MEPs in the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
In his address, Mr Pashinyan expressed his staunch defence of democratic principles against the backdrop of the multifaceted crises Armenia has been confronted with in recent years, particularly highlighting the turbulent aftermath of the 2020-2021 war and border conflict with Azerbaijan. He sought to defy those claiming that Armenia is suffering because it is a democracy, instead saying that his country would be paralysed and lose its independence and sovereignty if it was not democratic.
Referring to Azerbaijan’s recent attack and recapture of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said that Baku did so in “fulfilment of its long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing”. He also described the horrible humanitarian situation created by Azerbaijan’s long blockade of the Lachin corridor and offered a sharp rebuke to Moscow after Baku’s latest offensive.
"When hundreds of thousands of Armenians were fleeing from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, not only did our allies in the security sector refuse to help us, but they also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government", he said. "But the people of Armenia united for their own independence, sovereignty, democracy, and another conspiracy against our state failed".
Outlining in detail previous and so far failed attempts to achieve lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mr Pashinyan stated his willingness to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Baku by the end of the year. "We must move steadily towards peace", he said (..) "To do this, political will is necessary and I have that political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union, and the countries of our region should support us, do everything to make this opportunity real for us".
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231013IPR0712...
____
This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2023 – Source: EP".
The people you meet are often not who you think - we all suffer from stereotypes, bias, and quick judgment.
In doing so, we often miss out on the opportunity to meet some truly remarkable people, discover fascinating trends, or get in touch with new opportunities for innovative thinking. That's why I will often spend time striking up conversations with people working away in the world around me - an agronomist working at a golf course, by which I can learn more about agricultural science; a 'liftie' at the ski resort, where I can discover someone who is doing advanced graphics design work in the summer season; or a young lady doing advanced AI research with her Master's degree while working part-time with the AV crew that manages one of my events.
Through this process, I've discovered much of what drives the world around us. Consider my video clip, Farmers and Truckers - where I tell the story of how I've learned these are two of the most innovative industries in our world today. We can learn much about how industries evolve and change over time, particularly when we consider to be rather unskilled professions are managing quite well with the rapid introduction of new technologies, ideas, and concepts. Much of what I have learned by preparing for keynotes in these industries has come from .... spending a lot of time talking with farmers and truckers, and in doing so, I have learned a LOT.
People never are who you think they are, and over the years, I've managed to use this type of thinking to learn more about the world around me.
With that in mind, here's a wonderful story. During the year, I had the chance to meet one Lawi Sultan Njeremani, a groundskeeper working at my home golf club Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Remember that phrase "You never get a second chance to make a first impression" - meeting Lawi reminded me of the corollary to this phrase: "We always have a second chance to fix a failed first impression!"
With that in mind, that's strategy #16 of my 24 Strategies for 2024 series. Fail at fewer failed first impressions!
Here's the story - I'm an early morning golfer, often heading out for the first tee time at 7 am during the summer months, right after sending out my Daily Inspiration post. It's the best time of the day to do a round - moving fast, with no one in the way, with most days involving the glorious days of sunshine as the day begins. There are a few playing partners who will join me on these days; my son Tom, a retired lawyer John, and a retired chemical engineer, Gary. Some might call us the 'rabbits.'
When you golf this early, you are often running up against or hitting into the grounds crew - the folks who take care of the course and keep it in top shape. They start their day a few hours before you do, cutting the grass, raking the bunkers, cleaning the course, and doing the daily maintenance. I and my playing partners try to be very respectful to them; they've got a job to do, and we need not be idiots by interfering with their process. They will often wave us through, knowing that on many days, there are few other of us 'rabbits' eager to chase the first round of the day.
Thursdays are 'Men's Day' at my club - I'm not a participant, playing on Seniors Day instead. But on Mens' Day, many other young fellows might join me on the front for a fast 9-hole round - they can get their score into the ranking for that day and then head off to work. This often means that I end up playing the back 9 holes on my own since I don't have to rush off to work. And it's on these days that I will often strike up a longer conversation with the various grounds crew working on the course.
One day, I was teeing off one hole when I saw a young fellow working away in the distance. I'd often see him out there, working away on his own, watering, moving, doing repairs.
On this particular day, I struck up a conversation and introduced myself. Since no one was golfing with me on this day and no one was following close behind, a longer-than-normal conversation ensued.
I quizzed him on his daily responsibilities, and quickly learned that he was a student in the Guelph Turfgrass Management Program at our local university; it's a world-renowned program providing education in the science, technology, management, and best practices of golf course maintenance. You might not think about such university degree programs much as you make your way around your local course, but it's a very complex degree program - your local golf course superintendent and staff do so much more than just 'mowing the lawn.' I will often tell the story of what I've learned about what is going on in the industry of golf and what it can teach us about other industries and the future; here's a clip in advance of a keynote I was doing at Torrey Pines:
As these things go, our discussion inevitably got around to the question of what I do for a living, and I mentioned that in addition to often speaking at events and meetings around the world, I also happened to be a bit of an author, having penned some 39 titles during my careers.
Lawi's eyes lit up at that comment.
"I'm an author," he said, "and I am trying to get published."
I will often get comments like this, only to learn that in most cases, this is merely an aspirational idea, not a fact.
This certainly proved not to be the case with Lawi - I quickly learned that he had already written not just one book but two - and to go with these books, he had also put together a short cartoon version. He was merely looking for a way to get them into print. And with that, we were off - I explained to him the unique process of self-publishing, which has been the path for the last four of my books. I described what was involved, how long it can take, the intricacies of cover design and interior formatting, how to go about getting an ISBN, and the basics of listing on Amazon (which is just about all that matters in today's world of publishing._ I offered to line him up with some of the folks in India who did some of this work for me; he indicated that he had a digital team in his home country of Kenya that he wanted to get involved in the process. (Much of the rest of the technical work on my books is done by my wife and business partner Christa - she is my digital publishing expert!)
Over the next few weeks and months, I continued to provide him guidance on the intricacies of the process, answering his questions along the way. And one day, just a matter of a few weeks ago, Lawi let me know that the books were in print, and available on Amazon.
Not just volumes 1 and 2, but also the comic.
It turns out that the books he had already written by the time I met him out on the golf course early that morning weren't merely abstract ideas - they are deep, rich, and complex tomes on a complex topic, coming in at 532 and 470 pages each. And he managed to get them into print just about 3 months after we first met on the course. To say I was impressed is a bit of an understatement.
The story also reinforces a powerful lesson I have always tried to follow - we should always go beyond our first impressions because we can learn so much more about the world around us. It would have been so easy for me to dismiss Lawi as just another person on the grounds crew at my course - instead, I've discovered a rather fascinating individual.
Consider the topic of the book - from the cover. I have yet to read the book, but it is certainly a topic!
The Trouble with Kenya is a microcosm of any given country's social and justice pillars. These pillars have been subordinated to the political and economic pillars in many societies with politics and the economy being deified as the all-encompassing enablers of the advancement of Nations. With the world becoming more connected, happenings in far-flung places are increasingly becoming risk factors locally, precipitating issues of local concern and increasing the impediments to collective human development. All these may appear to be abstract concepts in daily life where making the next pay check, putting food on the table or securing a comfortable future for oneself and family is an exhausting endeavor but those who ignore the harbinger flicks subject themselves to ongoing or future succumb.
The story of the founding of Kenya as a country and the continuous strides towards nationhood is similar to many countries globally that have had a monarchy in their founding DNA. Indeed, some countries have excelled in building institutions that ensure an equitable society, while some continue to struggle with cartelization and usurpation of independence of institutions and commensurately experience unjust societal confluence where only a few enjoy the benefits of a nation-wide toil.
The symbols on the cover? They too tell a story, told in the opening section of the books, where he proposes a link between what he is learning about the link between the science of turf grass management and global geopolitical and economic challenges!
Those who study pedology and agriculture know that one of the cultural means of lowering soil pH and increasing soil nutrition is turn over the soil through tilling and cultivation. This exposes the soil to air (aeration) and moves immobile macronutrients and micronutrients like calcium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron and molybdenum nearer the surface where they are likely to be available to plants.
The Preface of this book's Volume One may be considered a strong rebuke of the Kenyan psyche but is founded on the principle above-to elevate the consciousness of a critical mass of not only the Kenyan citizenry but of all nations of the world through the cultural practise of tilling through heavily compacted anomalies in the respective societies and allowing for enabling environments for all human beings to thrive and live dignified lives.
Talk about a complex mind!
Motivational author Dale Carnegie once observed that one of our most important traits is to spend more time discovering other people: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
With that in mind, here's my spin on it - you can learn more about the world around you by taking the time to learn about other people and spending less time trying to learn about yourself. What I have learned this year, by meeting Lawi, is a re-emphasis of that lesson, something that I have long tried to do in understanding the future, creativity, and innovation.
And that's why this is strategy #16 of my 24 Strategies for 2024!
Learn more at 2024.jimcarroll.com.
Original post: jimcarroll.com/2023/12/daily-inspiration-24-strategies-fo...
...there's at least 4 you don't. In this case, it means that there's approximately 8 I didn't see.
The Secret Service, like any special forces, are professionals, no other word for it. Being damn good at their job and fully in control of the situation they are, somewhat paradoxically, less uptight than, say, TSA or your neighborhood rent-a-cop. They were able to crack a smile and stay loose, even so far as letting me bring my keychain knife into a secure area. (Albeit with a mild rebuke, but no confiscation.) I find an inverse relationship between competence and uptightness. If the guy is twitchy and sweating, eyes protruding and yelling at you, he's probably not all that capable. If he's leaning against the wall in shades saying "Go ahead, try it"....well, you better be on your best behavior.
The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan addressed MEPs in the European Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
In his address, Mr Pashinyan expressed his staunch defence of democratic principles against the backdrop of the multifaceted crises Armenia has been confronted with in recent years, particularly highlighting the turbulent aftermath of the 2020-2021 war and border conflict with Azerbaijan. He sought to defy those claiming that Armenia is suffering because it is a democracy, instead saying that his country would be paralysed and lose its independence and sovereignty if it was not democratic.
Referring to Azerbaijan’s recent attack and recapture of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said that Baku did so in “fulfilment of its long-standing policy of ethnic cleansing”. He also described the horrible humanitarian situation created by Azerbaijan’s long blockade of the Lachin corridor and offered a sharp rebuke to Moscow after Baku’s latest offensive.
"When hundreds of thousands of Armenians were fleeing from Nagorno Karabakh to the Republic of Armenia, not only did our allies in the security sector refuse to help us, but they also made public calls for a change of power in Armenia, to overthrow the democratic government", he said. "But the people of Armenia united for their own independence, sovereignty, democracy, and another conspiracy against our state failed".
Outlining in detail previous and so far failed attempts to achieve lasting peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mr Pashinyan stated his willingness to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Baku by the end of the year. "We must move steadily towards peace", he said (..) "To do this, political will is necessary and I have that political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union, and the countries of our region should support us, do everything to make this opportunity real for us".
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20231013IPR0712...
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This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: "CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2023 – Source: EP".
I work at a environmental non-profit, so the threat level of hippies busting in on the webmasters and trying to get them high or rebuke formal social hierarchy is constantly at orange.
On January 21, 2017, millions of people all over the world gathered to "March for Justice."
The events are being held to defend the rights, safety, and health of women and families, and to celebrate the qualities that make humans diverse and inclusive in the world. "We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us," organizers said.
This year, the “March for Justice” has also become an unprecedented international rebuke of the new United States President that packed cities large and small — from London to Los Angeles, Paris to Park City, Utah, Miami to Melbourne, Australia.
The fear — and anger — at Mr. Donald Trump’s rise to the most powerful position in the United States reverberated at renowned protest sites around the globe with march organizers listing more than 670 planned events nationwide and at another 70 cities overseas.
Locales included Chicago, Boston, New York, Miami, Denver, Seattle, St. Louis, the Hawaiian island of Kauai, Juneau, Alaska, Philadelphia, Lexington, Kentucky, New Orleans, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Mexico City, Berlin, and Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where the temperature was six below zero.
In Ventura, California, marchers walked in a rectangular loop from Plaza Park, west on Thompson Boulevard, north on Figueroa Street, west on Main Street, and south on Fir Street back to Plaza Park, covering a distance of about a mile.
Description: The Library Commission approved additional funding to cover cost overrun for renovating the Chinatown Library and rebuked the Department of Public Works for its errors.
Original Material Type: Photocopy of newspaper clipping
Title: Library Panel Blasts DPW's Errors
Publication Info: San Francisco Independent, August 5, 1994
Subject Keywords: San Francisco, Chinatown, San Francisco Public Library, Chinatown Branch Library, renovation, DPW, Department of Public Works, Library Commission, Bureau of Architecture
Collection: Chinatown Branch Archives
Repository: San Francisco Public Library - Chinatown/Him Mark Lai Branch
In the city of Mohali, Punjab, drive continues to be a central test influencing individuals and families. Nasha Mukti Kendras (de-oppression centers) have emerged as empowering signs, giving total treatment and sponsorship to individuals searching for recovery. In this article, we will take a gander at the control of a Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali, revealing data into the affiliations it offers and the supportive outcome it has on individuals and the region.
Brilliant and Experienced Staff:
The Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali values brilliant and experienced staff people are revolved around helping individuals with beating inspiration. The social gathering coordinates arranged specialists, advisors, examiners, teachers, and care staff who have the power and sympathy fundamental to orchestrate individuals on their recovery cycle. They sort out the complexities of liking and give changed care and sponsorship extraordinarily planned to the enthralling necessities of everyone.
Protected and Solid Environment:
The Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali offers a secured and unsurprising environment where individuals can give while scrambling toward recovery. Seeing the troubles and triggers individuals face in their customary plans, the center gives a tranquil and secure setting, freed from skeptical effects. This environment invigorates recovering, allowing individuals to focus in on their excursion towards a prevalent, obsession free life.
Detoxification and Clinical Association:
Detoxification is a huge piece of the time the mystery push toward the recovery cycle. The Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali gives a supportively directed detoxification program, ensuring a shielded and great withdrawal from substances. Experienced clinical specialists tensely screen individuals, direct withdrawal unplanned effects, and use colossal clinical interventions to restrict possible flourishing risks and strain during this vital stage.
Arranging and Treatment:
The center proposals expansive guiding and treatment relationship to address the psychological and exceptionally close pieces of inspiration. Through individual rebuking, pack treatment social events, and lead prescriptions, individuals gain encounters into the fundamental drivers of their maltreatment, learn sound methodologies for directing particularly infuriating times, and foster crucial limits concerning huge length recovery. Gifted experts provide guidance, backing, and mechanical gatherings central for individuals to change their lives and stay aware of progressing forward through restriction.
Family Thought and Sponsorship:
The Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali sees the enormous control of family support in the recovery cycle. The center interfaces with family coalition and ways to deal with acting family treatment parties to move sorting out, correspondence, and recovering inside the family unit. By remembering families for the treatment cycle, individuals get additional assistance, foster affiliations, and develop strong regions for an obliging for kept up with recovery.
Cautious Method for administering Recovery:
Understanding that recovery combines something past paying special attention to persecution, the Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali embraces a broad technique for managing treatment. As well as inciting and treatment, the center could combine commonly extensive solutions like yoga, reflection, craftsmanship treatment, and waving works out. These relating strategy advance all over, self-reflection, stress decline, and an ability to know east from west, supporting individuals in their excursion towards progressing forward through recovery.
Aftercare and Lose the certainty Evasion:
The trip to recovery doesn't end there of brain of completing the program at the Nasha Mukti Kendra. The center underlines the meaning of aftercare and lose the certainty revultion. Aftercare programs are needed to offer relentless assistance through organizing, support parties, and break certainty repulsiveness techniques. These endeavors communicate with individuals to investigate the troubles of customary presence, support flexibility against likely triggers, and spread out serious strong regions for a point for kept up with control.
Neighborhood and Tutoring:
The Nasha Mukti Kendra in Mohali genuinely takes part in region and arranging drives to uncover issues about inspiration and fight shame. The center ways to deal with acting studios, courses, and care missions to set up the area the signs, risks, and outcomes of reliance. By pushing status and understanding, the center undertakings to make a consistent region strengthens.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Again, the security forces in place at this event were unusually non-confrontational. Except the one group on horses that broke up a dancefest in the street (will be in my next bitly.com/NewsWithNezua video), and even then, when the crowd rebuked those officers loudly, they did not bring on greater force, which is almost always the case. So thanks go to the DC police & SWAT teams as well as the Mall Security Guards, for their demeanor at this event.
Pyramidal obelisk with a muzzled bear's head on top. The family crest of the Brereton family, patrons of the church. Tradition says the young Brereton serving in the king's cavalry was far too impetuous, leading his men too soon into battle and the king rebuked him saying "let this bear be muzzled"
It was a strange and troubling experience for me photographing human remains. I felt a little crass as I searched for 'artistic' angles. There was a voice in my head that wanted to say 'I can't do this' and have me stop. And yet, here I was doing it, so obviously I could. This second realization disturbed me further and it was then that I could no longer 'do this' and I stopped taking pictures
.... And yet, it is important that we don't forget the horrific things that people have and continue to do to other people. In order to change the world we must deal with the reality of what has been done, and to do this we need to record and communicate these atrocities. And so these pictures are being posted here.
This is an excavation of a mass grave from one of the massacre sites. The museum was built up around this site so it could be a graphic reminder of the horrors inflicted on the people of Nanjing.
We went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum. It was built on the sight of a mass grave of 10,000 people. It is estimated that at least 300,000 people were massacred in Nanjing during the Japanese invasion. This museum is a memorial to those who were so brutally killed. It stands as a stark reminder of the horrors of war and is a rebuke to the invaders.
Thursday was a beautiful, clear day.
January 15 to 18, 2013 we went to Nanjing to visit our friend, Panda.
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
Mark 10:13-16
© Peter Busscher
A view of the people and National flags of Pakistan, India
"The past is always a rebuke to the present." - Robert Penn Warren (1905 – 1989) American poet
Psalm 93
The eternal and sovereign God.
Jehovah reigns; he dwells in light,
Girded with majesty and might:
The world, created by his hands,
Still on its first foundation stands.
But ere this spacious world was made,
Or had its first foundation laid,
Thy throne eternal ages stood,
Thyself the ever-living God.
Like floods, the angry nations rise,
And aim their rage against the skies;
Vain floods, that aim their rage so high!
At thy rebuke the billows die.
For ever shall thy throne endure;
Thy promise stands for ever sure;
And everlasting holiness
Becomes the dwellings of thy grace.
Isaac Watts
Wimborne Minster, Wimborne, Dorset
St Dunstan was born at Glastonbury c.910 to a wealthy farther who was the brother of the Bishop of Winchester.
Dunstan excelled at his studied and had a great passion for music. He is represented with the small harp he took with him on his travels.
He was minster to King Edgar, father of King Edward the martyr, for sixteen years, weilding ecclesiastical and secular powers of the Kingdom of Wessex.
In this scene he is being rebuked by the King Edwy for his conduct to to the Lady Elgiva, his step-mother and rumoured lover.
The king never forgave Dunstan for his remarks.
An experiment with A.I.-based video animation, using a still/portrait as a starting point. Only 8 sec. snippets possible, but the result is quite amazing, IMHO! :D
Some background:
The initial concept designs for Last Exile were created by character designer Range Murata. Murata also spent a great amount of time on costume design. Wanting to portray each character's personality more fully, he "tried to draw in the kind of material that would have been used in creating their clothes and try to represent the stitches connecting the fabric". Although Studio Gonzo initially intended for Last Exile to be shown in a space setting, it did not want characters who use sterile space suits. As a result, Murata's designs placed the show in its current setting.
Although the fictional world of Prester is not a representation of Earth, it features technology reminiscent of nineteenth century Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Many of its designs were also inspired by Germany's technological advances during the interwar period. Uniform designs for Anatoray's musketeers were based on Napoleon Bonaparte's army and American Civil War soldiers. On the other hand, Soviet Red Army fur coats provided the basis for Disith uniforms. The crew of the Silvana wore uniforms that were more modern and utilitarian.
Production of Last Exile relied heavily on 3D computer animation. The animation for Last Exile was also supplemented with Victorian era flourishes. In order to combine hand-drawn animation with computer-generated ones, the production team used a technique for non-photorealistic rendering, which could not be used for Blue Submarine No. 6 (a previous work of Gonzo and one of the first CG anime series) because of a stylistic conflict.
Tatiana Wiszla (タチアナ・ヴィスラ Tachiana Visura?) is only a supporting character in Last Exile. She is the only child of "the proud and noble" Wiszla house of Anatoray. At the age of seventeen, Tatiana left home to become a member of the newly formed Anatoray Military Vanship Corps, a new military division dedicated to using vanships as weapons as opposed to just couriers and transports.
She excelled in both piloting and dogfighting, quickly becoming one of the best vanship pilots in the sky, possibly second only to Alex Row. She sent all the extra money she made as an ace pilot back to her family so that her mother could care for her ailing father. Before too long, she found herself on the Silvana as Row's handpicked wing commander for his small vanship fighter fleet. She pilots a twin-engine vanship fighter which she painted red to distinguish herself from the other pilots as well as all other vanships in the sky (BTW, available from Hasegawa in 1:72 scale).
With her trusted friend, confidant, and navigator, Alister Agrew, she quickly becomes one of the most dreaded forces in the sky next to the Silvana herself, for which the technicians on board the Silvana start calling her the "princess." Her cold demeanor manages to alienate even her close friend Alister. This leads to Alister flying with Claus Valca as his "navi" (short for "navigator") for a time, both as a rebuke to Tatiana and because Claus's navigator, Lavie Head, does not want to fly any more combat missions.
Tatiana is second best to none in her own mind, but her overconfident self-view is challenged when she meets Claus, whose piloting skills rival her own. From then on, her feelings toward Claus go on a roller coaster, making her feel anger, disgust, awe, respect, fear, and even attraction to the young vanship pilot. Her frosty aloofness is clearly a self-defensive façade; she suffers a mental breakdown of sorts after getting shot down over the desert, but recovers, and from that time she begins to show a greater depth of feeling, especially towards Claus, whom she develops a crush on.
In “Last Exile: Fam, the Sliver Wing”, Tatiana ihas become Captain of the Submersible Aircraft Carrier Silvius with Alister as her Vice-Captain.
The kit and its assembly:
As many kits, I had bought this one occasionally and had it stashed away for a while. I have never seen Last Exile, so my motivation and inspiration was rather stirred by severel Hasegawa Vanship builds in different online forums where I lurk, too, and I thought i could a) provide a suitable pilot character for these beautiful, retro-styles air vehicles and b) get in the mood to scratch a Vanship of own design, too - but the latter is another project.
Tatja Wiszla is a typical Range Murata design, very clean and with "soft" curves. Anyway, despite being very simple (the resin kit only has 9 parts), the figure has a very strong expression, and it is actually based on an official design sketch where the character leans onto rails, looking to the side with a stern, even challenging expression.
I was sceptical at first, but the figure catches this pose perfectly, and builders should pay attention to this benchmark illustration and the way the figure is supposed to be posed - otherwise the figure can look pretty goofy!
Anyway, the figure was built almost 100% OOB, with only minor mods. One thing I really did not like was the base that came with it. It actually depicts a small portion of the rails the figure leans on, but the execution in resin plates is so simple and bleak.... no.
I decided to scratch a base, and eventually settled on a round MDF plate with an improvised table onto which the figure can propely lean. Since the base is pretty large for the small figure, I later added a pilot helmet (a metal-cast Franklin Mint collectible, from the local airport's souvenir shop!) on the table. It's not really authentic for Last Exile (even though pressurized helmets exist), but it is a nice detail for the whole display and a good contrast counterpart to the grey-in-grey figure. It also adds a professional/military touch and underlines Tatjana's profession and 'ready when you are' attitude.
As a consequence, the sole of the figure's left foot became visible, so I added two round inserts (tank wheels!) into the sole, the only real modification.
Otherwise, only small details like a zip or the round buttons on the belly and under the collar were added - character design sketches helped here, as well as finding suitable colors.
As per usual. the whole kit was painted with a brush and with enamels. Black ink and black acrylic paint was used to emphasize edges and deepen engravings, as a final step everything was sealed under matt varnish.
Since the figure is cleverly constructed in segments that later carry different colors, I painted the whole thing before I finally assembled it. It's really a nice kit that I can actually recommend for bloody beginners. Fit and casting quality were very good, in fact there were only minimal sanding and putty works to do - and if you take the OOB base you have a 95% painting job on this one.
A - in a double sense - fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe: Reiko Sugiyama, a young N.E.R.V. test pilot. And this time, it's even a second figure I built from this character I "invented" some time ago.
The original inspiration dates back to a kneeling 1:8 figure, which I converted from a "Asuka Soryu Langley in Plugsuit" kit as a kind of training - more or less a color variant, still in line with the Evangelion theme and spirit.
Again, this figure is a minor conversion of an Asuka-in-Plugsuit kit, but this time it's a 1:6 kit of an early plugsuit design version, which originally can be found in the source book "Der Mond".
As a side note, this basic kit was not OOB, I rather re-worked a used(!) kit that I was able to buy from the USA with only a littel price tag -pictures of the parts and the working process can be found in the respective WiP Set in my account.
The bright orange plugsuit variant was, to be honest, insipred by Star Wars' X-Wing Fighter outfits... The only other major change is a radical hairdo - the latter worked wonders!
As a contrast to the colorful suit and to inspire a timid character, I decided to go with some natural dark brown hair and give that character cold, bluish-grey eyes.
I very happy with the result. While this figure differs in some plugsuit details from the former 1:8 build, the overall look is IMHO very convincing and conclusive.
Another "one of a kind" doujinshi kit, and a nice distraction from many recent aircraft builds. ^^
www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/columbia-univ...
Columbia University deans resign after sending disparaging text messages with ‘antisemitic tropes’
August 8, 2024
----------
Former UN WMD Inspector Scott Ritter on Judging Freedom - Israeli law permits Jews to rape and kill non-Jewish prisoners. Ritter also commented on the two Americans released from Russia after accused of espionage in Russia:
www.youtube.com/live/knJIu1uVx1A
www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-sex-crime-law-jews-less...
Israeli sex crime law condemned for giving Jews lesser punishment for rape
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-minister-says-it-may...
Israeli Finance Minister says it may be ‘moral’ to starve 2 million Gazans, but ‘no one in the world would let us’
www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/for-college-students-arreste...
For college students arrested protesting the war in Gaza, the fallout was only beginning
August 2, 2024
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — Since her arrest at a protest at the University of Massachusetts, Annie McGrew has been pivoting between two sets of hearings: one for the misdemeanor charges she faces in court, and another for violations of the college's conduct code.
It has kept the graduate student from work toward finishing her dissertation in economics.
“It’s been a really rough few months for me since my arrest,” McGrew said. “I never imagined this is how UMass (administration) would respond.”
Some 3,200 people were arrested this spring during a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments protesting the war in Gaza. While some colleges ended demonstrations by striking deals with the students, or simply waited them out, others called in police when protesters refused to leave.
Many students have already seen those charges dismissed. But the cases have yet to be resolved for hundreds of people at campuses that saw the highest number of arrests, according to an analysis of data gathered by The Associated Press and partner newsrooms.
Along with the legal limbo, those students face uncertainty in their academic careers. Some remain steadfast, saying they would have made the same decisions to protest even if they had known the consequences. Others have struggled with the aftermath of the arrests, harboring doubts about whether to stay enrolled in college at all.
In St. Louis, Valencia Alvarez is waiting to hear what will come of the potential charges she and 99 others could face for a protest April 27 that lasted less than half a day at Washington University.
Twenty-three of those arrested were students. In June, the university gave them two options: They could face a hearing with the Office of Student Conduct, or they could “accept responsibility” and forgo further investigation. Alvarez took the first option.
“I don’t really plan on being quiet about this, and I think that’s the goal of the second option,” Alvarez said.
The demonstrations swept public and private universities, on campuses large and small, urban and rural. As students return this fall, colleges are bracing for more protests against both Israel's military and Hamas, and strategizing over tactics including when to call in law enforcement — decisions that have had lasting reverberations.
Some college leaders said calling police was the only option to end protests that stood in the way of commencement ceremonies, disrupted campus life and included instances of antisemitic signs and language.
Student groups and some faculty members have blasted college leaders for inviting police inside their gates. In their view, the police actions often trampled peaceful demonstrations with unnecessary levels of force.
Which charges are worth pursuing?
The vast majority of the cases against the demonstrators — ranging from students and faculty to people without any ties to the colleges — involve misdemeanors or lower-level charges. Examples include trespassing, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
More serious charges were filed against demonstrators who occupied a campus building at Columbia University, where some were arrested initially on felony trespassing charges. Those were lowered to misdemeanors, and dozens of students have had their charges dropped. In a decision criticized by Jewish groups, prosecutors said there was a lack of evidence tying them to acts of property damage, and none of the students had criminal histories.
Prosecutors in several cities are still evaluating whether to pursue charges. But in many cases, officials have indicated they do not intend to pursue low-level violations, according to AP’s review of data on campuses with at least 100 arrests.
In upstate New York, the Ulster County district attorney asked judges to dismiss 129 cases stemming from arrests at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
“I have concluded that it is best to dismiss these charges now and relieve all concerned and the courts of any further burdens, expenses, and expenditures of scarce public and judicial resources,” District Attorney Emmanuel Nneji wrote in June.
New Paltz students said they were sitting with their arms interlocked when officers hauled them away on May 2.
“It was handled very brutally,” said Maddison Tirado, a student whose trespassing charge has been dismissed. Tirado said protesters were treated as if authorities saw them “like little terrorists running around.”
One student demonstrator, Ezra Baptist, said he was taken to a hospital with a concussion and a cut after being thrown forward and hitting his head during his arrest by state troopers. He was supposed to avoid looking at screens because of his injury and could not complete one class he needed to graduate in May.
State police said if anyone believes troopers acted inappropriately, they should file a complaint so it can be investigated. Another police agency at the scene, the county sheriff’s office, said officers showed restraint and that a trooper was injured when demonstrators threw bottles.
Tensions have run high on college campuses since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants assaulted southern Israel and killed 1,200 people (Israel officials revised the death toll from October 7 from 1,405 to 1,139, but the mainstream media still insist on using the 1,200 figure), most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
Arrests put students' degrees on hold
For some students, the impact on their academic careers has affected them more than any legal jeopardy.
At Washington University, conduct hearings for arrested students began recently but have yet to result in disciplinary decisions. In the meantime, Alvarez does not have the master’s degree in public health she would have received by now if not for her arrest.
Alvarez, who hopes to branch into social justice and community organizing, said she doesn't have regrets. But that’s not to say the protest didn’t come at a cost.
“I want that degree,” Alvarez said. “I worked four jobs throughout my two years at Wash U to be able to afford tuition without pulling out any loans.”
At Emerson College in Boston, 118 people were arrested when police were asked to enforce a city ordinance against camping on public property. All were charged with disturbing the peace and granted “pre-arraignment diversion,” which means no charges will be filed in exchange for 40 hours of community service, prosecutors said.
Owen Buxton, an Emerson student, said he suffered a concussion when police shoved him into a bronze statue. It was his second arrest of the semester for protesting the war in Gaza. The experience made it hard for him to concentrate or participate in classes.
“It stifled all my creativity — I didn’t make anything for months, which is not typical of me,” said Buxton, a filmmaker.
Emerson allowed students to take the semester pass-fail following an outcry over the arrests.
A spokesperson for the Boston Police Department said anybody with concerns can file complaints with the internal affairs office. The department previously said there were no injuries during the Emerson arrests.
A reckoning over inviting police to campus
At the UMass campus in Amherst, students recalled a peaceful demonstration with singing and dancing before police arrived. It was the second tent encampment students had put up that week. UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after discussions broke down with protesters.
“Let me be clear — involving law enforcement is the absolute last resort,” Reyes wrote to the campus community.
The law enforcement response, including 117 police vehicles on campus, unsettled protesters. McGrew remembers seeing police with riot gear rushing the crowd of students. A total of 134 people were arrested.
As arrestees were processed at the university's sports arena, graduate student Charles Sullivan, who is transgender, said they felt humiliated by campus police. An officer, Sullivan said, forced them to loudly describe their genitalia to gain access to a restroom.
Sullivan has since decided to leave the university to continue their studies, in part because of the arrest. Wrapping up a master’s degree in anthropology, Sullivan will move to Ohio in the fall to pursue a Ph.D., instead of continuing at UMass.
“I think mostly I’m just kind of ready to get out of this place,” Sullivan said.
Many campus organizations have rebuked Reyes for deploying police, including the UMass faculty senate, which passed a vote of no confidence against the chancellor.
In June, Reyes announced a task force to review campus policies on demonstrations, including the land-use policy many arrestees were charged with violating.
The group is just getting started with their work, said Anthony Paik, a member of the faculty senate and co-chair of the task force. It would have more information by the end of August, he said, just before the start of the new school year.
___
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
___
Associated Press writers Jake Offenhartz in New York, Michael Hill in Albany, New York, and Michael Melia in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
And the hares...Fap Jack and CumFart Zone. They were congratulated for a short trail but rebuked for the poor quality thereof.
An experiment with A.I.-based video animation, using a still/portrait as a starting point. Only 8 sec. snippets possible, but the result is quite amazing, IMHO! :D
Some background:
The initial concept designs for Last Exile were created by character designer Range Murata. Murata also spent a great amount of time on costume design. Wanting to portray each character's personality more fully, he "tried to draw in the kind of material that would have been used in creating their clothes and try to represent the stitches connecting the fabric". Although Studio Gonzo initially intended for Last Exile to be shown in a space setting, it did not want characters who use sterile space suits. As a result, Murata's designs placed the show in its current setting.
Although the fictional world of Prester is not a representation of Earth, it features technology reminiscent of nineteenth century Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Many of its designs were also inspired by Germany's technological advances during the interwar period. Uniform designs for Anatoray's musketeers were based on Napoleon Bonaparte's army and American Civil War soldiers. On the other hand, Soviet Red Army fur coats provided the basis for Disith uniforms. The crew of the Silvana wore uniforms that were more modern and utilitarian.
Production of Last Exile relied heavily on 3D computer animation. The animation for Last Exile was also supplemented with Victorian era flourishes. In order to combine hand-drawn animation with computer-generated ones, the production team used a technique for non-photorealistic rendering, which could not be used for Blue Submarine No. 6 (a previous work of Gonzo and one of the first CG anime series) because of a stylistic conflict.
Tatiana Wiszla (タチアナ・ヴィスラ Tachiana Visura?) is only a supporting character in Last Exile. She is the only child of "the proud and noble" Wiszla house of Anatoray. At the age of seventeen, Tatiana left home to become a member of the newly formed Anatoray Military Vanship Corps, a new military division dedicated to using vanships as weapons as opposed to just couriers and transports.
She excelled in both piloting and dogfighting, quickly becoming one of the best vanship pilots in the sky, possibly second only to Alex Row. She sent all the extra money she made as an ace pilot back to her family so that her mother could care for her ailing father. Before too long, she found herself on the Silvana as Row's handpicked wing commander for his small vanship fighter fleet. She pilots a twin-engine vanship fighter which she painted red to distinguish herself from the other pilots as well as all other vanships in the sky (BTW, available from Hasegawa in 1:72 scale).
With her trusted friend, confidant, and navigator, Alister Agrew, she quickly becomes one of the most dreaded forces in the sky next to the Silvana herself, for which the technicians on board the Silvana start calling her the "princess." Her cold demeanor manages to alienate even her close friend Alister. This leads to Alister flying with Claus Valca as his "navi" (short for "navigator") for a time, both as a rebuke to Tatiana and because Claus's navigator, Lavie Head, does not want to fly any more combat missions.
Tatiana is second best to none in her own mind, but her overconfident self-view is challenged when she meets Claus, whose piloting skills rival her own. From then on, her feelings toward Claus go on a roller coaster, making her feel anger, disgust, awe, respect, fear, and even attraction to the young vanship pilot. Her frosty aloofness is clearly a self-defensive façade; she suffers a mental breakdown of sorts after getting shot down over the desert, but recovers, and from that time she begins to show a greater depth of feeling, especially towards Claus, whom she develops a crush on.
In “Last Exile: Fam, the Sliver Wing”, Tatiana ihas become Captain of the Submersible Aircraft Carrier Silvius with Alister as her Vice-Captain.
The kit and its assembly:
As many kits, I had bought this one occasionally and had it stashed away for a while. I have never seen Last Exile, so my motivation and inspiration was rather stirred by severel Hasegawa Vanship builds in different online forums where I lurk, too, and I thought i could a) provide a suitable pilot character for these beautiful, retro-styles air vehicles and b) get in the mood to scratch a Vanship of own design, too - but the latter is another project.
Tatja Wiszla is a typical Range Murata design, very clean and with "soft" curves. Anyway, despite being very simple (the resin kit only has 9 parts), the figure has a very strong expression, and it is actually based on an official design sketch where the character leans onto rails, looking to the side with a stern, even challenging expression.
I was sceptical at first, but the figure catches this pose perfectly, and builders should pay attention to this benchmark illustration and the way the figure is supposed to be posed - otherwise the figure can look pretty goofy!
Anyway, the figure was built almost 100% OOB, with only minor mods. One thing I really did not like was the base that came with it. It actually depicts a small portion of the rails the figure leans on, but the execution in resin plates is so simple and bleak.... no.
I decided to scratch a base, and eventually settled on a round MDF plate with an improvised table onto which the figure can propely lean. Since the base is pretty large for the small figure, I later added a pilot helmet (a metal-cast Franklin Mint collectible, from the local airport's souvenir shop!) on the table. It's not really authentic for Last Exile (even though pressurized helmets exist), but it is a nice detail for the whole display and a good contrast counterpart to the grey-in-grey figure. It also adds a professional/military touch and underlines Tatjana's profession and 'ready when you are' attitude.
As a consequence, the sole of the figure's left foot became visible, so I added two round inserts (tank wheels!) into the sole, the only real modification.
Otherwise, only small details like a zip or the round buttons on the belly and under the collar were added - character design sketches helped here, as well as finding suitable colors.
As per usual. the whole kit was painted with a brush and with enamels. Black ink and black acrylic paint was used to emphasize edges and deepen engravings, as a final step everything was sealed under matt varnish.
Since the figure is cleverly constructed in segments that later carry different colors, I painted the whole thing before I finally assembled it. It's really a nice kit that I can actually recommend for bloody beginners. Fit and casting quality were very good, in fact there were only minimal sanding and putty works to do - and if you take the OOB base you have a 95% painting job on this one.
A - in a double sense - fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe: Reiko Sugiyama, a young N.E.R.V. test pilot. And this time, it's even a second figure I built from this character I "invented" some time ago.
The original inspiration dates back to a kneeling 1:8 figure, which I converted from a "Asuka Soryu Langley in Plugsuit" kit as a kind of training - more or less a color variant, still in line with the Evangelion theme and spirit.
Again, this figure is a minor conversion of an Asuka-in-Plugsuit kit, but this time it's a 1:6 kit of an early plugsuit design version, which originally can be found in the source book "Der Mond".
As a side note, this basic kit was not OOB, I rather re-worked a used(!) kit that I was able to buy from the USA with only a littel price tag -pictures of the parts and the working process can be found in the respective WiP Set in my account.
The bright orange plugsuit variant was, to be honest, insipred by Star Wars' X-Wing Fighter outfits... The only other major change is a radical hairdo - the latter worked wonders!
As a contrast to the colorful suit and to inspire a timid character, I decided to go with some natural dark brown hair and give that character cold, bluish-grey eyes.
I very happy with the result. While this figure differs in some plugsuit details from the former 1:8 build, the overall look is IMHO very convincing and conclusive.
Another "one of a kind" doujinshi kit, and a nice distraction from many recent aircraft builds. ^^
An experiment with A.I.-based video animation, using a still/portrait as a starting point. Only 8 sec. snippets possible, but the result is quite amazing, IMHO! :D
Some background:
The initial concept designs for Last Exile were created by character designer Range Murata. Murata also spent a great amount of time on costume design. Wanting to portray each character's personality more fully, he "tried to draw in the kind of material that would have been used in creating their clothes and try to represent the stitches connecting the fabric". Although Studio Gonzo initially intended for Last Exile to be shown in a space setting, it did not want characters who use sterile space suits. As a result, Murata's designs placed the show in its current setting.
Although the fictional world of Prester is not a representation of Earth, it features technology reminiscent of nineteenth century Europe at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Many of its designs were also inspired by Germany's technological advances during the interwar period. Uniform designs for Anatoray's musketeers were based on Napoleon Bonaparte's army and American Civil War soldiers. On the other hand, Soviet Red Army fur coats provided the basis for Disith uniforms. The crew of the Silvana wore uniforms that were more modern and utilitarian.
Production of Last Exile relied heavily on 3D computer animation. The animation for Last Exile was also supplemented with Victorian era flourishes. In order to combine hand-drawn animation with computer-generated ones, the production team used a technique for non-photorealistic rendering, which could not be used for Blue Submarine No. 6 (a previous work of Gonzo and one of the first CG anime series) because of a stylistic conflict.
Tatiana Wiszla (タチアナ・ヴィスラ Tachiana Visura?) is only a supporting character in Last Exile. She is the only child of "the proud and noble" Wiszla house of Anatoray. At the age of seventeen, Tatiana left home to become a member of the newly formed Anatoray Military Vanship Corps, a new military division dedicated to using vanships as weapons as opposed to just couriers and transports.
She excelled in both piloting and dogfighting, quickly becoming one of the best vanship pilots in the sky, possibly second only to Alex Row. She sent all the extra money she made as an ace pilot back to her family so that her mother could care for her ailing father. Before too long, she found herself on the Silvana as Row's handpicked wing commander for his small vanship fighter fleet. She pilots a twin-engine vanship fighter which she painted red to distinguish herself from the other pilots as well as all other vanships in the sky (BTW, available from Hasegawa in 1:72 scale).
With her trusted friend, confidant, and navigator, Alister Agrew, she quickly becomes one of the most dreaded forces in the sky next to the Silvana herself, for which the technicians on board the Silvana start calling her the "princess." Her cold demeanor manages to alienate even her close friend Alister. This leads to Alister flying with Claus Valca as his "navi" (short for "navigator") for a time, both as a rebuke to Tatiana and because Claus's navigator, Lavie Head, does not want to fly any more combat missions.
Tatiana is second best to none in her own mind, but her overconfident self-view is challenged when she meets Claus, whose piloting skills rival her own. From then on, her feelings toward Claus go on a roller coaster, making her feel anger, disgust, awe, respect, fear, and even attraction to the young vanship pilot. Her frosty aloofness is clearly a self-defensive façade; she suffers a mental breakdown of sorts after getting shot down over the desert, but recovers, and from that time she begins to show a greater depth of feeling, especially towards Claus, whom she develops a crush on.
In “Last Exile: Fam, the Sliver Wing”, Tatiana ihas become Captain of the Submersible Aircraft Carrier Silvius with Alister as her Vice-Captain.
The kit and its assembly:
As many kits, I had bought this one occasionally and had it stashed away for a while. I have never seen Last Exile, so my motivation and inspiration was rather stirred by severel Hasegawa Vanship builds in different online forums where I lurk, too, and I thought i could a) provide a suitable pilot character for these beautiful, retro-styles air vehicles and b) get in the mood to scratch a Vanship of own design, too - but the latter is another project.
Tatja Wiszla is a typical Range Murata design, very clean and with "soft" curves. Anyway, despite being very simple (the resin kit only has 9 parts), the figure has a very strong expression, and it is actually based on an official design sketch where the character leans onto rails, looking to the side with a stern, even challenging expression.
I was sceptical at first, but the figure catches this pose perfectly, and builders should pay attention to this benchmark illustration and the way the figure is supposed to be posed - otherwise the figure can look pretty goofy!
Anyway, the figure was built almost 100% OOB, with only minor mods. One thing I really did not like was the base that came with it. It actually depicts a small portion of the rails the figure leans on, but the execution in resin plates is so simple and bleak.... no.
I decided to scratch a base, and eventually settled on a round MDF plate with an improvised table onto which the figure can propely lean. Since the base is pretty large for the small figure, I later added a pilot helmet (a metal-cast Franklin Mint collectible, from the local airport's souvenir shop!) on the table. It's not really authentic for Last Exile (even though pressurized helmets exist), but it is a nice detail for the whole display and a good contrast counterpart to the grey-in-grey figure. It also adds a professional/military touch and underlines Tatjana's profession and 'ready when you are' attitude.
As a consequence, the sole of the figure's left foot became visible, so I added two round inserts (tank wheels!) into the sole, the only real modification.
Otherwise, only small details like a zip or the round buttons on the belly and under the collar were added - character design sketches helped here, as well as finding suitable colors.
As per usual. the whole kit was painted with a brush and with enamels. Black ink and black acrylic paint was used to emphasize edges and deepen engravings, as a final step everything was sealed under matt varnish.
Since the figure is cleverly constructed in segments that later carry different colors, I painted the whole thing before I finally assembled it. It's really a nice kit that I can actually recommend for bloody beginners. Fit and casting quality were very good, in fact there were only minimal sanding and putty works to do - and if you take the OOB base you have a 95% painting job on this one.
A - in a double sense - fictional character from the Neon Genesis Evangelion universe: Reiko Sugiyama, a young N.E.R.V. test pilot. And this time, it's even a second figure I built from this character I "invented" some time ago.
The original inspiration dates back to a kneeling 1:8 figure, which I converted from a "Asuka Soryu Langley in Plugsuit" kit as a kind of training - more or less a color variant, still in line with the Evangelion theme and spirit.
Again, this figure is a minor conversion of an Asuka-in-Plugsuit kit, but this time it's a 1:6 kit of an early plugsuit design version, which originally can be found in the source book "Der Mond".
As a side note, this basic kit was not OOB, I rather re-worked a used(!) kit that I was able to buy from the USA with only a littel price tag -pictures of the parts and the working process can be found in the respective WiP Set in my account.
The bright orange plugsuit variant was, to be honest, insipred by Star Wars' X-Wing Fighter outfits... The only other major change is a radical hairdo - the latter worked wonders!
As a contrast to the colorful suit and to inspire a timid character, I decided to go with some natural dark brown hair and give that character cold, bluish-grey eyes.
I very happy with the result. While this figure differs in some plugsuit details from the former 1:8 build, the overall look is IMHO very convincing and conclusive.
Another "one of a kind" doujinshi kit, and a nice distraction from many recent aircraft builds. ^^