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company scrap and salvage James Mulligan Rafal
Klopotowski Emiko Lewis Frank Lee Erin Blendu Eric
ANdler Molly Rhodes Emily Rosenthal Allison Wyper
bluespace 1000 van ness 1k this end up #3 hold piwnica
marchewy lorca project
“Associated” is a site specific show in a severely damaged brownstone, currently with a Vacate Order, issued by the DOB. As you may recall, the huge fire on Nov 12th 2010 at the Associated Supermarket on 5th Avenue and 17th Street not only damaged the supermarket building including the Open Source Gallery, but also a brownstone next door. The 3 family house, the Gallery owners’ home, was also rendered uninhabitable by the blaze.
There is no exact date for the show. There will be a 2 week window when the Vacate Order will be dropped and the contractors will start their work. All participating artists are prepared to install their work any day within the next month.
opening up with the
OPEN SOURCE CARNIVAL
The Carnival involves a public celebration combining some elements of circus, performance, public fair and party. We encourage people to dress-up in costumes during the celebration and to bring a little bit of money for the future of OPEN SOURCE.
Participants
Sara Bouchard, Christian Brown, Reamonn Byrne, Wendy Chu, Ethan Crenson, Hubert Dobler, Peter Feigenbaum, Pirmin Hagen, Fumie Ishii, Der Kommissar, Stefanie Koseff, James Leonard, Loadingdock5, Katerina Marcelja, Amanda C. Mathis, Patrick May, Nolan McKew, Annelise E. Ream, Jason Reppert, Raphaela Riepl, Evan Robarts, Frank Scheiderbauer, Allison Read Smith, Miho Suzuki, Kathleen Vance, Letizia Werth, Lily White, Monika Wuhrer
Would you like a take a shortcut to a specific Snowman?
01. A Partridge in a Pear Tree (Donna Newman) | 02. Two Turtle Doves (Laura-Kate Chapman) | 03. Three French Hens (Jessica Perrin) | 04. Four Calling Birds (Mik Richardson) | 05. Five Gold Rings (Adam Pekr) | 06. Six Geese a Laying (Donna Newman) | 07. Seven Swans Swimming (RP Roberts) | 08. Eight Maids Milking (Megan Heather Evans) | 09. Nine Ladies Dancing (Jenny Leonard) | 10. Lords Leaping (Sally Adams) | 11. Eleven Pipers Piping (Amanda Quellin) | 12. Twelve Drummers Drumming (Sue Guthrie)
This product specific Anhydrous Ammonia Training included in-class instruction regarding product characteristics, rail safety, regulatory compliance, and post incident debriefing. Practical hands-on training consisted of donning and doffing of personal protective equipment, hook up of transfer lines, flaring and sparging, and decontamination. Mock ups of challenging real life scenarios provided Itech’s emergency response personnel with the opportunity to reinforce skills and best practices throughout the day.
In the last couple of years or so, Surrey CC have gone for stop specific timetables, which is fair enough as it's the way things are going industry-wide.
Personally, I'm not a fan - as stop specific gives less information, and I can read a bus timetable.
New timetables have now gone up for the 32 ready for the changes from 1st September 2015. Here's one at Dorking station. Quite how you're supposed to know which buses serve Emlyn Road in Redhill and which do not, I don't know.
The bigger problem however is the lack of notice that on schooldays, the 1500 departure zooms off normal line of route at Reigate and misses out all of the route around Meadvale, Earlswood station and Earlswood to Redhill (instead running via St Bede's School)!!
Similarly, the Guildford-bound timetable doesn't identify the journey via Holmbury St Mary (reduced to one journey each way from 01/09/15, currently two evening journeys do it Guildford-bound).
Station Approach, Dorking railway station, Dorking, Surrey.
beat.wave - a site-specific entrance
J. MAYER H. Architects
project team: Juergen Mayer H., Jonathan Busse
Project: 5th - 9th December 2007
Client: PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Miami
Location: Soho Studios in the Wynwood District, 2136 NW 1st Ave, Miami
Courtesy of PULSE, magnus müller and the artist
beat.wave, is an entry gate to PULSE Miami with an undulating arch that is
about 11 feet high. Cantilevering, split and sliced, this ambivalent
structure offers seating areas as a meeting point and a place for
contemplation.
The architect, designer and artist Jürgen Mayer H. focuses on works at the
intersection of architecture, communication and new technology. From urban
planning schemes and buildings to installation work and objects with new
materials, the relationship between the human body,
technology and nature form the background for a new production of space. In
his art work, Mayer strategically chooses to bypass architecture and to use
art as an operative platform. In close interaction with our built
environment his work highlights the
relationship between the human body and the architectural space.
Be specific! :-)
I'd been watching the Swallowtails fly all around the zoo yesterday, but they weren't landing. I was photographing the flowers (and Skippers, who were cooperating) when I started wishing one of the Swallowtails would land on the lantana.
Lo and behold, about a minute later, one landed to the far side of me. I twisted around and managed to get this shot before he was off into the sky again.
So, the next time I wish for a landing, it's going to be directly in front of me and last for more than five seconds, lol!
I'm so grateful for this one, though - didn't know until I saw it on my computer if I'd gotten it.
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin,as told by Leo to his Nephew Leto Collins (# 7 of 33)- Into the Jurka.
That bird and I saw a lot of weird shit in our days, some of it still keeps me up at night, most of all our very last job together, but some things we ran into weren't weird in a scary way, just in way that defies any sense. I dunno...but the world and it's truth is far more complicated then what we're taught,and you have to separate the things that really are true from the bullshit the Church and the Military feeds the public to hold our culture together. Don't get me wrong, I still love Regentum, even after all these years. I believe in a God, but not the church or the Emperor. What's important to me about Regentum is that it's perhaps the only place in the world where a common, regular person can receive the benefits of their own hard work. Everywhere I've ever been I've only seen masters and servants. The Dwarves are good to one another, perhaps even better then we in Regentum are. But in Rolheim the Dwarves have a very set and rigid way of life. You're stuck in the position you're born into, but no Dwarf suffers or is destitute. Here in Regentum if you're born poor you can do something about it. Other Human nations that aren't our Colonies, forget it. That's why so many foreigners become Pirates. It's better to be a Pirate then the serf of some Sultan in Lu' Hadej, toil the years by on a Brenendale fishing ship, live under constant war in the mess of Alson, or slave away under some Monk in Nijiro.
After I got out of the Army like a lot of guys I was pretty jaded with all the shit talking about conquering the world for light and law and all that sort of talk. Our leaders fight for money and power and cull troops from the ranks of our working poor after getting them hyped up on religion. I mean look, they take these kids, they start at age fifteen, and all these boys are either from farming villages, or some industrial slum. You take a kid like that who hasn't got much of a future and you tell him that he'll be trained to fight for holy order, and that he will be special, that he will individually play a vital role in shaping the future of the empire and he buys it. Like me and yours Pops. We knew it was either the army, the docks, the factories or jail. It's ugly that it takes a large degree of smoke and mirrors to hold Regentum together, but its better then everywhere else out there.
Anyhow after Damu and I took out that Goblin leader Ertu we were in good standing with the Military as skilled mercenaries who were good at eliminating specific targets that were loose ends they needed cleaned up. It took those motherfuckers less then a month before I got a knock at the door from a Army courier with a new bounty contract in one hand, and a sack of gold in the other. I hadn't even yet spent all my money from before.
I was told that the Military needed a new way to send food supplies to all the troops the world over because the cost of doing so was getting too high due to the sheer number of troops we now how have the world over. Traditionally the food either came from local sources, or was shipped in by merchants with government contracts. The Military hired Wizard-Engineers to design a new system of providing troops with enough food in a cheaper way. So they applied the idea of the factory to the slaughter house. Along the road way between Salsburg and Fieldsview a big warehouse was built in which cattle was slaughtered in mass by huge killing machines and the meat cured, salted and prepped for shipping.
Some Druid freaked out about this place and attacked it. Around this time the Army was routing out a large strike force of the Derago Tribe of Hobgoblins. The Deragos' got their asses handed to them and broke up into a bunch of small rag-tag units. The Druid trashed the place pretty good, and the report in my contract didn't mention as to what happened to the Druid or who he was. Troops, Engineers, Craftsman and supply laden Merchants were quickly sent in to get the Meat Factory up and running. All of these sitting ducks alone along the highway caught the eye of a squad of Derago Hobgoblins who in turn decided to take their own stab at the meat factory. We were asked to find the leader of the Squad, a Hobgoblin named Jahghu Khazul and kill him. The Army in the area was still busy chasing down the bulk of the Derago forces, and had them pinned way up north almost to Rolhiem.
This time around we bought our own wagon and horse rather then catching a ride with a caravan. A nice light brown horse I never got the chance to name or get attached to. After the mission I ended up loosing our horse in a dice game on the way back to Scardale to this skinny toothless drunk in a bar in Salsburg. Damu was pissed off about it, and he laughed at me the whole way home.
Most of the trip there was easy, if even a little boring. We had to go this round about way to get there as there was no highway that went directly there and I didn't want to chance getting shook down with Damu in tow. But even playing by the book we got caught up in some shit. Between Nolos and Salsburg we got stopped by a Polly squad. One of them saw us in Nolos when we stopped for supplies and bitched to the others about a Kenku moving around the interior. Even though the eastern end of Regentum is thought of as being more religiously tolerant then out west, its just that out west they think of themselves as superior given that they eastern region was conquered and absorbed into the Empire. Really everyone in the Empire outside of the big coastal cities clings very firmly to our Religion and its accompanying prejudices. I caught a lot of shit over the years for having a Kenku for a friend.
5 of these pricks rode up on us, battle standards held all high, pole arms drawn, you know the whole fucking works. Big fucking fags in their shinny armor demanding to know what me and the Bird were up to. I held out the contract with the army guys in Scardale and was like, "Were here to do your dirty work". Some big prissy bitch, Sir Halton kept scrutinizing me, being like, "How can I keep the company of a Heathen animal?", and how legal or otherwise "To bring such a foul creature into the interior was an affront to the holy sanctity of our beloved empire". Typical Paladin fag shit. Fuck them. The mercenary rabble were here to wipe their ass because they were too important to do it themselves. Damu maybe a local legend here in Scardale, but out in the country or in the eyes of the Church he was scum.
When we got to the Meat factory there was a bunch of workers busting their asses to fix it, a few merchants and rich Gnomes, some solders, and some hired swords keeping an eye on the place. The ruined factory buildings had maze of scaffolding towering up their crumbling walls, and about the area around them was a decent sized encampment. Various tents dotted the place, though one could clearly tell the difference between tents belonging to the workers, the merchants, the troops and the mercenaries. Worker tents were drab though orderly. The tents of the business men were lined with velvet and furs. The Army tents had various standards embroidered to them, and the mercenary tents were both drab and disorderly. Also they were off to the side of everyone else. I saw a big, ugly mother fucker around the Merc tents, both too big and too ugly to be completely human, but not a Half-Orc. I saw he wore the spiked gauntlets common to Gladiators and figured he must of been a half-breed slave who fought his away from to freedom from the fighting pits. Still fighting on behalf of the gold of the rich, but at least the deal was more in his favor. I hope anyway. One of the other mercs there was this guy Ramalti, a big guy with a shaved head and thick curled mustache. I knew him from the army. Once we fought Pirates together off the coast of Fazas. After checking in with the Captain of the place, we set up camp with Ramalti.
Ramalti had a huge pile of furs arranged under a high posted canopy and laid around a fire with a few extra skinned rabbits cooking. We caught up on things for a hour or so, though I could tell he didn't like that I had Damu with me, though he didn't say anything.Ramalti told me his last gig was doing a hit for people who were part of Snake-Worshiping cult and that he was glad to be away from them. Said that they used pit fighting for a front and had a lot of weird orgies. Didn't seem too bad to me but he warned me to stay away if they ever approached us.
Damu was fidgety, which was unnerving given how calm how usually was, something was up. The small talk between Ramalti and I was broken when Damu asked flatly, "Tell us about the Hobgoblins around here, we are here kill to Jahghu Kazul". It was an awkward moment. Ramalti gave Damu a stern look and me a half stern half worried look and was like, "Yea Kazul, yea he's around these ways, or should be. Last we knew anyway. Look let me tell you guys a few things about this job. The moneyed people here have their head up their ass and all they want to know is when this place will up and running again. Don't listen to them. The military guys are here to watch them. They're only gonna tell you half of what you need to know. Something weird is going on out in the fields. Animals have been acting strange. On patrols at night I've seen bolts of color and light off in the distance, and one night while following what was the tracks of two small feet, they abruptly shifted into the paw prints of a 4 legged creature."
I looked over at Ramalti and he handed me a wine skin, "Also have you two heard of an area called the Jurka?", he asked. "No", Damu replied. Damu didn't know much beyond city life, or even beyond life in Scardale. He was always a tad out of his element on missions like this. Though to be honest I never heard of it either. It is a creepy place we found. "The Jurka", Ramalti said, "is an ugly, sunken scar of land sunken and wide, but also consisting of many hills, little rivers, creeks and the occasional murky swamp lake. It is a lonely and windy stretch of land of irregular width, but hundreds of miles in length. Jurka is Goblin for 'the crack'. Most Goblins and Hobgoblins avoid the place, though I've been told that some powerful Hobgoblin Warlords are buried there.The Gobos say the place is cursed as its not naturally occurring. Something deep below the ground they claim cracked the land open centuries ago. It's not on any known maps, nor mentioned in any journals. For a distinct land mass so big that's very strange. Someone must not want it to be known."
Damu laughed, "I don't care about any cracks or secrets any Hairies keep from each other. We're here for Jahghu Kazul, that's all that matters."
Right before dawn we were woken up to screams and commotions. The first thing I saw upon waking were 4 foxes a few feet away from me. I laughed at first, but when I stood up I realized the place was over run with foxes. Foxes and geese. They were every where, howling and running amok. It would have been funny if it weren't so out of place and deliberate seeming. No one knew what to do and it I think because of that it was really freaking a lot of them out.
Quickly then I saw a fox stare it me. It had a bloody muzzle and in its mouth was a blood-stained pointed Gnome hat. I pointed over to Damu and he quickly drew an arrow and shot the fox. As I ran towards the fox its shape contorted and elongated. By the time my sword was swinging directly at it the fox it had become a tall skinny guy with long matted hair down past his ass, a long matted beard, and just a loin cloth on. His eyes seemed distant yet driven by some equally remote purpose. The Wild Man rolled out of the way. I saw that his hands were glowing and all of a sudden vines grew quickly up from the ground, like water being poured from a bottle, that were wrapping up around my legs. He smiled without humor at this and pulled the arrow Damu Shot him with out of his shoulder. Blood squirted out and a chunk of meat flopped over from the wound.
What looked like a large, stocky Goblin but still not a Hobgoblin walked up to the Wild Man just as he was picking up the bloody Gnome hat. The Wild Man looked over at the strange Goblin and spoke, "This will do. The Dwarves and the Gnomes are just as bad as these Regentum people. The Gnomes maybe even more so. They hide behind their money and get Humans to do their dirty work." The Goblin-thing didn't seemed to care too much, but they never had the chance to debate the matter. Ramalti and Damu charged the two. Ramalti carried a large spiked mace that he swung down towards the head of the Goblin. Catching the creatures cap, but not its head, the Goblin leaped up in the air far higher then a Goblin should be able to leap, and landed on top of Ramalti biting him in the neck. The vines wrapped tighter around my legs and I was worried that my legs would shatter under the strain. Damu threw his dagger straight into the gut of the Wild Man with one hand, and slashed across his face with his sword with the other. The Wild Man fell back, holding his guts into his stomach. The slash across his face caused his nose to dangle and his cheek to flop open. I think some teeth were missing or dangling by tiny threads of mouth meat in his beard. The ground around us burst into flame. Damu leaped out of the way, and Ramalti was still struggling with the creature wrapped around his neck and head. Me, I stuck my legs in the fire and burned away the vines. It was painful, but not as painful as my legs being crushed.
Quickly I tried to stand, but I stumbled as I got up. The Wild Man rushed with his hands transformed into large green glowing claws. A claw jabbed towards my head, but I ducked under it, and swooped my sword upwards and into and out of his chest. The fire abruptly stopped. The Goblin creature jumped off of Ramalti and by the time it hit the ground it transformed into some strange mix of Goblin and Wolf. Later on Damu said such creatures were called Barghests. Whatever it was it took off running. Soon all the Foxes and Geese went away.
The Captain and his men surrounded the Wild Man. I was confused at first because they bound his body in shackles, as why exactly they would bound up a corpse, but my confusion quickly turned to anger as the poured a healing potion down the mother fuckers throat. I screamed out at them, "What the fuck are you doing? He's a Witch, leave him dead! I'm not killing him again unless I get paid extra." Which funny enough we did get paid twice for killing that guy. Turns out he was the crazed Druid who attacked the Meat-Factory in the first place. Gharuun the Druid, wanted across eastern Regentum for various acts of terrorism, spreading blasphemy, and other crimes against the Empire. Around the camp I heard that Gharuun was once the Son of a rich industrialist family out of Tardon. He was supposedly once Francis Applemoore, a scion of a blue-blood family who went insane around the time his family fell to controversy. If I recall right, I think actually the Applemoore's owned a factory outside of Tardon that accidentally poisoned a near-by river with mercury, killing hundreds of peasant-folk, and making many more sick.Butt-Boy Sir Halton and his squad of Knights showed up to interrogate Gharuun and bring him to Elaine for execution, but not until after they kissed Gnome ass. The Gnomes and the Human Merchants were grieving over the loss of the Gnome Harov Goldstein and his money (which the Barghest apparently got away with).
It was found out after a day of torture that Gharuun was working with Jahghu Kazul and his forces out of the Jurka because of mutual animosity towards Regentum. The whole "the enemy of my enemy" bit. Gharuun was bothered by industrialization and by it being this far into the interior of the country-side. Admittedly on that part Gharuun was perhaps right, I myself hate to admit that I agreed with a Druid, but while I grew up in the city surrounded by factories and industry, I've always valued the clean greenery of the country side when I've traveled through it.I could see how he ended up a Druid after coming from a family who's factory poisoned the land. I'd hate to our beautiful country side ruined just to make people like Harov Goldstein rich. Jahghu Kazul however could give two shits either way. Gharuun didn't want loot and worked for free. Gharuun was a zealot, violence for his religion was its own reward. Kazul was a raider and aspiring Warlord. He only valued money and brute force.
That night Damu and I rode into the Jurka.
The very southern most portion of the Jurka came to a tapered tip and sloped down at an easy descent. It really did look like a sunken crack in the earth, as if here the world split open and then was over grown over the ensuing years. A creek ran along the bottom of the valley. We decided for the time being not to go directly into the Jurka but to follow along its western edge, at least until dawn. By dawn we saw that the creek had grown considerably in size further up stream, and off the near distance was a waterfall with what looked like an old, abandoned ruined mill next to it.
Damu scouted out the ruin and it was clear. We camped out there for a few hours. Not even bothering to unravel my bed roll, I just laid on top of a concrete slab and rested my head on my bag. In my nap I had a strange dream about a grand mother living in the mill with her grand children and a giant frog that moved into the water fall that ate her kids. I woke up and didn't want to find out if that was true or not, so I shook Damu awake and we got going.
As dawn rose, the whole of the Jurka was blanketed in an early morning foggy-mist and lit in a pale glow. The place has a strange beauty, yet something is noticeably unsettling about it. Everything is a bit off, and nature with in it goes in unusual courses. During that morning ride along the Jurka Damu and I saw aquatic rabbits. I shit you not, we saw water-rabbits, long and skinny, with wide flat feet and light green fur. Maybe they couldn't breathe the water, but we saw rabbits hopping from land and into water, swimming frantically down stream, and back out again.
By late afternoon we caught sight of fresh tracks that looked like the hoof-prints of the giant boars that the Hobgoblins ride heading from the west and northbound into the Jurka directly. We left our horse and wagon there and headed in. As we did we stopped to consider tactics. We both had fought Hobgoblins but they had numbers on us. Plus we we're only after one of them. The Hobgoblin raiders of the northern plains I have a respect for. On their Boar-Mounts they are deadly. They have a unique style of Calvary tactics that is very different from how we, or the Elves, etc. would use typically fight on horse back. They fight almost like a pack of wild animals, and use hit and run tactics with ruthless efficiency. When I was in the army I fought with units charged with taking out Hobgoblins on a few occasions. While we always won, it was only because of superior numbers. For every raider we took they easily took 6 to 8 of our men. You have to use traps and guerrilla tactics on them, as a blow to blow fight always came with heavy losses.
So we decided that we would try to locate them, then set up what ever traps we could near by, and hopefully lure them in. I knew Damu carried all sorts of nastiness is in his bag. He always came equipped for a millions forms of murder. Though I learned a lot from him in those years. When I first met him I still fought like a soldier as I still thought like a soldier after years in the army. On our first two missions he taught me the difference between fighting and killing. He was a killer born and bred, I was a warrior who learned also to be a killer. I still had to do most of the blow to blow work when it was necessary. But he was right. We didn't fight for honor, or duty we did this work just for money, so it doesn't make sense to take a lot of risks when you're a mercenary.
Right before night fall we came upon a hilly area with-in the Jurka that rang out with a low, droning, moaning sound that seemed to wrap around the area with the wind. It all seemed very somber and morbid. The hills about the place each had various oblong obelisks on top. I stopped to check one out. It had markings on it that neither of us could read and was made of a strange purple-black stone. The pillar had holes carved into it which when wind blew through it created the moaning sounds the carried through this mournful place. At the base of this pillar was a regular limestone slab carved out in Gobbely which read, "Kufaza Derago". This place was a series of Hobgoblin burial mounds! Where they got the strange obelisks, I don't know, but they didn't look like they were carved from the hands of any Goblinoid. Whatever their origin I was glad for them for the sounds they made would provide us some cover.
Damu quickly grabbed my side and motioned me to duck down. In the haze of the setting sun I saw the silhouette of a Goose. "That's not a real Bird, that Druid escaped", he whispered to me as he drew his bow. Sure enough two hills over the goose landed by a mound and quickly shifted its form into that Gharuun. He looked in bad shape. Good, it'd be easier to kill him again. Damu snuck in closer, hugging the shadows between hills, but keeping Gharuun with in constant bow shot. I drank two potions, one to move far more swiftly then I could and another that made shadows wrap around me. He motioned to me to get in position to attack after he attacked first. I saw him dip his arrow head into a little jar of something nasty, plus his arrows heads were not only enchanted, but carved in a way that did even more damage when you pulled them out. Gharuun was kneeling before an Obelesk and had started to perform some sort of ritual when Damu fired a shot through his back and out his chest.
Leaping up the hill I was almost knocked over as the air rippled waves of force in all directions from out of Gharuun. I saw his glowing hands touch the wound and seal it. But with the arrow still stuck through him. Hopefully the healing spell he cast on himself didn't take out the poison on the arrow as well. Mother Fucker. It started to rain like mad out of no where, and Damu got knocked over by huge gusts of wind. Gharuun laughed at me as I swung my sword at his head. He ducked, and swung up with a wooden staff that caught me on the chin. I spit blood in his face and swung again. And missed again. For a crazy naked guy he moved like a fucking tiger, I'll give him that. Then I saw that next to the mound a hole was dug. I quickly figured that if this was a burial mound it was a freshly dug grave. Good. I deliberately made a shitty swing towards him again, and made an equally deliberate shitty attempt to dodge the counter blow from his staff. It hit me in the chest, and I acted like it
really knocked me on my ass as I fell towards the hole. Never, ever gloat over somebody in a fight. As I lay there in the pouring rain, Gharuun stood over me grinning with some violent yet distant look in his eyes. I have no idea where his mind really was, nor will I ever find out for in that moment I grabbed him and pulled us both down into the hole, impaling him with my sword as well hit the bottom. I stood up and saw Damu on top of the hole making a cut off his head gesture. Breathing heavy I nodded in agreement, As I tossed the head up to Damu the rain abruptly stopped.
Something picked Damu's eyes in the distance. He paused and pulled out a periscope, "Hobgoblins, about 5 of them on Boars are coming this way, yet two are pulling a cart carrying something covered in blankets. The lead rider looks important. I bet it's Jahghu Kazul. We have maybe 30 minutes before they see us." It wasn't enough time to get too elaborate with traps. The mud from the magic storm was at least helpful. Out of his side bag, Damu pulled out 4 claw traps and buried them in the mud along the hill. I was hoping for enough time to dig pit traps, they work wonders on mounted attackers. Flint, oil flasks, and trip wires would have to do. Damu made a few fire bombs and handed me one. We hunkered down on the edge other side of the hill as we listened to them ride up. I stuck my flint to light my fire bomb as the sounds of boar-snorts grew louder. I heared the distinct metal snap of a claw trap over top the awful wailing of the obelisks and the roar of a boar bred to gigantic proportions. I through the fire bomb, and heard screams in Gobbley. It was on.
Damu ran around the edge of the hill top to the left and I to right. I saw him shoot a quick burst of arrows that caught a boar in the gut and it's rider in the eye. A boar big enough for a Hobgoblin to ride is a boar big enough to bite someone as small as Damu clean in half. Those things are damn near the size of horses- not as tall, but way wider and sturdier.
Another Boar-mounted Hobgoblin charged at me swinging a morning star as his mount aimed its tusks at me. I quickly saw this was really a feint, as a bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin behind him was drawing his bow down on me. I let the first rider charge me, then I quickly dropped down on my back. It lept over me and I stabbed upwards into its belly, disemboweling the beast, but caught an arrow in my leg in return. Two Hobgoblins on foot were pulling the cart the last of the way on foot. The traps took out their mounts. The rider who's mount I killed swung his morning star down at me, and caught me in the gut, though the spikes only poked me a little bit, my armor took most of the blow. The bigger and badder looking Hobgoblin, whom I quickly figured was Jahghu Kazul was still on his mount and was calmly drawing another bow shot. Fuck the nobody with the morning star, I ran straight for Jahghu.
He leaped off his mount and ran out at me with this really nice, sleek battle axe. He caught me in the left shoulder with it and across my abdomen. I kicked him the shin, and as he stumbled Damu caught him in the neck with an arrow. As he Jahghu hesitated from the arrow shot I swiped across the chest, and down again taking of his left leg right below the knee. Morning star guy swung over from behind me and caught me in the right shoulder. Damu threw his dagger right through morning star guy's throat and I finished off Jahghu Kazul as he lay there bleeding. I took the axe and Jahghu Kazul's helmet. The thing was silver with all these fancy ivory horns. He had large key around his kneck tied with thick leather cord. I took that figuring it had to do with the whatever was under the blankets in the carts. Maybe they were leaving an offering to a recently dead Chieftain I thought. Nothing really could have prepared me for what was under there.
The two Hobgoblins pulling the cart up the hill managed to get what was in the cart off of it just before Damu killed them with a rain of arrows. It sat before the hole. We looted the Hobgoblin bodies and dumped them all in the hole with Gharuun, minus the head of Jahghu Kazul. As we started to peel layers of blankets back from what was under the them, we could start to see a glowing green light come from underneath them. I paused, and Damu's feathers stood on end. I started to feel something or someone around us, and I was immediately knocked back ten feet. I felt like I was just hit in the chest with a boulder. I think ribs broke. I could hardly breathe. As I stood up Damu screeched and pulled back the rest of the blankets.
I told you this mission was a weird one. Beneath the blankets was a big round glass jar mounded on a shinny black base, and capped with an ornate black metal lid complete with a key hole, filled with a glowing green, bubbling liquid that inside floated a large misshapen brain.Worst of all it spoke. "Where is Jahghu Kazul?", we heard a low voice speak from all directions. The Kenku practice black arts and Damu was privy to a lot of creepy shit because of what his clan did, but I could tell he was completely dumbfounded by this talking Brain in a Jar. Damu lifted up Jahghu's head and pressed it to the glass of the jar, "He's dead. We killed him." Balls of steel that bird had, even when confronted with something like this. "Where is the key that he wore around his neck?", demanded the Brain in the Jar. The thing had power, whatever the fuck it was. But it had no legs and so broken ribs or not I decided to play my hand heavy figuring that sense I had legs and the Jar did not I could run. I strode over to it with the key in hand, taunting it, "I have it but if you try that shit again I'll break it!". It made a hissing sound and the liquid inside bubbled. "Very well, what do you want?", it responded.
Damu spoke up, "What are you, why do these Hobgoblins have you and why are you here with them to meet the Druid Gharuun?"
"Very well then, I will you tell my story and then in exchange you will help bring my story to an end. I am or at least I was Draaza Kazul, Hobgoblin Shaman of Derago Tribe. I was Jahghu's Uncle. The Derago are in the employment of another race you Humans and you Kenku know nothing of. They are a foul and terrible race that dwell in deep caverns under the mountains west of Rolheim. There they plot the destruction and enslavement of all the world above and practice rites and foul sorcery so black and alien even I am aghast at the cosmic scope of their horror. Needless to say its better that you don't know this race. Many of us regret the pact our ancestors made with them in order to gain an edge over our rival tribe the Kulshychi Hobgoblins who serve the Hidden Lords of the City of Bayport. Secret wars have been waged for generations now between the shadows of Regentum and Rolheim, wars on both your edges, indifferent to the whims of Human and Dwarf. This place we call the Jurka is a casualty of that war."
This certainly I wasn't going to tell the army when we collected our bounty. On a few missions I've stumbled on to schemes and plots on a scale I tend to avoid. I'll save that shit for the military and the good guys. If this wasn't bad enough already, the Jar went on.
"Some where between these uncontested lands, close to Manas as well, there is reputed to be the stronghold of an Elven-Wizard recluse of significant prowless. I led the mission to find this Stronghold so the Derago could raid it secure the Wizards secrets for those we serve. I failed the first time and as punishment those whom the Derago serve did this did me. With in this jar they said my occult powers would be strong enough to find the Elf-Mages location, which in fact was true, but it was obvious they intended it also to be a punishment for my failure. They locked me in this state of chemical undeath. Nothing pleases a proud Hobgoblin more, other then perhaps the din of battle and the cries of fleeing enemies, then then feel of wind across his face as he rides across these vast, rolling ancestral plains on his beloved Boar mount. I did find the location of the stronghold and a great legion of Derago were called together from across the plains, and from under the earth out of the dark subterranean cities of our employers where we our are numbers are bred like cattle by our employers who have tricked us and are becoming our masters. I dread the day when these creatures have enslaved our race entirely for those bred by them will out number our proud and freeborn numbers with in a few generations. Foolishly we gave them our weak and disgraced thinking they would merely eat them, for they live on the brains of other races, but instead from these few they are raising a region of war-fodder. But as our collective force rode out to the tower we were spotted the forces of Regentum and Guidane. They broke our advance and scattered our numbers. While I have no love for Humans or your culture I am grateful that they foiled this raid. I dread to think of what power lurked in the fortress of that Elven-Wizard that those below, who already are the masters of countless volatile magics, would go to great lengths to capture it, and what they would do with it. I was to be brought here to be buried, what is left of me anyway, to be laid to rest, free of this nightmare undeath, in a proper repose fitting of noble born Hobgoblin reunited with his ancestors. The Druid, a traitor to his kind I'm told, I have mixed feelings about that, was to clean any taint of necromancy that may pollute my remains. It's too late for that now, as I assume you killed him as well. My last request is that you take the key you took from my Nephew's body, unseal my Jar-Prison and bury me with-in the mound."
I looked down at Damu, he shrugged in agreement. I didn't want to fight again if I didn't have to. I had only one healing potion on me and I needed it already. As I unsealed the Jar the sound the moaning obelisks grew to a great roar. A great burst of green-light erupted from the inside and I heard a great loud sigh of relief coming from its voice. In my minds I quickly saw a vision of tall thin beings in ornate robes with pasty pale sickly skin and faces of tentacles. I hoped I never saw such creatures again and it wasn't until our very last mission together that we ever saw any. Years later we saw the very dark truth that the Brain in the Jar that was once Draaza Kazul told us that night on the burial mound deep in the Jurka. As I pulled the brain out and carried it to the hole I saw what looked like a wispy and translucent image of a Hobgoblin adorned with all manner of ritual fetishes and symbols emerge out of the Jar. The image nodded to me and as I tossed it in we heard the ghost of Draaza Kazul say ,"Thank you".
Tired and wounded we hoped that we could make it back to the abandoned mill. I drank my healing potions as we walked into the night back the way we came. Once we were away from the sounds of the obelesks we could could hear yelling and galloping hooves in the distance. We weren't out of the mess yet. A few hours into things, perhaps a hour or two before dawn, Damu paused for a second then I heard a thudding sound as he dropped. An arrow was in his hip, and it was too dark out to tell where it was coming from.Worst off all we back on the edge of the Jurka, out on open plains with no cover. I saw two big lumbering bodies rushing towards me. I ran head long towards them and swung wildly. Two huge Bugbear berzerkers, shock troops for the Hobgoblin raiders. The Barghest had returned and it was on top of Damu! The Bugbears were all fur and muscle and armed with huge spiked clubs. Their eyes glowed a feint yellow in the dark, and they seemed consumed with a frenzied blood lust. Even still I thought I could take them, though with berzerkers of any sort you have to be careful because they'll hut themselves just to hurt you more.
I hate that Humans are damn near the only race that can't see in the dark. Thinking of that I kicked dirt in the face of one Bugbear right as the other swung down his club with both hands. It missed and I stepped on the club, leaped up and swung my sword deep into its neck and collar bone. It fell, and rolled over. The other grabbed in both its hands, making me drop my sword and it lifted me up in an effort to bite my head. I head butted it with my spiked helmet and dazed it for a second. I gutted it with a dagger and it swiped my face with its claws, leaving me with a cut from under my left eye and across my cheek to my jaw line. The other Bugbear got up and I grabbed my sword. It ran full force at me with a bone shiv and I held my ground, but ducked out the way as it went pass me and down into the Jurka. Sadly it was only ten feet to the bottom. The other Bugbear went towards the Barghest. Damu was pretty beat up. I saw him limping and holding his stomach in one hand and swinging his sword in the other. The Barghest was in wolf-thing form and its mouth drooled with a mess of feathers and blood.
Damu could do a bit of magic but he hated to do so. Not that he had a problem with magic, but he prided himself on his talents as an assassin so much that he only used such things as a last resort. Like there in that tight spot cornered between the Barghest and the approaching Bugbear. He chanted something to himself and leaped twenty feet away and over the head of the Bugbear, which he slashed wide open as he went by. As the Bugbear's skull split open I charged the Barghest and ran it through. It shriveled and shifted back into its stocky Goblin shape at the end of my blade. Damu came back and looked over the edge into the Jurka and laughed, "Hey Leo look at that!". Down in the Jurka I saw an albino frog the size of a barrel eating the insides of other Bugbear. Shit the dream was real after all! Lord that place was creepy! We made it to our horse and Damu limped into the Wagon. He was in bad shape, but he'd make it, however shitty the ride would be.
When we got back the encampment in sorry shape the Paladins were gloating at the mess we were in but shut the fuck up when we presented the heads of both Jahghu Kazul and Gharuun. I demanded that we get paid twice for in fact killing Gharuun twice, something the Pollies didn't manage to do once. Which we did, and I managed to negotiate a healing for Damu, though they really didn't want to do that. We had Sir Halton sign and dip a wax seal in our work papers saying we had completed the task at hand so we didn't have to travel all that way carrying severed heads. All in all it was a good mission with no complaints.
In regards of burying what remained of Draaza Kazul I think in this case I did the right thing. It felt right, and despite of the circumstances of why I was there in the first place, I did feel like the burial mounds were in their own way a holy and sacred spot. Don't let the Clerics know I said that, but like I said, in spite of how many Hobgoblins I sent to their ancestors over the years, I do respect them. Maybe the plains of the uncontested regions are better off left in the hands of Goblinoids and crazed Druids. Better then in the hands of Gnomes and equally greedy Humans that will poison the untouched land with factories. Though like Draaza Kazul I dread the day when those below have grown their Hobgoblin slave armies to numbers vast enough to lay waste to our nation. The masters of the Derago have a name for themselves, but as I learned from the Dwarves of Rolheim they are called Mind-Flayers by others. I learned from the one time I went to Rolheim that much of our own history that we are taught is heavily watered down by the Church.
We are taught that the earth is base and profane and that's why Bestial races who come from out of the earth rather then on top of it- Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, etc.- inherently have a greater predisposition towards evil. That's not completely true I've learned. These races come from wild, untamed places and are more like animals. Certainly an Orc is dumb and vicious and that viciousness easily favors things we would call evil, but it's nature is more like a hungry Wolf then it is Demonic. Also while they all dig burrows, tunnels, or live in ruins or caves, they live off of the land. They don't live underground. However there are things that live underground, deep underground and these things certainly are evil. But they are evil in a way to that is a mirror to us and that is why the Church hides their existence. There are races down below that are intelligent, build cities and have cultures, though horrific nightmare cultures left buried below. While I was in Rolheim I learned that the 1298 war of Stockdon wasn't really led by a Dragon and its forces. The Dragon served the Mind-Flayers. A small number of them in fact. Rolheim has a long history of waring with these Mind-Flayers.
Anyway, I know that a lot of the work Damu and I did was part of a bigger plan for Regentum to clear out dangers from the wild areas so that industry could be moved deeper into the interior. We were the first generation of a legion of hired swords set out to do dirty work with big business and industry moving quickly behind us. They hire young mercenaries now more then ever. I just hope that its all towards a good end. I don't want Regentum to turn into an Empire of billowing smoke stacks and loud grinding factories. If it were up to the rich the whole country would look like the factory slums of Scardale. I see the guys coming in here boasting of their exploits wanting to blow their gold on my beer and the girls I keep around here. I earned and lost fortunes a few times over to taverns and prostitutes that I know now in my fifties that it's better to be standing behind the bar then sitting in front of it. I hear the kids are getting a lot of work clearing out areas out west for the new railroad and that by the time I'm dead it'll connect Elaine with Scardale. But the government really doesn't know whats lurking out there. Some of them do, the Rangers do, but their the dirtiest bunch of crooks you'll ever run into and they'll never tell the Army, the Church and certainly not the Palladins. We have more to worry about then mere Pirates, Bandits and Goblinoid Raiders.
But if the monsters and other horrors out there don't ruin us the Gnomes and big business will.
The Porcelain Fungus, is specific to beech wood. These mushrooms are edible, although their slimy covering is probably enough to put most people off. Sometimes referred to by the common name of Poached Egg fungus.
Thanks to Peter (MadPierre67) for organising today's outing and becoming a member of the Last Of the Summer Wine group! Enjoyed your company as ever Ken (Adobeman) and Hans (Sadloafer).
2012 © David White Photography. Please do not use without permission.
Would you like a take a shortcut to a specific Snowman?
01. A Partridge in a Pear Tree (Donna Newman) | 02. Two Turtle Doves (Laura-Kate Chapman) | 03. Three French Hens (Jessica Perrin) | 04. Four Calling Birds (Mik Richardson) | 05. Five Gold Rings (Adam Pekr) | 06. Six Geese a Laying (Donna Newman) | 07. Seven Swans Swimming (RP Roberts) | 08. Eight Maids Milking (Megan Heather Evans) | 09. Nine Ladies Dancing (Jenny Leonard) | 10. Lords Leaping (Sally Adams) | 11. Eleven Pipers Piping (Amanda Quellin) | 12. Twelve Drummers Drumming (Sue Guthrie)
Mount Tomah Botanic Garden, Blue Mountains, New South Wales
The specific epithet is more widely seen with the spelling berteroniana but, as the rules on orthography have recently been clarified in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, that spelling is no longer permitted. Named after THIS botanist - es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Luigi_Giuseppe_Bertero
[added Sept 2011] I uploaded this with the specific epithet spelt berteroana but, prompted by Karen Blix's query at www.flickr.com/photos/karenblixen/6110830307/ have had a closer look at the ICBN, and it's now clear that the original spelling berteroniana is permissible under the current Vienna Code of 2006. So I have changed back to that spelling.
[added May 2014] Seems that the name P. berteroniana is misapplied to this species after all. I just came across what seems to be the identical taxon photographed in the wild by Pato Novoa - www.flickr.com/search/?w=64933790@N00&q=puya%20zoellneri - and captioned Puya alpestris ssp. zoellneri. This prompted an internet search which turned up this 2013 article by Zitka, Schneider, Schulte & Novoa - researchonline.jcu.edu.au/31782/ - with abstract including the statement -
"A re-evaluation of the widely applied concept of P. berteroniana led us to the conclusion that the type of P. berteroniana is of hybrid origin and is maintained as Puya x berteroniana. Our studies revealed that the name P. berteroniana has been widely misapplied to what in fact is the northern metapopulation of P. alpestris, which is here described as a new subspecies, Puya alpestris ssp. zoellneri"
Haleakala Crater hike on Haleakala Crater Hike on 7/9/2019
I caught the first Hawaiian Airlines flight to Maui from Oahu which left at 5:05 am, arrival at 5:44 am.
I took a carry-on duffel bag and a photo backpack ( no checked bags )
Picked up my rental car from Alamo and first stopped at 7-Eleven for water, food and snacks.
Maui Airport has changed. All the car rental companies moved to one central location reachable by tram. Additionally a specific Airport Access road was constructed and in use by this trip.
7:40 am left 7-Eleven for Haleakala.
7:30 am arrived at park entrance. $25 entrance fee by credit card only.
8:00 am arrived at Halemau'u trail head parking lot. Filled my CamelBak bladder with 3L of water, redistributed my equipment and used the bathroom to add a thermal underwear layer for the cold.
8:40 am left the parking lot and went to the Hitchhiking spot to wait for a ride. I was picked up by the 3rd car to come along. A single young male on vacation by himself. As I was grabbing my things to get into his car a mother and young son came up and asked to share the ride. I only waited maybe 5 minutes to catch a ride.
9:00 am arrived at the Summit Visitor Center parking lot. The driver had never been up to Haleakala even after visiting Maui a couple of times before, and he was considering doing a short hike while up there. I would be passed by him and the other hitch hiker about a mile down the trail later.
9:15 am after a short look around at the lookout and tightening up my boot laces, I started on Keonehe'ehe'e ( Sliding Sands Trail )
11:51 am I would get to the bottom of the crater and the trail for Holua cabins or Kapaloa, Paliku cabins. Ate lunch of one Spam musube.
12:06 pm I would start on the trial to Holua Cabin
12:59 pm top of the ascent to "Ka Moa o Pele"
1:24 pm trail juncture on the left of "Halali'i"
2:14 pm Silver Sword loop begin ( did not take the loop )
2:22 pm Silver Sword loop end
3:05 pm Holua Cabin - rested
3:32 pm left Holua Cabin and headed out on Halemau'u trail and the crater rim.
4:13 pm arrived at base of crater rim and the start of the switchbacks up the crater wall. rested and stretched.
4:27 pm started up the crater rim switch backs.
6:56 pm I would reach the flat narrow spot I consider the end of the switchbacks.
7:00 pm the temperature would be 56 degrees and dropping down to 52 degrees ( not including windchill )
7:10 pm Sunset, and I was hiking in dark shadow. Too dark to take meaningful pictures or pics of my watch.
8:00 pm I would reach the Halemau'u parking lot and my car.
8:30 pm I would finish unloading and repacking bags for going to my hotel and possibly doing some astro-photography.
8:45 pm arrive at Kalahaku overlook to check out the possibility of astro-photography. The 50% moon washed out the Milky way too much, stars were visible and I was starting to yawn. So I didn't, and I left at 9:05 pm for Kahului and a shower.
I used up all my water, when I got to my hotel and check, the hydration bladder was flat. Possibly one or two sips left in the tube. This was the 2nd time hiking this trail. Both times I brought a collapsible water bag w/filter to refill water at Holua and did not. If I do this again I really, REALLY need to refill water at Holua cabin.
The weather reports for the previous week were about the possibility of hurricane Barbara hitting the islands the day before my trip. Fortunately Barbara down graded and by the time of my trip and predictions for the summit were somewhat cloudy with occasional showers. While hiking I only encountered a few light drizzle/drops from the clouds that didn't require me to break out any of the rain gear I brought or to stow my cameras from rain.
The weather at the summit was cloudy and approximately 65 degrees with windchill. Along the hike until the ascent up the crater rim at the end, the temperature would not seem as cold as I expected or remember from my previous hike a couple of years ago. Possibly due to my wearing thermal underwear, hiking pants, a medium thick long sleeve athletic shirt beneath a button long sleeve hiking shirt and my broad brimmed hat of course. While moving I felt cool and relatively comfortable temperature wise, while raising a slight glistening sweat. At least it wasn't dripping into my eyes.
Keeping to my expected and normal average hiking pace of around 1 mph or less going down hill and across the flats, I would take pictures about every 1-2 hundred feet of the trail. Boring, but I like to document the trail condition. In addition to any interesting views, scenery or recording the weather.
I kept one of my watches attached to my sleeve so it would not be in skin contact and would mostly dangle in my body shade. This would give me a way of tracking my elevation and mostly the temperature.
There were many more day hikers actually crossing the crater along the same route I was going. Most notable was the mother and son that caught a ride with me. They met up with her husband and other son who caught another ride a bit later.
Probably all the hikers that were crossing the crater caught up to me and passed me, and they all started later than I did. The only people who caught up but didn't pass me were 3 female park rangers on their way to Holua Cabin and pretty much started doing their park ranger stuff in the area where they caught up to me and didn't catch up again.
I was constantly annoyed by the hikers I would see taking short cuts along the trail. I had to remind myself to not get pissy with them. I'm tempted to think the only other hikers on the trail that did not take short cuts were the park rangers I met.
Personally, I started the hike with a kinda sharp lower back pain, which had been ongoing since the previous week. But since this hike was already book and paid for I wasn't going to cancel. All thru the hike my back would be in constant pain and I would continually think I might have to give up hiking if my back doesn't get better. It was most painful going down hill, while the flats and going up weren't as bad.
I was hoping the strain and constant back movement would loosen up my lower back and aleviate my pain. Surprisingly, while getting on my stomach with all my gear still on me, when I got up my lower back was better. The pain would come and go, but could now be aleviated for short periods of time by taking off all my gear and bending over to stretch my back. When I would get home, my lower back pain issues would return to "normal"
Evidently, the dry cold air and constant breeze caused my face and lips to chap, which showed up a day after I got home.
Once again I brought chapstic but didn't use it.
-----------------------------------
CamelBak Octane 16X Hydration Pack (3L Hydration bladder)
3 liters of water = 6.6 pounds
1x Nikon D700 w/battery grip - Nikon 28-300mm
1x Nikon D700 w/out grip - Rokinon 12mm f2.8 fisheye
Tokina 16-28mm f2.8
Camera & lens weight = 12 pounds
I brought both cameras to reduce the amount of time spent changing lenses and the possibility of getting grit on the camera sensors. Turns out I never changed to the 16-28 so never removed any lens. Yay, no spots in my pictures, Bo, lugged another heavy lens around for nothing. At least I left the 100mm macro in the car already.
in all of my favorite songs there is usually one specific lyric that will make me
*sigh* and say quietly to myself "one of the best sentences ever sang".
i'm not a huge fan of the Killers, although Hot Fuss was an amazingly listenable album
which gave us one of the most "iconic" modern day lyrics of all time. you heard
it and you didn't know whether to bask and bathe in the warm brillance of
"i've got soul, but i'm not a soldier" or to shield your brain cells from the
awful alliterative punnery.
the Killers are just about as good a band as any, but what sets them apart
is they have perfected the art of creating
hugeness inside a song without tipping the scales and flooding over into a bottomless
sea of inescapable epicness that practically drowns the listener (ahem...like Muse).
the other thing about the killers is that their music gives off colours. you can't hear a
killers song and not see it's colour. at least i can't.
"somebody told me" is a flashing red siren.
"jenny was a friend of mine" is a suffocating midnight blue
"human" is black sky littered with a billion little shooting sparks.
"spaceman" is an uldulating silver thread leading to a world in a far away galaxy.
"when you were young" is the colour of rows and rows of pink roses blooming and fading in unison
"smile like you mean it" is the primary colours of red, yellow, and blue darkened by an overhead thunderstorm.
"mr. brightside" is like staring into a strobelight at close range.
but my favorite killers song has always reminded me of autum.
soft yellows, reds, browns, oranges - dry and fragile,
but inescapably beautiful when layered.
the sound is the satisfying crunch (3:13-3:35) of stepping across
a resplendant carpeting of leaves and finding yourself in that
specific moment where you reach down and scoop up
a handful and toss them in the air
watching them swirl delicately around your head before
moving on.
(and the video agrees at 2:22.)
and the matching lryic is:
"i don't mind, if you don't mind
cause i don't shine if you don't shine."
(/it's funny how you just break down...
waiting on some sign...
i pull up to the front of your drive way...)
/having said all that,
there is absolutely no excuse for this.
if that had a colour, it would be: fifty shades of suck.
ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2022. ITALIA / USA - Aggiornare: 'Petrolio - Ladri di bellezza 2018/2022'; Gli studiosi italiani: "Musei negli USA - Restituisci quello che hai rubato!"; in: RAI 1 HD / VIDEO (2018) & Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / Fb (08/2022) = "Il Getty Museum di Los Angeles restituirà all’Italia un antico gruppo scultoreo"; in: ARTRIBUNE & LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA (11/08/2022) [Italiano & English]. wp.me/pbMWvy-337
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018); s.v., Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154274
** Nota: tutte le fotografie qui sono dal video – “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018) / Foto & Video [1:26]; o specificato ed elencato come un’altra fonte citata. **
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279888651
1). ITALIA / USA - "Petrolio Ladri di bellezza"; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018) / Foto & Video [1:26].
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154079
Alla luce degli ultimi risvolti giudiziari e dopo aver acceso i riflettori sulla vicenda dell'Atleta di Fano di Lisippo, la statua in bronzo datata tra il IV e il Il secolo a.C., il capolavoro trafugato nell'Adriatico e venduto illegalmente al Getty Museum quarant'anni fa, "Petrolio - Ladri di bellezza" torna ad occuparsi del traffico di reperti archeologici, ricostruendo la rete capillare di contatti, rapporti, scambi di denaro che ha generato il quarto mercato illecito del mondo.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279888726
Grazie al lavoro di inchiesta durato un anno attraverso fonti esclusive e testimonianze uniche di magistrati, carabinieri, uomini dell'FBI, esperti ed archeologi, "Petrolio", documenta i legami tra organizzazioni malavitose, mondo del collezionismo e i più importanti musei del mondo. Duilio Giammaria va negli Stati Uniti sulle tracce del traffico miliardario di reperti archeologici. In California intervista in esclusiva Timothy Potts, direttore del Getty Museum, in merito alla questione del bronzo di Lisippo. Un viaggio che prosegue a Ginevra, luogo di transito di molti dei reperti trafugati e a Cambridge dove l'archeologo forense Christos Tsirogiannis spiega il ruolo delle case d'asta in questo commercio illecito. Ospiti di Petrolio il critico d'arte Vittorio Sgarbi, lo storico dell'arte Tomaso Montanari e il tenente colonnello Nicola Candido, comandante del reparto operativo dei carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale.
Fonte / source: Video & foto:
--- RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018) / Foto & Video [1:26].
www.raiplay.it/video/2018/11/Petrolio-2e271483-c1ca-4e3c-...
Foto: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279888541
2). ITALIA / USA - SE E' VERO, BISOGNA FESTEGGIARE!!!!!! Ricordate l'interrogazione 3-01243 di novembre 2019 dedicata proprio ad Orfeo e le Sirene? Fonte: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022).
Foto: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado et al., in: Senato della Repubblica / Legislatura 18 Atto di Sindacato Ispettivo n° 3-01243; Atto n. 3-01243 (in Commissione). Pubblicato il 20 novembre 2019, nella seduta n. 167; Svolto nella seduta n. 181 della 7ª Commissione (05/08/2020).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280370960
Chi volesse rinfrescarsi la memoria, può aprire questo link:
--- Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado et al., Senato della Repubblica / Legislatura 18 Atto di Sindacato Ispettivo n° 3-01243; Atto n. 3-01243 (in Commissione). Pubblicato il 20 novembre 2019, nella seduta n. 167; Svolto nella seduta n. 181 della 7ª Commissione (05/08/2020).
Fonte / source:
--- Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / Fb (11/08/2022);
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058012031617
--- Anche: Senato della Repubblica / Legislatura 18 Atto di Sindacato Ispettivo n° 3-01243; Atto n. 3-01243 (in Commissione) [11/08/2022].
www.senato.it/japp/bgt/showdoc/18/Sindisp/0/1128243/index...
Foto: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022); s.v., Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154054
2.1). ITALIA / USA - ADELANTE, PEDRO, CUM JUICIO, SI PUEDES...
Eccola qui la prova del delitto (fotogramma tratto dal filmato trasmesso dalla trasmissione "Petrolio") ma il 2 luglio 2020 il (futuro) MinC mi rispondeva come leggete... Fonte: Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / FB (11/08/2022).
Fonte / source:
--- Senatrice & Archeologa Margherita Corrado / Fb (11/08/2022);
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058012031617
Foto: ARTIBUNE (11/08/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904772
3). ITALIA / USA - Il Getty Museum di Los Angeles restituirà all’Italia un antico gruppo scultoreo. ARTIBUNE (11/08/2022).
COME PREVISTO DALLA POLICY DEL GRANDE MUSEO LOSANGELINO, CHE OBBLIGA AL RIMPATRIO DELLE OPERE SOTTRATTE ILLEGALMENTE, ORFEO E LE SIRENE TORNERANNO A SETTEMBRE 2022 A ROMA, SEGUITI DA ALTRI MANUFATTI IN UN SECONDO MOMENTO.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904902
Un momento storico per le restituzioni, e per l’Italia. Il J. Paul Getty Museum di Los Angeles ha annunciato oggi che restituirà al Paese il Gruppo scultoreo di un Poeta Seduto e Sirene, un gruppo di figure in terracotta a grandezza naturale della seconda metà del IV secolo a.C. proveniente dalla colonia magnogreca di Taranto, noto anche come Orfeo e le Sirene. Il museo statunitense starebbe inoltre collaborando con il Ministero della Cultura per organizzare la restituzione di altri quattro manufatti, a data da destinarsi. Il gigantesco museo a capo dell’omonimo centro per le arti ha già rimosso i manufatti dal percorso di visita in preparazione per il trasporto a Roma a settembre (peraltro molto difficile, vista la fragilità delle sculture), dove saranno affidati al Ministero della Cultura.
Foto: ARTIBUNE (11/08/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154144
IL GRUPPO SCULTOREO ORFEO E LE SIRENE
La restituzione non è per l’Italia una vera e propria sorpresa, dato che già all’inizio del 2006 l’opera compariva in un elenco di manufatti di cui si rivendicava il possesso e si chiedeva la restituzione. Stando alla commissione permanente in Senato su Istruzione pubblica, beni culturali, ricerca scientifica, spettacolo e sport riunitasi nell’agosto 2020, “il bene, databile secondo la maggior parte degli studiosi nell’ambito della seconda metà del IV secolo a.C., si compone di tre statue, originariamente policrome: due figure femminili stanti (140 per 55 centimetri circa), riconoscibili come sirene in base alla conformazione ornitomorfa della parte inferiore del corpo, e una figura maschile seduta, vestita del solo mantello, variamente identificata come poeta, come Orfeo o semplicemente come un defunto del quale poteva costituire parte del monumento sepolcrale.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154234
La figura maschile impugna con la mano destra un oggetto allungato, probabilmente il manico di un plektron, secondo l’interpretazione di Bottini e Guzzo, che ipotizzano nell’altra mano l’originaria presenza di uno strumento a corda. L’opera è riconducibile con certezza al patrimonio culturale italiano e proviene probabilmente dal territorio tarantino”. Lo stesso Getty Trust, si legge ancora nel verbale del Senato, aveva sottoscritto nel 2007 una convenzione con l’allora Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali che aveva permesso il rientro in Italia di molti beni preziosi e che stabiliva l’impegno del Ministero a “interpellare previamente il Getty Trust prima di procedere al recupero di beni archeologici dei quali sia acquisita la prova della provenienza da scavo clandestino e/o oggetto di esportazione illegittima dall’Italia di beni archeologici presenti nelle collezioni del Getty Trust
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904892
“. Sono passati un po’ di anni, certo, ma la collaborazione si può ora dire fruttuosa, nonostante i trascorsi anche burrascosi (vedasi la condanna del tribunale di Pesaro di qualche anno fa).
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154259
LA POLICY DI RESTITUZIONE DEL GETTY MUSEUM DEI MANUFATTI SOTTRATTI ILLECITAMENTE
Il Getty – un’istituzione di livello globale con una enorme collezione che va dalle opere greche alle fotografie del Novecento – ha adempiuto così alla propria policy di restituzione dei manufatti al Paese d’origine, obbligatoria nel caso in cui vi siano informazioni affidabili a indicare che siano stati rubati o scavati illegalmente. “Grazie alle informazioni fornite da Matthew Bogdanos e dall’Unità per il traffico di antichità dell’ufficio del procuratore distrettuale di Manhattan che indicano lo scavo illegale di Orfeo e delle sirene, abbiamo deciso che questi oggetti dovrebbero essere restituiti”, hanno dichiarato i direttori Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle e Robert Tuttle.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154264
Ma non finisce qui: secondo ricercatori dell’istituzione e studiosi indipendenti, bisognerà restituire anche una colossale testa in marmo di una divinità del II secolo d.C.; uno stampo in pietra del II secolo d.C. per la fusione di pendenti; un dipinto a olio intitolato Oracolo a Delfi (1881) di Camillo Miola; e un thymiaterion in bronzo etrusco del IV secolo a.C. I primi tre di questi oggetti furono acquisiti dal fondatore J. Paul Getty e dal Getty Museum negli anni ’70, il quarto nel 1996, e nessuno di loro è più stato esposto al pubblico negli ultimi anni. “Apprezziamo il nostro forte e fruttuoso rapporto con il Ministero della Cultura italiano e con i nostri numerosi colleghi archeologi, conservatori, curatoriali e altri studiosi in tutta Italia, con i quali condividiamo la missione di promuovere la conservazione del patrimonio culturale antico“, ha affermato il direttore Potts.
Fonte / source, foto:
--- ARTIBUNE (11/08/2022).
www.artribune.com/arti-visive/archeologia-arte-antica/202...
Foto: The Los Angele Times, USA (11 Aug., 2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280378020
4). ITALIA / USA - Getty to return illegally excavated Orpheus sculptures, some great antiquities, to Italy. The Los Angele Times, USA (11 Aug., 2022).
The J. Paul Getty Museum is returning its Orpheus group of sculptures — a culturally significant group of nearly life-size terra-cotta figures known as “Orpheus and the Sirens,” some of the museum’s greatest antiquities — to Italy. The objects, which have been determined to have been illegally excavated and exported, will be sent to Rome in September. The institution is coordinating with Italy’s Ministry of Culture to send four other objects back as well at a future date.
Foto: The Los Angele Times, USA (11 Aug., 2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904817
“The Getty is not in a position to comment on information that led to the return of the Orpheus,” spokesperson Julie Jaskol said. “The information was supplied by Matthew Bogdanos of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, who developed the evidence in an investigation unrelated to the Getty. The evidence persuaded us that the statues had been illegally excavated and it was appropriate to return them in accordance with Getty policy.”
Foto: The Los Angele Times, USA (11 Aug., 2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904822
Bogdanos was not able to comment given that the investigation is still in progress, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279888581
“This piece is being returned pursuant to an ongoing and active criminal investigation,” the spokesperson said in an email, “which uncovered the antiquity was illegally trafficked.”
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154109
“Orpheus and the Sirens” is extremely fragile, and the museum says it is working on “specially tailored equipment and procedures” regarding its transfer.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279906673
J. Paul Getty purchased the Orpheus sculptures in the spring of 1976. It was among his final acquisitions prior to his June 6 death.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904762
In his diary, which is part of the Getty’s archives, an entry from Saturday, March 6, 1976, notes that he “bought the following objects” including “a group of 3 Greek statues made in Tarentum at the end of the 4th C.B.C.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279906703
They represent a singer Orpheus seated and 2 standing sirens. $550,000 from Bank Leu. All of these naturally were on [Czech American archaeologist Jiří Frel’s] recommendation.” Frel was the Getty’s antiquities curator from 1973 to 1986.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154284
The $550,000 Getty paid in 1976 is equivalent to around $3 million today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280371120
The Orpheus group of sculptures is an incredibly important work to the Getty. It has been on view, in a ground floor gallery at the Getty Villa, since it was acquired more than four decades ago.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904857
“It is a very important work. I’d even say one of the most important in the [Getty Museum’s] collection,” Getty Museum director Timothy Potts said in an interview. “So it will be a loss as to what we can represent about the art of the ancient classical world, in this case southern Italy in the late fourth century B.C.”
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52279888676
Potts said the work is especially unique because of its scale, quality and subject matter — it suggests the mythical story of Jason and the Argonauts, which would make the sculpture’s seated man, who plays a harp-like instrument, Orpheus.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52278904867
“It’s just extremely rare and there’s nothing similar in our collection, or closely similar in any collection,” Potts said. “It does leave a hole in our gallery but with this evidence that came forth, there was no question that it needed to be sent back to Italy.”
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154224
“We value our strong and fruitful relationship with the Italian Ministry of Culture and with our many archaeological, conservation, curatorial, and other scholarly colleagues throughout Italy, with whom we share a mission to advance the preservation of ancient cultural heritage,” Potts said in a statement.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280154229
The other pieces being returned to Italy — none of which have been exhibited in recent years — are a colossal marble head of a divinity and a limestone mold for casting pendants, both from the second century A.D., along with a 19th century oil painting by Camillo Miola, “The Oracle,” and an Etruscan bronze thymiaterion, a ceremonial incense burner, from the fourth century B.C. The latter was acquired by the Getty in 1996 while the other three objects were acquired in the 1970s.
Foto: “Petrolio Ladri di bellezza”; in: RAI 1 HD (08/12/2018).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52280371150
Fonte / source, foto:
--- The Los Angele Times, USA (11 Aug., 2022).
www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2022-08-11/getty...
(more pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of the side!)
Photo: Vienna City Park plan - Flower - Lake
City Park Plan - Flower - Lake Ltd. © Vienna - specific
The Viennese City Park stretches from the park ring in the first district of Vienna up to the Haymarket in the third district of Vienna and is a of both tourists and local citizens well-visited park in Vienna. Its area is 65,000 m².
History
Yet in the Biedermeier the Water Glacis was a popular entertainment venue before the Karolinenstadttor (city gate). As part of the by the demolition of the city wall happened remodeling in the Ringstrasse, the project of a public park has been promoted on that site by the then Mayor of Vienna, Andreas Zelinka. This park was designed in the style of English gardens by the landscape painter Josef Selleny, the plannings were carried out by the city gardener Rudolf Siebeck. On 21th August 1862 the city park was opened as the first public park in Vienna.
Vienna River flows through the city park
The Wien River flows through the city park, Vienna © concrete
"Wien" (Vienna River) in the city park
On the right bank of the river Wien (Wienfluss) was 1863 the so-called children's park, today mainly characterized by paved playgrounds and sports facilities, which over the Karoline bridge (Karolinenbrücke) (since 1918 Stadtparkbrücke), built in 1857, with the on the left bank situated town park is connected.
In the years 1903-1907 was in the parking area after the regulation a by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer planned Vienna river engineering structure with the river gate, pavilions and river banks built, which is one of the sights in the park.
In earlier times visitors of the park for the stay in placed chairs had to pay fees that were collected by the chair women (the so-called Sesselweiber).
Attractions in the park
Kursalon
The Kursalon
The water Glacis was a spa pavilion in which healing waters for drinking cures were served. To that affect, in the years 1865 to 1867 for the city park also the Kursalon was built according to plans of Johann Garben. This historicist imposing home in the style of the Italian Renaissanceg is located at the John street (Johannesgasse) and has a large terrace in the park:
After the opening on 8th May 1867 were originally forbidden pleasures. As this concept was not adopted, yet on 15th October in 1868 was taking place the first concert of Johann Strauss (son) whereupon became the Kursalon a popular dance and concert venue in particular at the time of the Strauss brothers. Today, the Kursalon after a renovation phase is again venue for balls, concerts, clubbings and conferences and houses a café-restaurant.
Photo: Johann Strauss monument in the city park; © RM
Monuments
With the gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss (son) stands in the city park one of the best known and most frequently photographed monuments in Vienna. It was on 26th June 1921 unveiled and is framed of a marble relief by Edmund Hellmer. The gilding was removed in 1935 and in 1991 applied again. Other monuments there are, for example, of Franz Schubert, Franz Lehar and Robert Stolz and Hans Makart, the City Park is in monuments and sculptures the richest park in Vienna.
The dairy (Meierei)
The former milk bar was built as part of the Wienflußverbauung (Vienna river engineering structure) according to plans by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer from 1901 until 1903. After suffering heavy damages during the Second World War the building was extended in the reconstruction. Today is in the dairy after another annex a restaurant.
Planting
The planting of the city park is characterized by a great diversity of species and is, as possible, focused on a year-round flowering. Through an avenue to the ring road noise and exhaust gases are filtered. Some trees are protected, such as a ginkgo, a crown of thorns (Honeylocust, Christusdorn), cottonwood tree and Caucasian wingnut.
"Space Thang" by Jori Sackin and Pat Vamos is a site specific movie-going experience for an adult movie theater on Troost in Kansas City, MO. A wild success, their one-night-only event played to a sold out audience. On top of Vamos and Sackin's found footage and original animation collages, the show included "Mary Fortune" as the live opening band and MK12's "Follow the Sun" as a trailer.
I wrote more about this whole Kansas City trip on our blog...
I'm starting to purchase some relatively expensive gemstones. I wanted to know how I could be sure of what I was purchasing when there are some misleading trade names and vendors that may not ask as many questions of their supplier as they should.
Calculating the specific gravity of your new sparklies is a good method and can be done fairly inexpensively.
blog.autochthonous-evolved.com/2013/04/making-sure-your-g...
Capitolo primo. L’astratta qualità del ricordo. (2016/2017) Chapter one. The abstract quality of remembrance. (2016/2017)
Site specific installation. Work in progress.
I distinctly recall when Rainbow High dolls first came out. I was rather perplexed by the concept of the line. Dolls that are color coordinated like the rainbow?!! It seemed oddly specific, and perhaps limiting. I can honestly say I didn't expect the franchise to last more than a few collections. And I certainly didn't anticipate that they would be out for five plus years WITH spin offs, like Shadow High, Junior High, etc. Sometimes a simple concept is really all you need. In hindsight, there really isn't anything these dolls can't be designed to do. As long as they fit their rainbow color palettes, essentially anything goes. What I once saw as a hinderance to the collection actually proved to be a major asset.
Something else that was unexpected was how much I'd adore Rainbow High. I wasn't too interested in them when I first started hearing about these dolls on the internet. When they began popping up at my local Walmart, I would give them a cursory glance and carry on. It all started with one doll...Series 1 Sunny Madison. It was shortly after Christmas 2020. I can't quite recall if it was after the new year or just before. I do know that I had gone on my Youtube hiatus (that would last around eleven months). This stands out in my memory because it felt a little strange to dabble in a new doll type and not share her via video in some sort of haul or vlog. It was a personal moment, just for myself (though of course she did get photographed/written about on Flickr...but that's one of my favorite things to do with my dollies). Back then, Colleen's after school job was affiliated with a local community center. Every Saturday, there would be a craft session for an hour at the center. More often than not, Colleen was stuck being the adult in charge of the craft. Since she doesn't drive, and the session was only an hour (that is, if any kids showed up), there was no sense in me driving home. It literally was a twenty minute drive there, and then a twenty minute drive back. No sense in wasting forty minutes driving. Anyways, I would kill time at Walmart on some weekends, if the weather was too chilly to sit in the parking lot. Since it was after the holidays, there were quite a few sales in the toy section. It was there that I found my first two Cave Club dolls and Rainbow High Sunny. I was immediately compelled by Sunny. She was the only Rainbow High doll on sale...for just $5!!! The extra outfit alone was worth it to me. Plus, I could tell just from a brief overview that she was wonderful quality. I ended up buying her, Fernessa, and Slate....as well as an L.O.L. Surprise doll if I'm not mistaken. Colleen and I both had a moment of rhapsodizing over Sunny. For a brief time, I fantasized about getting the rest of the girls from her wave on sale. Sunny was excellently crafted and quite charming. I kept checking Walmart periodically for the next few weeks. But after some time passed and no more Rainbow High dolls were on sale, my interest waned a bit.
I wouldn't add any other Rainbow High dolls to my collection for over two years. My second and third girls, plus my first Shadow High doll, were gifts. They showed up at my doorstep in the "Mountains of Monsters Lot" of March 2023. They had generously been gifted to us in fantastic condition. Suddenly my collection grew from one to three dolls. Once again I was amazed by the craftsmanship. They weren't necessarily my favorites from said lot, after all there were loads of Monster High dolls and an American Girl, but they were definitely towards the top of the list. By this point, Rainbow High dolls were not so new anymore. I figured it would only be a matter of time before they'd start popping up at flea markets and thrift stores, as well as in the sale sections of the store.
Eventually, my waiting game paid off. What first started as a slow trickle of Rainbow High dolls quickly grew to a steady stream. Walmart and Target would periodically slash the prices on the rainbow girls. I also began acquiring them randomly secondhand. Typically more than one would be at a particular store when I did cross paths with Rainbow High. Such was also the case with the clearance dolls that were brand new. The more of them I added to my collection, the more my fondness for these beauties grew. It was easy to overlook them in the past because I don't buy as many dolls in stores as I do in the wild secondhand. I mostly focus on American Girls and Bratz, with the occasional hunt for a specific Monster High doll (and I almost exclusively get them all on some sort of sale). I have found though that I am more and more inclined to hunt specifically for Rainbow High dolls whenever stores have deals, or when I'm perusing a mangy group of secondhand lovelies.
There is undoubtedly a certain kind of magic with these girls. I'm not sure if it is their Bratz like oversized heads or their fantastically crafted wardrobe. Perhaps it is a combination of the two. I also appreciate that they all look quite content, as opposed to snobby or huffy (which you often see with Monster High or Bratz). They have a certain whimsical charm that reminds me of Moxie Girlz in the best way possible. A few of my dolls specifically have captured my heart, like Sparkle Slime Amaya and Emi Vanda. But most of all, I find myself drawn to the Junior High gals. I was fortunate enough to score my first three at Saver's in the summer of 2025, in practically mint condition. By that fall, my local Walmart marked a few of the Pajama Party cuties down to just $8. I admit I had been stalking Sunny in particular. Something about her immediately charmed both my sister and me. I even passed up getting on sale O.M.G.s because I was more keen on the Rainbow High girls that day. When I look at the Junior High dolls, they speak to my inner child. I know if they'd been out when my sister and I were growing up, we would have been obsessed. Their slightly more petite size and youthful appearances make them even more likeable than their older counterparts. I can't quite explain it, but they are extra magical.
I've known better for years not to entirely write off a type of doll. From my own experiences, I've accepted that I am a lover of just about all dolls. Though something may not initially pique my interest, eventually the plastic person in question will worm his or her way into my heart. That was definitely the case with Rainbow High. I didn't quite get the obsession other collectors had with them when these dolls were first released. Even after acquiring my first doll, it hadn't quite clicked for me. But eventually time and luck started to shape my collection naturally. With each new, delightful dolly I added to the family, my love for them as a whole grew. These dolls have quickly become some of my favorites to find on sale or secondhand, and I'm more willing to shell out money for them. It's a major bonus that they have such large heads which are perfect for my gaudy handmade earrings. I also deeply appreciate the care that goes into the design of these dolls. In a time when many dolls wear outfits crafted from paper thin fabric with all the details printed on, and who sport generic facial screenings and cheap bodies, the Rainbow High gals truly stand out. They mirror the quality and attention to detail that drew me to Bratz as a kid. When I hold one of my friends in my hand, there is a certain wonderful weight to them. They don't feel disposable, like play things that are meant to be cast aside and thrown out after a few uses. I'm very glad I was wrong about Rainbow High dolls not lasting long. I hope that they continue to stick around for many more years to come, and even if they don't, I know that my passion for them will only continue to grow not fade.
Do you love someone and want to spend your whole life with that person then you should read to dua to get married to the person you want. This dua can help you to bring the person closer to you. Maybe the person you want has no hint about this, then dua to get married to a specific person can help you to send him a signal.
If you want to know about this dua you can read this article about dua for getting married to the person you love lovebackduas.com/dua-to-get-married-to-the-person-you-want/
You should take help from an expert while practicing this dua. If you are looking for such a person, you can contact Molana Junaid Jafferi. He has years of experience in Islamic astrology. You can contact him at +44-2038075722 (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram)
Site Specific Series
Bird Feeder
-Mortise and tenon joinery
-Slopped roof
-Gravity fed
-Refillable
-Grate floor to allow light and food to fall for ground feeders
-Inner feeding room for protection from predators
-Made from FlatCor - 100% recycled and formaldehyde-free material
-Weatherproofed with non-toxic and non-hazardous sealant
Intended for:
Black-Capped Chickadee
Song Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
House Sparrow
American Golfinch
And many others...
I'm starting to purchase some relatively expensive gemstones. I wanted to know how I could be sure of what I was purchasing when there are some misleading trade names and vendors that may not ask as many questions of their supplier as they should.
Calculating the specific gravity of your new sparklies is a good method and can be done fairly inexpensively.
blog.autochthonous-evolved.com/2013/04/making-sure-your-g...
This image goes along with the gender theme in our class. Its showing that the stereotype for girls is to wear pink, and the stereotype for boys is to wear blue.
Europa: Pasajes de Invierno es una instalación site specific de Florentino Díaz comisariada por Carlota Álvarez Basso para el programa de intervenciones Abierto x Obras, en la antigua cámara frigorífica de lo que fue el matadero municipal. La pieza se inscribe además en la programación de PhotoEspaña 2015.
La pieza conformada a partir de materiales de derribo, representa un barracón sobre el que no cesa de caer la lluvia. En su interior, pantallas de video nos muestran las imágenes de vidas anónimas del siglo XX, recogidas de álbumes encontrados en mercadillos, con el Winterreise (Viaje de invierno) de Schubert sonando de fondo. Según la comisaria Carlota Álvarez Basso, son “historias que hablan de los momentos de felicidad ajena que han caído en el olvido, de la fragilidad de nuestra existencia y de la inconsistencia de la memoria, tanto de la individual como de la colectiva”.
“El espectador debe recorrer estos pasajes de invierno a través de estos videos en los que, paradójicamente, no cabe imaginar el trágico destino que aguarda a sus protagonistas, y que nos hacen pensar en el incierto destino que nos espera” señala Florentino Díaz. Respecto al título, Díaz se inspira en El Libro de los Pasajes, el gran proyecto inacabado de Walter Benjamin, fallecido en 1940, que “cuestiona el desarrollo de una historia que hasta ese momento no había cumplido las expectativas de liberación humana, y que en sus ruinas mostraba la imposibilidad de alcanzar sus metas últimas”, explica el artista.
Las obras de Florentino Díaz (Cáceres - 1954) se caracterizan, desde los años 1990, por el uso de materiales e imágenes recuperadas, elementos aparentemente sencillos pero cargados de sentido y de connotación emocional. Desde hace muchos años Florentino Díaz ha ido guardando pequeños tesoros encontrados en el Rastro de Madrid o de las ciudades que visitaba en sus viajes. Objetos, libros, fotografías que a veces nos desvelan y otras se guardan los secretos de vidas e historias de otro tiempo. El artista es además un referente cuyo trabajo ha girado siempre en torno al concepto de lo doméstico, de la casa, concebida como un espacio cada vez más difícil de habitar. Sus instalaciones se han expuesto en centros nacionales e internacionales, como el CAB DE Burgos, MEIAC de Badajoz, Museo Barjola de Gijón, Casal Solleriç Espai 4 de Mallorca, Museo de Cáceres, Salón de los 16, Kunstamt Kreuzberg-Bethanien de Berlín, y en ferias como Art Cologne, MACO-MEXICO, Liste The Young Art Fair de Basel, Art Chicago, Busan Bienal de Corea. Y forma parte de colecciones privadas, museos e instituciones como CGAC de A Coruña, Colección La Caixa, Fundación Coca-Cola España, Colección Banco de España, Museo de Cáceres, entre otras.
Abierto x Obras
Abierto x Obras, en Matadero Madrid, es un programa de intervenciones site specific que incentiva el carácter experimental de la creación contemporánea a través de planteamientos que exploran la relación entre el arte y el lugar que lo acoge, la antigua cámara frigorífica del Matadero. Desde 2007 Abierto x Obras ha acogido las intervenciones de artistas como Daniel Canogar, Jannis Kounnellis, Román Signer, Carlos Garaicoa, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Jordi Colomer, Los Carpinteros, Cristina Lucas, o Eugenio Ampudia, entre otros. Próximamente se podrá disfrutar del trabajo del artista británico Haroon Mirza.
Ambling out of Jaisalmer train station in late morning, we were immediately accosted by the throngs of drivers – mostly working for specific hotels – who were trying to pick us up. Since I’d booked a room at the Roop Mahal, this wasn’t an issue. It took a minute to find the guy, but he was there to drive us the whole 1-2 km to the hotel, which was at the base of the fort on the west side.
The biggest reason to come to Jaisalmer, the Golden City (since most places are primarily built of sandstone) is to see the fort, which is on a bit of a hill overlooking an otherwise flat desert. As it’s in the desert, the temperatures in the day, even in late September, were close to 40 degrees Celsius (a little over 100F).
According to Lonely Planet India, the fort was built in 1156 by the Rajput ruler Jaisal and reinforced by subsequent rulers. It “was the focus of a number of battles between the Bhatis, the Mughals of Delhi and the Rathores of Jodhpur.”
Nowadays, it’s a living fort. Jaisalmer Fort has plenty of residents, restaurants, souvenir stands, havelis (old-style housing with ornate architecture: carved stone doorways, lattice screens, balconies, and turrets). The havelis are often hotels now, and almost every hotel here has a rooftop restaurant to enjoy the surrounding view. Our hotel, the Roop Mahal, also had a rooftop restaurant where I ate a few times. The food was…not great, but certainly not bad.
In addition to the havelis, there are also quite a few temples. Specifically, there are seven Jain temples (that you can tour for 150 rupees/15 RMB/$2.50USD). These temples were visually quite attractive inside – some more than others – and also had plenty of worshippers coming in and out. I was impressed by the intricacy of the details and sandstone carving, the intimacy of the art, and the way natural light was used in the temples. I don’t believe tripods were allowed inside the temple, which made a lot of shooting quite difficult, but not impossible. The only other rule is that you have to take your shoes off outside and pay someone (usually about 100 rupee) to “watch” your shoes.
After having a meal in the fort (and, excitedly, finding a spice shop where I bought the first of many Indian spices to bring back to China with me), my travel partner arranged for us to go out to the desert and ride camels. (The hotelier also offered something similar, but was a bit expensive.)
Later in the day, around 5:00, if I recall correctly, a guy came to pick us up at the hotel in a jeep and four of us – me, my travel partner, and two Israeli women – started our drive out to Sam, about 50 km west of Jaisalmer (and less than 100 km – maybe less than 50 – from the Pakistani border to the west).
En route, we had to make a few required stops (per our drivers). The first place was so forgettable that I can’t even recall the name of it or what it was. The second place was just to see a small village (really, two buildings) and a whole lot of kids running up to you begging for money in exchange for pictures.
After that, we finally made it out to the desert, where we rode camels for about half an hour and then stopped at a rather random place where we were eventually given a home-cooked Indian meal, vegetarian, that consisted of dal, naan, and a few curries. It was delicious, and had to be eaten completely in Indian style (no utensils of any kind).
While watching the sunset and the subsequent moonrise, we eventually bade our Israeli friends farewell (as they were spending the night in the desert) and headed back to town. Along the way, I caught a glimpse of a late night cricket match, and it was the only time during this trip I’d see that. When we got back to the hotel, we just needed to wait there for an hour or two before they were kind enough to drive us to the train station around 11:00 p.m. so we could catch our midnight train to Jodhpur…the Blue City.
Category: Inosilicates
Chemical formula: Ca2(Mg4.5-2.5Fe2+0.5-2.5) Si8O22(OH)2
Mohs scale hardness: 5–6
Specific gravity: 3.00 (+0.10, -0.05)
Optical properties: Biaxial (-)
Refractive index: nα = 1.613–1.628 nβ = 1.627–1.644 nγ = 1.638–1.655
Birefringence: 0.0250-0.0270
2V angle: 78–82° (calc), 84-73° (meas)
Site specific theatre theater performance perform performance art
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Theatrically devised collaborate collaborative
collaboratively thetre thatre theter theatr theate
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company scrap and salvage James Mulligan Rafal
Klopotowski Emiko Lewis Frank Lee Erin Blendu Eric
ANdler Molly Rhodes Emily Rosenthal Allison Wyper
bluespace 1000 van ness 1k this end up #3 hold piwnica
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In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith.[3] The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), divine simplicity, and as having an eternal and necessary existence. Many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent (perfectly good), and all loving.
God is most often held to be non-corporeal,[3] and to be without any human biological sex,[4][5] yet the concept of God actively creating the universe (as opposed to passively)[6] has caused many religions to describe God using masculine terminology, using such terms as "Him" or "Father". Furthermore, some religions (such as Judaism) attribute only a purely grammatical "gender" to God.[7]
In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[3] Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God.[8]
There are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about God's identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten,[9] premised on being the one "true" Supreme Being and Creator of the Universe.[10] In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, "He Who Is", "I Am that I Am", and the tetragrammaton YHWH (Hebrew: יהוה, which means: "I am who I am"; "He Who Exists") are used as names of God, while Yahweh and Jehovah are sometimes used in Christianity as vocalizations of YHWH. In the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, the latter of which is believed by some scholars to descend from the Egyptian Aten.[11][12][13][14][15] In Islam, the name Allah, "Al-El", or "Al-Elah" ("the God") is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a monistic deity.[16] Other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Bahá'í Faith,[17] Waheguru in Sikhism,[18] and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism.[19]
The many different conceptions of God, and competing claims as to God's characteristics, aims, and actions, have led to the development of ideas of omnitheism, pandeism,[20][21] or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is one underlying theological truth, of which all religions express a partial understanding, and as to which "the devout in the various great world religions are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different, overlapping concepts or mental images of Him."[22]
Contents [hide]
1Etymology and usage
2General conceptions
2.1Oneness
2.2Theism, deism and pantheism
2.3Other concepts
3Non-theistic views
3.1Agnosticism and atheism
3.2Anthropomorphism
4Existence
5Specific attributes
5.1Names
5.2Gender
5.3Relationship with creation
6Depiction
6.1Zoroastrianism
6.2Islam
6.3Judaism
6.4Christianity
7Theological approaches
8Distribution of belief
9See also
9.1In specific religions
10References
11Further reading
12External links
Etymology and usage
The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the Israelite God Yahweh.
Main article: God (word)
The earliest written form of the Germanic word God (always, in this usage, capitalized[23]) comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "to call" or "to invoke".[24] The Germanic words for God were originally neuter—applying to both genders—but during the process of the Christianization of the Germanic peoples from their indigenous Germanic paganism, the words became a masculine syntactic form.[25]
The word 'Allah' in Arabic calligraphy
In the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism.[26][27] The English word God and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for any and all conceptions and, in spite of significant differences between religions, the term remains an English translation common to all. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, in origin possibly the name of an Edomite or Midianite deity, Yahweh. In many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton.[28]
Allāh (Arabic: الله) is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning "The God" (with a capital G), while "ʾilāh" (Arabic: إله) is the term used for a deity or a god in general.[29][30][31] God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God, with early references to his name as Krishna-Vasudeva in Bhagavata or later Vishnu and Hari.[32]
Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. "Mazda", or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå, reflects Proto-Iranian *Mazdāh (female). It is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means "intelligence" or "wisdom". Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning "placing (dʰeh1) one's mind (*mn̩-s)", hence "wise".[33]
Waheguru (Punjabi: vāhigurū) is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God. It means "Wonderful Teacher" in the Punjabi language. Vāhi (a Middle Persian borrowing) means "wonderful" and guru (Sanskrit: guru) is a term denoting "teacher". Waheguru is also described by some as an experience of ecstasy which is beyond all descriptions. The most common usage of the word "Waheguru" is in the greeting Sikhs use with each other:
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
Wonderful Lord's Khalsa, Victory is to the Wonderful Lord.
Baha, the "greatest" name for God in the Baha'i faith, is Arabic for "All-Glorious".
General conceptions
Main article: Conceptions of God
There is no clear consensus on the nature or even the existence of God.[34] The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the monotheistic definition of God in Judaism, the trinitarian view of Christians, and the Islamic concept of God. The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste, ranging from monotheistic to polytheistic. Divinity was recognized by the historical Buddha, particularly Śakra and Brahma. However, other sentient beings, including gods, can at best only play a supportive role in one's personal path to salvation. Conceptions of God in the latter developments of the Mahayana tradition give a more prominent place to notions of the divine.[citation needed]
Oneness
Main articles: Monotheism and Henotheism
The Trinity is the belief that God is composed of The Father, The Son (embodied metaphysically in the physical realm by Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.
Monotheists hold that there is only one god, and may claim that the one true god is worshiped in different religions under different names. The view that all theists actually worship the same god, whether they know it or not, is especially emphasized in Hinduism[35] and Sikhism.[36] In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity describes God as one God in three persons. The Trinity comprises The Father, The Son (embodied metaphysically by Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.[37] Islam's most fundamental concept is tawhid (meaning "oneness" or "uniqueness"). God is described in the Quran as: "Say: He is Allah, the One and Only; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him."[38][39] Muslims repudiate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, and are not expected to visualize God.[40]
Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.[41]
Theism, deism and pantheism
Main articles: Theism, Deism, and Pantheism
Theism generally holds that God exists realistically, objectively, and independently of human thought; that God created and sustains everything; that God is omnipotent and eternal; and that God is personal and interacting with the universe through, for example, religious experience and the prayers of humans.[42] Theism holds that God is both transcendent and immanent; thus, God is simultaneously infinite and in some way present in the affairs of the world.[43] Not all theists subscribe to all of these propositions, but each usually subscribes to some of them (see, by way of comparison, family resemblance).[42] Catholic theology holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. Some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, asserts that, due to the nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean the deity can predict the future. Theism is sometimes used to refer in general to any belief in a god or gods, i.e., monotheism or polytheism.[44][45]
"God blessing the seventh day", a watercolor painting depicting God, by William Blake (1757 – 1827)
Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent: God exists, but does not intervene in the world beyond what was necessary to create it.[43] In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and neither answers prayers nor produces miracles. Common in Deism is a belief that God has no interest in humanity and may not even be aware of humanity. Pandeism and Panendeism, respectively, combine Deism with the Pantheistic or Panentheistic beliefs.[21][46][47] Pandeism is proposed to explain as to Deism why God would create a universe and then abandon it,[48] and as to Pantheism, the origin and purpose of the universe.[48][49]
Pantheism holds that God is the universe and the universe is God, whereas Panentheism holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe.[50] It is also the view of the Liberal Catholic Church; Theosophy; some views of Hinduism except Vaishnavism, which believes in panentheism; Sikhism; some divisions of Neopaganism and Taoism, along with many varying denominations and individuals within denominations. Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, paints a pantheistic/panentheistic view of God—which has wide acceptance in Hasidic Judaism, particularly from their founder The Baal Shem Tov—but only as an addition to the Jewish view of a personal god, not in the original pantheistic sense that denies or limits persona to God.[citation needed]
Other concepts
Dystheism, which is related to theodicy, is a form of theism which holds that God is either not wholly good or is fully malevolent as a consequence of the problem of evil. One such example comes from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, in which Ivan Karamazov rejects God on the grounds that he allows children to suffer.[51]
In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. The contemporaneous French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological essence of Life.[52]
God has also been conceived as being incorporeal (immaterial), a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[3] These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Maimonides,[53] Augustine of Hippo,[53] and Al-Ghazali,[8] respectively.
Non-theistic views
See also: Evolutionary origin of religions and Evolutionary psychology of religion
Non-theist views about God also vary. Some non-theists avoid the concept of God, whilst accepting that it is significant to many; other non-theists understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations. The nineteenth-century English atheist Charles Bradlaugh declared that he refused to say "There is no God", because "the word 'God' is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation";[54] he said more specifically that he disbelieved in the Christian god. Stephen Jay Gould proposed an approach dividing the world of philosophy into what he called "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA). In this view, questions of the supernatural, such as those relating to the existence and nature of God, are non-empirical and are the proper domain of theology. The methods of science should then be used to answer any empirical question about the natural world, and theology should be used to answer questions about ultimate meaning and moral value. In this view, the perceived lack of any empirical footprint from the magisterium of the supernatural onto natural events makes science the sole player in the natural world.[55]
Another view, advanced by Richard Dawkins, is that the existence of God is an empirical question, on the grounds that "a universe with a god would be a completely different kind of universe from one without, and it would be a scientific difference."[56] Carl Sagan argued that the doctrine of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could disprove the existence of a Creator (not necessarily a God) would be the discovery that the universe is infinitely old.[57]
Stephen Hawking and co-author Leonard Mlodinow state in their book, The Grand Design, that it is reasonable to ask who or what created the universe, but if the answer is God, then the question has merely been deflected to that of who created God. Both authors claim however, that it is possible to answer these questions purely within the realm of science, and without invoking any divine beings.[58] Neuroscientist Michael Nikoletseas has proposed that questions of the existence of God are no different from questions of natural sciences. Following a biological comparative approach, he concludes that it is highly probable that God exists, and, although not visible, it is possible that we know some of his attributes.[59]
Agnosticism and atheism
Agnosticism is the view that, the truth values of certain claims – especially metaphysical and religious claims such as whether God, the divine or the supernatural exist – are unknown and perhaps unknowable.[60][61][62]
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities, or a God.[63][64] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[65]
Anthropomorphism
Main article: Anthropomorphism
Pascal Boyer argues that while there is a wide array of supernatural concepts found around the world, in general, supernatural beings tend to behave much like people. The construction of gods and spirits like persons is one of the best known traits of religion. He cites examples from Greek mythology, which is, in his opinion, more like a modern soap opera than other religious systems.[66] Bertrand du Castel and Timothy Jurgensen demonstrate through formalization that Boyer's explanatory model matches physics' epistemology in positing not directly observable entities as intermediaries.[67] Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie contends that people project human features onto non-human aspects of the world because it makes those aspects more familiar. Sigmund Freud also suggested that god concepts are projections of one's father.[68]
Likewise, Émile Durkheim was one of the earliest to suggest that gods represent an extension of human social life to include supernatural beings. In line with this reasoning, psychologist Matt Rossano contends that when humans began living in larger groups, they may have created gods as a means of enforcing morality. In small groups, morality can be enforced by social forces such as gossip or reputation. However, it is much harder to enforce morality using social forces in much larger groups. Rossano indicates that by including ever-watchful gods and spirits, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.[69]
Existence
Main article: Existence of God
St. Thomas Aquinas summed up five main arguments as proofs for God's existence.
Isaac Newton saw the existence of a Creator necessary in the movement of astronomical objects.
Arguments about the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Different views include that: "God does not exist" (strong atheism); "God almost certainly does not exist" (de facto atheism); "no one knows whether God exists" (agnosticism[70]);"God exists, but this cannot be proven or disproven" (de facto theism); and that "God exists and this can be proven" (strong theism).[55]
Countless arguments have been proposed to prove the existence of God.[71] Some of the most notable arguments are the Five Ways of Aquinas, the Argument from Desire proposed by C.S. Lewis, and the Ontological Argument formulated both by St. Anselm and René Descartes.[72]
St. Anselm's approach was to define God as, "that than which nothing greater can be conceived". Famed pantheist philosopher Baruch Spinoza would later carry this idea to its extreme: "By God I understand a being absolutely infinite, i.e., a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each one expresses an eternal and infinite essence." For Spinoza, the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God, or its equivalent, Nature.[73] His proof for the existence of God was a variation of the Ontological argument.[74]
Scientist Isaac Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.[75] Nevertheless, he rejected polymath Leibniz' thesis that God would necessarily make a perfect world which requires no intervention from the creator. In Query 31 of the Opticks, Newton simultaneously made an argument from design and for the necessity of intervention:
For while comets move in very eccentric orbs in all manner of positions, blind fate could never make all the planets move one and the same way in orbs concentric, some inconsiderable irregularities excepted which may have arisen from the mutual actions of comets and planets on one another, and which will be apt to increase, till this system wants a reformation.[76]
St. Thomas believed that the existence of God is self-evident in itself, but not to us. "Therefore I say that this proposition, "God exists", of itself is self-evident, for the predicate is the same as the subject.... Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their nature—namely, by effects."[77] St. Thomas believed that the existence of God can be demonstrated. Briefly in the Summa theologiae and more extensively in the Summa contra Gentiles, he considered in great detail five arguments for the existence of God, widely known as the quinque viae (Five Ways).
For the original text of the five proofs, see quinque viae
Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since there can be no infinite chain of causes of motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First Cause, called God.
Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist.
Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative that is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God (Note: Thomas does not ascribe actual qualities to God Himself).
Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God (Note that even when we guide objects, in Thomas's view, the source of all our knowledge comes from God as well).[78]
Alister McGrath, a formerly atheistic scientist and theologian who has been highly critical of Richard Dawkins' version of atheism
Some theologians, such as the scientist and theologian A.E. McGrath, argue that the existence of God is not a question that can be answered using the scientific method.[79][80] Agnostic Stephen Jay Gould argues that science and religion are not in conflict and do not overlap.[81]
Some findings in the fields of cosmology, evolutionary biology and neuroscience are interpreted by some atheists (including Lawrence M. Krauss and Sam Harris) as evidence that God is an imaginary entity only, with no basis in reality.[82][83][84] These atheists claim that a single, omniscient God who is imagined to have created the universe and is particularly attentive to the lives of humans has been imagined, embellished and promulgated in a trans-generational manner.[85] Richard Dawkins interprets such findings not only as a lack of evidence for the material existence of such a God, but as extensive evidence to the contrary.[55] However, his views are opposed by some theologians and scientists including Alister McGrath, who argues that existence of God is compatible with science.[86]
Neuroscientist Michael Nikoletseas has proposed that questions of the existence of God are no different from questions of natural sciences. Following a biological comparative approach, he concludes that it is highly probable that God exists, and, although not visible, it is possible that we know some of his attributes.[59]
Specific attributes
Different religious traditions assign differing (though often similar) attributes and characteristics to God, including expansive powers and abilities, psychological characteristics, gender characteristics, and preferred nomenclature. The assignment of these attributes often differs according to the conceptions of God in the culture from which they arise. For example, attributes of God in Christianity, attributes of God in Islam, and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in Judaism share certain similarities arising from their common roots.
Names
Main article: Names of God
99 names of Allah, in Chinese Sini (script)
The word God is "one of the most complex and difficult in the English language." In the Judeo-Christian tradition, "the Bible has been the principal source of the conceptions of God". That the Bible "includes many different images, concepts, and ways of thinking about" God has resulted in perpetual "disagreements about how God is to be conceived and understood".[87]
Throughout the Hebrew and Christian Bibles there are many names for God. One of them is Elohim. Another one is El Shaddai, meaning "God Almighty".[88] A third notable name is El Elyon, which means "The Most High God".[89]
God is described and referred in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman, meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful" (See Names of God in Islam).[90]
Supreme soul
The Brahma Kumaris use the term "Supreme Soul" to refer to God. They see God as incorporeal and eternal, and regard him as a point of living light like human souls, but without a physical body, as he does not enter the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. God is seen as the perfect and constant embodiment of all virtues, powers and values and that He is the unconditionally loving Father of all souls, irrespective of their religion, gender, or culture.[91]
Vaishnavism, a tradition in Hinduism, has list of titles and names of Krishna.
Gender
Main article: Gender of God
The gender of God may be viewed as either a literal or an allegorical aspect of a deity who, in classical western philosophy, transcends bodily form.[92][93] Polytheistic religions commonly attribute to each of the gods a gender, allowing each to interact with any of the others, and perhaps with humans, sexually. In most monotheistic religions, God has no counterpart with which to relate sexually. Thus, in classical western philosophy the gender of this one-and-only deity is most likely to be an analogical statement of how humans and God address, and relate to, each other. Namely, God is seen as begetter of the world and revelation which corresponds to the active (as opposed to the receptive) role in sexual intercourse.[6]
Biblical sources usually refer to God using male words, except Genesis 1:26-27,[94][95] Psalm 123:2-3, and Luke 15:8-10 (female); Hosea 11:3-4, Deuteronomy 32:18, Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15, Isaiah 42:14, Psalm 131:2 (a mother); Deuteronomy 32:11-12 (a mother eagle); and Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34 (a mother hen).
Relationship with creation
See also: Creator deity, Prayer, and Worship
And Elohim Created Adam by William Blake, c.1795
Prayer plays a significant role among many believers. Muslims believe that the purpose of existence is to worship God.[96][97] He is viewed as a personal God and there are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God. Prayer often also includes supplication and asking forgiveness. God is often believed to be forgiving. For example, a hadith states God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance.[98] Christian theologian Alister McGrath writes that there are good reasons to suggest that a "personal god" is integral to the Christian outlook, but that one has to understand it is an analogy. "To say that God is like a person is to affirm the divine ability and willingness to relate to others. This does not imply that God is human, or located at a specific point in the universe."[99]
Adherents of different religions generally disagree as to how to best worship God and what is God's plan for mankind, if there is one. There are different approaches to reconciling the contradictory claims of monotheistic religions. One view is taken by exclusivists, who believe they are the chosen people or have exclusive access to absolute truth, generally through revelation or encounter with the Divine, which adherents of other religions do not. Another view is religious pluralism. A pluralist typically believes that his religion is the right one, but does not deny the partial truth of other religions. An example of a pluralist view in Christianity is supersessionism, i.e., the belief that one's religion is the fulfillment of previous religions. A third approach is relativistic inclusivism, where everybody is seen as equally right; an example being universalism: the doctrine that salvation is eventually available for everyone. A fourth approach is syncretism, mixing different elements from different religions. An example of syncretism is the New Age movement.
Jews and Christians believe that humans are created in the likeness of God, and are the center, crown and key to God's creation, stewards for God, supreme over everything else God had made (Gen 1:26); for this reason, humans are in Christianity called the "Children of God".[100]
Depiction
God is defined as incorporeal,[3] and invisible from direct sight, and thus cannot be portrayed in a literal visual image.
The respective principles of religions may or may not permit them to use images (which are entirely symbolic) to represent God in art or in worship .
Zoroastrianism
Ahura Mazda (depiction is on the right, with high crown) presents Ardashir I (left) with the ring of kingship. (Relief at Naqsh-e Rustam, 3rd century CE)
During the early Parthian Empire, Ahura Mazda was visually represented for worship. This practice ended during the beginning of the Sassanid empire. Zoroastrian iconoclasm, which can be traced to the end of the Parthian period and the beginning of the Sassanid, eventually put an end to the use of all images of Ahura Mazda in worship. However, Ahura Mazda continued to be symbolized by a dignified male figure, standing or on horseback which is found in Sassanian investiture.[101]
Islam
Further information: God in Islam
Muslims believe that God (Allah) is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of His creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules, are not expected to visualize God.[40]
Judaism
At least some Jews do not use any image for God, since God is the unimageable Being who cannot be represented in material forms.[102] In some samples of Jewish Art, however, sometimes God, or at least His Intervention, is indicated by a Hand Of God symbol, which represents the bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or Voice of God;[103] this use of the Hand Of God is carried over to Christian Art.
Christianity
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Early Christians believed that the words of the Gospel of John 1:18: "No man has seen God at any time" and numerous other statements were meant to apply not only to God, but to all attempts at the depiction of God.[104]
Use of the symbolic Hand of God in the Ascension from the Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850
However, later on the Hand of God symbol is found several times in the only ancient synagogue with a large surviving decorative scheme, the Dura Europos Synagogue of the mid-3rd century, and was probably adopted into Early Christian art from Jewish art. It was common in Late Antique art in both East and West, and remained the main way of symbolizing the actions or approval of God the Father in the West until about the end of the Romanesque period. It also represents the bath Kol (literally "daughter of a voice") or voice of God,[103] just like in Jewish Art.
In situations, such as the Baptism of Christ, where a specific representation of God the Father was indicated, the Hand of God was used, with increasing freedom from the Carolingian period until the end of the Romanesque. This motif now, since the discovery of the 3rd century Dura Europos synagogue, seems to have been borrowed from Jewish art, and is found in Christian art almost from its beginnings.
The use of religious images in general continued to increase up to the end of the 7th century, to the point that in 695, upon assuming the throne, Byzantine emperor Justinian II put an image of Christ on the obverse side of his gold coins, resulting in a rift which ended the use of Byzantine coin types in the Islamic world.[105] However, the increase in religious imagery did not include depictions of God the Father. For instance, while the eighty second canon of the Council of Trullo in 692 did not specifically condemn images of The Father, it suggested that icons of Christ were preferred over Old Testament shadows and figures.[106]
The beginning of the 8th century witnessed the suppression and destruction of religious icons as the period of Byzantine iconoclasm (literally image-breaking) started. Emperor Leo III (717–741), suppressed the use of icons by imperial edict of the Byzantine Empire, presumably due to a military loss which he attributed to the undue veneration of icons.[107] The edict (which was issued without consulting the Church) forbade the veneration of religious images but did not apply to other forms of art, including the image of the emperor, or religious symbols such as the cross.[108] Theological arguments against icons then began to appear with iconoclasts arguing that icons could not represent both the divine and the human natures of Jesus at the same time. In this atmosphere, no public depictions of God the Father were even attempted and such depictions only began to appear two centuries later.
The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 effectively ended the first period of Byzantine iconoclasm and restored the honouring of icons and holy images in general.[109] However, this did not immediately translate into large scale depictions of God the Father. Even supporters of the use of icons in the 8th century, such as Saint John of Damascus, drew a distinction between images of God the Father and those of Christ.
In his treatise On the Divine Images John of Damascus wrote: "In former times, God who is without form or body, could never be depicted. But now when God is seen in the flesh conversing with men, I make an image of the God whom I see".[110] The implication here is that insofar as God the Father or the Spirit did not become man, visible and tangible, images and portrait icons can not be depicted. So what was true for the whole Trinity before Christ remains true for the Father and the Spirit but not for the Word. John of Damascus wrote:[111]
"If we attempt to make an image of the invisible God, this would be sinful indeed. It is impossible to portray one who is without body:invisible, uncircumscribed and without form."
Around 790 Charlemagne ordered a set of four books that became known as the Libri Carolini (i.e. "Charles' books") to refute what his court mistakenly understood to be the iconoclast decrees of the Byzantine Second Council of Nicaea regarding sacred images. Although not well known during the Middle Ages, these books describe the key elements of the Catholic theological position on sacred images. To the Western Church, images were just objects made by craftsmen, to be utilized for stimulating the senses of the faithful, and to be respected for the sake of the subject represented, not in themselves. The Council of Constantinople (869) (considered ecumenical by the Western Church, but not the Eastern Church) reaffirmed the decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea and helped stamp out any remaining coals of iconoclasm. Specifically, its third canon required the image of Christ to have veneration equal with that of a Gospel book:[112]
We decree that the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the liberator and Savior of all people, must be venerated with the same honor as is given the book of the holy Gospels. For as through the language of the words contained in this book all can reach salvation, so, due to the action which these images exercise by their colors, all wise and simple alike, can derive profit from them.
But images of God the Father were not directly addressed in Constantinople in 869. A list of permitted icons was enumerated at this Council, but symbols of God the Father were not among them.[113] However, the general acceptance of icons and holy images began to create an atmosphere in which God the Father could be symbolized.
Prior to the 10th century no attempt was made to use a human to symbolize God the Father in Western art.[104] Yet, Western art eventually required some way to illustrate the presence of the Father, so through successive representations a set of artistic styles for symbolizing the Father using a man gradually emerged around the 10th century AD. A rationale for the use of a human is the belief that God created the soul of Man in the image of His own (thus allowing Human to transcend the other animals).
It appears that when early artists designed to represent God the Father, fear and awe restrained them from a usage of the whole human figure. Typically only a small part would be used as the image, usually the hand, or sometimes the face, but rarely a whole human. In many images, the figure of the Son supplants the Father, so a smaller portion of the person of the Father is depicted.[114]
By the 12th century depictions of God the Father had started to appear in French illuminated manuscripts, which as a less public form could often be more adventurous in their iconography, and in stained glass church windows in England. Initially the head or bust was usually shown in some form of frame of clouds in the top of the picture space, where the Hand of God had formerly appeared; the Baptism of Christ on the famous baptismal font in Liège of Rainer of Huy is an example from 1118 (a Hand of God is used in another scene). Gradually the amount of the human symbol shown can increase to a half-length figure, then a full-length, usually enthroned, as in Giotto's fresco of c. 1305 in Padua.[115] In the 14th century the Naples Bible carried a depiction of God the Father in the Burning bush. By the early 15th century, the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry has a considerable number of symbols, including an elderly but tall and elegant full-length figure walking in the Garden of Eden, which show a considerable diversity of apparent ages and dress. The "Gates of Paradise" of the Florence Baptistry by Lorenzo Ghiberti, begun in 1425 use a similar tall full-length symbol for the Father. The Rohan Book of Hours of about 1430 also included depictions of God the Father in half-length human form, which were now becoming standard, and the Hand of God becoming rarer. At the same period other works, like the large Genesis altarpiece by the Hamburg painter Meister Bertram, continued to use the old depiction of Christ as Logos in Genesis scenes. In the 15th century there was a brief fashion for depicting all three persons of the Trinity as similar or identical figures with the usual appearance of Christ.
In an early Venetian school Coronation of the Virgin by Giovanni d'Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini, (c. 1443) The Father is depicted using the symbol consistently used by other artists later, namely a patriarch, with benign, yet powerful countenance and with long white hair and a beard, a depiction largely derived from, and justified by, the near-physical, but still figurative, description of the Ancient of Days.[116]
. ...the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. (Daniel 7:9)
Usage of two Hands of God"(relatively unusual) and the Holy Spirit as a dove in Baptism of Christ, by Verrocchio, 1472
In the Annunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni in 1470, God the Father is portrayed in the red robe and a hat that resembles that of a Cardinal. However, even in the later part of the 15th century, the symbolic representation of the Father and the Holy Spirit as "hands and dove" continued, e.g. in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ in 1472.[117]
God the Father with His Right Hand Raised in Blessing, with a triangular halo representing the Trinity, Girolamo dai Libri c. 1555
In Renaissance paintings of the adoration of the Trinity, God may be depicted in two ways, either with emphasis on The Father, or the three elements of the Trinity. The most usual depiction of the Trinity in Renaissance art depicts God the Father using an old man, usually with a long beard and patriarchal in appearance, sometimes with a triangular halo (as a reference to the Trinity), or with a papal crown, specially in Northern Renaissance painting. In these depictions The Father may hold a globe or book (to symbolize God's knowledge and as a reference to how knowledge is deemed divine). He is behind and above Christ on the Cross in the Throne of Mercy iconography. A dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit may hover above. Various people from different classes of society, e.g. kings, popes or martyrs may be present in the picture. In a Trinitarian Pietà, God the Father is often symbolized using a man wearing a papal dress and a papal crown, supporting the dead Christ in his arms. They are depicted as floating in heaven with angels who carry the instruments of the Passion.[118]
Representations of God the Father and the Trinity were attacked both by Protestants and within Catholicism, by the Jansenist and Baianist movements as well as more orthodox theologians. As with other attacks on Catholic imagery, this had the effect both of reducing Church support for the less central depictions, and strengthening it for the core ones. In the Western Church, the pressure to restrain religious imagery resulted in the highly influential decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Council of Trent decrees confirmed the traditional Catholic doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image.[119]
Artistic depictions of God the Father were uncontroversial in Catholic art thereafter, but less common depictions of the Trinity were condemned. In 1745 Pope Benedict XIV explicitly supported the Throne of Mercy depiction, referring to the "Ancient of Days", but in 1786 it was still necessary for Pope Pius VI to issue a papal bull condemning the decision of an Italian church council to remove all images of the Trinity from churches.[120]
The famous The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, c.1512
God the Father is symbolized in several Genesis scenes in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, most famously The Creation of Adam (whose image of near touching hands of God and Adam is iconic of humanity, being a reminder that Man is created in the Image and Likeness of God (Gen 1:26)).God the Father is depicted as a powerful figure, floating in the clouds in Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in the Frari of Venice, long admired as a masterpiece of High Renaissance art.[121] The Church of the Gesù in Rome includes a number of 16th century depictions of God the Father. In some of these paintings the Trinity is still alluded to in terms of three angels, but Giovanni Battista Fiammeri also depicted God the Father as a man riding on a cloud, above the scenes.[122]
In both the Last Judgment and the Coronation of the Virgin paintings by Rubens he depicted God the Father using the image that by then had become widely accepted, a bearded patriarchal figure above the fray. In the 17th century, the two Spanish artists Velázquez (whose father-in-law Francisco Pacheco was in charge of the approval of new images for the Inquisition) and Murillo both depicted God the Father using a patriarchal figure with a white beard in a purple robe.
The Ancient of Days (1794) Watercolor etching by William Blake
While representations of God the Father were growing in Italy, Spain, Germany and the Low Countries, there was resistance elsewhere in Europe, even during the 17th century. In 1632 most members of the Star Chamber court in England (except the Archbishop of York) condemned the use of the images of the Trinity in church windows, and some considered them illegal.[123] Later in the 17th century Sir Thomas Browne wrote that he considered the representation of God the Father using an old man "a dangerous act" that might lead to Egyptian symbolism.[124] In 1847, Charles Winston was still critical of such images as a "Romish trend" (a term used to refer to Roman Catholics) that he considered best avoided in England.[125]
In 1667 the 43rd chapter of the Great Moscow Council specifically included a ban on a number of symbolic depictions of God the Father and the Holy Spirit, which then also resulted in a whole range of other icons being placed on the forbidden list,[126][127] mostly affecting Western-style depictions which had been gaining ground in Orthodox icons. The Council also declared that the person of the Trinity who was the "Ancient of Days" was Christ, as Logos, not God the Father. However some icons continued to be produced in Russia, as well as Greece, Romania, and other Orthodox countries.
Theological approaches
Theologians and philosophers have attributed to God such characteristics as omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.[3] These attributes were all claimed to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars, including Maimonides,[53] St Augustine,[53] and Al-Ghazali.[128]
Many philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,[8] while attempting to comprehend the precise implications of God's attributes. Reconciling some of those attributes generated important philosophical problems and debates. For example, God's omniscience may seem to imply that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, their ostensible free will might be illusory, or foreknowledge does not imply predestination, and if God does not know it, God may not be omniscient.[129]
However, if by its essential nature, free will is not predetermined, then the effect of its will can never be perfectly predicted by anyone, regardless of intelligence and knowledge. Although knowledge of the options presented to that will, combined with perfectly infinite intelligence, could be said to provide God with omniscience if omniscience is defined as knowledge or understanding of all that is.
The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response has been either to contend, as does Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic", or to take, as does Richard Swinburne, the evidentialist position.[130] Some theists agree that only some of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of logic, a position summed up by Pascal as "the heart has reasons of which reason does not know."[131] A recent theory using concepts from physics and neurophysiology proposes that God can be conceptualized within the theory of integrative level.[132]
Many religious believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings such as angels, saints, jinn, demons, and devas.[133][134][135][136][137]
Distribution of belief
Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street
(May - September 2021)
From trainers originally designed for specific athletic activities like the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star, the Puma Disc, and Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next%, discover how sneakers such as the Reebok InstaPump Fury, the Vans Half Cab and the Asics Gel Lyte III have become cultural symbols of our times.
Take a journey through the design process behind some of the most technically inventive shoes of today with the Adidas FutureCraft.Strung shoe-making robot designed by Kram/Weisshaar, Satoshi, a brand using blockchain certification and the world’s first biologically active shoes developed by MIT Design Lab and Biorealize for Puma.
Then delve into the lucrative resale market that is currently valued at $10 billion in data visualisations from Stock X, before reliving the streetwear staple's high-fashion reinvention including sneakers by Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons and Y-3 and runway looks from A-COLD-WALL* and CRAIG GREEN.
Uncover the icons and collaborations that have shaped the sneaker scene over the years from Michael Jordan and Run-DMC to Kanye West, experience visuals and graphic work from Jamel Shabazz, Grace Ladoja, Simon Wheatley and Reuben Dangoor, and meet the designers working to make the industry more sustainable, Stella McCartney, Helen Kirkum and Alexander Taylor.
[Design Museum]
Taken in the Design Museum
Site specific theatre theater performance perform performance art
site-specific theatricality installation site specific create process San Francisco bay area
Poland Prague Cargo Ship Art ship Theatrical
Theatrically devised collaborate collaborative
collaboratively thetre thatre theter theatr theate
teatr divadlo predstaveni predstavani ensemble work
artwork scultpture installation umeni compose composed
composer hudba react reaction place site room
performed Boston New York Los Angeles experimental
avant garde experiment performative installation
instalation install sculpt puppet puppeteer oakland
company scrap and salvage James Mulligan Rafal
Klopotowski Emiko Lewis Frank Lee Erin Blendu Eric
ANdler Molly Rhodes Emily Rosenthal Allison Wyper
bluespace 1000 van ness 1k this end up #3 hold piwnica
marchewy lorca project
The specific common values of pastoral systems include their importance for the conservation and sustainable use of animal breeds, the landscapes which co-evolved with pastoralists’ cultural practices, which e.g. provide critical habitats for wild biodiversity, deep reservoirs of local/indigenous knowledge on livestock rearing and health, as well as on ecological functioning. The Maasai pastoral system provides meat, milk, maize meal, beans, fur and hides; forage, water, and manure; forest based products (edible fruits, seeds, medicines, honey, poles); and an intimate understanding of ecological knowledge.
(c)FAO/David Boerma. Photo credit must be given.
The Final Day of Racing At Brands Hatch for The Superprix Weekend and After a Really Busy and Scattered Set Of Races The Previous day it was time to see which of the Drivers could Brave the Circuit One Last Time and Take Home Either a Championship Win or a Victory in their Specific Race.
Lets Get Straight to the Results.
Classic Formula Ford/Historic Formula 3 (Race 2 Result)
Classic Formula Ford and Historic Formula 3 Were up First and it was Time to see who could be The one to take the Checkered Flag First when they crossed the Line.
In First Place was (Cameron Jackson) in his Winkelmann WDF2 with a Lap Time of 1:39.257 and a Top Speed of 86.59mph. A Fantastic Victory Cameron Showing Incredible Car Control and Commitment to Win the Race.
In Second Place was (Ben Tinkler) in his Van Diemen RF80 with a Lap Time of 1:39.986 and a Top Speed of 85.77mph. A Really Great Drive from Ben to stay so close to Cameron and Keep Him on his toes the entire Time while Fighting for the Lead of the Race.
In Third Place was (Jordan Harrison) in his Lola T540E with a Lap Time of 1:39.994 and a Top Speed of 85.54mph. A Really Wonderfully Deserved Third Place for Jordan Pushing that Lola for everything it Has got to gain Third Place. Well Done.
Three Fantastically Fast Drivers all with Incredible Speed and Talent Showcasing The Best of what they Bring to Brands Hatch Every Year. An Amazing Last Race to Witness. Congratulations to The Race Winner and Keep Trying Hard Everyone Else.
HGPCA Pre 66 Grand Prix Cars (Race 20)
Next It was The Historic Grand Prix Cars and with a Massive Turn out for them it looks like Another Cracking Race to see from Start till Finish. Lets see who came out on Top.
In First Place was (Sam Wilson) in his Lotus 18 with a Lap Time of 1:39.384 and a Top Speed of 86.55mph. Amazing Work Sam Showing Colin Chapman How it Should be Done. He would have been Proud to Witness that Victory.
In Second Place was (Peter Horsman) in his Lotus 18/21 with a Lap Time of 1:41.296 and A Top Speed of 84.90mph. A Fantastic Drive by Peter to take Second Place in the Race.
In Third Place was (Miles Griffiths) in his Scarab Offenhauser with A Lap Time of 1:41.501 and A Top Speed of 84.38mph A Really Good Job there Miles Almost Matching Lap Times with Peter and Showing Some Incredible Car Control during The Race.
Another Fantastic Race for The Historic Grand Prix Cars and a Huge Congratulations to Sam for Taking Victory in the Last Race. Avery Well Done to Both Peter and Miles as well.
HSCC 70's Road Sports (Race 19)
Historic Road Sports took to the Track next and with some Legendary Cars from the Likes of Lotus Morgan and TVR it was Time to see who Had Stormed to Victory in the Last Race and Taken the Victory.
In First Place was (William Plant) in his Morgan Plus 8 with A Lap Time of 1:45.768 and A Top Speed of 70.67mph. Congratulations William on the Victory it was so Good to See a Morgan Take First Place while Watching this Exciting Race. An Amazing Drive.
In Second Place was (Jim Dean) in his Lotus Europa with A Lap Time of 1:46.411 and A Top Speed of 70.66mph. Another Incredible Drive from Jim to Take Second Place. Well Done
In Third Place was (Richard Plant) in his Morgan Plus 8 with A Lap Time of 1:47.697 and a Top Speed of 70.31mph. A Very Committed Drive from Richard and a Fantastic Third Place Finish that I'm sure the Whole Family will be Proud of.
Fantastic Racing from the 70's Road Sports to Finish the Days Racing for them Congratulations to William, Jim and Richard. Hope to see you Three Battling it out Again Soon.
Aurora Trophy With Geoff Lees Trophy
The Arora Trophy Roared onto the Grand Prix Circuit Next with Powerful V8 Engines thease Racing Cars could make the Ground Shake as they Thunder their way around the Race Track. Lets see who Managed to take that All Important Victory for their Final Race.
In First Place was (Martin Stretton) in his March 712 with a Lap Time of 1:25.976 and A Top Speed of 101mph. A Very Brave and Committed drive from Martin to Take Victory, Really Pushing the March to its Limits and hanging onto the Lead thought the Race.
In Second Place was (Mathew Wrigley) in his March 782 with a Lap Time of 1:25.127 and A Top Speed of 100.96mph. Another Incredible Driver Taking his Machinery to New heights and Keeping the March Name Alive in Historic Racing. Amazing Work Mathew.
In Third Place was (Samuel Harrison) in his Dallara 389 with A Lap Time of 1:29.552 and A Top Speed of 95.04mph. Amazing work Sam showing Insane Car Control even when Racing so Fast and for such A Long Time. Congratulations.
Another Amazing Race to Keep the Day going and showing the Amazing work that Each Team Does to ensure that their Driver and His Car are Ready to go. Well Done to all of the Teams and to the First Second and Third Place Winners as well. Looking Forward To seeing more Action this Year from the Aurora Trophy.
Guards Trophy (Race 21)
Next Up Guards Trophy with Another Range of Racing Machines from the Likes of Brabham Chevron and Lotus Lets see what will Happen and Who will be able to Drive their way to Victory in This Race.
In First Place was (Andy Newall) in his Chevron B6 with A Lap Time of 1:38.258 and A Top Speed of 83.84mph. Very Well Driven and Raced by Andy Showcasing the Power of the Chevron and taking it too its Limits in terms of Raw Speed and Performance.
In Second Place was the Duo of (Jackson S and Jackson C) in their Lenham P70 with A Lap Time of 1:38.008 and A Top Speed of 83.45mph. Fantastic Work to The Two Jacks who Really showed what Working Together Can Achieve during A Race. Well Done
In Third Place was the Duo of (Mitchell W and Mitchell B) in their Chevron B8 with A Lap Time of 1:38.368 and A Top Speed of 82.49mph. Another Amazing Duo who Have Taken Third Place and Kept the Fight Alive in their Respective Championship. Amazing work.
A Fantastic Race for the Guards Trophy Showing the Power of Each Race Car and what they Are Capable of When put into The Hands of the Right Drivers. Congratulations to Andy Mitchell W and Mitchell B as well as Jackson S and Jackson C for putting on One Hell of a Race. Keep up the Good Work Everyone Else and Never Stop Fighting for your Own Victories.
Historic Formula Ford (Race 16)
Next Up was Historic Formula Ford and some very Twitchy and Tricky Cars to be Driven Round the Circuit at Hight Speed. With Light Weight Chassis and Small Cockpits this was going to be a Very Exciting Race to Watch. Lets see who Came out Best of the Rest.
In First Place was (Cameron Jackson) in his Winkelmann WDF2 with A Lap Time of 1:38.596 and A Top Speed of 87.95mph. Another Incredible Drive From Cameron to Take Victory and show what A Truly Committed and Self Determined Driver is. He is an Inspiration to All Up Coming Formula Ford Racers.
In Second Place was (Tom Macarthur) in his Titan MK3 with A Lap Time of 1:38.484 and A Top Speed of 87.94mph. Another Really Brave and Heroic Driver Pushing His Formula Ford to its Limits and Keeping his Eye's on the Race Track. Amazing Work Tom.
In Third Place was (Horatio Fitzsimon) in his Merlin MK20A with A Lap Time of 1:38.513 And A Top Speed of 87.90mph. Very Well Done Horatio Fantastic Driving and A Well Deserved Third Place.
An Amazing Final Heat Race for the Formula Fords with Everyone Pushing As Hard as they Could for Victory. Keep Working Hard Everyone and Congratulations to Cameron Tom and Horatio.
Historic Road Sports (Race 17)
Historic Road Sports Next and it was Time to see what Each Driver could do in their Respective Race Car. Lets see how things Stacked up and who Came out on Top in the Race.
In First Place was (Kevin Kivlochan) in his AC Cobra with a Lap Time of 1:46.891 and A Top Speed of 72.19mph. What A Drive From Kevin to Take Victory Keeping that Cobra Far Ahead of the Rest of the Pack and Taking A Dominant Victory. Carol Shelby would have Loved to See That.
In Second Place was (John Davidson) in his Lotus Elan S1 with A Lap Time of 1:46.052 And A Top Speed of 72.16mph. Amazing Work John Keeping that Lotus on the Tarmac and Putting on One Hell of a Race for Everyone. Amazing Job.
In Third Place was (Rupert Ashdown) in his Lotus Elan S1 with A Lap Time of 1:47.481and A Top Speed of 71.61mph. Another Incredible Drive by Rupert Taking Third Place Very Well Deserved.
Historic Road Sports putting on Another Superb Race for the Season and Congratulations to Kevin John and Rupert on their Victories. Hope to see More of that This Year and Good Luck to Everyone Else Racing too.
Historic Touring Cars (Race 22)
The Final Race of The Day was Here and The Historic Touring Car Club did not Disappoint with Lotus Cortina's Mini Cooper S's and Ford Mustangs This was going to be a Final Battle of Titans. Lets See Who Managed to Take that Last Checkered Flag of the Day.
In First Place was (Steve Soper) in his Ford Mustang with A Lap Time of 1.47.084 and A Top Speed of 71.51mph. Awesome Drive Steve Fantastic to see that He Still has it in him After all The Years of Racing.
In Second Place was (Rob Fen) in his Ford Mustang with A Lap Time of 1:49.031 and A Top Speed of 70.93mph. Amazing Work Rob Pushing that Mustang Far and Wide to Hang onto that Second Place. Excellent Drive.
In Third Place was (Mark Martin in his Ford Lotus Cortina with A Lap Time of 1:49.905 and A Top Speed of 70.70mph. Very Well Done Mark Great Driving and Even a Wheel in the Air on Some Occasions Heading onto the Grand Prix Loop. What A Sight that Was to See.
And With that The Days Events came to an End for another year of Superprix Racing at Brands Hatch Amazing work to all of the Organisers and Race Drivers who took Part and Congratulations once again to all of the Race Winners. Keep Fighting Keep Wining and I'm Sure we will do it All Again Next Year.
MAQUETTE FOR THE END OF TIME
Detail: Front view of the figure Death Was In The Minds of Others
No specific event in the history of mankind has so
concerned Robert Cremean as that memorialized in
MAQUETTE FOR THE END OF TIME. It is not only a
continuing analysis of 8/6/45, the dropping of the bomb on
Hiroshima from which date he has declared “All the
metaphors have changed.” It is a summation of that event
previously portrayed and analyzed in numerous completed
sculptures, studio sections, books and lectures including:
STUDIO SECTION 1981-1983—Terminus; THE SEVENTH
LECTURE—Terminus: Notes to the Music of Johann Sebastian
Bach On His Birthday, 1985; THE PROCRUSTES TRILOGY,
1992-2002; THE TENTH ARCH—A SEQUEL TO VATICAN
CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography, 1996; STUDIO
SECTION 1998-2002—Dialogues of the True Cross—A Polemic
in the Form of a Triptych and The Winter Notebooks; STUDIO
SECTION 2002-2005—Marsyas/Myself; STUDIO SECTION
2006-2007; and in STUDIO SECTION 2008-2009. All of these
are fully documented and the writings transcribed within
the photographic record both preceding and following this recording
on Flickr.com. But the event is most succinctly
described in the beginning of the Blue Triangle that descends
the jotting wall of Procrustes In Situ, the first part of THE
PROCRUSTES TRILOGY:
“We live in an age of miracles...August 6th, 1945. Born
in a searing flash of light, god himself signed his
magnificent demise with the most enormous phallic
plume the world had ever seen. Terminus.... Fifty years
have passed since the death of god...fifty years of the
most miraculous discoveries, inventions and
accomplishments—and fifty years of denial and deceit.
We live in an age of miracles and refuse to accept the
authorship of, hence responsibility for, the miracles
themselves. We persist in denying our resplendency
and responsibilities within the concept of a new
age—a new age with a new concept of time, finite and
creative. An Age of Miracles. Thousands upon thousands
of men, women and children were consumed in
this cataclysmic change of metaphors. God, like an
ancient ruler incarnate, adorned his death with
innocents, and their blood colors this new age. How
old he was! As old as human fear. And though fear still
holds us enthralled, we are no longer free to worship
it. God is dead and, with him, men in His image.
Patriarchy’s grave lies in the blood and rubble of
Hiroshima, beneath a poisoned cock of smoke.”
City Park
(more pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of the side!)
Photo: Vienna City Park plan - Flower - Lake
City Park Plan - Flower - Lake Ltd. © Vienna - specific
The Viennese City Park stretches from the park ring in the first district of Vienna up to the Haymarket in the third district of Vienna and is a of both tourists and local citizens well-visited park in Vienna. Its area is 65,000 m².
History
Yet in the Biedermeier the Water Glacis was a popular entertainment venue before the Karolinenstadttor (city gate). As part of the by the demolition of the city wall happened remodeling in the Ringstrasse, the project of a public park has been promoted on that site by the then Mayor of Vienna, Andreas Zelinka. This park was designed in the style of English gardens by the landscape painter Josef Selleny, the plannings were carried out by the city gardener Rudolf Siebeck. On 21th August 1862 the city park was opened as the first public park in Vienna.
Vienna River flows through the city park
The Wien River flows through the city park, Vienna © concrete
"Wien" (Vienna River) in the city park
On the right bank of the river Wien (Wienfluss) was 1863 the so-called children's park, today mainly characterized by paved playgrounds and sports facilities, which over the Karoline bridge (Karolinenbrücke) (since 1918 Stadtparkbrücke), built in 1857, with the on the left bank situated town park is connected.
In the years 1903-1907 was in the parking area after the regulation a by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer planned Vienna river engineering structure with the river gate, pavilions and river banks built, which is one of the sights in the park.
In earlier times visitors of the park for the stay in placed chairs had to pay fees that were collected by the chair women (the so-called Sesselweiber).
Attractions in the park
Kursalon
The Kursalon
The water Glacis was a spa pavilion in which healing waters for drinking cures were served. To that affect, in the years 1865 to 1867 for the city park also the Kursalon was built according to plans of Johann Garben. This historicist imposing home in the style of the Italian Renaissanceg is located at the John street (Johannesgasse) and has a large terrace in the park:
After the opening on 8th May 1867 were originally forbidden pleasures. As this concept was not adopted, yet on 15th October in 1868 was taking place the first concert of Johann Strauss (son) whereupon became the Kursalon a popular dance and concert venue in particular at the time of the Strauss brothers. Today, the Kursalon after a renovation phase is again venue for balls, concerts, clubbings and conferences and houses a café-restaurant.
Photo: Johann Strauss monument in the city park; © RM
Monuments
With the gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss (son) stands in the city park one of the best known and most frequently photographed monuments in Vienna. It was on 26th June 1921 unveiled and is framed of a marble relief by Edmund Hellmer. The gilding was removed in 1935 and in 1991 applied again. Other monuments there are, for example, of Franz Schubert, Franz Lehar and Robert Stolz and Hans Makart, the City Park is in monuments and sculptures the richest park in Vienna.
The dairy (Meierei)
The former milk bar was built as part of the Wienflußverbauung (Vienna river engineering structure) according to plans by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer from 1901 until 1903. After suffering heavy damages during the Second World War the building was extended in the reconstruction. Today is in the dairy after another annex a restaurant.
Planting
The planting of the city park is characterized by a great diversity of species and is, as possible, focused on a year-round flowering. Through an avenue to the ring road noise and exhaust gases are filtered. Some trees are protected, such as a ginkgo, a crown of thorns (Honeylocust, Christusdorn), cottonwood tree and Caucasian wingnut.
Sanctuary Park Cemetery Toronto Ontario Canada.
OES - Order of Eastern Star:
Members of the Order are aged 18 and older; men must be Master Masons and women must have specific relationships with Masons. Originally, a woman would have to be the daughter, widow, wife, sister, or mother of a master Mason, but the Order now allows other relatives[2] as well as allowing Job's Daughters, Rainbow Girls, Members of the Organization of Triangles (NY only) and members of the Constellation of Junior Stars (NY only) to become members when of age.
The Order was created by Rob Morris in 1850 when he was teaching at the Eureka Masonic College in Richland, Mississippi. While confined by illness, he set down the principles of the order in his Rosary of the Eastern Star. By 1855, he had organized a "Supreme Constellation" in New York, which chartered chapters throughout the United States.
In 1866, Dr. Morris started working with Robert Macoy, and handed the Order over to him while Morris was traveling in the Holy Land. Macoy organized the current system of Chapters, and modified Dr. Morris' Rosary into a Ritual.
On December 1, 1874, Queen Esther Chapter No. 1 became the first Prince Hall Affiliate chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star when it was established in Washington, D.C. by Thornton Andrew Jackson.[3]
The "General Grand Chapter" was formed in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 6, 1876. Committees formed at that time created the Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star in more or less its current form.[4]
The emblem of the Order is a five-pointed star with the white ray of the star pointing downwards towards the manger. In the Chapter room, the downward-pointing white ray points to the West. The character-building lessons taught in the Order are stories inspired by Biblical figures:
Adah (Jephthah's daughter, from the Book of Judges)
Ruth, the widow from the Book of Ruth
Esther, the wife from the Book of Esther
Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, from the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John
Electa (the "elect lady" from II John), the mother
Order of the Eastern Star:
General Grand Chapter logo:
The Order of the Eastern Star is a Freemasonicappendant body open to both men and women. It was established in 1850 by lawyer and educator Rob Morris, a noted Freemason. The order is based on teachings from the Bible,[1] but is open to people of all religious beliefs. It has approximately 10,000 chapters in twenty countries and approximately 500,000 members under its General Grand Chapter.
Members of the Order are aged 18 and older; men must be Master Masons and women must have specific relationships with Masons. Originally, a woman would have to be the daughter, widow, wife, sister, or mother of a master Mason, but the Order now allows other relatives[2] as well as allowing Job's Daughters, Rainbow Girls, Members of the Organization of Triangles (NY only) and members of the Constellation of Junior Stars (NY only) to become members when of age.
History:
The Order was created by Rob Morris in 1850 when he was teaching at the Eureka Masonic College in Richland, Mississippi. While confined by illness, he set down the principles of the order in his Rosary of the Eastern Star. By 1855, he had organized a "Supreme Constellation" in New York, which chartered chapters throughout the United States.
In 1866, Dr. Morris started working with Robert Macoy, and handed the Order over to him while Morris was traveling in the Holy Land. Macoy organized the current system of Chapters, and modified Dr. Morris' Rosary into a Ritual.
On December 1, 1874, Queen Esther Chapter No. 1 became the first Prince Hall Affiliatechapter of the Order of the Eastern Star when it was established in Washington, D.C. by Thornton Andrew Jackson.[3]
The "General Grand Chapter" was formed in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 6, 1876. Committees formed at that time created the Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star in more or less its current form.[4]
Emblem and heroines:
The emblem of the Order is a five-pointed star with the white ray of the star pointing downwards towards the manger. In the Chapter room, the downward-pointing white ray points to the West. The character-building lessons taught in the Order are stories inspired by Biblical figures:
Adah (Jephthah's daughter, from the Book of Judges)
Ruth, the widow from the Book of Ruth
Esther, the wife from the Book of Esther
Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, from the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John
Electa (the "elect lady" from II John), the mother
Officers
Officers representing the heroines of the order sit around the altar in the center of the chapter room.
Eastern Star meeting room:
There are 18 main officers in a full chapter:
Worthy Matron – presiding officer
Worthy Patron – a Master Mason who provides general supervision
Associate Matron – assumes the duties of the Worthy Matron in the absence of that officer
Associate Patron – assumes the duties of the Worthy Patron in the absence of that officer
Secretary – takes care of all correspondence and minutes
Treasurer – takes care of monies of the Chapter
Conductress – Leads visitors and initiations.
Associate Conductress – Prepares candidates for initiation, assists the conductress with introductions and handles the ballot box.
Chaplain – leads the Chapter in prayer
Marshal – presents the Flag and leads in all ceremonies
Organist – provides music for the meetings
Adah – Shares the lesson of Duty of Obedience to the will of God
Ruth – Shares the lesson of Honor and Justice
Esther – Shares the lesson of Loyalty to Family and Friends
Martha – Shares the lesson of Faith and Trust in God and Everlasting Life
Electa – Shares the lesson of Charity and Hospitality
Warder – Sits next to the door inside the meeting room, to make sure those that enter the chapter room are members of the Order.
Sentinel – Sits next to the door outside the chapter room, to make sure those that wish to enter are members of the Order.
Traditionally, a woman who is elected Associate Conductress will be elected to Conductress the following year, then the next year Associate Matron, and then next year as Worthy Matron. A man elected Associate Patron will usually be elected Worthy Patron the following year. Usually the woman who is elected to become Associate Matron will let it be known who she wishes to be her Associate Patron, so the next year they will both go to the East together as Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron. There is no male counterpart to the Conductress and Associate Conductress. Only women are allowed to be Matrons, Conductresses, and the Star Points (Adah, Ruth, etc.) and only men can be Patrons.
Once a member has served a term as Worthy Matron or Worthy Patron, they may use the post-nominal letters, PM or PP respectively.
Headquarters:
The International Temple in Washington, D.C.
Main article: International Temple
The General Grand Chapter headquarters, the International Temple, is located in the Dupont Circleneighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the former Perry Belmont Mansion. The mansion was built in 1909 for the purpose of entertaining the guests of Perry Belmont. This included Britain's Prince of Wales in 1919. General Grand Chapter purchased the building in 1935. The secretary of General Grand Chapter lives there while serving his or her term of office. The mansion features works of art from around the world, most of which were given as gifts from various international Eastern Star chapters.
Charities:
The Order has a charitable foundation[5] and from 1986-2001 contributed $513,147 to Alzheimer's disease research, juvenile diabetes research, and juvenile asthma research. It also provides bursaries to students of theology and religious music, as well as other scholarships that differ by jurisdiction. In 2000 over $83,000 was donated. Many jurisdictions support a Masonic and/or Eastern Star retirement center or nursing home for older members; some homes are also open to the public. The Elizabeth Bentley OES Scholarship Fund was started in 1947.[6][7]
Eureka Masonic College, also known as The Little Red Schoolhouse, birthplace of the Order of the Eastern Star
Signage at the Order of the Eastern Star birthplace, the Little Red Schoolhouse
Notable members
Clara Barton[8]
J. Howell Flournoy[9]
Eva McGown[10]
James Peyton Smith[11]
Lee Emmett Thomas[12]
Laura Ingalls Wilder[13]
H. L. Willis[14]
See also:
Achoth
Omega Epsilon Sigma
References:
^ "Installation Ceremony". Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star. Washington, DC: General Grand Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star. 1995 [1889]. pp. 120–121.
^ "Eastern Star Membership". General Grand Chapter. Retrieved 2010-06-03. These affiliations include: * Affiliated Master Masons in good standing, * the wives * daughters * legally adopted daughters * mothers * widows * sisters * half sisters * granddaughters * stepmothers * stepdaughters * stepsisters * daughters-in-law * grandmothers * great granddaughters * nieces * great nieces * mothers-in-law * sisters-in-law and daughters of sisters or brothers of affiliated Master Masons in good standing, or if deceased were in good standing at the time of their death
^ Ayers, Jessie Mae (1992). "Origin and History of the Adoptive Rite Among Black Women". Prince Hall Masonic Directory. Conference of Grand Masters, Prince Hall Masons. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
^ "Rob Morris". Grand Chapter of California. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
^ "OES Charities". Retrieved 2016-04-15.
^ "Elizabeth Bentley Order Of The Eastern Star Scholarship Award". Yukon, Canada. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
^ "Eastern Star has enjoyed long history". Black Press. Retrieved 2009-11-05. The Eastern Star Bursary, later named the Elizabeth Bentley OES Scholarship Fund, was started in 1947.[dead link]
^ Clara Barton, U.S. Nurse Masonic First Day Cover
^ "Sheriff 26 Years – J. H. Flournoy Dies," Shreveport Journal, December 14, 1966, p. 1
^ by Helen L. Atkinson at ALASKA INTERNET PUBLISHERS, INC
^ "James P. Smith". The Bernice Banner, Bernice, Louisiana. Retrieved September 13,2013.
^ "Thomas, Lee Emmett". Louisiana Historical Association, A Directory of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.org). Retrieved December 29, 2010.
^ Big Muddy online publications
^ "Horace Luther Willis". The Alexandria Daily Town Talk on findagrave.com. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
Official website:
Eastern Star Organizations at DMOZ
Pride of the North Chapter Number 61, Order of the Eastern Star Archival Collection, located at Shorefront Legacy Center, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
@algonquinoutfit : RT @Swift_Canoe: We're having too much fun designing kayaks. Wait till you see what we have in store for 2017. t.co/jfbErUqtEs (via Twitter twitter.com/algonquinoutfit/status/817462039182508032)
The Ammonia, Total Alkaloids, Specific Tobacco Nitrosamines, Sugars, Nitrates, Nitrites and Water Measurements.
Commissioned by Dancing in the Streets and Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education as part of The South Bronx Culture Trail, PASEO is a roving site-specific performance by choreographer/director Joanna Haigood and music director Bobby Sanabria that celebrates the Hunts Point and Longwood sections of the South Bronx and their astounding contribution to Latin music. With performances by over 80 dancers, musicians, poets, actors, and community members, fire escapes, stoops, and sidewalks will come alive with Latin music and dance, stickball games, and street scenes evoking the neighborhoods’ vibrant street life and cultural vitality during the 1940s-‘60s.
Over 80 dancers, musicians, poets, and actors, including dancers Ramon Ramos Alayo and Franck Muhel, members of Los Pleneros de la 21, and stellar Bronx-based artists, including Arthur Aviles, La Bruja, percussionist and poet Angel Rodriguez, the Puerto Rican folklorico ensemble Danza Fiesta, the Los Monstritospercussion ensemble, Bobby Sanabria’s nine-piece ensemble, Ascension, and guest musicians who came of age in the neighborhood, including the legendary Alegre All Star timbalero Orlando Marin, The Last Mambo King.
Bradford Pear or Callery Pear - Pyrus calleryana - is a once beloved and now much hated non-native tree.
The Bradford pear is technically a specific cultivar of the ornamental Callery pear. It usually grows 25-30 feet tall, with a canopy perhaps 20-25 feet wide, noted for its lovely, uniformly rounded form. That consistently rounded shape lends itself to symmetrical landscape plantings, and many homeowners will plant Bradfords to line their driveways. The tree blooms dependably, displays wonderful fall color, and, best of all, has virtually no insect or disease problems. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news about Bradford pears comes to an end.
The same branch structure that makes that rounded canopy shape so pleasing, with branches angled sharply upward from the trunk (called a narrow or tight crotch angle), is simply not as strong as it would be if those branches were closer to horizontal. Further, all of its major limbs diverge from a single point on the trunk. This structural weakness makes the trees very susceptible to storm damage, whether from wind or from ice, and the damage often causes large limbs to rip down one side of the trunk, leaving the homeowner with a lopsided tree that destroys their carefully cultivated symmetry.
Structural weakness is not the only drawback associated with Bradford pears, though. Originally bred to be sterile, this ornamental pear tree was never intended to produce fruit. In reality, though, it is often pollinated by newer Callery pear cultivars (“Aristocrat,” ‘Chanticleer,” “Cleveland Select,” and “Redspire”) that were developed to overcome some of the Bradford’s structural issues. This cross-pollination can lead to viable seeds, and that’s where the real trouble starts. The offspring of those well-mannered ornamental pears are, to put it nicely, aggressive thugs. They spread rapidly with the help of birds dropping their seeds, and the resulting plants are thorny invaders, choking out native wildlife habitat wherever the seedlings take hold. The problem is severe enough that many localities have banned the Bradford pear altogether in certain settings.
The Callery pear is an invasive species in many areas of eastern North America, outcompeting many native plants and trees. In the northeastern United States (and increasingly the South), wild Callery pears sometimes form extensive, nearly pure stands in old fields, along roadsides, and in similar disturbed areas.
While these wild plants are sometimes called "Bradford pear" (for the 'Bradford' cultivar), they are actually wild-growing descendants of multiple genotypes of Pyrus calleryana, and hence more correctly referred to by the common (or scientific) name of the species itself.
The tree is known for its pungent, often unpleasant smell during its flowering stage, which has been described as reminiscent of rotting fish, chlorine, or other things.
If all this weren’t discouraging enough, Bradford pears just don’t live a long time, as trees go. Starting around the age of 20, the trees simply begin to decline, with few of them living past the age of 30.
The species is named after the Italian-French sinologue Joseph-Marie Callery (1810–1862) who sent specimens of the tree to Europe from China.
thedailysouth.southernliving.com/2011/02/28/i-just-hate-b...
guilford.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/10/bradford-pear-a-mixed-bless...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrus_calleryana
Bradford Pear or Callery Pear - Pyrus calleryana