The different vibrations of their composition allows nature spirits to be seen telepathically by clairvoyants and sensitives. This sensitivity is enhanced by combining the boundary between wakefulness and dreaming during the hypnagotic state, thus stimulating the pineal gland.

An old shot of my homie Dante Ross.

 

Follow Me..

It was such a stimulating autumn day that two different poems came to me [that's a good day...months can go by with no new poems]

During the spring the frog's pituitary gland is stimulated by changes in external factors, such as rainfall, day length and temperature, to produce hormones which, in turn, stimulate the production of sex cells - eggs in the females and sperm in the male. The male's nuptial pad also swells and becomes more heavily pigmented. Common frogs breed in shallow, still, fresh water such as ponds, with spawning commencing sometime between March and late June, but generally in April over the main part of their range. The adults congregate in the ponds, where the males compete for females. The courtship ritual involves noisy vocalisations, known as "croaking", by large numbers of males. The females are attracted to the males that produce the loudest and longest calls and enter the water where the males mill around and try to grasp them with their front legs — although they may grasp anything of a similar size, such as a piece of wood. The successful male climbs on the back of the female and grasps her under the forelegs with his nuptial pads, in a position known as amplexus, and kicks away any other males that try to grasp her. He then stays attached in this position until she lays her eggs, which he fertilises by spraying sperm over them as they are released from the female's cloaca. The courtship rituals are performed throughout the day and night but spawning typically takes place at night. The females lay between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs which float in large clusters near the surface of the water. After mating the pairs separate, the females will leave the water and the males will try to find another mate. Within three or four days all the females will have laid their eggs and left the water and the males disperse.

I like watching them prepare themselves for the ride mentally, (behind the scenes) while they mimic the whole thing physically. Someone walking in off the street would think there's something definitely missing from this picture, most would insert a naked woman into this image but in fact it's all about the bull or bronc. Too bad the average guy doesn't mentally prepare themselves for their bedroom ride, if they thought it all through beforehand I'm sure they could give a better performance.

Picture of different bodies (vehicles) whether or not we’re aware of them on different planes of existence. The light body being a vehicle of energy being able to explore things our human mind can’t even truly begin to perceive.Increasingly science agrees with the poetry of direct human experience: we are more than the atoms and molecules that make up our bodies, but beings of light as well. Biophotons are emitted by the human body, can be released through mental intention, and may modulate fundamental processes within cell-to-cell communication and DNA.

 

Nothing is more amazing than the highly improbable fact that we exist. We often ignore this fact, oblivious to the reality that instead of something there could be nothing at all, i.e. why is there a universe (poignantly aware of itself through us) and not some void completely unconscious of itself?

 

Consider that from light, air, water, basic minerals within the crust of the earth, and the at least 3 billion year old information contained within the nucleus of one diploid zygote cell, the human body is formed, and within that body a soul capable of at least trying to comprehend its bodily and spiritual origins.

 

Given the sheer insanity of our existential condition, and bodily incarnation as a whole, and considering that our earthly existence is partially formed from sunlight and requires the continual consumption of condensed sunlight in the form of food, it may not sound so farfetched that our body emits light.

 

Indeed, the human body emits biophotons, also known as ultraweak photon emissions (UPE), with a visibility 1,000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eye. While not visible to us, these particles of light (or waves, depending on how you are measuring them) are part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum (380-780 nm) and are detectable via sophisticated modern instrumentation.

 

The Physical and "Mental" Eye Emits Light

The eye itself, which is continually exposed to ambient powerful photons that pass through various ocular tissues, emit spontaneous and visible light-induced ultraweak photon emissions. It has even been hypothesized that visible light induces delayed bioluminescence within the exposed eye tissue, providing an explanation for the origin of the negative afterimage.

 

These light emissions have also been correlated with cerebral energy metabolism and oxidative stress within the mammalian brain. And yet, biophoton emissions are not necessarily epiphenomenal. Bókkon's hypothesis suggests that photons released from chemical processes within the brain produce biophysical pictures during visual imagery, and a recent study found that when subjects actively imagined light in a very dark environment their intention produced significant increases in ultraweak photo emissions. This is consistent with an emerging view that biophotons are not solely cellular metabolic by-products, but rather, because biophoton intensity can be considerably higher inside cells than outside, it is possible for the mind to access this energy gradient to create intrinsic biophysical pictures during visual perception and imagery.

 

The Human Eye Emits Light

 

Our Cells and DNA Use Biophotons To Store and Communicate Information

Apparently biophotons are used by the cells of many living organisms to communicate, which facilitates energy/information transfer that is several orders of magnitude faster than chemical diffusion. According to a 2010 study, "Cell to cell communication by biophotons have been demonstrated in plants, bacteria, animal neutriophil granulocytes and kidney cells." Researchers were able to demonstrate that "...different spectral light stimulation (infrared, red, yellow, blue, green and white) at one end of the spinal sensory or motor nerve roots resulted in a significant increase in the biophotonic activity at the other end." Researchers interpreted their finding to suggest that "...light stimulation can generate biophotons that conduct along the neural fibers, probably as neural communication signals."

 

Even when we go down to the molecular level of our genome, DNA can be identified to be a source of biophoton emissions as well. One author proposes that DNA is so biophoton dependent that is has excimer laser-like properties, enabling it to exist in a stable state far from thermal equilibrium at threshold.

 

Technically speaking a biophoton is an elementary particle or quantum of light of non-thermal origin in the visible and ultraviolet spectrum emitted from a biological system. They are generally believed to be produced as a result of energy metabolism within our cells, or more formally as a "...by-product of biochemical reactions in which excited molecules are produced from bioenergetic processes that involves active oxygen species,"

 

The Body's Circadian Biophoton Output

Because the metabolism of the body changes in a circadian fashion, biophoton emissions also variate along the axis of diurnal time. Research has mapped out distinct anatomical locations within the body where biophoton emissions are stronger and weaker, depending on the time of the day:

 

Generally, the fluctuation in photon counts over the body was lower in the morning than in the afternoon. The thorax-abdomen region emitted lowest and most constantly. The upper extremities and the head region emitted most and increasingly over the day. Spectral analysis of low, intermediate and high emission from the superior frontal part of the right leg, the forehead and the palms in the sensitivity range of the photomultiplier showed the major spontaneous emission at 470-570 nm. The central palm area of hand emission showed a larger contribution of the 420-470 nm range in the spectrum of spontaneous emission from the hand in autumn/winter. The spectrum of delayed luminescence from the hand showed major emission in the same range as spontaneous emission.

 

The researchers concluded that "The spectral data suggest that measurements might well provide quantitative data on the individual pattern of peroxidative and anti-oxidative processes in vivo."

 

Meditation and Herbs Affect Biophoton Output

Research has found an oxidative stress-mediated difference in biophoton emission among mediators versus non-meditators. Those who meditate regularly tend to have lower ultra-weak photon emission (UPE, biophoton emission), which is believed to result from the lower level of free radical reactions occurring in their bodies. In one clinical study involving practitioners of transcendental meditation (TM) researchers found:

 

The lowest UPE intensities were observed in two subjects who regularly meditate. Spectral analysis of human UPE has suggested that ultra-weak emission is probably, at least in part, a reflection of free radical reactions in a living system. It has been documented that various physiologic and biochemical shifts follow the long-term practice of meditation and it is inferred that meditation may impact free radical activity.

 

Interestingly, an herb well-known for its use in stress reduction (including inducing measurable declines in cortisol), and associated heightened oxidative stress, has been tested clinically in reducing the level of biophotons emitted in human subjects. Known as rhodiola, a study published in 2009 in the journal Phytotherapeutic Research found that those who took the herb for 1 week has a significant decrease in photon emission in comparison with the placebo group.

 

Human Skin May Capture Energy and Information from Sunlight

Perhaps most extraordinary of all is the possibility that our bodily surface contains cells capable of efficiently trapping the energy and information from ultraviolet radiation. A study published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology in 1993, titled, "Artificial sunlight irradiation induces ultraweak photon emission in human skin fibroblasts," discovered that when light from an artificial sunlight source was applied to fibroblasts from either normal subjects or with the condition xeroderma pigmentosum, characterized by deficient DNA repair mechanisms, it induced far higher emissions of ultraweak photons (10-20 times) in the xeroderma pigmentosum group. The researchers concluded from this experiment that "These data suggest that xeroderma pigmentosum cells tend to lose the capacity of efficient storage of ultraweak photons, indicating the existence of an efficient intracellular photon trapping system within human cells."More recent research has also identified measurable differences in biophoton emission between normal and melanoma cells.

 

Human Skin and Light

 

In a previous article, Does Skin Pigment Act Like A Natural Solar-Panel, we explored the role of melanin in converting ultraviolet light into metabolic energy:

 

Melanin is capable of transforming ultraviolet light energy into heat in a process known as "ultrafast internal conversion"; more than 99.9% of the absorbed UV radiation is transformed from potentially genotoxic (DNA-damaging) ultraviolet light into harmless heat.

 

If melanin can convert light into heat, could it not also transform UV radiation into other biologically/metabolically useful forms of energy? This may not seem so farfetched when one considers that even gamma radiation, which is highly toxic to most forms of life, is a source of sustenance for certain types of fungi and bacteria. More on melanin-mediated energy production here.

 

Gerald Pollack, PhD, who wrote The 4th Phase of Water has identified water molecules, which constitute 99% of the molecules in our body by number, as capable of storing the energy of sunlight like batteries and driving the majority of processes within our body as a primary, non-ATP-based source of energy. Dr. Pollack wrote a guest article for us on the topic here, Can Humans Harvest The Sun's Energy Directly Like Plants?

 

The Body's Biophoton Outputs Are Governed by Solar and Lunar Forces

It appears that modern science is only now coming to recognize the ability of the human body to receive and emit energy and information directly from the light given off from the Sun.

 

There is also a growing realization that the Sun and Moon affect biophoton emissions through gravitational influences. Recently, biophoton emissions from wheat seedlings in Germany and Brazil were found to be synchronized transcontinentally according to rhythms associated with the lunisolar tide.[18] In fact, the lunisolar tidal force, to which the Sun contributes 30 % and the Moon 60 % of the combined gravitational acceleration, has been found to regulate a number of features of plant growth upon Earth.[19]

 

Intention Is a Living Force of Physiology

Even human intention itself, the so-called ghost in the machine, may have an empirical basis in biophotons.

 

A recent commentary published in the journal Investigacion clinica titled "Evidence about the power of intention" addressed this connection:

 

Intention is defined as a directed thought to perform a determined action. Thoughts targeted to an end can affect inanimate objects and practically all living things from unicellular organisms to human beings. The emission of light particles (biophotons) seems to be the mechanism through which an intention produces its effects. All living organisms emit a constant current of photons as a mean to direct instantaneous nonlocal signals from one part of the body to another and to the outside world. Biophotons are stored in the intracellular DNA. When the organism is sick changes in biophotons emissions are produced. Direct intention manifests itself as an electric and magnetic energy producing an ordered flux of photons. Our intentions seem to operate as highly coherent frequencies capable of changing the molecular structure of matter. For the intention to be effective it is necessary to choose the appropriate time. In fact, living beings are mutually synchronized and to the earth and its constant changes of magnetic energy. It has been shown that the energy of thought can also alter the environment. Hypnosis, stigmata phenomena and the placebo effect can also be considered as types of intention, as instructions to the brain during a particular state of consciousness. Cases of spontaneous cures or of remote healing of extremely ill patients represent instances of an exceedingly great intention to control diseases menacing our lives. The intention to heal as well as the beliefs of the sick person on the efficacy of the healing influences promote his healing. In conclusion, studies on thought and consciousness are emerging as fundamental aspects and not as mere epiphenomena that are rapidly leading to a profound change in the paradigms of Biology and Medicine.

 

So there you have it. Science increasingly agrees with direct human experience: we are more than the atoms and molecules of which we are composed, but beings that emit, communicate with, and are formed from light.

 

www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/biophotons-human-body-emits-com...

Experimentation with a LASER.

 

Press L.

 

Swimming in Cappuccino

www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/

The National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC

 

by navema

www.navemastudios.com

 

The mission of the National Arts Club is to stimulate, foster and promote public interest in the arts and educate the American people in the fine arts. The club offers a variety of shows, educational programs, and awards in areas including theater, visual arts, film, literature and music. It is noted for allowing members access to a Gramercy Park key.

 

The National Arts Club was founded in 1898 by Charles de Kay. Charles de Kay was the literary and art critic for The New York Times for 18 years. He and a group of distinguished artists and patrons conceived of a gathering place for artists, patrons and audiences in all the arts. American art at the turn of the century had begun to look inward for inspiration, rather than to Europe, and the American art world was alive with energy. As The National Arts Club moved into its first home in a townhouse on 34th Street, American art had found a new home.

 

The National Arts Club is located in the historic Tilden Mansion. 15 Gramercy Park was built in the 1840's and its original flat-front, iron-grilled appearance matched the style of the houses still maintained on the west side of Gramercy Park, a landmark Gothic Revival brownstone, immediately next door and West of the Players Club, with similar interests. Samuel Tilden acquired 15 Gramercy Park in the 1860's, and in the 1870's gave the house a massive overhaul. Tilden hired Calvert Vaux, a famed architect and one of the designers of Central Park to "victorianize" the facade with sandstone, bay windows and Gothic Ornamentation. John LaFarge created stained glass ceilings for the inside of the mansion, and Italian wood carvers made the fireplaces. Glass master Donald MacDonald wrought a unique stained glass dome for the building. All of this prompted architect Philip Johnson to call the mansion, "among the most beautiful in New York." Spencer Trask and the Board of Governors acquired the Tilden Mansion in 1906 as the new home for the National Arts Club.

 

The Tilden Mansion is both a designated New York Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. In the 1960's, New York declared 15 Gramercy Park South a New York Landmark, and in 1976, the Federal government declared it a National Historic Landmark. The Tilden Mansion continues to inspire artists from around the world. NAC member Albinus Elskus undertook a restoration of the MacDonald dome in the 1970's, and recently, in 2000, Danish sculptor Tycho Flore created a piece inspired by and from the same material as the Calvert Vaux facade.

 

The National Arts Club admitted women on a full and equal basis from its inception. The National Arts Club has a long history of exclusivity through inclusivity. Charles Spencer Trask, Charles Rollison Lamb, Charles de Kay and the other co-founders recognized the importance of many female artists and saw no reason to treat them differently from male artists. The National Arts Club continues its tradition of inclusivity by welcoming minority artists and fighting for the rights of minority students.

 

The Club's Membership has included three presidents, and some of the most important artists and arts patrons in America. Three Presidents of the United States were Members: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Among the distinguished painters who have been Members are Robert Henri, Edward Charles Volkert, Frederic Remington, William Merritt Chase and Cecilia Beaux. Sculptors have included Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, Anna Hyatt Huntington and Paul Manship. Many renowned literary figures have also been members, including W. H. Auden, Mark Twain and Frank McCourt. The National Arts Club is proud of its early recognition of new media artforms, like photography, film and digital media, and counts Alfred Stieglitz as one of its early Members. Musicians Victor Herbert and Walter Damrosch were Members, as were architects Stanford White and George B. Post. The Dramatic Arts are currently represented by Members Martin Scorcese, Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Robert Redford and Uma Thurman.

 

The National Arts Club fosters young artists with a number of awards and scholarships. Many of the committees award scholarships to young artists, writers and singers. The National Arts Club Opera Competition attracts international applications. The Club is as committed to nurturing young talent as it is to recognizing established artists.

 

The National Arts Club is run by volunteers. The National Arts Club hosts some of the most exciting events in New York—art unveilings, award dinners, film screenings, lectures, dances and anything else you can think of. All of these programs, as well as the scholarship competitions, exhibitions and other activities are coordinated by the Membership as volunteers who act out of their love for the arts and the Club, and thus broaden the public's understanding of our broad cultural community.

 

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DONALD MACDONALD:

 

Donald MacDonald was an early stained glass artist and craftsman of Boston. He was born in Glasgow and trained as a glass painter in London during the 1860’s. In 1868 he was urged to immigrate to America and join the studio of J. William McPherson & Co. in Boston. His skill and dedication to his craft made him sought after by progressive architects of the day. During the 1870s, he was a leading exponent of the British Design Reform Movement, creating alternatives to the conventional Gothic revival stained glass of the day. MacDonald took over the McPherson studio in 1888 and changed its name to his own.

 

Donald MacDonald has two windows in Harvard's Memorial Hall, one in the entrance hall and another in the main hall, as well as the unique stained glass dome in the National Arts Club. In addition, he has several windows at windows at Dartmouth College. He made the memorial window for President Bennet Tyler, which depicts the Apostle Paul. He also is responsible to the President Nathan Lord memorial window, depicting Moses, as well as the President Asa Dodge Smith memorial window. He also created and executed the main stained glass window above the chancel in the Arnot Memorial Chapel at Trinity Church in Elmira, New York.

Paan in Hindi: पान is a stimulating, psychoactive preparation of betel leaf combined with areca nut and/or cured tobacco. Paan is chewed and finally spat out or swallowed. Paan has many variations. Slaked lime paste is commonly added to bind the leaves. Some South Asian preparations include katha paste or mukhwas to freshen the breath.

 

Paan is originally from and native to India. Paan is also consumed in many other Asian countries and elsewhere in the world by some Asian emigrants, with or without tobacco, in an addictive and euphoria-inducing formulation with adverse health effects.[

  

Photography’s new conscience

linktr.ee/GlennLosack

linktr.ee/GlennLosack

  

glosack.wixsite.com/tbws

Laughter can: Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. Activate and relieve your stress response.

 

schadenfreude, the emotional experience of pleasure in response to another’s misfortune. Schadenfreude is a German word that combines Schaden, which means “damage,” and Freude, which means “joy.” The concept is common to people across cultures.

 

Mid Devon show, Tiverton, Devon, UK.

surveying

Sometimes you're firing on all cylinders.

“The loneliness you get by the sea is personal and alive. It doesn't subdue you and make you feel abject. It's stimulating loneliness.”

 

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 

photo © ervin vice

 

FOV: 5.5" wide.

 

Frozen melted salt containing home made phosphors based on Group II sulfides.

 

Shown under UVa light.

 

Key:

WL = White light (halogen + LED)

FL = Fluoresces

PHOS = Phosphorescent

BL = 450nm,

UVa = 368nm (LW), UVb = 311nm (MW), UVc = 254nm (SW)

'>' = "stimulated by:", '!' = "bright", '~' = "dim"

 

"Morpheus"

20Sep2015

 

Series best viewed in Light Box mode using Right and Left arrows to navigate.

Photostream best viewed in Slideshow or Lightbox mode (in the dark).

 

18 Watt Triple Output UV lamp from Polman Minerals - Way Too Cool UV lamps

***UPDATE**** Sabah loves Danish modern, Frank Lloyd Wright, Vinyl, and Scooters, in whatever order you want to put them in. This one made its way into her home!

 

It is so incredibly important to pay attention to details. A ++ plus craftsmanship throughout, with mitered contour atomic edges on awesome tall stilted tapered legs, with a perfect aged teak glow. Perfect 60 inch size...Floating hutch have rear reflective mirror to spotlight your art glass (previous owner), or simply remove them completely. Super!

The one-time Harvard neuroscience research assistant, 37, enthuses: 'I now had a great story if anyone ever asked me to name the strangest place I'd had an orgasm.

 

And I had helped science while doing it. Triumph for all parties concerned!'

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.......***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ......

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.....item 1).... Mail Online ... www.dailymail.co.uk ... 'Sex is between your ears': How one woman was inspired to write a book after having an orgasm in an MRI scanner

 

By VICTORIA WELLMAN

Last updated at 7:17 PM on 11th January 2012

 

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2085247/How-Kayt-Sukel...

 

A woman who reached orgasm in an MRI machine as part of a scientific study has gone on to write a book inspired by her experience.

 

Kayt Sukel, who masturbated and had two consecutive orgasms in the medical scanner as part of a Rutgers University-led experiment, was inspired to publish Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships.

 

The book describes, among other things, how sexual satisfaction affects chemical activity in the brain.

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img code photo .... Kayt Sukel -- as part of a Rutgers University-led experiment

 

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/11/article-2085247-0F6B1E...

 

Inspired: Kayt Sukel, who took part in an experiment that saw her climax in an MRI machine has now written a book on how sex relates to the brain

 

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The one-time Harvard neuroscience research assistant, 37, enthuses: 'I now had a great story if anyone ever asked me to name the strangest place I'd had an orgasm. And I had helped science while doing it. Triumph for all parties concerned!'

 

More...

 

I lost my virginity twice: Woman, 27, reveals she has TWO VAGINAS

Evangelical pastor under fire from Christians over sexually-explicit guide to marriage

 

When asked how she managed to climax twice in the sterile, cold tunnel, she said the key was to keep as still as possible throughout the process.

 

She told ABC News: 'This is a question I get asked a lot, and honestly the answer is to remain very, very still. 'As it turns out, if you move around too much having an orgasm, the FMRI can't pick up the activation

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img code photo ... ABC News

 

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/11/article-2085247-0F6B08...

 

Stimulating research: Ms Sukel pictured before entering the MRI scanner, in which she would reach orgasm twice

 

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'So practice makes perfect, after a week or two of trying to stay as still as possible, which, as I know, Cosmo highly recommends against doing, you too can have an orgasm in an FMRI scanner.'

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img code photo .... Kayt Sukel ...

 

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/11/article-2085247-0F6B33...

 

Masked: The author had to remain absolutely still during both orgasms so that her brain activity was recognised

 

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Explaining how sexual satisfaction relates to brain activity, she explained: 'Sex is between your ears. Our brain is really an important part of orgasm.'

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img code photo .... Amazon ... Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships ..

 

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/01/11/article-2085247-0F6B1E...

 

Ms Sukel's book, titled Dirty Minds, is on sale now

 

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Ms Sukel's book also examines what happens in the brain that makes people fall in love, whether sex addition is a valid affliction and why 'good girls like bad boys.'

 

Referring to the scientific theory known as Epigenetics, she looks at the neurochemicals that mediate love and how they affect not just our emotional sensibilities but how our focus and attention can alter too.

 

And not discounting pregnancy and childbirth as part of her research she considered the way she felt when her own baby was born.

 

She recalled: 'My baby was pretty sexy - much more than I'd been prepared for. Not in a sweaty, naked-hot-guy kind of way, but in an irresistible, compelling way that altered my body, my mind, and my life from top to bottom.'

 

This was thanks to the brain's release of the love hormone, oxytocin during the lactation period; a hormone that is also produced during orgasm.

 

Ms Sukel mused: 'I had to take care of a helpless thing, and thank goodness the biology helped give me the mental and emotional toolkit to cope with that.'

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.....item 2).... 'Vagina Monologues' titillates FSU ...

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

World-renowned play hit campus last weekend ...

 

2:42 AM, Apr. 2, 2013 |

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img code photo ... The Women Student Union of FSU - 2013

 

cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...

 

The Women Student Union of FSU put on Eve Ensler's world-renowned play 'The Vagina Monologues.' / Photo courtesy of Rachel Johnson

 

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Written by

Setareh Baig

Staff Writer

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Campus

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130402/FSVIEW1/130402002/-Vagin...|newswell|text|frontpage|s

 

“If your vagina could talk, what would it say?” This question, along with several other inquiries about private parts were answered at the two performances of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues at Florida State's Moore Auditorium last Friday and Saturday.

 

Men and women alike joined in on the entertainment presented by student director Rachel Johnson and the Women Student Union of FSU. The play was performed in honor of V-Day, an international movement that advocates against violence toward women. All proceeds and donations went to the Oasis Center for Women and Girls.

 

The Vagina Monologues is an intelligent, poignant and shocking look into the nether regions of real women from around the country. The play unfolds as a compilation of different monologues that are based on real interviews from 200 women of all ages, classes and nationalities. Decked out in little black dresses, 30 FSU girls gave it their all to create a stellar show.

 

Touching on sex, love, rape, birth, menstruation and female genital mutilation, the performances evoked both wild laughter and harrowing sadness, and all feelings in-between. Audience members found themselves cackling hysterically one moment and sobbing the next, as the emotions, problems and real life struggles were elucidated through the girls’ outstanding performances.

 

The show featured Britney Phillips’ performance of “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old girl and her sexual experience with her 24-year-old female neighbor. Derrika Hunt stood out with “What If I Told You I Did Not Have a Vagina,” a bold and tear-evoking performance about female genital mutilation. The play ended with “One Billion Rising,” a wordless yet powerful short film that portrays violence against women all over the world, and how these women are rising above their pain.

 

Without any prior knowledge of the play, one would think a show solely about vaginas would be ridiculous and absurd. But The Vagina Monologues is a charming and moving show filled with wit and powerful messages. The play's taboo topics are tastefully done—even when girls are blatantly masturbating, moaning profusely or getting the audience to chant the “C” word. Every uncomfortable topic brings light to important issues that people are too frightened to discuss.

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Anselm Kiefer - Bilderstreit - Museum Voorlinden, The Hague/Wassenaar NL

Thanks to his idiosyncratic visual language, full of references to history, mythology and literature, Anselm Kiefer (1945) has become one of the greatest artists of our time. His work is pleasing to the eye and stimulating for the brain. He thinks big, works on a monumental scale with unusual materials and does not shy away from asking the uncomfortable questions of life. During his solo exhibition Bilderstreit at Voorlinden you can see his intriguing paintings, sculptures, artists’ books and installations. Many of them have never been shown before.

Anselm Kiefer is a tireless polymath with an infinite number of interests. The artist is always looking for new insights and meanings. And this is clearly reflected in his layered work. In his work, he interweaves Germanic mythology, history, poetry, literature and philosophy. He uses traditional and unconventional materials, such as lead, bricks and bicycles. He exposes his works to the elements, sets them on fire, adds life-size objects or chisels away previously applied layers. In this way he creates true symphonies full of texture and meaning, on which he keeps working endlessly. Because for him, a work of art is actually never finished.

Voorlinden created the exhibition in close collaboration with the artist himself. In Wassenaar, Anselm Kiefer is given every opportunity to showcase the breadth of his oeuvre and interests. The focus here is on his work from the past 15 years. In Voorlinden, you can wander through grand landscapes, past sculptures with multiple meanings and installations full of symbolism. You can analyse titles, quoted texts, techniques and materials in an attempt to solve Anselm Kiefer’s poetic riddles or simply wander through the world the artist presents to you.

The exhibition at Voorlinden starts with a bookcase full of lead books and a planted cornfield. Next, you pass gigantic gold and lead paintings, whose depictions seem half chipped. You get lost in a room full of vitrines and then end up in a winter landscape brimming with references to romantic writers and thinkers. At the end, the exhibition returns to the book with a selection of artists’ books and some paintings Anselm Kiefer worked on as recently as last summer – and for which he used pages from his own diaries.

Anselm Kiefer was born just before World War II ended. As a child, he played in the ruins of post-war Germany, building houses from stones he found among the rubble. He never stopped building and demolishing after that. He was one of the first German artists to examine the recent history of his motherland in the late 1960s. Initially, he was met with a lot of criticism, but later specifically appreciated for exposing what remained unsaid. Over the past five decades, he has built up an oeuvre of stature and a large fan base that follows him closely. His work is included in important museum collections around the world and Voorlinden has several works in its collection.

 

(jpeg SOCC except slightly cropped and exposure correction, Vintage Kodachrome film stimulation)

The eyes of Brunelleschi on the City: The big Lantern of Florence: Metamorphosis of a photo

 

I was proud to publish this my personal photographic project

 

This project was born thanks to my facebook photography group, called 365project; this group was born two years ago by a few photography enthusiasts with the idea of publishing a photo a day, taken by us with a weekly theme. During this time we, also, try something new to stimulate each other.

This work in particular, wants to develop the creativity of members, to stimulate, during two months, a personal creative view to express each other in full freedom.

So: I took advantage of the fact that I was moving from my old home, to our new home in the same neighborhood, not so far from the center of this wonderful city. There I discovered with great joy, that from the window of my bedroom, you can see in the distance the lantern of Brunelleschi's dome, in the center of the city. At begging my idea was to take photos of this subject in several time situations, like morning, sunset, night, cloudy, foggy, etc. But I discovered with time that was a little boring. So I try also something different.

The fulcrum of everything is the lantern which, like a protector, looks at the city from above ... until it is transfigured

This is what came of it, from the first click to last!

  

Gli occhi di Brunelleschi sulla Città: Il Lanternone, metamorfosi di una foto

 

Sono orgogliosa di presentare questo mio progetto fotografico personale

.

L'idea nasce grazie ad un gruppo di appassionati in fotografia formatosi su facebook da ormai due anni, chiamato 365project. Lo scopo iniziale del 365project è quello di pubblicare una foto al giorno, scattata da noi stessi con un tema settimanale. Durante questi anni però abbiamo provato a creare qualcosa di nuovo per stimolarci a vicenda.

Questo lavoro fa parte dei nuovi input che ci vengono proposti. Questo in particolare, si proponeva di stimolare tutti noi membri nell’arco di due mesi, a creare un progetto personale per esprimersi in piena libertà.

Ho sfruttato il fatto che mi stavo trasferendo dalla mia vecchia casa, alla nostra nuova casa nello stesso quartiere, non così lontano dal centro di questa meravigliosa città. Lì ho scoperto con grande gioia, che dalla finestra della mia camera da letto, si vede in lontananza la lanterna della cupola del Brunelleschi, nel centro della città.

Al momento, la mia idea era di scattare foto di questo soggetto in diverse situazioni temporali, come mattina, tramonto, notte, nuvoloso, nebbioso, ecc. Ma dopo poco l’ho travato un po' noioso e sterile. Quindi ho provato anche qualcosa di diverso.

Fulcro di tutto è il lanternone che come un protettore, guarda la città dall’alto…fino a trasfigurarsi

Questo è ciò che ne è venuto fuori, dal primo clic all'ultimo!

 

Not close (nearby) enough, but close enough to stimulate memory.

 

It, more or less, filled the whole window. The approximation is enough to start the process. I probably photographed it at some point, it was so there, a constant, but the photographs would have disappeared into some 'Wild Goose' melodrama (a seeming lifelong response/survival/self-destruct mechanism), both in life and in my head.

 

"To fill in the holes we turn our memories into specific images, which our minds understand as representing a specific experience, object, or thought. Our past experiences have been dismantled, analysed, re-collated, and then made ready for imagistic recall. The images we store in our memories are not exact replicas of what we experienced; they're what our minds turn them into. They are what we need to recreate the story, which is the full experience the image represents"

 

David Shields, No. 175, Page 59, 'Reality Hunger'.

 

We'll get by with a little help from our Apps (refrain), whilst keeping an eye out for 'friendly fire'. It's wonderful to be able to make a photograph of it, that window, 30 years later, from more than 2,000 miles away.

 

It's not that window, but yes, it is 'that window'.

  

Taxi ^^

Marketplace

 

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Hanging out with the Boys...

 

Don: www.flickr.com/photos/12295985@N05

Gary: www.flickr.com/photos/gsyrba

Jack: www.flickr.com/photos/cptinjak

Richard: www.flickr.com/photos/rickeyd72

Jenny Holzer, Inflammatory Essays (1978–82).

elles@centrepompidou, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

 

These essays disgusted me when I read it the first time, it was my fault because I failed to understand the artist's intention, now after a bit of research I find it rather stimulating. Feel free to skip the text below if it isn't your cup of kaapi.

 

"The tone of the ‘Inflammatory Essays’ is aggressive and challenging. The texts are the invention of the artist, although they do not necessarily reflect the artist's own views. From one Essay to another they ‘display a spectrum of views, from far-left to far-right. I wanted to talk about things that are very important to people but in a non-didactic way (the series as a whole with its conflicting views is not didactic). I tried to show how dangerous and absurd it is to be a fanatic, but how important it is to get things done’. They often have the air of slogans found in graffiti form on walls in the city.

 

In preparation she read ‘Mao, Lenin, Emma Goldman, various religious and right wing fanatics, miscellaneous American anarchists and some “folk” crackpot literature’. Her intention was to ‘write things that were very hot - in tone and subject matter - to (hopefully) instill a sense of urgency in the reader. I wanted the reader to jump, at least, and maybe consider doing something useful.’ To this end the posters were first ‘wheat-pasted in the streets of Manhattan. They were placed wherever posters normally appear’ but the choice of text was not always arbitrary. ‘Sometimes I'd choose certain texts for certain neighbourhoods. It was fun to put particularly frightening ones uptown.’ Each week Holzer pasted up a different poster. In order to make clear that a new poster was on display she had them printed on paper of different colours and ‘to let the viewers know that the posters were part of a series, I made each poster exactly 100 words long and 20 lines’ "

 

Source: www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&w...

 

Essay #1

The most exquisite pleasure is domination. Nothing can compare with

the feeling. The mental sensations are even better than the physical

ones. Knowing you have power has to be the biggest high, the greatest

comfort. It is complete security, protection from hurt. When you

dominate somebody you're doing him a favor. He prays someone will

control him, take his mind off his troubles. You're helping him while

helping yourself. Even when you get mean he likes it. Sometimes he's

angry and fights back but you can handle it. He always remembers what

he needs. You always get what you want.

 

Essay #2

Thou art that kind of privileged woman who is really really sure that

nothing will ever happen to thee. Thou imagine that thou art sacred,

that they body is a temple where none but the anointed may enter.

Surprise! Thy temple gates are about to be opened. Before thou can

shiver, everyone will be exploring thy secret altar. Free admission!

Thou will be common property, everyone's whore, before thou art

used-up, messed-up and thrown in a pile with other junk that used to

look good but is useless. It is thine own fault. Thou thought thou

were better than us.

 

Essay #3

Repressing sex urges is so bad. Poison dams up inside and then it must

come out. When sex is held back too long it comes out fast and wild.

It can do a lot of harm. Innocent people get shot or cut by confused

sex urges. They don't know what hit them until too late. Parents

should let children express themselves so they don't get mean early.

Adults should make sure they find many outlets. All people should

respond to big sex needs. Don't make fun of individuals and send them

away. It's better to volunteer than to get forced.

 

Essay #4

Rejoice! Our times are intolerable. Take courage, for the worst is a

harbinger of the best. Only dire circumstance can precipitate the

overthrow of the oppressors. The old and corrupt must be laid to waste

before the just can triumph. Opposition identifies and isolates the

enemy. Conflict of interest must be seen for what it is. Do not

support palliative gestures; they confuse the people and delay the

inevitable confrontation. Delay is not tolerated for it jeopardizes

the well-being of the majority. Contradiction will be heightened, the

reckoning will be hastened by the staging of seed disturbances. The

apocalypse will blossom.

 

Essay #5

A real torture would be to build a sparkling cage with 2-way mirrors

and steel bars. In there would be good-looking and young girls who'll

think they're in a regular motel room so they'll take their clothes

off and do the delicate things that girls do when they're sure they're

alone. Everyone who watches will go crazy because they won't be

believing what they're seeing but they'll see the bars and know they

can't get in. And, they'll be afraid to make a move because they don't

want to scare the girls away from doing the delicious things they're

doing.

 

Essay #6

Freedom is it! You're so scared, you want to lock up everybody. ARE

THEY MAD DOGS? ARE THEY OUT TO KILL? Maybe yes. IS LAW, IS ORDER THE

SOLUTION? Definitely no. WHAT CAUSED THE SITUATION? Lack of freedom.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW? Let people fulfill their needs. IS FREEDOM

CONSTRUCTIVE OR IS IT DESTRUCTIVE? The answer is obvious. Free people

are good, productive people. IS LIBERATION DANGEROUS? Only when

overdue. People aren't born rabid or berserk. When you punish and

shame you cause what you dread. WHAT TO DO? Let it explode. Run with

it. Don't control or manipulate. Make amends.

 

Essay #7

Destroy superabundance. Starve the flesh, shave the hair, expose the

bone, clarify the mind, define the will, restrain the senses, leave

the family, flee the church, kill the vermin, vomit the heart, forget

the dead. Limit time, forgo amusement, deny nature, reject

acquaintances, discard objects, forget truths, dissect myth, stop

motion, block impulse, choke sobs, swallow chatter. Scorn joy, scorn

touch, scorn tragedy, scorn liberty, scorn constancy, scorn hope,

scorn exaltation, scorn reproduction, scorn variety, scorn

embellishment, scorn release, scorn rest, scorn sweetness, scorn

light. It's a question of form as much as function. It is a matter of

revulsion.

 

Essay #8

Change is the basis of all history, the proof of vigor. The old is

soiled and disgusting by nature. Stale food is repellent, monogamous

love breeds contempt, senility cripples the government that is too

powerful too long. Upheaval is desirable because fresh, untainted

groups seize opportunity. Violent overthrow is appropriate when the

situation is intolerable. Slow modification can be effective; men

change before they notice and resist. The decadent and the powerful

champion continuity. ``Nothing essential changes.'' That is a myth. It

will be refuted. The necessary birth convulsions will be triggered.

Action will bring the evidence to your doorstep.

 

Essay #9

Don't talk down to me. Don't be polite to me. Don't try to make me

feel nice. Don't relax. I'll cut the smile off your face. You think I

don't know what's going on. You think I'm afraid to react. The joke's

on you. I'm biding my time, looking for the spot. You think no one can

reach you, no one can have what you have. I've been planning while

you're playing. I've been saving while you're spending. The game is

almost over so it's time you acknowledge me. Do you want to fall not

ever knowing who took you?

 

Source: Eddie

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement, a Pseudo-Symposium on 'Data Dada' was held at Stanford on April 13, 2016.

 

This event was hosted by cultural historian Piero Scaruffi, organizer of the Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous (LASERs). It was a stimulating evening with many kindred spirits, such as interactive artist Kal Spelletich (see my short video of his noise machines in this set), futurist composer Luciano Chessa (playing his electric saw), Jonathan Keats (presenting his Copernican Art Manifesto) and Burning Man's co-founder John Law, to name but a few. Through these talks, Piero aimed to link today's age to Dada's age, which was just what we needed.

 

I was invited invited to present our ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine at this extravagant centennial, and gave a short talk in full regalia about our community-created poetic oracle -- and the peer learning network that evolved from it. People seemed to appreciate our collaborative maker art, and I expect a few of them will come view our work in our upcoming exhibits.

 

I also enjoyed spending time with my friends and art partners who joined us at Stanford: Dr. Skidz, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Dr. Zboon (a.k.a. Mark ‘Spoonman’ Petrakis, who rode to Stanford with me): we had some great conversations about art, dada, politics, theater and the rise of a new humanism.

 

The highlight of the evening for me was meeting Kal, who demonstrated two of his noise machines, including a sling shot divining rod instrument and a robot that plays the violin when people make its light shine on a pine cone. His interactive art is really original, bringing a grunge aesthetic to a field that’s often a bit too slick. He creates magic by connecting everyday objects to do wild things with simple electronics.

 

Overall, it was a fun and informative evening, and I enjoyed meeting so many 'like minds', at the frontier of knowledge and imagination. Merci, les amis!

 

Watch the video of my talk:

youtu.be/-1LLUeQ1D4k?t=1h29m

(to see the whole evening, rewind to the start)

 

View more Data Dada photos:

www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157667322126746

 

Learn more about this Data Dada event:

www.scaruffi.com/leonardo/apr2016.html

 

Watch my video of Kal’s noise machines:

www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/26529770116/in/album-7215766...

 

Learn more about Kal Spelletich’s work:

kaltek.org

 

View more 'Pataphysical photos: www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157623637793277

 

Learn more about Pataphysical Studios: pataphysics.us/

Artist: Dafna Kaffeman

Title: Tactual Stimulation

Material: glass

 

Glass Collection

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England, UK

Borgund Stave Church (Norwegian: Borgund stavkyrkje) is a former parish church of the Church of Norway in Lærdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It was built around the year 1200 as the village church of Borgund, and belonged to Lærdal parish (part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin) until 1868, when its religious functions were transferred to a "new" Borgund Church, which was built nearby. The old church was restored, conserved and turned into a museum. It is funded and run by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments, and is classified as a triple-nave stave church of the Sogn-type. Its grounds contain Norway's sole surviving stave-built free-standing bell tower.

 

Borgund Stave Church was built sometime between 1180 and 1250 AD with later additions and restorations. Its walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, or staves, hence the name "stave church." The four corner posts are connected to one another by ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The intervening staves rise from the ground sills; each is tongued and grooved, to interlock with its neighbours and form a sturdy wall. The exterior timber surfaces are darkened by protective layers of tar, distilled from pine.

 

Borgund is built on a basilica plan, with reduced side aisles, and an added chancel and apse. It has a raised central nave demarcated on four sides by an arcade. An ambulatory runs around this platform and into the chancel and apse, both added in the 14th century. An additional ambulatory, in the form of a porch, runs around the exterior of the building, sheltered under the overhanging shingled roof. The floor plan of this church resembles that of a central plan, double-shelled Greek cross with an apse attached to one end in place of the fourth arm. The entries to the church are in the three shorter arms of the cross.

 

Structurally, the building has been described as a "cube within a cube", each independent of the other. The inner "cube" is formed by continuous columns that rise from ground level to support the roof. The top of the arcade is formed by arched buttresses, knee jointed to the columns. Above the arcade, the columns are linked by cross-shaped, diagonal trusses, commonly dubbed "Saint Andrew's crosses"; these carry arched supports that offer the visual equivalent of a "second storey". While not a functional gallery, this is reminiscent of contemporary second story galleries of large stone churches elsewhere in Europe. Smaller beams running between these upper supporting columns help clamp everything firmly together. The weight of the roof is thus supported by buttresses and columns, preventing downward and outward movement of the stave walls.

 

The roof beams are supported by steeply angled scissor trusses that form an "X" shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span, tied by a bottom truss to prevent collapse. Additional support is given by a truss that cuts across the "X", below the crossing point but above the bottom truss. The roof is steeply pitched, boarded horizontally and clad with shingles. The original outer roof would have been weatherproofed with boards laid lengthwise, rather than shingles. In later years wooden shingles became more common. Scissor beam roof construction is typical of most stave churches.

 

Borgund has tiered, overhanging roofs, topped at their intersection by a shingle-roofed tower or steeple. On each of its four gables is a stylised "dragon" head, swooping from the carved roof ridge crests, Hohler remarks their similarity to the carved dragon heads found on the prows of Norse ships. Similar gable heads appear on small bronze church-shaped reliquaries common in Norway and Europe in this period. Borgund's current dragon heads are possible 18th century replacements; similar, original dragon heads remain on older structures, such as Lom Stave Church and nearby Urnes Stave Church. Borgund is one of the only stave churches to have preserved its crested ridge caps. They are carved with openwork vine and entangled plant designs.

 

The four outer dragon heads are perhaps the most distinctive of all non-Christian symbols adorning Borgund Stave Church. Their function is uncertain, and disputed; if pagan, they are recruited to the Christian cause in the battle between Good and Evil. They may have been intended to keep away evil spirits thought to threaten the church building; to ward off evil, rather than represent it,

 

On the lower side panel of the steeple are four carved circular cutouts. The carvings are weather-beaten, tarred and difficult to decipher, and there is disagreement about what they symbolize. Some[who?] believe they represent the four evangelists, symbolised by an eagle, an ox, a lion and a man. Hauglid describes the carvings as "dragons that extend their heads over to the neighboring field's dragon and bite into it", and points out their similarity to carvings at Høre Stave Church.

 

The church's west portal (the nave's main entrance), is surrounded by a larger carving of dragons biting each other in the neck and tail. At the bottom of the half-columns that flank the front entrance, two dragon heads spew vine stalks that wind upwards and are braided into the dragons above. The carving shares similarities with the west portal of Ål Stave Church, which also has kites[clarification needed] in a band braiding pattern, and follows the usual composition[clarification needed] in the Sogn-Valdres portals, a larger group of portals with very clear similarities. Bugge writes that Christian authority may have come to terms with such pagan and "wild scenes" in the church building because the rift could be interpreted as a struggle between good and evil; in Christian medieval art, the dragon was often used as a symbol of the devil himself but Bugge believes that the carvings were protective, like the dragon heads on the church roof.

 

The church interior is dark, as not much daylight enters the building. Some of the few sources of natural light are narrow circular windows along the roof, examples of daylighting. It was supposed that the narrow apertures would prevent the entry of evil spirits. Three entrances are heavily adorned with foliage and snakes, and are only wide enough for one person to enter, supposedly preventing the entry of evil spirits alongside the churchgoers. The portals were originally painted green, red, black, and white.

 

Most of the internal fittings have been removed. There is little in the building, apart from the row of benches that are installed along the wall inside the church in the ambulatory outside of the arcade and raised platform, a soapstone font, an altar (with 17th-century altarpiece), a 16th-century lectern, and a 16th-century cupboard for storing altar vessels. After the Reformation, when the church was converted for Protestant worship, pews, a pulpit and other standard church furnishings were included, however these have been removed since the building has come under the protection of the Fortidsminneforeningen (The Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments).

 

The interior structure of the church is characterized by the twelve free-standing columns that support the nave's elevated central space. On the long side of the church there is a double interval between the second and third pillars, but with a half pillar resting on the lower bracing beam (the pier) which runs in between. The double interval provides free access from the south portal to the church's central compartment, which would otherwise have been obstructed by the middle bar. The tops of the poles are finished with grotesque, carved human and animal masks. The tie-bars are secured with braces in the form of St. Andrew's crosses with a sun - shaped center and carved leaf shapes along the arms. The crosses reappear in less ornate form as braces along the church walls. On the north and south sides of the nave, a total of eight windows let in small amounts of light, and at the top of the nave's west gable is a window of more recent date - probably from pre-Reformation times. On the south wall of the nave, the inauguration crosses are still on the inside of the wall. The interior choir walls and west portal have engraved figures and runes, some of which date to the Middle Ages. One, among the commonest of runic graffiti, reads "Ave Maria". An inscription by Þórir (Thor), written "in the evening at St. Olav's Mass" blames the pagan Norns for his problems; perhaps a residue of ancient beliefs, as these female beings were thought to rule the personal destinies of all in Norse mythology and the Poetic Edda.

 

The medieval interior of the stave church is almost untouched, save for its restorations and repairs, though the medieval crucifix was removed after the Reformation. The original wooden floor and the benches that run along the walls of the nave are largely intact, together with a medieval stone altar and a box-shaped baptismal font in soapstone. The pulpit is from the period 1550–1570 and the altarpiece dates from 1654, while the frame around the tablet is dated to 1620. The painting on the altarpiece shows the crucifixion in the centre, flanked by the Virgin Mary on the left and John the Baptist on the right. In the tympanum field, a white dove hovers on a blue background. Below the painting is an inscription with golden letters on a black background. A sacrament from the period 1550–1570 in the same style as the pulpit is also preserved. A restoration of the building was carried out in the early 1870s, led by the architect Christian Christie, who removed benches, a second-floor gallery with seating, a ceiling over the chancel, and various windows including two large windows on the north and south sides. As the goal was to return the church to pre-Reformation condition, all post-Reformation interior paintwork was also removed.

 

Images from the 1990s show deer antlers hung on the lower, east-facing pillars. A local story claims that this is all that remains of a whole stuffed reindeer, shot when it tried to enter during a Mass. A travelogue from 1668 claims that a reindeer was shot during a sermon "when it marched like a wizard in front of the other animal carcasses"

 

To the south of the church is a free-standing stave-work bell tower that covers remnants of the mediaeval foundry used to cast the church bell. It was probably built in the mid-13th century. It is Norway's only remaining free-standing stave-work bell tower.It was given a new door around the year 1700 but this was removed and not replaced at some time between the 1920s and 1940s, leaving the foundry pit was exposed. To preserve the interior, new walls were built as cladding on the outside of the stave walls in the 1990s. One of the medieval bells is on display in the new Borgund church.

 

Management

In 1868 the building was abandoned as a church but was turned into a museum; this saved it from the commonplace demolition of stave churches in that period. A new Borgund Church was built in 1868 a short distance south of the old church. The old church has not been formally used for religious purposes since that year. Borgund Stave Church was bought by the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments in 1877. The first guidebook in English for the stave church was published in 1898. From 2001, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage has funded a program to research, restore, conserve and maintain stave churches.

 

Legacy

The church served as an example for the reconstruction of the Fantoft Stave Church in Fana, Bergen, in 1883 and for its rebuilding in 1997. The Gustav Adolf Stave Church in Hahnenklee, Germany, built in 1908, is modeled on the Borgund church. Four replicas exist in the United States, one at Chapel in the Hills, Rapid City, South Dakota, another in Lyme, Connecticut, the third on Washington Island, Wisconsin, and the fourth in Minot, North Dakota at the Scandinavian Heritage Park.

 

Borgund is a former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. It was located in the southeastern part of the traditional district of Sogn. The 635-square-kilometre (245 sq mi) municipality existed from 1864 until its dissolution in 1964. It encompassed an area in the eastern part of the present-day Lærdal Municipality. The administrative center of Borgund was the village of Steinklepp, just northeast of the village of Borgund. Steinklepp was the site of a store, a bank, and a school. The historical Filefjell Kongevegen road passes through the Borgund area.

 

Location

The former municipality of Borgund was situated near the southeastern end of the Sognefjorden, along the Lærdalselvi river. The lower parts of the municipality were farms such as Sjurhaugen and Nedrehegg. They were at an elevation of about 270 m (890 ft) above sea level. Høgeloft, on the border with the neighboring municipality of Hemsedal, is a mountain in the Filefjell range and it was the highest point in Borgund at 1,920 m (6,300 ft) above sea level. The lakes Eldrevatnet, Juklevatnet, and Øljusjøen were also located near the border with Hemsedal.

 

History

Borgund was established as a municipality in 1864 when it was separated from the municipality of Lærdal. Initially it had a population of 963. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Borgund (population: 492) was merged with the Muggeteigen area (population: 11) of the neighboring Årdal Municipality and all of Lærdal Municipality (population: 1,755) were all merged to form a new, larger municipality of Lærdal

 

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.

 

The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.

 

High Middle Ages (1184–1319)

After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.

 

Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.

 

Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages

Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.

 

There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.

 

Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)

Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasant status due to the fall in national debt . The Hanseatic League took over trade and shipping and dominated fish exports. The Archbishop of Nidaros was the country's most powerful man economically and politically, as the royal dynasty married into the Swedish in 1319 and died out in 1387 . Eventually, Copenhagen became the political center of the kingdom and Bergen the commercial center, while Trondheim remained the religious center.

 

From Reformation to Autocracy (1537–1660)

In 1537 , the Reformation was carried out in Norway. With that, almost half of the country's property was confiscated by the royal power at the stroke of a pen. The large seizure increased the king's income and was able, among other things, to expand his military power and consolidated his power in the kingdom. From roughly the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries, the state increased its power and importance in people's lives. Until around 1620, the state administration was fairly simple and unspecialised: in Copenhagen, the central administration mainly consisted of a chancellery and an interest chamber ; and sheriffs ruled the civil (including bailiffs and sheriffs) and the military in their district, the sheriffs collected taxes and oversaw business. The accounts were not clear and without summaries. The clergy, which had great power as a separate organization, was appointed by the state church after the Reformation, administered from Copenhagen. In this period, Norway was ruled by (mainly) Danish noble sheriffs, who acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the Oldenborg king in the field of justice, tax and customs collection.

 

From 1620, the state apparatus went through major changes where specialization of functions was a main issue. The sheriff's tasks were divided between several, more specialized officials - the sheriffs retained the formal authority over these, who in practice were under the national administration in Copenhagen. Among other things, a separate military officer corps was established, a separate customs office was established and separate treasurers for taxes and fees were appointed. The Overbergamtet, the central governing body for overseeing mining operations in Norway, was established in 1654 with an office in Christiania and this agency was to oversee the mining chiefs in the Nordenfjeld and Sønnenfjeld areas (the mines at Kongsberg and Røros were established in the previous decades). The formal transition from county government to official government with fixed-paid county officials took place after 1660, but the real changes had taken place from around 1620. The increased specialization and transition to official government meant that experts, not amateurs, were in charge of each area, and this civil service meant, according to Sverre Steen that the dictatorship was not a personal dictatorship.

 

From 1570 until 1721, the Oldenborg dynasty was in repeated wars with the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. The financing of these wars led to a severe increase in taxation which caused great distress.

 

Politically-geographically, the Oldenborg kings had to cede to Sweden the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland , Herjedalen , Idre and Särna , as well as Båhuslen . As part of the financing of the wars, the state apparatus was expanded. Royal power began to assert itself to a greater extent in the administration of justice. Until this period, cases of violence and defamation had been treated as civil cases between citizens. The level of punishment was greatly increased. During this period, at least 307 people were also executed for witchcraft in Norway. Culturally, the country was marked by the fact that the written language became Danish because of the Bible translation and the University of Copenhagen's educational monopoly.

 

From the 16th century, business became more marked by production for sale and not just own consumption. In the past, it was particularly the fisheries that had produced such a large surplus of goods that it was sold to markets far away, the dried fish trade via Bergen is known from around the year 1100. In the 16th century, the yield from the fisheries multiplied, especially due to the introduction of herring in Western Norway and in Trøndelag and because new tools made fishing for herring and skre more efficient. Line fishing and cod nets that were introduced in the 17th century were controversial because the small fishermen believed it favored citizens in the cities.

 

Forestry and the timber trade became an important business, particularly because of the boom saw which made it possible to saw all kinds of tables and planks for sale abroad. The demand for timber increased at the same time in Europe, Norway had plenty of forests and in the 17th century timber became the country's most important export product. There were hundreds of sawmills in the country and the largest had the feel of factories . In 1680, the king regulated the timber trade by allowing exports only from privileged sawmills and in a certain quantity.

 

From the 1520s, some silver was mined in Telemark. When the peasants chased the German miners whereupon the king executed five peasants and demanded compensation from the other rebellious peasants. The background for the harsh treatment was that the king wanted to assert his authority over the extraction of precious metals. The search for metals led to the silver works at Kongsberg after 1624, copper in the mountain villages between Trøndelag and Eastern Norway, and iron, among other things, in Agder and lower Telemark. The financial gain of the quarries at that time is unclear because there are no reliable accounts. Kongsberg ma

In the master control room of the studio where my new videos will be filmed... glowy, right?

Polar Bear Plunge at the San Diego Zoo was transformed into a winter wonderland early this morning, as nearly 26 tons of glistening white snow blanketed the polar bear exhibit. The three bears—Kalluk, Tatqiq and Chinook—showed their excitement by frolicking in the snow. They rolled around in the fresh powder and wrestled with each other all morning long. Animal care staff also scattered yams, carrots, melons and beef femur bones throughout the exhibit as added enrichment, and watched as the bears pounced and dug for their prizes.

 

This surprise snowy enrichment was made possible by donors who contributed to the animal care wish list on the San Diego Zoo website, sandiegozoo.org. Enrichment is very important for the bears, as it stimulates them, keeps them active and promotes natural behaviors.

 

“This was a special day for the polar bears, and I could tell they really loved it,” said Susan Purtell, senior keeper, San Diego Zoo. “It was great seeing them roll around in the snow, showcasing their natural behaviors.”

 

Some of those behaviors include sliding, digging and pouncing on the snow. Bears utilize these behaviors to help them break through ice to reach seal dens. All three bears were rescued at a young age, so they had to learn these behaviors without the help of their mothers. Kalluk and Tatqiq’s mom was shot and killed when they were young cubs, and Chinook’s mother was nowhere to be found when the young cub was discovered roaming around the streets of a city alone.

 

As a threatened species, polar bears face danger from poachers and habitat loss, mostly due to climate change.

A week ago I attended a concert by the St. Cecilia Chamber Music Society at a local church here in Houston. Although I’ve been going to their concerts for almost two years, it was the first time I really noticed the concept behind their concerts. Instead of having an official Music Director, each of their principal musicians takes his or her turn to choose the music and players for their particular concert.

 

This time the flutist, Judy Dines was in charge and began with a serenade for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon by Karl Pilss. The tonal colors of five wind instruments were fantastic! Usually I hear wind instruments as part of a large or medium-sized orchestra in a large concert hall rather than a small ensemble in an intimate setting. While I enjoyed all four pieces of the concert, the third piece was really special: a duet for flute and piano by Franz Schubert. Judy played her flute without using sheet music and did so with great passion, and I should mention that everything Schubert wrote for the piano tops my list of favorites because he wrote for himself and his friends rather than for the music critics or the rich patrons he never had. All his music came from the heart, and that is what I heard last Tuesday evening.

 

While waiting for the concert to begin, I thought about artistic creativity and meditated on that concept throughout the concert except during the intermission when I was busy partaking of the wine and snacks they provide. Artistic creativity brought to mind something from my early grade school years. During first and second grade we were provided with “Story Picture Paper” for certain projects. Each sheet of this tablet paper had lines on the bottom half and perhaps the back side for stories and was blank on the top half for crayon drawings. The ability to write and draw on the same sheet of paper stimulated our creativity. We mainly used Story Picture Paper for special occasions like holidays, the change of seasons, basic science, history, and personal things like vacation trips. I was not inhibited in those days by lack of ability like drawing everything from a side view similar to the way ancient Egyptians drew.

 

I don’t remember whether the school issued us Story Picture Paper in third or fourth grade, but it was definitely gone before upper grade school. By then I realized that I couldn’t draw very well and quit trying except for private doodles that nobody saw. What then became of my artistic creativity? Art and music were required subjects in grade school but were not seriously graded and had no bearing on passing or failing the highly competitive and stressful grading regime that spoiled the fun of education. I had mechanical drawing in my industrial courses, but that had nothing to do with art. In grade school and junior high school I did military model building and began model railroading in junior high as a creative outlet. Then there were those clandestine “experiments” in feminine makeup that remained under the radar for a couple of decades.

 

This photo shows what prevailed of my visual artistic creativity. As for the written part of my creativity, a computer is easier on my hands than using pen and paper for long passages and much easier and faster to store, edit, reuse parts of certain text, and post them to a wider audience than would have seen my writing before the Internet. Here on Flickr I combine photos and text just like my old Story Picture Paper.

 

Stimulating the visual and olfactory senses.

“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them - if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

 

by J.D. Salinger

 

Pentax Super A - Capital 400

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Protect your eyes. They can be burned, too. For tanning, though, it's better to either wear a hat or just keep your eyes closed rather than wear sunglasses. Bright light on your optic nerve stimulates the hypothalamus gland, which in turn causes the production of melanin, thus achieving a deeper tan.

 

Candid beach shot, Grand Anse Beach, Grenada.

 

...And what stimulating curves they are too!

 

I really love the way my lycra spandex leotard clings and I hope you like it too!

 

This ensemble is based on my Baltogs silver wet look long sleeve lycra spandex leotard from nydancewear.com, Leg Avenue's black fishnet hose over Platino Cleancut & Hanes Alive pantyhose and finished with my silver vinyl knee boots with the 5" heels from electriqueboutique.com.

I hope you like the way my ensemble clings to all my curves, because I sure do!

 

To see more pix of me in other tight, sexy and revealing outfits click this link:www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157623668202157/

 

To see more pix of me in sexy boots click here: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157622816479823/

 

DSC_2427-1

Cultural Center, Groningen, The Netherlands

• Architects: NL Architects

• Area : 17000 m²

• Year : 2019

• Interior Design : NL Architects i.c.w.: deMunnik-deJong-Steinhauser, &Prast&Hooft, Tank, Northern Light., &Prast&Hooft

• Acoustics : Peutz

• Structural Engineer : ABT

 

Forum Groningen is a new multifunctional building in the center of Groningen in the Netherlands, a cultural ‘department store’ filled with books and images, that offers exhibition spaces, movie halls, assembly rooms, restaurants. The Forum aspires to become a platform for interaction and debate, a ‘living room’ for the city. Forum Groningen is a new type of public space where the traditional borders between these institutes will dissolve. Information will be presented thematically in a way that transcends the different media. The building is designed as single clear volume to express the desire for synergy, to strengthen the shared ambition to combine different facilities into one new compound. A series of careful cuts nails the building on its site and generates a multitude of different appearances.

Forum Groningen features an exceptional central space, an innovative atrium that with its horizontal ‘tentacles’ forms the pumping heart of the venue. The void works as a spatial interface that binds all functions, movie theatre, book collection, expo, auditorium, and as such hopes to catalyze the exchange of knowledge and ideas. A series of stacked ‘squares’ emerges that can be experienced as the continuation of the network of open spaces in the city of Groningen. The vertical squares are publicly accessible and provide entry to the ticketable activities. The specific layout offers continuously changing perspectives on the surrounding city and culminates in the roof terrace, a viewing platform and outdoor theater. Forum Groningen has been engineered “to accommodate finding not searching”. The design stimulates exploration. It hopes to catalyze the desire to wander, to ‘browse’ endlessly through a staggering interior landscape.

 

During the spring the frog's pituitary gland is stimulated by changes in external factors, such as rainfall, day length and temperature, to produce hormones which, in turn, stimulate the production of sex cells - eggs in the females and sperm in the male. The male's nuptial pad also swells and becomes more heavily pigmented. Common frogs breed in shallow, still, fresh water such as ponds, with spawning commencing sometime between March and late June, but generally in April over the main part of their range. The adults congregate in the ponds, where the males compete for females. The courtship ritual involves noisy vocalisations, known as "croaking", by large numbers of males. The females are attracted to the males that produce the loudest and longest calls and enter the water where the males mill around and try to grasp them with their front legs â although they may grasp anything of a similar size, such as a piece of wood. The successful male climbs on the back of the female and grasps her under the forelegs with his nuptial pads, in a position known as amplexus, and kicks away any other males that try to grasp her. He then stays attached in this position until she lays her eggs, which he fertilises by spraying sperm over them as they are released from the female's cloaca. The courtship rituals are performed throughout the day and night but spawning typically takes place at night. The females lay between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs which float in large clusters near the surface of the water. After mating the pairs separate, the females will leave the water and the males will try to find another mate. Within three or four days all the females will have laid their eggs and left the water and the males disperse.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

found hill-topping on Mont Lozère, it was first noticed flying in front of my face, perhaps looking for a suitable for its larvae?

seattle public library

The Satisfyer Wand-er Woman Clitoral Stimulator is a true miracle with a variety of applications. With its exciting XXL size, it’s not only ready to give you breathtaking waves of passion, it’s also happy to massage any area of your body with powerful vibrations. Behind the velvety soft silicone head hides a lot of power, which will help you with any tension or issues in your whole body.

 

Whether it’s knots in your back or neck or you just want a relaxing massage for your calves and legs after sports – the Satisfyer Wand-er Woman works everywhere on your body. You can choose between 50 exciting vibration combinations consisting of 10 rhythms and 5 intensities.

 

Wand-er Woman

...this is some kind of sign!