text:
Timeline/Events
Hawks River
by protectyourlove
Maps K.Top. CXIX. 73 Early Map of Halifax, by Moses Harris, 1749
((c)British Libr
I've noted in this section of Moses Harris' map that the Northwest Arm was, in 1749, called Hawks River. This indicates that it belonged to the hawks, which I assume were plentiful in that area. Plentiful hawks would equate to plentiful fish, small mammals and smaller birds. I have never seen a river with so many hawks that it would be called "Hawks River".
I have looked into the presence of hawks in Halifax's past, referring to the book Birds of Nova Scotia, compiled by the late Robie Tufts. The Nova Scotia Museum has made this book available online, here: http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mnh/nature/nsbirds/bons.htm . Judging from Tufts' notes, these are the hawks/birds of prey that may have, at one time, lived in the city of Halifax:
Sharp Shinned Hawk
Northern Goshawk (This bird relies on heavily wooded area and flies low to the ground.)
Broad Wing Hawk (rare, but one was sighted in Halifax on December 17th, 1983)
Golden Eagle (This bird is very rare, it likes to reside in remote mountainous areas. Perhaps Halifax's hilly landscape was once its home, before it became populated with people.)
American Kestrel (small- formally called the Sparrow Hawk)
One does not often encounter hawks in the city today. Early settlers exterminated many of these birds, which posed a threat to their poultry. As the city grew, the wooded habitat shrank, and most of these hawks have now left Halifax. Hawk's River was later known as Sandwich River, and then the Northwest Arm.
As described by Tufts, other birds that used to live here, but that are no longer present are:
Northern Hawk Owl: Halifax's ornithologists of the mid 19th century recorded that these birds were at one time common. But by the end of that century, naturalists Downs and Piers both considered this owl as rare in Halifax and the province. Fifteen of these birds were seen around the city in 1913.
Eskimo Curlew: Considered formerly common, there have been no recent sightings of this bird. A mounted specimen was prepared by Andrew Downs and taken to the new Provincial Museum in 1846. Naturalist Piers saw a specimen of this bird for sale at the Halifax Market in 1897.
The Wood Duck: This animal was hunted by Early settlers for the purpose of stuffing and mounting for home decor.
The Labrador Duck: This bird is now extinct, although it was at one time common along the NS coasts (which I imagine would include Halifax). The only remaining specimen of this bird in Canada was presented by the Halifax Naturalist Andrew Downs to Dalhousie University. It is now on loan to the National Museum. Several other specimens surfaced in Halifax during the latter part of the the 19th century.
The Great Auck: It is probable that this bird would have lived along the coastline of Halifax, but it has been extinct for many years. A flightless bird, it was easy prey to hunters. The last known Great Aucks were killed in Iceland in 1844.
The Passenger Pigeon: Now extinct, Robie Tufts describes various sightings of this bird in Halifax, in Birds of Nova Scotia:
"James P. Kelly (son of Pat J. Kelly, who mounted birds) told me, August 28, 1919 that when he was a boy, say about fifteen years old, (which would be about 1857) about the end of August, he and Tom J. Egan, on returning from shooting across the North West Arm, Halifax, saw a bird near Kenny's at foot of South Street, on east side of the Arm. Kelly shot it and it proved to be a Passenger Pigeon not a Carolina Dove. It was the only Passenger Pigeon that Kelly ever saw, although his father had told him that they used to be common about Halifax."
In another passage Piers writes:
"W.A. Purcell, taxidermist of Halifax, tells me that about 1846 or 1847 Passenger Pigeons were abundant and his father, at Purcell's Cove, used to shoot large numbers of them. He says they disappeared about 1850."
Singing a lullaby to the passenger pigeon at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History (Nocturne, 2012). Photo by Leigh Kirkpatrick.
Actually, the NS Museum of Natural History has a Passenger Pigeon in its collection, and it will soon be celebrating it's 100th birthday. Last Fall, I sang the specimen a lullaby.
While Halifax's early residents purposefully killed some birds to protect resources (the hawks, for example), and hunted others, contributing to their extinction (such as the passenger pigeon), other times, species of birds were introduced to the area, and set free. The Pheasant was introduced to Nova Scotia in 1856, and as the effort failed, early naturalists tried again in 1935 with more success. The Gray Partridge was introduced in 1926, and the Willow Ptarmigan in 1933. While this is not a definitive list, I mention the above because they were released in sites that bordered the city of Halifax.
Meanwhile, there are also indications of rare bird sighting in the city, but in earlier times, these sightings were recorded through specimen retrieval— once spotted, the birds were taken from the landscape. Several examples of rare birds taken from Halifax include a Purple Gallinule (1869), Wilson's Plover (1896), an Eastern Screech Owl (1892), a Magnificent Fuigate Bird (1876), and a Northern Cardinal (1879). (As a side note— there are cardinals living in my neighborhood in Armdale— when I see them in my back yard, I run for my binoculars to get a better view.)
The Brown Pelican is another example: each one of these birds seen in Nova Scotia was taken, until 1924. There was recently a pelican that found itself injured and stranded in HRM in 2010. Contrary to the old practice, this bird was brought to Hope For Wildlife— a wildlife rehabilitation center outside of Dartmouth— where it was nurtured back to health and returned to its home. I went to visit him during his stay.
Pelican at Hope For Wildlife, Autumn 2010
Halifax's history with hawks and other aviary species seems emotionally wrought- early settlers either loved the birds so much that they needed to have them for their own, or they hated them and sought to exterminate them. Meanwhile there are more predictable relationships between hunter and prey- the species described above and others not mentioned provided nourishment and monetary value to Halifax's residents. Haligonians also desired certain species, which were subsequently incorporated into the ecosystem. Today, birds are rarely killed in the city; they are observed, noted, and if necessary, rehabilitated.
Stags Point
Document 4: Two Perspectives


text:
Tate and Tryon
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Tate & Tryon, Top D.C. Accounting Firm for Nonprofits, Marks Significant Growth Strategy
Tate & Tryon, a leading accounting firm for nonprofits, headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced its new tagline and fresh website, marking significant growth, and introducing a pivotal strategy to its service of the metropolitan area.
Washington, DC, November 16, 2017 --(PR.com)-- "Driving Insights that Count" — Tate & Tryon, a leading accounting firm for nonprofits, headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced its new tagline and fresh website, marking significant growth, and introducing a pivotal strategy to its service of the metropolitan area.
Charles Tate, the Firm's Managing Director, stated "The driver for this growth initiative is the industry's need to embrace data analytics in our community; to build insights that can help our clients make better decisions." Tate explained the strategy as moving from being reactive to proactive. He said, "Revamping our website and tagline represents a new era of innovation and more value in mind. We needed a strong tagline that moved away from 'accounting for the past,' for example, from historical-based traditional financial statement preparation to a forward-looking, data-driven reporting model. Hence our new tagline is: Driving Insights That Count. 'Insights' has a forward-looking, consultative connotation and embeds our institutional experience. 'Count' is a bit of a wordplay to indicate that we are accountants – but innovative and data-driven."
The enhanced look and feel of the website is a modernization of Tate & Tryon's brand, and one of its first steps in a proactive approach to the services it provides. The website's design, content, and structure are intended to work together to reflect Tate & Tryon's core values and communicate its capabilities in a new era of nonprofit accounting. Visit the new site at www.tatetryon.com.
About Tate & Tryon: Tate & Tryon is a leading accounting and management consulting firm, that specializes in supporting national and international nonprofits. The Firm has been named a 2017 IPA 200 Firm by INSIDE Public Accounting (IPA) for the fourth consecutive year.
Tate & Tryon's mission is to identify nonprofit accounting needs and execute solutions to meet those needs on a timely and consistent basis. The Firm plays a proactive role in practical, data-driven solutions that solve major challenges within the nonprofit sector. Tate & Tryon is committed to its staff and provides ongoing professional opportunities and training. Each service is delivered with sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skilled implementation to meet objectives on-time and on-budget.
Tate & Tryon clients represent a broad range of more than 600 national and international nonprofit organizations. Although Tate & Tryon serves various sub-specialties of the tax-exempt organization world, its entire practice is dedicated to exclusively serving charities, foundations, associations, advocacy groups, and other organizations. Nonprofit organizations have many lessons to share with one another. The depth of the firm's experience in the nonprofit industry affords its clients a unique view of best practices, which in turn enhances the level of service and overall value provided.
Tate & Tryon National Headquarters:
Email: mcampagnolo@tatetryon.com
Tate & Tryon
Mary Campagnolo
www.tatetryon.com
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Csobánc  is a hill in the Tapolca Basin, Hungary.

Geography and environment
Csobánc is one of the highlights of the region. Similar to the other hills in the area, it is of volcanic origin. These hills are witness hills. The expression originates from the fact that these hills "witnessed" the decrease of the land surface level during volcanic activity millions of years ago. They preserve the original surface since the Pliocene period.

Protected natural assets
Csobánc is one of the unique and peculiar monadnocks of Tapolca Basin. It is a result of basalt volcanism 3.5 million years ago. Numerous rare habitats in need of protection have been preserved due to the relatively secluded and undisturbed area. The natural assets of Csobánc granted the hill increased protection from the Balaton Uplands National Park and the Bakony-Balaton Geopark.

Rock grasses
Relatively sheltered habitat due to its inaccessible location along the edges of the plateau. Sensitive to being disturbed and trodded on. Paragliding can be a great danger to the habitat and its characteristic species such as the northern rock-cress (Cardaminopsis petraea) and the unique livelong saxifrage (Saxifaga), both growing on the northern rock walls.

Steppe meadows and rocky outcrops
For their survival, these habitats are to be left undisturbed. On the south and the east sides of the hills stands of steep surfaces broken up by rocky outcrops are the most sensitive Pasque flower (Pulsatilla Grandis), Golden alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis), Prunus mahaleb, and the pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens) bring more color into the landscape.

Detrital slope forests
The protective forests on the north side of the hill are highly sensitive, the associations living here need to remain intact. The stands consists of small-leaved lime (Tilla cordata), broad-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior). On the grass level a small population of Turk's cap lily (Lilium martagon) is present.

Birds
Bird species feeding, nesting, or potentially nesting on the hill are the common raven (Corvus corax), the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). They will only settle if their habitat is completely undisturbed in spring. Using the hill as a launch site can cause great damage to the hill's biodiversity.

Notable Sights

Castle ruins
The castle has been attacked by the Turks between 1554 and 1567.

Construction works began in 1255 for the first time. The Italian Rátóti Gyulaffy family owned the castle for more than 40 years. Csobánc fell under numerous unsuccessful Turkish sieges in the 16th century. In 1669 the Esterházy family took control over the castle. During the Rákóczi's War for Independence, the heroic Hungarian kuruc defenders were triumphantly able to manage resistance against immense Austrian-Danish united attacks in February 1707. The castle was first destroyed in the 18th century.

The Foundation for the Castle of Csobánc from the neighbouring village Gyulakeszi makes efforts to reconstruct the ruins of the castle. Cultural and historical programs such as riding shows, mediaeval knights in period dresses, Turkish belly dance etc. are offered to raise fund. The most significant festival, Gyulaffy Days (Gyulaffy napok ), is held annually.

The "Bad Church"

The Rossz-templom ("Bad Church") is a 13th-century church that was left to decline after the population fled from the Ottomans.

Hiking the mountain
Two tourist paths lead from Tapolca-Diszel to the castle ruins that join together before the real climb. The track has green (L) waymarks.
The hill can be approached from two other villages as well, Gyulakeszi and Káptalantóti, however, they are much further.

Popular activities

Due to its thermodynamic features it is an ideal spot for paragliding and ultralight trikes, however, these activities are currently contentious since the hill is a natural preserve. Hiking and geocaching are also popular activities around the area.

References in literature

Poet - literary historian István Péter NÉMETH from Tapolca wrote several poems and articles on Csobánc, including "Greeting from Csobánc", and "The Requiem of Csobánc".

References

External links

Hills of Hungary

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Establishment neighborhood
Turnbull Wine Cellars
8210 St. Helena Hwy., Oakville
Counting Robert Mondavi and Cakebread as its neighbors, this small, family-owned and operated winemaker doubles down on its small-but-mighty Cabernet Sauvignon. (This spring, they played host to our first-ever Napa road-to-table event.) Here, second generation vintner Zoe Johns, who took the helm of Turnbull at the age of 33, brings her vision for a modern vineyard to life: a tasting gallery features a rotating roster of artwork from artists like Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Herb Ritts, while a more elaborate private tasting and pairing program leans heavily on what's freshest from the garden. It goes without saying that the vineyard views are pretty killer from just about everywhere on property, too.
Nickel and Nickel
By appointment only, this vineyard and winery sits on 42 acres of what was an original 1880's farmstead.
Gargiulo Vineyards
575 Oakville Crossroad, Oakville
Lauded as one of the most highly regarded Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the region, this winery boasts deep family roots.
915 Oakville Cross Rd., Oakville
Silver Oak has long been lauded for its Cabernets–consistently selling out of its releases for years (the same goes for the Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blancs produced by tis sister winery, Twomey). Run by Vintner David Duncan, the absolutely gorgeous space is located in the center of the valley, in the middle of Oakville. The winery throws the biggest release-day parties of the year, a tradition (and category) cemented since the 1980's when wine enthusiasts started showing up the day of the release. This is an all-around beautiful, successful vineyard not to be missed.
Mustard's Grill
Cindy Pawlcyn was a big part of the first generation of chefs who established Napa as a culinary destination, and her casual grill has been equally loved by tourists and locals for the 30 years since. Order the Mongolian pork chop and onion rings, and take advantage of their wine list, which is surprisingly comprehensive for such a laid-back spot.
Opus One Winery
Opus One only produces one blend every season, and their vintages represent some of the most upscale and expensive wines on the market. The estate, which is meticulously maintained, is fittingly grand. We recommend making an appointment for one of their informative tours if you have time—they have a cavernous cellar (the French oak barrels are only used once) and a very large lab, plus, it's fascinating to find out what it takes to make wines that usually sell for more than $200/bottle.
7900 St. Helena Hwy, Oakville
Oakville Grocery
7856 St. Helena Highway, Oakville
We love this beautiful little market and its gorgeous selection of prepared goods. It's a great stop if you want to bring home gifts to friends who aren't big drinkers, and the convenient location along the St. Helena Highway makes it an easy spot to pick up a sandwich (we like the Muffaletta or the fried chicken) on your way to a winery. There's also a location in Healdsburg.
Rudd Winery
Leslie Rudd is also the owner of the Dean & DeLuca brand, and his eponymous winery is everything you'd expect from the owner of the original gourmet food destination. Stunning grounds, classically big California Cabs, an elegant tasting experience, and of course, a solid selection of Dean & Deluca goodies for purchase. Rudd's daughter, Samantha, works full time at the vineyard, making the business a true family operation.


text:
Buffalo Bills 2015 Roster: Offense
Much has been talked about this off-season with the Buffalo Bills and how their final roster of 53 will shake out. Hashtag Sports has trimmed down the roster, both examining the coaches (Rex Ryan, Dennis Thurman and Greg Roman) as well as the cap numbers that are involved to get the Bills in a position to field a roster come September 13th against the Colts. Here are the projected players on offense.
Offense: (Starters in Bold)
Quarterbacks (2) – Ej Manuel, Tyrod Taylor
The acquisition of Matt Cassel has proven to be not what the Buffalo Bills expected and by releasing or trading Cassel (if they can) the Bills free up close to 5 million dollars in cap space. Matt Simms will continue the trend of former Jet players that will be eventually let go. The hype surrounding Taylor and the need for Manuel to perform this year will be just enough for the Bills to be successful. To put it in perspective when looking at the cap number for the Bills quarterbacks, there are 33 quarterbacks from 28 different teams who are making more than the combined total of Manuel and Taylor. This could be the reason why the Bills can spend money in other places, and why the fans are so concerned about this position going into 2015. Hopefully this isn't a "you get what you pay for" type of deal for the Bills. Just remember, Roman got Kaepernick a $100 million dollar deal in San Francisco so what can he do with a quarterback (Manuel) who actually has played in a Pro-Style offense?
Cap Number: $3,306,597
Running Backs (5) – LeSean McCoy, Fred Jackson, Boobie Dixon, Karlos Williams, Jerome Felton
The buzz around Buffalo took a decided turn on March 3rd of this year, when the Bills traded Kiko Alonso for LeSean McCoy. Instantly two statements came to mind: Will the Bills now address their line and what does this mean for Fred Jackson? The funniest thing about that trade was that CJ Spiller was on the set of NFL Network when it was announced and his reaction was priceless. Nevertheless, the Bills locked up a Top 3 back, and decided to pair him with the best pass blocking back in Bills (arguably NFL) history.
The Bills then took Karlos Williams for the eventual departure of Jackson, and is too valuable to place on the practice squad (since it is highly unlikely that he would clear wavers). Boobie Dixon's contributions to the special teams will secure his spot even though he washed out of San Francisco when Roman was there, and Jerome Felton, who previously led the way for Adrian Peterson's 2,000 yard season in Minnesota, gives Roman that added element he needs in his jumbo packages.
Cap Number: $11,736,754
Wide Receivers (7) – Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Percy Harvin, Chris Hogan, Marcus Easley, Marquise Goodwin, Dezmin Lewis
It seems like a lot of receivers to have on the roster, but with the lack of depth that the Bills had last season, it was a moral imperative for the Bills to load up in 2015. Also, when you factor in that Hogan, Easley, and Goodwin's contributions are going to lean more toward Special Teams, while Watkins and Woods carry the heavy load of reps on offense along with Harvin (when the Bills go 3-wide) the number doesn't seem as large. If Deonte Thompson and Justin Brown were as effective as they could be, the Bills probably wouldn't have selected Dezmin Lewis (albeit in the 7th round) to give that taller presence on the outside.
Offensive Line (8) – Eric Wood, Cordy Glenn, John Miller, Cyril Richardson, Cyrus Kouandjio, Seantrel Henderson, Richie Incognito, Kraig Urbik
Currently there are only 3 tackles on the roster (Glenn, Kouandjio, and Henderson) and depending on how 2015 plays out, that number could go down to 2 depending on how the Bills decide to use Kouandjio or Glenn. There have been conflicting reports about Kouandjio stemming from last season. One report had him working out at guard (which he is probably best suited) while others mention his improvements at tackle. The Bills stole Glenn in the 2nd round, and then hit on Henderson in the 7th, but the money that will be due Glenn next offseason, it might be in the Bills best interest financially if they move Glenn to guard. This will shift Henderson to left tackle, and Kouandjio to right. If Kouandjio can hold at right tackle, this could be a dominant (and young) line for the Bills in the years to come. That is a big IF however. With Aaron Kromer out, the Bills might have a minor setback in the progression of these players, so look for experience to win out in the first few games, and if the Bills struggle, look for changes to be made and made fast.
Tight End (4) – Charles Clay, Chris Gragg, Nick O'Leary, Marqueis Gray
With Greg Roman at the helm, he loves using multiple tight end sets, and with the versatility of the position for the Bills, he has many options to choose from. Clay has played both tight end and H back, and Gray was a former quarterback, so both of these players have a high IQ when it comes to the x's and o's. Another way to look at it would be to tap Clay to play the Vernon Davis role while Gray plays the Bruce Miller role that is until O'Leary can fully grasp the offense. Gragg might be the odd man out (since I don't fully know the final cuts) but with all of these players being 26 or younger and averaging 6'2" 245 pounds, they can all play the signature role somewhere in Roman's scheme albeit blocking or receiving.
Total Players: 26
Of course this list could change, but looking at the versatility of the players in each position, and the cap numbers that go along with the players involved, the Bills have a very explosive and affordable offense going into 2015. Question marks are all over the offense, from the quarterback position on down, but I guess that is normal when there hasn't been any football for 6 months.


text:
'use strict';

// MODULES //

var isNumber = require( 'validate.io-number-primitive' ),
	isnan = require( 'validate.io-nan' ),
	isArrayLike = require( 'validate.io-array-like' ),
	isTypedArrayLike = require( 'validate.io-typed-array-like' ),
	isMatrixLike = require( 'validate.io-matrix-like' ),
	ctors = require( 'compute-array-constructors' ),
	matrix = require( 'dstructs-matrix' ),
	validate = require( './validate.js' );

// FUNCTIONS //

var ekurtosis1 = require( './number.js' ),
	ekurtosis2 = require( './array.js' ),
	ekurtosis3 = require( './accessor.js' ),
	ekurtosis4 = require( './deepset.js' ),
	ekurtosis5 = require( './matrix.js' ),
	ekurtosis6 = require( './typedarray.js' );

// EKURTOSIS //

/**
* FUNCTION: ekurtosis( sigma[, opts] )
*	Computes the distribution ekurtosis.
*
* @param {Number|Number[]|Array|Int8Array|Uint8Array|Uint8ClampedArray|Int16Array|Uint16Array|Int32Array|Uint32Array|Float32Array|Float64Array|Matrix} sigma - input value
* @param {Object} [opts] - function options
* @param {Boolean} [opts.copy=true] - boolean indicating if the function should return a new data structure
* @param {Function} [opts.accessor] - accessor function for accessing array values
* @param {String} [opts.path] - deep get/set key path
* @param {String} [opts.sep="."] - deep get/set key path separator
* @param {String} [opts.dtype="float64"] - output data type
* @returns {Number|Number[]|Array|Int8Array|Uint8Array|Uint8ClampedArray|Int16Array|Uint16Array|Int32Array|Uint32Array|Float32Array|Float64Array|Matrix} distribution ekurtosis(s)
*/
function ekurtosis( sigma, options ) {
	/* jshint newcap:false */
	var opts = {},
		ctor,
		err,
		out,
		dt,
		d;

	if ( isNumber( sigma ) || isnan( sigma ) ) {
		return ekurtosis1( sigma );
	}
	if ( arguments.length > 1 ) {
		err = validate( opts, options );
		if ( err ) {
			throw err;
		}
	}
	if ( isMatrixLike( sigma ) ) {
		if ( opts.copy !== false ) {
			dt = opts.dtype || 'float64';
			ctor = ctors( dt );
			if ( ctor === null ) {
				throw new Error( 'ekurtosis()::invalid option. Data type option does not have a corresponding array constructor. Option: `' + dt + '`.' );
			}
			// Create an output matrix:
			d = new ctor( sigma.length );
			out = matrix( d, sigma.shape, dt );
		} else {
			out = sigma;
		}
		return ekurtosis5( out, sigma );
	}
	if ( isTypedArrayLike( sigma ) ) {
		if ( opts.copy === false ) {
			out = sigma;
		} else {
			dt = opts.dtype || 'float64';
			ctor = ctors( dt );
			if ( ctor === null ) {
				throw new Error( 'ekurtosis()::invalid option. Data type option does not have a corresponding array constructor. Option: `' + dt + '`.' );
			}
			out = new ctor( sigma.length );
		}
		return ekurtosis6( out, sigma );
	}
	if ( isArrayLike( sigma ) ) {
		// Handle deepset first...
		if ( opts.path ) {
			opts.sep = opts.sep || '.';
			return ekurtosis4( sigma, opts.path, opts.sep );
		}
		// Handle regular and accessor arrays next...
		if ( opts.copy === false ) {
			out = sigma;
		}
		else if ( opts.dtype ) {
			ctor = ctors( opts.dtype );
			if ( ctor === null ) {
				throw new TypeError( 'ekurtosis()::invalid option. Data type option does not have a corresponding array constructor. Option: `' + opts.dtype + '`.' );
			}
			out = new ctor( sigma.length );
		}
		else {
			out = new Array( sigma.length );
		}
		if ( opts.accessor ) {
			return ekurtosis3( out, sigma, opts.accessor );
		}
		return ekurtosis2( out, sigma );
	}
	return NaN;
} // end FUNCTION ekurtosis()

// EXPORTS //

module.exports = ekurtosis;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Rumi's Little Book of Lifeis a beautiful collection of 196 poems by Rumi, previously unavailable in English. Translated by native Persian speakers, Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin, this collection will appeal to Rumi lovers everywhere.
This collection of mystical poetry focuses on one of life's core issues: coming to grips with the inner life. During the course of life, each of us is engaged on an inner journey.Rumi's Little Book of Lifeis a guidebook for that journey. The poetry is a companion for those who consciously enter the inner world to explore the gardens within--out of the everyday "world of dust"--through an ascending hierarchy that restores one's soul to the heart; the heart of the spirit; and in finding spirit, transcending all.
Maryam Mafi, born and raised in Iran, is an experienced Persian translator. Azima Melita Kolin is a poet, concert pianist and artist, who studied in Rome and Geneva.


I've been using an eyelash curler daily since I was about 17 years old. The curler has remained a vital part of my makeup routine. My lashes are fine, I guess – normal length, normal thickness. But whenever I go "let's give the curler a break today", I just don't enjoy the final look. My lashes end up black and lengthened/volumised. But my eyes don't look as big, there's no "flutter" to them. I want flutter!
So when I heard about lash lifts, and how they'd come a loooong way from the old school over-curled look, I was itching to try one out. Promises of wider eyes, a naturally extended lash, and all with pretty much zero maintenance involved? Count me in.
I headed to Mojo Beauty to get their Lash Lift + Tint treatment.
Nik was everything you want in a beauty therapist – she explained step by step what was happening and the function of the solutions, lash grown cycle and pre-warned me when she was going to touch my eyes.
So firstly your eyes are prepped with gentle cleansing pads to get rid of all makeup. This is important, I'm told – any leftover mascara or foundation means the lifting stuff won't take properly. Once all of that's done pads are placed under your eyes to hold the bottom lashes down so they don't get caught in with the top lashes when the solution is applied.
Basically, a lash lift is like a perm for your eyelashes. So a solution is applied that changes the bonds of the lash hairs permanently, hence why they "lift" and stay lifted for months. Over time, around 10 weeks, those lashes fall out and new ones grow back in, and those new ones have the original bonds. So for me, they grow back in straight. To get the solution onto my lashes, Nik placed a brace-like guard along my top lash line, that secured my lashes within it and pulled them upwards. She used two different solutions to activate the curl and viola! She then finished with a tint on my lashes and that gave the illusion that I was wearing mascara.
After the tint, my eyelashes looked so much longer! I'm told that's the beauty of a lash lift, a lash lift is more like stretching them out and up. The finished look is like you were born with these amazing lashes, as opposed to a weird, permanently styled look.
I did have to change my mascara, and now use the PONI mascara, bought at Mojo Beauty, that thickens and lengthens lashes with growth serum properties. Yay! Instead of my usual heavy-duty, volumising one, I'm now using a defining one and need a maximum of two swipes. If I'm going out at night I'll use a little more but then it looks like I have falsies in or lash extensions (not a bad thing!). I think the greatest thing about it all though is that there's pretty much zero maintenance. You have to keep them away from all water for 24 hours. But after that, anything goes – any cleansers, any amount of water, whatever.
The whole thing (lash lift and tint) costs ONLY $60, which when you think about it, isn't setting you back much at all. If you are constantly battling with your lashes being too straight, and feel like no amount of mascara really gives you the look you're after, it's such an affordable amount to factor into your budget. And it works and really cuts major time out of your getting ready routine, and it doesn't hurt or take hours to get done.


Is your Smart phone already improving your efficiency? Now you can read emails on the go, edit and forward documents and so much more. All without the need of a computer! But, imagine what a smart phone App would do for your business!
Your clients can have your phone number and email address ready to go in just 2 touches. Everything they want to research is at their fingertips. As a realtor, you want to be easily accessed when a client has a question or concern, and a Smart Phone App can open another form of communication with your valued clients.
It is important for you and your business to evolve with the technological advances. Mobile marketing will become a major part of your business strategy in the next year. Take advantage of it before your competition does! The Smart Phone, as a marketing tool, is very cost effective and a great opportunity for your small business.
Help your customers assess the cost of their monthly mortgage payment with this special feature. You'd be helping them evaluate the amount they can manage, without setting up an in-person meeting.
Push Notifications, like Text messages, are sent through your app, to those who have downloaded it, and appear as a text message on their phone. Think about how you currently notify your clients about new houses on the market. With a Smart Phone app, you can instantly send out a message to all of your clients informing them about new listings, special offers, or other relative information, as easy as sending Email or using Facebook.
Build your business relationship with your existing customers. Mobile devices provide such a personal connection between businesses and consumers. When your business goes mobile, your purchasers can download your app and actually bear you with them. By upgrading your brand with an advanced mobile phone app, you differentiate yourself from your competitors while offering another outlet to communicate with your customers.
Think of all the people you know with smart phones. Most users spend a good amount of time searching for new and useful/valuable apps to download. By making an app for your business, you can pull in new customers that you may have been missing out on.
Integration with Existing Marketing strategies.
A Smart Phone app can complement existing campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Constant Contact, Get Response, iContact, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, OpenTable, SoundCloud and more.
30 Million iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and HTML Apps Downloaded every DAY, and your Real Estate Business doesn't have one yet? Get connected with YOUR customers! Your customers are willing to put YOUR business in their pocket. A lot of your customers have iPhones, Blackberrys or Androids and they love downloading and using apps. If you have clients who will stroll around with your business in your pocket you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity.
In fact, you would be crazy not to. Get Started now, Interact with your clients and market your Business with your own Mobile Application!


CALKINS, SAMUEL, private, in Capt. Rufus M. Cady's Co., of Col. Daniel Davis' Regt., N.Y. served from June 29, 1812 to July 10, 1812.
Also served in Capt. James Steven's Co. of Col. Wm. Warren's Regt. N.Y., from Aug. 1, 1814 to Sept. 25, 1814.
CROOK, MICAH B., Lieut., in Capt. James J. Steven's Co., of Col. Wm. Warren's Regt., N.Y. served from July 28, 1814 to Sept. 25, 1814.
GILBERT, EPHRIAM F., served from Apr. 11, 1812 to Setp. 1, 1814 as Lieut., in Capt. Derick Van Vechten's Co., of the 23rd U.S. Infantry.
Enlisted at Rome, N.Y., mustered out with rank of Captain.
July 30, 1814 to Sept. 25, 1814.
TURNER, HORACE, ensign in Capt. Geo. Culver's Co., of Col. Caleb Hopkin's Regt., N.Y., served from Aug. 28, 1814 to Nov. 1, 1814.
UNDERHILL, AMOS, private, enlisted in Capt. James Steven's Co., 48th Regt., Warren's N.Y. militia from Aug. 1 to Sept. 25, 1814.
Co. H, 116th N.Y. Inf.
Co. G, 187th N.Y. Vol.
Co. F. 31st Wisc. Vol. Inf.
Co. H, 136th N.Y. Vol.
Co. H, 89th N.Y. Inf.
Co. 1, 116th N.Y. Inf.
Co. A, 9th N.Y. Cav.


text:
Photographing Mausoleum Stained Glass
Photographing mausoleum stained glass windows is easier than photographing stained glass in say, a church, simply because with a mausoleum, you're at eye level with your subject! That said, there are certain devices and techniques that will make your task easier. Also, the cheaper version of stained glass, painted glass, photographs the same way.
You might think that since the inside of a mausoleum is dark, you would need to shoot at a high ISO. Not so. This is one of the few situations where your intention is to shoot directly into the sun, with the stained glass window between it and you. To the photographer's benefit, cemetery planners and mausoleum designers purposely situate mausoleums facing east or west. That way, the sun illuminates the stained glass window either when it rises or sets--except of course in the southern hemisphere, where it rises and sets north to south*(see footnote below for more on this).
Typically, in your average sized mausoleum, you have one big stained glass window opposite the mausoleum door (which you typically can't open, in case you were wondering). Your best lighting conditions are when the sun is low on the horizon (either morning or late afternoon) and shining directly onto the stained glass. Then you can photograph it through the front door. If you can't be there at the edges of the day, a bright cloudless day with crisp, even light works okay too.
Now, about taking the actual photographs. Since your subject is bright, you don't really have to worry about shooting at a high ISO. The inside of the mausoleum will be so dim compared to the stained glass, you don't have to worry about including distracting detail in your image—these details will be so dark your image sensor won't even pick them up. If you have a lot of bright areas in the glass, you can easily shoot at ISO 200. If the glass has a lot of darker areas, you may have to shoot at ISO 400. Remember though, that you're shooting a flat pane of glass so you don't need ANY depth of field! You can shoot wide open (maybe f5.6 with your average digital point-and-shoot, f3.8 with a DSLR) and enjoy a relatively fast shutter speed, perhaps 1/30 second.
The Unobstructed View
Okay, you really don't have one of those, in most cases. One of the minor challenges of photographing mausoleum stained glass windows is that the entry door opposite the window is typically partially obstructs your view. Whether for security** or ornamental reasons, these clear-glass paned doors are usually covered with very intricate bronze or iron design elements. (The door glass, though clear, is usually dirty, cracked, or covered with cobwebs, adding to the challenge).The gridded metalwork allows a view of the stained glass, but the spaces between the design elements are seldom more than two inches in rough diameter. What this means, of course, is that you can't put your 62mm (filter size) DSLR lens right up to the door glass and shoot. In other words, the diameter of the lens barrel is too wide. When push comes to shove, I'll shoot anyway, then crop blurred obstruction out of the photograph, if possible.
Front lit door
Now, for almost any other photographic purpose, I would recommend using a DSLR rather than a DPS (Digital Point-and-Shoot) camera, because a DSLR produces far better image quality (regardless of megapixel count). However, since the lens barrel diameter of most DPS cameras is far smaller than the diameter of a DSLR lens, the DPS lens fits more easily between the ornamental bronze and ironwork ornately artistic metalwork designs on most mausoleum doors! Since you don't need a high ISO or a super low f-stop, you can do a lot of good work with the DPS camera. DPS zooms are usually longer than those of a DPS lens, so this can be very helpful with composing and isolating sections of the stained glass.
Megapixel Count and Camera Type
I mentioned megapixel count in the previous paragraph, and I'd like to clarify that a bit. Because the image sensors of DPS cameras are smaller than those in DSLRs, the image quality of a DPS camera is ALWAYS inferior to a DSLR for the same MP (megapixel) count. In fact, since the pixels themselves are larger in a DSLR sensor, they hold more information and are more sensitive to light (that's why DSLRs are capable of such higher ISOs than are DPS cameras, for example, ISO 1600 for the former, ISO 400 for the latter). Your print resolution is much better with the DSLR as well, allowing you to make bigger enlargements. One of my pet peeves is salespeople telling you that you need, oh, let's say 12MP to make a fine 11x14 enlargement. Bullfeathers. An 11x14 enlargement from a 2MP DSLR might be far superior to a 12MP enlargement from a DPS camera! I go on and on about this in my book, Digital Photography for the Impatient, so if you'd care to read more, check out Chapter 4, "Magical Devices for a High Speed World."
Get Creative!
If lighting conditions aren't exactly right or you can't really get the angle you'd like, be creative. Just shoot the door itself, or experiment with reflections (as I did in this self-portrait). If you can't photograph the intended pictorial elements of the glass, consider that simple patterns are sometimes worthy subjects in themselves (the image at left reminds me of a Mondrian painting). Bear in mind that even small mausoleums can have really nice stained glass, so don't pass up the opportunity of checking them out. In conclusion, since many cemeteries line up their mausoleums in one area, and usually in a row, its relatively easy to shoot half a dozen mausoleums in a short period of time. It's an efficient process, so get out there and start shooting!
* Just kidding about the southern hemisphere, wanted to see if you were paying attention. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west no matter where you live on Earth, because we all see the same sky.
* * Security issues? Why would anyone want to break into a mausoleum? Aside from the potential thrill of forbidden sex or some black arts ritual (neither of which is legal, mausoleums being private property), there exists the possibility of theft and vandalism. Thieves may think that if the deceased was affluent enough to buy an expensive mausoleum, the bodies inside may have been buried with valuables. And in some cases, they might be right. People have also been known to steal each others bones (see links below). In reality, the objects of most actual value in a mausoleum are the bronze entry door and the stained glass window, as you can see in the following links (my favorite of which is, "Metal Bandits Raid Queens Cemetery" -- sounds like a rock video, doesn't it? Speaking of music, click on the Buckethead link below to hear their song, "Mausoleum Door"). Tiffany stained glass windows bring hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market and with the price of scrap metal rising, bronze has become an increasingly valuable target for thieves. Ever notice a mausoleum where a cinder block wall has been placed in the opening of the door or windows? Most likely the result of vandalism or theft.
Expert Charged in Sale of Tiffany Glass Stolen From Tomb
Faux Tiffany Windows Are Stolen From Tomb (now THAT's pretty funny!)
Cemetery Vandalism blog posting on The Cemetery Traveler
Interview excerpt on mausoleum stained glass from Ed Snyder's StoneAngels website
Precious heirloom stolen from mausoleum adds to family's pain
Cops: Brazen Thieves Came Prepared, Ransacked 3 Mausoleums
Couple at peace again after mausoleum fixed
Deer Park funeral home will donate a new coffin and liner to the family of a woman whose family is seeking return of her stolen remains
Metal bandits raid Queens cemetery
Russell-Cotes mausoleum doors stolen in Bornemouth
Tiffany stained glass
Click here to listen to the song, "Mausoleum Door" by Buckethead
Labels: Buckethead, cemetery crime, cemetery theft, Digital Photography for the Impatient, Ed Snyder, mausoleum stained glass, mondrian, photographing stained glass, tiffany, tiffany stained glass
Abandoned No More - The Knights of Pythias Cemetery
The Knights of Pythias Greeenwood Cemetery is an unusual gem of a place located in the Northwood section of Philadelphia. It has until recently been shrouded in mystery, not to mention an overgrown forest. I was surprised to see it referred to as "abandoned" on the Internet, since I thought for sure there were active burials occurring there. So I needed to make a road trip to see for myself (which really only amounts to a half hour drive from my house).
Upon my arrival on a wintry crisp Saturday afternoon, I found the place closed (front gates locked). However, the front left side of the cemetery was open as it bordered the driveways of some houses. So I could get in without scaling a wall—always a good thing. As far as I could see, the cemetery was well-maintained and orderly, with a big old house in the middle of the grounds, which appeared to be the office. No one about, so I went walking around. What struck me as being extremely odd were the piles of tombstones along the left front border of the cemetery, near the homes where I had entered. These scores of headstones, each with a pink ribbon tied around it, ranged in date from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. I assumed they had been gathered from the grounds of the cemetery, but why? Curious. Looking out over the densely populated (with grave markers and monuments) grounds, it didn't appear that any stones were missing. Where did they come from?
I went walking through the cemetery and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a grassy hillock with a receiving vault built into it. Not too unusual a sight except for one thing—this was the SAME receiving vault I photographed back around 2004 when I was just starting my cemetery exploration endeavors. (I refer to this initial visit in my blog posting "Freddie Krueger," an experience that was truly a Nightmare on Adams Avenue.) It would be hard to mistake this receiving vault for some other one, as it had this strange coat of arms on its front. (the weird colored infrared photo at top was taken in 2004). The Coat of Arms is that of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal organization that became associated with Greenwood Cemetery soon after its inception in 1869. As befitting any association of its kind (e.g. Masons or Odd Fellows), the Pythians acquired graves within the cemetery for use by its members.
In 2004, while making the infrared photograph of the vault, I was accosted by a bib-overall-clad, pitchfork wielding character who kept demanding of me, "Are you with us, or against us?" The outcome of that tense and prolonged interrogation was that his company had just purchased the (at that time, truly overgrown and seemingly abandoned) cemetery and was facing stiff opposition from the local community. Why, you might wonder? Do Philadelphians prefer their cemeteries abandoned, desecrated, and overgrown? Certainly there are enough of these around to make one believe that (see links at end).
Why would there be opposition to anyone taking over an abandoned cemetery? I mean, along with the pitchfork guy, other workers appeared to be chopping out the trees and cutting weeds, essentially cleaning the place up. Is that a bad thing? Before we get into that, why would anyone BUY a cemetery in the first place? How is that even allowed?! Does ownership entitle you to any gold, silver, antiquities, gems, or jewelry buried with the bodies? Do you own the bodies themselves? I know a fellow whose den floor is inlaid with dozens of white marble headstones. Decades before he bought the (18th century) house, a prior owner had collected the symmetrical and uniformly-sized stones from an abandoned nuns' cemetery that was situated behind a closed-down convent. Is that right? Would anyone care if you collected all the headstones from an old, out-of-use graveyard and used the stones for a walkway in your garden? (Someone actually kind of did this at Johnson Cemetery "Park," in Camden, New Jersey, as described in another of my blogs, "Abandoned Cemetery … or just Repurposed?")
After my confrontation with the lunatic farmhand in 2004, he eventually told me that his company had purchased Greenwood Cemetery and was planning to build a crematorium on the site. Apparently, there's money in that (for instance, crematories will contract with the city morgue to cremate the bodies of unidentified/unclaimed bodies). The locals were not amused. So now, seven years on, it appears that the crematorium has not been built, but the cemetery appears to be entrenched in a restoration project. This is likely the reason behind the piles of pink ribbon-tied headstones bordering the cemetery—they must be marked in some way for future placement. The receiving vault was shored up with timbers and was undergoing some sort of makeover, while the old house in the middle of the grounds had been completely restored.
About half of Greenwood's 44 acres has had its wild trees cut back or pulled out, grass is cropped close, and there isn't a weed to be seen. The monuments and gravestones in this front half of the cemetery looked to be in fine shape. The back twenty (acres) are still a forest grown around the monuments, however--an odd inner city wood bordered on one side by rowhomes, another by a corporate complex, and the other two by busy avenues. As I made my way through the thicket during another winter visit, I was startled to see a twenty foot high vibrant green glade of bamboo crowding out a fifty foot square section of headstones! The bamboo stalks were so close together, you couldn't walk through. On seeing the intricately carved yet broken marble coping surrounding forgotten family plots (above right), you half expect to come upon Jude Hawley making repairs. Hawley is the enigmatic stonecarver character in Thomas Hardy's darkest novel, Jude the Obscure. (This beautifully written book is a covert treatise on flawed Victorian sensibilities.) Like Jude, Greenwood cemetery seems to have suffered the same fate at the hands of a cruel and uncaring world: "…whoever or whatever our foe may be, I am cowed into submission. I have no more fighting or strength left; no more enterprise. I am beaten, beaten! …"
The Knights of Pythias Greeenwood Cemetery had been so badly beaten, in fact, that at one point the Knights themselves attempted to extricate themselves from the enterprise.
So what's the story with this half-restored Victorian cemetery? Intrigued, I decided to do some investigating. Greenwood had been on my mind for years; it took time, but as Keith Richards says about songwriting, "If you chase a song far enough, you're gonna corner it."
REVITALIZATION OF THE CEMETERY
While half the cemetery is still a forest, it appears that it is being slowly restored to some semblance of its original splendor. What had been the decrepit Knights of Pythias Greenwood Cemetery is now a quaint Victorian garden cemetery, with gently rolling slopes and landscaped roadways. Gone are the abandoned cars and rusty household appliances, the headstones are upright and clean. No longer do the Knights seek to remove their name, upset over the declining conditions in the cemetery.
To my amazement, the cemetery now has a website, which describes the transformation in detail. Its a rather odd scenario. The previous owners gave up on the crematorium idea when community opposition proved to be too strong. After that, they let the cemetery go to pot again until the adjacent business, the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) Eastern Regional Medical Center, took over, in conjunction with the Friends of Greenwood. In exchange for taking part of the cemetery grounds to use as a parking lot (!), the Center agreed to relocate 2400 bodies from that section (to other areas of Greenwood), clean up the rest of the cemetery, and restore the old farmhouse on the property. The Knights seem to be happy with this as the official name remains "The Knights of Pythias Greeenwood Cemetery."
Benjamin Rush Farm House
The house in the center of the cemetery, which dates back to the 1830s, has been restored. During the project, it was renamed "Greenwood Estate at Rush Farm," as the land on which the cemetery resides had been owned in the 1700s by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of America's founding fathers and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Greenwood Cemetery may not look exactly like its original 1869 self, but thanks to the involvement by the CTCA, it is on its way to becoming a viable cemetery again. Restoration continues, with the published intention of the new owners to treat its 20,000 inhabitants and their descendants with due respect and to make the cemetery a safe and picturesque memorial park. Whether for profit or some altruistic reason, this long-ignored Victorian-era resting place is being restored.
In closing, I found this interesting tidbit in the FAQ section on Greenwood's website:
Q: Do the owners intend to try and build a crematorium on the property after it has been revitalized?
A: Absolutely not.
Friends of Greenwood
Testimonials to the Restoration of Greenwood
FAQ from Kof P Greenwood Website
Fascinating "Burial Relocation Process" at Greenwood (Powerpoint)
Restoration of Benjamin Rush House at Greenwood
Abandoned Cemeteries in the Philadelphia Area:
Knights of Pythias/Greenwood (back when it was abandoned)
Johnson Cemetery (1) (2)
Mount Moriah (1) (2)
Mount Peace Cemetery
Knights of Pythias Website
Knights of Pythias video
Pythagoras and the Origin of the Pythians
The Knights of Pythias
The Knights of Pythias organization is associated with Pythagoras, the mathematician (I can feel your body tense as you read this, thinking back on those horrible moments in high school geometry class when you were forced to learn the nuances of the Pythagorean Theorem). But it makes sense, right? Funerary monuments and headstones are all angular and symmetrical, so why not worship the almighty angle? Actually, Pythagoras (582 – 500 BC) is ALSO known as the Father of Greek Philosophy, whose presocratic principles the Knights adopted: "FRIENDSHIP, CHARITY and BENEVOLENCE." (The American Cancer Society, by the way, is the National Charity of the Knights of Pythias, which may be part of the reason the Pythians approved of the purchase of Greenwood by the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.)
According to MetaReligion.com, this Pythagorean Brotherhood was actually the first fraternal Order to be formed by an Act of Congress, at the suggestion of President Abraham Lincoln, in 1864. The Order began during the Civil War, and its founder, Justus H. Rathbone, believed that it might do much to heal the wounds and allay the hatred of civil conflict. (Rathbone had been inspired by a play by the Irish poet John Banim about the legend of Damon and Pythias, students of the Pythagorean school of philosophy). With 2011 being the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, it is most appropriate to quote President Lincoln:
"The purposes of your organization are most wonderful. If we could but bring its spirit to all our citizenry, what a wonderful thing it would be. It breathes the spirit of Friendship, Charity and Benevolence. It is one of the best agencies conceived for the upholding of government, honoring the flag, for the reuniting of our brethren of the North and of the South, for teaching the people to love one another, and portraying the sanctity of the home and loved ones. I would suggest that these great principles by perpetuated and that you go to the Congress of the United States and ask for a charter, and so organize on a great scale throughout this nation, and disseminate this wonderful work that you have so nobly started. I will do all in my power to assist you in this application and with your work."
The suggestion made by the President was adopted. An application was made to Congress for a charter, and the Order of Knights of Pythias was the first American Order ever chartered by an Act of the Congress of the United States.
Shooting Cemeteries with a Holga
Cross-processed Ektachrome image, made with a Holga
Looking for a new photographic tool with which to capture those great cemetery images? Want to realize even more of your creative genius? Well, you'll be happy to know that you don't need to spend a boatload of money to do this. Instead of acquiring expensive hi-tech gear and software, go lo!
I guess it's not surprising to see so many serious photographers these days experimenting with lo-tech, lo-fi cameras (e.g. cell phone cameras, pinhole film cameras, and vintage digital point-and-shoots). Even back in the 1960s when Richard Avedon was making magnificent portraits with 8x10 film cameras, Andy Warhol was creating arguably more notable ones with a simple Polaroid camera. Given today's super-sophisticated photographic technology, I sometimes get fed up with the precision and accuracy of digital. I need to go lo--which is why my thirty-dollar Holga is always packed next to my ridiculously expensive DSLR.
WHAT'S A HOLGA?
Thought you'd never ask. It's essentially a toy camera, an all plastic, all manual 120mm film camera. (Yes, you can still buy film and yes, you can still have it developed—see links below). The photo at left shows a basic Holga, which measures about 5x4x3 inches and weighs next to nothing. After exposing a roll of film, you can have the individual image frames scanned so you can work with them as Jpegs (also enables any photofinishing lab to easily print them). The Holga is deceptively simple, having one shutter speed, limited focus, and two aperture settings (which is a joke, since it's "Sun" and "Shade" settings are virtually the same, around f11). While it's often used as an intro camera in art school photography classes, the Holga is really not that easy to use. Having been a photographer since the earth's crust started cooling, I'm of the opinion that it would be much easier to learn the principles of photography with a basic film SLR. With a Holga, you really have NO IDEA how successful your photographs will be, until you get a load of practice under your belt!
THEN WHY USE A HOLGA? (or more to the point, why use it for cemetery photography?)
Well, for one thing, the Holga's imperfections bestow upon your images an unparalleled flawed elegance, a very organic shroud of analog mystery that is distinctly non-digital. It's cheap plastic lens vignettes and loses focus around the edges (as you see at right). These slightly blurred and distorted dreamlike images have a cult following the world over. The effect is so popular that one manufacturer sells sawed-off Holga lenses to use on your DSLR and another makes expensive lens attachments that allow DSLRs to produce images like those from a Holga! (See links below.)
The Holga is cheap and lightweight. Easy to carry around and who cares if you damage it? Here's a shot of one of my Holgas I dropped in the snow.
Since film is relatively more expensive than digital, the Holga forces you to concentrate on every shot. With only twelve 2.25 inch square images per roll (which will cost maybe $7.00 to process, see link below), you need to carefully consider the focus, light, and composition of each frame. With digital, we're used to the excess of ripping off twenty shots of the same subject, from different angles, color and monochrome, with bracketed exposures and varying depths of field. The Holga forces you to frugally concentrate on achieving the one final image you want to achieve (a la Ansel Adams).
Light leak effect
With a shutter speed of 1/100 sec in bright light, a Holga is better-suited to still lifes. And what's more still-life than a tombstone?
The images are square (unless you use a special adaptor inside the camera to make them rectangular), which opens up a new world of composition rules (to break) for those of us shooting rectangular digital format. You've seen thousands of square photos in galleries, magazines, and books. Well, this is where they come from—cameras that use 120mm film! (This is known as medium format, by the way.)
Unpredictability! From happenstance light leaks to the intentional effects achieved by using out-dated or alternatively-processed film, analog weirdness simply cannot be duplicated in the digital world! The photo at the top of this article is a product of the unholy alliance between the Holga and cross-processed slide film. Try it! You'll surprise yourself with your creative prowess.
In my new book, Digital Photography for the Impatient, I talk about mastering even the most complex digital cameras through an understanding of how to use the four basic settings (of any camera)—Light intensity (ISO), Aperture, Focus, and Shutter speed. The Holga forces you to be aware of these settings, though it really only allows you to vary two of them—focus and the ISO of the film you load. What could be simpler? Well, you'll find the camera to be rather inflexible, for all its simplicity, especially if you've begun your illustrious photographic career shooting digital, with its myriad technological capabilities. You can't just whip out a Holga and freeze-frame the world with it. You essentially have to decide whether it can successfully capture your subject before you shoot. A creepy old cemetery on a sunny day, for example, is perfect.
One of the things I try to get across in my book is that any camera can take great pictures outside in the sun. The true test of a camera happens in low light situations, because with most cameras, that's where the wheels fall off. Kind of like a disposable cardboard camera, the Holga is only useful in daylight, when you can hold it relatively still (its single shutter speed is 1/100th of a second). It's lens vignettes and distorts, its back allows light leaks (which is why they pack a roll of black electrical tape in the box when you buy the camera new!). Cemetery photography lends itself well to the Holga, but you do need to work in bright sun. Even with ISO 400 film, things just don't look very good in the shade. The Holga you see at right is one of the fancier models ($60)—fancy because it's got a built-in flash. So this should solve the problem of only being able to shoot outdoors in bright sun, right? Ah, but you are so wrong! The flash is virtually useless.
WHY USE A HOLGA IF IT'S THAT QUIRKY AND UNPREDICTABLE?
Precisely because it's that quirky and unpredictable! If you're getting bored with your digital images, tired of manipulating them with software, give lo-fi a chance! While many photographers (or should we say, 'digital artists?') create great new after-capture images with Photoshop, others prefer to let chance play a larger role in their creative process. So even if you're a seasoned DSLR user—consider slumming with the Holga. Really, its okay, I won't tell. Keep in mind that that many graffiti artists are actually very capable fine art painters whose medium of choice just happens to be spray paint. Somewhere around 2005, a photographer friend of mine loaned me one of her Holgas. I never looked back. I hope this article makes you curious enough to try one!
WHERE CAN I BUY A HOLGA?
Pretty much anywhere—on the Web, in art supply places, camera stores. The "Lomographic Community" has many variations of many cheap plastic cameras.
NEED HELP IN USING YOUR HOLGA?
Even if you've used a 35mm film camera, the Holga is different enough to cause some consternation. If you've never loaded and unloaded 120mm film before, you'd be well advised to have someone show you, or watch a YouTube video to help you along (see link below). Focus is a roughly adjustable rangefinder on the lens, offering portrait (about 3 feet), group, or landscape focal zones. The lens is a moderate wide angle, about a 30mm focal length in 35mm camera terms (yeah, I know it says 60mm on the Holga above, but that's in medium format terms, and the Holga is a medium format camera). I'll be the first to admit that the Holga can be challenging and frustrating. Here's an example: probably the most amazing feature of this camera is it's handy carrying strap, which is tied to the slide latch that holds the back on the camera. So if you let the Holga dangle by its strap, the latch comes undone, the back pops off, and your film falls out and unravels on the ground! Though not a Buddhist, I am frankly a big fan of the third of Sakyamuni's four noble truths, "The suppression of suffering can be achieved." Therefore, I always employ what I like to call the Kinsman Strap when carrying a Holga. After lamenting about the backs coming off and exposing my film to a friend, she suggested keeping a rubber band around the body at all times. Genius!
ALTERNATIVE PROCESSES
"Broken Hearts and Faded Colors"
When shooting black and white film in a Holga, bear in mind that the results are pretty normal-looking (even if you purposely use outdated film). Therefore with monochrome, your compositions need to rely more on shapes and composition. If you REALLY want to throw caution to the wind, use outdated color negative film or cross-process your slide film. This is how I achieve my "special effects." The image at the top of this article is cross-processed, the one immediately above right is out-dated negative film. If you want faded colors and high grain, shoot outdated color negative (which you can usually buy for half price at camera stores, on eBay, and even on the Lomography site listed below). The more outdated the film, the more the color layers break down, producing more unpredictable results! Cross-processing means to use C-41 (color negative) chemistry to process E-6 (color slide) film. The result can be vibrant contrasty images like the image at the beginning of this article. The local drug store probably won't understand what you want to do, so it's best to have this done at a professional photo lab (see Philadelphia Photographics link below).
This blog gave me a chance to extol the virtues of toy film cameras, something I couldn't do at all in the book I've just published, Digital Photography for the Impatient (although I did sneak in this Holga image at the end of the book!). Beside the fact that impatient people could never use a Holga, the book focuses on digital photography. Its really a shame that new photographers are immersing themselves in megapixels and fancy software, while ignoring the creative pleasures of analog film imaging. Don't get me wrong—there's a place for both in your bag of tricks. I just happen to love the mystery of the Holga photographic process, compared to the exacting precision of digital. And for all you pixel counters out there—one frame of 120mm film has resolution about equivalent to a 300MP image sensor!
There are many YouTube videos available to show you how to load and unload a Holga, but this is one of the better ones.
There are many Flickr sites devoted to the Holga, images created with it, and other lo-fi photographic devices and techniques. (here are some of my Flickr images).
Check the Lomography site for a great variety of choices of cheap film cameras. In fact, the Lomo brand has become so popular that in 2010 they started selling their own brand film, both 35mm and 120mm.
Accessories available for the Holga
Be a "Lomographer!"
Where to process your film: Philadelphia Photographics
Holga accessories for your Holga and to make your DSLR behave like a Holga
Mimic the optical effects of a Holga lens with a Lensbaby for your digital camera!
The short Holga history
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Posted by StoneAngels: The Cemetery Traveler at 3:55 PM No comments:
The Graves of Pirate Island
I learned about Petty's Island from a photographer friend of mine. About a year ago, he told me about an abandoned graveyard on an island off the Camden (NJ) shoreline—at least that's what I THOUGHT he said. Of course I was up for such an adventure. Problem was, he didn't know exactly where the island was or how to get to it. He suggested we might have to rent a rowboat. I was intrigued. After a few miscommunications (I don't hear very well—too many KISS concerts as a teenager), I realized that Glenn, a Professor of Art History, was not talking about a cemetery, he was talking about a tugboat graveyard on the island! Alright, I'm still down with that—it has to do with death and dying.
So I began to wonder why, after living in Philadelphia for thirty years, I had never heard of this island. After talking about it with several people, including fisherman with whom I work, I realized that no one seemed to know about it! I became more intrigued. I pictured a small tree-covered expanse of land, closer to the Jersey side of the river, littered with scuttled rusty tugs and other nautical detritus. Glenn and I would row out to it in the mist, across the channel, cameras and adrenaline at the ready.
I did some research. Around the late 1700s, Petty's Island was a — PIRATE HANGOUT! A robbers' nest for seafaring criminals who either knew they were wanted by the authorities or did not expect to be welcomed by them with open arms. Since they could not set foot on the mainland, they would drop anchor on Petty's Island, where they probably built the first gambling casinos and slots parlors (I would assume). Man, if I had a metal detector, I wouldn't be looking for lost rings at the beach in Atlantic City, I'd be on this island! I mean, I kind o fancy meself a pirate anyway—I carry an old, wooden-handled iron hook with me when I go exploring in abandoned cemeteries (as my father used to say, it's not the dead you need to fear—it's the living). And I've been known to enjoy the odd pirate cruise, which is a fine way to meet comely wenches (see "Philly Pirate Cruise" link below).
And just so you don't think Petty's Island is just ANY old pirate island, here's its pedigree:
[Petty's Island] is thought to be the place where Captain Blackbeard docked his ship when visiting Philadelphia. The island was a hotbed for gambling and dueling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and acquired a reputation for lawlessness and danger; adding to this danger was the large number of shipwrecks which occurred around the island, some of which are still visible at low tide. —Wikipedia
Cap'n Ed
Okay, so now I really wanted to explore this island! But where exactly was it? At one point I told Glenn of a small nautical map and chart shop near the river—The Pilothouse. One day I stopped in to ask some questions. Pirate books lined the windows—"Terror on the High Seas," "Scallywags of the Caribbean," that sort of thing. I was feeling the total swashbuckler when I entered the empty store. A little old man (no eye patch) came out of the back and asked if he could help me. I said, yes, and that I might be looking for a map, or some information. "Someone told me there was this island off Camden with an old ship's graveyard…" I swear he responded in near-hushed tones: "Aye, sounds like ye be speakin' o' Petty's Island!"
"So I guess you've… been there?" I asked, hesitantly. He said no, but he knew people who had (and lived to tell about it, I hoped.) I asked if he could show me there the island is on one of his maps. He went over to a rack of rolled up charts, chose one carefully, and brought it back to the counter. He unrolled it, weighed the edges down, and began tracing the Delaware River with his finger from Wilmington north. While doing so, I asked, "Do you know how people can get to the island?" To which he replied, "Well, there's a bridge. You can drive over." What? Oh. My grandiose piratical fantasy fizzled out.
Then his fingertip lands on the part of the map depicting Petty's Island. It's the size of Texas. It's no small, tree-covered island at all! No wonder no one knows its there—if you look across the Delaware River at Camden from the Philadelphia side, the coast line you see is actually the freaking ISLAND, It's that big! (Between 300 and 400 acres, by some accounts, just under the Jersey side of the Ben Franklin Bridge.) Another fantasy dashed. The island is separated from Camden by a narrow river channel. To add insult to injury, the mapseller THEN adds, "I think it's owned by CITGO, they have an oil refinery there." Turns out the island is actually owned by the Venezuelan government (!), which in turn owns CITGO. Whaaatt…?
Hugo Chavez owns it. New Jersey controls it. Developers and environmentalists covet it. And one brazen trespasser wants us to pay homage to its forgotten king. Welcome to Petty's Island, a fin-shaped slice of strange, in the middle of the Delaware River.
—Otterbein, Philadelphia City Paper, Jan. 26, 2010
Glenn had not played me for a fool. He just had the same limited information as everyone else. Perhaps he had come across the newspaper article cited above. This article refers to a Northeast Philadelphia cemetery in which descendants of the island's "King," Ralston Laird, are buried. Not content with simply referencing Otterbein's account, I went to the Knights of Pythias Cemetery in North Philly (near Juniata Park) to find and photograph the stone myself. This cemetery, like some others in the Philadelphia area, was at some point left to ruin (which brings to mind homeboy Ben Franklin's quote: "Show me your cemeteries, and I'll tell you what kind of people you have"). Happily though, this particular cemetery in which we find the Laird family plot, seems to be undergoing restoration. About a third of the grounds is still an overgrown forest, with an oddly imposing twenty-foot-high bamboo glade enveloping dozens of headstones smack dab in the middle of the woods! This certainly gave a more tropical feel to my pirate adventure.
Laird was one of the final inhabitants of Petty's Island, having died in 1911. He'd immigrated from Ireland to Philadelphia in the 1850s, but due to persecution of the Irish, he adopted Petty's Island as his home. During the 52 years he lived there, he welcomed other immigrants who were having difficulty adjusting to their new world. A community was built, people fished, farmed, and lived with minimal taxation. After Laird's death, the island appears to have been purchased by the Venezuelan government, and used as an oil refinery/holding facility for its national petroleum company, CITGO.
The island's history is brief. Originally purchased from the Lenni Lenape Indians in 1678 by Elizabeth Kinsey (a Quaker who had fled persecution in England), it was later sold to William Penn (in 1681). John Petty bought it in 1732. The island's pirate era may have coincided with its period as a slave trading depot, in the late 1600 to early 1700s.
Petty's Island, showing access road from Camden
During an excursion to Camden in search of the nearby abandoned Johnson Cemetery (see link BELOW), I found the access road to the bridge to Petty's Island to be gated and guarded by CITGO personnel. After a few phone calls, I was told that it was private property and that no one was allowed on the island save employees. I don't know about you, but that sounds like an invitation to me!
"The Island" in Philadelphia City Paper
The Fight to Save Petty's Island
The Film, "Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America's Story"
Philly Pirate Cruise
Links to Abandoned Johnson Cemetery blogs: (1) and (2)
Labels: abandoned cemetery, Ben Franklin, Blackbeard, CITGO, Hugo Chavez, Knights of Pythias, Petty's Island, Pirates, Ralston Laird
Cemetery in the Devil's Woods
There's an odd little graveyard in an odd little corner of southeastern Pennsylvania, the Birmingham-Lafayette Cemetery in Chester County. Specifically, it's in the Brandywine area, bordering Delaware, in Birmingham Township. An old girlfriend introduced me to it, and not under the best of circumstances.
Brandywine is fairly creepy, what with its bloody place in the American Revolutionary War, its cold and barren Andrew Wyeth-type stone farm houses, and its Devil's Woods. The Battle of Brandywine Creek (also known as the Battle of Birmingham) was fought here on September 11, 1777. Due to a miscalculation by General George Washington, regarding the advance of British troops, the battle was a decisive victory for the British. This left Philadelphia, the revolutionary capital, undefended, and as a result the British soon captured it. Driving along Brandywine Creek is kind of an unnerving experience, especially at dawn. There are no houses—you're out in the boondocks. There are no streetlights, and you can't see any road signs, so a GPS is virtually useless. I got lost a number of times. One early morning as I was leaving her house and driving south along the creek, I got a bad case of the creepies. As mist rose off the water and pale colors slowly asserted themselves in the ancient woods, I imagined British, Hessian, and American troops fording the creek, battling, shedding blood, and dying. It really didn't take much to imagine this—I could almost see it as I drove along.
I didn't know until sometime later that the nearby cemetery is home to a mass grave for the hundreds of British and American Colonial troops that died in this big and bloody battle of the American Revolution. You just know any cemetery with a mass grave has to have many suffering spirits lurking about! The cemetery itself is only a few acres in size, with assorted large memorials and many smaller oddments. The few buildings nearby, e.g. the Birmingham Friends' Meeting House, were actually standing at the time of the battle. The Quakers continued their service in this building on September 11, 1777, as the battle outside raged on. The Meeting House was then taken over by Generals Lafayette and Pulaski for use as a makeshift field hospital. The dead were buried in the mass grave across the road in what became the Birmingham-Lafayette Cemetery.
The cemetery is spooky because it's so peaceful and quiet. Yeah, I know that's one of the modern purposes of cemeteries, to be meditative retreats, but this is just weird because it's so far out in the woods. The graveyard is not landscaped for quietude or anything, like the Victorian sculpture gardens—it's just a flat tract of land with a tree-lined road going down the center. The stone walls of this (originally) Quaker burial ground were actually used by the American army in its first line of defense during the Battle of Brandywine Creek. Paradoxically, this cemetery was a battlefield! The dead were just buried where they fell. A monument was erected to mark the spot where George Washington's Major General, the Marquis de Lafayette, was wounded during the battle. The cemetery was renamed in his honor.
Living in a city, the lack of people and houses is somewhat unnerving. All that's here are woods and silence. Doesn't make it any more comforting knowing about nearby Devil's Woods, or the "Cult House" (you can read more about these by clicking the link below). The area is rural, country even, and densely wooded. Cemetery trees are one thing, but this place is just too creepy. No doubt due to its weirdness and the legends accompanying it, M. Night Shyamalan fimed his movie "The Village" in the vicinity. (You may recall that the film is about a village of brainwashed people living deep in a dark wood). According to Matt Lake in the book Weird Pennsylvania, nature can even sense the evil in the area, as the trees that line narrow Cossart Road (better known as "Satan's Road") rear back from the roadway as if recoiling from something unspeakable. Along that road is the "Devil's Tree," a big tree that itself is in the shape of a human hand reaching into the ground, not unlike this one in the cemetery itself (see links below).
So my introduction to the Birmingham-Lafayette Cemetery happened this way. My girlfriend (of a couple months) and I were out driving in her car one day and without warning, she just stopped at a supermarket a few miles from Birmingham-Lafayette. Silently, she got out of the car and went in. I followed. She bought a large potted flower and headed back to the car. Silently, she drove to the cemetery. Slowly coasting dawn the single straight road that divides the grounds, she stopped. She picked up the flower, got out of the car, and began walking toward some headstones. She stopped in front of a newer-looking one, put the flower down in front of it, and just stood there. I looked at the inscription on the stone and realized it was her father's grave. He had died two years ago on this day.
I waited. Eventually she came back to the car, totally dry-faced, and apologetic. I more than made up for her lack of tears by totally breaking down. My father had been dead two years as well. I hadn't mentioned this to her, and I hadn't yet cried.
She found it as difficult to let go of her father as my father had found it difficult to let go of life. On his deathbed, he was scared. He was terror-stricken. This anvil of a man, this cursing, coarse and vulgar stone mason cried, and said to me while grabbing at my hands, "It's not fair!" It was the only time I ever cursed in his presence. I raged bitterly at the situation that had befallen him and said, "Nothing is fucking fair." What took both her father and mine was a fairly quick illness that caught them in their sixties. I think my dad would have made a ferocious Revolutionary War farmer-fighter.
—Dylan Thomas (1952)
I don't ever have to go back to this cemetery. The photograph relieves us of the burden of memory, says Susan Sontag in her essay, "Uses of Photography," (in On Looking, J. Berger, Pantheon Books, 1980). "With the loss of memory the continuities of meaning and judgment are also lost to us…the camera records in order to forget. "
Brandywine Battlefield Historic Site
Map of Brandywine area including Brandywine River Museum, home to many wonderful Wyeth family paintings
Andrew Wyeth links on Amazon
Local Legends:
Devil's Road and Cult House
Leaping monsters of Brandywine
YouTube Trip up Devil's Road
Labels: Birmingham-Lafayette Cemetery in Chester County. Specifically, Friends' Meeting House, Marquis de Lafayette, There's an odd little graveyard in an odd little corner of southeastern Pennsylvania


When you buy property you have to make allowances for the fact that property is one of those assets which cannot easily be turned into cash. On the other hand you will need cash to run your business. This causes a dilemma if you have no really no cash flows coming in and you have some valuable property which needs to be managed as part of the process of real estate investing.
Banks recognize this fact and might have certain arrangements to deal with people in the real estate business so that they do not have to close down their business just because of the lack of availability of inward cash flows. This article aims to highlight some of the ways in which you can deal with your problems.
Remortgaging is one of the first ports of call when you are in situation that requires money yet you are unable to or unwilling to sell your property. The level of borrowing that is available to you will also depend on the amount of cumulative equity that you have in your property. If you property has risen way beyond the purchase price due to price inflation or the fact that you have added enhancements to the property which have increased its value means that you have more leverage when attempting to raise money via a mortgage.
Obviously you will not want to be in a position where you are borrowing far more than the value of the property. In fact the bank will insist on an independent assessment to ensure that they are getting value for money when they allow you to mortgage your property. The cash that is raised from such an arrangement has to be dealt with in a very sensitive manner because you are in effect using some of the equity value within the property investment and rather than spending it on personal things, it is far better to use it to grow the business.
If you are involved in the real estate investing business, you may actually decide to just take out a loan but then when they ask you for collateral, you volunteer your property. The presence of collateral will not only increase the amount you can borrow but it will also give you leeway as to the payment terms. That way you can use your valuable property to raise quick cash which will help you in the running of your business.
There are risks involved because if you do not pay up in terms and to schedule the banks will be looking to take away your property. If you are a person whose only source of income is from real property investing, then you will be well on your way to financial ruin if it befalls you that you have to give away your asset simply because your were unable to pay the loan.
The third alternative is simply to sell one of the properties in the real estate investing portfolio in order to support the cash flow requirements of the other properties. This is akin to making a loss leader strategy but it may just about work for you.


How Does The Savvy Inspector Help Home Inspectors?
Every client The Savvy Inspector serves has different needs and wants from the Ultimate Success Coaching Program. This is why we do not use a one-size-fits-all strategy.
Clients may not understand exactly what they need to be more successful when they join the program so we assist them by providing them a form we call "Where Are You Right Now." Upon completion of the form they will have a comprehensive snapshot of their home inspection business.
Once the "Where Are You Right Now" form is complete it's time to move to step one.
You Got To Have A Plan Stan!
Step 1: What's Your Vision Of Where You Want Your Firm To Be In 3-5 Years.
Step 2: Then Establish Goals That Will Allow You To Achieve Your Vision.
Step 3: Mindmap Your Goals To Determine The Roadblocks To Achieving Them.
Step 4: Get Your Action Plan Laid Out In The Form Of Your Marketing Plan.
Step 5: Put Your "To Do's" From Your Marketing Plan On Your Marketing Calendar.
Step 6: At the beginning of each month, you'll conduct Performance To Plan for the month prior, to see how well you're progressing in achievement of your goals.
If the steps above are unfamiliar to you, don't worry, they were unfamiliar to many of our most successful clients in the beginning as well. We have lots of tools and training on how to complete each one of these steps so that you can achieve the outcomes you desire faster.
Once you fully understand what you want your business to look like in 3 to 5 years you need to select SMART Goals that are congruent with your vision for your business.
After you have determined your SMART Goals it's time to get into Strategies and Tatics to support your Goals.
The strategies and tatics are the actions you need to take to achieve your SMART Goals and combined with a due date you have a powerful tool to achieve your desired outcomes.
Finally, we need a report card to let us evaluate what we said we were going to do to what actually happened in the prior month. We call that report card Performance To Plan.
Based on what the client wants his/her firm to look like in the future will dictate which strategies they employ to achieve their desired outcomes.
We will teach you our proven systems and you will be able to implement them into your firm right away, plus we give tons of support every step of the way on your journey to reaching your objectives.
A Nominal Amount… epecially when compared to what you'll make when you implement just one of the strategies you'll discover or what you'll save by getting a direct, specific answer to that one big question that's been plaguing you.


I cannot use Xfinity Wifi on my phone to watch a show view my account or anything. Tried to setup direct pay etc on my phone and couldn't .
hi, your mobile device connects to a 'named' (SSID) wifi signal. Have you checked to see the name of the SSID that your device is currently attached?
you can load/run the Xfinity My Account app on any service even your cell provider data. on that app, you can verify that your actual modem/gateway is listed on the internet tab (the model will show and the devices MAC address will be listed. If no modem is listed you will need to call 800-Comcast and select billing and ask that your modem/device be 'attached' in billing to an outlet (that will activate the in home use of wifi detection.


The complexity of today's autonomous robots poses a major challenge for Artificial Intelligence. These robots are equipped with sophisticated sensors and mechanical abilities that allow them to enter our homes and interact with humans. For example, today's robots are almost all equipped with vision and several of them can move over rough terrain with wheels or legs. The methods developed so far in Artificial Intelligence, however, are not yet ready to cope with the complexity of the information gathered through the robot sensors and the need for rapid action in partially unknown and dynamic environments. In this thesis, I will argue that the apparent complexity of the environment and of the robot brain can be significantly simplified if perception, behavior, and learning are allowed to co-develop on the same time scale. In doing so, robots become sensitive to, and actively exploit, characteristics of the environment that they can tackle within their own computational and physical constraints. This line of work is grounded on philosophical and psychological research showing that perception is an active process mediated by behavior. However, computational models of active vision are very rare and often rely on architectures that are preprogrammed to detect certain characteristics of the environment. Previous work have shown that complex visual tasks, such as position and size invariant shape recognition as well as navigation, can be tackled with remarkably simple neural architectures generated by a coevolutionary process of active vision and feature selection. Behavioral machines equipped with primitive vision systems and direct pathways between visual and motor neurons were evolved while freely interacting with their environments. I proceed further on this line of investigation and describe the application of this methodology in three situations, namely car driving with an omnidirectional camera, goal-oriented navigation of a humanoid robot, and cooperative tasks by two agents. I will show that these systems develop sensitivity to a number of oriented, retinotopic, visual features – oriented edges, corners, height – and a behavioral repertoire to locate, bring, and keep these features in sensitive regions of the vision system that allow them to accomplish their goals. In a second set of experiments, I will show that active vision can be exploited by the robot to perform anticipatory exploration of the environment in a task that requires landmark-based navigation. Evolved robots exploit an internal expectation system that makes use of active exploration to check for expected events in the environment. I will describe a third set of experiments where, in addition to an evolutionary process, the visual system of the robot can develop receptive fields by means of unsupervised Hebbian learning and show that these receptive fields are significantly affected by the behavior of the system and differ from those predicted by most computational models of visual cortex. Finally, I will show that these robots replicate the performance deficiencies observed in experiments of motor deprivation with kitten when they are exposed to the same type of motor deprivations. Furthermore, the analyses of our robot brains suggest an explanation for the deficiencies observed in kitten that have not yet been fully understood.


text:
Q: Replace All Commas with Blank in an Array I have hit a dead end - need some help!  code is below.  Should be very simple.... I have an array that is many rows long and 33 columns wide..... I just need to get all the commas out of the array values.  The array is composed of some string fields and also some number fields.....  Any help is appreciated!
So far I can't get any luck with the .replace function.... thanks
function Pipeline() {
  var writelocation = SpreadsheetApp.openById(globalvariables().importerid);
  var writesheet = writelocation.getSheetByName("Pipeline");
  var linkssheet = writelocation.getSheetByName(globalvariables().linkstab);
  writesheet.getRange("A:AG").clear();
  //var length = 1 + getLastRowSpecial(linkssheet.getRange("C:C").getValues());
  var length = 5;
  var array = [];
  var array = [
    ["Highlight", "Customer", "Prospect", "Type", "Status", "Product Detail & Comments", "Start Date", "End Date", "Bulk Sales", "Bulk GM%", "Non-Bulk Sales", "Non-Bulk GM%", "Safety Sales", "Safety GM%", "Welding Sales", "Welding GM%", "Rent / Other Sales", "Rent / Other GM%", "Source", "Segment", "Competitor", "Contract Expiration", "Win Reason", "Loss Reason", "PSA Won", "Contacts", "Probability", "Monthly Sales", "Monthly GM", "12M Sales", "District", "Area", "Salesperson"]
    ];
  for (i=2; i<length; i++) {
    var source = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(linkssheet.getRange(i,3).getValue()).getSheetByName("Pipeline").getRange("A4:AG").getValues().filter(function(item){ return item[4] != ""; });

    for (k=0; k<source.length; k++) {
      for (j=0; j<source[k].length; j++) {
        source[k][j].toString().replace(/[,]/g,'-');

      }
      array.push(source[k]);
         }
  }
  writesheet.getRange(1,1,array.length,array[0].length).setValues(array);
  linkssheet.getRange("E3").setValue(new Date()).setNumberFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
}

A: Your script has multiple issue-

*

*You are declaring same variable twice-

var array = [];
 var array = ["Highlight",...]

*You are setting header values in a 1D array, which can not be written to Sheet.

var array = [
    ["Highlight", "Customer", "Prospect", "Type", "Status", "Product Detail & Comments", "Start Date", "End Date", "Bulk Sales", "Bulk GM%", "Non-Bulk Sales", "Non-Bulk GM%", "Safety Sales", "Safety GM%", "Welding Sales", "Welding GM%", "Rent / Other Sales", "Rent / Other GM%", "Source", "Segment", "Competitor", "Contract Expiration", "Win Reason", "Loss Reason", "PSA Won", "Contacts", "Probability", "Monthly Sales", "Monthly GM", "12M Sales", "District", "Area", "Salesperson"]
    ];

*You are replacing "," with "-" when the title say you want to replace it with space

*You are not assigning the replaced value to any other variable, the replace method doesn't changes the object it is called on.
So this is how your code should look like
function Pipeline() {
  var writelocation = SpreadsheetApp.openById(globalvariables().importerid);
  var writesheet = writelocation.getSheetByName("Pipeline");
  var linkssheet = writelocation.getSheetByName(globalvariables().linkstab);
  writesheet.getRange("A:AG").clear();
  //var length = 1 + getLastRowSpecial(linkssheet.getRange("C:C").getValues());
  var length = 5;
  var array = [];
  array[0] = [
    ["Highlight", "Customer", "Prospect", "Type", "Status", "Product Detail & Comments", "Start Date", "End Date", "Bulk Sales", "Bulk GM%", "Non-Bulk Sales", "Non-Bulk GM%", "Safety Sales", "Safety GM%", "Welding Sales", "Welding GM%", "Rent / Other Sales", "Rent / Other GM%", "Source", "Segment", "Competitor", "Contract Expiration", "Win Reason", "Loss Reason", "PSA Won", "Contacts", "Probability", "Monthly Sales", "Monthly GM", "12M Sales", "District", "Area", "Salesperson"]
  ];
  for (i=2; i<length; i++) {
    var source = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(linkssheet.getRange(i,3).getValue()).getSheetByName("Pipeline").getRange("A4:AG").getValues().filter(function(item){ return item[4] != ""; });

    for (k=0; k<source.length; k++) {
      for (j=0; j<source[k].length; j++) {
        source[k][j] = source[k][j].toString().replace(/[,]/g,' ');

      }
      array.push(source[k]);
    }
  }
  writesheet.getRange(1,1,array.length,array[0].length).setValues(array);
  linkssheet.getRange("E3").setValue(new Date()).setNumberFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
}

A: How about this answer?
Modification points:

*

*In your script, I think that source[k][j].toString().replace(/[,]/g,'-'); is required to be put to source[k][j].

*

*I think that the reason of your issue might be this.

*Your title is Replace All Commas with Blank in an Array. But, replace(/[,]/g,'-') replaces , to -. Although I'm not sure about the actual value of source[k][j].toString(), if you want to replace , to blank, please modify to replace(/[,]/g,' ') or replace(/[,]/g,'').

*

*I think that you want to replace only ,, you can also use replace(/,/g,' ')
When above points are reflected to your script, it becomes as follows.
Modified script:

From:

source[k][j].toString().replace(/[,]/g,'-');

To:

source[k][j] = source[k][j].toString().replace(/[,]/g,' ');  // or replace(/[,]/g,'')

Reference:

*

*replace()

A: function Pipeline() {
  var writelocation = SpreadsheetApp.openById(globalvariables().importerid);
  var writesheet = writelocation.getSheetByName("Pipeline");
  var linkssheet = writelocation.getSheetByName(globalvariables().linkstab);
  writesheet.getRange(1,1,writesheet.getLastRow(),33).clear();
  var array = [["Highlight", "Customer", "Prospect", "Type", "Status", "Product Detail & Comments", "Start Date", "End Date", "Bulk Sales", "Bulk GM%", "Non-Bulk Sales", "Non-Bulk GM%", "Safety Sales", "Safety GM%", "Welding Sales", "Welding GM%", "Rent / Other Sales", "Rent / Other GM%", "Source", "Segment", "Competitor", "Contract Expiration", "Win Reason", "Loss Reason", "PSA Won", "Contacts", "Probability", "Monthly Sales", "Monthly GM", "12M Sales", "District", "Area", "Salesperson"]];
  var vs=linksheet.getRange(2,3,3,1).getValues();
  vs.forEach(function(url,i){
    var sss=SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(url);
    var ssh=sss.getSheetByName("Pipeline");
    var srg=ssh.getRange(4,1,ssh.getLastRow()-3,1);
    var source=srg.getValues();
    source.forEach(function(r,k){
      r.forEach(function(c,j){
        source[k][j].replace(/[,]/g,'');
      });
      array.push(source[k])
    });
    writesheet.getRange(1,1,array.length,array[0].length).setValues(array);
    linkssheet.getRange("E3").setValue(new Date()).setNumberFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
  });
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange