text:
Search Crooked Compass
Select Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
Tour Spotlight: Eastern Borders of Turkey
20/06/2018 Posted by Crooked Compass
So you are looking for an experience that is off the beaten track and you want to leave the tourist path behind. Well, look no further than our Eastern Borders of Turkey tour. This tour offers it all; adventure, rich cultural unheard of experiences and breathtaking scenery.
Eastern Borders of Turkey Tour || Photo Credit: Michael Gaida
Beginning in the lush mountains of the Black Sea region, travel across arid plains, past crumbled villages and deep blue lakes. With its broad vistas and dramatic scenery, its ubiquitous borders, and a fascinating history and culture, this trip gives a truly varied insight into a part of Turkey rarely seen by foreign visitors.
Eastern Borders of Turkey Tour || Photo Credit: Crooked Compass
The tangle of ancient and current cultures will intrigue you as you visit evocative, historical sites such as the ancient Armenian capital of Ani, the Byzantine masterpiece that is Sumela Monastery, the Ishak Pasa Palace, the architecture of Mardin and many seldom visited spots such as Lake Çildir and the remote Georgian churches and fortresses in the northeast. Mount Ararat at 5137m dominates the Iranian border and Lake Van, vast and mountain encircled, feeds the plains near the Iraqi frontier.
Let's take a closer look at some of the highlights...
Explore Istanbul on Day 1
Grand Bazaar - Turkey || Photo Credit: Engin Akyurt
Historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the country's economic, cultural, and historic center. The day is yours to explore at your leisure. Are you going to head to the world-famous Grand Bazaar and try some of the local delicacies or pick up a some of the beautiful handmade decor items that Turkey is known for? Istanbul is primarily known for its Byzantine and Ottoman architecture, but its buildings reflect the various peoples and empires that have previously ruled the city. Why not walk the city and take in some of the beautiful designs and architecture from days gone by as well as the modern era. Have your camera ready, there is sure to be some street photography opportunities along the way.
Visit Sumela Monastery on Day 3
Trabzon - Altindere National Park|| Photo Credit: Crooked Compass
Nestled in a steep cliff at an altitude of about 1,200 metres facing the Altindere valley, Sumela Monastery is a site of great historical and cultural significance, within the Altindere National Park. The monastery was founded in AD 386 during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius I (375 - 395), Barnabas and Sophronios, two Athenian monks, founded the monastery. It became famous for an icon of the Virgin Mary known as the Panagia Gorgoepekoos, said to have been painted by the Apostle Luke. During the 2015-2017 restoration works, a secret tunnel was discovered which lead to a place which is believed to have served as a temple or chapel for Christians. Also, unseen frescoes were discovered depicting heaven and hell as well as life and death.
Enjoy a Turkish Van Breakfast on Day 9
Baclava - Eastern Borders of Turkey Tour || Photo Credit: Crooked Compass
A lavish breakfast awaits you this morning. A traditional Turkish 'Van Breakfast' which consists of at least 20 different dishes, such as herbal cheese (made with a mixture of various herbs unique to the region), martuga (a delicious pastry made with flour, butter and egg), and kavut (a sweet porridge made from pan-roasted barley flour and ground wheat). If you are not a morning breakfast person then after sampling a Van Breakfast we may just change your mind about breakfast being the best meal of the day!
Sunset at Mount Nemrut on Day 12
Crowning one of the highest peaks of the Eastern Taurus mountain range in south-east Turkey, Mount Nemrut is the Hierotheseion (temple-tomb and house of the gods) built by the late Hellenistic King Antiochos I of Commagene (69-34 B.C.) as a monument to himself. With a diameter of 145 m, the 50 m high funerary mound of stone chips is surrounded on three sides by terraces to the east, west and north directions. Two separate antique processional routes radiate from the east and west terraces. Five giant seated limestone statues, identified by their inscriptions as deities, face outwards from the tumulus on the upper level of the east and west terraces. These are flanked by a pair of guardian animal statues – a lion and eagle – at each end. This site is UNESCO World Heritage listed and is sure to be a visit you will remember.
Make this experience yours and join our next Eastern Borders of Turkey small group.
Alternatively, if you would like to design your own tour to this part of the world (or anywhere!) then please get in contact with us. Tours By Design are a Crooked Compass speciality; we would love to help you customise your own tour personalised precisely to your style.
Eat Like a Local
Swimming Spots
Unique Dining
Try our travel app
Travel Photo Diary: The Mist & Magic of India 15th July 2019
End of the USSR and Post Communist Life 8th July 2019
Experience Sri Lanka 1st July 2019
Please enter your email address and your itinerary will download automatically.
Crooked Compass


Mobile Responsive Design,Responsive Web Design Services,Responsive Website Design Company in Bangalore,India.
At Zinavo Technologies, we design in a technical approach to responsive designs. Start with the mobile responsive web design company,a baseline mobile experience and enhance with a media query cascade that starts from small screens and adapts design as screens get bigger.


text:
← Ray Bradbury
Writing the Story →
The Immigrant Class: Part 4
Posted on June 8, 2012 by Theodora Goss
This is going to be a short post, because I'm so very tired. I've been working all day, and I've spent the last two hours typing a thousand words of "England under the White Witch," the story I drafted on the bus from New York to Boston. But I thought I would talk a bit more about social class, because I do have more to say.
I think I've seen a fairly broad range of the social classes this country has to offer. I haven't seen the bottom or top of the range intimately, but I have at least seen it: the truly poor, whether the urban homeless or the rural poor living in run-down houses, and the ridiculously wealthy. I've met a billionaire: Jan Stenbeck, a Swedish media mogul who was mentioned in that crime novel — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He died several years ago, but while I was working as a corporate lawyer, he was a client of one of the firms I worked for. The firm flew me down to New York regularly to meet with the heads of his companies. We were doing some sort of corporate restructuring, I remember. But most of the people I've known and spent my time with belong in what we like to think of as the middle class, although in America the middle class goes all the way from teacher's aids to law firm partners. You can be earning $20,000 a year or $200,000 a year. And the bottom and top of that class are as alien to each other as they are to other classes, I sometimes think.
I still remember going to the University of Virginia, my freshman year (although it's called first year, there), and realizing that I was in a completely different social world. I had gone to high school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., among children whose parents belonged to the broad middle of the middle class. Some of them were government employees who could not afford to live in the city. Some were people who serviced the new suburban economy: construction workers, librarians, restaurant managers. The suburbs had been built up in the last twenty or so years, and there were still fields with horses in them, or actually being farmed. My high school was surrounded by fields. This was a culture shock for me: I had grown up in Budapest, Brussels, and the area around the National Institutes of Health, all of which were more dense, urban, cultured. I didn't quite know what to do with myself in these new suburbs.
One way social class differences are enforced even during the teenage years is by tracking in the high schools. I was on the advanced academic track, in the gifted program. But there were kids who left in the middle of the day for vocational training. This was the American high school as depicted in so many movies from the 1980s, where football players, cheerleaders, and prom are all important. Where students don't necessarily go on to college. I, of course, was expected to go to college and then graduate school. But it was a strange atmosphere to be in, where students had such different expectations. My graduating class was not particularly small, several hundred students, but there were only about thirty of us tracked at our level, all taking the same sequence of honors courses. In a sense, we formed a small school within the school. Need I add that we were of course the nerds of the school? The top of the class was drawn from our ranks.
Going to UVA meant encountering a very different social class: kids who had gone to private schools, who recognized each other's private schools, whose families often knew each other. This was the top of the "middle class" and bottom of the "upper class," which the broad middle middle class doesn't truly know or understand. These were the kids who, when they graduated, had internships waiting for them at Sotheby's or in congressional offices. I think it will take an entirely different blog post to talk about the social structure of UVA, but it involved certain clubs and secret societies — partly because UVA emulated and believed itself equal to the northern Ivies. I saw this social structure from the fringes because I dated some boys from it — my college boyfriend, whom I dated for two years, had gone to Groton, as had his father before him, and he understood that structure while despising it heartily. But he could not escape it either, and walked around campus in the same uniform of untucked button-down oxfords, khakis, and what we called boat shoes — Sperry top-siders. When something more formal was required, he threw a jacket over the oxford shirt. I don't think he ever tucked it in.
Although I'm so tired, this has been surprisingly easy to write. I think it's because when you're outside a social structure, it's easier to see inside it, to note its small details. Because it was all in the small details. And to understand the nuances that determine how people are placed, and drive how they behave. More on this to come.
My image for to day is the UVA Rotunda, from the 1870s:
There's one thing I should be more specific about. I went to such a variety of schools that it's not quite fair to talk about one high school as being mine. I started school in Brussels; then went to a private Catholic school in Pennsylvania; then a small public school, and then a larger public school, in Maryland; and then H.B. Woodlawn in Virginia, which is one of the best purblic schools in the country (and can best be described as hippie alternative); then a suburban middle school when my mother decided that we needed to be in surburbs (in part because I had been followed and almost attacked by a man while walking home from the bus stop); then a large and rather frightening high school in California; then the high school I described above. The longest I went to any one school was three and a half years. After that, I went to college — which was a relief. But more on that another time.
5 Responses to The Immigrant Class: Part 4
Richard Baldwin says:
"UVA emulated and believed itself equal to the northern Ivies". It was probably, then, more Ivy than the Ivies. Always seemed to me that groups who want to emulate other groups push the particularly noticeable characteristics of those groups further than the original group might ever. It's so interesting how different social groups choose to emulate each other, or set their identity counter to each other, and why . . .
Yes, that's absolutely true. When I actually went to Harvard, I realized that UVA, which sometimes called itself the Harvard of the south, was nothing like Harvard. And that it was emulating the wrong aspects of Harvard, as well. The secret societies rather than, say, the research funding . . .
I had no idea you went to UVA, Dora. I actually got accepted there, and was quite excited about it, but when my parents took me up to the campus to visit, I was immediately turned off by the projected sense of superiority and arrogance from both the faculty and students. Most likely because of what you mention: I grew up very firmly in the middle of the middle class, and the idea that privilege belongs only to the wealthy turned my stomach.
I'm sorry you decided not to go, Jason, because there are a lot of wonderful things about UVA, but I do get what you mean. Hearing "Mr. Jefferson's university" one too many times just makes me roll my eyes . . .
Yeah, it was probably unfair of me to make such a snap judgment at the time, but in my heart of hearts, NC State was always my number one choice. I don't regret going there one bit, especially since it allowed me to meet and befriend John Kessel.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Here's a rarely seen pair of late Victorian Hardy fishing brogues that really are invincible!
The advert catalogue caption states "All hand-made, Block Toes, Wide Welts" – in 1914 these cost 27/6p, a princely sum and they were made for many years thereafter.
Well, I tried these on and its like walking in deep sea divers boots. It doesn't help they are size UK 12-1/2 and I'm not, they don't bend, they don't give, they make a terrible racket too, but what a great Hardy collectable. They even still have the Hardy stamped brass scroll plates nailed to under side of the soles!
Side-eyelet vents let the water drain when you're out the river, canvas uppers give some flexibility and heavy studs all through the sole and heel give grip when wading.
These are in remarkably fine condition and would make a great talking point for any collector's vintage fishing tackle room!


A Milton Keynes handbag designer is celebrating after winning a new iPad in a competition organised by business support service Velocity.
Entrepreneur Charlotte Jamme, who runs global bag brand Mia Tui from her home in Middleton, landed the high-tech tablet after completing an online customer satisfaction survey giving her feedback on Velocity.
Her name was picked at random from 95 entrants who had completed the survey.
She said: "I couldn't believe it when I heard I had won. I never normally win anything yet the day before I'd won a parents' race at my kids' sports day so my luck must be in.
Charlotte has seen her business grow significantly since teaming up with Velocity, with a grant enabling her to produce a series of high quality promotional videos, invest in her website and digital advertising.
Velocity is the business support service delivered by the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), offering free one-to-one advice, workshops and guidance on funding streams.
To find out more about how Velocity could help you and your business, call 0300 01234 35.


text:
[ MORE REVIEWS ] [ WEBSITE ] [ NEW STORIES ]
In-Box Review
1⁄16
Red Lancer
120mm Red Lancer
by: Andy Brazier [ BETHEYN ]
Originally published on:
Historicus Forma
The 2e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers de la Garde Impériale (English: 2nd regiment of light cavalry lancers of the Imperial Guard) was a light cavalry regiment in Napoleon I's Imperial Guard. They were formed in 1810, after the Kingdom of Holland was annexed by France, but their original purpose was to serve as hussars of the Dutch Royal Guard. The units, who were of an elite order, were known for their loyalty and military might, as well as their professionalism in and out of battle.
When Napoleon annexed the Kingdom of Holland, ruled until then by his brother Louis Bonaparte, the Dutch Royal Guard merged with the Imperial Guard. The Hussars of the Dutch Royal Guard were converted into the new unit of horse-mounted Lancers, they were given a new scarlet-coloured uniform (copied, except the colour, from Polish lancers uniform) from that was responsible for their name, as well as a new set of weapons. They also received a new leader - Col. Baron Pierre David de Colbert-Chabanais - under whom they were known properly as the 2nd Light Horse Lancers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard (2e régiment de chevaux-légers des Lanciers de la Garde Impériale).
However, despite their previous posts in the Netherlands as the Royal Guards, they suffered enormous losses in the first invasion they participated in, which was that of Russia in 1812. While the devastation for the regiment at that particular conflict almost caused the entire dissolution of the newly formed unit, they would continue to serve in the military, but without many of the original Dutchmen, who were thought of as the pride of the regiment and who would be replaced by French soldiers.
The following year, in 1813, the Red Lancers were a distinguished regiment in a battle in Germany, and once again, in 1814, where they fought in the areas then known as the Low Countries.
The next year after that, in 1815, Napoleon returned from his exile. The same year, the Red Lancers fought at Waterloo. Even though Dutch-Belgian cavalry commander Jean Baptiste van Merlen, one of the most highly ranked and celebrated army officers of the regiment, lost his life at Waterloo, some of the original Dutchmen still existed in the ranks, and would serve as Red Lancers long after the French defeat there.
Info From Wikipedia
Packed in a top opening white box with an unpainted built mounted Red Lancer on the box lid, the cream coloured resin parts are well protected with bubble wrap and in re-sealable bags for the smaller parts.
The larger of the parts have a casting block moulded onto, for the most part, the gluing surfaces, with the smaller parts attached to a casting block. A few of the parts in my kit have fallen off the casting blocks, so care will need to be taken when opening the bags not too lose any.
A fair amount of flash and a few seam lines abound on the larger parts, but nothing a swipe with a sanding stick wont take care of.
The horse is made up of four parts, and is modelled as galloping. The body is split into left and right halves with the head and neck a separate piece. The tail makes up the last part.
The saddle and associated straps and belts are cast onto the body, with the saddle also having the saddlecloth with a cloak rolled up underneath it. The sheepskin saddle cover is well done with the wool effect nicely cast. The shabraquet (saddlecloth) has the a raised crest on the rear corner which is correct for the Dutch Lancers, the Polish Lancers had an "N" in the opposite corner as well as the crest.
The head and neck are cast as one piece and is modelled with the head slightly turned to the left, with the mane streaming out and the mouth ajar. The bridle is cast onto the head, but no reins are supplied, so an alternative material will need to be sourced.
The tail supplied is cast as streaming behind the horse. Drilling out the tail to fit it onto the horses body will probably need to be done as I don't think glue alone will hold it in place.
A saddle roll for behind the figure is also supplied.
The rider is cast as six separate parts, with the head and torso as one part, left and right arms and left and right legs. The last part is the plume for the czapska (lancer cap).
The Lancer looks to be suited in the full dress uniform, with the czapska not having the oiled canvas cover, normally found covering it in the field.
Detail is pretty good with the uniform looking well done and correct (I haven't counted every single button though lol).
Raised details on the uniform look pretty good and will lend well to painting.
The left and right legs have the stirrups for the horse moulded onto the boots, along with part of the strap, but it looks as though some material will need to be used for the straps to properly connect them to the horse.
Raised detail for the stripes on the legs will aid in the painting of these parts.
The left arm is modelled holding the reins (not supplied), with the right arm holding the lance. You will have to drill a hole for the metal lance to sit in the hand correctly and securely.
Both hands have the gauntlets modelled onto them.
A small cartridge pouch fits on the back of the rider.
Two weapons are supplied for the lancer, one obviously is the lance which is made up of three parts.
The pole is a black metal rod, with the lance tip and pennant attaching to the end. Drilling out the parts will aid in attaching these parts.
The other weapon is a sheathed sabre, which attaches to the left leg.
Lancers typically had a pistol and a carbine as well, but these are not supplied for the kit.
There are a number of smaller parts which connects the reins, bit and bridle together, and a few other bits which I haven't quite figured where they go yet.
Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on HISTORICUS FORMA
Thanks to Mitches Military Models for the discounted model.
Highs: Beautifully cast and sculpted.
Lows: Quite a bit of flash and a few seam lines to take care of.
Verdict: A very dynamic posed and beautiful piece of resin. As soon as this kit was announced it was near enough sold out, such was its superb sculpting by Carl Reid and casting by Mitches.
Percentage Rating
Mfg. ID: Red Lancer
Suggested Retail: £65.00
NATIONALITY: Netherlands
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
THIS REVIEWER: 84.81%
MAKER/PUBLISHER: 86.67%
DISCUSS THIS REVIEW
About Andy Brazier (betheyn)
FROM: ENGLAND - SOUTH EAST, UNITED KINGDOM
I started modelling in the 70's with my Dad building Airfix aircraft kits. The memory of my Dad and I building and painting a Avro Lancaster on the kitchen table will always be with me. I then found a friend who enjoyed building models, and between us I think we built the entire range of 1/72 Airfi...
Copyright ©2019 text by Andy Brazier [ BETHEYN ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.
Bravo1102
After the 1812 campaign it was determined that lancers were overloaded with gear for light cavalry. So they were reorganized into rows according to order in the charge. The first row had lances and no carbines. The second row had carbines but no lances. The only one who had both was the corporal. (In French brigadier So the omission of the carbine on a Lance armed Lancer is actually correct. This figure lacks the rank insignia of a corporal.
Go to Forum Topic
REVIEW SOMETHING ELSE
Helpful Tip
3 Members online: dann, gastec, GazzaS
1 Staff members online: WARLORD
102 non-logged in visitors(which includes 1 search engine/bot)


Queensland nuts or Macadamias on the tree. Image from wikipedia.
Growing up as a child in Queensland, we had a large Queensland nut tree in our back garden. Now known as macadamias, these nuts make you work hard to get to their delicious centres (unless you buy them stripped bare). First you have to work through the hard protective casing around the nut, unless it's so ripened that the exterior has turned brown and ready to fall off. Then you are still left with the rock-hard shell itself. This is no dainty nut, ready to be cracked with a graceful pair of nut crackers on the Christmas table. No, you need a hammer, the perfect spot in the concrete path and a firm stroke and a good aim for the seam in the shell. Hit too hard and you'll demolish the nut itself, hit too softly and that delicious nut will continue to elude you. Or you just use your grandfather's vice from "under the house".
It struck me last night that's a pretty good analogy to some family history research, especially the focus I've had lately on exploring all things relating to the little barque, Florentia, on which my ancestor Mary O'Brien may have arrived in 1853.
Official Correspondence at the same archives between the various authorities: Colonial Secretary, Immigration Board, Immigration Agent, Brisbane Resident and the Police Magistrate for Brisbane.
News stories from Trove and also the British and Irish newspapers on Find My Past which were largely unproductive, as was a check of the Welsh newspapers online.
JSTOR articles available with my National Library of Australia card, again unproductive.
I've compared the data squeezed from each source and analysed places of origin and relations in the colony.
I already knew this ship had taken an inordinate, and unusual, amount of time to reach Moreton Bay: 156 days or 23 weeks. They'd had an unscheduled stop in Hobart Town after 19+ weeks at sea, because they'd been loaded with only 20 weeks of provisions. Surely all on board must have been getting anxious before they reached Hobart – after all they'd been rationed since passing the Cape of Good Hope.
The Sydney Morning Herald of 11 May 1853, reported a Brisbane story of 22 April: "The Florentia is the next immigrant vessel for this place, and she may now be considered fully due". Initially I thought this was code for wondering if the ship had been lost, especially as it had only spoken two other vessels[i], both in the early weeks of the voyage. However by the time of the story, the news of the ship's arrival in Hobart had already been published.
These newspaper references and the length of the voyage gave me hope that the official correspondence would provide some clues to this enquiry, and indeed it did…but I will keep this for a separate story. The newspaper reporter seems to have been correct in his assumption, too, that the mystery would be stifled. Nothing further is reported in any of the newspapers on Trove, as far as I could find, and as I've mentioned nothing in the British, Welsh or Irish newspapers, at least by the ship's name.
There is contradictory evidence as to how many died on the voyage as well as how many births there were. The summary information for the Florentia in Hobart lists 9 deaths: 1 married woman, 3 single women, 1 boy under 14, 3 girls under 14 and one infant. In fact the infant was, as far as I can tell a stillborn child. However by the time the ship reached Brisbane, they were reporting 12 births and 17 deaths.[v] It is entirely possible (probable) that four passengers died between Hobart and Moreton Bay as the total number of passengers falls from 249 to 245. This would still leave an anomaly of four deaths, which would reconcile with the additional four births, though not necessarily the same children[vi].
These figures are representative but without a breakdown of the additional deaths cannot be entirely accurate.
The most tragic aspect of the deaths is that those people's names remain unrecorded. One can deduce that two married women died, simply by looking at the details for families, so presumably one died on the final phase of the journey. As the parents' names are stated for the children in each family, the mothers' names are revealed even though they are not listed on the manifests as "died on the voyage", which I've seen on other ships. The two married women were Mary Massy (family from Limerick) and Cath Ryan (family from Tipperary).
But what of the children who succumbed on the voyage, or the single women? Sadly, there is no mention of their names anywhere. I wonder if their families ever learnt what happened to them.
With my East Clare database which covers the period 1848-1870, the mortality rate was 1%, very low. On this voyage, the overall rate was 5%, with females being the most at risk category. Girls under 14 were particularly vulnerable, with a 6.98% mortality, and likely more depending on the deaths between Hobart and Moreton Bay. It's tempting to conclude that this would, in large part, have been down to the reduced provisions, including the lack of water mentioned in passenger complaints, and reiterated in the Immigration Board's enquiry.[vii] Of itself the long voyage should not have had such an impact but the ship was also a former convict-ship and was probably not as well equipped as some later ones, or as suitable for general emigration.
If ever there was a voyage when one might wish for a copy of the Surgeon's journal, this would be one of them. Among the SRNSW documents is a letter which indicates that the surgeon's diary was forwarded to the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners[viii] but sadly it does not appear in the lists of extant diaries on the UK National Archives site. There is also no mention of a passenger diary extant for this voyage in the Log of Logs.
My hope from this research voyage was that I'd find any clues at all to suggest there were unassisted passengers on this voyage, and any kind of reference to Mary and her sister. Unfortunately my quest was futile. I know a lot about this ship's voyage but am none the wiser about Mary. Perhaps my family tree is indeed a Queensland Nut or Macadamia tree…it's certainly keeping me on my toes.
I'm left feeling like the prince who went from house to house trying to squeeze the glass slipper on each young woman's foot hoping to find the beautiful girl who'd stolen his heart. I suppose by now I should know better than believe in fairy stories.
Who was mentioned in the documents? What was the scandal? Come back for the second instalment.
A readable and informative reference book on the conditions of voyages is Robin Haines' book "Life and death in the age of sail".[ix] I can highly recommend it to provide a solid understanding of the health aspects of migration.
[ii] Moreton Bay Courier 30 April 1853, page 3.
[iii] Sydney Morning Herald, 11 May 1853, page 2 supplement.
[v] Empire, 10 May 1853 page 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article61324080.
[vi] The newspaper reports that 12 of the deaths were children.
[vii] SRNSW 53/1419 in batch 53/5645. Immigration Board at Brisbane to the Agent for Immigration, 19 May 1853. The Board comprised Messrs Wickham, Duncan and Swift.
[viii] SRNSW 53/8264. Agent for Immigration to the Colonial Secretary for forwarding, dated 15 September 1853.


Picacha enables to make a quick screenshot and share to online. Share a screenshot in just 1 click.
1. Drag your mouse to grab the screen.
3. Share with your friends and colleagues.
You no longer need to spend time on image editing and hosting, Picacha it will do for you.
Quick screenshot - get link to a screenshot in 3 clicks.
Before you make a screenshot you can make the necessary notes on-screen marker, and then share a link to a screenshot with everybody.
Create the animation from screenshots or any other images.
Make thumbnails (caps, previews) of video files.
If you want the image to always be available on the network, use this function. After uploading the images you will get a link to image permanent url on the Internet.


I am 68 year old female who travels on RS trips solo---because my husband has not yet retired---and I would like to know if there is anywhere on this site that solo travelers post a little bit about themselves and what trips they are contemplating so that other solo travelers might get to know others and perhaps plan trips together. I have seen this on discussion boards on Rick Steves travel website, but have not found anything similar on this site. I love to travel, and will travel solo by necessity, but would much prefer to meet others and travel with someone I know a little about. I have limited funds and cannot usually afford to pay the single supplement to stay in a room by myself.
I am going to try out Road scholar for the first time. I am willing to share so therefore I didn't have to pay the extra single supplement. I am going on the Kentucky derby and paddlewheel boat trip on April 28. I hope I get a nice roommate. I love to travel and I am a widow I am 67 and if anybody is looking to share on a trip someday please let me know. I would really like to do and urtica the end of this year or in January 2019. The other trip I would really like to do is to go to Malaysia and maybe Vietnam.
I'll be going to Ireland on the May 4-14 "Enchanted Ireland: Town & Country" trip and also am a solo travel. It's my first Road Scholar trip, so I'm pretty excited. My husband isn't interested in going abroad but I am! I like the idea of luxuriating in my own room, at least on this trip. I'll be 75 next month (February) and thought this would be a great birthday present to myself. I love walking but not 6-7 miles a day. For me, that's too much because I'd like to mingle and chat with the locals more at my own pace. I enjoy my senior Zumba classes, and my usual walks are around 4 miles.
I am a 65 year old woman, divorced and in good physical shape. Most of my friends are married or already have travel buddies. I am interested in making friends, male or female, with whom I can plan future outings. I live in the NY metropolitan area.
My wife and I are joining our friends (another couple) on this trip. So far, I have been very disappointed in the fractured communication from RS to me about our flights. I called the RS chat line and got the chat evaluation questions but no chat. Grr. If we get any, we will be happy to share info with you.
Thank you for reaching out to us, m.wells012612. We are sorry to hear of the difficulties you have encountered communicating with our team to date, but would love the opportunity to speak with you further to better understand your experience and resolve your concerns. Would you be open to a phone call from us?
I hope so. I am a bit apprehensive since I am going alone and don't know anyone on the trip. Diving in feet first... hope no rocks hidden in the water.
LOL, you'll be fine. Remember you are not traveling "alone". You are traveling "solo". To me a huge distinction and the advantage of traveling with RS. Having almost all meals together you have a chance to get to know the people you travel with. I have been on 5 RS trips solo and have never been disappointed. I find the question "What are you passionate about?" a great conversation starter when meeting people for the first time.
Took one to Old World Eurpoe in the fall and it was great. Have never felt left out.
I too want to travel, and my husband does not. So I like the idea of creating a listing of people (only those who choose to be listed) with a little detail about travel preferences and personal details. Thus, if people want to double up, or even still go "solo" but have a potential friend on the same trip, they could do so.
That is a great idea. Having a friend on the trip is so important to me.
Hi. I'm 68 yo also and love to travel. Currently I'm focusing on national parks, but there are also places out of the US I'm interested in. Would love to travel with another woman. I used to host a travel meetup, but it isn't easy to find other solo travelers. Where do you live? I'm in Colorado. My next trip in May is to the Badlands and area around Rapid City. Never been there so I am driving up. Would love the company if anyone is leaving from Colorado!
Amazonian Peru. Would like to visit Andean-Peru and Euro-Peru also. Cuba seems an interesting destination. Heck, anywhere is probably a good destination when one is in the company of interesting travelers.


There are two Stanislaw Lems. I'm a big fan of the playful satirist who wrote The Cyberiad and A Perfect Vacuum. The hard science fiction writer, not so much. Not that Lem couldn't write brilliantly in that mode–Solaris really is a classic–but his track record wasn't as good.
For the longest time the only version of Solaris in English was a translation of a translation. A few years ago an ebook of a new, direct translation was released. More recently I came across another new Lem translation of The Invincible, which I'd never read.
The Invincible is Lem in Hard SF mode. It's very much not Solaris. In fact, of all the Stanislaw Lem novels I've read this is the weakest. Lem was famously unimpressed by American science fiction but reading The Invincible it's hard to understand why. It underachieves in exactly the same way as most "golden age" American SF.
The Invincible's prose is nothing more than functional. It's so straightforward it's a slog to read. That might seem contradictory, but the difference between functional prose and good prose is the difference between a monotonous drone and a song. What's more fun to listen to: a Beatles album, or your refrigerator? The Invincible is the refrigerator.
It's hard to tell whether this is more the fault of Lem or his translator. Lem was usually lucky with his translators, but The Invincible often felt off. For instance, at one point the text refers to "shadowless lamps" where Lem probably meant they didn't have lampshades.
But never mind the prose–Hard SF fans will tell you the ideas are the star! This argument has problems.
First, if described badly enough even the most fascinating ideas can be boring. The Invincible's opening sets the tone. Before any of the characters even wake up it spends 500 words narrating a starship's automatic processes, and we're halfway through the first chapter before we get any dialogue that isn't tech jargon like "Full axis power. Static thrust." This novel cares more about things than people.
It was baffling, because both men were entirely indistinguishable from the others in their clothing, weaponry, and appearance.
Most of the crew don't have full names and it's impossible to remember what surname belongs to who, or which characters we've seen before, or when, or where. The Invincible feels like a sketch comedy where all the characters are played by the same two or three people.
Some, again, would argue that The Invincible is the kind of book where the ideas are more important than the characters. But the main advantage a novel of ideas has over a nonfiction book is that it can bounce its concepts and themes off of idiosyncratic characters, with their own concerns and opinions, who will send those ideas in unexpected and strange directions. If the characters are flat, the ideas probably won't bounce far.
Which is a problem, because, well, the rest of the genre eventually did pick up on emergence and nanotechnology, and did find more interesting things to do with them. Heck, Doctor Who has done more interesting things with them. That's the other problem with science fiction that only exists to drop a few ideas: science fictional ideas have a sell-by date. Once a SF novel is conceptually past its time it needs to give us some other reason to keep reading it. The Invincible didn't manage that.
I think that the invincible is one of the best books written by Lem, together with "His master's voice" (that you probably dislike also, by looking at the incipit of your article).
"The invincible" is simply a visionary masterpiece and as you recognize, contains ideas that still today are ahead of our time and that could really benefit scientific fields such as biology. I don't really care about prose in hard-scifi (you probably dislike Egan also, another unconventional writer able to go extremely deep into scientific and philosophical questions at the price of a very dry prose), Lem is describing a space mission and the rational behavior of trained crew members. We can thus excuse Lem for avoiding idiotic dialogues such as the ones about "love" in Nolan's "Interstellar" or the behaviors of the braindead junkies that Ridley Scott usually selects as crew in "his" spaceships.
Lem took the most brilliant ideas of his generation of scifi writers and gave them to us. Yep, I think that his work is brilliantly done.
i am not agree at all. In my opinion "The Invincible" is one of the best novel of Lem.
Idea and climate are very nice. I drowned in this book.


Kami adalah spesialis Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light produsen & pemasok / pabrik dari Cina. Grosir Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light dengan kualitas tinggi dengan harga murah / murah, salah satu dari Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light merek terkemuka dari Cina, Shandong Kang'erjian Medical Technology Ltd..
Wholesale Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light from China, Need to find cheap Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light as low price but leading manufacturers. Just find high-quality brands on Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light produce factory, You can also feedback about what you want, start saving and explore our Mobile Icu Room Surgical Light, We'll reply you in fastest.


Highway A15 Parma – La Spezia: Exit Pontremoli.
After the toll booth, turn right, at the end of the tunnel turn right towards Filattiera and cross the bridge over the river Magra, turn right again, drive for 3 km and turn left at the junction for Caprio.
Arrivals station of Pontremoli, agree appointment with the Mulino dè Briganti.


text:
British Columbia provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry wears a face mask as she views the Murals of Gratitude exhibition in Vancouver, on Friday, July 3, 2020. The business improvement association in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood honoured Dr. Henry with a sneak peek at a mural exhibition featuring her image. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
B.C. finds another 27 cases of COVID-19, outbreak on Haida Gwaii
Kelowna store adds to Okanagan public notices
B.C. has recorded 27 new cases of COVID-19 infection, including an outbreak of 13 confirmed cases on Haida Gwaii.
"Of the 13 people who have tested positive, one has recovered and 12 are active cases," provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a statement July 24. "At this time the cases are all local residents. While the initial source of transmission is still being investigated, the cases are all epidemiologically linked. Some are related to residents who had recently travelled off island, and others are from exposure to known cases."
With daily cases having jumped to near 30 in the past week, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reports that a clothing store in Kelowna has been added to prevention measures in the Okanagan, where parties and gatherings have caused the region's case count to go up.
There has been one additional coronavirus-related death, bringing B.C.'s total in the pandemic to 191. One active health care facility outbreak remains, at Holy Family Hospital long-term care facility in Vancouver.
RELATED: B.C. struggles with local food production in pandemic
RELATED: Premier wants parents to have Plan B for fall schooling
A new public health order is coming by next week to limit the number of people who can stay at or visit short-term rental accommodations or boat rentals.
"Similar to the case in restaurants, the number of people will be determined by the size of the space to ensure safe social interactions for everyone," Henry said. "This weekend, be mindful of where you are going and who you are seeing, assess your own risks and take steps to protect yourself and those you care for most."
The Centre for Disease Control is updating a list of current outbreaks in each health authority here.
@tomfletcherbc
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
BC legislatureCoronavirus
B.C. man gets 5 years behind bars for kicking death in Nelson
VIDEO: Oakleaf the moose, 8, euthanized at Greater Vancouver Zoo


Taking care of hair loss that is caused due to dandruff is a very simple process. Even though dandruff is not known to cause severe hair fall, it can make the hair to fall slowly. It is important to treat your hair in a perfect manner, so the hair fall can be stopped. Try to use the following steps for treating the hair fall due to dandruff and in case all these fail to provide proper result consult a doctor for better treatment.
First wash your hair using anti-dandruff hair shampoo after massaging it into the scalp. You can also mix peppermint essential hair oil in the shampoo before using it over the hair. Always massage your hair using your fingers which can increase the blood circulation in your scalp and improve hair growth. You can also control the hair fall using few essential oils such as cedar wood, rosemary as well as lavender. Apply any one of these oils over the scalp and mainly over the bald spots that was caused due to dandruff. Use hair conditioners all over the hair after taking a bath which can make your scalp to stay healthy leading to hair growth. Try to comb your hair using a wide toothed hair brush to prevent hair breakage. If you are using essential oils for treating hair fall, make sure to stay very patient during this period as the result can be seen only after 2 months.


1. Why children lose it ... Why we lose it ... and what is really happening in that moment and what you can do about it.
2. What it means to really connect with your child and the effect that has of their emotional and intellectual intelligence.
3. Why it is that tantrums and crying can actually be a good thing! Yep! Tantrums are good ... I will explain why in the training!
4. Why you don't have to be CONSISTENT to be a great parent ... yes, it is OK to have off days and still be an awesome parent!


text:
Germany Leads the Beast's Ascension
While Germany leads the economic recovery in Europe, the Vatican is pulling the strings
October 29, 2010 - Audio, 18.00 MIN
Will Germany now take center state? The question posed by the Economist magazine has extremely interesting ties to what the Bible prophecies of Europes Future. Germany is at the heart of the Beast, and the Vatican is riding it.
Welcome to the Bible in the News. Our apologies to our regular listeners for missing last week's edition.
This week we look to Germany at the heart of the European beast, and the question posed in the Economist, "Will Germany now take centre stage?" (See article "Germany's Role in the world" in October 21st Economist)
Over the past few weeks developments have taken place which are of great interest to Bible students. When Napoleon plunged the "beast" of Europe into darkness, the scriptures predicted its latter day rise in Revelation 17:8:
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
· "The beast that was" – equates with the Holy Roman Empire, begun by Charlemagne in 799, initially ruled from Aachen, Germany.
· It "was not" when the Napoleonic wars swept across Europe and sent it into the "bottomless pit" or the abyss.
· However, it "shall ascend out of the bottomless pit"
· Eventually it will "go into perdition" – or destruction after it "shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome" (v14)
The Holy Roman Empire was the First Reich, and lasted approximately 1,000 years.
Germany was reunited under Otto Von Bismark, who brought in a unified currency, and was to serve as the first Chancellor. The Second Reich, or German Empire, lasted from 1871 to 1918 and was ruled by the Kaiser. 'Kaiser' is the German form of the world Caesar. Germany's ambition of dominating Europe began and ended in the First World War.
The Weimar republic was established following the end of the Second Reich. It ended with the democratic election of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi party who immediately outlawed all political opposition and established the Third Reich in 1933. Germany's ambition of dominating Europe and the world began and ended in horors the Second World War.
Germany: ready to move on from the past
Since WWII Germany has lived under the cloud of its Nazi past, including its ambitions of world domination and the final solution. However, the Economist article that drew our attention stated:
Germans have not forgotten that their country was the author of the horrors of the 1930s and 1940s but, says Renate Kocher of Allensbach, a polling firm, they want to "draw a line under the past"…. But Germans are no longer so ready to be put on the moral defensive or to view the Nazi era as the defining episode of their past. Even non-Germans seem willing to move on… Germany still atones but now also preaches, usually on the evils of debt, the importance of nurturing industry and the superiority of long-term thinking in enterprise. Others are disposed to listen. "Everyone orients himself towards Germany," says John Kornblum, a former American ambassador.
In summary, the Germans are willing to forget their past, and so are many others in the rest of the world. Ironically, we are approaching "Remembrance Day" in much of the Commonwealth, otherwise known as "Armistice Day" commemorating the end of WWI on November 11th, 1918. One of the most famous poems celebrating this day was written by Canadian John McRae, and reads:
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow,
The irony cannot be lost in the words, "take up our quarrel with the foe… if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep". The sad fact is, all those who fell in Flanders Fields will sleep a perpetual sleep. What is perhaps a little more disconcerting is that they died in vain. Germany dominated Europe during the Holy Roman Empire, it was defeated by the French. Germany again tried to dominate Europe during WWI, it was defeated by the allies. Germany tried a third time to dominate Europe under Hitler, it was defeated by the allies.
Now it is set to dominate Europe again – is everybody asleep? Or drunk?
The Economist article referenced above continues,
"The German question never dies. Instead, like a flu virus, it mutates. On the eve of unification some European leaders worried that it would resume killer form. "We've beaten the Germans twice and now they're back," said Margaret Thatcher, Britain's prime minister."
The writer dismisses Thatcher's comments as "comical." We wonder if those who lie in Flanders fields, those buried near the beaches of Normandy, and across Europe would find the present situation comical, knowing they died for nothing. One thing is obvious; the author of this article is not a Bible prophecy student.
Germany: The New King of the Hill
The fallout from the world economic crisis has created a different looking world. According to the same Economist article:
"The crisis has created a new pecking order, at least temporarily. Germany, with its high-competitiveness, low-debt economy, is on top. The rest are having to adjust, including France, traditionally a joint leader of the European project. This is unsettling. "You get an enormous sense of German self-righteousness, which is very difficult to take, especially when there are solid foundations for it," says François Heisbourg of the International Institute for Strategic Studies"
As the "king of the hill" we can expect Germany to use its clout to turn things in the direction it would like. The Economist article went to state:
An American diplomat believes it [Germany] is still "trying to decide what its foreign policy in the 21st century should look like". Germany is becoming more "normal", meaning more willing to use its strength and to accept responsibilities that go along with it.
Germany's goals and aspirations are becoming clearer:
Germany is claiming leading positions in EU institutions: Uwe Corsepius, Mrs Merkel's European adviser, will become secretary-general of the European Council. Axel Weber, now head of the Bundesbank, is favoured to become the next president of the European Central Bank.
So with Germany as the "king of the hill" in Europe economically, and seizing control of the economic levers, what are we to expect? Remember the golden rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
The New Golden Rules
Well, what madness could these frog-spirit vomiting powers be upto? That became apparent during the past week. Germany has convinced France to back it as it leads the way to re-open the Lisbon Treaty… to make a few "adjustments". In the same October 21 Economist, under the headline, "Why the European Union is talking yet again of renegotiating its rulebook" the following was stated:
Brussels's favourite game has been restarted by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. At their summit in the French resort of Deauville (where they also met Russia's Dmitry Medvedev) this week, they declared that, in order to deal with future debt crises, "it is necessary to revise the treaty".
Germany wants changes made to the Lisbon treaty to add more control, and remove more sovereignty from member nation-states, including loss of voting rights for those who "break the rules".
Revelation 17:12-13 describes the member nations of the European Union as,
"ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast"
They give up their power and strength, which when you examine the meaning of the words includes their "power of wealth", and "their power to govern".
The European Union is also described in Daniel 2:41-43 when it details the last phase of Nebuchadnezzar's images as:
"…the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay…."
It is of great interest to Bible students to read passages describing the kingdom being "partly strong and partly broken," and then hear statements like this one, coming from the same Economist article:
"The EU's members are part-integrated and part-sovereign, and the contradictions cause inevitable upheavals. Brussels's instinctive response to the threat of disintegration is further integration. Europe may not be in a state of permanent revolution, but it is in permanent renegotiation."
Not only that, echoing the words we read from Revelation 17, the insecurity of Germany is described in the following terms:
Despite… examples of leadership, Germany's overall direction is obscure. It is torn, intrigued by its new possibilities but painfully aware that alone it does not count for much in the world. Its population is already shrinking. Europe will lose economic and demographic bulk relative to China, India and Brazil.
Remember the words of Revelation 17:12
"ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast"
Individually, they don't account for much. The remedy? A collective union – give their power and strength to the beast. The article continues:
…Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister who now leads the liberals in the European Parliament. "It shows we need one voice." Fear of war launched the European project; he hopes that fear of irrelevance will drive it forward.
… Pressed for Germany's vision of Europe, Werner Hoyer, an aide to the foreign minister, says it is to secure Europe's "success in a globalised world". That means "deepening economic integration", dismantling remaining barriers to the single market and dealing with other powers through Brussels, not national capitals. "It is in our interest to convince them that the gateway to Europe is European institutions," says Mr Hoyer. He thinks Europe must "globalise its foreign policy if we don't want to be bystanders".
These are indeed exciting statements coming out of the mouth of the Beast, and echoing the prophecies of scripture which in process of being fulfilled.
Don't Forget the Rider of the Beast
In all this we cannot forget the rider of the beast:
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3-6)
We know this to be the Catholic church headed by the Pope. We are to expect his hand to be secretly directing the reigns of the European Beast. In his encyclical , CARITAS IN VERITATE, we see his hands maneuvering the leaders of Europe who are described as "committing fornication" with the harlot. He writes:
"Development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems besetting humanity, all need this truth. [Meaning his direction] …Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present."
So the Pope is calling for social conscience and responsibility being injected into the global economy, and the Germen Chancellor and French Prime minister are suggestion reopening the Lisbon Treaty to inject "responsibility" and "fiscal constraints".
The Pope continues:
In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations, in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God.
What is the Pope calling for? A global society with a "common good", where peoples and nations are shaped into an earthy city which in his mind is the "kingdom of God" – a great city! Doesn't the harlot reside in a "great city"? Was not the Holy Roman Empire called the "kingdom of God" – or Christ's kingdom, commonly known as "Christendom"?
The Pope goes on:
In our own day, the State finds itself having to address the limitations to its sovereignty imposed by the new context of international trade and finance, which is characterized by increasing mobility both of financial capital and means of production, material and immaterial. This new context has altered the political power of States.
Today, as we take to heart the lessons of the current economic crisis, which sees the State's public authorities directly involved in correcting errors and malfunctions, it seems more realistic to re-evaluate their role and their powers, which need to be prudently reviewed and remodelled so as to enable them, perhaps through new forms of engagement, to address the challenges of today's world.
So the pope calls for public authorities to "re-evaluate their role and powers" and "remodel" them in a way which he can "engage" or control.
The Pope composes the words, the leaders of the European Choir sings the song. It certainly sounds like they are singing out of the same hymn book… or perhaps it is simply the same frog spirits coming out of their mouths, croaking the same tune.
The Pope is riding the beast, holding the reigns and establishing himself as the European "moral" authority:
The Church's social doctrine has always maintained that justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity, because this is always concerned with man and his needs… Thus every economic decision has a moral consequence.
Obviously he sees his "justice" as the ruling authority that must be applied to every phase of economic activity. Why not, is he not in the saddle according to the scriptures?
As Germany re-emerges, and Europe agrees to re-open its treaty, as the Vatican dictates its version of responsible economics we are watching the players of Revelation 17 take their positions, preparing to make "war with the Lamb".
We need to be putting every effort into preparing for the coming marriage of the Lamb, and "make ourselves ready" that we might be granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white" (Revelation 19:7-8).
Tune in next week for another edition of the Bible in the News.


One of the key features of Over the Air is the in-event competition, which gives you a chance to show off the clever and fun ideas you've been coding and hacking away at over the course of the event. We've had some really great entries over the years, and hope to hear plenty of stories of how they were developed further after the event (in which case we'll link to them for you).
We'd love to feature our past hack-a-thon entries and where those ideas went… if you've got a video or a blog post about what you did, if you've launched the idea you worked on in '09 or '08 – please get in touch! We'd love to brag about you….


text:
Lech Walesa, aka agent Bolek
By Olivier Bault.
Poland – In February 2016, documents recovered from the widow of General Kiszczak, former Minister of Interior of General Jaruzelski, confirmed what many Poles had been convinced of for a long time: before becoming the charismatic leader of Solidarity (Solidarność), then the first elected President of Democratic Poland, Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa (in Polish: Lech Wałęsa) was a paid informer serving the communist regime between 1970 and 1976. But he himself challenged the authenticity of these documents, claiming that these were false documents issued by the former political police (Służba Bezpieczeństwa, SB).
The Polish prosecutor's office has therefore requested a graphological analysis of the documents in the hands of the IPN, the National Memory Institute charged with investigating communist and Nazi crimes and also to archive and manage the documents of the security organs of the country from the years 1944-89. Expertise was handed over to the Sehn Judicial Experts Institute in Cracow and the results, contained in a 235-page report, have been announced at a press conference on January 31 by the Head of the Investigation Department of the IPN: there is no doubt that the documents kept for more than two decades in the home of General Kiszczak are authentic and that the writing and the signatures therein are those of Lech Walesa, alias agent TW Bolek (for tajny współpracownik Bolek / secret collaborator Bolek).
These documents are commitments to collaborate, declarations and receipts of his financial rewards. To carry out their graphological analyzes, the Krakow experts compared the SB archives to 142 documents written or signed by Lech Walesa between 1963 and 2016. The first promise of collaboration drafted by Walesa dates from December 21, 1970 and according to the experts' report, it was entirely written by the concerned person. In addition there are 17 receipts for sums of money paid to TW Bolek against the information transmitted to the agents of the SB. These amounts total almost 12,000 zlotys. The graphological analyzes also confirmed the authenticity of more than 40 denunciations by Walesa-Bolek. Lech Walesa, confronted with these documents by the investigators, told them he had never collaborated with the SB, had never been an informer of the political police and had never received any money from it.
Some of them, like Andrzej Gwiazda, who was vice-president of Solidarity, or Anna Walentynowicz, co-founder of Solidarity whose disciplinary dismissal in August 1980 had triggered Solidarność's first major strike, had suspected him since the early 1980s: "On the basis of my observations and what he said, because he did not do much but talked a lot, on the third day of the strike we had no doubt that he was an agent of the political police", declared on January 31 Andrzej Gwiazda on the Catholic television channel TV Trwam.
In the past, Lech Walesa has always endeavored to remove these historical figures and to depreciate their essential role in this great movement which enjoyed enormous popular support. Many Poles, however, suspect that the history of Lech Walesa's SB informer allowed the Communists to blackmail him and use him as leader of the trade union Solidarity and then President of the Republic of Poland to facilitate the democratic transition from the end of the 1980s to very favorable conditions for the old nomenklatura and enabling them in particular to exchange their political power for an economic power. Others accuse the conservatives of the PiS of seeking to discredit Lech Walesa to question this democratic transition. However, it was widow Kiszczak who revealed herself the existence of these documents in her husband's cartons who died on November 5, 2015, while trying to sell them to the IPN.
Tags: bolekcommunismIPNlech walesaolivier baultPiSpolandpost-communismSolidarność
Olivier Bault
Olivier Bault is a Frenchman who has been living in Poland since the early 1990s. He is the Warsaw correspondent of both the Visegrád Post and the French daily newspaper Présent. As an independent journalist following Polish and European current affairs, he also writes for the Polish weekly Do Rzeczy and for the kurier.plus website of the Wacław Felczak Institute of Polish-Hungarian Cooperation.
Poland Seen by Szewach Weiss, Former President of the Knesset and Holocaust Survivor
Why Do We Expect So Much From Poland?
Tweets by @Visegrad_PostEN
Hungarians refuse Brussels' attaching conditions to economic aid during the pandemic
EU, rule of law: Joint declaration of the Prime Minister of Poland and the Prime Minister of Hungary
Viktor Orbán: "Europe must not succumb to the Soros network"


text:
Your Ultimate Netflix Guide for April Night In
Looking for a new Netflix recommendation? Our team has come up with a list of our current favourite and upcoming series and movies! Scroll down to check out our must-watch list!
Latest On Netflix (April 2022)
White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch
(Image credit: Netflix)
"Candidly, we go after the cool kids." Abercrombie & Fitch's dim-lit stores, pumped full of potent fragrance might be a distant memory now, but there was a time it reigned, thriving on exclusion. This pop culture documentary explores the brand's rise in the late 90s and early 2000s — and how its too-cool factor ultimately led to its fall.
Airs On Netflix Hong Kong: 19 April (trailer)
Poised to be Netflix's next big hit (with the creator of "Big Little Lies" and "The Undoing" behind it), "Anatomy of a Scandal" is a six-part limited series that promises to be full of salacious secrets and shocking crime. It's based on the best-selling novel by Sarah Vaughan and explores privilege, consent, authority and justice.
Dancing on Glass
Are you a fans of Spanish shows Money Heist and Elite? You will probably recognise María Pedraza, the lead of this psychological drama. "Las niñas de cristal" in Spanish, Dancing on Glass dementrates a friendship between two ballet dancers, this strange and confusing relationship isolates them from the real world.
Airs On Netflix Hong Kong: 8 April (trailer)
The Weekend Away
Based on the best-selling novel by Sarah Alderson, The Weekend Away follows two best friends on a weekend getaway. When one of them vanishes, the other becomes the number one suspect and has to prove her innocence. The story will keep you guessing until all of the secrets are uncovered, an edge-of-your-seat thriller to add onto your watchlist.
Airs On Netflix Hong Kong: 3 March (trailer)
Bridgerton: Season 2
Bridgerton is back for another wild ride. If you have not watched Season 1, the series basically combined all the best parts of Pride & Prejudice and Gossip Girl. Inspired from Julia Quinn's sequel novel, The Viscount Who Loved Me, this saucy second season follows the eldest Bridgerton, Anthony, on his own quest for love.
Airs On Netflix Hong Kong: 25 March (trailer)
All time favourite On Netflix
Our Beloved Summer is a romantic-comedy series about two former lovers get pulled back in front of the camera and into each other's lives, years after filming a viral documentary in high school. The series has earned a spot in Netflix's Global Top 10 in the non-English TV category.
(trailer)
Thirty-Nine follows three single professional women living in Seoul, who are lifelong friends and all on the eve of the big 4-0. At the age of 39, the three best friends are suddenly at crossroads in their lifes. This TV series comes off as a Korean spin on Sex and the City. It has been listed as Top 5 on Netflix Hong Kong since premiered.
The Ultimate Netflix & Chill Snacks
Try Smith & Sinclair's Alcoholic Cocktail Gummies, mixed like real cocktails with 5% ABV each. A vegan, hassle-free and yum-guarenteed edible cocktail gummies that pair perfectly with any Netflix of your choice! A Night In does not have to be boring. This box of booze is a fun way to provide the evenings finest entertainment.
Back to The Sweet Life
2023 Valentine's Day Gift for your cocktail loving Valentine
The different colours of Hong Kong MTR stations


Game Creator is a set of tools that will help you kickstart your game in matter of minutes. It comes packed with ready-to-use fully animated characters, a flexible high-level scripting language, a complete save & load system with local and global variables, and much, much more!
On top of all these, Game Creator also comes with a state-of-the-art module manager that allows to create, distribute and update extension packages.
For example, the Inventory module allows to add a complete Inventory to your game with crafting recipes, usable items and customizable effects. The Dialogue module allows to have cinematic conversations between characters with branching options, timed choices, ... You name it!
Join the Game Creator Discord server!


text:
int CMSEXPORT cmsstrcasecmp(const char* s1, const char* s2)
{
    register const unsigned char *us1 = (const unsigned char *)s1,
                                 *us2 = (const unsigned char *)s2;

    while (toupper(*us1) == toupper(*us2++))
        if (*us1++ == '\0')
            return 0;

    return (toupper(*us1) - toupper(*--us2));
}

// long int because C99 specifies ftell in such way (7.19.9.2)
long int CMSEXPORT cmsfilelength(FILE* f)
{
    long int p , n;

    p = ftell(f); // register current file position

    if (fseek(f, 0, SEEK_END) != 0) {
        return -1;
    }

    n = ftell(f);
    fseek(f, p, SEEK_SET); // file position restored

    return n;
}

#if 0
// Memory handling ------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// This is the interface to low-level memory management routines. By default a simple
// wrapping to malloc/free/realloc is provided, although there is a limit on the max
// amount of memoy that can be reclaimed. This is mostly as a safety feature to prevent
// bogus or evil code to allocate huge blocks that otherwise lcms would never need.

#define MAX_MEMORY_FOR_ALLOC  ((cmsUInt32Number)(1024U*1024U*512U))

// User may override this behaviour by using a memory plug-in, which basically replaces
// the default memory management functions. In this case, no check is performed and it
// is up to the plug-in writter to keep in the safe side. There are only three functions
// required to be implemented: malloc, realloc and free, although the user may want to
// replace the optional mallocZero, calloc and dup as well.

cmsBool   _cmsRegisterMemHandlerPlugin(cmsContext ContextID, cmsPluginBase* Plugin);

// *********************************************************************************

// This is the default memory allocation function. It does a very coarse
// check of amout of memory, just to prevent exploits
static
void* _cmsMallocDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    if (size > MAX_MEMORY_FOR_ALLOC) return NULL;  // Never allow over maximum

    return (void*) malloc(size);

    cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(ContextID);
}

// Generic allocate & zero
static
void* _cmsMallocZeroDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    void *pt = _cmsMalloc(ContextID, size);
    if (pt == NULL) return NULL;

    memset(pt, 0, size);
    return pt;
}

// The default free function. The only check proformed is against NULL pointers
static
void _cmsFreeDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, void *Ptr)
{
    // free(NULL) is defined a no-op by C99, therefore it is safe to
    // avoid the check, but it is here just in case...

    if (Ptr) free(Ptr);

    cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(ContextID);
}

// The default realloc function. Again it checks for exploits. If Ptr is NULL,
// realloc behaves the same way as malloc and allocates a new block of size bytes.
static
void* _cmsReallocDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, void* Ptr, cmsUInt32Number size)
{

    if (size > MAX_MEMORY_FOR_ALLOC) return NULL;  // Never realloc over 512Mb

    return realloc(Ptr, size);

    cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(ContextID);
}

// The default calloc function. Allocates an array of num elements, each one of size bytes
// all memory is initialized to zero.
static
void* _cmsCallocDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number num, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    cmsUInt32Number Total = num * size;

    // Preserve calloc behaviour
    if (Total == 0) return NULL;

    // Safe check for overflow.
    if (num >= UINT_MAX / size) return NULL;

    // Check for overflow
    if (Total < num || Total < size) {
        return NULL;
    }

    if (Total > MAX_MEMORY_FOR_ALLOC) return NULL;  // Never alloc over 512Mb

    return _cmsMallocZero(ContextID, Total);
}

// Generic block duplication
static
void* _cmsDupDefaultFn(cmsContext ContextID, const void* Org, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    void* mem;

    if (size > MAX_MEMORY_FOR_ALLOC) return NULL;  // Never dup over 512Mb

    mem = _cmsMalloc(ContextID, size);

    if (mem != NULL && Org != NULL)
        memmove(mem, Org, size);

    return mem;
}

// Pointers to memory manager functions in Context0
_cmsMemPluginChunkType _cmsMemPluginChunk = { _cmsMallocDefaultFn, _cmsMallocZeroDefaultFn, _cmsFreeDefaultFn,
                                              _cmsReallocDefaultFn, _cmsCallocDefaultFn,    _cmsDupDefaultFn
                                            };

// Reset and duplicate memory manager
void _cmsAllocMemPluginChunk(struct _cmsContext_struct* ctx, const struct _cmsContext_struct* src)
{
    _cmsAssert(ctx != NULL);

    if (src != NULL) {

        // Duplicate
        ctx ->chunks[MemPlugin] = _cmsSubAllocDup(ctx ->MemPool, src ->chunks[MemPlugin], sizeof(_cmsMemPluginChunkType));
    }
    else {

        // To reset it, we use the default allocators, which cannot be overriden
        ctx ->chunks[MemPlugin] = &ctx ->DefaultMemoryManager;
    }
}

// Auxiliar to fill memory management functions from plugin (or context 0 defaults)
void _cmsInstallAllocFunctions(cmsPluginMemHandler* Plugin, _cmsMemPluginChunkType* ptr)
{
    if (Plugin == NULL) {

        memcpy(ptr, &_cmsMemPluginChunk, sizeof(_cmsMemPluginChunk));
    }
    else {

        ptr ->MallocPtr  = Plugin -> MallocPtr;
        ptr ->FreePtr    = Plugin -> FreePtr;
        ptr ->ReallocPtr = Plugin -> ReallocPtr;

        // Make sure we revert to defaults
        ptr ->MallocZeroPtr= _cmsMallocZeroDefaultFn;
        ptr ->CallocPtr    = _cmsCallocDefaultFn;
        ptr ->DupPtr       = _cmsDupDefaultFn;

        if (Plugin ->MallocZeroPtr != NULL) ptr ->MallocZeroPtr = Plugin -> MallocZeroPtr;
        if (Plugin ->CallocPtr != NULL)     ptr ->CallocPtr     = Plugin -> CallocPtr;
        if (Plugin ->DupPtr != NULL)        ptr ->DupPtr        = Plugin -> DupPtr;

    }
}

// Plug-in replacement entry
cmsBool  _cmsRegisterMemHandlerPlugin(cmsContext ContextID, cmsPluginBase *Data)
{
    cmsPluginMemHandler* Plugin = (cmsPluginMemHandler*) Data;
    _cmsMemPluginChunkType* ptr;

    // NULL forces to reset to defaults. In this special case, the defaults are stored in the context structure.
    // Remaining plug-ins does NOT have any copy in the context structure, but this is somehow special as the
    // context internal data should be malloce'd by using those functions.
    if (Data == NULL) {

       struct _cmsContext_struct* ctx = ( struct _cmsContext_struct*) ContextID;

       // Return to the default allocators
        if (ContextID != NULL) {
            ctx->chunks[MemPlugin] = (void*) &ctx->DefaultMemoryManager;
        }
        return TRUE;
    }

    // Check for required callbacks
    if (Plugin -> MallocPtr == NULL ||
        Plugin -> FreePtr == NULL ||
        Plugin -> ReallocPtr == NULL) return FALSE;

    // Set replacement functions
    ptr = (_cmsMemPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MemPlugin);
    if (ptr == NULL)
        return FALSE;

    _cmsInstallAllocFunctions(Plugin, ptr);
    return TRUE;
}
#else
#include "../../../core/include/fxcrt/fx_memory.h"
#include "../../../core/include/fxcrt/fx_system.h"

cmsBool  _cmsRegisterMemHandlerPlugin(cmsContext ContextID, cmsPluginBase* Plugin)
{
	return TRUE;
}

// Generic allocate
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsMalloc(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    return FXMEM_DefaultAlloc(size, 1);
}

// Generic allocate & zero
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsMallocZero(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
	void* p = FXMEM_DefaultAlloc(size, 1);
	if (p) FXSYS_memset(p, 0, size);
	return p;
}

// Generic calloc
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsCalloc(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number num, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
	cmsUInt32Number total = num * size;
	if (total == 0 || total / size != num || total >= 512 * 1024 * 1024)
		return NULL;

	return _cmsMallocZero(ContextID, num * size);
}

// Generic reallocate
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsRealloc(cmsContext ContextID, void* Ptr, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
	return FXMEM_DefaultRealloc(Ptr, size, 1);
}

// Generic free memory
void CMSEXPORT _cmsFree(cmsContext ContextID, void* Ptr)
{
	if (Ptr != NULL) FXMEM_DefaultFree(Ptr, 0);
}

// Generic block duplication
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsDupMem(cmsContext ContextID, const void* Org, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
	void* p = FXMEM_DefaultAlloc(size, 1);
	FXSYS_memmove(p, Org, size);
	return p;
}

_cmsMemPluginChunkType _cmsMemPluginChunk = {_cmsMalloc, _cmsMallocZero, _cmsFree,
	                                         _cmsRealloc, _cmsCalloc,    _cmsDupMem
                                            };

void _cmsAllocMemPluginChunk(struct _cmsContext_struct* ctx, const struct _cmsContext_struct* src)
{
	_cmsAssert(ctx != NULL);

	if (src != NULL) {

		// Duplicate
		ctx ->chunks[MemPlugin] = _cmsSubAllocDup(ctx ->MemPool, src ->chunks[MemPlugin], sizeof(_cmsMemPluginChunkType));
	}
	else {

		// To reset it, we use the default allocators, which cannot be overriden
		ctx ->chunks[MemPlugin] = &ctx ->DefaultMemoryManager;
	}
}

void _cmsInstallAllocFunctions(cmsPluginMemHandler* Plugin, _cmsMemPluginChunkType* ptr)
{
	if (Plugin == NULL) {

		memcpy(ptr, &_cmsMemPluginChunk, sizeof(_cmsMemPluginChunk));
	}
	else {

		ptr ->MallocPtr  = Plugin -> MallocPtr;
		ptr ->FreePtr    = Plugin -> FreePtr;
		ptr ->ReallocPtr = Plugin -> ReallocPtr;

		// Make sure we revert to defaults
		ptr ->MallocZeroPtr= _cmsMallocZero;
		ptr ->CallocPtr    = _cmsCalloc;
		ptr ->DupPtr       = _cmsDupMem;

		if (Plugin ->MallocZeroPtr != NULL) ptr ->MallocZeroPtr = Plugin -> MallocZeroPtr;
		if (Plugin ->CallocPtr != NULL)     ptr ->CallocPtr     = Plugin -> CallocPtr;
		if (Plugin ->DupPtr != NULL)        ptr ->DupPtr        = Plugin -> DupPtr;

	}
}
#endif

// ********************************************************************************************

// Sub allocation takes care of many pointers of small size. The memory allocated in
// this way have be freed at once. Next function allocates a single chunk for linked list
// I prefer this method over realloc due to the big inpact on xput realloc may have if
// memory is being swapped to disk. This approach is safer (although that may not be true on all platforms)
static
_cmsSubAllocator_chunk* _cmsCreateSubAllocChunk(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number Initial)
{
    _cmsSubAllocator_chunk* chunk;

    // 20K by default
    if (Initial == 0)
        Initial = 20*1024;

    // Create the container
    chunk = (_cmsSubAllocator_chunk*) _cmsMallocZero(ContextID, sizeof(_cmsSubAllocator_chunk));
    if (chunk == NULL) return NULL;

    // Initialize values
    chunk ->Block     = (cmsUInt8Number*) _cmsMalloc(ContextID, Initial);
    if (chunk ->Block == NULL) {

        // Something went wrong
        _cmsFree(ContextID, chunk);
        return NULL;
    }

    chunk ->BlockSize = Initial;
    chunk ->Used      = 0;
    chunk ->next      = NULL;

    return chunk;
}

// The suballocated is nothing but a pointer to the first element in the list. We also keep
// the thread ID in this structure.
_cmsSubAllocator* _cmsCreateSubAlloc(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number Initial)
{
    _cmsSubAllocator* sub;

    // Create the container
    sub = (_cmsSubAllocator*) _cmsMallocZero(ContextID, sizeof(_cmsSubAllocator));
    if (sub == NULL) return NULL;

    sub ->ContextID = ContextID;

    sub ->h = _cmsCreateSubAllocChunk(ContextID, Initial);
    if (sub ->h == NULL) {
        _cmsFree(ContextID, sub);
        return NULL;
    }

    return sub;
}

// Get rid of whole linked list
void _cmsSubAllocDestroy(_cmsSubAllocator* sub)
{
    _cmsSubAllocator_chunk *chunk, *n;

    for (chunk = sub ->h; chunk != NULL; chunk = n) {

        n = chunk->next;
        if (chunk->Block != NULL) _cmsFree(sub ->ContextID, chunk->Block);
        _cmsFree(sub ->ContextID, chunk);
    }

    // Free the header
    _cmsFree(sub ->ContextID, sub);
}

// Get a pointer to small memory block.
void*  _cmsSubAlloc(_cmsSubAllocator* sub, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    cmsUInt32Number Free = sub -> h ->BlockSize - sub -> h -> Used;
    cmsUInt8Number* ptr;

    size = _cmsALIGNMEM(size);

    // Check for memory. If there is no room, allocate a new chunk of double memory size.
    if (size > Free) {

        _cmsSubAllocator_chunk* chunk;
        cmsUInt32Number newSize;

        newSize = sub -> h ->BlockSize * 2;
        if (newSize < size) newSize = size;

        chunk = _cmsCreateSubAllocChunk(sub -> ContextID, newSize);
        if (chunk == NULL) return NULL;

        // Link list
        chunk ->next = sub ->h;
        sub ->h    = chunk;

    }

    ptr =  sub -> h ->Block + sub -> h ->Used;
    sub -> h -> Used += size;

    return (void*) ptr;
}

// Duplicate in pool
void* _cmsSubAllocDup(_cmsSubAllocator* s, const void *ptr, cmsUInt32Number size)
{
    void *NewPtr;

    // Dup of null pointer is also NULL
    if (ptr == NULL)
        return NULL;

    NewPtr = _cmsSubAlloc(s, size);

    if (ptr != NULL && NewPtr != NULL) {
        memcpy(NewPtr, ptr, size);
    }

    return NewPtr;
}

// Error logging ******************************************************************

// There is no error handling at all. When a funtion fails, it returns proper value.
// For example, all create functions does return NULL on failure. Other return FALSE
// It may be interesting, for the developer, to know why the function is failing.
// for that reason, lcms2 does offer a logging function. This function does recive
// a ENGLISH string with some clues on what is going wrong. You can show this
// info to the end user, or just create some sort of log.
// The logging function should NOT terminate the program, as this obviously can leave
// resources. It is the programmer's responsability to check each function return code
// to make sure it didn't fail.

// Error messages are limited to MAX_ERROR_MESSAGE_LEN

#define MAX_ERROR_MESSAGE_LEN   1024

// ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// This is our default log error
static void DefaultLogErrorHandlerFunction(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number ErrorCode, const char *Text);

// Context0 storage, which is global
_cmsLogErrorChunkType _cmsLogErrorChunk = { DefaultLogErrorHandlerFunction };

// Allocates and inits error logger container for a given context. If src is NULL, only initializes the value
// to the default. Otherwise, it duplicates the value. The interface is standard across all context clients
void _cmsAllocLogErrorChunk(struct _cmsContext_struct* ctx,
                            const struct _cmsContext_struct* src)
{
    static _cmsLogErrorChunkType LogErrorChunk = { DefaultLogErrorHandlerFunction };
    void* from;

     if (src != NULL) {
        from = src ->chunks[Logger];
    }
    else {
       from = &LogErrorChunk;
    }

    ctx ->chunks[Logger] = _cmsSubAllocDup(ctx ->MemPool, from, sizeof(_cmsLogErrorChunkType));
}

// The default error logger does nothing.
static
void DefaultLogErrorHandlerFunction(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number ErrorCode, const char *Text)
{
    // fprintf(stderr, "[lcms]: %s\n", Text);
    // fflush(stderr);

     cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(ContextID);
     cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(ErrorCode);
     cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(Text);
}

// Change log error, context based
void CMSEXPORT cmsSetLogErrorHandlerTHR(cmsContext ContextID, cmsLogErrorHandlerFunction Fn)
{
    _cmsLogErrorChunkType* lhg = (_cmsLogErrorChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, Logger);

    if (lhg != NULL) {

        if (Fn == NULL)
            lhg -> LogErrorHandler = DefaultLogErrorHandlerFunction;
        else
            lhg -> LogErrorHandler = Fn;
    }
}

// Change log error, legacy
void CMSEXPORT cmsSetLogErrorHandler(cmsLogErrorHandlerFunction Fn)
{
    cmsSetLogErrorHandlerTHR(NULL, Fn);
}

// Log an error
// ErrorText is a text holding an english description of error.
void CMSEXPORT cmsSignalError(cmsContext ContextID, cmsUInt32Number ErrorCode, const char *ErrorText, ...)
{
    va_list args;
    char Buffer[MAX_ERROR_MESSAGE_LEN];
    _cmsLogErrorChunkType* lhg;

    va_start(args, ErrorText);
    vsnprintf(Buffer, MAX_ERROR_MESSAGE_LEN-1, ErrorText, args);
    va_end(args);

    // Check for the context, if specified go there. If not, go for the global
    lhg = (_cmsLogErrorChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, Logger);
    if (lhg ->LogErrorHandler) {
        lhg ->LogErrorHandler(ContextID, ErrorCode, Buffer);
    }
}

// Utility function to print signatures
void _cmsTagSignature2String(char String[5], cmsTagSignature sig)
{
    cmsUInt32Number be;

    // Convert to big endian
    be = _cmsAdjustEndianess32((cmsUInt32Number) sig);

    // Move chars
    memmove(String, &be, 4);

    // Make sure of terminator
    String[4] = 0;
}

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

static
void* defMtxCreate(cmsContext id)
{
    _cmsMutex* ptr_mutex = (_cmsMutex*) _cmsMalloc(id, sizeof(_cmsMutex));
    _cmsInitMutexPrimitive(ptr_mutex);
    return (void*) ptr_mutex;
}

static
void defMtxDestroy(cmsContext id, void* mtx)
{
    _cmsDestroyMutexPrimitive((_cmsMutex *) mtx);
    _cmsFree(id, mtx);
}

static
cmsBool defMtxLock(cmsContext id, void* mtx)
{
    cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(id);
    return _cmsLockPrimitive((_cmsMutex *) mtx) == 0;
}

static
void defMtxUnlock(cmsContext id, void* mtx)
{
    cmsUNUSED_PARAMETER(id);
    _cmsUnlockPrimitive((_cmsMutex *) mtx);
}

// Pointers to memory manager functions in Context0
_cmsMutexPluginChunkType _cmsMutexPluginChunk = { defMtxCreate, defMtxDestroy, defMtxLock, defMtxUnlock };

// Allocate and init mutex container.
void _cmsAllocMutexPluginChunk(struct _cmsContext_struct* ctx,
                                        const struct _cmsContext_struct* src)
{
    static _cmsMutexPluginChunkType MutexChunk = {defMtxCreate, defMtxDestroy, defMtxLock, defMtxUnlock };
    void* from;

     if (src != NULL) {
        from = src ->chunks[MutexPlugin];
    }
    else {
       from = &MutexChunk;
    }

    ctx ->chunks[MutexPlugin] = _cmsSubAllocDup(ctx ->MemPool, from, sizeof(_cmsMutexPluginChunkType));
}

// Register new ways to transform
cmsBool  _cmsRegisterMutexPlugin(cmsContext ContextID, cmsPluginBase* Data)
{
    cmsPluginMutex* Plugin = (cmsPluginMutex*) Data;
    _cmsMutexPluginChunkType* ctx = ( _cmsMutexPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MutexPlugin);

    if (Data == NULL) {

        // No lock routines
        ctx->CreateMutexPtr = NULL;
        ctx->DestroyMutexPtr = NULL;
        ctx->LockMutexPtr = NULL;
        ctx ->UnlockMutexPtr = NULL;
        return TRUE;
    }

    // Factory callback is required
    if (Plugin ->CreateMutexPtr == NULL || Plugin ->DestroyMutexPtr == NULL ||
        Plugin ->LockMutexPtr == NULL || Plugin ->UnlockMutexPtr == NULL) return FALSE;

    ctx->CreateMutexPtr  = Plugin->CreateMutexPtr;
    ctx->DestroyMutexPtr = Plugin ->DestroyMutexPtr;
    ctx ->LockMutexPtr   = Plugin ->LockMutexPtr;
    ctx ->UnlockMutexPtr = Plugin ->UnlockMutexPtr;

    // All is ok
    return TRUE;
}

// Generic Mutex fns
void* CMSEXPORT _cmsCreateMutex(cmsContext ContextID)
{
    _cmsMutexPluginChunkType* ptr = (_cmsMutexPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MutexPlugin);

    if (ptr ->CreateMutexPtr == NULL) return NULL;

    return ptr ->CreateMutexPtr(ContextID);
}

void CMSEXPORT _cmsDestroyMutex(cmsContext ContextID, void* mtx)
{
    _cmsMutexPluginChunkType* ptr = (_cmsMutexPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MutexPlugin);

    if (ptr ->DestroyMutexPtr != NULL) {

        ptr ->DestroyMutexPtr(ContextID, mtx);
    }
}

cmsBool CMSEXPORT _cmsLockMutex(cmsContext ContextID, void* mtx)
{
    _cmsMutexPluginChunkType* ptr = (_cmsMutexPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MutexPlugin);

    if (ptr ->LockMutexPtr == NULL) return TRUE;

    return ptr ->LockMutexPtr(ContextID, mtx);
}

void CMSEXPORT _cmsUnlockMutex(cmsContext ContextID, void* mtx)
{
    _cmsMutexPluginChunkType* ptr = (_cmsMutexPluginChunkType*) _cmsContextGetClientChunk(ContextID, MutexPlugin);

    if (ptr ->UnlockMutexPtr != NULL) {

        ptr ->UnlockMutexPtr(ContextID, mtx);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Turner Monet Twombly – In Conversation
Tate's latest exhibition brings together three men separated by eras. We spoke to exhibition curator Jeremy Lewison to see what unites them…
It seems year on year, as summer time comes around, it is to the pleasure of art lovers and beyond that we welcome another name from the A-list to the Albert Dock. In the recent past we've seen Picasso and Klimt, while this time last year it was the turn of Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. If Tate Liverpool continues in this vein, they may worry about being taken for granted. This time around, we're getting triple the bang for our buck, with Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings.
Of course, the three men operated in markedly different times: JMW Turner, Claude Monet and Cy Twombly couldn't possibly have anything in common, not enough to base an exhibition featuring more than 60 works around, surely? If not exactly 'emperors new clothes', we did wonder why, other than guaranteeing visitors, would Tate plump specifically for these three.
Jeremy Lewison wasted no time at all in exploding whatever assumptions we'd brought to the table. Previously Director of Collections at Tate in London (a position he held for 18 years), Lewison began by explaining that "the exhibition was commissioned by Moderna Museet [in Stockholm], who initially wanted the show to feature Turner, Monet and [Mark] Rothko … the more I thought about it, I thought it wasn't the right combination. Rothko had already been canonised, and his place was firmly established. Twombly was a bit more edgy, and of course, at that point still alive."
Early omens were good. When Jeremy visited him shortly before his death last year, Twombly had "found the exhibition really interesting, and had began to think about the show and how it would work." An avid collector of letters by artists who fascinated him, Twombly explained that in his collection were letters written by both Turner and Monet. It was at this point Lewison must have known his instinct in plumping for Twombly over Rothko had been correct.
"They might come to blows but they also might have a grudging admiration in the end"
Before that wonderful, serendipitous discovery, Lewison explained that he had pondered "a number of different links" between the three, which pointed to how he would tie the show together. "I was interested to look at what happens to Romanticism after Turner. Somehow art moves towards the symbolist and then the modernist. There are strong aspects of Romanticism in Monet's work that he might not admit himself, [and] Twombly described himself as a romantic symbolist. His works are a palimpsest – layers of different cultures, imbued with a sense of the romantic."
Another important aspect is that 'Later Paintings' element of the exhibition title. We are looking at works by men in later life. "What preoccupies artists in older age?" asks Lewison. He goes on to suggest that it's "an attitude towards mortality and an attitude to loss – how did the artist deal with, and frame, loss?" These questions had particular relevance in Twombly's case. Of course, he has only very recently died, but he continued to work after a number of health scares. "It's quite extraordinary with some of the bigger of Twombly's paintings. When I saw him, he was transformed in front of the canvas. Camino Real [in The Vital Force section of the exhibition] expresses vitality and exuberance of still being alive."
If it all still seems a little on the nebulous side, as soon as you walk around the exhibition, such thoughts are instantly banished. Arranged thematically ("I constructed this as a conversation", says Lewison) the exhibition draws some wonderful parallels between the artists – juxtaposing two, sometimes all three – and one can see the intent and effort that has gone into the exhibition to provide a new context in which to view the already wonderful pieces.
Lewison puts it best, setting a scene. "Twombly and Turner meet downstairs standing in front of their respective versions of Hero and Leander. They could have an exchange and come to an understanding eventually. They might [all three of them] come to blows but they also might have a grudging admiration in the end." When asked whether in curating the exhibition he felt part of their conversation, he replied: "I felt I was listening in. I wasn't taking part in the dialogue, simply listening in".
Of course, the inclination when presented with greats such as these is to compare them, and perhaps pick a particular favourite. We couldn't leave without asking the question of Jeremy. "I don't have a favourite artist of the three. Amongst the Twombly, I love Orpheus; it's such a slow painting. That's what this exhibition is about; it's opening itself up to poetry, looking into this conversation that's taking place. I'm not telling you how to respond to it – I want you to have your own response."
Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings continues at Tate Liverpool until 28th October £12, concessions available
Images courtesy Tate
For more on Turner Monet Twombly, read our review of the exhibition over at Creative Tourist, who we are pleased to announce are our new publishing partners. For more info and regular updates, why not subscribe, for free, to our newsletter?


We at CNMS aim at providing an all round and holistic development to our students. The focus is on activity based education and widening the children's horizons with enriching experiences. CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) a new method of assessment has been introduced from this academic year that covers all the aspects of a student's development.
CCE helps in improving student's performance by identifying his/her learning difficulties at regular time intervals right from the beginning of the academic session and employing suitable remedial measures for enhancing their learning performance. It also helps in reducing stress of students by identifying learning progress of students at regular time intervals on small portions of content and encouraging learning through employment of a variety of teaching aids and techniques.
Constant efforts towards upgradation keep us on par with the current developments taking place in the field of education. Interactive white boards used for classroom teaching brings to life the promise of 21st Century Learning, Collecting, Collaborating & Communicating with the Global World. The latest feather in our cap is the introduction of MindSpark Tablets and Net Books where our children practice math in a fun way which is based on adaptive logic, thus enhancing logic.
Learning becomes fun through extra and co-curricular activities like Hobby, Yoga, Swimming, Dance, Indian Music, Western Music and Martial Arts.
Students are taken on regular field trips to give them a first-hand experience on the topics taught to them in school. Inter House Competitions are conducted throughout the year giving students a platform to showcase their talents and strengths in areas like art, craft, music, dance, language and math.
The school boasts of a sophisticated state of the art infrastructure creating a conducive and joyful atmosphere for learning. We aim at making education a meaningful and enjoyable experience.
PRIMARY SECTION : 1 p.m. to 5.45 p.m.
Assembly 1.00 p.m. 1.15 p.m.
1 1.15 p.m. 1.45 p.m.
2 1.45 p.m. 2.15 p.m.
3 2.15 p.m. 2.45 p.m.
4 2.45 p.m. 3.15 p.m.
BREAK 3.15 p.m. 3.30 p.m.
5 3.30 p.m. 4.00 p.m.
6 4.00 p.m. 4.30 p.m.
7 4.30 p.m. 5.00 p.m.
8 5.00 p.m. to 5.45 p.m.