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Tag Archives: SMS Gneisenau
Graf Spee's SMS Scharnhorst found off Falklands
Posted on December 6, 2019 by laststandonzombieisland	Leave a comment
Scharnhorst and her sister were very distinctive with their four large funnels.
The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust has for the past half-decade been looking for the German battle fleet of Adm. Maximilian Graf von Spee lost near the South Atlantic British colony on 8 December 1914. It looks like the charity has hit paydirt in a sort by finding the armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst, the flagship of Spee's doomed German East Asia Squadron.
Scharnhorst, built in Hamburg in 1905, was the first to be sunk when the Germans met with VADM Doveton Sturdee's battlecruiser squadron, hammered below the waves by the much stronger HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible.
Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914 by British Artist William Lionel Wyllie, showing Scharnhorst slipping below the waves as Gneisenau battles on
Sinking of the Scharnhorst, 1914, painted by Admiral Thomas Jacques Somerscales currently on display at the Royal Museums Greenwich
In all, over 2,200 German sailors perished on the sea that day, including von Spee himself and his two sons – Heinrich aboard the Scharnhorst's sister ship Gneisenau, and Otto aboard the smaller cruiser Nürnberg.
The Scharnhorst was discovered on the third day of the research vessel Seabed Constructor's search, 98 nautical miles southeast of Port Stanley at a depth of 1610 meters.
Armoured Cruiser SMS Scharnhorst composite. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Her silhouette is perfect. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Her bow, note the casemated guns. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Another bow shot, note the teak planking is still intact. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Her 8..3″ main guns, at apparently max elevation. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Note the "Krupp" tag. Via Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust
Wilhelm Graf von Spee, the current head of the Graf von Spee family, said:
"Speaking as one of the many families affected by the heavy casualties suffered on 8 December 1914 at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the discovery of SMS Scharnhorst is bittersweet. We take comfort from the knowledge that the final resting place of so many has been found, and can now be preserved, whilst also being reminded of the huge waste of life. As a family, we lost a father and his two sons on one day. Like the thousands of other families who suffered an unimaginable loss during the First World War, we remember them and must ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain."
for those lost at sea
Warship Wednesday, July 17, 2019: Willy's Vulture
Posted on July 17, 2019 by laststandonzombieisland	4 comments
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger
Deutsches Bundesarchiv Bild 134-C0105
Here we see the three-masted bark-rigged "kleiner geschutzter kreuzer" (small protected cruiser) SMS Geier of the Imperial German Kaiserliche Marine photographed at the beginning of her career around 1895. A well-traveled Teutonic warship named after the German word for "vulture," she would repeatedly find herself only narrowly avoiding some of the largest naval clashes of her era.
The final installment of the six-ship Bussard-class of colonial cruisers, all of which were named after birds, Geier and her sisters (Falke, Seeadler, Condor, and Comoran) would today be classified either as corvettes or well-armed offshore patrol vessels. With an 1800~ ton displacement (which varied from ship to ship as they had at least three varying generations of subclasses), these pint-sized "cruisers" were about 275-feet long overall and could float in less than three fathoms. While most cruisers are built for speed, the Bussards could only make 15-ish knots when everything was lit. When it came to an armament, they packed eight 10.5 cm (4.1″) SK L/35 low-angle guns and a pair of cute 350mm torpedo tubes, which wasn't that bad for policing the colonies but was hopeless in a surface action against a real cruiser.
Geier's sister, SMS Seeadler, in a postcard-worthy setting. The six ships of the class ranged from the West Indies to Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific. Much more exotic duty than the typical Baltic/North Sea gigs for the High Seas Fleet
Constructed between 1888 and 1895 at four different Northern German yards, the half-dozen Bussards were a very late 19th Century design, complete with a three-masted auxiliary barquentine rig, ram bows, and a wooden-backed copper-sheathed hull. They carried a pair of early electric generators and their composite hull was separated into 10 watertight compartments. Despite the "geschutzter" designation given by the Germans, they carried no armor other than splinter shields.
The only member of the class built at Kaiserliche Werft, Wilhelmshaven, Geier was laid down in 1893 and commissioned 24 October 1895, with Kaiser Wilhelm himself visiting the ship on that day.
SMS "Geier" der kaiserlichen deutschen Marine
SMS "Geier", Kaiser Wilhelm II. spricht zur Besatzung
SMS "Geier", Kleiner Kreuzer; Besichtigung des Schiffes durch Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Notably, Geier was the largest and most developed of her sisters, using a slightly different gun arrangement, better engines and 18-inch torpedo tubes rather than the 14s carried by the preceding five ships of the class.
All six Bussards were subsequently deployed overseas in Willy's far-flung colonies in Africa and the Pacific, a tasking Geier soon adopted. Setting off for the West Indies, she joined the German squadron of old ironclads and school ships that were deployed there in 1897 to protect Berlin's interests in Venezuela and Haiti.
The next year, under the command of Korvettenkapitän (later Vizeadmiral) Hermann Jacobsen, Geier was permitted by the U.S. fleet during the Spanish-American War to pass in and out of the blockaded Spanish ports in Cuba and Puerto Rico on several occasions, ostensibly on humanitarian grounds to evacuate neutral European civilians.
The unprotected cruiser SMS Geier entering Havana Harbor, Cuba, in 1898, during the SpanAm War
However, Jacobson dutifully kept a log of ships that ran the American blockade and their cargo as well as conducted a detailed analysis of the damage done to the Spanish ships at the Battle of Santiago. These observations were later released then ultimately translated into English and published in the USNI's Proceedings in 1899.
By 1900, Geier was operating in the Pacific and, operating with the German East Asia Squadron, was in Chinese waters in time to join the international task force bringing the Manchu Dynasty to its knees during the Boxer Rebellion. She remained in the region and observed the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, notably poking around at Chemulpo (Inchon) where the Russian protected cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz were scuttled after a sharp engagement with a superior IJN force under Baron Sotokichi.
GEIER Photographed early in her career, before her 1908-1909 refit that reduced her Barkentine Rig to Brigantine Standard. NH 88631
Returning to Germany in 1909 for repair and refit, her rigging was changed from that of a three-mast barquentine to a two-mast topsail schooner while her bridge was enlarged, and her boilers replaced.
Geier with her late-career schooner rig
Recommissioned in 1911, she was assigned to the Mediterranean where she spent the next couple years exercising gunboat diplomacy in the wake of the Moroccan Crisis while eating popcorn on the sidelines of the Italian-Turkish War and Balkan Wars, all of which involved a smattering of curious naval actions to report back to Berlin. By 1914, although she had never fired a shot in anger, our Vulture had already haunted five significant wars from Tripoli to Korea and Cuba, very much living up to her name.
To catch us up on the rest of the class, by the eve of the Great War, the Bussards was showing their age. Sisterships Seeadler and Condor in 1914 were converted to mine storage hulks in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, respectively. Bussard and Falke had already been stricken from the Naval List in 1912 and sold to the breakers. Meanwhile, in the German Chinese treaty port of Tsingtao (Qingdao), Cormoran was laid up with bad engines.
Speaking of which, when the lamps went out across Europe in August 1914, Geier was already en route from Dar es Salaam in German East Africa (where she had been relieved by the doomed cruiser Konigsberg) to Tsingtao to join Vizeadmiral Count Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron in the Pacific.
Once the balloon went up, she was in a precarious situation as just about any British, French, Russian or Japanese warship she encountered could have sent her quickly to the bottom. Eluding the massive Allied dragnet, which was deployed not only to capture our old cruiser but also Von Spee's much more serious task force and the downright dangerous SMS Emden (which Geier briefly met with at sea), Geier attempted to become a commerce raider and, taking on coal from two German merchant ships, managed to capture a British freighter, SS Southport, at Kusaie in the Eastern Carolines on 4 September. After disabling Southport's engines and leaving the British merchantman to eventually recover and report Geier's last position, our decrepit light cruiser missed her rendezvous with Von Spee's squadron at Pagan Island in the Northern Marianas and the good Count left her behind.
Alone, short on coal and only a day or so ahead of the Japanese battleship Hizen (former Russian Retvizan) and the armored cruiser Asama, Geier steamed into Honolulu on 17 October, having somehow survived 11 weeks on the run.
After failing to leave port within the limits set by neutral U.S. authorities, she was interned on 8 November and nominally disarmed.
Bussard Class Unprotected Cruiser SMS Geier pictured interned in Hawaii, she arrived in Honolulu on October 17th, 1914 for coaling, repairs and freshwater– and never left
Meanwhile, the Graf Spee's East Asia Squadron had defeated the British 4th Cruiser Squadron under RADM Christopher Cradock in the Battle of Coronel on 1 November, sinking the old cruisers HMS Good Hope and Monmouth and sending Cradock and 1,600 of his men to the bottom of the South Atlantic Pacific off the coast of Chile. A month later, Spee himself along with his two sons and all but one ship of his squadron was smashed by VADM Doveton Sturdee's battlecruiser squadron at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
Schlacht bei den Falkland-Inseln (8.12.1914) Battle Falklands Islands, German chart
Our Vulture had evaded another meeting with Poseidon.
As for Geier, her war was far from over, reportedly being used as a base for disinformation (alleging a Japanese invasion of Mexico!) and espionage (tracking Allied ship movements) for the next two years.
German cruiser Geier shown interned in Honolulu. Photo by Herbert B Turner. NARA 165-WW-272C-006
Geier at Honolulu Harbor PP-40-3-018. Via Hawaii State Archives
Finally, in February 1917, the events came to a head.
According to the U.S. NHHC:
German reservists and agents surreptitiously utilized the ship for their operations, and the Americans grew increasingly suspicious of their activities. Emotions ran hot during the war and the Germans violated "neutrality," Lt. (j.g.) Albert J. Porter of the ship's company, who penned the commemorative War Log of the USS. St. Louis (Cruiser No. 20), observed, "with characteristic Hun disregard for international law and accepted honor codes." Geier, Korvettenkapitän Curt Graßhoff in command, lay at Pier 3, moored to interned German steamer Pomeran when a column of smoke began to rise from her stack early on the morning of 4 February 1917. The ship's internment prohibited her from getting steam up, and the Americans suspected the Germans' intentions.
Lt. Cmdr. Victor S. Houston, St. Louis' commanding officer, held an urgent conference on board the cruiser at which Cmdr. Thomas C. Hart, Commander SubDiv 3, represented the Commandant. Houston ordered St. Louis to clear for action and sent a boarding party, led by Lt. Roy Le C. Stover, Lt. (j.g.) Robert A. Hall, and Chief Gunner Frank C. Wisker. The sailors disembarked at the head of the Alakea wharf and took up a position in the second story of the pier warehouse. Soldiers from nearby Schofield Barracks meanwhile arrived and deployed a battery of 3-inch field pieces, screened by a coal pile across the street from the pier, from where they could command the decks of the German ship. Smoke poured in great plumes from Geier and her crewmen's actions persuaded the Americans that the Germans likely intended to escape from the harbor, while some of the boarding party feared that failing to sortie, the Germans might scuttle the ship with charges, and the ensuing blaze could destroy part of the waterfront.
The boarding party, therefore, split into three sections and boarded and seized Pomeran, and Hart and Stover then boarded Geier and informed Graßhoff that they intended to take possession of the cruiser and extinguish her blaze, to protect the harbor. Graßhoff vigorously protested but his "wily" efforts to delay the boarders failed and the rest of the St. Louis sailors swarmed on board. The bluejackets swiftly took stations forward, amidships, and aft, and posted sentries at all the hatches and watertight doors, blocking any of the Germans from passing. Graßhoff surrendered and the Americans rounded-up his unresisting men. 1st Lt. Randolph T. Zane, USMC, arrived with a detachment of marines, and they led the prisoners under guard to Schofield Barracks for internment.
Her crew headed off to Schofield Barracks for the rest of the war, some of the first German POWs in the U.S. (Hawaii State Archives)
Wisker took some men below to the magazines, where they found shrapnel fuzes scattered about, ammunition hoists dismantled, and floodcocks battered into uselessness. The Germans also cunningly hid their wrenches and spans in the hope of forestalling the Americans' repairs. Stover in the meantime hastened with a third section and they discovered a fire of wood and oil-soaked waste under a dry boiler. The blaze had spread to the deck above and the woodwork of the fire room also caught by the heat thrown off by the "incandescent" boiler, and the woodwork of the magazine bulkheads had begun to catch. The boarders could not douse the flames with water because of the likelihood of exploding the dry boiler, but they led out lines from the bow and stern of the burning ship and skillfully warped her across the slip to the east side of Pier 4. The Honolulu Fire Department rushed chemical engines to the scene, and the firemen and sailors worked furiously cutting holes thru the decks to facilitate dousing the flames with their chemicals. The Americans extinguished the blaze by 5:00 p.m., and then a detachment from SubDiv 3, led by Lt. (j.g.) Norman L. Kirk, who commanded K-3 (Submarine No. 34), relieved the exhausted men.
German cruiser Geier with boilers on fire being sabotauged by her crew Honolulu Feb 4 1917 Photo by Herbert NARA 165-WW-272C-007
The Germans all but wrecked Geier and their "wanton work" further damaged the engines, steam lines, oil lines, auxiliaries, navigation instruments, and even the wardroom, which Porter described as a "shambles."
As such, she was the only German Imperial Navy warship captured by the U.S. Navy during World War I.
Coupled with the more than 590,000 tons of German merchant ships seized in U.S. ports April 1917, Geier was reconditioned for American service and eventually commissioned as USS Schurz, a name used in honor of German radical Carl Schurz who fled Prussia in 1849 after the failed revolution there. Schurz had, in turn, joined the Union Army during the Civil War and commanded a division of largely German-speaking immigrants in the XI Corps at Second Manassas, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga, rising to the rank of major general.
[Of XI Corps's 27 infantry regiments, at least 13 were "Dutch" (German) regiments with many German-born/speaking commanders prevalent. Besides Schurz, brigades and divisions of the XI Corps were led by men such as Col. Ludwig Blenker and Brig. Gen. Adolph von Steinwehr, formerly officers of the Royal Armies Bavaria and the Duchy of Brunswick, respectively.]
Postwar, Schurz was a senator from Missouri, where a large German population had settled, and later served as Interior Secretary in the Hayes Administration.
Don't let his bookish looks fool you, although Schurz was a journalist who served as editor of the New York Evening Post, he also fought in the German revolution and saw the elephant several times in the Civil War.
Under the command of LCDR Arthur Crenshaw, the new USS Schurz joined the fleet in September 1917 and served as an escort on the East Coast. Her German armament landed; she was equipped with four 5-inch mounts in U.S. service.
USS Schurz off the foot of Market Street, San Diego, California, in November-December 1917. Note the U.S. colors. Courtesy of the San Diego Maritime Museum, 1983 Catalog #: NH 94909
While on a convoy from New York for Key West, Fla., on 0444 on 21 June 1918, she collided with the merchant ship SS Florida southwest of Cape Lookout lightship, North Carolina, about 130 miles east of Wilmington.
As noted by the NHHC, "The collision crumpled the starboard bridge wing, slicing into the well and berth deck nearly 12 feet, and cutting through bunker no. 3 to the forward fire room." One of Schurz's crewmen was killed instantly, and 12 others injured. The 216 survivors abandoned ship and Schurz sank about three hours later in 110-feet of water.
A later naval board laid the blame for the collision on Florida, as the steamer was running at full steam in the predawn darkness in the thick fog without any lights or horns and had failed to keep a proper distance.
USS Schurz was stricken from the Navy list on 26 August 1918, and her name has not been reissued. The Kaiserliche Marine confusingly recycled the name "Geier" for an auxiliary cruiser (the former British merchant vessel Saint Theodore, captured by the commerce raider SMS Möwe) as well as an armed trawler during the war even while the original ship was interned in Hawaii with a German crew pulling shenanigans.
Of SMS Geier's remaining sisters in German service, Seeadler was destroyed by an accidental explosion on the Jade in April 1917 and never raised, Cormoran had been scuttled in Tsingtao and captured by the Japanese who scrapped her, and Condor was broken up in 1921.
Today, while she has been extensively looted of artifacts over the years the wreck of the Schurz is currently protected as part of the NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and she is a popular dive site.
NOAA divers swim over the stern of the USS Schurz shipwreck. Photo: Tane Casserley, NOAA
Photo: Tane Casserley, NOAA
East Carolina University conducted an extensive survey of her wreckage in 2000 and found her remarkably intact, with her boilers in place as well as brass fasteners and copper hull sheathing with nails still attached.
Via Discovery Diving https://www.discoverydiving.com/diving/dive-sites
Geier's 1909 plan, via the Dreadnought Project. Other ship plans available on the website
Displacement, full: 1918 tons
Length: 275 ft oal, 261 wl
Beam: 34 ft. 10.6
Draft: 15 feet 4.74 mean 5.22 deep load
Machinery: 2 HTE, 4 cylindrical boilers, 2880 hp, 2 shafts
Coal: 320 tons
Speed: 15.5-knots max
Range: 3610nm at 9kts
Complement: 9 officers, 152 men (German) 197 to 217 (US)
Armor: None
8 x 1 – 4.1″/32cal SK L/35 single mounts
5 x 1-pdr (37mm) revolving cannon (removed in 1909)
2 x 1 – 450mm TT with 5 18-inch torpedoes in magazine
4 x 5″/51cal U.S. mounts
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Warship Wednesday, Sept 5, 2018: Der Piratenjäger
Posted on September 5, 2018 by laststandonzombieisland	2 comments
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Here we see Kaiserliche Marine's proud, twin-funneled flusskanonenboot (river gunboat) SMS Otter on the Yangtze River in China sometime between 1910 and 1914. She was one of a kind and had an interesting backstory.
You see, long before the Germans showed up in Kiautschou Bay on 13 November 1897 and the next morning steamed into the inner harbor of Tsingtao to carve out a colony by force, the Imperial German Navy wanted a riverboat to smash roving bands of waterborne Chinese pirates and protect Teutonic interests in the region. While corvettes, sloops, and other traditional bluewater warships could muscle their way into China's coastal cities and exercise gunboat diplomacy, you needed something much shallower to penetrate the sprawling Yangtze river system and ward off hostile junks filled with sword and musket-armed bandits.
Thus, in 1876, F. Schichau in Elbing was contracted to work up a warship like the Germans had never used before. Displacing just 130-tons (165 max) the 101-foot long gunboat could float in a gentle 5.4-feet of water. Carrying a 120mm rifle forward and an 80mm aft, she could plod along at 8-knots on her coal-fired steam plant (when not using her auxiliary sail rig) and accommodate some 43 officers and men. She was to be a littoral combat ship of the late 19th Century:
The design for the 1877 German pirate buster. She never did get her canvas
The name of this mighty river-going pirate buster? Well, the Germans were fond of animal names for gunboats and Otter just seemed to fit. Commissioned 1 April 1878, everything seemed set.
She even boasted dragons on her prow.
However, the nearly flat-bottomed Otter proved a horrible sea boat, nearly swamping on trials, and the prospect of her sailing from the Baltic to Nanking was thought to be just a drawn-out suicide. This relegated her to a career spent as an artillery tender, compass trials boat and pierside training ship that never left sheltered waters or put to sea on a cloudy day. Decommissioned in 1907, the Navy kept her around as a hulk and test ship until she was scrapped in 1926, never seeing China. Indeed, never even really leaving German coastal waters.
Sadly, this version of Otter never went to China, losing her name in 1907 to a second Otter that did.
Putting their desire for a river gunboat on ice, the Germans eventually acquired the 147-foot Shanghai-built river steamer Woochow locally and, after adding some Germans to her crew as well as a couple of four-pounders, dubbed her SMS Vorwärts (Forward) like her deployment, just in time for the Boxer Rebellion. The same was done with the smaller 120-foot coaster Tong Cheong, which became SMS Schamien. However, they did not prove very well suited to the task and purpose-built craft were urgently requested.
Therefore, two new flat-bottomed gunboats were purpose-built by Schichau on experience learned from Otter— the 157-foot SMS Vaterland and Tsingtau.
Frankes Collection vintage postcard Kaiserliche Marine German river gunboat SMS Tsingtau
Armed with an 88mm gun and a four-pounder, they were built in nine sections and shipped to the region in pieces, solving Otter's biggest drawback. Vaterland went via the HAPAG steamer Bisgravia in February 1904, then reassembled in Shanghai and put into service on 28 May 28, 1904. Tsingtau was carried by Prinzzess Marie to Hong Kong the previous September and was in service by Feb. 1904. Once they were operational, they replaced Vorwärts and Schamien, who were sold locally.
However, things were heating up in China. In 1905, no sooner than the two new gunboats entered service, riots broke out in Shanghai that required landing forces. International (read= European) efforts to penetrate and extend influence on the upper reaches of the Yangtze as well as the Min and Pearl river systems taxed the two boats and their crews.
Enter a new and improved Otter!
The boatyard of Joh. C. Tecklenborg, Geestemünde, laid down Germany's purpose-built fourth (and largest) Chinese river gunboat from a development of the Vaterland/Tsingtau design. Some 177-feet overall (173 at the keel), she could float in just 3.2-feet of water. Equipped with Thornycroft-Schulz steam boilers vented through twin stacks, her two VTE steam engines allowed her to reach a blistering 15.2-knots (faster than Vaterland/Tsingtau's 13) despite her flat-hull, or poke around at 5-knots for an impressive 4,300 miles.
Her armament was a pair of fast-firing 5.2-cm SK L/55 Krupp guns— popguns still capable of poking smoking holes in random junks or blowing apart suspect buildings 2,000 yards from the river banks– and three big water-cooled Spandau machine guns.
The 2.05″ 5.2-cm SK L/55 gun was found on German torpedo boats and cruisers of the 1910s. Otter carried two as her main armament, with about 300 shells carried in her magazine.
To protect against small arms fire, she was given 5mm of steel armor plating on her sides and over her vitals.
Completed in 1909, Otter trailed on the Weser before she was disassembled and was shipped overseas in nine sections aboard the Leonhardt & Blumberg GmbH steamer Marie Leonhardt.
German river gunboat SMS Otter, built for China service, round about 1909 on the river Weser under national flag prior to commissioning.
Reassembled and ready for service by April 1910 after inspection by Vice Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl himself, Otter was the pride of the East Asia Squadron's riverine operations. Over the next few years she calmly did her job and ranged the rivers of China, the biggest German on the block once you moved inland, and the fastest thing on the brown water.
Otter in China service. Note she has her Reichskriegsflagge flying
Going back to the days of the Woochow, the commander of each German river gunboat was given an operating budget to buy supplies for their ship, as they were not attached to a base. These funds were typically in Mexican silver pesos as they were the easiest to move in China (keep in mind that the famous Tsingtao brewery was started with 400,000 Mexican silver pesos in 1903). The budget also allowed for the hiring of as many as a dozen local Chinese auxiliaries to serve as stokers, pilots, cooks, and stewards besides, of course, doubling as terps. The practice was common on European (and American) river gunboats of the era. It was a quiet life, interrupted by periods of terror. Think The Sand Pebbles but with more sauerkraut and better beer.
A local aboard Otter with the ship's mascots. via Auktionshaus Christoph Gärtner GmbH & Co. K
Enter the July 1914 crisis that turned into the guns of August.
The German Navy in Asia was far-flung in the late summer of 1914. Under the command of the Vice-Admiral Graf Spee, his East Asia Squadron proper was homeported in Tsingtao. This included the armored cruisers Scharnhorst (his flag) and her sister, Gneisenau, as well as the light cruisers Emden, Leipzig, and Nurnberg; and the four Iltis-class gunboats Iltis, Jaguar, Tiger, and Luchs. Also in the principal German colony in China was the old cruiser Cormoran, which was laid up; a torpedo boat (S90), the tug/minelayer SMS Lauting, and a few steamers quickly converting to auxiliary cruisers.
Out in the German Pacific island colonies– which the Allies would rush to capture, setting the stage for the island-hopping campaigns of 1943– were the old cruiser Geier (Vulture) and the survey ship Planet. Poking around the Pacific coast of Latin America was the cruiser Dresden, complete with a moody junior officer by the name of Wilhelm Canaris.
At Canton on the Pearl River was the flusskanonenboot Tsingtau and on the Yangtze at Nanking with Otter was Tsingtau's sister, SMS Vaterland.
The whole of the Kaiser's military ashore in Asia.
With the likelihood of being able to fight it out with the large Russo-Anglo-French fleets in the Far East when the balloon went up, the good Graf Spee got going. His East Asia Squadron sans the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran and light cruiser Emden beat feat for the Atlantic (which didn't go well) leaving the aforementioned ships to embark on commerce raiding on their own.
The four Iltis-class gunboats were left at Tsingtao and scuttled before the Japanese could capture them, although their crew and guns were used to arm auxiliary cruisers that largely made it out before the siege. The hardy torpedo boat S90 scuttled after breaking out– as she sank the Japanese mine cruiser Takachiho (3,700-tons) — and had her crew interned by the Chinese in Nanking. By March 1915, the last of von Spee's squadron, the weathered Dresden, scuttled off windswept and remote Robinson Crusoe Island of southern Chile.
Geier went to Hawaii and was interned. SMS Tsingtau was abandoned on 2 August at Canton with a skeleton crew who later sank her in the river. On 7 October, the crew of Planet scuttled the vessel off the island of Yap to avoid capture by the Japanese.
In Nanking, things went a little differently.
In an effort to have their cake (not be destroyed by the Allies) and eat it too (not lose their ships to the Chinese), the crews of the river gunboats Vaterland and Otter were converted to non-combatants and their ships sold to a private company (although they still apparently kept their armament from what I understand). Vaterland became Landesvater and Otter became München (Munich) on 18 August. The crews, leaving their Chinese auxiliaries behind along with a handful of volunteers to keep the boats afloat, let out for Tsingtao colony as best they could.
This subterfuge of the gunboats-that-weren't lasted until China, stretching her newfound legs of post-Imperial nationalism, drifted into the Great War on the side of the Allies. In 1917, the German unrestricted U-boat campaign saw the freighter Athos I sunk off Malta with 754 Chinese workers aboard in February (some 200,000 laborers were recruited by French and British agents in the country to work behind the lines on the Western Front.) The next month, China broke off its diplomatic ties with Germany, and on 20 March promptly requisitioned (seized) the two "civilian" gunboats in Nanking although they ran into some trouble as much of the vital equipment on both were wrecked or tossed overboard. Vaterland/Lansesvater subsequently became the Chinese gunboat Li-Sui (also seen as Li Chien) while Otter/München became Li-Tsieh (also seen in Western sources as Li Chieh, Li Jie, Lee Ju, or Lee Jeh, as transliteration is bullshit).
Both ships, reworked and rearmed, went on to serve on the Chinese Sungari flotilla along the Amur river throughout the confusion of the Russian Civil War and Allied Intervention followed by the terrible warlord era in that part of the globe that persisted through the 1920s.
During the 1929 border clash known as the Sino-Russian War, Soviet aircraft from the seaplane-carrier Amur working in tandem with Tayfun-class river monitors of the Red Amur River Flotilla apparently sank Otter/München/Li-Tsieh during this period of undeclared confrontation. Otter's fate was sealed in a duel with the monitor Krasnyi Vostok (alternatively credited as killed by Sverdlov on Navypedia) on 12 October at what was termed invariably the Battle of Lahasusu (Sanjiangkou), although the old German ship in Chinese hands reportedly scored hits on two Soviet gunboats. Grounded, she later was scrapped in 1932 or 1942 (again, sources vary).
As for Vaterland/Lansevater/Li-Sui, she was rebuilt several times and, captured by the Japanese in 1932, became part of the puppet Manchukuo Navy until 1945 as the Risui.
A river gunboat from the Manchukuo Navy,on Japanese 1930s
The Soviets then captured her when they swept into Manchuria and she became the gunboat Pekin for a time under the Red banner– which would have been at least her 4th.
To wrap things up:
Many of the 1914 German river gunboat crewmen looking to leave managed to ship out of China on the auxiliary cruiser Cormorman, only to be interned in Guam for the duration. Others, falling in with one Kapitänleutnant Erwin von Möller, formerly the of the SMS Tsingtau, managed to make it to the Dutch East Indies where they fitted out the schooner Marboek and took her 82 days Westward to the Arabian coast, in hopes of making the Ottoman Empire. However, they were reportedly caught by Arabs and killed in the desert in March 1915.
Kapitänleutnant Erwin von Möllers party
Otter's prewar skipper, Korvettenkapitän Rudolph Firle, made it to the Ottoman Empire on his own by late 1914 and was put in command of the Turkish torpedo boat flotilla at Constantinople. He went on to win two Iron Crosses and two Ritterkreuz before the Armistice. His most noteworthy action came on a moonless night in 1915 when, at the conn of the Schichau-Werft-built Ottoman destroyer Muavenet-i Milliye (765-tons), he was instrumental in sinking the moored old Canopus-class pre-dreadnought HMS Goliath (14,000-tons) in Morto Bay off Cape Helles with three torpedoes. He later had escapades with the Bulgarians and in the Baltic. Leaving the Navy in 1921, he became a big wheel at Norddeutscher Lloyd and was later instrumental in the design of the 1930's passenger liners Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Potsdam.
A fez and RK/EK-clad Firle, left, among his Ottoman Navy buddies, Yuzbasi Ali Riza (commander of torpedo boat Sultanhisar), and Binbashi Ahmed Saffed (commander of Muavenet-i Milliye) around 1916.
The Tsingtau – historisch–biographisches Projekt (in German) has a list of Otter's final Kaiserliche Marine crew.
About the biggest reminder of Germany's past colony in China that endures is the Tsingtao Brewery, which is now publicly traded and is China's second largest such activity. Further, Oktoberfest is alive and well in the Qingdao region, as it is known today.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX53yOJhJKA/?taken-by=tsingtao_usa
As far as I can tell, the German Navy never had another warship named Otter but did brush off "Piratenjäger" assignments, contributing ships to anti-piracy operations in the EU's Operation Atalanta and NATO's Operation Ocean Shield/CTF-151 in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean over the past decade. In all, at least a dozen frigates and replenishment ships flying the black, red and gold Bundesdienstflagge have been mixing it up in regular deployments off the HofA since 2008.
If only they had dragons on their bows.
Otter compared to her predecessors Tsingtau and Vaterland, via the 1914 Janes
Displacement: 280 tons
Length: 177-feet overall
Beam: 28.3-feet
Draft: 3.2-feet
Engineering: 2 Thornycroft-Schulz steam boilers, 2VTE 3cylinder steam engines, 1730hp, twin stacks, twin 1.4m screws
Speed: 15.2 knots designed (listed as 14 in Janes, 13 by Navypedia)
Range: 4350@5kn on 87 tons of coal
Complement: 3 officers, 44 men, + auxiliaries
Armor: 5mm steel sides
(As built)
2 x 5.2-cm SK L/55 Krupp rapid-fire four-pdrs with 300 shell magazine
3 x MG08 machine guns
(the 1920s, Chinese service)=?
Warship Wednesday September 24, 2014, the Kaiser's Far Eastern leviathans
Posted on September 24, 2014 by laststandonzombieisland	2 comments
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.
– Christopher Eger
Scharnhorst, 1907. Click to bigup.
Here we see the armored cruiser SMS Scharnhorst of the Kaiserliche Marine, the Imperial German Navy. The huge cruiser, along with her only sister ship, SMS Gneisenau, was Kaiser Wilhelm II's muscle in the Pacific Ocean for their brief existence.
When old Willy picked up the concession (in a lease like the Brits did with Hong Kong) from the old Manchu Chinese government at Tsingtao (Qingdao, pronounced "Ching-dow") in 1898, he added that Chinese port to a growing list of islands he bought from Spain after the Spanish American War (they weren't using them anymore) as well as the new colony of German New Guinea. What's a list of oddball far-flung colonies without a fleet to protect them though, right? This meant an upgrade to the small German East Asia Squadron (Ostasiengeschwader) from a handful of rusty gunboats and obsolete cruisers to something more dramatic.
With the Russians and Japanese mixing it up right on the German Far East's door in 1904, the Kaiser pushed for a pair of very large, very well-equipped armored cruisers to be the core of a new Teutonic blue-water fleet in the Pacific. As the Grand Admiral of the Kaiserliche Marine was none other than Alfred von Tirpitz, former commander of the run-down East Asia Squadron, the Kaiser found easy support. This led to the Scharnhorst-class.
Scharnhorst and her sister were very distinctive in profile with their four large funnels and two masts fore and aft.
These ships were huge, comparable to pre-Dreadnought style battleships only with less armor (remember that later). At nearly 13,000-tons and over 474-feet long, they commanded respect when they sailed into a foreign port in the Pacific–, which was the point. Able to steam at 22-knots, they could outpace older battleships while upto 7-inches of armor protected them from smaller vessels. An impressive main battery of eight 8.3-inch (210mm) guns, backed up by a further two dozen 5.9 and 3.5-inch guns gave her both the firepower of a heavy cruiser and a light cruiser all in one hull. In short, these ships were built to tie down British and French battleships in the Pacific in the event of a coming war– keeping them away from the all-important Atlantic.
The two cruisers each had tw0 double turrets and four single mounts, each with stout Krupp-made 8.3-inch/210mm guns
The crews of these ships were blessed with a fire control center and artillery pieces that worked better than hoped, as evidenced by the fact that between 1909 and 1914, these two cruisers consistently won the Kaiser's Cup naval gunnery contests, often coming in first and second place when stacked up against the rest of the fleet.
The German Armored cruiser Gneisenau. Date unknown.
Scharnhorst was laid down in 1905 at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg, while her sister Gneisenau was simultaneously being built at AG Weser dockyard in Bremen. Germany, being short of naval heroes, named these two ships after a pair of Prussian generals during the Napoleonic Wars. Scharnhorst was completed first and sent to Tsingtao, where her 750+ crew made a big splash on the local scene. Gneisenau followed within a year.
The two white-hulled cruisers, among the largest warships of any nation in the world's largest Ocean, were joined by an ever-increasing cast of small and fast light cruisers (SMS Dresden, SMS Emden, SMS Leipzig, and SMS Nurnberg) until the Kaiser had a half dozen new ships to protect his little slice of Germany in Asia. The commander of the force, Vice Admiral Maximilian, Reichsgraf von Spee, chose Scharnhorst for his flag. A wily veteran with over 30-years of colonial service under his feet, Von Spee was the perfect commander for what was coming next.
When World War One broke open in August 1914, the ships of the East Asia Squadron were spread around the Pacific at their pre-war stations. Von Spee wisely left Tsingtao, just ahead of a large Japanese force that would place the concession under siege with a preordained outcome.
Bringing his forces together in the Northern Marianas islands (then a German colony, now a U.S. territory, after capture from the Japanese in WWII, what a story!), Spee detached the fast ship Emden to meet her fate as an independent raider, while taking his five remaining cruisers to a place the British and French fleets that were hunting him never imagined– the South American coast
After just missing a British fleet at Samoa, and bombarding the French at Tahiti (where the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the French gunboat Zélée and the captured freighter Walküre in a very one-sided battle that was more of a waste of ammunition than anything else was), Von Spee made for Chile in the hopes of catching British shipping headed to and from the Atlantic.
The German steamer Walküre sunk in the harbor of Papeete, Tahiti, when the German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau shelled the town
What he found was a force of four cruisers led by British Rear Adm. Sir Christopher Cradock.
On All Saints Day 1914, now coming up on its 100th anniversary, Craddock and Von Spee fought it out. While it would seem that four British cruisers, with a navy of long traditions in coming out on top in ship-to-ship engagements at sea, would best the five German cruisers, it would only seem that way.
By large matter of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's enormous advantage in gunnery skills and armor/armament, the Germans smashed Craddock's fleet at what is now known as the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile. It was simply a case of who had more large guns. The Germans had sixteen 8.3-inch guns against just two British 9.2-inchers. The engagement ended with the deaths of some 1500 British sailors, and the cruisers HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth at the bottom of the ocean. The Germans sailed away largely unscathed.
Sinking of the HMS Good Hope. The 14,388-ton Drake-class armored cruiser was formidable when designed in the 1890s, but she only had two breech-loading 9.2-inch Mk 10 guns that could be used in the battle. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau gave her no chance.
Von Spee then rounded the bottom of South America and made for the British crown colony of the Falkland Islands, then an important coaling station and stop-over point for Cape-bound ships. His ships low on coal, low on ammunition, and starting their fourth month on the run, were surprised when they met Vice Adm. Doveton Sturdee's strong force that consisted of two new 20,000-ton HMS Invincible class battle-cruisers, backed up by five smaller cruisers and the old battleship HMS Canopus on December 8, 1914. In a direct mirror image of the Battle of Coronel, Von Spee was doomed.
Chart of the engagement, showing Sturdee's chase of Von Spee's fleet. Click to make much larger. From Project Gutenberg
Again, it came down to who had more heavy guns. The British this time had 16 quick firing 12-inch guns against the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's sixteen 8.3-inchers. Engaging the now-fleeing Germans at extreme range, the Scharnhorst turned into the two British battlecruisers, taking Invincible and Inflexible on in turns while Von Spee ordered the rest of his squadron to try to escape. However, it was no match By 16:17, ablaze and listing, she capsized. In the end, Scharnhorst took every single man who was aboard her that day, including Von Spee, to the bottom of the Atlantic.
The British were so pleased in the destruction of Scharnhorst that not one but two pieces of martial art were soon produced to celebrate it.
Sinking of the Scharnhorst painted by Admiral Thomas Jacques Somerscales currently on display at the Royal Museums Greenwich
Gneisenau's life would only be scant minutes longer. Her engines barely able to break 16-knots against the Invincible and Inflexible's 25, they soon caught up to her and at 17:50, out of ammunition and dead in the water, the mighty cruiser joined her sister in the depths. While a few of her crew were picked up by the British battlecruisers, over 600 perished.
HMS Inflexible picking up German sailors from Gneisenau after the battle
Later the same day they Royal Navy caught up to Nurnberg and Leipzig, completing a near hat trick of destroying the German East Asia Squadron in a single day. Dresden, out of coal and ammunition, scuttled herself in Chilean waters in March 1915, while her intelligence officer, a young Lt. Canaris, later to lead the Abwher in WWII, managed to escape destruction with her.
The Royal Navy had avenged the shame of Coronel. However, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would in turn be avenged at Jutland in 1916 when accurate large caliber shells of the German High Seas Fleet sent HMS Invincible to Valhalla while Inflexible, whose crew watched their sister ship vaporize, only narrowly avoided a salvo of torpedoes.
Scharnhorst's battleflag was recovered; legend has it from a waterproof shell tube tied to the leg of a German bosun's mate, and returned to Germany where it disappeared in 1945. Likely, it is hanging on a wall in Russia somewhere.
To the ships lost at Coronel, there is a memorial run by the British.
As far as a memorial to these, two armored cruisers, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were remembered in a pair of later German battlecruisers who, as fate would have it, were destroyed by the British in another World War. Von Spee himself, who not only lost his life at the Battle of the Falklands but those of his two sons, was memorialized in a pocket battleship that carried his name, before being the only German capital ship to be sunk in South America in another strange twist of fate.
As a side note, the Germans set up a brewery in Tsingtao, in part to provide good beer for the fleet still stands and is well known and even loved today as the best German beer in China. So if you ever run across one, pour out the first sip for Adm. Maximillian Von Spee and the 2200 sailors of the German East Asian Squadron that never saw their homeland again.
Displacement: 12,985 t (12,780 long tons; 14,314 short tons)
Length: 144.6 m (474 ft.)
Beam: 21.6 m (71 ft.)
Draft: 8.37 m (27.5 ft.)
18 Schulz Thornycroft Boilers
3 shaft triple expansion engines
27,759 ihp (trials)
Speed: 23.6 knots (44 km/h)
5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew: 38 officers, 726 enlisted men
8 × 8.2 in (21 cm) (2 × 2, 4 × 1)
6 × 5.9 in (15 cm) (6 × 1)
18 × 3.45 in (8.8 cm) (18 × 1)
4 × 17.7 in (45 cm) torpedo tubes
Belt: 6 in (15 cm)
Turrets: 7 in (18 cm)
Deck: 1.5 in (3.8 cm)–2.5 in (6.4 cm)
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.


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Head Control: A Building Block for Movement, Feeding & Language
Hands: Our Most Incredible Tools!
Sitting Up: A New Way to Move and View the World
30 March, 2017	by BabySparks	in Gross Motor
Now that your baby has gained head control and learned to roll over, she is ready to pull herself up to sit! This exciting milestone offers her a new way to move and a new view of her surroundings.
Like other gross-motor milestones before it, sitting up continues to prepare your baby for future movement (next up: crawling!). It nurtures her sensory-motor development and broadens her language acquisition, both of which we'll talk about below.
Sitting up is a gross-motor milestone that prepares babies for future movement, sensory-motor development, and language acquisition.
Around 6 months, babies can be placed in a seated position, but only hold themselves up temporarily. By 8 months, they begin pulling themselves up on their own.
Sitting up stimulates the vestibular and proprioceptive senses, which help support balance and coordinated movement.
When babies master sitting up, their hands are free to manipulate objects in new ways.
Parents can engage in back and forth "conversation" and have more meaningful interactions when babies start sitting up.
When Do Babies Sit Up?
Around 6 months, you will be able to place your baby in a seated position and she will use her arms to support herself and stay there for limited periods of time. Around 7 months, she will have good balance while seated without using her arms as support, and may bend forward or backward to reach for things. Around 8 months, she will begin to pull herself up to sitting on her own.
Some babies reach these stages of sitting sooner, some later. If you're worried about your baby's development, your pediatrician can help determine if she's on track.
Sitting and Other Gross-Motor Milestones
Pediatric Physical Therapist Dr. Andrea Hayward, MSPT, DPT explains that pulling up to sit on her own is an extraordinary feat for your baby. It requires a lot of pelvic, truck and arm strength to sit up, and a lot of balance and coordination to be able to twist, bend, lean, and play using both hands. All of this prepares her for her biggest gross-motor challenge yet: Crawling!
Sitting and Sensory-Motor Integration
Sitting is a big milestone for your baby's "internal" senses—vestibular and proprioceptive, both of which are crucial for balanced, coordinated movement. The vestibular sense is an understanding of our bodies in space. It allows us to know how our body is positioned in relation to the ground and to objects around us. The proprioceptive sense is an understanding of the relative position of our body parts.
Pediatric Occupational Therapist Natasha Bravo, M.S., OTR/L explains that sitting refines these senses in important ways: It teaches your baby to understand that her body is vertical rather than horizontal, and that her head is further from the ground than when she is lying down. She learns how to use her body to transition from one position to another, shift weight from side to side, and catch herself from falling if she starts to topple over.
Throughout our articles on gross-motor milestones we highlight how each offers new opportunities for your baby to have meaningful interactions with you during play. These interactions, according to Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist Mandy Alvarez, M.S., CCC-SLP, are what drive her language development.
Sitting up brings a new, dynamic element to play. When your baby can pull to sit on her own and both of her hands are free, she can manipulate objects in a new way. She may hold an object in each hand and bang them together, or use her fingers to move objects across the floor. This creates new opportunities for you to label things and actions, narrate what's happening, and engage in back-and-forth "conversation" with her. All of this teaches her about expressing herself, listening, cause and effect, and understanding non-verbal language.
Our BabySparks app has plenty of activities you can do with your baby to support her as she learns to get into and out of a seated position. Soon she will be on the move crawling, and you will be on the move keeping up with her!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
John Pletz On Technology
Peoria's OSF hospitals launch $75 million VC fund
John Pletz
Technology, airlines, cannabis
A hospital run by a small group of nuns in Peoria probably isn't the first place you'd look for the cutting edge.
But OSF Healthcare, which runs 11 hospitals across the state, is one of a few dozen hospitals nationwide directly investing in startups. Some of the more well-known hospitals with venture funds include Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, Providence Health and Ascension.
OSF has set aside about $75 million to invest in startups. It plans to do four to six deals a year, says Stanley Lynall, director of venture investments. The fund already has made four investments, including Chicago-based Avia, which helps hospitals evaluate startups and innovation. It also invests in startups.
Other completed deals include Dallas-based Pieces Technology, which makes data-sharing software for hospitals, and Salt Lake City-based Health Catalyst, a data-analytics company. OSF Ventures has a pending deal with a Chicago-area medical-device company, Lynall said. In taking on startup investments, OSF is treading where many of its peers, including giants such as Northwestern Memorial Hospital and University of Chicago Medicine are not.
"We're expecting to make a financial return on our investment," Lynall said. "But it's mainly about finding new technology to deploy that will improve (care). Traditionally, there hasn't been a lot of R&D done at (hospital systems."
OSF has a long history of innovation, he says. It got a turbo boost about three years ago from Jump Trading, which donated $25 million for a training and simulation center in Peoria.
Successful innovation and venture investing "can be done from Peoria," Lynall said, though he adds, "it might us take a little longer to get there," given flight schedules that can sometimes be challenging.
It already partners with startups looking to test new technologies, says Matthew Warrens, the hospital's vice president of innovation. OSF is a backer of Matter, an incubator for health-tech startups at the Merchandise Mart, and in pilot programs with two of its member companies.
"This was a logical next step," he says of investing directly. "We think there's value in feedback we can provide that they might not get from a traditional VC."
Ideally, the hospital will look to partner with other investors on deals, rather than lead them. A number of insurance companies, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, have their own funds. But few hospitals have made the leap.
Overall corporate venture capital investment in startups from software to real estate, is on the rise. About 27 percent of deals had some corporate venture component in the first quarter. That's up from 22 percent a year earlier, according to CB Insights, a New York-based research firm. Investment in digital health startups was $1.7 billion, up from about $1 billion a year ago, according to the Venture Pulse Report from CB Insights and KPMG.
"If I'm a startup founder and CEO, and I'm choosing which capital to bring in, it's a two-fer to get a health system to invest," says Dr. Garrett Vygantas, a partner at Jump Capital, a Chicago-based venture fund that also is backed by the founders of Jump Trading. It partnered with OSF Ventures on the Pieces Technology investment. "They're going to get deluged with deal flow."
A $100M investment in Chicago software company
Deerfield clean-tech startup gets $50M from Microsoft
Crypto-software startup Zero Hash raises $105M


Another method of curing sinusitis is nasal irrigation. Nasal irrigation is normally used in case of children who cannot take very heavy medication. This is a very safe side effect free method of treating sinus infection disease. In this method, saline water is used to wash out the infected mucous from the nasal cavities. Surgery may also be considered in some extreme cases which do not respond to any medical treatment. Apart from medication, inhaling steam and taking a hot compress over the affected parts of the face also gives some relief to people suffering from Sinusitis' target=_blank>sinusitis.


The ways in which funerals are observed are changing fast. The choices available are many and varied, and there is no right or wrong way to say goodbye. But, as in all things, our choices may be determined by the costs involved.
The total cost of a funeral will vary depending on a number of factors, some of which you can change, and some you can't – like the price of a burial plot which is dictated by your district or local authority.
*The prices listed below are current as at 1/7/2016 and are subject to change without notice.
There are a number of costs associated with a funeral, but in New Plymouth, you will generally only receive 2 invoices. One from us, which will include all fees and disbursements made on your behalf except the New Plymouth District Council Burial or Cremation fees. The District Council will send their account for these fees out separately to the nominated person or solicitor.
In special circumstances, such as Pre Paid funerals, we will include these fees as disbursements and pay the NPDC fees directly.
Of course, if you choose to use our Remembrance Chapel and Crematorium, this fee will be included in the main funeral account.
Liaising with the florist, Minister / Celebrant, Organist, Piper, Bulgar, caterer etc.
Use of facilities for Viewing, Services and Catering.
This fee also covers overheads such as our Office, Chapel and Reception facilities, vehicles, and 24hr on call staff.
In fairness to our clients, the Professional Fee is charged according to the facilities and services chosen. This means that sometimes our fee can vary greatly between services, depending on our involvement, time, and facilities that are used.
Contact us for a free, no obligation written quote.
Exactly what is included in the Professional Fee will vary slightly between funeral homes. Some may quote a lower professional fee, but then charge separately for things like hearse hire and embalming. When obtaining price information it is always very important to ask "what does that include" and "what doesn't it include".
Our cremation fee is $750.00, with no extra charge for the use of our chapel.
Casket: Prices range from $795.00 for a basic stained customwood casket, up to several thousand dollars for a solid timber casket. We offer a casket display room to assist you with your decision. Click here to view our full range of caskets with prices.
Service Sheets: We print our own service sheets allowing us more flexibility to alter details on short notice. From $3 per copy.
Memorial Book: These not only provide a record of attendance at the service, but also allow you to record personal details such as family members, and the funeral service details as well. $75-$100.
Slideshow: Like our service sheets, we prepare all our shows in house – $250.00 setup fee plus equipment hire – from $150.
Celebrants: Celebrants and Ministers may spend 8 to 10 hours on preparing a funeral service. Their fees range from $250 to $550.
Flowers: The range of florists in New Plymouth make it very easy to cater for all tastes and budgets. For a traditional casket spray expect to pay anywhere from $200 up to $400 for a very large one.
Newspaper Notices: Once again these vary greatly, but an average figure is around $400. Outside papers can cost more than double the Daily News price. Some accounts have been in excess of $1000 just for Newspaper Notices!
Death Certificate: All deaths in New Zealand must be legally registered within 3 days of the funeral. We will do this for you and order a certificate on your behalf. Cost – $33. The Death Certificate is required before any legal work can commence, such as closing of bank accounts etc.
Catering: Caterers costs vary, but you can expect to pay between $9 and $12 per head for a standard "morning tea" style catering. You certainly get what you pay for, so it may pay to let us know if you want a full Lunch Menu or just a few sandwiches, cakes and savouries.
These are the Burial or Cremation Fees invoiced separately by the Council.
When an adult or child dies, his or her spouse or parent can apply to Work and Income New Zealand for a lump sum contribution towards funeral costs. This grant is means tested and does not cover the full cost of a funeral. We can help you make this application and normally do so on your behalf. The current Funeral Grant is about $2000.00.
The ACC has a funeral grant available where the death is the result of an accident. We can assist you in making this application and normally do so on your behalf. the current ACC Funeral Grant is about $6000.00. Family members such as dependants may also be eligible for survivors grants and other forms of financial assistance.
Provide Your Own Flowers: These can be picked from your own garden or purchased from the supermarket and hand tied into a bunch. Saving – $90 to $200.
Provide Your Own Catering: Many organisations like bowling clubs and other groups like to help out at these times. Different venues have differing requirements for catering, and may even have a contracted caterer – so it's best to contact them directly. Saving – $9 to $12 per person.
Print Your Own Service Sheets: Although this can be an arduous and difficult task, some people have the facilities or access to a photocopier and print their own. Saving – $2 to $3 per copy.
Use Of Own Vehicle: Some families will transfer their loved one themselves, especially if they are going to a marae or family home where the service will be held. Once a person is embalmed and placed in a casket there is no reason why families with access to a large station wagon (Ford / Holden size) or similar vehicle cannot take their loved one home. This is especially cost effective when traveling long distances as it saves on mileage charges.
Sometimes we are not even required on the day of the service as happens at some maraes – families will take their loved ones to the urupa themselves after the service. Savings depend on distances travelled.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any concerns about the costs associated with funerals.


GERES reports production of the New Lao Stove(improved charcoal stove for urban areas) for commercialization with no subsidy between October 2005 and September 2006 at 87 999 units for an average of average 7,333 units per month.
100 000 units are planned for the year 2007.
GERES uses the following plan for monitoring stove production and use.


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Meroe, Oromo and Old Nubian: Solving the Mystery of Meroitic Language
By Dereje Tadesse Birbirso (PhD), College of Social Science and HumanitiesHaramaya University, Ethiopia
Meroitic language is one of the most controversial ancient languages but one of the few having advanced writing systems. Some classify it Asian, European, non-African, Semitic,or 'unclassified'. This paper contends Meroe, similar to their Cushitic friends, are left victims of preconceived ideas based on an entirely argument from silence, an hegemonic epistemology that elevates a single perspective and silences other(s). This paper, thus,comparatively analyzes Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical and grammatical items with corresponding Oromo, a Cushitic family which,
a Cushitic family which,vocabulary possibly the Ancientlanguage of the Nile Valley and/or Horn of Africa. Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical, grammatical and epigraphic data were collected from secondary sources by Meroitic researchers. Oromo corpora are obtained both from classical and modern descriptions and native-speakers. Results indicate Oromo lexemes show significant level of cognates with not only Meroitic and Old Nubian, but also with the Ancient Egyptian to their northern part.
Keywords: Oromo, Meroe, Nubian, Ancient Egyptian, Cushitic, Chiekh Anta Diop
Read the full article @ https://www.academia.edu/5847718/Meroe_Oromo_and_Old_Nubian_Solving_the_mystery_of_Meroitic_language#
Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1336
Afar & Sidama
Meroe
Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Sirna Gadaa (Gadaa System)
The Oromo Governance System
on July 23, 2014 at 8:29 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: African Culture, African Studies, Ancient Africa, Ancient People, Ancient Writing System, Awash Valley, Berbers, Black British, Chiekh Anta Diop, Cushitic (Kushitic) languages, East African Rift Valley, Irreecha, Irreessa, Kemet, Kingdom of Kush, Kush, Madda Walaabuu, Martin Bernal, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo and Ancient Egypt, Oromo Culture, Oromo Music, Oromo People, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromoo, The Gibee (Omo) Valley, The Nile Valley and Oromiyaa
Language and National Development: A tribute in Honour of Haile Fida's Contribution to the Development of Oromo Orthography
Dr Haile Fida Kuma has made an outstanding contribution to the development of Oromo national orthography. He was one of the pioneers who attempted to shade fresh on the history of the Oromo, the right of the Oromo people to speak, read and write in Afaan Oromo. He initiated Oromo studies in Europe and has made a major contribution both to our knowledge of Afaan Oromoo grammar and to the discussion on how the language should be written 1968-1974. His first research paper was published in 1972, on Tatek, theoretical Journal of Ethiopian Studies in Europe entitled 'Languages in Ethiopia: Latin or Geez for writing Afaan Oromo.' He further published in 1973 Oromo Grammar book entitled ' Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromo': Haile Fida, et al. (1973). Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromo, Paris and a literature book :'Barra Birran Barie, paris,' using his adopted 35 Latin Qubee alphabet. The books were as a result of his long-time study of the Oromo language and problems of Oromo orthography. In this groundbreaking Afaan Oromo grammar book, he adopted the Latin alphabet to the phonology of the Oromo language by modifying some of the shapes of the letters and adding subscript diacritics. He made distinctions between short and long vowels letters by using single vowels letters (i, e, a, o,u) for the former and double (ii, aa, oo, uu) ones for the latter. He presented the finding of his research to the conference of Ethiopian Student Union in Europe in 1972 and this brought a debate on language issues within the Ethiopian and Oromo students movement abroad (see, Dr. Fayisa Demie. 1996. Historical Challenges in the Development of the Oromo language and Some Agendas for Future Research, Journal of Oromo Studies, Vol.3, no.1 &2, pp. 18-27. Oromia Quarterly. Fayisa Demie. 1999. The Father of Qubee Afaan Oromo: A tribute in Honour of Haile Fida's Contributions to the development of Oromo Orthography, Oromia Quarterly, Vol.. II, no.3. Pp. 1-5.) His knowledge on Oromo language was so encyclopaedic and his contribution to the Oromo studies in Europe was so well known at the time and his contribution was greatly acknowledge by the Oromians who know him very closely. Oromo national Organisations have started to use Qubee Afaan Oromo from 1970s. Oromo national Convention in 1991 endorsed the use of Qubee all over Oromia. Dr. Haile was assassinated by the Dergue Ethiopian regime before seeing this remarkable achievement in the use of Qubee in Oromia which is the greatest milestone in the history of the Oromo people. Dr. Haile Fida completed his initial primary education at Arjo primary school and junior garde 7-8 at then Haile Selassie I Secondary school in Naqamtee followed with secondary education at General Wingate school in Finfinnee and undergraduate at Finfinnee University (Science Faculty, Geology Department). Haile was an outstanding student while he was in General Wingate secondary school and the university. He completed his secondary education with 10A's and 2B's and his Undergraduate University with distinction with GPA 4. After graduation from the Department of Geology he was employed as a graduate assistant and became a lecturer in the same department. He left to France to pursue a postgraduate studies. Haile studied MA in sociology and social anthropology and PhD in philosophy at the Le Palais De L' Academie Paris. While he was in Europe he was an active member of the Ethiopia students Union in Europe and an Honorary secretary of the French Socialist Party. Dr. Haile was married to Mme Marie and survived with two children.
Haile belonged to a group of generation of Oromo nationalist who embarked on arduous struggle to liberate the Oromo nation from Ethiopian oppression in two different strategies . The first Oromo group were convinced the Oromo question is a colonial question and argued the solution to the Oromo question is the liberation of Oromia from Ethiopian Colonialism. Indeed to show the Oromo identity as a colonial people deprived their right to govern themselves democratically and oppressed by Amhara/ Tigrai colonial settlers, they have put forward historical evidence which support the Oromo case. The second group, in which Haile belonged, argued the Oromo question is a national and it is possible to solve the problem through the democratisation of the Ethiopian state. As part of their struggle against national oppression this group of Oromos have attempted to take forward the national question high in the agenda of the Ethiopian student movement and other Ethiopian organisations that were mushroomed since the Ethiopian revolution in 1974. The first members of this generation were born in the early 1940's and the youngest in the early and mid 1950's. It was a generation of Oromo activists who came together to struggle against national oppression. Most of them killed while struggling for the Oromo cause or while attempting to change Ethiopia. Indeed Haile was one of the victims who died while attempting to change the environment of national oppression in Ethiopia. He was killed by Ethiopians while struggling against national oppression and for the right of the Oromo people to speak and write in their language. His early death robs Oromia an enthusiastic, hardworking and committed Oromo professional. The inspiration he provided throughout his life continues to influence Oromo scholars and new generations in the field of Oromo studies.
http://gadaa.com/oduu/20278/2013/06/17/seenaa-barreefama-afaan-oromootiifi-shoora-dr-sheek-mahammad-rashaad/
http://oromodictionary.com/afaanOromoLK.php
http://www.oromian.net/OromoRogaland/Afaan/qube.htm
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Hornet/Afaan_Oromo_19777.html
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/oromo.htm
http://www.ethiomedia.com/14store/2025.html
Confession documents under the notorious Derg Military Dictatorial regime interrogation of Haile Fida Kuma
Copyright © The Oromianeconomist 2014 and Oromia Quarterly 1997-2014. All rights reserved. Disclaimer.
Haile Fida
Hayilee Fidaa
on July 9, 2014 at 9:15 am Leave a Comment
Tags: African Culture, African Studies, Ancient Africa, Ancient Writing System, Bara Birraan Bari'e, Haile Fida (Hayilee Fidaa), Hirmaata Dubbi Afaan Oromo, Kushitic (Cushitic) Languages, Language and Development, Oromia, Oromiyaa, Oromo and Ancient Egypt, Oromo Culture, Oromo People, Oromummaa, Qubee Afaan Oromoo, The Oromo Language


text:
A little of this, a little of that: Summer 2019
Guaraldi's pop-culture relevance continues to shine...
The Marvel TV series Legion featured two of his Peanuts tracks on the current third (and final) season's second episode, simply titled "Chapter 21." (Mind you, given the show's deliberately outré weirdness, it's impossible to know why the tunes were used.)
Toward the beginning, the soundtrack featured the seldom-heard vocal version of "Oh, Good Grief." Later into the episode, the Shadow King is shown at the piano, playing "Christmas Time Is Here" ... although the backing combo was nowhere to be seen. (As Guaraldi fan Rob pointed out, the lighting was quite moody, so maybe they were hidden behind a pillar somewhere.)
Given this show's target audience, I can't help wondering if most viewers even recognized one or both tunes...
Following last autumn's CD debut of Guaraldi's score for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown -- details available in this earlier post -- Concord's Craft Recordings division has announced the upcoming release of vinyl versions. Note that -- as has become custom these days -- various retailers will have uniquely different versions.
According to Concord's press release...
On the eve of Vince Guaraldi being honored with the National Music Council's American Eagle Award -- details here -- Craft Recordings celebrates his 91st birthday by announcing the vinyl edition of his music for It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, scheduled for release on August 30. The disc will include the iconic pumpkin as an etching on side B. The package also includes an introduction from the TV special's executive producer, Lee Mendelson, and insightful liner notes by Derrick Bang, Peanuts historian and author of Vince Guaraldi at the Piano.
A special limited edition (500 copies only) -- pressed on a glow-in-the-dark vinyl -- will be available exclusively at the Craft Recordings Store.
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack features some of the most iconic tracks in pop culture, including the instantly recognizable "Linus and Lucy," as well as the languid, lyrical "Great Pumpkin Waltz." The music was recorded on October 4, 1966, at Desilu's Gower Street Studio in Hollywood, California, by Guaraldi (piano) and his longtime friends and trio sidemen -- bassist Monty Budwig and drummer Colin Bailey -- joined by Emanuel Klein (trumpet), John Gray (guitar) and Ronald Lang (woodwinds).
"This is the quintessential Vince Guaraldi for our Peanuts specials ... some of his best atmospheric jazz," Mendelson notes. "Vince's score carries the gang with the autumn leaves, through the scary and cold Halloween night. This music comforts the indomitable faith of Linus, still waiting for his hero since 1966: forever in our ears, hearts and memories."
"Guaraldi had a strong sense of how music could -- and should -- be employed to maximize the viewing audience's emotional response," writes Bang. "[He] emphatically established the Peanuts 'musical personality' with this third outing, and all subsequent prime-time specials owed much to the groovin' atmosphere that is so prevalent in Great Pumpkin. Guaraldi had a gig for life ... and his legacy lives on, expand[ing] by the year, thanks in great part to the jazz swagger given to an insecure blockhead and his lovably crazy beagle."
This announcement comes on the anniversary of Guaraldi's birthday (born July 17, 1928). We honor a real-life Schroeder, who through his music introduced generation after generation to the beauty of the distinctly American artform of jazz.
Posted by Derrick Bang at 10:31 AM 1 comment:
Labels: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Bill Melendez, Coca Cola, Concord Records, Craft Recordings, It's the Great Pumpkin, Lee Mendelson, Legion
Los Gatos memories
I live for letters like this one.
It actually came to my 5CP blog partner Scott, who forwarded it to me; I immediately got in touch with the writer, Mark, who (alas!) wasn't able to offer any additional details. But he readily granted permission to publish both his note and the photo he had sent with it.
I'll turn the rest of this post over to him.
In December 2017, I had just finished my annual viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas on a new Blu-Ray set I picked up at Costco, and saw Scott on the bonus feature "making of" documentary. That led me to a quick Internet search, and then your pages on Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi. Both were fun to look through, and are obviously labors of love.
Mom brought home his Black Orpheus LP after hearing "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" somewhere on the radio — perhaps from the public television special about making the record — and we were both big Peanuts fans. My husband isn't, but he does appreciate the music, so I cut him some slack. (Some.)
In October 1967, my folks took me to the Old Town Theater in Los Gatos — we lived just a short ways away in San Jose, at the time — to see Guaraldi and his combo. For some reason we got there early, and ended up in the front row. Being 15, I was waiting for two songs: "Cast Your Fate To The Wind" and "Linus and Lucy."
During the intermission, I asked someone on the stage if I could get him to autograph my program; they signed first, and then said Guaraldi was outside the theater, downstairs in a place called The Cellar. It was uncharacteristically bold for me, but — Instamatic in hand — I went looking for him. Found him, too ... and took a couple of snapshots, as he signed my program, which I still have, somewhere. Mom and Dad were both surprised that I'd gone off and done that, and so was I. I even asked if he was going to play "Linus and Lucy," and he said he would. When they launched into it after intermission, he looked down at me in the front row and smiled just a bit. It's a fond memory I'll never forget.
I found the snapshots a couple of years ago, and scanned them. Mom passed in January 2017, but I think of her a lot, naturally ... certainly that day, while watching the special for the first time without her.
Posted by Derrick Bang at 1:00 AM 2 comments:
Labels: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Cast Your Fate to the Wind, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, Linus and Lucy, Los Gatos
Loss of Faith
Sad news from San Francisco.
Faith Winthrop played a major role in Guaraldi's early career, working at his side for much of 1955 at the famed hungry i nightclub. She continued to perform during a long and successful career, and her memory was remarkably vivid when she graciously provided a lengthy interview during my book's research phase.
The San Francisco Chronicle honored her with a generous obituary, reprinted here in full:
Faith Winthrop, jazz singer who founded Glide community choir, dies at 87
by Aidin Vaziri
Faith Winthrop, the jazz vocalist who founded Glide Memorial Church's community gospel choir and mentored Bay Area luminaries such as Ledisi, Lavay Smith and Paula West, died on July 1 in San Francisco. She was 87.
Her death was confirmed by Erika Lenkert, her daughter, who said the cause was complications from what was expected to be a simple surgery.
Winthrop moved in the mid-1950s from her native Massachusetts to San Francisco, where the classically trained singer established herself on the city's vibrant club scene. She worked as the house singer at the hungry i in North Beach, where she warmed up audiences for up-and-coming stars like Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand and Mort Sahl. Her backing band included pianist Vince Guaraldi, guitarist Eddie Duran and bassist Dean Reilly.
Known for her silky voice and dramatic vocal interpretations of the standards, Winthrop was dubbed "San Francisco's grand dame of song" by Philip Elwood, the music critic for the Examiner. She performed at venerable jazz institutions like the London House and Mister Kelly's in Chicago, and the Blue Angel and Village Vanguard in New York. She made her television debut on the Today Show, before deciding to settle down in San Francisco to start a family with Hans Lenkert, with whom she had a brief relationship.
Winthrop worked as a faculty member in the music department at Mills College in Oakland, the Jazz School in Berkeley and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also taught private lessons out of her homes in the Haight and Cole Valley, tutoring everyone from pop singers like Al Jarreau and Romeo Void's Debora Iyall to screen stars like Divine and Keanu Reeves.
In 1966, Winthrop became the founding director of the Glide Ensemble, the community choir at the Rev. Cecil Williams' Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin.
In the 1970s, Winthrop joined the Sometime Sondheim Singers performance group. Erika Lenkert, an author and former writer for The Chronicle, recalled sitting under the piano at their Cannery performance space and singing along to her songs.
"My mother was a very spiritual person who lived in gratitude and wonder," Lenkert said. "She had an incredible ability to help people find and embrace themselves just as they are. She passed away the same way she lived life: surrounded by loved ones, music and song."
Faith Winthrop was born in Boston on Nov. 18, 1931, to Russian immigrants Sarah Kaplan and Maurice Winthrop.
In the early 1950s, she moved to the West Coast, where she lived in a cottage in Malibu, owned by Mickey Rooney, and scored a record deal. She eventually made her way to San Francisco, living for a brief spell on a houseboat in Sausalito.
Winthrop released a pair of albums featuring standards and original material, 1993's A Leap of Faith and 2007's Havin' Myself a Time!
Winthrop often recounted the tale of meeting Billie Holiday at George Wein's Storyville Club in Boston in her early years as a performer.
"I was singing 'Lover Man' while they adjusted the mikes and lights, and in walked Billie holding her two Chihuahuas," Winthrop said. "I saw her, stumbled through the song, and she came up and said, 'Sing the song, girl, sing it!' and I nearly collapsed, but I did finish it."
In 2016, Winthrop moved to a retirement community in Mill Valley, where she taught voice lessons to fellow residents and her 13-year-old granddaughter, Viva Wertz.
Until her death, Winthrop performed twice monthly at Fior d'Italia restaurant in the city.
Lenkert is planning a celebration of life event for September. Details will follow and will be posted on her Facebook page.
Winthrop is survived by her daughter, Erika Lenkert, and granddaughter, Viva Wertz.
Labels: Dean Reilly, Eddie Duran, Faith Winthrop, hungry i


These figures arrived from the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) Service, which worked in tandem with UK mobile phone carriers, Orange, O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3 to provide an insight into the accessibility and demand for mobile internet.
As part of the survey, anonymous internet usage data was recorded from the above networks, with a staggering number of almost a quarter of the British population using their mobile phones and smartphones to access internet sites and social media networks.
A combined total of 6.7 billion web pages were visited by the 16 million users, with a cumulative total of a mind-blowing 4.8 billion minutes spent online throughout December.
Interestingly of those page views, smartphones were registered as using 47% of the page data, and 51% of the total time spent online suggesting that smartphones have now overtaken mobile phones in the mobile internet market.
So what makes a good smartphone? Is it a stunning, sleek design with an expansive touch-screen phone or practical QWERTY keyboard or is it the flexibility and connectivity with the aid of mobile phone accessories and 3G internet?
The truth is probably all of these features have some bearing on whether or not a consumer purchases a particular smartphone. Business and traveller mobile phone users will be attracted to the connectivity of mobile internet to keep in touch with work and social-related websites. Meanwhile the more casual mobile phone user will be keen on finding a handset that does not make them feel like a technophobe and is swift and efficient.
These are the conundrums for mobile and smartphone manufacturers, but there is no denying that smartphones are continuing to bridge the divide between mobile and computer working.
For a great selection of the latest mobile handsets and mobile phone accessories, visit online mobile phone specialists, Foneshop.com.


This transitional shrug bridges the juxtaposition of Summer and Fall. Ideal for that between space where it's not quite time to put away the summer wear but not actually cool enough to pull out the beloved flannel. The DK weight shrug's squishy texture stitch and deep ribbing provides the breathable warmth required for this in between season of life.
My new pattern that is releasing on Friday is reversible! As I was swatching and designing, I became enamored with the "wrong side" of the work but opted to model the piece with the original right side facing. Turns out, some of my testers loved the inside of the shrug just as much and opted to wear it in reverse!
I can't wait to show you all the details of Juxtaposition, my new shrug, on Friday!


Here at Custom Stained Glass, we pride ourselves on our striking custom stained glass designs. We work one on one with each client, whether residential, commercial, or religious in nature. We've found, in our twenty plus years in business, that each client has their own vision for what will look fantastic in their space and serve their needs. Each client has their own style and tastes.
For that reason, our custom stained glass process always begins with one of our designers visiting the client in their home or office. Generally speaking, if a home is decorated in a certain style, there will be several different stained glass styles that will complement both the décor and the architecture or period of the home or other building. Our designers work with you to come up with the window designs that will look fantastic and take your rooms to a whole new level.
When it comes to custom stained glass, we work in a wide array of styles. Some of our clients love antiques from a specific period. We can design stained glass in an antique style that works with the pieces they already own.
Other clients love nature, flowers, trees, etc. We can design custom stained glass windows or door panels that incorporate flowers into the design, such as the famed Glasgow Rose made popular by architect and stained glass designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Or our own signature Aspen collection. Or any type of flower or nature-inspired design our clients like.
Click here to see some of our custom stained glass designs inspired by Mackintosh's Glasgow Rose.
Click here to check out our contemporary signature Aspen collection designs. Remember, since we are working custom, any of these designs can be altered to create whatever you like.
When we say custom, we mean custom. No job is too large or too small, from a tiny hallway window to an entire stained glass ceiling. We can create our hang-crafted stained glass in any size or shape, for any room in a home, office, church, restaurant, shop, salon, chapel, sanctuary, hotel, etc.
Our clients frequently tell us that collaborating with the designer and coming up with a design they truly love is their favorite part of the process. Aside from when the windows are actually installed and the clients are ready to kick back and enjoy the effect their new stained glass windows make, of course.
For more information about custom stained glass designs, or to schedule a no-cost in-home appointment with one of our design professionals, please contact us today by phone or by our convenient online form. We look forward to showing you how incredible custom stained glass can look in your space.


This minimal tripod floor lamp has a simple but statuesque appeal, with its 3 polished steel legs crossing at the top and splaying to give an attractive symmetrical stance.
The thin, shiny metal legs give the floor lamp a delicate elegance, with the silver contrasting with the navy blue linen drum shade to give a bright, modern look.
The metal tripod floor lamp takes an E27 bulb, max 40W (not supplied) and is also available with other shade colours.


text:
Mad è il quarto EP del gruppo musicale sudcoreano Got7, pubblicato il 29 settembre 2015. Il 6 novembre successivo è stata pubblicata l'edizione taiwanese, contenente la versione cinese del brano Just Right come settima traccia.

Mad è stato ripubblicato il 23 novembre 2015 con il titolo Mad: Winter Edition, contenente quattro tracce in più.

Descrizione
If You Do, composta da Black Eyed Pilseung, presenta l'immagine di un uomo diventato debole dinanzi all'amore, con versi arrabbiati quali "Ma ogni giorno cado in ginocchio" () e "Mi hai spinto giù da un dirupo" (), e un suono malinconico.

Put'em Up è scritta e composta da J.Y. Park e dipinge una splendida donna come una criminale e l'uomo innamorato di lei come un poliziotto.

In Mad: Winter Edition, si aggiungono tre canzoni: Confession Song è scritta e composta sempre da J.Y. Park e parla di un uomo che prende a prestito il potere del canto per dichiarare il suo amore. Everyday è composta dal leader dei Got7, JB, mentre Junior ha scritto il testo di To Star. Quest'ultima è una ballata agrodolce nella quale vengono ricordati i momenti passati con la persona amata e si desidera che tornino.

Accoglienza
Mimyo di Idology ha ritenuto che If You Do facesse buon uso del fascino triste, ma potente, delle canzoni di JYP. Per Oyo, il concept triste e solenne del brano stona con l'immagine di allegri ragazzi californiani costruita dai Got7 fino a quel momento attraverso Girls Girls Girls, A e Just Right, al punto da essere imbarazzante. Jo Sung-min ha considerato If You Do un errore di valutazione in un momento in cui i Got7 dovevano garantirsi un fandom solido e differenziarsi dagli altri gruppi, commentando "La freschezza di A, che conteneva le caratteristiche dei Got7, è sparita da qualche parte, e If You Do, che ne è il completo opposto, esprime un qualcosa di più patetico che triste. È un album che fa sospettare che siano i 'piccoli 2PM' più di Stop Stop It". Ha giudicato inoltre che l'album in generale non avesse tracce distintive.

Tracce

Nuove tracce di Mad: Winter Edition

Formazione
 Mark – rap
 JB – voce
 Jackson – rap
 Junior – voce
 Youngjae – voce
 BamBam – rap
 Yugyeom – voce

Successo commerciale
Dopo l'uscita, Mad si è classificato al primo posto in Corea del Sud sulle classifiche Hanteo e Gaon, vendendo  copie nel mese di settembre 2015 secondo quest'ultima, e negli Stati Uniti sulla Billboard World Albums Chart. Il disco è arrivato al primo posto su iTunes in sei Paesi (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malesia, Filippine, Singapore e Thailandia), secondo in Taiwan e Finlandia, e nono in Danimarca, oltre a figurare nella top 20 di Stati Uniti d'America e Canada.

Mad: Winter Edition ha fatto il suo ingresso in seconda posizione sulla Gaon Weekly Album Chart, vendendo  copie nel mese di novembre 2015.

A fine anno, Mad è risultato il 24º album più venduto del 2015 in Corea con  copie, mentre Mad: Winter Edition ha venduto  copie, classificandosi 70º.

Classifiche

Classifiche settimanali

Classifiche di fine anno

Note

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Amnesty calls on Israel to give Palestinians virus vaccine
JERUSALEM: Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Israel to provide coronavirus vaccine doses to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, saying the Jewish state was obligated to do so under international law.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank, which is home to some 2.8 million Palestinians, has not publicly asked for Israeli assistance in vaccine procurement.
Hamas, who control the Gaza strip, where about two million Palestinians live, are said to be highly unlikely to publicly coordinate with Israel in any vaccination effort.
But UK-based rights group Amnesty said that Israel needed to "stop ignoring its international obligations as an occupying power and immediately act to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are equally and fairly provided to Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."
The PA has said that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza will be vaccinated through the United Nations-backed COVAX program.
The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that it expected to receive its first vaccine doses next month through COVAX.
Israel began inoculating its citizens, including Israeli settlers in the West Bank, on December 19, starting with medical workers and the over 60s and has so far injected more than a million people.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he hoped that within a month 2.25 million Israelis — a quarter of the population of nine million — would have received the two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech jab needed for optimum effect.
As of Tuesday, Israel's health ministry had confirmed 451,000 cases of the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic, with over 3,400 deaths.
The Palestinian health ministry has confirmed more than 100,000 cases in the West Bank, including 1,100 deaths.
In Gaza, there were 43,134 cases, with 404 fatalities.
Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel has since withdrawn from Gaza but maintains a tight blockade on the strip, which it says is necessary to contain Hamas, an armed group that has fought three wars with the Jewish state since 2008.
The PA has said that it has made contact with potential vaccine suppliers, but its health ministry said it would struggle to store the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the requisite sub-zero conditions.
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Spiders are one of the most irksome pests which many people are afraid of. Some common species of spiders in Australia like Hobo spiders, Brown Recluse, and Black Widow are highly poisonous and their bites require emergency medical attention. Dealing with them without professional caution can be fatal if species you are dealing with is poisonous. It's always wise to get help of professional Spider pest control services to control spider infestations.
At Ace Pest Control Spider pest control services, we provide you with our most experienced and skilled pest specialists. They are a member of your community and know everything about different spider problems and how to tackle them. Our experts provide most suitable treatment for your residential and commercial premises at best prices.
Ace Pest Control Spider pest control Services understands that spider infestations can prove to be troublesome and produce anxiety in some cases. You can depend on us to effectively remove the spread of spiders with environmentally friendly sprays and other products. Our team is equipped with latest tools and the know-how to tackle all your Spider pest control problems.
Spiders and their webs are considered as horrid in both residential and commercial places. Spider infestations can give off the impression that the premises lacks basic cleaning and hygiene practices. This increases concern especially for those businesses which serve accommodation and food like hotels, restaurant, and bars.
There are almost 40,000 different species of spiders worldwide, and more than 1,000 of them are commonly found in Australia. On one side they help in maintaining a balance in the environment. On the another hand, study shows that around 27% of adults suffer from Arachnophobia, a condition where the person develops an extreme fear of spiders.
Luckily, majority of spider species are not aggressive towards humans and don't bite at all. If a spider does bite you, it will have a very slight effect. Nevertheless, some species are known to cause allergic reactions to their venom and their infestations should be dealt with professional care.