Friday, March 27, 2009

Konata photos





Konata is my love~~

Thursday, January 17, 2008


NYS College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University Coat of Arms
The New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University was founded in 1894 as the first contract college in New York. Before the creation of the college, instruction in veterinary medicine had been part of Cornell's curriculum since the university's founding. In 1868, when Cornell opened, there was little formal study in the country devoted to the veterinary medicine and Cornell would become a pioneer in the field.

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine History
Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine is only one of three veterinary colleges and schools in the Northeastern United States, and one of 28 such colleges and schools in the United States. The college is noted for the James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health, a world-renowned center for canine and equine research, a feline health center, as well as for important work in animal vaccine development, animal reproductive research, and identifying common factors that affect the health of both animals and humans. Cornell is consistently ranked the best veterinary college in the nation.
The College of Veterinary Medicine offers programs in veterinary medicine that lead to the degrees of D.V.M., and M.S. and Ph.D. through the Cornell Graduate School. Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine also consistently ranks amongst the best in its field, being regularly selected as the best college for veterinary medicine by US News and World Report's America's Best Colleges® edition.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Scott Thornton (ice hockey player)
Scott Thornton (born January 9, 1971 in London, Ontario, Canada) is a professional ice hockey winger playing for the Los Angeles Kings.
Thornton was drafted in the first round (3rd overall) by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. He played thirty-three games for the team his rookie season, accumulating one goal and three assists. He also played left wing for the Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks. He was signed by San Jose as a free agent on July 1, 2000. In his first season with San Jose, he had a career year, scoring twenty goals playing alongside gritty center Mike Ricci. He signed a two-year contract extension in the 03-04 season. While no longer playing on the top lines, Thornton is a quality third line forward who provides great energy. He and former Sharks teammate Joe Thornton are first cousins.

Scott Thornton (ice hockey player) Contract
In 2004, he signed a two-year, US$3.42 million dollar contract. This contract expired in June 2006, and Thornton became an unrestricted free agent when the Sharks declined to pick up the one-year team option in his contract. On July 1, 2006, he signed a 2 year, $3 million contract with the Los Angeles Kings.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008


The True Cross is the name for physical remnants traditionally believed to be from the cross upon which Jesus was crucified.
According to a number of early writers, the Empress Helena, (c.250–c.330 AD), mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome, at a date after 312 AD when Christianity was legalised throughout the Empire, travelled to the Holy Land, founding churches and establishing relief agencies for the poor. It was at this time that she discovered the hiding place of three crosses used at the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves that were executed with him. By a miracle it was revealed which of the three was the True Cross.
Many churches possess fragmentary remains which are by tradition alleged to be those of the True Cross. Their authenticity is not accepted universally by those of the Christian faith and the accuracy of the reports surrounding the discovery of the True Cross is questioned by many Christians. The acceptance and belief of that part of the tradition that pertains to the Early Christian Church is generally restricted to the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Medieval legend of its provenance in the Tree of Life is given less credence.
For detailed information regarding the Crucifixion itself, see Crucifixion of Jesus.

Provenance of the True Cross in "The Golden Legend"
In the late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, there was a wide general acceptance of the origin of the True Cross and its history preceding the Crucifixion, as recorded by Voragine. This general acceptance is confirmed by the numerous artworks that depict this subject, culminating in one of the most famous fresco cycles of the Renaissance, the Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca, painted on the walls of the chancel of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo between 1452 and 1466, in which he reproduces faithfully the traditional episodes of the story as recorded in The Golden Legend.
It is worth noting that The Golden Legend and many of its sources had neither acceptance nor parallel in the Greek- or Syriac-speaking worlds. The above pre-Crucifixion history, therefore, is not to be found in Eastern Christianity.

Acceptance of this tradition

Finding the True Cross
Eusebius describes in his Life of Constantine how the site of the Holy Sepulchre, originally a site of veneration for the Christian community in Jerusalem, had been covered with earth and a temple of Venus had been built on top — although Eusebius does not say as much, this would probably have been done as part of Hadrian's reconstruction of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina in 135, following the destruction during the Jewish Revolt of 70 and Bar Kokhba's revolt of 132135. Following his conversion to Christianity, Emperor Constantine ordered in about 325326 that the site be uncovered and instructed Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, to build a church on the site. In this Life, Eusebius does not mention the finding of the True Cross.

According to Eusebius
Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery [6] that was repeated later by Sozomen and by Theodoret. In it he describes how Saint Helena, Constantine's aged mother, had the temple destroyed and the Sepulchre uncovered, whereupon three crosses and the titulus from Jesus's crucifixion were uncovered as well. In Socrates's version of the story, Macarius had the three crosses placed in turn on a deathly ill woman. This woman recovered at the touch of the third cross, which was taken as a sign that this was the cross of Christ, the new Christian symbol. Socrates also reports that, having also found the nails with which Christ had been fastened to the cross, Helena sent these to Constantinople, where they were incorporated into the emperor's helmet and the bridle of his horse.

According to Socrates Scolasticus
Sozomen (died c. 450), in his Ecclesiastical History [7], gives essentially the same version as Socrates. He also adds that it was said (by whom he does not say) that the location of the Sepulchre was "disclosed by a Hebrew who dwelt in the East, and who derived his information from some documents which had come to him by paternal inheritance" (although Sozomen himself disputes this account) and that a dead person was also revived by the touch of the Cross. Later popular versions of this story state that the Jew who assisted Helena was named Jude or Judas, but later converted to Christianity and took the name Kyriakos.

According to Sozomen
Theodoret (died c. 457) in his Ecclesiastical History Chapter xvii gives what had become the standard version of the finding of the True Cross:
When the empress beheld the place where the Saviour suffered, she immediately ordered the idolatrous temple, which had been there erected, to be destroyed, and the very earth on which it stood to be removed. When the tomb, which had been so long concealed, was discovered, three crosses were seen buried near the Lord's sepulchre. All held it as certain that one of these crosses was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the other two were those of the thieves who were crucified with Him. Yet they could not discern to which of the three the Body of the Lord had been brought nigh, and which had received the outpouring of His precious Blood. But the wise and holy Macarius, the president of the city, resolved this question in the following manner. He caused a lady of rank, who had been long suffering from disease, to be touched by each of the crosses, with earnest prayer, and thus discerned the virtue residing in that of the Saviour. For the instant this cross was brought near the lady, it expelled the sore disease, and made her whole.
With the Cross were also found the Holy Nails, which Helena took with her back to Constantinople. According to Theodoret, "She had part of the cross of our Saviour conveyed to the palace. The rest was enclosed in a covering of silver, and committed to the care of the bishop of the city, whom she exhorted to preserve it carefully, in order that it might be transmitted uninjured to posterity."
Another popular ancient version from the Syriac tradition replaced Helena with a fictitious first-century empress named Protonike.
Historians consider these versions to be apocryphal in varying degrees. It is certain, however, that the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre was completed by 335 and that alleged relics of the Cross were being venerated there by the 340s, as they are mentioned in the Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem (see below).

According to Theodoret
The silver reliquary that was left at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in care of the bishop of Jerusalem was exhibited periodically to the faithful. In the 380s a nun named Egeria who was travelling on pilgrimage described the veneration of the True Cross at Jerusalem in a long letter, the Itinerario Egeriae that she sent back to her community of women:
Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the [liturgical] Cross, which is now standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table covered with a linen cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round the table, and a silver-gilt casket is brought in which is the holy wood of the Cross. The casket is opened and [the wood] is taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table. Now, when it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities of the sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around guard it. It is guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both faithful and catechumens, come one by one and, bowing down at the table, kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And because, I know not when, some one is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the sacred wood, it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching should venture to do so again. And as all the people pass by one by one, all bowing themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads and then with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass through, but none lays his hand upon it to touch it. When they have kissed the Cross and have passed through, a deacon stands holding the ring of Solomon and the horn from which the kings were anointed; they kiss the horn also and gaze at the ring…
Before long, but perhaps not until after the visit of Egeria, it was possible also to venerate the crown of thorns, the pillar at which Christ was scourged, and the lance that pierced his side.
In 614 the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau II ("Chosroes") removed the part of the cross as a trophy, when he captured Jerusalem. Thirteen years later, in 628, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated Khosrau and retook the relic, which he at first placed in Constantinople, and later took back to Jerusalem in March 21, 630. [8] Around 1009, Christians in Jerusalem hid the part of the cross and it remained hidden until it was rediscovered during the First Crusade, on August 5, 1099, by Arnulf Malecorne, the first Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, conveniently at a moment when a morale boost was needed. The relic that Arnulf discovered was a small fragment of wood embedded in a golden cross, and it became the most sacred relic of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, with none of the controversy that had followed their discovery of the Holy Lance in Antioch. It was housed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre under the protection of the Latin Patriarch, who marched with it ahead of the army before every battle. It was captured by Saladin during the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and subsequently disappeared.
Other fragments of the Cross were further broken up, and the pieces were widely distributed; in 348, in one of his Catecheses, Cyril of Jerusalem remarked that the "whole earth is full of the relics of the Cross of Christ," . However, although it is possible, the poem need not be referring to this specific relic or have this incident as the reason for its composition.

True Cross Dispersal of relics of the True Cross
St John Chrysostom wrote homilies on the three crosses:
Kings removing their diadems take up the cross, the symbol of their Saviour's death; on the purple, the cross; in their prayers, the cross; on their armour, the cross; on the holy table, the cross; throughout the universe, the cross. The cross shines brighter than the sun.
The Roman Catholic Church, many Protestant denominations (most notably those with Anglican origins), and the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, the anniversary of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In later centuries, these celebrations also included commemoration of the rescue of the True Cross from the Persians in 628. In the Gallician usage, beginning about the seventh century, the Feast of the Cross was celebrated on May 3. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, when the Gallician and Roman practices were combined, the September date, for which the Vatican adopted the official name "Triumph of the Cross" in 1963, was used to commemorate the rescue from the Persians and the May date was kept as the "Invention of the True Cross" to commemorate the finding. The September date is often referred to in the West as Holy Cross Day; the May date was dropped from the liturgical calendar by the Second Vatican Council in 1970. (See also Roodmas.) The Orthodox still commemorate both events on September 14, one of the twelve Great Feasts of the liturgical year, and the 'Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Cross' on 1 August, the day on which the relics of the True Cross would be carried through the streets of Constantinople to bless the city [10].
In addition to celebrations on fixed days, there are certain days of the variable cycle when the Cross is celebrated. The Roman Catholic Church has a formal 'Adoration of the Cross' (the term is inaccurate, but sanctioned by long use[11]) during the services for Good Friday, while the Orthodox celebrate an additional Veneration of the Cross on the third Sunday of Great Lent. In Greek Orthodox churches everywhere, a replica of the cross is brought out in procession on Holy Thursday for the people to venerate.

Veneration of the Cross

Crucifixion
Battle of Hattin
Relic
Christian cross
Île de la Cité
Jesus
Stavelot Triptych
Meskel
Titulus Crucis
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme Bibliography

Monday, January 14, 2008

Radio Free Europe Early history
In 1976, RFE was merged with a very similar Congress funded anti-communist organization called Radio Liberty (RL, founded in 1951 by the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia) and the group name was officially changed to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Soviet authorities regularly attempted to jam RFE/RL broadcasts and these efforts did not end until 1988. From 1985 until 1993 the organization also ran Radio Free Afghanistan.
The collapse of the Soviet Union reduced the budget for RFE/RL: its headquarters were moved to Prague in 1995 and European operations were curtailed (save those of the South Slavic Department). However operations were expanded elsewhere; in 1998 Radio Free Iraq and a Persian service (Radio Farda) were started, in 1999 a service was started in Kosovo, and in 2002 Radio Free Afghanistan was restarted and the Persian Service was incorporated into Radio Farda. In addition, in 1994 the mission of the Board for International Broadcasting was transferred to the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
In most cases, listening to RFE in eastern European Communist countries was illegal, and had to be done in secret. Often the governments of these states would electronically jam the transmissions. Also, more 'active' measures were taken to combat the transmissions. In 1965-71 an agent of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa successfully infiltrated the station with an operative (Capt. Andrzej Czechowicz).

After merger with Radio Liberty
Communism on the Spot
A Publice Service of
Radio Liberty
IN ITS 10th ANNIVERSARY YEAR
the most powerful free voice broadcasting exclusively to Soviet Union
30 EAST 42nd STREET, NEW YORK 17 N.Y. TN-75200
No. 221
COMMUNISM ON THE SPOT. This is _____ speaking for RADIO LIBERTY. Failures in industrial planning continue to be a serious bottleneck to Soviet progress. On the basis of articles in the Soviet press, faulty planning is cutting expected growth to a minimum. Ironically, this state of affairs is not reflected in Soviet Statistics. For example, a 1962 statistical report claimed that the volume of industrial output exceeded by nearly 10% that for a corresponding period last year. How can this discrepancy between statistical claims and the actual situation be explained? Very simply. As in other cases, figures which are of no significance to the national economy are quoted to prove that industrial progress is proceeding as planned. This has been a public service presentation of this station and of RADIO LIBERTY, in its 10th Anniversary Year, the most powerful free voice broadcasting exclusively to the Soviet Union.
Radio Liberty, the Free Voice of the Peoples of the Soviet Union, broadcasts in 17 languages of the USSR from transmitters in West Germany, Spain and Formosa.

RFE people

Cold War
Prometheism
Voice of America
Radio Free Asia
Ogulsapar Muradova

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Waltham, New Zealand
Waltham is an inner suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, located two kilometres southeast of the city centre. State Highway 73, part of Christchurch's ring road system, runs through the suburb, as does the Heathcote River and the Christchurch - Lyttelton rail corridor. The Christchurch gasworks was located at the inner boundary of Waltham until its closure ca. 1980.
Waltham was originally part of the Sydenham borough and was incorporated into the City of Christchurch in 1903. It is named for the village of Waltham, Lincolnshire in England.
The suburb (as defined by the Statistics New Zealand meshblock) is about 1 km², much of which is occupied by light and heavy industry - the residential population is less than 1000. The suburb ranks below average in income and high in unemployment. Amenities include Jade Stadium, Christchurch's international rugby and cricket venue, and Waltham Lido pool.

Saturday, January 12, 2008


The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) consists of techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ore, and then alloying those metals in order to cast bronze. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Neolithic is directly followed by the Iron Age.

Origins
The Bronze Age in the Near East is divided into three main periods (the dates are very approximate):
Each main period can be divided into shorter subcategories such as EB I, EB II, MB IIa etc.
Metallurgy developed first in Anatolia, modern Turkey. The mountains in the Anatolian highland possessed rich deposits of copper and tin. Copper was also mined in Cyprus, the Negev desert, Iran and around the Persian Gulf. Copper was usually mixed with arsenic, yet the growing demand for tin resulted in the establishment of distant trade routes in and out of Anatolia. The precious copper was also imported by sea routes to the great kingdoms of Mesopotamia.
The Early Bronze Age saw the rise of urbanization into organized city states and the invention of writing (the Uruk period in the fifth millennium BCE). In the Middle Bronze Age movements of people partially changed the political pattern of the Near East (Amorites, Hittites, Hurrians, Hyksos and possibly the Israelites). The Late Bronze Age is characterized by competing powerful kingdoms and their vassal states (Assyria, Babylonia, Hittites, Mitanni). Extensive contacts were made with the Aegean civilization (Ahhiyawa, Alashiya) in which the copper trade played an important role. This period ended in a widespread collapse which affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
Iron began to be worked already in Late Bronze Age Anatolia. The transition into the Iron Age c.1200 BCE was more of a political change in the Near East rather than of new developments in metalworking.

EBA - Early Bronze Age (c.3500-2000 BCE)
MBA - Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-1600 BCE)
LBA - Late Bronze Age (c.1600-1100 BCE) Ancient Near East

Main article: Indus Valley civilization Indian Bronze Age

East Asia

Main article: Erlitou China
In Ban Chiang, Thailand, (Southeast Asia) bronze artifacts have been discovered dating to 2100 BCE [2].
In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artefacts . Dating is still currently broad . (3500 BCE - 500 BCE) [3]

Middle Bronze Age Southeast Asia

Main article: Mumun Pottery Period Korean peninsula
The Aegean Bronze Age civilizations established a far-ranging trade network. This network imported tin and charcoal to Cyprus, where copper was mined and alloyed with the tin to produce bronze. Bronze objects were then exported far and wide, and supported the trade. Isotopic analysis of the tin in some Mediterranean bronze objects indicates it came from as far away as Great Britain. believe that ancient empires were prone to misvalue staples in favor of luxuries, and thereby perish by famines created by uneconomic trading.

Main article: Bronze Age collapse Europe
In Central Europe, the early Bronze Age Unetice culture (1800-1600 BCE) includes numerous smaller groups like the Straubingen, Adlerberg and Hatvan cultures. Some very rich burials, such as the one located at Leubingen with grave gifts crafted from gold, point to an increase of social stratification already present in the Unetice culture. All in all, cemeteries of this period are rare and of small size. The Unetice culture is followed by the middle Bronze Age (1600-1200 BCE) Tumulus culture, which is characterised by inhumation burials in tumuli (barrows). In the eastern Hungarian Körös tributaries, the early Bronze Age first saw the introduction of the Mako culture, followed by the Ottomany and Gyulavarsand cultures.
The late Bronze Age urnfield culture, (1300 BCE-700 BCE) is characterized by cremation burials. It includes the Lusatian culture in eastern Germany and Poland (1300-500 BCE) that continues into the Iron Age. The Central European Bronze Age is followed by the Iron Age Hallstatt culture (700-450 BCE).
Important sites include:

Biskupin (Poland)
Nebra (Germany)
Vráble (Slovakia)
Zug-Sumpf, Zug, Switzerland Central Europe

Main article: Nordic Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze Age Northern Europe
Some scholars date some arsenical bronze artefacts of the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BCE.

Caucasus

Main article: Bronze Age Britain Great Britain

Ferriby Boats
Langdon Bay hoard - see also Dover Museum
Divers unearth Bronze Age hoard off the coast of Devon
Moor Sands finds, including a remarkably well preserved and complete sword which has parallels with material from the Seine basin of northern France Bronze Age boats
The Bronze Age in Ireland commenced in the centuries around 2000 BCE when copper was alloyed with tin and used to manufacture Ballybeg type flat axes and associated metalwork. The preceding period is known as the Copper Age and is characterised by the production of flat axes, daggers, halberds and awls in copper. The period is divided into three phases Early Bronze Age 2000-1500 BCE; Middle Bronze Age 1500-1200 BC and Late Bronze Age 1200-c.500 BCE. Ireland, is also known for a relatively large number of Early Bronze Age Burials.
The Early Bronze Age: one of the characteristic artifact types of the Copper/Bronze Age in Ireland is the flat axe. There are 5 main types of flat axes, Lough Ravel c.2200 BCE Ballybeg c.2000 BCE, Killaha c.2000 BCE, Ballyvalley c. 2000-1600 BCE, Derryniggin c. 1600 BCE and a number of metal ingots in the shape of axes.

Ireland

Americas
The Bronze Age in the Andes region of South America is thought to have begun at about 900 BCE when Chavin artisans discovered how to alloy copper with tin. The first objects produced were mostly utilitarian in nature, such as axes, knives, and agricultural implements. Decorative work in gold, silver and copper was already a highly developed tradition, and as the Chavin became more experienced in bronze-working technology they produced many ornate and highly decorative objects for administrative, religious, and other ceremonial purposes.

Notes

Eogan, George (1983) The hoards of the Irish later Bronze Age, Dublin : University College, 331p., ISBN 0-901120-77-4
Hall, David and Coles, John (1994) Fenland survey : an essay in landscape and persistence, Archaeological report 1, London : English Heritage, 170 p., ISBN 1-85074-477-7
Pernicka, E., Eibner, C., Öztunah, Ö., Wagener, G.A. (2003) "Early Bronze Age Metallurgy in the Northeast Aegean", In: Wagner, G.A., Pernicka, E. and Uerpmann, H-P. (eds), Troia and the Troad : scientific approaches, Natural science in archaeology, Berlin; London : Springer, ISBN 3-540-43711-8, p. 143–172
Waddell, John (1998) The prehistoric archaeology of Ireland, Galway University Press, 433 p., ISBN 1-901421-10-4