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71° Rain
Thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours. High 77F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..
Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES fileDane P. Burns, 10, Watertown, hits his croquet ball through a wicket while learning how to play the game at the Historical Summer Games event in 2011.
Watertown Daily Times fileAvery Caterham, 4, of Lowville, learns how to throw a beanbag for the cornhole game at the Family Fair to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation in 2017.
Watertown Daily Times fileCharlotte Pierce hits the ball through a wicket during a game of croquet at the Wilder Farm's English Fest in 2018.
New York TimesTwo men take a rest during a game of croquet at Prospect Park in New York City as other stand behind them in the open field.
WikipediaSpectators line up to watch an early quoit match with a rope loop and a stick on a board base..
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES fileGregory Leboeuf takes advantage of the beautiful fall weather to practices tossing horseshoes in Greenbelt Park, Ogdensburg, in 2015.
Watertown Daily Times file Six-year-old Wyatt LaMare of West Chazy tries to toss a ring so that it lands around the neck of an empty bottle at one of the Franklin County Fair midway games in 2017.
Watertown Daily Times fileGabbie K. Gibson, 11, plays the ring toss game in hopes of winning a few dollars in prize money at the Watertown Housing Authority's annual summer bash in 2010.
AMANDA MORRISON/WATERTOWN DAILY TIMESElla Collins, 6, lines up her shot while playing a ring toss game at the Mount Carmel Feast at St. Anthony's Church on Saturday afternoon.
SYDNEY SCHAEFER/WATERTOWN DAILY TIMESA girl attempts to toss a ring onto a bottle at the 42nd annual General Brown Days on June 2.
Watertown Daily Times archivesA guide to making your own quoits game published in the Watertown Daily Times in 1907.
St. Louis Post-DispatchAn advertisement for a bean bag quoits parlor game published in 1885 looks strikingly similar to cornhole games played today.
4 vintage lawn games that will keep the fun going outdoors
By CHRISTINA KNOTT
cknott@wdt.net
Christina Knott
During the short summer months in the north country, everyone is out to soak up as much sun as possible before the winter returns. (And rest assured, winter is always coming.)
But once outside, what is there to do? Never fear. The past has plenty to offer. Before video games, smartphones or air conditioning, these classic games kept everyone outdoors and enterained.
Call the kids outside or schedule a barbecue with friends. These easy-to-assemble, simple-to-explain vintage backyard games have stood the test of time.
Rules to these games have been abbreviated for clarity and space, but if you're anxious to step up your skill level, most lawn game sets will come with detailed instructions for game play.
Although also known as Italian lawn bowling, this game actually goes back thousands of years. The rules are simple, and the game is easy enough to be played by children up to senior adults.
To get started, you will need a bocce ball set of eight balls and one small target ball, as well as a tape measure and a flat surface of grass. To play, participants take turns trying to throw thier team's ball as close as possible to the target ball, should be about 30 feet from the pitch line. At the end of the round, teams are awarded points based on how close they are to the target: one point for each ball that is closer to the target than the opposing team. If a ball touches the target ball, it scores two points.
Fans of curling may notice some similarities between bocce and this classic winter sport, and bocce may be a good substitute until the north is frozen once more.
MODERN TWIST: For those looking for a funny update to this classic, Flickin' Chicken by Haywire Group toys is a silly variation of bocce that should appeal to everyone with a sense of humor. Rubber chickens take the place of balls, and a frisbee stands as the target. Otherwise, game play is much the same.
This game goes back at least to the mid 1800s when it was all the trend across England and later here in the States.
To begin with, you'll need a croquet set, with nine wickets, two stakes and several balls and mallets. The wickets can be set up in various ways, including the traditional figure-eight pattern. However, part of the fun of playing casual games is making up your own rules, so feel free to come up with your own house rules.
The object of the game is to pass your ball under the arch of the wickets, which are placed ahead of time into the ground. Points are awarded when by passing under the wickets in the correct order.
PLAYFUL UPDATES: Families with children — or those who are children at heart — may enjoy the creative variations of croquet sets such as rainbow-colored wickets or ones in the shape of forest animals. There are also "Alice and Wonderland" croquet sets.
Although, the Red Queen in Wonderland threatened to take the head of other players, a wicket in the shape of a smiling rabbit may help you keep your sense of humor.
QUOITS, HORSESHOES & WASHERS
What would summer be without the tossing of metal objects at various targets? Possibly safer, but potentially less fun, at least according our ancestors popularized these sport.
Horseshoes, washers and quoits are all closely related. In the early 1900s, organizers of horseshoe matches would publish rules in their local newspapers. The Watertown Daily Times suggests readers make their own quoits game, with instructions for doing so, in a 1907 edition under a section labeled "Entertainment and Insructions for Young Folks." In 1909, a published poem praised the "game of quoits with horseshoes" as a casual game for the everyman, unlike the stodgy and elitist games of golf, crochet and tennis.
Quoits traditionally is played with metal, rope or rubber rings — or horseshoes — tossed toward a stick or spike goal.
Players stand equal distance from the stick or spike and aim for that goal. To score, tosses that reach the stick are worth three points. Those that are within 6 inches of the stick are worth one point. And if both of one player's pitches are closer to the stick than the other player, two points are added to the score.
Another variation of quoits is played with metal washers that are aimed toward a hole — such as a hole in a box, can or PVC pipe. Scoring is similar to horseshoes. Three points are awarded for washers that fall into or through the hole. Washers that fall near the hole — onto the washer board or similarly defined space — are worth one point.
In both versions, players battle to see who can reach 21 points first.
The north country had its own variation of quoits in the mid 1800s, with the use of flat stones for tossing toward posts, "as horse shoes was not so common in the early days," according to an article in the Watertown Daily Times from May 17, 1919.
Describing the history of the game, the article continued,"Boys went to (the) lake and river to gather the flat stones for the purpose, and long search would be made for those on which the water had acted to make a round flat stone and inch or an inch and a half thick."
Speaking of time, the article concludes, "Today the horse-shoe quoit prevails where the game is still played."
Cornhole shares much of the same gameplay and rules one patented by Heyliger de Windt in 1883 (here's another game: See who can say that three times fast).
The modern version was developed in the 1970s and involves two sets of four bean bags (traditionally filled with dry corn) and two cornhole boards, each inclined slightly when set on the ground and with a hole at the top.
Bags that land on the board and remain there until the end of the round are worth one point. Bags that fall through the hole in the board are worth three points. The team or player that scores at least 21 points first is the winner.
GET CRAZY: People have come up with thousands of original designs to build and/or enhance the look of their cornhole board. You are only limited by your imagination (well, and skill). A quick Pinterest or Google images search will give you plenty of DIY ideas, but if you're looking for something professional and are willing to spend the money, you and spend hundreds of dollars on the cornhole design of your dreams.
Johnson Newspapers 7.1
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Catskill Puppet Theatre animates universal themes, important lessons with rousing musicals in Turin and beyond year after year
Quick response averts major fire at Harrisville Central garage Thursday
Wright's Landing Marina reopens July 18; slip rentals for Harborfest begin July 19
Oswego County Legislature OKs moving ahead on grant for Legends Field improvements
Cub Scouts participate in twilight camp at Fort Drum
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Rajbari Government College () is a public college situated in Rajbari, Bangladesh established in 1961. It is one of the traditional and largest educational institutions in Rajbari district. The foundation stone of the college was laid on 23 June 1961. The college was established on about . It was nationalised in 1980.

History
The then Rajbari District was identified as a neglected underdeveloped area and there was no higher educational institution to meet people's demand for higher education. Many students had to go to Government Rajendra College, Faridpur, Kushtia Government College, Government Debendra College and other distant colleges of the country. The matter stirred the minds of the people of the area. In this regard, Kazi Hedayet Hossain, Dr. AKM Aszad, Dr. SM Yahya, Amalkrishna Chakraborty, Vrindavan Das, Fazlul Haque Muktar, Advocate Abul Kashem Mridha, Advocate Abdul Jalil Mia, Dr. Jalilur Rahman, Margub Ahmed, Dr. Azahar Uddin, AH Hanif Mollah (Goalund) took initiative to establish colleges especially at the local level.

Meanwhile, Kazi Azhar Ali became the Subdivisional Officer of Goalund. He came forward with huge initiative to establishing the college. Then it was a difficult matter to get approval for the establishment of the college because of constraints of money, property, and interested students. Nevertheless, Kazi Azhar Ali came forward with local enthusiasts to establishing the college. A committee was formed for this purpose. The committee was chaired by Kazi Azhar Ali, Secretary Mamunur Rashid (Second Officer) and Joint Secretary AKM Aszad. Members were Kazi Hedayet Hossain, Advocate Abdul Jalil Mia, Advocate Abu Hena, Fazlul Muktar.

Half a kilometer west of Rajbari railway station, the 100-year-old  two storeyed building of the Baptist Mission, with 48 decimal (0.48 acre) land, was registered by Shimshan Chowdhury Ataikola on behalf of the Baptist Mission and handed over to the Governing Body. Later, the land of the present college stood at 14 acres by means of purchase and donation of many generous in the vicinity. The foundation stone was laid in 1961 by the then Governor of East Pakistan, Azam Khan. The college was inaugurated on 23 June 1961 by the then Sub-Divisional Officer Kazi Azahar Ali. In the first year, the tin house in front of the present library was used for classes, and the present principal's room and office building were the principal's room and office room.

The Departments of Humanities and Commerce were opened in 1981 and the Departments of Science in 1982.

Classes were not constructed till 1964 and due to increasing student pressure, classes were taken in the present district school (then Goyland Model High School) in 1973. The present Sajjan Kanda (next to Kazi Bari) at the time of establishment of the college. Accepted by the administration as the home for the principal. Osman Gani, a retired registrar of Rajshahi University, was appointed as the principal.

Academics
Rajbari Government College offers Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), four year Honours, and one year Master's courses in various disciplines. Currently about 11000 students are enrolled in the college. Number of teachers is 72.

HSC level
 Science
 Business Studies
 Humanities

Honours and Masters level
 Department of Accounting
 Department of Bengali
 Department of Botany
 Department of Chemistry
 Department of Economics
 Department of English
 Department of History
 Department of Islamic History and Culture
 Department of Management
 Department of Mathematics
 Department of Philosophy
 Department of Political Science
 Department of Physics
 Department of Sociology
 Department of Zoology

Notable alumni
 Chanchal Chowdhury, Actor, two-times National Film Awards winner.
 Kazi Keramat Ali, MP, Bangladesh and former State Minister for Technical and Madrasa Education.

References

Colleges in Dhaka District
Rajbari District
1961 establishments in East Pakistan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Welt aus Schrift – World as Words
By Gambalunga
bauhaus · bayer · Berlin · Kunstbibliothek · Schrift · Welt · Words · World
[threefourths_columns]
[/threefourths_columns] [onefourth_columns_last] [/onefourth_columns_last]
Welt aus Schrift – The 20th Century in Europe and the USA
At its heart, this exhibition, organized by the Art Library, explores the sign system formed by the many alphabet fonts used in Europe and the USA since 1890, and how that sign system was variously dissected and recreated over time in books, magazines, advertising, posters and printed matter of every kind. With more than 500 objects on display, visitors are granted a comprehensive insight into the linguistic diversity of graphic design.
Photos of the Welt aus Schrift posters outside the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin. An excellent exhibition focussing on European and American fonts and applied graphics.
Satisfying my love of Bauhaus it was great to see works and artefacts by Moholy-Nagy, Mies van der Rohe and of course Herbert Bayers' Universal.
Whilst physically compact the exhibition covers a lot of ground with high walls covered. It would be great to see this exhibition travel.
Kulturforum Berlin
Berlin, Everyday's Like a Sunday Here
art · bauhaus · Berlin · culture
One of the reasons I ride a motorbike is that I don't like sitting in traffic, and when sat in traffic in Exeter I may well rant,
"if I am sat in traffic at least it could be because everyone's going somewhere interesting!"
No such problem in Berlin, the argument falls over on both sides. It is difficult not to find somewhere interesting but if you are in traffic you are unlikely to get stuck: these roads are wide, really w-i-d-e. As a pedestrian it is wise to plan your journey across one well, there's not a huge amount of traffic but you will need to cover ground at pace.
But these wide empty roads are one reason why it feels like everyday's a Sunday here.
I like Cycling – but
Now I like cycling but I'm not sure about the Berlin cycling scene. I did go into a seriously cool little bike shop but, if I may refer briefly to the exhibit to the left, WTF?
There is an overland gas pipeline in Berlin, a rather jaunty pink affair, it travels throughout parts of the city, up and over roads, along the central reservation. What we are looking at here would seem to be a fairly close relation, indeed the lovechild of the gas line. This 'bike' is not so much a 'step-through', more a 'trip-over.'
Part bike - part pipeline
The cyclists here are seriously militant too. Once you have acclimatised to the semiotics of the cycleways (basically a tone or two darker than the host footpath) things aren't too bad, but stray onto the dark grey stuff as a pedestrian at your own risk and when the bicycles are made out of gas pipeline they will hurt.
However these upright cyclists are well dressed, not in lycra and are another reason why every day feels like a Sunday in Berlin.
Mercedes McLaren SLR Stirling Moss
Berlin · McLaren · Mercedes
Seen earlier in Berlin, I thought It seemed a shame not to grab a few shots. In truth the car forms a stark contrast to the majority of cars in Berlin which seemed surprisingly unostentatious.
The new Mercedes McLaren SLR Stirling Moss is also characterised by the most sophisticated technology and a breathtaking design which reinterprets the SLR legend. With 478 kW/650 hp the SLR Stirling Moss accelerates its V8 supercharged engine from standstill to 100 km/h in less than 3.5 seconds, and has a top speed of 350 km/h – no other series-production car is at the same time so open and so fast. This extreme concept makes the new high-performance sports car a legitimate bearer of the name of the British motor racing legend and Mille Miglia record-holder Stirling Moss, who drove the legendary Mercedes-Benz SLR racing cars from victory to victory in 1955.
In the 1950s the Mercedes-Benz SLR 300 celebrated victory after victory. It won the Mille Miglia, the Eifel race, the Targa Florio as well as the Tourist Trophy. It was driven by the stars of the time: Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling – and, first and foremost, by the British racing driver Stirling Moss. At ten hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds he still holds the Mille Miglia record.
Berlin · clay · Lucius · Tempelhof
So the airport (Berlin-Tempelhof) is no longer used as an airport but is now a huge resource for people. Cyclists, kite flyers, RC cars, walkers, runners: there was a marathon taking place. Amongst this activity there is the old fabric of the place and as it would seem with anywhere in this city there is a huge history. In truth I could have spent a lot longer here but we couldn't get access to the main halls, another day perhaps. However by the front entrance there is a small memorial to Lucius D. Clay
On June 26, 1948, two days after the Soviets imposed the Berlin Blockade, Clay gave the order for the Berlin Airlift. This was an act of defiance against the Soviets, an incredible feat of logistics (at one point cargo planes landed at Tempelhof every four minutes, twenty four hours a day), a defining moment of the Cold War, and a demonstration of American support for the citizens of Berlin.
Clay with General of the Army D.D. Eisenhower at Gatow Airport in Berlin during the Potsdam Conference in 1945.
Clay is remembered as a hero for ordering and maintaining the airlift, which would ultimately last 324 days, through May 1949. He resigned his post days after the blockade was lifted.
Berlin - Templehof
Branding and Logos
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Unfortunately, our day in Lewes was one that the Cannonball House (also a maritime museum) was not open for tours, but that didn't stop us from seeking out the truly "Roadchicky" exterior of the building for which it was named.
Surprisingly, it was hot during the beginning of our visit to Delaware. Really hot. We'd already been to a couple of museums and shops and thought it would be a quick jaunt to the Cannonball house. However, the rudimentary map we were using for directions (a pamphlet from another museum) was missing some key street names and we wandered around in circles in the 95-degrees-and-humid heat for a good 30 minutes.
After stepping into an air conditioned shop, we emerged refreshed to find the exact street we were looking for and wandered on to the Cannonball House. The house was a home and then also became a series of businesses and is now a museum. It is a rare example of one home in Lewes that has always remained in the same site. It was scarred by cannon fire in the War of 1812 and a cannonball remains lodged in the side of the bricks. It is small, unassuming, and close to the ground, so you could easily walk by and miss it. It also seems that it's been cemented in place to deter souvenier hunters, but that makes it even more delightful as a roadside attraction.


Warsaw, Poland – For nearly two years since the eruption of racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, President Barack Obama has tried to strike a careful balance between support for police officers and greater scrutiny of the policing tactics used against members of minority groups.
But with angry protests spreading across the country over viral videos of police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, Obama chose this week to make a forceful statement about the "serious problem" of racial bias among law enforcement.
Then, within hours, an African American former soldier fired on officers in Dallas during what began as a peaceful protest march over police brutality, killing five officers and injuring seven others.
It was the single deadliest day for law enforcement in the United States since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Today is a wrenching reminder of the sacrifices they make for us," he said.
It was also a reminder of the tenuous path the first black U.S. president has pursued as he seeks to calm racial tensions and mend relations between police and the communities they serve.
His approach has been criticized on both sides. Some civil rights advocates have complained that the president waited too long at times to weigh in on disputed police shootings and to give voice to the long-standing pain and mistrust of police in many black communities.
Meanwhile, some law enforcement officials have accused Obama of unfairly blaming the police and making their dangerous jobs even riskier. Last year, the administration banned the federal transfers of certain types of military-style assault gear to local police departments in the wake of the protests in Ferguson, where an unarmed black teenager was fatally shot by a white officer in 2014.
White House aides rebutted such criticism, emphasizing the praise Obama has lavished on the vast majority of officers who "put their lives on the line to protect us" and pointing out his acknowledgment of the counsel he has sought from police. Obama established a federal task force in December 2014 to recommend policy options on "21st century policing." The panel was led by Charles Ramsey, a former police chief in Philadelphia and Washington.
But Obama acknowledged the backlash during his remarks Thursday in Warsaw after Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, both of whom were black, were killed this week by white officers.
"I get letters – well-meaning letters sometimes – from law enforcement saying, 'How come we're under attack? How come not as much emphasis is made when police officers are shot?' " the president said.
Obama's response was an attempt to contain and channel the national outrage over the deaths of Sterling and Castile. As cable news channels carried blanket coverage Thursday of the Baton Rouge and Minnesota shootings, the president did not wait for Air Force One to land in Warsaw to post an initial response on his official Facebook page. Less than an hour after landing, he spoke on camera to reporters.
In the past, Obama has frustrated civil rights leaders by taking longer to react, cautioning that he must wait until local and federal investigations have been completed.
Some of the president's allies attribute his reticence to an incident just months into his first term, when he criticized the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department for a white officer's alleged mistreatment of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amid fierce criticism from Republicans and law enforcement leaders, Obama later said he regretted his words and invited Gates and the officer to the White House to mend the hard feelings over beers.
In the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting in August 2014, skirmishes erupted between local residents and police while Obama was vacationing on Martha's Vineyard. He resisted calls to visit the city, dispatching instead then-Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.
On Friday, Obama spoke by phone with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and offered full federal assistance to the investigation into the attack on officers. He added that the FBI has been in touch with local officials. But that was not enough for some critics. The Fraternal Order of Police called on the Justice Department to open a federal investigation into the Dallas shootings as a hate crime.
In Poland, making his first remarks on the shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, Obama had called for a different kind of response to the tragedies.
"I hope we don't fall into the typical patterns that occur after these kinds of incidents occur, where right away there's a lot of political rhetoric and it starts dividing people instead of bringing folks together," he said.
By Friday evening, White House officials, amid all of the discordant voices, pointed to some positive signs, praising Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wisconsin) for his measured response and focus on the values that unite Americans.
The challenge for Obama will be nurturing and sustaining that spirit in an already venomous election season.


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National / Crime & Legal
High court upholds suspended sentence for Okinawa activist Hiroji Yamashiro for offenses during anti-U.S. base protests
Hiroji Yamashiro, right, attends a gathering organized by his supporters Thursday in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, after the high court ruling upheld a lower court verdict against him. | KYODO
NAHA – A high court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that found a prominent anti-U.S. military base activist in Okinawa guilty of several criminal offenses committed during protests in the island prefecture.
Hiroji Yamashiro, 66, a key figure in the movement against the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Air Station Futenma within Okinawa, was given a two-year jail term, suspended for three years, in March for obstructing base transfer work and other acts.
Yamashiro, who is the head of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, was seeking to overturn the Naha District Court ruling, but the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court rejected his appeal.
The criminal trial of Yamashiro caught public attention due to his monthslong detention by authorities that prompted human rights groups to voice criticism of what they considered his unnecessary confinement.
The March ruling found Yamashiro guilty of obstructing relocation work at U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab after he piled blocks at its gate in January 2016 and cut barbed wire at the site in October of the same year. He was also found guilty of injuring a local Japanese defense bureau official in August 2016 near a U.S. military training site in Higashi.
Futenma U.S. base land in Okinawa unlikely to be returned to Japan in fiscal 2022, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya says
"I find the decision unfair. We will face the biggest challenge yet from tomorrow but won't give up," said Yamashiro at a gathering after the high court ruling, referring to landfill work that the Japanese government plans to start Friday in the coastal district of Henoko, in the city of Nago, where the new base will be constructed.
Yamashiro is considering an appeal.
During the trial at the high court, the defense team said Yamashiro should be acquitted of all charges aside from the property damage caused when he cut the barbed wire.
They said Yamashiro was merely "expressing his opposition under the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution" when he piled blocks at the gate of Camp Schwab, and that applying the charge of obstruction of work would be unconstitutional.
But the high court rejected their claim.
"The blocks piled in front of the gate weighed about 20 tons in total. The construction work was unjustly disrupted beyond the scope of the freedom of expression," presiding Judge Masamichi Okubo said.
Many residents of Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan, want the Futenma base that is located in a crowded residential area of Ginowan moved out of the prefecture altogether, rather than transferred to Henoko.
But Japan's government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has maintained that the base relocation to Henoko is "the only solution" for removing the dangers posed by the base without undermining the deterrence provided by the Japan-U.S. security alliance.
The government plans to start full-fledged land reclamation work on Friday for the construction of the controversial replacement facility.
Okinawa, Futenma, Hiroji Yamashiro


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Chaseling, Isaiah (1862–1919)
Lieutenant-Colonel Isaiah Chaseling, who has been connected with the military forces for many years, died at Randwick Military Hospital on Tuesday of last week. He was 56 years of age. He was born on the Hawkesbury River, and was for some years connected with the Education Department. He then joined the Garrison Artillery, of which he became commanding officer. For some time after the outbreak of the war he served at Liverpool Camp, and was later placed in command of the Cootamundra Camp. He went to England in command of troops. Lieutenant- Colonel Chaseling leaves a widow, one son, and three daughters. The deceased officer was a brother-in-law of Mr. R. M. Smith, of Lower Portland, and an uncle of Mr. A. Uren, of Windsor.
The funeral took place at Rookwood cemetery, the remains being interred with military honors. The District Commandant was represented by Captain C. W. Huxtable, besides whom there were a large number of officers present. In addition to the immediate relatives and friends of the deceased there was a representative attendance of citizens.
Windsor & Richmond Gazette (NSW), 18 April 1919, p 2	(view original)
World War I service record, B2455, item Chaseling I (National Archives of Australia)
marriage notice, ustralian, Windsor, Richmond, and Hawkesbury Advertiser, 25 November 1882, p 4
profile, Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW), 3 August 1917, p 2
Chaseling, Mary Jane (mother)
Chaseling, James (father)
Chaseling, James Andrew (brother)
Rose, Margaret (aunt)
Paul, Louisa (aunt)
Attewell, Mary (aunt)
Hewitt, Elizabeth (aunt)
Chaseling, Thomas (uncle)
Chaseling, Matthew James (uncle)
Chaseling, Catherine (aunt by marriage)
Chaseling, Ann (grandmother)
Chaseling, John Hammon (grandfather)
Chaseling, George Ernest (nephew)
Chaseling, James Herbert (nephew)
Chaseling, John Thomas (cousin)
Chaseling, Joshua Charles (cousin)
Chaseling, Catherine Elizabeth (cousin)
Cupitt, Barbara Mary (cousin)
Chaseling, Matthew Eber (cousin)
Chaseling, James Edgar (cousin)
Chaseling, Thomas William (cousin)
Chaseling, Rebecca Grace (cousin)
Chaseling, Cyrus (cousin)
Chaseling, Arthur Ernest (cousin)
'Chaseling, Isaiah (1862–1919)', Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/chaseling-isaiah-17407/text29135, accessed 16 July 2019.
Windsor, New South Wales, Australia
Randwick, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sea Transport Service


Rajinikanth and Vishagan's families are over the moon as their kids Soundarya Rajinikanth and Vishagan Vanangamudi exchanged marital vows in front of their family and friends on Monday morning. Soundarya and Vishagan are now man and wife. The couple tied the knot on February 11 in Chennai after a few years of courtship.
After tying the knot, Soundarya and Vishagan, along with their parents, posed for the shutterbugs. The wedding will be followed by lunch and reception for the couple's friends, relatives and acquaintances.
Soundarya Rajinikanth chose two different looks for her wedding day. For her muhurtam, she wore a gold and pink saree with minimal accessories. She then chose a traditional red and pale green saree for another ritual called 'Mapillai Azhaipu' (Inviting the groom).
Vishagan, on his part, wore an off-white silk dhoti and shirt, which he paired with a blue angavastra.
For the uninitiated, this is both Soundarya and Vishagan's second marriage. The VIP 2 director was earlier married to businessman Ashwin Ramkumar. However, they got divorced in 2016 and the couple has a three-year-old son Ved Krishna.
Vishagan was married to a magazine editor named Kanikha Kumaran. Their marriage hit a sour patch and eventually they got divorced.


For true nature lovers the Park has a magnificent campsite near the Hoenderloo entrance. The campsite comprises a car-free tent site and three sites for caravans and campers. This tranquil and small rural campsite offers every nature lover the opportunity to experience the Park for more than one day.
Within 1 km from the border of each of our three entrances you'll find small towns offering various facilities and hotels where you can stay the night.


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Statement by H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka at the UN Summit on Biodiversity, 30 September 2020
We are committed to protect and sustainably manage natural resources – President tells UN Biodiversity Summi
The Government of Sri Lankan is committed to protect and sustainably manage natural resources, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said addressing the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity today (30).
"Sri Lanka is home to two UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites: the Central Highlands, and the Sinharaja Rain Forest Reserve. We are also proud of our six sites recognized under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Sri Lanka firmly stands committed to protect and sustainably manage these natural assets that contribute to our unique and rich biodiversity" President Rajapaksa told the virtual gathering held under the theme of Urgent action on biodiversity for sustainable development".
The Summit will highlight the crisis facing humanity from the degradation of biodiversity and the urgent need to accelerate action on biodiversity for sustainable development. It will provide an opportunity for Heads of State and Government and other leaders to raise ambition for the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be adopted at the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2021.
Emphasizing that the concept of biodiversity must be at the very core of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, President Rajapaksa pointed out that despite the rapid decline seen in biodiversity globally, over the recent decades, Sri Lanka is deeply committed to uphold the overarching spirit of the Convention on Biodiversity.
"There is a critical need for a transformational change in the relationship between nature and people and contemporary global environmental governance," he remarked.
The ancient governance of Sri Lanka was built on the concept that the ruler is never the owner of the land; he is merely its caretaker on behalf of his countrymen and all living beings. This is the very principle that my Government has adopted in our development agenda said the President while stressing as mere trustees of this planet and its resources we must resolve to protect what is in our trust and pass it to future generations as best as we could.
Full text of the speech:
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary General,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ayubowan !
I am deeply honoured to represent the people of Sri Lanka at this High-Level Summit on Biodiversity.
The concept of biodiversity must be at the very core of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Despite the rapid decline seen in biodiversity globally, over the recent decades, Sri Lanka is deeply committed to uphold the overarching spirit of the Convention on Biodiversity.
There is a critical need for a transformational change in the relationship between nature and people and contemporary global environmental governance.
Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
As a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Sri Lanka endorsed the Commonwealth Blue Charter in 2018 and as such we will champion the Commonwealth Blue Charter Action Group on Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods.
Further, the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management was adopted last year. We as world leaders, must better manage nitrogen, ensuring the sustenance of humankind.
Sri Lanka is home to two UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites: the Central Highlands, and the Sinharaja Rain Forest Reserve. We are also proud of our six sites recognized under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
Sri Lanka firmly stands committed to protect and sustainably manage these natural assets that contribute to our unique and rich biodiversity.
We have been mindful of conserving ecosystems to the highest extent possible, even during the redesigning of cities and urban areas. The wetland parks that we have created in cities, especially in and around our Capital Sri Jayawardhanapura Kotte, are home to an array of plant and animal species, offering a 'mini-rainforest experience' within crowded cities.
The ancient governance of Sri Lanka was built on the concept that the ruler is never the owner of the land; he is merely its caretaker on behalf of his countrymen and all living beings. This is the very principle that my Government has adopted in our development agenda.
As mere trustees of this planet and its resources we must resolve to protect what is in our trust and pass it to future generations as best as we could.
President's Media Division


Core Tips: under the guidance of doctors, these patients can choose medium and long-acting calcium antagonists; beta blockers; alpha 1 receptor blockers or drugs that have blocked beta receptors and receptors simultaneously.
In the patients with renal failure, hypertension is renal hypertension. In clinical treatment, it is often necessary to control the blood pressure, renal failure and renal fibrosis, causing serious renal pathological damage and various complications, and hypertension is one of the clinical symptoms of renal failure.
How is the correct use of hypertension in renal failure?
Any drug taken for a long time will have certain side effects. In the treatment of renal failure hypertension, the above mentioned various types of antihypertensive drugs for the stability of blood pressure, alleviate the disease has a certain role.
Antihypertensive drugs can not treat kidney failure from the root. When the condition of renal failure is aggravated, the blood pressure is also increased, the antihypertensive drugs need to be taken for a long time. Long time hypertension is one of the major risk factors for the aggravation of renal fibrosis.
Renal hypertension is caused by long-term renal vascular tightened state, so in the treatment of renal failure caused by hypertension, needing to expand the blood vessels, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy has a large number of vasodilatation factors, these vasodilatation factors into the renal microvascular and vascular tension factor play a synergistic role, so that There is a degree of relaxation in the blood vessels, which relieves renal hypertension due to inadequate vasodilation and overstrain.
When the renal function is mild and moderate, drugs which are less excreted through the kidney in ACEI drugs, such as loetine and mono, are used, but the renal function is still closely monitored. When the renal function is severely damaged, such as blood creatinine more than 265 milligrams / liters (3 mg / dl), class ACEI antihypertensive drugs must be carefully used or reduced, otherwise the drug will accumulate in the body and aggravate the adverse reactions of the kidney and the body, especially when combined with diuretics. Under the guidance of doctors, these patients can choose medium and long acting calcium antagonists, beta blockers, alpha 1 receptor blockers or choose beta blockers simultaneously. The receptor has a blockage of drugs.


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Bill Allred
Bruce Baird
Dave Owen
Corey O'Brien
Venue – 50 West
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Meet the Panel
Meet "The Air We Breathe" Panel
By Dylan Allred
Rachel Otto Ted Wilson
Get to know our panel before our first show on April 22nd at Club 50 West. It just happens to be Earth Day that day.
Rachel was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, but has been a westerner since moving to New Mexico in 1998. She arrived in Salt Lake City in 2001 for graduate school at the University of Utah in British and American Literature, and fell in love with everything about the place except for the air quality. After teaching undergraduate composition courses for the University of Utah and Utah State, Rachel discovered that she was still only educated enough for two things: returning to ski bumming in Taos, or going to law school. She chose the latter, and completed her J.D. at the University of Utah in 2008 with a certificate in natural resources law. Though she has always been involved in the non-profit world, Rachel spent five years practicing employment and civil rights law for a boutique firm in Salt Lake before taking the helm at Breathe Utah in 2014.
Ted was the 30th mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, from 1976 until July 1985. He won three elections. Wilson resigned during his third term to become the director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah where he held an adjunct assistant professorship of Political Science.
Highlights of Wilson's administration included re-construction of the Salt Lake City International Airport, re-building the city's sewage treatment plant, re-tooling the water system, and expanding the green space of the city's parks department. Wilson also initiated and passed the first historical and foothill preservation ordinances in the city's history. Currently, Ted is the Executive Director of UCAIR.
Related Items:50 West, Breathe Utah, Earth Day, Guests, Rachel Otto, Ted Wilson, UCAIR
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Reverend France A. Davis
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text:
Building Better EV Batteries Is Critical For Widespread EV Acceptance
Building Better EV Batteries Is Critical ...
More efficient battery tech is crucial to open door to better EV adoption
Next-gen batteries will store twice as much energy as today's lithium-ion batteries – doubling range to 600 miles or more and slicing recharging time by two-thirds.
Most of the industry is betting on solid-state batteries as the game-changing solution
A bevy of new fully electric vehicles coming onto the market this year has heightened interest in EV purchase rates and tempted many motorists to make the switch from gasoline to EV. But those figures still only amount to around a 5% share of the market with the vast majority of drivers still concerned about range anxiety and infrastructure issues, not to mention the price factor. On average, EVs are around 15% to 20% more expensive than their gasoline or hybrid rivals.
At an average price of about $62,000, EVs are still too expensive for many — and the high cost of lithium-ion batteries is mostly to blame.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. New battery technologies in development could open the door to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles by cramming more energy into a cheaper, smaller package.
This needs to happen because consumers won't embrace electric vehicles until they cost about the same as (or less than) gasoline cars and provide a comparable driving range — at least 300 miles between charges.
But with volatile battery and raw material prices, cheaper battery adoption may take longer than expected. After falling for a decade, battery prices rose in 2022 due to higher raw materials costs.
Over the last few years, scientists have been trying to develop inexpensive, lightweight next-generation batteries that do it all — hold lots of energy, release power quickly, operate safely and last a long time. Plus—they need to be lighter and cheaper.
Battery development, however, is a game of trade-offs. High performance on one criterion generally means lower performance on another.
A battery with higher "energy density" (meaning it's designed to store more energy) could overheat and catch fire, for example. The challenge is finding the right mix of materials and chemical processes to optimize performance across the board.
The popular Ford Mustang Mach-E AWD version has a EPA range of 290 miles.
Most of the industry is betting on solid-state batteries as a game-changing solution. These batteries replace the gooey liquid electrolyte that carries lithium ions between the cathode and the anode with a thin ceramic or sulfide-based material.
These next-gen batteries are expected to store twice as much energy as today's lithium-ion batteries — potentially doubling the range of an electric car to 600 miles or more — and possibly recharge in one-third the time.
They'd also be lighter, cheaper and less likely to burst into flames, scientists say. Many companies are working on the technology, from automakers such as Toyota and Nissan to battery giants like Panasonic and Samsung and startups including QuantumScape and Solid Power.
Despite encouraging lab results, however, the industry has yet to prove it can scale the technology for mass production. In the meantime, there are other ways to squeeze better performance and lower costs from today's EV batteries, such as adding silicon to graphite anodes or shifting to pure "lithium-metal" anodes, both of which are in development.
For now, some carmakers, including Tesla and Ford, are turning to cobalt- and nickel-free lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, especially for their lower-priced EVs.
While LFP batteries are cheaper and safer, they provide a shorter driving range than batteries made with cobalt and nickel. As charging infrastructure improves, however, that might become less of an issue, some experts say.
"There's a prevailing thought that 300 miles is table stakes for the next generation of electric vehicles," says Mark Verbrugge, director of General Motors' Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory.
Many in the industry are citing "300 miles" as the magic number for desired EV range. I would suggest that a range of 400 miles would be a much better number to win over a lot more motorists who are interested in switching to EVs, but are still not satisfied with the current state of EV range. Hopefully, the much-lauded solid-state batteries can come to the rescue.
batteries EV


As part of the service team I am primarily involved in the collection, refinement and solution of crystal structure data. I also assist in the maintenance of the diffractometers and the archiving of data from the service.
I have recently completed my PhD entitled 'Characterisation and Investigation of Structural Relationships of 4,4'-disubstituted Chalcones', supervised by Professor Mike Hursthouse. Previously to this I obtained my BSc (Hons) in Chemistry at the University of Southampton.I became a post doctoral research assistant for the EPSRC National Crystallography Service in July 2009.
My areas of interest are intermolecular interactions and packing relationships between families of structures.


A multiplication table makes it easier for you to perform operations. I strongly recommend that you learn it and know it by heart.
First, notice that any number times 0 will give 0.
When you multiply any number( the number must be between 1 and 12.
It may not be true for other higher numbers) by 9, the sum of the digits for the answer add up to 9.
See if you can find other interesting patterns that will help you remember the multiplication table!


Carillon produces award winning boutique wines from our Boree Lane vineyard, 12kms west of Orange.
Our range of wines include, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as cult Italian varieties such as Verduzzo and Aglianico. Watch out for our 2009 'Volcanics' Cabernet Sauvignon and 2010 Cabernet Merlot, both trophy winners at last year's Orange Wine Show.


We are a group of like minded Perth people who, in conjunction with NGO Volunteer Building Cambodia (VBC), are improving the lives of poor villagers is Siem Reap. As in 2017, again this year a group is traveling to Siem Reap and in a week, building a new house for a poor family and dramatically improving their lives.
Each house costs US$3000 in materials and labour is provided by us and supplemented by local building volunteers from VBC.
In addition to houses, money donated is used to build communal toilets, wells for water and contribution towards a community centre that provides English classes for the local children.
Our next trip is in June 2019 and we aim to build at least one house but with your help, who knows what we can achieve.
By making even a small donation, you can help to change the life of a poor family in Siem Reap.
Check out VBC Facebook page to see how they are delivering real improvements to the poor villagers of Siem Reap.


In Sweden we visited Greta the cat.
And Klara, a dog who loves tomatoes and my sister.
I picked blueberries with my nieces.
And visited my dad and his lady in my dad's summer house.
They made us lunch; smoked tenderloin, smoked salmon etc.
The food looks wonderful. Glad you had such a great time there!
Oh i like those pics... and i'm so fond of this dog!
Klara has the cutest ears =)) love this way of blueberry picking.
Kara & Greta are cute. Food looks delicious too (the flat bread looks quite similar to the Chapatis & Rotis we make in India). Hope you enjoyed the change of scene, Sandra.


There are actually quite a few people around the who call themselves wine experts. It would be stellar idea to hire a wine tour driver if you are part of this group of people. It's natural that you'd want to visit vineyards all over the world. These guys will drive you around the area and save you from all the worry. People who love wine are slowly getting into this idea. For them, it's a great way to relax and do what they love at the same time.
A Napa Valley wine tour driver can make tours more interesting. You'll be able to choose from a deluxe tour to just the ordinary one. Visit nations that are lovers of wine. There's no doubt that it would be easier to schedule a wine tour with an agency helping out. Once you get to these places, you would be in awe of their beauty, as well as their wine. So schedule a wine tour today and change your life.
You can also try a Napa Valley designated driver service, if you're planning on taking a tour of the vineyards in California. One will usually be spoilt for choice which is why the process can be overwhelming. Check out the services being offered by these places and see if they are ideal. It won't take long because there are really good drivers who can help out. You'll surely be able to explore the amazingness of wine with these types of tours. There are various locations in many countries to try out. You can tour in a great many locations with your friends and family members. You will truly fall in love with these places in so many ways. You just need to taste the wines in these places and enjoy. You are a wine expert and would therefore know all about these things.
When it comes to wine, there are lots of countries which you should consider visiting. Many, like France, have an amazing tradition that you may want to know about. The state of California would also be an excellent choice when it comes to this matter. You can make the best out of your tour with amazing wine makers. It's just a combination of everything that would leave you breathless. Feel free to schedule a wine tour today and begin your vacation. This is what the wine world is all about and you'll never be able to get enough.
Find a wine tour driver who knows all about wine and country traditions when it comes to wine. Having this person around will truly save your day. Enjoy the great wine world and explore to your heart's content.


I am a nurse and pens are my life. I consume at least 3 black pens per week because of all the paper works that needs to be filled day by day. Since then, I make sure I have a stock of Titus Black and Red pens with me. Its the perfect combination for me because I like the ink of their pens and its super affordable too!
The brand manager for Titus Pens Associate, Mr. Franz Santiago, was sure that everyone will love the latest set of art kits. (Include me!) He shared, "Titus Pens promises you that it will only product innovative and one of a kind art supplies for the next generations.", he also added, "And indeed, it has proven the promise to everyone by making enchanting art works using the new line of inks. Stirred audience showed their wave of approval when they reinvented their masterpieces with explosion of colors.".
I was able to witness young aspirant artists showcasing their inimitable talent during the fun-filled activities that Titus Pens prepared in the event. The art festival featured different categories through calligraphy, poster making, mangga art and doodling. Titus Pens partnered with National Book Store in their new product extensions namely the Titus Crayons and Titus Colored Pencils that come in exciting and vivacious colors.
There are also young doodlers from various schools and universities that competed for the best output at the Titus Pens INK-redible Manila 2017 or the National Doodling Day Edition.
The best art pieces made by artists and participants were also awarded during the event. There are art auctioned pieces that were immediately sold for a cost in giving financial assistance to Helping Land being the chosen charity. Helping Land supported the event by participating in quick and fun sessions of doodling using the Titus Pens' products.
Besides the band performing live during the event, I also enjoyed the special pen buffet. Imagine I could get all the pens that I can fit in the provided Titus Pens' pouch for free! Yay! My problem for hoarding pens for work is now solved for long while!
One of the highlights during the event is the fashion show. Models wore fashionably designed clothes made by fashion designer, Mr. Kuds Cruz, using the new Titus Colored Permanent Markers and fabric paint for background. I thought that it was all fabric paint that was used or it was embroidered but no, its made of pure art!
The crowd was overwhelmed when Ms. Liza Soberano, Titus Pens' Celebrity Brand Amabassador graced the event for a meet and greet with avid fans, just like me! Titus Pens' President, Mr. Ben Arlen Tan together with his wife, Ms. Debbie Tan posted a photo with Ms. Liza Soberano. Also joining them are their artistic children.
Her beauty is really one of a kind, I got captivated by her beauty and all I can think about is she looks like a Barbie straight from the box!
I definitely had fun with my blogger friends during the Titus Pens' National Doodling Day and Grand Launch of their new products and I cannot wait to doodle too at home.
Thank you so much Titus Pens for the generosity and my supply of pens that I got during the special buffet! I was able to share it to my staff, family and friends.
Don't miss the launch of their upcoming Titus Gel Pen and Titus Pens Erasable. Follow them Titus Pens on Facebook to keep yourself posted to the evolution of colored pens in the world full of exciting hues! Spread the love and share the gift of color in every form, size and diversity from this year's Titus Pens National Doodling Day by following them on Instagram, @TitusPensPH. For any inquiries, you can also call them at 02-364-6041.


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Lean-N-Green event breath of fresh air
Amber Sandhu
Redding Record Searchlight
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight Enterprise High School student Samantha Vazmendes shows elementary school students the ill effects of tobacco Tuesday during Lean-N-Green Day and Kick Butts Day on Tuesday at the Redding City Hall Sculpture Garden. (Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann)
The Shasta County Coalition for Activity and Nutrition is celebrating March as National Nutrition Month, and in an effort to raise awareness about being healthy and physically active, they set up shop at Sculpture Park at Redding City Hall, where schoolchildren visited to learn about nutrition, gardening, physical fitness, and the harmful effects of tobacco use and sugary drinks.
The event, Redding Lean-N-Green Day, is part of a series of free events put on by the coalition to promote healthy living in Shasta County.
Children from Cypress Elementary School and Juniper School attended the event and made their way to each of the interactive stations where they learned about healthy choices and were encouraged to ask questions.
Alissa Garcia and Edward Min, both who work at Redding Recreation, led sessions about the benefits of gardening, the process of how a seed turns into a plant, and also took questions from children, explaining how one seed turns into food.
"We just want to show kids that they can do their own gardening, and they don't have to live on burgers and fries," Garcia said. "To be lean and green is good and to be healthy is awesome."
Children were also encouraged to make healthier choices when it came to consuming soft drinks.
Somneuk Chao, public health assistant at the Shasta County Department of Public Health, said the point of educating the kids is to "rethink your drink," she said. During her part of the workshop, she said she noticed that not only are more children consuming sugary drinks such as soft drinks and juice, but kids as young as second-graders are consuming energy drinks.
"It's very alarming," she said. "We want the kids to take back what's a healthy choice. We want the points to be in their mind at a young age."
She educated the children about the harmful effects of sugary drinks such as type 2 diabetes and cavities. She encouraged them to cut down on the sugary drinks and consume juices labeled "100% juice."
"Let's get them early to educate them and start them on a healthier path," she said.
In addition to Lean-N-Green Day, the Shasta County Tobacco Education Coalition held Kick Butts Day at the same event, to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco.
Samantha Vazmendes, 17, and Alyson Zuidema, 16, from Enterprise High School taught about the dangers of smoking. They held up models of what lungs looked like after a year of smoking, and showed a bottle of yellow thick liquid to show what phlegm looked like.
Vazmendes said when she asked the children questions about smoking, the children usually answered that they have a parent who smokes. "I see smoking in my life, but I don't see it to the extent that these kids see it," she said.
Manuel Meza, community organizer with the Shasta County Public Health Department, said it's also important for the children to know that quitting smoking is not easy and they need to be sensitive to people like their parents who may be trying to quit. "We attack smokers as bad people. They're not bad people, it's just a nasty habit," he said.
The Shasta County Coalition for Activity and Nutrition will hold a garden workshop in Redding and another Lean-N-Green Day event in Anderson River Park later this month.
Where: Neighborhood Church, 777 Loma Vista Drive, Redding
When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Anderson Lean-N-Green Day
Where: Anderson River Park, 2800 Rupert Road, Anderson
When: 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.


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The Road to Same Sex Marriage
Ineluctably, the issue of "gay" rights is about far more than sexual practices. It is, as lesbian advocate Paula Ettelbrick proclaimed, about "transforming the very fabric of society … [and] radically reordering society's views of reality".
Since how we perceive reality is at stake in this struggle, the question inevitably rises: what is the nature of this reality? Is it good for us as human beings? Is it according to our Nature? Each side in the debate claims that what they are defending or advancing is according to Nature.
Opponents of same-sex marriage say that it is against Nature; proponents say that it is natural and that, therefore, they have a "right" to it. Yet the realities to which each side points are not just different but opposed: each negates the other. What does the word Nature really mean in this context? The words may be the same, but their meanings are directly contradictory, depending on the context. Therefore, it is vitally important to understand the broader contexts in which they are used and the larger views of reality of which they are a part since the status and meaning of Nature will be decisive in the outcome.
Let us then review briefly what the natural law understanding of "Nature" is and the kinds of distinctions an objective view of reality enables us to make in regard to our existence in general and to sexuality in particular. The point of departure must be that Nature is what is, regardless of what anyone desires or abhors. We are part of it and subject to it. It is not subject to us. Thus, we shall see how, once the objective status of Nature is lost or denied, we are incapacitated from possessing any true knowledge about ourselves and about how we are to relate to the world. This discussion may seem at times somewhat unrelated to the issues directly at hand, but it is not. It is at its heart and soul. Without it, the rest of our discussion is a mere battle of opinions.
Order in the Universe – Aristotle's Laws of Nature
There are two basic, profoundly different anthropologies behind the competing visions of man at the heart of the dispute over same-sex marriage. For an understanding of the original notion of Nature, we will turn to those who began the use of the term in classical Greece, most especially Plato and Aristotle. To present the antithesis of this understanding, we will then turn to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who eviscerated the word of its traditional meaning in the 18th century and gave it its modern connotation. The older anthropology is Aristotelian, which claims that man is by Nature a political animal for whom the basic societal unit is the family. The newer is Rousseauian, which claims that man is not a political animal and that society in any form is fundamentally alien to him. These two disparate anthropologies presuppose, in turn, two radically different metaphysics: one is teleological; the other is non-teleological, or anti-teleological. Again, the first one has its roots in Aristotle, the second in Rousseau. These two schools of thought provide convenient and necessary philosophical perspectives within which to understand the uses of the words "natural" and "unnatural" as they are variously employed by the proponents and opponents of homosexual acts and same-sex marriage today.
The discovery of Nature was momentous, as it was the first product of philosophy. Man first deduced the existence of Nature by observing order in the universe. The regularity with which things happen could not be explained by random repetition. All activity seems governed by a purpose, by ends to which things are designed to move. Before this discovery, in the ancient, pre-philosophical world, man was immersed in mythological portrayals of the world, the gods, and himself. These mythopoeic accounts made no distinction between man and Nature, or between convention and Nature. A dog wagged its tail because that was the way of a dog. Egyptians painted their funeral caskets in bright colors because that was the way of the Egyptians. There was no way to differentiate between the two because the word "Nature" was not available in the vocabulary of the pre-philosophical world.
According to Henri Frankfort in Before Philosophy, it was Heraclitus who first grasped that the universe is an intelligible whole and that therefore man is able to comprehend its order. If this is true – and only if it is true – man's inquiry into the nature of reality becomes possible. The very idea of "Nature" becomes possible. How could this be? Heraclitus said that the universe is intelligible because it is ruled by and is the product of "thought" or wisdom. If it is the product of thought, then it can be apprehended by thinking. We can know what is because it was made by logos. We can have thoughts about things that are themselves the product of thought.
As far as we know, Heraclitus and Parmenides were the first to use the word logosto name this "thought" or wisdom. Logos, of course, means "reason" or "word" in Greek. Logos is the intelligence behind the intelligible whole. It is logos which makes the world intelligible to the endeavor of philosophy, ie, reason. In theTimaeus, Plato writes, "… now the sight of day and night, and the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number, and have given us a conception of time; and the power of inquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source, we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was or will be given by the gods to mortal man." Through reason, said Socrates, man can come to know "what is", ie, the nature of things.
Aristotle taught that the essence or nature of a thing is what makes it what it is, and why it is not something else. This is not a tautology. As an acorn develops into an oak tree, there is no point along its trajectory of growth that it will turn into a giraffe or something other than an oak. That is because it has the nature of an oak tree. By natural law, in terms of living things, we mean the principle of development which makes it what it is and, given the proper conditions, what it will become when it fulfills itself or reaches its end. For Aristotle, "Nature ever seeks an end". This end state is its telos, its purpose or the reason for which it is. In non-human creation this design is manifested through either instinct or physical law. Every living thing has a telos toward which it purposefully moves. In plants or animals, this involves no self-conscious volition. In man, it does.
Anything that operates contrary to this principle in a thing is unnatural to it. By unnatural, we mean something that works against what a thing would become were it to operate according to its principle of development. For instance, an acorn will grow into an oak unless its roots are poisoned by highly acidic water. One would say that the acidic water is unnatural to the oak or against its "goodness".
The term "teleological", when applied to the universe, implies that everything has a purpose, and the purpose inheres in the structure of things themselves. There is what Aristotle called entelechy, "having one's end within". The goal of the thing is intrinsic to it. These laws of Nature, then, are not an imposition of order from without by a commander-in-chief, but an expression of it from within the very essence of things, which have their own integrity. This also means that the world is comprehensible because it operates on a rational basis.
It is by their natures that we are able to know what things are. Otherwise, we would only know specificities, and be unable to recognize things in their genus and species. In other words, we would only experience this piece of wood (a tree), as opposed to that piece of wood (another tree), but we would not know the word "tree" or even the word "wood", because we would not know the essence of either. In fact, we would know nothing.
Nature is also what enables one person to recognize another person as a human being. What does human nature mean? It means that human beings are fundamentally the same in their very essence, which is immutable and, most profoundly, that every person's soul is ordered to the same transcendent good or end. (This act of recognition is the basis of Western civilization. We have forever since called barbarian those who are either incapable of seeing another person as a human being or who refuse to do so.) Both Socrates and Aristotle said that men's souls are ordered to the same good and that, therefore, there is a single standard of justice which transcends the political standards of the city. There should not be one standard of justice for Athenians and another for Spartans. There is only one justice and this justice is above the political order. It is the same at all times, everywhere, for everyone.
For the first time, reason becomes the arbiter. Reason becomes normative. It is through reason – not from the gods of the city – that man can discern what is just from what is unjust, what is good from what is evil, what is myth from what is reality. Behaving reasonably or doing what accords with reason becomes the standard of moral behavior. We see one of the highest expressions of this understanding in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
As classics scholar Bruce S. Thornton expressed it: "If one believes, as did many Greek philosophers from Heraclitus on, that that the cosmos reflects some sort of rational order, then 'natural' would denote behavior consistent with that order. One could then act 'unnaturally' by indulging in behavior that subverted that order and its purpose". Behaving according to Nature, therefore means acting rationally. Concomitantly, behaving unnaturally means acting irrationally. This notion of reality necessitates the rule of reason.
Reason and morality
This is relevant to man alone because only he possesses free will. He can choose the means to his end or choose to frustrate his end altogether. This, of course, is why "moral" laws are applicable only to man. These moral laws are what natural law means in regard to man. That man can defy moral law in no way lessens the certainty of its operation. In fact, man not so much breaks the moral law as the moral law breaks man, if he transgresses it. In short, when we speak of man's Nature, we mean the ordering of man's being toward certain ends. It is the fulfillment of those ends which makes man fully human.
What is man's end? In the Apology, Socrates said that, "A man who is good for anything…ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong – acting the part of a good man or bad…" The Republic states that "the idea of the Good… is seen only with an effort; and when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and the lord of the light of this visible world, and the source of truth and reason in the intellectual". Since Socrates, we have called man's end "the good". This end carries within it an intimation of immortality for, as Diotima said in the Symposium(207a): "… love loves good to be one's own forever. And hence it necessarily follows that love is of immortality".
The good for man, Aristotle tells us, is happiness. However, happiness is not whatever we say it is, but only that thing which will by our nature truly make us happy. Since man's nature is fundamentally rational, happiness will consist in the knowledge and contemplation of the ultimate good. (That good, the theologians tell us, is God). Aristotle explains that happiness is achieved only through virtuous actions – the repetition of good deeds. Deeds are considered good and bad, natural and unnatural, in relation to the effect they have on man's progress toward his end.
So, it is through Nature that we come to understand the proper use of things. The enormous importance of this for our topic is that, since the purposes of things are intrinsic to them, man does not get to make them up, but only to discover them through the use of his reason. He can then choose to conform his behavior to these purposes in a life of virtue, or to frustrate them in a life of vice. He can choose to become fully human, or to dehumanize himself. However, if his choice is the latter, he will not present it to himself in those terms. As Aristotle said, he must see what he selects as a good in order for him to be able to select it. If he chooses to rebel against the order of things, he will present this choice to himself not as one in favor of disorder, but as one for order – but of another sort. He will, as we have said, rationalize: vice becomes virtue. It is to the construction of this other sort of "order", to this alternate reality, that we now turn. One of its modern architects was Rousseau.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712-1778
Rousseau's Inversion of Aristotle
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) turned Aristotle's notion of Nature on its head. Aristotle said Nature defined not only what man is but what he should be. Rousseau countered that Nature is not an end—a telos—but a beginning: Man's end is his beginning. He has no immutable nature. "We do not know what our nature permits us to be", wrote Rousseau in his Emile. A 20th century version of this view was offered by John Dewey, who said: "human nature is not to have a nature". There is nothing man "ought" to become, no moral imperative. There is no purpose in man or nature; existence is therefore bereft of any rational principle. This means there is no entelechy, no such thing as 'having one's end within,' as Aristotle put it. In fact, reason itself is not natural to man, according to Rousseau – whereas Aristotle said it is man's very essence. For Rousseau, the roots of reason are in the irrational. Reason is the servant of the passions, not of the truth.
Contra Aristotle, Rousseau asserted that man by nature was not a social, political animal endowed with reason. Unlike Aristotle, Rousseau does not begin with the family, but with an isolated individual in the state of nature, where the pure "sentiment of his own existence" was such that "one suffices to oneself, like God." Nature becomes a secular substitute for the Garden of Eden. Yet this self-satisfied god was asocial, amoral and pre-rational. His couplings with women were random and formed no lasting attachment. The family was not natural to him. As Rousseau wrote in his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality , "… there was one appetite which urged him to perpetuate his own species; and this blind impulse, devoid of any sentiment of the heart, produced only a purely animal act. The need satisfied, the two sexes recognized each other no longer, and even the child meant nothing to the mother, as soon as he could do without her." (Rousseau, in fact, abandoned his five children.) The Marquis de Sade expressed a thoroughly Rousseauian sentiment in his novel Juliette, when he wrote that "all creatures are born isolated and with no need of one another".
It was only when through some unexplainable "accident" one man was forced into association with another that his godlike autonomy ended. "Man is by nature good", said Rousseau, but we have somehow fallen from Nature. What man has become is the result not of Nature but of this "accident", which also in some way ignited his use of reason. Rousseau stresses the accidental character of man's association in society in order to emphasize its unnaturalness and artificiality. It was not necessary. In fact, it shouldn't have happened. Aristotle taught that you cannot reach perfection by yourself; man needs society and the political order to reach his full potential. The polis is necessary to him. Rousseau asserted the opposite: man begins in perfection, which the formation of society then takes from him.
Here is how Rousseau stated his thesis in his Discourse on the Origin of Inequality: "… this state [of nature] was the least subject to upheavals and the best for man, and that he must have left it only by virtue of some fatal chance happening that, for the common good, ought never to have happened. The example of savages, almost all of whom have been found in this state, seems to confirm that the human race had been made to remain in it always; that this state is the veritable youth of the world; and that all the subsequent progress has been in appearance so many steps toward the perfection of the individual, and in fact toward the decay of the species".
In his Discourse on the Sciences and Arts, Rousseau purported to show the destructive influences of civilization and "progress" on men, whose "minds have been corrupted in proportion as the arts and sciences have improved". In his workRousseau, Judge of Jean-Jacques, he describes himself as having advanced the "great principle that nature made man happy and good, but that society depraves him and makes him miserable….vice and error, foreign to his constitution, enter it from outside and insensibly change him." Speaking of himself in the third person, Rousseau wrote that "he makes us see the human race as better, wiser, and happier in its primitive constitution; blind, miserable, and wicked to the degree that it moves away from it."
The society resulting from that "fatal chance happening" has corrupted man. This is Rousseau's substitution for original sin. Through his association with others, man lost his self-sufficient "sentiment of his own existence." He began to live in the esteem of others (amour propre), instead of in his own self-esteem (amour de soi). In this way man was "alienated" from himself and enslaved to others. This is what Rousseau meant when he said, "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains". Here we see in Rousseau the origin of Marx's idea of exploitation, carried through, in more recent times, to Jean-Paul Sartre's existential assertion that: "Hell is other people". If hell is other people, then heaven must be oneself.
Nonetheless, Rousseau knew that the pre-rational, asocial state of blissful isolation in the state of nature was lost forever, much as was the Garden of Eden. But he thought that an all-powerful state could ameliorate the situation of alienated man. The closest man can come to secular salvation is to abolish those dependent forms of association which have enslaved him to other men and kept him always outside of himself. He must sever, as much as possible, his relations with his fellow members of society so he can return the sentiment of his own existence to himself. How can this be done?
The state demands complete dependence
Rousseau described the accomplishment of this condition: "Each person would then be completely independent of all his fellowmen, and absolutely dependent upon the state". The state could restore a simulacrum of that original well-being by removing all of man's subsidiary social relationships. By destroying man's familial, social, and political ties, the state could make each individual totally dependent on the state and independent of each other. The state is the vehicle for bringing people together so they can be apart: a sort of radical individualism under state sponsorship.
Rousseau's program was to politicize society totally and his first target was society's foundation – the primary means by which men are curbed of that total self-absorption to which Rousseau wished them to return – the family. To destroy the family Rousseau proposed that its primary function of educating its children be taken from it and given to the state. "The public authority, in assuming the place of father and charging itself with this important function (should) acquire his (the father's) rights in the discharge of his duties". The father is supposed to console himself with the thought that he still has some authority over his children as a "citizen" of the state. His relationship with his children has metamorphosed into a purely political one.
Rousseau's attack upon the family and his exclusive reliance upon the state as the vehicle of man's redemption is the prototype for all future revolutionaries. The program is always the same: society, responsible for all evils, must be destroyed. To promote universal "brotherhood", the only source from which the word "brother" can draw meaning – the family – must be eliminated. Once society is atomized, once the family ceases to interpose itself between the individual and the state, the state is free to transform by force the isolated individual into whatever version of "new man" the revolutionary visionaries espouse.
The artificial family
Here is the point of huge significance for our subject. If the family is artificial in its origins, as Rousseau claimed, then it can be changed and rearranged in any way the state or others may desire. It is simply a shift in convention, a change in a cultural artifact. We can revise human relations in any way we choose. Whoever has sufficient power may make these alternations to suit themselves. There is no standard in Nature to which they must adhere or by which they can be judged. If we do not have a Nature, then there could not possibly be a problem with homosexual acts or same-sex marriage – or with many other things, as well. Pointing out that there has never been such a thing as homosexual marriage in history is superfluous to this point of view since man's "nature" is malleable. It is the product of history. History moves on and man changes with it. Or rather man can change himself according to his desires, as long as he has the means to do so. Since things do not have ends in themselves, they can be given ends by whoever is powerful enough to do so.
This is the philosophy of the Sophist Callicles in the Gorgias, when he says to Socrates: "the fact is this: luxury and licentiousness and liberty, if they have the support of force, are virtue and happiness, and the rest of these embellishments—the unnatural covenants of mankind—are all mere stuff and nonsense" (492c). With the support of force, virtue becomes whatever you choose. It is not conforming your behavior to the rational ends of Nature, but conforming things to your desires. Reason becomes your instrument for doing this. For Rousseau, man is a creature of desire and appetites, to which his reason is subordinated. Rousseau's host in England, David Hume, wrote in A Treatise on Human Nature: "Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions and may never pretend to any office other than to serve and obey them". Reason is not, then, the means by which man reaches his end in the knowledge and contemplation of the good. It is a tool for satisfying the passions. The inversion of Aristotle is complete.
Natural laws or natural rights?
A modern day version of Callicles would not speak as frankly as he did to Socrates. He would cloak his inversion of natural law in the language of "natural right", so that it might seem to be the same, while actually being its opposite – just as did Rousseau. If you are an active homosexual, you claim a "right" to sodomitical acts and same-sex marriage. Though "natural right" sounds like natural law, it is not, as Fr. James Schall has explained, at all similar. "Modern natural right theory", he writes, "is a theory of will, a will presupposed to nothing but itself. In its politicized formulation, it has been the most enduring and dangerous alternative to a natural law that is based in the ontological reality of what man is.
Once natural right becomes the understood foundation of political life, the state is free to place any content into it that it wants, including the rewriting or elimination of natural law. The older constitutional tradition thought that the state was itself both a natural result of man's nature and, in that capacity, a check on the state. But if man has no 'nature,' he is freed from this restriction. Modern natural right means that nothing limits man or the state except what he wills. He can will whatever he can bring about whether or not it was held to be contrary to natural law." Nothing less than this is what is playing itself out in the same-sex marriage struggle.
Though not directly speaking of Callicles or Rousseau in Salt of the Earth, the then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said something that characterizes this school of thought: "the idea that 'nature' has something to say is no longer admissible; man is to have the liberty to remodel himself at will. He is to be free from all of the prior givens of his essence. He makes of himself what he wants, and only in this way is he really 'free' and liberated. Behind this approach is a rebellion on man's part against the limits that he has as a biological being. In the end, it is a revolt against our creatureliness. Man is to be his own creator – a modern, new edition of the immemorial attempts to be God, to be like God."
This is the anthropological and metaphysical perspective within which the same-sex marriage movement makes its case. To accept same-sex marriage means to accept the entire perspective from which it comes, including the assertion that "human nature is not to have a nature". But natural law is nothing other than what it is to be a human being. Its rejection is a denial of humanity, of what is.
This article was originally published by MercatorNet.
Cover image: shutterstock.com
Tagged as: Best of Week, homosexuality, same-sex marriage
By Robert R. Reilly
Robert Reilly has worked in foreign policy, the military, and the arts. His most recent book is The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis. This article courtesy of MercatorNet.