text:
\section{Introduction}
In a Lagrangian description of CFT,
one must impose boundary conditions for
open world-sheets. These boundary conditions should be such
that there is an action of the chiral symmetry algebra
on open world-sheet correlators, in particular the resulting boundary CFT
should be conformal.
In free bosonic theories, this is achieved by simply imposing
Neumann- or Dirichlet boundary conditions, cf.\ \cite{Polchinski}.
In curved backgrounds, the situation is more complicated.
For instance in WZW models (describing strings propagating in Lie groups),
the symmetry preserving D-branes
are localized at certain conjugacy classes, cf.\ \cite{GawG}
\cite{alsc2}.
\\[-3mm]

On the other hand, one can describe D-branes from a perspective
which is more oriented towards the algebraic description of CFT on the world-sheet.
In that approach, one {\it begins} with imposing conformal invariance
and other requirements on so-called boundary states \cite{Cardy}.
Then, one can analyze the shapes of these boundary states. In
free bosonic theories there is full agreement between
these descriptions \cite{DiV},
but already in WZW models,
the agreement is less direct \cite{FFFS}.\\[-3mm]

A class of CFT models related to WZW models
are the coset models. The relevant target spaces are adjoint quotients
$G/{\rm Ad }(H)$, where $H\subset G$ is an embedded Lie subgroup of
the connected, simply connected Lie group $G$, cf. \cite{GaKu} \cite{schnitzer}.
The D-branes in the Lagrangian
description are certain projected products of conjugacy classes \cite{Ga}.
In general, the CFT description of coset models
involve a certain identification group \cite{scya5} \cite{ffrs2} \cite{fusS4}.
In most of the literature on D-branes in such models,
only situations where the identification group acts freely are considered,
i.\ e.\ $\mathcal G _{\rm id}$ has no fixed points.
The aim of the present note is to perform a geometric analysis
of a model where such fixed points do occur,
with interest primarily on the branes that correspond to the fixed point.
We consider the sigma model with
target space the coset \\[-6mm]
\begin{eqnarray} Q &=& \frac{SU(2)\times SU(2)}{{\rm Ad}(SU(2))} \,,
\label{pillow}
\end{eqnarray}
which is the set of equivalence classes $[ g_1,g_2 ]$
with the equivalence relation
\begin{eqnarray} (g_1,g_2) \sim (g g_1 g^{-1} , gg_2 g^{-1})\,,
\label{ca}\end{eqnarray}
and with $g,g_1,g_2 \in SU(2)$.
The sigma model on $Q$ can be described as a gauged WZW model \cite{Ga},
which after choosing levels $k,l,k+l\in \ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_{>0}$ for the three occuring factors,
corresponds to a coset CFT.
The particular choice $l=1$ gives the series of Virasoro minimal models.
In the sequel, we shall think of both $l$ and $k$ as being large, so that we can make use of the existing results on boundary conditions in coset models
\cite{Ga}, \cite{FS} at large level. \\[-3mm]

In the next section, the geometry of the target space is described.
The space $Q$ is a pillow, or a pinched cylinder, with four distinguished corners.
We introduce coordinates and classify degenerate points, for which the stabilizer
of the coset action \erf{ca} is larger than at generic points. In the third and final
section, the geometry of the subsets where the branes are centered is discussed. The
dimensionalities of the branes are derived,
and the branes reaching the corners of $Q$ are classified.

\section{Target space geometry}
An adjoint diagonal coset \erf{pillow} can be parametrized as follows. The set $Q$ consists of equivalence classes
\begin{eqnarray} [g_1,g_2]=[gg_1g^{-1},gg_2g^{-1}]~~~~~~g,g_1,g_2\in G\,.
\end{eqnarray}
For any $[g_1,g_2]$ we can choose a representative of $g_1\sim t_1$ in $T_W=T/W$,
where $T$ is a maximal torus and $W$ is the Weyl group.
It remains to determine where we can choose a representative of
$g_2$ with the remaining 'gauge freedom' $S_{t_1}$.
Henceforth, $G$ will denote $SU(2)$.
The stabilizers at the center $Z=\{ \pm e \}$ are given by $S_{\pm e}=G$,
and for other $t_1\in T_W \slash Z$ we have $S_{t_1}=T$. This gives the fibration
\begin{eqnarray} Q = \left\{ (t,q) ~~|~~ t\in T_W~,~~~\begin{array}{ccc}
            q\in T_W~~  &  {\rm if}~~t=\pm e        \\[2mm]
            q\in G/{\rm Ad}(T)~~  & {\rm else}
           \end{array}
\right\}\,.
\end{eqnarray}
Using the Pauli matrices $\sigma_i$ with relations
$\sigma_i \sigma_j=\delta _{ij}\mathbf 1+{\rm i} \epsilon_{ijk}\sigma_k$,
one can parametrize group elements as
\begin{eqnarray} g(\psi,\theta,\phi)
= \cos \psi \,\mathbf 1
+{\rm i} \sin \psi \, \bar n \cdot \bar \sigma\,.
\label{notation}
\end{eqnarray}
Here $\bar n=\bar n(\theta,\phi)\in S^2$ is given by the standard spherical coordinates $\theta$ and $\phi$, and
$T_W$ is the interval parametrized by $0\leq \psi\leq \pi$.
Note that we have
\begin{eqnarray} g^{-1} = g(-\psi,\theta,\phi)=g(\psi,\pi{-}\theta,\pi{+}\phi)= g^\dagger \,.
\label{inverse}
\end{eqnarray}
The geometry of the parafermion coset $PF=G/{\rm Ad}(T)$
was described in \cite{MMS1}
as a round disc. It can also be described as disc with two `corners' \cite{FW}.
Thus, we may think of $Q$ as a pillow, or as a pinched cylinder \cite{FS}
where the corners are pairwise connected by a singular line.
The description above has an arbitrariness in that we could have equally well
fixed $\psi_2 \in T_W$. Then, we could have a pinched cylinder with the singular line
going between other pairs of corners, instead.
Either way, \erf{pillow} has four corners.
In the bulk, it is three-dimensional. We choose as coordinates the angles
$\psi_1$, $\psi_2$ and $\theta$, where $\theta$ may be
either $\theta_1$ or $\theta_2$. At the edges of the pillow, $\psi_1,\psi_2=0,\pi$,
the coordinate $\theta$ has no meaning. The ambiguity in $\theta$ is the only ambiguity,
we cannot get rid of $\psi_1$
and $\psi_2$ as coordinates (assuming a fixed choice of coordinates on the covering).
In any case, the coordinates $\phi_1$ and $\phi_2$ are gauged away.

\paragraph{Stabilizers} We can in a natural way think of $Q$ as embedded in its covering
$G \times G$, via the above described coordinates.
The stabilizer of the Ad$(G)$-action on an element
$(t,q)\in Q \subset G \times G$ is given by those $g \in G$ for which
\begin{eqnarray} (t,q)=(gtg^{-1},gqg^{-1})\,, ~\Leftrightarrow~ g\in S_{(t,q)}= S_t\cap S_q \,.
\end{eqnarray}
For $t=\pm e$, $S_t = G$, else $S_t = T$. Since every element $q\in G$ can be brought to $T$
via conjugation; $cqc^{-1}=t_q\in T$ with an element $c\in G$,
it follows that the generic stabilizers are given by $S_q =c^{-1} T c $, with $c\in G$
a fixed element (depending on $q$).
Assume $q\notin T$ and let $s\in S_{t_q}$, which equals $T$, then
\begin{eqnarray} (c^{-1}sc)q(c^{-1}sc)^{-1}
=c^{-1} s t_q s^{-1} c = c^{-1} t_q c = q\,.
\end{eqnarray}
This shows $c^{-1} T c \subset S_q$. Likewise, one can show $S_q \subset c^{-1} T c$:
Suppose $a\in S_q$, then
\begin{eqnarray}aqa^{-1}=q  ~~
& \Rightarrow & ~~ caqa^{-1}c^{-1}=t_q  \nonumber \\
&\Rightarrow & ca(c^{-1}t_qc)a^{-1}c^{-1}=t_q \nonumber \\
&\Rightarrow & cac^{-1}\in S_{t_q}=T\,, \nonumber \end{eqnarray}
and it follows that $c^{-1} T c = S_q$.
Indeed, one may choose $T$ to be any maximal torus,
and one could equally well have defined $T = S_q $.
Note that for $c\neq \pm e$, we have $c^{-1} T c \cap T = Z$, the center of the group.
The analysis is summed up in the following table.

\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{c|c|c|c|c|c}
$t\in$      & $q\in$      & $S_t$ & $S_q$     & $S_t \cap S_q$ & $(t,q)\in Q$ \\[1mm] \hline \\[-4mm]
$Z$         & $ Z$        & $G$    & $G$        & $G$             & corner \\[3pt]
            & $T{\setminus} Z$ & $G$    & $T$        & $T$             & edge/boundary \\[3pt]
$T{\setminus} Z$ & $Z$         & $T$    & $G$        & $T$             & boundary/edge \\[3pt]
            & $T{\setminus} Z$ & $T$    & $T$        & $T$             & boundary \\[3pt]
            & $G{\setminus} T$ & $T$    & $c\,Tc^{-1}$ & $Z$             & interior
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
Note that the choice of the edges was arbitrary,
so they must indeed have the same stabilizer as the rest of the boundary of $Q$
(except for the corners).
The corners are the most singular points,
and have the largest stabilizer.

\section{The projected conjugacy classes}
In the large level limit, the D-branes in the coset $Q$ are localized at sets
$\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{abc}\right)$
defined as follows, cf.\ \cite{FW} for further notation and references.
First, introduce the following notation for the conjugacy classes,\\[-6mm]
\begin{eqnarray} C_x:= \left\{ g(\psi,\theta,\phi) \in G | ~ \psi = x\right\}\,.
\end{eqnarray}
Second, define the operation $*$ on pairs of conjugacy classes,
\begin{eqnarray} C_x * C_y := \left\{ g=g_x g_y \in G | ~ g_x \in C_x\, , ~ g_y \in C_y \right\} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
The set $C_x * C_y$ is invariant under Ad$(G)$.
Furthermore,
introduce the sets
\begin{eqnarray} C_{abc} &: =& (C_a \times C_b) * C_c \\ \nonumber
&:=&
\left\{ (g_a g_c,g_bg_c) \in G\times G |
~ g_a \in C_a\, , ~ g_b \in C_b\,,~ g_c \in C_c \right\}
\, \subset \, G \times G \,.
\end{eqnarray}
These sets are the ones that project to the coset branes.
Note that they are fixed under the adjoint action;\\[-9mm]
\begin{eqnarray}  (g,g)\, C_{abc}\, (g^{-1},g^{-1}) = C_{abc}\,. \end{eqnarray}
By studying the sets $C_{abc}$, one can draw conclusions about the dimensionalities
and other properties of the branes in $Q$.
This is the topic of the rest of this note. First an observation.
The simplest example of a set which is invariant under the diagonal Ad-action is the
orbit of a point $(p_1,p_2) \in  G\times G$. If this is a generic point (projecting
to the bulk of $Q$), the stabilizer is $\ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_2$, thus the orbit Ad$_{G}(p_1,p_2)$ is
three-dimensional in $G\times G$. The geometric picture of this
orbit is that $(\psi_1,\psi_2)$ are fixed, $(\phi_1,\phi_2)$ take all values and
we have a line in the $(\theta_1,\theta_2)$-plane.
If instead $(p_1,p_2) \in  Z\times Z$, the orbit Ad$_{G}(p_1,p_2)$ is zero- dimensional,
and projects to a corner in $Q$. Thus, we shall need not only the dimensionalities of
$C_{abc}$ to find the dimensionalities of $\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{abc}\right)$,
we also need the information about the stabilizers.

\paragraph{Corners} From \erf{inverse} we learn that
conjugacy classes $C_x\subset SU(2)$ equal their own inverses; if $g\in C$,
then $g^{-1}\in C_x$. For the $\psi_1=0$ edge to be contained in $C_{abc}$
it is necessary that $a=c$ because otherwise, $C_{c}$ does not contain the
inverse of $C_{a}$. The equation \erf{inverse} tells us that this condition also is sufficient.
Thus, the {edge} defined by $\psi_1=0$ is reached
if and only if $a=c$. For reaching the edge $\psi_1=\pi$, we ask: Given $g\in C_a$,
we would like to have a $g'\in C_c$ such that $g(g')^{-1}=-1$.
This is equivalent to that $C_c$ contains the inverses of $(-1)C_a= C_{\pi-a}$. But then,
$C_c= C_{\pi-a}$.
As argued above, the edges per se are not interesting,
but it is useful to note that a corner is where two edges meet
(now viewing $Q$ as a pillow, rather than a pinched cylinder).
The analysis described above leads to the following conclusions
about the four corners (whose $\theta$-coordinates are irrelevant). \\[-2mm]

\noindent
$\cdot$ $(0,0)\in \pi_{\rm Ad}\big(C_{abc}\big)$
~ if and only if~ $a=b=c$.\\[3pt]
$\cdot$ $(0,\pi)\in \pi_{\rm Ad}\big(C_{abc}\big)$
~  if and only if~ ($a=c$ and $b=\pi-c$).\\[3pt]
$\cdot$ $(\pi,0)\in \pi_{\rm Ad}\big(C_{abc}\big)$
~ if and only if~ ($a=\pi-c$ and $b=c$).\\[3pt]
$\cdot$ $(\pi,\pi)\in \pi_{\rm Ad}\big(C_{abc}\big)$
~  if and only if~ ($a=\pi-c$ and $b=\pi-c$).\\[-2mm]

In particular, if a brane contains two corners, it automatically contains all four.
The fixed point brane (as mentioned in the introduction) is
$\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{fff}\right)$, with $f= \pi/2$.
This is the unique brane that
contains all four corners, and is therefore in some sense the most degenerate brane.
We shall show that the fixed point brane fills up all of $Q$.
However, it is not the only brane that is three- dimensional.

\paragraph{Dimensionality of the fractional branes}
It is instructive to first show that
\begin{eqnarray} C_f * C_f = G \,.
\label{lemma}\end{eqnarray}
Note
that \erf{lemma} is equivalent to
\begin{eqnarray} \forall ~ \,g \in G ~,~~~\,\exists ~ \,u,w \in C_f ~~: ~~ uw=g \,.
\end{eqnarray}
The product of two elements $u$ and $w$ on the equatorial conjugacy class
\begin{eqnarray}
C_f:=\left\{ g\in G~|~ \psi_g= \frac \pi 2   \right\} \,\subset G
\end{eqnarray}
is computed using \erf{notation}.
\begin{eqnarray} uw= \bar n_u  \cdot \bar n_w\, \mathbf 1
- {\rm i} \,\bar \sigma \cdot (\bar n_u  \times \bar n_w)\,
\label{computation}
\end{eqnarray}
Take an arbitrary element $g\in G$. The following shows that there exist
$u,w \in C_f$ such that $uw=g$.
Choose $\bar n_u\in S^2$ and $\bar n_w \in S^2$ in the plane perpendicular to $\bar n_g$.
Choose the angle between
them such that $\bar n_u\cdot \bar n_w = \cos \psi_g$, and so that
$\bar n_u\times \bar n_w $ points in the same direction as $ \bar n_g$. Since the product
$uw$ is a group element, we do not even need to check that
$|\bar n_u\times \bar n_w | = \sin \psi_g$, and hence $uw=g$.
This proves the claim \erf{lemma}.

The following argument shows that
\begin{eqnarray} C_{fff}= G\times G \,,
\label{spacefilling}
\end{eqnarray}
which implies that the corresponding brane in the coset is spacefilling,
\begin{eqnarray} \pi_{\rm Ad}\left( C_{fff} \right) =Q\,.
\end{eqnarray}
First note that this is not an immediate consequence of \erf{lemma}, because the same
factor $w \in C_f$ occurs at two places; we need to prove that for all $g_1,g_2 \in G$,
we can choose $u,v,w \in C_f$ so that
$uw=g_1$ and $vw=g_2$.
A quick glance at \erf{computation}
reveals that the choice of $g_1$ forces $\bar n_w \perp \bar n_1$.
Given $w$, one may choose
$u\in C_f$ such that $uw=g_1$. Now it remains to prove that with $\bar n_w$ fixed in the plane
$\perp \bar n_1$ through the origin, and for any $g_2\in G$,
we can find $v\in C_f$ so that $vw=g_2$.
We need $\bar n_w$ also to lie in the plane through the origin $\perp \bar n_2$. The two planes mentioned intersect at no less than two points on the sphere $C_f$. Choose $\bar n_w$ one of these points. Then choose $\bar n _v \perp \bar n_2$ such that $\bar n_w \cdot \bar n_v = \cos \psi_2$.
It now follows $vw=g_2$.
This proves the claim \erf{spacefilling}.

\paragraph{Dimensionality of generic branes}
We proceed to determine the dimensions of $\pi_{ad}(C_{abf})$ for more
general pairs $a,b$. The following argument shows that in the generic (nondegenerate) situation,
that is when none of the labels $a,b$ takes
value $0,\pi$, the set $C_{abf}$ is six- dimensional in $G\times G$, why the corresponding
brane is three- dimensional in $Q$.
One can parametrize conjugacy classes as
\begin{eqnarray} u={\rm c}_ a ~ {\bf 1} + {\rm i} \,{\rm s}_ a ~ \bar n_u \,
{\times}\, \bar \sigma ~ \in ~ C_a\,,\end{eqnarray}
where ${\rm c}_ a\equiv \cos a$ and ${\rm s}_a\equiv \sin a$.
With an analogous parametrization for $v\in C_b$, we need for $g_1=uw$ and $g_2=vw$ the following conditions,
\begin{eqnarray} \cos \psi _1  =  {\rm s}_ a ~ \bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w  ~~~~   && ~~~~
\sin \psi _1 \, \bar n _1 ={\rm c}_  a ~ \bar n_w + {\rm s}_ a~ \bar n_u \times \bar n_w \\ \nonumber
\cos \psi _2     = {\rm s}_ b~ \bar n_v \cdot \bar n_w  ~~~~ && ~~~~
\sin \psi _2 \,\bar n _2 = {\rm c}_  b ~\bar n_w + {\rm s}_ b ~\bar n_v \times \bar n_w \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We immediately observe that in order for $(g_1,g_2)\in C_{abf}$, it is necessary that
$\cos \psi_1 \leq |\sin a|$, and that $\cos \psi_2 \leq |\sin b|$. Assume that
$\cos \psi_1 < |\sin a|$, and that $\cos \psi_2 < |\sin b|$, which is possible because we required
$a,b$ to be different from $0,\pi$. (This implies $\bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w \neq 1$
and $\bar n_v \cdot \bar n_w \neq 1$.) The rest of the argument aims to show that we now are in
the interior of a 6- dimensional region.

Given allowed choice of angles $\psi_1,\psi_2$, we must keep the scalar products
$\bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w $ and $\bar n_v \cdot \bar n_w $ fixed accordingly.
We are still free to
choose the vector $\bar n_w$ anywhere on $S^2$, and we are free to rotate the vectors
$\bar n_u \times \bar n_w $ and $\bar n_v \times \bar n_w $ around the axis $\bar n_w$.

Let us decide for a certain $\bar n_1$. With the freedom we have, we can certainly find
vectors $\bar n_u$ and $\bar n_w$ such that $\cos a ~ \bar n_w
+ \sin a~ \bar n_u \times \bar n_w $ points in the direction of $\bar n_1$. Since $uw$ is
a group element, it is automatic that
$|\sin \psi _1 \bar n _1| = |\cos a ~ \bar n_w + \sin a~ \bar n_u \times \bar n_w |$. Thus,
we require that the three vectors $\bar n_1$, $\bar n_w$ and  $\bar n_u \times \bar n_w$
lie in the same plane, and we fix the angle between them in this plane. We may rotate
this plane, thus, we may rotate $\bar n_w$ around the
axis $\bar n_1$. Furthermore, the angle between these vectors is different from zero, because
we assumed $\bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w \neq 1$, which implies $\bar n_u \times \bar n_w \neq 0$.

As we rotate the above mentioned plane,
$\bar n_w$ sweeps out a (nondegenerate) circle, around each choice of $\bar n_w$, the vector
$\bar n_v\times \bar n_w$ sweeps out another nondegenerate circle. Thus, the vector $\bar n_2$ is
allowed to reach a 2-dimensional subset of $S^2$. This completes the proof; subject to the
constraints $\cos \psi_1 < |\sin a|$ and $\cos \psi_2 < |\sin b|$, $g_1=uw$ can take any value
on the group, with enough freedom left to let $g_2$ sweep out a 3- dimensional subset of the
group (varying $\psi_2$ and $\bar n_2$). Thus, the generic set $C_{abf}\subset G\times G$
is six-dimensional. \\[-2mm]

Let $a,b,c$ be an arbitrary nondegenerate triple of labels.
These branes are 3- dimensional too. We have
\begin{eqnarray} g_1&=& ({\rm c}_  a\, {\rm c}_  c
-{\rm s}_ a\, {\rm s}_ c \, \bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w ){\bf 1}
-{\rm i}\, ( {\rm s}_ a\, {\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_u \times \bar n_w
+ {\rm c}_  a\, {\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_w
+ {\rm c}_  c\, {\rm s}_ a\, \bar n_u)\cdot \bar \sigma
\nonumber \\
g_2&=& ({\rm c}_  b\, {\rm c}_  c-{\rm s}_ b\,{\rm s}_c \, \bar n_v \cdot \bar n_w ){\bf 1}
-{\rm i}\, ({\rm s}_ b\, {\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_v \times \bar n_w
+ {\rm c}_  b\, {\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_w+ {\rm c}_  c\, {\rm s}_ b\, \bar n_v)\cdot \bar \sigma \,.\nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
So assume $\psi_1,\psi_2$ are within the appropriate range, and fix the scalar products
$\bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w$ and $\bar n_v \cdot \bar n_w$ accordingly. The three vectors
\begin{eqnarray} {\rm c}_  c \, {\rm s}_ a\,\bar n_u\,,~~ {\rm c}_  a\, {\rm s}_ c\,\bar n_w\,,
~~ {\rm s}_ a\,{\rm s}_c\,\bar n_u\times \bar n_w
\end{eqnarray}
span a polyhedron, whose one corner is at the
origin, and the opposite corner is at $\bar n_1$. We may rotate this polyhedron around these
two points, and the rest of the proof carries over analogously, showing that also these branes
project to something three-dimensional in the coset $Q$.

\paragraph{Dimensionalities of degenerate branes}
In \cite{FFFS} and \cite{FW} it was argued that symmetry- preserving branes in
WZW models are non- degenerate. Nevertheless, we shall for the remainder of
this note study the corresponding degenerate branes in $Q$.
The branes $\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{abc} \right)$ where the second index $b$ is
degenerate were studied in \cite{FS}. To interpret these branes as
branes in the Virasoro minimal model is not without complications.
In order to do that, we need to fix one of the levels to the value $l=1$,
which forbids us to use results for the large level limit.
At small level,
the branes are smeared around nondegenerate conjugacy classes \cite{FFFS}, \cite{FW}.
Nevertheless, let us take $b=0$ (the case $b=\pi$ is analogous).
\begin{eqnarray} u&=& {\rm c}_  a \, {\bf 1}+{\rm i}\, {\rm s}_ a \, \bar n_u \cdot \bar \sigma
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
v= {\bf 1} ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
w= {\rm c}_ c \, {\bf 1}+{\rm i} \,{\rm s}_ c \, \bar n_w \cdot \bar \sigma \nonumber \\
g_1&=& ({\rm c}_  a\, {\rm c}_  c-{\rm s}_ a\, {\rm s}_ c \, \bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w )
{\bf 1}
-{\rm i} \,( {\rm s}_ a\,{\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_u \times \bar n_w
+ {\rm c}_  a\,{\rm s}_ c\, \bar n_w+ {\rm c}_  c\, {\rm s}_ a\, \bar n_u)\cdot \bar \sigma
\nonumber \\ \nonumber
g_2&=& {\rm c}_  c  {\bf 1}
-{\rm i} \, {\rm s}_ c\,\bar n_w \cdot \bar \sigma \end{eqnarray}
We immediately see that the branes are localized along the slice $\psi_2=c$.
The last of the above equations fixes $\bar n_w= \bar n_2 $.
As before, $\psi_1$ has a certain allowed range.
For fixed $\psi_1$, note that the scalar product
$\bar n_u \cdot \bar n_w$ is fixed. Thus, $\bar n_1$ takes a one- dimensional subset of values
on $S^2$. To sum up, the set $C_{a0c}$ is four-dimensional. If we project out the coordinates
$\theta_2$ and $\phi_2$ on the set $C_{a0c}$, then $\bar n _1$ takes values in
a circle. Since we need to project out $\phi_1$, the coordinate $\theta_1$ is fixed. Thus,
these branes $\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{a0c} \right)$ are at most one-dimensional,
extending only in the coordinate $\psi_1$.\\

If we also take $a=0$, $g_1= {\rm c}_  c  {\bf 1}
-{\rm i} \,{\rm s}_ c\,\bar n_w \cdot \bar \sigma $,
also $\psi_1$ is fixed; $\psi_1 = c = \psi_2$.
Also note that $\bar n_1 =\bar n_w = \bar n_2$.
Thus, $C_{00c} \subset G\times G$ is two-dimensional and must project to a region where the
stabilizer is at least one-dimensional, that is at the boundary of $Q$, which is at
$\theta = 0,\pi$. Thus, the branes $\pi_{\rm Ad}\left(C_{00c} \right)$ are pointlike.\\[-2mm]

If we consider $C_{a00}$, we have
$g_1= {\bf 1} {\rm c}_  a -{\rm i}\,  {\rm s}_ a\, \bar n_u \cdot \bar \sigma$,
$g_2= {\bf 1}$.
This projects to a point $\psi_1 =a$, $\psi_2=0$ on the edge of $Q$.\\[-2mm]

The case left to consider
is $C_{ab0}$. We have $g_1= {\rm c}_ a\, {\bf 1}
-{\rm i} \,{\rm s}_ a\, \bar n_u \cdot \bar \sigma$, and
$g_2= {\rm c}_ b\, {\bf 1}
-{\rm i}\, {\rm s}_ b\, \bar n_v\cdot \bar \sigma $.
Thus, $C_{ab0}$ is four-dimensional in the covering, and projects to a line that meets the
boundary of the coset at both ends $\theta=0,\pi$.

\section{Conclusions and outlook}
In the non- simply connected Lie group $SO(3)=SU(2)/\ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_2$,
there are two fractional branes supported at the unorientable conjugacy class
$\mathbb R\mathbb P^2\subset SO(3)$. The fundamental group of this conjugacy class is $\ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_2$, and the two branes correspond to different choices of gerbe modules \cite{GawG}.
In the CFT description,
these fractional branes correspond to boundary states that are labelled by the fixed point of the simple current group $\ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_2$ of the $SU(2)$ WZW model.
In the model \erf{pillow} that was investigated here,
we have a comparable situation:
The CFT description at levels $k,l,k+l$ involves a
$\ensuremath{\mathbb Z}_2$ identification group, with the generator
acting as
\begin{eqnarray} (a,b,c) \mapsto (k{-}a,l{-}b,k{+}l{-}c)\,.
\end{eqnarray}
In this paper, the fixed point boundary states have been shown to be supported at the whole target.
Other branes reach at most one of the singular points (corners).
If there is a corresponding gerbe (module) structure for cosets,
it seems to be unknown in the literature.
Hopefully, the present investigations can be used as a guideline for
future work in this direction.

\paragraph{Acknowledgements} The author would like to thank J. Fuchs and C. Schweigert
for helpful suggestions.

\newpage

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Earlier this year, Peru established Yaguas National Park, a 2 million acre Amazonian preserve that's both a biodiversity hotspot and a spiritual nexus for local indigenous people. Its protection was the culmination of a battle hard-fought by indigenous groups and their many supporters—including a watercolor painter at Chicago's Field Museum.
Macnamara's studio at the Field Museum is what you'd expect from an artist obsessed with wildlife: Stuffed birds in glass domes, eggs nesting in display cases, and a kaleidoscope of stacked watercolor paintings of animals seem poised to suddenly animate into a jazz rendition of Fantasia. The colorful chaos would drown out the painter were Macnamara not so animated herself. She skips enthusiastically from topic to topic as she tells me how she came to find herself painting a case for the Yaguas Park.
Long before Macnamara painted her first animal, the Chicago resident came to the Museum constantly to paint the ancient statues, pottery, and other exhibits in the Chinese artifacts section. After ten years, she'd worked her way through every one.
Macnamara's style diversified with time. Occasionally, she would move from bird-as-exhibits to depicting the creatures with the "suggestion of habitat"—flocking through natural settings or even flying through the museum itself. Then, about 15 years ago, she was approached by Debby Moskovits, one of the founders of the Museum's conservation arm.
Moskovits eventually recruited Macnamara to work for the museum, and later, for the Action Center's conservation initiatives. Since its formation 23 years ago, the Action Center has provided scientific support for 18 protected areas spanning 26 million acres.
It was an odd move. Macnamara's style was nothing like traditional naturalist's meticulously labeled and anatomically precise sketches one might expect to find in a scientific document on conservation. She used watercolors like an oil painter.
An arapaima, a large freshwater fish native to the Amazon, in watercolor.
The pieces, Macnamara tells me as she slides out two of the Yaguas paintings, were part a new chapter of muses for her: fish. The first painting shows three stingrays, the second, seven fish, including a predatory arawana with its characteristic upturned mouth and icecicle-esque body, a peacock bass, a catfish, and other Yaguas natives I can't place.
Compared to the grandeur of the life-size, rainbow-colored painting of a massive arapaima Macnamara did for Guyana's president, these seem unassuming. But Vriesendorp is right. To see them is to know there's no need to question the value her art. Rather, one can simply smile at the thought that with every new conservation initiative the museum takes on, scientists will be confronting lawmakers with stunning beauty.
Fishes of Yaguas National Park in watercolor.
This article has been updated to clarify that the Instituto del Bien Común is a Peruvian NGO that works with indigenous people.


← Who Plans Their Own Funeral?
You may think your estate plan is complete just because you've signed a will or trust. Not true!
In every single case, if your beneficiary designations are not reviewed when you sign a will or trust, your estate plan likely will not work out as you think.
Here's what I mean: You probably have retirement accounts or life insurance policies or both. Whether you have an employer sponsored retirement account, your own IRA, a life insurance policy through work, or an individual stand-alone life insurance policy – all of these types of assets have one thing in common: BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS. When you opened these accounts, you named beneficiaries as part of the process.
But time has passed since then. Maybe you were single when you opened the account and now you're married, or maybe you didn't have children when you opened the account and now you have children. Maybe you named your now-ex-spouse as a beneficiary but you've since divorced, or you named a minor child as the beneficiary, or you named a sibling as the beneficiary with the verbal promise they'll use the money to support your children. Whatever the case, your beneficiary designations are out-of-date by the time you sign a will or trust.
Why does this matter? Beneficiary designations trump a will or trust. Any asset with a named beneficiary pays out to the named beneficiary regardless of what your will or trust says.
We've seen a life insurance policy paid out to the ex-girlfriend of someone who passed away and who left a surviving spouse and children. Sadly, the deceased person's surviving wife and children had no right whatsoever to the life insurance policies even though his estate plan said "I leave everything to my surviving spouse and children" – because the beneficiary designation to the ex-girlfriend trumped his estate plan.
We've also seen a life insurance policy with a minor child named as beneficiary, throwing the surviving family members into the probate court system where a judge is deciding who is in charge of the life insurance proceeds until the child turns 18. Everything filed in the probate court is public, exposing your and your child's private information to solicitors, and then you have a young adult who just turned 18 in charge of a very large sum with no more mentorship or oversight on how to use the money responsibly.
The good news is that you can update beneficiary designations at any time.
This is the hidden danger of do-it-yourself estate plans – a computer program is not going to review your beneficiary designations or even tell you it's important. If your attorney is not asking you about beneficiary designations as part of the estate planning process, you might as well do a do-it-yourself estate plan because in either case, your estate plan will very likely not play out as intended since beneficiary designations trump a will.
The bottom line: A beneficiary designation is an incredibly powerful tool, so it is imperative that you pay very close attention to them and make sure to review them when you are signing a will or trust.
So, how should you name your beneficiaries? Here's your typical "attorney answer" – it depends on your specific circumstances! At Wills & Wellness, we take a holistic and comprehensive approach to your estate planning and we want to ensure your beneficiary designations achieve what you want them to in light of your family, your assets, and your goals. The last thing we want is for the estate plan you worked hard to put in place to be trumped by something you weren't even aware of.
Your Wills & Wellness Estate Planning Attorney will always review your beneficiary designations as part of your planning to ensure your entire estate plan is harmonious and will achieve your ultimate wishes at the end of the day.


text:
Petition Closed
Blue Coat: Stop Allowing Department of Defense and Other Customers to Block LGBT Websites
This petition had 4,646 supporters
GLAAD and AMERICAblog started this petition to Blue Coat Services
Blue Coat Services provides web filtering products to corporations, educational institutions, and governmental agencies. We ask that Blue Coat eliminate the option to block websites based on the LGBT category.
By Blue Coat's own definition, its LGBT category includes: "Websites that provide reference materials, news, legal information, anti-bullying and suicide-prevention information, and other resources for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ("LGBT") people or that relate to LGBT civil rights. The websites included in this category were selected because they do not contain sexually explicit content and are generally suitable for viewing by all age groups."
Blue Coat has also offered a statement on blocking websites based on the LGBT category: "Customers -- including schools, libraries, and other public institutions -- do not need to block the LGBT category to prevent users from accessing sexually explicit content, whether LGBT-related or otherwise. WebFilter contains separate and distinct categories for sexually explicit content and other adult material (e.g., Adult/Mature Content, Alternative Sexuality/Lifestyles, Nudity and Pornography), which can be blocked to prevent access to sexually explicit content. Further, blocking the LGBT category is not recommended as a tool for public institutions to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act ("CIPA")."
While Blue Coat has made the above clarifications, the functionality of its products do allow institutions to block websites based on the LGBT category. A young LGBT person seeking critical support would be blocked from accessing websites like the It Gets Better Project or the support resources found on GLSEN's website -- simply because the young person's school IT administrator chose to block access to the LGBT category. LGBT is the only category based on the identity of a group of people; there are no filter categories based on race, ethnicity or gender.
Find more information at AMERICAblog Gay or see the full list of Blue Coat's categories at www.glaad.org.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Determining a positive orthonomal basis So, there was this question that appeared on my linear algebra exam some hours ago, and i don't really understand how to solve:
Consider the vectors $\vec{u}$ = 2$\vec{i}$+$\vec{j}$+$\vec{k}$ and $\vec{v}$ = $\vec{i}$+2$\vec{j}$.
a) Determine a positive orthornomal basis {$\vec{a}$,$\vec{b}$,$\vec{c}$} with $\vec{a}$ parallel to $\vec{u}$ and $\vec{b}$ coplanar with $\vec{u}$ and $\vec{v}$.
b) Determine the coordinates of $\vec{w}$ = 3$\vec{i}$+4$\vec{j}$+5$\vec{k}$ in the orthonormal basis {$\vec{a}$,$\vec{b}$,$\vec{c}$}.
So, that's it. I think know how to find $\vec{a}$... since it is parallel to $\vec{u}$ i would just need to normalize $\vec{u}$ ($\vec{a}$ would be ${\vec{u}\over|\vec{u}|}$). But i'm stuck in how i would find $\vec{b}$ and $\vec{c}$. Hope y'all can help me.

A: For $b$ to be coplanar with $u, v$ then it is in the span of $u, v$. Y
You replaced $u$ with $\tilde{u} = u/\|u\|$. You can just take $v$, make it orthogonal to $\tilde{u}$, then normalize.
By "make orthogonal to", I mean take $\tilde{v} = v - \langle v, \tilde{u}\rangle v$ in the span of $u$ and $v$ so that $\langle \tilde{v}, u \rangle = 0$. This is just Gram-Schmidt.

A: Since you're working in $\mathbb R^3$, you can use cross products to generate a basis with the requisite properties: $\vec u\times\vec v$ is orthogonal to both, while $(\vec u\times\vec v)\times\vec u$ is orthogonal to $\vec u$ and $\vec u\times\vec v$, i.e., it lies in the plane spanned by $\vec u$ and $\vec v$. Normalize and order these vectors so that the basis has the desired orientation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Highly Recommend The Data Collaborative!
I work at a small environmental non-profit that uses Quick Base for almost all of our administrative work and list management. This is my 4th year hiring the Data Collaborative to set up custom add ons for our Quick Base applications. The quality of work has been excellent. They have been able to provide technical expertise and consulting that has helped us significantly grow our email lists and reduce administrative time. I would highly recommend hiring the Data Collaborative.
I can't say enough positive things about the entire team at Data Collaborative. They are smart. They are responsive. And they know Quickbase backwards and forwards. In over 5-years of working with them (often), I've yet to present a scenario they don't have a solution for.


Do you ever just have those weeks where you can't get yourself going, no matter how many cups of coffee you have? This week has been weird. And hard. And there really isn't even a reason for it. Needless to say, this morning I threw on what I like to refer to as my "I don't give a crap uniform." Basically some leggings and a decent sweater. You know, the kind of thing where I look just barely decent enough at work that no one will complain, but no where near acceptable enough to be seen by more than my co-workers and my unfortunate husband, who, very nicely still tells me I'm beautiful. The point is, obviously no one would appreciate my outfit today so I just wanted to pop in to say have an incredible Friday and let's all just be thankful this week is over. Have a happy weekend everybody!


CHICAGO (Nov. 17, 2016) – For its dedication to improving the lives of LGBTQ Illinoisans, Equality Illinois will honor the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago with its Business Leadership Award.
The recognition will be made at the Equality Illinois 2017 Gala, the Midwest's largest LGBTQ formal celebration, to be held on Saturday, February 4, 2017 at the Hilton Chicago, the organization announced Thursday.
More than 1,400 attendees, including more than 100 political figures and community VIPs, are expected to celebrate the accomplishments that advanced LGBTQ rights over the last year and hear a call to arms about the challenges that remain in our fight for full equality for all Illinoisans. The Gala will also mark the beginning of Equality Illinois' second quarter century of service to LGBTQ Illinoisans.
"What better way to launch our second 25 years than to honor Lurie Children's Hospital for its belief that LGBTQ people must be treated with dignity and respect and afforded the level of care and service that is needed for them to live full and equal lives," said Brian C. Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois.
The Equality Illinois Business Leadership Award, given last year to Mariano's grocery chain, is awarded annually to organizations that demonstrate remarkable vision, courage, and leadership in the effort to achieve full equality for LGBTQ individuals in Illinois.
Johnson said that Illinois' 2015 ban on conversion therapy in Illinois was achieved, in part, due to Lurie's advocacy work done by their Division of Adolescent Medicine. Lurie's groundbreaking Gender Development Services provide cutting-edge, world class, and affirming services for transgender youth and their families. Lurie's HIV/AIDS Prevention Program serves more young people than any other similar provider in the Midwest.
"In fact, our 2017 Gala coincides with the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the HIV/AIDS Prevention Program at Lurie," Johnson said.
More honorees and details about the Equality Illinois 2017 Gala will be announced in the weeks ahead. Tickets and more information about the gala are available at www.equalityillinois.org/2017-gala.


This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Domino's, but all opinions are my own. If you love pizza and want to learn how to plan the perfect lake day, keep reading along!
Ian and I have a few summer activities that we do every single year, without fail. We love tailgating at Braves games, going to Zac Brown Band concerts, having backyard barbeques with friends, and of course, paddle boarding on our local lake. This year has been extremely hot so far, and in my opinion, hot summer days call for cool water, good friends, and tasty food.
Lake days take a lot of preparation because once you are out on the water, there is no turning back, or else you might as well come back another day. We have done many lake days over the years, so I think we have finally mastered the 'technique,' and I wanted to share it with all of you. So, without further ado, let's jump into how to plan the perfect lake day!
The first step to a successful lake day is to make sure you have all of the essentials. Your bathing suit, a towel or two, an extra change of clothes, plenty of water, sunscreen, water shoes (if needed), a waterproof speaker, a backpack, and your wallet. I urge you to put sunscreen on before you leave your house and once you arrive at the lake, and then you should re-apply every few hours.
For us, we paddleboard, but there are many different lake activities that you could do. Kayaking, boarding, boating, and more…there really is something for everyone! If you choose to paddle board, look into renting your board before purchasing one. There is a store near our house that rents them for $25 a day, which is an amazing deal. They aren't too expensive to buy if you are going to paddle board frequently, so I would also keep that in mind!
Staying hydrated is extremely important. Remember me telling you to bring a backpack with you? Well, this is where it comes into play. When you go out on a paddle board, it is tough to come back to land each time you need a drink, a snack, sunscreen, etc. My recommendation to you is to pack a backpack and fill it with everything you need and only come to land once during the day, for lunch. This will allow you to make the most of your day and spend as much time as possible on the lake. It is very easy to get dehydrated on the lake because you are working hard by paddling, you are having fun with your friends, and you are using your energy to maybe do a trick or two. Please remember to drink your water. My number 1 tip on how to plan the perfect lake day would probably be to stay energized and hydrated.
This is where it could get tricky. In my opinion, when you are on the lake (or doing any water activity, in general), you need to eat something that will give you sustenance. So, don't think that a few celery sticks for lunch will do the trick – you need more than that. Like I mentioned above, paddle boarding is not the easiest sport. You are using a lot of your energy, and if you do not stay fueled and hydrated, things could potentially get scary. This is why I recommend taking a few snacks out in your backpack and then coming back once during the day to eat a full lunch.
We've always struggled in the past with lunch. I believe that eating carbs are best when on the lake, so in the past, we have always taken sandwiches with us. The issue with this is that they need to stay in a cooler to stay fresh, which makes the bread soggy. Who wants to eat a soggy sub sandwich?! Not me. This year, we tried something new – we ordered items to a Domino's Hotspot, which was such an awesome idea! With Domino's Hotspots ®, you can get Domino's delivered to places that do not have traditional addresses. So, you are now able to get your pizza (or wings) delivered to parks, sports fields, beaches, lakes, and more. It is so easy to get the pizza you love delivered to the places you love with ease and convenience. I'm telling you – the flexible delivery options are amazing now! Using Domino's Hotspots allowed us to get a hot, fresh meal without having to lug around a cooler, or eat soggy sandwiches. The process of ordering was extremely easy as well. You just order through your phone (on their app or on their website), pay with a debit or credit card, and your pizza is on the way. It was so nice! It also worked out for us really well because it started raining almost as soon as our pizza was delivered, so we just made a camp in the car and re-fueled before hitting the lake after the rain stopped again!
Having fun is what it's all about, right?! Make sure you are focused on having fun. If you have all the safety precautions in order, there is not much else to worry about. Enjoy your time on the lake and then have a great, hot meal delivered from Domino's thanks to Domino's Hotspots when you are ready to chow down!
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Domino's.


Welcome to SD & Simmers Fishsim 2 Challenge.
The Challenge consists of 11 venues and the maximum allowed 44 species.
There will be 52 tasks, two for each letter of the alphabet.
Huge thanks to Jase for getting me up and running!


Before joining a business opportunity, its important for network marketers to research their companies of choice and determine what's really behind the glitz and glamor. Many network marketing companies put on a lot of talk about how much money can be made in their opportunity, simply by tapping into warm markets of family and friends.
But the unfortunate truth is that success rarely comes this way. The people who are truly successful in network marketing opportunities have downlines with thousands, or tens of thousands, of people.
The True ACN Success Rate – Does It Exist?
With the popular telecommunications company ACN, it's a good idea to research the success rate of the opportunity. Lately, the company has been featured on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" with an endorsement by Donald Trump. But does this mean that the level of success marketers can find at the company are high? Or is there simply a lot of hype around the company and its products?
Scouring the internet won't give reps a too many hard numbers about the actual success rate of ACN network marketers. Some claim that an ACN success rate of 1 in 200 is viable, but others dispute this as being far too low. Put simply, the company does not give out this type of information, and reps may never know what the real statistics are.
It's even more crucial to evaluate the opportunity before joining ACN because the fee for joining (or the investment, as they say) is nearly $500. This covers some training, marketing materials, and access to rep-only resources. It's not a small fee to blindly join in on the opportunity.
One crucial activity before forking over an investment to ACN is evaluating your personal success rate. Have you been a network marketer before? What struggles did you find?
The biggest keys to success in network marketing include generating warm leads and being able to add several people into your downline daily. This is no easy feat, but it's possible to learn the skills and methods to achieve this type of success. Learning from experts is a great way to start – and oftentimes, it costs nothing to start your education. Mastering things like driving traffic, SEO, creating great opt-in pages, giving presentations and answering questions promptly and efficiently over the phone, and basic communication skills are all key to success.
There's no doubt that many people have succeeded with ACN in the past, in record numbers, and there is certainly no reason that you shouldn't, as well.
To learn more about building a successful business with ACN, check out ACN Online Wealth.


While working at Allied Integrating Marketing as an intern, I have certainly found few special people that have inspired me in a variety of ways. It is always very interesting to see the different types of people that are out there when you are forced into an environment full of people that you didn't have a choice in being around and wouldn't necessarily befriend them outside of work…almost like your family.
Of course in every group project, classroom setting, or work environment, there is bound to be a person or two that you simply do not care for or work well with but the upside of this is that you're also likely to meet people who you thought never could make such a positive impact on your life.
From Allied I have connected with a couple of people that have opened my eyes in ways that I did not expect but fully appreciate. I will leave the two ladies nameless however I will certainly describe how they have inspired me.
The first person I would like to recognize is another intern at Allied. We were stuck together on the first day and I wasn't entirely sure I was happy about that. At first she didn't seem like someone with a good work ethic nor did she seem like the type of gal I would get along with. Boy was I wrong. She has an awesome work ethic and ultimately she just gets things done! She is very inspiring to me because we all have days where we are a bit frustrated about things and or have a large workload or anything you can think of that would ruin your day…but she never lets anyone ruin her day. Not the work, not the crazy requests we always get, not anything. It is really amazing to see that in someone. It has taught me to rethink the way I react to things and people. I have to remember that this is my day and my mood, nothing and no one can deprive me of my own happiness and gratefulness.
This next woman is truly amazing. She is a full timer at Allied Integrated Marketing and has been there for longer than I have been alive. She is very inspiring due to her determination to get things done while also taking crap from nobody! It's incredible watching her work her magic and see the things that she does and pulls off. She is very good at what she does and even when the job is done it is almost a given that she will go the extra mile for the client or a friend in the business. She is a very strong, hard-working woman and she always is happy to be doing her job. It is such an inspiration to see someone so successful at what they do and loving what they do every day.
I can't imagine the office without these two ladies. They have truly allowed me to gain a better sense of who I want to be and how to accomplish that.


Simple yoga shorts made from a cotton spandex blend, 'Trini' are comfortable and supportive. They feature a flattering fold-over waistband and are a 'discreet' 10cm in length.
They are great for practice in warmer places or for those who prefer a lightweight yoga pant.
I live in these shorts. Please please tell me if you ever create the exact short but just a few inches longer for more discrete circumstances. Love these though!
Love my shorts! So comfortable and versatile. They dont ride up into my crotch. I can hike in them, do yoga, great under skirts.
Love them! So glad I bought them!


I have recently gotten into bread making. I never thought I would become this kind of person, but now I have officially crossed over. So a few weeks ago, friends from our small group had the most delicious bread that they "made" from a "starter" -- which is this strange chemically charged magical liquid that you have to "feed" every 3-7 days ... it hisses and grows and does all sorts of weird things. But I was intrigued, so they gave me half of theirs and I gave it a shot. AND NOW I AM OBSESSED. Making bread is my new favorite thing to do; it's so personal and thought-out and requires time and love. Not to mention it tastes like heaven and makes your house smell like a bakery. Win, win.
So tonight, I made this delicious sandwich that we tried out earlier this summer from Cookie and Kate. Directions below (simplified a little), but obviously the original here ... I don't make this stuff up, friends.
Make the dressing first. In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except for the tomatoes. Gently fold in the tomatoes and let it sit at room temperature while preparing the salad. Stir before serving.
Roast the red bell peppers either on a grill or simply over the stovetop until the peppers are blackened. Cut into strips and keep in the oven to stay warm.
Reduce the grill heat to medium. Cut down through the zucchini at 1/4-inch intervals to yield four or five slices per zucchini half. Brush them generously on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Keep in warm oven.
Generously brush the slices of bread with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle with salt. Grill the bread until golden brown on both sides, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
Divide the arugula or lettuce leaves among the plates, scattering them loosely. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the herbs over the lettuce. Top the lettuce with a bread slice in the center of each plate. Top each bread slice with two or three slices of zucchini, placing them at a slight diagonal. Sprinkle half the goat (or feta) cheese over the zucchini. Cover with a piece of roasted red pepper at a slight diagonal (use the larger strips of pepper, if you have any). Top with another sprinkle of herbs and the remaining goat cheese. Top with the last pieces of zucchini, then the last pieces of roasted pepper, then tomato slices. Spoon an equal amount of dressing around and over each of the "sandwiches" and top with any remaining herbs. Serve immediately. SO good-- just cut up everything and eat like a salad.


Here is the second trailer from the upcoming film "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again." The film is directed by Ol Parker, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Lily James, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Andy Garcia and Cher.
Here is the trailer from the upcoming film "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again." The film is directed by Ol Parker, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Lily James, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine, Alexa Davies, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Andy Garcia and Cher.
Here is the trailer from the upcoming film "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool." The film is directed by Paul McGuigan, starring Annette Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave.
Here is the trailer for the upcoming film EFFIE GRAY. The movie is directed by Richard Laxton, starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Tom Sturridge, Robbie Coltrane.
EFFIE GRAY In Theaters April 3rd, 2015.
EFFIE GRAY Official Trailer from Adopt Films on Vimeo.
In her original screenplay EFFIE GRAY, Emma Thompson takes a bold look at the real life story of the Effie Gray-John Ruskin marriage, while courageously exposing what was truly hiding behind the veil of their public life. Set in a time when neither divorce, nor gay marriage were an option, EFFIE GRAY is the story of a young woman coming of age, finding her own voice in a world where women were expected to be seen but not heard. EFFIE GRAY explores the roots of sexual intolerance, which continue to have a stronghold today, while shedding light on the marital politics of the Victorian Era.
Here is the second trailer from the upcoming film PADDINGTON. The film is directed by Paul King, starring Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Colin Firth.
PADDINGTON in theaters on January 16, 2015.
Here is the teaser trailer from the upcoming film PADDINGTON. The film is directed by Paul King, starring Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Colin Firth.
PADDINGTON in theaters on December 12, 2014.
From the beloved novels by Michael Bond and producer David Heyman (HARRY POTTER), PADDINGTON tells the story of the comic misadventures of a young Peruvian bear (voiced by Firth) who travels to the city in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family who read the label around his neck that says "Please look after this bear. Thank you," and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.
ParaNorman hits theaters August 17th, 2012!


These beautiful Reclaimed Tallowood Coasters - Set of 4 have been made with love from reclaimed tallowood timber then finished with natural beeswax for lasting protection.
Each piece of our reclaimed decor collection is crafted from salvaged unwanted wood and then given a new purpose to last you a lifetime.
This set of 4 Reclaimed Tallowood Coasters may have a earthy nature vibe but they will look fantastic in any style of home.
The set includes four (4) Drinking Coasters.
Each coaster measures approx 100mm diameter by 15mm thick.


As the new era of luxury travel has begun to increase demand for curated experiences, exclusive access and unique offers, how much do you know about this uprising trend? In this fireside discussion, we have invited industry experts to share their view on how luxury travel has changed over the last decade. The event is conducted in English.


Rose: Where were you from the years 2007 to 2014?
A good run. Thank you Tumblr for those Internet Years.
CASE STUDYO is a publisher and producer of artworks by contemporary artists. We collaborate with artists from a broad artistic scene.Because we are triggered by the changing boundaries of the art world, different forms and places of creative expression and the abolishment of predefined rules we do not limit ourselves to a certain style or visual language. We let our eyes and feelings go towards artists we consider to be important within the interesting and changing times we live in.
Our collaborations result into fine art works, furniture or other functional objects. With our projects we strive to push new boundaries of art a bit further and grab the art of today and share it through the limited series.
The CASE STUDYO artworks are the result of a unique collaboration between our studio and the artist. We choose not simply to repeat or reproduce an existing artwork. We opt for a new creation, where interaction between CASE STUDYO and the artist creates an own story – a case study – resulting in a unique object, edited in several pieces.
CASE STUDYO doesn't operate out of a gallery; we work directly with artists and collaborate with their representing galleries. Available works can be acquired through our contact page.
CASE STUDYO is born out of the creative agency Toykyo. In 2012 they decided that it was time to take the limited edition artworks to the next level and give it dedicated focus. The rich history of Toykyo art-collabs & productions are included in this website as the foundation of our new venture.


This is one of Hayes first eye-sharing couples. The original was painted in 2004. This is the black and white version. A very vibrant and colorful palette was used to create the original art. Makes for a unique and lovely wedding, or anniversary gift! It is also available in Color.
The original 30" x 30" oil on canvas is SOLD.


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Fight for your right to parody. Or don't.
Posted on September 25, 2020 Author Matthew David Brozik 1
Written by: Matthew David Brozik
Sometimes, just when a copyright dispute is getting very interesting, the parties go and do the unthinkable: They resolve their differences like reasonable people, and then there's nothing left to do but imagine how things might have played out. And here we are.
Recently, in a very short period of time—less than two weeks—these things happened, in fairly rapid succession:
A company called GoldieBlox—established in 2012 to help introduce girls to the field of engineering—produced and released an advertisement for its products.
The GoldieBlox spot got noticed—because it was twelve kinds of awesome—but one of the ways in which it was awesome is the parody of the song "Girls," recorded and released in 1987 by the Beastie Boys, used as the soundtrack.
GoldieBlox was contacted by counsel for the Beastie Boys. Said counsel reportedly notified GoldieBlox that because the Beastie Boys and writer/producer Rick Rubin, as copyright holders
of the original song, had not given—and did not now give—permission for a version of the song to be recorded and used, GoldieBlox was therefore infringing the exclusive intellectual property rights of the Beasties/Rubin, and that unless such infringement ceased and GoldieBlox desisted… well, you know the rest.
GoldieBlox sued the Beastie Boys and Rubin—with admirable alacrity—for a declaratory judgment… and the Internets went nuts, in part because many laypersons do not understand what declaratory judgment is (remember the Robin Thicke/Marvin Gaye story from a few months ago?), and in part because many people thought they'd read or heard that the Beastie Boys had sued GoldieBlox.
Then Beastie Ad Rock tweeted: "You guys..Don't get it twisted. We did not threaten to sue Goldiblox..THEY'RE SUING US." Which was accurate, if a tad disingenuous. A distinction without a difference, one might say.
And then GoldieBlox did something seemingly—see below—very classy: The company posted an open letter to the surviving Beastie Boys stating, among other things, that the company was unaware before hearing from the Beasties' counsel that the late Adam Yauch had "requested in his will that the Beastie Boys songs never be used in advertising" and for that reason, even though "we believe our parody video falls under fair use, we would like to respect his wishes and yours," GoldieBlox had already removed the song from its video. (Of course, the unredacted version can still be found with no effort at all, but it would be irresponsible for this blawg to point you to anywhere specific.)
I write "seemingly," because one might argue that GoldieBlox has already gotten everything it had hoped to from its song parody, and therefore removing it now is merely… er, lip service. Indeed, some have suggested that GoldieBlox's entire goal from the start was simply to get press, and that proactively suing the Beastie Boys was just a part of the plan—except that to bring a legitimate suit for declaratory judgment one needs to allege a real controversy, and there would have been none if the Beasties' lawyers had not threatened legal action. And it's not as if you can force someone else's lawyer to threaten you with litigation. The most you can do is use their intellectual property without permission in a video that goes viral and… wait just a minute…!)
This will probably be the end of the matter. It's difficult to imagine that the Beastie Boys and Rick Rubin will insist on receiving damages, even if GoldieBlox benefited financially from the use of the song. Indeed, because GoldieBlox was not selling its version of "Girls," it might be impossible to quantify just what financial benefit GoldieBlox derived. (On the other hand, that's what statutory damages are for.)
So, while it's nice to see businesspeople resolve their disputes quickly and amicable, this blawger would be lying if he wrote that he hadn't been looking forward to seeing how this matter would play out in court. More than one person had asked me which side I thought was likelier to prevail, and I enjoyed making predictions. And I predicted, if you're wondering, that GoldieBlox would prevail.
Because yes, the purported parody was made for a commercial purpose, but commercial use is not in itself an automatic disqualifier, as we know. When 2 Live Crew parodied "Oh, Pretty Woman," it might have had social commentary on its collective mind, but it probably wanted to make money from record sales more. Still, there was social commentary in "modernizing" a song sung to a prostitute… and there's certainly some in converting an undeniably misogynistic song ("Girls… to do the laundry/Girls… to clean up my room") into an anthem of empowerment ("Girls… to build the spaceship/Girls… to code the new app"). And, again, while the use of the parody is without question commercial, it's indirectly commercial… or indirectly financially beneficial to the parodist, anyway, in that the products being sold are toys for girls with an interest in engineering.
Alas, we'll never know how this would have played out. That is, unless the Beastie Boys don't allow GoldieBlox to withdraw its suit for preliminary judgment… but that would be pretty much unthinkable. After all, if Ad Rock didn't want the world to think that he and Mike D had sued GoldieBlox, how could they not let the pending pre-emptive litigation be dismissed?
UPDATE [RDC]: Which they did — it's settled. But that doesn't mean the fun's over!
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History | May 20, 2017
Top 10 Facts That Change How You See The Story Of The Mayflower
Mark Oliver
The Pilgrims who boarded the Mayflower and sailed across the ocean to America, we're told, were trying to set up a new colony free of religious persecution—but there was a bit more to the story than that. The Pilgrims weren't just a group of religious Puritans. The real story of the colony that one day grew into the most powerful nation in the world isn't exactly pure.
10The Pilgrims Were Actually Escaping The Religious Tolerance Of The Dutch
Photo credit: Wikimedia
The Pilgrims didn't flee religious persecution in England by going to America—they went to the Netherlands.
Long before the Pilgrims stepped aboard the Mayflower, they settled in a Dutch city called Leiden, where they were welcomed with open arms. The Dutch let them hold Puritan services in their churches, promising that they let all honest people live freely in their nation.
And they did. The Dutch lived up to their promise—but the Puritans realized maybe religious freedom wasn't what they wanted after all. They complained about the "extravagant and dangerous" lifestyle of the Dutch, who, they complained, were depraved enough to spend part of the Sabbath not resting. The Puritans were worried that their children might be swept away by the depraved and wild lifestyle of doing work on the Sabbath. The young Puritans, William Bradford wrote, were being "drawn away by evil examples" by "the great licentiousness of youth in that country."[1]
And so they boarded the Mayflower—not to escape religious persecution, which they'd already escaped by going to the Netherlands, but to escape the religious tolerance of the Dutch.
9French Pilgrims Went To America First
Photo credit: NPS
The Pilgrims on the Mayflower weren't the first people to have the idea—some French settlers had already gone off to America in search of religious freedom 55 years before them. They didn't find it. Instead, they found the Spanish, and what happened next makes it a bit easier to understand why the Puritans didn't want to stay in Europe.
The French set up a settlement called Fort Caroline and began living lives as Lutheran Protestants, away from all the religious wars of Europe—until Europe found them. A Spanish army led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles tracked them down and killed them all, for no other reason, as he proudly explained, than "for being Lutherans."[2]
The Spanish climbed over the French walls with ladders, snuck into their bedrooms, and attacked. The French Pilgrim's piousness was no match for the Spanish conquistador's guns and their willingness to sneak into someone's bedroom and murder him in his sleep.
132 Pilgrims died—nearly every single person there. And the Spanish conquistadors renamed the fort "Mantazas," meaning "massacre," to commemorate their favorite pastime.
8A Man Put His Kids On The Mayflower To Spite His Wife
Photo credit: William Halsall
The strangest names on the passenger list of the Mayflower were the More children: four unaccompanied minors, all under nine years old, sailing off to America without their parents.
The Mores were the children of Samuel and Katherine More—or, at least, that's what Katherine told Samuel. As the kids grew older, though, Samuel started noticing that they didn't look very much like him. Instead, looked an awful lot like Jacob Blakeway, the guy his wife kept insisting was just a friend.
Samuel More divorced his wife, but under English law, he still had legal authority over his kids. He also absolutely hated his wife, so, purely out of spite, he handed her kids off to the Puritans and bought them a one-way ticket on the Mayflower.
All but one of the kids died during the first winter. The sole survivor was Richard More, who ended up settling in Salem. Apparently, he still had his biological father's genes—years later, he was convicted for "gross unchastity with another man's wife."[3]
7Less Than Half Of The People On The Mayflower Were Puritans
Photo credit: John Rogers Herbert
Despite how we imagine it, the Mayflower wasn't a boat full of Puritans. In fact, out of the 102 people on the boat, more than 60 were Anglicans—followers of the very religion the Puritans were trying to escape.
The Puritans let the Anglicans come with them because they needed their money. Sailing two boats to the New World and setting up a colony was expensive, and they needed investors. They made it clear, though, they weren't part of the group. They called these Anglicans "Strangers" and called themselves "Saints." Those two boats, though, didn't pan out anyway. The other, the Speedwell, started leaking before they even got off the docks, and so all 102 people had to cram into the Mayflower.[4]
By the time they'd made it to Plymouth, there were only 32 Puritans left alive. Worried that they were going to fall into "the devil's hands," the Puritans signed the Mayflower Compact with the Strangers, letting them elect their own governors—and then made sure a Puritan was elected every time.
6They Landed At Plymouth Because They Were Running Out Of Beer
The Puritans were against a lot of things, but beer wasn't one of them. They drank incredibly heavily. In fact, they brought more beer with them than water. Pretty much all the Pilgrims drank was beer. Water, they explained, "spoiled quickly," which sounds like an alcoholic father's justification for brushing his teeth with Pabst Blue Ribbon.
By Christmas day, after months of sailing in cramped quarters, starving, and being ridden by disease, a true tragedy struck: they were running out of beer. They had to start rationing their supply, and, to the Pilgrims, this was a nightmare. "We have, divers times now and then, some beer," William Bradford wrote in his journal, but they'd resorted to the unthinkable: "We began to drink water aboard."[5]
People started complaining—so they kicked them off. The first settlers were dropped off at Plymouth and forced to drink water, because the people who stayed on the boat wanted to make sure there was enough beer for themselves. They didn't suffer long, though. They refused to. One of the very things the Pilgrims built was a brew house.
5The Pilgrims Robbed Native American Graves
When the Pilgrims landed, they expected to see a thriving Indian population all around them—but nobody was there. Other than the distant light for a few campfires at night, there wasn't any sign of life anywhere around them. Then they started to wander out, and they found empty towns full of corn, beans—and the bones of dead men.[6]
The natives had been wiped out by a plague, spread by the first Europeans to the area. It had wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the people in southern New England, leaving behind nothing but empty towns full of supplies just waiting for the settlers to use them. The settlers, instead of being worried about the fact that an entire country had just been wiped out took this as a sign of god's favor. John Winthrop called it a miracle, writing, "God hath cleared our title to this place!"
They took their corn, but more than that, they literally robbed their graves. One settler wrote in his diary that he dug up a dead man's grave and fished out all the possessions he'd been buried with. "We took several of the prettiest things to carry away with us," he wrote, "and covered the corpse up again."
4The First Native American They Met Asked For Beer
Not every Native American was dead. While the settlers were still setting up their camp, they made first contact with a Native American—who, out of nowhere, wandered into their camp and said, in English: "Welcome, Englishmen!"
The man's name was Samoset. He'd met Englishmen before, and he'd picked up enough phrases to get by. He knew, at least, how to welcome an Englishman, and, more important, how to ask them for beer.
After he'd asked them enough times, the Plymouth colonists gave him "strong water," which was enough to make him happy. Apparently, Samoset had a bit of a personality. After a while, they started politely hinting he should go home now, but they couldn't figure out how to get rid of him.
They ended up letting him sleep off the strong water in their camp, which paid off. Samoset would ultimately save their lives several times and help them make peace treaties with the Wampanoag tribe. He also sold some of the first land in America to the Plymouth settlers—which probably wasn't his to sell, but certainly gave the settlers a signature they could use to call the land their own.[7]
3Squanto Had Been Sold Into Slavery Several Times
Samoset told the settlers about Squanto, a man in his tribe who could speak English even better than he could. He wasn't lying. Squanto spoke English nearly as well as the Englishmen themselves.
There was a reason. Six years before, Squanto had met another famous settler: Thomas Hunt, John Smith's successor at the Jamestown Colony. Hunt had kidnapped him and 23 other natives and sold them into slavery in Spain. From there, Squanto was sold again to an Englishman, who taught him to English and brought him to Newfoundland to work as his interpreter. While in Newfoundland, he was sold again, this time to Thomas Dermer, who took him to Massachusetts. By a miracle of chance, Squanto made it back to his home. By the time he'd arrived, though, everyone he'd known was dead, wiped out by the plague.
Squanto ended up with the Wampanoag when Dermer was taken hostage. He won his freedom, and, in an act of mercy, convinced them to let Dermer go alive. And that was how he ended up the tribe's interpreter to the Plymouth Colony—a colony that was built, as he realized when he met them, directly on top of his family's grave.[8]
2Squanto Went Mad With Power
Squanto never extracted revenge on the settlers. Instead, he helped them so much that, without his help, some believe, the settlers wouldn't have survived. He taught them to grow maize, to catch eels, and helped them negotiate with the nearby tribes.
In time, though, he got a little carried away. He was the tribe's connection the European settlers—and that made him their connection to guns and technology. He started making people give him gifts in exchange for a few good words with the English, and at least once threatened that, if they didn't do what he said, he would make the Englishmen release the plague again.[9]
One of his tricks went too far. He got mad at Massosit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe, and decided this time he was going to show them he was bluffing. He'd really get the Englishmen to kill him. So, he tricked the Englishmen into believed that Massosit was planning on killing them all, trying to convince them to strike him first.
When they realized it was all made up, Massosit demanded Squanto's head. The Englishmen were going to do it, too—but when they realized how doomed they were without his help, they had to side with Squanto, who, it turns out, really was as important as he thought he was.
1They Hung A Dead Man's Head Over Their Fort
Peace didn't last long. Even with all the empty villages around them and the help of people like Squanto and Samoset, the settlers were starving. It was a just a matter of time before the harshness of life broke out into war—and when it did, it was brutal.
Things were particularly bad in the nearby Wessagusset Settlement. They were starving so badly that, when one of their Pilgrims stole corn from the Pecksuot Tribe, they agreed to hang him for it. They needed the help of their native neighbors so badly that they were willing to kill their own people.
The Pecksuot Tribe, though, wasn't totally satisfied, and a rumor that they were plotting to destroy the white presence in America reached the Plymouth Colony. It was the same sort of rumor they'd ignored before, when Squanto spread it, but they'd been in America for a few years now, and they were harder, more cynical people. So, a group from the Plymouth Colony, led by Myles Standish, took care of it.
They invited the best warriors from the Pecksuot tribe over for dinner. Then they locked the door, stabbed them to death, chopped off the chief's brother's head, and placed it on the roof the blockhouse, next to flag made from a cloth soaked in his blood.[10]
Top 10 Bizarre Facts That Will Change How You See Dinosaurs
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Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. His writing also appears on a number of other sites, including The Onion's StarWipe and Cracked.com. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes.
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Tour the Emil A. Blackmore Museum
The Emil A. Blackmore Museum of The American Legion is located on the fourth floor of National Headquarters in Indianapolis, between the library and the National Executive Committee Room. The museum occupies two rooms: one a display of military and Legion-related items and the other a fine-art gallery. Emil A. Blackmore, the museum's namesake, served as the Legion's national adjutant from July 1, 1956, until his death on April 21, 1967.
Block from Temporary National Headquarters
First Convention and Gavel and Block
Decanter from 1990 National Convention
Bowl from St. Louis Caucus
Sample of the K rations
WAC uniform
Drum and Bugle Corps trophies
Japanese Officer's Ceremonial Sword
SS American Legion plaque
Legion 50th Anniversary "First Day of Issue"
Chaplain's Field Organ
Hotchkiss Gun
Bat from 1965 Legion World Series
Diorama re-enactment of D-Day
Lynch Diarama
1927 Convention Medal
Stone from bridge at Chateau-Thierry
World War Posters
Library & Museum Services


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Bessarabia
Carpathians
Halychyna
Naddniprianshchyna
Podillia
Podniprovia and Zaporizhzhia
Poltavshchyna
Pryazovia
Prychornomoria
Sivershchyna
Slobozhanshchyna
Volyn
Zakarpattia
Farmsteads
Space Transformation
Hutsul bread for the Carpathians
21 June 2019 9:09
The Romanyuks from the Carpathian village Topilche bake traditional Hutsul bread following a special recipe, play several musical instruments, and are masters of unique singing techniques. The voice of Paraska Romanyuk is admired not only in Ukraine but also beyond its borders as well. Together with her husband and son they bake bread each day and sell it to neighboring villages. While baking, they sing. In this way they preserve and reproduce Hutsul traditions and pass their knowledge to others.
Hutsul bread
Paraska and Vasyl Romanyuk have been together for 45 years. And for almost 20 years they have been baking bread. Paraska Romanyuk inherited the art of creating the traditional Hutsul bread from her grandma and grandpa:
"Our grandma and grandpa were baking bread this way. When my grandpa was 18, he was taken to Germany. For 6 years he was working for some bauer (the German word for peasant) there, and he said that the bread dough soaking period was strictly obeyed. If grandpa did something wrong, the German could come and throw it away. If the bread dough didn't soak as much as it should have, my grandpa could be given 25 punches for that. God sent grandpa came back here so that the tradition could be born — everyone baked, the whole family of ours."
Earlier, Vasyl Romanyuk worked as a forest ranger, and his family lived in the woods as well. He learned how to bake bread when his wife suddenly got sick. Since then, baking has become a family business.
Paraska and Vasyl's son, also Vasyl, helps his parents: he harvests and carries wood, stokes the fire, and delivers bread for sale.
The Romanyuks use only the highest quality of flour. They don't bake dark bread at all. They said people prefer white bread more. In general, the family bakes the following kinds of bread: square, round, buns, kalatches (a kind of fancy loaf ) and Easter cakes. Also, they bake customized bread.
Now the Romanyuks have separate premises with a large stove. When they didn't have one, they were baking in their small kitchen oven. At that time, they could bake up to 100 loaves.. Now they can bake up to 400.
Paraska says they bake at night:
"To bake bread you must wake up at 1:00 a.m. so that it can soak properly, to ensure it will be tasty. We wake up, brush our teeth, pray to God, and drink coffee to stay awake. We pray to God so that the work goes easy and people like the bread."
At 8:00 p.m. we go to sleep and wake up at 1:00 a.m., work the dough, and bake. As bread can't be good if it is done bad. If the mood is not good then the bread won't be good. We play and sing near the bread — music gives us strength.
The family cannot afford hiring employees because they think that hard work must be paid well and at the moment they don't have such money:
"You have to pay taxes and retirement fee and buy some flour. When you calculate all the costs no spare money is left. It's very hard work."
The Romanyuks' bread, despite the obstacles, regularly goes to Verkhovyna, Burkut, Yavirnyk, and Zelene:
"The roads are terrible; the machines break down. This business is hard to run. There is competition."
During the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, the Hutsul bread even went to Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv. Their son Vasyl was delivering 150 loaves there per week.
Paraska keeps grandpa's recipe a secret. The unique taste and smell of the bread her husband explains as follows:
"Nowadays, they add a lot of leavening agent. It helps to better leaven the dough so that you need less flour and still get big bread output. However, that bread is of bad quality, it's like a sponge — it has no weight and no taste but people eat it. As for us, we use yeast and follow an old recipe. Thus, it has both weight and taste. And since we bake it in a woodfired stove, it also smells great."
Shelf life of the baked bread is around a week but a little shorter in the heat. Vasyl adds that despite slow progress of work they don't want to automate the baking process. They keep shaping bread manually and baking it in the stove:
"No, this way is better. Such bread has demand. Tourists go for mushrooms to the mountains and take it with them."
The family can't anymore imagine their life without making bread:
It's our life. It's the thing you won't live without. The most valuable wealth.
Музика і спів
Music and singing
Music and singing play also an important part in the Romanyuks' life. Paraska started singing when she was a child. The woman remembers that her mother sang well and "egokala"(echo). Egokannya, or kugykannya, used to be very popular in Hutsul songs. Even the singer Ruslana Lyzhychko once came to the Romanyuks to learn this unique Hutsul singing which resembles the sound of a trembita:
"It (egokannya – editor) is a kind of our polonyna (valley) echo — people were echoing one to another in case someone was lost. When a youngster from one end of the wood called, a girl could hear where he was. It meant that people could call one to another, from one hill to the other, so that they knew there was someone too, had anyone lost on the polonyna. There could be a fog, you know, or something else."
In Paraska's family line everyone could sing — both men and women. More eagerly Paraska sang when she and her mother went gazing cows.
— Ми ходили по корови, мама егокала, співала, а я си научала. Та й так. Куда шла, туда і співала.
Songs have accompanied her during her entire life:
"So it happened that when I got married, to Vasyl, he worked as a forester at the state forestry. And our job was related to the wood. Not a single day passed when we didn't sing. Unless winter comes, covers everything with snow, and that's all. And even then, we sing in the house, as the Christmas carolers come."
The Hutsul woman's unique voice got its fame after the play "Vechornitsi" has been performed in Topilchiy. Vasylyna Yanushevska, a writer and embroider from the neighboring village Zeleniy, V wrote the play At that time, the craftswoman gathered those who could play and sing well.
Today, foreigners often come to hear the unique singing of Paraska Romanyuk. The woman eagerly sings for an audience. She also wants to give lessons at school as she thinks that traditions should be preserved:
"I would like to incarnate the authenticity of Hutsul land in children's hearts. In that way how our grandparents sang. A person who lives in this world wants to leave a mark in history. The way we remember our parents: that they didn't get drunk, sang and had fun without alcohol. I wish things were the same now, that this devil didn't seize the world, that at least a part of this green land was left."
Paraska is used to sing while working:
One doesn't interrupt another. I do both: make the dough and sing. It can be hard on the soul, because life is life, anything can happen — both good and bad. You hear the song, hear the music, and against all those negative vibes that influence me there is only one delight — the singing.
Paraska's husband has a knack for carving, among other things:
"When I finished school, I bought carving tools and started to make bobbins, the souvenirs popular at the USSR times. Bobbins, owls, kittens, small bears, and other stuff I was making. I used to draw at school; I liked to draw when I was a boy. I do have a talent and a knack for it."
As for music, Vasyl is self-trained — he plays bayan (a type of accordion) and dudka (a woodwind instrument). Although now, to tell the truth, he devotes not much time to playing instruments because a few years ago he injured his arm.
He spends more time at his workshop where he makes stands for antlers, pictures and frames, mainly from sycamore, cedar, and aspen.
Especially popular are stands for antlers. By the way, for their production the deer themselves are not get killed — in spring the deer shed their antlers, which later are found in the woods by the artists:
"There is a trend here in Hutsulshchina. People like to hang these trophies on the walls. Our great grandparents did, then people understood they could do something else too. Now they make bowls, jewelry boxes, and dishes for brynza."
His son Vasyl has been learning to play musical instruments since his childhood — first his father's bayan and later a violin. One of Vasyl's teachers is a famous Hutsul virtuoso musician, Roman Kumlyk:
"Twenty lessons I took from Kumlyk, but at that moment I could already play. I trained a bit with him, and later on he gave me a tape-recorder as a present so I continued my training following the tapes. I've learnt a lot out of it."
Although he understands that music can bring him money, Vasyl isn't in a rush to devote all his life to it because for him it is more like hobby.
"I don't think much about building some career — all that is secondary to me. The family of Sablis, in my mother's line — they were strong singers."
What's important for Vasyl is the genuine Hutsul music:
"Sometimes it happens that, when people sing, you hear the diversity of sounds. There are people who don't want to hear that, so they say it's all the same. But it is not — there are many tones. You should see the difference — then you know at once when someone sings well and someone does not. Even when you yourself don't play well, in singing you hear how it should be. And sometimes, in singing, there is no more former flavor or former authenticity in music. You start playing after a person, but it's all not that."
Hutsul music instruments
It's not a secret that Hutsul musical instruments have always been a special vital attribute for them. Hutsul music instruments that are considered traditional are the drymba, trembita, sopilka, floyara, duda, rih, small bell, telenka, ocarina, dentsivka, popyskalo, derkach, lira, violin, tsymbaly, tambourine, and berbenytsya.
The most famous Hutsul instrument is trembita which was also somewhat of an alarm clock and the way shepherds communicated.
Unfortunately, not all instruments are actively used nowadays:
"We have a skripa (violin) remaining, left as it was. Floyara, sopilka as well, and tsymbaly. These are the most traditional we have, a folk instrument group of three musicians used to play them. And surely tambourine, but mostly floyara was played. Because a lot of different instruments were invented — all those saxophones, clarinets, and accordions as well. But otherwise, the very native are our sopilka, violin, dudka — a hornpipe of goat. It is a very old and ancient instrument."
Many tourists come to the Carpathians for Hutsul flavor. Here you can still see how "knyagynya" (a bride) is dressed up, to hear old wedding songs, how trembita sounds on the polonynas, to see the authentic Hutsul clothes, and to taste their traditional dishes.
For Paraska Romanyuk it is necessary to preserve and pass on the Hutsul traditions:
It seems to me that if we don't try to preserve the authenticity of Hutsul land — singing, dancing, the clothes as they are on Hutsulshchina, traditions and customs — if all this is gone, we may consider that our nation is gone, that Hutsuls are gone, that they are lost.
The son Vasyl also says that you should differentiate between people who preserve the traditions and people who live the traditions:
"Few live the traditions. The ones of the older generation — they live and think this way. Because Hutsuls are primarily a pagans. And tradition, as Ivan Ogienko wrote, is a syncretism — a dual belief. It turned out that ancient pagan beliefs overlapped the new Christian ones, and this way emerged such Hutsul custom and such Hutsul tradition where there is a great deal of ancient beliefs. Those beliefs are truly preserved by people only subconsciously, but there are very few of those left. In general, everything that happens at the level of culture is kind of a folklore, it's a reproduction — it's not living by them, it's something a bit different."
Paraska and Vasyl no longer have the typical Hutsul vechornytsya (a party) and know about them only from stories of their grandmothers. Paraska says her grandma wanted her to value everything traditional and was angry about the "outsider's music". Now, the woman recollects the stories about vechornytsyas and communal work:
"Earlier, the houses stood not so close to one another as they are now. At that time, the space between houses was rather large. So people either egokaly (echoed) or played trembita, and this way they gathered in the evenings. They either carried woods, or spun, or sewed. It was called communal work. Some spun, others embroidered in the evening. Some baked burishniky, others — bread. And this way they played either violin, or floyara, as there were no musicians at first. Floyara and violin. Sang and had parties. As for vodka, no one heard of it. As no one drank it. My grandma told me that at communal work no one ever gave vodka. And for Christmas carols, when people gathered to go caroling, and there were about twenty men of them, there were about two hundred fifty grams of vodka, just two hundred fifty grams for Christmas which were enough for all three holiday days. A tiny portion it was. So tiny that it was just two to three drops of vodka per man."
During the latest 20 to 30 years, the culture, life, and visual appearance of Hutsuls changed a lot. Vasyl tells us about it:
"Technically, in the olden days there were no such garments — they were a little simpler. There could be nothing to eat because people lived poorly. They cooked golubtsi (stuffed cabbage rolls), jellied meat, and banosh. Keeping horses was prohibited except for on the collective farms. There was no such fun, no such luxury as nowadays. Now they make large dining rooms, areas, and formerly the parties were held in the house. After war there were fewer people, it took many of them. And now people have built better homes, while in older days there were small ones. Now each has a car and people live better. The retirement fee is not enough, but life is livable — you have to work though."
Paraska's relatives live abroad, and they offered her to move there too. But the Romanyuks don't want to move anywhere:
No, I would never leave my mountains! Unless, save Lord, someone removes my body.
The question, why Hutsuls preserve traditions so well, the Romanyuks answer in short:
"The thing is that everything took roots into every soul. Who loves it, who respects, it keeps it safe."
How we shoot
Watch our new vlog to learn more about our visit to the Romanyuks family in Topilche, as well as about the mushroom that talks and a picturesque Hutsul wedding in Verkhovyna.
The material is prepared byAuthor:Bogdan LogvynenkoAuthor:Maryna OdnorogEditor:Yevgeniya SapozhnykovaPhotographer:Alina KondratenkoProducer:Olha SchorCameraman:Pavlo PashkoCameraman:Oleksandr PortjanFilm editor:Mykola NosokDirector:Mykola NosokPhoto editor:Oleksandr KhomenkoTranscriptionist:Anna HolbanTranslator:Daria Temerbek
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