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Dauair was een luchtvaartmaatschappij met als thuishaven Lübeck in Duitsland. Zij leverde binnenlandse en buitenlandse diensten. Dauair was gestationeerd op de luchthaven Dortmund.

De luchtvaartmaatschappij werd in maart 2005 opgezet en begon op 18 april 2005 met het leveren van diensten. Haar eerste vliegtuig was één Saab 340. Zij begon met vluchten tussen Dortmund en Berlijn (Tempelhof), vluchten van Dortmund naar Poznań en vluchten van Berlijn Tempelhof naar Poznań. Op 5 september 2005 begon zij met de volgende diensten: van Dortmund naar Zürich, Berlijn Tempelhof naar Warschau en Hannover naar Poznań. Op 12 september begon zij met vluchten tussen Paderborn en Stuttgart, met gebruik van een Metroliner.

Op 16 augustus 2006 vroeg de maatschappij het faillissement aan en staakte alle vluchten.

Luchtvloot
De luchtvloot van dauair bestond in oktober 2005 uit de volgende vliegtuigen:
3x Saab 340 (ex-Carpatair)
1x Metroliner

Voormalige Duitse luchtvaartmaatschappij
Economie in Sleeswijk-Holstein
Lübeck


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Q: Decrease stock when order is complete Magento Magento by default decrease stock when order is placed, but i need decrease stock just when an order is completed or processing.
how can I do it?
Please Help.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Heighten your cold weather wardrobe with style and ease in the Skechers Parallel Dusk wedge!
Casual ankle boot with a soft, leather-textured microfiber.
Lightly-textured finish with bunched detailing on vamp.
Side-zipper feature for easy on-and-off.


I began strolling towards the front door of a waterfront restaurant, already in operation for years, at about 10 minutes before my meeting was scheduled to start. Like clockwork, all of the design team members started to file in and our meeting began at 10:00am sharp. We initiated the get-together with an introduction of the team members and quick review of initial concept drawings and renderings that had been completed to date. Several conversations ensued, as did questions regarding the design. We broke from the initial part of our session and began to walk the facility as part of our site evaluation, when we stopped in front of the display kitchen.
Often, as part of my information gathering effort, I will ask a client "if you had three wishes to improve this facility, what would they be?" This is a technique I picked up from a colleague long ago. Without hesitation, the operators unanimously agreed that they needed more heat lamps for staging meals in the pick-up window. And before they could finish this request for additional heat lamps, puzzling music began playing in the background. Wavy lines blurred the room - just like a television show transition. I soon found myself in a totally new wardrobe, dressed like Sherlock Holmes. Pipe, hat, and all. Another mystery had fallen in my lap. There was a need for additional heat lamps, but why? Fortunately, I had solved similar cases before.
I have heard this request from other operators, and, just like the previous instances, this plea for additional hot holding space sent up a red flag in my mind. Let me show you why. First, let's look at the real purpose of these heat lamps. These heated elements, which typically hang or are mounted above the pick-up window, are designed to keep appetizers and entrées warm after they have been plated, but before they have been delivered to the guest's table. The time that a plate spends below the heat lamps should be minimal. In fact, in a perfect world, heat lamps might not even be required, as the food would be delivered to the guest immediately after it was prepared. A request for more heat lamps would indicate that additional space was required for staging dishes between plating and service, and that the time between delivery and service would likely be increased as well.
This is an opportune time to share with you one of the most valuable lessons that I ever learned in college: there is a huge difference between a symptom and a problem. The difficult task is identifying which is which. Often times, what we believe to be a problem is really just a symptom of a much larger problem. Solving a symptom will usually not solve a problem. Rather, if the root problem remains unsolved, additional symptoms can pop up - which we may mistake for another problem. Seem a little confusing? Think of a weed in the yard that grows tall above the rest of your grass. When the lawn is mowed, the weed may seem to disappear, as the visible portion of this backyard invader is no more. However, you and I both know that the root of the weed is still there. In time, the root weed will grow again.
In order to solve the root problem (a little pun - see where I was going with this whole "weed" analogy?), we need to kill the weed at the root. Once the root is eliminated, the weed cannot grow again. In other words, solving the problem eliminates the chance for additional symptoms to occur, but not vice versa. Taking another look at the need for additional heat lamps, was a shortage of heated storage for items in limbo between preparation and service really the problem, or was it the symptom of a much bigger problem? That was the real question, and one I would seek to answer.
- The kitchen might have the wrong equipment.
- The kitchen might have the right equipment, but in the wrong location.
- The menu mix might be overloading one station, slowing down production from this portion of the kitchen and holding back the rest of the order.
- Disproportionately fast or slow production from any of the stations on the cooking line could also be holding up orders in the pick-up window.
- There could be a problem with the expediter.
- The problem could stem from the service staff. They could be unnecessarily burdened with extra steps, as a result of an inefficient facility, left with little time to keep tabs on the food in the window. Additionally, the staff may not be trained to deliver food residing in the window, regardless whether it is for their customer or not.
The real problem could exist as a result of the facility's configuration, the operational team, or a combination of the two. But I am confident, based on previous experience, that having too few heat lamps was not the problem.
A couple of years ago, I was having dinner in a restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant had about 185 total interior seats, a full bar, and roughly 30 seats outside. Being the restaurant geek that I am, I seized the opportunity to sit at one of the two dining counters on the perimeter of the display kitchen. The a la minute line was about the size that I would have expected, and really featured what I would consider to be a standard equipment mix. The real surprise was in the pick up area. There was a counter top, about 60" long, situated between the two dining counters. I was more amazed by what was not there. There was no double overshelf. There were no heat lamps. Just the 60" counter.
Amazingly, each and every order came out together, in its entirety, and sat on the pick-up counter for no more than 60 seconds before being picked up and delivered by one of the service staff. Intrigued by this display of efficiency, I asked to speak with the manager and ask why they decided to abandon the typical pickup configuration and how he was able to execute service with such efficiency. He explained that the pickup counter had been strategically placed to ensure that the servers would constantly be walking by, and all servers were trained to run any items sitting on the counter to the appropriate table, whether it was their table or not. Granted, this would not have been possible if the kitchen had not been properly designed, the culinary staff were not delivering all items in perfect synchronization, and the expediter were not conducting this effort with the efficiency of leading an orchestra. Nevertheless, I was observing a fine tuned machine working in full harmony.
Feeling as though I had missed part of the conversation while all of these thoughts were whirling through my mind, I re-engaged in the discussion with the five members of the operating team who were standing before me and the adjacent display kitchen. With each of them awaiting my thoughts on their request for additional heat lamps, I advised them that "there might be a need for more heat lamps, but there is also the possibility that the need for additional room to stage between preparation and service might be the symptom of a much larger problem." Sensing their intrigue, I elaborated on my hunch, and indicated that we would conduct our detective work during the course of the pending design process.
I would challenge you to consider whether the problems that you face on a daily basis are truly problems, or merely symptoms. If they are only symptoms, identifying and solving the true problems will be the next task at hand.


Finally this shoe pattern is done and I can't believe i'm writing it at last and sharing with my beautiful readers.
So grab your crochet supplies and work rounds and rounds of crochet stitches with me.
This shoes is made in 3 parts.
We will begin with the sole.
I have already made a tutorial for the crochet sole pattern that can be used in any slipper pattern with sole.
Make next 5 stitches in half double crochet and after that continue in double crochet for 24 stitches.
Make next 5 stitches again in half double crochet and continue with single crochet stitches till you reach the end. Join with the first stitch.
Lets recapitulate: We begin with 49 single crochet stitches, 5 half double, 24 double, 5 half double and 9 to 13 single crochets to complete the row.
Round 2 and 3 : 49 half double crochet stitches. 34 double crochet stitches. 9 to 13 half double crochet stitches. Join.
Round 4: 5 single crochets. 2 decrements.
In toe area, 2 single crochet, 1 decrease (* repeat 5 times).
2 decrements, single crochet up to 49th stitch.
5 half double, 24 double, 5 half double and 9 to 13 single crochets to complete the row.
Round 5: 39 half double crochets, 2 decrements. 24 double crochets, 2 decrements. Join to complete the row.
We make decrements and use different height stitches (in same row) so as to make the shoe comfy and snug. It also gives shoe a required shape.
This is done in single crochet only.
Round 2: Single crochet in each stitch.
Round 3: Skip first stitch work from next stitch. Increment 1 in last stitch.
Round 4: Work from the first stitch in all stitches.
Round 5: Skip first stitch work from next stitch. Increment 1 in last stitch.
Round 6 to 9: Repeat steps of round 4 and 5 till 9th row.
Round 10: Skip first stitch work from next stitch. Increment 1 in last stitch.
Round 11: Work from the first stitch in all stitches.
Round 12 to 18: Repeat steps of round 10 and 11 till 18th row.
Make a row of single crochet on all sides to make them even.
Join the upper patch to the body of the shoe using tapestry needle and yarn end. Fold the upper patch from the side with two ends and join at the edges.
Take the lace or string you want to use and insert it through the holes of crochet stitches of the body, taking the ends out from the upper patch right in the center. Make a knot.
World is flooded with the design inspirations for the slipper or shoes you could make and most of them are required to have a separate sole. This post is about one such easy slipper sole that can be done in crocheting. You can work any kind of slipper on these crochet soles and adjust stitches according to your yarn type and hook size.
If you are good at knitting, a simple garter stitch patch like this would also do.
Round 1: Chain 11, skip the first two stitches and begin from the 3rd one from the hook. start double crochet and you must have 9 stitches by the end of round 1.
Round 2: Chain 2, Make 9 double crochet stitches over the previous round of 9 stitches.
Round 4: Chain 2, Double crochet in each stitch.
Round 12: Chain 2, Double crochet in each stitch.
Round 27: Make a row of single crochet stitch all around the patch to smooth out the edges.
Fasten off and weave in the end.


A great deal of time has been spent during this prolonged mayoral campaign talking about big stuff: subways, jets, the Gardiner Expressway, LRTs – and it is sad that great many small things get overlooked.
Typically in any society the voices that never get heard belong to those who are considered – by many politicians at least – as the weakest and least valued voices in the community. Often this dishonour is placed squarely at the feet of women and children.
Mayor Ford has shown his willingness to use children as campaign props on many occasions – including kissing them on the campaign trail (yuck!), upstaging them at ribbon cuttings of parks that not only did he vote against, but that the kids and community actually worked independently to achieve. He regularly uses his own kids as human shields against the media. And his preference for late-night partying at every festival and event, leaving his family at home particularly galls me.
Women and children need a stronger voice at City Hall. I know for a fact that if the waiting lists for assisted housing and daycare were not so long, more women would have the chance to either find work, or do more for their families and themselves.
If kids had easier access to school programs, including free or subsidized breakfasts, our community would benefit.
If elderly citizens (as one of the tenants at Thorncliffe Park told me during my visit there on August 3) could have access to benches, they would be able to feel more engaged and healthy, and would be able to do more to support the families they love.
Now I cannot help having been born male, but I have spent my life fighting for the rights of all citizens, and I cannot and will not stand for a political rating system that puts moneyed people, or people of a certain race, class, or orientation above others.
Toronto is a meeting place. We welcome everyone and we support everyone.
So my request of you is to help me put together the big list of small stuff (small, that is, in the minds of career politicians). What's important to you, as a mom, as a single mom, a single dad, as a new Canadian, as a student, as a brother or sister or grandparent?
Not everyone has access to Twitter or the Internet of course, but if you are reading this, then be the ambassador: ask your grandparent, your sister, your child – ask them what a Mayor should do to make your lives better on a day-to-day minute-by-minute basis.
Our current mayor may be good at telling the press that he's a great mayor, but I don't buy that. Only you as a citizen get to say if someone's performance is good enough, and that kind of honour has to be earned, not self-appointed.
So tell me, please, what is important to you, no matter how small.
This is your city. Your Mayor should be your servant, not your king. Let's make this happen.


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Women, crime and the justice system
Written by Anita de Klerk
Published in Women's Assembly
A gender-neutral approach within a male-oriented criminal justice system will not address the needs of women in prison, argues Anita de Klerk
From its inception, the criminal justice system in the UK has had the male deviant and offender at the heart of its thinking and delivery. The underpinning ethos of legislation is that of equality; a level playing field where we are all equal before the law.
However, when you consider the reality of the experience of women in prison, glaring injustices start to appear. The argument posited here is not that the over 13,500 women who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law weren't in need of punishment, but rather that the system itself is discriminatory and insufficient to deal with the already poor and marginalised women of British society.
It is a fact that women are far more marginalised in society than men. From unequal pay structures, to the role of women as traditional carers and primary child-rearers, to their reliance on welfare benefits due to relative economic inequality and poverty - women's oppression is real. In fact, one in five women in the UK are dependent on the state for child and tax credits, double that of men. This sexism is not alien to the criminal justice system and influences the punishment, sentencing and imprisonment of the socially-constructed 'mad not bad' criminal woman who defies conformity and is no benefit to society.
'Gender-neutral' treatment
Under the Equality Act 2010, it became the duty of the state, its agents and the market to promote gender equality and actively work towards the elimination of unlawful discrimination between men and women, offering a 'gender-neutral' approach.
Under Chris Grayling's new Transforming Rehabilitation Programme, the amended Offender Rehabilitation Bill requires that the Secretary of State ensure that arrangements for supervision and rehabilitation services comply with the equality duty in relation to female offenders.
Although this gender-neutral approach is progress from the archaic notion that women offenders need harsher punishments because they disgrace the female population of home-makers, it does not address the issues of the women who face the criminal justice system in the UK and does not go far enough in understanding the differing gendered pathways to prison experienced between men and women.
The experience of women in prison
Of the overall prison population, 9% are women, and 81% of whom had committed non-violent theft related offences, more than twice that of the male prison population. Over half of women in prison have been victims of domestic abuse and a third have suffered sexual abuse. 28% of women in prison are serving less than 12-month sentences compared to 12% of men, and over a quarter of female offenders in prison are first-time offenders, again compared to 12% of the male prison population. 40% of women who enter prison are mothers and one-fifth of the total female prison population are single parents.
According to a Home Office study in 2009, 85% of mothers in prison had never experienced a prolonged separation from their children and found that imprisoning mothers had a significantly damaging impact on their children, costing over £17 million over a 10-year period. Due to the number of women's prisons, the average distance between a woman's prison and home is 60 miles, with some women experiencing distances of over 100 miles, presenting difficulties for the women to maintain contact with their children.
The female offender
According to the British Crime Survey in England and Wales 2012/2013, the UK saw a 4% increase in shoplifting, up by over 11,000. Yet the overall crime rate had dropped by 10%. A gender-based crime analysis exposed that the increase in shoplifting was due to an increase in first-time female offenders who were stealing food, and who were suffering the impacts of the £15 billion in cuts already made to the welfare system, three-quarters of which is taken from women's budgets.
Within current criminal justice policy debates women, crime and how to deal with the female offender, the focus still rests between both the 'chivalrous hypothesis' (that argues that women are treated more leniently as a function of the male desire to protect the weaker sex) and the 'evil woman hypothesis' (that asserts the notion that women are treated more harshly due to gender role expectations). These debates do not address the issue that women do not share the same pathway to prison as their male counterparts and therefore are not equal before the law and should not be judged by it.
A gender-neutral approach does nothing but paper over the cracks of inequality found in the criminal justice system. We need a revolutionary criminal justice system that addresses the needs of the women who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, and not a redesign of the current male-orientated system.
Marxism, Social Reproduction and Women's Liberation with Lindsey German and Kate Connelly - video
The tampon tax is misogynist: what we can do to stop it
Anita de Klerk
Anita de Klerk is a lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy, Marxist activist and founder of the People's Flotilla Against Austerity.
Internet security or the preparation for a new gagging law?
The People's Flotilla launched with canal blockade protest
Why we need a People's Flotilla
Transforming or removing rehabilitation
PCCs: the Bobby's Bobby or the Fat Controller?
Desmond Tutu and Ayanda Kota snub war criminal Blair
South Africa: the story behind a brutal police massacre

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Sephardic Jews in America : A Diasporic History
by Aviva Ben-Ur
A significant number of Sephardic Jews, tracing their remote origins to Spain and Portugal, immigrated to the United States from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans from 1880 through the 1920s, joined by a smaller number of Mizrahi Jews arriving from Arab lands. Most Sephardim settled in New York, establishing the leading Judeo-Spanish community outside the Ottoman Empire. With their distinct languages, cultures, and rituals, Sephardim and Arab-speaking Mizrahim were not readily recognized as Jews by their Ashkenazic coreligionists. At the same time, they forged alliances outside Jewish circles with Hispanics and Arabs, with whom they shared significant cultural and linguistic ties.
The failure among Ashkenazic Jews to recognize Sephardim and Mizrahim as fellow Jews continues today. More often than not, these Jewish communities are simply absent from portrayals of American Jewry. Drawing on primary sources such as the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) press, archival documents, and oral histories, Sephardic Jews in America offers the first book-length academic treatment of their history in the United States, from 1654 to the present, focusing on the age of mass immigration.
Sephardic Jews in America (Paperback)
Publisher: New York University Press $29.00 2 copies from $31.19
More About Sephardic Jews in America by Aviva Ben-Ur
Publisher: New York University Press
Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
Judaism - History
Anthropology - Cultural & Social


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Highland Dress and Armour
From an article in the Celtic Magazine 1882.
NOTES ON THE HIGHLAND DRESS AND ARMOUR.
THE notes on the Antiquity of Tartan, which appeared in our last issue, suggested to us the idea of publishing the following notices of the Highland dress and armour, collected from various sources, and arranged for the Transactions of the "lona Club." We give the translations only, where the original was in Latin, from the Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis, now a very rare and expensive work:-
No peculiarity of the Scottish Highlanders has been the subject of so much controversy as their dress. It is not at present intended to enter into a detail of the opinions that have been at different times expressed on this subject, as it is conceived that, to enable the enquirer to come to a satisfactory conclusion, the best method is first to place before him, in juxtaposition and in chronological order, the various descriptions of the costume of the Highlanders, which can be gathered from books or manuscripts. To these will be added the descriptions of their armour, defensive and offensive, which it would be difficult in most cases to separate from the former.
The earliest allusion to the Highland dress which the editor has met with is in Magnus Berfaet's Saga (the history of that celebrated Norwegian King, written shortly after his death), under the year 1093, being the year in which he conquered the Western Isles, or rather forced them anew to acknowledge the supremacy of Norway, which some late Kings of the Isles had affected to disclaim. The following passage is literally translated from the Norse Saga:—
A.D. 1093.—It is said when King Magnus returned from his expedition to the West, that he adopted the costume in use in the western lands, and likewise many of his followers; that they went about barelegged, having short tunics and also upper garments; and so many men called him Barelegged or Barefoot.
A period of upwards of three centuries now intervenes before we meet with any description of the Highland dress or armour.
Andrew Wyntown, prior of Lochleven, who wrote about 1420, speaks on more than one occasion in his metrical Chronicle of "the wyld wykleyd Helandmen;" and under the year 1396, in reference to the celebrated combat of thirty Highlanders against thirty, fought on the North Inch of Perth in that year, in presence of King Robert III. and his Court, in order to settle the disputes of two contending clans, he uses these words (vol. ii., p.374):—
At Sanct Johnestone besid the Freria
All thai entrit in Barrens
Wyth Bow and Axe, Knyf and Swerd
To deil amang thaim thar last word.
Abbot Bower or Bowmaker (the continuator of Fordun's Scotichronicon) wrote in the reign of James II. of Scotland; and, in describing ,the arrangements for the above-mentioned noted combat in 1396, says (vol. II, p. 420) that it was to be fought
By thirty men against thirty of the opposite party, armed only with swords, bows and arrows, without mantles or other armour except axes; and thus encountering that they should end their disputes, and that peace should be established in the country.
The historian, John Major, who wrote in 1512, notices the Highland dress in two different parts of his work. At p. 34 (Edit. Edinburgh, 1740, 40.), talking of the Highlanders generally, thus describes their dress and armour:-
From the middle of the thigh to the foot they have no covering for the leg, clothing themselves with a mantle instead of an upper garment, and a shirt died with saffron. They always carry a how and arrows, a very broad sword with a small halbert, a large dagger, sharpened on one side only but very sharp, under the belt. In time of war they cover their whole body with a shirt of mail of iron rings, and fight in that. The common people of the Highland Scots rush into battle, having their body clothed with a linen garment manifoldly sewed and painted or daubed with pitch, with a covering of deerskin.
At p. 302, after mentioning the defection of the Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron from Alexander Lord of the Isles, who, in 1492, had raised the standard of rebellion against James I., Major thus describes the customs of these clans, and it may be presumed of the Highlanders at large:-
They pass their days merrily in idleness, living upon the goods of the poor. They use a bow and quiver, and a halbert well sharpened, as they possess good veins of native iron. They carry large daggers placed under the belt; their legs are frequently naked under the thigh; in winter they carry a mantle for an upper garment.
In the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in August 1538, we find the following entries regarding a Highland dress made for King James V., on the occasion of that Monarch making a hunting excursion to the Highlands:-
The following passage, showing how the Highlanders came to be denominated Reds/lanks, is extracted from the curious letter of John Elder, a Highland priest, to King Henry VIII., anno 1543. The letter itself has been printed at full length in the Coflectanea de Rebus Albanicis, vol. 1., pp. 23 to 32
Moreover, wherfor they call us in Scotland Reddshankes, and in your Graces dominion of England, roghe footide Scottis, Pleas it your Mjestie to unrIerstande, that we of all people can tollerat, suffir, and away best with colde, for bjthe somer and wyntir, (excepte whene the froest is most vehemonte,) goynge alwaies ir leggide and hair footide, our delite and pleasure i9 not onely in huotynge of redd deir, wolfes, foxes, and graies, whereof we abounde, and have greate plentie, but also in rynninge, leapinge, swymmynge, shootynge, and thrawinge of dartis: therefor, in so moche as we use and clelite so to go alwaies, the tendir delicatt gentilimen of Scotland call us Redsbankes. And agayne in wynter, whene the froest is mooste vehement (as I have saide) which we can not suffir hair footide, so veill as snow. whiche can never hurt us whene it cummes to our girdills, we go a huntynge, and after that we have slayne redd deir, we flaye of the skync, hey and hey, and settinge of our hair foote on the insyde thereof, for neide of cunnyge shoemakers, by your Graces pardon, we play the sutters; compasinge and measuringe so moche thereof, as shall retche up to our ancklers pryckynge the uppir part thereof also with holis, that the water may repass when it entrcs, and stretclüde up with a stronge thwange of the same, meitand above our saide ancklers, so, and pleas your noble Grace, we make our shoois: Therfor, we usinge such maner of shoois, the roghe hairie syde outwart, in your Graces dominion of England, we be callit roghe footide Scottis; which maner of schoois (and pleas your Highnes) in Latyn be caUit perone.c, wherof the poet Virgin makis mencioun, saying, That the olde auncient Latyns in tyme of wars uside suche maner of schoos. And althoughe a greate sorte of us Reddshankes go after this maner in our countrethe, )-cit never the lea, and pleas your Grace, whene we come to the courte (the Kinges grace our greate master being alyve) waitinge on our Lordes and maisters, who also, for velvetis and silkis be right well araide, we have as good garmentis as some of our fellowis whihe gyve attendance in the court every daye.
In the account of the campaigns of the French auxiliaries in Scotland in 1548-1540, given by Monsieur Jean de Beaugué, one of the French officers, and first published at Paris in 1556, under the title of "L'Historie de la Guerre d' Ecosse," the dress and arms of some Highlanders who were present at the siege of Haddington by the French in 1549 are thus described (fol. 22, b.):—
Several Highlanders (or Wild Scots) followed them (the Scottish army), and they were naked except their stained shirts, and a certain light covering made of wool of various colours; carrying large bows, and similar swords and bucklers to the others, i.e., to the Lowlanders.
In the year 1552, an Act of Privy Council was passed for the levy of two regiments of Highlanders, to form part of a body of Scottish auxiliaries about to proceed to the assistance of the King of France; and the Earl of Huntly being Lieutenant of the North Highlands, where these men were to be raised, was directed to see that the Highland soldiers were:
Substantiouslie accompturit with jack and plait, steillbonett, sword, hucklair, new hois and new doublett of canvouse at the lest; and slevis of plait orsplenttis, and ane spear of sax clue lang or thairby.
Lindsay of Pitscottie, who wrote his history about the year 1573, says of the Highland dress :-
The other pairts (of Scotland) northerne ar fuh of montaines, and very rud and homlie kyrid of people doeth inhabite, which is called the Reidschankis or Wyld Scottis. They be cloathed with ane mantle, with ane shirt sallroned after the Irisch manner, going bair legged to the knee. Thair weapones ar bowis and dartes, with ane verie broad sword and ane dagger scharp onlie at the on syde.
An Act of Parliament, anno 1574, under the Regency of the Earl of Morton, directing a general weapons/zawing throughout Scotland, makes a distinction between the arms of the lesser gentlemen and yeoman in the Lowlands and those in the Highlands, as under:-
Lawland Arms.—Brigantinis, jakkis, steilbonettis, slevis of plate or mailye, swerdis, pikkis, or speris of sex elnis lang, culveringis, halbertis or tua handit swerdis.
Highland Arms.—Habirschonis, steilbonettis, hektonis, swerdis, bowls and tiorlochis or culveringis.
John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, who published his work "De origine, moribus et rebus gestis Scotorum," at Rome in 1578, thus describes the arms and dress of the old Scots, which were still in his time used by the Highlanders and Islanders (pp.56-58):—
In battle and hostile encounter their missile weapons were a lance or arrows. They used also a two-edged sword, which with the foot soldiers was pretty long, and short for the horse; both had it broad, and with an edge so exceeding sharp that at one blow it would easily cut a man in two. For defence, they used a coat of mail woven of iron rings, which they wore over a leather jerkin, stout and of handsome appearance, which we call an acton. Their whole armour was light, that they might the more easily slip from their enemies' hands if they chanced to fall into such a strait.
Their clothing was made for use (being chiefly suited to war) and not for ornament. All, both nobles and common people, wore mantles of one sort (except that the nobles preferred those of several colours). These were long and flowing, but capable of being neatly gathered up at pleasure into folds. I am inclined to believe that they were the same as those to which the ancients gave the name of brachae. Wrapped up in these for their only covering, they would sleep comfortably. They had also shaggy rugs, such as the Irish use at the present day, some fitted for a journey, others to he placed on a bed. The rest of their garments consisted of a short woollen jacket, with the sleeves open below for the convenience of throwing their darts, and a covering for the thighs of the simplest kind, more for decency than for show or a defence against cold. They made also of linen very large shirts, with numerous folds and wide sleeves, which flowed abroad loosely to their knees. These, the rich coloured with saffron, and others smeared with some greese to preserve thdm longer clean among the toils and exercises of a camp, which they held it of the highest consequence to practife continually. In the manufacture of these, ornament and a certain attention to taste were not altogether neglected, and they joined the different parts of their shirts very neatly with silk thread, chiefly of a green or red colour.
Their women's attire was very becoming. Over a gown reaching to the andes, and generally embroidered, they wore large mantles of the kind already described, and woven of different colours. Their chief ornaments were the braclets and neck. laces with which they decorated their arms and necks.
George Buchanan in his history of Scotland, first published in 1582, gives the following description of the dress and armour of the Highlanders (Edit. Ultrajecti, 1669, 8vo, p. 24).-
They delight in marled clothes, specially that have long stripes of sundry colours; they love chiefly purple and blew. Their predecessors used short mantles or plaids of divers colours sundry waies devided; and amongst some, the same custom is observed to this day: but for the most part now they are browne, most nere to the colour of the hadder; to the effect, when they lie amongst the hadder, the bright colour of their plaids shall not bewray them; with the which, rather coloured than clad, they suffer the most cruel tempests that blowe in the open field in such sort, that under a wrythe of snow, they sleepe sound. . . . Their armour wherewith they cover their bodies in time of warre, is an iron bonnet and an habbergion, side almost even to their heeleF. Their weapons against their enemies are howes and arrowes. The arrowes are for tl;e most part booked, with a barbie on either side, which, once entered within the body, cannot be drawne forth againe, unless the wounde be made wider. Some of them fight with broad swords and axes.
Nicolay d' Arfeville, Cosmographer to the King of France, published at Paris, in the year 1583, a volume entitled, "La Navigation du Roy d' Ecosse Jaques Cinquicsme du nom, autour de son Royaume, et Isles Hebrides and Orchades, soubz la conduicte d' Alexandre Lyndsay, excellent Pilote Ecossois." There is prefixed a description, evidently by d' Arfeville himself, of "the Island and Kingdom of Scotland," from which the following is an extract:
Those who inhabit Scotland to the south of the Grampian chain are tolerably civilized and obedient to the laws, and speak the English language; but those who inhabit the north are more rude, homely, and unruly, and for this reason are called savages (or wild Scots). They wear, like the Irish, a large and full shirt, coloured with saffron, and over this a garment hanging to the knee, of thick wool, after the manner of a cassock. They go with bare heads, and allow their hair to grow very long, and they wear neither stockings nor shoes, except some who have buskins made in a very old fashion, which come as high as their knees. Their arms are the bow and arrow, and some darts, which they throw with great dexterity, and a large sword, with a single-eged dagger. They are very swift of foot, and there is no horse so swift as to outstrip them, as I have seen proved several times, both in England and Scotland.
In a MS. History of the Gordons, by W. R,, preserved in the Advocates' Library (Jac. 5th, 7, ii), the following anecdote is given, as occurring about the year 1591 or 1592 :-
Angus, the son of Lauclan Macintosh, Chiefe of the Clanchattan, with a great party attempts to surprise the Castle of Ruthven in Badenoch, belonging to Huntly, in which there was but a small garrison; but finding this attempt could neither by force nor fraude have successe, he retires a little to consult how to compass his intent. In the meantime, one creeps out under the shelter of some old ruins, and levels with his piece at one of the Clanchattan cloathed in a yellow warr coal (which amongst them is the badge of the cheiftains or heads of clans), and peircing his body with the bullet, stricks him to the ground, and retires with gladness into the castle. The man killed was Angus himself, whom his people carry away, and conceills his death for many yeirs, pretending he was gone beyond seas.
In 1594, when Red Hugh O'Donnell, Lord of Tirconall in Ulster, was in rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, he was assisted for some time by a body of auxiliaries from the Hebrides. These warriors are described in the following terms, in the Life of Hugh O'Donnell, originally written in Irish by Peregrine O'Clery, and since translated by the late Edward O'Reilly, Esq. The curious extract from Mr O'Reilly's translation which follows was communicated to the editor by John D'Alton, Esq., barrister-at-law, Dublin :-
These (the auxiliaries from the Isles) were afterwards mixed with the Irish militia, with the diversity of their arms, their armour, their mode, manners, and speech. The outward clothing they wore was a mottled garment with numerous colours hanging in folds to the calf of the leg, with a girdle round the loins over the garment. Some of them with horn-hafted swords, large and military, over their shoulders. A man when he had to strike with them was obliged to apply both his hands to the haft. Others with bows, well polished, strong, and serviceable, with long twanging hempen strings, and sharp pointed arrows that whizzed in their flight.
Camden in his Britannia, first published in 1607, gives the following description of the Highland dress and armour:-
They are clothed after the Irish fashion, in striped mantles, with their hair thick and long. In war they wear an iron head-piece and a coat of mail woven with iron rings; and they use bows and barbed arrows and broad swords.
John Taylor, "the King's Majestic's Water Poet," made an excursion to Scotland in the year 1618, of which he published an amusing narrative under the title of "The Pennylesse Pilgrimage." He describes the dress of the Highlanders in the following account he gives of his visit to Braemar for the purpose of paying his respects to the Earl of Mar and Sir William Moray of Abercaimey (Taylor's Works, London, 1633, folio) :-
Thus, with extreme travell, ascending and descending, mounting and alighting, I came at night to the place where I would be, in the Brae of Marr, which is a large country, all composed of such mountaines, that Shooter's lull, or Malvernes Hills, are but mole-hills in comparison, or like a liver or a gizzard under a capon's wing, in respect to the altitude of their tops or perpendicularitie of their bottomes. There I saw Mount Benawue with a furrd'd mist upon his snowy head instead of a night-cap; for you must understand that the oldest man alive never saw but the snow was on the top of divers of those hills (both in summer as well as in winter.) There did I find the trudy noble and Rigbt Honourable Lords John Erskine, Earle of Marr, James Stuart, Earle of Murray, George Gordon, Earle of Engye, sonne and heire to the Marquise of Huntley, James Erskin, Earle of Bughan, and John Lord Erakin, sonne and heire to the Earle of Marr, with their Countesses, with my much honoured, and my best assured and approved friend, Sir William Murray, Knight, of Aberca.rny, and hundred of others, knights, esquires, and their followers; all and every man in general in one habit, as if Licurgus had been there and made lawes of equality. For once in the yeere, which is the whole moneth of August, and sometimes part of September, many of the nobility and gentry of the kingdome (for their pleasure) doe come into these Highland countries to hunt, where they doe conforme themselves to the habite of the Highland men, who, for the rnoste part, speake nothing but Irish; and in former time were those people which were called red-shanks. Their habite is shooes with but one sole apiece; stockings (which they call short hose) made of a warme stuff of divers colours, which they call tartane. As for breeches, many of them, nor their forefathers, never wore any, but a jerkin of the same stuffe that their hose is of, their garters being bands or wreathes of hay or straw, with a plaed about their shoulders, which is a mantle of divers colours, much finer and lighter stuffe than their hose, with blue fiat caps on their heads, a handkerchiefe knit with two knots about their uecks; and thus are they attyred. Now, their weapons are long bowes and forked arrowes, swords and targets, harquebusses, muskets, durks, and Loquhabor-ases. With these arms I found many of them armed for the hunting. As for their attire, any man of what degree soever that comes amongst them must not disdaine to weare it; for if they doe, then they will disdaine to hunt, or willingly bring in their dogges; but if men be kind unto them, and be in their habite, then are they conquered with kindnesses and sport will be plentifull. This was the reason that I found so many noblemen and gentlemen in those shapes. But to proceed to the hunting.
My good Lord of Marr having put me into that shape, I rode with him from his house, where I saw the mines of an old castle, called the castle of Kindroghit. It was built by King Malcolm Canmore (for a hunting house), who raigned in Scotland when Edward the Confessor, Harrold, and Norman William raigned in England. I speak of it, because it was the last house I saw in those parts; for I was the space of twelve dayes after, before I saw either house, come-field, or habitation for any creature, but deere, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures, which made me doubt that I should never have seene a house againe.
Defoe, in his "Memoirs of a Cavalier," written about 1721, and obviously composed from authentic material, thus describes the Highland part of the Scottish army which invaded England in 1639, at the commencement of the great civil war. The Cavalier having paid a visit to the Scottish camp to satisfy his curiosity, proceeds (Edit. 1809, P. 201):-
I confess the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially the Highlanders; the oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemed to have something in it remarkable. They were generally tall, swinging fellows; their swords were extravagantly and I think insignificantly broad, and they carried great wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of their bodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads, called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and their doublet, breeches, and stockings of a stuff they call plaid, stripped across red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These flows looked, when drawn out, like a regiment of Merry-Andrews ready for Bartholomew fair. There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots army, armed only with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had a pistol, but no musquets at that time among them.
IN the beginning of 1678, a body of Highlanders, "the Highland Host," as it was called, amounting to about io,00o men, were brought from their native mountains and quartered upon the western counties, for the purpose of suppressing the field meetings and conventicles of the Presbyterians. But their irregular and disorderly conduct soon made it necessary for Government to disband them; and therefore we need the less wonder that they should on this occasion be represented in satirical colours. The following is an extract from a letter (Wodrow MSS., Advocates' Library, 4to, vol. xcix., No. 29), dated February 1st, 1678, and evidently written by an eye-witness. The entire letter will be found in Blackwood's Magazine, April 1817, p. 68 :-
We are now quartered in and about this town (Ayr?), the Highlanders only in free quarters. It would be truly a pleasant sight, were it at an ordinary weaponshaw, to ice this Highland crew. You know the fashion of their wild apparel; not one of them bath breeches, yet hose and shoes are their greatest need and most clever prey, and they spare not to take them everywhere. In so much that the committee here and the Counsel with you (as it is said) have ordered some thousand pairs of shoes to be made to stand this great spoil. As for their armes and other militarie accoutrements, it is not possible for me to describe them in writing; here you may see bead-pieces and steel- bonnets raised like pyramids, and such as a man would affirme they had only found in chamber-boxes; targets and shields of the most odde and antique forme, and powder- horns, hung in strings, garnished with beaten nails and burnished brass. And truely I doubt not but a man curious in our antiquities might in this host linde explications of the strange pieces of armour mentioned in our old lawes, such as bosnet, iron hat, gorget, pesane, wambrassers and reerbrassers, panns, leg-splents, and the like, above what any occasion in the Lowlands would have afforded for several hundreds of yeers. Among the ensigns also, besides other singularities, the Glencow men were very remarkable, who had for their ensigne a faire bush of heath, wel.spred and displayed on the head of a staff, such as might have affrighted a Roman eagle.
William Cleland, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Earl of Angus' Regiment, who was killed while gallantly defending his post at Dunkeld against a party of Highlanders, soon after the Revolution, wrote a satirical poem upon the expedition of the Highland Host in 1678, from which the following extracts are taken (Collection of Poems. &c., 12mo, 1697, P.12):
William Sacheverell, Governor of the Isle of Man, who was employed in 1688 in the attempt to recover the stores of the Florida, one of the great vessels of the Spanish Armada (which was blown up and sunk in the harbour of Tobermory, in Mull, exactly a hundred years before), made in that year an excursion through the Isle of Mull, and thence to Icolmkill. In 1702 he published, at London, an account of this excursion, along with an account of the Isle of Man. At page 129 of this volume, he thus describes the dress, armour, and general appearance of the Highlanders as he saw them in the Isle of Mull in 1688.
During my stay, I generally observed the men to be large-bodied, stout, subtle, active, patient of cold and hunger. There appeared in all their actions a certain generous air of freedom, and contempt of those trifles, luxury and ambition, which we so servilely creep after. They bound their appetites by their necessities, and their happiness consists, not in having much, but in coveting little. The women seem to have the same sentiments with the men; though their habits were mean, and they had not our sort of breeding, yet in many of them there was a natural beauty and graceful modesty, which never fails of attracting. The usual outward habit of both sexes is the pladd; the women's much finer, the colours more lively, and the squares larger than the men's, and put me in mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil, and covers both head and body. The men wear theirs after another fashion, especially when designed for ornament; it is loose and flowing, like the mantles our painters give their heroes. Their thighs are bare, with brawny muscles. Nature has drawn all her stroakes bold and masterly; what is covered is only adapted to necessity. A thin brogue on the foot, a short buskin of vanous colours on the legg, tied above the calf with a striped pair of garters. What should be concealed is hid with a large shot-pouch, on each side of which bangs a pistol and a dagger, as if they found it necessary to keep those parts well guarded. A round target on their backs, a blew bonnet on their heads, in one hand a broadsword and a musquet in the other. Perhaps no nation goes better armed; and I assure you they will handle them with bravery and dexterity, especially the sword and target, as our veterane regiments found to their cost at Gillecrankee.
The Rev. James Brome, in his travels over England, Scotland, and Wales, published at London, in 1700, 8vo, gives (p. 183) the following description of the Highland dress and armour, which, although partly translated from Buchanan, has yet in it something original :-
The Highlanders who inhabit the west part of the country, in their language, habit, and manners, agree much with the customs of the wild Irish, and their chief city is Elgin, in the county of Murray, seated upon the water of Lossy, formerly the Bishop of Murray's seat, with a church sumptuously built, but now gone into decay. They go habited in mantles striped or streaked with divers colours about their shoulders, which they call pladden, with a coat girt close to their bodies, and commonly are naked upon their legs, but wear sandals upon the soles of their feet, and their women go clad much after the same fashion. They get their living mostly by hunting, fishing, and fowling; and when they go to war, the armour wherewith they cover their bodies is a morion or bonnet of iron, and an hatergeon which comes down almost to their very heels; their weapons against their enemies are bows and arrows, and they are generally reputed good marksmen upon all occasions. Their arrows for the most part are barbed and crooked, which once entered within the body, cannot well be drawn out again unless the wound be made wider. Some of them fight with broadswords and axes.
In Martin's description of the Western Isles of Scotland (second edition, London, 1716, p. 206), we find the following minute account of the dress formerly worn by the Islanders The first habit wore by persons of distinction in the islands was the lcni-croich, from the Irish word fern; which signifies a shirt, and croich, saffron, because their shirt was dyed with that herb. The ordinary number of ells used to make this robe was twenty-four; it was the upper garb, reaching below the knees, and was tied with a belt round the middle; but the Islanders have laid it aside about a hundred years ago.
They now generally use coat, waistcoat, and breeches, as elsewhere; and on their heads wear bonnets made of thick cloth, some blue, some black, and some grey.
Many of the people wear trowis; some have them very fine woven, like stockings of those made of cloth; some are coloured, and others striped; the latter are as well shaped as the former, lying close to the body from the middle downwards, and tied round with a belt above the haunches. There is a square piece of cloth which hangs down before. The measure for shaping the trowis is a stick of wood, whose length is a cubit, and that divided into the length of a finger, and half a finger, so that it requires more skill to make it than the ordinary habit.
The shoes anciently wore were a piece of the hide of a deer, cow, or horse, with the hair on, being tied behind and before with a point of leather. The generality now wear shoes, having one thin sole only, and shaped after the right and left foot; so that what is for one foot will not serve for the other. But persons of distinction wear the garb in fashion in the south of Scotland.
The plai4 wore only by the men, is made of fine wool, the thred as fine as can be made of that kind; it consists of divers colours, and there is a great deal of ingenuity required in sorting the colours, so as to be agreeable to the nicest fancy. For this reason the women are at great pains, first to give an exact pattern of the plad upon a piece of wood, having the number of every thred of the stripe on it. The length of it is commonly seven double ells; the one end hangs by the middle over the left arm, the other going round the body, hangs by the end over the left arm also; the right hand above it is to be at liberty to do anything upon occasion. Every isle differs from each other in the fancy of making plads, as to the stripes in breadth and colours. This humour is as different through the mainland of the Highlands, in so far that they who have seen those places are able, at the first view of a man's plad, to guess the place of his residence. When they travel on foot, the plad is tied on the breast with a bodkin of bone or wood (just as the spina wore by the Germans, according to the description of Tacitus). The plad is tied round the middle with a leather belt; it is pleated from the belt to the knee very nicely. This dress for footmen is found much easier and lighter than breeches or trowis. The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet worn by some of the vulgar, called arisad is a white plad, having a few small stripes of black, blue, and red. It reached from the neck to the heels, and was tied before on the breast with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred marks' value; it was broad as an ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraved with various animals, &c. There was a lesser buckle, which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the centre a large piece of chrystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all round with several finer stones of a lesser size.
The plad being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate, about eight inches long and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red coral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons set with fine stones.
The head-dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait about the bead, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands.
The ancient way of fighting was by set battles; and for arms some had broad two-handed swords and beadpieces, and others bows and arrows. When all their arrows were spent, they attacked one another with sword-in-hand. Since the invention of guns, they are very early accustomed to use them, and carry their pieces with them wherever they go; they likewise learn to handle the broad-sword and target. The chief of each tribe advances with his followers within shot of the enemy, having first laid aside their upper garments; and after one general discharge, they attack them with sword-in-hand, having their target on their left hand (as they did at Keliernkey), which soon brings the matter to an issue, and verifies the observation made of them by your historians :—Aut Mars cito, aist Victoria lata.
The following is the description of the Highland dress given by Captain Burt, an English officer of engineers, employed under Marshal Wade on the military roads through the Highlands, begun in the year 1726. It is taken from his amusing work, "Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland" (2d edition, London, 1759), to which such frequent reference has been made in the works of Sir Walter Scott :-
The Highland dress consists of a bonnet made of thrum without a brim, a short coat, a waistcoat, longer by five or six inches, short stockings and brogues, or pumps, without heels. By the way, they cut holes in their brogues though new made, to let out the water when they have far to go, and rivers to pass; thus they do to prevent their feet from galling.
Few besides gentlemen wear the trowze, that is the breeches and stockings all of one piece and drawn on together; over this habit they wear a plaid, which is usually three yards long and two breadths wide, and the whole garb is made of chequered tartan or plaiding; thus, with the sword and pistol, is called a full dress, and to a well-proportioned man, with any tolerable air, it makes an agreeable figure; but this you have seen in London, and it is chiefly their mode of dressing when they are in the Lowlands, or when they make a neighbouring visit, or go anywhere on horseback; but those among them who travel on foot, and have not attendants to carry them over the waters, vary it into the quelt, which is a manner I am about to describe.
The commoner habit of the ordinary Highlanders is far from being acceptable to the eye; with them a small part of the plaid, which is not so large as the former, is set in folds and girt round the waist to make of it a short petticoat that reaches halfway down the thigh, and the rest is brought over the shoulder, and then fastened before below the neck, often with a fork and sometimes with a bodkin or sharpened piece of stick, so that they make pretty near the appearance of the people in London, when they bring their gowns over their heads to shelter them from the rain. In this way of wearing the plaid, they have nothing else to cover them, and are often barefoot, but some I have seen- shod with a kind of pumps made out of a raw cow hide with the hair turned outward, which being ill made, the wearer's foot looked something like a rough-footed hen or pigeon. These are called quaxiants, and are not only offensive to the sight, but intolerable to the smell of those who are near them. The stocking rises, no higher than the thick of the calf, and from the middle of the thigh to the middle of the leg is a naked space, which, being exposed to all weathers, becomes tanned and freckled..—(Vol. ii., p. 183.)
The plaid is the undress of the ladies at Inverness, and to a genteel woman who adjusts it with a good air, is a becoming veil. But as I am pretty sure you never saw one of them in England, I shall employ a few words to describe it to you. It is made of silk or fine worsted, chequered with various lively colours, two breadths wide, and three yards in length; it is brought over the head, and may hide or discover the face according to the wearer's fancy or occasion; it reaches to the waist behind; one corner falls as low as the ancle on one side; and the other part in folds hangs down from the opposite arm.—( Vol. i., p. 100.)
The ordinary girls wear nothing upon their heads until they are married or get a child, except sometimes a fillet of red or blue coarse cloth, of which they are very proud; but often their hair hangs down over the forehead, like that of a wild colt.
If they wear stockings, which is very rare, they lay them in plaits. one above another, from the ankle up to the calf; to make their legs appear, as near as they can, in the form of a cylinder; but I think I have seen something like this among the poor German refugee women and the Moorish men in London.—(Vol. ii., p. i94.)
The same author thus describes the arms:
When any one of them is armed at all points, heis loaded with a target, a firelock, a heavy broadsword, a pistol-stock, and lock of iron, a dirk; and besides all these, some of them carry a sort of knife, which they call a skeen.accles [sgian achiaf:), from its being concealed in the sleeve near the armpit.—(p. 222.)
The blade [of the dirk) is straight, and generally above a foot long, the back near an inch thick; the point goes off like a tuck, and the handle is something like that of a sickle. They pretend that they can't well do without it, as being useful to them in cutting wood, and upon many othes occasions; but it is a concealed mischief hid under the plaid, ready for the secret stabbing, and in a close encounter there is no defence against it.—(p. 174.)
Mr Gough, in his additions to Camden's Britannica (Edit. London, 1789, vol. iii., P. 390), gives the following accurate description of the Highland dress and armour, as they were to be found in the district of Breadalbane previous to the proscription of the dress :-
The dress of the men is the brechan or plaid, twelve or thirteen yards of narrow stuff, wrapped round the middle, and reaching to the knees, often girt round the waist, and in cold weather covering the whole body, even on the open hills, all night, and fastened on the shoulders with a broche; short stockings tied below the knee; Iruish, a genteeler kind of breeches, and stockings of one piece; cuoranen, a laced shoe of skin, with the hairy side out, rather disused; kelt orJillebeg, g.d., little plaid, or short petticoat, reaching to the knees, substituted of late to the longer end of the plaid; and lastly, the pouch of badger or other skin, with tassels hanging before them. The Loc/a&r axe, used now only by the Town Guard of Edinburgh, was a tremendous weapon. bows and arrows were in use in the middle of the last century, now, as well.
as the broadsword and target, laid aside since the disarming act, but the dirk, or ancient puglo, is still worn as a dress with the knife and fork.
The women's dress is the kirch, or white linen pinned round behind like a hood, and over the foreheads of married women, whereas maidens wear only a swod or ribbon round their heads; the tanac or plaid fastened over their shoulders, and drawn over their heads in bad weather; a Plaited long stocking, called ossan, is their high dress.
The following detail of the complete equipment of a Highland chief, and instructions for belting the plaid, were communicated by a Highland gentleman to Charles Grant, vzcomte de Vaux, &c., &c., by whom they were printed in his "Mémoires de la Maison de Grant," in 1796 (pp. 6-7):---
1. A full-trimmed bonnet.
2. A tartan jacket, vest, kilt, and cross belt.
3. A tartan belted plaid.
4. A pair of hose, made up [of cloth].
5. A pair of stockings, do., with yellow garters.
6. Two pair of brogs.
7. A silver mounted purse and belt.
8. A target with spear.
9. A broadsword.
10. A pair of pistols and bullet mould.
11. A dirk, knife, fork, and belt.
METHOD OF BELTING THE PLAID.—Being sewed, and the broad belt within the keepers, the gentleman stands with nothing on but his shirt; when the servant gets the plaid and belt round, he must hold both ends of the belt, till the gentleman adjusts and puts across, in a proper manner, the two folds or flaps before; that done, he tightens the belt to the degree wanted; Olen the purse and purse-belt is put on loosely; afterwards, the coat and waistcoat is put on, and the great low part hanging down behind, where a loop is fixed, is to be pinned up to the right shoulder, immediately under the shoulder-strap, pinned in such a manner that the corner, or low- flyer behind, hang as low as the kilt or hough, and no lower; that properly adjusted, the pointed corner or flap that hangs at the left thigh, to be taken through the purse belt, and to hang, having a cast back very near as low as the belt, putting at the same time any awkward bulky part of the plaid on the left side back from the haunch, stuffed under the purse-belt. When the shoulder or sword belt is put on, the flyer that hangs behind is to be taken through, and hung over the shoulder-belt.
N.B.—No kilt ought ever to hang lower than the bough or knee—scarcely that far down.
[We make a present of these Notes to those ignorant Cockney scribblers, and their unpatriotic Highland and Scottish imitators, who, "to earn an honest penny," in Southern organs, belie their country and its history, by, among other things, imposing on their credulous readers, insisting that the Kilt and the Highland Dress are the modern inventions of an Englishman.]


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UAVs Attacked Hmeymim Base From "Moderate Opposition"-Controlled Area
Filed under: politics,Russian,USA,war and conflict — 01varvara @ 00.00
Tags: American aggression, American terrorism, drone, ISIS, Middle East, Middle Eastern, Minoborony, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, Russian Defence Ministry, Syria, Syrian Civil War, terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, UAV, United States, USA, war and conflict
On Wednesday, Krasnaya Zvezda, , the official Minoborony Rossii newspaper, reported that the UAVs that attacked Hmeymim air base earlier this month came from an area in the southwestern part of the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by the so-called "moderate opposition". The Minoborony stated that terrorists used 13 UAVs in an attempted attack on two Russian military facilities in Syria on 6 January. Ten of them targeted the Hmeymim air base and three targeted the Tartus naval base. An official statement noted:
We established that the launch of the UAVs was carried out from the area of  Muazar, located in the southwestern part of the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by "moderate opposition" armed formations.
In connection with this incident, the Minoborony sent letters to General Hulusi Akar, the Turkish Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff, and Hakan Fidan, the Head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation. The statement added:
The documents indicated the need for Ankara to fulfil its obligations to ensure compliance with the ceasefire by the armed formations under its control and to step up work on the installation of observation posts in the Idlib de-escalation zone in order to prevent such attacks by UAVs against any objects.
On Monday, the Minoborony stated that our forces had taken control over six out of the 13 drones involved in the 6 January attempted attack in Syria. Thus, Russian forces landed three UAVs in a controlled area, three other drones exploded after crashing, and Pantsir-S air defence systems destroyed seven other UAVs . Subsequently, the Pentagon said that the devices and technologies used for the drone attack are "easily accessible on the open market". This statement caused concern in the Minoborony.
https://sputniknews.com/military/201801101060634030-drones-attacked-hmeymim-moderate-opposition/
On Tuesday, a Minoborony Rossii source told us that they detected a US Navy P8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft cruising between Tartus and Hmeymim during a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria carried out by terrorists. They said:
It's a strange coincidence that during a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria, a US Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft cruised for more than four hours over the Mediterranean Sea at an altitude of 7,000 metres (23,000 feet).
Besides, the Minoborony voiced concern over statements made by a Pentagon spokesman, in which the American claimed that the technology used to attack the Russian military facilities was easily available on the open market. Our source stated:
The questions are:
what kind of technologies they meant
where that "open market" is
which special service sells space surveillance data
Our statement concerning the handover of technologies needed to carry out a UAV attack on Russian military facilities in Syria mentioned neither any particular country nor provided details of those technologies. The programming of systems to control UAVs to drop GPS-guided munitions requires completing engineering studies in a developed country. Besides, not everyone is capable of calculating exact coordinates using space surveillance data. We'd like to stress once again that terrorists didn't have anything of that kind until recently.
Earlier, the Minoborony Rossii reported that on 6 January, UAVs controlled by terrorists attacked Russian military facilities in Hmeymim and Tartus. The Russian forces either destroyed or took control of the UAVs used in the attack.
http://tass.com/defense/984293
The USA is flailing around blindly… it's trying to punish Russia and Iran for spoiling its little party in Syria. Firstly, they tried to foment riots in Iran. That fizzled. Then, they tried to use their proxies in Syria to attack the Russian bases. That failed, too. In short, the USA, far from regaining face, lost even more face as both Iran and Russia counted coup on them by defeating their amateurish blows. Remember how the Russians tore apart the "cruise missiles" that the USA launched against Syria? Well… if they were able to do that, it isn't surprising that they were able to repel this ludicrous attempt. Quite frankly, the Anglos' terrorist pals couldn't use the best technology… and the USA didn't want to risk having its best technology fall into the hands of the Russians (again… the Yanks never learn… the stuff that they sent to the Georgians and the Ukrainian junta all ended up in Russian hands after their goofball proxies abandoned it on the battlefield).
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Reports Say USA Plans to Recognise Kurdish Area in Syria 3-Times Size of Lebanon "Soon"
Filed under: civil unrest,politics,USA,war and conflict — 01varvara @ 00.00
Tags: American aggression, American terrorism, Bashar al-Assad, civil unrest, ISIS, Kurdish insurgency, Kurds, Middle East, Middle Eastern, Neoliberal, Neoliberalism, peace in the middle east, political commentary, politics, right-wing, Right-wing politics, Syria, Syrian armed forces, Syrian Civil War, terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, United States, USA, war and conflict
Government-controlled areas are in red… American-patsy Kurdish-controlled areas are in yellow
An unnamed senior Western official told the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that the plan to recognise the Kurdish area is part of a new strategy for Syria by the Trump administration. Washington is planning "concrete steps" toward providing a Syrian Democratic Forces-controlled area in northern Syria's eastern Euphrates area three times the size of Lebanon with diplomatic recognition.
The official said that the 28,000 square-kilometre (10,810 square-mile) area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a collection of predominantly-Kurdish militias including the YPG People's Protection Units, took its first step toward US recognition after US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis promised to send US diplomats to SDF-controlled areas to work alongside US troops operating in the region. They said that US initiatives in the region include empowering local councils, backing reconstruction efforts, assisting in training of government agency workers, improving public services and infrastructure, protecting SDF areas, and engaging in the upkeep of military bases, all of which will eventually lead to diplomatic recognition.
Last week, it was reported that a new "North Syrian Army", which included SDF formations and backed by the US-led coalition, was being created to carry out "border security duties" in territories under their control. Local media said that the militias would guard areas along the region's northern border with Turkey. The USA and its coalition allies are going to provide the new force with technical assistance, weapons, and training.
Kurdish forces have been in control over the de facto autonomous region commonly known as Rojava since 2013 amidst the civil conflict in Syria. During the war against Daesh and other terrorist groups, Syrian Army units mostly engaged in pragmatic cooperation with Kurdish forces. In September 2017, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Damascus would consider granting the Kurds greater autonomy once the war against the terrorists was over. At the same time, Damascus voiced its opposition to the US presence and operations on Syrian territory, including Rojava, saying that it does not accord with the principles of international law, including respect for Syria's territorial integrity. The Syrian government insisted that US operations inside Syria are illegal, since Damascus never invited them into the country.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801071060574215-us-recognition-kurdish-area-syria-reports/
The USA lost its bid to destabilise Syria when Assad smashed its ISIS proxies (with Russian, Iranian, and Hizbullah assistance). The USA wanted a puppet junta in Damascus (much like the gang of criminals it installed in Croatia, the Baltics, Kosovo, Libya, and the Ukraine) to clear the way for a Saudi/Bahraini pipeline to the Med. They failed in that. Ergo, they're trying to form a Kurdish puppet state out of portions of Syria and Iraq (the American project in Iraq failed… it's now pro-Iranian… so the USA wants to punish Iraq, too). Trump is an idiot… this'd drive Turkey out of NATO straight into Russia's embrace. No Turkish state will countenance any sort of Kurdish entity. Trump's stupidity blinds him to that. He's striking out blindly because he slammed his dick in the door in Syria… the USA lost big-time and its reputation (rightly) went into the toilet. He tried infiltrating provocateurs in Iran… that failed. He's going to try a Kurdish entity… that'd drive Turkey out of NATO. Is he going to try to get Israel to strike Lebanon to get back at Hizbullah? The level of asinine juvenile actions shown by Trump gives me little hope. May God protect the world from this blustering teenager (and from Clinton, too… she's worse).
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Konashenkov Called American Claims of Thousands Fleeing Deir ez-Zor After Its Liberation "Incoherent"
Tags: American aggression, American terrorism, civil unrest, Igor Konashenkov, ISIS, Middle East, Middle Eastern, Ministry of Defence (Russia), Minoborony, peace in the middle east, political commentary, politics, Syria, Syrian armed forces, Syrian Civil War, terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, United States, USA, war and conflict
The Minoborony Rossii denied US claims that thousands of Syrians fled the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor after government forces recaptured it. Minoborony spokesman Major-General Konashenkov said:
US-led Special Operations task force commander James Jarrard alleged that Arab residents were going to areas under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces. It was strange to hear the coalition's task force commander make a geographically absurd statement about "thousands of Arabs" fleeing Deiz ez-Zor to Mayadin in the south after [government forces] freed the city from IS [Daesh], but saying they were going north, rather than south, which is populated by Arabs.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201711021058743687-us-coalition-deir-ezzor-claims-absurd/
Anglo Americans are inveterate and hardened liars… their "culture" rewards it… "Winning is the only thing". Therefore, one has to take all public statements from Amerikantsy as false until proven true. On the other hand, Russians are more truthful… their culture doesn't reward mendacity and viciousness as much as America does. Mind you, a Russian will "spin" the truth or leave things out or keep quiet and lie doggo… but rarely will a Russian fib as openly and brazenly as Anglos do. Have a care… the Anglos not only lie, they believe their own lies. That's dangerous…
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1 October 2017. This is Syria's Response to Warmongering America
Tags: American aggression, American terrorism, Bashar al-Assad, Christianity in the Middle East, Christians in Middle East, civil unrest, ISIS, Middle East, Middle Eastern, Neoliberal, Neoliberalism, peace in the middle east, political commentary, politics, right-wing, Right-wing politics, Syria, Syrian armed forces, Syrian Civil War, terror, terrorism, terrorist, terrorists, United States, USA, war and conflict
Syria is winning the war against American-backed terrorists, with the aid of its allies (Russia, Iran, and Hizbullah). This angers the Anglo toddlers to no end. They're exceptional! They're unique! They're all-powerful! Well… Syria proved all of that to be unhinged bullshit. Far from succumbing to American pressures, the Syrian people came together to resist terror… which almost always comes with the label "Made in the USA". The USA is destroying its bases in Syria in an attempt to erase their blame for this war. It won't work. Everyone sees "Made in the USA" and "Made in Israel" on this conflict.
Syria responded to the USA. It withstood the test and trial. God bless Syria… God bless the Syrian people, of all faiths and nationalities… God bless Dr Bashar al-Assad, who stood tall when he had to. May we all do as well when a crisis comes…
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text:
Q: Checking for string in a combobox list I need to program my combobox in such a way that  when checkbox1 is clicked, "1" will be added into the combobox list, and if checkbox1 is unchecked, "1" will be removed from the list. Similarly for other checkboxes (eg. checkbox2, checkbox3, etc).
I can add "1" to the list, but am not sure what code should be used for checking and removing. This is how I have coded it:
void MyProject::OnBnClickedCheckBox1()
{
    if( //ComboBox list does not have "1")
    {
        CComboBox *pComboboxCam1 = (CComboBox *)(GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Combo));
        pComboboxCam1 = (CComboBox *)(GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Combo));
        pComboboxCam1->AddString(_T("1"));
    }
    else
        //Remove "1" from list
}

A: Use the CComboBox::FindString() or CComboBox::FindStringExact() method to find the index of the string, then use the CComboBox::DeleteString() method to remove it.
For example:
void MyProject::OnBnClickedCheckBox1()
{
    CButton *pCheckboxCam1 = (CButton*) GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Check);

    CComboBox *pComboboxCam1 = (CComboBox *) GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Combo);
    int index = pComboboxCam1->FindString(-1, _T("1"));

    if (pCheckboxCam1->GetCheck() == BST_CHECKED)
    {
        if (index < 0)
            pComboboxCam1->AddString(_T("1"));
    }
    else
    {
        if (index >= 0)
            pComboboxCam1->DeleteString(index);
    }
}

A: You should either use the FindString function or the FindStringExact function. They search for the string in the combobox and return either the index, if the value is greater than or equal to 0, or CB_ERR is the search was unsuccessful.
CComboBox *pComboboxCam1 = (CComboBox *)(GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Combo));
 if( pComboboxCam1->FindStringExact(0,_T("1")) == CB_ERR) // first parameter is the indextStart, second one is the string
    {
    //String not found
    pComboboxCam1 = (CComboBox *)(GetDlgItem(IDC_Cam1Combo));
    pComboboxCam1->AddString(_T("1"));
    }
    else
    //String found


text:
Government agency compromised by fake Facebook hottie
Emily Williams wasn't real, but the two hackers who created her from social media profiles got her a government job, a company laptop, VPN credentials - and compromised a government network.
Written by Violet Blue, Contributor on Nov. 1, 2013
Using social media profiles and a photo of a real (and consenting) woman, two hackers fooled a government employer into believing she was an employee, conning them out of a company laptop, network credentials, and more.
They used "her" Facebook and LinkedIn connections to send out holiday cards linked to an attack site, which the government employees visited, and scammed one employee into sending her a work laptop - as well as network access credentials and more, such as SalesForce logins.
The researchers used the imaginary pretty girl's poisoned holiday e-cards to gain administrative rights, obtain passwords, install applications and stole documents with sensitive information - some of which, according to the hackers, included information about state-sponsored attacks and country leaders.
Miss Emily Williams - run by puppetmasters security researchers Aamir Lakhani and Joseph Muniz - even convinced a security team executive to click a javascript exploit masquerading as a birthday card, thus compromising his laptop.
Lakhani told an audience at RSA Europe 2013 on Wednesday, October 30, "This guy had access to everything. He had the crown jewels in the system."
Mr. Lakhani presented the team's research findings at RSA Europe in a talk titled Social Media Deception, the results of his team's sanctioned 90-day "Emily Williams" penetration test experiment on a US government agency, conducted at the end of 2012.
Lakhani declined to state which U.S. government agency was infiltrated and compromised by the fictitious Miss Williams. He told the RSA audience that his team's pre-Snowden attack was performed on a very secure agency that specializes in offensive cybersecurity and protecting secrets, one where previously only zero-day attacks had been successful in pentests leveraged against the unnamed agency.
See also: RSA presentation slides for Social Media Deception (.PDF)
Mr. Lakhani explained that his team had tried the attack with fictitious male characters, but as men they were not successful.
He said that in actuality, through the Emily Williams platform, the team had achieved their objective within a week of deployment but that they ran their experiment for its full 90 days to see how far it could go.
And it went pretty far.
NOTE: The research presented is real. Many people reading this are friends with Emily and probably mad at us.
We have informed anybody attacked so if you haven't heard from us, you are just social network friends with Emily. -The Social Media Deception Project : How We Created Emily Williams To Compromise Our Target
Emily Williams - the attack - was based on Robin Sage, another fictitious person created in 2009 as a demonstration in the ease of obtaining information from intelligence on US military personnel via social networks; the successful Robin Sage findings were presented at Black Hat 2010 ("Getting in bed with Robin Sage"), to the anger and embarrasment of many.
Hey guys, my face is up here
Miss Williams first came into being on Facebook and LinkedIn sometime during 2011.
The waitress who volunteered the fictitious character's photos worked at an establishment frequented by the target company's employees - the nearby Hooters - yet no employee recognized her in person at any time during the experiment.
We found a non technical female employee from the restaurant industry (that happened to be a few blocks from our target) to volunteer pictures for Emily's appearance.
We developed a fake social security number, residence and other areas that may be searched to make Emily seem real. We gave Emily an IT background from the University of Texas and updated her profile with a matching employment background.
Before zeroing in on the government target's employees, Lakhani and Muniz built up Miss Williams' presence on social media, netting her hundreds of connections, with only one man flagging her as suspicious.
Another man asked how Emily might know him, and when the researchers answered with information they obtained in the man's profile, he said he did indeed remember the imaginary girl.
Once Wiliams had friends, the hackers updated her Facebook and LinkedIn profiles with just-hired status at the government target, and gave her an engineering title. The attractive, imaginary young woman connected with the target's employees via social media and connected with Human Resources, IT Support, Engineering and those in executive leadership roles.
The congratulations for "her" new job rolled in.
As our target audience friend number grew, we started moving up the rank eventually capturing people from Human Resources and Engineering who would be responsible for hiring Emily if she existed.
We moved all the way up to executive leadership...
As it was near the holidays, no one questioned when Miss Williams posted seasonal cards to Facebook directed at specific targets among her coworkers - which they clicked, and then were seamlessly, unknowingly pwned.
The cards, of course, were part of the hackers' deception.
Facebook, Apple hacks could affect anyone: Here's what you can do
The security researchers said that they were intent on doing no harm to their targets.
They had many options for obtaining network access to host systems through social media. One popular one they declined to use is Blackhole, which delivers a malicious payload - but the researchers pointed out they "felt [Blackhole] wasn't safe for our target's systems."
Instead they used The Browser Exploitation Framework (BeEF), they said, "based on our feeling that compromising browsers was not as evil as using malware." Via the holiday card ruse, targets clicked to execute a signed Java applet that opened a reverse shell back to Lakhani and Muniz via an SSL connection.
Once we hooked the target, we would look for passwords and insider information to gain access to the target agency. We launched three campaigns targeting systems during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.
We were able to figure out domain credentials to create an inside email address for Emily Williams, VPN passwords to gain internal access and other methods to compromise our target.
Lakhani told the RSA audience that government contractors also fell for their creation's tainted holiday treats, including employees for antivirus companies.
All the while, the team's social engineering continued.
Men working for the government agency gave the pretty girl special treatment. Some men offered to help Miss Williams at her new job by doing her a few favors; namely circumventing usual channels to get her a work laptop, and access to the organization's network.
Lakhani told RSA attendees that the level of access their Pygmalion obtained was higher than what a new hire would have gotten if "she" had gone through the proper channels.
Lakhani and Muniz may have angered a number of government employees, but the pair had so much success they began to receive requests from other companies and organizations to try the same test.
In the RSA Deception talk this week Lakhani said, "So we also did the same type of penetration test for very large financial institutions like banks and credit card companies, healthcare organizations and other firms, and the results were almost exactly the same."
Lakhani cautioned RSA Europe attendees, "Every time we include social engineering in our penetration tests we have a hundred percent success rate."
The talk concluded with a number of recommendations for companies to follow if they want to avoid falling victim to an Emily Williams attack. Some of these are detailed in the team's post, How To Educate Your Employees About Social Engineering.
But, he opined, social engineering trainings aren't ever going to be enough if employees don't have an understanding of constant situational awareness.
NSA and CISA alert: This phishing scam could give hackers control of your PC
DOJ takes down ransomware group with a '21st century cyber stakeout'
Phishing attacks are getting scarily sophisticated. Here's what to watch out for


text:
Central Command Briefing
2003-04-03T01:28:12-05:00https://images.c-span.org/defaults/Capitol_default-image.jpgGeneral Brooks briefed reporters on the progress of military operations in Iraq. Among the topics he addressed were the effectiveness of strikes against military targets, civil affairs operations, the rescue of and American POW, and Iraqi tactics. Following prepared remarks he answered questions from the reporters.
General Brooks briefed reporters on the progress of military operations in Iraq. Among the topics he addressed were the effectiveness of… read more
General Brooks briefed reporters on the progress of military operations in Iraq. Among the topics he addressed were the effectiveness of strikes against military targets, civil affairs operations, the rescue of and American POW, and Iraqi tactics. Following prepared remarks he answered questions from the reporters. close
Transcript type Federal News Service Transcript Closed Captioning Record People Graphical Timeline
Filter by Speaker All Speakers Vincent Brooks
Vincent Brooks Deputy Director U.S. Central Command->Operations
Department of Defense | Coalition Media CenterDepartment of Defense | Coalition Media Center
Apr 02, 2003 | 7:06am EST | C-SPAN 1
See all on Iraq War (03/19/03-05/01/03
Military Mission in Iraq
President Bush spoke to Marines at Camp Lajeune about military operations in Iraq and the dedication of servicemen in…
War with Iraq
President Bush spoke to officials at the Pentagon about war with Iraq and his supplemental spending request for…
Address to the Military
In a taped message to U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, President Bush praised their service and sacrifice on behalf of…
Prior to a meeting with congressional leaders, President Bush talked about the war with Iraq, and thanked Congress for…


text:
Politics: That Ugly "P" Word in Youth Sports
May 30, 2014 Home
Politics. Spend any amount of time attending high school or youth sports and you are bound to hear the word uttered. Just the mention of the "P-word" rankles the emotions of most, often with negative connotations, and with good reason. Congress currently has an approval rate of 13%, so you get the picture. So what do politics have to do with youth sports? In too many cases, plenty.
Often when the word politics is uttered it frequently has a nebulous meaning, void of any specifics. Simply put, politics infiltrate sports when those in power use their positions to wield outcomes that are not based on merit. An example of this would be for a school board member to demand certain squad members who were cut by the coaching staff to be reinstated following team selection.
Believe me, this has happened on more than one occasion. In one instance, a number of years ago, a well-respected coach was presented with this scenario by his superiors following the try-out period. The coach didn't acquiesce to their demands and walked away immediately, leaving the administration and school board with egg on their collective faces. The coach in question wasn't out of coaching long as he landed a position at a local school the next year.
So why are we so bothered when things like this occur? We rail against the NBA and the narcissistic nature of the athletes. We shake our heads in disbelief when a highly gifted athlete is allowed to take five steps to the basket and no travel is called. Major college sports have became a de-facto minor league system for the pros, where the term student-athlete in many cases is a farce. Those of us who follow high school and youth sports on a continual basis do so because we believe it to be the last bastion of purity in athletics. We are disturbed because it goes against our innate notion of fairness.
We want to believe in the educational value of high school and youth sports and we enjoy the excitement these games bring. Behind the bright lights of the courts and the green grass of the playing fields lie an ugly underbelly. A coach of an Eastern Maine Championship team told me the calls he received from parents this season were unbelievable, just pure pettiness. The climate has changed. The investment made by many parents prior to high school for their young prodigies can be astronomical.
That being said, the word "politics" gets thrown around to the point where in many cases it's lost its meaning. It is often a catch-all euphemism used to explain some perceived slight. Better to scream "politics" than to admit that gee, maybe I'm not as good or my son or daughter isn't as good as I thought. "Politics" in most cases has become a convenient alibi to gloss over ones shortcomings. Any coach I've known is competitive and wants to win and is going to put the players on the floor, ice, or field who they believe can best accomplish that objective. Do coaches play favorites? Absolutely. Usually their favorites are those who listen, put forth great effort, and are in general good teammates.
Next time you attend a youth or high school game and someone says something like "the politics in this town are unfair", ask them what specifically they mean by that. Many times you will get some rambling, ambiguous answer, often from a parent disgruntled about their child's role in the program.
Leaders must take a vigilant role to see that high school and youth sports are kept in their purest form. Incidents as I described are not the norm but they are becoming frequent enough to make many stop, pause, and take inventory as to their role in athletics. As fans of the games, we must also show discernment that everything which appears to be so, isn't always so.
The Press Box would like to congratulate John DeRaps on being named the new girls varsity basketball coach at Sumner Memorial High School. DeRaps previously coached at Narraguagus High School of Harrington, where he led the Lady Knights to the tournament. DeRaps, whose wife Marianne is Sumner's principal, will bring a high level of professionalism to the post. I first met Coach DeRaps while he was serving as an assistant coach for Ron Brown with the Narraguagus boys in the mid-2000's. Sumner will be well-prepared for every game and will be led by a first-class individual.
← For Aspiring Athletes Opportunity Abounds in Baseball	Baseball Plays the Waiting Game (And other random thoughts) →


text:
County settles on land for future arts center in Reston
RestonNow.com January 24, 2023 at 2:18pm
The arts center could be located on Block J in Reston Town Center (via Fairfax County)
The location of Reston's future arts center is officially inching closer to realization.
At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors' meeting today (Tuesday), Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn introduced a board matter selecting Block J — near the intersection of Sunset Hills Road and Town Center Parkway — as the location for nearly 60,000-square-foot future arts center.
So far, the county has determined that the arts center is the most appropriate location for the arts center. It's part of proffers in Boston Properties' development plans. The land could have been used as a park or a ball field.
The cost of the project is expected to be hefty — hovering between $58 million in current dollars and $81 million accounting for inflation.
"This process clearly established that the arts center option is not only feasible, but it is clearly superior to the alternatives offered in the proffer," Alcorn said in the board matter.
The center would be located across the street from the Reston Town Center Metro Station, fulfilling land use and transportation goals, according to the board matter.
A survey in 2019 found that 68% of residents supported the idea of a larger performing center in Reston. While Reston Community Center has advocated for the venue, no determination has been made yet on who will operate it.
RCC hosted a series of meetings on the issue and conducted a feasibility study on the possibility of the center.
Alcorn noted that the board matter doesn't address financing and other details of the plan, but RCC has indicated that Reston's small tax district will not be used to pay for the project. A bond referendum would likely be used to pay for the project.
The board approved the measure to accept Block J as the location for a community arts center.
"Accepting this land is accepting it under the provision that it become an arts center, should financing be worked out," Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. "If for some reason that changes, there are other avenues we could pursue in the future."
Reston Association explores county pilot for more electric vehicle charger access
RestonNow.com Today at 2:17pm
An electric vehicle charger at the Sully Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott) Reston Association is charging up to potentially take part in Fairfax County pilot to get more…
Flippin' Pizza closes in South Lakes Village Center
RestonNow.com Today at 11:03am
The Reston location appears to have closed (staff photo by Angela Woolsey) Flippin' Pizza, a pizza chain that serves New York-style pizza, appears to have closed its Reston location. The…
Ravel Dance Studio Re-open for Fall 2020
By: Ravel Dance Studio
The Ravel Dance Studio will re-open for fall classes 2020. The school will offer in person and virtual online instruction. With over 5000 sq. ft. to social distance the school has added air ionization filtration systems, ballet barres, acrylic dividers, hands free bathrooms, strict monitoring and more.
The Ravel Dance Studio will produce a Nutcracker Ballet Hollywood style video through the Reston Community CenterStage. REGISTRATION online begins August 17.
Sign up for our daily Reston news digest!
Fairfax County's lone remaining taxi operator requests easing of rules that 'age out' vehiclesFairfax County enlists faith groups to spread word of need to act on climate change


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