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Terry Junior Davis was a registered nurse with a good sense of humor and strong work ethic. He seemed to always be in his scrubs and on his way to work, said a neighbor, Dietrich Fitts.
Davis lived with his mother and stepfather in a yellow, two-story house he owned along The Alameda in Northeast Baltimore, Fitts said.
Neighbors said Davis appeared to live a quiet life surrounded by a close-knit circle of family members.
Fitts was shocked to come home Tuesday morning to the sight of police cars. A gurney was being rolled out of the house after police said Davis, 48, was found dead at 7:19 a.m. inside his home suffering from apparent trauma to his head.
Fitts thought the gurney might be for a medical emergency, not for a homicide.
"He's a good person," Fitts said. "I can't imagine why someone would want to do this."
Property records show that Davis had owned the home, located in the 3900 block of The Alameda, since 2002. He has no criminal record in Maryland, court records show.
"We're all shocked by the situation," Fitts said. "I would not imagine him in a crime at all."
Several cars lined the road and driveway in front of Davis' home Wednesday, and a woman there declined to comment. Homicide detectives continue to search for suspects, and a family member later indicated through Fitts that they didn't want to talk publicly and potentially affect the investigation.
A total of 33 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, 50 percent more than the 22 killed at this time last year. On Wednesday, police also released the identities of two other recent homicide victims.
Norvin Darrell Jones, 26, of the 600 block of McKewin Ave., was killed in the 500 block of E. 35th St. on Tuesday night. Donnell Saunders, 25, was killed in the 1500 block of Pennsylvania Ave., where police said he lived.


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About Us
The Jamestown Foundation's mission is to inform and educate policymakers and the broader community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information. Utilizing indigenous and primary sources, Jamestown's material is delivered without political bias, filter or agenda. It is often the only source of information which should be, but is not always, available through official or intelligence channels, especially in regard to China, Russia and Eurasia.
The Jamestown Foundation's main publications are China Brief, Eurasia Daily Monitor and Terrorism Monitor. Click on the map below to explore them.
Founded in 1984 by William Geimer, The Jamestown Foundation made a direct contribution to the downfall of Communism through its dissemination of information about the closed totalitarian societies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
William Geimer worked with Arkady Shevchenko, the highest-ranking Soviet official ever to defect when he left his position as undersecretary general of the United Nations. Shevchenko's memoir "Breaking With Moscow" revealed the details of Soviet superpower diplomacy, arms control strategy and tactics in the Third World, at the height of the Cold War. Through its work with Shevchenko, Jamestown rapidly became the leading source of information about the inner workings of the captive nations of the former Communist Bloc. In addition to Shevchenko, Jamestown assisted the former top Romanian intelligence officer Ion Pacepa in writing his memoirs. Jamestown ensured that both men published their insights and experience in what became bestselling books. Even today, several decades later, some credit Pacepa's revelations about Ceausescu's regime in his bestselling book Red Horizons with the fall of that government and the freeing of Romania.
The Jamestown Foundation has emerged as a leading provider of information about Eurasia. Our research and analysis on conflict and instability in Eurasia enabled Jamestown to become one of the most reliable sources of information on the post-Soviet space, the Caucasus and Central Asia as well as China. Furthermore, since 9/11, Jamestown has utilized its network of indigenous experts in more than 50 different countries to conduct research and analysis on terrorism and the growth of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda offshoots throughout the globe.
By drawing on our ever-growing global network of experts, Jamestown has become a vital source of unfiltered, open-source information about major conflict zones around the world—from the Black Sea to Siberia, from the Persian Gulf to Latin America and the Pacific. Our core of intellectual talent includes former high-ranking government officials and military officers, political scientists, journalists, scholars and economists. Their insight contributes significantly to policymakers engaged in addressing today's newly emerging global threats in the post 9/11 world.
Nikolai Getman: The Gulag Collection
In 1946, an artist named Nikolai Getman was imprisoned in the Soviet Union's GULAG, a system of forced labor camps across Siberia and the interior of the USSR. Upon his release in 1954, Getman commenced a public career as a politically correct painter. Secretly, however, for more than four decades, Getman labored at creating a visual record of the GULAG, which vividly depicts all aspects of the horrendous life (and death) so many innocent millions experienced during that infamous era. Getman's collection is unique because it is the only visual record known to exist of this tragic phenomenon. In early 1997, The Jamestown Foundation learned of The Gulag Collection and that Getman was desperate to get the painting transported to the West; he feared that upon his death they would be destroyed. With the financial support of Jim Kimsey, The Jamestown Foundation brought the paintings to the United States, where in 1997 they were put on display in the U.S. Congress. The Collection remained with Jamestown until 2009, when it was permanently transferred to the Heritage Foundation, where it resides today (heritage.org).

subset: commoncrawl


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The Red Sox had their eye on outfielder Carl Crawford before last season even began and were willing to pull off a blockbuster intradivision deal to get Crawford into a Sox uniform.If true, I wonder what other possible deal(s) Theo had going to give us a catcher, since the breakdown of starts last year was: Victor (106), Jason Varitek (27), Kevin Cash (19), Jarrod Saltalamacchia (5), Dusty Brown (3), Gustavo Molina (2).
Boston proposed trading catcher Victor Martinez to Tampa Bay in exchange for Crawford before the season began, according to a baseball source familiar with the proposed deal. Both players were entering their walk years, and both wound up leaving their teams at the end of the year as free agents. The Rays did not immediately reject the deal, but told Boston they would need to pursue one or two other potential moves in order to make it happen. The secondary moves fell through, and thus so too did the Martinez-for-Crawford blockbuster.
March 4, 2011
Verducci: Sox Were Set To Trade Victor For Crawford Before 2010 Season Began
Tom Verducci, SI:
by allan at 1:46 PM
1 comment:
- Benjamin said...
And Saltalamacchia and Cash weren't even acquired until July. It's a strange thought experiment.
- March 4, 2011 at 1:57 PM
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People are not the only ones who put on a pound or two over the holidays. It happens to our pets, too.
This morning the Captain took Emma, our field cocker spaniel, to a nearby farm to hunt for ducks. This photo is from yesterday, when we were just out for a walk. Ducks were everywhere.
Ruby, the springer spaniel, was upset that she didn't get to go. Nearly 12 years old, she's almost completely deaf now, but she still knew she was being left behind. She felt better after I gave her a little treat and pulled her doggie bed right beside me by the laptop.
Last night when the Captain was getting things ready for this morning's outing, he hauled out the little neoprene vest I made for Emma a couple of years ago.
"You'd better try it on her," I said. "She's put on a couple of pounds." (After all, it's just after Christmas).
Sure enough, it was VERY snug.
"You can't have her wear that. She won't be able to breathe."
I looked high and low and luckily found a piece of left over neoprene (from the old wet suit that I had used to make the vest).
I cut a 1 1/2 inch strip the length of Emma's suit. It didn't take long to cut the suit and sew in the strip. With a zigzag stitch and the piece butted up to the edges it was easy to insert a strip. No need to overlap neoprene to make a seam. Just laying the edges snugly side by side and zigzagging them together works fine.
You can see the post I did about the original vest a couple of years
Here she is in the original vest.
I was going to take a picture of Emma in her expanded vest to put at the end of this post, but I was shocked to learn that she came home without it.
It's lost! Somewhere out there in the brambles it got hooked up, the velcro parted, and there the vest stayed.
In the next day or so we'll have to launch a search party for it.


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How to recover Windows password? If you are one of the many people who have forgotten Windows password, the following article shows you how to recover password Windows with smart methods.
These methods described below will be suitable for all Windows operating systems including Windows 7, Vista, XP, Windows 2000, 20003, 2008 etc.
Method 1: Recover password Windows with another user account on the computer.
The first way you may quickly think of is to use another user account to recover your forgotten Windows password if possible. Many people have created two or more user accounts to protect their PC, and give each different privilege over the PC. When using another user to recover Windows admin password, there are 2 options you can take.
Option One:
1. Start your computer and log on computer with the accessible account on your PC.
2. Right click "My Computer" icon on your desktop.
3.Click on "Manage" on the "My Computer" menu, this will bring up computer management window.
4.Find "Users" in "Local Users and Groups". Then find your password forgotten administrator account and right click it to select "Set Password***".
5.In the pop-up "Set password for…" windows, type a new password and then confirm it.
Option Two:
1.Click Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts.
2.Find the target user account, and then double click it.
3.Click change your password.
4.Type your password in the new password and confirm password box respectively.
If you are lucky enough to have created two or more user accounts on your more before, then you can use this method to perform Windows Password recover of course. But in case you are not so lucky, then you have to turn to other methods.
Method 2: Take use of Windows Password Recovery Tool Standard.
Windows Password Recovery Tool is an easy-to-use tool designed to recover any forgotten Windows password quickly without needing another user account. It only requires you 4 simple steps to finish the whole recovery process.
Step1: Download, install and run Windows Password Recovery Tool Standard to a working PC (not the locked one).
Step2: Insert a blank and writable CD/DVD to this PC and burn the ISO image file of Windows Password Recovery Tool Standard to it. Once the burning finishes, take out the CD. Thus a Windows password reset disc has been created.
Step3: Insert the created password reset disc to the target computer and set this PC boot from CD/DVD.
Step4: Start to reset Windows password with the password reset disc with only one click of "Next" button on the interface. Few minutes later, you will get a message "Password has been successfully reset". Then after you reboot the PC, you can access to your PC again.
Method 3: Try Windows Password Recovery Tool Professional.
This is another edition of Windows Password Recovery Tool. Unlike Windows Password Recovery Tool Standard, if you don't have a CD/DVD, you can also use a USB flash drive to replace CD/DVD with this Windows Password Recovery Professional. In addition, the whole processes to recover Windows password are almost the same as described above.


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Bobby Fischer, 2005 News
legendary chess champion, became an Icelandic citizen in March, when Parliament voted to grant him citizenship as a reward for his 1972 victory in a match with Soviet champ Boris Spassky in Reykjavik. Fischer had been detained in Japan since July 2004, when he was held by authorities for trying to leave the country with an invalid American passport. In 1992 Fischer was indicted by the United States for facing off with Spassky in Yugoslavia—a violation of the United States's economic boycott on Yugoslavia.
Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.


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Historic Map Compiling Project – Le Plan Scénographique de Lyon
– Gigapixel image of the compiled full map browseable in Zoomify viewer
– Side-by-side comparison of the 1548 map with five historical derivatives
– High-resolution 3D (bird's-flight) video tour of the full map
In January 2014 I digitally optimized and compiled the 25 separate sheets that together make up "Le Plan Scénographique de Lyon vers 1550," a huge, highly-detailed, 16th-Century axonometric (bird's-flight view) map depicting the French city of Lyon cc. 1544-53 CE. Since then I've been working to understand and contextualize this curious historical artifact, and this essay is one product of that effort.
The Archives municipales de Lyon holds the only known copy of the 1550 Plan Scéno (as I'll call it here, though many of the preparatory drawings likely date to 1544). In 1989 preservationist and paper expert Michel Guet dismantled and restored the map. This involved detaching the 25 sheets from their paper backing and each other as well as removing the remnants of earlier flawed restoration efforts. In 1990 the Lyon Archives published photographs of the 25 separated and restored map sheets along with an accompanying volume of scholarly essays (later augmented with a second set of essays). All of the essays from the project were hosted on the Lyon Archives' website for years and are still accessible via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. If any photographs exist of the plan taken before Guet's 1989 restoration they have not been published by the Lyon Archives.
The map segments are to be arranged for viewing in a 5 by 5 grid starting from the top left, each segment being overlapped by the segments to the right and below it. Because each segment of the published map is larger than the flatbed scanner I used, I originally scanned each segment in two parts at 600 ppi, combined them, and then reconstituted the full map using Adobe Photoshop (info tooltip | link).
Viewing the map's 25 segments separately, it is very difficult to effectively view or even fully conceptualize the map in its totality, as a single composition. To redress this I determined to compile the 25 map segments into one contiguous digital image. I should note that significant image adjustment (aka warping) was required in some areas to insure that the segments line up logically and so the final product would appear seamless. You'll notice that the bottom-right cartouche is slightly lower than the one on the lower left. This may not be a characteristic inherent in the original, but could reflect the digital processing – I mostly compiled each row of sheets starting from the top-left, following the original numbering of the 25 sheets, and therefore the bottom-right sheets were the last added to the composition.
For modern viewers, the faux-aerial perspective used for pre-modern axonometric city maps is strikingly similar to the satellite-derived views provided by modern online map services (though the top of the the 1550 Plan Scénographique is primarily directed west-southwest, not north). For comparison, below is a high-contrast screenshot of Bing maps' "Bird's Eye view" of modern-day Lyon (facing west) compiled from multiple aerial photographs taken at an oblique 45-degree angle (unfortunately this bird's eye view is now only available via the Windows Maps desktop app – AT 02/21)).
Note that the modern shape of central Lyon is significantly different from that shown in the 1550 Plan Scénographique. This is primarily because of the largely-industrial Perrache neighborhood, extending South (left) of the highway in the modern center of the Presqu'île (peninsula), which did not exist in the 16th century. Perrache was developed from 1779-1840, incorporating southern marshland and small islands into the peninsula and moving the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers further downstream (source). In the sixteenth century, these low-lying islands were repeatedly flooded, destroyed, and rebuilt by the rivers. Only the edge of the area now covered by Perache is shown on the 1550 Plan Scéno, an island labelled "[BRO]TEAUX D'ENEY" in reference to the nearby Abbaye d'Ainay. I haven't attempted to recreate how Broteau D'Ainay might have looked in 1548, but it can be seen on Philippe Le Beau's 1607 Lyon map (optimized detail view with label indicated). Source: archives municipales de Lyon.
See Gauthiez (2010) for more on Perrache and the confluence and Arlaud (2000) for much more on the Presqu'île.
Lyon Topographic Plan, 1544 & 2015
The animated map above is an augmented "mashup" incorporating three sources –
- A blueprint of Lyon in 1544 (identified as a/the main year during which the Plan Scénographique's survey drawings were made) adapted from a Flash presentation accompanying the Lyon Archives' 2009 exhibit Lyon 1562: Capitale Protestante (B. Gauthiez) superimposed on
- Geoportail's amazing elevation map ("Carte du Relief" layer, unfortunately there was no altitude legend), facing west and extended North and South, and
- a 2015 satellite image exported from Google Earth Pro.
An observation about the above GIF – I originally labeled the top-right neighborhood (quartier) around Le Couvent l'Observance "Vaise." Vaise is actually the name of the faubourg (suburb) located outside Lyon's city gates on a plain north of l'Observance and west of the Saône river which was mostly farmland in the mid-1500s. The area around l'Observance has more accurately been called "Le clos des Deux-Amants" after a Roman-era funeral monument shown on the Plan and already ancient in the 16th Century. (source: Les Cordeliers de l'Observance á Lyon, par L.A.A. Pavy et [C.] Tissseur, 1836, pp.6-11).
Click here to see the area on the digital Plan Scéno (top half of sheet 10), and from there you can switch to the 1698 and 1876 derivative maps (select from lower-left pulldown menu) to see the now-missing part of the 1550 Plan Scéno showing part of Vaise. This annotated detail from LeBeau's non-derivative 1607 map of Lyon shows more of the faubourg (a half-century later):
"Why not georectify the Plan Scéno, since we know where most of the represented landmarks were located, maybe even all of them?"
Because the map is far from spatially accurate. The area of the W-SW-facing map overall appears to be significantly stretched N-S (the X-Axis) compared to the real-world dimensions. This uneven stretching is most notable in the bend of the Saône river as it rounds the central hill of Fourvière, which is far less sharp than in the real world. This may have been deliberate artistic license rather than a mistake, as the elongation allows the cartographer more left-right room to include location-based labels and imagery, particularly along the densely-settled banks of the Saône. It also would reflect the viewpoint of an artist situated on the hillside of La Croix-Rousse, looking south across the Saône towards Château de Pierre-Scize making preparatory sketches. Scholars have also observed that while many buildings had as many as five or six floors, the map shows no building as having more than four.
While I do believe that the 1550 Plan Scéno de Lyon achieves verisimilitude as a portrait of the city (achieves the appearance of spatial accuracy), it's building imagery is not completely reliable, and both its scale and compass directionality are wildly inconsistent.
This plan was drawn up by calculating angles from certain heights, particularly church towers such as that of Saint-Nizier which, located on the peninsula, has often been used for this purpose. These calculations were then compared with distances on the ground, measured by using a knotted rope or by counting the number of steps…in the geometric center of the plan was the ditch, drawn according to a scale of 1/824. All around, everything is out of proportion in order to include certain elements considered essential. If the [1/824] scale had been used throughout, the plan would have been 3.5 times bigger!
—Musée Gadagne, A plan depicting scenes of 16th C. Lyon, Inv. N 1675
Geographer and urbanist Bernard Gauthiez, the de facto topographical biographer of Lyon for the past twenty years, expressed it to me thus:
"Georectify[ing] the 1544 plan [is] like mapping the Near East from the Bible… Several scales are used, and it has not been drawn from a measured survey. See my paper on it."
Professor Gauthiez' work on Lyon (along with the Archives Municipales' 1990 publication) is an authoritative modern source for most of the ideas I am exploring regarding the topography and urban development of pre-modern Lyon. The essay part of this Lyon project simply documents a new media technologist's (my) second-hand efforts to understand, consolidate, visualize and popularize ideas that have already been rigorously developed and explored by expert scholars utilizing primary source materials. Much of that material is held in archival repositories, has not been made available on the web, and might only be fully comprehensible to experts regardless.
The making of Le Plan Scénographique de Lyon c.1544-1550
One of the intriguing aspects of the 1550 Plan Scéno is that the 25 segments were printed using negatively-etched (Intaglio) copper plates, and those etchings were themselves compositions based on original survey drawings. Thus the 25 map sheets are copies of copies created through a process of mechanical reproduction. Neither the original survey drawings nor the copper engravings exist today, and while it is conceivable that other copies of the map were printed, this is the only known copy.
S'agissant d'un plan gravé, autrement dit le produit d'un procédé de reproduction mécanique qui n'a d'autre raison que la multiplication d'un original, on devrait le regarder comme un exemplaire parmi d'autres. Pas plus, cependant, que l'original dessiné, aucun autre exemplaire de ce qui a été (ou aurait dû être, on ne sait) une série limitée, ne nous est parvenu. Dans pareil cas, l'exemplaire unique ou unicum prend la valeur que devrait avoir son prototype manuscrit disparu.
[Floatover shows English translation]
– Jeanne-Marie Dureau, Archiviste de la Ville de Lyon,
Introduction to Le Plan de Lyon Vers 1550 (1990)
The sheets were printed on "laid paper," made by pouring paper pulp (made from linen or cotton) into a wire frame to dry. The Lyon Archives have identified the paper manufacturer's shaped-wire watermark on some sheets, representing a bunch of grapes.
Creation date
The extant portions of the 1550 Plan Scénographique are undated and unsigned, but researchers have determined that the map was most likely created within the 8-year period between late 1544 and Spring 1553. It is likely that the principle survey drawings were created in 1544 (Gauthiez, 2010), but many features were added that are from a later period.
Here's some date evidence that I was able to verify:
- In the top right of the map (sheets 4 and 5) workers are depicted building a new fortification, "c'est le boulevard de la Pye ou citadelle" (Grisard 1891, p.31). Gauthiez estimates that the map represents the progress of work on the new walls in approximately 1545.
- On sheet 6 is depicted a "jeu de paume" (early tennis) court decorated with Henri II's crescent symbol and depicting four figures playing with rackets. This suggests that the map was worked on shortly before the Royal entry in September 1548 to celebrate Henri II's coronation. According to Oxford scholar Richard Cooper, "late in June the order was given by [Governor of Lyon] Jean de Saint-André (for the construction of a new jeu de paume at Ainay on land bought from the abbot, Cardinal Gaddi)" (Cooper, p. 18, and Cooper's source in the Lyon archives).
The map's ornamentation clearly follows the Fontainebleau tradition (essay in Heibrunn Timeline of Art History). The symbolism of the map is neoclassical rather than biblical, reflecting the Renaissance infatuation with classical imagery. It may also reflect an anti-clerical sentiment within Lyon's secular aristocracy (Cooper, pp.3-5).
Through this project I have become something of an amateur enthusiast on 16th-Century French engraving – it doesn't hurt that so much of it is now available online (hyperlink list) to augment Library holdings.
For a detailed analysis of the Plan Scéno's symbolism and the messages it communicates, see Gérard Bruyère's 1990 essay Notes sur les ornements du plan de Lyon au XVIe siècle, published as part of the Lyon Archives' 1990 project. The symbolic elements can be viewed on the digital version of the plan (e.g., in the upper left, the Royal arms of France and Auster, the South wind).
Little is known about the lives of even the most famous engravers of the 16th Century, the main evidence is in the art itself. Based on observation and the assistance of scholarship, here is a list of possible candidates for participation in the project, artists who may have had both the ability and opportunity to create the ornamental art of the 1550 Plan Scéno de Lyon, in approximate order of likelihood. Perhaps multi-spectral imaging analysis will someday reveal more information indicating who the artist(s) might have been.
- Pierre Eskrich, alias Pierre Vase, alias [Pierre] Cruche could have been the principal illustrator of the 1550 Plan Scénographique de Lyon both for the ornamentation and the map itself.
A Parisian who moved to Lyon around 1548, Eskrich created the woodcuts for a highly influential version of Andrea Alciato's Emblems (a veritable cartoucherie published in Lyon in multiple editions from 1548-1551). Of equal interest is that in 1575 Eskrich engraved a map of Paris based on the Truschet-Hoyau 1550 plan (the Truschet-Hoyau map is discussed later in this essay). Eskritch's Paris map was published in Francois de Belleforest's La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le monde (Lyon 1575), a translation and update of an earlier Cosmographia by Sebastian Münster. Belleforest's book also contains cartouches stylistically similar to those shown here from Alciato's Emblemata. Other engravers contributed to La Cosmographie – for instance the contained Portrait of Lyon is credited to Antoine de Pinet, not Eskrich.
- Georges Reverdy. "GE Reverdinus fecit"? Many scholars including Gérard Bruyère attribute the ornamentation (at least) to Reverdy, and Bruyère discussed why in depth. See Notes sur les ornements du plan de Lyon au XVIe siècle (1990).
- Sebastiano Serlio (recent article attributing to Serlio the design of the temporary theatre built for Henri II's 1548 entry to Lyon). Serlio was definitely in Lyon 1549-1550 and his longtime patron Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Archbishop of Lyon, organized Henri II's 1548 entry to Lyon.
- Jean Mignon. There are many artistic similarities between Mignon's work and the 1550 Plan Scénographique's ornamentation, and like most of the engravings attributed to Mignon, the Plan is unsigned (although the missing edges might have included a signature).
- Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau. Androuet du Cerceau was more than capable of creating both the ornamentation and the map itself (perhaps too capable). The contemporaneous and somewhat-similar Vue de la ville de Lyon en 1548 is traditionally attributed to Androuet du Cerceau – could the 1550 Plan Scéno and the 1548 view both be his work? This intriguing possibility is undermined by Estelle Leutrat's convincing argument that the attribution of the 1548 view to Androuet du Cerceau is highly suspect (source: Leutrat 2007 pp.99-101). Could the two works be by the same person regardless of whether it is Androuet du Cerceau?
- Domenico del Barbieri (Fiorentino)
- Bernard Salomon
- Antonio Fantuzzi
For more expert analysis I recommend the work of Gérard Bruyère (who wrote about the map engravings for the 1990 Archives publication), Estelle Leutrat, and the Glasgow University Emblems Website.
Coloring the Map
While the two bottom cartouches are frustratingly empty on the Lyon Archives' printing of the map (the only existing copy), many features of the map were colored in by hand, apparently shortly after the sheets were printed. Although the pigments have faded, the roofs of houses retain their color (most are red, ecclesiastical buildings are blue). Fields were colored green and the two rivers and other bodies of water were colored a dark blue (based on various patches of color that remain).
Topographical Features: Two Hills and Two Rivers
The faded blue pigment of the rivers is barely noticeable after four centuries, which makes it difficult to distinguish the two rivers from the surrounding landscape. This is very detrimental for considering the topography of a city like Lyon, which is so defined by being at the confluence of two rivers – the Saône (which meanders through the center of the city) and the faster-flowing, alps-born Rhône (which effectively served as the eastern border of Lyon up through the 16th century due to its unruly nature and frequent flooding). On the 1550 Plan Scéno the rivers are labeled as "LA SAONE" (female, called rivière, being a tributary) and "LE ROSNE" (male, called fleuve, not a tributary). The analogy between the joining of Lyon's rivers at the confluence and the joining of a man and woman is used in the map's imagery (see Bruyère, 1990), and is popular in both art and poetry (e.g., Délie, objet de plus haulte vertu, dizain XVII, Maurice Scêve, 1544). A further symbolic layer in the Plan Scéno emphasizes the importance of a proper and intimate relationship between the king, Henri II (the man) and the city of Lyon (the woman). The plan's central cartouche shows the female angel (or tutelary goddess) of Lyon holding the king's crescent symbol in the hand of her well-muscled right arm – fealty but also strength. (Bruyère 1990)
Distinguishing the rivers is so important for the map's viewing that I have restored the blue of the water in Photoshop – this really brings the map back to life and makes the numerous river vessels "pop." The color layer is non-destructive – in fact I superimposed the river engraving as well as any remnants of original color over my added semi-transparent blue layer. As the top image of this essay demonstrates, the enhanced water color can be toggled on or off based on user preference.
Here's an example from sheet 13 which also shows how I addressed missing portions of the map for river areas such as the gap above the label for Port de Saint-Vincent [note that the image below shows an earlier too-blue waters version]:
For more historical information on Lyon and its waters:
- "L'eau et la santé à Lyon : la formation d'une cité – Partie 1" (Partie 2) by Vettorello Cécil and Vignau Marie (2010).
- Lyon et la Saône au XVIe siècle by Katharine Dana (2009)
As the altitude map above illustrates, the other defining features of Lyon's topography are its two major hills, Fourvière (west of the Saône river) and La Croix Rousse (actually the beginning of a plateau stretching north of the low-lying Presqu'île). From our modern perspective, the scenic plan does a poor job of representing elevation, but perhaps cartographic artists in the mid-16th century were still figuring that out.
I calculated the compiled Lyon map's full dimensions to be 170cm tall by 220cm wide (5'6.82″ x 7'3.21″) based on the published sheets that I digitized [Note: the Lyon Archives confirm this: "It consists of 25 sheets each, on average, 34cm high and 44cm wide. The assembly forms a rectangle 1.70m high by 2.20m wide."]. For comparison, the contemporaneous and similar 15-plate "Copperplate Map" of London is believed to have been 112x226cm, 67.7% the size of the Lyon map (source).
Is the 1550 Plan Scéno the largest Early Modern axonometric map? Probably not – Jacopo de Barberi's magnificent aerial-view map of Venice (c.1500), printed from a six-piece woodcut that took him three years to make, is 134×280.8cm. I calculate that Barberi's map is a mere 0.2 square meters larger than the Lyon map (c'est la vie, n'est pas?).
For more on de Barberi's Venice map (and on axonometric map creation in general) I enthusiastically recommend "Digitizing a complex urban panorama in the Renaissance: The 1500 bird's-eye view of Venice by Jacopo de' Barbari" by Juraj Kittler and Deryck W. Holdworth (New Media & Society, August 2, 2013).
Other Similar Renaissance Maps and Digital Projects
Thanks are due to R. Burr Litchfield for aiding the above map size comparison – his Florentine Gazetteer is a great digital project (and astonishing for way-back-when in 2006), accompanying his monograph Florence Ducal Capital, 1530-1630 (2008). Litchfield's principal cartographic target is Stefano Buonsignori's 1584 map of Florence, which is also being utilized in the University of Toronto's newer DECIMA GIS project (as a backdrop for georeferenced data from the Florentine tax census of 1561-62, which they are inputting to a Filemaker database).
Another map that should be mentioned is Truschet and Hoyau's "La ville, cite et universite de Paris," which is contemporaneous (c. 1550-1552) to the Lyon plan (c.1550). The only known printing of the Truschet-Hoyau Paris map was rediscovered in the 1870s in Bâle, Switzerland (Cousin, 1875). The Truschet-Hoyau map printing is more complete than that of the Lyon map and available online via a fully-colored facsimile engraved and printed in 1980. This printing gives us more information on how the Lyon map might have looked if completed. The two maps share a westerly orientation, are extremely similar in engraving style, ornamentation and typeface, and warrant a closer comparison than I will give here. Perhaps the most interesting detail for this comparison is that unlike the Lyon map, the three cartouches at the bottom of the Truschet-Hoyau map are not empty – the left cartouche serves as a title box, the center contain a celebratory poem about Paris, and the right cartouche a map description. The most notable difference between the maps themselves is that the Truschet-Hoyau map only includes a few depictions of people and only one full vignette (the game, perhaps lawn tennis, shown in the detail below) as opposed to hundreds on the Lyon map.
The Truschet-Hoyau map of Paris is composed of 8 woodcut-printed sheets and measures 0.96m high by 1.33m wide, just over one-third the size of the 1550 Plan Scéno (Source:PICPUS).
Other active digital projects exploring historical city maps include
- Map of Early Modern London (MoEML),
- Locating London's Past and
- various Adam Matthew projects, particularly
London Low Life: Street Culture, Social Reform and the Victorian Underworld.
- Imago Urbis: Giuseppe Vasi's Grand Tour of Rome. This is the second of an ongoing three-stage project at the University of Oregon, the first of which created the Interactive Nolli Map, a digital adaption of Giambattista Nolli's La nuova topografia di Roma Comasco(106x208cm, 12 plates,1748) and will continue with the upcoming Open Rome: A Spatial History. The Vasi project uses Nolli's 1748 map of Rome as an interface for exploring Vasi's contemporaneous scenic views of the city. It is well done. I feel somewhat competitive, because they are exploring many of the things I am, both on renlyon.org (this project) and in my Vectis Scenery project, which is also a map-as-interface scenic tour utilizing text and landscapes also created, printed and published by the map's engraver, George Brannon. I composed summary images for both digital projects, which are somewhat similar:
They have chosen to create original commentary on each engraving, whereas most of the written content in Vectis Scenery is written by the artist himself. The Vasi tour of Rome has also created excellent viewshed icons to indicate the area depicted in each engraving and the angle from which it is viewed.
A lot of interesting work out there!
The Digital Plan Scénographique de Lyon (c.2014-15)
The two images below illustrate the high level of detail and impressive (maybe excessive) scale of the 1550 Plan Scéno. The left image is a full view of the digitally-compiled map. The red rectangle indicates the zoomed area shown in the right image. This shows that the map is not simply large but also intricate and informationally dense. The left image of the full map appears blurry, but that is because it is actually less than 1% the size of the full 2.5 gigapixel image, and this right-side image is still less than 3/4 the size of the original (~21% zoom). Note that in the online version, ~33% zoom approximates the map's real-world size, while 100% zoom shows the map three times larger than the original.
If I were a mathematician, I'd try to calculate how far away a person would need to be from a 2.2-meter wide object for it to appear the same size as a 0.12 meters wide photo of the map held by the viewer at arm's length.
I'm not going to hazard it at this point (let's just say it's percolating – I would have to calculate its "angular size").
My first effort to digitally compile the Plan Scénographique (Winter 2013-14) resulted in an impressive-sounding 4,900-pixels-wide image, but the actual resolution was less than 10% of the 25 full-sized segment scans I created (52.28ppi, down from 500ppi). If I had tried to compile the map using the 25 full-size TIFF images (each 7,000 pixels wide at 500ppi), my work PC computer would have crashed. This matters because my first version lacked much of the rich detail that makes the Plan Scéno exceptional. For example, the creator(s) labels most of the streets and churches on the map but the text is illegible in the small, 52.28 pixels-per-inch version.
In April 2014, I re-compiled the map from the full-sized images utilizing a more powerful PC computer. My current version is a 2.5 gigapixel image with over 400ppi resolution, and all the writing is fully legible. At some point I will probably re-process the map a third time using slightly better scans, but the current image is more than adequate for exploring the map.
In 2020 the Lyon Archives generously shared digital photographs of the 1550 plan taken in 2018. I am currently finalizing an improved digital version utilizing these superior images and benefiting from my own greater understanding of the subject and improved imaging skills (July 2021).
Historical Context
The Italian Wars
The period known as the French Renaissance is generally thought to have begun with the first of France's "Italian Wars," Charles VIII's invasion of Italy (1494-8), which introduced many aspects of the Italian Renaissance to the French. Six more Italian Wars followed over the next 61 years, with France's imperial pretensions being repeatedly thwarted by the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain. I should mention that Lyon was known as the "Clé du Royaume" of France during this period, being in a strategic position between Isle-de-France (Parisian region) and the Italian alps and therefore a logistical center for military campaigns into Italy.
Lyon was the second largest city in France during the 16th Century (approximate population 80,000, compared to Paris' population of at least 250,000) and the major trading hub of Southern France (reference). Up until the 1550s Lyon was visited frequently by the King's court and was the base of operations for Francois I's Italian campaigns.
Ironically Francois I (ruler of France from 1515-1547) borrowed heavily from Lyon's expatriate community of Italian bankers to finance his military campaigns into Northern Italy. Italian merchants were also prominent in Lyon's fairs and the silk industry, and many of their impressive residences are depicted on the 1550 Plan Scéno. Sixteenth century Lyon was truly a multi-ethnic, cosmopolitan city of strategic importance for both trade and war.
To illustrate this I put together the following quick "mashup" of major river basins in Western Europe centered on Lyon. Despite obvious imperfections, it does show that Lyon was strategically located near 5 major river systems – The Loire, Seine, Rhine, Rhone (includes Saône) and Po. One can visualize Francois I's forces in 1524-25 embarking from Lyon towards Grenoble, across the alps at Briançon, though the Susa valley to Turin, then down the Po river towards Pavia (and defeat).
Roman Lugdunum
The 1550 Plan Scéno explicitly references Lyon's own Roman past – almost a millenium earlier – to reflect imperial glory on the French crown and Lyon itself. Lyon was built upon the ruins of Lugdunum (c. 43BCE-192CE), the Roman Capitol of "the three Gauls" – Celtica, Belgica and Aquitania. The Roman city was mostly destroyed in the Battle of Lugdunum (197CE), the victory that solidified Emperor Septimius Severus' control of the Roman Empire. Severus founded his own imperial dynasty, which is what the 16th Century French Kings aspired to (particularly Francois I) with questionable success.
The following cartouche (link) is from the 1550 Plan Scéno's eighth sheet, centrally located on the hill of Fourvière, which was the heart of Lugdunum.
|Jacques-Jules Grisard's Latin-to-French
Translation (1891)
|Ce fut le séjour aimé de plusieurs empereurs de Rome, notamment de l'empereur Sévère. Sous son règne, de nombreux martyrs, dans la quatrième et cinquième persécution contre les chrétiens furent misa mort. (Voyez l'histoire ecclésiastique, livre 5.)
|This was the beloved residence of several emperors of Rome, especially Severus. Under his reign, many martyrs were killed in the fourth and fifth persecutions of the Christians. (See History of the Church, book 5.)
Henri II
The 1550 Plan Scéno also contains numerous symbolic references to Henri II, who ruled France from March 1547 until his premature death in June 1559. This tells us that at least the artistic, non-cartographic elements of the map were created after Henri II was crowned King of France in July 1547 (succeeding his father Francois I). While some map elements may date to as early as 1544, the Plan Scéno was most likely completed around the time of the King's Royal Entry into Lyon in September 1548. The artwork created for the Royal Entry contains classical imagery and symbolism extremely similar to that used in the Plan Scéno (as shown in a festival book for the entry written by the celebrated poet and humanist Maurice Scêve and illustrated by Bernard Salomon). Henri II's personal emblem, the crescent moon, is pervasive in both book and map.
Scêve and the artist Bernard Salomon (whose engravings illustrate the festival book) helped orchestrate the 1548 Royal Entry itself, which was primarily funded by the powerful and wealthy Archbishop of Lyon, Ippolito d'Este (later Cardinal of Ferrar). This is quite an intriguing line of inquiry as well – did these men also play a part in arranging the creation of the Plan Scéno itself? (more info.)
Ces entrées sont des phénomènes multimédia qui demandent toute une équipe : architecte, peintres, sculpteurs, metteurs en scène pour les saynètes, architriclin pour les banquets, costumier, décorateur pour la scénographie ; humaniste/historien/poète qui conçoit les grands thèmes, compose les inscriptions, les dialogues, et sera chargé par les édiles du livret officiel. – Richard Cooper (2019)
In July 1559, at a tournament held to celebrate the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis that ended the last of the Italian Wars, Henri II was killed when a splinter from a broken lance flew into his visor during a joust and the injury became infected. Henri II's teenage son Francis II inherited the throne, and as a result the politics of France were destabilized.
The end of the Italian Wars did not bring peace to France. Three years after Henri II's death, the Massacre of Vassy instigated the first of the mostly-internal French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots, which continued for almost forty years, at least until the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
In 1562, during the first War of Religion, the Protestant (Calvinist) Huguenots took over Lyon, pillaged its many Catholic churches, and demolished two – the Basilica Saint-Just and L'église Saint-Irénée, shown in the first (top-left) sheet of the 1550 Plan Scéno. The churches were located southwest of the city walls, and the pillaged stones from Saint-Just were used to reenforce the fortifications of the city. Saint-Irénée was rebuilt on the same site in 1582. A new Église Saint-Just was built, but to the north of the original site, just within the main city walls. Today the ruins of the original Saint-Just have been developed into "en jardin archéologique" (Église Saint-Just et nécropole).
Thus, we can see that 1550 Plan Scénographique represents the city of Lyon mostly at peace and part of a (relatively) unified France shortly before the onset of a long period of traumatic internal strife.
Portrait of a Living City
While many similar scenic maps from the sixteenth century depict scenes of city life, those in the 1550 Plan Scénographique de Lyon are more pervasive, varied and evocative than those of other axonometric city portraits that have come down to us.
The engraver peppered the map with a great many delightful little stick-figure vignettes – idealized representations depicting everyday activities such as hunting, fishing, farming, building fortifications, bartering, dancing, and even tennis. In addition the map features innumerable trees and numerous wild and domestic animals of various types. Scholar Jacques Roussiaud estimates that the map shows 440 human figures (90% adult male) and 130 animals with horses and dogs being most prevalent (Roussiaud, 1990).
The ubiquitous live vignettes are what truly distinguish the 1550 Plan Scénographique de Lyon from other similar scenic maps. These scenes from life add a powerful dynamic element, evoking an idealized era of prosperity, and inspiring curiosity in the viewer about how people lived during the now-romanticized "golden age" of mid 16th-century Lyon.
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
– John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn (1819)
– Andrew Taylor, 01/07/14
Other Digital Projects about Pre-Modern Lyon
An interesting GIS project would be to create a virtual 1550 Lyon based on various sources and implemented using a software platform such as Esri's CityEngine. Many projects like this are already being worked on (most notably Lyon en 1700) so I expect a virtual pre-modern Lyon to become available online within the next decade.
[Note: The Lyon GIS project is already well underway – an authoritative, scholarly, data-driven historical project, not merely a cavalier visualization!]
Description of the map in French on the Lyon City Archives website.
A series of 25 engravings based on the 1550 Lyon plan was created and published in serial from 1872-76 as Plan scénographique de la ville de Lyon au XVIe siècle. Research by the Lyon Archives tells us that architect Léon Charvet directed the project and that it was executed by two engravers – Joanny Séon (the topographical engraver) and François Dubouchet (the ornamental engraver). Note that while the facsimile was printed at the same size as the original, it was engraved on zinc plates, whereas the 1550 Plan Scéno was engraved on copper plates.
At one point I had believed that the full-map image shown below was of an additional (extra) 26th sheet engraved for the 1870s project – an overview image of the whole map with the missing edges reconstructed (based on the little information available from other sources). However my own work (and a careful viewing of the below map) disproves this – the image below was compiled from reductions of the 25 full-size engraved copies made in 1872-1876 for the "facsimile" edition. The below reduction of the facsimilé may have been made for or by Lyon's Museum Gadagne (which has a full-size printing of the 1870s facsimile on permanent exhibition), or may be a version of the 1940 reduction published in the municipal archives' 1990 project Lyon en 1550. Unfortunately the reduction image is much too small for the street and building labels to be legible. An illegible stamp on the lower right and an accession number on top are modern archival details.
I am somewhat skeptical about the lettering on the four reconstructed sides, which don't perfectly match what remains of the original. Only a few remnants of the edges' lettering remain, on the first sheet (top-left).
Here is the Latin writing as shown along the edges of the 1876 facsimile:
The vertical letters:
Left side: "Pars Meridionalis" (Southern part).
Right side: "Pars Septentrionalis" (Northern part).
The horizontal letters:
Top: "Pars Occidentalis" (West Part)
Bottom: "Pars Orientalis"(East part)
These side labels copy Tardieu's 1698 map (see below) but we don't know how well they match up with those on the original 1550 map which no longer exist. There are partial letters still visible at the top of the first (top-left) sheet of the original plan, but they do not line up with those of the 1876 facsimile.
An additional primary source for the 1872-76 "Facsimile" and other later derivative maps is the excellent 1698 reduction engraved by Nicolas-Henri Tardieu for scholar Claude-François Ménestrier. Although smaller (68x86cm, less than 1/6th the size of the original), lacking the two bottom cartouches, and less detailed, the "Tardieu map" is clearly based on the 1550 Plan Scéno map, and in 1783 was even incorrectly considered the original, with the 1550 original believed to be a copy of it. It is worth noting that the Tardieu plan does a far better job of representing elevation than the original map does (at least in it's current condition). The Tardieau plan the best of the derivative copies and a great reduction, despite having at least one significant error (a label by Menestrier stating that Les Terreaux had been the site of a canal between the Rhône and the Saône during Roman times, this is probably incorrect). For a discussion of this see Benoît Vermorel's "Historique des anciennes fortifications de Lyon entre les Terreaux et la Croix-Rousse" (pp. 9-16, Jan. 1881).
Unlike the 1870s reconstruction, the bottom right corner of Tardieu's version doesn't show the North-Northeast wind's face, or the scroll containing "Aquilo" (the wind's classical name), but the 1550 Plan Scéno still contains remnants of a scroll matching those visible in the other three corners, and perhaps part of the breath emanating from the cherub's mouth. For this area, the 1870s facsimile is copying Moithey's 1783 plan (in many ways the worst of the derivative plans). The original 1550 plan can be explored side-by-side alongside all of the derivative plans on my renlyon.org website (http://www.renlyon.org/Comparison.html) and the many differences can be easily identified.
Paul Fuega's 2007 article "Faire revivre le plan scénographique" explores the brief history of the "Société de topographie historique de Lyon" that created the facsimile. For a number of reasons (not the least of which is accessibility) the facsimile continues to be used as a surrogate for the original map today, usually without any acknowledgement (or perhaps awareness) that the displayed image is a nineteenth-century recreation with significant differences from the original. This is one of the issues addressed by the renlyon.org project this essay is a part of.
When the Lyon Archives published the 25 sheets in 1990, city archivist Jeanne-Marie Dureau (who oversaw the project) wrote "Historique du plan de 1550" an essay explaining how the 1872-76 facsimile came to replace the original in the public imagination. Dureau expressed the hope that the 1990 publication of the original sheets would redress this, but my own web research has shown me that, 25 years later the 1872-76 facsimile remains pre-eminent. Dureau's essay is now part of the Archives Municipales de Lyon's excellent Lyon 1550 webpage (taken offline but still available at the Internet Archive) which adapts the 1990 publication, including additional scholarship as well as a very low-resolution version of the full 1550 map. Dureau expressed the hope that the 1990 publication of the original sheets would encourage use of the original by scholars, but my own research has shown me that, 25 years later, the 1872-76 facsimile remains pre-eminent. Now with the original map now available online alongside the facsimile, scholars have the option of using images derived from the original map, those of the clearer but slightly-inaccurate 1872-1876 copy (which has no coloring), or both. http://www.renlyon.org/Comparison.html allows anyone to compare the two versions along with four other historical derivatives, all far earlier than the facsimile. I also go into greater detail regarding the "afterlife" of the plan, drawing heavily from scholarly sources.
Andrew Taylor standing behind the 25 sheets as restored in 1989 by Michel Guet, photographed by Jacques Gastineau and published by Archives Municipales de Lyon in 1990.
Google Earth map of medieval architecture images
Wanted to write about a successful (it works the way I meant it to) GIS project I did last January in which I georeferenced ~100 password-protected photographs of French medieval architecture and made them accessible through Google Earth and Maps. Here's links to 2 versions of the map I generated, which publishes well to both the Google Earth web plugin and Google Maps as it utilizes only the Placemark and Balloon features.
If the sidebar menu of the Google Earth desktop version were necessary I would have had to replicate myself using web scripting languages such as JavaScript or Python as it isn"t available in the default Google Maps or the GE plugin platforms.
[NOTE: Rice image management has been switched from a locally-hosted image database to ARTstor and the old database discontinued, so while the maps below still work, the pages linked to from within the maps no longer exist. The project would work the same way targeting ARTstor, however I'm not going to redo this particular project – Andrew Taylor 3/19/2014]
Rice NetID is required to link to full-sized images and metadata. Unlike the Google Earth desktop version, Google Earth Plugin prompts users to download the images rather than opening the image automatically, I could conceivably change the code if necessary.
Google Earth Plugin version (browser-based)
Google Maps version (browser-based)
Google Earth Desktop version (must be downloaded)
Since coming to Rice University in 2010, I've administered the Art History Department's online digital image collection (~85k images total), which is currently published on "Owl-Space IMM" an MDID2-driven database located on a Rice IT server. The images and metadata on this map derive from and hyperlink to the IMM database records.
For copyright reasons, access to the images and metadata is password-protected. For this project, I had to generate a KML script and then batch-processed specific details for each separate asset from an Excel spreadsheet I generated. The 6 fields referenced in the spreadsheet consist of basic metadata, geocodes, links to the images and metadata in Rice's IMM database, as well references to derivative images I created that were not password-protected (~260ppi on the longside for Fair Use, as opposed to the 3,000 ppi full-size IMM-based images).
I'll probably discuss this further, but it worked out pretty well and could have been effectively applied to a far larger set of images.
Here's a screenshot of how the data and images display in Google Earth Plugin followed by the empty KML script I batch-filled (<<[Excel field name]>>):
Rice is currently transferring the Owl-Space IMM-based image assets to ARTstor's Shared Shelf hosting platform at which point the IMM server will be discontinued. I expect a similar process would work to access ARTstor-based image assets utilizing a map interface.


text:
There are certain diseases that may be service connected if the disease occurred as a result of the Veteran participating in one of the following radiation-risk activities:
The diseases for which service connection may be granted include different types of cancer. For a complete list of diseases, see 38 CFR 3.309(d)(2).
The VA will request all of your pertinent service records.
For more information on how to apply and for tips on making sure your claim is ready to be processed by VA, visit our How to Apply page.
Veterans Crisis Line:
988 (Press 1)
Social Media
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs | 810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington DC 20420
Last updated January 19, 2018


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"Folks, this is gonna be a thing." ~ Sun TV host Theo Caldwell
Sun News Network, a channel brought to by its own sense of self importance, is the epitome of pseudo-journalism comprised of (self professed) semi-literate on-air personalities with the combined intellectual curiosity of failed Vice Presidential candidate and former half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.
Irresponsible at best, the inherent lack of journalistic integrity is an insult not only to the many well-established, credible, hard working news organizations across the country, but to Canadians who've come to expect both accuracy and honesty in reporting.
Simply put, Sun TV is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Conservative Party of Canada, the National Citizen's Coalition, and the Canadian network of industry funded, Right-leaning 'think tanks' dedicated to promoting a given agenda.
Modeling itself after Fox News – 'Hard News' in the morning and throughout the afternoon, followed by "Straight Talk" opinion programming during prime time evening hours – it's hardly surprising that like their southern counterparts, there is little to distinguish between the two.
Take for instance 'Straight Talker' and host of Byline, Brian Lilley.
Three days into its network debut, Sun TV's 'Hard News' team began the day with an "exclusive" report from Lilley, who suggested Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was "on the front lines of (the Iraq War) pre-invasion planning."
'Hard News' host Neelam Verma dedicated her entire two-hour show to covering the "bombshell" report, often wondering aloud whether Canadians "know the REAL Michael Ignatieff."
Joining Verma in "exposing Ignatieff" was Lilley himself, along with Sun TV's 'Hard News' analysts Brigitte Pellerin (wife of Sun Media columnist & Sun TV contributor John Robson, and founder of Canada's anti-choice movement Pro Woman Life,) and Alex Mihailovich.
Among the notable statement to arise from the two hour assault on reality:
Lilley: "Ignatieff was on the front lines of pre-invasion planning … his own words show he was intimately involved."
Verma: "This is really important information right before the election."
Pellerin: (noting Ignatieff professed to have been on the sidelines) "Why do I feel this Bill Clintonian debate here by the meaning of sidelines? Really!"
"This new information shows that indeed he was on the front lines. His role was in the pre invasion planning."
Mihailovich: "I keep hearing over and over 'compassion' coming out of (Ignatieff's) mouth and how compassionate he is and how Liberals are about compassion … Ignatieff himself was in the war room. He was in the background. He was planning this stuff out. He was helping the US build towards a war."
"Ignatieff was involved with the US government planning the Iraq war – that's the bottom line …. Ignatieff was in on the Iraq war"
"I have a document here; This isn't written by Ignatieff but this is from one of the centers that he chaired, looking at civilian body count and what would be acceptable. Now these are not words of compassion, in my eyes. This is something far beyond. This is cold and constantly it is something these guys in the back room do to go forward, and he was a part of this … Now all of a sudden he's a peacknik of sorts and he's compassionate? Like, really!"
Pellerin: "This is going to be a revelation for a lot of Canadians for how deeply involved Ignatieff was in these 'cold calculations.' "
"You can bet the term 'flip flop' will be used a lot today, and in the coming days. This is really damaging info."
"Will the real Michael Ignatieff please stand up?"
Verma: "Do you think it will have an impact on how Canadians vote?"
Mihailovich: "I hope it does."
"The amount of flip-flopping we're seeing here is unprecedented."
Where Verma's morning show left off, subsequent 'Hard News' programs picked up, delivering eleven straight hours of fomented outrage, which was then followed by five 'Straight Talk' hours of rhetorical hyperbole.
Given the amount of time, and effort, dedicated solely to the coverage of Lilley's "earth shattering investigative journalism," one would assume the accusations regarding Ignatieff's involvement in the Iraq war were unequivocal; that the article was thoroughly vetted and meticulously fact checked, as is standard procedure with all credible news organizations.
Of course, that would require Sun Media (Quebecor/QMI) to be either credible or a news organization, neither of which it qualifies as.
Within hours of the report saturating the Sun TV airwaves, respected journalist Glen McGregor put Lilley to shame by swiftly, and thoroughly, disproving the entire premise of his piece.
Following a run down of the facts regarding Ignatieff and his activities with the Carr Center for Human Rights, including listing multiple NGO's in attendance for the "Understanding Collateral Damage" conference, McGregor levels the following blow:
"If the Sun was unaware these groups also participated in 'invasion planning,' that's just shoddy reporting. It took me four minutes to find the participants list on the Carr Center website.
If the Sun knew and chose not to include this fact in the story, readers can draw their own conclusions about the integrity of the reporter and his news organization."
Ironically, "Hard News" personality Krista Erickson hosts a 'Media Monitor' segment with Lilley wherein they heap criticism on other media personalities; the first one taking place two days after Lilley's failed attempt at investigative reporting.
In the category, "Barefaced Bias", Lilley scolds the CBC's Peter Mansbridge for his interview with Ignatieff versus his interview with Stephen Harper.
Lilley: "the tone was different … with Ignatieff it was relaxed, it was sitting back, it was in his studio; it was cordial. There was a much more aggressive nature with Stephen Harper than there was with Michael Ignatieff. (Mansbridge) constantly interrupted him … Harper is constantly interrupted."
Assuming Lilley watched both interviews, he had to have known, as was explained by Mansbridge at the beginning of each, it was the politicians who chose the manner in which to be interviewed. Ignatieff was "relaxed, sitting back, in studio" because he chose the "in studio" option. Harper, on the other hand, selected "location of choice," his choice being to stand awkwardly inside a minor Hockey arena.
Lilley's suggestion that Harper was "constantly interrupted" by Mansbridge is countered by observations made by respected journalist, and national editor of Maclean's magazine, Andrew Coyne:
"It's telling that in interviews Harper simply talks through and over questions he does not wish to answer. The interviewer asks a question. Harper talks around it. So the interviewer tries to follow up. At that point most (people) yield long enough to at least listen to the question. Harper does not. He just ploughs on. He won't take the cue. Saw that (with) Mansbridge, now (with) Friesen. Can't recall whether he was always that way, or only since becoming (Prime Minister). But that absolute refusal to yield the floor is not incidental."
Next, Lilley names Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star as the "Sloppiest Story" of the week, referring to her coverage of controversial remarks made by Conservative candidate Brad Trost about the funding status of funding of Planned Parenthood.
Lilley claims MacCharles "failed to contact the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London, England," claiming he did, and was told "the election got in the way" of their funding and "there's no problem with the Harper government."
Had Lilley bothered to read past the first paragraph of the article, he'd have come across this:
"William Stairs, chief of staff in Oda's ministerial office said in an email to the Star late Wednesday that despite Trost's claim, no decision has yet been made on Planned Parenthood's application because CIDA is 'still reviewing the file.'
Brad Trost did not respond to the Star's queries.
Ryan Sparrow, spokesman for the national Conservative campaign, responded late Wednesday via email, and did not deny that the group had been turned down.
He said only: 'We base funding decisions on the quality of the proposals we receive. We are proud of our international assistance record and we are proud of the results that have been accomplished under our Conservative government.'
CIDA had not yet responded to the Star's questions on the Planned Parenthood's funding applications."
In light of recent reports which detail Planned Parenthood's struggle with the Harper Government, it begs the question whether Lilley spoke with the organization at all.
Elizabeth Payne of Postmedia writes:
"In 2010, while Prime Minister Stephen Harper was getting kudos for putting maternal health on the international radar screen, Canada, for the first time in 40 years, provided no money to support an organization which is one of the world's biggest health providers to vulnerable women.
As a result, International Planned Parenthood Federation was forced to draw on reserve dollars and had to make cuts to some technical services to make up a $6-million shortfall, officials at the organization's London office confirmed."
So, that's journalism : 2 – Lilley: 0.
Evidently, the Sun News Network can't even accurately consume the news, let alone report on it. It's a woefully inadequate, amateurish parody of itself, destined to fail miserably once viewers have to start paying subscription fees.
It will, however, be interesting to see who the 'champions of the free market' point the finger at following when they meet their inevitable demise.
George Soros? The 'homosexual agenda'? Muslims? Frank Graves? The Human Right's Commissions?
Ah,who am I kidding? They'll blame the CBC.
Cross-posted at rabble.ca


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Owner: Jasper
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Version: 2 - King
Martin Wallström Online is an unofficial, non-profit fan site dedicated to Martin Wallström. We are in no way affiliated with Martin, or any of his representatives. All media, photos, trademarks, and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. We do not claim ownership of the images used on this site, unless stated otherwise. No copyright infringement intended. If there's anything you find on the site that belongs to you and needs to be removed, please contact us before taking legal action. This site is proudly paparazzi and gossip free.
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Here's the two first look images at Martin as Chefen in the upcoming Swedish film, Videomannen, and check out a short teaser for the film below.


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New research out of the University of British Columbia suggests the downplaying of the dangers of concussion affects more than just athletes in contact sports, but also those in individual sports – namely, surfing.
"Nobody has really looked at non-contact sports, individual sports and more alternative sports," said Nikolaus Dean, a PhD student in kinesiology, "despite the fact that there are epidemiology studies suggesting that concussion is occurring at high rates."
Dean, who suffered his own concussion years earlier while playing lacrosse, interviewed 12 surfers on B.C.'s west coast for his master's thesis, and found they trivialized the severity of the injury and accepted the risks of surfing while hurt.
"It's really interesting when you think about that, because surfers don't have teammates or coaches who may be pressuring them to play through injuries."
He said they ignore a potential injury because they only have a short time out to surf, they're out surfing with friends, or wave conditions.
Head injuries are the second most common injury among surfers after lacerations, according to Dean's research, and occur at a rate "on par" with mainstream sports. Concussions make up anywhere from three to 37 per cent of those head injuries.
"Those who hadn't sustained a sport-related concussion were a little bit unclear on how to properly diagnose, manage and treat them," said Dean.
In May 2018, Surf Canada introduced a concussion protocol to help athletes recognize and manage the injury.
"I hope more attention is given to it in the future," Dean said. "I think this topic will only grow due to the mainstreaming of the sport, with it moving into the Olympics and becoming an international sport."
The Surf Canada Nationals and Olympic trials are scheduled to be held in Tofino from May 10-15.
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Is it permissible for her to listen to music whilst exercising?
My question is:
Is it permissible to exercise knowing that they put on music for exercising, which has a rhythm that is suited to what the trainer is doing, or what should I do? I am confused about this as I like to exercise, and there is no gym where they do exercises without music.
There is nothing wrong with a woman doing exercise if it is in a place that is only for women, where men cannot see them, so long as that is done to a limited extent and it does not distract her from something that is obligatory, and it does not lead to her missing prayers or delaying them until their time is over, or neglecting other duties.
Among the haraam things that may accompany exercise in some gyms is using music and listening to it. Al-Bukhaari narrated that Abu Maalik al-Ash'ari (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "There will be people among my ummah who regard as permissible zina, silk, alcohol and musical instruments."
From this hadeeth the ruling on musical instruments is clear, which is that it is haraam. The fact that they are mentioned alongside other haraam things, namely silk, alcohol and zina, reinforces the fact that they are haraam.
There is no difference of opinion among the four Imams that musical instruments are haraam.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
Whoever plays these instruments as a form of worship is undoubtedly misguided and ignorant. But if he does it as a form of entertainment, then the view of the four imams is that all musical instruments are haraam. It is proven in Saheeh al-Bukhaari and elsewhere that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that there would be among his ummah those who regarded zina, silk, alcohol and musical instruments as halaal, and he said that they would be transformed into monkeys and pigs.
Majmoo' al-Fataawa (11/576, 577).
Music destroys the heart and distracts people from the truth; it generates hypocrisy in the heart. It cannot soothe the nerves or be a remedy.
Shaykh 'Abd al-'Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
Music and other kinds of entertainment are all evil, but they are things that the Shaytaan makes appear attractive and enjoyable, and he calls people to them so as to distract them from the truth by means of falsehood, and so that he can lead them away from that which Allaah loves, towards that which Allaah hates and has decreed haraam. Music, the 'ood (a kind of stringed instrument) and all musical instruments are an evil and it is not permissible to listen to them. It is narrated in a saheeh report that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: "There will be people among my ummah who regard as permissible zina, silk, alcohol and musical instruments." End quote.
Majmoo' Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (3/346).
The Shaykh also said:
As for using music as a remedy, there is no basis for this, rather it is the work of fools. Music is not a remedy, but it is a disease. It is a kind of entertainment which cause sickness in the heart and leads to deviation of morals. The beneficial remedy that can calm the nerves is making the sick people listen to recitation of Qur'aan, beneficial exhortations and beneficial hadeeth. Using music as a remedy is something that gets people accustomed to falsehood and makes them even sicker. It makes listening to the Qur'aan and Sunnah and useful exhortations burdensome for them. Laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa Billaah (there is no power and no strength except with Allaah)." End quote.
Majmoo' Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (9/429)
See also the answers to questions no. 43736, 5000 and 5011 for more information.
Based on this, you should advise these people and tell them that listening to music is forbidden in Islam and that there is no need for this haraam deed. There are many gyms which pay attention to that and they avoid playing music, which makes more people come to them. If they do not respond, then at least ask them not to use it whilst you are in the gym, so that you will not be a partner in this sin, remaining silent about an evil which you are obliged to denounce.
If you cannot do that, then you have to leave this gym: either look for another one, or look for another solution such as buying some equipment to use for exercising at home, which is better for you.


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General Terms and Conditions
§ 1 General information
By registering for the game "Might Makes Right", the user is requesting to enter into a free user agreement with Browser Fantasies GbR (hereafter referred to as "operator"). In addition, by providing his email address, the user states his consent to the verification of his email address (see § 2). The operator accepts this request by granting a user account that provides access to the game. The user agreement is based on these general terms and conditions, which the user acknowledges by registering. There are no subsidiary agreements. The operator enters into user agreements exclusively with natural persons. The user agreement is valid for an indefinite time period and can be canceled in writing, generally by email, at any time by both parties without adhering to a particular schedule. The user does not have any claim on opening an account, being permitted to participate in the game, the maintenance of the game or its accessibility. The operator reserves the right to continue developing the game or to change it at any time or cancel its operation without stating a reason. The operator may change these general terms and conditions at any time. The operator will notify the user of any changes explicitly and in a timely fashion. By playing the game again (logging in) after the notification has been sent, the user declares his acceptance of the changed general terms and conditions.
§ 2 Account / ownership of virtual goods
Account names must contain at least three characters, which may consist of letters, numbers, blank spaces and some special characters. However, they may not consist entirely of numbers. When choosing an account name, the rights to a name by actually existing persons must be respected. This also applies to naming groups, which may not be named after existing associations, companies or brands. All accounts, including the associated values, resources, objects, etc., are virtual goods in the game. The user receives an exclusive usage right to the account and a non-exclusive usage right to all other virtual goods. The usage rights are limited to the period of validity of the user agreement unless a shorter period is specified in the game. The user does not acquire any ownership or other rights to the virtual goods beyond the usage rights. This also applies to such virtual goods that have been made available to the user under the premium plan (see § 10). The user does not have the right to switch the account into another game world or onto another server. Using, buying, selling, giving away or exchanging virtual goods outside of the game is not permitted. Action may be taken against the attempt of such a transfer. The access data to an account may not be sold or divested in any other form. Every player is responsible for the security of his access data and is required to choose a secure password. The operator does not assume any liability for the loss of virtual goods. In case of doubt, the user must prove that he was not responsible for the loss by choosing an insecure password or through his handling of the selected password.
An account must be verified with a valid email address. If the provided email address is not valid, the operator reserves the right to ban or delete the account. By registering for the game, the user declares his consent to being sent an email by the operator to verify the provided email address and guarantees that he is entitled to use this email address. He releases the operator from any claims that may result from providing an email address that the user is not entitled to use. The operator also reserves the right to delete any non-used accounts after an appropriate time period.
§ 3 Copyrights and usage rights
The operator and, if applicable, the corresponding licensers are the owners of the game's copyrights and usage rights. The operator is the exclusive owner of the usage rights. The copy or use of the provided graphics, sound documents, video sequences or texts in other electronic or printed publications is prohibited without the operator's explicit permission. This includes all known usage formats (TV, online stream, radio, Internet, mail, print, etc.). Any use of the game for commercial purposes requires the explicit written permission of the operator. If you have questions or information or suspect a breach against one of your own copyrights or usage rights, please contact the operator immediately. If the information is substantiated, remedial action will be taken immediately.
§ 4 Multi-accounting / account sharing / account sitting
Every player may only use one account per server. If a player plays with more than one account simultaneously, this can result in a ban of all involved accounts.
An account may only be used by one person. Account sharing, i.e. the mutual use of one account by several persons, is not permitted.
This does not apply to temporary account sitting. Here one user plays with the account of another, temporarily unavailable user on his behalf. The account sitting period must be at least 24 hours but less than 21 days. During this period, the user of the looked-after account may not log in. The two accounts may not attack each other. The user of the looked-after account assumes the risk for the entire process of account sitting. Providing the access information to the account sitter constitutes a great risk for unwanted changes in the account. The operator does not assume any liability in respect to changes, losses or the deletion of the account. In particular, the operator does not assume any liability for potential uses of the premium currency (see § 10).
§ 5 Exploiting bugs & scripting / cheating
The user may not undertake any measures that cause an excessive data transfer to the server (such as auto-refresh) or that may impair the game progress. Automatic or semi-automatic scripts that execute database queries or activate game mechanisms are particularly prohibited. In case of an infringement, the corresponding account will be deleted or banned without prior warning. The operator reserves the right to claim compensation in the amount of the damages and the resulting administrative expenses. If the player finds any program errors (bugs), he is obligated to report these immediately to the operator by using the support mask. Anyone who exploits bugs to create an advantage for himself or others must expect that his account will be banned. The intended triggering of a program error is only permitted if the affected player is requested to perform this by a support employee.
§ 6 Rules of conduct
The naming and linking as well as advertising of outside commercial products, offers, Internet pages or companies is not permitted in any form. Texts entered into the game by the user, such as descriptions, names, guild names, guild descriptions, forum entries, hyperlinks or news that transgress moral boundaries, infringe on the rights of any person or violate any applicable law, especially that of youth protection, as well as contents or links to contents that invoke such a violation can be edited by the operator and the accounts of the responsible person(s) may be banned or deleted. The user can also expect legal prosecution. The operator does not claim ownership of texts entered or linked to by users. Checks are performed via sampling and following concrete information. It is not permitted to claim the identity of another user or support employee, community manager, operator or similar in the game, especially in the forum, or to threaten other users with sanctions by such persons.
§ 7 Game language
The official language in the game and forum is based on the language of the game texts on the respective servers. If a foreign language is used, character descriptions, guild texts and in-game news may lead to the ban or deletion of an account, since it will not be possible to guarantee compliance with the rules of conduct in such cases. Latin quotes in character and guild descriptions are excluded.
§ 8 Enforcing the rules
A team consisting of community managers (CoMas), game staff and support employees is responsible for enforcing the rules. They should be contacted by using the game's support mask and providing the verified email address to ensure that the user data will be treated confidentially. If a user tries to circumvent a decision made by the responsible processor by contacting another processor about the same case, this may result in the ban or deletion of his account. This excludes complaints as long as they are made by using the corresponding function in the support form.
§ 9 Data security
Only very few data are collected during the game registration. In addition to the email address, this includes only a password for the log-in process and a pseudonym. The operator uses this information in accordance with the privacy policy and under the strict conditions of the applicable laws, such as the German Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the German Telemedia Act (TMG). In compliance with § 13 par. 2 no. 4 TMG, the user can cancel his consent to the future use of his data at any time by deleting his account in the game's option menu.
§ 10 Costs
The game can be played completely free of charge. No automatic costs are generated by registering or playing the game. However, the user has the option of having a premium currency credited to his account for a charge. This currency is credited to the account of the user placing the order. The prices can be seen in the corresponding game menu. The premium currency can be used to buy additional content in the game. This can consist of special items, means of transportation or other benefits in the game. But there is no claim to the availability or to particular benefits. The premium currency units required to use such content is clearly stated in each case. Since additional content can only be used if units of the premium currency are available in the user account, no additional costs can arise. By using the premium currency, the user receives a non-exclusive usage right for the selected benefit that is applicable solely for the respective user account. Unless the period of validity of this benefit is stated otherwise in the game, it is limited to the period of validity of this agreement. All rights that go beyond the limited usage right remain with the operator.
The operator provides access to a variety of payment methods, which the user can freely choose from. For this purpose, the operator maintains business relationships with third party providers, such as banks. These providers sometimes enter into their own agreements with the user during the payment process. In such cases, the provider's general terms and conditions may be involved. Some of the providers, especially telecommunications and mobile communications providers become primary contract partners of the user. In such cases, the operator performs its services for the corresponding provider, which is the owner of the particular demand from the user. These providers therefore collect receivables on their own account and not on behalf of the operator. If you have any questions, please contact your provider or our support team.
To protect younger players, the game does not offer any possibilities of winning money or cashing out (§ 6 par. 2 Youth Protection Act). This means that units of the payment currency cannot be exchanged for real currency or paid out. Upon termination of the user agreement, any unused units expire.
If the user is a minor, by ordering units of the payment currency, he explicitly declares that he received the means of payment for these units for this purpose or for free use.
§ 11 Minimum age of users
To register and create a game account a user has to be at least 16 years of age since Might Makes Right is about many mature topics and makes use of strong language, partial nudity, violence, and drug use (alcohol). If we receive notice of an underage user the corresponding account will be deleted or banned without prior warning.
§ 12 Final clause
For all damages in connection with using the game, the operator is only liable in case of willful intent and gross negligence. The assignment of claims by the user to third parties against the operator is excluded.
The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies exclusively, with the exclusion of the UN Convention of Contracts and the provisions of International Private Law. Unless the user has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany or if the user is a merchant in the sense of the German commercial code, the location of the operator's headquarters is the place of jurisdiction for all civil disputes. The operator is also entitled to file a suit at the user's general place of jurisdiction.
If parts of these conditions do not, no longer or do not completely comply with the current legal regulations, this does not affect the content or validity of the remaining parts. The invalid part will be replaced by a legally valid regulation that comes closest to it from an economic perspective.
Last edited on June 26th 2012.


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Problems in Constitutional Theory
This seminar will explore the nature of constitutionality in the American legal system. What is the difference between a constitutional proposition and a non-constitutional proposition? On a certain lay understanding, a constitutional proposition would be (1) grounded in the written Constitution, (2) fundamental to the legal system, (3) entrenched against change except through Article V amendment, and (4) enforceable by the courts. But in fact, many constitutional propositions lack one or more of these characteristics, and none of these characteristics describes all propositions that properly socialized American lawyers call "constitutional." This seminar will investigate this puzzle, aiming to discern the scope and content of what we might call the "operative constitution." Key issues include the role of the written Constitution, the nature of entrenchment, and the possibility of implications for constitutional decisionmaking.
Each student in the seminar will be required to write two short papers and one longer paper. The short papers, which shall not exceed five pages, will address the reading in particular weeks and will be circulated to all members of the seminar in advance of the relevant week's discussion. The longer paper, which shall not exceed 20 pages, will be due at the end of the semester. The longer paper must be original work, meaning that it must either contain an original argument or else support a known argument in a new way.
For details on class times, days of the week, instructors, and grading and exam details, please view the Michigan Law Class Schedule.


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Home Sweet Home
Our beautiful girls have finally arrived. It feels like a monumental step in our self-sufficiency journey and I'm very, very excited. We decided to buy twelve chickens to start. We had the space so we thought, why not? Chickens are sociable creatures and love company. They will also keep each other warm in the cold Lithuanian winters.
Arūnas had constructed a lovely home for our girls out of spare parts from our house renovation project. The walls are made from doors and internal wall panels. The door into the coup is an old wardrobe door and the roof uses the old roof tiles from the house. There are four sizeable nesting boxes and a number of roosting perches. Borrowing from a number of designs I've seen online, we included a small opening at the back to check for eggs without disturbing the chickens.
Our neighbours recommended a mix of Lohmann Brown and Barred Holland chickens. Both are good layers and are suited to Lithuanian winters. General advice was to buy pullets – chickens of about 12-20 weeks old who had not yet laid their first egg. Chickens generally start to lay at about 20-25 weeks.
I feel like I've been waiting for my chickens forever and the thoughts of having to wait a further 1-2 months before seeing my first egg didn't appeal to me. As such, we elected to buy four hens that have just started to lay and eight pullets which will come on lay in the coming months.
We got up very early yesterday morning to head to Rietavas, home to one of Lithuania's largest outdoor markets. The market has everything, from livestock to fresh produce, dairy, smoked meats, spices, shrubbery and trees and on to car parts, clothes, handbags and a huge bric-a-brac section. Whatever you want you can find it in Rietavas.
We headed straight to the livestock section to get first pick of the birds on offer. There was a number of sellers, all with similar breeds at similar stages and at similar prices. We spoke to one lady who repeatedly petted her birds as she talked us through their history. Her obvious love for her chickens led us to believe that they had been well cared for and that these were the ones for us.
We chose our twelve girls – four pullet Lohmann Browns, four pullet Barred Holland and four young Lohmann Brown hens that had just started laying. The chickens were carefully placed in sacks, which we were advised was safe and perfectly comfortable for the chickens for the hour-long journey home. After a cursory look around the remaining stalls we headed home, anxious to get our girls settled into their new run.
While the chickens seemed to take to their new surroundings straight away, the dog was more than a little discommoded. From the moment Arūnas lifted the sacks from the car he was on the attack. He tried to grab at one of the bags – Arūnas had to lift them practically over his head to keep him away. Once the girls began to emerge from the sacks he went completely crazy, running all around the run trying to find a way to get in. He found a weak spot in the fencing and tried to bite his way though.
He was rewarded with a few hours tied to his chain. We very rarely tie him up, so I think he understood the gravity of his actions and he quickly calmed down. When we let him off the chain later in the day he had a quick sniff around the run and then went off about his business. We will leave the chickens in the run for about a week before we let them out around the garden. Hopefully the dog will be well used to them by then and cause them no trouble. The neighbours' hens are in the garden all the time and he never goes near them, so I'm confident that our girls will be safe.
I've been checking regularly for eggs, but so far have found none. I suspect the girls might need a few days to settle down after the stresses of the market, travelling and their new home. I await with great anticipation that first little pullet egg, fried or poached to perfection and perhaps with some crispy bacon on the side. Maybe I'll find one in time for tea – fingers crossed!
PS: I'm an absolute newbie when it comes to chickens, so if you have any advice I'd be more than happy to hear it!
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Good luck, June – they look like they're settling in well. We never kept our own hens but when we were small, Dáithí and I were dispatched once a week with a large basket to our neighbours who had a veritable aviary of farm birds – hens, bantams, ducks, guinea fowl, pheasants and turkeys. It was a noisy yard! We only ever got hens' eggs but we got to hold baby chicks of all kinds as well as ducklings, which were so cute. Those neighbours are long dead but Mam still has a good supply of fresh local eggs. There's no comparison in taste between eggs straight from the hen and those from the shop.
LikeLikeMarch 26, 2014