Yugo-nostalgia (Serbo-Croatian: југоносталгија / jugonostalgija, Slovene: jugonostalgija, Macedonian: југоносталгија) is a little-studied psychological and cultural phenomenon found among the populations of the former Yugoslavia, in the present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. When used unironically, it refers to an emotional longing for a time past when the splintered states were a part of one country, a grief about the war that tore it apart, and a desire to again unite. Self-described "Yugonostalgics" may assert their grief that brotherly love, unity, and coexistence failed, while division and nationalism won, or they may assert that their quality of life was better.
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A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used with intent to inflict damage or harm. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, self-defense, and warfare. In broader context, weapons may be construed to include anything used to gain a tactical, strategic, material or mental advantage over an adversary or enemy target.
While ordinary objects – sticks, rocks, bottles, chairs, vehicles – can be used as weapons, many are expressly designed for the purpose; these range from simple implements such as clubs, axes and swords, to complicated modern firearms, tanks, intercontinental ballistic missiles, biological weapons, and cyberweapons. Something that has been re-purposed, converted, or enhanced to become a weapon of war is termed weaponized, such as a weaponized virus or weaponized laser. The origin of the word "monument" comes from the Greek mnemosynon and the Latin moneo, monere, which means 'to remind', 'to advise' or 'to warn', suggesting a monument allows us to see the past thus helping us visualize what is to come in the future. In English the word "monumental" is often used in reference to something of extraordinary size and power, as in monumental sculpture, but also to mean simply anything made to commemorate the dead, as a funerary monument or other example of funerary art.
“I’ve seen some of the highest performance bicycles in the world, but I believe the most powerful bicycle is the one in the hands of a girl fighting for her education, or a mother striving to feed her family.”
– F.K. Day, Founder of World Bicycle Relief The rainbow jersey, Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, or Vuelta a Espana—that’s what usually comes to mind when we think of cycling. However, elite cycling is only one small spoke of a much larger wheel. By some estimates, there are already more than two billion bikes in use around the world. By 2050, that number could be as high as five billion. Over 50 percent of the human population knows how to ride a bike. In China, 37.2 percent of the population use bicycles. In Belgium and Switzerland, 48 percent of the population rides. In Japan, it is 57 percent, and in Finland it’s 60 percent. The Netherlands holds the record as the nation with the most bicycles per capita. Cyclists also abound in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is considered the most bicycle-friendly city in the world. It’s known as the “City of Cyclists,” where 52 percent of the population uses a bike for the daily commute. Bicyclist commuters are generally healthier than those who drive motor vehicles to work. They also remain unaffected by OPEC decisions about crude oil production or the price per barrel. Due to the size of China’s population, and the need for bicycle transportation, statistics on the country’s bikeshare program are staggering. In a database maintained by Russell Neddin and Paul DeMaio, more than 400,000 bikeshare bikes are used in dozens of cities on the Chinese mainland, and the vast majority of those bikes have been in operation since 2012. There are an estimated 822,000 bikeshare bikes in operation around the world. China, therefore, has more bikeshare bikes than all other countries combined. The country with the next-highest number of bikes is France, which has just 45,000. For many years, the world has produced over 100 million bicycles per year. In comparison, car production oscillates at around 60 million units per year. Bikes are used every day and on every inhabited continent, in the most affluent nations as well as developing and the least developed countries. This makes sense; cycling is often the fastest, most flexible, and reliable way of getting around cities. WHAT DOES AN ANIMAL NEED to have a good life?
We know a lot about what kind of food, water, exercise, and veterinary care animals need to grow well and be healthy. What does an animal need to be happy? The animal welfare movement has been thinking about animals’ mental welfare at least since the 1960s. That’s when the British government commissioned the Brambell Report on intensive animal production. Intensive animal production means very big farms raising large numbers of animals for slaughter or egg production in very small spaces compared to traditional farms. The Brambell committee listed the five freedoms animals should have. The first three freedoms are about physical welfare, and the last two are about mental welfare: freedom from hunger and thirst freedom from discomfort freedom from pain, injury, or disease freedom to express normal behavior freedom from fear and distress Freedom is a confusing guide for people trying to give animals a good life. Even freedom from fear, which sounds straightforward, isn’t simple or obvious. For example, zookeepers and farmers usually assume that as long as a prey species animal doesn’t have any predators around, it can’t be afraid. But that’s not the way fear works inside the brain. If you felt fear only when you are face-to-face with the animal that’s going to kill you and eat you, that would be too late. Prey species animals feel afraid when they’re out in the open and exposed to potential predators. For example, a hen has to have a place to hide when she lays her eggs. It doesn’t matter that she’s laying her eggs on a commercial farm inside a barn that no fox will ever get into. The hen has evolved to hide when she lays her eggs. Hiding is what gives her freedom from fear, not living in a barn that keeps the foxes out. Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals by Dr. Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson Statues of women never get names. They’re archetypes, symbols, muses, forces. The Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Freedom. Day and Night. The Three Graces. Women appear in memorials galore, as the Victims of, the Spirit of, the Contemplation of, the Apotheosis of—but hardly ever as real women from lived history, with first and last names.
We don’t build statues anymore. It’s hard to know whether this is empirically true (or if so, where it’s true, and when). Maybe there was a golden age of statue building, and it’s behind us now. From the Reconstruction-era rationalizations for the Civil War to the impulsive robber-baron philanthropy of the Gilded Age, the turn of the century probably accounts for a lot of the historical sculpture that exists today. On the other hand, the works built since then probably outnumber the artworks built in the past. (However, a lot of public art made today takes the form of commercial abstract sculpture.) When we do build figurative public artworks today, though, they almost always depict men. This is a myopia that we have carried forward through to the present. Public history will be fine (and more accurate) with more monuments to women, even if that means scaling back on sculptures celebrating men. Finding the right balance—well, we are a long way off from any balance at all. The battle for parity between the sexes is long and ongoing, and by doing a better job of depicting women, we stand a better chance of bringing this war to a conclusion. Kriston Capps Rush hour in Ljubljana City (15. - 16. PM) during virus COVID 19 breakout on 16th March 2020. Pink Floyd "Empty Spaces"
What shall we use to fill the empty spaces? Where waves of hunger roar? Shall we set out across the sea of faces? In search of more and more applause? Shall we buy a new guitar? Shall we drive a more powerful car? Shall we work straight through the night? Shall we get into fights? Leave the lights on? Drop bombs? Do tours of the east? Contract diseases? Bury bones? Break up homes? Send flowers by phone? Take to drink? Go to shrinks? Give up meat? Rarely sleep? Keep people as pets? Train dogs? Race rats? Fill the attic with cash? Bury treasure? Store up leisure? But never relax at all. With our backs to the wall. Photography: Bart Ramakers Here’s a 2020 Celestial Calendar for Astrophotographers
This astronomy calendar of celestial events contains dates for notable celestial events including moon phases, meteor showers, eclipses, oppositions, conjunctions, and other interesting events. Most of the astronomical events on this calendar can be seen with unaided eye, although some may require a good pair of binoculars for best viewing. Many of these events and dates used here were obtained from the U.S. Naval Observatory, The Old Farmer's Almanac., and the American Meteor Society. Events on the calendar are organized by date and each is identified with an astronomy icon as outlined below. All dates and times are given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) must be converted to your local time. You can use the UTC clock below to figure out how many hours to add or subtract for your local time. Ljubljana City Architecture
Slovenian towns first received their urban appearance two millennia ago as the ancient Romans arrived. In medieval times, these towns spread and changed, and much evidence of this can still be found if you explore the old town centres. Technical innovations enabled the construction of the Ljubljana Nebotičnik which was the tallest building in Central Europe in 1933. After World War II, public spaces were transformed by numerous modern buildings, new settlements and towns, and the 21st century brought about architectural forms that sometimes dominate the function. The history of Ljubljana is best shown through the city’s streets. The buildings from different time periods and architectural styles tell stories of those who lived in Ljubljana in the past. Buildings across the city complement each other and create Ljubljana’s stunning architecture. Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is practiced all over the world and dates back to antiquity. People engaging in this practice are called street performers or buskers. Performances are anything that people find entertaining. Performers may do acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, caricatures, clowning, comedy, contortions, escapology, dance, singing, fire skills, flea circus, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime, living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, street theatre, sword swallowing, and ventriloquism. Street Music by Arnold Adoff
T h i s c i t y: the a lw a y s no i s e grinding up from the subways under g r o u n d: slamming from bus tires and taxi horns and engines of cars and trucks in all v o c ab u l a r i e s of clash flash screeching hot metal l a n g u a g e c o m b i n a t i o n s: as p l a n e s overhead roar an orchestra of rolling drums and battle blasts assaulting my ears with the always noise of t h i s ci t y : street music. |
Photo essay as a mean of photographic interpretation of a larger theme represents in fact a series of photographs that tell the story.
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