Ahimsa is a heritage-listed residence and meditation meeting place located at 67 Cobran Road, Cheltenham, Hornsby Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by and built by Marie Byles during 1937. It is also known as Ahimsa, The Hut of Happy Omen and Sentosa. The property is owned by the National Trust of Australia (NSW). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 March 2002.

History

In 1935 Marie Beuzeville Byles purchased  of land on the outskirts of Cheltenham. A few years later she designed and built a small one-bedroom house. Perched on a large rock and built of unpainted fibro, oiled timber, random rubble and with a roof glazed terracotta the structure melds well with its bushland setting. Except for a vegetable garden near the house, the remainder of the site was left in its native state.

Marie Byles shared with Walter Burley Griffin and his business partner and fellow architect, Eric Nicholls the objective of integrating structures with the natural landscape and vegetation. Although there is no documented record to prove that Griffin's work influenced her, it seems highly likely that she was favorably impressed by the houses he designed for her friends and sought to incorporate some of their qualities into Ahimsa.

Marie Byles was not an architect and, not surprisingly, her work as a designer is less accomplished than Griffin's. Some specific differences are that he preferred flat roofs while her house has a more conventional terracotta pitched roof; Griffin experimented with prefabricated building materials where as Marie used fibro (even in the 1930s this was a very conventional material); but they shared the goal of building small scale, understated and low cost houses which fitted unobtrusively into the Australian bush.

Born in England in 1900, Byles studied law at The University of Sydney graduating in 1924 to become the first woman in NSW to practice as a solicitor. She was a remarkable woman who was passionately involved in preserving wilderness areas. She was a keen mountaineer and travelled to Norway, China, Canada and New Zealand in search of unclimbed peaks. In 1938 she led an all women team in an attempt to scale a  peak, Mount Sansate in Western China. The expedition failed due to adverse weather conditions. In Australia her determined, active nature led her to become an early lobbyist for what we now know as national parks.

Byles was one of the early members of The Sydney Bushwalker's Club and was responsible for drawing the attention of the NSW Lands Department to the wilderness area around Maitland Bay on the central coast north of Sydney. She was appointed Trustee of Bouddi National Park and organised working bees amongst the bushwalkers to maintain the area.

The Beecroft-Cheltenham Civic Trust was established by her as a "non-progress association" which worked for the closure of roads in the area and the planting of native trees and shrubs. She worked with the Bradley sisters (Joan and Eileen) to rid the bush of weeds around her property, and practiced organic gardening techniques all her life. She always slept outside on an open verandah, never drove a car, and walked everywhere, usually with a rucksack.

In 1941 while on a bushwalk, where one of the members was taken ill, Byles shouldered his pack, his carriers and her own, and in consequence her feet were permanently damaged. From that time onwards she could manage short bushwalks only, and mountain climbing became impossible. Always interested in eastern religions, in particular the ideas of Gandhi, her disability gave her more time to research and write. In the late 1940s she took up medication and later traveled to India and Burma to undergo instruction. In the 1950s Byles built a hut in her garden called the Hut of Happy Omen, which she made available to meditation groups. By this time she had adopted the most ascetic form of South East Asian Buddhism.

The name Ahimsa is derived from Gandhi's teachings and means peace or non-violence.

One night in 1966, while sleeping on her open verandah Byles was physically assaulted and sustained serious injuries including a fractured skull. She declined to charge her assailant. After a period of convalescence she returned to live alone on the estate still sleeping out in the open air. Miss Byles gave up her legal practice in 1970, four years after the attack.

In 1970 Miss Byles gave the property to the National Trust of Australia, remaining in residence as Honorary Curator. Concerned that the one-bedroom house might be too small for her successor, she developed a plan for an addition comprising a one room detached pavilion.

Marie Byles died at Ahimsa on 21 November 1979.

Description
Ahimsa has an area of  and is contiguous with a much larger area of bushland, Pennant Hills Park, to the north. The vegetation is described as dry sclerophyll (hard leafed) bushland on Sydney sandstone and is typical of the flora associated with the Northern Hills District of Sydney.

The northwest, northeast and part of the southeast boundaries are delimited by unmade road reserves, Malton Road (part) and Lyne Road (also known as Cobram Road). It is located on a small ridge, formerly and unofficially called Native Rose Ridge, on the inside of a sharp curve in a creek draining the Beecroft Cheltenham area. This creek subsequently joins Devlins Creek. The upper parts of Ahimsa are relatively flat but the groundslopes off in a series of small Hawkesbury Sandstone cliffs in a north by north-west direction to the fire trail and towards Pennant Hills Park. There are many flat sandstone outcrops and small cliffs.

Buildings
The buildings include Ahimsa, The Hut of Happy Omen, the toilets, which were all built before the land was sold to the Trust, Sentosa, a detached bedsitter which was approved in principle in November 1975. A carport was built onto The Hut in 1977. Ahimsa is a small one-bedroom house built of unpainted fibro, oiled timber and random rubble with a pitched roof of glazed terracotta. There is a brick fireplace in the living room and a large north-facing open verandah looking over the gully. The Hut of Happy Omen is basically an open shed built of unpainted fibro with a roof of corrugated fibro. At some time it has been extended to incorporate a kitchenette and a shower stall. Sentosa is an open plan bedsitter also constructed of fibro with a skillion roof of corrugated fibro.

Marie Byles' design principles are best expressed in this quotation from her: 'No Painting whatever anywhere - Any woodwork to be treated with linseed raw oil (saves unkeep): External walls are to be fibro; Corrugated (sic) fibro (long experience has shown fiber to be lasting, with no upkeep).'

Paths were made by volunteers and Marie Byles' bushwalking friends.

Condition

As at 27 June 2000, the physical condition was good.

Modifications and dates
An absorption trench was constructed in 1975 to contain surface run off from properties adjacent to Ahimsa as the Trust was afraid that excessive run off would encourage weed growth.

One cave has been altered and an attractive two-metre high Hawkesbury Sandstone retaining wall was constructed many years ago near the path from the northern gate.

Despite her wish that no plants foreign to it, even from other parts of Australia, should be planted several native plants not indigenous to Ahimsa have been planted.

Heritage listing
As at 27 January 2010, Ahimsa and surrounding landscape stand as a testimony to Marie Byles' life and vision as a feminist and a conservationist. These subjects are of increasing interest to contemporary Australians and are helping to share our culture. Aesthetically, the small scale understated buildings fit unobtrusively into the Australian bushland. The peaceful atmosphere of the property gives visitors an insight into the character of the woman who gave the property to the National Trust. The bushland and topographical features, and the property's close proximity to the state reserve next door, form an intact natural area indicative of the appearance of this area prior to human occupation.

Ahimsa was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 1 March 2002 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.

The history of the property is very much the culmination of the ideology practiced by Marie Byles. Marie Byles has been one of the foremost protagonists of national parks as a mechanism to conserve nature. She was one of the early members of Sydney Bushwalkers' Club joining it in 1929 being a keen bushwalker. She was also the first woman lawyer in Australia, which gave her a certain amount of confidence. This confidence coupled with her interest and dedication to the cause of nature conservation became an asset to the nature conservation lobby in Australia. The creation of the Bouddi National Park is identified as a result of the unrelenting efforts by Marie Byles.

The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

The small scale understated buildings fit unobtrusively into the Australian bushland. The peaceful atmosphere of the property gives the visitors an insight into the character of the woman who gave the property to the National Trust. The bushland and topographical features, and the property's close proximity with the state reserve next door form an intact natural area indicative of the appearance of this area prior to human occupation.

The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

The buildings and their landscape stand as a testimony to Marie Byles' life and vision as a feminist and a conservationist. These subjects are of increasing interest to contemporary Australians and are helping to shape our culture.

The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

The property as the only example of a manifestation of the concern for environmental issues and sustainable development in Australia. Ahimsa is an important active part of the ecosystem of Lane Cove National Park due to the topography of the property. Ahimsa is important as a soft visual edge to Lane Cove National Park and as a part of its visual image. An example of dry sclerophyll bushland on Sydney sandstone in the Northern Hills Region.

The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

Uniqueness of the property as the only example of an early manifestation of the concern for environmental issues and sustainable development in Australia. Uniqueness of the property as the only example of the early efforts to introduce various sections of the society to living in harmony with nature by creating a physical focus (Hut of Happy Omens) and encouraging its use.

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales.

The property is representative of the beliefs of Marie Byles as a collection of rudimentary buildings in a bushland setting.

References

Bibliography

Attribution

External links

New South Wales State Heritage Register
Houses in the Hornsby Shire
Meditation
Community buildings in New South Wales
Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register
1937 establishments in Australia
Houses completed in 1937
National Trust of Australia (NSW)
Buildings and structures in Sydney
Buildings and structures completed in 1937

Ahimsa, Cheltenham


Argyle is a ghost town located in Rich County, Utah, United States. Lying some  southwest of Randolph on Big Creek, it was inhabited from approximately 1875–1915.

History
Circa 1875, John Kennedy, Sr. (the great-grandfather of David M. Kennedy) settled the area with his three sons (one of whom, John Kennedy, Jr. later served in the Utah State legislature), who built homes and ranches along the various branches of Big Creek. Within a few years several other Mormon families moved in and established a local church group. The town became known as Kennedyville. In 1885 the community organized a school system, and the mostly Scottish American residents voted to rename the town Argyle in honor of Argyll, Scotland. School was originally held in Kennedy's home until a one-room brick schoolhouse was built in 1895. The cold climate made farming difficult, and the population grew slowly. There were 111 inhabitants in 1900, and just over 125 in 1910 when a second room was built onto the schoolhouse.

Argyle declined as transportation improved and farmers no longer had to live as close to their fields. The school was considered inferior to the education available in nearby Randolph, and Argyle had no stores or other services of its own. In 1913 the local church organization was discontinued, and in 1915 the school itself closed and merged with the one in Randolph. Most of the residents moved to Randolph and kept their farms in the Argyle area.

Although the town is deserted, numerous buildings and walls still stand at Argyle. It is surrounded by hay fields and closed to the public, but the ruins can easily be seen from the road.

References

External links
 Argyle at GhostTowns.com

Ghost towns in Rich County, Utah
Ghost towns in Utah
Populated places established in 1875
1875 establishments in Utah Territory

Argyle, Utah


Lilit Teryan or Liliet Teryan (31 December 1930 – 7 March 2019) was an Iranian born sculptor of Armenian heritage. She had to cease teaching sculpture when it was prohibited in Tehran. She began to exhibit in 2008 and then to teach again. She has been called the Mother of Iranian sculpture.

Life
Teryan was born in Tehran in 1930. She was born in the Naderi area of the city. Her parents were from Armenia. Her mother had been trained as an artist in France and her father worked for the Bank of Tehran. Her mother helped to train her daughters artistic skills.

She took formal art training in Paris at the Beaux Art Academy.

She was trained to teach sculpture and was one of the first to teach in Iran. She taught at the Faculty of Decorative Arts at the University of Tehran. After the revolution the teaching of sculpture became illegal and she had to continue the teaching in secrecy.

The first sight of her work in Tehran was at an exhibition at Tehran Silver Publishing in 2008. Some time after this she began to teach sculpture again at Azad University. She has been called the Mother of Iranian sculpture.

She has created a statue of Mesrop Mashtots the founder of the Armenian alphabet and of the Iranian national hero Yeprem Khan. The statue is at St Mary's church in Tehran.

Teryan died in 2019 in her home city after a fall down some stairs.

References

1930 births
2019 deaths
Artists from Tehran
Iranian sculptors
Iranian women sculptors
Armenian sculptors
Armenian women sculptors
Iranian people of Armenian descent
20th-century Iranian people
21st-century Iranian people
Ethnic Armenian artists

Lilit Teryan


Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah (; 23 August 1914 – 15 June 1991) was the youngest son of the founder of the modern state of Kuwait Sheikh Mubarak Al-Kabir ("Mubarak the Great").

Career

In 1926, Abdullah Al-Mubarak commenced his duty in the field of public service at an early age, when he was assigned to ensure security of one of the gates of the wall of Kuwait. He succeeded in the execution of the assignment in an impressive manner. From 1940 to 1946, Abdullah Al-Mubarak supported institutional work in Kuwait in several sectors. During 1942, he assumed the presidency of the General Security Department and became Governor of Kuwait City. In 1945, he headed a special court to settle disputes, quarrels and thefts, and the task of achieving security in Kuwait. The court was located in the Safat area. Additionally, the UK asserted that the Security Department handles all security work within Kuwait City, under the administration of the court headed by Abdullah Al-Mubarak. He was also awarded the Order of the Indian Empire from the British government as a companion CIE, in appreciation of his efforts during the Second World War. By 1948, Abdullah Al-Mubarak assumed responsibility for starting the Kuwaiti Defense Forces, and established an administration that handles passport and nationality affairs upon the request of the Emir of Kuwait, Ahmed Al-Jaber. During 1949, he envisioned building the Kuwait Army, and he laid the foundation of its mission and goals. From 1950 to 1960, he was Deputy Ruler of Kuwait and acted as the de facto ruler on a frequent and consecutive basis, from three months to eleven months in the last three years during this period, most of which were under his rule, due to the illness of Abdullah Al-Salem and his travel outside Kuwait. in 1951, Abdullah Al-Mubarak headed Kuwait Radio with the launch of its broadcast for the first time from the police and public security building, where he continued until 1960 as its president. In 1952, he announced in an interview with the "BBC" that a desalination plant in Kuwait will be operated and water pipelines will be extended to Kuwaiti homes for the first time, as the drinking water crisis in Kuwait ended. By 1953, he created the Aviation Club and appointed his English coach, Captain Lash, and inaugurated the Club and Flight School in the same year. During 1954, he escaped a serious accident after his car was destroyed as a result of his pursuit of a number of smugglers. He was also appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the army. By 1957, an Emiri Decree merged the "Security Forces" and "Border Forces" under the chairmanship of Abdullah Al-Mubarak. In 1959, Abdullah Al-Salem issued a decree merging the police and public security into a single department headed by Abdullah Al-Mubarak. In 1960, he received the Grand Sash of the Lebanese Order of Merit. By 1961, Abdullah had resigned from all political posts, and in 1973, his son, Mubarak, passed away, and was buried in Egypt.

He died 15 June 1991 in London and he was buried in the Sulaibikhat Cemetery in Kuwait the next day.

Personal life
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak married Sheikha Dr. Souad Mohammed Al-Sabah in 1960.

Honours and awards

He received the Syrian Medal of Merit by Syrian President Adib Al-Shishkli in 1952. In 1960, he was awarded the Grand Sash of the Lebanese Order of Merit from President of the Republic, Fouad Shehab.

Sources

1914 births
1991 deaths
House of Al-Sabah
20th-century Kuwaiti people
Sons of monarchs

Abdullah Mubarak Al-Sabah


Orthogonal polarization spectral imaging (OPS imaging) is a method for imaging small blood vessels in tissue like the nail bed or lip.

It uses a light source of linearly polarized light with a wavelength of 550 nanometers, an isosbestic point for hemoglobin, thus imaging the erythrocytes as they are flowing through the small blood vessels. The reflected light orthogonal (at a 90° angle) to the emitted light is recorded, thus eliminating direct reflections. The depolarized light forms an image of the microcirculation on a charge-coupled device (CCD), which can be captured through single frames or on videotape. The image produced is as if the light source is actually placed behind the desired target or transilluminated.

It has been validated, even under low hematocrit circumstances.

References

Medical imaging


Men O' War is the third sound film starring Laurel and Hardy, released on June 29, 1929.

Plot
Stan and Ollie are two sailors on leave who happen upon two attractive girls strolling through a park. The sailors invite the ladies for a soda, but soon realize that they only have enough money for three people. Ollie spends an eternity trying to explain this fact to Stan, who cannot grasp that either he or Ollie will have to forgo a soda. When they finally purchase three sodas, with the plan to share one between Stan and Ollie in which Stan swallows both shares, the price is twice that previously thought. Ollie gets Stan back for drinking his half of the soda by leaving him to pay the check. Realizing he does not have enough and that he has nothing to lose, Stan deposits a coin in a slot machine in the soda shop and ends up hitting the jackpot.

With excess money in hand, the boys rent a rowing boat with the ladies, which results in an all-out battle-royal with other boaters on the lake, with various canoes getting overturned. Eventually all the people who have fallen into the water clamber into Stan and Ollie's boat, which causes it to sink.

Cast

Production notes
Men O' War was written and filmed in May 1929. Most of the film was shot at Hollenbeck Park in Los Angeles, while the soda fountain scene was shot at the Hal Roach studio. The song "Runnin' Wild" was featured over the opening credits for this film as well as They Go Boom.

The difficulties of filming on location during the early sound era were present during the making of Men O' War. Offscreen laughing from passersby present in Hollenbeck Park during filming can be heard, and the sound quality itself suffers from echoing and background noise.

This was James Finlayson's first sound film, and the one in which his trademark exclamation of "D'oh!" appeared (acknowledged by Dan Castellaneta as the progenitor for Homer Simpson's similar expression of disbelief or outrage).

References

External links

1929 short films
1929 comedy films
American short films
American black-and-white films
1920s English-language films
Short films directed by Lewis R. Foster
Laurel and Hardy (film series)
Films with screenplays by H. M. Walker
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films
1920s American films

Men O' War


Volga is an unincorporated community in Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Indiana. The name's origin is not known with certainty, but is believed to have been adopted from Volga in Russia. There were no Russian settlers in the area so the reason is not known.

Volga was not platted as a town and was never separately enumerated in federal censuses. It was defined primarily by the existence of a post office and a school. The post office operated from
May 29, 1856, until July 14, 1904. The first postmaster was William J. Chambers.

School trustees purchased a tract in the area  on March 11, 1844, for the erection of a school house. A school house that was still standing in 1989 was built in 1870. In the immediate neighborhood is the Hopewell Baptist Church, a  stone building constructed in 1848. The History of Hopewell Baptist Church shows that the organizing meeting was held on May 16, 1829, at the house of Robert Ford. The first worship was held in July 1829 at Volga. The church, which still meets, is located at 3078 N Thompson Rd., Madison.

The 1890 Indiana Gazetteer and Business Directory provided the following description: "A village of 100 inhabitants in Smyrna township, Jefferson county, 9 miles northwest of Madison, Jefferson county, the county seat, nearest shipping point and bank location. Mail tri-weekly. George Wallace, postmaster."

Geography
Volga is located at . The community is on the north side of Harbert's Creek, which flows from east to west, on the Deputy Pike at its junction with county road 700W.

References

Further reading
Baker, J. David, The Postal History of Indiana, 1976, Philatelic Bibliophile, P.O. Box 213971, Louisville, Ky. 1976.
Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. Jefferson County Interim Report, Indiana Historical Sites and Structure Inventory Indianapolis, November 1989
History of the Hopewell Baptist Church. Madison-Jefferson County, Indiana, public library.
Polk, R.L. Co. Indiana State Gazetteer & Business Directory. 1890. Volume V. S.E. Circle and Meridian Streets, Indianapolis, Ind. Reprinted 1978-9 by The Bookmark, P.O. Box 74 Knightstown, Ind. 46148.

Unincorporated communities in Jefferson County, Indiana
Unincorporated communities in Indiana

Volga, Indiana