Jiyuu no Tsubasa (Wings of Freedom) – Linked Horizon (Piano Cover) – Video

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Jiyuu no Tsubasa (Wings of Freedom) - Linked Horizon (Piano Cover)
Hey everyone. I just wanted to put this awesome cover out cause I realized the actual video I wanted to upload was taking a lot longer to learn than I thought. This is the second opening to...

By: Joon Ko

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Jiyuu no Tsubasa (Wings of Freedom) - Linked Horizon (Piano Cover) - Video

'Gateway to Freedom' offers new insight into the workings of the Underground Railroad

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Henry Box Browns escape started in Richmond, Va. Saddened by the sale of his wife and children to a slaveholder in a different state, Brown paid to be sealed up in a three-foot-long crate and shipped to Philadelphia by rail and steamboat.

Brown survived the agonizing trip, sang a hymn of praise after being freed from the box, and was assisted by sympathizers in getting first to New York and then to Boston, where he was hidden in the home of an officer of an anti-slave organization. From there, he joined his sister in New Bedford, Mass., then moved to England.

Brown was provoked to escape by the loss of family ties. But along with a profound desire for freedom, most escaped slaves from the pre-Civil War South were motivated by physical abuse. Samuel Hill, the slave of a farmer who worked him hard, clothed him poorly, and beat him, was one such escapee, but his story is typical of many.

With celebrated firmness, American patriots demanded Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. But the task of securing freedom for all Americans was far from finished when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.

Even before the American Revolution, African slaves took their lives in their hands and made perilous journeys. These quests the routes they took, the places they hid along the way, the people who helped them came to be known as the Underground Railroad. But even after former slaves succeeded in making their way north of the Mason-Dixon line, there was still the danger that they could be captured and returned to slavery, so many rode the Railroad on to Canada.

As Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eric Foner shows in his new book, Gateway to Freedom, this Railroad had many branches. And though Foner focuses his scholarly attention on the route through New York City, his text reveals the larger story of how thousands of slaves, mostly from the northern part of the southern United States, were helped to win their freedom.

Foner subtitles his book The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. Indeed, this account digs deep, and unearths important and perhaps for many readers unexpected aspects of the famed Underground Railroad.

Much of the book concentrates not on the escapes themselves, but on the groups that enabled these escapes. Foner notes that in 1838 the American Anti-Slavery Society urged abolitionists to appoint committees of vigilance, whose duty it shall be to assist fugitives from slavery. By 1842, the National Anti-Slavery Standard (a publication of the AASS) reported the existence of such organizations in most of our cities and large towns.

But there was infighting among anti-slavery groups. The task of assisting fugitive slaves, however, would remain a frequent point of cooperation among persons otherwise loath to work with one another, Foner says.

Foner, a distinguished historian and professor at Columbia University, has written a number of books on slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. In 2011 he won a Pulitzer Prize for The Fiery Trial, a densely detailed but revelatory look at Abraham Lincolns evolving ideas as to how to heal the injustice of slavery.

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'Gateway to Freedom' offers new insight into the workings of the Underground Railroad

MLK Day: Final Freedom Train in Bay Area

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SAN JOSE -- America's final Freedom Train chugged out of San Jose's Diridon Station and into the history books Monday, ending three decades of tributes on the nation's rails to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s enduring legacy.

After years of declining interest, the chartered Caltrain roared to San Francisco on what organizers say was its last journey with a rejuvenated spirit and about 1,500 passengers -- five times more than last year.

Packed joyously in 10 train cars, the multicultural mix of pilgrims sang civil rights hymns, read MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and shared personal stories. Michelle Geary's mother, Arlee Geary, made sure their family was onboard.

Jade Rugnao, 7, takes pictures onboard the Freedom Train during its final run on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday Jan. 19, 2015, from San Jose to San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) ( Karl Mondon )

"My mom called me and said, 'I grew up on Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, and if this is going to be the last train I want all of us to ride it," said Michelle Geary of San Jose, whose son and husband were also part of the final ride.

King's widow, Coretta Scott King, started the Freedom Train celebrations in dozens of cities across the country to commemorate the historic civil rights march her husband led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

But with so many new competing events over the years marking MLK's birthday, the train journeys faded away, leaving the Bay Area's as the lone survivor. This year, after the police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York, the traditional day of service also became a day of civil rights protests.

"All those people protesting these days, they ought to be demanding the continuation of the Freedom Train because losing this is a really a shame," said Charles Herndon, who was the conductor on the first 25 years of MLK trains before retiring. He rode the farewell train as a passenger Monday.

At 54 miles, from station to station, the San Jose-to-San Francisco trip was about the same distance King and his fellow marchers traveled five decades ago.

Donna Clay, who remembers the heartache of the Jim Crow experience during her childhood in Texas, came from Oakland to catch the last train.

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MLK Day: Final Freedom Train in Bay Area

MLK Day: Bigger crowd for final year of Freedom Train

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David E. Early dearly@mercurynews.com

(File photo Kirstina Sangsahachart/ Bay Area News Group) Maliyah Thomas is seen here waiting to board a Caltrain Freedom Train as it pulled into the University Avenue train station in Palo Alto in Jan. 2013. This year the Freedom Train will depart from Diridon Station Jan. 19 at 9:45am for its last ride down the rails to San Francisco. ( Kirstina Sangsahachart )

SAN JOSE -- America's final Freedom Train chugged out of San Jose's Diridon Station and into the history books Monday, ending three decades of tributes on the nation's rails to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s enduring legacy.

After years of declining interest, the chartered Caltrain roared to San Francisco on what organizers say was its last journey with a rejuvenated spirit and about 1,500 passengers -- five times more than last year.

Packed joyously in 10 train cars, the multicultural mix of pilgrims sang civil rights hymns, read MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and shared personal stories. Michelle Geary's mother, Arlee Geary, made sure their family was onboard.

"My mom called me and said, 'I grew up on Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, and if this is going to be the last train I want all of us to ride it," said Michelle Geary of San Jose, whose son and husband were also part of the final ride.

King's widow, Coretta Scott King, started the Freedom Train celebrations in dozens of cities across the country to commemorate the historic civil rights march her husband led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

But with so many new competing events over the years marking MLK's birthday, the train journeys faded away, leaving the Bay Area's as the lone survivor. This year, after the police killings of unarmed black men in Missouri and New York, the traditional day of service also became a day of civil rights protests.

"All those people protesting these days, they ought to be demanding the continuation of the Freedom Train because losing this is a really a shame," said Charles Herndon, who was the conductor on the first 25 years of MLK trains before retiring. He rode the farewell train as a passenger Monday.

At 54 miles, from station to station, the San Jose-to-San Francisco trip was about the same distance King and his fellow marchers traveled five decades ago.

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MLK Day: Bigger crowd for final year of Freedom Train

Demaskus Theater Collective looks to tell unusual stories

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Classic dramas envisioned through new eyes and unfamiliar works that tell unheard or unusual stories will be the focus of Demaskus Theater Collective.

The newly created, Pittsburgh-based cooperative of a dozen theater artists from Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and New York will launch its inaugural two-play season from March 12 to 15 with a production of Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress in the Pierce Studio of the Trust Education Center, Downtown.

A second production, You Wouldn't Expectby Marilynn Barner Anselmi, will follow Sept. 17 to 20.

We are thrilled to be adding work and new stories to an already robust Pittsburgh theater scene, says Demaskus founder and CEO Shaunda Miles, who will direct the first production. Our goal is to tell a classic tale in new ways and from different perspectives and give voice to marginalized communities.

The collective's name embodies the idea of revealing the truths that lie beneath the mask, Miles says.

Many of the plays will feature stories about women and people of color but will resonate with a far wider community, Miles says.

Wine in the Wilderness takes place during the Harlem race riots in New York City and explores the perceptions of black people toward one another.

It's a great play. But it hasn't been done in Pittsburgh since the '70s, Miles says. It deals with one community's vision of itself and de-masks perceptions the black community may have (about) itself.

You Wouldn't Expect is based on true events surrounding the North Carolina eugenics program, which sterilized more than 7,000 women in that state between 1929 and 1976. It's an intense drama about the relationship between two women forced to work with each other in a divided South.

During the run of each production, one performance will be prefaced by an optional dinner, during which a speaker and conversation will provide context for the issues in the play.

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Demaskus Theater Collective looks to tell unusual stories

China's Leshi Eyes Connected Electric Car

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A Chinese billionaire is following global technology firms in eyeing the connected car market.

Billionaire Jia Yueting is kick-starting his electric-car ambition by releasing in Beijing today LeOS, a new in-car operating system with gesture- and voice-control features that would connect his companys forthcoming model with its smartphones and TV sets. Users will be allowed to remotely control their cars, stream contents from Leshis video site and ultimately achieve unmanned driving, Leshi says in a statement.

Jia, the 42-year-old chairman and founder of Leshi Internet Information & Technology Co., announced in December that the maker of Internet televisions and set-top video boxes spent the past year developing electric cars under a project called Super Electric Eco-system. Jia, who this year ranks No.78 on the China Rich List with a net worth of $ 1.9 billion, has said that he was confident Leshis cars would beat Tesla.

The [SEE] projects first stage result lies in the self-developed electric car operation system LeOS for Auto, the company says.

Global technology companies are racing to develop automobile appliances and gadgets that can be connected to the Internet. Google is reportedly planning to build Android M, the next version of its Android operating system, directly into automobiles. Apple in March launched its iOS-powered car operating system called CarPlay.

Shares of Leshi rose 3.73% to 52.59 yuan in Shen Zhen trading as of 5: 33 p.m. local time.

Leshis electric-car push also comes as the government in Beijing is encouraging more participation in new-energy vehicles to forge Chinas own electric-car brand and reduce air pollution. Authorities propose to grant more manufacturing licenses to companies other than car makers, but applicants should have more than three years of experience in product research and development.

He Yi, chief executive officer of Leshi Internet of Vehicles, said in Beijing today license application is going very smoothly.

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China's Leshi Eyes Connected Electric Car

The Beaches – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The Beaches (also known as "The Beach") is a neighbourhood and popular tourist destination located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the east side of the "Old" City of Toronto. The original boundaries of the neighbourhood are from Victoria Park Avenue on the east to Kingston Road on the north, to Woodbine Avenue on the west, south to Lake Ontario.[1] The Beaches is part of the east-central district of Toronto.

The commercial district of Queen Street East lies at the heart of The Beaches community. It is characterized by a large number of independent speciality stores. The stores along Queen are known to change tenants quite often causing the streetscape to change from year to year, sometimes drastically. The side streets are mostly lined with semi-detached and large-scale Victorian, Edwardian and new-style houses. There are also low-rise apartment buildings and a few row-houses. Controversy has risen in recent years over new development in the neighbourhood that is changing the traditional aesthetic, with denser housing causing some residents to protect the traditional cottage-like appearance of the homes with heritage designations for some streets. There are several parks just a few steps south as well as a ravine that bisects the neighbourhood from North to South. Kingston Road is a four-lane road along the northern section of the neighbourhood. Woodbine Avenue is a five-lane road originating from Lake Shore Boulevard at the Lake Ontario shoreline, running north. It is primarily residential.

The Beach itself is a single uninterrupted stretch of sandy shoreline bounded by the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant (locally known as the water works)[citation needed] to the east and Woodbine Park (a small peninsula in Lake Ontario) to the west. A long boardwalk runs along most of its length with a portion of the Martin Goodman Trail bike path running parallel. Although it is continuous, there are four names which correspond each to approximately one quarter of the length of the Beach (from east to west): Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach, Kew Beach and Woodbine Beach. Woodbine Beach and Kew-Balmy Beach are Blue Flag certified for cleanliness and are suitable for swimming.[2]

In the 2006 Canadian census The Beach was covered by census tracts 0020.00, 0021.00, 0022.00, 0023.00, and 0024.00. According to that census, the neighbourhood has 20,416 residents, a 7.8% increase from the 2001 census. Average income is $67,536, well above the average for Toronto. The Beaches is known as being a great place to raise a family with very little crime as well as many parks and schools.

Ashbridge's Bay is a small body of water that was once part of the marsh that lay east of Toronto Islands and Toronto Harbour. The bay is named for the Ashbridge family that once lived nearby on a farm. Infill to form the Port Lands and building of the water treatment plant shrunk the size of the bay to the area between the Port Lands and Woodbine Beach.[3] The current bay is surrounded by marinas, the treatment plant and a small tree lined section along Lakeshore Boulevard East such that the original natural shoreline has disappeared completely.

The name of the community is the subject of a long-standing dispute. Some long-time local residents assert that "The Beach" is the proper historical name for the area, whereas others are of the view that "The Beaches" is the more universally recognized neighbourhood name, particularly by non-residents. All government levels refer to the riding, or the ward in the case of the municipal government, as Beaches-East York.[4]

The dispute over the area's name reached a fever pitch in 1985, when the City of Toronto installed 14 street signs designating the neighbourhood as "The Beaches". The resulting controversy resulted in the eventual removal of the signs, although the municipal government continues to officially designate the area as "The Beaches".[1] In early 2006 the local Beaches Business Improvement Area voted to place "The Beach" on signs slated to appear on new lampposts over the summer, but local outcry caused them to rescind that decision.[5] The Beaches Business Improvement Area board subsequently held a poll (online, in person and by ballot) in April 2006 to determine whether the new street signs would be designated "The Beach" or "The Beaches", and 58% of participants selected "The Beach" as the name to appear on the signs.

In fact, the two names have been used to refer to the area since the first homes were built in the 19th century. In his book, Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto, Robert Fulford, himself a former resident, wrote: "the historical argument for 'the Beaches' as a name turns out to be at least as strong as the historical argument for 'the Beach'". "Pluralists" hold that since the area had four distinct beach areas, using the singular term is illogical. Those preferring the singular term "Beach" hold that the term has historically referred to the area as the four distinct beach areas merged.[5]

Historically, there are or were a number of institutions that used the term "Beach" in the singular, including the original Beach telephone exchange (1903 - 1920s), the Beach Hebrew Institute (1920), the Beach Theatre (1919 to the 1960s), and the Beach Streetcar (19231948). The singular form has also been adopted by the local historical society, which is called The Beach and East York Historical Society (from 1974).[6] There are also numerous examples of early local institutions that use the plural form "Beaches", such as the Beaches Library (1915), the Beaches Presbyterian Church (1926), the Beaches Branch of the Canadian Legion and a local war monument in Kew Beach erected post WWII by the "Beaches Business Men's Association".[7]

In May 2009, the City of Toronto started the installation of "The Beach" signs along Queen Street.[8]

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The Beaches - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Australia beaches reopen after shark sightings

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"Bruce, he has been sighted on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, definitely the Friday," Mr Scruton told AFP. "But I don't think they've sighted him again this weekend."

Sharks are a regular feature in Australian waters and swimmers and surfers have had their fair share of encounters with the animals this summer.

Some beaches to the north and south of Sydney were closed at the weekend due to shark sightings and a 17-year-old boy was admitted to hospital after he was bitten on the hand while spearfishing 230 kilometres south of Sydney on Friday.

A white shark in Australian waters in 2014 (@SLSWA)

Fatalities are rare in Australia but two teenagers died in shark attacks last month, one on the west coast and one on the east.

Mr Scruton said there had been a number of sharks seen around Newcastle and the Hunter region this summer, with another large one taunting two fishermen at the weekend by circling and nudging their small boat.

"It felt like getting trapped in a room with an angry pit bull," one of those on-board, Tim Watson, told the Newcastle Herald.

"It wouldn't leave us alone. You almost wanted to stop and admire it but it was being pretty aggressive.

"It was as big as a wagon car that's what it felt like looking at it," Mr Watson said.

Mr Scruton said he hoped that Bruce had enjoyed his holiday in Newcastle and had moved on for good.

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Australia beaches reopen after shark sightings