A technical team from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is expected in Ondo State next week for the purpose of evaluating and listing the Idanre Hill as a world heritage site.

A statement by the state Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Thursday said the visit was part of the effort to actualise the vision of inscribing Idanre Hill cultural landscape into the World Heritage list.

According to the supervising commissioner for the ministry, Kayode Akinmade, arrangement has been concluded to receive the team of experts that will be in Idanre for the enlistment mission from December 9-11.

He expressed governments readiness to make Idanre Hills a tourism destination and pride in Africa.

He stated that government had commenced the construction of a world class resort at the foot of the Hill which would further open up the state to the whole world.

Akinmade noted that the present administration was taking advantage of the presence of natural attractions in the town to build tourist facilities that would make the state desired tourist destination for all

He added that the development of the resort would attract daily events that would lure people from around the globe to Idanre with the attendant consequence of generating foreign exchange for the state and the country.

The rest is here:
UNESCO to list Idanre as world heritage site

Published December 03, 2014

Facing a new political landscape, President Barack Obama and Sen. Mitch McConnell had a Wednesday appointment to size up prospects for cooperation between Democrats and Republicans who have shown little zest for political deal-making in the more than five years since Obama's first inauguration.

The Oval Office talk was the first one-on-one meeting between Obama and the Kentucky Republican since the GOP took control of the Senate in November's midterm elections. McConnell, who famously asserted after Obama's January 2009 inauguration that his goal was to make Obama a one-term president --is now poised to become Senate majority leader when the new Congress convenes next month.

Obama and McConnell have both spoken about their interest in cooperating where possible -- in areas like tax reform and infrastructure investments -- although working through the details of legislative proposals is sure to expose long-standing divisions on issues. The president's decision to move forward on an administrative remedy for immigration problems has infuriated some Republicans, who urged the president to hold off on the moves following his party's sweeping defeats at the polls.

McConnell said Tuesday that he had been "perplexed" by Obama's reaction to the election.

"I don't know what we can expect in terms of reaching bipartisan agreement," he said. "That's my first choice, to look at things we agree on -- if there are any."

Speaking to a group of business leaders Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with McConnell, Obama said he wanted to discuss with both McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner their priorities for the congressional agenda in 2015. But he said one of his priorities would be to quickly start discussions on overhauling the nation's complex tax laws.

"There definitely is a deal to be done," Obama said, adding that he hoped to get that process started quickly next year "because you need a pretty long runway on that. It takes some time."

The president also suggested that there was still an opportunity to pursue immigration legislation on Capitol Hill. He predicted that Republicans would first "take a couple stabs at rolling back" his executive actions, then start weighing potential legislative action.

However, the president also said he didn't expect that to happen quickly given the anger over his directives to delay deportations, allowing more than 4 million people in the U.S. illegally to stay here and get work permits.

Read the original here:
Obama, McConnell size up prospects for cooperation

Clare CURRAN

Dunedin South MP

21 November 2014 MEDIA RELEASE Public outcry urged against destruction of Saddle Hill

It appears that only a public outcry against the inevitable destruction of Jaffrays Hill, the lower hump of Saddle Hill, will save our iconic landscape, Dunedin South MP Clare Curran said today.

Yesterdays High Court decision overturning the Environment Courts declaration that there was no consent to quarry the hill has left Saddle Hill vulnerable to destruction.

That this issue has dragged on for so long is a travesty and demonstrates the inability of law and good sense to prevent the destruction of such an important landmark.

The High Court appears to have left a slight glimmer of hope in asking that the parties now attempt to reach consensus on the way forward. While that it most unlikely, it perhaps means that the Dunedin City Council can return to the High Court to argue that consensus is impossible due to the fundamental differences between the desire of the landowner to quarry Saddle Hill and the communitys desire to keep an iconic landmark of historical significance intact.

Despite an interim injunction being in place preventing the quarry business from digging along the ridge line further endangering the shape of the hill, diggers have been consistently observed and filmed along the ridgeline.

I have organised a community meeting on Saturday 13 December to discuss this and the ongoing issues of heavy traffic movements along the Saddle Hill roads due to the quarrying which has long affected the community.

I have also written to the Environment Minister Nick Smith advising him of the implications of this decision and asking for his intervention, Clare Curran said.

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Public outcry urged against destruction of Saddle Hill

By Tom Momberg

tmomberg@ benningtonbanner.com @TomMomberg on Twitter

The supplemental site plan for the Bennington Solar project depicts the two separate project proposals, both located within the yellow outline, just north of the Vt. Route 279 bypass.

BENNINGTON >> Neighbors of the Apple Hill Neighborhood Association met with Vermonters for a Clean Environment on Tuesday night at the Old First Church barn to discuss options moving forward for fighting the proposed solar project just north of the Vt. Route 279 bypass, abut the Apple Hill Development.

Apple Hill Association attorney and neighborhood resident, Peter Lawrence, has established communication with the developer to mitigate concerns of the neighbors, but they just as well want to look for ways they can prevent the project from taking hold.

There is little possible to prevent the developers from coming in, because as VCE's Annette Smith pointed out, "once they get their standard offer contract, they are locked into the site the towns usually find about it months later, after it is a done deal."

The Apple Hill Neighborhood Association has not committed to intervene with opposition, mostly due to a lack of resources and money to back it up. Smith said the association members will have to be creative, finding other ways to fight the project. State investments and deed restrictions may help their case.

The 2.2-megawatt Bennington Solar facility was proposed by Chelsea Solar LLC, a subsidiary of Minnesota's largest solar project developer, Ecos Energy, which is also in the initial stages of similar-sized solar projects in Rutland and Sudbury.

All three projects followed after the new Request for Proposal process was put in place this year by Vermont's 2005 Sustainably Priced Energy Development Program, or SPEED, which set the goal of having 20 percent of statewide electricity retail sales come from renewable energy resources by January of 2017.

Chelsea Solar was awarded the projects as the lowest bidder, whereas SPEED used to award bids through a lottery. The solar company would enter into contract for 25 years with Green Mountain Power following each solar field's completion.

The rest is here:
Apple Hill residents seek ways to prevent Bennington Solar project

Flight controller: George Barlin in the 2CA studios in Kingston in the early 1930s. Photo: Courtesy George Barlin

As I traipse up the little hill opposite DFO in Fyshwick, dodging discarded sheets of metal and halftripping over fallen pine trees, I almost step on an object which looks suspiciously like it came from the shelves of one of our industrial suburb's "late night" stores. Moving on, and startling a couple of rabbits into a thicket of blackberries, I glance down at the photo that I'm carrying of the same hill in 1918.

I can't believe how much the landscape has changed - almost a 100 years ago it was completely devoid of vegetation. Today, it's heavily forested and unexpectedly harbours one of our territory's more unusual historic sites, a place where the more you dig, the more you discover its secret past.

In fact, until September this year, when reader Hilary Wardhaugh submitted a photo of the shallow concrete "reservoir" she stumbled on while exploring this rare pocket of undeveloped land on the fringes of Fyshwick, I was completely unaware of the hill, let alone it's remarkable history. Now, in the space of just a few months, I've become obsessed with uncovering its intriguing past.

Air pioneer: One of the planes that former broadcaster George Barlin (with help of listeners to 2CA) guided down to land at Canberra Airport in the 1930s. Photo: George Barlin

Surprisingly, I'm not the first to be preoccupied with "Radio Hill" as it's unofficially known. Ardent Canberra historian Alan Foskett who first "discovered" the reservoir in 2005 has published not one, but two books which delve into the area's unusual past.

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"The Radio Hill Reservoir water was the first major use of the original Cotter Dam and pumping station," explains Foskett, who adds, "the water was pumped from the Cotter to a reservoir atop Red Hill and then reticulated to Radio Hill and on to the Molonglo Internment Camp and later workers' settlement."

Internment camp? Yes, you read correctly. Towards the end of World War I, Australia responded to a request by Britain to house 3500 German and Austrian nationals held in China by building an internment camp in the area now known as Fyshwick. The camp was hastily built in just three months, however, the original 3500 internees never arrived, and instead, 160 German and Austrian nationals were brought from other camps in NSW.

Bare land: The Radio Hill Reservoir in 1918. Photo: National Library of Australia

More here:
Hooked on Fyshwick's history

As area lawns brown and lush plantings wither, resourceful gardeners everywhere are beginning to embrace a new normal and looking for ideas to create the next generation of water-wise California gardens.

Coming to the rescue are a handful of community demonstration gardens staffed by master gardeners and dedicated to the proposition that a drought-tolerant landscape can be not only beautiful but cheaper to maintain and easier to manage.

In Contra Costa County, master gardener Monika Olsen of Concord heads up the Pleasant Hill Instructional Garden. A teacher with Mount Diablo Unified School District's Adult Education program, Olsen's students conceived the garden, which was then developed through a combined effort that included the city, school district, Pleasant Hill Garden Study Club, Master Gardeners and community members.

"Our goal is to connect the garden with nearby trails," Olsen said. "It's designed to be a living laboratory for students; they come out and learn about sustainability. . . the neighbors just walk daily through the garden; there's quite a bit of foot traffic.

"I understand we've been a model for a lot of other gardens in the community," she added.

Contra Costa County Master Gardeners also work in Walnut Creek's Our Garden, a demonstration garden that began as a joint project with the Contra Costa Times. The garden grows organic vegetables, 12,000 pounds of which were donated to Monument Crisis Center in Concord last year. Like the other gardens, water use is carefully monitored and minimized.

"Fortunately we put in a very low-water use system to begin with," said garden manager Janet Miller. "We water below the level of the foliage, but additionally have been able to cut back our watering time by about 20 percent. We use less water here than in a residential home with a family of four."

Carol Vander Meulen is an Alameda County Master Gardener, and one of the co-chairs of the Earth-Friendly Demonstration Garden in Livermore, a 7,000-square-foot project open to the public and designed to showcase drought-tolerant plants.

"The whole point is that earth-friendly requires minimal energy, effort and maintenance," she said. "All the plants have a low-to-moderate water rating, don't require constant pruning and require minimum maintenance. They also don't require a lot of special fertilizer, pruning or pesticides to keep managed."

Master gardeners like Vander Meulen work under the auspices of the University of California Cooperative Extension, which has master gardener programs in over 45 counties throughout the state.

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Fremont gardeners showcasing water-saving plants

People from Dorchester are well acquainted with the imposing blue shape set against the horizon just along our southern boundary. Its Great Blue Hill, and at 635 feet above sea level, it is the tallest coastal elevation between Florida and central Maine.

The Native Americans called it Massachusett, which is an Indian word that means Large Hill Place. Back then, the summit was venerated for being as high as you could go to get close to the creator. Now, the entire state takes its name from this spot. Around here, we just call it Big Blue.

When you turn left from Columbia Road onto Blue Hill Avenue at the Franklin Park Zoo, and suddenly see Big Blue looming before you, it is an impressive sight. From here, Blue Hill Ave. points to it like a needle, cutting through Mattapan and ending at the base, six miles south on Route 138 in Milton.

Great Blue Hill is part of the Blue Hill Reservation, a woodsy paradise encompassed by Dedham, Milton, Canton, Quincy, Braintree, and Randolph. The reservation comprises a whopping 7,000 acres of open space for public use, all there to allow the city dweller to escape and unwind in nature.

There are times when hikers along the trails and hilltops of the park might imagine themselves to be in a wild corner of Maine or New Hampshire except for the hum of traffic on close-by highways that, though subdued at times, seems to be unavoidable.

On top of Big Blue is the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, established in 1885 by a graduate of MIT. A National Historic Landmark, it is the oldest continuous weather recording station in the country. On most days, Mount Wachusett is visible from the observatory at 44 miles, and on the clearest days, New Hampshires Mount Monadnock can be seen 75 miles distant.

A bit lower, on the north side, there is another tower, named for the landscape architect Charles Eliot, who helped create the park. Before the 1880s, this region was all pastures and farmland; visionaries like Eliot set out to return the landscape to its natural state.

From Eliot Tower, the Mormon Church on Arlington Heights is discernible, but Bostons skyscrapers block the view to the Middlesex Fells on the north. Still, at this height, the contour of the Boston Basin is clearly evident.

To the northeast lies a faint outline of the arm of Cape Ann reaching into the sea. Looking toward Milton and Canton, Houghtons Pond and Ponkapoag Pond reflect the sun like giant mirrors, and even though the peak foliage season has passed, large swaths of red and orange can be seen in the trees that turned late. Altogether, these things made for a very satisfying prospect during a recent visit.

Native Americans quarried the blue granite on Big Blue to make tools and arrowheads. In 1825, a modern quarry was begun on the hills at the eastern edge, in Quincy. The first railroad in the US brought the granite to the nearby Neponset River, where it was floated to the harbor and shipped to some of the most important building sites in the country.

Read more from the original source:
Lets go to the Blue Hills

Earlier this month, a 27-year-old musician steeped in the ways of Chicago jazz won one of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world.

To Marquis Hill, taking top prize in the Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition, which includes a $25,000 scholarship and a major-label recording contract with Concord Music Group, represented more than a personal triumph. It spoke to the city that shaped his art.

"Someone asked me, 'Marquis, what do you think made your sound stand out to the judges?'" recalls Hill, who competed in Los Angeles and won on the night of Nov. 9.

"Of course, it's impossible to answer that question, but I would say probably my sound. The type of sound I go for is the Chicago in my sound. It's just kind of a melting pot of my upbringing and all the music I was exposed to growing up and learning about this music on the South Side of Chicago."

Hill indeed stands as a made-in-Chicago musician, for he studied with the best this city has to offer and benefited from jazz traditions that run deep here. At Dixon Elementary School he was in the care of the esteemed bandleader and saxophonist Diane Ellis. At Kenwood Academy High School, then-bandleader William McClellan "helped me get my tone together, articulation," says Hill. Additional studies in Ravinia's Jazz Scholar Program, undergraduate work at Northern Illinois University with the recently retired Ron Carter and a graduate degree from DePaul University enriched his musicianship.

And then there was that other, critical form of education that happens on bandstands across the city, when young musicians play alongside elders who have devoted their lives to this music. Virtuoso Chicagoans such as trumpeter Pharez Whitted, pianist Willie Pickens and guitarist Bobby Broom mentored Hill in Ravinia's Jazz Scholar Program, preparing him to go toe-to-toe with them in clubs, where he also collaborated with saxophone titans Von Freeman, Fred Anderson and Ernest Dawkins, among others.

"I would say Chicago jazz musicians and their music throughout the history has always been really soulful, and it's real, so I would say that definitely rubbed off on me, and the AACM being there, as well," says Hill. He refers to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a South Side collective of experimenters who changed the course of the music in the mid-1960s and thereafter.

"Being incorporated into the creative music scene helped. That's how I approached playing with people like Fred and Ernest and Ari (Brown)."

You can hear all of that in Hill's music. The freewheeling improvisations he brought to Matt Ulery's "In the Ivory" music last September at the Green Mill, the serene lyricism Hill expressed in his recent album "The Poet" and the sleek, blues-tinged playing he offered when fronting his Blacktet at the Jazz Showcase last November attested to the expressive breadth and technical command of his playing.

Guitarist Broom has watched Hill's progress for more than a decade, coaching him in Ravinia's Jazz Scholar Program and sharing a bandstand with him during jam sessions at Andy's Jazz Club and elsewhere. Broom was impressed from the start and believes that it took a fertile musical landscape to produce a musician as promising as Hill.

More:
How Chicago's jazz scene made a champion of Marquis Hill

(PRWEB) November 18, 2014

The care and keeping of large, popular National Historic Landmarks for public use and enjoyment is a critical component of The Trustees of Reservations mandate. The nations first regional land trust and a leading statewide conservation nonprofit, The Trustees preserve and protect 112 iconic landscapes and landmarks around Massachusetts.

Today, The Trustees are celebrating a significant milestone in the organizations ongoing preservation work at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich a National Historic Landmark and one of the few surviving, intact examples of the American Country Place Era with the restoration of the Casino. Named for the Italian word for little house and used to describe small dwellings in gardens and landscapes that surround a villa, the Casino originally served as an elegant pool and entertainment space used by the Crane family. Located on the Grand Alle, it represents the most distinctive Italian Renaissance Revival-style architecture surviving from this period on the Crane Estate. The Grand Alle is one of the largest landscape features of its kind in North America, modeled after the beautiful Italian and French gardens of Renaissance Europe.

Since the Cranes gifted Castle Hill to The Trustees in 1949, the organization has carried on the familys legacy of entertainment on the property, using both the Grand Alle and Casino as a popular backdrop for hundreds of open-air concerts, weddings, historic house and landscape tours, community events, a childrens summer camp, and other recreational activities held year-round at the Estate. In order to preserve their original design integrity, both have required extensive, multi-million dollar landscape, architectural, and structural restoration work over the past several years.

There is no other formal, designed landscape in America that can compare to the Grand Alle and Casino at Castle Hill, says Barbara Erickson, Trustees of Reservations President and CEO. The national significance of this property and its unique landscape and architectural features illustrates the importance of our role in its authentic preservation. The restoration of the Casino marks a significant milestone that has been years in the making at this iconic property and we could not have accomplished this work without the ongoing support of our generous members and supporters and expertise of our talented staff. We invite everyone to come see the incredible transformation of this exciting, newly restored venue space.

The original Casino, strategically situated down from The Great House and along the Grand Alle in order to preserve the sweeping ocean views, featured a saltwater pool framed by plantings and statuaries and bordered by two pavilions containing a bachelors quarters (or guest accommodations) and a billiard hall/ballroom. The Casino was designed by the Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge during the first building campaign on the property (roughly between 1910-1920), in collaboration with renowned Boston landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff who also designed the Grand Alle and is best known for designing Colonial Williamsburg and the Charles River Esplanade. The Trustees completed an extensive landscape restoration of the Alle in June 2012, which entailed the sustainable replanting of hundreds of trees, the restoration of statuary, and the refurbishing of an underground cistern and rainwater harvesting system.

The Casino restoration marks the final phase of this important project. After nearly a century in its seaside location, the building fabric and structural elements of the Casino suffered from exposure to the harsh elements, leading to a compromised structure that was eventually closed to the public in the 1990s. The original pool had been filled and topped with grass before The Trustees took ownership of the property. Since 1998, The Trustees have worked to restore many of the Casinos architectural and decorative elements, preserving as much of the original site materials as possible.

This past May, cultural resource experts embarked on planning for the restoration project, taking months to cull through original documents, drawings, photos and design plans to ensure accuracy and detail in design and execution. The Trustees have worked to uncover and restore the beautiful marble pavers and herringbone brick pathways framing the area, as well as restoring and reproducing statuary, urns, and other decorative elements that once adorned this elegant space so it can once more serve as an entertainment space on the property.

The restoration of the Alle and now the final pice de rsistance, the Casino serves as a living laboratory, modeling a thoughtful, sustainable stewardship approach while preserving the historic integrity of this important National Historic Landmark, adds Bob Murray, Northeast Operations Manager and Project Manager. The completion of this restoration project is another step forward in returning this iconic estate to its authentic state for all to experience and enjoy.

The Alle and Casino restoration projects have been undertaken in memory of the late David Crockett, a former member of The Trustees of Reservations Board of Governors and Ipswich resident whose tireless efforts on behalf of Castle Hill and the Crane Estate were critical in preserving the property. His commitment to the care of the Crane familys extraordinary gift to The Trustees set the standard by which the property has been and will continue to be managed in perpetuity.

Continued here:
The Trustees of Reservations Announce Historic Preservation Milestone at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, a National ...

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