Postcard SG-171940 from Singapore shows a portrait of Giorgio Bassani by artist L. Lee. Giorgio Bassani (March 4, 1916 – April 13, 2000) was an Italian writer, poet, and editor. He was best known for the Oscar Award winning movie The Garden of the Finzi-Continis in 1970, based on his 1962 novel Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini exploring the city of Ferrara with its Christian and Jewish elements of life.
Valerian K. Zholtok was born December 13, 1919 in Zhlobin Gomel region in Belarus from a family of railroad employee. She graduated from the Vitebsk Art School in 1939, and had received many awards throughout her career. Many of her works are in collection of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian Union of Artists, Museum of Modern Art in Minsk, Belarus, and other institutes and individuals in UK, USA, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Japan.
Many of the plants in her paintings were grown by her own hands.
The United Nations designated March 22 as the World Water Day in Agenda 21 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. The first World Water Day was observed on March 22, 1993. 22 years later, the theme for World Water Day 2015 is Water and Sustainable Development.
With a tag line "a day to celebrate, a day to change, a day to prepare," World Water Day is a day to celebrate water; a day to make a difference for the members of the global population who suffer from water related issues; and a day to prepare for how we manage water in the future.
Postcard US-2680017 to Australia shows a swamp view of the Everglades, a tropical wetlands ecosystem in South Florida. Sustainability was a major component in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan approved by Congress in 2000. A first-of-its-kind economic impact report has detailed the benefits of Everglades restoration that results in an increase in job creation, real estate values and water quality.
The theme for 2014 World Water Day last year was Water and Energy.
Postcard US-2869236 to Germany was the product of a joint effort of Barnes & Noble and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that was designed to use education to help break the cycle of prejudice and hatred. The campaign kicked off in September 2000, with thousands of people involved around the country.
Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006, once said: “Ignorance and prejudice are the handmaidens of propaganda. Our mission, therefore, is to confront ignorance with knowledge, bigotry with tolerance, and isolation with the outstretched hand of generosity. Racism can, will, and must be defeated.”
In Michael Jackson's music video "Black or White" I mentioned yesterday, it did not include the last four minutes of the original music video where a black panther walked out of the studio and morphed into Jackson. He went on to perform some of his most physically challenging dance moves, which contained sexually suggestive and violent scenes. That resulted in MTV and other music video networks' censorship of the last four minutes from subsequent broadcasts. The censored video ended with a "Prejudice is Ignorance" title card.
In the background of the recent unrest accompanying the protests in Ferguson, Missouri against police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown, it occurred to me that Michael Jackson's visionary video had not lost its significance after 23 years. The campaign "Close the Book on Hate, Open Your Mind and Read," started 14 years ago by Barnes & Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio and Abraham Foxman, ADL National Director, offered "101 Ways to Combat Prejudice." Those methods remain valid and effective today.
Postcard PL-749739 from Poland shows Krakow, the second largest city in Poland. Its history dates back to the 7th century, making the city one of the oldest in Poland. Krakow has been one of the leading academic, cultural, and artistic centers and one of the most important economic hubs in Poland.
Postcard US-2552376 traveling to Germany shows Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1970 to 2000. It was a multi-purpose stadium for the Pittsburgh Pirates (MLB) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL). The stadium opened on July 16, 1970 when the Pirates played their first game. The last game in the stadium was won by the Steelers on December 16, 2000. Three Rivers Stadium was closed in 2000 and imploded in 2001, after new stadiums: Pirates' PNC Park and the Steelers' Heinz Field was build.
Postcard US-2509951 to Germany shows the view of Space Shuttle Endeavour's launch at Jupiter Lighthouse, 233 kilometers or 145 miles away from the Kennedy Space Center, on November 30, 2000. STS-97, a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), was noted for the installation of the first set of solar arrays to the ISS.
You can purchase a copy of the postcard from Zazzle.com or a copy of 14"x18" poster from Gallery Palm Beach by the Palm Beach Post.
Postcard CN-1076001 from China shows Tongli (同里), a historical town in Wujiang county, Jiangsu Province, China. It has been given the nickname "Venice of the East" for a system of canals. The town, on the outskirts of Suzhou, retains many of the features of an ancient Wu region town.
One of most notable attractions in Tongli is the Retreat and Reflection Garden (退思园). It is a private garden built in 1885-1887 by designer Yuan Long. The concept of design was adopted from a famous quote "Step forward to do your job loyally; step back to think about how to make up your mistakes (進思盡忠，退思補過)" in Zuo Zhuan (左傳) or sometimes translated as the Chronicle of Zuo that is among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history, covering the period from 722 B.C. to 468 B.C.
Through an extension in 2000, the Retreat and Reflection Garden, along with the Canglang Pavilion, the Lion Forest Garden, the Garden of Cultivation, the Couple's Garden Retreat, was included in the property of the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that was originally recognized in 1997.
Fifty five years ago on this day, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958. It paved the way for NASA to formally start to operate on Oct. 1, 1958.
This postcard shows a colorful image, from one of the many missions since NASA opened its door for business, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Beaufort Sea. It was acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer's downward-viewing camera on August 16, 2000.
The swirling patterns on the Beaufort Sea are small ice floes driven by turbulent water patterns. The Refuge has many arctic and subarctic ecosystems, including coastal lagoons, barrier islands, arctic tundra, and mountainous terrain.
