Philippe Lacube

Even when Philippe Lacube finds the time to go on vacation in his busy schedule, it is to discover mountains other than those in Ariège where he was born.

Together with his wife, he surveyed the slopes of Nepal and Cape Verde. They took the opportunity above all to observe the local pastoral systems, the true passion of Philippe Lacube, the son of a teacher and a worker in the Luzenac talc factories who always dreamed of becoming a mountain farmer.

After training which notably took him to Bolivia where he worked in an agricultural NGO, he returned home in 1994 to create a breed of transhumant Gascon cows. But Philippe is already seeing further: “I quickly realized that if I wanted to create wealth in the region, I had to go directly to the consumer”.

To do this, he had to expand his activities: the organization of educational walks on the Beille Plateau where his cows migrate, mail order, a product store. And for four years, a restaurant in Les Cabannes, in the family house, which has of course decided to focus on the quality of the products, and once again on the presentation of pastoralism.

Michel Delire

 

For more than twenty years, Belgian Michel Delire, passionate about ecology and biology, has become an internationally recognized specialist.

Michel Delire  has worked in fields like household waste prevention, group support, market gardening (production and processing of mushrooms), agro-industry (brewery) as well as in training/education in natural gardening.

To date, he has trained several hundred trainees (citizens, citizen-composters, composting guides and master composters, 'household waste prevention' guides) who have since put his teaching into practice.

Michel Delire has educated more than 13,000 citizens in composting techniques and several hundred learners at primary, secondary or professional levels. He also supervises and specializes guides and master composters in the various fields related to composting and vermi-composting both in France and Belgium.

Farmers' Strike in Argentina

 A 2008 newsreport: "The arrest of around twenty agricultural leaders, including a union leader, fueled the fire. Despite the rapid release of the peasant leader, Alfredo De Angeli, roadblocks have been erected by the farmers who are relaunching their strike movement. Many clashes were reported between the police and demonstrators. For the Argentinian government, the highways that supply the capital, Buenos Aires, must remain clear."  

Clashes took place between Argentine police and farmers in Gualeguyachu, north of Buenos Aires, on June 14, 2008.

Glenn Albrecht

Glenn Albrecht (born 1953) was Professor of Sustainability at Murdoch University in Western Australia. He retired in 2014. He is an honorary fellow in the School of Geosciences of the University of Sydney.

Glenn Albrecht is an environmental philosopher with both theoretical and applied interests in the relationship between ecosystem and human health. He has pioneered the research domain of 'psychoterratic' or earth related mental health conditions with the concept of 'solastalgia' or the lived experience of negative environmental change. 

He also has publications in the field of animal ethics including the ethics of relocating endangered species in the face of climate change pressures.

Jean-Philippe Mayerat

 Jean-Philippe Mayerat is a traditional, artisan boatbuilder on the shores of Lake Geneva (Switzerland).

Nourished as a child by the stories of great navigators, assiduous surveyor of the port of Rolle, the young "Mayu" decided that one day he would become a shipbuilder.

Failing to go around the world, he navigatyes the lake through the many and venerable boats that pass through his golden hands. For more than 30 years he has been building, restoring and repairing, from the humblest canoe to the dashing sailboats of the past century.

For "Mayu", a boat is made of wood and it is steeped in history. A great fan of "boating", he lovingly manufactures a multitude of skiffs based on the shapes of the fishing and pleasure boats that populated Lake Geneva before the arrival of plastic.

Have a look at the material on his extensive website.

William Aviolat

William Aviolat is undoubtedly the soul of the 15000m2 botanical garden of Saint-Triphon. 

He brought it to life over 40 years ago and this garden certainly reflects the soul of its owner, as one cannot do without the other. William Aviolat made the choice of a simple and solitary life to devote himself to his garden which he never leaves, but which he is keen to share with others. 

“I have always been a believer, even though my parents were not. I wanted to get married at the age of 25, but I was turned away. So I preferred to stay alone, and I put my trust in God ”. 

A "gardener of the Lord", as a journalist had called him, cultivating his garden while awaiting his redemption.

Ser Jacopo

Artisan pipemakers Giancarlo Guidi and Bruto Sordini broke away from Mastro de Paja in 1981 in pursuit of their own company and started Ser Jacopo; named after an Italian nobleman.

Guidi and Sordini wanted to expand further and focused their efforts on the pairing of the briar with a seemingly endless variety of mounts. Using precious metals and stones, horn, and exotic woods Ser Jacopo pipes are given unique characters that many collectors find quite aesthetically pleasing. Although Ser Jacopo pipes borrow heavily from classical shapes, they are indeed quite unique in style.

In addition to creative mountings, Ser Jacopo is also well known for making themed pipes, and the most famous of these themes is perhaps the Picta Series, where pipes are modelled after pipes seen in pictures by and of famous artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh.

John Harris - Founder of The Common People

With his retro round glasses, his long white beard and a small red star hammer and sickle badge pinned on his beret, Mr Harris does not look like a conventional parliamentary candidate.

With very little online presence, not much of his life, his party or its proposals is known to the public. On commonpeople.uk, the party describes its members as "socially-minded people seeking to form a majority in Westminster government in order to improve the quality of life for everyone".

It says it wants to "implement a moderate, just and fair socialist policy on behalf of all the citizens of the United Kingdom".

The Common People’s ‘colonial policy’ is slightly unusual: “This party recognizes that the long-term survival of British society is entirely dependent on the establishment of self-sustaining colonies beyond the solar system, each tasked to expand into the galaxy at large.

“Until such colonies are established, we recognise the need to sustain as great a genomic diversity across all species as can be managed, this being our legacy, together with our British culture, to our descendants.

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Daphne du Maurier and the Maroon beret

Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE (1907 –1989) was an English author and playwright. She also was the wife of Major-General Frederick Browning.

A popular story is that the maroon colour of the British Airborne Forces was chosen by Browning, after his wife suggested that he use the colour which made up part of his horse racing colours. However, in a letter, now in the British Airborne Assault Archive, she wrote that this was untrue. Whatever its origin, the maroon beret was adopted by the British paratroopers in July 1942. Initially it was adorned with an Army Air Corps badge. This was replaced with the Parachute Regiment badge in 1943.

It was during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) that the Germans in the Africa Korps began to refer to members of the British Parachute Brigade as Rote Teufel (Red Devils) after their maroon berets and their fighting skills.

El Apóstol

El Apóstol (English: The Apostle) is a 1917 lost Argentine animated film utilizing cutout animation. Many historians consider this film to be the world's first animated feature film. 

It was directed and produced respectively by Italian-Argentine immigrants Quirino Cristiani and Federico Valle. It started production after the success of Cristiani and Valle's short film, La intervención a la provincia de Buenos Aires, and was either produced in less than ten months or in twelve months. The script was written by Alfonso de Laferrére, the background models of Buenos Aires were created by Andrés Ducaus, and the initial designs of the characters were drawn by Diógenes Taborda. 

The film was a satire based on the current president at the time, Hipólito Yrigoyen. In the film, he dreams about going to Olympus and discussing political issues with the gods before using one of Zeus's lightning bolts to cleanse Buenos Aires of corruption. 

The film was well-received at the time in Buenos Aires but was not distributed to other provinces in Argentina nor to other countries. The film was lost after it was destroyed in a fire in Valle's studio in 1928.

Henry Homeyer

HenryHomeyer is a life-long organic gardener who has lived in Cornish Flat, NH since 1970 (except for his time in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and country director).

He writes a weekly gardening column that appears in 12 newspapers around New England, and has written for the New York Times, The Boston Globe and other newspapers. He was the Vermont/New Hampshire associate editor for People, Places and Plants magazine for 10 years.

Henry teaches organic gardening workshops throughout New England at garden shows, clubs, nurseries, public gardens and other venues. He is a regular monthly commentator on Vermont Public Radio and is a UNH master Gardener.

Ludwig Paul Koch

Ludwig Paul Koch MBE (1881, Frankfurt am Main –1974, Harrow, London) was a broadcaster and sound recordist.

An expert on recording animal sounds, he played a significant part in increasing the British public's appreciation of wildlife.

Koch was born into a music-loving Jewish family as Paul Ludwig , and as a boy violinist, he was admitted to Clara Schumann's music circle. Later, he studied singing, and had a short but successful career as a concert singer. This was ended by the outbreak of World War I.

As a child, he had been given an early phonograph and had recorded several animals, including the first-known recording of bird song, made in 1889.

Because he spoke fluent French, he joined military intelligence. After the Armistice in 1918, he became chief delegate for repatriation for the French-occupied zone of Germany. In 1928, he was commissioned by the German subsidiary of Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) to start a cultural branch of the gramophone industry; this coincided with a revival of his childhood interest in animals. 

From 1929, he began recording of animal sounds again using up-to-date equipment. He invented the sound-book: attaching gramophone records to an illustrated book. Nowadays we call this multimedia.

In 1936 Koch fled to Great Britain. Early in World War II, Koch was introduced to the BBC, and his distinctive voice accompanying his sound recordings soon became familiar to listeners. He never lost his strong German accent. His work was parodied by Peter Sellers.

Mohammad Hoqouqi

Mohammad Hoqouqi (1937-2009) was an Iranian poet and critic. He was born in Isfahan and after graduating in Iranian Literature he taught for a number of years in both Isfahan and Tehran. He published a literary magazine “Jonge Isfahan” for a number of years and has left many collections of his own poetry. 

He was an exact and untiring critic of the modern Persian poetry, carefully selecting those poets who have left a new style in modern poetry. He wrote many important essays on many of the modern Iranian poets including Nima Yushij, Foroogh Farokhzad, Ahamd Shamlu, Sohrab Sepehri, Akhvan Saless.

Simon Bernstein

Simon Bernstein (1950-2020) graduated from the Chicago National College of Naprapathy in 1988 and was a practicing naprapath who made house calls in the Galena, IL area.

Upon retirement, he worked part-time as a driver for Jo Daviess County Transit. He especially enjoyed the young people who rode on his bus. Simon served on the board of the Galena Public Library and the Restoration Advisory Board.

Abraham Feinberg: The activist Rabbi

Abraham Feinberg (1899 –1986) was an American rabbi who lived much of his life in Canada.

In his obituary, the New York Times declared about him: "He was always ready to march, lend his name or send a telegram if there was a protest for disarmament or for a treaty on a nuclear test ban, or against racism in South Africa, radical injustice in America and United States policy in Vietnam".

Feinberg was born in Bellaire, the son of Ashkenazim immigrants from Grinkishki (modern Grinkiškis, Lithuania) in the Russian empire.

Bellaire was an impoverished coal-mining town located on the Ohio river across from Wheeling, West Virginia and Feinberg grew up in poverty. He found himself shocked by the mistreatment of the black residents of Bellaire when he was growing up. One day, he saw a young black boy known as Skeets being pelted with stones and garbage on the streets. When Skeets attempted to swim across the Ohio to escape his tormentors, he was hit on the head by a rock and drowned. His childhood experiences left him with a strong sympathy for Afro-Americans as fellow victims of prejudice, and throughout his life he was a champion of civil rights.

An intellectual prodigy, Feinberg graduated from high school at the age of 14. After graduating, he went to work as a menial laborer while saving up enough money to attend university.

He was educated at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1920. In 1924, he was ordained a rabbi at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

Much more on the colourful career and life of Rabbi Feinberg can be read here.