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French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 106.
Discretely beautiful and charming Simone Valère (1923-2010) was primarily a famous French stage actress, but she also appeared in more than forty films from 1941 to 1993. She often worked together with her husband, Jean Desailly.
Simone Valère was born Simone Jeannine Gondolf in 1923 in Paris, France. Her parents divorced and she spent a large part of her youth with an aunt in Arnouville. At the age of 17, she made her first film appearance in Premier rendez-vous/Her First Affair (Henri Decoin, 1941) starring Daniëlle Darrieux. In 1942, Simone made her stage debut at the théâtre Hébertot in Paris in the play 'Mademoiselle Bourrat'. The play is situated in a village called 'Valère and she takes this as her stage name. Simone Valère met Jean Desailly on the set of the film Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (Louis Daquin, 1943), while he was working for the Comédie-Française and married to Nicole Desailly (pseudonym of Ginette Nicolas). They started to live together in 1950 on tour in Brazil. 48 years later, they married in Paris.
Simone Valère and Jean Desailly participated in the theatrical revival of the post-war period as part of the Renaud-Barrault company. There she performed in plays by Shakespeare, Kafka, Marivaux, Giraudoux, Molière, Ionesco, and she starred in the operetta 'Vie Parisien' by Offenbach. Later she and Desailly founded the company Valère-Desailly. With Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, they were one of the most famous couples in French theatre. Simone Valère and Jean Desailly performed 450 times their favorite play, 'L'Amour fou ou la first surprise', by André Roussin. Valère also worked for the cinema in such films as La revanche de Roger la Honte/The Revenge of Roger (André Cayatte, 1946), and Violetas imperiales/Imperial violets (Richard Pottier, 1952) with Luis Mariano and Carmen Sevilla. She played the princess in the Faust adaptation La Beauté du diable/Beauty of the Devil (René Clair, 1950) with Gérard Philipe and Michel Simon. Other highlights were Le Franciscain de Bourges/Franciscan of Bourges (Claude Autant-Lara, 1968), starring Hardy Krüger, and L'Assassinat de Trotsky/The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey, 1972) starring Richard Burton and Alain Delon. Her last film was She made her last screen appearance in Équipe de nuit/Night Shift (Claude d'Anna, 1988. She was married to Jean Desailly till his death in 2008. Simone Valère died in 2010 in Roinville-sous-Dourdan, Essonne, France. She was 87.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
NY Times - Arabic Music's Modern Voice
PARIS — It was a familiar Paris hipster scene. The crowd behind the discrete façade of the Tigre club in the First Arrondissement were in skinny jeans with carefully tousled hair and clutching expensive drinks. Marc Collin, co-founder of the cult electropop collective Nouvelle Vague was setting up vintage keyboards on a tiny stage. The female drummer picked up her drumsticks and the skinny-cool guitarist settled into place. Then the singer, in jeans and a black vest, looking out from behind long dark hair, took the mic and began to sing.
Read the entire article : NY Times
By TARA MULHOLLAND / Published: April 12, 2012
Photography by : amelierouyer.com
A version of this article appeared in print on April 13, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.
French postcard by Editions d'Art BelFrance (EAP), Paris, no. 900. Photo: Sirius-Gaumont. Simone Valère in Le cavalier noir/The black rider (Gilles Grangier, 1945).
Discretely beautiful and charming Simone Valère (1923-2010) was primarily a famous French stage actress, but she also appeared in more than forty films from 1941 to 1993. She often worked together with her husband, Jean Desailly.
Simone Valère was born Simone Jeannine Gondolf in 1923 in Paris, France. Her parents divorced and she spent a large part of her youth with an aunt in Arnouville. At the age of 17, she made her first film appearance in Premier rendez-vous/Her First Affair (Henri Decoin, 1941) starring Daniëlle Darrieux. In 1942, Simone made her stage debut at the théâtre Hébertot in Paris in the play 'Mademoiselle Bourrat'. The play is situated in a village called 'Valère and she takes this as her stage name. Simone Valère met Jean Desailly on the set of the film Le Voyageur de la Toussaint (Louis Daquin, 1943), while he was working for the Comédie-Française and married to Nicole Desailly (pseudonym of Ginette Nicolas). They started to live together in 1950 on tour in Brazil. 48 years later, they married in Paris.
Simone Valère and Jean Desailly participated in the theatrical revival of the post-war period as part of the Renaud-Barrault company. There she performed in plays by Shakespeare, Kafka, Marivaux, Giraudoux, Molière, Ionesco, and she starred in the operetta 'Vie Parisien' by Offenbach. Later she and Desailly founded the company Valère-Desailly. With Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, they were one of the most famous couples in French theatre. Simone Valère and Jean Desailly performed 450 times their favorite play, 'L'Amour fou ou la first surprise', by André Roussin. Valère also worked for the cinema in such films as La revanche de Roger la Honte/The Revenge of Roger (André Cayatte, 1946), and Violetas imperiales/Imperial violets (Richard Pottier, 1952) with Luis Mariano and Carmen Sevilla. She played the princess in the Faust adaptation La Beauté du diable/Beauty of the Devil (René Clair, 1950) with Gérard Philipe and Michel Simon. Other highlights were Le Franciscain de Bourges/Franciscan of Bourges (Claude Autant-Lara, 1968), starring Hardy Krüger, and L'Assassinat de Trotsky/The Assassination of Trotsky (Joseph Losey, 1972) starring Richard Burton and Alain Delon. Her last film was She made her last screen appearance in Équipe de nuit/Night Shift (Claude d'Anna, 1988. She was married to Jean Desailly till his death in 2008. Simone Valère died in 2010 in Roinville-sous-Dourdan, Essonne, France. She was 87.
Sources: Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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The Alishan National Scenic Area is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Contents
1 Geography
2 Climate
3 Topography
4 Vegetation and wildlife
5 History
6 Attractions and landmarks
7 See also
8 References
9 Bibliography
10 External links
Geography
Alishan Forest Park.
Dawn view from Alishan.
Alishan is 415 square kilometres (41,500 ha) in area. Notable characteristics include mountain wilderness, four villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, the Alishan Forest Railway, and a number of hiking trails. The area is popular with tourists and mountain climbers. Alishan, or Mount Ali, itself has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan. The area is famous for its production of high mountain tea and wasabi.[citation needed]
Alishan is well known for its sunrises, and on a suitable morning one can observe the sun come up on a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and Yüshan. Alishan and Sun Moon Lake are two of the best known scenic spots in Asia. The indigenous people of the area, the Thao people, have only recently been recognized as a discrete ethnic group. They have long been confused with the Tsou people.
Climate
Alishan National Scenic Area spans a broad range in altitude. Lower elevations, such as in Leye Township, share the same subtropical and tropical climate as the rest of southern Taiwan, while the climate changes to temperate and alpine as the elevation increases. Snow sometimes falls at higher elevations in the winter.[citation needed]
Alishan National Scenic Area covers most, but not all, of Alishan Rural Township in Chiayi County, as well as parts of neighboring townships in Taiwan.[citation needed]
Average temperatures are moderate:[citation needed]
Low elevations: 24 °C in the summer, 16 °C in the winter.
Medium elevations: 19 °C in the summer, 12 °C in the winter.
High elevations: 14 °C in the summer, 5 °C in the winter.
Topography
Alishan is mountainous:[citation needed]
Number of peaks above 2000 meters: 25
Highest point: Da Ta Shan (大塔山), 2,663 meters.
Average height of Alishan Mountain Range: 2,500 meters.
Vegetation and wildlife
Important trees in the area include:[citation needed]
Taiwania cryptomerioides, a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae (the same family as the next three species)
Chamaecyparis formosensis, or Formosan Cypress
Chamaecyparis taiwanensis
Cunninghamia konishii
Pinus taiwanensis, or Taiwan Red Pine
Picea morrisonicola, or Yüshan Spruce
Pseudotsuga sinensis var. wilsoniana, or Taiwan Douglas-fir
Abies kawakamii, a species of conifer in the Pinaceae family, only found in Taiwan
Tsuga chinensis var. formosana, Taiwan or Chinese Hemlock
Ulmus uyematsui, a species of elm only found in the Alishan region
History
Longyin Temple of Chukou Village in Alishan National Scenic Area.
Boardwalk at Alishan National Scenic Area.
The Alishan area was originally settled by the Tsou tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines; the name derives from the aboriginal word Jarissang. Ethnic Han Chinese settlers first settled on the plains near modern-day Chiayi as early as the late Ming Dynasty (around the mid-17th century), but did not move into the mountains until the late 18th century, establishing the towns of Ruili (瑞里), Ruifeng (瑞峰), Xiding (隙頂), and Fenqihu (奮起湖). The resulting armed clashes between the settlers and the aborigines pushed the aborigines even further into the mountains.[citation needed]
Following the cession of Taiwan to Japan at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese expeditions to the area found large quantities of cypress (檜木, or hinoki in Japanese). This led to the development of the logging industry in the area and the export of local cypress and Taiwania wood. A series of narrow-gauge railways were built in the area during this time to facilitate the transportation of lumber from the mountains to the plains below, part of which continues to operate as the Alishan Forest Railway. Several new villages also began to sprout up along the railway lines. It was also during this time that the first tourists began to visit the area. Plans were even drawn up to incorporate the area into the new Niitaka (New Highest) Arisan National Park (新高阿里山国立公園).[citation needed]
With the exhaustion of forest resources by the 1970s, domestic and international tourism overtook logging to become the primary economic activity in the area. The tourism industry continued to expand with the completion of the Alisan highway in the 1980s, displacing the railroad as the primary mode of transportation up the mountain. To combat the problems associated with the growing crowds of tourists and the expanding tea and wasabi plantations, the area was declared a national scenic area in 2001.[citation needed]
On 1 December 2014, fire broke out at Alishan spreading over more than 5 hectares of land. The area affected was located near Tapang No. 3 Bridge. The fire was believed to happen due to dry ground which was vulnerable to fire because of the absence of rain in the area for months.[1]
Attractions and landmarks
A Japanese-built train on the Alishan Forest Railway.
Fenqihu (奮起湖) is a small town of low wooden buildings built into the mountainside at 1,400 meters, midpoint of the Alishan Forest Railway. It is famous for natural rock formations, mountain streams, forests, and the ruins of a Shinto temple in the vicinity, as well as for its production of high altitude food products such as bamboo shoots and aiyu jelly (愛玉). The local box lunches (奮起湖便當, Fenqihu bento), which were once sold to passengers on the rail line, are also well known.[citation needed]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include China (officially the People's Republic of China, PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations and the largest economy outside the UN.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction has since the loss of Hainan in 1950 been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[d][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today 20 countries recognize the ROC as the sole legal representative of China,[19] but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[20]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Prehistoric Taiwan
2.2 Opening in the 17th century
2.3 Qing rule
2.4 Japanese rule
2.5 After World War II
2.6 Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
2.7 Democratization
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
3.2 Geology
4 Political and legal status
4.1 Relations with the PRC
4.2 Foreign relations
4.3 Participation in international events and organizations
4.4 Opinions within Taiwan
5 Government and politics
5.1 Major camps
5.2 Current political issues
5.3 National identity
6 Military
7 Administrative divisions
8 Economy and industry
9 Transportation
10 Education, research, and academia
11 Demographics
11.1 Ethnic groups
11.2 Languages
11.3 Religion
11.4 Largest cities
12 Public health
13 Culture
13.1 Sports
13.2 Calendar
14 See also
15 Notes
16 References
16.1 Citations
16.2 Works cited
17 Further reading
18 External links
18.1 Overviews and data
18.2 Government agencies
Etymology
See also: Chinese Taipei, Formosa, and Names of China
Taiwan
Taiwan (Chinese characters).svg
"Taiwan" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese 臺灣 or 台灣
Simplified Chinese 台湾
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Táiwān
Bopomofo ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Tair'uan
Wade–Giles T'ai²-wan¹
Tongyong Pinyin Táiwan
IPA [tʰǎi.wán]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing تَاَىْوًا
Wu
Romanization The平-uae平
Xiang
IPA dwɛ13 ua44
Hakka
Romanization Thòi-vàn
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Tòiwāan
Jyutping Toi4waan1
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tâi-oân
Tâi-lô Tâi-uân
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dài-uăng
China
Traditional Chinese 中國
Simplified Chinese 中国
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[21]
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jong'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung1-kuo2
Tongyong Pinyin Jhongguó
MPS2 Jūng-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋ.kwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮﻗُﻮَع
Sichuanese Pinyin Zong1 gwe2
Wu
Romanization Tson平-koh入
Gan
Romanization Tung-koe̍t
Xiang
IPA Tan33-kwɛ24/
Hakka
Romanization Dung24-gued2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūnggwok
Jyutping Zung1gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-guók
Pu-Xian Min
Hinghwa BUC De̤ng-go̤h
Northern Min
Jian'ou Romanized Dô̤ng-gŏ
Republic of China
Traditional Chinese 中華民國
Simplified Chinese 中华民国
Postal Chunghwa Minkuo
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōnghuá Mínguó
Bopomofo ㄓㄨㄥ ㄏㄨㄚˊ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄍㄨㄛˊ
Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jonghwa Min'gwo
Wade–Giles Chung¹-hua² Min²-kuo²
Tongyong Pinyin Jhonghuá Mínguó
MPS2 Jūng-huá Mín-guó
IPA [ʈʂʊ́ŋxwǎ mǐnkwǒ]
other Mandarin
Xiao'erjing ﺟْﻮ ﺧُﻮَ مٍ ﻗُﻮَع
Wu
Romanization tson平 gho平 min平 koh入
Gan
Romanization tung1 fa4 min4 koet7
Hakka
Romanization Chûng-fà Mìn-koet
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization Jūngwà màn'gwok
Jyutping Zung1waa4 man4gwok3
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ Tiong-hôa Bîn-kok
Tâi-lô Tiong-hûa Bîn-kok
Eastern Min
Fuzhou BUC Dṳ̆ng-huà Mìng-guók
Japanese name
Kanji 台湾
Kana たいわん
Kyūjitai 臺灣
Transcriptions
Romanization Taiwan
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[22] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[23] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[24]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[25] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[26] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[27][28][29][30]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[31] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[32]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [e] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[f] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[34] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[36] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[37] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[38]
History
Main articles: History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China
See the History of China article for historical information in the Chinese Mainland before 1949.
Prehistoric Taiwan
Main article: Prehistory of Taiwan
A young Tsou man
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[39][40][41]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[42] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[43][44]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century, but Taiwan's hostile tribes and its lack of valuable trade products meant that few outsiders visited the island until the 16th century, when visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian and Chinese and Japanese pirates became more frequent.[45]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[46]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[30] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[30][47] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[46]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[46]
Qing rule
Main article: Taiwan under Qing Dynasty rule
Hunting deer, painted in 1746
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[48]
Japanese rule
Main articles: Taiwan under Japanese rule and Republic of Formosa
Japanese colonial soldiers march Taiwanese captured after the Tapani Incident from the Tainan jail to court, 1915.
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[49] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[50] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[51] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[52] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[53] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[54] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[55] Also, those intellectual and labours who participated in left-wing movement of Taiwan were arrested and massacred (e.g. Tsiúnn Uī-Suí(蔣渭水), masanosuke watanabe(渡辺政之辅)).[56]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[57] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[58] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[59] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[60]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[61] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[62]
After World War II
Main article: Taiwan after World War II
General Chen Yi (right) accepting the receipt of General Order No. 1 from Rikichi Andō (left), the last Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan, in Taipei City Hall
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[63][64] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the communist also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[65][66] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[67][68]
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Main articles: Chinese Civil War, Chinese Communist Revolution, and History of the Republic of China § Republic of China on Taiwan (1949–present)
For the history of Republic of China before 1949, see Republic of China (1912–49).
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[69]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[70] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[71][72][73]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[74]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Kuomintang from 1925 until his death in 1975
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[75] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[75] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[76] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[77] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[78]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[79] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[80] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[81][82] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[83] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[84][85][86][87][88] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[89]
Democratization
Main articles: Democratic reforms of Taiwan and Elections in Taiwan
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[90] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[91] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[92] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[93][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[94]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the so-called "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[95] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[96] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[97][98]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[96] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[99]
As the immensely discrete red arrow points out, the top wing of my shuttle has just acquired a LIGHT.
But boy, this is just a beginning of a MASSIVE overhaul. Stay tuned :) .
Photographed at The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Rauceby Reserve, this species usually inhabits rough grassland, where tall grasses grow, and may occur on roadside verges, beside hedgerows, on overgrown downland, in woodland clearings and along woodland rides.
This 'golden' Skipper is often found basking on vegetation, or making short buzzing flights among tall grass stems. Despite its name, the are four skipper species found in the British Isles that are either the same size or smaller than the Small Skipper. The male is distinguished from the female by the sex brand on its forewings, which is a slightly curved line of specialised scent scales.
Adults are on the wing in late June, through July and into August. It has just one generation per year. The main food plant is Yorkshire-fog, a common grass in the British Isles, although other grasses are also used.
This butterfly is widespread in southern Britain, living in discrete colonies of both small and large populations.
Jean-Claude is a very talented and discrete photographer. He's been active in Paris all his life, now lives in Aveyron. For the last 10 years, he's been spending several weeks with the nomads in Mongolia every year, completely integrated there in a kind of parallel life. A beautiful article has been written on him here (in french).
Leica MP | Noctilux | Kodak Tri-X
self-developed in Rodinal (stand dev)
Villefranche de Rouergue, July 2013
... No ! It's a joke !!! I don't forget your Birthday ! Joyeux anniversaire ma Bérénice :-)
Don't know what this song says... but this is Good Lyrics [Kit Thomas] and I offer its to you (for the time ;-)) !
Please view it on Black
Nantes (France)
Self-portrait
'Farewell (or about the discrete oversights of the limbic system)!' by Farid Fairuz (Romania), performed by Maria Baroncea, Carmen Cotofana, Alexandra Pirici, Magdalena Dan and Iuliana Stoianescu during the 1st European Festival of Contemporary Dance - Kraków/Bytom. Teatr PWST, Kraków, Poland
TYPE HISTORY
When it flew its Model 367-80 ‘Dash 80’ prototype for the first time on July 15, 1954, Boeing hoped the aircraft would take the airlines by storm. Extrapolating technology used on the B-47 and B-52 jet bombers, the aircraft represented a quantum leap directly into the jet age compared to the company’s piston-engined Model 367 Stratocruiser. With its swept wing and fourjet powerplant, carried in discrete underwing nacelles, the Dash 80 was the most modern commercial transport available.
Yet the airlines were left unimpressed and it was the US Air Force, realising it needed a jet tanker to support its jet bombers, that saw the Dash 80 into production. In September 1955 it ordered its first KC-135A Stratotanker, Boeing modifying the Dash 80 to trial a ‘flying boom’ refuelling system. The Stratotanker entered service on June 28, 1957 and Boeing continued development along this military line under the company designation Model 717.
The airlines had been unimpressed by the Dash 80’s cabin width, which was too narrow for six-abreast seating, and Boeing therefore returned to the Dash 80 concept, widening the cabin and developing a series of successful airliners as the Model 707.
Boeing built 732 KC-135s in different variants, many of them ultimately re-engined with the modern CFM56 turbofan, known as the F108 in military service. These aircraft are designated KC-135R. There was also a line of C-135 transports, EC-135 command posts, RC-135 intelligence gatherers and a host of other variants, with the KC and RC remaining in widespread service.
Developed under Boeing’s Model 739 series, the first of a long line of RC-135 variants was ordered in 1962. This photographic reconnaissance RC-135A entered service during the mid-1960s, followed by the first of the electronic intelligence gatherers, the RC-135B. The precedent for modifying KC airframes to RC standard was set in 1972, with the conversion of three KC-135As as RC-135Ds for the Rivet Brass mission. All subsequent RC variants were produced by conversion/upgrade, mostly from C, KC and RC standards, culminating in the RC-135V and RC-135W, operated under the Rivet Joint codename that has become internationally, and officially recognised in USAF parlance, as the type’s name.
In June 2011, 51 Sqn flew the final BAe Nimrod R.Mk 1 sortie of its 37-year association with the type. Plans were under way for the aircraft’s replacement under a project known as Airseeker, which had begun the previous March. It envisaged the acquisition of three RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft for delivery from 2013. The machines were to be converted from USAF KC-135R airframes and L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas was chosen to perform the work as the USAF’s experienced Rivet Joint contractor. The work began in March 2011.
On November 12, 2013, No. 51 Sqn took delivery of the UK’s first Rivet Joint, operating its maiden operational sortie on May 23, 2014. The second aircraft arrived in August 2015 and the third on June 8, 2017. For the purposes of sensor and system upgrades, the trio are considered an extension of the USAF Rivet Joint fleet, ensuring they remain at the cutting edge of capability.
Rivet Joint has been deployed extensively for Operation Shader and on other operational taskings. It had been formally named Airseeker, but is almost universally known in service as the RC-135W Rivet Joint.
Strong, fine and medium granular soil peds (L)
Soil Peds are aggregates of soil particles formed as a result of pedogenic processes; this natural organization of particles forms discrete units separated by pores or voids. The term is generally used for macroscopic (visible; i.e. greater than 1 mm in size) structural units when observing soils in the field. Soil peds should be described when the soil is dry or slightly moist, as they can be difficult to distinguish when wet.
In granular structure, the structural units are approximately spherical or polyhedral and are bounded by curved or very irregular faces that are not casts of adjoining peds. Granular structure is common in the surface soils of rich grasslands and highly amended garden soils with high organic matter content. Soil mineral particles are both separated and bridged by organic matter breakdown products, and soil biota exudates, making the soil easy to work. Cultivation, earthworms, frost action and rodents mix the soil and decreases the size of the peds. This structure allows for good porosity and easy movement of air and water. This combination of ease in tillage, good moisture and air handling capabilities, and good structure for planting and germination, are definitive of the phrase good tilth.
There are five major classes of macrostructure seen in soils: platy, prismatic, columnar, granular, and blocky. There are also structureless conditions. Some soils have simple structure, each unit being an entity without component smaller units. Others have compound structure, in which large units are composed of smaller units separated by persistent planes of weakness.
For more information about describing and sampling soils, visit:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/guides-and-instructions/field...
or Chapter 3 of the Soil Survey manual:
www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/The-Soil-Su...
For additional information on "How to Use the Field Book for Describing and Sampling Soils" (video reference), visit:
Church of St Mary
Tomb of Baron William Bardolf and Lady Joan. Alabaster. Chapel of St Margaet, South aisle. Commissioned by Baron William around 1437, probably completed by 1447
Condition: the figures have suffered minor vandalism, but the colour of their robes has been restored discretely; figures have been removed from the now empty niches of the tomb chest
The tomb is set in St Margaret’s chapel, striking for its richly decorated parclose screen, mirrored in that of the chapel dedicated to the Virgin to the north. In 1437 Baron William established a chantry in the chapel, and in his will of 1438 arranged for his burial there. The tomb may have been in place by 1447, the date of Lady Joan’s will, in which she also arranged to be buried in the chapel.
The effigies are the best preserved of the pre-Reformation alabaster tombs in East Anglia
Baron William and Lady Joan recline with their hands clasped in prayer, looking up to heaven. Baron William rests his feet on the wings of an improbably duck-like eagle, while Lady Joan’s feet touch a fierce dragon, the emblem of St Margaret, to whom the chapel is dedicated. Baron William’s head is crowned by a chaplet and rests on his tilting helmet, while Lady Joan’s is on a pillow accompanied by two smaller angels. The effigies are well handled; the flow of her robes and tassels for the cloak are contrasted with the detail of his armour and gloves and both wear the SS livery collar, while he has the garter with the inscription ‘HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE’ on a blue ribbon on his left leg. The SS livery collar was not an insignia but a popular sign of allegiance, associated during the early fifteenth century with the House of Lancaster.
The splendour of the tomb reflects Baron Bardolf’s position; born William Phelip in 1383/4, on his mother’s side he was the grandson of the most powerful figure in East Anglia, Sir Thomas Erpingham, which, in the account in the ODNB, shaped his career.
Baron William had been lord of Dennington manor, which by the sixteenth century had passed to Sir Richard Wingfield, who sold it to Anthony Rous in 1538. There is a wall monument to Sir Thomas Rous (d.1619) kneeling in prayer opposite his wife on the south wall of the chapel, but by the mid seventeenth century Dennington Manor had been destroyed and Henham Hall, a large Tudor house built in 1538, which Anthony Rous had bought in 1548, became the seat of the Rous family (later ennobled as Earls of Stradbroke).
Richard and Sarah Cocke, The Public Sculpture of Norfolk and Suffolk, Liverpool University Press for the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, 2013, pp.258-259
detail of Baron William Bardolf
Discrete & sophisticated are the defining features of this dress & skirt. At first glance it's a sleek close fitting coat, but look again, the sleeves are integrated so while your fingertips peep out your arms are held down. The coat has a concealed zip and buttons up, under the nose (can hide a gag for those quiet days) so once you're in, you're in.
This is paired with a extra narrow skirt for when you're not in any hurry.
The Sony RX0 is about the size of a matchbox so it is very discrete but it is not really suitable for indoor photography and this is why the images are a bit noisey
In 1974 St. Saviour’s became the parish church for the surrounding area and in 2000 was made the Studium for the formation and training of priests for the Irish Dominicans. A further major step in these years was the establishment of the Dominican Polish Chaplaincy in St. Saviour’s which today sees large numbers of Polish faithful attending Mass and services every week, along with the Irish and Spanish-language congregations, making St. Saviour’s a truly international church in the heart of Dublin.
All Hallows London Wall, London
Also known as All Hallows on the Wall, this little church sits discretely with its back turned near Liverpool Street station. The medieval church it replaced was actually built into the wall, but was demolished for road-widening. Simon Bradley points out that the 18th Century replacement by George Dance uses part of the wall for its foundation on the north side. As at Dance's other church nearby, St Botolph Aldgate, there is a trim liveliness to the exterior which is confident without being prim. Dance knew what worked best for Wren, what worked best for Hawksmoor, and he was no iconoclast.
All Hallows is somewhat overshadowed by its monstrous neighbours, but nevertheless gives them a run for their money. It sits like a small bastion, a gatehouse if you like, guarding the financial citadels of Bishopsgate - or perhaps, warning you off of them. The interior is said to be lovely, but I have yet to see inside, as like most of the other churches in this group on and around Bishopsgate* it is hardly ever open.
*Don't let this comment put you off of St Botolph Bishopsgate, which is open every day, Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, St Helen Bishopsgate, St Ethelburga Bishopsgate, St Peter Cornhill, St Katherine Cree and St Andrew Undershaft are not.
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As a concert photographer, the low profile and body hugging characteristics of my black Domke F-6 allows me to easily move around in the crowd in a discrete way. Much better than walking with a bulky padded photo backpack. To my surprise the F-6 even fits my D700 with a small prime lens, without having to take off the grip. Being a shoulder bag it enables me to change lenses even between shots without the risk of anything dropping on the floor. When I am taking a short break, I can rest my camera on it to spread the weight, and still walk around.
Here’s what’s inside my Domke:
- Nikon D700 with MB-D10 grip and Nikkor 50mm F1.4G AF-S
- Tamron 28-75mm F2.8
- Nikkor 35mm F1.8DX (yes it’s a DX, but until I can afford the 35mm F1.4G I abuse it on my FX D700, works fine within limits)
- Zenitar 16mm F2.8 fisheye
- Nikon SB800 speed light, omnibounce, tripod adapter (for backstage/band portraits and the really really dark venues)
- Yongnuo 622n TX radio flash trigger commander + Yongnuo 622n receiver to remote trigger the speed light
- Manfrotto Pixi mini tripod (I can put the speedlight on it for more directional control and stability)
- Spare CF memory card
- Microfiber towel and air blower, for dusty venues and flying beer spatters
- Gerber LX flashlight, wound with a bit of gaffer tape since almost everything happens in the dark, and you can never go wrong with a bit of gaffer tape
- Custom hearing protection ear plugs and spare foamies, ears are priceless
...in the grass, the beetle spied the mannequin searching for her head.
(from the first test roll of a Brownie Twin 20)
With discrete route branding added. Good to see that Ipswich Buses have refrained from plastering the side of these recently renovated vehicles with those large and hideous graffiti type route numbers. I'm still not a huge fan of this livery, but at least the bus looks clean and smart.
Sleeves join to the body and ties at the knee for discrete confinement. Huge hood finishes this delicious garment
Living up to its name, this butterfly is the commonest blue found in the British Isles. While the male has bright blue uppersides, the female is primarily brown, with a highly variable amount of blue. This is the most widespread Lycaenid found in the British Isles and can be found almost anywhere, including Orkney. It is absent, however, from Shetland and the mountainous areas of Wales and Scotland. This butterfly forms reasonably discrete colonies measured in tens or hundreds, with individuals occasionally wandering some distance.
Shortly after first light in Lancashire. Low level discrete photography.
If it's worth a fave, then surely a comment too
Made in Yeovil in 1972 by Normalair-Garrett Ltd. Lots of discrete transistors and TTL chips: 7490 counters and 74141 nixie drivers.
The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The exception to this is the Eurasian oystercatcher and the South Island oystercatcher, both of which breed inland, far inland in some cases.
In the past there has been a great deal of confusion as to the species limits, with discrete populations of all black oystercatchers being afforded specific status but pied oystercatchers being considered one single species.
The name oystercatcher was coined by Mark Catesby in 1731 as a common name for the North American species H. palliatus, described as eating oysters. Yarrell in 1843 established this as the preferred term, replacing the older name sea pie.
The genus name Haematopus comes from the Greek haima αἳμα blood, pous πούς foot.
The different species of oystercatcher show little variation in shape or appearance. They range from 39–50 cm (15–20 in) in length and 72–91 cm (28–36 in) in wingspan. The Eurasian oystercatcher is the lightest on average, at 526 g (1.160 lb), while the sooty oystercatcher is the heaviest, at 819 g (1.806 lb).
The plumage of all species is either all-black, or black (or dark brown) on top and white underneath. The variable oystercatcher is slightly exceptional in being either all-black or pied. They are large, obvious, and noisy plover-like birds, with massive long orange or red bills used for smashing or prying open molluscs. The bill shape varies between species, according to the diet. Those birds with blade-like bill tips pry open or smash mollusc shells, and those with pointed bill tips tend to probe for annelid worms. They show sexual dimorphism, with females being longer-billed and heavier than males.
Feeding
The diet of oystercatchers varies with location. Species occurring inland feed upon earthworms and insect larvae. The diet of coastal oystercatchers is more varied, although dependent upon coast type; on estuaries bivalves, gastropods and polychaete worms are the most important part of the diet, whereas rocky shore oystercatchers prey upon limpets, mussels, gastropods, and chitons. Other prey items include echinoderms, fish, and crabs.
Breeding
Nearly all species of oystercatcher are monogamous, although there are reports of polygamy in the Eurasian oystercatcher. They are territorial during the breeding season (with a few species defending territories year round). There is strong mate and site fidelity in the species that have been studied, with one record of a pair defending the same site for 20 years. A single nesting attempt is made per breeding season, which is timed over the summer months.
The nests of oystercatchers are simple affairs, scrapes in the ground which may be lined, and placed in a spot with good visibility. The eggs of oystercatchers are spotted and cryptic. Between one and four eggs are laid, with three being typical in the Northern Hemisphere and two in the south. Incubation is shared but not proportionally, females tend to take more incubation and males engage in more territory defence. Incubation varies by species, lasting between 24–39 days. Oystercatchers are also known to practice "egg dumping." Like the cuckoo, they sometimes lay their eggs in the nests of other species such as seagulls, abandoning them to be raised by those birds.
Conservation
One species of oystercatcher became extinct during the 20th century, the Canary Islands oystercatcher. Another species, the Chatham oystercatcher, which is endemic to the Chatham Islands of New Zealand, is listed as endangered by the IUCN, and the African oystercatcher is considered near threatened. In the past there has been conflict with commercial shellfish farmers, but studies have found that the impact of oystercatchers is much smaller than that of shore crabs.
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German postcard by Philips.
Austrian singer and actor Willy Hagara (1927-2015) was a popular film and TV star from the mid 1950s till the mid 1960s. The discrete and elegant Schlager star had five Top 10 hits, including the evergreen 'Casetta in Canada' (1958). The singer’s career did not survive the Beat wave, but in 1969 an inheritance made him a millionaire.
Wilhelm ‘Willy’ Hagara was born in Vienna, Austria in 1927. He was initially trained as a postal clerk and practiced this profession as well. In 1946, he won a popular song contest in the Wiener Konzerthaus. He focused all his activities to this new career, and took singing and acting lessons. During this time he was successful with folk songs and as the singer of the band of John Fehring, who later became the leader of the ORF Big Band Orchestra. Hagara was a classic band singer who performed one of his songs in an early Schlager show for the German ARD television, Schlager-Expreß/Schlager Express (1953). Finally in 1955 came his breakthrough with the song Eine Kutsche voller Mädels/A coach full of girls (1955). Willy Hagara moved to Frankfurt in Germany and he became something like the German Perry Como, whose songs in German versions he often would sing. Two years later he appeared in his first film, the musical comedy Weißer Holunder/White Elder (Paul May, 1957) with Germaine Damar. It was followed by a string of light entertainment films: Liebe, Mädchen und Soldaten/Love, girls and soldiers (Franz Antel, 1958), Mein ganzes Herz ist voll Musik/My whole heart is filled with music (Helmut Weiss, 1959), Der Haustyrann/The domestic tyrant (Hans Deppe, 1959) starring Heinz Erhardt, Laß mich am Sonntag nicht allein/Let me not be alone on Sunday (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1959) with Heidi Brühl, and Paprika/Pepper (Kurt Wilhelm, 1959).
Cinema attendance in Germany and Austria had spectacularly grown in the 1950s, but at the end of the decade it first stagnated and then went into freefall in the 1960s. The once so popular Schlager films became outdated. In 1961 Willy Hagara appeared in his last Schlager film, Ramona (Paul Martin, 1961) with Senta Berger. At the time, television was developing into a mass medium that could compete with the cinema. In 1962 there were already 7 million TV sets in West-Germany. Hagara moved over to the small screen and appeared in such musical TV comedies as Mitternachtszauber/Midnight Magic (Ralph Lotar, 1964) with Werner Fuetterer, and Vom Ersten das Beste/From the first the best (Ekkehard Böhmer, 1965) with Hannelore Auer. These TV productions were in the same genre as the films he had made in the 1950s for the cinema. Until the mid-1960s he starred in numerous TV films and sold many records. In total he had five Top 10 hits, including the evergreen Casetta in Canada. His song Du spielst 'ne tolle Rolle (You play a great role) became in the version of Nat King Cole a Top 10 hit in the US. But the Beat wave finished his singing career. His later TV-films included Ein Mädchen von heute/A girl of today (Dieter Finnern, 1966) with Karin Baal. In 1969 he got a million inheritance: his father, the merchant Franz Hagara, left him with a villa and several lease lands in Vienna. He did not retire, but he bridged the 1970s with performances during galas. Incidentally he appeared as a guest in such TV shows as Hit-Journal (H.B. Theopold, 1973), Tango-Tango (Horst Eppinger, 1976) and Ein kleines Glück auf allen Wegen/A small fortune on all routes (Ekkehard Böhmer, 1980). After the death of his wife in 1986, Willy Hagara retired from show business. His last public appearance was in a show from Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna in 2002 on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Willy Hagara passed away in 2015 in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was 87.
Sources: Wälz Studer (Memoryradio.de) (German), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Auguste Rodin's large marble sculpture of two naked lovers fused in passion, known as Le Baiser...The Kiss.
Here, I chose to present just part of the famous sculpture, with discrete focus on their coupling. In my eyes, providing them some privacy for this most emotive moment.
Rodin's lovers appear timeless to me. A representation of infatuation, oblivious to all else. But their love was doomed. They are Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Polenta (originally as reliefs from Rodin's monumental bronze Gates of Hell, based on Dante's Divine Comedy). They were discovered by Francesca's husband and killed by him.
The couple pass in to Hell, through the Circle of the Lustful, where the souls of sinners who gave themselves over to sexual pleasures are punished by being transformed in to a 'whirling cyclone'.
Three life-size versions of the sculpture were executed in Rodin's lifetime. The earliest is this one here in the collection of the Musée Rodin, within the Hôtel Biron, a magnificent 18th century palace that the sculptor used as his Paris studio until his death in 1917.
Le Baiser 1888. Marble 1.82m x 1.16 m x 121 m.
Link to exterior of Musée Rodin: www.flickr.com/photos/112623317@N03/51941066998/in/photol...
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The Essex Skipper forms discrete colonies that vary from a small number of individuals to several thousand. Where it occurs it can therefore be very common. This species is very similar in appearance to the Small Skipper and, because of this similarity, was not recognised as a separate species until 1889.