View allAll Photos Tagged Discretization

Tanis is wandering in her garden in a discrete pink dress that wouldn't attract the attention of any passers-by

A world system, a mandala, a sanctum sanctorum offered, discretely tucked away in the mysteries of shadow ... as it should be. Open to all who would venture there, but first it has to be sought out. Solar and Galactic metaphors too? "As above, so below".

 

The title is a play on the Baroque oil painting technique called "chiaroscuro" ( light and shadow ) where the subject, often a person, is moodily lit from outside the picture plane and the rest of the composition is in near or total darkness. The second part of the word play is a pun on an old song by "Classical Jazz" guitarist Mason Williams, "Baroque a Nova".

 

View Large on Black.

Tiny butt showing discretely. HBBBT! Dorset 2014.

Sitting quietly on the stairs trying to be discrete, some hope!

This is an XZ reslice of fluorescent Plexiglas that was bleached with pulsed laser in 930 nm or so range and then imaged by confocal. The horizontal black lines show how photoactivation, bleaching, ablation etc can be done at a discrete Z plane.

Suddenly, under the gray, a white fogbank advanced on the shore almost too quickly for me to get its profile as a discrete entity. Within minutes, it engulfed me, too.

1. orbicularis oculi: When one takes a journey to unfamiliar territories, there is often the unknown sources that affect our balances, like paper-thin skin being taken from a body and used for dried candlewax.

 

2. depressor labii inferioris: What talks doesn't always have a voice. It can speak from a spectre's point of view; the fragile reefed mizzen that draws itself away. God becomes a photo of my tongue. My tongue delivers the incorrect information, which in turn, lets whatever seem fashionable dribble from the mouth and onto this plain. This exists because it is superior to how something is released uncontrollably, watching it float out from the mouth and into the air that holds us all as a whole.

  

...do you remember when

my love for you so strong

had been discretely found

beside a secret fence post

love for me was grounded

 

only you and i knew where

we shared our lonely song

o love ever true...but 'they'

would never let us belong

our love of loves was wrong

 

this edit brings to mind a childhood fantacy

when (during my youth) it was _forbidden

to have ''dreams of love in black & white''

so communication oft lasted only one night

 

but we left our love...& notes, beside the fences

 

Tools46site

Place d'Armes, Montréal, Qc, Canada

History of Costa Rica Coffee

 

Coffee was brought to Costa Rica during the late eighteenth century. Its arrival was discrete, but definite. Coffee cultivation expanded slowly and with the perserance that great work demands, throughout the Central Valley. The brotherhood of coffee farmers gave way to the spirit that made Costa Rica the first Central American country to establish coffee as an industry.

 

The first export to Panama, in 1820, became the groundbreaking activity that changed the course of the lives. In 1832, Costa Rica was already exporting quality coffee to Chile where it was re-bagged to be sold to England under the brand of “Café Chileno de Valparaíso”.

 

It was in 1843, when a group of visionary exporters undertook the complex task of exporting coffee directly to London. Thanks to William Le Lacheur Lyon, captain of the English ship, “The Monarch” it was possible to transport several one hundred pound bags to Europe that helped Costa Rican coffeee become world-renowned.

 

The growing and trading of coffee changed the face of this humble colony. The country was modernized and young Costa Rican intellectuals could now continue their studies in Europe and return as doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs contributing to the improvement of Costa Ricans’ lifestyle.

 

The economic bounty that coffee production and trade gave birth to, allowed the country to build the first railroads to the Atlantic Coast in 1890, “Ferrocarril al Atlántico”. The awed inhabitants of the capital of Costa Rica, San José, attended the memorable inauguration of the National Theater, seven years later. The National Theater is cradle of Costa Rican culture and a monument to the foresight of the first coffee farmers.

 

Costa Rica Coffee were made for each other. The soils have a slight degree of acidity enriched by volcanic ashes, rich in organic matter, that promote a good distribution of the coffee plants’ roots, which in turn retains humidity and facilitaters oxygenation. This combination of characteristics invigorates the plant and is one of the many factors that contribute to the quality of Costa Rican Coffee.

 

Costa Rica produces excellent coffees. Their quality is unsurpassed and, for this reason, it is recommended to taste them unblended in order the uniqueness of their flover. The varieties grown in the country belong to the “Arabica” spezies, which yield a tasty, suberbly aromatic and well-balanced beverage.

 

Costa Rica is the only country where only the Arabica varieties, by law, may be grown.

This is a short video shot right in the phase when the explosions and jets of incandescent lava fragments from Etna's New Southeast Crater started to blend into a continuous fountain. The sound also was about to change from discrete bangs into a sustained, continuous, deep roar - a sound much like thunder but continuous. It simply goes on and on and on, for 30-40 minutes, and that's the soundtrack to The Greatest Show On Earth - a so-called paroxysm, a peculiar type of volcanic event, which lasts only a short time (in most cases less than one hour, cometimes only 15-20 minutes) but is exceptionally spectacular and quite violent. This time, the lava fountains may have reached or even exceeded 1000 m in height, which does not happen all the time - recently, on 23 February and 5-6 March 2013, lava fountains had been up to 800 m tall. The latest one, on the evening of 16 March 2013, was quite a bit taller than its predecessors. But not only the height of an Etnean lava fountain is worth an entry in the Guiness Book of Records. Also the immense quantity of loose volcanic material - technically, this is lava ripped into fragments by the explosivity of such an event, the smaller bits called ash and the larger fragments "lapilli" (or scoriae) - is awe-inspiring. It rises as a dark plume to several kilometers above the summit of the volcano and is then blown into the direction of the wind - today, this was southeast- and eastward. Areas lying downwind are subjected to a deluge of volcanic rock debris, a rather unpleasant experience especially during these latest paroxysms that were more violently explosive than many of their predecessors. There is word that car windshields were broken during this evening's volcanic fallout in the areas on the southeast flank of Etna. Truly enough, a paroxysm is a hauntingly beautiful experience, but it has a dark side, the fallout, which can be outright dangerous for people being downwind in popular hiking areas on the flanks of Etna. Luckily, this is still the winter season and few people have been surprised outdoors by the rain of black volcanic scoriae where these fragments were large enough to cause severe injury ...

 

This movie clip was taken from the Piano Vetore area, at about 1700 m elevation on the southwest flank of Etna.

Shyness is the expression of a "Discrete Emotion"

Cinnabar moth caterpillar - famous for stripping ragwort of everything it owns and this colony is no exception. Fortunately, they have only colonised discrete areas.

During a great music festival in Marpisa, (Paros) I had the chance to play with my Summilux M.

This lens is so discrete that nobody noticed me.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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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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Pilots hatch open to show radar and Vr displays. Sensors are discrete, built into surface of wing/fuselage.

Photo Copyright 2012, dynamo.photography.

All rights reserved, no use without license

 

++++++++ from wikipedia.org ++++++++

 

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.

Umm where do I start, at the beginning I suppose ;-)

 

For the last two weeks I have been making very discrete enquiries, and having many conversations with the owner of Peelings Coaches, about the prospect of the SWPG (well me!), having one of their coaches which they were due to scrap, and look into it possible preservation.

 

Thank goodness we still have some lovely family run companies, whose vehicles still mean something to them and the thought of seeing their member of the family scrapped would haunt them forever more. Well that is what was going to happen with UGB even though she still has 10 months MOT on her.

 

After lengthy and protracted negotiations, we were eventually told yesterday that she was ready to be collected from Tittleshall in Norfolk (Between Kings Lynn and Norwich). Johnathan Peeling even taxed the coach for 6 months and put 100 litres of fuel in it, a jesture that has been noted and won’t go unrewarded. SO after another 4.30am start and another trip on the 06.01 to London from Bristol Parkway, another tube journey on the Cirlce Line and another journey from “The Cross”, we eventually arrived in Norfolk at 11.00am.

 

The journey back to Bristol took 6 hours, with 4 stops and not wanting to rant her I sat at about 57/8 most of the way back, and traversed many local roads and A roads in Norfolk, before having our first break in Peterborough. We then took the A47, A605, A14, M6, M42 & M5 stopping at Corley and Strensham, before arriving back in the yard for 7pm.

 

SO why did I want another coach after getting rid of the Tiger a lot of you will ask, and some of you have that right. Well quite simply I have missed having a coach due t its comfort, and I think a group of our size needs it.

 

A652 UDG (Plaxton paramount 3500 bodied Volvo B10M) started out life with Park’s of Hamilton, in their gaudy Blue, White and Orange livery with the Trafalgar Tours logos attached to the side, before a few years with West Coast Motors in North Scotland. She was then sold to C J Down in Mary Tavy (Devon) where she spent quite a long time before being sold to a dealer in Leicestershire who sold her to Fowlers of Holbeach (Another coach in the group that has been at Fowlers!), before being sold to the Wonderful Peelings of Tittleshall, who have kept her rather immaculate. This coach has been stood for 2 months, and started on the button, and drove like a front line motor!

 

There are plans, but I won’t be shouting my mouth off about them, you will all just have to wait and see as I also have the Fleetline to get done (Which WILL NEVER BE SOLD!!!!!) ;-).

 

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.

Nature is not discrete when it comes to colours...

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:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_hQaXV7MpM

 

Sorry for the tight crop, I got part of the mirror in the shot. Crazy car though!

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.

Pretty Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Beautiful Blonde California Surf Girl Beach Goddess! Sexy Hot Fitness Model! Tall, Thin, & Fit! 45SURF dx4/dt=ic 45EPIC

 

My Epic Book: Photographing Women Models!

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Portrait, Swimsuit, Lingerie, Boudoir, Fine Art, & Fashion Photography Exalting the Venus Goddess Archetype: How to Shoot Epic ...

 

All the photography, swimsuits, gold 45 revolver and 45surf logos, clothing designs, and lingerie are composed and designed in accordance with the golden ratio and divine proportion!

 

Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after, thusly providing symmetry over not only space but time, and exalting life’s foundational dynamic symmetry. Robust, ordered, symmetric growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life. In the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in the arrangement of nature’s discrete elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which they and all their vital sustenance, as well as all the flowers and nature’s epic beauty, had been created—the golden ratio.

 

Exalt your photography with Golden Ratio Compositions!

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Light Time Dimension Theory's dx4/dt=ic graces all the clothes, swimsuits, and lingerie!

 

Proof of Light Time Dimension Theory's principle of a fourth expanding dimension:

 

Proof of ltd’s principle:

1. The velocity of every object through

Spacetime is c.

2. The velocity of light through the

Three spatial dimensions is always c.

3. If light had any velocity through x4,

Light’s total velocity would not be c.

4. Ergo light remains stationary in x4.

5. Thus light tracks and traces the

Movement and character of x4.

6. As light is a spherically-symmetric,

Probabilistic wavefront expanding

At c, x4 expands at the rate of c in a

Spherically-symmetric manner,

Distributing nonlocality.

QED

  

Heavy enclosing coat with internal sleeves and hood that covers up to the nose for discrete gagging

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.

 

Au dessus de Morsulaz, Le Mont Saxonnex, Haute Savoie, France .

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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