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Fitted to this Porsche Panamera is our Rotary Formed RF2s shown in Matte Black. The 22x9, 22x10.5 is an optimized diameter and width for the Panamera, perfectly fitted with a staggered concave appearance.
Qariya Al Sawda. Mesquitas, forma e localização.
Fotógrafo: Fernando Varanda (1941-)
Fotografia: 1973 - 1990.
[CFT167.368]
flickriver.com/photos/javier1949/popular-interesting/
Palacio Longoria - Sociedad General de Autores
Calle Fernando VI, 4 c/v a Pelayo. Madrid
Arquitecto: José Grases Riera Proyecto 1902 Obras 1902-05. Colaborador en la dirección de las obras José López Salaberry. Terminación: Francisco García Nava 1912-1913. Reforma : Carlos Arniches Moltó 1950-1951. Rehabilitación: Proyecto: Ángeles Hernández-Rubio y Santiago Fajardo 992. Obras: Santiago Fajardo: 1993-95.
Declarado Bien de Interés Cultural BIC con la categoría de Monumento en 1996
Seguimos a Oscar da Rocha y Ricardo Muñoz en su excelente trabajo “Madrid modernista: guía de arquitectura”, y al primero de ellos en su magnífica tesis doctoral acerca del Modernismo en Madrid
El palacio de Longoria es, sin duda, el ejemplar más célebre del modernismo madrileño. Mandado edificar por el banquero Javier González Longoria para su vivienda privada y la sede de su negocio. Para ello recurrió al arquitecto José Grases Riera –de origen catalán, aunque afincado en Madrid desde finales del siglo XIX– cuya trayectoria, que incluye el popular Monumento a Alfonso XII en el Retiro, representa una de las mejores manifestaciones del eclecticismo característico de la arquitectura madrileña de aquella época.
Frente a sus obras más tradicionales Grases proyectó un edificio singular y novedoso, que exhibe una profusa decoración modernista inspirada en el art nouveau francés (sinuosidades naturalistas, flores variadas, cabezas femeninas, formas orgánicas diversas, etc.). Este peculiar giro en los fundamentos estilísticos del autor debe vincularse, además de a la influencia de las nuevas modas, a los deseos del propietario. Pero toda la exuberante ornamentación modernista, aplicada como un revestimiento decorativo, prende sobre unos volúmenes que responden a criterios convencionales (esencialmente eclécticos), manifiestos tanto en la planta del edificio (en forma de L con la clásica rotonda en la esquina) como en el sistema constructivo mixto (muros de carga con forjados de vigas y bovedillas) y en la composición de los alzados (simétricos y rematados por un ático en forma de mansarda).
La planta se conforma, sobre un solar en esquina sensiblemente cuadrado, mediante dos cuerpos rectangulares, paralelos a las dos calles, ensamblados por un torreón circular que acoge la gran escalera. El protagonismo visual recae sobre el tratamiento decorativo dado a las fachadas, realizadas en piedra artificial con formas suaves, vegetales y orgánicas que dan una continuidad espacial a las superficies con una decoración que lo invade todo enlazando unos elementos con otros. La fachada principal se retranquea para iluminar los sótanos y queda realzada con la inclusión de un patio inglés cerrado con una bella verja de forja, que tras su última restauración ha recuperado lo mejor de su sugestiva apariencia. La inclusión en el ático de azulejos cerámicos con piezas irregulares, recuerda al “trencadís” creado por Antoni Gaudí. La planta en “L” deja un patio-jardín interior que permite desarrollar una interesante fachada al mismo con una galería porticada sobre soportes en forma de palmeras y pabellones semicirculares en los extremos.
En el interior, se distingue la soberbia escalera principal, una de las más brillantes piezas del modernismo español, cuya admirable combinación de hierro (armadura), bronce (barandillas), mármol (escalones), yeso (relieves) y vidrio (cúpula) sigue la concepción modernista de integración de todas las artes. Trazada a partir de unos diseños extraordinaria calidad, la escalinata configura una espectacular escenografía iluminada cenitalmente por una hermosa vidriera. De traza imperial y perímetro circular se sitúa en la rotonda de la esquina, eje del edificio, y la corona una impresionante cúpula de hierro y vidrio con estructura nervada en estrella que apoya en soportes de hierro. La barandilla es asimismo una sugestiva obra de forja con dinámicos elementos vegetales salpicados con flores y hojas de latón movidos por el característico "golpe de látigo". En una labor de tal magnificencia y complejidad Grases debió contar con la colaboración de artesanos muy cualificados, pero desgraciadamente ignoramos sus nombres.
En cualquier caso el conjunto origina una escenografía espectacular y, sobre todo, plenamente modernista. La escalera es sin duda el elemento art nouveau más ortodoxo de todo el edificio, ya que en ella los distintos materiales reciben un tratamiento decorativo (identificación entre estructura y ornamento), existe una absoluta integración de las artes (arquitectura, metalistería, escultura y vidriería), se desarrolla un espacio dinámico y se crea un ambiente hedonista y totalmente novedoso. En resumen, el Palacio de Longoria es, por su condición ecléctica, el edificio más representativo del modernismo madrileño pero también, por su abundante decoración y su magnífica escalinata, uno de los más excepcionales.
Según nos comenta Oscar da Rocha en su tesis, José Grases Riera (1850-1919, terminó sus estudio de arquitectura el año 1878 en Barcelona) y en agosto de 1902 firmó la memoria y los planos del que habría de ser su trabajo más polémico. Hasta entonces sus obras madrileñas habían estado sometidas a la influencia del eclecticismo neobarroco y afrancesado que podemos apreciar en La Equitativa (1887-1891), El New Club (1899-1902), el Monumento a Alfonso XII (1901-1922) o el Teatro Lírico (1901-1902); edificios todos ellos muy alejados del modernismo exhibido por el Palacio de Longoria. Siempre se ha responsabilizado de tan inesperado cambio estilístico al propietario, Francisco Javier González Longoria, y hasta ahora esta idea sigue siendo plenamente asumible.
González Longoria poseyó el palacio muy poco tiempo. En 1912, por encargo de su nuevo propietario el dentista Florestán Aguilar, el arquitecto municipal Francisco García Nava realiza unas obras de reforma en las que introduce algunos elementos nuevos a fin de destinar el edificio para residencia personal y sede de la Compañía Dental Española. Así, realiza, entre otras obras, la conclusión de las fachadas, especialmente la configuración de las abiertas al jardín. A partir de aquel momento sus interiores se fueron degradando y desapareció la distribución original. Durante el tiempo en que el palacio perteneció a Florestán Aguilar –hasta mediados de los años 40– fueron varias las obras ejecutadas. A la vez que se reformaba el edificio, se encargó la realización de un garaje-cochera. Esta construcción, situada al fondo de la parcela y hoy perdida, podría ser el lugar que durante algún tiempo sirvió de taller al pintor Julio Romero de Torres. En 1919, el arquitecto Francisco Pingarrón Yarritu proyectó un pabellón en la azotea, con fachada al jardín –recientemente sustituido por un ligero volumen de hierro y cristal–, que con poco acierto intentaba respetar el aspecto modernista del conjunto. En 1946, los herederos de Aguilar vendieron el inmueble a Construcciones Civiles, que traslada aquí su sede, y en 1950 lo adquiere la Sociedad General de Autores, su actual propietaria, que encarga al arquitecto Carlos Arniches una radical transformación, realizando el cierre de las galerías de la fachada posterior y modificando por completo la organización y decoración interiores. Únicamente respetó el eje central, con el zaguán de entrada y la gran escalinata que, junto con la interesante escalera de servicio, son las únicas partes internas del edificio que conservan su aspecto original, además de la ejecución de una ampliación sobre un edificio colindante. La misma Sociedad emprendió en la década de 1990 la recuperación del edificio, entonces muy deteriorado, realizando la restauración de las fachadas y la rehabilitación total de los interiores. Se eliminan añadidos superfluos o antiestéticos (construcciones del jardín, pabellón de la terraza, etc.), se recuperan los motivos decorativos (algunos perdidos hacía décadas) y se devuelve a las fachadas el cromatismo uniforme (color siena) que suaviza la sensación de yuxtaposición de los elementos ornamentales sobre los muros –muy evidente cuando tenían tonalidades distintas–. Muy elogiable es el trabajo de recuperación de la escalera de servicio, uno de los escasos ámbitos que perduran del edificio original, en la que hoy se combinan acertadamente elementos antiguos y modernos. Las figuras en relieve de las esquinas y la cerrajería de los antepechos, con un diseño similar al de la verja de cerramiento, pertenecen a la primera decoración. Ahora se complementan con un zócalo de mármol de inspiración modernista y un añadido en la cancela del ascensor –basado en el modelo del antepecho– que respetan totalmente la coherencia del conjunto. Las obras fueron proyectadas por Ángeles Hernández-Rubio y Santiago Fajardo y realizadas bajo dirección de este último arquitecto.
Por todas sus cualidades arquitectónicas y artísticas el edificio fue declarado en 1996 Bien de Interés Cultural con la categoría de Monumento.
SELECTIVE COLOUR BLUE
THE QUEENSFERRY BLUE BRIDGE ALSO KNOWN LOCALY AS JUBILEE BRIDGE, WAS DESIGNED BY MOTT HAY AND ANDERSON, AND BUILT BY SIR WILLIAM ARROL AND CO. LTD, FOR £83,051. THIS BRIDGE WAS ONE OF THE MAIN ROUTES INTO NORTH WALES FROM NORTHERN ENGLAND.
IT'S A DOUBLE-LEAF BASCULE BRIDGE BUILT TO THE SCHERZER "ROLLING LIFT" DESIGN, ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN FIXED AT MIDSPAN AND NO LONGER OPENS. BOATS ARE STILL ABLE TO PASS BELOW, INCLUDING BARGES CARRYING AIRBUS WINGS. THE CENTRAL SPAN IS 40.8M, THE TWO SIDE SPANS EACH 40.5M, AND THE DECK IS APPROXIMATELY 10M WIDE.
IN SCHERZER'S DESIGN, THE BASCULES ROLL BACK ONTO CURVED STEEL GIRDERS, ROCKING-HORSE STYLE. BALLAST CHAMBERS AT THE TOP OF THE CURVED GIRDERS BALANCE THE WEIGHT OF THE DECK AND REDUCE THE POWER REQUIRED FOR OPERATION. AT QUEENSFERRY, THE ROLLING GIRDERS ARE LOCATED INBOARD OF THE APPROACH SPAN GIRDERS. THE BRIDGE DECK IS SUPPORTED FROM CROSS-BEAMS WHICH ARE SUSPENDED BELOW THE MAIN DECK TRUSSES IN THE CASE OF THE MAIN SPAN.
THE DRIVING MECHANISM CONSISTS OF SMALL PINIONS WHICH ROLL BACK ALONG FIXED RACKS, PUSHING THE OPENING SPAN BACK ONTO ITS HEELS AS THEY GO. WHILE A NUMBER OF GEARS ARE STILL PRESENT, THE ORIGINAL DRIVE ENGINES HAVE BEEN REMOVED, AND NOR IS THERE ANY CONTROL HOUSE. COMPARE THE SCHERZER BRIDGE AT INCHINNAN IN SCOTLAND, WHERE THE MECHANISM IS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT, BUT MACHINERY HOUSES ARE STILL CLEARLY PRESENT.
THERE ARE HOLES IN THE ROLLING GIRDERS AND TEETH ON THE SUPPORT GIRDER WHICH SERVE TO PREVENT THE SPANS FROM GETTING MISALIGNED. WEDGES HAVE BEEN INSERTED TO PREVENT THE BRIDGE FROM MOVING.
THE BRIDGE IS GENERALLY IN VERY WELL PRESERVED CONDITION, WITH DISTINCTIVE BLUE PAINTWORK MAKING IT A BOLD SIGHT. IT HAS A DEFINITE INDUSTRIAL BEAUTY DERIVED FROM THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE INTRICATE STEELWORK AND ITS SIMPLE, PURPOSEFUL FORM.
Routing 30,000 randomly-chosen trips through the paths suggested by 10,000 randomly-chosen geotags. These are perhaps the most interesting routes between the endpoints of the trips, even if not necessarily the most likely.
Data from the Twitter streaming API, August, 2011. Base map from OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA.
Brian Fisher flies.
A series of images of Capital Multisport at the 2009 Clough Triathlon near Concord, NH.
This is supposed to be me in LEGO form. It is based on my appearance in LEGO Universe. As you can see, I have a lot of work to do like getting the proper hair piece, a torso print, etc. Compare flic.kr/p/aWigeg
Legong is a form of Balinese dance. It is a refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions.
An extremely basic definition of legong is a dance traditionally performed by pre-pubescent girls in the palaces of feudal Bali.
One translation is that the word is made up of two words. Lega meaning happy and Ing wong meaning person – put them together and you get: “something that makes people happy”. Another one is oleg meaning dance and gong meaning gamelan, the music that accompanies the dance.
Legong probably originated in the 19th century as royal entertainment. Today the most common legong dance is Legong Keraton, so named by the Sultanate of Keraton Surakarta when the music and dance composer and genius I Wayan Lotring from Kuta was invited to perform in the 1920s with his Gamelan Pelegongan group in the keraton (palace) in Surakarta.
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.
With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.
Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.
Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.
HISTORY
ANCIENT
Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.
In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.
Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.
Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.
The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.
PORTUGUESE CONTACTS
The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.
DUTCH EAST INDIA
In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.
In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:
I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.
The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.
AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS
exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.
Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.
During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.
INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH
In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.
CONTEMPORARY
The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.
The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.
As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.
GEOGRAPHY
The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.
Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.
The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.
The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.
Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.
To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.
CLIMATE
Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.
Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.
ECOLOGY
Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.
Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.
Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.
Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.
The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.
A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.
Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.
ENVIRONMENT
Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.
From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).
Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.
ECONOMY
Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.
AGRICULTURE
Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.
The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.
TOURISM
The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.
The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.
An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.
In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.
Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.
Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.
In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.
In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.
Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.
Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.
Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.
SEX TOURISM
In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.
Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.
By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.
TRANSPORTATION
The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.
A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.
In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.
On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.
In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.
On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.
To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.
ETHNIC ORIGINS
A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.
CASTE SYSTEM
Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:
- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.
- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials
- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste
- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests
RELIGION
Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.
Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.
Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.
Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.
LANGUAGE
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.
English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.
CULTURE
Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.
The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.
Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.
Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.
Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.
Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.
Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.
WIKIPEDIA
150228 slows down for the Hebden Bridge stop while forming 2E03 19:30 Manchester Victoria to Leeds. 6/7/87.
PGB Photographer & Creative - © 2022 Philip Romeyn - Phillostar Gone Ballistic 2021 - Photo may not be edited from its original form. Commercial use is prohibited without contacting me.
Often we are visited by thoughts that may reveal something unknown ... Our mind many times tries to solve a problem with known methods ... This is its main mistake! The path of the heart opens the doors that appear in our path. It is a pity that not everyone has the courage to insert the keys that are always with us ...
(Listenwave- 圣彼得堡)
Legong is a form of Balinese dance. It is a refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions.
An extremely basic definition of legong is a dance traditionally performed by pre-pubescent girls in the palaces of feudal Bali.
One translation is that the word is made up of two words. Lega meaning happy and Ing wong meaning person – put them together and you get: “something that makes people happy”. Another one is oleg meaning dance and gong meaning gamelan, the music that accompanies the dance.
Legong probably originated in the 19th century as royal entertainment. Today the most common legong dance is Legong Keraton, so named by the Sultanate of Keraton Surakarta when the music and dance composer and genius I Wayan Lotring from Kuta was invited to perform in the 1920s with his Gamelan Pelegongan group in the keraton (palace) in Surakarta.
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Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.
With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.
Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.
Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.
HISTORY
ANCIENT
Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.
In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.
Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.
Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.
The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.
PORTUGUESE CONTACTS
The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.
DUTCH EAST INDIA
In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.
In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:
I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.
The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.
AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS
exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.
n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.
Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.
During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.
INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH
In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.
CONTEMPORARY
The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.
The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.
As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.
GEOGRAPHY
The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.
Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.
The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.
The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.
Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.
To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.
CLIMATE
Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.
Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.
ECOLOGY
Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.
Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.
Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.
Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.
The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.
A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.
Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.
ENVIRONMENT
Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.
From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).
Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.
ECONOMY
Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.
AGRICULTURE
Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.
The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.
TOURISM
The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.
The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.
An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.
In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.
Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.
Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.
In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.
In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.
Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.
Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.
Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.
SEX TOURISM
In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.
Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.
By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.
TRANSPORTATION
The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.
A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.
In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.
On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.
In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.
On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.
To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.
ETHNIC ORIGINS
A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.
CASTE SYSTEM
Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:
- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.
- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials
- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste
- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests
RELIGION
Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.
Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.
Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.
Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.
LANGUAGE
Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.
English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.
CULTURE
Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.
The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.
Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.
Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.
Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.
Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.
Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.
WIKIPEDIA
【Tehran, Iran】 Hundreds of thousands of Iranians walk past the minarets and dome of the Sharif University mosque, during the 22 Bahman (February 11th) rally marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, a sort of independence day for Iran.
© All rights reserved - No usage allowed in any form without the written consent of the photographer.
This is a photograph of a sculpture of Alison Lapper, a British artist who was born in 1965 with no arms and shortened legs due to a condition called phocomelia, caused by the morning sickness drug Tholidomide.
Lapper is an inspring example of someone who has managed to overcome her childhood- spending the first 19 years in residential institutions, and her disability. She has (amongst other achievments that in the past would be thought inconcievable for a woman with disabilities) graduated with a first class honours degree in Fine Art from Brighton University, Learnt to drive, Become a successful artist, and a mother to a son named Paris (featured on the Robert Winston Documentary "child of out time").
I feel that the placing of this Statue in Trafalgar Square, London, a place always packed with people, and dominated by statues of Male war heroes, really shows the developement in acceptance, and the overcoming of prejudices in our society. Not so long ago, before the Women's liberation and the birth of feminism, people would have laughed at the thought of a statue of a woman in Trafalgar Square. Who would have thought that a Pregnant, Naked, Disabled Woman would ever take center stage as both a stunning work of art, a beautiful woman and an iconic public Statue?
Here, hundreds of researchers, businesses and progressive home- owners will be living and working side-by-side, along with great food, drink and entertainment venues. A collection of stunning public spaces for everyone, of all ages, to use.
Everyone here is united by one purpose: to help families, communities and cities around the world to live healthier, longer, smarter and easier lives. In short, to live better. In the process, our businesses will continue to grow, employ more local people and help ensure Newcastle excels.
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities.
The university finds its roots in the School of Medicine and Surgery (later the College of Medicine), established in 1834, and the College of Physical Science (later renamed Armstrong College), founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form the larger division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The university subdivides into three faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.[6] The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £592.4 million of which £119.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £558 million.
History
Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle
The establishment of a university in Newcastle upon Tyne was first proposed in 1831 by Thomas Greenhow in a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1832 a group of local medics – physicians George Fife (teaching materia medica and therapeutics) and Samuel Knott (teaching theory and practice of medicine), and surgeons John Fife (teaching surgery), Alexander Fraser (teaching anatomy and physiology) and Henry Glassford Potter (teaching chemistry) – started offering medical lectures in Bell's Court to supplement the apprenticeship system (a fourth surgeon, Duncan McAllum, is mentioned by some sources among the founders, but was not included in the prospectus). The first session started on 1 October 1832 with eight or nine students, including John Snow, then apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, the opening lecture being delivered by John Fife. In 1834 the lectures and practical demonstrations moved to the Hall of the Company of Barber Surgeons to accommodate the growing number of students, and the School of Medicine and Surgery was formally established on 1 October 1834.
On 25 June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the school was formally dissolved and the lecturers split into two rival institutions. The majority formed the Newcastle College of Medicine, and the others established themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine and Practical Science with competing lecture courses. In July 1851 the majority college was recognised by the Society of Apothecaries and in October by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and in January 1852 was approved by the University of London to submit its students for London medical degree examinations. Later in 1852, the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham, becoming the "Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Medicine in connection with the University of Durham". The college awarded its first 'Licence in Medicine' (LicMed) under the auspices of the University of Durham in 1856, with external examiners from Oxford and London, becoming the first medical examining body on the United Kingdom to institute practical examinations alongside written and viva voce examinations. The two colleges amalgamated in 1857, with the first session of the unified college opening on 3 October that year. In 1861 the degree of Master of Surgery was introduced, allowing for the double qualification of Licence of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, along with the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, both of which required residence in Durham. In 1870 the college was brought into closer connection with the university, becoming the "Durham University College of Medicine" with the Reader in Medicine becoming the Professor of Medicine, the college gaining a representative on the university's senate, and residence at the college henceforth counting as residence in the university towards degrees in medicine and surgery, removing the need for students to spend a period of residence in Durham before they could receive the higher degrees.
Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were finally met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. The college offered instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology to meet the growing needs of the mining industry, becoming the "Durham College of Physical Science" in 1883 and then renamed after William George Armstrong as Armstrong College in 1904. Both of these institutions were part of the University of Durham, which became a federal university under the Durham University Act 1908 with two divisions in Durham and Newcastle. By 1908, the Newcastle division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.
Throughout the early 20th century, the medical and science colleges outpaced the growth of their Durham counterparts. Following tensions between the two Newcastle colleges in the early 1930s, a Royal Commission in 1934 recommended the merger of the two colleges to form "King's College, Durham"; that was effected by the Durham University Act 1937. Further growth of both division of the federal university led to tensions within the structure and a feeling that it was too large to manage as a single body. On 1 August 1963 the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963 separated the two thus creating the "University of Newcastle upon Tyne". As the successor of King's College, Durham, the university at its founding in 1963, adopted the coat of arms originally granted to the Council of King's College in 1937.
Above the portico of the Students' Union building are bas-relief carvings of the arms and mottoes of the University of Durham, Armstrong College and Durham University College of Medicine, the predecessor parts of Newcastle University. While a Latin motto, mens agitat molem (mind moves matter) appears in the Students' Union building, the university itself does not have an official motto.
Campus and location
The university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor; the university medical school and Royal Victoria Infirmary are adjacent to the west.
The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages; the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by Princess Louise on 5 November 1888. The south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with surplus funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts. Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII.
The building contains the King's Hall, which serves as the university's chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held. It can contain 500 seats. King Edward VII gave permission to call the Great Hall, King's Hall. During the First World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office to create the first Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. Graduation photographs are often taken in the University Quadrangle, next to the Armstrong building. In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars. In 2017, a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary degree from the university.
The Bruce Building is a former brewery, constructed between 1896 and 1900 on the site of the Hotspur Hotel, and designed by the architect Joseph Oswald as the new premises of Newcastle Breweries Limited. The university occupied the building from the 1950s, but, having been empty for some time, the building was refurbished in 2016 to become residential and office space.
The Devonshire Building, opened in 2004, incorporates in an energy efficient design. It uses photovoltaic cells to help to power motorised shades that control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils. Its architects won awards in the Hadrian awards and the RICS Building of the Year Award 2004. The university won a Green Gown award for its construction.
Plans for additions and improvements to the campus were made public in March 2008 and completed in 2010 at a cost of £200 million. They included a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate administration building as well as new student accommodation. Two additional buildings for the school of medicine were also built. September 2012 saw the completion of the new buildings and facilities for INTO Newcastle University on the university campus. The main building provides 18 new teaching rooms, a Learning Resource Centre, a lecture theatre, science lab, administrative and academic offices and restaurant.
The Philip Robinson Library is the main university library and is named after a bookseller in the city and benefactor to the library. The Walton Library specialises in services for the Faculty of Medical Sciences in the Medical School. It is named after Lord Walton of Detchant, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Neurology. The library has a relationship with the Northern region of the NHS allowing their staff to use the library for research and study. The Law Library specialises in resources relating to law, and the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms offers additional study spaces and computers. Together, these house over one million books and 500,000 electronic resources. Some schools within the university, such as the School of Modern Languages, also have their own smaller libraries with smaller highly specialised collections.
In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay, and Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland.
International
In September 2008, the university's first overseas branch was opened in Singapore, a Marine International campus called, NUMI Singapore. This later expanded beyond marine subjects and became Newcastle University Singapore, largely through becoming an Overseas University Partner of Singapore Institute of Technology.
In 2011, the university's Medical School opened an international branch campus in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia, namely Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia.
Student accommodation
Newcastle University has many catered and non-catered halls of residence available to first-year students, located around the city of Newcastle. Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.
Henderson Hall was used as a hall of residence until a fire destroyed it in 2023.
St Mary's College in Fenham, one of the halls of residence, was formerly St Mary's College of Education, a teacher training college.
Organisation and governance
The current Chancellor is the British poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker. She assumed the position of Chancellor on 1 January 2020. The vice-chancellor is Chris Day, a hepatologist and former pro-vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
The university has an enrolment of some 16,000 undergraduate and 5,600 postgraduate students. Teaching and research are delivered in 19 academic schools, 13 research institutes and 38 research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.
It holds a series of public lectures called 'Insights' each year in the Curtis Auditorium in the Herschel Building. Many of the university's partnerships with companies, like Red Hat, are housed in the Herschel Annex.
Chancellors and vice-chancellors
For heads of the predecessor colleges, see Colleges of Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle.
Chancellors
Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (1963–1988)
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley (1988–1999)
Chris Patten (1999–2009)
Liam Donaldson (2009–2019)
Imtiaz Dharker (2020–)
Vice-chancellors
Charles Bosanquet (1963–1968)
Henry Miller (1968–1976)
Ewan Stafford Page (1976–1978, acting)
Laurence Martin (1978–1990)
Duncan Murchison (1991, acting)
James Wright (1992–2000)
Christopher Edwards (2001–2007)
Chris Brink (2007–2016)
Chris Day (2017–present)
Civic responsibility
The university Quadrangle
The university describes itself as a civic university, with a role to play in society by bringing its research to bear on issues faced by communities (local, national or international).
In 2012, the university opened the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal to address issues of social and economic change, representing the research-led academic schools across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences[45] and the Business School.
Mark Shucksmith was Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (NISR) at Newcastle University, where he is also Professor of Planning.
In 2006, the university was granted fair trade status and from January 2007 it became a smoke-free campus.
The university has also been actively involved with several of the region's museums for many years. The Great North Museum: Hancock originally opened in 1884 and is often a venue for the university's events programme.
Faculties and schools
Teaching schools within the university are based within three faculties. Each faculty is led by a Provost/Pro-vice-chancellor and a team of Deans with specific responsibilities.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape
School of Arts and Cultures
Newcastle University Business School
Combined Honours Centre
School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Newcastle Law School
School of Modern Languages
Faculty of Medical Sciences
School of Biomedical Sciences
School of Dental Sciences
School of Medical Education
School of Pharmacy
School of Psychology
Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB)
Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
School of Computing
School of Engineering
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences
Business School
Newcastle University Business School
As early as the 1900/1 academic year, there was teaching in economics (political economy, as it was then known) at Newcastle, making Economics the oldest department in the School. The Economics Department is currently headed by the Sir David Dale Chair. Among the eminent economists having served in the Department (both as holders of the Sir David Dale Chair) are Harry Mainwaring Hallsworth and Stanley Dennison.
Newcastle University Business School is a triple accredited business school, with accreditation by the three major accreditation bodies: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.
In 2002, Newcastle University Business School established the Business Accounting and Finance or 'Flying Start' degree in association with the ICAEW and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The course offers an accelerated route towards the ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification and is the Business School's Flagship programme.
In 2011 the business school opened their new building built on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site next to St James' Park. This building was officially opened on 19 March 2012 by Lord Burns.
The business school operated a central London campus from 2014 to 2021, in partnership with INTO University Partnerships until 2020.
Medical School
The BMC Medicine journal reported in 2008 that medical graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle performed better in postgraduate tests than any other medical school in the UK.
In 2008 the Medical School announced that they were expanding their campus to Malaysia.
The Royal Victoria Infirmary has always had close links with the Faculty of Medical Sciences as a major teaching hospital.
School of Modern Languages
The School of Modern Languages consists of five sections: East Asian (which includes Japanese and Chinese); French; German; Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies; and Translating & Interpreting Studies. Six languages are taught from beginner's level to full degree level ‒ Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese ‒ and beginner's courses in Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Quechua are also available. Beyond the learning of the languages themselves, Newcastle also places a great deal of emphasis on study and experience of the cultures of the countries where the languages taught are spoken. The School of Modern Languages hosts North East England's only branches of two internationally important institutes: the Camões Institute, a language institute for Portuguese, and the Confucius Institute, a language and cultural institute for Chinese.
The teaching of modern foreign languages at Newcastle predates the creation of Newcastle University itself, as in 1911 Armstrong College in Newcastle installed Albert George Latham, its first professor of modern languages.
The School of Modern Languages at Newcastle is the lead institution in the North East Routes into Languages Consortium and, together with the Durham University, Northumbria University, the University of Sunderland, the Teesside University and a network of schools, undertakes work activities of discovery of languages for the 9 to 13 years pupils. This implies having festivals, Q&A sessions, language tasters, or quizzes organised, as well as a web learning work aiming at constructing a web portal to link language learners across the region.
Newcastle Law School
Newcastle Law School is the longest established law school in the north-east of England when law was taught at the university's predecessor college before it became independent from Durham University. It has a number of recognised international and national experts in a variety of areas of legal scholarship ranging from Common and Chancery law, to International and European law, as well as contextual, socio-legal and theoretical legal studies.
The Law School occupies four specially adapted late-Victorian town houses. The Staff Offices, the Alumni Lecture Theatre and seminar rooms as well as the Law Library are all located within the School buildings.
School of Computing
The School of Computing was ranked in the Times Higher Education world Top 100. Research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, secure and resilient systems, synthetic biology, scalable computing (high performance systems, data science, machine learning and data visualization), and advanced modelling. The school led the formation of the National Innovation Centre for Data. Innovative teaching in the School was recognised in 2017 with the award of a National Teaching Fellowship.
Cavitation tunnel
Newcastle University has the second largest cavitation tunnel in the UK. Founded in 1950, and based in the Marine Science and Technology Department, the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel is used as a test basin for propellers, water turbines, underwater coatings and interaction of propellers with ice. The Emerson Cavitation Tunnel was recently relocated to a new facility in Blyth.
Museums and galleries
The university is associated with a number of the region's museums and galleries, including the Great North Museum project, which is primarily based at the world-renowned Hancock Museum. The Great North Museum: Hancock also contains the collections from two of the university's former museums, the Shefton Museum and the Museum of Antiquities, both now closed. The university's Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum project, and remains within the Fine Art Building.
Academic profile
Reputation and rankings
Rankings
National rankings
Complete (2024)30
Guardian (2024)67
Times / Sunday Times (2024)37
Global rankings
ARWU (2023)201–300
QS (2024)110
THE (2024)168=
Newcastle University's national league table performance over the past ten years
The university is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's research-intensive universities. It is ranked in the top 200 of most world rankings, and in the top 40 of most UK rankings. As of 2023, it is ranked 110th globally by QS, 292nd by Leiden, 139th by Times Higher Education and 201st–300th by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Nationally, it is ranked joint 33rd by the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 30th by the Complete University Guide[68] and joint 63rd by the Guardian.
Admissions
UCAS Admission Statistics 20222021202020192018
Application 33,73532,40034,55031,96533,785
Accepte 6,7556,2556,5806,4456,465
Applications/Accepted Ratio 5.05.25.35.05.2
Offer Rate (%78.178.080.279.280.0)
Average Entry Tariff—151148144152
Main scheme applications, International and UK
UK domiciled applicants
HESA Student Body Composition
In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Newcastle ranked joint 19th in Britain in 2014. In 2015, the university gave offers of admission to 92.1% of its applicants, the highest amongst the Russell Group.
25.1% of Newcastle's undergraduates are privately educated, the thirteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 74:5:21 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.
Research
Newcastle is a member of the Russell Group of 24 research-intensive universities. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Newcastle is ranked joint 33rd by GPA (along with the University of Strathclyde and the University of Sussex) and 15th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).
Student life
Newcastle University Students' Union (NUSU), known as the Union Society until a 2012 rebranding, includes student-run sports clubs and societies.
The Union building was built in 1924 following a generous gift from an anonymous donor, who is now believed to have been Sir Cecil Cochrane, a major benefactor to the university.[87] It is built in the neo-Jacobean style and was designed by the local architect Robert Burns Dick. It was opened on 22 October 1925 by the Rt. Hon. Lord Eustace Percy, who later served as Rector of King's College from 1937 to 1952. It is a Grade II listed building. In 2010 the university donated £8 million towards a redevelopment project for the Union Building.
The Students' Union is run by seven paid sabbatical officers, including a Welfare and Equality Officer, and ten part-time unpaid officer positions. The former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron was President of NUSU in 1991–1992. The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organisers.
The Courier is a weekly student newspaper. Established in 1948, the current weekly readership is around 12,000, most of whom are students at the university. The Courier has won The Guardian's Student Publication of the Year award twice in a row, in 2012 and 2013. It is published every Monday during term time.
Newcastle Student Radio is a student radio station based in the university. It produces shows on music, news, talk and sport and aims to cater for a wide range of musical tastes.
NUTV, known as TCTV from 2010 to 2017, is student television channel, first established in 2007. It produces live and on-demand content with coverage of events, as well as student-made programmes and shows.
Student exchange
Newcastle University has signed over 100 agreements with foreign universities allowing for student exchange to take place reciprocally.
Sport
Newcastle is one of the leading universities for sport in the UK and is consistently ranked within the top 12 out of 152 higher education institutions in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings. More than 50 student-led sports clubs are supported through a team of professional staff and a network of indoor and outdoor sports facilities based over four sites. The university have a strong rugby history and were the winners of the Northumberland Senior Cup in 1965.
The university enjoys a friendly sporting rivalry with local universities. The Stan Calvert Cup was held between 1994 and 2018 by major sports teams from Newcastle and Northumbria University. The Boat Race of the North has also taken place between the rowing clubs of Newcastle and Durham University.
As of 2023, Newcastle University F.C. compete in men's senior football in the Northern League Division Two.
The university's Cochrane Park sports facility was a training venue for the teams playing football games at St James' Park for the 2012 London Olympics.
A
Ali Mohamed Shein, 7th President of Zanzibar
Richard Adams - fairtrade businessman
Kate Adie - journalist
Yasmin Ahmad - Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter
Prince Adewale Aladesanmi - Nigerian prince and businessman
Jane Alexander - Bishop
Theodosios Alexander (BSc Marine Engineering 1981) - Dean, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology of Saint Louis University
William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong - industrialist; in 1871 founded College of Physical Science, an early part of the University
Roy Ascott - new media artist
Dennis Assanis - President, University of Delaware
Neil Astley - publisher, editor and writer
Rodney Atkinson - eurosceptic conservative academic
Rowan Atkinson - comedian and actor
Kane Avellano - Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017
B
Bruce Babbitt - U.S. politician; 16th Governor of Arizona (1978–1987); 47th United States Secretary of the Interior (1993–2001); Democrat
James Baddiley - biochemist, based at Newcastle University 1954–1983; the Baddiley-Clark building is named in part after him
Tunde Baiyewu - member of the Lighthouse Family
John C. A. Barrett - clergyman
G. W. S. Barrow - historian
Neil Bartlett - chemist, creation of the first noble gas compounds (BSc and PhD at King's College, University of Durham, later Newcastle University)
Sue Beardsmore - television presenter
Alan Beith - politician
Jean Benedetti - biographer, translator, director and dramatist
Phil Bennion - politician
Catherine Bertola - contemporary painter
Simon Best - Captain of the Ulster Rugby team; Prop for the Ireland Team
Andy Bird - CEO of Disney International
Rory Jonathan Courtenay Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan - heir apparent to the earldom of Cork
David Bradley - science writer
Mike Brearley - professional cricketer, formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the university (1968–1971)
Constance Briscoe - one of the first black women to sit as a judge in the UK; author of the best-selling autobiography Ugly; found guilty in May 2014 on three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice; jailed for 16 months
Steve Brooks - entomologist; attained BSc in Zoology and MSc in Public Health Engineering from Newcastle University in 1976 and 1977 respectively
Thom Brooks - academic, columnist
Gavin Brown - academic
Vicki Bruce - psychologist
Basil Bunting - poet; Northern Arts Poetry Fellow at Newcastle University (1968–70); honorary DLitt in 1971
John Burgan - documentary filmmaker
Mark Burgess - computer scientist
Sir John Burn - Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University Medical School; Medical Director and Head of the Institute of Genetics; Newcastle Medical School alumnus
William Lawrence Burn - historian and lawyer, history chair at King's College, Newcastle (1944–66)
John Harrison Burnett - botanist, chair of Botany at King's College, Newcastle (1960–68)
C.
Richard Caddel - poet
Ann Cairns - President of International Markets for MasterCard
Deborah Cameron - linguist
Stuart Cameron - lecturer
John Ashton Cannon - historian; Professor of Modern History; Head of Department of History from 1976 until his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1979; Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1983–1986
Ian Carr - musician
Jimmy Cartmell - rugby player, Newcastle Falcons
Steve Chapman - Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University
Dion Chen - Hong Kong educator, principal of Ying Wa College and former principal of YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College
Hsing Chia-hui - author
Ashraf Choudhary - scientist
Chua Chor Teck - Managing Director of Keppel Group
Jennifer A. Clack - palaeontologist
George Clarke - architect
Carol Clewlow - novelist
Brian Clouston - landscape architect
Ed Coode - Olympic gold medallist
John Coulson - chemical engineering academic
Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox - cross-bench member of the British House of Lords
Nicola Curtin – Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics
Pippa Crerar - Political Editor of the Daily Mirror
D
Fred D'Aguiar - author
Julia Darling - poet, playwright, novelist, MA in Creative Writing
Simin Davoudi - academic
Richard Dawson - civil engineering academic and member of the UK Committee on Climate Change
Tom Dening - medical academic and researcher
Katie Doherty - singer-songwriter
Nowell Donovan - vice-chancellor for academic affairs and Provost of Texas Christian University
Catherine Douglas - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine
Annabel Dover - artist, studied fine art 1994–1998
Alexander Downer - Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1996–2007)
Chloë Duckworth - archaeologist and presenter
Chris Duffield - Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation
E
Michael Earl - academic
Tom English - drummer, Maxïmo Park
Princess Eugenie - member of the British royal family. Eugenie is a niece of King Charles III and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She began studying at Newcastle University in September 2009, graduating in 2012 with a 2:1 degree in English Literature and History of Art.
F
U. A. Fanthorpe - poet
Frank Farmer - medical physicist; professor of medical physics at Newcastle University in 1966
Terry Farrell - architect
Tim Farron - former Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale
Ian Fells - professor
Andy Fenby - rugby player
Bryan Ferry - singer, songwriter and musician, member of Roxy Music and solo artist; studied fine art
E. J. Field - neuroscientist, director of the university's Demyelinating Disease Unit
John Niemeyer Findlay - philosopher
John Fitzgerald - computer scientist
Vicky Forster - cancer researcher
Maximimlian (Max) Fosh- YouTuber and independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election.
Rose Frain - artist
G
Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster - aristocrat, billionaire, businessman and landowner
Peter Gibbs - television weather presenter
Ken Goodall - rugby player
Peter Gooderham - British ambassador
Michael Goodfellow - Professor in Microbial Systematics
Robert Goodwill - politician
Richard Gordon - author
Teresa Graham - accountant
Thomas George Greenwell - National Conservative Member of Parliament
H
Sarah Hainsworth - Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University
Reginald Hall - endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine (1970–1980)
Alex Halliday - Professor of Geochemistry, University of Oxford
Richard Hamilton - artist
Vicki L. Hanson - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2017
Rupert Harden - professional rugby union player
Tim Head - artist
Patsy Healey - professor
Alastair Heathcote - rower
Dorothy Heathcote - academic
Adrian Henri - 'Mersey Scene' poet and painter
Stephen Hepburn - politician
Jack Heslop-Harrison - botanist
Tony Hey - computer scientist; honorary doctorate 2007
Stuart Hill - author
Jean Hillier - professor
Ken Hodcroft - Chairman of Hartlepool United; founder of Increased Oil Recovery
Robert Holden - landscape architect
Bill Hopkins - composer
David Horrobin - entrepreneur
Debbie Horsfield - writer of dramas, including Cutting It
John House - geographer
Paul Hudson - weather presenter
Philip Hunter - educationist
Ronald Hunt – Art Historian who was librarian at the Art Department
Anya Hurlbert - visual neuroscientis
I
Martin Ince - journalist and media adviser, founder of the QS World University Rankings
Charles Innes-Ker - Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford
Mark Isherwood - politician
Jonathan Israel - historian
J
Alan J. Jamieson - marine biologist
George Neil Jenkins - medical researcher
Caroline Johnson - Conservative Member of Parliament
Wilko Johnson - guitarist with 1970s British rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood
Rich Johnston - comic book writer and cartoonist
Anna Jones - businesswoman
Cliff Jones - computer scientist
Colin Jones - historian
David E. H. Jones - chemist
Francis R. Jones - poetry translator and Reader in Translation Studies
Phil Jones - climatologist
Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling - Member of the House of Lords and the Conservative Party
Wilfred Josephs - dentist and composer
K
Michael King Jr. - civil rights leader; honorary graduate. In November 1967, MLK made a 24-hour trip to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Newcastle University, becoming the first African American the institution had recognised in this way.
Panayiotis Kalorkoti - artist; studied B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (1976–80); Bartlett Fellow in the Visual Arts (1988)
Rashida Karmali - businesswoman
Jackie Kay - poet, novelist, Professor of Creative Writing
Paul Kennedy - historian of international relations and grand strategy
Mark Khangure - neuroradiologist
L
Joy Labinjo - artist
Henrike Lähnemann - German medievalist
Dave Leadbetter - politician
Lim Boon Heng - Singapore Minister
Lin Hsin Hsin - IT inventor, artist, poet and composer
Anne Longfield - children's campaigner, former Children's Commissioner for England
Keith Ludeman - businessman
M
Jack Mapanje - writer and poet
Milton Margai - first prime minister of Sierra Leone (medical degree from the Durham College of Medicine, later Newcastle University Medical School)
Laurence Martin - war studies writer
Murray Martin, documentary and docudrama filmmaker, co-founder of Amber Film & Photography Collective
Adrian Martineau – medical researcher and professor of respiratory Infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London
Carl R. May - sociologist
Tom May - professional rugby union player, now with Northampton Saints, and capped by England
Kate McCann – journalist and television presenter
Ian G. McKeith – professor of Old Age Psychiatry
John Anthony McGuckin - Orthodox Christian scholar, priest, and poet
Wyl Menmuir - novelist
Zia Mian - physicist
Richard Middleton - musicologist
Mary Midgley - moral philosopher
G.C.J. Midgley - philosopher
Moein Moghimi - biochemist and nanoscientist
Hermann Moisl - linguist
Anthony Michaels-Moore - Operatic Baritone
Joanna Moncrieff - Critical Psychiatrist
Theodore Morison - Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1919–24)
Andy Morrell - footballer
Frank Moulaert - professor
Mo Mowlam - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, lecturer at Newcastle University
Chris Mullin - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, author, visiting fellow
VA Mundella - College of Physical Science, 1884—1887; lecturer in physics at the College, 1891—1896: Professor of Physics at Northern Polytechnic Institute and Principal of Sunderland Technical College.
Richard Murphy - architect
N
Lisa Nandy - British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Shadow Foreign Secretary
Karim Nayernia - biomedical scientist
Dianne Nelmes - TV producer
O
Sally O'Reilly - writer
Mo O'Toole - former British Labour Party Member of European Parliament
P
Ewan Page - founding director of the Newcastle University School of Computing and briefly acting vice-chancellor; later appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Reading
Rachel Pain - academic
Amanda Parker - Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire since 2023
Geoff Parling - Leicester Tigers rugby player
Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes - British Conservative politician and Chancellor of the University (1999–2009)
Chris M Pattinson former Great Britain International Swimmer 1976-1984
Mick Paynter - Cornish poet and Grandbard
Robert A. Pearce - academic
Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland - Chancellor of the University (1964–1988)
Jonathan Pile - Showbiz Editor, ZOO magazine
Ben Pimlott - political historian; PhD and lectureship at Newcastle University (1970–79)
Robin Plackett - statistician
Alan Plater - playwright and screenwriter
Ruth Plummer - Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.
Poh Kwee Ong - Deputy President of SembCorp Marine
John Porter - musician
Rob Powell - former London Broncos coach
Stuart Prebble - former chief executive of ITV
Oliver Proudlock - Made in Chelsea star; creator of Serge De Nîmes clothing line[
Mark Purnell - palaeontologist
Q
Pirzada Qasim - Pakistani scholar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi
Joyce Quin, Baroness Quin - politician
R
Andy Raleigh - Rugby League player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Brian Randell - computer scientist
Rupert Mitford, 6th Baron Redesdale - Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House of Lords for International Development
Alastair Reynolds - novelist, former research astronomer with the European Space Agency
Ben Rice - author
Lewis Fry Richardson - mathematician, studied at the Durham College of Science in Newcastle
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley - Chancellor of the University 1988-1999
Colin Riordan - VC of Cardiff University, Professor of German Studies (1988–2006)
Susie Rodgers - British Paralympic swimmer
Nayef Al-Rodhan - philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author
Neil Rollinson - poet
Johanna Ropner - Lord lieutenant of North Yorkshire
Sharon Rowlands - CEO of ReachLocal
Peter Rowlinson - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine
John Rushby - computer scientist
Camilla Rutherford - actress
S
Jonathan Sacks - former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
Ross Samson - Scottish rugby union footballer; studied history
Helen Scales - marine biologist, broadcaster, and writer
William Scammell - poet
Fred B. Schneider - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2003
Sean Scully - painter
Nigel Shadbolt - computer scientist
Tom Shakespeare - geneticist
Jo Shapcott - poet
James Shapiro - Canadian surgeon and scientist
Jack Shepherd - actor and playwright
Mark Shucksmith - professor
Chris Simms - crime thriller novel author
Graham William Smith - probation officer, widely regarded as the father of the national probation service
Iain Smith - Scottish politician
Paul Smith - singer, Maxïmo Park
John Snow - discoverer of cholera transmission through water; leader in the adoption of anaesthesia; one of the 8 students enrolled on the very first term of the Medical School
William Somerville - agriculturist, professor of agriculture and forestry at Durham College of Science (later Newcastle University)
Ed Stafford - explorer, walked the length of the Amazon River
Chris Steele-Perkins - photographer
Chris Stevenson - academic
Di Stewart - Sky Sports News reader
Diana Stöcker - German CDU Member of Parliament
Miodrag Stojković - genetics researcher
Miriam Stoppard - physician, author and agony aunt
Charlie van Straubenzee - businessman and investment executive
Peter Straughan - playwright and short story writer
T
Mathew Tait - rugby union footballer
Eric Thomas - academic
David Tibet - cult musician and poet
Archis Tiku - bassist, Maxïmo Park
James Tooley - professor
Elsie Tu - politician
Maurice Tucker - sedimentologist
Paul Tucker - member of Lighthouse Family
George Grey Turner - surgeon
Ronald F. Tylecote - archaeologist
V
Chris Vance - actor in Prison Break and All Saints
Géza Vermes - scholar
Geoff Vigar - lecturer
Hugh Vyvyan - rugby union player
W
Alick Walker - palaeontologist
Matthew Walker - Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley
Tom Walker - Sunday Times foreign correspondent
Lord Walton of Detchant - physician; President of the GMC, BMA, RSM; Warden of Green College, Oxford (1983–1989)
Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics; former Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Duncan Watmore - footballer at Millwall F.C.
Mary Webb - artist
Charlie Webster - television sports presenter
Li Wei - Chair of Applied Linguistics at UCL Institute of Education, University College London
Joseph Joshua Weiss - Professor of Radiation Chemistry
Robert Westall - children's writer, twice winner of Carnegie Medal
Thomas Stanley Westoll - Fellow of the Royal Society
Gillian Whitehead - composer
William Whitfield - architect, later designed the Hadrian Building and the Northern Stage
Claire Williams - motorsport executive
Zoe Williams - sportswoman, worked on Gladiators
Donald I. Williamson - planktologist and carcinologist
Philip Williamson - former Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society
John Willis - Royal Air Force officer and council member of the University
Lukas Wooller - keyboard player, Maxïmo Park
Graham Wylie - co-founder of the Sage Group; studied Computing Science & Statistics BSc and graduated in 1980; awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004
Y
Hisila Yami, Nepalese politician and former Minister of Physical Planning and Works (Government of Nepal
John Yorke - Controller of Continuing Drama; Head of Independent Drama at the BBC
Martha Young-Scholten - linguist
Paul Younger - hydrogeologist
genuinely thrilled to be asked to cover a street art project 'New Forms' based at Clarence Docks in Leeds.
Note to self - buy a vapour mask...2 hours of paint fumes and my head was spinning.
Iron Photographer #182
1 - a head (or at least part of one)
2 - something on the head that doesn't belong there (the unqualified deep contemplation of homeownership in a 21 century industrialized nation)
3 - heavy post-processing (a digital tribute to the cutout animation of Terry Gilliam).
Soulosse-sous-Saint-Élophe (pop. ~650) was formed out of four hamlets. The two larger ones were Soulosse und Saint-Élophe.
The church, dedicated to Saint-Élophe was built in the 13th and 15th centuries and so there is a mix of Romanesque and Gothic styles.
Legends tell, that Saint Élophe (aka "Eliphius of Rampillon") preached the bible in the area and was martyred and beheaded on the spot.
After his death in 363, he got up and went with his head in his hands to his burial site - the place, where the church is now. So he became a member of the large group of "kephalophores", who all carried away their own head after the death. Other members of the group are Saint Denis, Saint Sever, Saint Gohard, Saint Miniato.
I had been here some years ago when the church was locked. Now the doors were open - and I could see the large, light, airy interior.
I have been on a roll for panoramas lately, but they are fun.
Bridges have great forms, but so do tunnels. Someone on Google+ commented that they don’t like the traffic in Hong Kong because it treats pedestrians as second-class citizens and stuck them underground—not true.
Tunnels allow pedestrians to cross the road without stopping traffic, so tunnels make it quick for pedestrians and cars alike to go through without stopping. It is a win-win urban-planning design.
On the far side you see some architecture with squares. Everyone in Hong Kong would immediately recognise that it is a school. Like I said before, the architectural forms are fairly standardized and they are instantly recognisable.
# SML Data
+ Date: 2013-03-03 15:08:00 GMT+0800
+ Dimensions: 10604 x 2134
+ Camera: Canon EOS 7D
+ Lens: Canon EF 70-200 f/4L USM + Canon EF 1.4x Extender III
+ Focal Length: 98mm
+ Panorama FOV: 44 degree horizontal, 18.8 degree vertical
+ GPS: 22°25'21" N 114°13'40" E
+ Location: 中國香港馬鞍山西沙路恆康街行人隧道 中国香港马鞍山西沙路恒康街行人隧道 Pedestrian tunnel at the intersection of Heng Hong Street and Sai Sha Road, Ma On Shan, NT, Hong Kong, China
+ Serial: SML.20130211.7D.22610-SML.20130211.7D.22616-SML.Pano.001.Rectilinear.14x33
+ Workflow: Hugin 2012, Lightroom 4
+ Series: 人流 Human Logistics, 形 Forms, 全景攝影 Panoramic Photography
“:::>井<:::” / 香港人流建築全景之形 Hong Kong Human Logistics Architecture Panoramic Forms / SML.20130303.7D.25226-SML.20130303.7D.25236-SML.Pano.001.Rectilinear.44x19
/ #人流 #HumanLogistics #形 #Forms #SMLForms #CCBY #SMLPhotography #SMLUniverse #SMLProjects
/ #中國 #中国 #China #香港 #HongKong #建築 #建筑 #Architecture #攝影 #摄影 #photography #城市 #Urban #隧道 #Tunnel #街 #Street
~*Photography Originally Taken By: www.CrossTrips.Com Under God*~
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the U.S. Previously part of the U.S. Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947.[2] It is the last branch of the United States military to be formed.
The USAF is the largest and one of the most technologically advanced air forces in the world, with about 6013 manned aircraft in service (4,282 USAF; 1,321 Air National Guard; and 410 Air Force Reserve); approximately 160 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, 2161 Air-Launched Cruise Missiles, and 580 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles;[3] and as of April 4, 2008, had 328,808 personnel on active duty, 70,303 in the Selected and Individual Ready Reserves, and 106,254 in the Air National Guard. In addition, the Air Force employs 141,573 civilian personnel.[3]
The USAF is conducting a large Reduction-in-Force (RIF). Because of budget constraints, the USAF will reduce the service's current size from 333,000 active duty personnel, to 316,000, which will be the smallest United States Air Force since Pearl Harbor according to Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mosley, in his interview with air internationals vol.74 issue. The current size of the active-duty force is roughly 70% of that of the USAF at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.[4]
Not all of the United States' military combat aircraft are operated by the USAF. The Army operates its own helicopters, mostly for support of ground combatants; it as well maintains a small fleet of fixed wing aircraft (mostly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The Navy is responsible for a multitude of aircraft, including integrated air wing combat aircraft operating aboard its 11 aircraft carriers and also many maritime patrol and transport aircraft stationed at multiple Naval air stations around the world. The Marine Corps operates its own combat and transport aircraft in support of its ground mission and often in conjunction with Naval Aviation. The Coast Guard also maintains transport and search-and-rescue aircraft (SARA), which may be used in a combat and law enforcement role. All branches of the U.S. military operate helicopters.
The Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force who heads administrative affairs. The Department of the Air Force is a division of the Department of Defense, headed by the Secretary of Defense. The highest ranking military officer in the Department of the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Mission
o 1.1 Search and rescue
* 2 History
o 2.1 Wars
o 2.2 Humanitarian operations
* 3 Administrative organization
o 3.1 Force structure
* 4 Operational organization
o 4.1 Aerospace Expeditionary Task Force
o 4.2 Commander, Air Force Forces
+ 4.2.1 Air Operations Center
o 4.3 Air Expeditionary Wings/Groups/Squadrons
* 5 Vocations
* 6 Aircraft
* 7 Culture
o 7.1 Uniforms
o 7.2 Awards and badges
o 7.3 Grade Structure and Insignias
o 7.4 Motto
* 8 See also
* 9 References
o 9.1 Further reading
* 10 External links
[edit] Mission
1. According to the National Security Act of 1947 (61 Stat. 502) which created the Air Force:
In general the United States Air Force shall include aviation forces both combat and service not otherwise assigned. It shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The Air Force shall be responsible for the preparation of the air forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Air Force to meet the needs of war.
2. §8062 of Title 10 US Code (10 USC 8062) defines the purpose of the Air Force as:
* to preserve the peace and security, and provide for the defense, of the United States, the Territories, Commonwealths, and possessions, and any areas occupied by the United States;
* to support national policy;
* to implement national objectives;
* to overcome any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States.
3. The stated mission of the USAF today is to "deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests — to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace".[5]
[edit] Search and rescue
The National Search and Rescue Plan designates the United States Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for maritime search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, and the United States Air Force as the federal agency responsible for inland SAR.[6] Both agencies maintain Rescue Coordination Centers to coordinate this effort.[3]
* United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center
[edit] History
Main article: History of the United States Air Force
Roundels which have appeared on US aircraft1. 5/17-2/18 2. 2/18-8/19 3. 8/19-5/42 4. 5/42-6/43 5. 6/43-9/43 6. 9/43-1/47 7. 1/47-
Roundels which have appeared on US aircraft
1. 5/17-2/18 2. 2/18-8/19 3. 8/19-5/42
4. 5/42-6/43 5. 6/43-9/43 6. 9/43-1/47
7. 1/47-
The United States Air Force became a separate military service on September 18, 1947, with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947.[7] The Act created the United States Department of Defense, which was composed of three branches, the Army, Navy and a newly-created Air Force.[8] Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was divided between the Army (for land-based operations) and the Navy, for sea-based operations from aircraft carrier and amphibious aircraft. The Army created the first antecedent of the Air Force in 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual separation 40 years later. The predecessor organizations of today's U.S. Air Force are:
* Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps (August 1, 1907 to July 18, 1914)
* Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps (July 18, 1914 to May 20, 1918)
* Division of Military Aeronautics (May 20, 1918 to May 24, 1918)
* U.S. Army Air Service (May 24, 1918 to July 2, 1926)
* U.S. Army Air Corps (July 2, 1926 to June 20, 1941) and
* U.S. Army Air Forces (June 20, 1941 to September 17, 1947)
[edit] Wars
The United States Air Force has been involved in many wars, conflicts, and operations since its conception; these include:
* World War I[9] Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
* World War II[10] United States Army Air Forces
* The Cold War
* The Korean War
* The Vietnam War
* Operation Eagle Claw
* Operation Urgent Fury
* The United States invasion of Panama
* Operation Eldorado Canyon
* The Gulf War
* Operation Northern Watch
* Operation Southern Watch
* The Kosovo War
* Operation Enduring Freedom
* Operation Iraqi Freedom
[edit] Humanitarian operations
The U.S. Air Force has taken part in numerous humanitarian operations. Some of the more major ones include the following:[11]
* Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles), 1948-1949
* Operation Safe Haven, 1956-1957
* Operations Babylift, New Life, Frequent Wind, and New Arrivals, 1975
* Operation Provide Comfort, 1991
* Operation Sea Angel, 1991
* Operation Provide Hope, 1992-1993
* Operation Unified Assistance, December 2004 - April 2005
[edit] Administrative organization
Main article: Organizational structure and hierarchy of the United States Air Force
The Air Force is one of three service departments, and is managed by the (civilian) Department of the Air Force. Guidance is provided by the Secretary of the Air Force(SECAF) and the Secretary's staff and advisors. The military leadership is the Air Staff, led by the Chief of Staff.
USAF direct subordinate commands and units are the Field Operating Agency (FOA), Direct Reporting Unit (DRU), and the currently unused Separate Operating Agency.
The Major Command (MAJCOM) is the superior hierarchical level of command. Including the Air Force Reserve Command, as of 30 September 2006, USAF has nine major commands, and a tenth, Air Force Cyber Command, in process. The Numbered Air Force (NAF) is a level of command directly under the MAJCOM, followed by Operational Command (now unused), Air Division (also now unused), Wing, Group, Squadron, and Flight.
[edit] Force structure
Headquarters, United States Air Force, The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
* Air Combat Command (ACC), headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia
o First Air Force, headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida
o Eighth Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
o Ninth Air Force, headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina
o Twelfth Air Force, headquartered at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona
* Air Education and Training Command (AETC), headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
o Second Air Force, headquartered at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi
o Nineteenth Air Force, headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
* Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional) (AFCYBER), interim location at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
o Twenty Fourth Air Force
* Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
* Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), headquartered at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
o Fourth Air Force, headquartered at March Air Force Base, California
o Tenth Air Force, headquartered at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas
o Twenty-Second Air Force, headquartered at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia
* Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
o Fourteenth Air Force, headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
o Twentieth Air Force, headquartered at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
* Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida
o Twenty-Third Air Force
* Air Mobility Command (AMC), headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
o Eighteenth Air Force, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
* United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany
o Third Air Force, headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany
o Seventeenth Air Force, headquartered at Sembach Annex, Germany
* United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii
o Fifth Air Force, headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan
o Seventh Air Force, headquartered at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea
o Eleventh Air Force, headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
o Thirteenth Air Force, headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii
The permanent establishment of the USAF, as of 30 September 2006,[12] consisted of:
* Active duty forces:
o 57 flying wings, 8 space wings, and 55 non-flying wings
o 9 flying groups, 8 non-flying groups
+ 134 flying squadrons, 43 space squadrons
* Air Force Reserve
o 35 flying wings, 1 space wing
o 4 flying groups
+ 67 flying squadrons, 6 space squadrons
* Air National Guard
o 87 flying wings
+ 101 flying squadrons, 4 space squadrons
The United States Air Force and its Air Reserve Components field a total of 302 flying squadrons.[13]
[edit] Operational organization
The above organizational structure is responsible for the peacetime Organization, Equipping, and Training of aerospace units for operational missions. When required to support operational missions, the National Command Authority directs a Change in Operational Control (CHOP) of these units from their peacetime alignment to a Regional Combatant Commander (CCDR). In the case of AFSPC, AFSOC, PACAF, and USAFE units, forces are normally employed in-place under their existing CCDR. Likewise, AMC forces operating in support roles retain their componency to USTRANSCOM unless chopped to a Regional CCDR.
[edit] Aerospace Expeditionary Task Force
CHOPPED units are referred to as "forces". The top-level structure of these forces is the Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force (AETF). The AETF is the Air Force presentation of forces to a CCDR for the employment of Air Power. Each CCDR is supported by a standing Component Numbered Air Force (C-NAF) to provide planning and execution of aerospace forces in support of CCDR requirements. Each C-NAF consists of a Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) and AFFOR/A-staff, and an Air Operations Center (AOC). As needed to support multiple Joint Force Commanders (JFC) in the COCOM's Area of Responsibility (AOR), the C-NAF may deploy Air Component Coordinate Elements (ACCE) to liaise with the JFC. If the Air Force possesses the most strategic air assets in a JFC's area of operations, the COMAFFOR will also serve as the Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC).
[edit] Commander, Air Force Forces
The Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) is the senior Air Force officer responsible for the employment of Air Power in support of JFC objectives. The COMAFFOR has a special staff and an A-Staff to ensure assigned or attached forces are properly organized, equipped, and trained to support the operational mission.
[edit] Air Operations Center
The Air Operations Center (AOC) is the JFACC's Command and Control (C²) center. This center is responsible for planning and executing air power missions in support of JFC objectives.
[edit] Air Expeditionary Wings/Groups/Squadrons
The AETF generates air power to support COCOM objectives from Air Expeditionary Wings (AEW) or Air Expeditionary Groups (AEG). These units are responsible for receiving combat forces from Air Force MAJCOMs, preparing these forces for operational missions, launching and recovering these forces, and eventually returning forces to the MAJCOMs. Theater Air Control Systems control employment of forces during these missions.
[edit] Vocations
The vast majority of Air Force members remain on the ground. There are hundreds of support positions which are necessary to the success of a mission.
The classification of an Air Force job is the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). They range from flight combat operations such as a gunner, to working in a dining facility to ensure that members are properly fed. There are many different jobs in fields such as computer specialties, mechanic specialties, enlisted aircrew, medical specialties, civil engineering, public affairs, hospitality, law, drug counseling, mail operations, security forces, and search and rescue specialties.
Perhaps the most dangerous Air Force jobs are Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Pararescue, Combat Control, Combat Weather and Tactical Air Control Party, who deploy with infantry and special operations units who disarm bombs, rescue downed or isolated personnel, call in air strikes and set up landing zones in forward locations. Most of these are enlisted positions. Other jobs have seen increasing combat, and have been billed "Battlefield Airmen". These include EOD, Vehicle operators, and OSI.
Nearly all enlisted jobs are "entry level," meaning that the Air Force provides all training. Some enlistees are able to choose a particular job, or at least a field before actually joining, while others are assigned an AFSC at Basic Training. After Basic Military Training, new Air Force members attend a technical training school where they learn their particular AFSC. Second Air Force, a part of Air Education and Training Command is responsible for nearly all technical training.
Training programs vary in length; for example, 3M0X1 (Services) has 31 days of tech school training, while 3E8X1 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) is 1 year of training with a preliminary school and a main school consisting of 10 separate divisions; somtimes taking students close to 2 years to complete. Some AFSC's have even shorter or longer training.
[edit] Aircraft
Main article: List of military aircraft of the United States
B-2 Spirit
B-2 Spirit
F-22 Raptors
F-22 Raptors
V-22 Ospreys
V-22 Ospreys
C-17 Globemaster III
C-17 Globemaster III
The United States Air Force has over 7,500 aircraft commissioned as of 2004. Until 1962, the Army and Air Force maintained one system of aircraft naming, while the U.S. Navy maintained a separate system. In 1962, these were unified into a single system heavily reflecting the Army/Air Force method. For more complete information on the workings of this system, refer to United States Department of Defense Aerospace Vehicle Designations.
Current aircraft of the USAF[14]:
* O/A-10A/C Thunderbolt II
* An-26 Curl
* B-1B Lancer
* B-2A Spirit
* B-52H Stratofortress
* C-5A/B/C/M Galaxy
* KC-10A Extender
* C-12C/D/F Huron
* C-17A Globemaster III
* C-20A/B/C Gulfstream III
* C-20G/H Gulfstream IV
* C-21A Learjet
* C-22B
* VC-25A (Air Force One)
* C-26B Metroliner
* C-29A
* C-32A
* C-37A Gulfstream V
* C-38 Courier
* C-40B Clipper
* C-41A Aviocar
* C-130E/H/J Hercules
* AC-130H/U Spectre/Spooky II
* HC-130H/N
* LC-130H
* MC-130E/H/W Combat Talon/Combat Spear
* WC-130J
* C-135C/E/K Stratolifter
* NC-135B/E/W
* KC-135E/R/T Stratotanker
* EC-137D Stratoliner[citation needed]
* VC-137C
* CN-235-100[citation needed]
* E-3B/C Sentry
* E-4B
* E-8C JSTARS
* E-9A
* F-15A/B/C/D Eagle
* F-15E Strike Eagle
* F-16A/B/C/D Fighting Falcon
* F-22A Raptor
* F-35 Lightning II
* F-117A Nighthawk
* MH-53J/M Pave Low III/IV
* HH-60G Pave Hawk
* Mi-8 Hip
* NT-39A/B Sabreliner
* OC-135B
* M/RQ-1A/B Predator
* RQ-4A Global Hawk
* MQ-9 Reaper
* RC-135S/U/V/W
* T-1A Jayhawk
* T-6 Texan II
* (A)T-38A/B/C Talon
* Boeing T-43
* TC-18E
* TC-135S
* TC-135W
* Piper Aircraft Company TG-8A Piper Club glider
* TG-3A
* TG-4A
* TG-7A
* TG-9A
* TG-10B/C/D
* TG-11A
* TG-15A/TG-15B
* UH-1N Iroquois
* U-2R/S "Dragon Lady"
* UC-26C
* UV-18A/B Twin Otter
* UV-20A Chiricua
* CV-22B Osprey
* U-28A
* WC-135C/W
Source: [15]
[edit] Culture
[edit] Uniforms
Main article: United States Air Force uniform
United States Air Force personnel wear uniforms which are distinct from those of the other branches of the United States Armed Forces. The current uniform is an olive drab/black/brown and tan combination called the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Members deployed to an AOR wear a variation of the BDU, tan and brown in color, called the Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU). A new uniform called the Airman Battle Uniform (ABU) is currently being distributed to some bases, and in a memo from HQ AFPC at Randolph AFB dated September 2007, will be distributed to basic trainees in their clothing issue starting October 2007. The ABU is already authorized for wear, and is scheduled to completely replace the BDU and DCU by November 2011.
[edit] Awards and badges
In addition to basic uniform clothing, various badges are used by the USAF to indicate a job assignment or qualification-level for a given assignment. Badges can also be used as merit-based or service-based awards. Over time, various badges have been discontinued and are no longer distributed.
[edit] Grade Structure and Insignias
See also: United States Air Force officer rank insignia
See also: United States Air Force enlisted rank insignia
The standard USAF uniform is also decorated with an insignia to designate rank. USAF rank is divided between enlisted airmen, non-commissioned officers, and commissioned officers, and ranges from "airman basic" to the commissioned rank of general. Promotions are granted based on a combination of test scores, years of experience, and selection board approval. Promotions among enlisted men and non-commissioned officers rankings are generally designated by increasing numbers of insignia chevrons. Commissioned officer rank is designated by bars, oak leaves, a silver eagle, and anywhere from one to five (only in war-time) stars.
For cadet rank at the U.S. Air Force Academy, see United States Air Force Academy Cadet Insignia.
[edit] Motto
The United States Air Force does not have an official motto, but there are numerous unofficial slogans such as "Nothing Comes Close" and Uno Ab Alto. For many years, the U.S. Air Force used "Aim High" as its recruiting motto; more recently, they have used "Cross Into the Blue", "We've been waiting for you" and "Do Something Amazing", and the newest one, "Above All".[16]
Each wing, group, or squadron usually has its own motto(s). Information and logos can usually be found on the wing, group, or squadron websites.[17]
The Airman's Creed is a statement introduced in the spring of 2007 to summarize the culture of the Air Force.
sabe felicidade é sabedoria, esperança, vontade de ir, de ficar, presente,, passado, futuro...
é confiança: fé e crença, trabalho e ação. Não se pode ter pressa de ser feliz, porque a felicidade vem devagarzinho, como quem não quer nada. FELICIDADE é desprendimento. Só é feliz quem sabe suportar, perder, sofrer e perdoar.e quem sabe sobretudo amar. e ela é um bem que se multiplica ao ser dividido.as vezes procuramos em grandes coisas e esquecemos que ela esta em enxergar as coisas mais simples da vida......
Not the greatest of shots but I was struck by how pale this Buzzard was.
Footnote: speaking to someone at work and mentioned this. He tells me that a 'white' Buzzard had been seen regularly about 10 miles north of here last winter and was frequently and wrongly reported as an Osprey. At least I didn't make that mistake but when I was checking ID I did notice how similar the markings were to that of an Osprey
An parking lot carnival was quite popular when Oklahoma started opening up when the summer of 2021 started.
Bonbon en forme de petite mûre que j'ai vidé afin d'y insérer une petite lumière LED. Le résultat final est un montage à partir de 2 photos différentes. Celle du fond a été prise alors que je tenais la lumière (et par le fait même la mûre) dans mes mains et on y voit un flou dû au mouvement. Celle du dessus a été prise une fois la lumière LED fixée. Les photos ont été importées dans Lightroom, puis traitées dans Photoshop. L'aspect très lumineux du bonbon de droite est lié à la superposition multiple de la même photo en mode "Lighten". J'aime bien que l'on puisse dicerner les limites des photos superposées. Ça donne vaguement l'impression de plusieurs radiographies superposées. Des radiographies de bonbons... bien entendu.
The final shot reveal another surprise in the form of a colourful liveried GBRf which, like a few of the others in this operators 'stable', I haven't seen before. This time its a 1235tonne Civil Engineers train and in its consist are just 3 flat bed wagons and 5 Hopper Type ballast discharge wagons. This is the 6M73, 66724 hauled working from Doncaster Up decoy on down to Toton North Yard; GBRf 66724 is 'Drax Power Station' and I hope its namesake stays around for long enough for the loco to represent something tangible left of one of the traditional type heavy industries in the area. This last week an announcement was made stating that another 'heavy industry' type operation, the Redcar Steel Works on Tyneside would be mothballed, only to be up-dated a few days later with the new that it has now closed and has been put into the Receiver's hands; its all over with 1700 job losses. Passing along the up fast line and heading south towards Sheffield, slowly, as its lunchtime and the lines are busy in and out of Sheffield to the south on the Midland and Hope Valley main lines, is TPT unit class 185, 185148 on the Cleethorpes to Manchester Airport, 1B75 service. To the left of the TPT unit, new, small industrial concerns have been built on rail owned land and to the far left is the local Bus Depot on the site of what used to be the Midland Iron Works with its spooky crane jib, just the tope section swinging over the tops of the roofs of the houses in the early morning, looking for all the world like one of the Wood Imps in one of my 1950's 'Rupert Annuals'! In the lower picture, 66724, 'Drax Power Station', crosses the Sheffield & Rotherham's old line into what used to be Rotherham Westgate Station, which has been replaced by a postal sorting office, the line terminating in Booths Scrapyard and which now sees only very sporadic use.