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Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book was good, but it wasn’t. That may not be obvious since I rated it so low. Firsts tackled some tough subjects, but it didn’t really do so in a great or helpful way. I honestly wonder if it may have done more harm than good. The intention of the author, much like the intention of the main character Mercedes Ayres, was probably a good one at heart, but, as the proverb goes, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Good intentions cannot fix what is truly wrong with this book.
I understand the attempt to soften the approach people take to cheating and slut-shaming, but it doesn’t actually achieve that. Instead, it pushes those stereotypes even further and dismisses criminal behavior as seduction and bad parenting. Luke is portrayed as the former boyfriend, while the behavior described is clearly sexually abusive. He groomed Mercedes before forcing her to perform oral sex on him and before eventually raping her. Charlie’s actions are not really any better. Filming a person having sex without their consent is illegal. Trying to physically force someone to have sex with you is illegal. Attempting to blackmail someone over their sex life is, you guessed it, illegal. But the author chooses to say that Charlie was trying to “seduce” Mercedes. No, that’s not seduction. Those are acts of sexual violence. Kim is an emotionally abusive and emotionally & physically neglectful mother, and Mercedes’ absentee father who decided to punish Mercedes for her mom’s decisions isn’t much better. Kim is portrayed as a slut and a bimbo who only cares about spending the ill-gotten gains of her ex-husband. It’s the kind of storyline that you might get from websites run by “men’s rights activists” and MGTOW. Faye is the supposed-to-be-subtle-but-really-isn’t cautionary tale. Zach is the night-in-shining armor. Angela is the good girl, the girl with the patience of a saint and who is let back into Mercy’s life too easily. Mercedes is the fallen girl/girl gone bad who takes on the sins of all those involved & is nearly ruined in the process. She is constantly obsessing over what side she should show others, which is something that a lot of people feel, but it was never really addressed in the book. Yes, there’s the whole, her mom screwed up how she thinks about sex, beauty, weight, etc., but that’s not enough to explain why she is so hyper-critical and why she is convinced that she is unlovable. And if you’re going to spend a whole book tearing down the main character’s self-esteem, then you need to spend more than a couple of pages making her act like she’s all-better all of a sudden.
Sometimes it came across as preachy. No, wait, it always came across as preachy. The sex lives of most of the characters in the book are regularly criticized. Angela, Mercy’s BFF, is super-religious and pushes her faith onto everyone. (There are even Bible verses that are quoted and referenced.) Her sex-negative attitude only pushes Mercy to hide her actions. Kim’s antics seem to push the idea that adultery leads women to even more vice-filled lives. Mercy’s internal dialogue about how many guys she’s had sex with pushed the idea that girls & women who have ‘too much’ sex might be seen as used up goods. The outcome at school for Mercedes pushes the idea that women and girls have to be punished for being sexual.
When Mercedes describes how she feels about sex and intimacy, even when she sometimes thinks she’s attracted to Faye, it’s almost like reading a pamphlet on sex addiction. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the way that her pseudo-attraction to Faye was handled. I know that with sex addiction, a person might engage in sex with people that they aren’t really attracted to, but the whole “is she going to kiss me” thing that existed through most of their interactions was just shrugged away toward the end. I didn’t know if Mercedes was only thinking about Faye that way because she really doesn’t understand relationship boundaries or if she might not be as heterosexual as she eventually felt the need to declare she was. Sex addiction or figuring out that you’re LGBTQ might be an interesting topic to cover in a novel, but it needs to be addressed in a better way.
Come to think of it: all of the issues that are described within the book need to be addressed properly.
In attempting to counter the sex-negativity that people, especially women and girls, encounter in their lives, the book actually pushed an even more sex-negative outlook. The book essentially normalized sexual violence, parental neglect, and shaming young women for being interested in sex. That’s why I don’t think I could ever truly love this book. It almost seemed like a book I could like until it became clear that it was just another in a long line of anti-sex books with ambiguous attitudes toward abuse and sexual assault. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
View all my reviews
Related Posts:
Review: Anatomy of a Single Girl November 6, 2014
Review: Anatomy of a Boyfriend October 30, 2014
Review: The Proposition January 8, 2015
Review: Citizen Girl October 20, 2012
Review: Because of Low April 6, 2015
In the style of Masaru Hashimoto, Akira Nagashima, Jun Maekawa, Tomoko Fuse and Johannes Kepler.
An immensely frustrating model to photograph -- no matter what angle you approach it from, the camera wants to normalize it, make it round and somehow regular.
President Donald J. Trump meets with reporters Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 in the Oval Office, to announce that the Kingdom of Bahrain is joining the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in normalizing relations with Israel. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)
Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania (Danish: Fristaden Christiania) is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (84 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Civic authorities in Copenhagen regard Christiania as a large commune, but the area has a unique status in that it is regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989, which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state. It was closed by residents in April 2011, whilst discussions continued with the Danish government as to its future, but is now open again.
Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971. Its cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004. In the years following 2004, measures for normalizing the legal status of the community led to conflicts, police raids and negotiations. More recent governments have, however, been more tolerant.
Among many Christiania residents, the community is known as "staden" ("the town"), short for "fristaden" ("the freetown").
Place: Nangan, Matsu Islands
The Matsu islands are a minor archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea and administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Matsu islands together form the county of Lienchiang, but most of Liangjiang County (same name, different spelling) is under control of the People's Republic of China. Linear distance from mainland China is less than 20 km.
Mainlanders from Fujian and Zhejiang started migrating to the islands during the Yuan Dynasty. The popular net fishing industry had established the base for development of Fuao settlement and industrial development of the region over several hundred years.
During the early Qing Dynasty, pirates gathered here and the residents left temporarily. In contrast with Taiwan and Penghu, the Matsu Islands were not ceded to the Japanese Empire via the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Neither were they occupied by Japanese troops during World War II because they were not important militarily. Due to its strategic location for the only route for spice road, the British established the Dongyong Lighthouse in Dongyin Island in 1912 to facilitate ships navigation.
In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911 and the Republic of China (ROC) was established on 1 January 1912. Matsu Islands was subsequently governed under the administration of Fukien Province of the ROC. On 1 August 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out between the ruling Nationalist Party of China (KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) which marked the beginning of Chinese Civil War. After years of war, the CPC finally managed to take over mainland China from KMT and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949 which also covers the Lianjiang County of Fujian. The KMT subsequently retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in end of 1949.
After their retreat, the KMT retained the offshore part from the original Lianjiang County located on Matsu Islands, and also all of Kinmen County. In July 1958 the PRC began massing forces opposite the two islands and began bombarding them on 23 August, triggering the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. On 4 September 1958, the PRC announced the extension of its territorial waters by 20 kilometres (12 mi) to include the two islands. However, after talks were held between the USA and PRC in Warsaw, Poland later that month, a ceasefire was agreed and the status quo reaffirmed.
The phrase "Quemoy and Matsu" became part of American political language in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. During the debates, both candidates, Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, pledged to use American forces if necessary to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC, which the United States did not recognize as a legitimate government. But the two candidates had different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwan's forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. In fact, Senator Kennedy stated that these islands - as little as 9 kilometres (5.5 mi) off the coast of China and as much as 170 kilometres (106 mi) from Taiwan - were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. On the contrary, Vice-President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," they should not be surrendered to the Communists as a matter of "principle."
Self governance of the county resumed in 1992 after the normalization of the political warfare with the mainland and the abolishment of Battle Field Administration on 7 November 1992. Afterwards, the local constructions progressed tremendously. In 1999, the islands were designated under Matsu National Scenic Area Administration. In January 2001, direct cargo and passenger shipping started between Matsu and Fujian Province of the PRC. Since 1 January 2015, tourists from mainland China could directly apply the Exit and Entry Permit upon arrival in Matsu Islands. This privilege also applies to Penghu and Kinmen as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsu_Islands
In 2013 I had the opportunity to visit the largest of the Matsu islands, Nangan, as a friend of mine is a teacher at a primary school on the island.
Legend says that the body of Mazy drifted and stopped at the site of the temple.
Mazu is a Chinese sea goddess. She is the deified form of the purported historical Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Revered after her death as a tutelary deity of seafarers, including fishermen and sailors, her worship spread throughout China's coastal regions and overseas Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia. She was thought to roam the seas, protecting her believers through miraculous interventions. She is now generally regarded by her believers as a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven.
The visualization shows the influence of the economic crisis in the lexicon of Italian fiction. Analyzed(*) are the ten books awarded with the last ten editions of the Strega Prize. Books are arranged chronologically (x-axis) and by the total number of words (y-axis). For each novel the visualization displays a syntactic and semantic study on the frequency of fifty words, divided into five categories, and related to the theme of the crisiss. In order to understand the actual influence of the crisis semantic vocabulary within the novel, the visualization also shows the placement of the words along the timeplot of the novel through a dispesion plot on books’ length normalized.
Comet Leonard increased in brightness by more than 2 magnitudes and within a day faded and then faded further in the next day.
COBS (Comet OBSveration database) contributions indicates that C/2021 Leonard had a significant outburst just prior to its recovery in the evening sky on December 15/16 2021. The comet flared to mag 3.5 and then quickly subsided to mag 5 by December 18. These three images were captured with a Vixen VSD 100 mm telescope and a Nikon Z7II camera mounted on a Vixen SXP. About 2.5 minutes of images were acquired with subs and stacked with AstroPixelProcessor and finished with Photoshop. With clouds and haze in Tucson and Comet Leonard gaining altitude each day the differences shown are not normalized and are a qualitative product of the captures. On December 17 there was considerable haze that like reddened the coma shown.
The outburst on Dec 15/16 ejected much coma material. This then appears to be observed as an extended coma trail 24 h later in the middle image on December 17, and without the continuing outburst on December 18th the coma is much smaller and compact in the faded comet.
President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The $2800+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
...and hoping God will make me throw her slices. It works 99 % too! That's the way to hunt folks!
***Explored on June 3rd, 324th place***
It may sound funny but do you know, that this bell pepper and the rest of the raw veggies that she drools for are most likely helping her fight off the infection caused by ehrlichiosis? The same infection that took her sister's life in April. Unfortunately, for Timmy-Lee...she ate (veggies) only a few and she preferred them cooked too.
Today, I shall know of the 4rth blood test result if Tea-Bear continues to improve...but once infected with ehrlichia, it will always be there according to the vet. According to my research, this phase can last for months or years. Ultimately, the dog either eliminates the Ehrlichia from the body or the infection may progress to the chronic phase. I am not sure which case Tea-bear will head for however, I believe that no medication is more powerful than the prayers you all said. Though I shall be more vigilant to keep her off the stress that might awaken ehrlichia (while meds keep it dormant) and tear down her immune system.
For now, we keep a regular vet visit every after two weeks of medications to keep track of her condition. Ehrlichiosis usually destroys the liver but thank God hers is in good shape still. She is kept in a prescription diet k/d and her other meals are strictly sodium-free. Her treats are mostly young corn, cabbage, bell pepper, asparagus, broccoli (all raw) and cooked carrots or plain boild chicken breasts seasoned with herbs.
Other than that...she still loves to wrestle and play hide and seek with me. And yes, she still checks out what the neighbors are up to, still so keen to protect me and her territory, and still nudges my face when she want kisses... and I appreciate every moment of it all.
THANK YOU ALL who cared and continue to say prayers for my Tea-Bear...it means a lot as she mean so much to me.
1335 hours...latest blood test result came from her vet says creatinine continues to go down (from 271.82, it is 183 umol now which is very close to the normal 88-176 umol). Red blood cells has normalized again and from previously decreased status, platelet now is adequate. Thank you Lord! Again, Thank you all !!!
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Now that the US has normalized relations with them, my Dad and I decided to drive to Cuba yesterday and shoot Keokuk Junction's FP9's rocking and rolling west towards Good Hope, IL. I'm a little upset that I didn't roll video at this location, as the train was ROCKING and rolling as it went by at a blistering 10mph.
For those interested, all of my WISN images are contained in this album: www.flickr.com/photos/8666250@N02/albums/72177720334016476/
Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata), the male, I believe, of a pair that were visiting Teal Pond, Thomson Marsh, Kelowna, BC.
I promised more shots from this event which I first posted a week earlier. This series contains better closeups I think.
This particular shot is almost identical to the last one I posted except that I was zoomed in here....
The very slow nova Cas 2021 has brightened and faded seven times since it burst into view in March 2021. On September 9, 2021 (top) it was in its seventh burst to mag 6.5 and then rapidly faded to 7.8-8 by September 15, 2021. The fading phase shows a reddening of the nova. A stack of images captured with iTelescope 68. The star cluster is M52. Both sets of images were processed in parallel with the same processing steps to try to normalize the different dates.
Data posted on AAVSO.org for N Cas 2021 (V1405) shown in comments, the image shown is the peak on the right of the graph.
The Issue is Hegemony and its victims are unaware
May 15, 2026
Paul Craig Roberts, paulcraigroberts.org/the-issue-is-hegemony-and-its-victim...
In the Western World, and perhaps worldwide, Russia’s unwillingness to retaliate for the destruction of the Nord Stream Pipeline hurt Russia’s prestige and convinced Washington’s Zionist neoconservatives that Putin’s Russia was a paper tiger. In fact, Washington was already convinced, or Washington would not have dared to blow up the pipeline bringing Russian energy to Europe. Try to imagine Washington pulling such an aggressive attack on Russia when there was the Soviet Union. Putin has gone along with Washington’s pretense that it is unknown who is responsible. Certainly, Putin doesn’t want it blamed on Washington as he would be expected to do something about it.
But he wouldn’t. Just like he wouldn’t do anything about Washington’s attack on the Russian strategic bomber fleet. Just like he wouldn’t do anything about Washington’s attempt to kill him in his home with missile attacks. Just like he won’t do anything about the capture of Russian oil tankers. Just like he refuses to use sufficient force to end a minor conflict that is turning into one of the longest wars in recent times, ever-widening into strikes deep into Russian civilian and energy production areas.
All Putin does is fawn over Trump, never missing an opportunity to send a greeting and express his openness to negotiations.
I call him Putin the Unready for good reason. The Wolfowitz Doctrine that the principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any power that could serve as a constraint on Washington as the uni-polar power has been known since the Soviet collapse. But apparently not in the Putin Kremlin. Putin was caught completely off guard by Washington-instigated attack by Georgia, a former province of Russia, on South Ossetia in 2008. At least Putin did something about this, but it was the last time there was a Russian response to provocations. Instead, the Russian foreign policy community started talking about a “New Yalta.”
When Washington overthrew the Russian-friendly democratically-elected government in Ukraine, a former Russian province, Putin lacked the wits to see what was obvious. Washington was going to use Ukraine for a proxy war against the Russian state with the intention of destabilizing or isolating the Russian government. Instead of facing reality, Putin hid behind the Minsk Agreement that the West used to deceive him while the West created a Ukrainian army..
When the US Biden regime, the EU, and NATO gave a total cold shoulder to Putin and Lavrov’s plea for a mutual security agreement that would permit normal relations between Russia and the West, and the large American trained and equipped Ukrainian Army was about to invade the breakaway Russian Donbas, territory part of Russia but for political or other reasons placed in the Soviet province of Ukraine, a totally unprepared Putin had to intervene.
Why was the leader of a powerful country unprepared? Because Putin was unaware of the Wolfowitz doctrine of American hegemony or did not take it seriously, as apparently neither did the entirety of Russian intelligence and foreign policy experts, just as the entire Muslim world is unaware, despite its obviousness openly acknowledged by Israel, of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. At times Putin says the West intends to destroy Russia, but his acknowledgement does not seem to enter into his operating strategy. This is why I say Putin is unaware. The same holds for Muslin awareness of Greater Israel. Perhaps Iran’s leaders understand, but a response to the Zionist agenda is missing in Iran’s approach to the conflict. Indeed, general unawareness of the Zionist agenda can be seen in the decades old “two state solution.”
Whereas Israel claims hegemony over a region–the Middle East– Washington’s region is the entire world. The purpose of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any state that can serve as a limit on American hegemony. Such states are believed to be Russia, China and Iran.
Israel’s hegemony is expressed in terms of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel. Originally this was the territory from the Nile to the Euphrates. Recently Israeli ministers have defined Israel as reaching from the Nile to Pakistan, including the non-Arab states of Turkey and Iran. The Russian foreign minister is as unaware of the Zionist agenda as the Muslin world, which has failed to make an issue of the agenda. Lavrov recently said that Washington and Israel initiated war against Iran to prevent Iran from normalizing relations with the Gulf states in order to cause Arabs to abandon support for Palestine. Lavrov’s explanation fails to recognize the Zionist project of Israeli hegemony over the Middle East and that Iran is the largest obstacle to Israel’s hegemony.
Controlling energy flows is part of Washington’s hegemony. According to Russian foreign minister Lavrov, Washington wants to purchase the destroyed Nord Stream pipeline and use the energy flows to control Europe. (See: www.zerohedge.com/energy/us-wants-restore-nord-stream-pip... ) The scheme seems to be that the US would take possession of the pipeline and repair it, and Russia would provide the gas for Washington to sell to Europe. Questioned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that there were many mutually beneficial projects for Russia and the US once the Ukraine conflict was resolved. It does seem that the negotiations between Russia’s Kirill Dmitriev and Trump’s two Jewish negotiators, Witcoff and Kushner, are more concerned with business deals than with Putin’s original objectives.
Neither Russia nor Iran seem to understand that they are confronted with hegemonic agendas. How exactly do you negotiate with powers whose intention is to end your sovereignty?
Peace requires Washington to renounce the Wolfowitz Doctrine and Israel to renounce Greater Israel. Without these renunciations, no negotiation means anything.
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Es geht um die Hegemonie der USA, aber die Opfer glauben oder wissen es nicht
Paul Craig Roberts
Mai 22, 2026
uncutnews.ch/es-geht-um-die-hegemonie-und-die-opfer-wisse...
In der westlichen Welt, und vielleicht sogar weltweit, hat Russlands Weigerung, die Zerstörung der Nord-Stream-Pipeline zu vergelten, seinem Ansehen geschadet und die zionistischen Neokonservativen in Washington davon überzeugt, dass Putins Russland ein Papiertiger sei. Tatsächlich war Washington bereits davon überzeugt, sonst hätte es sich nicht getraut, die Pipeline zu sprengen, die russische Energie nach Europa transportierte. Man stelle sich nur vor, Washington hätte einen derart aggressiven Angriff auf Russland verübt, als es noch die Sowjetunion gab. Putin hat Washingtons Behauptung, die Verantwortung sei unbekannt, mitgetragen. Sicherlich will Putin nicht, dass Washington die Schuld zugeschoben wird, da man dann von ihm erwarten würde, dass er etwas unternimmt.
Aber er wird es nicht tun. Genauso wenig wie er etwas gegen Washingtons Angriff auf die russische strategische Bomberflotte unternimmt. Genauso wenig wie er etwas gegen Washingtons Versuch unternimmt, ihn in seinem Haus mit Raketenangriffen zu töten. Genauso wenig wie er etwas gegen die Beschlagnahmung russischer Öltanker unternimmt. Genauso wie er sich weigert, ausreichend Gewalt anzuwenden, um einen kleinen Konflikt zu beenden, der sich zu einem der längsten Kriege der jüngeren Geschichte ausweitet und immer tiefer in russische Zivil- und Energiegebiete vordringt.
Putin tut nichts anderes, als Trump zu huldigen und lässt keine Gelegenheit aus, ihm Grüße zu übermitteln und seine Verhandlungsbereitschaft zu bekunden.
Ich nenne ihn nicht ohne Grund Putin den Unvorbereiteten. Die Wolfowitz-Doktrin besagt, dass das Hauptziel der US-Außenpolitik darin besteht, den Aufstieg jeder Macht zu verhindern, die Washingtons Rang als unipolare Macht seit dem Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion einschränken könnte. Doch offenbar nicht im Putin-Kreml. Putin wurde 2008 von dem von Washington angezettelten Angriff Georgiens, einer ehemaligen russischen Provinz, auf Südossetien völlig überrascht. Wenigstens unternahm Putin etwas dagegen, aber es war das letzte Mal, dass Russland auf Provokationen reagierte. Stattdessen sprach die russische außenpolitische Gemeinschaft bereits von einem „Neuen Jalta“.
Als Washington die russlandfreundliche, demokratisch gewählte Regierung in der Ukraine, einer ehemaligen russischen Provinz, stürzte, fehlte Putin die Weitsicht, das Offensichtliche zu erkennen. Washington wollte die Ukraine für einen Stellvertreterkrieg gegen Russland nutzen, um die russische Regierung zu destabilisieren oder zu isolieren. Anstatt der Realität ins Auge zu sehen, versteckte sich Putin hinter dem Minsker Abkommen, mit dem der Westen ihn getäuscht hatte, während er gleichzeitig eine ukrainische Armee aufbaute.
Als die US-Regierung unter Biden, die EU und die NATO Putins und Lawrows Bitte um ein gegenseitiges Sicherheitsabkommen, das normale Beziehungen zwischen Russland und dem Westen ermöglicht hätte, völlig ignorierten und die große, von den USA ausgebildete und ausgerüstete ukrainische Armee kurz vor dem Einmarsch in den abtrünnigen Donbas stand – ein Gebiet, das zwar zu Russland gehört, aber aus politischen oder anderen Gründen der einst sowjetischen Provinz Ukraine zugeordnet war –, musste der völlig unvorbereitete Putin eingreifen.
Warum war der Führer eines so mächtigen Landes unvorbereitet? Weil Putin die Wolfowitz-Doktrin der amerikanischen Hegemonie entweder nicht kannte oder sie nicht ernst nahm, wie offenbar auch die gesamte russische Geheimdienst- und Außenpolitik-Expertise. Genauso wie die gesamte muslimische Welt, trotz der von Israel offen eingeräumten Offensichtlichkeit, nämlich die zionistische Agenda Großisraels nicht zur Kenntnis nimmt.
Während Israel die Hegemonie über eine Region – den Nahen Osten – beansprucht, umfasst Washingtons Zuständigkeitsbereich die ganze Welt. Ziel der US-Außenpolitik ist es, den Aufstieg jedes Staates zu verhindern, der die amerikanische Hegemonie einschränken könnte. Als solche Staaten gelten Russland, China und Iran.
Israels Hegemonie manifestiert sich in der zionistischen Agenda Großisraels. Ursprünglich erstreckte sich dieses Gebiet vom Nil bis zum Euphrat. Kürzlich haben israelische Minister Israel auf das Gebiet vom Nil bis nach Pakistan ausgedehnt, einschließlich der nicht-arabischen Staaten Türkei und Iran. Der russische Außenminister ist sich der zionistischen Agenda ebenso wenig bewusst wie die muslimische Welt, die es versäumt hat, diese Agenda zu thematisieren. Lawrow erklärte kürzlich, Washington und Israel hätten den Krieg gegen den Iran begonnen, um eine Normalisierung der Beziehungen des Irans zu den Golfstaaten zu verhindern und so die arabische Welt dazu zu bringen, ihre Unterstützung für Palästina aufzugeben. Lawrows Erklärung verkennt das zionistische Projekt der israelischen Hegemonie über den Nahen Osten und die Tatsache, dass der Iran das größte Hindernis für Israels Hegemonie darstellt.
Die Kontrolle der Energieströme ist Teil der Hegemoniebestrebungen Washingtons. Laut dem russischen Außenminister Lawrow will Washington die zerstörte Nord-Stream-Pipeline erwerben und die Energieströme nutzen, um Europa zu kontrollieren. (> LINK) Der Plan sieht offenbar vor, dass die USA die Pipeline übernehmen und reparieren, während Russland das Gas liefert, das Washington dann an Europa verkauft. Auf Nachfrage erklärte Kremlsprecher Dmitri Peskow, es gäbe nach der Lösung des Ukraine-Konflikts zahlreiche Projekte, die für Russland und die USA von gegenseitigem Nutzen wären. Es scheint, als ob die Verhandlungen zwischen dem russischen Außenminister Kirill Dmitrijew und Trumps beiden Unterhändlern Witcoff und Kushner mehr auf Geschäftsabschlüsse als auf Putins ursprüngliche Ziele ausgerichtet sind.
Weder Russland noch der Iran scheinen zu begreifen, dass sie mit hegemonialen Bestrebungen konfrontiert sind. Wie genau verhandelt man mit Mächten, deren Ziel es ist, die eigene Souveränität zu beenden?
Frieden erfordert, dass Washington die Wolfowitz-Doktrin aufgibt und Israel auf Großisrael verzichtet. Ohne diese Verzichtserklärungen ist jede Verhandlung bedeutungslos.
Quelle: The Issue is Hegemony and its victims are unaware
Übersetzung: antikrieg
Trying to look all Rod Sterling.
For reasons that baffle me a large number of the works on the second floor had to do with space aliens and visitors from other planets. Cast glass Aliens here form a heavenly chorus.
Just wait till Donny finds out. These subversive artists will be stopped. Trying to normalize space aliens is like trying to claim the Climate Emergency is real or gravity exists.
Empirically Normalized 7-Color Reflectance of the Moon
This empirically normalized Wide Angle Camera (WAC) color mosaic covers an area from 60 degrees S to 60 degrees N and 0 degrees E to 360 degrees E and is composed of seven wavelength bands (321 nm, 360 nm, 415 nm, 566 nm, 604 nm, 643 nm, and 689 nm). The 7-band mosaic was constructed from 137,400 color WAC images acquired from January 21, 2010 to January 31, 2013 over a broad range of lighting and viewing geometries.
Each pixel from the WAC observations was photometrically normalized to a standard geometry of 30 degrees incidence angle, 0 degrees emission angle, and 30 degrees phase angle using an empirically derived photometric function similar to that of Boyd et al. (2012), and local topography provided by the GLD100 WAC-derived 100m/pixel Digital Terrain Model (wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc/view_rdr/WAC_GLD100; Scholten et al., 2012)
Source:
blackfeministhistory: pilferingapples: lesmisconfessions: I dont Think any of the les mis cast actors can be black. If you were black in France in 1800 you would be lower class. And it was before integration. It is not historicly correct that Javert, a police officer with High status, would have been black. I love norm Lewis, but no. And eponine cant be black, and have white parents. Im not racist, i repeat not racist Everything about this is factually wrong. -There very much were black people in high status positions in France in the 1800s. Here, check out the Dumas Family —General, famous author, and hey, another fairly successful author!. Sure, most black people would not have been high status— most PEOPLE, period, were not among the social elite, because that’s how an elite works. And racism was certainly a complicating factor for anyone not white. But 1800s France was not 1800s USA, the systems in play were very different, and the options for racially marginalized groups were likewise different. -Speaking of social elites! Police inspectors were not at all in that number. (Also Javert may not have been exactly an inspector, Hugo appears to have conflated some duties) (And here’s some NSFW reading on what those duties might entail! Warning: lots and lots of talk of prostitution). Remember that even in the book, Hugo describes society “closing its doors” (which, OUCH) on two classes: those who attack it and those who defend it, meaning in that particular passage criminal and the law. Inspectors were poorly paid and poorly trained, with training/schools for the field not established until 1883. - Eponine can totally be “black with white parents”. Or white with black parents! (cw:racism, both those links) SO COULD ANY OF THE CHARACTERS, Because Genetics. It’s a lot more complicated than people seem to realize! All this, of course, on top of the realities of theater that I’ve seen other people mention in the notes to this post re:colorblind casting, the fact that we accept ENGLISH SPEAKERS in 1820s-1830s France (and Hugo didn’t talk overmuch about race but he has ACTUAL CHAPTERS to say on language), and, y’know, the singing thing (although there IS a surprising amount of actual singing in the Brick.) And anyone claiming to be Not A Racist might want to first wonder why they find RACE the objectionable adaptational issue, rather than the English, the singing, or the wildly inaccurate clothing in most stage productions (the xylophone, now, THAT would not have been happening. At least not on Enjolras. But I’m willing to go with it, aren’t you, OP?). I’m going to guess it’s at least partly because, ESPECIALLY in the USA, ALL OF US are subject to certain cultural narratives that prioritize race as a focus and normalize historical racism, whether we ourselves want to believe those narratives or not. Which is the only reason I’m posting here; it’s certainly not because I’m an expert in the field. I’m not one of the real heavy researchers, I’m not equipped to answer fine-detailed questions about the history of race relations in France past OR present (and I expect to be offered corrections and criticism on this post really fast, AS IT SHOULD BE, because this is important!). But that’s kind of my point; it took me all of thirty minutes to look up most of this (INCLUDING the non-Tumblr commissioner stuff, and there was more of that if I’d needed to construct pay records etc. on my own), and that’s on dialup. We don’t have to accept the whole “history is for white people” idea, and why would anyone WANT to? Title Painting. Portrait of a woman. Creator LESAGE Pierre Alexis (1872—1932)., artist Date XIX—XX century. Description (Young black woman, dressed in high-necked blouse, turned three-quarters to the right.) Photo source: Menil Foundation/ Photographer: Mario Carrieri, Repository NANTES., Musée des Beaux-Arts. Source The Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University CORDIER, Charles. Cambrai, Nord 1827 - Alger, Algérie 1905 Mauresque noire Black Moorish Woman 1856 bronze, patines argentée oxydée, dorée, noire, brune et verte buste 73 x 44,5 x 26 (source) Title: “Said Abdallah from the Tribe of Mayac in the Realm of Darfour”, a portrait of Seïd Enkess, a freed Black slave who became a professional model in Paris. Date: 1848 Material: Bronze Artist: Charles Cordier’s (source) Charles Cordier African Venus France (1851) Bronze, 39.5 cm. Photo credits: galeri.uludagsozluk.com, opacity (flickr), The Walters Museum. Charles Cordier Nègre en Costume Algérien or Nègre du Soudan France (a. 1857) The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN Image of the Black in Western Art (Harvard University) [x] Sophie de Tott, Ourika, ca. 1793. From the frontispiece of Roger Little, Ourika, 1998. Ourika is depicted crowning a bust of the maréchal de Beauvau with a garland of flowers. The painting is in a private collection. Anonymous, Portrait of Ourika, nd. Reproduced in Roger Little,Ourika, 1998; who reproduced it from Léonel de la Tourrasse, Le Château du Val dans la forêt de Saint-Germain. Private collection, Château du Val. Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier Capresse des Colonies France (1861) Bust in onyx and patinated bronze and stone on a pedestal of rose veined marble, 96.5 x 54 x 28 cm. Musée d’Orsay [x] Caryatid Charles Henri Joseph Cordier Anonymous Artist Prince Louis Aniaba Print for Illustration for Trajes de la Ordenes Religiosas y Militares: Gran Maestre del Orden de la Estrella de Na Sra (en Africa) segun andaba en la Corte de Francia. France (c. 1780) Engraving, Print on Paper; 350 x 230 mm. At the end of the seventeenth century, Louis Aniaba was the protege of Louis XIV, and the first black officer in the French army. See also: An African Prince at the Court of the Sun King by Phillipe Halbert Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French by Christopher L. Miller, p. 32-36 Jean-Paul Flandrin: Tete d’un Africain (1830) skemono submitted to medievalpoc: Jean-Baptiste Belley was born in Senegal, kidnapped at a young age and sold into slavery in Saint-Domingue. Over the years he gained his freedom (some sources say he saved money and bought his freedom; others say he earned his freedom through his military service). In 1793, he was one of three delegates sent to represent Saint-Domingue in the National Convention, and afterward the Council of Five Hundred. He served until 1797, thus being one of the people to vote to abolish slavery in French colonies the first time in 1794. After losing his seat to Étienne Mentor, he joined Leclerc’s 1802 expedition to Saint-Domingue to take control from Louverture. However, he was arrested by the French and imprisoned in Belle-Île. He died in 1805. Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson Portrait de C.[itoyen] Jean-Baptiste Belley, ex-représentant des colonies France (ca. 1797) Oil on canvas, 159x111 cm. Château de Versailles. [X] [X] [X] [X] [X] Chevalier Joseph Boulogne de Saint-Georges, musician whose work influenced Mozart’s. Ange-Jacques Gabriel Mascaron, Place de la Bourse Bordeaux, France (1730-1775) Pierre-Antoine Demachey El Preste Juan; Emperador de los Abisinios (Prester John) France (c. 1760s) Hand-colored lithograph. NYPL Digital Collections. Jean Discart The Connoisseurs France (1884) Oil on Wood, 43 x 32 cm. [x] [x] Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault Portrait of a Black Man France (c. 1823) Oil on Canvas [x] [x] [x] [x] Jean Discart A North African Merchant France (b. 1856) [x] Jean Louis André Théodore Gericault Portrait of the Model Joseph France (1818) Oil on Canvas, 46.5 x 30 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum. The Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University Jean-Antoine Houdon Portrait Bust France (1781) Plaster study for a fountain, 32 cm. Soisson, Museé Municipal. (Head of a black woman, her lips parted, looking slightly to the right.) The bust was damaged in World War I, leaving only the head intact. The Image of the Black in Western Art Research Project and Photo Archive, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University skemono submitted to medievalpoc: Guillaume Guillon Lethière Serment des Ancêtres (Oath of the Ancestors) France/Haiti (1822) Oil on canvas, 228x334 cm Lethière painted this in 1822 from France, but it was never intended to display there. His son Lucien delivered the painting to Haiti in 1823. The scene commemorates the Haitian Revolution, depicting Jean-Jacques Dessalines (right), an ex-slave who led the revolution after Louverture’s arrest and crowned himself the first emperor of Haiti; and Alexandre Pétion (left), a free man of color who defected from Leclerc’s forces and became the first president of the Haitian Republic after Dessalines’ assassination. The painting was damaged by the 2010 earthquake, and was temporarily moved to France for restoration. After it was fixed, it was displayed in the Louvre briefly before being returned to Haiti. [X] [X] [X] Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier; Workshop of De Manou Africa from a set of The Four Continents France (1786) Wool and Silk Tapestry, 365.8 x 457.2 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org Jean-Léon Gérôme Bashi-Bazouk France (1868) Oil on Canvas, 80 x 66 cm. Olivier Pichat Général Thomas Alexandre Dumas (father of author Alexandre Dumas) France (c. 1790s, not dated) Unknown Artist Portrait of George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower(1780-1860) England (c. 1790s) British Museum Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French (Albi 1864 - 1901 Malromé) The Black Countess France (1881) Oil on board 32.4 x 40.7 cm (12 3/4 x 16 in.) [x] Edgar Degas Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando France, 1879 Oil on canvas, 117.2 x 77.5 cm. National Gallery, London, Great Britain Did someone really just copy and paste half the MPoC 1800s tag as a reply to someone spouting nonsense about Le Miserables, including part of this submission…(screenshot from upthread)? Well, glad to see it’s going to good use! More tags you can check out on this: France, French Revolution, 1700s
April:2015:
I recently sent a link tutorial on how do selective colouring with gimp, to a viewer.. i then decided to attempt the tutorial for myself...for the first time!
processing method: using gimp,qtpfsgui,windows microsoft visual studio 2010.
I Opened gimp 2.8, ,used the clone stamp tool to tidy up certain grass area's clicked normalize to stretch the light levels equally over the image next i used the "soft focus" tool from the fx foundry within the gimp tools, then exported and saved as JPG
As with all my previous hdr uploads i duplicated image x3 the 1st (original) duplicate i kept as normal, 2nd duplicate image i used the levels tool and adjusted the level from the middle to the left of the graph to 0.5 to make the image "Underexposed". next, opened 3rd image used levels tool & adjusted from the middle again to the right of the graph to 5.0 to make the image "Overexposed", next i opened Qtpfsgui free hdr software and loaded in the images as followed. 1. Original, 2.Under exposed, 3. Overexposed. clicked hdr tonemapping button,saved image as JPG, then opned up microsoft visual studio 2010, clicked auto edit, to bring out the colour & tones of the image, then closed to save.
Next i reopened Gimp, loaded the image, then followed the tutorial.
Place: Nangan, Matsu Islands
The Matsu islands are a minor archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea and administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Matsu islands together form the county of Lienchiang, but most of Liangjiang County (same name, different spelling) is under control of the People's Republic of China. Linear distance from mainland China is less than 20 km.
Mainlanders from Fujian and Zhejiang started migrating to the islands during the Yuan Dynasty. The popular net fishing industry had established the base for development of Fuao settlement and industrial development of the region over several hundred years.
During the early Qing Dynasty, pirates gathered here and the residents left temporarily. In contrast with Taiwan and Penghu, the Matsu Islands were not ceded to the Japanese Empire via the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Neither were they occupied by Japanese troops during World War II because they were not important militarily. Due to its strategic location for the only route for spice road, the British established the Dongyong Lighthouse in Dongyin Island in 1912 to facilitate ships navigation.
In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911 and the Republic of China (ROC) was established on 1 January 1912. Matsu Islands was subsequently governed under the administration of Fukien Province of the ROC. On 1 August 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out between the ruling Nationalist Party of China (KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) which marked the beginning of Chinese Civil War. After years of war, the CPC finally managed to take over mainland China from KMT and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949 which also covers the Lianjiang County of Fujian. The KMT subsequently retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in end of 1949.
After their retreat, the KMT retained the offshore part from the original Lianjiang County located on Matsu Islands, and also all of Kinmen County. In July 1958 the PRC began massing forces opposite the two islands and began bombarding them on 23 August, triggering the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. On 4 September 1958, the PRC announced the extension of its territorial waters by 20 kilometres (12 mi) to include the two islands. However, after talks were held between the USA and PRC in Warsaw, Poland later that month, a ceasefire was agreed and the status quo reaffirmed.
The phrase "Quemoy and Matsu" became part of American political language in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. During the debates, both candidates, Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, pledged to use American forces if necessary to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC, which the United States did not recognize as a legitimate government. But the two candidates had different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwan's forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. In fact, Senator Kennedy stated that these islands - as little as 9 kilometres (5.5 mi) off the coast of China and as much as 170 kilometres (106 mi) from Taiwan - were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. On the contrary, Vice-President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," they should not be surrendered to the Communists as a matter of "principle."
Self governance of the county resumed in 1992 after the normalization of the political warfare with the mainland and the abolishment of Battle Field Administration on 7 November 1992. Afterwards, the local constructions progressed tremendously. In 1999, the islands were designated under Matsu National Scenic Area Administration. In January 2001, direct cargo and passenger shipping started between Matsu and Fujian Province of the PRC. Since 1 January 2015, tourists from mainland China could directly apply the Exit and Entry Permit upon arrival in Matsu Islands. This privilege also applies to Penghu and Kinmen as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsu_Islands
In 2013 I had the opportunity to visit the largest of the Matsu islands, Nangan, as a friend of mine is a teacher at a primary school on the island.
The north America and the Pelican nebula.
The bight star is Deneb in Cygnus.
17 frames, 30 sec, Canon 1200D, f=300mm
Images were stacked using an algorithm of mine:
sum for each of the RGB channels,
contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization using 8x8 image tiles, normalized threshold: 0.04)
final gamma correction with an exponent of 0.62
During a storm last night I took a chance that the rain would stop, and headed for the shore with my camera. My car was drenched while driving, but when I arrived at Näset, the rain stopped :)
This is one RAW shot, exported to 3 jpg:s for HDR in Qtpfsgui. And then some (rather much) processing in GIMP.
The operators in Qtpfsgui: Mantiuk and Fattal
Main filters in GIMP: Various G'MIC. (If you haven't tried Local Normalization or Edge Preserving flow, do so!)
Read more here: mobile.twitter.com/i/moments/796417517157830656?m=1
And so it begins. Hate and bigotry have been normalized. Electing a fascist into office has granted people permission to be vile human beings. This election was a referendum on how this country values the humanity of marginalized people, and the message we received is that they are not valued by a vast number of their fellow countrypeople. All he had to do was repeat bullshit talking points about HRC and disgorge disgusting bigotry during unscripted stream of consciousness garbage monologues, and then coast to victory on a wave of hatred.
To find out more Click Here
finally starting to get into the persona's of my puppet! This was just a trial shoot for lighting and make-up! My Persona for today is Anorexia Nervosa, there will be a full body puppet shot following this one soon!
Anorexia (an-a-REX-ee-uh) nervosa (ner-VO-sa) is an eating disorder that involves self-imposed starvation. It appears to result from a distorted self-image, and an intense fear of being overweight. Although it can occur in men and women of all ages, it's most common in college-age girls. Anorexics are typically perfectionists, and are often delightfully well-behaved young women who are kind and eager to please. However, their fear of obesity drives them to diet and starve themselves until they're dangerously underweight. Strangely, even when the weigh loss is so severe that it threatens to be fatal, anorexics will usually still complain that they're too fat. Losing weight becomes an obsession for anorexics, and they're typically preoccupied with food, menus, calories, grocery shopping, and tend to develop odd eating rituals and exercise strenuously to stay thin. The starvation can cause their bodily functions to slow down; menstruation to stop; and breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure to drop to dangerously low levels. In some cases, fingernails and hair become brittle, skin dries and yellows, bones thin out, and heart and kidney problems develop. Treatment of the disease generally involves trying to normalize eating behavior and change attitudes about food, eating, and body size. It may also include medication, psychotherapy, behavior modification, and nutrition counseling.
If anyone has any suggestions on who my puppets puppeteer could be or what persona my puppet could have mail me on here or on my Facebook
100% crops normalized to 33MP equivalents. Both shots at 5000 ISO with High ISO Reduction set to Normal both with AWB.
Look close and you should be able to see the difference based more on sharpness than noise... meaning the high ISO performance of the RV is comparable to that of the 7IV.
This is not a painting, or made using AI, as some asked me. It is a real picture taken with a combination of photographic light cameras and telescopes.
SE ED102 + SE Red. 0.7
Luminance (ASI2600MM, L-Enhance, 900s, g100, 15 frames total)
RGB-(HOO) (ASI2600MC Pro, L-enhance, 300s, g100, 15 frames total).
Pixinsight, BXT, NXT, STX, Bill Blanshan’s HOO-Normalization and StarReduction scripts. Final edits in Photoshop.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter -
LOLA - Colour Shade (64ppd) 'BlueSteel' Global Map
Combined with
WAC - 3 band colour Empirically Normalized Reflectance (64ppd) Global Map
www.flickr.com/photos/terraform-mars/48137511343
Explore this image on Gigapan - www.gigapan.com/gigapans/216499
Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The $2800+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
Sony RX1 User Report.
I hesitate to write about gear. Tools are tools and the bitter truth is that a great craftsman rises above his tools to create a masterpiece whereas most of us try to improve our abominations by buying better or faster hammers to hit the same nails at the same awkward angles.
The internet is fairly flooded with reviews of this tiny marvel, and it isn’t my intention to compete with those articles. If you’re looking for a full-scale review of every feature or a down-to-Earth accounting of the RX1’s strengths and weaknesses, I recommend starting here.
Instead, I’d like to provide you with a flavor of how I’ve used the camera over the last six months. In short, this is a user report. To save yourself a few thousand words: I love the thing. As we go through this article, you’ll see this is a purpose built camera. The RX1 is not for everyone, but we will get to that and on the way, I’ll share a handful of images that I made with the camera.
It should be obvious to anyone reading this that I write this independently and have absolutely no relationship with Sony (other than having exchanged a large pile of cash for this camera at a retail outlet).
Before we get to anything else, I want to clear the air about two things: Price and Features
The Price
First things first: the price. The $2800+ cost of this camera is the elephant in the room and, given I purchased the thing, you may consider me a poor critic. That in mind, I want to offer you three thoughts:
Consumer goods cost what they cost, in the absence of a competitor (the Fuji X100s being the only one worth mention) there is no comparison and you simply have to decide for yourself if you are willing to pay or not.
Normalize the price per sensor area for all 35mm f/2 lens and camera alternatives and you’ll find the RX1 is an amazing value.
You are paying for the ability to take photographs, plain and simple. Ask yourself, “what are these photographs worth to me?”
In my case, #3 is very important. I have used the RX1 to take hundreds of photographs of my family that are immensely important to me. Moreover, I have made photographs (many appearing on this page) that are moving or beautiful and only happened because I had the RX1 in my bag or my pocket. Yes, of course I could have made these or very similar photographs with another camera, but that is immaterial.
35mm by 24mm by 35mm f/2
The killer feature of this camera is simple: it is a wafer of silicon 35mm by 24mm paired to a brilliantly, ridiculously, undeniably sharp, contrasty and bokehlicious 35mm f/2 Carl Zeiss lens. Image quality is king here and all other things take a back seat. This means the following: image quality is as good or better than your DSLR, but battery life, focus speed, and responsiveness are likely not as good as your DSLR. I say likely because, if you have an entry-level DSLR, the RX1 is comparable on these dimensions. If you want to change lenses, if you want an integrated viewfinder, if you want blindingly fast phase-detect autofocus then shoot with a DSLR. If you want the absolute best image quality in the smallest size possible, you’ve got it in the RX1.
While we are on the subject of interchangeable lenses and viewfinders...
I have an interchangeable lens DSLR and I love the thing. It’s basically a medium format camera in a 35mm camera body. It’s a powerhouse and it is the first camera I reach for when the goal is photography. For a long time, however, I’ve found myself in situations where photography was not the first goal, but where I nevertheless wanted to have a camera. I’m around the table with friends or at the park with my son and the DSLR is too big, too bulky, too intimidating. It comes between you and life. In this realm, mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras seem to be king, but they have a major flaw: they are, for all intents and purposes, just little DSLRs.
As I mentioned above, I have an interchangeable lens system, why would I want another, smaller one? Clearly, I am not alone in feeling this way, as the market has produced a number of what I would call “professional point and shoots.” Here we are talking about the Fuji X100/X100s, Sigma DPm-series and the RX100 and RX1.
Design is about making choices
When the Fuji X100 came out, I was intrigued. Here was a cheap(er), baby Leica M. Quiet, small, unobtrusive. Had I waited to buy until the X100s had come out, perhaps this would be a different report. Perhaps, but probably not. I remember thinking to myself as I was looking at the X100, “I wish there was a digital Rollei 35, something with a fixed 28mm or 35mm lens that would fit in a coat pocket or a small bag.” Now of course, there is.
So, for those of you who said, “I would buy the RX1 if it had interchangeable lenses or an integrated viewfinder or faster autofocus,” I say the following: This is a purpose built camera. You would not want it as an interchangeable system, it can’t compete with DSLR speed. A viewfinder would make the thing bigger and ruin the magic ratio of body to sensor size—further, there is a 3-inch LCD viewfinder on the back! Autofocus is super fast, you just don’t realize it because the bar has been raised impossibly high by ultra-sonic magnet focusing rings on professional DSLR lenses. There’s a fantastic balance at work here between image quality and size—great tools are about the total experience, not about one or the other specification.
In short, design is about making choices. I think Sony has made some good ones with the RX1.
In use
So I’ve just written 1,000 words of a user report without, you know, reporting on use. In many ways the images on the page are my user report. These photographs, more than my words, should give you a flavor of what the RX1 is about. But, for the sake of variety, I intend to tell you a bit about the how and the why of shooting with the RX1.
Snapshots
As a beginning enthusiast, I often sneered at the idea of a snapshot. As I’ve matured, I’ve come to appreciate what a pocket camera and a snapshot can offer. The RX1 is the ultimate photographer’s snapshot camera.
I’ll pause here to properly define snapshot as a photograph taken quickly with a handheld camera.
To quote Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” So it is with photography. Beautiful photographs happen at the decisive moment—and to paraphrase Henri Cartier-Bresson further—the world is newly made and falling to pieces every instant. I think it is no coincidence that each revolution in the steady march of photography from the tortuously slow chemistry of tin-type and daguerreotype through 120 and 35mm formats to the hyper-sensitive CMOS of today has engendered new categories and concepts of photography.
Photography is a reflexive, reactionary activity. I see beautiful light or the unusual in an every day event and my reaction is a desire to make a photograph. It’s a bit like breathing and has been since I was a kid.
Rather than sneer at snapshots, nowadays I seek them out; and when I seek them out, I do so with the Sony RX1 in my hand.
How I shoot with the RX1
Despite much bluster from commenters on other reviews as to the price point and the purpose-built nature of this camera (see above), the RX1 is incredibly flexible. Have a peek at some of the linked reviews and you’ll see handheld portraits, long exposures, images taken with off-camera flash, etc.
Yet, I mentioned earlier that I reach for the D800 when photography is the primary goal and so the RX1 has become for me a handheld camera—something I use almost exclusively at f/2 (people, objects, shallow DoF) or f/8 (landscapes in abundant light, abstracts). The Auto-ISO setting allows the camera to choose in the range from ISO 50 and 6400 to reach a proper exposure at a given aperture with a 1/80 s shutter speed. I have found this shutter speed ensures a sharp image every time (although photographers with more jittery grips may wish there was the ability to select a different default shutter speed). This strategy works because the RX1 has a delightfully clicky exposure compensation dial just under your right thumb—allowing for fine adjustment to the camera’s metering decision.
So then, if you find me out with the RX1, you’re likely to see me on aperture priority, f/2 and auto ISO. Indeed, many of the photographs on this page were taken in that mode (including lots of the landscape shots!).
Working within constraints.
The RX1 is a wonderful camera to have when you have to work within constraints. When I say this, I mean it is great for photography within two different classes of constraints: 1) physical constraints of time and space and 2) intellectual/artistic constraints.
To speak to the first, as I said earlier, many of the photographs on this page were made possible by having a camera with me at a time that I otherwise would not have been lugging around a camera. For example, some of the images from the Grand Canyon you see were made in a pinch on my way to a Christmas dinner with my family. I didn’t have the larger camera with me and I just had a minute to make the image. Truth be told, these images could have been made with my cell phone, but that I could wring such great image quality out of something not much larger than my cell phone is just gravy. Be it jacket pocket, small bag, bike bag, saddle bag, even fannie pack—you have space for this camera anywhere you go.
Earlier I alluded to the obtrusiveness of a large camera. If you want to travel lightly and make photographs without announcing your presence, it’s easier to use a smaller camera. Here the RX1 excels. Moreover, the camera’s leaf shutter is virtually silent, so you can snap away without announcing your intention. In every sense, this camera is meant to work within physical constraints.
I cut my photographic teeth on film and I will always have an affection for it. There is a sense that one is playing within the rules when he uses film. That same feeling is here in the RX1. I never thought I’d say this about a camera, but I often like the JPEG images this thing produces more than I like what I can push with a RAW. Don’t get me wrong, for a landscape or a cityscape, the RAW processed carefully is FAR, FAR better than a JPEG.
But when I am taking snapshots or photos of friends and family, I find the JPEGs the camera produces (I’m shooting in RAW + JPEG) so beautiful. The camera’s computer corrects for the lens distortion and provides the perfect balance of contrast and saturation. The JPEG engine can be further tweaked to increase the amount of contrast, saturation or dynamic range optimization (shadow boost) used in writing those files. Add in the ability to rapidly compensate exposure or activate various creative modes and you’ve got this feeling you’re shooting film again. Instant, ultra-sensitive and customizable film.
Pro Tip: Focusing
Almost all cameras come shipped with what I consider to be the worst of the worst focus configurations. Even the Nikon D800 came to my hands set to focus when the shutter button was halfway depressed. This mode will ruin almost any photograph. Why? Because it requires you to perform legerdemain to place the autofocus point, depress the shutter halfway, recompose and press the shutter fully. In addition to the chance of accidentally refocusing after composing or missing the shot—this method absolutely ensures that one must focus before every single photograph. Absolutely impossible for action or portraiture.
Sensibly, most professional or prosumer cameras come with an AF-ON button near where the shooter’s right thumb rests. This separates the task of focusing and exposing, allowing the photographer to quickly focus and to capture the image even if focus is slightly off at the focus point. For portraits, kids, action, etc the camera has to have a hair-trigger. It has to be responsive. Manufacturer’s: stop shipping your cameras with this ham-fisted autofocus arrangement.
Now, the RX1 does not have an AF-ON button, but it does have an AEL button whose function can be changed to “MF/AF Control Hold” in the menu. Further, other buttons on the rear of the camera can also be programmed to toggle between AF and MF modes. What this all means is that you can work around the RX1’s buttons to make it’s focus work like a DSLR’s. (For those of you who are RX1 shooters, set the front switch to MF, the right control wheel button to MF/AF Toggle and the AEL button to MF/AF Control Hold and voila!) The end result is that, when powered on the camera is in manual focus mode, but the autofocus can be activated by pressing AEL, no matter what, however, the shutter is tripped by the shutter release. Want to switch to AF mode? Just push a button and you’re back to the standard modality.
Carrying.
I keep mine in a small, neoprene pouch with a semi-hard LCD cover and a circular polarizing filter on the front—perfect for buttoning up and throwing into a bag on my way out of the house. I have a soft release screwed into the threaded shutter release and a custom, red twill strap to replace the horrible plastic strap Sony provided. I plan to gaffer tape the top and the orange ring around the lens. Who knows, I may find an old Voigtlander optical viewfinder in future as well.
Place: Nangan, Matsu Islands
The Matsu islands are a minor archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea and administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Matsu islands together form the county of Lienchiang, but most of Liangjiang County (same name, different spelling) is under control of the People's Republic of China. Linear distance from mainland China is less than 20 km.
Mainlanders from Fujian and Zhejiang started migrating to the islands during the Yuan Dynasty. The popular net fishing industry had established the base for development of Fuao settlement and industrial development of the region over several hundred years.
During the early Qing Dynasty, pirates gathered here and the residents left temporarily. In contrast with Taiwan and Penghu, the Matsu Islands were not ceded to the Japanese Empire via the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Neither were they occupied by Japanese troops during World War II because they were not important militarily. Due to its strategic location for the only route for spice road, the British established the Dongyong Lighthouse in Dongyin Island in 1912 to facilitate ships navigation.
In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911 and the Republic of China (ROC) was established on 1 January 1912. Matsu Islands was subsequently governed under the administration of Fukien Province of the ROC. On 1 August 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out between the ruling Nationalist Party of China (KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) which marked the beginning of Chinese Civil War. After years of war, the CPC finally managed to take over mainland China from KMT and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949 which also covers the Lianjiang County of Fujian. The KMT subsequently retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in end of 1949.
After their retreat, the KMT retained the offshore part from the original Lianjiang County located on Matsu Islands, and also all of Kinmen County. In July 1958 the PRC began massing forces opposite the two islands and began bombarding them on 23 August, triggering the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. On 4 September 1958, the PRC announced the extension of its territorial waters by 20 kilometres (12 mi) to include the two islands. However, after talks were held between the USA and PRC in Warsaw, Poland later that month, a ceasefire was agreed and the status quo reaffirmed.
The phrase "Quemoy and Matsu" became part of American political language in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. During the debates, both candidates, Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, pledged to use American forces if necessary to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC, which the United States did not recognize as a legitimate government. But the two candidates had different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwan's forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. In fact, Senator Kennedy stated that these islands - as little as 9 kilometres (5.5 mi) off the coast of China and as much as 170 kilometres (106 mi) from Taiwan - were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. On the contrary, Vice-President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," they should not be surrendered to the Communists as a matter of "principle."
Self governance of the county resumed in 1992 after the normalization of the political warfare with the mainland and the abolishment of Battle Field Administration on 7 November 1992. Afterwards, the local constructions progressed tremendously. In 1999, the islands were designated under Matsu National Scenic Area Administration. In January 2001, direct cargo and passenger shipping started between Matsu and Fujian Province of the PRC. Since 1 January 2015, tourists from mainland China could directly apply the Exit and Entry Permit upon arrival in Matsu Islands. This privilege also applies to Penghu and Kinmen as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsu_Islands
In 2013 I had the opportunity to visit the largest of the Matsu islands, Nangan, as a friend of mine is a teacher at a primary school on the island.
at the Bad Students protest nr Siam Paragon
Nalinrat Tuthubthim, 20, who claims she was sexually abused by a teacher, has her mouth covered with tape as pro-democracy protesters demanding the resignation of Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and reforms on the monarchy gather during a rally.
- - - - - -
Nalinrat Tuthubthim: assaulted by her teacher, ignored by the school, blamed by the adults
Thisrupt - October 6, 2020
“Five years ago, a teacher sexually assaulted me. He touched my breasts and my body. I asked him to lock the restroom door. It was stupid. There was also a security camera. I did what I did, to act like everything was normal because I was afraid others would know I was being sexually assaulted. I thought it was shameful. I thought society would condemn me for allowing a man to assault me.”
These are the words to the Facebook post on 20 September by 20-year-old Nalinrat Tuthubthim. In the post, she detailed her experience from when she was 16 years old.
What happened
According to the post, this was the third incident regarding the teacher in question. The teacher who said to her, “You give consent.” However, Nalinrat explained in the post that her “consent” was out of fear and ignorance.
“When I walked into the restroom, he kept switching the light on and off. I was scared and started to cry. So he put his arms around me and asked, “Are you okay? I didn’t think you would be so scared.”
“Of course, I didn’t do anything. I actually thought the teacher was playing a prank innocently. I thought to myself that he was a good teacher,” she wrote.
The first incident was when the teacher stroked her leg after he took her home on his motorbike. The second incident involved tricking her into sitting astride on his motorbike, so that when he brake, which he repeatedly did, her chest would bounce on his back.
What followed
In July this year, she gathered enough courage to approach the school authorities.
The answer she received was, “We already have the [safety] measures, but we understand that there are bad people among good people. No matter the measures, there will be those breaking the rules,”
“We can’t introduce specific [safety] measures for the school, because we are an educational facility under the Education Ministry.”
She was told, “Many teachers touch the kids out of affection. If you study psychology, you would know it is to make the kids feel good.”
An hour after her post went public, she received a message from one of the school teachers. He asked her to take the post down, worried that she was ruining the school’s reputation.
The past five years
Over a phone interview, Nalinrat told us she has been suffering from mental health issues. She had nightmares of sexual assaults and had tried to commit suicide.
“Schools [in Thailand] are the place that creates and normalizes the authoritarian system and the sexual harassment,” she said.
“The sexual harassment is just the tip of the iceberg; there are many other problems beneath it.”
However, as Nalinrat witnesses young Thais’ political awakening, with students from high school to universities demanding justice and safety, she feels there’s hope.
Blame the victim
Traditionally, Thai culture blames the victim. As per Nalinrat’s quote at the top of the article, it frames a victim mentality of “suffering in silence.”
“If I put myself in a ‘risky’ situation, the society would automatically think that ‘I was asking for it,’” Nalinrat said.
Even news headlines reinforce this belief system. For example: “Security footage revealed the victim was wearing a short dress” or “Teacher revealed the student wanted to trade sex for a grade.” Somehow, it’s always the victim’s fault.
“It’s not just teaching about sexual harassment,” said Nalinrat. “But more about teaching people to respect each other’s rights.”
Children must know their rights
Nalinrat explained that when the first incident happened, she did not realize it was wrong. Until later, when she told her friends, one of whom said it’s sexual assault.
“In Thailand, children don’t have any rights to say no to any physical abuses or authoritarianism from the adults,” Nalinrat said. “Children don’t know what rights they have, so they end up giving ‘consent,’ out of fear and the thought that they are supposed to, that the adults are always right.”
“My school never taught us anything about consent.”
The repercussion
After her Facebook post caught on, Nalinrat received both sympathy and condemnation. The disapproval comes mainly from older generation people who attacked her for being “inappropriate” and “aggressive,” and that she’s ruining the school’s reputation.
“The older generation keeps fighting this, which makes the younger generation seem even more aggressive,” said Nalinrat.
They need to stop fighting the truth and hiding problems, pretending like everything is perfect. We should expose problems and fix them.”
According to Nalinrat, her intention is not to ruin the school’s reputation.
“So, let’s talk and fix this together. I’m not trying to burn anyone down,” she said.
- - - - - -
Government Lawmakers Attack Student For Speaking Up About Abuse
By Khaosod English - November 23, 2020
Conservative lawmakers allied to PM Prayut Chan-o-cha on Monday lashed out at a university student who publicly identified herself as the victim of sexual harassment in her high school years.
The woman, who would only identify herself as Muay, came under fire not just from the politicians, but also a pro-establishment media outlet, after she dressed up as a high schooler and held a sign saying “I was sexually assaulted by my teacher. School is not a safe space” during a pro-democracy rally on Saturday.
“It’s inappropriate to say you were sexually assaulted and wear a student uniform,” Phalang Pracharath MP Sira Jenjaka told reporters. “Now this is famous worldwide, not just in Thailand, and damages the reputation of her educational institution.”
“Do you wear seducing cosplay costumes to instigate sexual assault, or not?” he added. “Do not embarrass your parents further.”
Sira, who chairs the House committee on law and order, went on to say that he will summon Muay for questioning – and she will be punished if her allegations turned out to be lies. He did not specify how they will be proven.
Parina Kraikupt, also an MP from Phalang Pracharath Party, wrote online Sunday that she would file a criminal case against Muay Monday at Pathum Wan Police. Her crime? Dressing up as a high school student.
“When a non-student wears a student uniform to create viral content online, you must be responsible to society and consequences,” Parina wrote.
There is no law forbidding non-students from wearing school uniforms; a large number of alumni at the all-male Suan Kularb School donned their high school outfits on Monday for a much publicized reunion event.
Junta-appointed senator Somchai Sawangkarn said Sunday that Muay damaged the country’s image and had ulterior motives.
“To talk about something that happened 4 to 5 years ago, is it even true or is she wanted to make news in the protest?,” Somchai said. “If it didn’t happen, she should be punished.”
In a phone interview, Muay said a male teacher at the high school touched her breasts and body without consent inside the campus. When she brought it up to the school administrators, Muay said, she was told that “teachers touch children out of endearment.”
Muay requested that details about her real name or the name of the school not be published, but said the teacher who groped her is still teaching there. Muay said she was underage at the time.
The student also said she made an appearance at the student-led protest on Saturday because the pro-democracy movement should also tackle culture of abuse on school grounds.
“Authoritarianism has been a very long-term problem,” Muay said on the phone Monday. “If we don’t talk about it, it won’t be solved.”
‘She Should Be Ashamed’
Although most of the media outlets reported about Muay’s allegations in a sympathetic light, Manager Online – a news agency with an established right-wing streak – stood out.
Instead of discussing the accusations concerning the sexual assault of an underage individual, the website ran a story linking Muay to her parttime job as a social media influencer and a model.
“Link to the Schoolgirl Holding Up a Sexual Assault Sign by Teacher in Various Sexy Cosplay Costumes!” read the headline. The story spent little time on the student’s symbolic protest in favor of multiple photos of Muay’s modeling photos.
Manager Online is a popular news site among many in the pro-establishment camp who already oppose the pro-democracy student protests for touching on a wide range of social issues. Many readers reacted to the story by using Muay’s background as a model to cast doubt on her stories.
“She looks like she wanted to be gang-raped. What a flirting beggar,” wrote Facebook user Viriya Poompetch.
“If the student didn’t make the first move the teacher wouldn’t dare. Don’t underestimate kids these days,” wrote Nungning Tat-chai.
“If this is true, she would probably be pregnant by now. She should be ashamed. Aren’t her ancestors embarrassed that she’s outing herself like this?” wrote user Wilaiwan Sukngam.
“She’s just a pretty [promotional model] who was hired to be there, not to take off her clothes, but to bullshit,” wrote Picitawan Plum.
Muay said she’s seen the derogatory comments, and she and her supporters are currently gathering evidence to file criminal complaints against the authors who wrote them.
But she said she also saw a positive side in the controversy: some women also came forward with their own experience of sexual assaults, especially in schools, after seeing news about her.
“I want to hug you; you are so brave; you are not the guilty person,” Muay said. ““If you had an experience like me but don’t wanna talk, it’s not your fault. You don’t have to, if your heart can’t take it yet. But when you can, let’s share.”
At least one in five Thais have experienced sexual harassment, according to a UK-based survey.
However, despite some gains in protecting sexual assault victims in recent years, very few come forward to press charges due to male-dominated police force and the media, who tend to ‘blame the victim’ for the crimes.
Even the Ministry of Public Health was widely panned for releasing a public service announcement in March telling women it was their responsibility to avoid sexual assaults.
President Donald J. Trump meets with reporters to announce that Israel and Sudan have agreed to normalize relations Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo Tia Dufour)
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Autumn, also known as fall in North American English, is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer to winter.
The word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year. It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus. After the Roman era, the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French) or autumpne in Middle English, and was later normalized to the original Latin. In the Medieval period, there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century, it was in common use.
I looooove broccolini!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why vegan:
"Consuming animal products is not a given—it’s a decision that each of us makes. Most of the time we blindly accept it as if there were no moral reason to reject it, because we are raised in a culture where this exploitation [is] normalized, belittled and erased. The reality is, we have every reason to reject it. It is not in line with our values of nonviolence and caring about animals. And most importantly, nonhuman animal interests matter morally. They value their lives and have interests in not being harmed. We ought to respect and protect these interests, just as our interests are respected and protected. The least we can do is be vegan, and not contribute to the unnecessary harm, suffering, mutilations, bereavement, sexual exploitation, murder, etc, of these vulnerable beings. They are not things for us to use, they are someones for us to respect." ~ Nicole Monaghan
Place: Nangan, Matsu Islands
The Matsu islands are a minor archipelago of 36 islands and islets in the East China Sea and administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). The Matsu islands together form the county of Lienchiang, but most of Liangjiang County (same name, different spelling) is under control of the People's Republic of China. Linear distance from mainland China is less than 20 km.
Mainlanders from Fujian and Zhejiang started migrating to the islands during the Yuan Dynasty. The popular net fishing industry had established the base for development of Fuao settlement and industrial development of the region over several hundred years.
During the early Qing Dynasty, pirates gathered here and the residents left temporarily. In contrast with Taiwan and Penghu, the Matsu Islands were not ceded to the Japanese Empire via the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Neither were they occupied by Japanese troops during World War II because they were not important militarily. Due to its strategic location for the only route for spice road, the British established the Dongyong Lighthouse in Dongyin Island in 1912 to facilitate ships navigation.
In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled after the Xinhai Revolution on 10 October 1911 and the Republic of China (ROC) was established on 1 January 1912. Matsu Islands was subsequently governed under the administration of Fukien Province of the ROC. On 1 August 1927, the Nanchang Uprising broke out between the ruling Nationalist Party of China (KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) which marked the beginning of Chinese Civil War. After years of war, the CPC finally managed to take over mainland China from KMT and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) on 1 October 1949 which also covers the Lianjiang County of Fujian. The KMT subsequently retreated from mainland China to Taiwan in end of 1949.
After their retreat, the KMT retained the offshore part from the original Lianjiang County located on Matsu Islands, and also all of Kinmen County. In July 1958 the PRC began massing forces opposite the two islands and began bombarding them on 23 August, triggering the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. On 4 September 1958, the PRC announced the extension of its territorial waters by 20 kilometres (12 mi) to include the two islands. However, after talks were held between the USA and PRC in Warsaw, Poland later that month, a ceasefire was agreed and the status quo reaffirmed.
The phrase "Quemoy and Matsu" became part of American political language in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. During the debates, both candidates, Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy, pledged to use American forces if necessary to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC, which the United States did not recognize as a legitimate government. But the two candidates had different opinions about whether to use American forces to protect Taiwan's forward positions, Quemoy and Matsu, also. In fact, Senator Kennedy stated that these islands - as little as 9 kilometres (5.5 mi) off the coast of China and as much as 170 kilometres (106 mi) from Taiwan - were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. On the contrary, Vice-President Nixon maintained that since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," they should not be surrendered to the Communists as a matter of "principle."
Self governance of the county resumed in 1992 after the normalization of the political warfare with the mainland and the abolishment of Battle Field Administration on 7 November 1992. Afterwards, the local constructions progressed tremendously. In 1999, the islands were designated under Matsu National Scenic Area Administration. In January 2001, direct cargo and passenger shipping started between Matsu and Fujian Province of the PRC. Since 1 January 2015, tourists from mainland China could directly apply the Exit and Entry Permit upon arrival in Matsu Islands. This privilege also applies to Penghu and Kinmen as means to boost tourism in the outlying islands of Taiwan.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsu_Islands
In 2013 I had the opportunity to visit the largest of the Matsu islands, Nangan, as a friend of mine is a teacher at a primary school on the island.
Calantha did an excellent job of convincing faculty of the benefits of Blogs for teaching, learning & authentic assessment.
I took my vintage Kodak Retina IIa camera for my first test drive yesterday. Although I've been collecting vintage medium-format cameras, this early 35mm folding camera really caught my eye.
For testing, I shot quite a few, 24 to be exact, seemingly mundane photos just to learn the camera. Turns out, it's very forgiving. I used a light meter, and shot a couple stops on either side of "ideal".
Unfortunately, I used some cheap Fuji 400ASA film and the grain is very apparent. I took the film to the one-hour service at Walgreens. When I saw the results, I was pretty discouraged. They were flat and the colors didn't pop at all. Plus, I didn't see much difference at the various exposure settings.
When I got home and scanned the negatives at 2400 dpi, I was much happier. It dawned on me that the Walgreens photo printer tries to "normalize" the photos to a set standard. What a difference my scans made!
Target: SH2-132 Lion Nebula
The Lion Nebula Sh2-132 is a weak emission nebula near the constellations of Cepheus and Lacerta. I
t’s thought to be between 10,000 and 12,000 light years away. The main components of this emission nebula are hydrogen and oxygen gases, which are stimulated by ultra violet light from nearby stars and subsequently re-emit the light. The darker areas are “dark nebulae,” which are dust clouds that obscure light
Gear:
Mount: ZWO AM5
Main Cam: ZWO ASI294MC Pro @ gain 121 and 14F
Guide Cam: ZWO ASI120MM Mini with ZWO 30mm f/4 scope
Lens: Sigma 150-600 @ 500
Filter: Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha and Oiii
Acquisition:
Light frames: Best 43 of 50 5 minute subs totalling 3 Hr 35 Min integration
Sessions: 17-Sep-23
Location: Waller, Texas country road
Bortle: 5/6 ?
Moon: none
Processing
• PI - Subframe selector, WBPP
• GraXpert background
• PI SPCC
• PI Russel Croman - BXT NXT STX
• PI Starless Edits
○ Bill Blanshan Mike Cranfield Narrowband Normalization Tool
○ Bill Blanshan GHS Stretch
○ Curves
○ Dark Structure Enhance
• PI Stars Edits
○ Bill Blanshan GHS Stretch
○ Curve Saturation, SCNR, Invert and SCNR
• PS ACR Black point, Highlights, Clarity, Dehaze
• PS Selective Colors
• PS Screen stars layer, copy stars layer/brighten it/mask in selective stars
PS Watermark
Compares the relative storage densities as they relate to price for all current Apple iPod's. Inspiried by today's release of the ultra-tiny Nano, general curiosity, and a lot of boredom.
The density figures show the storage density as gigabytes per ounces (gb / oz) or gigabytes per cubic inches (gb / in^3), all normalized by dividing price into the density. So for the in^3 data, we're looking at the price per amount of bits in a given volume, or price per "bit density," if you will. For the ounces data, it's instead the price per "bits per mass" or "specific capacity," if you're really willing to use some physics jargon (Gabe's fault, not mine).
The real motivation here was to compare the sizes (in both volume and mass) of all the iPods with respect to something we can all understand, money!
Major thanks to Gabe Rockefeller for helping out quite a bit with this work!
The raw data -- columns are size (in GB, figure the model out yourself), price/GB, price/(GB/oz), and price/(GB/in^3):
.512 || 193.35 || 150.81 || 206.35
1 || 129.00 || 100.62 || 137.67
2 || 99.50 || 149.25 || 150.44
4 || 62.25 || 93.38 || 94.12
20 || 14.95 || 88.21 || 92.68
60 || 6.65 || 42.56 || 49.08
History
The church with the dowend tower
History of joy and suffering of an old christian time witness of Vienna
The Minoritenkirche in Vienna is one of the oldest and most valuable artistic churches of the city. It is therefore not surprising that it also experienced a very eventful history. In all probability, the Franciscans were - how the Friars Minor (Thomas of Celano: "Ordo Friars Minor" ) also called on account of its founders personality, called by the Babenberg Duke Leopold VI the Glorious, in 1230 into the country. Here he gave them a lot, probably with a church (probably dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria), before the walls of the city, between the Scots Monastery (Schottenstift) and the ducal residence. It was not until 1237, and in 1271 the entire area was included in the extended boundary wall. The Minorite Barnabas Strasser says in his chronicle from 1766 that Leopold had asked on his return from the Holy Land in 1219 Francis in Assisi to the relocation of some brothers to Vienna, which was then carried out 1224. The Franciscans, however, are detectable only in 1234 by a bull of Gregory IX . to Frederick the Warlike, the last reigning Babenberg, by the year 1239 there was already the Austrian province. The above-mentioned chapel near the present Minoritenkirche the brothers have now expanded and dedicated it to the Holy Cross ("Santa Croce"). In 1251 the dedication was by the Bishop Berthold of Passau. In addition, the friars began to build a monastery, the 1234 is mentioned in a document (the monastery comprised finally the Ballhausplatz, Minoritenplatz and parts of the Hofburg and the Public Garden) . Of the original Romanesque building stock nothing has been preserved. Especially the great fire of 1276 has cremated large parts of the Convention.
However, the strong growth of the Friars Minor now living in Vienna made a new building of the church and monastery necessary. Already laid by King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1276 the foundation stone for the new building of that temple which was now already on the present site of the church, the monarch also promised tax exemption for all who had contributed to the building of the church.
First stage of construction (beginning in the third third of the 13th century.): So he decided to build new church and convent, but by the death in battle of Ottokar in 1278 at the March Field (Jedlespeigen close Dürnkrut) delayed the construction, thus only after the turn of the century it couldbe completed. The embalmed body of Ottokar remained 30 weeks in the chapter house of the monastery until it was transferred to Znojmo and finally to Prague. The king's heart is buried in the original Chapel of St. Catherine, which was now newly assigned this name because the appropriation should be reserved to the Holy Cross of Christ, the new church and the convent . This newly built house of God was given the shape of a two-aisled nave with zweijochigem (two-bay) long choir (chancel), which closed with the five sides of a decagon. This long choir, the one 1785/86 and changed into a five-storey residential building, was canceled in 1903. In connection with the subway construction (1984-86), although archaeological excavations took place, it also laid the foundations of the former free long-choir, but most of the foundations of the old presbytery were destroyed at the same time. - The first church had a rood screen, even at the turn of the 15th/16th Century the still resulting image of the Saint Francis was attached by an unknown artist. Just from this first phase, we know by the Baroque Minoritenchronik (chronicle) first mentioned the name of a builder, namely brother Hans Schimpffenpfeil .
Second stage of construction (after 1317-1328 ) Blanche (Blanche) of Valois, the wife of Duke Rudolf III . ( 1307) and daughter of Philip the Fair, in 1304 decreed in his will to build a chapel in honor of her grandfather, the Holy King Louis IX. of France (canonized in 1297) and introduced for this purpose in 1000 available books. However, the project was realized only under Isabella (Elizabeth ) of Aragon, wife of King Frederick the Fair (1330 ). The chapel dedicated to their relatives canonized in 1317, St . Louis of Anjou, son of Charles II of Naples, great-nephew of Louis IX . of France and Franciscan archbishop of Toulouse (1297 ); it was first a self- cultivation in the NE (north-east) of the two-aisled nave Minoritenkirche, until the third construction phase it was integrated into the nave (now the north aisle with Anthony's Chapel). In 1328 the chapel was apparently completed because in 1330 the founder - was buried in the chapel of Louis - in terms of her testamentary disposition. The tomb of Queen Isabella stood in the middle of the Kapellenjochs (chapel bay) in front of the apse. The tracery show similarity with those of the Albertine choir of St. Stephen (built by Duke Albrecht II [ 1358] ) as well as with that of the Sanctuary Strassengel near the Cistercian monastery Rein near Graz (around the middle of the 14th century.). Probably belonged to the tympanum with the donor portraits of Frederick the Fair and Isabella at the feet of the Mother of God, which was inserted in the third construction phase of the church in the secondary north portal, the original entrance to the Ludwig chapel. It must be mentioned that even the Duchess Blanche (1305 ) built around 1330 a high early gothic marble grave, which unfortunately disappeared in the course of the renovation of the church in the years 1784-86 by the court architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf of Hohenberg. It would be in Vienna today the only work of art of this kind
Third stage of construction (from 1339 -1400): Construction of a three-aisled hall (originally nave chapel Ludwig). The north wall of the chapel was extended to the west and in the north portal installed a second yoke. In addition, it was built a new west facade, with especially the central portal - including was designed - with jamb - pompous like the French late Gothic - perhaps under South German mediation. In the obituary of the Friars Minor brother Jacob of Paris is called ( around 1340), the confessor Albrecht II as the creator of this work of art. The duke and his wife Johanna von Außenmauer MinoritenkirchePfirt have obviously significantly contributed to the emergence of Vienna undoubtedly unique late Gothic cathedrals three portal group, there is also a representation of Albrecht and his wife in the middle portal next to the cross of Christ. Together with the two for a rich Mendikantenkirche (Mendicity church) this equipment is also of French models (see Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris [after 1285] ) constructed in 1350-1370 with splendid rose windows (with "bright" and "rotating" tracery) to the south wall - unusually without a doubt. The workshop, which built the Ludwig chapel was also busy with the west facade ("Minoritenwerkstatt" (workshop)). 1350-60 or later today, finally, the bell tower was only partially built (as a builder is a lay brother Nicholas, 1385 or 1386 called ). The tower consists mainly of two parts, a lower part made of stone blocks to the height of the nave, and an upper, octagonal section of mixed masonry. Its crown had because of damage - especially been renewed several times and was eventually removed - during the Turkish wars . The consecration of the enlarged Minoritenkirche must have taken place about the year 1390. So that the church had received its valid look for the next time.
In 1529, during the first siege of the monastery and the church even more extensive damage suffering (launch of the spire). Since the monastery of the Observant (Franciscans) had been destroyed by the Turks, these sought to supplant the Franciscans in their convent, where John Capistrano, the founder of the "brown Franciscan" (Observant) in Vienna, lived some time in the Franciscan monastery and in the Church had preached, but eventually instructed the Emperor Ferdinand I the now homeless Observant buildings on Singerschen Platz. In fact, the number of Wiener Friars Minor has then shrunk to seven, so that they felt compelled to call Fathers from Italy. But that but could not prevent that the church from 1569-1620 war a Protestant church. Interestingly, originate numerous coats of arms on the balcony of this period. At that time the Conventual were only in the possession of Louis Chapel and the Chapel of St. Catherine. Also during the second Turkish siege in 1683 the tower served as an observation tower and the Minoritenkirche was accordingly fired by the Turks and severely damaged. In 1733 the tower is adorned with a copper dome, but because of the danger of collapse eventually had to be removed. It brought the church to that low pointed tiled roof, which still exists today .
More and more, the bands developed in the Minoritenkirche, especially Ludwig chapel and cemetery, grave sites of the nobility. Besides Blanche of Valois and Isabella of Aragon and Margaret, the last country Duchess of Tyrol, was named Maultasch ( 1369 ), is buried here, as well as members of Lichtsteiner, Ditrichsteins, Puchaimer, Hojo, Stauffenberger, Greifensteiner; Piccolomini, Medici, Cavalcanti, Montaldi, Valperga, etc. (many of them are listed in the "Libro d'Oro of the "Congregation Italiana"). It should also be mentioned that the Franciscans since the end of the 14th Century took lively interest in teaching at the University of Vienna, especially of course in the subjects of theology, but also the jurisprudence. At the beginning of the 18th Century lived in the Vienna alsoin the Viennese Convention the Venetian cosmographer Br Vincenzo Coronelli, which the Emperor Charles VI. appointed to head the regulation of the Danube and its famous globes are now in the globe collection of the National Library in Vienna.
It is worthnoting, finally, the fact that around 1543 on the Ballhausplatz near the Imperial Palace from parts of the monastery a small hospital was donated and that the Franciscans for 13 years did all the counseling in this new Hofspital, at this time was the newly restored Chapel of St. Catherine Hospital Church. Another wing of the former minority monastery was home to the Imperial Court Library, 1558-1613.
To Minoritenkirche the second half of the 18th Century brought drastic changes. This development was initiated by the fact that the naturalized Italians in Vienna founded an Italian congregation in 1625/26 under the guidance of the Jesuit priest and professor at the University of Vienna Wilhelm Lamormaini. By the year 1773, when the Jesuit Order was temporarily released their Italian trade fairs celebrated this "Congregation Italiana" in a chapel of the Jesuits at Bognergasse, near the old Jesuit church "Am Hof". But in 1773 that little church was by the imperial government requisited. Then the Italians found in St. Catherine Chapel at Ballhausplatz, which popularly still is referred as the Italian church - ie not only the Minoritenkirche - a new home. After a thorough restoration of the chapel was consecrated on 1 February 1775 ceremony in memory of the "Santa Maria Maggiore" to Rome in the name of "Madonna della Neve" (Mary Snow church'). The Holy Mass conducted Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), who was in 1774 chamber composer and conductor of the Italian opera in Vienna, from 1788-90 to 1824 Kapellmeister and Director of the Court Chapel. Pope Pius VI . visited during his stay in Vienna on Good Friday of 1782 the church "Maria Schnee" on the Ballhausplatz. But this state of the law was short-lived: in 1783 Emperor Joseph II shifted the Friars Minor in the former Trinitarian on Alserstrasse, and the Minoritenkirche was on the grounds that the chapel "p Maria della Neve" for about 7,000 Italians living in Vienna was too small, the Congregation italiana transferred to the condition that the Community had now to restore the Great Church (imperial decree of June 3, 1784). The richly decorated chapel "Madonna della Neve" went on an imperial property and was finally in the late 18th Century canceled. Also, the Franciscan monastery passed into state ownership: one is used for imperial and feudal law firms. The cemetery near the church was abandoned. With the greatest financial burdens now led the congregation from the imperial mission of the church renovation, the thorough repair of the church was entrusted to the court architect Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf of Hohenberg (1784-1789). In order to cover the construction costs somewhat, were the old long choir (chancel) and the beginning of the 14th Century. (Consecrated in 1317 ) at the western end of the south side of the nave grown (and now defunct) St. John's Chapel (Chapel Puchaimische Kapelle ) converted into residences. The solemn consecration of the church under the name of "Madonna della Neve" took place on 16 April 1786, on Easter Sunday.
But soon was moving closer to the church the next hardship: In the years of the Napoleonic wars, the church should serve as a warehouse for straw, hay and for different equipment, so in 1809 also the forced evacuation of the building took place. Shortly after engaging the French eventually turned this into a provisions store. Two-thirds of the floor was smashed by the rolling of drums and by the retraction of cars. In the middle of the church a wide, tunnel-like cavity had been excavated and other parts of the floor destroyed a in God's house capped oven. Until 18 April 1810, the then Prefect of the Minoritenkirche received back the church keys. In 1825 died one of the most famous Kongregaten (congregats) of this century, namely, the composer Antonio Salieri, and on 22 June this year resounded in the Italian national church with the participation of the court chapel and the first Hofchores (court choir) the Verdi Requiem.
As the situation after the Napoleonic war turmoil in the mid-19th Century had normalized, Emperor Ferdinand the Good in 1845 donated to the "Congregation italiana" the according to the model of Leonardo da Vinci's famous fresco (1495-97) designed mosaic of the Last Supper, which the Roman Giacomo Raffaelli of 12 panels with a total weight of 20 tons by Napoleon's orders had made in the years 1806-1814, and was eventually bought by Emperor Franz for the Belvedere Palace. To that gave Emperor Ferdinand a considerable amount (8000 guilders) to allow the mounting of the work of art in the Minoritenkirche. The inauguration of the altar took place on 26nd in March 1847. In 1852 Emperor Franz Joseph came and soon the Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in the "Congregation ". The former paid each year mostly coming from out of town fast preachers for the Church, in return he regularly received at the Festival of Lights (2 February) as well as on Palm Sunday the sacred candle or the olive branch.
The last major change in the church took place in the years 1892-1905 at the restructuring of the Minoritenplatz. Now two new courses, namely the Ballhausplatz and Minoritenplatz emerged, the houses adjacent to the church (former Long John's Chapel Choir and) were demolished. The former Franciscan monastery had to give way to the House, Court and State Archives. Even the church was given a new face, although the plans of the architect Viktor Luntz due to financial reasons only could be realized partially, there were clearly visible changes: Most noticeable to the viewer is undoubtedly the Gothic passage on the south side of the walled grave stones originated partly from the bands, and part of the adjacent once cemetery, as well as the above installed "Minoritenhaus". 1907 were placed in the tower four new bells cast in Trento, which is, however - with the exception of one, St. Anthony ordained, Bell - 1914 confiscated. The solemn consecration of the church took place on 4 Held in May 1909 in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph. Due to the highly cooperative attitude of the Congregation towards the transformation plans of the City of Vienna Lueger, the mayor promised that the court should never be installed directly behind the church.
More important restoration work was carried out 1960-1962 (church affairs), in the last decade, as the outer walls have been restored.
About Minoritenplatz finally should be mentioned that the pastoral care of Italians after 1786 by each rectors appointed by the Archbishop was, from 1808 to 1813 was also here Clemens Maria Hofbauer who died 1820 and later was canonized working as a church rector. Therefore, there is also his monument on the north side of the church. Since the year 1953, and officially by the order of the archbishop Ordinariate of 1 December 1957 is the Friars Minor transmitted the pastoral care of the Italian community again, firstly the Fathers belonging to the Order of Padua Province while they are under the Austrian province today. In the year 2003, ie 50 years after the adoption of the pastoral care of Italians in the Minoritenkirche by the Conventual, that Francis statue was made, nowadays, it is located on the north side of the church, next to the Baroque cultivation.
(Text by Dr. Manfred Zips , Ital. Congregation )
www.arqueologiadelperu.com/colombia-venezuela-crisis-dela...
The Colombian government's border crisis with Venezuela delayed the start of formal peace talks between Bogota and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group, a source close to the process said Thursday.
Leon Valencia, the head of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, a former ELN guerrilla and an expert on Colombia's armed conflict, told EFE Thursday that the crisis had caused a postponement of "a few days," but he expressed confidence that the talks would kick off in the coming weeks.
ELN and Colombian government representatives "had agreed on an agenda, on a methodology for the negotiations, and in the last meeting, I understand, they had established that once (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro and Santos met they would sit down to agree on a date for (the start of formal) negotiations" between the two sides, he said.
The Venezuelan and Colombian leaders sat down face-to-face on Monday in Quito for a meeting backed by the Union of South American Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
In the talks, they agreed on the immediate return of the countries' respective ambassadors, who had earlier been recalled amid the border spat.
The two presidents also arranged for ministerial meetings to be held to normalize the situation on the 2,219-kilometer (1,379-mile) frontier, much of which has been gradually closed over the past several weeks by order of Maduro, who has defended the measure as part of the fight against paramilitary activity and smuggling.
Hundreds of Colombian citizens living in Venezuela were deported as part of the crackdown and thousands more left voluntarily.
Colombia's government and the ELN have been engaged since January 2014 in "exploratory conversations" about starting a peace process similar to the one Bogota has been pursuing with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for nearly three years in Cuba.
The contacts between Santos' administration and the ELN, however, have taken place in neighboring Ecuador.
The ELN's top leader, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, alias "Gabino," said on Sept. 9 that only "3 percent" of the agenda for the talks remains to be agreed upon before formal peace talks can begin.
Valencia, for his part, said the major breakthrough this week by the Colombian government and the FARC on transitional justice for conflict-related crimes - regarded by many analysts as the thorniest issue of the peace talks - would "pave the way for agreements with the ELN."
Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, a.k.a. "Timochenko," shook hands on Wednesday in Havana in a ceremony attended by Cuban President Raul Castro and set a six-month deadline for inking a final peace deal.
Valencia said the justice accord, which includes the creation of special courts to hear alleged crimes committed by FARC rebels and government forces, as well as reparations for victims, was also significant for the ELN guerrillas.
He said they could adhere to that part of the talks as well and consider one of the aspects of their future peace negotiations to be resolved, thus expediting the process. EFE