Arp 273 or “A Rose Made of Galaxies”—I just think of them as “the Rose Galaxies”—are at least two interacting galaxies some 300 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda. UGC 1810, the “upper” galaxy, contains about five times more mass than its neighbor, UGC 1813, the “lower” galaxy. UGC 1813 is thought to have passed through, if not simply near, its neighbor, and through this interaction the two have tidally distorted into a rose-like shape. It appears at least a third galaxy (the warm “star”-sized blip in vaguely discernible swirling at the “top” of UGC 1810 in this perspective) may also be involved.

 

Along the top of UGC 1810 are splinters of blue jewel-like structures comprised of young blue stars. UGC 1813 shows signs of intense star formation, possibly triggered by this interaction. The bright stars littered across this image are inside our own galaxy, and plenty more galaxies are littered about. Arp 273 was first described in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, produced by Halton Arp (hence Arp 273) and released in 1966.

 

These galaxies are stupid far away (technical term for some 300 million light years) and rather “small” from our perspective, making them a very challenging target to image through the pursuit of amateur tomfoolery, but I have wanted to image these of these for some time. They are just so daggone beautiful. I got my chance on October 8, 2023, thanks to a gorgeous clear night in the desert with a strikingly stable atmosphere, no wind, no moon until later into the night, and these jewels passing overhead. I’ll take it as the universe tossing me a bone ahead of what may well be another long, cold, stormy winter.

 

AstroBin

www.astrobin.com/iq2eix/

 

Details: Celestron EdgeHD 8 with 0.7x reducer, ZWO ASI 2600MM Pro, Bin1, Astronomik Deep-Sky RGB and UV/IR filters, all riding on a Rainbow Astro RST-135E. 25x180s each of RGB and 98x120s Luminance for about 7 hours of data. Calibrated with darks (optimized), flats, and bias. Edited in PixInsight and Adobe Photoshop.

 

Editing: Stacked in PixInsight with normalization and no drizzle. Cropped; background extraction (ABE); color calibration (SPCC); deconvolution (Deconvolution and BlurX blend); stars removed; noise reduction (NoiseX, masked); color refinement (curves and GHS), stretched (GHS); luminance image refined in Photoshop and more noise reduction, LRGB combination; additional refinement and adjustment (colors, detail, noise). Smaller galaxies were gathered, protected, and edited with a mask to avoid overlap with stars image (worked like a charm). Stars image got more color adjustment, masked noise reduction, stretched (GHS), extracted, and blended into LRGB image (PixelMath). Stars reduced (hat tip to Bill Blanshan) and refined. Photoshop used for final details, nudging out more detail, final larger adjustments for presentation (e.g. deeper contrast, final crops from larger field of view).

Prag - Wenzelsplatz

 

Wenceslas Square (Czech: Václavské náměstí (help·info) [ˈvaːtslafskɛː ˈnaːmɲɛstiː], colloquially Václavák [ˈvaːtslavaːk]) is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town of Prague, Czech Republic. Many historical events occurred there, and it is a traditional setting for demonstrations, celebrations, and other public gatherings. It is also the place with the busiest pedestrian traffic in the whole country. The square is named after Saint Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia. It is part of the historic centre of Prague, a World Heritage Site.

 

Formerly known as Koňský trh (Horse Market), for its periodic accommodation of horse markets during the Middle Ages, it was renamed Svatováclavské náměstí (English: Saint Wenceslas square) in 1848 on the proposal of Karel Havlíček Borovský.

 

Features

 

Less a square than a boulevard, Wenceslas Square has the shape of a very long (750 m, total area 45,000 m2) rectangle, in a northwest–southeast direction. The street slopes upward to the southeast side. At that end, the street is dominated by the grand neoclassical Czech National Museum. The northwest end runs up against the border between the New Town and the Old Town.

 

History

 

In 1348, Bohemian King Charles IV founded the New Town of Prague. The plan included several open areas for markets, of which the second largest was the Koňský trh, or Horse Market (the largest was the Charles Square). At the southeastern end of the market was the Horse Gate, one of the gates in the walls of the New Town.

 

The Statue of Saint Wenceslas formerly stood in the middle of Wenceslas Square, near Grandhotel Evropa, it was moved to Vyšehrad in 1879. During the Czech National Revival movement in the Czech lands of Austria-Hungary in the 19th century, a more noble name for the street was requested. At this time the square was renamed and new Statue of Saint Wenceslas was built in 1912.

 

On 28 October 1918, Alois Jirásek read the Czechoslovak declaration of independence in front of the Saint Wenceslas statue.

 

During the 1938 May Crisis, the square was the site of massive demonstrations against Nazi Germany's demands for the Sudetenland and the appeasement policies of the First Czechoslovak Republic's allies the United Kingdom and France. Under the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the Nazi occupation force used the street for mass demonstrations. During the Prague Uprising in 1945, a few buildings near the National Museum were destroyed. They were later replaced by department stores.

 

On 16 January 1969, student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

 

On 28 March 1969, the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team defeated the USSR team for the second time in that year's Ice Hockey World Championships. As the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was still under Soviet occupation, the victory induced great celebrations. An estimated 150,000 people gathered on Wenceslas Square, and skirmishes with police developed. A group of provocateurs then attacked the Prague office of the Soviet airline Aeroflot, located on the street. The vandalism served as a pretext for reprisals and the period of so-called normalization.

 

In 1989, during the Velvet Revolution, large demonstrations (with hundreds of thousands of people or more) were held here.

 

Wenceslas Square is lined by hotels, offices, retail stores, currency exchange booths and fast-food joints. To the dismay of locals and city officials, the neighboring streets are also a popular location for prostitutes to ply their trade late at night. Many strip clubs exist around Wenceslas Square, making Prague a popular location for stag parties. Wenceslas Square is also a popular place to spend the New Year's celebrations, another popular option are terraces near the river. The Christmas markets (Vánoční trhy) are held here every year from early December to the first week of January.

 

Reconstruction

 

A reconstruction of the Wenceslas Square has been underway since 2020. The lower part is expected to be completed in spring of 2022. The upper part (from Vodičkova street) is expected to be completed in 2023. It should result in uniformed paving, wider sidewalks, bicycle paths and new alleys. Also, tram traffic will return to the upper part of the square.

 

Art and architecture

 

The two obvious landmarks of Wenceslas Square are at the southeast, uphill end: the 1885–1891 National Museum Building, designed by Czech architect Josef Schulz, and the statue of Wenceslas.

 

Other significant buildings on the square include:

 

Antonin Pfeiffer and Matěj Blecha's "Palác Koruna" office building and shopping center, #1–2, 1912–1914, with architectural sculpture by Vojtěch Sucharda

Ludvík Kysela's "Lindt Building", No. 4, an early work of architectural constructivism

the BAŤA shoe store, No. 6, 1929

Matěj Blecha and Emil Králíček's "Adam Pharmacy", No. 8, 1911–1913

Jan Kotěra's "Peterka Building", No. 12, 1899–1900

Pavel Janák's "Hotel Juliš", No. 22, 1926

Alois Dryák's "Hotel Evropa", #25–27, 1872, 1905 redesign, with architectural sculptor Ladislav Šaloun

Antonin Wiehl's "Wiehl House", No. 34, 1896

the "Melantrich Building", No. 36, 1914, where Alexander Dubček and Václav Havel appeared together on its balcony in November 1989, a major event of the Velvet Revolution

"Hotel Adria",[6] No 26, reconstruction in 1912, in 1918 sold to František Tichý, Burian's Theatre (1925–1928)

 

Transport

 

The Prague Metro's line A runs underneath Wenceslas Square, and the Metro's two busiest stations, Muzeum (lines A and C) and Můstek (lines A and B), have entrances on the street. Currently tram bisect the square only. Tram tracks running the length of the street were removed from the street in 1980; a proposal to reintroduce trams is under consideration. The construction should begin in 2021. Most of the street is open to automobile traffic, but the northwestern end is pedestrianised since 2012.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Wenzelsplatz (tschech. Václavské náměstí, ugs. Václavák) in der Mitte von Prag wurde 1848 nach dem Heiligen Wenzel von Böhmen benannt, nachdem er im Mittelalter und der Neuzeit als Rossmarkt (Koňský trh) den Mittelpunkt der Prager Neustadt bildete. Die Breite von etwa 60 m entspricht der Definition nach eher einer Prachtstraße als einem Platz. Mit circa 750 m Länge gehört er aber zu den größten städtischen Plätzen in Europa.

 

Geschichte

 

Die Entstehung des Platzes im Mittelalter

 

Mit der Gründung der Prager Neustadt 1348 unter König Karl IV. wurde entlang eines bestehenden Weges genau rechtwinklig zum Markt der Gallusstadt als eigenständiger Teil der Prager Altstadt ein neuer Markt angelegt, auf dem Pferdehandel betrieben wurde und der deshalb Rossmarkt genannt wurde. Der eigentliche Rossmarkt war zunächst durch das St.-Gallus-Tor am Brückl (Na Můstku) mit der Erweiterung verbunden. Das vermauerte Gallus-Tor wurde bei archäologischen Untersuchungen im Hintertrakt des Hauses des Altstädter Ortsvorstehers (Staroměstska rychta) in der Rytířská ul. Nr. 12 /CN 404 entdeckt. Es blieb als einziges der dreizehn Tore der Altstadt erhalten. Reste der vor dem Tor liegenden kleinen steinernen Brücke über den Stadtgraben wurden beim Bau der Metrostation Můstek ausgegraben und im Eingangsbereich sichtbar gemacht.

 

Das St. Gallus-Tor wurde bei der Anlage der Neustadt oder wenig später geschlossen und durch einen neuen, breiteren Mauerdurchbruch ersetzt, der in der Achse des Rossmarktes lag. Mit rund 680 Metern Länge – durch Verfüllung der Grabenanlage am unteren Ende sind es heute fast 750 m – und 60 m Breite erstreckte sich der Markt in Nordwest-Südost-Richtung vom Tor der Altstadt bis zum Tor der Neustadt, dem Rosstor (Koňská brána) oder St.-Prokops-Tor. Neben dem Tor wurde auch ein kleiner Bach auf den Markt geführt, dessen Wasser für Pferdetränken und mindestens eine Pferdeschwemme benötigt wurde. Die außerordentliche Länge des Marktes steht in Verbindung mit seiner Funktion, denn sie ermöglichte, dass während des wöchentlich stattfindenden Pferdemarktes die Tiere in jeder Gangart vorgeführt werden konnten. Später wurden im oberen Teil des Marktes Korn und im unteren Tuche und Waffen gehandelt.

 

Im unteren Teil befand sich zuvor das Karmelitenkloster (Klášter Panny Marie Sněžné) mit der Kirche St. Maria Schnee, dessen Grundstein Karl IV. selbst im September 1347 zum Gedenken an seine Krönung zum König von Böhmen gelegt hatte.

 

Von dem Platz geht fast genau im rechten Winkel in beide Teile je eine rund 23 m breite Straße ab, die ihn mit den beiden anderen Märkten der Neustadt verbindet. In die untere Neustadt führt die Heinrichsgasse (Jindřišská ulice), in die obere die Vodičkagasse (Vodičkova ulice). Dadurch ergibt sich die Form eines Kreuzes mit dem Rossmarkt als Längsbalken und den beiden Straßen als Armen. Am Ende der beiden Straßen wurde mit dem Neustädter Rathaus und der Heinrichskirche in ungefähr gleicher Entfernung zum Rossmarkt je eine städtebauliche Dominante angelegt. Bei offiziellen Feierlichkeiten mussten die Ratsherren der Neustadt durch diese Straßen schreiten, um am Gottesdienst in der Hauptpfarrkirche teilnehmen zu können. Durch den Anbau des Turmes am Neustädter Rathaus in den Jahren 1452–1456 und der Errichtung des freistehenden Glockenturms der Heinrichskirche 1472–76 wurde diese Kreuzgestalt noch stärker betont.

 

Der Wenzelsplatz vom 17. bis zum Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts

 

Der Rossmarkt teilte die neu entstehende Stadt in die untere, nördlich in der Ebene gelegene, und die obere Neustadt, die vor allem auf Hügelland errichtet wurde. Im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert erfolgten erste bauliche Erweiterungen, eine steinerne Statue zu Ehren des Namenspatron des Platzes, angefertigt vom Bildhauer Johann Georg Bendl (1610–1680) wurde in der Platzmitte aufgestellt. Dieses erste Wenzelsdenkmal erhielt vermutlich im Jahre 1879 einen neuen Standort auf der Burg Vyšehrad.

 

Die links und rechts des Rossmarktes gelegenen Viertel gleichen sich durch ihre weitgehend rechtwinklige, auf den Markt ausgerichtete Anlage bis heute. Während aber die nördlichen Straßenzüge genau senkrecht beziehungsweise parallel zum Markt angelegt werden konnten, weichen die an der südlichen Seite etwas von diesem Schema ab, um den Anschluss an die um 45° gedrehte Straßenführung der oberen Neustadt zu erhalten.

 

Im 19. Jahrhundert erfuhr der Markt durch den Abriss der beiden Stadtmauern und durch die Verfüllung der Gräben an seinem oberen und unteren Ende eine wesentliche Veränderung und wurde durch das Pflanzen von Linden zu dem heutigen Boulevard umgestaltet. Anstelle des 1875 abgerissenen St.-Prokops-Tors ließ die Stadtverwaltung von 1885 bis 1890 das Nationalmuseum im Neorenaissancestil für das bereits 1818 gegründete Nationalmuseum errichten, das den oberen baulichen Abschluss des Platzes bildet.

 

Städtischer Ausbau ab dem 20. Jahrhundert

 

Zwischen etwa 1890 und 1930 erhielt der Platz im Wesentlichen seine heutige Bebauung. Zahlreiche Bürgerpaläste wie der Palac Koruna (Nummer 1), das Haus Diamant (Nummer 3), das Lindt-Haus (Nummer 4), das Hotel Ambassador (Nummer 5), das Schuhwarenhaus (Nummer 6), das Haus zur goldenen Gans (Nummer 7), das Peterka-Haus (Nummer 12), Hotel Tatran (Nummer 22), Hotel Sroubek (heute Hotel Europa) (Nummer 25), Hotel Adria (Nummer 26), die Böhmische Bank (Nummer 32), das Wiehl-Haus (Nummer 34), das Melantrich-Haus (Nummer 36), der Palac Letka (Nummer 41), Haus der Böhmischen Sparkasse (Nummer 42) oder der Palac Fénix (Nummer 56) entstanden in dieser Zeit. Zwischen den Geschäftsbauten wurden in geschlossener Straßenfront abwechslungsreich gestaltete Wohnhäuser eingefügt. – Als Nahverkehrsmittel des 20. Jahrhunderts erhielt der Platz zahlreiche Straßenbahnlinien.

 

Auch nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurden weitere Bauwerke errichtet wie das Haus der Mode (Nummer 58), das Hotel Jalta (Nummer 45), ein Lebensmittel-Kaufhaus (Nummer 59) oder das Kaufhaus Freundschaft (Nummer 21). Ab 1990 erhielten häufig die früheren Eigentümer ihre Gebäude zurück und nutzen sie nun nach aufwändiger Sanierung selbst oder haben sie vermietet.

 

Der 16. Januar 1969

 

Am 16. Januar 1969 verbrannte sich der tschechoslowakische Student Jan Palach selbst und lief in Flammen stehend vom Nationalmuseum auf den Wenzelsplatz. Er protestierte damit gegen den Einmarsch der Truppen des Warschauer Pakts in die Tschechoslowakei im Jahre 1968 und der daraus resultierenden Niederschlagung des Prager Frühlings. Heute erinnert ein Denkmal an der Stelle unterhalb der Wenzel-Statue an Palach. Die eigentliche Stelle des Geschehens befindet sich auf der Fahrbahn, daher ist das Denkmal um einige Meter versetzt. – Im folgenden Monat wiederholte Jan Zajíc diesen öffentlichen Protest an der gleichen Stelle.

 

Die Samtene Revolution auf dem Wenzelsplatz

 

Am Wenzelsplatz sprachen während einer Massenkundgebung am 24. November 1989 Václav Havel und Alexander Dubček und forderten die politische Umgestaltung des ganzen Landes. Der Aufruf erfolgte vom Balkon des Hauses mit der Nummer 56. Wenige Wochen später war die Samtene Revolution vollzogen und der Kommunismus in der Tschechoslowakei Geschichte.

 

Nach dem Tod von Havel im Dezember 2011 trauerten tausende von Menschen auf dem Wenzelsplatz.

 

Der Wenzelsplatz ist auch in der Gegenwart ein häufiger Schauplatz von Demonstrationen und Gedenkveranstaltungen.

 

Sehenswürdigkeiten entlang des Boulevards

 

1912 schuf der tschechische Künstler Josef V. Myslbek das Wenzelsdenkmal (Pomník svatého Václava). Es zeigt den Heiligen Wenzel als Landespatron in Rüstung mit Harnisch und Lanze sowie zu seinen Füßen die vier Schutzheiligen Ludmilla und Prokop (vorn) und Anežka (Agnes) und Vojtěch (Adalbert) (hinten). Der ornamentale Schmuck des Denkmals stammt von Celda Klouček (1855–1935), die architektonische Gestaltung von Alois Dryák.

Am Wenzelsdenkmal fanden in der Vergangenheit zahlreiche Demonstrationen statt, wenn es sich um die staatliche Unabhängigkeit handelte.

Die oben im Detail genannten Bauten folgen den zu dieser Zeit aktuellen Baustilen wie Jugendstil, Konstruktivismus oder Neorenaissance. Teile früherer Häuser aus gotischer oder barocker Zeit wurden auch in die Neubauten integriert. Architekten, die ihre Entwürfe hier verwirklichten, waren u. a. A. Pfeiffer, F. Buldra, F. Weir und R. Klenka, L. Kysela oder M. Blecha. In den 1930ern wurden etliche Gebäude umgestaltet.

Nach der Schließung der komplett durch die Straße geführten Straßenbahnlinien am 13. Dezember 1980 wurden die nordöstlichen Mittelstreifen gärtnerisch gestaltet. Eine ausrangierte historische Straßenbahn steht etwa in der Mitte des Platzes und wird als Café genutzt.

 

Verkehr

 

An den beiden Enden des Wenzelsplatzes befinden sich zwei Umsteigestationen der Prager Metro, Muzeum und Můstek. Außerdem queren vier Straßenbahnlinien den Platz etwa auf halber Höhe. Das Fahren mit Kraftfahrzeugen ist gestattet, entlang des Nationalmuseums verläuft eine Einzugsstraße.

 

(Wikipedia)

  

President Donald J. Trump participates in a phone call with Sudanese Chairman of the Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to discuss Sudan’s historic progress towards democracy with its recognition of Israel and opportunities to advance peace in the region Friday, Oct. 23, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo Tia Dufour)

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.

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.

Stitched from 48 images taken with Canon 400d 100mm f2.8L Macro,

Stitched with Microsoft Research's Image Composite Editor (ICE)

- research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/

 

Reuploaded this image with corrected white balance, original was 122 Megapixel new image is only 102 Megapixels as I cropped it a little differently

 

I was experimenting with using a really long focal length to accentuate the mountains rather than diminish them like a single shot from a wide angle lens would. Also helps getting a ridiculously high resolution stitch because of the share number of photos it results in!

  

HOW TO - STITCH TIPS AND TRICKS:

 

Hello this is my first attempt at writing a tutorial on photography, if I have any success I will write more. I’ve been doing photograph now for a couple of months and wanted to share what I so far had discovered, If you have any suggestions or corrections please let me know.

 

TO STITCH OR NOT TO STITCH

 

What is a stitch? Simple, take lots of overlapping photos, stick them all together with glue and then you have one massive photo. This is a stitch.

 

Why stitch? Easy answer is that it’s much cheaper! Fish eye lenses and wide angle lenses are not cheap!

 

However since when did a short focal length make a better panorama? Normally to fit your vast mountain ranges into the back of your little 1.6x 35mm DSLR you would have to use a very short focal length. Problem is that using a short focal length accentuates distance; this can leave the panorama looking a little weaker than it did in real life.

There aren’t many solutions to this problem, buy a ludicrously expensive medium format camera, buy an expensive full frame 35mm format camera or go analogue. Really takes the amateur out of amateur photography. This is why stitches are a great solution, they cost you nothing! You don’t need to by a new lens; you can even do it with a 1 megapixel phone camera with professional results!

   

COMPOSITION

 

Remember a stitch is made up of lots of little photos. This is both a hindrance and a blessing. Be careful with moving objects such as cars and birds, you might end up with the first half of a big ugly 4x4 in your shot, or a birds head if you are not careful. On the other hand you can do cool things such as placing the same object or person many times within the same shot! Like I say get creative!

  

CAMERA SETUP

 

Second is to make sure your camera is set up correctly! Most important thing is to make sure you don't change any setting of your camera in the middle of the stitch (Most importantly the zoom and the aperture)! If you have one of them big heavy zooms which creep under their own weight, be extra careful and hold it steady. Failing to do so will mean your final stitch might have weird geometric distortions, strange bands of out of focus picture or unnatural light and dark patches in the photo.

Take your time and think about your shot, the giant mountains have been there for millions of years they are not going anywhere any time soon ... Except in my case those looming clouds caused concern.

 

- You have a large area

- You typically have lots of light.

- You have typically no moving objects

- You want to keep as much as possible in focus,

- You likely require lots of depth of field.

 

This tells me that I should put my camera in Av mode with a very large aperture value but not so large that the shutter speed isn’t fast enough to cause motion blur.

 

Again take your time, you have all the time in the world, if you have a wide angle lens try take a test shot to see if you can expose the sky as well as the ground in one shot. Take a couple of test shots check how the photo exposes in the darkest portion of the photo and the lightest. It takes only 10 seconds but can make all the difference. More time you spend thinking about the photo the better the results and the less time you will spend in front of a computer trying to correct your own mistakes.

 

You don't need a tripod for this, it helps but is not necessary when lighting conditions are good, for example this shot was taken free hand.

 

Image stabilising technologies are your friend, however be careful if you take our shots quickly in one big swoop spinning on one foot. Not only will you get unnecessary motion blur but your Image stabiliser can miss behave by doing weird things like rotating the image or causing large amounts of motion blur. Again if you are on a moving boat or car sometimes it pays to just turn Image stabilising off. This really depends on the type of Image stabiliser used in your camera or lens. For you who have mode II on your canon lenses now is the time to use it.

 

Don't use spot light metering, use a metering program which considers the whole frame such as Evaluative Metering or Matrix Metering for all you Nikon users.

 

Use One Shot AF for your Auto focus program and also set the camera to auto select AF point selection. Another thing to consider is to switch the camera into manual focus and focus to infinity. What this means is that distance mountain peaks will be in focus but closer the subject gets to the camera the more out of focus the image will become. I would recommend this if you plan to print your stitch at full resolution. If you look carefully at the full resolution render of this stitch, towards the bottom in the grass you can notice photo joins where the focus is different over the borders of two images. It might not be noticeable at a 10th its original size on a computer screen, but a 3 meter canvas might not be as forgiving. Keeping the photos constant is the key to a perfect stitch

 

One thing to keep in mind is if you are careful you can achieve a pseudo HRD shot by taking a stitched photo instead of regular photo. Consider if you took a photo of both the full sun and the landscape in one photo. Without using some kind of HDR technology ether your sky is going to be white and your landscape will be exposed correctly or you will have black landscape and a correctly exposed sun. Now consider taking two photos one of the sun and one of the landscape, you can expose both correctly and then join them! This works very well but can require a bit experimentation and luck.

  

TAKING THE SHOT

 

Now keeping all this in mind it’s time to finally take the shot!

I find panning from left to right rather then up and down gives me the best result. This should help keep all the photos constant. If you have a camera with a small buffer like my little 400D then shoot slow and steady. If the buffer fills up in the middle of the stitch you will have to stay still until it slowly empties. This normally ruins a good stitch, standing perfectly still for 30 seconds is a lot harder than it sounds.

Immediately before and after taking your stitch, take a photo of your feet! Sounds silly but you will thank yourself when you go to process your stitch. If your taking test shots, swapping lenses or taking multiple similar photos, it can be a real pain having to figure out from where your stitch started and where it ended, especially when all you have to go by are little thumb nails. Accidentally including photos which you never intended to include can potentially ruining your stitch or at very least just waste your time sifting through photos.

Always take more photos then you think you will need. Include parts of the shot which you won’t intend to have in the final copy. I have made this mistake time and time again, a perfect stick ruined all because one photo didn’t expose correctly or is out of focus or is just missing. Remember you need to have to have a full set of photos which describe the full length and height of the photo, please don't ruin your stitch by publishing the full non cropped render! It might look cool but it detracts from the image and its story. You want the viewer to see the photo, not the technology used to create it. Also means your photo is about 10 times the size its cropped equivalent would have been.

  

POST PROCESSING

 

Next you have the mammoth task of turning those 50 photos you took in to one massive single photo. Currently I am unaware of any stitching solutions which don’t require you to have to put in a fair amount of work, so depending on the quality of the photos you took; this process can take some time.

If you don’t have a copy of lightroom, I would highly recommend it. It’s one of the few affordable pieces of software Adobe sell. At $200 NZD It’s about 10th the price of Photoshop and does 90% of what you would need it to do (except HDR!!). It’s reasonably user friendly and doesn’t require much technical skills to be able to use. It’s perfect for milking every last drop from your photos.

Regardless of what you have, use your photo editing software to try normalize all the photos in your stitch so that they are all exposed the same, have the same colour temperature, hue and saturation. This step is not required but can make a massive difference to the final product.

Don’t try make the photos each look their best, remember they all have to look the same so they stitch together nicely, touch-ups come later. This is the point where you will understand the benefits of shooting in raw if you do so already. Be vigilant that you’re editing retains as much detail as possible, avoid increasing the contrast and avoid making portions of the image too dark or too light. A really good way of checking the damage you are doing to your photo is to keep an eye on the image histogram (that little graph Photoshop always shows but you don’t take much notice of). You want to make sure there are not any large peaks on the far right or left of the histogram, this is a good indicator that you are “destroying” detail with the transformations you are performing on the image. Because hand editing 50 photos would take hours, what I do in Lightroom is find the most important photos which make up the image and tweak them to have the correct colour temperature, hue, saturation and gamma, and then use the copy setting functionality to mass apply my changes to all the photos in the stitch. Then go through each photo and proof that they are correct. What is the meaning of correct? In this instants aim to make the photo look like the real thing but with slightly less saturation, don’t go overboard making them look vivid and stunning just yet.

I don’t currently know any image stitches which take a raw image and return a raw image, some do take raw images but if your program of choice does not, now is the point where you have to part with your beautifully detailed raw images.

What stitcher to use?

My stitcher of choice is the Microsoft Research's Image Composite Editor (ICE). It’s a piece of software created as a result of the Microsoft research project. Its free, it’s extremely smart, it’s relatively bug free and it is fast. You can download it from research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/ or just Google for it.

Its reasonably self-expiatory and simple to use. Try experimenting with different geometric projections. Sometimes different projections can help when your stitch doesn’t crop the way you would have liked it to.

Keep in mind processing a stitch is very computationally expensive, so this process can take time. On a very powerful computer the stitch above took about 3 minutes to process. On a less powerful computer it could take up to 30mins. Also keep in mind the resulting file can be massive, rendered in TIFF file format, this stitch is 250mbs! Handling such large images can prove difficult. This does not mean you need a fast computer, you just need patience.

 

When you have finally stitched your photo the way you want it import your stitch back in to light room and now you can play with image however you please!

Have a go yourself and let me know your results, its good way to experiment in diffident format sizes without having to go analogue, especially for all you out there who like myself how are suck with a cropped sensor 35mm.

 

Please don't forget flickr gives the option of viewing the image at its original resolution, its hard to appreciate the full scale of the image until you have seen it at its full resolution.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/mondayssocks/8212919738/sizes/o/in/...

 

The amount of stars in this image make the thing there HAS to be some other life out there.

 

Equipment

- Nikon D90 (Astro-Mod)

- Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

- Sky-Watcher Tripod

- AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6

- Bahintov Mask

- Intervalometer

- Laptop

- All Sky Plate Solver

- Sharpcap

- Stellarium

Acquisition:

- ISO 800

- f/5.6

- Bortle 2-4

- Taken on 7/22/2021

- 183 light frames x 1 minute

- 150 bias frames

- 22 dark frames

- 100 flat frames

Processing:

- Calibrated subframes using WBPP

- Stacked using Normalize scale gradient

- crop out stacking artifacts

- extract luminance

- DBE

- Photometric color calibration

- EZ soft stretch

- Curves transformation

- HDR multiscale transform

- LRGB combination

 

Website: theastroenthusiast.com/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

Summary of 2021

By Andrew Karagianis

Flickr version

 

If 2020 was a year of fear and panic, 2021 was a year of frustration. However, it wasn’t all bad.

 

Let’s get the COVID stuff out of the way first. People are still wearing masks below their noses, as though their nose and lungs aren’t connected – probably the same reason why it’s fine to breathe through your nose underwater as long as your mouth is closed.

 

Wait, what?

 

People are still socializing indoors with people who don’t live with them, without masks on, even though we know that the virus is airborne, not just spread via droplets. The government still hasn’t made a blanket travel ban or gone into another long-enough lockdown, because it values jobs over lives. And as I’ve realized more recently, mask mandates as they currently exist aren’t as helpful as they could be, because masks are not one-size-fits-all. I have yet to find a mask that doesn’t leave gaps – and the big honking industrial respirator I have that would offer the best protection isn’t allowed in a lot of settings because it has a valve that lets breath out.

 

And so here we are, with COVID cases skyrocketing like we’ve never seen before during the past few weeks due to this Omicron variant. The pandemic is nowhere near over, and our freedom to socialize like it’s 2019 without that nagging concern of “Am I going to be exposed to COVID by doing this?” is not on the horizon. Even the Q-anon confidiocy (confederacy + idiocy), who believe the world is out to get them, know deep down that maybe those large gatherings are risky for them personally. Vaccines prevent severe disease, but they don’t prevent infection, and that has been my justification for not seeing friends or family in person very much this year – because no level of face-to-face fun is worth finding out a few days later that someone’s been exposed to COVID.

 

But we’ve all spent enough time reading about the pandemic, so here’s how the rest of my year went. This year I’m going to separate the months by headers.

 

There were eight main events in 2021 that made it a significant year for me, which I will highlight as they come up in the chronology.

 

January:

Ally and I rang in the new year at home. Toronto was [still] on lockdown. We watched two episodes of Schitt’s Creek, and read our books.

 

In the first half of January, the provincial government announced a stay-at-home order effective January 14th, for everyone who could stay home. On January 14th, I got the word from my employer that I should try to work from home as much as possible. I texted our landlord, and he agreed to let me use NathAnne’s old apartment as a work space temporarily. On January 15th, I started working from home.

 

February:

February was cold.

 

I got my second FitBit – a Charge 4. I also started my GAIN Q3 training. As of December 24th, I still haven’t finished it due to lack of opportunities to do my practice interviews.

 

Also in February, my stocks on the investing app reached their peak. From that point on, my portfolio gradually decreased in value until July, when I reached the “break-even” point and sold it all off. Then I bought back a few shares in one company that consistently did well, and as of the end of 2021, I’m up about $70. Small gains as far as experienced investors are concerned, but it’s better than being in the hole!

 

March:

The first of the eight main events that influenced my experience of 2021 was that on March 20th, I got my first dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID vaccine. Let me just say how amazing that is. Humans had never developed a coronavirus vaccine until 2020, and now, a little over a year into the pandemic, I’d been given one.

 

Unfortunately over the course of the year, we would come to realize that vaccinated people can still be infected and even hospitalized in some cases, so it’s not perfect, but I am certain that mass vaccination has prevented lots of deaths. When I wrote my summary of 2020, 4.9 million people had received one dose of the vaccine. As of December 22nd, 2021, 4.49 billion people have had at least one dose of the vaccine. So that’s great progress.

 

But more needs to be done to get vaccines to less-wealthy countries where the vaccination rates are much lower than they are here. Why? Not just to save their lives; that’s the moral argument, and I’m fine with that. But also because most of the variants of concern have come from less-wealthy countries. And unless air travel completely stops, those variants will all come to Toronto soon after they’re discovered. Oops; I got to talking about COVID again! Well, of course I am; this is the biggest thing since World War Two.

 

Anyway, also in March, Ally embarked on a mini-project to document the rivers buried underneath our neighborhood in Leslieville, and I meanwhile took pictures of the date stamps of some of the manhole covers and sidewalks to see how old they were. One was from 1929! Damn, we’re just fascinating, aren’t we?

 

Also in March, Terrance (our parrot) started having problems with what seemed to be his breathing. We took him to a few vets over what I think were several days… I remember Ally being out with him to the vet once while I was working from home, and looking at his empty cage and getting teary-eyed at the thought of Terrance dying. Fortunately, after a few weeks of medication, he was back to normal. Now he’s 16 years old!

 

The second (and most significant) event of 2021 for me (at least until November) was that on March 24th, I got a bloodtest, and stupidly looked up my results online that night. It’s not a death sentence, but it fucking might as well have been in my mind, for the first few weeks as I tried to make sense of it. It said my fasting blood glucose was 6.5, and the report said that it indicates prediabetes. Great, thought I – I’m destined to have a disease in which a) I can’t have sugar ever again, and b) I have to prick my needle-phobic skin every day. All of those trips to Bulk Barn in which I bought $30 worth of chocolate at a time had caught up with me, not as an overweight 60-something, but as a slim 35-year-old.

 

I didn’t hear from my doctor for close to a month though, and no news is good news when it comes to medical things, but I immediately stopped eating cookies and started looking into the glycemic index and figuring out what life-long staple foods I wouldn’t be able to eat anymore, and what I’d be left with.

 

April:

After I made an unrelated doctor’s appointment in April, the substitute doctor confirmed that I do tentatively have prediabetes. They would test me again in August, but in the meantime, the substitute doctor suggested I start talking to a dietitian, so I did. I woefully overhauled my entire diet over the spring. Gone were:

 

• Gigantic bowls of cereal – my first love and a daily staple for as long as I can remember.

• Cookies – I probably ate a few hundred calories’ worth of cookies on most days.

• Normal pasta (as opposed to whole wheat).

• Pizza

• Chocolate

• Pop

• White bread products (even though I’d already switched to whole grain bread for sandwiches a few years ago, despite being on my Hate List from 2010).

 

Needless to say, I started losing weight, and not because I wanted to. These foods constituted the majority of my diet. My Zoo friends circa 2008 were right – those foods I was eating every day back then (white bread, honey buns, pop, etc.) were bad for me. I knew at the time that they were probably right, and my teeth had been showing evidence ever since I was a kid, but since I never got fat, I just assumed this would happen to me much later in life.

 

I replaced my beloved boxed cereals with porridge; started eating junk chick peas (dried flavoured chickpea snacks), seeds, nuts, and yogurt, and made sure to include protein or “healthy fat” with every carb-based snack or meal. I had to do whatever I could to avoid getting the daily needle prick disease that also happens to have some other shitty effects.

 

I also started jogging [again] that spring. Let’s be clear – I’ve been pretty sedentary my whole life, with some bouts of medium-term exercise in between. I’d only jogged a few times, but I got into the habit of going out for a power walk or jog before working from home on weekday mornings, and eventually got to the point of being able to jog 0.975km without stopping, once. Unfortunately, I actually got worse at jogging as the year went on, and I’m not exactly sure why, but I think it might have to do with a) the summer humidity, and b) the mostly-downhill route I was taking around Greenwood Park in the spring.

 

On April 4th, I bought a Canon EOS IX Lite on eBay for $46 – an APS film SLR! I hadn’t really considered that APS film could be had with SLR technology until more recently, so I figured I could get some great film shots with it in combination with whatever lenses I had that would fit it. Two of them fit, but malheureusement, the pictures were grainier than the ones I took with the Kodak Advantix T500 point-and-shoot camera. Given that APS film is such a rarity, I’ve only used one roll in the EOS IX Lite because the T500 produces better-quality pics, but it could also have been related to the roll of film itself…anyway, it was neat to try, and I’ll try it again.

 

On April 24th, I’d lived in Ontario for 17 years.

 

On April 25th, Ally & I gave the landlord our notice to move out. After 7.5 years, we decided it was time to leave, as the stench of pot smoke from the basement tenants in the shared ventilation system was pissing us off, and the landlord had recently told us he was considering selling the house. We needed the guarantee of a second room for a private work-from-home space…and I knew that once a new landlord took over the house, I’d be kicked out of the second-floor apartment in short order. I was upset the whole weekend and cried about it three times that Sunday (yeah, that’s right; normalize men expressing emotions) while Ally was downstairs working.

 

I had gotten attached to the house, the view of the jungle (as I called it) out the third-floor windows, and the neighborhood itself, down to the routes I walked so often along the main roads for shopping or eating; TTC/walking commuting routes while working at Good Shepherd, and along the side streets that we’d wander on evening walks. We’d arranged a network of local services for us in that area over the years. But as I said to Ally, we had done that neighborhood to death. Our neighbors were dicks, and I was intellectually okay to live somewhere else even if I emotionally didn’t want to. We started looking for new apartments right away, and saw one that night. Whether virtually or in person, we saw 8 apartments within 7 days of giving our notice.

 

May:

On May 1st, Ally got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and then we saw and put a deposit down for a two-bedroom apartment in Etobicoke.

 

Over the next few weeks, we filled my car full of boxes and other stuff and made at least 8 runs over to the new place in advance of the big moving day. We were lucky in that the landlady gave us a key a month before we moved in.

 

Around May 25th, I went to Mom’s house and she gave me a Kodak Retinette film camera that had belonged to Gramp, and was made between 1954 and 1958 – my fourth film camera, but the first that uses 35mm film! As of January 1st, 2022, I still haven’t used it though.

 

At the end of May, I created a 2021 version of my Hate List, and promptly forgot about it. Although there are still a lot of things that grind my gears, I’m a lot less focused on resentments than I was back in 2010 when I wrote the original Hate List. Also, before you make a comment about the existence of a hate list in the first place, you need to see what was on it. It doesn’t target things that people are born with.

 

June:

On Saturday June 5th, we moved to our new apartment. This was the culmination of the third big event that shaped my 2021. After 7 years, 7 months, and 22 days, it was time to leave the *****Haus (a name we didn’t use until the very end, when we needed a name to refer to it as part of our history). It was the last time I’d hear the roar of the GO train or the screeching from the subway yard in the background, or the chirping birds in the tree canopy outside our windows. We loaded up my car and took Terrance over to the new apartment, set him up, then drove back to the house one last time to meet the movers. We were 35 this time and decided to get someone else to do the heavy lifting down two narrow stairways and around tight corners.

 

It was insane how much stuff we had, even in this bigger new apartment. But eventually we sorted it out while listening to Elton John and George Harrison on Ally’s Spotify, and made it liveable. We ate Indian food and ice cream, and rejoiced about never having to see our old neighbors again.

 

Within two days of moving in, I found a new spot for taking pictures. I wanted to retain the habit of going for almost-daily walks, so I familiarized myself with the local streets pretty quickly.

 

On June 16th, I got my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

 

I spent most of my non-work time in the summer walking and riding my bike around our new neighborhood, which was more bike-friendly than the old one (Leslieville), even if the biking culture is different here. Less hipsters and more Lance Armstrong types, but at least the cycling infrastructure is better here. We rode to Tom Petty (Sam Smith) Park and east along the Martin Goodman Trail several times, and got to know that easterly trail route pretty well. Don’t get me wrong; Leslieville had some recreational trails nearby, but they were a lot farther away. Now the physically-protected bike trails are much closer.

 

During the first couple of months in our new home, we spent a lot of evenings sitting on the front porch, reading books or eating supper. It was just nice to be able to sit outside on one’s own property (even though we’re tenants) – for the previous 7.5 years, if we wanted to sit outside, free of judgement, we had to go to the park. As the summer went on, we spent less time on the front porch and more time in the back yard. This probably coincided with the upstairs tenants moving out in July; that apartment being vacant for a month, and new tenants moving in in August.

 

July:

On July 3rd, I got the Strava app as a way to map my bike rides. I also set up my drums in the new apartment in July; having thought I probably wouldn’t be able to in the new place since there were actually other tenants in the adjacent units here (we lived with two empty apartments between us and the basement tenants for almost four years at the *****Haus, so drumming there was never much of a concern).

 

August:

On August 1st, we headed to Emily Provincial Park for our second camping adventure together, which brings us to the fourth event that made 2021 significant for me – 2021 was the year of camping for us. It was the first year since 2014 that I didn’t leave the province, but camping was accessible enough for us to go a few times. We paddled along the Pigeon River, did some fishing and drone flying (outside of the park; I’m no scofflaw), and choked on the thick 24-hour campfire smoke – clearly some of the other campers didn’t get the memo that you don’t burn a campfire all day during the summer. But it was a nice trip overall.

 

After camping, I was brought back to working from the office more often, which increased further in September. I was on the fence about it. Working from office mixed up my day a bit, in that it gave me more variety, but it also gave me less time to exercise for diabetes prevention, not to mention putting 70km on my car per day. Which is still an improvement over the 98km per day I was doing when I lived at the *****Haus, but anyway.

 

In August I finally finished posting my honeymoon pictures on Flickr. It took me two and a half years. I was sad to finish that project, because I got to revisit bits and pieces of my honeymoon frequently over two and a half years. Travel for me is a very nostalgic thing, because although I may only spend a handful of days in a new place, I spend months or years posting pictures from it, so really, the trip feels a lot longer to me, which I like.

 

September:

In September, I started posting my Europe 2020 pictures, skipping over my trips from 2018 and 2019 in favor of the more-timely contrast of my Europe pictures, because they were taken just days before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.

 

September was eventful. Ally bought a car around September 8th. I bought a JBL Bluetooth speaker, since the new apartment has these things called “rooms”, in which sound from my computer doesn’t carry as far. It arrived just in time for me to stream some of the ceremonies for the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

 

It’s hard to believe 9/11 was 20 years ago, and that there are adults today who hadn’t been born yet on 9/11. But at the same time, it feels like it was 20 years ago, even though I remember images and conversations from that day like it was yesterday. I was a teenager then, just shy of my 16th birthday, living in St. John’s Newfoundland, still in high school, hopelessly single, with dreams of being a rock star (and working toward it, as only a naïve and modestly-talented teenager could). Now I’m 36, live in Toronto, married four years, and have been working as an addiction counsellor for nine years.

 

A few days later, I went for my follow-up bloodtest to either rule out or confirm prediabetes. Unfortunately, it was confirmed. My fasting blood glucose was actually a tiny bit worse, which was a drag because I’d been making so much effort to eat better and get more exercise during the previous six months. But my doctor told me not to be discouraged, so….we’ll see what the next test shows.

 

The next weekend we went camping again; this time to Point Farms Provincial Park for just one night. We concluded that we could go camping frequently if we went to relatively-nearby parks and were willing to go for just one night, to avoid the need to ask for time off work. It was a nice little journey to Lake Huron, which I had never seen (other than its offshoot, Georgian Bay). When we got back home, we decided to book another one-night camping trip.

 

For the federal election, I voted by mail like a communist. Just kidding; communist countries don’t have legitimate elections. We live in a democracy, but you don’t have unlimited rights to personal liberty. Canada isn’t America, and never was. Get used to it, snowflake.

 

On September 25th, I went for my longest-ever bike ride — 31km! My legs were shot by the end of it, but I was happy with myself.

 

October:

On October 2nd, we went camping for a third time; this time for a one-nighter in Algonquin Park, at the Canisbay Lake campground. Yes, one night is not much time for a trip to Algonquin, but I can’t stress how much of a pain in the ass it is to have to request time off work, especially in my job, where there are certain days each month that I can’t take off. My previous employer was very fast at approving such requests, but my current one is not. On this trip, we got rained out. But we did see a moose about 50 feet in front of us on the trail! And it was very scenic with all the deciduous tree leaves in bright fall colors.

 

On October 9th, I bought an iPad and put the old 2010 MacBook Pro into full retirement. It’s not dead yet, but it was time to get a device that I could consistently use to browse the internet, after the MBP kept being useless due to an erroneous clock/date error that I couldn’t fix.

 

On October 14th, I had my first colonoscopy. Yes, you needed to know that. This was the fifth event that made 2021 significant for me. The prep actually wasn’t too bad. I hardly felt hungry on the all-liquid diet the day before. But I opted to do the procedure without sedation, because being put to sleep is my second biggest fear (behind death itself). Let me just say that if you haven’t had a colonoscopy before…when it’s time, get the sedation. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life, like someone jabbing my stomach from the inside with a baseball bat. It felt like the kind of torture they might apply to extract information from an inmate at Guantanamo Bay.

 

But I was able to walk out of the clinic and go about my day without any assistance, so at least there was that!

 

After that, I was back to working from home 3 days a week, which I was fine with and which continued for most weeks until the end of the year.

 

If there was a theme to October itself, it was Ally’s mural project. We spent every weekend in October (except the camping weekend) plus a few weekday evenings painting a whale mural on a garage door near the Junction. A woman had seen Ally’s Bell Box mural from 2019 and commissioned a similar design. It was a nice way to spend time together, in spite of the alleyway channeling the cold wind like it was the Scarborough Town Centre bus terminal. If you look at the photo of the mural above, @creating_to_be_whole is Ally’s Instagram account.

 

November:

Ally and I got our flu shots on November 2nd. Never before had I been so gung-ho to get a flu shot.

 

On November 6th, a day that will live in infamy, I went to Mom’s house for a masked visit. We took Penny for a walk to Centennial Park and talked about prediabetes, and then went back and talked about various things in her living room. Elliot came over and joined the conversation. Then I drove home and got stuck in traffic on Lake Shore Blvd at Cherry Street, as they had demolished the onramp to the Gardiner near Logan Ave in September, and Lake Shore was down from three lanes to one, without sufficient signage. When I got home and parked in the driveway, I took a picture from inside my car of a person riding by on a bicycle with the sunset in the background, not knowing it was the last picture I would take before my world changed. I was going to go inside and tell Ally that I got stuck in traffic, which is why I took so long getting home.

 

Ally was standing in the kitchen, and she told me “I think I’m pregnant!”

 

Holy fuck!

 

* * * * *

 

This was the sixth event that made 2021 significant for me, and turned everything else on its head. For the first several days, I was pretty concerned. We’re doing okay, but we aren’t part of the wealthy Toronto homeowner class. How am I going to be able to afford a kid?!?

 

We both asked a lot of questions of ourselves and each other, but by the second half of November, we eventually settled on “If we have this opportunity to have a kid and we decide not to, we would probably regret it in the long run.”

 

So, most of November was spent deliberating about what we were going to do, all while not allowing ourselves to get advice from anyone else because we didn’t want to tell anyone else (other than Ally’s doctor) quite yet.

 

December:

On December 5th, we told our parents. They were over the moon!

 

I had the weeks of December 13th and 20th off work, so I recorded a bit of music and did some more walking, which was limited by the prevalence of ice on the sidewalks earlier in the month.

 

On December 16th, I went with Ally to get her second ultrasound. I heard the baby’s heartbeat and we got a printed picture, in which it definitely looked like a baby this time.

 

We went up to Dad’s house for a pre-Christmas visit on December 19th, knowing that we probably wouldn’t visit on Christmas Day now. I booked my COVID booster shot for February 1st once the government released the hounds, I mean appointments. Then I got word of another place with earlier appointments and I booked one for January 15th, and later found an even earlier appointment for December 30th. In fact, if there was a seventh theme for 2021 for me, it was the year of needles, which is significant because I fucking hate needles as I mentioned earlier:

 

• On March 20th I got my first dose of the COVID vaccine (Pfizer).

• On March 24th I got bloodwork.

• On June 16th I got my second dose of the COVID vaccine (Pfizer).

• On September 13th I got bloodwork.

• On October 14th I got two finger pricks to test my blood sugar before and after the colonoscopy (thankfully those were only 5.6, but I had been on a liquid diet).

• On November 2nd I got my flu shot.

• On December 22nd I got my tetanus/pertussis/diphtheria booster shot.

• And on December 30th I got third dose of the COVID vaccine; Moderna this time.

 

The Omicron variant had made its way to Ontario by early December, and by December 23rd the daily count of new COVID cases had broken the record set in April; over 5,000 (on December 31st, it was 16,713 cases). We decided that week that we were not going anywhere for Christmas this year. Not worth the risk.

 

On Christmas Day, Ally and I had a leisurely morning and opened our presents around 11:00am. We went for an afternoon walk, FaceTimed with my family who were at Dad’s house in the afternoon, and ate leftover lasagna for supper. A very low-risk Christmas for us. On Boxing Day, we took and posted a picture of us with the second ultrasound picture of our future child and Terrance photoshopped onto my shoulder. The likes and comments started pouring in! A lot of people were happy for us! Later that day, Ally recorded vocals and I recorded an intro guitar part for “Mr. Tambourine Man”, finishing our rendition of The Byrds’ version of the Bob Dylan classic.

 

Indeed, if there was an eighth theme of 2021 for me, it’s that I recorded more music in 2021 than in any previous year (except 2011, when I made more recordings of Adam & Evil songs). I also sang on at least three of them, which is a big step for me. I collaborated with Ally, Dad, Terrance, and the ambient sounds of Leslieville on some tracks, and made 48 recordings overall in 2021 (although I’m counting unfinished versions).

 

I did very little painting in 2021; just a couple of cards I think, but I did buy Procreate (how fitting, amirite) for iPad in December.

 

I was more active on Flickr in 2021. I posted 211 photos/videos in 2021, whereas I posted 103 in 2020, and only 62 in 2019 for comparison.

 

TV shows gotten into/watched/finished:

• The Beatles Get Back

• That’s it! With no Mandalorian or The Crown until 2022, 2021 was a minimal year for TV.

 

Memes/Instagram accounts I liked:

• Anakin and Padme in a field – so many possibilities!

• Middle Class Fancy/Rand & Nance - #relatable as a middle-class person.

• Townie Memes – this reminds me of my homeland.

• BlahTO – a spot-on satire of BlogTO.

• Jenny-Jinya – this account is a tear-jerker if you have pets.

 

Books read:

1. Finished A Promised Land by Barack Obama

2. Tried reading The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson, but it involved a lot of bird abuse stories.

3. Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld

4. Face The Music: A Life Exposed by Paul Stanley

5. A Journey Across the Island of Newfoundland in 1822 By W. E. Cormack

6. The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

7. Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey

8. Son of a Critch by Mark Critch

9. Started Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

10. Started You’re going to be a dad!

 

A few songs I got into:

• “Two of Us” and “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Beatles

• “Saving Ourselves for Marriage” by Anal Cunt

• “Tomorrow” and “Under The Gun” by KISS

• “Living in Lightning” by City and Colour

 

I haven’t seen a movie in a theater since “The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019. I haven’t been to an indoor family meal since Christmas 2019. I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since March of 2020. Lots of people have taken a different approach, but this approach is what’s worked for me so far. We will get through this pandemic…remember, this isn’t just a hard year – as I said above, this is the biggest event to strike humanity since World War Two. Of course it’s hard. Of course we’re fed up with it. I’ve been lucky since my job is protected as being essential, and so I haven’t been on the rollercoaster of open/close, income/no income that some of you have experienced. I’ve also been lucky in that while I’m an essential worker, I’m not required to work with people who are known to have COVID, like hospital workers are. Those are the people I feel for. For them, this might as well be World War Three.

 

But clearly the virus isn’t done with us yet. No one person has the power to stop it, but collective action goes a long way.

 

Hang in there, and thanks for reading! Happy New Year!

 

Sources:

ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

www.cbc.ca/news/world/coronavirus-covid19-canada-world-de...

   

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.

 

Information about the memorial hall:

 

The Late President Chiang Ching-kuo passed away on Jan. 13, 1988, and the military built the Ching-Kuo Memorial Hall to commemorate him. Located on a hill at the western side of Shengli Reservoir, it was completed in June 1994. The wall in front of the memorial park is decorated with a relief sculpture of the late President Chiang Ching-kuo inspecting the defenses. It exhibits the “blue tile and white wall” style of the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, and its structure resembles the palace style of the National Theater and National Concert Hall. The two-story hall exhibits an atmosphere of solemn elegance. The first floor of the hall houses a bronze seated statue of Chiang Ching-kuo, together with his last testament, and the second floor has displays of photos from his inspection visits to the islands as well as his hand-written documents.

 

Source: www.matsu-nsa.gov.tw/user/attraction-content.aspx?a=31&am...

IC 342 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. Despite it appears as the third-largest galaxy in the northern hemisphere - only smaller than M 31 and M 33 - its location in dusty areas near the galactic equator makes it difficult to observe, thus leading to the nickname.

 

Object: IC 342 (The Hidden Galaxy)

Optics: GSO Newton 8" F4 + GPU

Mount: Celestron CGEM

Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MMC @-20°C, Gain=75, Offset=15

Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters

Exposure: total ~3.7h, R 12x240sec, G 12x240sec, B 13x240sec, L 19x240sec, 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 40 Flats per channel

Date: 2017-10-14

Location: Vockenroth

Capture: Sequence Generator Pro

Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2

Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig

Image Processing: Stephan Schurig

AstroPixelProcessor 1.071: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Channel Combination, Background Flattening & Calibration, Star Colors Correction, Auto Digital Development

Photoshop 20.0.4: 2x Curves, Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise, Color Balance, Masked Dynamic (Dynamic, Saturation), Star Shrink, Masked Smart Sharpen, Levels

Remarks: Dedicated to Gernot Semmer

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.

Powerlessness

 

Alienation in the sense of a lack of power has been technically defined by Seeman as “the expectancy or probability held by the individual that his own behaviour cannot determine the occurrence of the outcomes, or reinforcements, he seeks." Seeman argues that this is “the notion of alienation as it originated in the Marxian view of the worker’s condition in capitalist society: the worker is alienated to the extent that the prerogative and means of decision are expropriated by the ruling entrepreneurs".[20] Put more succinctly, Kalekin-Fishman (1996: 97) says, “A person suffers from alienation in the form of 'powerlessness' when she is conscious of the gap between what she would like to do and what she feels capable of doing”.

In discussing powerlessness, Seeman also incorporated the insights of the psychologist Julian Rotter. Rotter distinguishes between internal control and external locus of control, which means "differences (among persons or situations) in the degree to which success or failure is attributable to external factors (e.g. luck, chance, or powerful others), as against success or failure that is seen as the outcome of one’s personal skills or characteristics".[21] Powerlessness, therefore, is the perception that the individual does not have the means to achieve his goals.

More recently, Geyer remarks that “a new type of powerlessness has emerged, where the core problem is no longer being unfree but rather being unable to select from among an overchoice of alternatives for action, whose consequences one often cannot even fathom”. Geyer adapts cybernetics to alienation theory, and writes (1996: xxiv) that powerlessness is the result of delayed feedback: “The more complex one’s environment, the later one is confronted with the latent, and often unintended, consequences of one’s actions. Consequently, in view of this causality-obscuring time lag, both the ‘rewards’ and ‘punishments’ for one’s actions increasingly tend to be viewed as random, often with apathy and alienation as a result”.

 

Meaninglessness

 

A sense of meaning has been defined by Seeman as “the individual’s sense of understanding events in which he is engaged”.[23] Seeman (1959: 786) writes that meaninglessness “is characterized by a low expectancy that satisfactory predictions about the future outcomes of behaviour can be made." Where as powerlessness refers to the sensed ability to control outcomes, this refers to the sensed ability to predict outcomes. In this respect, meaninglessness is closely tied to powerlessness; Seeman (Ibid.) argues, “the view that one lives in an intelligible world might be a prerequisite to expectancies for control; and the unintelligibility of complex affairs is presumably conducive to the development of high expectancies for external control (that is, high powerlessness)”.

Geyer (1996: xxiii) believes meaninglessness should be reinterpreted for postmodern times: "With the accelerating throughput of information [...] meaningless is not a matter anymore of whether one can assign meaning to incoming information, but of whether one can develop adequate new scanning mechanisms to gather the goal-relevant information one needs, as well as more efficient selection procedures to prevent being overburdened by the information one does not need, but is bombarded with on a regular basis." "Information overload" or the so-called "data tsunami" are well-known information problems confronting contemporary man, and Geyer thus argues that meaninglessness is turned on its head.

Normlessness[edit]

 

Normlessness (or what Durkheim referred to as anomie) “denotes the situation in which the social norms regulating individual conduct have broken down or are no longer effective as rules for behaviour”.This aspect refers to the inability to identify with the dominant values of society or rather, with what are perceived to be the dominant values of society. Seeman (1959: 788) adds that this aspect can manifest in a particularly negative manner, “The anomic situation [...] may be defined as one in which there is a high expectancy that socially unapproved behaviours are required to achieve given goals”. This negative manifestation is dealt with in detail by Catherine Ross and John Mirowski in a series of publications on mistrust, powerlessness, normlessness and crime.

Neal & Collas (2000: 122) write, “Normlessness derives partly from conditions of complexity and conflict in which individuals become unclear about the composition and enforcement of social norms. Sudden and abrupt changes occur in life conditions, and the norms that usually operate may no longer seem adequate as guidelines for conduct”. This is a particular issue after the fall of the Soviet Union, mass migrations from developing to developed countries, and the general sense of disillusionment that characterized the 1990s (Senekal, 2011). Traditional values that had already been questioned (especially during the 1960s) were met with further scepticism in the 1990s, resulting in a situation where individuals rely more often on their own judgement than on institutions of authority: "The individual not only has become more independent of the churches, but from other social institutions as well. The individual can make more personal choices in far more life situations than before” (Halman, 1998: 100). These choices are not necessarily "negative": Halman's study found that Europeans remain relatively conservative morally, even though the authority of the Church and other institutions has eroded.

 

Political alienation

 

One manifestation of the above dimensions of alienation can be a feeling of estrangement from, and a lack of engagement in, the political system. Such political alienation could result from not identifying with any particular political party or message, and could result in revolution, reforming behavior, or abstention from the political process, possibly due to voter apathy.

A similar concept is policy alienation, where workers experience a state of psychological disconnection from a policy programme being implemented.

 

Social isolation

 

Social isolation refers to “The feeling of being segregated from one’s community”. Neal and Collas (2000: 114) emphasize the centrality of social isolation in the modern world: “While social isolation is typically experienced as a form of personal stress, its sources are deeply embedded in the social organization of the modern world. With increased isolation and atomization, much of our daily interactions are with those who are strangers to us and with whom we lack any ongoing social relationships.”

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, migrants from Eastern Europe and the developing countries have flocked to developed countries in search of a better living standard. This has led to entire communities becoming uprooted: no longer fully part of their homelands, but neither integrated into their adopted communities. Diaspora literature depicts the plights of these migrants, such as Hafid Bouazza in Paravion. Senekal (2010b: 41) argues, "Low-income communities or religious minorities may feel separated from mainstream society, leading to backlashes such as the civil unrest that occurred in French cities in October 2005. The fact that the riots subsequently spread to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, and Switzerland, illustrates that not only did these communities feel segregated from mainstream society, but also that they found a community in their isolation; they regarded themselves as kindred spirits".

 

Relationships

 

One concept used in regard to specific relationships is that of parental alienation, where a child is distanced from and expresses a general dislike for one of their parents (who may have divorced or separated). The term is not applied where there is child abuse. The parental alienation might be due to specific influences from either parent or could result from the social dynamics of the family as a whole. It can also be understood in terms of attachment, the social and emotional process of bonding between child and caregiver. Adoptees can feel alienated from both adoptive parents and birth parents.

Attachment relationships in adults can also involve feelings of alienation. Indeed, emotional alienation is said to be a common way of life for many, whether it is experienced as overwhelming, or is not admitted to in the midst of a socioeconomic race, or contributes to seemingly unrelated problems.

 

Self-estrangement

 

Self-estrangement is an elusive concept in sociology, as recognized by Seeman (1959), although he included it as an aspect in his model of alienation. Some, with Marx, consider self-estrangement to be the end result and thus the heart of social alienation. Self-estrangement can be defined as “the psychological state of denying one’s own interests – of seeking out extrinsically satisfying, rather than intrinsically satisfying, activities...”. It could be characterized as a feeling of having become a stranger to oneself, or to some parts of oneself, or alternatively as a problem of self-knowledge, or authenticity.

Seeman (1959) recognized the problems inherent in defining the "self", while post-modernism in particular has questioned the very possibility of pin-pointing what precisely "self" constitutes. Gergen (1996: 125) argues that: “the traditional view of self versus society is deeply problematic and should be replaced by a conception of the self as always already immersed in relatedness. On this account, the individual’s lament of ‘not belonging’ is partially a by-product of traditional discourses themselves”. If the self is relationally constituted, does it make sense to speak of "self-estrangement" rather than "social isolation"? Costas and Fleming (2009: 354) suggest that although the concept of self-estrangement “has not weathered postmodern criticisms of essentialism and economic determinism well”, the concept still has value if a Lacanian reading of the self is adopted. This can be seen as part of a wider debate on the concept of self between humanism and antihumanism, structuralism and post-structuralism, or nature and nurture.

Mental disturbance

 

Until early in the 20th century, psychological problems were referred to in psychiatry as states of mental alienation, implying that a person had become separated from themselves, their reason or the world. From the 1960s alienation was again considered in regard to clinical states of disturbance, typically using a broad concept of a 'schizoid' ('splitting') process taken from psychoanalytic theory. The splitting was said to occur within regular child development and in everyday life, as well as in more extreme or dysfunctional form in conditions such as schizoid personality and schizophrenia. Varied concepts of alienation and self-estrangement were used to link internal schizoid states with observable symptoms and with external socioeconomic divisions, without necessarily explaining or evidencing underlying causation. R.D. Laing was particularly influential in arguing that dysfunctional families and socioeconomic oppression caused states of alienation and ontological insecurity in people, which could be considered adaptations but which were diagnosed as disorders by mainstream psychiatry and society.(Laing,[1967] 1959). The specific theories associated with Laing and others at that time are not widely accepted, but work from other theoretical perspectives sometimes addresses the same theme.

In a related vein, for Ian Parker, psychology normalizes conditions of social alienation. While it could help groups of individuals emancipate themselves, it serves the role of reproducing existing conditions.(Parker,2007). This view can be see as part of a broader tradition sometimes referred to as Critical psychology or Liberation psychology, which emphasizes that an individual is enmeshed within a social-political framework, and so therefore are psychological problems. Similarly, some psychoanalysts suggest that while psychoanalysis emphasizes environmental causes and reactions, it also attributes the problems of individuals to internal conflicts stemming from early psychosocial development, effectively divorcing them from the wider ongoing context. Slavoj Zizek (drawing on Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis) argues that in today's capitalist society, the individual is estranged from their self through the repressive injunction to "enjoy!" Such an injunction does not allow room for the recognition of alienation and, indeed, could itself be seen as an expression of alienation.(Zizek, 1994).

Frantz Fanon, an early writer on postcolonialism, studied the conditions of objectification and violent oppression (lack of autonomy) believed to have led to mental disorders among the colonized in the Third World (in particular Africans) (Fanon, ([2004] 1961).

A process of 'malignant alienation' has been observed in regard to some psychiatric patients, especially in forensic units and for individuals labeled 'difficult' or who aren't liked by at least some staff, which involves a breakdown of the therapeutic relationship between staff and patients, and which may end in the suicide of the patient. Individuals with long-term mental disorders, which may have originally stemmed from social alienation, can experience particular social and existential alienation within their communities due to other people's and potentially their own negative attitudes towards themselves and 'odd' behavior.

Disability

 

Differences between persons with disabilities and individuals in relative abilities, or perceived abilities, can be a cause of alienation. One study, "Social Alienation and Peer Identification: A Study of the Social Construction of Deafness",found that among deaf adults one theme emerged consistently across all categories of life experience: social rejection by, and alienation from, the larger hearing community. Only when the respondents described interactions with deaf people did the theme of isolation give way to comments about participation and meaningful interaction. This appeared to be related to specific needs, for example for "real" conversation, for information, the opportunity to develop close friendships and a sense of "family". It was suggested that the social meaning of deafness is established by interaction between deaf and hearing people, sometimes resulting in marginalization of the deaf, which is sometimes challenged. It has also led to the creation of alternatives and the deaf community is described as one such alternative.

Physicians and nurses often deal with people who are temporarily or permanently alienated from communities, which could be a result or a cause of medical conditions and suffering, and it has been suggested that therefore attention should be paid to learning from experiences of the special pain that alienation can bring.

 

Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group recently shared his vision for using neuro feedback as a tool for empowering patients who are being treated for substance abuse. In order to do so, Dr. Sharma explains, we start by measuring the four types of brain activity through the use of an EEG (electroencephalograph). The EEG picks up electrical impulses that are generated when we have any thoughts. Just like when we treat high cholesterol by measuring the different types of cholesterol in the body and the ratio between them, we can measure the four types of brainwaves that signify different types of brain activity. We know that people with substance abuse issues have a certain type of brain activity and our goal is to decrease that type of brain activity in relationship to other types of brain activity. We are working with the patient to change the ratio of the different brain activities in order to normalize brain function. After we have used EEG as an assessment tool we employ neuro feedback to help patients get their emotion regulation and decision making back on track. During between 12 and 20 neuro feedback sessions of about 30-40 minutes each we have them look at stimulus such as video or a photo that will evoke a certain emotion. We then train the patient to manage the brain waves so when faced with a trigger they can change their brain waves and resist the craving. This gives them the ability to help themselves by empowering them to take control over their emotions and begin to live day-by-day. Through these neurofeedback sessions, people suffering with addiction can see for themselves that it makes a big difference.

 

About Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group. During a career spanning 30 years, Dr. Sharma has served as an acclaimed researcher having led countless international mental health clinical research trials, taught and trained students as a neuro-scientist and served as author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed published articles and five books on schizophrenia and mental illness. He is dedicated to putting his vast knowledge to furthering the mental health field with insights into pharmacology and cognitive impairment treatment. Dr Sharma recognizes that the substance abuse treatment community is heading towards an inevitable next step in its evolution to ensure it continues to improve the quality of patients’ treatment. Today Dr. Tonmoy Sharma is committed to tirelessly promote and call for measurement-based care (MBC) in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction and mental illness calling for a national standardized measurement scale for assessing, diagnosing and treating alcohol and drug addiction.

 

For more on Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo

 

About Dr. Judith Ho. Dr. Judy Ho, Ph. D., ABPP is a licensed and board certified Clinical Psychologist based in Los Angeles. She lends her expertise as a panelist on a variety of national television shows and provides professional services in Psychological Testing and Forensic Expert work. She is a tenured professor of psychology at Pepperdine University.

 

This graphic shows a comparison of different Solar System bodies as a log normalized ratio from the surface of the body.

 

Much like the old "How New Yorkers see the world" cartoon, this graphic looks from the surface of the body towards the core. Surface* features (to left) are deliberately over-emphasized, and core structure (at right) is under-emphasized.

 

The graphic is designed to compare the composition - phase state of materials that make up these particular solar system bodies.

 

For many of the bodies, detailed information is lacking, so a best guess was generated based on available data. Due to the log-scale emphasis on near-surface structure, unknowns near the surface have the highest error. (For example ice shell thickness of the ice covered Ocean Worlds of our Solar System.)

 

For planets with a variable surface covering (Earth, Titan), the bar is split in the relative areal% of that covering material.

 

*For gas and ice giants, the 'surface' is the 0.1 MPa level in the atmosphere.

 

Copyright @2017 Michael J. Malaska

writingwithcolor: Before you say, Write your own! – let me tell you that we do. But this page is a resource for writers, so we thought writers might want to know what kinds of representation would make us more likely to get excited about your book. We don’t speak for everyone in our demographic, just ourselves, but we hope this post gives you some cool writing ideas. Note: This is additional info writers can keep in mind when writing characters of those backgrounds. We believe it’s a good thing to ask the people you’re including what they’d like to see. Actually hearing from misrepresented and underrepresented people and asking us what we’d like to see of ourselves is much better than unthinkingly tossing characters into tired tropes or reinforcing stereotypes that do us harm. Colette (Black): More Black people doing shit! Going on adventures, riding dragons, being magical! More Black characters in prominent roles in fantasy + sci-fi and historical settings and not always and only as slavess. These stories are important, but they’re NOT our only stories. We were kings and queens too. Let us wear the fancy dresses for a change instead of the chains, damn it! More Black girls being portrayed as lovely and treasured and worth protecting. More Black girls finding love. More Black girls in general who aren’t relegated to arc-less, cliche “Sassy best friends” and “strong black women.” More positive, dynamic roles of Black men (fathers, brothers, boys…) More positive, dynamic family roles of Black families as a whole, families that are loving and supportive and there. More Black people from all socioeconomic classes. More Black characters that don’t rely on the stereotypes that the media is currently going full force to reinforce. Yasmin (Arab, Turkish): More Arabs who aren’t token characters. I want to see Arabs normalised in literature. Arab teenagers in high school, Arab young adults behind on their taxes, Arab dads who cook amazing food, Arab moms who refuse to soften their tongue for others. Arabs who aren’t mystical fantasy creatures from another planet. Arabs in YAs and in dramas and nonfiction and comedies and children’s books. We are human just like everyone else, and I’d like to see that reflected in literature. Often we are boxed into very specific genres of literature and made to feel ostracised from the rest. Let’s see some change! Alice (Black, biracial): I’m hoping for more Black and biracial (mixed with Black) leading characters in all genres, but mainly in SF/F who fall outside of the stereotypes. Characters I can relate to who love, cry and fight for their ideals and dreams. It would be great if their race would play an active role in their identities (I don’t mean plot-related). Some intersectionality with sexuality and disability is also sorely missed, without it becoming a tragedy or it being seen as a character flaw. More mixed race characters who aren’t mixed with some kind of monster, fictional race or different species. Dystopias about problems usually faced by poc having actual poc protags, without all the racial ambiguity which always gets whitewashed. Shira (Jewish): More Jewish characters who feel positively about their Judaism and don’t carry it around as a burden or embarrassment. While the latter is definitely a real part of our experience due to anti-Semitism and all we’ve been through as a people, the fact that it overrepresents us in fiction is also due to anti-Semitism, even internalized. (Basically, Jews who don’t hate Judaism!) More brave, heroic characters who are openly Jewish instead of being inspired by the Jewish experience and created by Jews (like Superman) or played by Jews (Captain Kirk) but still not actually Jewish. I’m tired of always being Tolkien’s Dwarves; I’d like a chance to play Bard, Bilbo, or even Gandalf’s role in that kind of story. Elaney (Mexican): While we’re discussing what sort of representation we’d like to see, I am using the word “latinista” and I want to quickly address that since you may have not seen it before: “-ista” is a genderless suffix denoting someone is from an area (“Nortista”, a northerner), or who practices a belief (“Calvinista”, a calvinist), or a professsion (you’ve heard ‘barista’). I find it more intuitively pronounceable than “latinx” and also more friendly to Spanish, French, and Portugueze pronunciation (and thus more appropriate), personally, so I invite you to consider it as an alternative. If you don’t like it, well, at least I showed you. 1. I want legal Latinista immigrants. The darker your skin is down here, the more likely you are to be assumed to be illegal by your peers, and I want media to dilute this assumption so many have of us. 2. I want Latinistas who are well educated, not just smart, and I mean formally educated, with college degrees, professional skillsets, and trained expertise. Being in fields which do not require a formal degree is no less legitimate of a lifestyle than being in a field which requires a PhD, but I want you to consider when casting your Latinista character that We, as a people, are assumed to be little more than the drop-out and the janitor by our peers, and People Of Color in scientific fields are mistaken as assistant staff rather than the scientists that they are. I want media to dilute this assumption. 3. I want Latnistas who are not marketed as “Latin American” but as their actual country of origin, because “Latin America” is a conglomerate of individual entities with their own, distinct cultures and if you are, for example, Cuban, then Mexican characters may appeal to you but they don’t have the same relatability as fellow Cuban characters. Wouldn’t you be a little more interested, too, to pick up a book that’s about a character who lives where you do rather than about a character who lives somewhere in general? 4. I want rich or well-to-do Latinistas. Looking back, I notice that several of the character concepts that have been bounced off of us with regards to Latinista characters incorporate poverty despite an astronomical and diligent work ethic. I don’t think this is on purpose but I do think that it is internalized because so often the stereotype of us is poor and uneducated in a vicious cycle (uneducated because we’re poor, poor because we’re uneducated) and I think that there should be more media to dilute this. Lastly, I personally do not want these tropes to be explored and subverted by people, I want them to be avoided entirely because I feel that normalizing positive representation rather than commenting on negative representation is far more beneficial and validating to the people these works are supposed to help and represent. We don’t need sympathy, we need empathy! Jess (Chinese, Taiwanese): Stories that don’t center around the identity of being Chinese-American. That doesn’t mean “erase any references to protag’s Chinese identity” but I’d definitely like stories that have us go on awesome adventures every now and then and don’t have the Chinese character being all “I AM CHINESE” from beginning to end. Please round out the Chinese migrant parents instead of keeping them as strict and/or traditional. PLEASE. I could go into how my parents and the Chinese aunties and uncles here are so awesome, seriously, and we need more older Chinese migrant characters who are awesome and supportive and just people. Also! EAST ASIAN GIRLS WHO AREN’T SKINNY AND/OR PETITE. Please. PLEEEEEASE. And more stories about Taiwanese and Chinese folks who aren’t in bicoastal regions (the Midwest, the Plains, etc.) WE EXIST. More Chinese-Americans who aren’t necessarily Christian. Maybe it’s because of the books I’ve wound up reading, but there seems to be this narrative of Chinese migrants joining churches and converting when they’re in the US. This doesn’t mean I want less Chinese-American Christians in fiction, mind: I’d also just like to see more Chinese families in the US who are Buddhist or who still keep up with the traditions they learned from their homelands, like me, without having it considered in the narrative as ~old fashioned~ or ~ancient~ or ~mystical~. Tangentially, when writing non-Christian Chinese families, I’d rather people keep the assumption of Communism being the underlying reason why far, far away. I have been asked in the past if Communism was why my family didn’t go to church, and needless to say, it’s really, really offensive. Stella (Korean): I’d love to see more Korean (and Asian-American) characters that don’t perpetuate the super-overachieving, stressed-out, only-cares-about-succeeding Asian stereotype. These Koreans exist (I would know; I went to school with quite a few of them) but they don’t represent all of us. I want to see more Korean characters solving mysteries, saving the world and having fun. More Koreans that aren’t pale, petite, and a size 2. Not all of us have perfect skin or straight black hair or monolids. And some of us love our short legs, round faces and small eyes! And fewer stoic&strict Korean parents, please. So many of us grew up with loud, wacky, so-embarrassing-but-endearing parents! Recently, there’s been quite a few novels with Korean American female protags (particularly in the YA section) that deal with being in high school, dealing with strict parents, getting into college, and boys. Lots of boys! I think it’s awesome that there are more books with KA protags, and I’m so so so glad they’re out there. But I also recognize that those are definitely not the kind of books I would have read as a teenager, and it’s not the kind of book I want to read now. I want to see more Korean characters that are queer, trans, ace, bisexual. More Korean characters that are disabled or autistic or have mental illnesses. More Korean characters in fantasy, SFF, mystery! Heck, space operas and steampunk Westerns. I want it all! :DDDD A lot of Korean-Americans struggle with their identity. It’s hard to balance things sometimes! But I’d love to see more stories that *aren’t* overtly about Korean-Americans dealing with their racial identity or sexual orientation, but stories about Koreans saving princesses and slaying trolls and commandeering spaceships. I want a plot that doesn’t center on Korean-American identity, but on a Korean-American character discovering themselves. White characters get to do it all the time; I want Korean characters to have a turn. And honestly, I just want to see more Asians in media, period. South Asians, Southeast Asians, Central Asians! Thai, Hmong, Tibetan, Filipino, Vietnamese characters. Indian characters! There’s so much diversity in Asia and among Asian diaspora. I want us to be more than just ~~mystical~~ characters with ancient wisdom and a generic Asian accent. We’ve got boundless oceans of stories within ourselves and our communities, and I can’t wait for them to be told. I would also love to see more multiethnic Asian characters that are *not* half white. It seems to be the default mixed-race Asian character: East Asian and white. But so many of my friends have multiethnic backgrounds like Chinese/Persian, Thai/Chinese or Korean/Mexican. I have Korean friends who grew up in places like Brazil, Singapore and Russia. Did you know that the country with the largest population of Koreans (outside of Korea) is actually China? And while I’m at it, I’d love to see more well-translated works from Asia in the US. Like, how awesome would it be to have more science fiction, fantasy, and historical novels from Asia that are easily accessible in English? SUPER awesome!! Kaye (Muslim): I am so hungry for Muslim representation, because there is so little of it. You can see one or two (YA) titles I currently think or have heard are good representation on the shelves - notably, Aisha Saeed’s Written in the Stars - on an AMA I did the other day for /r/YAwriters. However, I’d just love to see stories where Muslim characters go on adventures like everyone else! I’ve been saying recently that I’d LOVE to see a cozy mystery. Or a series of Muslim historical romances a la Georgette Heyer (there are a LOT of Muslim girls who love romances, and I’m just starting to get into the genre myself!). I’d love to see Muslim middle grade readers get girls who find secret passages, solve mysteries, tumble through the neighborhood with their dozen or so cousins. I have a lot of cousins and thus I always have a soft spot for cousins. And siblings. I’m looking forward to Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham because Jen is writing Scarlett as a detective a la Veronica Mars. And she’s Somali-American. How cool is that?! Let’s see some classic road trip YA with Muslims. Let’s see comedies with quirky characters - for instance, I know one or two tween Muslim girls who are driving their moms MAD by suddenly turning vegetarian and refusing to touch the celebratory biryani at family Eid parties, who join relevant societies at their schools and start preaching to their extended families about the benefits of going vegetarian and all the funny little interactions that are involved with that. Let’s have a story with some wise-cracking African American Muslim girls. My cousin is a niqaabi who loves YA and hates that she doesn’t see herself in it. Let’s see some stories with teen niqaabis! Let’s explore the full, joyful spectrum of diversity in Islam. Let’s have stories where we talk about how one word in Bengali is totally different in another language, and one friend is hilariously horrified and the other friend doesn’t know what he/she said. (True story.) I want to see joy. I want to see happiness. Being a woman of color and a hijaabi often means facing so many daily, disheartening scenarios and prejudice and hatefulness. So many of the suggested tropes recently in the inbox focus on trying to force Muslim characters into beastly or haraam or just sad and stereotypical scenarios. I know that writers are better and have bigger imaginations than that. You want angst? Push aside the cold, unkind, abusive Muslim parents trope. Let’s talk about the Muslim girls I know who have struggled with eating disorders. Let’s talk about Islamophobia and how that is a REAL, horrible experience that Muslim kids have to fear and combat every day. Let’s approach contemporary angst without the glasses of the Western gaze and assumptions about people of the Islamic faith on. We can have Muslim novels that focus on growing pains like Sarah Dessen and Judy Blume (and speaking of that, my “auntie” who used to teach in a madrasah used to press Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret on the Muslim girls she knew because of how Margaret approached growing up and had concerns about her faith and her relationships, etc.) Having Shia friends, I would like to see more stories that aren’t just assumed to be Sunni. How about stories about Su-Shi kids, too? (Sunni and Shia - the name always surprises me!) Let’s see some Muslim-Jewish friendships. Because they exist. And of course, I always, always hunger for Muslim voices first. Because it’s so important to have these voices there, from the source, and some of the issues with answering here at WWC is how people seem to be approaching certain tropes that a Muslim writer could explore with the nuance and lived experience of their faith behind it.

Heon 455 - The Light Crossing the City by Karl Rudhyn (2023)

 

With the music : Song: New Beginnings (no guitar)

Composer: Armen Hambar

Album: Future World Music Volume 7 - Evolution

 

youtu.be/DU203TWhrTE

 

A new series for 2023 " Bethelem 732", a futuristic surrealistic architectural world dominated by megapolis in outer space planets.

 

After the great Third Exploration Generation also called "OWE - Outer Worlds Exploration" humanity finally had the ability to explore other worlds beyond its Solar System.

Giant Space Orbs were now propelled by giant nuclear fusion engines allowing generations to survive time and space.

On the other hand, bionic neural transfer and the genobionic revolution proved to be an essential tool in the creation of hybrid humanoid beings that are more resistant and adapted to long space travel, allowing the maintenance of these space worlds.

 

Bethelem 732 was the first outer world that owed its name to the giant star that still illuminates its megapolis of futuristic architecture.

But not everything was easy, although technology has evolved, grow up an ambiguous feeling of nostalgia for a terrestrial past that now can only be revived in geometric virtual worlds and a feeling of loss that is difficult to overcome.

 

And resistance has grown, subtly but increasingly, to the instituted normalizing powers...

 

And just like in other cities, here in Heon 455 the feeling of restlessness has been growing and I am one of them...

 

__________________________________________________

 

"Bethelem 732" is a series created by Karl Rudhyn and Daniel Arrhakis using NightCafe Studio's Online Artificial Intelligence Art Generator, stock images and images of mine.

Art Collage, digital painting processes include hand digital painting, textured layered techniques and color saturations techniques.

 

creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/IJkVW9BsKZVAvhmRYWkZ

   

September 19, 2024:

New York Times; Stop Normalizing Trump

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)

There was probably no reason to make this an HDR with all the dynamic range within that of a single shot. Except I wanted the blending of the different wave patterns. Since the lighting in the differnt shots were basically the same, I probably could have done the same thing with a nutural density filter ( I didn't have a filter with me) and extended the exposure time. That would have normalize the waves too.

I have imaged this before in the same frame as the Surfboard Galaxy, however the 0.62 Arcseconds Per Pixel the Qhyccd 183M gives me on my Sky-Watcher Quattro 8" F4 gives me a much higher resolution image, so here it is, the Owl Nebula in the constellation of Ursa Major at a distance of 2030 Light years from Earth

 

Gear:

Imaging Scope: Sky-Watcher Quattro 8" F4 Imaging Newtonian

Imaging Camera: Qhyccd 183M 20mpx ColdMOS Camera at -20C and DSO Gain

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro

Guide Camera: Qhyccd QHY5L-II Mono

Guide Scope: Sky-Watcher 50x90 Finder Scope

Filter Wheel: Starlight Xpress Ltd 7x36mm EFW

Filters: Baader Planetarium 36mm RGB

Coma Corrector: Sky-Watcher Aplanatic Coma Corrector

Image Acquisition: Main Sequence Software SGPro

Image Processing: PixInsight

 

Image Details:

Target: M97/NGC3587 - Owl Nebula

Constelation: Ursa Major

Red: 27x300S

Green: 27x300S

Blue: 27x300S

Ha: 25x600S

Darks: 51x300S

Flats: 101

Bias: 251 converted to SuperBIAS and deducted from Flats

 

PixInsight Image processing workflow:

1. Calibrated against darks and Bias Subtracted Flats

2. Star Alignment for all RGB and Ha Frames

3. Least noise frame from each colour chosen as Normalization Frame and Dynamic Background Extraction Performed

4. Normalization of all frames

5. Stacking of frames and generation of drizle data (for larger quality image in future)

6. Performed LinearFit using Red stacked image as reference for RGB Frames

7. Performed DynamicCrop on all channels and Ha

8. Performed MultiMedianTransformation to reduce background noise

9. Performed SCNR to remove excessive green in image

10. Stretched the image using HistogramTransformation

11. Performed an Unsharp Mask on RGB and HA Data

12. Performed an ATWT on the Background

11. Merged the Ha Data using the HaRVB-AIP Script in PixInsight

12. Performed a CurvesTransformation to bring out the star colour

Located within the park Seldensate remains the foundations and some rising wall work of the last castle. Those foundations are reached via the driveway and the restored gatehouse with pigeon tower. This gatehouse consists of two one-story angled wings, of which the actual gate has a gabled roof. The smaller wing has a stepped gable, but no roof. At the corner formed by the two wings, the pigeon tower is attached. This is an irregular, hexagonal tower with ditto slate spire. The house itself is a ruin. Dove tower and gatehouse have been restored. Of the castle, only the foundations remain. Whether these are actually the foundations of the castle that stood here before 1631 is not known to me.

 

Construction history:

The castle probably built between 1440 and 1468; that is when there is mention of a farmstead and a stone playhouse. In 1596 it was a walled stone building. Shortly afterwards, the dovecote tower was built. After the Peace of Munster, the building fell into disrepair. Restoration began in 1893. The house was largely demolished and rebuilt. Furthermore, the house and gatehouse were expanded and modernized. In 1920, Seldensate was abandoned and decay set in again. This process was accelerated by normalization of the Aa, which caused large differences in groundwater. World War II also left its mark. Demolition followed in 1961. In 1973 the ruin was purchased by the municipality. Between 1976 and 1980, the gatehouse and pigeon tower were restored. Furthermore, there are plans to rebuild the house.

Property history:

In 1304 there is mention of a farmstead, property of jonker Geerlingh van den Bossche. The Rycoutss family sold the property in 1440 to Goossen Toelinc, priest in 's-Hertogenbosch. He built the castle and left it to his niece Mechteld in 1481. Through inheritance through the female line it came into the hands of the Prouninck family of Deventer. After the death of the last descendant, Seldensate was sold in 1596. Those who bought the house resold it to Count Adolph van den Bergh in 1608. It then passed into the hands of the counts of East Friesland, lords of Heeswijk. Joost van Hedickhuijsen, drossaard of Berlicum and Middelrode settled on Seldensate, and in 1631 it became his property. His daughter had to sell the house 1679 due to financial problems. The next series of owners were seldom on the property and left it neglected, until in 1833 Johannes Cornelis Bosch inherited the property and took up residence there himself. His son Valerius Andringa Bosch restored the castle. Daughter Constantia, married to squire Christiaan Laman Trip inherited the estate. After their divorce in 1920, he and their daughter Valerie continued to live at Seldensate. In 1973, Valerie Russell-Laman Trip sold the dilapidated estate to the municipality of Berlicum, which had it largely demolished.

This photo was taken by my step-daughter, Amanda. It was made using an iPhone 11. I scanned a photographic print in order to add it to flickr. I’ve cropped it a bit and applied RNI Films filtering. The photo was taken in our kitchen in Marietta, GA.

 

Edited in RNI Films with Fuji Superia 200 V.2 normalized

I had a very healthy discussion today about politics and about which law needs to be prioritized by our leaders. Yes people needs change and i am too.

 

Change that would somehow come from ourselves as well, we cant blame all to the government. In fairness to them there are numerous amount of laws that helped us like cheaper medicine and rice distribution were normalized not to mention the imported cheap ones that many families enjoyed.

 

What pissed me is the reality that the officials( not all ) goes blind with wealth that they tend to forget what it needs to be done. I am not saying that they didnt do anything but corruption is very visible already and it pains us taxpayers that even our pension plan during retirement could not even pay for our medications.

 

I have reached 199 uploads so therefore this is my 2nd to the last post already since i dont have a pro account.

 

Peace to you all and god bless Philippines.

The Draco Group consists of three galaxies of which the barred spiral NGC 5985 is on the left. Together with NGC 5982 (center) and NGC 5981 (right) it forms the gravitationally bound trio Holm 719.

 

Object: NGC 5985, NGC 5982, NGC 5981 (Holm 719, Draco Group)

Optics: GSO Newton 8" F4 + GPU

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R

Camera: ZWO ASI 183MM Pro @-20°C, Gain=53, Offset=10

Filter: ZWO EFW 7x36mm, ZWO 36mm Filters

Exposure: total 7h, R 12x240sec, G 12x240sec, B 12x240sec, L 69x240sec, 200 Bias, 40 Darks, 60 Flats per channel

Date: 2018-05-12, 2018-05-19, 2018-05-21, 2021-08-10

Location: Schwaig, Lienz

Capture: Sequence Generator Pro, N.I.N.A.

Guiding: Off-Axis, ASI120MM, PHD2

Image Acquisition: Stephan Schurig

Image Processing: Stephan Schurig

AstroPixelProcessor 1.082: Calibration, Registration, Normalization, Integration, Remove Light Pollution, Background Calibration, Star Colors Correction, Auto Digital Development

Photoshop 22.5.1: Curves, Exposure (Offset), Nik Dfine 2 Denoise (Color Noise), Masked Nik Dfine 2 Denoise (Contrast Noise), Star Shrink, Starless Masked Smart Sharpen, Masked Dynamic (Dynamic, Saturation)

spikes on the fence outside the former Normal School in Cowcaddens, Glasgow

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

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.

This is the last of three photos I made of blossoms on my neighbor's peach tree that grows next to the fence on our property line. The fence is more like a yard divider that a barrier, short enough to see over. The neighbor's peach tree is close enough to touch and pick the fruit from our yard. Since our neighbor's family has little taste for peaches, Melody and I may get to enjoy some of the bounty of this fruit tree. This photo had some bright spots where the background showing through empty spaces in the blossom. I decided the highlights were distracting and cloned portions of the image to normalize the pink and white colors. I did this to make the photo more cohesive in the viewer's eye. I shot this using my Canon Powershot SX50.

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.

 

Information about the memorial hall:

 

The Late President Chiang Ching-kuo passed away on Jan. 13, 1988, and the military built the Ching-Kuo Memorial Hall to commemorate him. Located on a hill at the western side of Shengli Reservoir, it was completed in June 1994. The wall in front of the memorial park is decorated with a relief sculpture of the late President Chiang Ching-kuo inspecting the defenses. It exhibits the “blue tile and white wall” style of the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, and its structure resembles the palace style of the National Theater and National Concert Hall. The two-story hall exhibits an atmosphere of solemn elegance. The first floor of the hall houses a bronze seated statue of Chiang Ching-kuo, together with his last testament, and the second floor has displays of photos from his inspection visits to the islands as well as his hand-written documents.

 

Source: www.matsu-nsa.gov.tw/user/attraction-content.aspx?a=31&am...

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.minoriten.at/inhalt/wo/Minoriten/minoritenkirche.htm

The tomb of Oscar Wilde is located in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France. It took nine to ten months to complete by the sculptor Jacob Epstein, with an accompanying plinth by Charles Holden and an inscription carved by Joseph Cribb. In 1908, Oscar Wilde's literary executor Robert Ross chose Jacob Epstein for the commission of the tomb at a cost of two thousand pounds, which had been anonymously donated for this purpose. Later, in a publication of letters between Ada Leverson and Ross in 1930, Letters to the Sphinx, the anonymous donor was revealed to be Helen Carew, with financial assistance from novelist Stephen Hudson (Sydney Schiff). This was only Epstein's second commission, his first being the sculpture for the Holden-designed British Medical Association building in The Strand; these had been severely criticised for being too sexualised for public consumption. However, Epstein retained some noteworthy supporters within the Wilde circle such as William Rothenstein. The choice of Oscar Wilde's monument created controversy. Wilde's supporters would have liked for the monument to derive in some way from Wilde's works, such as "The Young King", by invoking homoerotica with figures of forlorn Greek youths, whereas Wilde's detractors believed he was deserving of no monument at all.[6] One can see the influences of Wilde's works in Epstein's original sketches for the tomb, which feature two young men, heads downcast in an image of grief and sorrow upon an empty stone stele. However, Epstein has said of his sketches of the tomb that he "was dissatisfied and scrapped quite completed work". It has been suggested that the change in design plans are due to Epstein's new focus on Wilde's poem "The Sphinx". However, a number of influences began to play on Epstein around this period, including that of fellow sculptor Eric Gill. The two artists were deeply interested in what they saw as the more primal sexuality of Indian and Egyptian art, as opposed to British art. Pennington refers to this period in Epstein's work as the Sun Temple period and claims that, having been unable to follow this path with some of his works in Britain, Epstein transferred his new passion onto the Wilde tomb. The monument began as a 20-tonne block of Hopton Wood stone in Derbyshire, England, unveiled to the London press in June 1912. Epstein devised a vast winged figure, a messenger swiftly moving with vertical wings, giving the feeling of forward flight; the conception was purely symbolical, the conception of a poet as a messenger, but many people tried to read into it a portrait of Oscar Wilde. In the original sketches, the influences have been linked to the winged Assyrian bulls in the British Museum. The small angel figure behind the ear of the Sphinx may have been a deliberate reference by Epstein to the verse in Wilde's poem The Sphinx: "sing me all your memories". Upon the headdress there are five figures, one with a crucifix, perhaps symbolising the martyrdom of Oscar Wilde; this may be a recurring theme—Epstein may have chosen the Sphinx with a crucified figure upon the headdress in reference to the sensual life choice of Wilde thinly veiled by his Catholicism. In Epstein's original sketchings there is a list of ten sins, however none are recognisable clearly on the final monument apart from the Egyptian-like helmet haircuts on the women. On the finished stone monument the small angel behind the ear has been removed and replaced by an elaborate headdress, the crucified figure and the phallic sphinx have been removed, and in their place is a personification of fame being trumpeted. This may have been Epstein landing on a less sentimental, carved and angular alternative. Whilst transporting the monument to the cemetery in France from his Cheyne Walk studios in London, Epstein ran into trouble with the police—having rejected its status as a work of art, French customs placed a punishing import duty of £120 on the monument for the value of the stone.[15] Once the bill was paid (it has been suggested that Robert Ross had borrowed the funds from Ada Leverson),[16] the monument was covered with tarpaulin due to the Parisian officials' reaction to the monument's nudity. Epstein returned to the cemetery one evening and found that the testicles on the statue had been covered by plaster, as the size of the testicles was considered unusual. The monument was under police surveillance and Epstein found he could only continue his work upon it after bribing a police officer to look away, but the work was sporadic and the tarpaulin was replaced at night. Eventually, as compromise, under Robert Ross' instruction, a bronze plaque similar to the shape of a butterfly was placed upon the testicles of the monument and it was unveiled in early August 1914 by the occultist and poet Aleister Crowley. Epstein was furious that his work had been altered without his consent and refused to attend the unveiling.[18] A few weeks later Aleister Crowley approached Epstein in a café in Paris, and around his neck was a bronze butterfly—he informed Epstein that his work was now on display as he intended. The testicles were removed in an act of vandalism in 1961. It is said that the cemetery manager used them as a paperweight. They are now missing. In 2000, Leon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.

  

The tomb with modern glass barrier

The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol:

And alien tears will fill for him

Pity's long-broken urn,

For his mourners will be outcast men,

And outcasts always mourn.

 

Today, the monument is viewed by thousands of visitors every year. A tradition developed whereby visitors would kiss the tomb after applying lipstick to their mouth, thereby leaving a "print" of their kiss.[21] The stone has also been covered in graffiti, almost exclusively letters of love to the author, but this is not as damaging as the lipstick kisses. Lipstick contains animal fat, which sinks into the stone and causes permanent damage.[25] Cleaning operations to remove the lipstick grease have caused the stone to become more porous. It is therefore even harder to clean in subsequent attempts, necessitating more drastic and surface-damaging procedures.[26] A fine of 9,000 euros was created to deter fans, but as many of them were tourists who could leave before being brought to court this did little to stop the practice.[27] In 2011, the creation of a glass barrier to make the monument 'kiss-proof' was begun.[28][29] They completed the barrier in 2014.[30] However, it only covers the lower half of the tomb. As Ireland's Office of Public Works considers the tomb an Irish monument overseas, it has paid for the cleaning and the barrier.[26]

 

The act of kissing the tomb has inspired a varied response from Oscar Wilde's supporters. Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland, who is partially responsible for the tomb's upkeep, has said on the subject that "Unthinking vulgar people have defaced the tomb forever." The producer Marc Overton, who views Wilde as a personal hero, has been quoted saying he found the lipstick kisses disgusting. On the other side of this discussion, the architectural historian Lisa Marie has called this an act of devotion and a "fitting monument to a great decadent and aesthete." Two years after the barrier was erected Stephen Fry mentioned the practice of kissing Oscar Wilde's tomb in a speech on Wilde given at the Jaipur Literature Festival; "Here's this man who believed when he died that his name would be toxic for generations to come. For hundreds of years his work wouldn't be read. He would stand for nothing but perversion. Utter disgust of a society that couldn't bear people like him.....His tomb in Père Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris. It had to be restored because the polished stone of its surface had corroded through kissing. Thousand and thousands. .... Wouldn't it be allowed once to just wake him up for five minutes just to tell him that, then he can go back to sleep again?"

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde%27s_tomb

 

Killing the New Woman – Defining “Self” in Wilde’s “The Sphinx Without a Secret”

Discussions of Oscar Wilde and the New Woman rightfully focus on his time editing Women’s World. But Wilde’s short story “A Sphinx Without a Secret” is another work ready to be read as a New Woman text.[1] The New Woman, a symbol of the shifting aspirations of late-Victorian women, underwent scrutiny over her desires for life outside of the pre-established roles that nineteenth-century English society set for her. According to Talia Schaffer, “As a mythic icon, the New Woman evokes an extraordinary range of emotional associations, a flood of feelings which can powerfully support whatever goal the [contemporary] writer has channeled it towards” (45). From Ouida to Sarah Grand, the New Woman was both dragged through the metaphorical mud and praised from the rooftops. Late-Victorian English society fought over definitions for the New Woman, perhaps to limit her power to define herself.[2] Oscar Wilde’s short story “A Sphinx Without a Secret” embodies the New Woman’s struggle for independence and self-definition. The narrator calls Lady Alroy a woman with a “mania for mystery . . . imagining she was a herione,” but this is the definition he imposes on her. Lady Alroy is, in fact, using mystery as a means of self-definition. She creates a space where she has the power to define herself, especially important when considering that the Victorian stereotypes of wife and mother cannot apply to the childless and widowed Lady Alroy. Furthermore, Gerald’s distrust of Lady Alroy reveals late-Victorian skepticism toward the burgeoning movement for women’s independence, and by using a framed narrative, the story ultimately alludes to the effects society’s disapprobation will have not just on the movement but on women as a whole: metaphorical death.

 

Despite her physical and financial freedom, Lady Alroy feels a need to rent a secret parlor and act clandestinely in her movements; this shows she desires a freedom outside of what wealth can provide. Such a desire can be translated into the goals of many late-nineteenth century women. As Alys Pearsall Smith notes in 1894 her essay, “She [the late-Victorian woman] asks simply and only for freedom to make out her own life the highest that can be made, and to develop her own individuality as seems to her the wisest and the best” (qtd. in Ardis 18). Ann Ardis shows how the New Woman laid “claim to the right of self-definition” and developed a “program of self-actualization” (27). Wilde’s New Woman story shows that even financial independence is not sufficient to guarantee “her own individuality.” Lady Alroy has enough income to maintain an affluent life in high society; her title makes her part of the aristocracy; she thus has freedom over the direction her life assumes. Nonetheless, she is not independent of society’s values and judgments.

 

Is it in order to pursue self-definition that Lady Alroy creates another space—a second life of rented rooms and secret letters—where she can pursue her own individuality. The secret life, though lived alone, precariously empowers Lady Alroy, because it gives her the power to shape the public’s perception and her identity. Lady Alroy’s “mania” is not that of an unstable woman, but of a woman desiring the freedom to shape herself instead of having her self shaped by society. Lady Alroy shrouds herself in mystery, yes, but she creates power, she creates an unknown, unfathomable element about herself that cannot be pigeonholed by Gerald, or other Victorian men who see in every good woman the Angel in the House. This unfathomable element is what unsettles Gerald’s perception of Lady Alroy and leads him to state he never understood women. It also explains what is so limiting about the stereotyped roles women were expected to inhabit: Gerald thinks that understanding one woman is equivalent to understanding all women. Readers must decide for themselves how best to understand women when they are left to answer Gerald’s final question: “I wonder.”

 

As is clear from Mona Caird’s 1899 essay “Does Marriage Hinder a Woman’s Self-development,” a woman needs time to herself, a space belonging to her alone, and the freedom to pursue her interests, whether they be varied or singular, in order to grow into her best self.[3] Lady Alroy, sans husband, would seem to have already accomplished these aims, these essential needs. Yet after hearing Gerald mention seeing her in Bond Street, Lady Alroy “grew very pale . . . and said, ‘Pray do not talk so loud; you may be overheard’” (Wilde). Because Bond Street, both then and now, is a popular street for high-end shopping, there should be no reason for a sudden start. Lady Alroy’s reaction is a means of testing the power she has in her second life. She is willing to bring in another person to increase the mystery surrounding herself and thus increase her power over others’ perceptions of herself. Bringing Gerald ever so slightly into the mystery means she may extend her definition of self to others, seeing if she can exist as she desires outside of her personal knowledge of this identity. Gerald is later directed to write Lady Alroy at a secret address, further implying she may be willing to let him into a sense of who she is outside of society’s dictates. But when Gerald later discovers Lady Alroy secretly rents a room, he treats Lady Alroy like yet another Victorian stereotype: the fallen woman. Gerald distrusts her morality; his imagination cannot extend beyond what his culture has already dictated. Even though Lady Alroy is honest—she meets no one in her secret rooms, a fact later verified by her landlady—Gerald cannot trust the individual when she does not accord with his pre-conceptions of the group. Even after her landlady confirms Lady Alroy’s story, Gerald persists in his distrust of his would-be fiancée.

 

Gerald’s skepticism of Lady Alroy’s honesty and motives shows the patriarchal fear of losing power. Gerald has encountered a woman who does not fit within his comprehension of womanhood, a woman who has taken the power wealth gives her to create a second life independent of anyone’s dictates. She has created a space where his definitions of womanhood are not reflected. While he might believe that his incomprehension of women began with Lady Alroy—his “belle inconnue[4],” his “Giocanda in sables” (Wilde)—the story suggests that all women are a mystery to him. She is not a woman who fits the mold of the “frail, delicate, ethereal” women whom a Victorian man might expect to wed (Gibbs)—but the ordinariness of the “secret life” Lady Alroy leads suggests that every woman escapes the understanding of Victorian men. Because no woman will perfectly fit the social ideal, every woman will “mysteriously” act in ways contrary to it. Significantly, the entire story is introduced by his statement to the frame narrator that he might never marry because he “does not understand women well enough” (Wilde); to him, one woman equates to all women.

 

The seriousness of this misapplication of a single standard to all women is apparent in Gerald’s behavior when he refuses her claim to truth: he became “mad, frantic; . . . [and] said terrible things to her” (Wilde). She now receives the full judgment of Gerald’s patriarchal perspective and feels force of his biting scorn. Lady Alroy has been a problem for him to solve, and when the solution does not meet his expectations, he allows his fear of inferiority to result in verbal abuse of Lady Alroy. She was not a neat package for him to master, as one masters a crossword puzzle. While he initially believes his love came “in spite of the mystery,” he grudgingly admits that his feelings were aroused because of it: “I fell madly in love, and I was excited by the mystery that seemed to surround her” (Wilde). This playing out of the angel-whore dichotomy is compounded by the double-bind that the New Woman finds herself in: her “newness” makes her attractive, but this is the very quality that will cause the traditional man to fear and reject her. When he cannot overpower the riddle of Lady Alroy’s harmless second life, he rejects her. Her “beauty molded out of many mysteries” attract him, but because he does not have social stereotypes on which to base his judgments, he cannot decide if these mysteries are “for good or evil” (Wilde). Wilde shows a society curious and tempted to see women in varying roles, but ultimately distrustful of women’s desires. In New Women, New Novels, Ann Ardis notes how traditional Victorian men viewed the New Woman’s desire for freedom as a threat to their current standing of society, as a reborn Eve waiting to bring about a second fall of man. The New Woman threatens the social order – she desires a place in the workforce, she desires a higher level of education, and she seeks a means of providing for herself without the aid of a husband or father or wealthy brother. While Lady Alroy never seeks any such thing, her simple desire for a private space of self-definition—a need Caird defines for the New Woman—appears just as threatening.

 

Gerald’s paranoia provides insight into the ideas of sexual promiscuity that became attached to the New Woman; it became a rationale for denying women new freedoms in their personal lives, marriages, and the workforce.[5] Ann Ardis states, “The moral agency of a Victorian ‘lady’ is predicated upon the denial of her sexual appetite,” because the cultural imperative to imagine her as Eve makes her desires, sexual or otherwise, means destroying the Victorian home and the downfall of men and mankind (14). So, when a Victorian woman desires her own space, her motives are scrutinized. The mere desire for a room of her own means that Lady Alroy is somehow sexually tainted. If a man cannot understand the ways in which even a woman’s relatively free existence is constrained by social censure, he cannot see what she could need with a separate, small, and secret space outside of her own home.

 

Gerald’s reaction even suggests the New Woman, because of her desires, is a fallen woman. Note, while Gerald makes it clear he wishes to marry Lady Alroy, he never asks for her hand in marriage. Instead, he uses his desire to marry her as leverage for knowing how Lady Alroy spends her private time. He wants and needs to know all about her, but when he begins to know, he cannot trust this new version of Lady Alroy, precisely because she is formed outside of society’s eyes. He states his right to question her comes from “‘The right of a man who loves you . . . I came here to ask you to be my wife’” (Wilde). The Victorian moral system tells Gerald that he has the right to know Lady Alroy’s secrets—but they also “require” him to reject her when her secret desires cannot be made to fit with his preconceived notions of what a woman ought to desire. For a woman to desire a break from her position of moral guidepost, would be to lose “both gender and class status” (Ardis 26), and Gerald, as representative of Victorian patriarchal ideals, captures this sentiment with his treatment of Lady Alroy.

 

The frame narrative, however, allows Wilde to cast doubt on Gerald’s point of view. Within the framed narrative, Gerald—and not Lady Alroy—tells the story, which shows the dominant ideology of late-Victorian society. The voice of the New Woman had to struggle against the dominant patriarchal ideals.[6] Lady Alroy hardly speaks, and the scanty dialogue provided, coupled with no provision of her inner thoughts, registers the way that Gerald is unable to “hear” Lady Alroy’s self-definition; and Gerald is a mirror of his larger culture, for whom the New Woman remains an alluring but ultimately dangerous mystery. This narrative choice reveals Wilde’s clear understanding that women’s voices did not receive equal representation in his culture. The frame narrator is not much better than Gerald, who believes he does not know Lady Alroy and cannot know women, because the frame narrator easily dismisses Lady Alroy as merely a “woman with a mania for mystery . . . imagining she was a heroine” (Wilde). This label trivializes her motives, labeling them as either childish or unreasonable. But the ease and confidence with which he dismisses her shows another patriarchal view: women are like as children. Wilde’s story shows how even generous-minded stereotypes fail and demonstrates the true limitations of placing specific groups of people into neatly defined boxes. But the frame narrative opens up a space where Lady Alroy’s self-definition might find expression. Gerald’s final words are “I wonder” (Wilde) and these words invite the reader to evaluate the words of the two men in light of what they know of Lady Alroy and come to alternate conclusions about Lady Alroy’s and the New Woman’s character.

 

Ultimately, Lady Alroy’s death is the metaphorical death of the New Woman caused by a society interpreting her desires as immoral. While Lady Alroy’s death appears to be from natural causes (the official word is that she “died in five days of congestion of the lungs”), her death can be seen as the natural outcome of her rejection by Gerald. But she did not die of a broker heart; she died as a result of realizing, on evidence of Gerald’s treatment, that she cannot be accepted by society is she tries to dictate her own life. When Lady Alroy lose her sense of agency, she loses her life. Her death does not imply a weakness in the New Woman movement. Her death does not imply the New Woman is the “frail and ethereal” woman of the gothic romance novel (Gibbs). No, Lady Alroy’s death becomes the result of crushing her independence, of treated her as an outcast. Her inability to live under those circumstances is the metaphorical death of her New Woman desires.

 

The initial narrator chalks Lady Alroy’s actions up to “mania.” But the reader cannot help thinking maniac in the story is Gerald. His paranoia about Lady Alroy destroys his own desires for marriage to a woman he claims to “ha[ve] loved . . . so madly” (Wilde). When the frame narrator first spies Gerald, he is “anxious and puzzled, and seemed to be in doubt about something” (Wilde). So perhaps the final conclusion to be drawn about “The Sphinx Without a Secret” is that distrusting the New Woman will only weaken the foundation of society. If Gerald is the voice of the patriarchy, it is of a weakened patriarchy—one that has harmed itself through debilitating distrust. Gerald is not weakened by Lady Alroy’s secret life; he is weakened by distrusting her. He is weakened by her loss. He is weakened by obsessively trying to define her, when she was already attempting to reveal her definition. Thus, society will be weakened by not allowing the New Woman to thrive. In the twentieth century, nations needed to call on their women to perform “men’s work” during the two World Wars. Women worked in armament factories, as mechanics, and in all of the occupations men vacated to fight on the front lines. Wilde’s short story can be looked at as prophetic, a message to the nations to affirm the ways that women can live outside of the normalized spaces that societies make for them, to celebrate rather than demonize the New Woman’s broader horizens.

 

- Calabria Turner

 

editions.covecollective.org/edition/lord-arthur-saviles-c...

"Connecticut Hall (formerly South Middle College) is a Georgian building on the Old Campus of Yale University. Completed in 1752, it was originally a student dormitory, a function it retained for 200 years. Part of the first floor became home to the Yale College Dean's Office after 1905, and the full building was converted to departmental offices in the mid-twentieth century. It is currently used by the Department of Philosophy, and its third story contains a room for meetings of the Yale Faculty of Arts & Sciences, the academic faculty of Yale College and the Graduate School.

 

Connecticut Hall is the third-oldest of only seven surviving American colonial-era college buildings, and the second-oldest structure built for Yale College in New Haven. It was built, in part, by enslaved laborers. The first building in a campus plan known as Old Brick Row that stood from 1750 to 1870, it is the only survivor of a demolition campaign that created the modern Old Campus quadrangle. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.

 

Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world.

 

Chartered by the Connecticut Colony, the Collegiate School was established in 1701 by clergy to educate Congregational ministers before moving to New Haven in 1716. Originally restricted to theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale's faculty and student populations grew after 1890 with rapid expansion of the physical campus and scientific research.

 

Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school's faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, and forests and nature preserves throughout New England. As of 2021, the university's endowment was valued at $42.3 billion, the second largest of any educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States. Students compete in intercollegiate sports as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I – Ivy League.

 

As of October 2020, 65 Nobel laureates, five Fields Medalists, four Abel Prize laureates, and three Turing Award winners have been affiliated with Yale University. In addition, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U.S. presidents, 10 Founding Fathers, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 31 living billionaires, 54 College founders and presidents, many heads of state, cabinet members and governors. Hundreds of members of Congress and many U.S. diplomats, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 252 Rhodes Scholars, 123 Marshall Scholars, 102 Guggenheim Fellows and nine Mitchell Scholars have been affiliated with the university. Yale is a member of the Big Three. Yale's current faculty include 67 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 55 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 187 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The college is, after normalization for institution size, the tenth-largest baccalaureate source of doctoral degree recipients in the United States, and the largest such source within the Ivy League. It also is a top 10 (ranked seventh), after normalization for the number of graduates, baccalaureate source of some of the most notable scientists (Nobel, Fields, Turing prizes, or membership in National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, or National Academy of Engineering).

 

New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut, and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 as determined by the 2020 United States Census, New Haven is the 3rd largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford and the principal municipality of Greater New Haven, which had a total population of 864,835.

 

New Haven was one of the first planned cities in America. A year after its founding by English Puritans in 1638, eight streets were laid out in a four-by-four grid, creating the "Nine Square Plan". The central common block is the New Haven Green, a 16-acre (6 ha) square at the center of Downtown New Haven. The Green is now a National Historic Landmark, and the "Nine Square Plan" is recognized by the American Planning Association as a National Planning Landmark.

 

New Haven is the home of Yale University, New Haven's biggest taxpayer and employer, and an integral part of the city's economy. Health care, professional and financial services and retail trade also contribute to the city's economic activity.

 

The city served as co-capital of Connecticut from 1701 until 1873, when sole governance was transferred to the more centrally located city of Hartford. New Haven has since billed itself as the "Cultural Capital of Connecticut" for its supply of established theaters, museums, and music venues. New Haven had the first public tree planting program in America, producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms) that gave the city the nickname "The Elm City"." - info from Wikipedia.

 

The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.

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.

Post-Playtex Era Strong In Cullman

 

Chamber of Commerce weather greeted several dozen lactating women and their families at the Walmart Pavilion inside Heritage Park on Saturday morning.

 

The gathering celebrated the 4th annual BIG Latch On. This event ran from 10 am until noon.

 

Cullman County nursing mothers along with their husbands and other support members convened to breastfeed their babies in a supportive, lactation-friendly environment.

 

Ashley Wright, the lead organizer of this event, invited all area lactating moms as well as their friends, family, and community to come out and participate in the cause.

 

The BIG Latch On is an annual, global event that celebrates, promotes and supports breastfeeding.

 

The larger goal of the global BIG Latch On movement is to normalize breastfeeding.

 

There was a worldwide synchronization latch from 10:30 to 10:31 am Cullman time.

 

Groups of nursing moms and their supporters around the world either latched their babies, expressed milk or fed breast milk by spoon to their babies all at the same time across the world. It was a sacred, touching and profound moment at Heritage Park.

 

cullmantoday.com/2017/08/06/post-playtex-era-strong-in-cu...

 

Stu Kauffman just gave a fascinating talk at the Almaden Institute on Complexity.

 

I would bet that his discussion of cells and genetic signaling networks will also apply to the brain and synaptic networks. The evolution of evolution itself moves up a hierarchy of abstractions to act at the network topology level.

 

Here are my rough notes from Kauffman’s talk:

 

Cells are dynamically critical because being critical is the best way to coordinate complex behaviors. (critical meaning the edge between chaos and order)

 

We have been taught that natural selection is the only source of order. What if there was a law that governs all of biology? It would be profound and would alter our view of biology. There are organizing principles that biology “obeys” because it is selectively useful. It’s like finding one of Newton’s law of motion for cells.

 

Cells are very complex. Genetic regulatory nets:

Transcriptome in yeast regulates 6500 genes, Humans: 25K

Transcription factor -> promoter or enhancer. Protein signaling cascades.

Transcriptome+protein signaling network is a parallel processing non-linear stochastic dynamical system.

Huge web. Nobody knows structures and dynamics.

Systems biology is trying to look for general laws

10^8000 genome state space.

Percolate: order, all fixed states.

Derrida deconstructionist. Mafia+deconstructionist = make you an offer you can’t understand

Hamming distance. Fan-in of K=2 or less. Take a Random network. Take 60K logic gates at random. Each gate has 2 inputs. The system Behavior is simple. It spontaneously goes to ordered regime. Nearby states converge. Dt = Dt+1 is the critical line.

 

Being critical is very, very rare. If it exists, it must have been selected for over 3.8B years of evolution.

 

Why cells should be critical?

Cells must bin past discriminations to future reliable actions

• Order: convergence in state space forgets past distinctions. Info-lossy

• Chaotic: small noise yields divergence in state space trajectories precluding reliable action

• Critical: near parallel flow optimizes capacity to bind past and future

Bacteria: operons for different food and different enzymes

 

Critical Boolean networks maximize robustness to mutations

Cell types correspond to attractors

Critical networks maximize the probability that such mutations leave all existing attractors intact and occasionally add new attractors.

Thus, critical networks optimize robustness of cell types to mutations and the capacity to evolve new cell types.

 

Mutual information: correlation between 2 variables. Entropy of variable A + B – joint entropy. Between 0 and 1. 0 = no correlation.

Ways to go from order and chaos. Inputs: order until K=2, peak for criticality.

If k greater than 2, then put lots of 1’s in there. P-bias of .15

Model of floral development shows criticality.

 

E.Coli: apply random 1500 values on real network; also to Yeast medusa network, 200 regulatory genes in medusa head, rest are regulated 3500 genes (humans 2500 regulating genes in medusa head, 23K regulated). If apply random Boolean functions to the yeast network, why would it be critical? This is about the dynamics of the networks. Cells do thermodynamic work. Work is constrained release of energy in few degrees of freedom, but it takes work to create the constraints. Cells do this, but we don’t have concepts for it in physics.

 

Hela 48 hourly time point. Affy gene array data. Lempel-Ziv analysis. Cells clearly are not chaotic; they are either ordered or critical (data lie on top of each other)

Avalanche size distribution. Deletion – see how many other genes change. Log-log straight line power law. Slope -1.5 power law (critical branching process). 250 yeast deletions, measure how many alter their activity. Ilya’s work.

 

NCD: normalized compression distance. Analysis of toll-like receptors on surface of macrophage. Ideal compressor. Take random length n, concatenate 2 of them. Ideal compressor will compress to n. 2 random ones, won’t be able to compress it. The more you can compress, the more similar they are. Regression gives a diagonal line, indicating it is critical. Nature, Dec 2006 Max Planck. Binary and ternary discretization leads to line that is critical. It’s breathtaking.

 

This is self-organization in nature via natural selection. If this is right, it may be a general law, one of the few laws in biology (e.g., Darwin, a few in ecology and population genetics). We will create life anew in the next 15 years. My bet is that life anywhere in the universe will be critical because it is the best way to coordinate complex behaviors.

Women's cycling clothing underwent significant changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, driven by the desire for practicality and freedom of movement. By 1910, the Rational Dress Movement had gained considerable traction, advocating for clothing that was both comfortable and suitable for physical activities like cycling. This movement challenged traditional Victorian fashions, which were often cumbersome and restrictive.

 

During the cycling craze of the 1890s, women began adopting more practical attire, including bloomers and knickerbockers, which were initially met with ridicule and resistance. However, as cycling grew in popularity, these garments became more accepted and evolved into various styles such as tailored tweed knickerbockers suits, bloomers designed to be concealed under skirts, and bifurcated skirts. These innovations were crucial in allowing women to participate more freely in cycling and other outdoor activities.

 

By 1910, the influence of the Rational Dress Movement was evident in women's cycling attire. Clothing designed specifically for cycling emphasized functionality and comfort, reflecting a shift towards more practical and liberating fashions.

 

Lady Florence Harberton, a key figure in the Rational Dress Movement, advocated for exercise and mobility for women, promoting the adoption of practical clothing. Her efforts contributed significantly to the acceptance of cycling as a legitimate activity for women and the development of appropriate attire.

 

The transition to rational dress was not without controversy. Women who chose to wear cycling-specific clothing often faced public scrutiny and ridicule. However, the persistence of women cyclists and the support of organizations like the Cyclists' Touring Club helped to legitimize these changes and pave the way for greater freedom and equality in women's fashion and activities.

 

Despite the progress made by the Rational Dress Movement, fully embracing practical cycling attire remained a challenge. Even into the early 20th century, women continued to face societal pressures regarding appropriate dress, and the complete normalization of cycling-specific clothing was gradual.

Ariana & Harper

Maryland

September 2016

Fireworks are a class of low explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), a display of the effects produced by firework devices.

 

Fireworks take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials (confetti for example). They may be designed to burn with colored flames and sparks including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and silver. Displays are common throughout the world and are the focal point of many cultural and religious celebrations.

Fireworks are generally classified as to where they perform, either as a ground or aerial firework. In the latter case they may provide their own propulsion (skyrocket) or be shot into the air by a mortar (aerial shell).

Modern colored fireworks were invented in Europe in the 1830s. Modern skyrocket fireworks have been made since the early 20th century.

 

Saint-Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the metropolitan area. Saint-Petersburg is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's northernmost city of more than 1 million residents.

 

The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world, the Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and was one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2020.

 

The name day of Peter I falls on 29 June, when the Orthodox Church observes the memory of apostles Peter and Paul. The consecration of the small wooden church in their names (its construction began at the same time as the citadel) made them the heavenly patrons of the Peter and Paul Fortress, while Saint Peter at the same time became the eponym of the whole city. When in June 1703 Peter the Great renamed the site after Saint Peter, he did not issue a naming act that established an official spelling; even in his own letters he used diverse spellings, such as Санктьпетерсьбурк (Sanktpetersburk), emulating German Sankt Petersburg, and Сантпитербурх (Santpiterburkh), emulating Dutch Sint-Pietersburgh, as Peter was multilingual and a Hollandophile. The name was later normalized and russified to Санкт-Петербург (Saint-Petersburg).

We just returned from a week in southern Spain to see our family and friends. It felt good to get out of our London home and get a change of scenery, I think we all needed it! On this trip, we stayed in the fishing town of Santa Pola, usually quite touristy in the summer, but not this year. We felt safe as everyone was wearing a mask and took social distancing seriously. I made this photo in the port area at sunset. The fishing activity is back to normal, and all the restaurants are serving some amazing fresh seafood dishes. I'm really hoping that everything will normalize soon and we can get back to traveling, but it looks like we might have to wait a while longer...

 

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No Group Invites/Graphics Please.

 

www.alexstoen.com

 

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September 18, 2024: New York Times; Stop Normalizing Trump

Urbex Benelux -

 

In 1939 the factory was shut down due to a shortage of workers as a result of the second phase of the general mobilization for the Second World War . 72 percent of the personnel were requisitioned.

 

Between 1940 and 1945, the factory was badly damaged by bombing, which caused major fires in the paper and wood supplies. At the end of the war, only one machine was ready to use, but a law passed in October 1942 had to stop businesses with damage exceeding 25 percent.

 

After a slow start-up, the company worked back in 1947 with 140 employees and production had increased to four tons per year. It would take until 1949 before the supply could be normalized.

GUIDE AND SUPERVISION... Holistic Way, Super Vision, Eye Nutrition...pineal gland create inner light and super vision of your dreams...Lighting is a standout amongst the most imperative components in home stylistic layout. A decent lighting makes a feeling of warmth and inviting interest in the house. It likewise empowers you to perform every day errands well, makes you agreeable and above all outwardly upgrades the room.

 

Abstract: Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm. It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical and critical theories and solutions- based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability. If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience. In lieu of the standard articulation of politics as centralized state administration, ‘critical sustainability studies’ is based on a framing that gives prominence to a more organic, decentralized engagement of conscientious subjects in the creation of just, regenerative eco-social relations. It illuminates the ideological and material links between society, culture, and ecology by devoting particular attention to how knowledge and discourse around and across those realms are generated and articulated. I believe that future scholarship and activism in sustainability and sustainability-related fields would benefit immensely from dialoguing with this framework.

 

The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.

 

– Murray Bookchin, The Meaning of Confederalism, 1990

   

Introduction: Why Sustainability (and Sustainability Education)?

 

Despite conflicting opinions over what the terms ‘sustainability’ and its variant ‘sustainable development’ actually mean, the framework of sustainability has gained a lot of traction in the last two decades. Its Western origins can be traced back to the writings of Western philosophers and seminal environmentalists like John Locke and Aldo Leopold (Spoon, 2013). Redclift (2005) asserts that sustainability as an idea was first used during the ‘limits to growth’ debates in the 1970s and the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Perhaps the most commonly quoted definition of sustainable development is that of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) who states that “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 43).

 

Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. After all, recent scholarship indicates that the issue of environmental quality is inevitably linked to that of human equity (Morello-Frosch, 1997; Torras & Boyce, 1998; see Agyeman, Bullard, & Evans, 2002), and thus they need to be thought about together. I hold that an actual sustainable society is one where wider matters of social and economic needs are intrinsically connected to the dynamic limits set by supporting ecosystems and environments.

 

Sustainability education has emerged as an effort to acknowledge and reinforce these interrelationships and to reorient and transform education along the lines of social and ecological well-being (Sterling, 2001). By being rooted in whole systems thinking, i.e. “the ability to collectively analyze complex systems across different domains (society, environment, and economy) and across different scales (local to global)” (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011, p. 207), sustainability education strives to illuminate the complexities associated with the broad, problem-oriented, solution-driven nature of sustainability (Warren, Archambault, & Foley, 2014). If we are to devise cultural systems that are truly regenerative, this “novel” brand of education urges the teaching of the fundamental facts of life by stewarding learning communities that comprehend the adaptive qualities of ecological patterns and principles (Stone, 2012). Sustainability education highlights the centrality of ‘place’ as a unit of inquiry to devise reciprocal—and thus sustainable—relationships where one nourishes and is nourished by their surrounding social and ecological milieus (Williams & Brown, 2012).

 

Additionally, sustainability and, as a consequence, sustainability education are future- oriented and therefore demand ‘futures thinking’: the ability to assess and formulate nuanced pictures of the future vis-à-vis sustainability predicaments and sustainability problem-solving schemes (Wiek, et al., 2011). In a nutshell, futures thinking suggests that we need to imagine the potential ramifications of past and current human activities by critically analyzing them today if we are to conceive of new, more sustainable futures (Warren et al., 2014). Future studies can therefore help people to pursue their “ontological vocation” as history makers (Freire, 1993, p. 66) and to (re)claim their agency as a means of creating the world in which they wish to live (Inayatullah, 2007).

 

However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm despite their apparent holistic intent and(theoretical) efforts to reconcile the three pillars of sustainability—equity, environment, and economy. Whether intentionally or not, they have promoted curative solutions instead of reflecting new, critical mindsets that can actually generate meaningful socio-cultural innovation by naming and discursively dismantling the systems and processes that are the root causes of the complex problems we face. And, as Albert Einstein once put it, “no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”

 

It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical (of, relating to, or proceeding from a root) and critical (of, relating to, or being a turning point) theories and solutions-based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability.

 

Troubling (Monolithic) Sustainability

 

In order to be able to unveil and critically analyze the propositions and suppositions of what I call ‘the monolithic sustainability discourse,’ it is fundamental to start with the etymology of the word ‘sustainability’ itself. The operationalization of the term can be problematic for it implies prior judgments about what is deemed important or necessary to sustain. While some of these judgements might resonate with an array of environmentalists who perceive that the health of the planet and the well-being of our descendants are being—or are already—compromised by certain human activities, various other perilous premises and assumptions are generally left unacknowledged as a result of the depoliticized character of the dominant discourse of sustainability. Lele and Norgaard (1996) have put forward three questions that can help us to uncover and think more critically about these presuppositions in and across various contexts and scales: (a) what is to be sustained, at what scale, and in what form?; (b) over what time period, with what level of certainty?; (c) through what social process(es), and with what trade-offs against other social goals? (p. 355).

 

By building on these critical questions and clarifications, we can better understand the nuances of how the destructive and thus unsustainable ethos of dehumanization and socio- ecological exploitation may inform and permeate normative notions and articulations of sustainability. Yet, this is only plausible if sustainability is politicized. To politicize is to engage the existing state of socio-political affairs, to problematize that which is taken for granted, to make explicit the power relations that are an innate part of everyday life and experience (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). In an attempt to comprehend why sustainability is typically depoliticized we ought to examine briefly its discursive history.

 

The term ‘sustainable development’ became a part of the policy discourse and almost every day language following the release of the Brundtland Commission’s report on the global environment and development in 1987 (Redclift, 2005). While their definition included a very clear social directive, its human and political dimensions have been largely overlooked amongst references to sustainability, which, due to its environmental origins (Lele & Norgaard, 1996) and neoliberal focus on rights rather than needs (Redclift, 2005), have typically focused on bio- physical, ecological issues (Vallance, Perkins, & Dixon, 2011). Social sustainability, which has been conceptualized in response to the failure of the sustainability approach to engender substantial change (Vallance et al., 2011), is the least developed of the three realms and is frequently framed in relation to ecological and/or economic sustainability (Magis & Shinn, 2013). I assert that the reason for this is twofold: first and foremost, the sustainability agenda was conceived by international committees and NGO networks, think tanks, and governmental structures (Agyeman et al., 2002), which makes it a top-down approach and, consequently, less likely to recognize and address themes such as structural poverty, equity, and justice (Colantonio, 2009); and second, because social sustainability is made subservient to economics and the environment, it fails to examine the socio-political circumstances and elements that are needed to sustain a community of people (Magis & Shinn, 2013).

 

Sustainability, since its inception as a Western construct, has been progressively viewed as a crucial driver in economic development and environmental management worldwide. Nevertheless, as delineated above, its almost universal focus on reconciling the growth model of economics and the environment has served to covertly depoliticize the dominant discourse and therefore render it uncontentious if not intrinsically benign. It is worth further exploring the dynamics of depoliticization for I believe they are at the radicle of the issues sustainability attempts to address in the first place.

 

Bailey and Gayle (2003) identify a series of acts that can be associated with the dynamics of depoliticization, three of which can be observed when examining the monolithic sustainability discourse: (a) eschewing political discourse; (b) removing from the discourse the recognition that social advantages are given to certain constituent groups; (c) not disclosing underlying viewpoints or values. These processes are enmeshed with intricate ideological instances that help to mask the systemic and/or structural nature of a social or cultural matter (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). Further, as Foucault (1984) has stated, “power is everywhere” (p. 93) and it is embodied and enacted in discourse and knowledge. Hence, possessing the analytical tools to name and unpack these discursive ideological formations and power dynamics ought to be a prerequisite to the development of more holistic and critically conscious understandings and applications of sustainability.

 

Politicizing Sustainability

 

If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience (Freire, 1993). It is a call for the necessity to highlight, problematize, and disrupt what I have termed ‘the ethos of unsustainability’ and its interrelated ideologies of dehumanization and exploitation. Ultimately, to embrace a stance that fails to scrutinize the sources of degradation and exploitation is to uphold the power relations that sustain oppressive structures (Freire, 1993; Perry, 2001). I assert that only by delving into the origins of the ‘ethos of unsustainability’ can we really devise sustainability paradigms that are capable of promoting significant socio-cultural transformation.

 

To comprehend the contours of the predicaments that loom on our horizon as well as their premises and logics, we must go back over 500 years in history to 1492, the year that marks the beginning of the current colonial era and the globalization of the European colonial imaginary (Tuck and Yang, 2012). It is important to note that my intention in doing so is not to provide a sweeping, all-encompassing description of this genealogy/historical process, but rather, to simply name, connect, and emphasize the ideological systems and patterns that have been conceptualized and reconceptualized so as to sustain the ethos of unsustainability and its exploitative power structures. After all, as Freire (1993) has indicated, “to name the world is to change it” (p. 88).

 

(World) Capitalism: A Technology of European Colonialism

 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word ‘colonialism’ stems from the Roman word ‘colonia,’ which meant ‘settlement’ or ‘farm.’ The OED describes it as:

 

… a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state; the community so formed, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors, as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up.

 

In Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Ania Loomba (2001) points out that this definition fails to link the word ‘colonialism’ to its ideologies of conquest and domination as it eschews any testimonial about those peoples who were already living in the places where the colonies were formalized. She offers another, more nuanced definition that hints to the processes of conquest and control of other peoples’ land and resources (Loomba, 2001, p. 2):

 

The process of ‘forming a community’ in the new land necessarily meant unforming or re-forming the communities that existed there already, and involved a wide range of practices including trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, slavement and rebellions.

 

Loomba (2001) illuminates that while European colonialisms from the late fifteenth century onwards included a miscellany of patterns of domination and exploitation, it was a combination of these patterns that generated the economic disparity required for the maturation and expansion of European capitalism and industrial civilization; thus, capitalism demands the maintenance of colonial expansion in order to flourish. In spite of colonialism not being a monopoly of capitalism because it could be—and has been—utilized by so-called ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ states as well (Dirlik, 2002), capitalism is a technology of colonialism that has been developed and re-structured over time as a means of advancing European colonial projects (Tuck and Yang, 2012). Colonialism was the instrument through which capitalism was able to reach its status as a global, master frame (Loomba, 2001).

 

A distinction between the three historical modes of colonialism might help to further elucidate the interrelationships between capitalism and colonialism.

 

Theories of coloniality as well as postcolonial theories typically acknowledge two brands of colonialism: external colonialism, which involves the appropriation of elements of Indigenous worlds in order to build the wealth and the power of the colonizers—the first world—, and internal colonialism, the bio- and geo-political management of people and land within the borders of a particular nation-state (Tuck and Yang, 2012). A third form, settler colonialism, is more suitable to describe the operationalization of colonialisms in which the colonizers arrive and make a new home on the land (Tuck and Yang, 2012). The settler objective of gaining control over land and resources by removing the local, Indigenous communities is an ongoing structure that relies on private property schemes and coercive systems of labor (Glenn, 2015).

 

In these processes of colonialism, land is conceived primarily if not exclusively as commodity and property, and human relationships to the land are only legitimized in terms of economic ownership (Tuck and Yang, 2012). These combined colonialist ideologies of commodification and private property are at the core of the various political economies of capitalism that are found in today’s globalized world (O’Sullivan, 2005). By relying on the appropriation of land and commodities through the “elimination of the Native” (Wolfe, 2006, p. 387), European colonialisms wind up restructuring non-capitalist economies so as to fuel European capitalism (Loomba, 2001). The globalization of the world is thereby the pinnacle of a process that started with the formation of the United States of America as the epitome of a Euro- centered, settler colonialist world power (Quijano, 2000).

 

Inspired by the European colonial imaginary, which transforms differences and diversity into a hierarchy of values (Mignolo, 2000) as well as by economic liberalism, which erases the production and labor contexts from the economy (Straume, 2011), the capitalist imaginary constitutes a broad depoliticization that disconnects its ‘social imaginary significations’ from the political sphere (Straume, 2011). Given that capitalism is imbued with European diffusionist constructs (Blaut, 1989), namely ‘progress,’ ‘development,’ and ‘modernity,’ the depoliticization of this now globalized imaginary is required not only to maintain the resilience of capitalism as a master frame (Straume, 2011), but also to camouflage its interconnectedness to European colonial systems.

 

Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) study and articulation of the conceptualization and operation of ideologies proves fruitful in terms of understanding how the capitalist imaginary has been used to facilitate processes of globalization that benefit European colonialisms. He argued that ideologies are invaluable when manufacturing consent as they are the means through which certain ideas and meanings are not only transmitted, but held to be true (Gramsci, 1971). Hence, hegemony, the power garnered through a combination of ideologies and coercion, is attained by playing with people’s common sense (Gramsci, 1971) and their lived system of meanings and values (Williams, 1976; see Loomba, 2001). Since subjectivity and ideology are key to the expansionist capitalist endeavor and its interrelated logics of commodification and domination (Gramsci, 1971), it becomes necessary to summon and dissect the colonial ideas and belief systems that have served and continue to serve as its conduits. This can in turn help us to interrogate the value systems and mental models that directly and/or indirectly inform the dominant notion of sustainability (education).

 

White Supremacist, Heteropatriarchal State Capitalism

 

As devised and practiced by Europeans and, later, by other Euro-centered powers such as the United States, colonial ideologies of race and racial structures smooth the way for capitalist production (Wolfe, 2006). The Eurocentric construct of race as “a system of discrimination, hierarchy and power” (Olson, 2004, xvii, p. 127-128) conveys colonial experience and infuses the most essential realms of world power and its hierarchies (Quijano, 2000). The state and its many institutions are particularly pivotal in sustaining these racialized ideologies that are obligatory for the development and continuance of capitalism (Loomba, 2001).

 

Slavery, as the foundation of notions of race and capitalist empire and one of the pillars of white supremacy, marks the concepts of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ as white (Painter, 2010) and renders black people as innately enslaveable, as nothing more than private property (Smith, 2010a). Within the context of the United States, the forms of slavery can and, indeed, have changed—from chattel slavery, to sharecropping, and more recently, to the prison industrial complex, which is still grounded in the premise that black bodies are an indefinite property of the state (Smith, 2010a)—yet, slavery as a logic of white supremacy has persisted (Smith, 2010a). The other two pillars of white supremacy are genocide, which expresses the need for Indigenous Peoples to always be disappearing, and orientalism, which builds on Edward Said’s influential term to explain how certain peoples and/or nations are coded as inferior and, therefore, a constant threat to the security and longevity of imperial states (Smith, 2010a).

 

The pillars of white supremacy may vary according to historical and geographical contexts (Smith, 2010a). Nonetheless, the centering of whiteness is generally what defines a colonial project. The formation of whiteness, or white identity, as a racialized class orientation stems from political efforts by capitalist elites and lawmakers to divide and conquer large masses of workers (Battalora, 2013). White identity is perhaps one of the most successful colonial and capitalist inventions since it “operates as a kind of property … with effects on social confidence and performance that can be empirically documented” (Alcoff, 2015, p. 23). It is a very dynamic category that can be enlarged to extend its privileges to others when white supremacist social and economic relations are jeopardized (Painter, 2010). It sustains itself, at least partially, by evading scrutiny and shifting the discursive focus to ‘non-whites’ (Silva, 2007). Whiteness is to be made invisible by remaining the norm, the standard, that which ought not to be questioned.

 

Capitalism therefore depends on and magnifies these racial hierarchies centered on whiteness. And, since race is imbricated and constructed simultaneously with gender, sexuality, ability, and other colonial categories—a conceptualization that serves to obscure white supremacy in state discourses and interventions (Kandaswamy, 2012)—, it is crucial to investigate the other ideologies that also shape class formation processes.

 

Heteropatriarchy, the combination of patriarchal and heterosexual control based on rigid and dichotomous gender identities—man and woman—and sexual orientations—heterosexual and homosexual—where one identity or orientation dominates the other, is another building block of colonialism. Patriarchy is employed to naturalize hierarchical relations within families and at a larger, societal level (Smith, 2010b). Similarly, heteronormativity paints heterosexual nuclear-domestic arrangements as normative (Arvin, Tuck, and Morrill, 2013) and is thus the bedrock of the colonial nation-state (Smith, 2010b). These social and cultural systems that configure heteropatriarchy are then apprehended as normal and natural whereas other arrangements or proclivities are demonized and perceived as repulsive and abnormal (Arvin et al., 2013). Heteropatriarchy is directly linked to colonial racial relations as it portrays white manhood as supreme and entitled to control over private property and to political sovereignty (Glenn, 2015). This indicates that the process of producing and managing gender frequently functions as a racial project that normalizes whiteness (Kandaswamy, 2012).

 

The laws and policies that were designed to institutionalize the formation of whiteness and white supremacy demonstrate that race, class, and gender are intertwined systems that uphold, constitute, and reconstitute each other (Battalora, 2013). The state and its ideological institutions are therefore major sites of racial struggle (Kandaswamy, 2012); they are responsible for devising and constantly revising the rationale that guides a white supremacist, heteropatriarchal settler colonialism grounded in the need to manufacture collective consent. These discourses are rooted in a pervasive state process that combines coercive state arbitration with societal consent by articulating the ideologies that link racial structure and representation as an effort to reorganize and distribute resources according to specific racial lines (Ferguson, 2012).

 

Despite increasing globalizing neoliberal urges toward deregulation and privatization, capitalism is still enabled and supported by the state. Its ‘ideological apparatuses,’ the state institutions and ideologies that enable and support the classist structure of capitalist societies (Althusser, 1989), is still fundamental to the expansion of capitalist enterprises; the nation-state is capitalism’s atomic component. The neoliberal state has utilized innovations in methods of social discipline and control along with legal practices to facilitate the process of economic globalization (Gill, 1995). Yet, all these schemes that involve retention of power through dominance and manufactured consent are rooted in divide and conquer strategies that cause those in subservient positions in society to engage in conflicts with one another (Hagopian, 2015). The interlinked logics and ideologies of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy conceived by state capitalism serve to spur dissent between potential opponents and thereby further stratify socio-economic classes. This prevents them from building a unified basis that can present a tangible threat to the status quo (Hagopian, 2015). Colonial and neocolonial powers have repeatedly deployed this stratagem to not only increase their geographical reach, but also to normalize and standardize the economic growth model of capitalism.

 

Colonialism is hence not just an ancient, bygone incident. The ideologies and processes delineated above demonstrate that it has remained very much in effect within contemporary capitalist and neoliberal frameworks (Preston, 2013). It then becomes critical to investigate how the dominant sustainability discourse may or may not collude in these schemes so that we may conceive of holistic blueprints that beget positive socio-ecological transformation.

 

Sustainability and Colonialism: Contradiction or Conscious Ideological Maneuver?

 

By unearthing what I believe are the roots of the predicament that sustainability attempts to heal, namely the ethos of dehumanization and exploitation rooted in divide and conquer systems, it becomes easier to analyze how the colonial political economy of capitalism may conserve hegemonic ideologies that pervade social relations and knowledge generating processes.

 

Yet, these ideologies and knowledge schemes have been given minimal attention in sustainability (education) scholarship. Even though some academics have contributed to the generation of a more critical comprehension of the interrelationships between capitalism, environmental degradation, and socio-economic justice (see Cachelin, Rose, & Paisley, 2015; Martusewicz, Edmundson, & Lupinacci, 2011; Pellow & Brulle, 2005), this major blindspot in linking sustainability to the colonial imaginary and its legacies prompts the following questions:(awhy are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?: (a) why are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?; and (b) how does that impact the discourse of sustainability?

 

I assert that, in spite of calls for paradigm shifts, the dominant disancourse of sustainability in the West embodies a transnational, globalized standard of economic growth. The promise that economic development can eradicate or at least alleviate poverty and hunger in a sustainable way reflects some of the same goals and values of the optimistic ‘ecological modernization’ concept and perspective, which suggest that the development and modernization of liberal capitalism result in improvements in ecological outcomes (Buttel, 2000). The neoliberal, capitalist overtones of sustainable development not only expose the contradiction inherent in the term, but they also serve to further commodify nature (Cock, 2011). This neoliberalization of nature, which has recently gained a lot of attention in the corporate world and academia under the lexicon of ‘ecosystem services,’ alienates people from their physical surroundings and therefore reinforces the society-nature divide. In short, the sustainability discourse has been appropriated by the capitalist master frame and has transformed most if not all social and ecological relations into financial ones. In lieu of addressing social and environmental justice issues, this form of “green” or “natural” capitalism is responsible for deepening both social and environmental inequalities (Cock, 2011).

 

Since sustainability (education) is (supposed to be) a praxis-oriented framework that symbiotically combines thought and action for transformative, liberatory ends, it ought to embrace this critique of colonial capitalism and the subsequent neoliberalization of the political economy if it is to oppose and resist hegemonic ideologies in its multiple and diverse manifestations. After all, whether intentionally or not, what matters in the end is that those discourses of sustainability that do not take a stance against colonialism and capitalism only serve to preserve them and the status quo. An understanding of these interdependent systems allows for the development of critical sustainability dialogues and actions that can actually promote the paradigmatic shifts required to redress the socio-cultural problems that are at the heart of the environmental crises. Thus, sustainability can and should be reframed to suggest a process of personal, social, and cultural conscientization that is environmentally sound, i.e. one that follows ecological principles and patterns, instead of upholding the dehumanizing, exploitative, and paradoxical ‘development as growth’ standard of global capitalism.

 

The following section combines the analyses and critiques presented in the preceding (sub)sections into a single, cohesive, and holistic framework, and further elucidates the distinctions between monolithic sustainability and critical sustainabilities.

 

The Framework of Critical Sustainability Studies

 

[T]he political cannot be restricted to a certain type of institution, or envisioned as constituting a specific sphere or level of society. It must be conceived as a dimension that is inherent to every human society and that determines our very ontological condition.

 

- Chantal Mouffe, The Return of the Political, 2005

 

‘Critical sustainability studies,’ while not exactly novel in the sense that it draws on principles, concepts, and positions that are foundational to other frameworks and fields—more specifically, critical Indigenous and ethnic studies, postcolonial theory, queer theory, feminist theory, crip theory, social ecology, political ecology, and cultural studies—, presents itself as an alternative to the sustainability theories and conceptualizations that have failed to engage a truly intersectional analysis of dominant sustainability and environmental discourses, policies, and practices. Its primary objective is to rearticulate sustainability as it has the potential to provide a more holistic conception of conscientization that can bridge the gap between social and economic justice and environmental sustainability.

 

The framework indicates a crucial double political intervention: to put sustainability and critical theory in conversation; to embed sustainability and ecology into critical theory and vice- versa. As I discussed in the previous section, sustainability has, for the most part, become a hegemonic and, therefore, highly problematic discourse that refuses to transform the complex ideologies and systems that undergird the ethos of unsustainability and the current socio- ecological crises. On the other hand, critical theory, which seeks to extend the consciousness of the human self as a social being within the context of dominant power structures and their knowledge management operations (Kincheloe, 2005), could benefit from incorporating ecological principles and the sustainability notion of ‘place’ into its analytical toolbox. After all, I am as interested in localizing critical knowledge—without disconnecting it from global matters and realities—as I am in putting forth more critical and radical views of sustainability. Hence, this framework brings together what I believe are some of the most robust and cutting edge theories and methodologies to facilitate the deconstruction of the questionable ideologies that guide Western epistemologies like (hegemonic) sustainability.

 

Critical sustainability studies encourages sustainability scholars and/or educators to move from a defined methodology of problem-solving to the more critical moment of calling something into question (Freire, 1993). By rooting it in conscientization, I propose an orientation to sustainability and sustainable development that politicizes and reveals it as an agenda, discourse, and knowledge system that ought to be contested and rearticulated so that it can incorporate and critically engage with emancipatory understandings of power and power relations. Furthermore, by problematizing and closing the culture-nature divide, it can lay down the groundwork for the paradigmatic changes necessary to heal widespread colonialist alienation from the wider ecological community and to create visions of deep sustainabilities that can engender ecologically sound socio-cultural transformation.

 

I stress that the notion of sustainabilities is necessary if we have the intention of opposing and displacing the monolithic, top-down and now universalized sustainability agenda, which I refer to as ‘big S Sustainability.’ After all, much like science (Parry, 2006), sustainability is not the property of any one culture or language. There are different ways of seeing and knowing sustainability, so it is time to pluralize it in the literature and discourse. This simple act is an extraordinary intervention in itself because within the colonial imaginary “sustainability” means “Western sustainability.” By centering “novel” understandings of sustainability that are concerned with the specificities of geo-political, cultural, and historical contexts and power relations, sustainability scholars and educators can create theories and visions of sustainability that can lead to the development of more just, place-based cultures and social ecologies.

 

Critical sustainability studies as I envision it is a consciousness-raising exercise that is particularly useful in educational settings. It indicates methodology as much as content. This praxis-oriented framework can help teachers and students alike to develop consciousness of freedom and to acknowledge authoritarian socio-cultural tendencies that have toxic environmental ramifications. The next section provides an overview of its tenets, the educational philosophy that underpins it, as well as the four preliminary methodological principles and examples of related pedagogical interventions that directly inform the framework and its liberatory, decolonizing ambitions.

 

Epistemological Position, Preliminary Methodological Principles, and Pedagogical Interventions for Conscientization

 

The epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical implications of critical sustainability studies are rooted in an ethical and political vision, one that is found in the vast majority of social ecology and political ecology projects: that “the domination of nature by man [sic] stems from the very real domination of human by human” (Bookchin, 2005, p. 1). In other words, we cannot overcome the ecological crisis unless we rid ourselves of the colonial ideologies of domination and hierarchy that permeate all forms of systemic and systematic exploitation and dehumanization. While much easier said than done, critical sustainability studies seeks to conceptualize this vision by building on the following tenets:

 

That sustainability and sustainability education are not neutral, they either advance or regress justice and Critical sustainability studies strives to promote justice and ecological regeneration.

That an analysis of power is central to understanding and engendering positive socio-cultural Critical sustainability studies strives to be conscious of power relations and to identify power inequalities and their implications.

That it is crucial to foreground the sociocultural identities and experiences of those who have been (most) oppressed – people of color, people with disabilities, queer and transgender people, the working class and the economically poor, undocumented immigrants, Critical sustainability studies acknowledges that just, healthy cultures and societies can only be cultivated if we examine the circumstances that cause and maintain socio-economic marginalization.

That positive socio-cultural transformation comes from the bottom up. Critical sustainability studies emphasizes and advocates a collective and decentralized approach to sustainable change.

And, finally, that the human community is inherently a part of rather than apart from the wider ecological world. Critical sustainability studies affirms that this relational ethos serves as the epistemological foundation of novel, dynamic worlds where healing and justice are at the front and center of our cultural and ecological identities.

In addition to delineating critical sustainability studies as a praxis that is founded on the above tenets, the framework is guided by a critical constructivist epistemological position. Strongly influenced by Freirean pedagogies and the Frankfurt school of thought, critical constructivism endeavors to dissect the processes by which knowledge is socially constructed; in other words, what we know about the worlds we live in always demands a knower and that which is to be known, a contextual and dialectical process that informs what we conceive of as reality (Kincheloe, 2005). This epistemological position problematizes and extends constructivism by illuminating the need for both teachers and students to develop a critical awareness of self, their perspectives, and ways their consciousness have been shaped and/or reshaped by society (Watts, Jofili, & Bezerra, 1997). Critical constructivists attempt to comprehend the forces that construe consciousness and the ways of seeing and being of the subjects who inhabit it (Kincheloe, 1993, as cited in Watts et al., 1997). This political, counter- Cartesianism, and anti-objectivist philosophy (Kincheloe, 2005) is central to an emancipatory approach to sustainability and sustainability education, and is, therefore, at the root of the critical sustainability studies conception of holistic conscientization.

 

www.susted.com/wordpress/content/critical-sustainability-...

Artist/maker: George Nelson

Culture: Kwakwaka'wakw

Materials: Cedar wood. Paint, Iron metal. Adhesive

Subjects:

Slaves, Killer whales

Date Made: c. 1906

Date Acquired: 1956

How Acquired: Transferred

Measurements: Part d: 4 m x 1.1 m

Place made: Canada: British Columbia, Quatsino; Xwatis

Location: Great Hall / Crossroads

Object Number: A50009 d

Museum of Anthropology

University of British Columbia

  

About this object

 

History of use

 

The beams and figures stood as part of a house frame, and acted as structural supports. Figures represented on house frames were supernatural beings which the family living in the house had the right, through their history and origins, to represent.

 

Narrative

 

Klix’ken Gukwdzi, or Sea-Lion House, was built sometime around 1906. Like other houses in the village it had a modern exterior with milled-lumber front and windows. Yet it also featured carved sea-lion posts supporting the boardwalk, and inside, a monumental post-and-beam structure with carved and painted house posts, beams, and other symbols of the family’s history. Klix’ken House was the last old-style dwelling erected in Xwatis as a home for an extended family or lineage—and probably one of the last built on the entire coast.

 

Cultural context

 

Status

 

Iconographic meaning

 

Slaves were captured members of other Northwest Coast groups.

  

Physical description

 

Part of interior house frame (also see records a-c and g-h). The large wooden human figure (part d) is carved in high relief in a seated position. It is painted with a killer whale on its chest and broken coppers on both arms. In between his hands and below the killer whale is a small white face. The head is large, has a protruding nose and mouth, large carved eyes and is heavily decorated with yellow, white and black Northwest Coast stylized designs. Before the figure stands a wooden platform or seat supported by two kneeling slave figures (parts e-f), with unusual grimacing faces. Both figures have their outside arm rested on the ground while the other is turned backwards as if to support the seat that rests on their backs. Their eyes and bared teeth are carved in shallow relief while the rest of their face is carved in high relief. Their arms and upper body are painted green with black rings around the wrist and forearm. Their faces are painted green, white and black with Northwest Coast stylized designs.

 

Museum photos: collection-online.moa.ubc.ca/search/item?keywords=a50009&...

 

Slavery

This monumental house post was part of the internal frame of Sea-Lion House, the last traditional-style lineage dwelling built in the village of Xwatis, around 1906. The central seated figure—painted with crest imagery including a killer whale and broken coppers—rests above a platform supported by two crouching slave figures. Their exaggerated grimaces, twisted limbs, and burdened posture reflect the brutal social reality of hereditary slavery on the Northwest Coast. This is not symbolic—it is literal social commentary carved in wood.

 

Slavery in Kwakwaka’wakw and neighboring Indigenous societies—Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth—was an ancient, normalized institution. It dates back at least 2,500 years, likely much earlier, and was interwoven into kinship, economy, and status systems. The boundaries of the tradition extended along the entire Northwest Coast from the Columbia River to Southeast Alaska, including the coastlines and islands of British Columbia and parts of Washington State.

 

Slaves were captives taken during warfare or raiding, often from rival groups farther inland or up and down the coast. Over time, their status became hereditary: the children of slaves were born into bondage. Estimates vary, but 10–25% of the population in some Northwest Coast societies may have been enslaved—a figure comparable to or even exceeding that of classical Greece or the American South before emancipation.

 

Slaves were traded among high-ranking families, given as gifts, or redistributed in potlatch ceremonies, where public displays of wealth and hierarchy were enacted. Though not the primary economic engine, slave labor was integral to building houses, gathering food, processing materials, and assisting in ceremonial life.

 

There is evidence of ritual human sacrifice, particularly during high-ranking funerals and potlatches, where slaves might be killed to accompany a chief to the spirit world, or as offerings to supernatural beings. Such acts, though rare, reinforced the sacred and absolute authority of lineage heads. A notable recorded case describes the slow killing of a slave during the carving of a canoe, to transfer spiritual power to the object.

 

This post, made in the early 20th century, reflects a moment of cultural persistence under increasing colonial pressure. Though slavery had been outlawed by British and later Canadian authorities in the mid-19th century, the memory and meaning of the institution endured in ceremonial and artistic contexts. The figures here are not satirical. They are assertions of hereditary status and power, preserved in wood even as the old social order began to erode.

 

The reality of slavery among Indigenous societies—especially in the Pacific Northwest—poses a significant challenge to the sentimental or romanticized myth of pre-contact North America as a peaceful, egalitarian Eden undone solely by European colonialism.

 

This myth—promoted most often by well-meaning non-Indigenous individuals in settler or progressive circles—paints Indigenous peoples as spiritually superior, ecologically harmonious, and socially just in all respects. While this impulse may stem from guilt, admiration, or a desire to offer reparative narrative space, it too often flattens the complexities of Indigenous cultures and replaces one form of distortion with another.

🌿 The Problem with the "Noble Savage" Redux

 

This myth echoes the old "noble savage" trope, just updated for modern political sensibilities. In this version:

 

European colonists bring hierarchy, violence, gender inequality, greed, and ecological destruction;

 

Indigenous societies are cast as egalitarian, peaceful, and wise stewards of the land, free from coercion, patriarchy, or internal violence;

 

The existence of practices like slavery, ritual killing, raiding, and class stratification complicate or outright contradict that image.

 

In the Pacific Northwest, many Indigenous groups—particularly the Kwakwaka’wakw, Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian—developed complex, hierarchical, and materially affluent societies long before contact. These societies included:

 

Hereditary slavery on a large scale;

 

Social classes (nobility, commoners, slaves);

 

Warfare and raiding for captives and territory;

 

Ritual violence, including human sacrifice in some elite funerary and potlatch contexts;

 

Accumulation and symbolic destruction of wealth (e.g., coppers, blankets) as forms of status display and social competition.

 

None of this diminishes the brilliance or richness of these cultures—it simply acknowledges that power, exploitation, and inequality are human universals, not colonial inventions.

 

⚖️ The Danger of Utopianism

 

Romanticizing Indigenous societies erases:

 

The real ethical complexity of their histories;

 

The agency Indigenous people have always exercised—even when that included perpetuating internal systems of dominance;

 

The lived reality of Indigenous descendants of slaves, who still exist and whose identities complicate claims of cultural unity or purity.

 

It also distorts the moral landscape: if Indigenous cultures are idealized as perfect, then their suffering at colonial hands is treated not as a tragedy affecting real societies, but as the shattering of a fantasy. That is its own form of erasure.

 

What the House Post Tells Us

 

The 1906 house post you shared is not just an artwork—it’s a memory structure. It remembers lineage power, supernatural legitimacy, and a society where enslavement was normalized and ritually inscribed.

 

To take that seriously is not to diminish the culture—it’s to respect it enough not to lie about it.

 

🔎 1. Are descendants of slaves aware of their status?

 

Yes—in many cases, they are. Within some families and communities, ancestry linked to slavery is remembered, sometimes as oral history, sometimes as an open secret, and occasionally as a source of intra-community stigma that lingers to this day.

 

Slavery on the Northwest Coast was hereditary, and although it was officially abolished in the 19th century under colonial law, its social residues persisted, including in marriage eligibility, ceremonial roles, and internal status hierarchies.

 

In the words of several Indigenous scholars and community members, some descendants of enslaved people were, and sometimes still are, considered "lesser" or outside full hereditary status, particularly in contexts where lineage and clan descent remain important.

 

This creates a difficult legacy: some descendants of slaves are aware of that heritage, but there is also silence and discomfort, both due to shame and due to the fact that this internal history challenges the dominant narrative of Indigenous solidarity and external victimization.

 

2. Is there a movement to atone for or reckon with slavery?

 

There is no widespread, organized movement for atonement within Pacific Northwest Indigenous communities on the scale of, say, post-apartheid truth commissions or American university reckonings with slavery. However, there are pockets of discussion and acknowledgment emerging, especially among:

 

Younger Indigenous scholars, artists, and historians who are asking questions about internal power structures, the legacy of hereditary hierarchy, and the place of descendants of slaves within modern tribal identity;

 

Cultural revitalization movements, particularly those tied to potlatch, crest rights, and clan inheritance, where these histories must be confronted in order to authentically revive ceremonial practices;

 

Anthropological and museum settings, where Indigenous curators and collaborators are being forthright about what carvings (like the house post you showed) actually depict and how they should be interpreted.

 

That said, this is still a difficult conversation. In many communities, talking openly about historical slavery is seen as divisive, and in some cases, as airing internal matters to settler audiences, which carries a risk of misunderstanding or co-option.

 

️Indigenous Voices on the Topic

 

A few Indigenous scholars and thinkers who have touched on or addressed this history include:

 

Dr. Sarah Hunt (Tłaliłila’ogwa, Kwagu’ł) – who has written about Indigenous belonging, hierarchy, and the limits of unity narratives.

 

Marianne Ignace and Ronald Ignace – whose ethnohistorical work includes accounts of social hierarchy and enslaved peoples among the Secwépemc and other Interior and coastal nations.

 

Chief Robert Joseph (Kwakwaka’wakw) – while not focused on slavery per se, has spoken of the importance of truth-telling and internal healing in reconciliation.

 

⚖️ Final Thought

 

There’s no denying the power and beauty of Northwest Coast Indigenous cultures, but part of respecting them is recognizing that they, like all human cultures, contain contradictions, hierarchies, and histories of internal injustice. The story of slavery—its memory, its erasure, and its unresolved legacies—is one of those.

 

So while no formal atonement movement exists, the conversation has begun—and will likely deepen as Indigenous communities continue the work of cultural truth-telling on their own terms.

 

While slavery in the PNW and in the American South involved human bondage, PNW slavery was status-based, limited in scale, and embedded in kinship and prestige economies, whereas Southern slavery was racialized, industrialized, and ideologically justified for economic exploitation. The psychological, economic, and political aftershocks of American chattel slavery have been far more profound and enduring.

  

This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

 

Health Authorities declared that the epidemy was going down so they decided to put Mexico City back to work again. When, on Monday, all students return to school, activities will be normalized 100%. The Health Emergency is over.

Mexico City goes back to Normal Status: Crowded streets, impossible traffic jams, facemasks and litter on the sidewalks... welcome back.

---------------

Las autoridades sanitarias han declarado que la epidemia se terminó así que decidieron normalizar todas las actividades.

Cuando, el próximo Lunes, todos los estudiantes regresen a clases, la Ciudad volverá a ser 100% operacional. La Emergencia terminó.

El DF vuelve a la normalidad: amontonamiento en las calles, tráfico imposible, basura y cubrebocas en las aceras... Bienvenidos

  

Thanks for passing by during the Emergency

Gracias por visitar mi flickr durante la emergencia.

 

A good song to roll the credits at the end of the state of emergency.

  

Over.

 

Stop normalizing the grind. Normalize whatever this is.

 

#YBS24Open YBS24Open

The grid is the square of urban planning, it will determine the movement and shape of cities. The similarity between red blood cells and the cars carrying people is a metaphor for understanding why the human body works so well, and the block squared cities have become infarction or huge traffic jams.The ideal city is an orbital corpus and finds its ideal in the Palestinian cities of Abdelrahman in Spain, Charlemagne was his great friend and developed this idea in northern Europe.The Jesuit cities are inspired by Xian or Beijing, they can be found in America, throughout Africa and in many development plans designed to simplify the work of surveyors and decision-makers. The result is normalization of people and formatting.The circle is a meeting point. The magic paving stone of the chessboard has been a failure for a long time but few urban planners accept this fact. The system of a grid city is imposed as a simple way to enlarge or create a city from a lane, at the extreme certain city exists only on a lane composed of boxes with car parks to facilitate access.Thus, many neighborhoods resemble chess boards with commercial zones on the old market gardening areas, agricultural production being managed at regional or national level.

The city and the importance of its geometry, the journeys of urban dwellers in a quadrangular city and the absence or failure of shops in these neighbourhoods should be better studied.

www.nine9style.net/shop/step1.php?number=16141

 

Hello Hello;D How was your weekday?

 

I've brought new little bunnynine last week, and see what I've brought! New maple C!!!!

To tell the truth, we think about to show up her after our shutdown.

But she is not limited type, so we decide to update her before our shutdown day!

Her dress, Pearl dress set will be updated shortly, not just bunnynine size but MSD, SD13 and SD16 sizes too!

Please visit our shop and see more beautiful picture of hers!

 

And one more sad news;(

 

We announced our shutdown of bunnynine size, but we made our decision to shutdown all of our nine9style producing dolls from June 1st. Restarting date is scheduled in July 1st, but this may delay due to our produce line's status.

Shutdown is really painful for us in this big interests, but we made decision that customer's convenience is more important than our satisfaction. After producing line's normalization, we will reopen our doll orders. We ask customer's understanding.

 

We always appreciate for our customers about their big interests and loves.

 

Doll order is stopped, but we will produce all the new clothes consistently! So please look forward for our new clothes from now and forever!!XD

 

Oh I forgot to attach links of hers;3

Customers can select dress set in her option!

 

For Bunnynine maple C:

www.nine9style.net/shop/step1.php?number=16141

 

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