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our 100 year old stucco has needed paiting and repairs for 10 years and for past five Kris has waited as I said "oh I'll do it next summer" while prioritizing building a sauna, chicken coop and treehouse movie theater.
so now kris made it a priority to get someone else is painting the house which is probably for the best anyway :-)
now we’re under the gun to pick a color, have looked at dozens of samples on the house AND NOW IT’S THE VERY LAST DAY TO MAKE A DECISION!
decisions were decided but we went with a tricky blue and we're still not 100% sure it's the "right" blue!
Kevin Delaney, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer, Charter, USA, speaking in the Prioritizing Mental Health session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 23 May. Congress Centre - Ignite. Copyright: World Economic Forum/ Valeriano de Domenico
This Museum of Modern Art exemplifies a minimalist, brutalist-inspired aesthetic that prioritizes raw materials and a seamless connection with the landscape. The structure is characterized by extensive use of exposed cast-in-place concrete, featuring visible tie-rod holes and a natural, textured finish on both interior and exterior surfaces. Large-scale floor-to-ceiling glazing serves as a primary architectural element, dissolving the boundaries between the gallery spaces and the surrounding lush greenery and water features. This transparency ensures that the natural environment acts as a living backdrop for the art, while the repetitive, rhythmic placement of slender mullions provides a sense of mathematical order and linear perspective.
The design utilizes bold, geometric forms and dramatic interplay between light and shadow to create a contemplative atmosphere. Long, narrow corridors function as transitional galleries, where natural light pours in through the glass walls to cast sharp, rhythmic shadows across the polished concrete floors. Externally, the museum experiments with textural contrasts, such as the juxtaposition of rigid concrete walls against soft, draped fabric installations that break the building's orthogonal lines. By integrating reflective water pools and expansive lawns, the architecture creates a serene, campus-like setting that encourages a slow, meditative progression through the various exhibition spaces.
“We are hoping for transparency in the upcoming elections. We expect to elect a leader that will focus on the wellbeing of the Somali people, prioritize addressing the plight of the poor people as well as generating employment opportunities for the youth,” Shambow Khalif, a kiosk owner in Mogadishu, Somalia, on February 15, 2016. AMISOM Photo / Ilyas Ahmed
SUN VALLEY - LAFD responded to 9360 North Telfair Avenue at 1:02 AM on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 for an auto fire that spread into nearby vegetation. Firefighters prioritized the brush first, then extinguished the burning auto, without injury. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
© Photo by Ismael Miranda
LAFD Incident: 060921-0073
Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk
"The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, a central intellectual force behind the American Revolution, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, and the nation's third president.
The Jefferson Memorial features multiple Jefferson quotes designed to capture Jefferson's ideology and philosophy, known as Jeffersonian democracy, which was staunchly supportive of American republicanism, individual rights, religious freedom, states' rights, and virtue and prioritized and valued what he saw as the undervalued independent yeoman. Jefferson was simultaneously deeply skeptical of cities and financiers and hostile to aristocracy, elitism, and corruption. He is widely considered among the most influential political minds of his age and one of the most consequential intellectual forces behind the American Revolution.
The Jefferson Memorial is built in neoclassical style and is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. It was designed by John Russell Pope, a New York City architect, and built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction on it began in 1939 and was completed in 1943, though the bronze statue of Jefferson was not completed and added until four years after its dedication and opening, in 1947. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon, whose designer was Apollodorus of Damascus, and to Jefferson's own design for the rotunda at the University of Virginia as inspirations for the memorial's aesthetics.
The Jefferson Memorial and White House form a main anchor point to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument, initially intended to be built at the intersection of the White House and the Jefferson Memorial's site, was ultimately built further east because the ground at that location was deemed too soft and swampy.
The Jefferson Memorial is a designated national memorial and is managed by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 1966, the Jefferson Memorial was named to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, it ranked fourth on the "list of America's favorite architecture", published by the American Institute of Architects.
The National Mall is a landscaped park near the downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States, and contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions, and various memorials, sculptures, and statues. It is administered by the National Park Service (NPS) of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit of the National Park System. The park receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.
The core area of the National Mall extends between the United States Capitol grounds to the east and the Washington Monument to the west and is lined to the north and south by several museums and a federal office building. The term National Mall may also include areas that are also officially part of neighboring West Potomac Park to the south and west and Constitution Gardens to the north, extending to the Lincoln Memorial on the west and Jefferson Memorial to the south.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia, also known as just Washington or simply D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern and southern border with the U.S. state of Virginia, and it shares a land border with the U.S. state of Maryland on its other sides. The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, and the federal district is named after Columbia, the female personification of the nation. As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital. It is one of the most visited cities in the U.S. with over 20 million annual visitors as of 2016.
The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress; the district is not a part of any U.S. state (nor is it one itself). The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district located along the Potomac River near the country's East Coast. The City of Washington was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the territory, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia (including the settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria), officially became recognized as the federal district. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria; in 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district. There have been efforts to make the city into a state since the 1880s, a movement that has gained momentum in recent years, and a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021.
The city is divided into quadrants centered on the Capitol, and there are as many as 131 neighborhoods. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 689,545, which makes it the 23rd most populous city in the U.S. as of 2020, the third most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and gives it a population larger than that of two U.S. states: Wyoming and Vermont. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington's metropolitan area, the country's sixth largest (including parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia), had a 2020 estimated population of 6.3 million residents; and over 54 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the District.
The three branches of the U.S. federal government are centered in the district: Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the Supreme Court (judicial). Washington is home to many national monuments and museums, primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the American Red Cross, and others.
A locally elected mayor and a 13-member council have governed the district since 1973. Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. The District of Columbia does not have representation in Congress, although D.C. residents elect a single at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives who has no vote. District voters choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961." - 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.
SUN VALLEY - LAFD responded to 9360 North Telfair Avenue at 1:02 AM on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 for an auto fire that spread into nearby vegetation. Firefighters prioritized the brush first, then extinguished the burning auto, without injury. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
© Photo by Ismael Miranda
LAFD Incident: 060921-0073
Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk
"The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, a central intellectual force behind the American Revolution, founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, and the nation's third president.
The Jefferson Memorial features multiple Jefferson quotes designed to capture Jefferson's ideology and philosophy, known as Jeffersonian democracy, which was staunchly supportive of American republicanism, individual rights, religious freedom, states' rights, and virtue and prioritized and valued what he saw as the undervalued independent yeoman. Jefferson was simultaneously deeply skeptical of cities and financiers and hostile to aristocracy, elitism, and corruption. He is widely considered among the most influential political minds of his age and one of the most consequential intellectual forces behind the American Revolution.
The Jefferson Memorial is built in neoclassical style and is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. It was designed by John Russell Pope, a New York City architect, and built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction on it began in 1939 and was completed in 1943, though the bronze statue of Jefferson was not completed and added until four years after its dedication and opening, in 1947. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon, whose designer was Apollodorus of Damascus, and to Jefferson's own design for the rotunda at the University of Virginia as inspirations for the memorial's aesthetics.
The Jefferson Memorial and White House form a main anchor point to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument, initially intended to be built at the intersection of the White House and the Jefferson Memorial's site, was ultimately built further east because the ground at that location was deemed too soft and swampy.
The Jefferson Memorial is a designated national memorial and is managed by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 1966, the Jefferson Memorial was named to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, it ranked fourth on the "list of America's favorite architecture", published by the American Institute of Architects.
The National Mall is a landscaped park near the downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States, and contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions, and various memorials, sculptures, and statues. It is administered by the National Park Service (NPS) of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit of the National Park System. The park receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.
The core area of the National Mall extends between the United States Capitol grounds to the east and the Washington Monument to the west and is lined to the north and south by several museums and a federal office building. The term National Mall may also include areas that are also officially part of neighboring West Potomac Park to the south and west and Constitution Gardens to the north, extending to the Lincoln Memorial on the west and Jefferson Memorial to the south.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia, also known as just Washington or simply D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern and southern border with the U.S. state of Virginia, and it shares a land border with the U.S. state of Maryland on its other sides. The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, and the federal district is named after Columbia, the female personification of the nation. As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital. It is one of the most visited cities in the U.S. with over 20 million annual visitors as of 2016.
The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress; the district is not a part of any U.S. state (nor is it one itself). The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district located along the Potomac River near the country's East Coast. The City of Washington was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the territory, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia (including the settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria), officially became recognized as the federal district. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria; in 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district. There have been efforts to make the city into a state since the 1880s, a movement that has gained momentum in recent years, and a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021.
The city is divided into quadrants centered on the Capitol, and there are as many as 131 neighborhoods. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 689,545, which makes it the 23rd most populous city in the U.S. as of 2020, the third most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and gives it a population larger than that of two U.S. states: Wyoming and Vermont. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington's metropolitan area, the country's sixth largest (including parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia), had a 2020 estimated population of 6.3 million residents; and over 54 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the District.
The three branches of the U.S. federal government are centered in the district: Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the Supreme Court (judicial). Washington is home to many national monuments and museums, primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the American Red Cross, and others.
A locally elected mayor and a 13-member council have governed the district since 1973. Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. The District of Columbia does not have representation in Congress, although D.C. residents elect a single at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives who has no vote. District voters choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961." - 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.
Participants in the Prioritizing Mental Health session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 23 May. Congress Centre - Ignite. Copyright: World Economic Forum/ Valeriano de Domenico
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzRm4K7NZm0&feature=related
Troubled Mind - Sister Rosetta Tharpe
( Strongly adivsed to watch this outstanding and unique video )
The architect is ...
Quite possibly
Suffering from ...
A troubled mind
or
Is a Tim Leary disciple !
:-)
g
deux [2] de trois six cinq.
okay, trying to figure out editing process still!
"she NEEDS to sort out her priorities." that would be Ron talking to Harry about how Hermione has poor prioritization (she said it would be worse to be expelled from Hogwarts than get eaten by Fluffy). i'm only blabbing about this because i should be working on my history presentation that's due tomorrow but instead drifted over to picture taking. meaning i have poor prioritization as well although not as school-oriented as that Hermione. oh well...
and sorry if prioritization is not a word, i just don't know.
Biennalist :
Biennalist is an Art Format commenting on active biennials and managed cultural events through artworks.Biennalist takes the thematics of the biennales and similar events like festivals and conferences seriously, questioning the established structures of the staged art events in order to contribute to the debate, which they wish to generate.
-------------------------------------------
links about Biennalist :
Thierry Geoffroy/Colonel:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Geoffroy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Room_(art)
www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html
—--Biennale from wikipedia —--
The Venice International Film Festival is part of the Venice Biennale. The famous Golden Lion is awarded to the best film screening at the competition.
Biennale (Italian: [bi.enˈnaːle]), Italian for "biennial" or "every other year", is any event that happens every two years. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions. As such the term was popularised by Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895. Since the 1990s, the terms "biennale" and "biennial" have been interchangeably used in a more generic way - to signify a large-scale international survey show of contemporary art that recurs at regular intervals but not necessarily biannual (such as triennials, Documenta, Skulptur Projekte Münster).[1] The phrase has also been used for other artistic events, such as the "Biennale de Paris", "Kochi-Muziris Biennale", Berlinale (for the Berlin International Film Festival) and Viennale (for Vienna's international film festival).
Characteristics[edit]
According to author Federica Martini, what is at stake in contemporary biennales is the diplomatic/international relations potential as well as urban regeneration plans. Besides being mainly focused on the present (the “here and now” where the cultural event takes place and their effect of "spectacularisation of the everyday"), because of their site-specificity cultural events may refer back to,[who?] produce or frame the history of the site and communities' collective memory.[2]
The Great Exhibition in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, in 1851, the first attempt to condense the representation of the world within a unitary exhibition space.
A strong and influent symbol of biennales and of large-scale international exhibitions in general is the Crystal Palace, the gigantic and futuristic London architecture that hosted the Great Exhibition in 1851. According to philosopher Peter Sloterdijk,[3][page needed] the Crystal Palace is the first attempt to condense the representation of the world in a unitary exhibition space, where the main exhibit is society itself in an a-historical, spectacular condition. The Crystal Palace main motives were the affirmation of British economic and national leadership and the creation of moments of spectacle. In this respect, 19th century World fairs provided a visual crystallization of colonial culture and were, at the same time, forerunners of contemporary theme parks.
The Venice Biennale as an archetype[edit]
The structure of the Venice Biennale in 2005 with an international exhibition and the national pavilions.
The Venice Biennale, a periodical large-scale cultural event founded in 1895, served as an archetype of the biennales. Meant to become a World Fair focused on contemporary art, the Venice Biennale used as a pretext the wedding anniversary of the Italian king and followed up to several national exhibitions organised after Italy unification in 1861. The Biennale immediately put forth issues of city marketing, cultural tourism and urban regeneration, as it was meant to reposition Venice on the international cultural map after the crisis due to the end of the Grand Tour model and the weakening of the Venetian school of painting. Furthermore, the Gardens where the Biennale takes place were an abandoned city area that needed to be re-functionalised. In cultural terms, the Biennale was meant to provide on a biennial basis a platform for discussing contemporary art practices that were not represented in fine arts museums at the time. The early Biennale model already included some key points that are still constitutive of large-scale international art exhibitions today: a mix of city marketing, internationalism, gentrification issues and destination culture, and the spectacular, large scale of the event.
Biennials after the 1990s[edit]
The situation of biennials has changed in the contemporary context: while at its origin in 1895 Venice was a unique cultural event, but since the 1990s hundreds of biennials have been organized across the globe. Given the ephemeral and irregular nature of some biennials, there is little consensus on the exact number of biennials in existence at any given time.[citation needed] Furthermore, while Venice was a unique agent in the presentation of contemporary art, since the 1960s several museums devoted to contemporary art are exhibiting the contemporary scene on a regular basis. Another point of difference concerns 19th century internationalism in the arts, that was brought into question by post-colonial debates and criticism of the contemporary art “ethnic marketing”, and also challenged the Venetian and World Fair’s national representation system. As a consequence of this, Eurocentric tendency to implode the whole word in an exhibition space, which characterises both the Crystal Palace and the Venice Biennale, is affected by the expansion of the artistic geographical map to scenes traditionally considered as marginal. The birth of the Havana Biennial in 1984 is widely considered an important counterpoint to the Venetian model for its prioritization of artists working in the Global South and curatorial rejection of the national pavilion model.
International biennales[edit]
In the term's most commonly used context of major recurrent art exhibitions:
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, South Australia
Asian Art Biennale, in Taichung, Taiwan (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts)
Athens Biennale, in Athens, Greece
Bienal de Arte Paiz, in Guatemala City, Guatemala[4]
Arts in Marrakech (AiM) International Biennale (Arts in Marrakech Festival)
Bamako Encounters, a biennale of photography in Mali
Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism
Beijing Biennale
Berlin Biennale (contemporary art biennale, to be distinguished from Berlinale, which is a film festival)
Bergen Assembly (triennial for contemporary art in Bergen, Norway)www.bergenassembly.no
Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China
Bienal de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico
Biënnale van België, Biennial of Belgium, Belgium
BiennaleOnline Online biennial exhibition of contemporary art from the most promising emerging artists.
Biennial of Hawaii Artists
Biennale de la Biche, the smallest biennale in the world held at deserted island near Guadeloupe, French overseas region[5][6]
Biwako Biennale [ja], in Shiga, Japan
La Biennale de Montreal
Biennale of Luanda : Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace,[7] Angola
Boom Festival, international music and culture festival in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal
Bucharest Biennale in Bucharest, Romania
Bushwick Biennial, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York
Canakkale Biennial, in Canakkale, Turkey
Cerveira International Art Biennial, Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal [8]
Changwon Sculpture Biennale in Changwon, South Korea
Dakar Biennale, also called Dak'Art, biennale in Dakar, Senegal
Documenta, contemporary art exhibition held every five years in Kassel, Germany
Estuaire (biennale), biennale in Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, France
EVA International, biennial in Limerick, Republic of Ireland
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, in Gothenburg, Sweden[9]
Greater Taipei Contemporary Art Biennial, in Taipei, Taiwan
Gwangju Biennale, Asia's first and most prestigious contemporary art biennale
Havana biennial, in Havana, Cuba
Helsinki Biennial, in Helsinki, Finland
Herzliya Biennial For Contemporary Art, in Herzliya, Israel
Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, in Incheon, South Korea
Iowa Biennial, in Iowa, USA
Istanbul Biennial, in Istanbul, Turkey
International Roaming Biennial of Tehran, in Tehran and Istanbul
Jakarta Biennale, in Jakarta, Indonesia
Jerusalem Biennale, in Jerusalem, Israel
Jogja Biennale, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Karachi Biennale, in Karachi, Pakistan
Keelung Harbor Biennale, in Keelung, Taiwan
Kochi-Muziris Biennale, largest art exhibition in India, in Kochi, Kerala, India
Kortrijk Design Biennale Interieur, in Kortrijk, Belgium
Kobe Biennale, in Japan
Kuandu Biennale, in Taipei, Taiwan
Lagos Biennial, in Lagos, Nigeria[10]
Light Art Biennale Austria, in Austria
Liverpool Biennial, in Liverpool, UK
Lofoten International Art Festival [no] (LIAF), on the Lofoten archipelago, Norway[11]
Manifesta, European Biennale of contemporary art in different European cities
Mediations Biennale, in Poznań, Poland
Melbourne International Biennial 1999
Mediterranean Biennale in Sakhnin 2013
MOMENTA Biennale de l'image [fr] (formerly known as Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal), in Montreal, Canada
MOMENTUM [no], in Moss, Norway[12]
Moscow Biennale, in Moscow, Russia
Munich Biennale, new opera and music-theatre in even-numbered years
Mykonos Biennale
Nakanojo Biennale[13]
NGV Triennial, contemporary art exhibition held every three years at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
October Salon – Belgrade Biennale [sr], organised by the Cultural Center of Belgrade [sr], in Belgrade, Serbia[14]
OSTEN Biennial of Drawing Skopje, North Macedonia[15]
Biennale de Paris
Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA), in Riga, Latvia[16]
São Paulo Art Biennial, in São Paulo, Brazil
SCAPE Public Art Christchurch Biennial in Christchurch, New Zealand[17]
Prospect New Orleans
Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
Sequences, in Reykjavík, Iceland[18]
Shanghai Biennale
Sharjah Biennale, in Sharjah, UAE
Singapore Biennale, held in various locations across the city-state island of Singapore
Screen City Biennial, in Stavanger, Norway
Biennale of Sydney
Taipei Biennale, in Taipei, Taiwan
Taiwan Arts Biennale, in Taichung, Taiwan (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts)
Taiwan Film Biennale, in Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art [el], in Thessaloniki, Greece[19]
Dream city, produced by ART Rue Association in Tunisia
Vancouver Biennale
Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) in the Philippines [20]
Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy, which includes:
Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art
Venice Biennale of Architecture
Venice Film Festival
Vladivostok biennale of Visual Arts, in Vladivostok, Russia
Whitney Biennial, hosted by the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York City, NY, USA
Web Biennial, produced with teams from Athens, Berlin and Istanbul.
West Africa Architecture Biennale,[21] Virtual in Lagos, Nigeria.
WRO Biennale, in Wrocław, Poland[22]
Music Biennale Zagreb
[SHIFT:ibpcpa] The International Biennale of Performance, Collaborative and Participatory Arts, Nomadic, International, Scotland, UK.
—---Venice Biennale from wikipedia —
The Venice Biennale (/ˌbiːɛˈnɑːleɪ, -li/; Italian: La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation.[2][3][4] The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of its kind. The main exhibition held in Castello, in the halls of the Arsenale and Biennale Gardens, alternates between art and architecture (hence the name biennale; biennial).[5][6][7] The other events hosted by the Foundation—spanning theatre, music, and dance—are held annually in various parts of Venice, whereas the Venice Film Festival takes place at the Lido.[8]
Organization[edit]
Art Biennale
Art Biennale
International Art Exhibition
1895
Even-numbered years (since 2022)
Venice Biennale of Architecture
International Architecture Exhibition
1980
Odd-numbered years (since 2021)
Biennale Musica
International Festival of Contemporary Music
1930
Annually (Sep/Oct)
Biennale Teatro
International Theatre Festival
1934
Annually (Jul/Aug)
Venice Film Festival
Venice International Film Festival
1932
Annually (Aug/Sep)
Venice Dance Biennale
International Festival of Contemporary Dance
1999
Annually (June; biennially 2010–16)
International Kids' Carnival
2009
Annually (during Carnevale)
History
1895–1947
On April 19, 1893, the Venetian City Council passed a resolution to set up an biennial exhibition of Italian Art ("Esposizione biennale artistica nazionale") to celebrate the silver anniversary of King Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy.[11]
A year later, the council decreed "to adopt a 'by invitation' system; to reserve a section of the Exhibition for foreign artists too; to admit works by uninvited Italian artists, as selected by a jury."[12]
The first Biennale, "I Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Città di Venezia (1st International Art Exhibition of the City of Venice)" (although originally scheduled for April 22, 1894) was opened on April 30, 1895, by the Italian King and Queen, Umberto I and Margherita di Savoia. The first exhibition was seen by 224,000 visitors.
The event became increasingly international in the first decades of the 20th century: from 1907 on, several countries installed national pavilions at the exhibition, with the first being from Belgium. In 1910 the first internationally well-known artists were displayed: a room dedicated to Gustav Klimt, a one-man show for Renoir, a retrospective of Courbet. A work by Picasso "Family of Saltimbanques" was removed from the Spanish salon in the central Palazzo because it was feared that its novelty might shock the public. By 1914 seven pavilions had been established: Belgium (1907), Hungary (1909), Germany (1909), Great Britain (1909), France (1912), and Russia (1914).
During World War I, the 1916 and 1918 events were cancelled.[13] In 1920 the post of mayor of Venice and president of the Biennale was split. The new secretary general, Vittorio Pica brought about the first presence of avant-garde art, notably Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
1922 saw an exhibition of sculpture by African artists. Between the two World Wars, many important modern artists had their work exhibited there. In 1928 the Istituto Storico d'Arte Contemporanea (Historical Institute of Contemporary Art) opened, which was the first nucleus of archival collections of the Biennale. In 1930 its name was changed into Historical Archive of Contemporary Art.
In 1930, the Biennale was transformed into an Ente Autonomo (Autonomous Board) by Royal Decree with law no. 33 of 13-1-1930. Subsequently, the control of the Biennale passed from the Venice city council to the national Fascist government under Benito Mussolini. This brought on a restructuring, an associated financial boost, as well as a new president, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata. Three entirely new events were established, including the Biennale Musica in 1930, also referred to as International Festival of Contemporary Music; the Venice Film Festival in 1932, which they claim as the first film festival in history,[14] also referred to as Venice International Film Festival; and the Biennale Theatro in 1934, also referred to as International Theatre Festival.
In 1933 the Biennale organized an exhibition of Italian art abroad. From 1938, Grand Prizes were awarded in the art exhibition section.
During World War II, the activities of the Biennale were interrupted: 1942 saw the last edition of the events. The Film Festival restarted in 1946, the Music and Theatre festivals were resumed in 1947, and the Art Exhibition in 1948.[15]
1948–1973[edit]
The Art Biennale was resumed in 1948 with a major exhibition of a recapitulatory nature. The Secretary General, art historian Rodolfo Pallucchini, started with the Impressionists and many protagonists of contemporary art including Chagall, Klee, Braque, Delvaux, Ensor, and Magritte, as well as a retrospective of Picasso's work. Peggy Guggenheim was invited to exhibit her collection, later to be permanently housed at Ca' Venier dei Leoni.
1949 saw the beginning of renewed attention to avant-garde movements in European—and later worldwide—movements in contemporary art. Abstract expressionism was introduced in the 1950s, and the Biennale is credited with importing Pop Art into the canon of art history by awarding the top prize to Robert Rauschenberg in 1964.[16] From 1948 to 1972, Italian architect Carlo Scarpa did a series of remarkable interventions in the Biennale's exhibition spaces.
In 1954 the island San Giorgio Maggiore provided the venue for the first Japanese Noh theatre shows in Europe. 1956 saw the selection of films following an artistic selection and no longer based upon the designation of the participating country. The 1957 Golden Lion went to Satyajit Ray's Aparajito which introduced Indian cinema to the West.
1962 included Arte Informale at the Art Exhibition with Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, Emilio Vedova, and Pietro Consagra. The 1964 Art Exhibition introduced continental Europe to Pop Art (The Independent Group had been founded in Britain in 1952). The American Robert Rauschenberg was the first American artist to win the Gran Premio, and the youngest to date.
The student protests of 1968 also marked a crisis for the Biennale. Student protests hindered the opening of the Biennale. A resulting period of institutional changes opened and ending with a new Statute in 1973. In 1969, following the protests, the Grand Prizes were abandoned. These resumed in 1980 for the Mostra del Cinema and in 1986 for the Art Exhibition.[17]
In 1972, for the first time, a theme was adopted by the Biennale, called "Opera o comportamento" ("Work or Behaviour").
Starting from 1973 the Music Festival was no longer held annually. During the year in which the Mostra del Cinema was not held, there was a series of "Giornate del cinema italiano" (Days of Italian Cinema) promoted by sectorial bodies in campo Santa Margherita, in Venice.[18]
1974–1998[edit]
1974 saw the start of the four-year presidency of Carlo Ripa di Meana. The International Art Exhibition was not held (until it was resumed in 1976). Theatre and cinema events were held in October 1974 and 1975 under the title Libertà per il Cile (Freedom for Chile)—a major cultural protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
On 15 November 1977, the so-called Dissident Biennale (in reference to the dissident movement in the USSR) opened. Because of the ensuing controversies within the Italian left wing parties, president Ripa di Meana resigned at the end of the year.[19]
In 1979 the new presidency of Giuseppe Galasso (1979-1982) began. The principle was laid down whereby each of the artistic sectors was to have a permanent director to organise its activity.
In 1980, the Architecture section of the Biennale was set up. The director, Paolo Portoghesi, opened the Corderie dell'Arsenale to the public for the first time. At the Mostra del Cinema, the awards were brought back into being (between 1969 and 1979, the editions were non-competitive). In 1980, Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann introduced "Aperto", a section of the exhibition designed to explore emerging art. Italian art historian Giovanni Carandente directed the 1988 and 1990 editions. A three-year gap was left afterwards to make sure that the 1995 edition would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Biennale.[13]
The 1993 edition was directed by Achille Bonito Oliva. In 1995, Jean Clair was appointed to be the Biennale's first non-Italian director of visual arts[20] while Germano Celant served as director in 1997.
For the Centenary in 1995, the Biennale promoted events in every sector of its activity: the 34th Festival del Teatro, the 46th art exhibition, the 46th Festival di Musica, the 52nd Mostra del Cinema.[21]
1999–present[edit]
In 1999 and 2001, Harald Szeemann directed two editions in a row (48th & 49th) bringing in a larger representation of artists from Asia and Eastern Europe and more young artists than usual and expanded the show into several newly restored spaces of the Arsenale.
In 1999 a new sector was created for live shows: DMT (Dance Music Theatre).
The 50th edition, 2003, directed by Francesco Bonami, had a record number of seven co-curators involved, including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Catherine David, Igor Zabel, Hou Hanru and Massimiliano Gioni.
The 51st edition of the Biennale opened in June 2005, curated, for the first time by two women, Maria de Corral and Rosa Martinez. De Corral organized "The Experience of Art" which included 41 artists, from past masters to younger figures. Rosa Martinez took over the Arsenale with "Always a Little Further." Drawing on "the myth of the romantic traveler" her exhibition involved 49 artists, ranging from the elegant to the profane.
In 2007, Robert Storr became the first director from the United States to curate the Biennale (the 52nd), with a show entitled Think with the Senses – Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense.
Swedish curator Daniel Birnbaum was artistic director of the 2009 edition entitled "Fare Mondi // Making Worlds".
The 2011 edition was curated by Swiss curator Bice Curiger entitled "ILLUMInazioni – ILLUMInations".
The Biennale in 2013 was curated by the Italian Massimiliano Gioni. His title and theme, Il Palazzo Enciclopedico / The Encyclopedic Palace, was adopted from an architectural model by the self-taught Italian-American artist Marino Auriti. Auriti's work, The Encyclopedic Palace of the World was lent by the American Folk Art Museum and exhibited in the first room of the Arsenale for the duration of the biennale. For Gioni, Auriti's work, "meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite," provided an analogous figure for the "biennale model itself...based on the impossible desire to concentrate the infinite worlds of contemporary art in a single place: a task that now seems as dizzyingly absurd as Auriti's dream."[22]
Curator Okwui Enwezor was responsible for the 2015 edition.[23] He was the first African-born curator of the biennial. As a catalyst for imagining different ways of imagining multiple desires and futures Enwezor commissioned special projects and programs throughout the Biennale in the Giardini. This included a Creative Time Summit, e-flux journal's SUPERCOMMUNITY, Gulf Labor Coalition, The Invisible Borders Trans-African Project and Abounaddara.[24][25]
The 2017 Biennale, titled Viva Arte Viva, was directed by French curator Christine Macel who called it an "exhibition inspired by humanism".[26] German artist Franz Erhard Walter won the Golden Lion for best artist, while Carolee Schneemann was awarded a posthumous Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.[27]
The 2019 Biennale, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, was directed by American-born curator Ralph Rugoff.[28]
The 2022 edition was curated by Italian curator Cecilia Alemani entitled "The Milk of Dreams" after a book by British-born Mexican surrealist painter Leonora Carrington.[29]
The Biennale has an attendance today of over 500,000 visitors.[30][31][32]
Role in the art market[edit]
When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895, one of its main goals was to establish a new market for contemporary art. Between 1942 and 1968 a sales office assisted artists in finding clients and selling their work,[33] a service for which it charged 10% commission. Sales remained an intrinsic part of the biennale until 1968, when a sales ban was enacted. An important practical reason why the focus on non-commodities has failed to decouple Venice from the market is that the biennale itself lacks the funds to produce, ship and install these large-scale works. Therefore, the financial involvement of dealers is widely regarded as indispensable;[16] as they regularly front the funding for production of ambitious projects.[34] Furthermore, every other year the Venice Biennale coincides with nearby Art Basel, the world's prime commercial fair for modern and contemporary art. Numerous galleries with artists on show in Venice usually bring work by the same artists to Basel.[35]
Central Pavilion and Arsenale[edit]
The formal Biennale is based at a park, the Giardini. The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale's director.
Initiated in 1980, the Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme. In 1995 there was no Aperto so a number of participating countries hired venues to show exhibitions of emerging artists. From 1999, both the international exhibition and the Aperto were held as one exhibition, held both at the Central Pavilion and the Arsenale. Also in 1999, a $1 million renovation transformed the Arsenale area into a cluster of renovated shipyards, sheds and warehouses, more than doubling the Arsenale's exhibition space of previous years.[36]
A special edition of the 54th Biennale was held at Padiglione Italia of Torino Esposizioni – Sala Nervi (December 2011 – February 2012) for the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unification. The event was directed by Vittorio Sgarbi.[37]
National pavilions[edit]
Main article: National pavilions at the Venice Biennale
The Giardini houses 30 permanent national pavilions.[13] Alongside the Central Pavilion, built in 1894 and later restructured and extended several times, the Giardini are occupied by a further 29 pavilions built at different periods by the various countries participating in the Biennale. The first nation to build a pavilion was Belgium in 1907, followed by Germany, Britain and Hungary in 1909.[13] The pavilions are the property of the individual countries and are managed by their ministries of culture.[38]
Countries not owning a pavilion in the Giardini are exhibited in other venues across Venice. The number of countries represented is still growing. In 2005, China was showing for the first time, followed by the African Pavilion and Mexico (2007), the United Arab Emirates (2009), and India (2011).[39]
The assignment of the permanent pavilions was largely dictated by the international politics of the 1930s and the Cold War. There is no single format to how each country manages their pavilion, established and emerging countries represented at the biennial maintain and fund their pavilions in different ways.[38] While pavilions are usually government-funded, private money plays an increasingly large role; in 2015, the pavilions of Iraq, Ukraine and Syria were completely privately funded.[40] The pavilion for Great Britain is always managed by the British Council[41] while the United States assigns the responsibility to a public gallery chosen by the Department of State which, since 1985, has been the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.[42] The countries at the Arsenale that request a temporary exhibition space pay a hire fee per square meter.[38]
In 2011, the countries were Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia and Slovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Wales and Zimbabwe. In addition to this there are two collective pavilions: Central Asia Pavilion and Istituto Italo-Latino Americano. In 2013, eleven new participant countries developed national pavilions for the Biennale: Angola, Bosnia and Herzegowina, the Bahamas, Bahrain, the Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Kuwait, the Maldives, Paraguay, Tuvalu, and the Holy See. In 2015, five new participant countries developed pavilions for the Biennale: Grenada,[43] Republic of Mozambique, Republic of Seychelles, Mauritius and Mongolia. In 2017, three countries participated in the Art Biennale for the first time: Antigua & Barbuda, Kiribati, and Nigeria.[44] In 2019, four countries participated in the Art Biennale for the first time: Ghana, Madagascar, Malaysia, and Pakistan.[45]
As well as the national pavilions there are countless "unofficial pavilions"[46] that spring up every year. In 2009 there were pavilions such as the Gabon Pavilion and a Peckham pavilion. In 2017 The Diaspora Pavilion bought together 19 artists from complex, multinational backgrounds to challenge the prevalence of the nation state at the Biennale.[47]
The Internet Pavilion (Italian: Padiglione Internet) was founded in 2009 as a platform for activists and artists working in new media.[48][49][50] Subsequent editions were held since,[51] 2013,[51] in conjunction with the biennale.[52]
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وینسVenetsiya
art umjetnost umění kunst taideτέχνη művészetList ealaínarte māksla menasartiKunst sztuka artăumenie umetnost konstcelfקונסטարվեստincəsənətশিল্প艺术(yìshù)藝術 (yìshù)ხელოვნებაकलाkos duabアートಕಲೆសិល្បៈ미(misul)ສິນລະປະകലकलाအတတ်ပညာकलाකලාවகலைఆర్ట్ศิลปะ آرٹsan'atnghệ thuậtفن (fan)אומנותهنرsanat artist
venice biennale Venezia Venedig biennalen Bienal_de_Venecia Venise Venecia Bienalo Bienal Biënnale Venetië Veneza Μπιενάλε της Βενετίας ヴェネツィ ア・ビエンナーレ 威尼斯双年展 Venedik Bienali Venetsian biennaali Wenecji biennial #venicebiennale #venicebiennial biennalism
Veneziako Venecija Venècia Venetië Veneetsia Venetsia VenedigΒ ενετία Velence Feneyjar Venice Venēcija Venezja Venezia Wenecja VenezaVeneția Venetsiya Benátky Benetke Fenisוועניס Վենետիկ ভেনি স威尼斯 威尼斯 ვენეციისવે નિસवेनिसヴ ェネツィアವೆನಿಸ್베니스வெனிஸ்వెనిస్เวนิซوینس Venetsiya Italy italia
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headband protest fashion protestfashion artistic intervention performance artformat action installation critical critic critique institutional critic choregraphy scenography
#venicebiennale #biennalist #artformat #biennale #artbiennale #biennial
#BiennaleArte2024 #artformat
She is in charge of the ballet in Cotacachi a very kind woman who prioritize her family always.
Cotacachi, Ecuador
030819 - WASHINGTON DC., Managing Director and Chairwoman of the IMF Christine Lagarde and Interim WBG President Kristalina Georgieva engage in a conversation on their pioneering leadership and challenges they and other women have faced, the economic issues they’re dealing with and how they prioritize gender both through operations and in walking the talk within the IMF and WBG.
Photo: World Bank / Simone D. McCourtie
Families from Munshigong keep together as they seek refuge in the Caritas Bangladesh cyclone shelter, attempting as much safe distancing as possible, while prioritizing safety from the deadly storms.
Tropical cyclone Amphan intensified rapidly in the Bay of Bengal to become a “Super Cyclonic Storm” – the equivalent of a strong Category 4/weak Category 5 on the Saffir Simpson scale. It weakened ahead of landfall on Wednesday, May 20, 2020 as a very severe cyclonic storm (strong Category 2 equivalent), bringing dangerous winds, storm surge and flooding to coastal areas of West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. At least 658,000 people were evacuated in West Bengal and Odisha before the cyclone struck. Amphan impacted densely populated areas, including the Indian city of Kolkata (Calcutta) at a time when restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been in force, thereby complicating disaster. The strong winds and the pounding rains have left the city inundated making the city’s already vulnerable urban poor more vulnerable. CRS and Caritas will implement a joint response to Cyclone Amphan. A joint emergency response team has been established to support response efforts including immediate needs such as temporary shelter, access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
21 May 2020 Day 2
Photo by Amit Rudro for CRS/Caritas Bangladesh
This is an autobiographical memoir written (and drawn) by a woman identifying as non-binary who is now in her early ‘30s. It is a graphic novel presumably for young people that depicts her coming of age development and her discovery of her non-binary identity and preferred pronouns. This is the book that was read aloud by a mom at a school board meeting in Virginia before her mike was shut off. The main complaint of this mom was that the book has pornographic images of sexual activity, masturbation scenes and acts of pedophilia in that one of the masturbation fantasies shows an erect man fondling a boy’s erect penis. This last happens to be an image in the style of ancient Greek art, while the other scenes depict the author’s actual body. I got my copy in the adult section of the San Carlos library, but I did note that in Belmont it was shelved in the teen section.
The images shown out of context did shock me at first when I saw them on a youtube podcast, but in the context of the narrative flow they are appropriate to the telling of this person’s life. Technically speaking these images may qualify as pornographic and subject to laws presiding over such. I can see why parents would object to the book.
More of interest to me is the logic of the narrator. A lot can be forgiven a person telling their own story. After all one reads memoirs to find out how a person thinks, but the reader will also have their own thoughts about the narrator and will be assessing if this narrator has insight into their behavior and a sense of perspective within what is commonly perceived by society to be reality or if they have sandbagged themselves into a fictional world not supported by current agreed upon reality.
It is clear that the author has poured forth her most vulnerable moments onto the page and has thus successfully conveyed the truth of her pain. This earns her the respect of the reader. It is also clear from her use of underarm deodorant and a scene of medical trauma at a gynecological exam that she has an abnormally low threshold of pain and a highly reactive body which clearly affects her emotionally. And despite further medical traumas and grieving a relationship that has ended it does not occur to her to seek any kind of counseling even though she has so many questions.
As to her identity the conclusions she comes to are highly influenced by current trends in gender identity. She bases much of her non-binary identity on what in my day would have been the preferences of a butch lesbian. She wants to wear men’s clothes and cut her hair short; she celebrates the discovery that she can buy underwear in the boys department. She is mortified when she gets her period and says she believed it would not happen to her.
As to her sexuality she imagines herself to be fondling an imaginary penis and having gay sex with another man. I have had this same fantasy as have other lesbians; it is a subset of lesbian culture that was even a subplot in the movie The Kids Are Alright. Even some straight women have admitted to me that gay sex turns them on. No doubt about it gay men are hot. The dilemma of this eroticism of gay sex and her attempting to sort out her identity becomes bound together in her mind as if we are not as human beings allowed to indulge in acts of the imagination outside of our own physical limitations. She is meanwhile attracted to both sexes, but finds relationships so confusing she doesn’t want to date anyone. Her parents who seem to be the coolest, back-to-the-land, hippie parents are supportive of her in her identity as bisexual, but her mother pushes back a little on her rejection of a female identity.
The pronouns concept is an idea she learns from having a teacher in college who identifies as non-binary, but is clearly drawn as a woman and has a woman’s name. And she discusses with her friends how difficult it is to get the they/them pronouns right, but congratulates herself that with practice it comes naturally. She meets another cool person who is a pagan spirituality teacher and a woman who identifies as non-binary because being a woman is so “performative”. Eventually our heroine too wants a non-binary identity. The only push back she receives is from her lesbian aunt who wants her to explain why she wants to adopt a non-binary identity and points out that the whole trend of women wanting to become men is so misogynistic. She rejects the criticism and can’t really say why. She just knows she is neither sex.
Finally she finds a book (Touching A Nerve) by a neurophillosopher who explains how surges of hormone in the brain while in the womb can masculinize the brain. (This author faulted for heavy use of conjecture in her intent to disprove the existence of a soul.) But this is the explanation our heroine has been looking for that seems to put her mind to rest because now she has a scientific explanation proving she was born this way. Yet such explanations do not really compel a need for departing from one's sex. She more seems to want to not have to respond to gender expectations, but her obsessive focus on this expectation is easily a mental health issue in itself; perhaps of autism famously linked with gender identity issues. Her sister is dating a trans man who is using testosterone and asks her why she doesn’t want to be a trans man. She says she doesn’t want any more gendered traits. She wants less. But to let her know if testosterone will allow her to grow a penis. To want less gendered traits is certainly legitimate. Whether this should compel a third sex is frankly anti-science as we know it.
She chooses the pronouns known as the Spivak pronouns e/eim/eir. This allows her to develop a sense of fashion style for herself. She uses a binder which is uncomfortable so she dreams of getting top surgery.
The book ends as she becomes a comics teacher and is deciding to come out to her class as non-binary so that she may help some other kid who is questioning their gender identity. This is supposed to complete the cycle from questioning to acceptance.
This ending leaves me hanging as there is no underlying revelation to explain her choice in any satisfactory way. The conclusion I come to is that this bookish, highly sensitive introvert who spends a good deal of time writing fan fiction for various fantasy novels is overwhelmed by gender expectations which is conflated with the limitations of her sex so that she cannot quite bring herself to accept the reality of her sex and must instead elevate a recently created identity in the perfect world of gender ideology. If only everyone would validate her by remembering to use her pronouns. This feels like a bandaid on a mental health issue.
The book assumes that such a day will come when we are all walking validation units for gender ideology. This takes indoctrination of an entire society to accept this ideology and prioritize it over the parameters of biology—an observed scientific truth that has nothing to do with the prescribed gender traits that so repelled this author.
It annoys me that a secular society claiming to have separated Church from State should now compel its citizens to use the proscribed transubstantiation language of pronouns on pain of substantial fines and possibly termination from employment.
This gender identity phenomena provides an answer to those not at ease in their own skin with their own biology. I might have been compelled to explore the same explanation if I did not already have a reincarnation ideology to explain my masculine persona. Which is why I’m so offended by how such a religious idea is being taught to children in a secular society as if it were science and we are expected to go along with it whether we believe it or not. While my non-western beliefs are not even mentioned as a possible explanation. I count this as another form of Western colonization, an export of American cultural imperialism and social extremism.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Dec. 23, 2020) – Hospitalman Jamesetta Karnwie, assigned to the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) Medical Department, receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Hospitalman Kelly Wilson, assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) Immunizations Clinic, Dec. 23. NMCP is supporting the fleet by providing the voluntary vaccination within the DoD phased approach to prioritizing mission-essential healthcare personnel in receiving the vaccine. The John C. Stennis is partnering with Newport News Shipbuilding to complete Refueling Complex Overhaul on schedule with a trained, resilient and cohesive crew. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kris R. Lindstrom/Released)
This is when she lost her balance and slipped off her perch. Had to use her wings to stop her tumble. Never dropped the skink. Always prioritize your food.
Female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Skink (Plestiodon sp.)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com
DEL RIO, Texas – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Eagle Pass Station Marine Unit rescued 13 individuals who attempted to cross the Rio Grande River, Sept. 3. At approximately 10:20 a.m., Border Patrol agents spotted a group of suspected illegal aliens attempting to cross the Rio Grande River near the Eagle Pass Port of Entry. Due to the river’s depth and swift current, responding agents assisted the group, including several small children on board their vessel. “Del Rio Sector agents continue to remain vigilant and prioritize safety for all people encountered,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Raul L. Ortiz. “The river can be extremely dangerous for those who attempt to traverse it. Smugglers continue to put other lives in danger for their own financial gain.” Agents rescued a total of 13, including six children, all Honduran nationals. All 13 were offered medical assistance, however, no injuries were reported. The group was transported to the Eagle Pass South Station and processed per CBP guidelines. Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector have already rescued over 470 individuals in fiscal year 2019, after only 125 total rescues for fiscal year 2018. Nationally, the Border Patrol has over 4,200 rescues in fiscal year 2019, compared to 3,661 in fiscal year 2018.
Photo provided by: U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Secretary-General António Guterres attends the unveiling of the installation ‘Pandemic Classroom’ at United Nations Headquarters to call attention to the need for governments to prioritize the reopening of schools. Schools have been completely closed for more than 168 million children globally during almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
2 March 2021
New York, United States of America
Photo # UN7886080
In June 2020, after experiencing a devastating spring due to COVID, New York State announced that certain businesses could begin partially opening again. New York City’s response included a program called Open Restaurants, which allowed restaurants to use sidewalks and parking spaces for outdoor, socially distant dining. Owners quickly built temporary enclosures in the streets in front of their businesses to try and recover from months of shutdown. Small stretches of Brooklyn in early 2021 display the variety and feel of these enclosures. Hopefully, the Open Restaurants initiative will help these businesses to survive and may even lead to a more permanent reorienting of streets to prioritize people over cars.
15 February 2016, Rome, Italy - FAO International Symposium on “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition”. Parallel Session 3.1. Social and economic impacts of agricultural biotechnologies for smallholders: Taking stock of the evidence and prioritizing future assessments. FAO headquarters (Green room).
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Pier Paolo Cito. Editorial use only. Copyright ©FAO.
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In project management, a timebox is a period of time in which to accomplish some task. The end date is set in stone and may not be changed. If the team exceeds the date, the work is considered a failure and is cancelled or rescheduled. Some timeboxes allow the team to adjust the scope of the task in order to meet the deadline.
Timeboxes are used as a form of risk management for tasks that easily run over their deadlines. Timeboxes are commonly used in agile software development to manage software development risk. In agile development, the team is repeatedly tasked with producing a releasable improvement to software, timeboxed to a specific number of weeks.
When considering the traditional triple constraints of Project management (time, cost and scope) the time and cost constraints are fixed in this type of project contracting, but the scope (requirements) constraint is not. Therefore, timeboxing is the favorable type of contracting for projects in which the deadline is the most critical aspect and when not all requirements are completely specified upfront. A lack of detailed specifications typically is the result of a lack of time, or the lack of knowledge of the desired end result (solution). In many types of projects, and especially in software engineering, analyzing and defining all requirements and specifications before the start of the realization phase is impossible.
The advantages of timeboxing over working with more traditional methods - in which there is a need to specify all details and features upfront - are that work can be started on the actual solution, or product, sooner, because less requirements and specifications gathering is necessary upfront. There is also a better structure for allowing for new insights that are developed during the project to be reflected in the end result.
This goes hand-in-hand with MoSCoW prioritization of deliverables. Time Boxing is a core element of the rapid application development software development process and of DSDM.
Time boxing and agile software development techniques go hand-in-hand: With time boxing regular delivery of working software is ensured, and agile software development ensures the delivery of the highest priority value as defined by the stakeholders.
This series of images delves into the enigmatic beauty and layered history of Venice, Italy, through an abstract lens, employing the scumbling and dry brush oil painting techniques. Each piece is a study in contrasts and textures, evoking the city's unique spirit and its constant dance with the elements. The use of cold, detached atmospheres alongside distressed and weathered surfaces speaks to the resilience and survival of Venice amidst its challenges. The incorporation of "havencore" and "warmcore" elements, along with a palette that prioritizes white and saturated blues, adds depth and emotion, inviting viewers to experience the city's dual nature of refuge and exposure.
The artworks move beyond traditional representations, infusing each scene with dramatic intensity and hyperbolic expressions to capture the essence of Venice's struggle and splendor. Labor is depicted not just as a physical act but as a poignant part of the city's soul, rendered through rough gesturalism that strips away the gloss to reveal raw, compelling truths. The dazzling chiaroscuro and striking contrasts of light and dark masterfully highlight the city's architectural marvels and the ephemeral beauty of its everyday moments, creating a harmonious chaos that is both unsettling and captivating.
This series aims to transport viewers to a Venice reimagined, where the interplay of light and shadow, the richness of saturated pigment pools, and the tactile quality of the painting techniques combine to offer a new perspective on the familiar. Through these images, Venice is seen as a living, breathing entity, marked by centuries of wear but standing resilient, its beauty undimmed by the passage of time. The absence of heavy paint strokes emphasizes the subtlety and complexity of the city's narrative, inviting a closer look and deeper reflection on its enduring allure and the stories etched into its very stones.
Poem: The Quiet Hours
In the quiet hours of the fading night,
Where shadows dance in the moon's soft light,
And the world whispers in tones so slight,
There lies a beauty unseen, out of sight.
Beneath the velvet cloak of the starry sky,
Where dreams take wing, and thoughts fly high,
The silent streets hold secrets, by and by,
As the gentle breeze sings a lullaby.
In the heart of the forest, where ancient trees stand,
Their leaves tell tales of a distant land,
A place where time holds still its sand,
In the quiet hours, so grand and so bland.
By the murmuring streams, under the watchful moon,
Where flowers bloom in the light of June,
The night unfolds its hidden boon,
In whispers of the dark, a silent tune.
In the quiet hours, there's a deep connection,
A moment of peace, in introspection,
A journey within, in quiet reflection,
Finding solace in nature's perfection.
As dawn breaks, and the night fades away,
The quiet hours gently sway,
Leaving behind the tales of the grey,
In the warmth of the coming day.
Haiku: Twilight's Whisper
Twilight's soft whisper,
Day and night's fleeting kiss,
Silent beauty speaks.
Mastering Layout, Mike Stevens on the Art of Eye Appeal. Copyright 1986. Approx. 8" x 10.75". I had followed Mike's career and untimely death through the pages of SignCraft magazine. Even though many sign artists featured in the magazine credit this book as having opened their eyes to proper sign design and layout, I was reluctant to purchase it, feeling I already knew how to prioritize copy on a sign. Recently, however, I decided I should at least investigate and read his design principles for myself. The book is still in print as a paperback, but of course that wouldn't do for me. I found an out of print first edition hardbound copy on ebay that stayed week after week with no one bidding on it. It couldn't compete with the new paperback copies of the same book for less than half the price. Finally the price was dropped to a level I felt I could justify and I purchased it. I am reading it now for the second time and attempting to slowly implement its design principles in my own work. I am so glad I sprung for the hardbound copy. Its true condition as seen in the picture above is much better than that reflected in the poor quality pic used to advertise it on ebay.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 20: (L-R) VP of Science & Technology at Pharmavite Dr. Susan Mitmesser and VP of Video at SHE Media Reshma Gopaldas speak onstage during the Women's Wellness Prioritized session at BlogHer 22 Health on May 20, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BlogHer)
OCTOBER 13, 2022 - WASHINGTON DC. 2022 IMF/WORLD BANK ANNUAL MEETINGS: Investing in People and Planet: Financing the Low-carbon, Resilient Transition
Climate action is in danger of stalling with profound consequences for all countries, particularly the poorest. Overlapping crises—the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, surging inflation — could derail the investments required to tackle the climate crisis. It is vital to improve not only the quantity but also the quality of climate finance, making sure it reaches those most affected by climate impacts, prioritizing adaptation and resilience. This event focused on ways to address climate and development needs together, supporting people and communities in the low-carbon, resilient transition.
Speakers: David Malpass, President, World Bank Group; Annette Nazareth, Chair, Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market; Dirk Forrister, President and CEO, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA); Makhtar Diop, Managing Director, IFC; Slawomir Krupa, Head, Global Banking & Investor Solutions, and future CEO, Société Générale; Mari Pangestu, Managing Director, Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank; Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, London School of Economics. Host: Mercy Niwe, Stakeholder Engagement Lead, External and Corporate Relations, World Bank Group. Photo: World Bank
//dedicated to the spirit of 'being a woman'//
Woman & Earth... they share a lots of traits of life...
we can learn many a things which is not taught in schools/colleges..
both are creative, nurturing & powerful..
yet so sensitive & fragile... so needs our respect n care,
& not at all an entity to be taken granted for...
well, its peak-time to prioritize our way thinking as a whole human society...
as a human race... or else we will eventually reach that brink of total destruction of our only home...
& soon the inevitable will follow... the total wipe-out; extinction!!
Anyway, I love this song & its soul inspiring poetic lyrics...
hope i could explore more of the music world eventually...
with music in your heart, you are being content, happy & strong...
& thats what all matters, at the end of the day!
"mmmmm... mmmmm...
mmmmmmmmmmmm
i get wings to fly
oh, oh... i'm alive... yeah
when you call on me, when i hear you, breathe..
i get wings to fly, i feel that i'm alive.
when you look at me, i can touch the sky
i know that i'm alive, mmmmm ohhhhh ahhhhhh
when you bless, the day, i just drift away, all my worries die.
i'm glad that i'm.. alive
you've set my heart, on fire
filled me with love, made me a woman on, clouds above
i couldn't get, much higher
my spirit takes flight, cause i am alive, ohhhhh
when you call on me, when i hear you breathe
i get wings to fly (fly)
i feel that i'm alive (i'm alive)
when you reach for me, raising spirits high
god knows that, that i'll be the one, standing by
through good and, through, trying times
and it's only begun, i can't wait for the, rest of my life
when you call on me, when you reach for me
i get wings to fly, i feel that i'm alive, yeah
when you bless the day, i just drift away
all my worries die, i know that i'm alive
i get, wings to fly, god knows that i'm alive."
Singer: Celine Dion
Songwriters: Carlsson, Andreas / Lundin, Kristian
hmmm... so as this journey continues... hour to hour... day to day... year to year..
the small things... its those small small things...
which makes it meaningful 'n' beautiful all the time...
Wish you a great weekend..
Hope you enjoy this life, when you are.... Alive!
So come on.. ;-)
21 September 2017, New York - In a high-level event organized by UN Women in the context of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, Melinda Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Jack Ma, Executive Chair of the Alibaba Group; and Nirvana Chaudhary, President of the Chaudhary Group and Chair of the Foundation, joined Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women for a strategic conversation on how collective action can scale-up opportunities for women and girls.
Today’s dialogue among a select group of business and foundation leaders focused on the transformative role that companies and foundations can play to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 5 on gender equality. It highlighted new initiatives, such as the Unstereotype Alliance convened by UN Women with major advertisers and communications industry leaders to promote a more realistic and aspirational portrayal of women; the “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” initiative to generate, prioritize and use gender data for evidence-based and targeted policies; and the Global Innovation Coalition for Change aiming to make innovation work for women’s empowerment.
Read More: www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/9/press-release-busi...
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
Note:
This is RAW straight out of camera processed with default settings in Sigma Pro Photo 4.1 software.
The result seems a little warm, but I like it.
---
Every year, I go to Burma/Myanmar and I only take a carry on and a hand bag. Taking a large camera like the 5DMk2 (even a T2i size camera) with a lens or two is not an option for me since I like to go travel light (especially to Myanmar). I wanted a small camera that could produce great quality images, good bokeh when needed, and good colors; l knew not to prioritize it based on high ISO quality. I'll have to give that up for a small camera.
I bought/sold/tried shooting with several cameras--from small, point and shoot size sensor to micro-four thirds. Among the ones I tried, my favorite was the E-PL1 with Panasonic 20/1.7. I wanted to see if I could find something even SMALLER than the Oly/Panny combo without giving up too much on image quality.
I debated between the Samsung TL500 / EX1 and the Leica Dlux4. I was impressed with the quality of Samsung's images I saw on the web (and also the cheaper price). But, I ended up getting the Dlux4 because it had been around longer (RAW files supported by most software), and knew I could get good quality images out of it.
By the time I got the Dlux4, I was already inflicted with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)--I wanted another camera of that size that could produce images with even BETTER image quality. Since I couldn't afford a Leica X1, I wanted to try out the Sigma DP2s.
---SIGMA DP2s---
It's "different."
The user interface isn't bad, but not as intuitive as others I have tried. I got used it in a couple of days and I find no issues.
LCD screen is so-so. I can still view images on the LCD under a bright sun--better than E-P2. Image quality could be better, but with low-res screen, it's hard to see whether I've nailed the focus point. I also have the external optical viewfinder. It's small, with nice bright frame lines, but it's not really that accurate. If the camera could auto focus well, it'd be more useful.
The build seems fine. It's similar in size to the DLux4 but a little thicker but lighter. The battery life is average for small cameras (not great but not bad).
Performance-wise, it's a hit or miss. In good light, focus is quick but not instant-quick. In lower light, it takes its time locking focus--I'd say average of about a second or sometimes even two. As a range finder camera user, I don't mind taking a little time to shoot since I'm just looking for a good composition and good image quality. This is perfectly fine for stills but not the best for fast paced kids in action. These days, I shoot mostly my kids but I still find DP2s more than usable. I accept and forgive all the quirkiness of the camera since I know I'll get a few really good shots with it. Maybe it's a personal thing--I prefer it over the Oly E-PL1 because it's a little more "challenging" to use and the reward is much more satisfying.
The software that came with it works amazingly well. In fact, if I try to process the DP2s RAW files in Lightroom, my results won't be as good--or at least, it would take me a lot of time to get it right like SIGMA Pro Photo 4.1 software. Simga Pro Photo processing speed is fast--about 3-4 seconds on my 17" Macbook Pro 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM laptop. I can see why many people go goo goo over the FOVEON sensor. The colors are, indeed, rich and the POP of the focused subject is quite similar to what I would get with a Leica Summicron 50/2 lens.
All in all, I'm glad I found the DP2s.
Sara Eisen
News Anchor, CNBC
Chip Bergh
President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
Erika James
Dean, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Rashida Jones
President, MSNBC
Greg Shell
Head of Inclusive Growth Strategy, Goldman Sachs
008
McKinsey Global Infrastructure Initiative Summit
Tokyo, Japan
Wednesday, October 19th, 2022
15:10–15:30
PRIORITIZING THE PATHWAY TO SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
The combined impacts of COVID-19 and net-zero commitments have resulted in an unprecedented disruption of the $11.6 trillion global infrastructure industry. Meeting net-zero targets will require the industry to transform project development and delivery to deliver a global portfolio of projects at an unprecedented scale and pace. What are the pivotal actions we need to take now to enable sustainable infrastructure for the decades to come?
Facilitators:
Tip Huizenga, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Co-chair, GII
Detlev Mohr, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Co-chair, GII
In this interactive session, Detlev and Tip will briefly frame the topic with a few slides to set the context. This will be followed by them asking the question to the audience, “What are the pivotal actions we need to take now to enable sustainable infrastructure for the decades to come?” The audience will be requested to discuss the question for ~7 minutes in their pods, submitting their ideas through the GII app to form a Word Cloud on the screen.
Photograph by McKinsey Global Infrastructure/Stuart Isett
to river.
"nothing will ever accidently drop. not from me. ever."
food > fetch.
and that is how all dogs prioritize.
my site:
facebook:
twitter:
twitter.com/iamboey
s/n 0585GT
240 bhp, 2,953 cc single overhead camshaft V-12 engine with three Weber carburetors, four-speed all-synchromesh manual gearbox, independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms and coil springs, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs and parallel trailing arms, and four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 2,600 mm
• Very first of the second series 14-louver design
• One of nine examples built
• Featured in the Hollywood Classic, The Love Bug
• Matching numbers, extensively documented, and complete with full Ferrari Classiche certification
• Received a class award at the 2011 Quail Motorsports Gathering
• Single ownership for 14 years and offered for the first time ever at auction
• Pristine example of Ferrari’s most revered berlinetta
The tragic accident at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans that claimed the lives of one driver and 79 spectators had a profound effect on the shape of racing, one that ultimately led to the creation of one of Ferrari’s most celebrated models. Racing enthusiasts and competitors alike agreed that the crash was ultimately the result of the increasingly potent powertrains of the Le Mans sports cars, and in order to prevent further disaster, new regulations would be required to veer from the path of these thinly veiled race cars, which were essentially grand prix cars packaged with two-seater bodies.
The following year, the FIA responded by creating new gran turismo classes that not only prioritized safety, but also re-established the concept of competitively racing a road-based production car. Ferrari, of course, was well prepared for the challenge, having just debuted its new series-production 250 GT at the Geneva Motor Show of 1956. While the coupe on display featured an elegant body that would go on to be produced in quantity by Boano, thus providing necessary homologation, the underlying chassis proved to be the basis for the competition car, or berlinetta, that Ferrari sought to enter into the FIA’s new racing classifications. Pininfarina designed a new lightweight body that was built by Scaglietti, using thin-gauge aluminum and Perspex windows and a minimally upholstered cabin. The finished car, then known officially as the 250 GT Berlinetta, was ultimately made in a sparing quantity of 77 examples that are further sub-divided by subtle differences in coachwork over the model’s four-year production run.
Ferrari’s hopes for competitive success were quickly realized when Olivier Gendebien and Jacques Washer co-drove the very first car, chassis number 0503 GT, to a First in Class and Fourth Overall at the Giro di Sicilia in April 1956, with a Fifth Overall (First in Class) at the Mille Miglia later that month. But the model’s defining success didn’t occur until September, during the 1956 Tour de France Automobile, a grueling 3,600 mile, week-long contest that combined six circuit races, two hill climbs, and a drag race. The Marquis Alfonso de Portago, a Spanish aristocrat and privateer racer, drove chassis number 0557 GT to a dominating victory that sealed the dynamic model’s reputation. Enzo Ferrari was so pleased with the outcome that the 250 GT Berlinetta was subsequently and internally, though never officially, referred to as the Tour de France. The moniker proved to be quite fitting, as Gendebien took First Overall at the 1957, 1958, and 1959 installments of the French race, as well as a Third Overall at the 1957 Mille Miglia, a triumph that witnessed the defeat of many more purpose-built sports racers.
With the introduction of a short-wheelbase 250 GT in late-1959, the outgoing platform became retrospectively labeled as the long-wheelbase version, though the original car’s designation of 250 GT LWB Berlinetta is now largely simplified with the name ‘Tour de France.’ Through its brief production run, the TdF underwent several external body modifications, ultimately resulting in four different series-produced body styles (not including a handful of Zagato-bodied cars). The alterations in appearance are most easily recognizable in the so-called sail panels, the rear ¾-panels of the c-pillar that adjoin the roof. Initially produced with no louvers at all, these panels featured 14 louvers in the second-series cars, followed by a series with just three louvers, and ending with a series that featured just one sail-panel louver. Of all of these series, the 14-louver cars are the rarest, with only nine examples produced, and are judged by many enthusiasts to be the handsomest of the group.
This fabulous, early Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France is the very first example constructed of the second series design that featured 14-louver sail-panels. On November 15, 1956, the stunning TdF was purchased by Tony Parravano, the Italian national and Southern California building construction magnate who is better known among 1950s racing enthusiasts for the numerous Italian sports cars that he campaigned in the area’s SCCA circuit. 0585 GT was entered for the Palm Springs road races in early April of 1957, before being disqualified because the sanctioning body did not recognize it as a production car. Changing hands among a couple of Los Angeles-based owners during the early-1960s, 0585 GT eventually came into the possession of Walt Disney Studios for use in the 1966 film The Love Bug, the celebrated Disney classic about “Herbie,” the racing VW Beetle with a soul.
Following its memorable Hollywood turn, this important 250 GT fell on hard times, passing through the Schaub family, of Los Angeles, before reportedly being abandoned on the side of the Hollywood freeway. Records indicate two more owners during the 1970s and 1980s. In September 1994, the car surfaced and was offered for sale in an unrestored state by David Cottingham’s DK Engineering in Watford, England. Unable to sell 0585 GT for its true value, DK, in late-1996, elected to totally restore the historically significant Tour de France, a freshening that debuted to overwhelming acclaim at Coy’s International Historic Festival at Silverstone in July 1997. The festival proved to be a perfect stage for the immaculate car, as it was sold the following October to its current owner, a well-respected Southern California-based collector who has a 40-year history of collecting and caring for some of the most recognizable and important Ferrari cars ever built.
Registered under license plate “MY 56 TDF,” 0585 GT was soon campaigned in a number of vintage rallies, including the Tour Auto of April 1998, as well as the Mille Miglia of the following May. The car also participated in the Tour Auto in 1999 and 2000, and placed 39th Overall at the 2000 Shell Ferrari/Maserati Historic Challenge at Le Mans. 0585 GT returned to the Tour Auto in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2006 and was displayed at Car Classic: Freedom of Motion, the 2010 exhibition held at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. The following August, 0585 GT’s extreme quality and rarity were confirmed with the ultimate in exhibitive recognition, a class award at the 2011 Quail Motorsports Gathering in Carmel, California, where the car won “The Great Ferraris” class, honoring some of the marque’s earliest and important sports and racing cars.
In addition to all of these awards and racing achievements, 0585 GT has also gone under the scrutiny of the Ferrari factory’s certification program and easily received the full “Red Book” certification through Newport Beach Ferrari specialist, John Amette. For the certification process, the original gearbox was put in the car; however, the current owner has since removed it and put a more user-friendly synchromesh gearbox in the car for much better drivability purposes. It must be noted that the original unit will be supplied with the sale of this car. A full set of original tools and a jack will also be included, as well as a booklet of documentation and various trophies and awards that the car has received over the years. In preparation for the sale, 0585 GT has also just been completely detailed and sorted at well-respected Junior’s House of Color in Long Beach, California, so it will look stunning in presentation.
On a recent track drive in preparation for RM’s video and photography efforts, the car performed flawlessly, handling directly and powering through all of the gears with ease. As the RM specialist describes, “The four-wheel drum brakes and skinny tyres can sometimes provide a different driving experience for those familiar with later cars fitted with disk brakes and wider stances; however, it allows the pilot to become much more intimate with the driving experience and to engage the engine in a much different way, creating a completely different awareness of timing and speed…The most beautiful thing about these early TDs is what most Ferraristi will attest to, and that is the sound of the exhaust note when the car breaches 3500 rpm. As you power out of the corners, there is that point when the car just feels and sounds right! All the noises, the vibrations, and the elements of speed come together to create a symphonic harmony that is unlike anything else. Moreover, the sound is not too overpowering and is pleasurable for extended periods of time, which cannot be said for many other race-bred cars. It is the ultimate dual-purpose Ferrari!”
Impeccably cared for and stunningly restored, 0585 GT is a beautiful and rare example of the second series 14-louver Tour de France, one of Ferrari’s greatest sports cars of all time. This car’s next owner can look forward to continued warm receptions at the world’s finest automotive events, including rallies such as the Tour Auto and Mille Miglia, and premium exhibitive venues, such as Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, and the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic. It is a truly unique representative of one of Ferrari’s most revered models, and in many ways, it is the ultimate symbol of Ferrari’s long pursuit of dual-purpose sports cars that can be seriously campaigned as easily as they can be road driven. Given their extremely low production numbers and desirability, these cars rarely come to the market. The availability of 0585 GT after 14-years of single ownership offers an unbeatable chance to acquire one of the most storied machines to emerge from Maranello’s legendary motoring lore.
[Text from RM Auctions]
www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1052658
This Lego miniland-scale Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta 'Tour de France' (1956 - Scaglietti), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.
This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house on Saturday, August 18, 2012, where it sold for $6,710,000.
The bike lane ends prematurely to ensure that there's parking space available under the L tracks.
The L track columns narrow the roadway. Either the bike lane or the parking lane would have to be
discontinuous for 30 feet. What do you think wins?
Modern Baybayin 2011 updated
Filipino script that must be prioritize by the Department of Education.
Learn and teach children on how to read and write Baybayin or Modern Baybayin.
s/n 0585GT
240 bhp, 2,953 cc single overhead camshaft V-12 engine with three Weber carburetors, four-speed all-synchromesh manual gearbox, independent front suspension with unequal-length A-arms and coil springs, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs and parallel trailing arms, and four-wheel drum brakes. Wheelbase: 2,600 mm
• Very first of the second series 14-louver design
• One of nine examples built
• Featured in the Hollywood Classic, The Love Bug
• Matching numbers, extensively documented, and complete with full Ferrari Classiche certification
• Received a class award at the 2011 Quail Motorsports Gathering
• Single ownership for 14 years and offered for the first time ever at auction
• Pristine example of Ferrari’s most revered berlinetta
The tragic accident at the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans that claimed the lives of one driver and 79 spectators had a profound effect on the shape of racing, one that ultimately led to the creation of one of Ferrari’s most celebrated models. Racing enthusiasts and competitors alike agreed that the crash was ultimately the result of the increasingly potent powertrains of the Le Mans sports cars, and in order to prevent further disaster, new regulations would be required to veer from the path of these thinly veiled race cars, which were essentially grand prix cars packaged with two-seater bodies.
The following year, the FIA responded by creating new gran turismo classes that not only prioritized safety, but also re-established the concept of competitively racing a road-based production car. Ferrari, of course, was well prepared for the challenge, having just debuted its new series-production 250 GT at the Geneva Motor Show of 1956. While the coupe on display featured an elegant body that would go on to be produced in quantity by Boano, thus providing necessary homologation, the underlying chassis proved to be the basis for the competition car, or berlinetta, that Ferrari sought to enter into the FIA’s new racing classifications. Pininfarina designed a new lightweight body that was built by Scaglietti, using thin-gauge aluminum and Perspex windows and a minimally upholstered cabin. The finished car, then known officially as the 250 GT Berlinetta, was ultimately made in a sparing quantity of 77 examples that are further sub-divided by subtle differences in coachwork over the model’s four-year production run.
Ferrari’s hopes for competitive success were quickly realized when Olivier Gendebien and Jacques Washer co-drove the very first car, chassis number 0503 GT, to a First in Class and Fourth Overall at the Giro di Sicilia in April 1956, with a Fifth Overall (First in Class) at the Mille Miglia later that month. But the model’s defining success didn’t occur until September, during the 1956 Tour de France Automobile, a grueling 3,600 mile, week-long contest that combined six circuit races, two hill climbs, and a drag race. The Marquis Alfonso de Portago, a Spanish aristocrat and privateer racer, drove chassis number 0557 GT to a dominating victory that sealed the dynamic model’s reputation. Enzo Ferrari was so pleased with the outcome that the 250 GT Berlinetta was subsequently and internally, though never officially, referred to as the Tour de France. The moniker proved to be quite fitting, as Gendebien took First Overall at the 1957, 1958, and 1959 installments of the French race, as well as a Third Overall at the 1957 Mille Miglia, a triumph that witnessed the defeat of many more purpose-built sports racers.
With the introduction of a short-wheelbase 250 GT in late-1959, the outgoing platform became retrospectively labeled as the long-wheelbase version, though the original car’s designation of 250 GT LWB Berlinetta is now largely simplified with the name ‘Tour de France.’ Through its brief production run, the TdF underwent several external body modifications, ultimately resulting in four different series-produced body styles (not including a handful of Zagato-bodied cars). The alterations in appearance are most easily recognizable in the so-called sail panels, the rear ¾-panels of the c-pillar that adjoin the roof. Initially produced with no louvers at all, these panels featured 14 louvers in the second-series cars, followed by a series with just three louvers, and ending with a series that featured just one sail-panel louver. Of all of these series, the 14-louver cars are the rarest, with only nine examples produced, and are judged by many enthusiasts to be the handsomest of the group.
This fabulous, early Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France is the very first example constructed of the second series design that featured 14-louver sail-panels. On November 15, 1956, the stunning TdF was purchased by Tony Parravano, the Italian national and Southern California building construction magnate who is better known among 1950s racing enthusiasts for the numerous Italian sports cars that he campaigned in the area’s SCCA circuit. 0585 GT was entered for the Palm Springs road races in early April of 1957, before being disqualified because the sanctioning body did not recognize it as a production car. Changing hands among a couple of Los Angeles-based owners during the early-1960s, 0585 GT eventually came into the possession of Walt Disney Studios for use in the 1966 film The Love Bug, the celebrated Disney classic about “Herbie,” the racing VW Beetle with a soul.
Following its memorable Hollywood turn, this important 250 GT fell on hard times, passing through the Schaub family, of Los Angeles, before reportedly being abandoned on the side of the Hollywood freeway. Records indicate two more owners during the 1970s and 1980s. In September 1994, the car surfaced and was offered for sale in an unrestored state by David Cottingham’s DK Engineering in Watford, England. Unable to sell 0585 GT for its true value, DK, in late-1996, elected to totally restore the historically significant Tour de France, a freshening that debuted to overwhelming acclaim at Coy’s International Historic Festival at Silverstone in July 1997. The festival proved to be a perfect stage for the immaculate car, as it was sold the following October to its current owner, a well-respected Southern California-based collector who has a 40-year history of collecting and caring for some of the most recognizable and important Ferrari cars ever built.
Registered under license plate “MY 56 TDF,” 0585 GT was soon campaigned in a number of vintage rallies, including the Tour Auto of April 1998, as well as the Mille Miglia of the following May. The car also participated in the Tour Auto in 1999 and 2000, and placed 39th Overall at the 2000 Shell Ferrari/Maserati Historic Challenge at Le Mans. 0585 GT returned to the Tour Auto in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2006 and was displayed at Car Classic: Freedom of Motion, the 2010 exhibition held at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. The following August, 0585 GT’s extreme quality and rarity were confirmed with the ultimate in exhibitive recognition, a class award at the 2011 Quail Motorsports Gathering in Carmel, California, where the car won “The Great Ferraris” class, honoring some of the marque’s earliest and important sports and racing cars.
In addition to all of these awards and racing achievements, 0585 GT has also gone under the scrutiny of the Ferrari factory’s certification program and easily received the full “Red Book” certification through Newport Beach Ferrari specialist, John Amette. For the certification process, the original gearbox was put in the car; however, the current owner has since removed it and put a more user-friendly synchromesh gearbox in the car for much better drivability purposes. It must be noted that the original unit will be supplied with the sale of this car. A full set of original tools and a jack will also be included, as well as a booklet of documentation and various trophies and awards that the car has received over the years. In preparation for the sale, 0585 GT has also just been completely detailed and sorted at well-respected Junior’s House of Color in Long Beach, California, so it will look stunning in presentation.
On a recent track drive in preparation for RM’s video and photography efforts, the car performed flawlessly, handling directly and powering through all of the gears with ease. As the RM specialist describes, “The four-wheel drum brakes and skinny tyres can sometimes provide a different driving experience for those familiar with later cars fitted with disk brakes and wider stances; however, it allows the pilot to become much more intimate with the driving experience and to engage the engine in a much different way, creating a completely different awareness of timing and speed…The most beautiful thing about these early TDs is what most Ferraristi will attest to, and that is the sound of the exhaust note when the car breaches 3500 rpm. As you power out of the corners, there is that point when the car just feels and sounds right! All the noises, the vibrations, and the elements of speed come together to create a symphonic harmony that is unlike anything else. Moreover, the sound is not too overpowering and is pleasurable for extended periods of time, which cannot be said for many other race-bred cars. It is the ultimate dual-purpose Ferrari!”
Impeccably cared for and stunningly restored, 0585 GT is a beautiful and rare example of the second series 14-louver Tour de France, one of Ferrari’s greatest sports cars of all time. This car’s next owner can look forward to continued warm receptions at the world’s finest automotive events, including rallies such as the Tour Auto and Mille Miglia, and premium exhibitive venues, such as Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, and the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic. It is a truly unique representative of one of Ferrari’s most revered models, and in many ways, it is the ultimate symbol of Ferrari’s long pursuit of dual-purpose sports cars that can be seriously campaigned as easily as they can be road driven. Given their extremely low production numbers and desirability, these cars rarely come to the market. The availability of 0585 GT after 14-years of single ownership offers an unbeatable chance to acquire one of the most storied machines to emerge from Maranello’s legendary motoring lore.
[Text from RM Auctions]
www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1052658
This Lego miniland-scale Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta 'Tour de France' (1956 - Scaglietti), has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 89th Build Challenge, - "Over a Million, Under a Thousand", - a challenge to build vehicles valued over one million (US) dollars, or under one thousand (US) dollars.
This particular vehicle was auctioned by the RM Auction house on Saturday, August 18, 2012, where it sold for $6,710,000.
More people in BC will start to receive invitations for a COVID-19 booster shot as the Province continues its COVID-19 immunization plan, prioritizing BC’s elderly and most at-risk through to the December holiday.
Learn more:
Giving thanks to co-host Reid Hoffman with Ned from Harvard. More photos in comments below.
Such a fun weekend at an eclectic brain spa. I’ll share some of the highlights in my crude screen shots. Overall, it felt like we are in the midst of an interdisciplinary Renaissance, from novel measurement and imaging techniques to machine learning and bold new experiments in animal and humans.
We learned how super-absorbent diaper gel polymers can make a brain expand for easier imaging, and how it can be optically read and modified. At least five speakers referenced an explosion of interest in the rapid-acting drug ketamine (for depression and OCD) and a surprising finding that it operates through the opioid receptors.
We learned how vasopressin might treat autism and how girls of depressed mothers have radically different brain development and telomere length.
"While the male and female brain differ in development, the male and femaleness of the brain is regional." — Manpreet Singh
Notes from Day 1: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2018
New Conceptual Frameworks in Mental Health - Amit Etkin
I had lunch with him a well. He gets much more data from the EEG than the fMRI. We are generally poor at describing our mental state. Our friends generally do a better job on identifying if we are depressed.
10:00 am — Tools for Analyzing and Repairing the Brain - Ed Boyden
MIT’s Ed Boyden has the largest brain lab in the world, with 150 people.
Expansion microscopy is the opposite of normal microscopy. Instead of zooming in on the brain, you make the brain bigger with a polymer expansion similar to the gel found in super-absorbent diapers. youtu.be/jLvynWieWk8
Color coded with a virus payload for seeing different cells, a “brainbow”
www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden_baby_diapers_inspired_this_ne...
Optogenetics, with light-activated ion channels: youtu.be/evisCB6mwt0
Can trigger brain activity at a targeted deep area with a pair of acoustic waves at close frequencies, like 2.00 and 2.01 Hz.
Digital Phenotyping - Tom Insel
He can deduce your mental state from social networks based on how you type and click (patterns in timing) not the content of what you type (less privacy concerns). Signals from the phone predict how the mood will be for the day. He can even see the effects of ketamine, a rapid-acting anti-depressant.
We can move from subjective, episodic, burdensome, clinic-based measurements to objective, continuous, passive in-situ measurements. 7cups is using it for alcoholic treatment.
11:00 am — The Supercharged Brain, Mental Health and Aging - Ruth O’Hara
The normal aging brain shrinks by 15% (Alzheimer’s another 10%). Depression shrinks the hippocampus, and that impairs memory.
Physical exercise and targeted cognitive training can improve your brain.
Very excited to grow neurons in a dish from skin stem cells. Easier to do with young people than the aged.
Envisioning the Brain Mind Clinical Lab of the Future - Leanne Williams
Imaging brain activity in cognitive dysfunction. Many different mental states we call depression, and they respond to treatments differently.
For example, sub-type 1 is characterized by Default Mode Network. If it becomes too connected, too much internal reflection, ruminations, worry, waking up early in morning, and unable to stop thoughts about terrible things might happen.
New Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health & Wellness.
Novel Platforms for Novel Treatments in Neuroscience - Rob Malenka
25% of the world will develop a serious brain malfunction in their lifetime.
If your brain is not functioning, you are not yourself. With addiction and OCD, you have no control over your behavior.
Anhedonia is a common symptom in depression, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.
With all of the academic hysteria about ketamine, we still don’t know how it works, and it was discovered accidentally.
“An example”: we can make a mouse happy or unhappy.
Fireside Chat with Reid Hoffman - Reid Hoffman and Michael McCullough
In blitzscaling, you prioritize speed over efficiency in an uncertain world.
He also rekindled his AI interest 5-6 years ago.
2:00 pm — Revolutionizing Medical Imaging and Brain-Computer Communication with Consumer Electronics - Mary Lou Jepsen
If you spend 10-100 hours in an fMRI, we can read your thoughts. 2/3 of humanity lacks access to medical imaging. She wants to reduce the cost 200x and fit it into a ski cap.
Tumor has 5x the blood of normal tissue. And Blood is relatively opaque (versus flesh). Bones are white, and near IR passes through. We can image to 2 microns, the diameter of the smallest neuron. Use laser and sound wave that shifts the wavelength ever so slightly.
TED Talk just came out: www.ted.com/talks/mary_lou_jepsen_how_we_can_use_light_to...
3:10 pm — Shining a Light on the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease - Li-Huei Tsai
40 Hz flickering LED light induces gamma oscillations in the brain. After 1 hr of exposure, she saw a 50% reduction in amyloid plaques in a Alzheimer’s rat model.
The microglia (the brain’s immune cells) undergo dramatic transformation in their morphology and become much more efficient at picking up toxins like beta-amyloid.
To Sleep or Not to Sleep: How the Brain Decides to Wake Us Up - Luis de Lecea
Sleep decreases as we age and with Alzheimers (it’s the main reason AD patients get institutionalized).
How does the brain control sleep? The hypothalamus is only 3% of the volume of the brain but controls sleep, appetite and circadian rhythms.
Parabiosis – would the blood of the young mouse rejuvenate the old? The opposite occurred. Molecules in the old brain were toxic in the younger brain.
Quieting the Obsessive Mind: Ketamine and Other Rapid-Acting Therapeutics - Carolyn Rodriguez
In OCD, a thought continuously invades or intrudes in our mind. 2% lifetime prevalence. Half of cases start by age 19.
Only FDA-approved medication: SSRI’s like Prozac take 2-3 months, and fail half the time.
Ketamine is a glutamate-receptor-blocker which increases GABA in the pre-frontal cortex. But if you take naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors, then ketamine loses its effect. This was a surprising result; there is some connection to the opioids.
Ketamine rapidly and dramatically lowers OCD, with effects lasting days post-treatment.
ADD: Karen Parker and Antonio Hardy on Autism
Why so few diagnostics and therapies in autism? The biology is poorly understood.
With early detection, you can gain 15 IQ points and lower the cost of care by 7%.
She studies monkeys on the anti-social extreme. Behaviors are similar to autism. Vasopressin helps. Perhaps vasopressin signaling is impaired in autism. When given to human childen, social behavior improves.
Accelerating Discovery to Promote Healthy Brain Outcomes Starting from Birth - Ian Gotlib
Adolescence is a period of suicide risk, and it’s getting worse. The CDC recently came to Palo Alto to look at what’s going on in this suicide cluster.
The biggest risk factor are 1) family history 2) being female
There are 200 million depressed mothers with daughters who have not become depressed yet. She studied those daughters. They have a big change from other similar aged girls. Smaller hippocampus. Shorter telomeres already by age 12. When they check in 10 years later, 60% of those girls became depressed.
By age 9-14, it might be too late already. So, they did infant studies and of the pregnant mothers (measuring continuous cortical level from hair samples during pregnancy). And they gathered a lot of passive data. The infant’s brain volume correlates with number of words heard in utero. And they were disturbed to see the strong correlation with income level.
Prenatal stress lowers hippocampal volume and amygdala connectivity.
Manpreet Singh
Brain is the most genetically determined organ in the body.
While the male and female brain differ in development, the male and femaleness of the brain is regional.
Problem Evaluation & Prioritization
Problem areas are evaluated and ranked for each mission. Prioritization uses a needs-based approach which addresses worst problems first.
L-R Jimmie Rodgers, Nisha Biswal, David Sheppard Director General
Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Dan
Clune U.S. Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Bureau of Oceans,
International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Thomas Nides.
The United States Government, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme Announce Climate Adaptation Partnerships - September 8, 2011
September 7, 2011: U.S. Engagement in the Pacific: Fact Sheet
Partnerships Are Part of Larger (USD) $21 Million U.S. Government Climate Assistance Program in the Pacific Small Island Developing States
AUCKLAND, NZ - The United States Government today formally joined forces with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) to advance climate change adaptation. These partnerships are part of a larger (USD) $21 million “fast start” finance commitment made by the United States for a Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) climate change program.
Through these partnerships, the United States, SPC and SPREP will strengthen the capacity of the countries and communities in the Pacific Islands to improve food security and water security, and to protect critical ecosystems. The partnerships will also help these countries access information about climate impacts to make more effective and sustainable decisions in the face of climate change. Representatives from the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development were joined by representatives from SPC and SPREP to announce the partnership at a formal signing ceremony on the margins of the Pacific Island Forum and Post-Forum Dialogue.
Rainfall changes and extreme weather events will cause heightened food security challenges for the PSIDS in the coming decades. As a result, the United States and SPC have partnered to strengthen food security among communities in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The United States and SPREP will help improve the ability of communities in Kiribati to address the impact of climate change on water resources as well as help Kiribati’s Ministry of Health integrate adaptation into national health planning and policies. The United States and SPREP also will work together to promote healthy ecosystems in the Solomon Islands.
The United States will manage the $21 million program through the U.S. Agency for International Development, which will open an office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in the coming months.
Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the $21 million U.S. “fast start” finance assistance for the PSIDS over two years (2010-2011). The PSIDS funding is a part of a larger commitment from the United States to work with developed country partners to provide “fast start” financing from 2010-2012. The “fast start” financing was included in the negotiated packages agreed to at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen and Cancun.
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Quotes:
Thomas R. Nides, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State:
“The United States recognizes that climate change poses a significant threat to the development and security of Pacific islands. We have prioritized efforts to expand U.S. bilateral and multilateral adaptation assistance and are committed to helping Pacific Small Island Developing States adapt to the impacts of climate change.”
Nisha Biswal, Assistant Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development:
“USAID is committed to the success of these programs. As the implementing U.S. government agency, USAID looks forward to collaborating with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Program and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community to combat the climate adaptation challenges of the Pacific islands.”
Jimmie Rodgers, Director General, Secretariat of the Pacific Community:
“The impacts of climate change are more pronounced in the Pacific Small Island Developing States. For many of their citizens, climate change touches and impacts their lives on a regular basis. For them it is about how food security can be sustained, how health is protected, how education is enhanced, how safe water supply is safeguarded, how coastal areas are protected, how human settlements are climate proofed and how the impact of high water surges and flooding are reduced. This support from the United States is historic. It represents a new partnership approach of working with regional organisations which will help bring together the many aspects of the climate change support aimed primarily at complementing and further strengthening the capacity of the participating countries to respond effectively to the challenges of climate change.”
David Sheppard, Director, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme:
“Climate change poses major challenges for the people and environments of the Pacific. In many cases it is a matter of survival. SPREP, working with SPC and other agencies, is developing and implementing practical approaches to help countries adapt to climate change. This landmark and most welcome support from the United States will make a major contribution to these efforts to respond to climate change. This support will focus on the priorities identified by countries, with a particular emphasis on practical programmes which will help building local capacity.”
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U.S. Engagement in the Pacific: Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 7, 2011
The United States is a Pacific nation with deep, enduring, and historic ties to the countries of the Pacific region. As the region adapts to face the challenges of the 21st century, the United States is committed to engaging closely with friends and partners in all areas - diplomatic, defense, and development – to meet those challenges. To underscore this, Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides is leading the largest and highest-level U.S. delegation ever to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Auckland, New Zealand from September 8-10. The size and scope of the delegation - which includes senior officials from the White House, Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Coast Guard, and the Peace Corps - demonstrate U.S. commitment to the security and economic prosperity of the Pacific.
Enhanced U.S. Engagement: Deputy Secretary Nides’ delegation is the latest step in U.S. efforts to enhance engagement in the Pacific. It follows the June visit to eight Pacific island countries by Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Patrick Walsh, USAID Assistant Administrator Nisha Biswal, and Brigadier General Richard Simcock. That trip, the first of its kind, represented a whole of government approach encompassing diplomacy, defense, and development. It also coincided with Pacific Partnership 2011, the latest in a series of Pacific Partnership deployments that collectively have provided medical, dental, and educational services to more than 250,000 people and completed more than 150 engineering projects in 15 countries. This year, Pacific Partnership included ships and personnel from five countries, treated over 50,000 patients and worked with Pacific Islanders to construct or improve community centers, schools, healthcare facilities, and water systems.
Meeting the Challenges of Climate Change: USAID will open a Pacific Office in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea before the end of 2011. The office will administer a $21 million grant to support climate change adaptation in the Pacific Small Island Developing States and strengthen the region’s capacity to improve food and water security, protect ecosystems, and access global climate change information and resources.
Improving the Environment: The United States supports programs across the Pacific on weather services and disaster preparedness, coral reef and marine conservation, invasive species, pollution and waste, and forests. USAID is partnering with the New Zealand Aid Program on a cooperative waste management project in Kiribati that will help the Government of Kiribati tackle municipal waste management issues, including collection, segregation, and proper long-term disposal.
Removing the Explosive Remnants of War: Many of the United States’ strongest bonds to the Pacific were forged in the battles of World War II yet many Pacific Island countries continue to deal with the legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other remnants of war. Since 1993, the U.S. Department of State has spent over $1 billion on humanitarian mine and UXO action, in over eighty countries around the world. During the same period, other U.S. agencies including the Department of Defense, USAID, and the Centers for Disease Control have spent an additional $800 million on related humanitarian mine/UXO efforts. State Department projects in the Pacific region have been conducted in Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. The United States is exploring with friends and partners new initiatives to address this challenge including the launch of a new regional project to remove UXO from Tarawa, Kiribati.
Maritime Security: Enhancing maritime security and maritime domain awareness is critical to combating piracy, illegal fishing, and transnational crime in the Pacific. The U.S. Coast Guard partners with six Pacific Island countries through Shiprider Agreements which extend the reach and power of partner nation law enforcement officers by hosting them on U.S. Coast Guard vessels and aircraft to patrol national Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). At the PIF, the Coast Guard will sign two new Shiprider Agreements with Nauru and Tuvalu. Since 2009, the U.S. Coast Guard has also conducted eight joint operations with Australia, France, and New Zealand, part of an ongoing effort to increase maritime domain awareness and surveillance. We are working with these and other partners to develop new multilateral approaches in the western and central pacific.
Women’s Empowerment: In November 2010, the State Department launched a “Women’s Empowerment Initiative in the Pacific Region” in collaboration with the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, and the World Bank Group. This year the Initiative will sponsor three policy dialogues, the third of which will be hosted by the United States and Australia in November. This dialogue will bring together government officials, NGOs, and academics from 14 countries to focus on effective means to prevent and address gender-based violence in the Pacific region.
Food Security: The U.S. Department of State, USAID and the New Zealand Aid Program have begun work on a collaborative assessment of agricultural policy constraints in Papua New Guinea affecting food security. The resulting analysis and recommendations will be used by PNG and its development partners to pursue reforms benefitting the agriculture and agribusiness sectors.
Peace Corps: Since 1966, more than 12,500 Peace Corps Volunteers have served throughout the Pacific Islands providing capacity building and training in areas such as business development, environment, health, and education. Peace Corps currently operates in Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu though in the past also had programs in the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, and Niue.
A good panoramic view of China’s recent development and its current rejection of the democracy model for its own governance, by former Singapore ambassador to the UN, Kishore Mahbubani:
Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs on the Covid vaccines, New World Order, global leadership and multilateralism:
Former U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan trip:
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The Foreign Affairs article below is typical American, full of obligatory and unsubstantiated propaganda spread by the West even though it's not all complimentary about the U.S. The fact is China has alleviated extreme poverty; millions of Chinese tourists have visited overseas with hundreds of thousands of students attended various universities in the West without a single individual seeking political asylum. If China were as repressive as the West describes, wouldn't these tourists and students seek political asylum while abroad? There have been no proven evidence of any mistreatment of Uyghurs inside China. If as many as 2 million Uyghurs were incarcerated, surely, the West can show us satellite photos of these humongous prison camps, right? The fact is an overwhelming majority of the people in China believe their country is heading the right direction.
worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/freedom-index-...
In this 2022 freedom Index, Hong Kong ranks #30, ahead of South Korea (31) France (34) and Singapore (48).
When President Jimmy Carter established diplomatic relationship with China in 1978, he agreed to the Shanghai Communiqué which reads, among others, "The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China."
The author fails to disclose that Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen unwillingness to accept the 1992 Consensus is one of main reasons for Mainland China's treatment of her.
www.foreignaffairs.com/china/china-trap-us-foreign-policy...
The China Trap
U.S. Foreign Policy and the Perilous Logic of Zero-Sum Competition
By Jessica Chen Weiss
Competition with China has begun to consume U.S. foreign policy. Seized with the challenge of a near-peer rival whose interests and values diverge sharply from those of the United States, U.S. politicians and policymakers are becoming so focused on countering China that they risk losing sight of the affirmative interests and values that should underpin U.S. strategy. The current course will not just bring indefinite deterioration of the U.S.-Chinese relationship and a growing danger of catastrophic conflict; it also threatens to undermine the sustainability of American leadership in the world and the vitality of American society and democracy at home.
There is, of course, good reason why a more powerful China has become the central concern of policymakers and strategists in Washington (and plenty of other capitals). Under President Xi Jinping especially, Beijing has grown more authoritarian at home and more coercive abroad. It has brutally repressed Uyghurs in Xinjiang, crushed democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, rapidly expanded its conventional and nuclear arsenals, aggressively intercepted foreign military aircraft in the East and South China Seas, condoned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and amplified Russian disinformation, exported censorship and surveillance technology, denigrated democracies, worked to reshape international norms—the list could go on and will likely only get longer, especially if Xi secures a third five-year term and further solidifies his control later this year.
Yet well-warranted alarm risks morphing into a reflexive fear that could reshape American policy and society in counterproductive and ultimately harmful ways. In attempting to craft a national strategy suited to a more assertive and more powerful China, Washington has struggled to define success, or even a steady state, short of total victory or total defeat, that both governments could eventually accept and at a cost that citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders would be willing to bear. Without a clear sense of what it seeks or any semblance of a domestic consensus on how the United States should relate to the world, U.S. foreign policy has become reactive, spinning in circles rather than steering toward a desired destination.
To its credit, the Biden administration has acknowledged that the United States and its partners must provide an attractive alternative to what China is offering, and it has taken some steps in the right direction, such as multilateral initiatives on climate and hunger. Yet the instinct to counter every Chinese initiative, project, and provocation remains predominant, crowding out efforts to revitalize an inclusive international system that would protect U.S. interests and values even as global power shifts and evolves. Even with the war in Ukraine claiming considerable U.S. attention and resources, the conflict’s broader effect has been to intensify focus on geopolitical competition, reinforced by Chinese-Russian convergence.
Leaders in both Washington and Beijing claim to want to avoid a new Cold War. The fact is that their countries are already engaged in a global struggle. The United States seeks to perpetuate its preeminence and an international system that privileges its interests and values; China sees U.S. leadership as weakened by hypocrisy and neglect, providing an opening to force others to accept its influence and legitimacy. On both sides, there is growing fatalism that a crisis is unavoidable and perhaps even necessary: that mutually accepted rules of fair play and coexistence will come only after the kind of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation that characterized the early years of the Cold War—survival of which was not guaranteed then and would be even less assured now.
Even in the absence of a crisis, a reactive posture has begun to drive a range of U.S. policies. Washington frequently falls into the trap of trying to counter Chinese efforts around the world without appreciating what local governments and populations want. Lacking a forward-looking vision aligned with a realistic assessment of the resources at its disposal, it struggles to prioritize across domains and regions. It too often compromises its own broader interests as fractious geopolitics make necessary progress on global challenges all but impossible. The long-term risk is that the United States will be unable to manage a decades-long competition without falling into habits of intolerance at home and overextension abroad. In attempting to out-China China, the United States could undermine the strengths and obscure the vision that should be the basis for sustained American leadership.
The lodestar for a better approach must be the world that the United States seeks: what it wants, rather than what it fears. Whether sanctions or tariffs or military moves, policies should be judged on the basis of whether they further progress toward that world rather than whether they undermine some Chinese interest or provide some advantage over Beijing. They should represent U.S. power at its best rather than mirroring the behavior it aims to avert. And rather than looking back nostalgically at its past preeminence, Washington must commit, with actions as well as words, to a positive-sum vision of a reformed international system that includes China and meets the existential need to tackle shared challenges.
That does not mean giving up well-calibrated efforts to deter Chinese aggression, enhance resilience against Chinese coercion, and reinforce U.S. alliances. But these must be paired with meaningful discussions with Beijing, not only about crisis communications and risk reduction but also about plausible terms of coexistence and the future of the international system—a future that Beijing will necessarily have some role in shaping. An inclusive and affirmative global vision would both discipline competition and make clear what Beijing has to lose. Otherwise, as the relationship deteriorates and the sense of threat grows, the logic of zero-sum competition will become even more overwhelming, and the resulting escalatory spiral will undermine both American interests and American values. That logic will warp global priorities and erode the international system. It will fuel pervasive insecurity and reinforce a tendency toward groupthink, damaging the pluralism and civic inclusion that are the bedrock of liberal democracy. And if not altered, it will perpetuate a vicious cycle that will eventually bring catastrophe.
THE INEVITABLE RIVALRY?
In Washington, the standard account for why the relationship has gotten so bad is that China changed: in the past decade or two, Beijing has stopped “biding its time,” becoming more repressive at home and assertive abroad even while continuing to take advantage of the relationships and institutions that have enabled China’s economic growth.
That change is certainly part of the story, and it is as much a product of China’s growing clout as of Xi’s way of using that clout. But a complete account must also acknowledge corresponding changes in U.S. politics and policy as the United States has reacted to developments in China. Washington has met Beijing’s actions with an array of punitive actions and protective policies, from tariffs and sanctions to restrictions on commercial and scientific exchanges. In the process, the United States has drifted further from the principles of openness and nondiscrimination that have long been a comparative advantage while reinforcing Beijing’s conviction that the United States will never tolerate a more powerful China. Meanwhile, the United States has wavered in its support for the international institutions and agreements that have long structured global interdependence, driven in part by consternation over China’s growing influence within the international system.
The more combative approach, on both sides, has produced a mirroring dynamic. While Beijing believes that only through protracted struggle will Americans be persuaded to coexist with a strong China, Washington believes that it must check Chinese power and influence to defend U.S. primacy. The result is a downward spiral, with each side’s efforts to enhance its security prompting the other to take further steps to enhance its own.
In explaining growing U.S.-Chinese tensions, some scholars point to structural shifts in the balance of power. Graham Allison has written of “the Thucydides trap”: the notion that when a rising state challenges an established power, a war for hegemony frequently results. Yet a focus on capabilities alone has trouble accounting for the twists and turns in U.S.-Chinese relations, which are also driven by shifting perceptions of threat, opportunity, and purpose. Following President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to Beijing, Washington came to view China as a strategic partner in containing the Soviet Union. And as the post–Cold War era dawned, U.S. policymakers began hedging against growing Chinese military power even while seeking to encourage the country’s economic and political liberalization through greater integration.
Throughout this period, Chinese leaders saw a strategic opportunity to prioritize China’s development in a stable international environment. They opened the country’s doors to foreign investment and capitalist practices, seeking to learn from foreign expertise while periodically campaigning against “spiritual pollution” and “bourgeois liberalization.” Despite occasional attempts to signal resolve, including during the 1995–96 Taiwan Strait crisis and after the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, Chinese leaders largely adhered to the former leader Deng Xiaoping’s lying-low strategy to avoid triggering the sense of threat that could precipitate efforts to strangle China’s rise.
If there is a year that marked an inflection point in China’s approach to the world, it is not 2012, when Xi came to power, but 2008. The global financial crisis prompted Beijing to discard any notion that China was the student and the United States the teacher when it came to economic governance. And the Beijing Olympics that year were meant to mark China’s arrival on the world stage, but much of the world was focused instead on riots in Tibet, which Chinese officials chalked up to outside meddling, and on China’s subsequent crackdown. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became increasingly fixated on the idea that foreign forces were intent on thwarting China’s rise.
In the years that followed, the halting movement toward liberalization went into reverse: the party cracked down on the teaching of liberal ideas and the activities of foreign nongovernmental organizations, crushed pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and built a sprawling surveillance state and system of internment camps in Xinjiang—all manifestations of a broader conception of “national security,” animated by fears of unrest. Internationally, China gave up any semblance of strategic humility. It became more assertive in defending its territorial and maritime claims (along the Indian border, in the East and South China Seas, and with regard to Taiwan). Having surpassed Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in 2010, it began wielding its economic power to compel deference to CCP interests. It ramped up development of military capabilities that could counter U.S. intervention in the region, including expanding its once limited nuclear arsenal. The decision to develop many of these capabilities predated Xi, but it was under his leadership that Beijing embraced a more coercive and intolerant approach.
As it registered China’s growing capabilities and willingness to use them, Washington increased its hedging. The Obama administration announced that it would “pivot” to Asia, and even as Washington sought a constructive role for China in the international system, the pace of China’s rise quickly outstripped U.S. willingness to grant it a correspondingly significant voice. With Donald Trump’s election as president, Washington’s assessment became especially extreme: a Marxist-Leninist regime was, in Trump’s telling, out to “rape” the United States, dominate the world, and subvert democracy. In response, the Trump administration started a trade war, began to talk of “decoupling” the U.S. and Chinese economies, and launched a series of initiatives aimed at countering Chinese influence and undermining the CCP. In speeches, senior U.S. officials hinted at regime change, calling for steps to “empower the Chinese people” to seek a different form of government and stressing that “Chinese history contains another path for China’s people.”
The Biden administration has stopped any talk of regime change in China and coordinated its approach closely with allies and partners, a contrast with Trump’s unilateralism. But it has at the same time continued many of its predecessor’s policies and endorsed the assessment that China’s growing influence must be checked. Some lines of effort, such as the Justice Department’s China Initiative, which sought to prosecute intellectual property theft and economic espionage, have been modified. But others have been sustained, including tariffs, export controls, and visa restrictions, or expanded, such as sanctions against Chinese officials and companies. In Congress, meanwhile, ever more vehement opposition to China may be the sole thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on, though even this shared concern has produced only limited agreement (such as recent legislation on domestic semiconductor investments) on how the United States should compete.
Over five decades, the United States tried a combination of engagement and deterrence to bring China into an international system that broadly sustains U.S. interests and values. American policymakers knew well that their Chinese counterparts were committed to defending CCP rule, but Washington calculated that the world would be less dangerous with China inside rather than outside the system. That bet largely succeeded—and is still better than the alternative. Yet many in Washington always hoped for, and to varying degrees sought to promote, China’s liberal evolution as well. China’s growing authoritarianism has thus fed the narrative of a comprehensive U.S. policy failure, and the focus on correcting that failure has entrenched Beijing’s insecurity and belief that the United States and its allies will not accept China as a superpower.
Now, both countries are intent on doing whatever is necessary to demonstrate that any move by the other will not go unmet. Both U.S. and Chinese decision-makers believe that the other side respects only strength and interprets restraint as weakness. At this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June, China’s defense minister, General Wei Fenghe, pledged to “fight to the very end” over Taiwan a day after meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
TELL ME HOW THIS ENDS
Where the current trajectory leads is clear: a more dangerous and less habitable world defined by an ever-present risk of confrontation and crisis, with preparation for conflict taking precedence over tackling common challenges.
Most policymakers, at least those in Washington, are not seeking a crisis between the United States and China. But there is growing acceptance that a crisis is more or less inevitable. Its consequences would be enormous. Even if both sides want to avoid war, crises by definition offer little time for response amid intense public scrutiny, making it difficult to find pathways to deescalation. Even the limited application of force or coercion could set in motion an unpredictable set of responses across multiple domains—military, economic, diplomatic, informational. As leaders maneuver to show resolve and protect their domestic reputations, a crisis could prove very difficult to contain.
Taiwan is the most likely flash point, as changes in both Taipei and Beijing have increasingly put the island at the center of U.S.-Chinese tensions. Demographic and generational shifts in Taiwan, combined with China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, have heightened Taiwan’s resistance to the idea of Beijing’s control and made peaceful unification seem increasingly fanciful. After Taiwan’s traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidency in 2016, Beijing took a hard line against the new president, Tsai Ing-wen, despite her careful efforts to avoid moves toward formal independence. Cross strait channels of communication shut down, and Beijing relied on increasingly coercive measures to punish and deter what it perceived as incremental moves toward Taiwan’s permanent separation.
In response, the United States increased military patrols in and around the Taiwan Strait, loosened guidelines for interacting with Taiwanese officials, broadened U.S. declaratory policy to emphasize support for Taiwan, and continued to advocate for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations, including the United Nations. Yet many well-intentioned U.S. efforts to support the island and deter China have instead fueled Beijing’s sense of urgency about the need to send a shot across the bow to deter steadily growing U.S.-Taiwanese ties.
Even with an official U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether the United States would intervene in the event of an attack on Taiwan, Chinese military planners expect U.S. involvement. Indeed, the anticipated difficulty of seizing Taiwan while also holding the United States at bay has long underpinned deterrence across the Taiwan Strait. But many U.S. actions intended to bolster the island’s ability to resist coercion have been symbolic rather than substantive, doing more to provoke than deter Beijing. For example, the Trump administration’s efforts to upend norms around U.S. engagement with Taiwan—in August 2020, Secretary for Health and Human Services Alex Azar became the highest-ranking cabinet member to visit Taiwan since full normalization of U.S.-Chinese relations in 1979—prompted China to send combat aircraft across the center line of the Taiwan Strait, ignoring an unofficial guardrail that had long served to facilitate safe operations in the waterway. Intrusions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) have become a frequent means for Beijing to register displeasure with growing U.S. support. In October 2021, Chinese intrusions into Taiwan’s ADIZ hit a new high—93 aircraft over three days—in response to nearby U.S.-led military exercises.
This action-reaction cycle, driven by mutually reinforcing developments in Beijing, Taipei, and Washington, is accelerating the deterioration of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. In recent months, Chinese official rhetoric has become increasingly threatening, using phrases that have historically signaled China’s intent to escalate. “Whoever plays with fire will get burnt,” Xi has repeatedly told U.S. President Joe Biden. In May, after Biden implied an unconditional commitment to defend Taiwan, rather than simply expressing the longstanding U.S. obligation to provide the island with the military means to defend itself and to maintain the U.S. capacity to resist any use of force, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed that Beijing “will take firm actions to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests.”
Although Beijing continues to prefer peaceful unification, it is coming to believe that coercive measures may be necessary to halt moves toward Taiwan’s permanent separation and compel steps toward unification, particularly given the Chinese perception that Washington’s support for Taiwan is a means to contain China. Even if confidence in China’s military and economic trajectory leads Beijing to believe that “time and momentum” remain on its side, political trends in Taiwan and in the United States make officials increasingly pessimistic about prospects for peaceful unification. Beijing has not set a timetable for seizing Taiwan and does not appear to be looking for an excuse to do so. Still, as the political scientist Taylor Fravel has shown, China has used force when it thinks its claims of sovereignty are being challenged. High-profile symbolic gestures of U.S. support for Taiwan are especially likely to be construed as an affront that must be answered. (As of this writing, Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the first trip by a U.S. speaker of the house since 1997, has prompted Chinese warnings that “the Chinese military will never sit idly by,” followed by unprecedently threatening military exercises and missile tests around Taiwan.)
As both the United States and Taiwan head into presidential elections in 2024, party politics could prompt more efforts to push the envelope on Taiwan’s political status and de jure independence. It is far from clear whether Tsai’s successor as president will be as steadfast as she has been in resisting pressure from strident advocates of independence. Even under Tsai, there have been troubling signs that DPP leaders are not content with the status quo despite its popularity with voters. DPP leaders have lobbied Washington to refrain from making statements that the United States does not support Taiwan independence. In March, Taipei’s representative office in Washington gave former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a hefty honorarium to visit Taiwan, where he called on the United States to offer the island “diplomatic recognition as a free and sovereign country.”
The risk of a fatal collision in the air or at sea is also rising outside the Taiwan Strait. With the Chinese and U.S. militaries operating in proximity in the East and South China Seas, both intent on demonstrating their willingness to fight, pilots and operators are employing dangerous tactics that raise the risk of an inadvertent clash. In 2001, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea, killing the Chinese pilot and leading to the 11-day detention of the U.S. crew. After initial grandstanding, the Chinese worked to head off a full-blown crisis, even cracking down on displays of anti-Americanism in the streets. It is much harder to imagine such a resolution today: the desire to display resolve and avoid showing weakness would make it exceedingly difficult to defuse a standoff.
THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD
Even if the two sides can avoid a crisis, continuation of the current course will reinforce geopolitical divisions while inhibiting cooperation on global problems. The United States is increasingly focused on rallying countries around the world to stand against China. But to the extent that a coalition to counter China forms, especially given the ideological framing that both the Trump and Biden administrations have adopted, that coalition is unlikely to include the range of partners that might stand to defend universal laws and institutions. “Asian countries do not want to be forced to choose between the two,” Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote of China and the United States in these pages in 2020. “And if either attempts to force such a choice—if Washington tries to contain China’s rise or Beijing seeks to build an exclusive sphere of influence in Asia—they will begin a course of confrontation that will last decades and put the long-heralded Asian century in jeopardy.”
The current approach to competition is also likely to strengthen the alignment between China and Russia. The Biden administration has managed to deter Chinese military assistance to Russia in Ukraine, and China has mostly complied with sanctions, demonstrating that there are in fact limits to Beijing and Moscow’s “no limits” partnership. But so long as the two governments share a belief that they cannot be secure in a U.S.-led system, they will continue to deepen their cooperation. In the months since the invasion of Ukraine, they have carried out joint military patrols in the Pacific Ocean and worked to develop alternatives to the U.S.-controlled financial system.
Ultimately, Chinese-Russian relations will be shaped by how Beijing weighs its need to resist the United States against its need to preserve ties to international capital and technology that foster growth. China’s alignment with Russia is not historically determined: there is an ongoing high-level debate within Beijing over how close to get to Moscow, with the costs of full-fledged alignment producing consternation among some Chinese analysts. Yet unless Washington can credibly suggest that Beijing will see strategic benefits, not only strategic risks, from distancing itself from Moscow, advocates of closer Chinese-Russian cooperation will continue to win the argument.
Growing geopolitical tension also crowds out progress on common challenges, regardless of the Biden administration’s desire to compartmentalize certain issues. Although U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has made some headway on climate cooperation with China, including a joint declaration at last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, progress has been outweighed by acrimony in areas where previous joint efforts had borne fruit, including counternarcotics, nonproliferation, and North Korea. On both sides, too many policymakers fear that willingness to cooperate will be interpreted as a lack of resolve.
Such tensions are further eroding the already weak foundations of global governance. It is not clear how much longer the center of the international rules-based order can hold without a broad-based effort at its renewal. But as Beijing has grown more concerned that the United States seeks to contain or roll back its influence—by, for example, denying it a greater say in international economic governance—the more it has invested in alternative institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Meanwhile, China’s engagement with the multilateral system is increasingly aimed at discrediting U.S. leadership within it. Even though Beijing has not exactly demonstrated fealty to many of the principles it claims to support, the divide between the haves and have-nots has allowed it to cast the United States as protecting the privileges of a minority of powerful states. At the United Nations, Beijing and Washington too often strive to undercut each other’s initiatives, launching symbolic battles that require third countries to choose between the two.
Last but far from least, a fixation on competition brings costs and dangers in the United States. Aggressive U.S. efforts to protect research security, combined with increased attacks against Asian Americans, are having a chilling effect on scientific research and international collaboration and are jeopardizing the appeal of the United States as a magnet for international talent. A 2021 survey by the American Physical Society found that 43 percent of international physics graduate students and early career scientists in the United States considered the country unwelcoming; around half of international early career scientists in the United States thought the government’s approach to research security made them less likely to stay there over the long term. These effects are particularly pronounced among scientists of Chinese descent. A recent study by the Asian American Scholar Forum found that 67 percent of faculty of Chinese origin (including naturalized citizens and permanent residents) reported having considered leaving the United States.
As the United States has sought to shield itself from Chinese espionage, theft, and unfair trading practices, it has often insisted on reciprocity as a precondition for commercial, educational, and diplomatic exchanges with Beijing. But strict reciprocity with an increasingly closed system like China’s comes at a cost to the United States’ comparative advantage: the traditional openness, transparency, and equal opportunity of its society and economy, which drive innovation, productivity, and scientific progress.
The climate of insecurity and fear is also having pernicious effects on democracy and the quality of public debate about China and U.S. policy. The desire to avoid appearing “soft” on China permeates private and public policy discussions. The result is an echo chamber that encourages analysts, bureaucrats, and officials to be politically rather than analytically correct. When individuals feel the need to out-hawk one another to protect themselves and advance professionally, the result is groupthink. A policy environment that incentivizes self-censorship and reflexive positioning forecloses pluralistic debate and a vibrant marketplace for ideas, ingredients critical to the United States’ national competitiveness.
From the World War II internment of Japanese Americans to the McCarthyism of the 1950s to hate crimes against Muslim and Sikh Americans after September 11, U.S. history is replete with examples of innocent Americans caught in the crossfire of exaggerated fears of the “enemy within.” In each case, overreaction did as much as or more than the adversary to undermine U.S. democracy and unity. Although the Biden administration has condemned anti-Asian hate and stressed that policy must target behavior rather than ethnicity, some government agencies and U.S. politicians have continued to imply that an individual’s ethnicity and ties to family abroad are grounds for heightened scrutiny.
BEFORE CATASTROPHE
If the United States and Soviet Union could arrive at détente, there is no reason that Washington and Beijing cannot do so as well. Early in the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy, hailing the need to “make the world safe for diversity,” stressed that “our attitude is as essential as theirs.” He warned Americans “not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.”
Even while making clear that Beijing will pay a high price if it resorts to force or other forms of coercion, Washington must present China with a real choice. Deterrence requires that threats be paired with assurances. To that end, U.S. policymakers should not be afraid of engaging directly with their Chinese counterparts to discuss terms on which the United States and China could coexist, including mutual bounds on competition. It was relatively easy for Americans to imagine coexistence with a China thought to be on a one-way path of liberalization. The United States and its partners now have the harder task of imagining coexistence with an authoritarian superpower, finding a new basis for bilateral interaction that focuses on shaping outward behavior rather than changing China’s domestic system.
The most pressing need relates to Taiwan, where the United States must bolster deterrence while also clarifying that its “one China” policy has not changed. This means ensuring that Beijing knows how costly a crisis over Taiwan would be, putting at risk its broader development and modernization objectives—but also that if it refrains from coercive action, neither Washington nor Taipei will exploit the opportunity to push the envelope further. While Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other senior officials have affirmed that the United States does not support Taiwan’s independence, other actions by the administration (especially Biden’s repeated statements suggesting an end to “strategic ambiguity”) have sown doubt.
While helping bolster Taiwan’s resilience to Chinese coercion, Washington should avoid characterizing Taiwan as a vital asset for U.S. interests. Such statements feed Beijing’s belief that the United States seeks to “use Taiwan to contain China,” as China’s ambassador to Washington put it in May. The United States should instead make clear its abiding interest in a peaceful process for resolving cross-strait differences rather than in a particular outcome. And as they highlight the costs Beijing can expect if it escalates its coercive campaign against Taiwan, U.S. policymakers should also stress to Taipei that unilateral efforts to change Taiwan’s political status, including calls for de jure independence, U.S. diplomatic recognition, or other symbolic steps to signal Taiwan’s permanent separation from China, are counterproductive.
These steps will be necessary but not sufficient to pierce the growing fatalism regarding a crisis, given Beijing’s hardening belief that the United States seeks to contain China and will use Taiwan to that end. To put a floor beneath the collapsing U.S.-China relationship will require a stronger effort to establish bounds of fair competition and a willingness to discuss terms of coexistence. Despite recent meetings and calls, senior U.S. officials do not yet have regular engagements with their counterparts that would facilitate such discussions. These discussions should be coordinated with U.S. allies and partners to prevent Beijing from trying to drive a wedge between the United States and others in Europe and Asia. But Washington should also forge a common understanding with its allies and partners around potential forms of coexistence with China.
Skeptics may say that there is no reason for the leadership in Beijing to play along, given its triumphalism and distrust. These are significant obstacles, but it is worth testing the proposition that Washington can take steps to stabilize escalating tensions without first experiencing multiple crises with a nuclear-armed competitor. There is reason to believe that Beijing cares enough about stabilizing relations to reciprocate. Despite its claim that the “East is rising and the West is declining,” China remains the weaker party, especially given its uncertain economic trajectory. Domestic challenges have typically tended to restrain China’s behavior rather than, as some Western commentators have speculated, prompting risky gambles. The political scientist Andrew Chubb has shown that when Chinese leaders have faced challenges to their legitimacy, they have acted less assertively in areas such as the South China Sea.
Because Beijing and Washington are loath to make unilateral concessions, fearing that they will be interpreted as a sign of weakness at home and by the other side, détente will require reciprocity. Both sides will have to take coordinated but unilateral steps to head off a militarized crisis. For example, a tacit understanding could produce a reduction in Chinese and U.S. operations in and around the Taiwan Strait, lowering the temperature without signaling weakness. Military operations are necessary to demonstrate that the United States will continue to fly and sail wherever international law allows, including the Taiwan Strait. But ultimately, the United States’ ability to deter and Taiwan’s ability to defend against an attempt at armed unification by Beijing have little to do with whether the U.S. military transits the Taiwan Strait four, eight, 12, or 24 times a year.
In the current atmosphere of distrust, words must be matched by actions. In his November 2021 virtual meeting with Biden, Xi said, “We have patience and will strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with utmost sincerity and efforts.” But Beijing’s actions since have undercut its credibility in Taipei and in Washington. Biden likewise told Xi that the United States does not seek a new Cold War or want to change Beijing’s system. Yet subsequent U.S. actions (including efforts to diversify supply chains away from China and new visa restrictions on CCP officials) have undermined Washington’s credibility among not just leaders in Beijing but also others in the region. It does not help that some administration officials continue to invoke Cold War parallels.
To bolster its own credibility, the Biden administration should also do more to preempt charges of hypocrisy and double standards. Consider U.S. policy to combat digital authoritarianism: Washington has targeted Chinese surveillance technology firms more harshly than similar companies based in the United States, Israel, and other Western democracies.
THE WORLD THAT OUGHT TO BE
So far, the Biden administration’s order-building efforts have centered on arrangements that exclude China, such as the Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Although officials have been careful to insist that these initiatives are not targeted at any one country, there is little sign of any corresponding effort to negotiate Beijing’s role in the international or regional order. At the margins, there have been some signs that inclusive groupings can still deliver. (The World Trade Organization has struck agreements on fishing subsidies and COVID-19 vaccines.) But if investments in narrower, fit-for-purpose coalitions continue to take priority over broader, inclusive agreements and institutions, including those in which China and the United States both have major roles to play, geopolitical tensions will break rather than reinvigorate the international system.
Renewing U.S. leadership will also require doing more to address criticism that a U.S.-led order means “rules for thee but not for me.” Clear and humble acknowledgment of instances where the United States has violated the UN Charter, such as the invasion of Iraq, would be an important step to overcoming that resentment. And Washington must deliver value for citizens in developing countries, whether on COVID-19, climate, hunger, or technology, rather than simply urging them not to work with China. At home, Washington must work to rebuild bipartisan support for U.S. engagement with the international system.
As the United States reimagines its domestic and international purpose, it should do so on its own terms, not for the sake of besting China. Yet fleshing out an inclusive, affirmative vision of the world it seeks would also be a first step toward clarifying the conditions under which the United States would welcome or accept Chinese initiatives rather than reflexively opposing them. The countries’ divergent interests and values would still result in the United States opposing many of Beijing’s activities, but that opposition would be accompanied by a clear willingness to negotiate the terms of China’s growing influence. The United States cannot cede so much influence to Beijing that international rules and institutions no longer reflect U.S. interests and values. But the greater risk today is that overzealous efforts to counter China’s influence will undermine the system itself through a combination of paralysis and the promotion of alternate arrangements by major powers.
Finally, the United States must do much more to invest in the power of its example and to ensure that steps taken to counter China do not undermine that example by falling into the trap of trying to out-China China. Protective or punitive actions, whether military, economic, or diplomatic, should be assessed not just on the basis of whether they counter China but also on how they affect the broader system and whether they reflect fidelity to U.S. principles.
Competition cannot become an end in itself. So long as outcompeting China defines the United States’ sense of purpose, Washington will continue to measure success on terms other than on its own. Rankings are a symbolic construct, not an objective condition. If the pursuit of human progress, peace, and prosperity is the ultimate objective, as Blinken has stated, then the United States does not need to beat China in order to win.
JESSICA CHEN WEISS is the Michael J. Zak Professor of China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University. She served as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow on the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State from August 2021 to July 2022. The views expressed here are her own.
The investment project will finance the first of three prioritized corridors of the planned regional rapid transit system (RRTS) network in India's National Capital Region (NCR). The Delhi-Meerut RRTS will pass through the densely populated sections of the NCR, connecting Delhi to Meerut in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The 82-kilometer corridor will provide safe, reliable, and high-capacity commuter transit services between various locations along the corridor. The investment project will finance rail track, signaling, station buildings, and maintenance facilities. It will also support capacity and institutional development of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), a joint venture company of the Government of India and states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, that is mandated to implement the RRTS project across the NCR.
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Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System Investment Project
The Trump Budget for 2021 prioritizes oil and gas extraction and increased logging at the expense of clean water, recreation, and wildlife. Our Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands met on Tuesday, March 10, for a hearing. We questioned Trump officials on their irresponsible decisions to promote polluters, defund climate and science programs and cut budgets for conservation programs Americans need.
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When I can't get a good focus and much of the surrounding is too green, I choose to add more of a soft, warm green in post-process.
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Every year, I go to Burma/Myanmar and I only take a carry on and a hand bag. Taking a large camera like the 5DMk2 (even a T2i size camera) with a lens or two is not an option for me since I like to go travel light (especially to Myanmar). I wanted a small camera that could produce great quality images, good bokeh when needed, and good colors; l knew not to prioritize it based on high ISO quality. I'll have to give that up for a small camera.
I bought/sold/tried shooting with several cameras--from small, point and shoot size sensor to micro-four thirds. Among the ones I tried, my favorite was the E-PL1 with Panasonic 20/1.7. I wanted to see if I could find something even SMALLER than the Oly/Panny combo without giving up too much on image quality.
I debated between the Samsung TL500 / EX1 and the Leica Dlux4. I was impressed with the quality of Samsung's images I saw on the web (and also the cheaper price). But, I ended up getting the Dlux4 because it had been around longer (RAW files supported by most software), and knew I could get good quality images out of it.
By the time I got the Dlux4, I was already inflicted with Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)--I wanted another camera of that size that could produce even BETTER image quality. Since I couldn't afford a Leica X1, I wanted to try out the Sigma DP2s.
---SIGMA DP2s---
It's "different."
The user interface isn't bad, but not as intuitive as others I have tried. I got used it in a couple of days and I find no issues.
LCD screen is so-so. I can still view images on the LCD under a bright sun--better than E-P2. Image quality could be better, but with low-res screen, it's hard to see whether I've nailed the focus point. I also have the external optical viewfinder. It's small, with nice bright frame lines, but it's not really that accurate. If the camera could auto focus well, it'd be more useful.
The build seems fine. It's similar in size to the DLux4 but a little thicker but lighter. The battery life is average for small cameras (not great but not bad).
Performance-wise, it's a hit or miss. In good light, focus is quick but not instant-quick. In lower light, it takes its time locking focus--I'd say average of about a second or sometimes even two. As a range finder camera user, I don't mind taking a little time to shoot since I'm just looking for a good composition and good image quality. This is perfectly fine for stills but not the best for fast paced kids in action. These days, I shoot mostly my kids but I still find DP2s more than usable. I accept and forgive all the quirkiness of the camera since I know I'll get a few really good shots with it. Maybe it's a personal thing--I prefer it over the Oly E-PL1 because it's a little more "challenging" to use and the reward is much more satisfying.
The software that came with it works amazingly well. In fact, if I try to process the DP2s RAW files in Lightroom, my results won't be as good--or at least, it would take me a lot of time to get it right like SIGMA Pro Photo 4.1 software. Simga Pro Photo processing speed is fast--about 3-4 seconds on my 17" Macbook Pro 2.8Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM laptop. I can see why many people go goo goo over the FOVEON sensor. The colors are, indeed, rich and the POP of the focused subject is quite similar to what I would get with a Leica Summicron 50/2 lens.
All in all, I'm glad I found the DP2s.