View allAll Photos Tagged Problem
Según el diccionario un problema es :
Un problema suele ser un asunto del que se espera una rapida y efectiva solución.
Y pueden ser, además de diversos tipos:
Mamtemáticos.
Sociales.
Economicos.
Religiosos.
Filosoficos.
Amorosos.
Etc.
Y yo pienso en la razon, por la cual se le de tanta importancia a los problemas, por que nos agoviamos de tales formas por cosas que aveces son tan minusculas..
No seria mejor, quizas, pensar solo en lo positivo y pasar de los problemas, dejos, siempre se terminan solucionando solos, si solo estas pendiente de ellos acabas por no vivir las pocas cosas felices que te quedan, acabas transformando tu vida en una especie de empesamiento que consistiria en pensar en el futuro y no disfrutar del presente.
Vive en positivo.
Sí, me encantan los momentos en los que tengo problemas, los saludo con la mano mientras pasan de largo.
Despite the snow, 47416 is on time as it heads a diverted Newcastle - Poole service down the now closed Leamside line near Washington. February 1984.
Choose the best alternative:
1) I haven't an objective wide enough
2) the subject i too BIG
3) I am too close
4) stitching several photos is frustrating
5) anything else, pls describe.
Same difficult problem, two slightly different ways of tackling it..
I have been going here since it opened!!
Luther, Katie and I had a good session down there this evening..
Luther and Katie were doing great!
History -
"The Foundry Climbing Centre in Sheffield was the UK's first dedicated indoor climbing centre. Opened in 1991 it was designed, by climbers, to suit everyone from beginner to expert. It offers walls up to 13m high and lead/top rope climbs with 150 routes and bouldering"
"We at The Foundry provide climbing facilities for people of all ages and abilities. We have over 75 lead routes, 75+ top rope routes, 7 Autobelays, 100+ boulder problems and training and gym facilities"
UHA Untersuchungshaftanstalt des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit in the former DDR - Berlin Hohenschönhausen
For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20
The world faces a problem: recession and a spiraling fall in trade. The Economist puts it like this, “Trade is contracting again, at a rate unmatched in the post-war period. This week the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would shrink by 9% this year. This will be the first fall in trade flows since 1982. Between 1990 and 2006 trade volumes grew by more than 6% a year, easily outstripping the growth rate of world output, which was about 3% (see chart 1). Now the global economic machine has gone into reverse: output is declining and trade is tumbling at a faster pace. The turmoil has shaken commerce in goods of all sorts, bought and sold by rich and poor countries alike.” According to the Economist, “The immediate cause of shrinking trade is plain: global recession means a collapse in demand. The credit crunch adds an additional squeeze, thanks to an estimated shortfall of $100 billion in trade finance, which lubricates 90% of world trade.”
According to the Guardian, “On Thursday 2 April Gordon Brown is going to host the G20 summit in London. Leaders from 22 countries will be at the summit. The G20 is an organisation for finance ministers and central bankers, who in the past met once a year to discuss international cooperation in finance. There are 19 countries who are members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by whichever country holds the EU presidency (currently, it's the Czech Republic). These countries represent 90% of global GDP, 80% of world trade and two thirds of the world's population. The IMF and the World Bank also attend G20 meetings, although technically the London event isn't a normal G20 meeting.”
This G20 meeting will be for the leaders of all G20 countries. According to the Guardian the policy agenda developed by the last G20 meeting “did not in fact go much beyond pre-existing international initiatives that had recently been developed in more technocratic international bodies.” According to the Guardian, “On the London summit website, the British government has explained what it hopes to achieve. At the summit, countries need to come together to enhance global coordination in order to help restore global economic growth. World leaders must make three commitments:
• First, to take whatever action is necessary to stabilise financial markets and enable families and businesses to get through the recession.
• Second, to reform and strengthen the global financial and economic system to restore confidence and trust.
• Third, to put the global economy on track for sustainable growth.
Gordon Brown has argued that the world must avoid protectionism. According to the Economist, “The World Bank says that, since the G20 leaders last met in November in Washington, DC, 17 of their countries have restricted trade. Some have raised tariffs, as Russia did on second-hand cars and India did on steel. Citing safety, China has banned imports of Irish pork and Italian brandy. Across the world, there has been a surge in actions against “dumping”—the sale of exports, supposedly at a loss, in order to undermine the competition. Governments everywhere are favouring locally made goods.” The Economist also says, “Kei-Mu Yi, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, argues that trade has fallen so fast and so uniformly around the world largely because of the rise of “vertical specialisation”, or global supply chains. This contributed to trade’s rapid expansion in recent decades. Now it is adding to the rate of shrinkage. When David Ricardo argued in the early 19th century that comparative advantage was the basis of trade, he conceived of countries specialising in products, like wine or cloth. But Mr Yi points out that countries now specialise not so much in final products as in steps in the process of production.”
Protectionism in itself sounds bad – but it is a policy option available and used in all political economies – including the most liberal. Protectionism can also lead to a more self-sustainable economy, and can lead to the internal development of an economy, which means the economy is less reliant and dependent on external sources of finance. Development will be slower, but it can be more secure and sustainable. It is likely that if countries do operate protectionist policies it will be a short-term opportunist and populist response to workers and unions, but it could be seen as an alternative economic model of development. It worked in Brazil and Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s for a while, until a more neo-liberal and external finance model was preferred.
The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was reported on Channel 4 News to have told Mr Brown the crisis was caused by "white blue eyed people". This overtly racist remark has been noted, but there has been no visible backlash. It is interesting how the whole agenda about racism never applies to the dominant one, i.e. you can racially slur white people, and white people with blue eyes without anyone batting an eye lid, whereas if you racially slur other ethnic groups you can find yourself battered. I find this state of affairs deeply offensive to the human race in general, and very patronizing to those groups who don’t come from the dominant ethnic group (i.e. its almost to say the whole anti-racist thing is a way of patting you on the head and saying there, there – because when it comes to racism we don’t really give a shit – see the way we couldn’t give a f*** if you slur our own dominant white ethnic group).
The reality is that the summit will represent a reshuffling of position, support and dependencies between the world’s twenty richest countries. Spectators are expecting China to come out feeling puffed up and proud, given that China has faired relatively in recent years, or so we are led to believe. Meanwhile national demonstrations seem to be focusing our attention to the fact that a different way of working is needed. In fact it will be work as usual – the question is who will come out on top.
In anticipation of the G20 summit a demonstration was held in London. 10,000 were predicted to attend the demonstrations. The police reported 35,000. I was there at the demonstration and I don’t believe I saw 35,000 people walk past Big Ben – and I saw it from start to finish. As one commentator, on the Guardian observed, “Apart from the small contingent of student SWP calling 'One solution, Revolution' and about 20 anarchists making noise the spirit was generally depressed and lacking any anger or sense of direction.” Cognitator joked, “Perhaps the police were adding their number to the protesters. As opposed to taking them away as per usual.”
According to the Guardian, “The Put People First march yesterday was organised by a collaboration of more than 100 trade unions, church groups and charities including ActionAid, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth. The theme was "jobs, justice and climate" and the message was aimed at the world leaders who will be gathering for the G20 summit here this week.”
The march started on the Embankment. When I arrived there I walked around desperately finding somewhere where I could have a piss for free. I tried Starbucks and Costa Cofee, but they seemed to have no toilets, I even tried the stamp collectors fayre a subterranean culture of badly dressed old people, with poor eyesight and even worse posture, which was momentary distraction from my full bladder, but which did not provide the answer to my pressing problem as the toilet door was locked and for staff only. Stephen Moss writing for the Guardian said, “Westminster is not a great place for someone like me, who has a weak bladder, to go on a march. The public loos there cost an outrageous 50p a go. The Socialist Worker magazine-seller next to Embankment tube station is on to this in a flash. "50p to have a piss – a lesson in capitalism," he is soon shouting. Later, I'm pleased to see someone has punched a hole in the wooden sign advertising the price.” In the end I walked all the way to the National Portrait Gallery where you can always be assured a good quality toilet seat.
The Guardian continued, “The marchers, estimated at 35,000 by police, accompanied by brass bands and drummers and a colourful assortment of banners and flags, walked the four miles from Embankment to Hyde Park, where speeches from comedian Mark Thomas and environmental campaigner Tony Juniper, and music from the Kooks, made for a party-like atmosphere.”
The Guardian reported, “A group of fewer than 200 anarchists joined the march and were kept isolated and surrounded by police. Chants of "Burn the bankers!" were the closest anyone came to any show of aggression.’ Yes I witnessed this, it was clear that the anarchists, dressed in black, some of them with scarves covering their faces, generally looked cool as fuck, like some post-nuclear vigilante gang, their black signifying the dark depressing reality from which humanity starts, and the point from which they wish to depart. Whether the police presence was heavy is debatable but they certainly had a line of police accompanying them, whereas no other group were honored with such a presence. Of the anarchists Stephen Moss says, “I fall in with some anarchists halfway through the march – a delightful young Greek called Alex and an Italian, who is happy to talk about Bakunin, but is, I sense, a little suspicious of me. The anarchists march together – with the police flanking them in a way they don't with the rest of the march – and I am intrigued that they never shout slogans or bang drums. Their mission is a serious one.” Moss goes on, “Alex tells me a reporter from the Sunday Times has already approached him to ask why anarchists wear masks. "Work it out for yourself – you're a journalist," he'd told him. "People always ask why we wear masks; they never ask about our ideology," he complains. In essence, that ideology is: power corrupts; all elites will be corrupt; so government should be by the people, for the people – a mass movement of the type they claim is emerging in South America. Hezbollah is also mentioned favourably, a movement they see as developing organically. "Organic" is a key word for anarchists, and it would save a lot of aggro and bad press if they were called organicists rather than anarchists.” Good point. But who wants to be called an organicist? And in any case everything is organic really – its just that some organisms develop in a way we or anarchists done like and some do. To call anarchists, organic is to miss the point, anarachists are like Christian, they dream of a reality which transcends human nature as it is and known. Structure, corruption, self-interest and greed underpin all human activity – the question is not how we can do away with it, but how can we manage it in a fair way.
Stephen Moss wrote about the variety of organizations on the march. He said, “Socialist Worker has a three-point strategy: "Seize their wealth," "Stamp out poverty," "End all wars." Sounds good, but I can't work out exactly who "their" refers to. The Socialist party is hot on slogans, colder on the mechanism by which they are put into practice. The likely outcome to the current crisis still appears to be government by Etonians.” Most of these movements are nothing to do with instituting political change. The people involved in them do not want to genuinely change things. Instead what these groups function as is self-help groups for people, for whatever reason, feel that they have been wronged in life, probably at a personal level, and feeling quite hopeless about their personal wrongs, they want to transpose their personal woe on to a faceless, unintelligible other – the government, the state, the capitalist, the rich and the greedy. Its not so much that socialist workers and anarchists want to change things, they know they are completely ineffectual, and too screwed up and traumatized, too aggressive, unintelligent and incapable of engaging people into a different way of organizing; they just want to shout out to people ‘we hurt’. Fair enough.
The TUC don’t seem to be turning up to do anything more than saying ‘there there’ to threatened workers, and stating the downright bloody obvious to the government. Their message is “The importance of this summit cannot be underestimated. Unemployment and deprivation will grow massively over the next two years unless governments work together. People need to know that there is an international solution to this crisis. If the summit suggests that there is not, many will turn to nationalist and protectionist politics with all that implies for the global economy and world peace.” Mind you they do go on to say that, “But while the immediate response to the crisis will be at the forefront of the leaders' minds, the unprecedented Put People First coalition shows there is a huge appetite for a new economic direction. Thirty years of the increasing dominance of the neo-liberal agenda has got us into this mess. The summit must show that the next 30 years need to be about a renewed era of economic growth based on a much fairer share of the proceeds. One that is environmentally sustainable and one that does not end in the burst of yet another financial bubble.” But what are they really saying? Nothing much.
There is of course something about how all of this is just about having a laugh, getting a kick, getting an emotional fix. There’s something very similar to the way that some of the more violent groups get ready for a rumble with the police and football hooliganism. Football hooligans are much more honest about the emotional kick they get from fighting. The protestors pretend that they are doing it for the people. Whatever the so called reasons, it is clear that a lot of protestors enjoy confrontation. They are much more focused on the enemy and combating the enemy than they are on creating peaceful societies. So Stephen Moss makes the interesting observation, “When the march eventually gets to Hyde Park, the anarchists refuse to join the "TUC bureaucrats" for the official rally and hold their own open-platform meeting at Speakers' Corner, dominated by elderly men in hats who talk less about Bakunin than about beating up the BNP and confronting the police on the streets of Whitechapel. It's all a bit depressing (and expletive-filled – I take serious exception to the denunciation of "Oxbridge cunts"), though I like the fact that the elderly men refuse even to use a megaphone – only the ordinary human voice is organic enough.” The media and police have both hyped the April 2009 marches as like the possible end of the British way of life, of democracy, of capitalism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but its like we all want to will it to happen – we all are looking for excitement – war may be bad but peace is fucking boring – I once read.
The Guardian also reported, “Thomas told the Observer he believed the protest marked "the start of a grassroots movement". He added: "This is a moment. This is the first time people have had a chance to come out on to the streets in a big way." But this is nonsense. This was just an opportunity for a plethora of groups, amongst whom there are more differences, and the only thing that can unite them is a general concern for jobs, justice and climate, which incidentally are three themes that unite most of the country, and all the main political parties, to catch the government at a weak moment, and hope to build up support for whatever cause they have, on the back of the anger and desperation amongst people at this time.
The protest ended up in Hyde Park. I didn’t go, it was too cold and rainy, and although I did aim to walk there via a short-cut through Victoria, I ended up taking refuge in Westminster Cathedral, where I saw another procession, of Catholic priests and altar boys, who were holding a service for the Union of Catholic Mothers. I listened to the Catholic priests, they sounded much more happy and at peace with themselves and their surroundings, than the rankerous socialist bile spitting leaders.
People are blaming the bankers, but there is in actual fact no-one to blame for this. The this needs to be qualified too. The ‘this’ is the fact that people are loosing their jobs, consumption will have to be reduced. It is ironic that it is precisely that people are facing the prospect of lower consumption that they are out on the streets protesting against greedy bankers, it is not so much the greed of the bankers that people resent, so much as the increased consuming power of the bankers that they are envious of. The bankers are not to blame for working within a system, which promoted risky investments, a system which was encouraged and deregulated by politicians who realized that whilst the bubble was growing there were huge financial gains to be made from encouraging bankers to reap the rewards both for themselves but through the state through taxation, and politicians who were encouraged by the people who voted them in, who probably formed the majority of people marching in demonstration and protest today, who voted in the governments believing the deregulation of banks not to be a serious enough issue to vote against a government for, and realizing that even if it was a risk, whilst the bubble was growing, they were happy enough to see their elected government ensuring that the country got a share of the pie. We all contributed to this fucking mess – if you can call it a mess – its only a mess for those who no longer have jobs and cannot consume so much – by voting in the government, who deregulated the banks and encouraged the lending of our money several times over to riskier and riskier ventures which in actual fact were not producing anything of material benefit, but were instead relying on house prices going up and up, as more people poured their money into it. Now we are in deep shit, because Gordon Brown has poured what little remaining money we have, and we have on credit into the black hole – it has simply disappeared.
There are some people who are saying the bankers should pay for the crisis they created. It doesn’t work like that – it works by people putting their money into a bank – and entrusting the bank to invest it wisely. Where the bank looses the money – the original investor looses the money. This creates a motivation on behalf of the investor to invest wisely, e.g. on the basis of what we know right now investing in Barclays rather than Lloyds TSB or the Royal Bank of Scotland. However reality begins to change once one’s livelihood is threatened – now it is solely the banker’s responsibility to have invested the money wisely, the public who invest their money into the banks are seen to be helpless, powerless twits, whose securities should have been looked after by a paternalistic and caring banking sector. So for example, according to Fox New, “Berlin police estimated that around 10,000 people gathered in front of the capital's city hall and more than 1,000 in Frankfurt, Germany's banking capital, for similar demonstrations under the slogan: "We won't pay for your crisis." Its not a crisis – its just that there are now lots of personal crises – the public didn’t bother to check whether their banks were investing their money properly or wisely and now they are paying for it. But the banks aren’t responsible for this – they really aren’t.
We have two problems. The first was created by the fact that banks lent out our money several times over – so we thought the country was several times as wealthy as it actually was. This led to inflationary pressures especially in the housing market – where the same money was lent to several different people – all investing in housing leading to unrealistic housing prices. We now realize we have a fraction of the wealth we thought we had. This creates deflationary pressures – i.e. where everyone has less money prices are reduced. This problem can be solved by creating a soft deflationary landing to a level where the price of labor and goods reflects the value of the money we have not the value of the money we have and we loaned. This means everyone has to accept lower wages – we can either do this peacefully based around a consensus and agreement between corporations, banks, trade unions or governments – or we can do it aggressively – letting perfectly good companies whose workers refuse to take pay cuts go to the wall – and then watch as millions of unemployed people try to reform and reorganize new companies and enterprises.
The second problem is that banks are no longer making such risky investments – so they are not looking to lend their money on to others – which means there is less money to be lent to people – which means less activity and less economy. We have to get used to less activity – but at least the activity will be invested in activities which are genuinely producing material benefit for people – not leading to an apparent generation of wealth – which is the artificial effect of lending x amount of money to people ten times, making it seem that we are ten times as rich as previously – when actual fact we are equally as wealthy – but with prices ten times as high. We should have also let the banks go to the wall – and started again with a heavily regulated banking sector – which was not allowed to lend out peoples’ money irresponsibly. No-one wants to have to feel the pain from this – i.e. the rich bankers who keep their pensions and bonuses, the people who have banked with them who want to keep their savings, and the businesses who are funded by the banks who want to hang on to their business and jobs. So what Gordon Brown is doing, is in the name of the people, funneling money into the banking system, paying for the debts, and thus, keeping the bankers sweet, keeping the investors sweet, keeping the businesses sweet. Who looses out? All of us – the poor! They never really had anything to loose in the first place, however whilst Gordon Brown borrows money to give to the banks so they can lend to businesses and pay bankers bonuses and salaries, we move a step closer to becoming bankrupt – i.e. not being able to borrow any more money because no-one believes we can pay it back. Once we become bankrupt, social services and welfare will be cut.
According to Gaby Hinsliff, “Many economists believe a recovery now requires bursting that artificial bubble and rebalancing the economy so that Chinese consumers are encouraged spend a little more - reducing America's trade deficit - and Americans a little less. Malloch Brown suggests Britons, too, will need to relearn the art of saving.”
According to the Guardian, “But Scotland Yard is expecting a greater challenge on Wednesday 1 April, dubbed "Financial Fools Day", with a series of protests aiming to cause disruption in the Square Mile and elsewhere.” The Guardian says, “On 1 April an alliance of anti-capitalist groups called G20 Meltdown is organising a carnival headed by "Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse", which will converge in front of the Bank of England. Anarchists are planning to target the second day of the summit at ExCel. Other groups mounting demonstrations include Climate Camp, the Stop the War Coalition, and Government of the Dead. An alternative summit will be held a few hundred yards from the ExCel centre at the University of East London.”
The alternative G20 summit website provides the following manifesto: Can we oust the bankers from power? Can we get rid of the corrupt politicians in their pay? Can we guarantee everyone a job, a home, a future? Can we establish government by the people, for the people, of the people? Can we abolish all borders and be patriots for our planet? Can we all live sustainably and stop climate chaos? Can we make capitalism history? YES WE CAN!
According to the Daily Telegraph, “The G20 conference will lead to a London "lockdown" next week, with parks, roads and businesses closed to keep world leaders safe, Government officials are warning.” The media are really building this up, as an attempt to build readership and sell advertising. Its interesting how a force created by the desire to advertise and promote consumption causes papers to distort and promote a threat and confrontation to the very system upon which it is built. The Daily Telegraph article continues, “Protesters with armed with buckets and spades are among several thousand people who are planning to bring chaos to the heart of central London.Last night it emerged that City workers were being advised to "dress down" next week to avoid drawing attention to themselves.”
To anyone really wanting revolution bear in mind these words from Stephen Moss, “Changing society is hard, and usually starts with a split in the elite. The English civil war and the French revolution both began with a fissure in the governing classes; their falling-out created the space for populist movements to develop. For a grassroots movement to effect change is enormously difficult. It was only possible in Russia in 1917 because of the devastation wrought by war.”
The reality of the demo was perhaps best summer up by ‘one789’ who said, “My experience of the demo, in talking to people and observing, is that no one had any real clue of why they were there. They recognise 'blame the bankers' to be futile and a distraction, think capitalism 'is rubbish' and 'want change', but say nothing beyond that.I at least expected a high degree of frustration and anger, but more than anything what came across was disillusionment and confusion. But then, that's what you get I suppose from such a middle-class yummy-mummy bleeding-heart rally.”
As rabbit95 said, “Be glad we live in a society free enough to protest and where, apart from the police possibly taping your presence at such a demo, there will be no comeback.”
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/
www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13362...
www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13362027
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-protests-london
www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/mar/28/g20-protest-...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2009/mar/28/g20-su...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/g20-protest
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit-globalisa...
www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/25/g20-q-a
news.google.co.uk/news?q=G20+summit+London+2009&oe=ut...
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5050...
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/global-update/cp-china/active-...
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/qu...
www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics...
www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_pol...
For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20
More than 250 species of aphids, often called “plant lice,” feed on agricultural and horticultural crops throughout the world, and several can be a problem in Texas landscapes. Many ornamental plants in Texas landscapes are suitable hosts for aphids, including bedding plants (especially chrysanthemums), ash, barberry, boxelder, crape myrtle, jasmine, flowering almond, gardenia, hibiscus, hydrangea, mountain ash, oaks, oleander, peach, pear, pecans, pines, roses, vegetables, and viburnum. Aphid infestations can build to severe levels very rapidly because these insects reproduce very quickly. Infestations can be widespread or localized to just a few plants, and they may be worse in some years than in others. When you see aphids on a plant, they are usually spotted in a large group and sometimes able to cover a whole leaf. Aphids have also been seen living with ants. Ants feed on the honeydew, a sweet, sticky substance excreted by these insects. The ants are normally not the problem. Even though lady bugs are a predator of the aphid they sometimes can be outnumbered. Recently when someone released some lady bugs on a Pinta that was covered with aphids they watched in amazement as these mighty bugs walked over to the aphids and started to feast. Then later it was noticed that the aphids had moved closer together. As they cowered in a large mass it was noticed that the lady bug seemed to be asleep, it ate so much that it needed to rest before continuing the onslaught. Early the next morning the leaf was covered with a sticky substance and the lady bug was trying to move. The substance was so thick and sticky that it looked like the lady bug would drown. After a few more minutes the lady bug freed itself and instead of eating more it flew away. The aphids won this war. You can also use the green lacewing. They seem to be more voracious and stronger then the lady bug. However, the green lacewing has to be ordered and the lady bug will help out until the lacewings arrive. See: beorganic.com/services/maintenance/pest_control.html
and williamson.agrilife.org/files/2011/07/Aphids_Tx_Landscape...
the problem women face...how to be both sides of domesticity (is that a word?) and to succeed at both.
One big problem in the countryside is the lack of public transport, very few buses are around, and no cars, so you come across a lot of people
walking for kilometers, or riding bikes. But even if they had transportation, people wouldn’t be allow to move around lot as they are required to remain
in their villages.
Many check points are set up along the roads, so people walk along disused or deserted railway lines to avoid them.Another main problem is the
poor productivity of the land, due to desertification and massive use of pesticides.
Un homme dans la capitale Pyongyang, utilisant un char à boeuf.
Le manque de moyens de transport est un énorme problème dans la campagne. A modérer par le fait que les habitants de Corée du Nord ont tous un certificat de résidence qui les empêche de voyager librement dans le pays.Pour éviter les contrôles et les check points, de nombreux coréens marchent sur les rails des chemins de fer déserts pour vendre ou se rendre sur des marches de campagne.; l’autre problème est la désertification et la culture intensive qui ont détruit une bonne partie des terres, ce qui entraîne régulièrement des famines.
© Eric Lafforgue
The passengers on board 1F64 Scarborough to Liverpool Lime street have just disembarked as the train was terminated at Huddersfield on February the 25th 2020. The train manager described the issue as a Health and Safety problem with the train doors.
(Previous KOM League Flash Reports are available on request)
Ausust 19, 2013
No Flash Report updates have transpired in the last four days. I'm not planning any Flash Reports for the foreseeable future. No one is corresponding with me about what is on their mind and fortunately I don't have any deaths to report. I do know a couple of guys have had a rough time lately do to surgery and other age related problems but they don't come under the heading of "Urgent Messages." When those arrive I'll report on them. The two people I'm tracking right now, due to health problems, are; Don Keeter and Leonard Van de Hey. Keeter is in a Kansas City rehabilitation facility and Van de Hey is in a Wisconsin hospital following surgery. Word received today was that there will be more of the same for the former Carthage Cub from 1950-51.
This note was posted August 12, 2013. There won't be another Flash Report for a few days. If you have anything to submit for the next report feel free to do so by contacting me at j03.john@gmail.com Thanks for checking out this site. The traffic on this site has picked up significantly since the Flash Reports have become a feature.
For the latest interview with former KOM Leaguer, Bill Virdon, go to this site: Celebrate West Plains: Bill Virdon reflects on his career - KY3 News
m.ky3.com
m.ky3.com/display/6497/story/458e4da0908d50238e442ec6fee3...
The next report will have an update on what happened with regard to the guy offering to give me a Mickey Mantle baseball card and also more information on the late Roger Vander Weide's baseball career. His older brother Robert was "top dog" in the operation of the Orlando Magic when they entered the National Basketball Association.
August 15, 2013. The photos are viewed by a number of former KOM league ballplayers and their families. I learned, by posting these photos that Leonard Van de Hey, a member of the 1950-51 Carthage Cubs had surgery yesterday in Wisconsin. Also, a nice note was received from the daughter of the late Johnny LaPorta, Carthage Cubs 1949-50 that she enjoys the photos. Her mother, Angie, the greatest scorekeeper in the history of Carthage baseball, is residing in a nursing home in the Chicago area and still retains the memories of many of the KOM era.
In the next Flash Report an article will address the subject of radio stations that broadcast KOM League games. If you heard a game or games over KGLC in Miami, OK, KSEK Pittsburg, KS, KDMO Carthage, MO, KIND Independence, KS, KWON Bartlesville, OK or WBBZ in Ponca City and wish to share a memory I'd love to include it in the article. There were no games aired of Iola, Blackwell or Chanute home games since those towns didn't have a radio station until nearly a decade after the KOM League folded.
The voice of Miami baseball was Russ Martin. He pastored the First Christian in Miami and was well known for the dramatic phrases and embellishment of games when they became a bit drab. For a while, Joe Pollock, former KOM spedster with three different clubs was his play by play color man.
Pittsburg Browns games were carried on KSEK radio. That station was on the Liberty network and carried a game of the day with Gordon McLendon and Lindsey Nelson doing most of the games. If you got bored you go up to the top of the radio dial and get the Mutual Broadcasting Company game with Al Helfer doing the announcing on radio station WMBH in Joplin. In the evening that station carried the Joplin Miner games with Bill Grigsby doing the play by play. As a point of trivia the last KOM game broadcast was in 1998 with Grigsby doing most of the play by play and not so ably assisted by Yours truly. That was about as much fun as I ever had. By the way one of the announcers for Pittsburg was Thad Sandstrom who later headed up the WIBW radio and TV empire. If you want to know the fate of Mr. Sandstrom check that out on the Internet. The story is too long and gory to place here.
Bill Platt, James DeStefano (aka Jim King), Fred Pralle and Keith Upson broadcast for Ponca City, Carthage, Bartlesville and Independence, respectively. The story of Upson is contained under the last photo on this site. He is shown with the 1948 Independence Yankees. There are some great tales about the last four guys mentioned but I'll hold off writing anything about them to see if anyone has read the material to this point.
I'm under pressure to keep this site moving along since g-mail loves me at about the same level socialism admires free enterprise.
By the way readers are encouraged to use the "Add a comment" in the space provided by Flickr.
The KOM League
Flash Report
for
August 5, 2013
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The back-up site for Flash Reports and photos is:
Flickr: komleague's Photostream
www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/
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Likes this stuff:
Just to let you know that I thoroughly Love the letters and the photos. To me it’s like getting a package from home. So I definitely do NOT want to become a member of the "Infrequent Flyer Club." You can send those letters and pictures my way any time you want to. Sue - KCMO
Ed comment:
It is most likely that Sue is referring to the photos that one of my readers has sent her way. But, I can always hope someone likes the Flash Report. Last week a nice summary was sent to me by Bill O’Donnell. I was going to use it to justify why I still prepare these reports but it got lost somewhere in the innards of the e-mail file. So, Bill, after reading this and you still feel the same way you might want to re-send me a copy of that.
But, on the other hand, if you receive these reports and think they have outlived their usefulness you can let me know. The beneficial aspect of these reports for me, according to what I read in the literature, is that keeping the mind occupied might help stave off old age memory and mental problems. And, it may help folks as old as you to read this material and see if you can make sense of it. That way we are either both crazy or dually sane.
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Message from Dave Vander Weide
John, you posted in my dad's guest book. Thank You. His funeral is tomorrow August 6. Would you happen to be able to e-mail me any stats on my dad? I know his family would love it. I remember as a kid going through a trunk with all his baseball gear and seeing him in a uniform with the Carthage name on it.
This is the obituary for Roger Vander Weide
obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=ro...
If you click on the foregoing URL you’ll see his photo along with the obituary. For those of you who can’t or won’t do so here is the obituary.
VANDER WEIDE, ROGER Aged 85, was peacefully called home to his Lord and Savior on August 1, 2013. He was preceded in death by two sisters and five brothers. He is survived by his loving wife of 64 years, Thelma. He loved his children, David (Jean), Steven (Yvonne), and Robert; his grandchildren, Susan (Mike) Meeuwsen, Jenny (Mike) O'Neill, Ryan (Jenna) Vander Weide, Lisa (Joel) Terpstra, Chad, Josh, Hannah, Katie, Ben, Jessa, and Addie Vander Weide; and his great- grandchildren, Devin, Alexia, Breckton, Bellary Meeuwsen, Katelyn, Kylie, Kelsey O'Neill, Emma Vander Weide, Lillian, Natalie Terpstra were his pride and joy. Roger is also survived by his brother, Russell and Barbara Vander Weide. Roger owned Vander Weide Plumbing. He was a pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, and was an elder and Sunday school teacher at Hope Reformed Church. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, 11:00 AM at the Zaagman Memorial Chapel, 2800 Burton St. SE, with Rev. Peter TeWinkle and Rev. Dr. Robert Eckard officiating. Interment Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens. The family will greet relatives and friends at the funeral chapel Monday from 2-4 and 6-8 PM. Memorial contributions may be made to Breton Manor Rehab. - See more at: obits.mlive.com/obituaries/grandrapids/obituary.aspx?n=ro...
Ed note:
Vander Weide pitched for the Carthage Cubs in late 1947 and early 1948 but not enough to make it into the official records that were reported in the Baseball Guides. However, due to his late arrival, in 1947, he got into the team photo that included manager Al Kluttz. By that time Woody Fair was back in the Carolina league and Al, brother of big league catcher, Clyde Kluttz was in charge of the Carthage club. Also on that team was Ray Diering the younger brother of Chuck who was with the St. Louis Cardinals, Eddie Vargo who became a long time National league umpire, Wayne Boyer one of the famous baseball family from Alba, Mo. and Bob Mahoney who made it to the major leagues with the other St. Louis team, the Browns and also the Chicago “Pale Hose.” A lot of scribes used to call the White Sox by that name.
It was mentioned that Vander Weide is in the 1947 Carthage team photo. For those of you with the book “The KOM League Remembered” published by Arcadia, that photo is on page 27. Even if you don’t have that book the photo is still there. In that photo are 20 faces which include the batboy, Frederick “Pee Wee” Smith. Of that group only four are still alive. Even Harry Smith’s older brother, Pee Wee, has passed away. Harry is mentioned since he was the Carthage batboy in 1949 and on page 65 of the book mentioned previously struck the most casual photo of any batboy ever did for a team photo. For you who don’t have the book now nor ever will he is laying down in front of the Carthage team that had a few guys who turned in long baseball careers including the best known member, Bob Speake. Since Hal Brown is in that photo and receives these Flash Reports I’m mentioning him to let him know he isn’t forgotten. Of the 18 fellows in the 1949 Carthage Cub team photo only five are still living. Harry Smith suffered the same fate of his older brother Pee Wee and passed away a number of years ago at Carthage, MO. Pee Wee died in Kansas City.
Since it wasn’t mentioned in the obituary I’ll mention it here since I’ll get questions about the date of his birth. It was June 16, 1928 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Still remembering the short term players:
Over the years I've discussed whether Carroll Lloyd "Biff" Jones ever played a game in the KOM. I found a column this morning where the Omaha, Nebr. native played shortstop one night for Ponca City at Bartlesville and had two singles in four at bats. He was born 6/17/1929 in Omaha and died 12/28/2008 while living with his son in Tonopah, NV.
Biff was with Ponca City for a very short time and upon his release he went to Chanute, KS on the way home to Omaha, and tried to get a shot with them. Dick McCoy verified that Biff did go to Nevada and died there for he and his wife Mollie attended the funeral. I happened to get interested in Biff in recent days as I had found his name on the roster of an Omaha team that played in the National Baseball Congress Tournament at Wichita in 1960.
Also on that 1947 team was George E. Seely (sometimes spelled Seeley). He was born either 1/1/1924 or 1/3/1924 according to the records I've uncovered. George pitched in two games for Ponca City before being sent to Zanesville, Ohio. If I have the right George Seely and I think that I do, he graduated from high school in 1943, went to the Univ. of Colorado until being inducted into the US Army, also in 1943. After his final year in baseball, which I think was 1948 he got a degree in education and wound up teaching school for many years in Pueblo.
Note from a baseball researcher
Hi: I have Carroll Jones playing ten games for Ponca City in 1947. Was he a first baseman?
He played in 2 games at first for Sheboygan in 1947. Ray Nemec
Ed reply:
The Ponca City News showed him playing shortstop upon his arrival. He wasn't going to play that position too long for Boyd Bartley and Jim Baxes were going to play the position for the lions share of the time.
Nemec’s reply:
Hi John: Is there any way to check a few more games to see if Jones did play another position? Since Boudreau played in 122 games at 1B, I doubt that Jones played 1B. If he did it may have been only one game
He doesn’t show in the SS fielding of players in ten games or more
Ed reply:
Jones didn't play any first base for Ponca City that I found. And, he didn't have that many at shortstop either. I found what I reported earlier in a scrapbook kept by a female fan of those teams for 2-3 years. I imagine Jones did a little pinch hitting after he got two hits in his first game. I'll look at that scrapbook again and see if anything else appears. I think he played for Ponca City prior to the arrival of Baxes from Santa Barbara. After Baxes got there nobody but Bartley was going even get a shot at playing short.
When Jones went back to Omaha and took up amateur ball he was basically an outfielder. In 1960 when the Omaha Thomases went to the NBC tourney in Wichita he was their left fielder.
The Omaha team was sponsored by the Thomas Plumbing Company. They had their share of ex-Joplin Miners, Independence Yankees, Iola Indians and Ponca City Dodgers on the1960 team. Don Hunter and Biff Jones had played at Ponca City, Robert "Bugs" Redden at Iola, Bill Holderness played for Independence in '49 with Mantle and later committed suicide, and Dave Benedict another of Mantle's teammates at Joplin was also on the team. You probably know that Dave Benedict's son was Bruce.
If any reader would like to chime in on additional information regarding Biff Jones, join the crowd that might not be large enough to fill a pay telephone booth. That is, if there are still any remaining in the era of cell phones.
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I wasn’t kidding
In a recent Flash Report I mentioned that my first book “Majoring in The Minors” was like a pretty girl, hard to get. Here is a note from “back east.” “Hi John, I thought I would see if I could hunt up your book. There is one on Ebay listed at $160, supposedly a discount from the original price of $200. Well, I decided to see how flexible the dealer is and sent in a $35 offer. She countered at $125. I then sent in another offer with a note stating that I really didn't want to pay more than $50, but since the book also has several autographs, the highest I could pay would be $60 She declined the offer with a note saying the lowest she would go was $100. I have a hunch that she might consider splitting the difference, but I was really stretching my budget to offer the $60. Maybe you have someone else that might continue the haggling and reach agreement. I will still keep my eyes open during my tag sale and flea market hunting. Enjoy the summer!!!!!!! John, I believe there are 28 players that signed the book plus yourself. Book was 111 of 300. Bob
Ed note:
I looked at that signature page once again. Only 26 guys signed it. Stokes Dodson and Nick Najjar signed twice. We had a book signing and those were being passed back and forth and guys didn't know if they had signed before or not. I could write pretty good size book just telling the stories I know about those 26 guys. Of course, it wouldn't be read. Bob Saban who signed that was the cousin of Lou Saban who coached the Boston Patriots and he was also kin to the current coach of the Alabama football team.
I looked closely at the top of one of those pages. I believe that is the hard cover edition. That book is worth more than the soft cover that came out four years prior to that. If that's the hardcover then it was signed by all those guys at Chanute, Kansas in 2000. That book was purchased by a public library. That is why it's in mint condition. I could buy that for $100 and still make a buck on it due to the autographs. But I'm not going to do it.
A tip from the old batboy
I believe that book is still listed on E-bay and if you don’t have the hard copy edition it would be worth the money if for no other reason than 26 autographs that you could never assemble.
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Recent honors bestowed on former KOM leaguers.
By Anvil Welch Globe Sports Writer
INDEPENDENCE, Kan. — Bill Virdon broke into professional baseball in 1950 with the Independence Yankees of the Class D KOM League.
Virdon, who’s lived in Springfield (Mo.) for more than 50 years, returned to southeast Kansas last Saturday for only the second time since 1950. The previous visit came in 1996 during a KOM League reunion engineered by league historian John G. Hall of Columbia.
Virdon, who was accompanied by wife Shirley, was inducted into the Independence Baseball Hall of Fame to highlight a Baseball Game Luncheon at the Independence Historical Museum & Art Center, 8th and Myrtle.
Virdon never played for the Yankees. He was traded to the Cardinals and was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1955. He was dealt to the Pirates early in the 1956 season. The left-handed batting, right-handed throwing Virdon patrolled center field for the Pirates most of the time through the 1965 campaign.
Guests last week, in addition to the Virdons, included longtime University of Kansas sports voice Bob Davis and Ban Johnson players Charles Stepp and Merle Blair. Also, seated up front for the meal of hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks were researchers Jan Johnson and Mike Webber.
Virdon, who answered several questions from the audience, had at least one very pleasant surprise in the crowd.
Bill Robinson, who lives in Wichita, and his late wife Virginia housed Virdon and another player in Independence.
“I don’t know anything negative about Bill Virdon,” Robinson said. “I never played baseball. We had a pleasant time.
“I’m 94. I do my own driving. I’m going to break Social Security,” Robinson quipped.
“We lived on North 11th St.,” Robinson said. “Our family ran Robinson Supply. I’ve been living in Wichita six years. We make it to Independence every three or four months.”
Virdon, naturally happy to see Robinson, said he couldn’t recall the name of the roommate.
“I don’t have a clue,” Virdon, 82, said with a laugh.
Virdon, who played Ban Johnson baseball for two summers at Clay Center (Kan.) before signing with Tom Greenwade and New York for $1,800, had no problem with Independence’s role in his development as a player.
“I found a position,” Virdon said. “I wanted to be a shortstop. Bunny (player/manager Bunny Mick) put me in center field.”
Just three players on the 1950 Independence Yankees reached the major leagues — Virdon, Don Taussig, another outfielder, and pitcher John Gabler.
The Independence roster was sprinkled liberally with southwest Missouri youths (a testament to Greenwade).
Bill Drake, a 1948 Joplin High School graduate, was a right-handed pitcher on the club. Drake, who played American Legion baseball in the summer, starred in football for the Eagles for Russ Kaminsky and in track for K.E. “Doc” Baker.
“Bill’s strength, first, was as a defensive player,” Drake said of Virdon. “He was a good overall player, of course. The thing I remember as much as anything about him was simply he was a good man. He was a gentleman. I respected him.”
Drake, also a Baxter Springs Whiz Kid, continued playing baseball after his professional stint as a third baseman/pitcher with such semi-pro teams as the Miami-based Tri-State Miners and Home Street Garage of Kansas City to supplement his income.
Drake, 83, said he once hit four consecutive home runs in a game for Home Street Garage. He lives in Raytown.
Virdon was Virdon last week, indicated museum coordinator Sylvia Augustine, with his accommodating manner.
“He always has been that way, I understand,” she said. “He signed everything that was brought to him.”
Virdon, a manager of the year in both the American League (Yankees) and National League (Astros), joined individuals Mickey Mantle, Ralph Terry, Glenn Wright, Bill Walker, Cy Blanton and Eugene Packard in the Independence shrine: The Independence Producers of 1921 and 1930 also have been honored.
The Western Association Producers of 1930 claim the first night game in organized baseball on April 28 at Shulthis Stadium in Riverside Park.
Lloyd Lee Dodson enshrined
cjonline.com/sports/2013-07-17/kevin-haskin-rich-baseball...
Kevin Haskin: Rich baseball history shared at induction ceremony
Inaugural class enshrined into Shawnee County hall
There was mention of Connie Mack on Wednesday at the Bettis Family Sports Complex.
That was a reflection of just how much history was shared at the induction ceremony for the inaugural class of the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame.
Lee Dodson, known simply as Mr. Baseball in Topeka, referenced Mack as one of his heroes.
“I like guys who lived to be 100, or close to it, since I’m closing in on it,’’ said Dodson, who at 89 shared some witty insight into a sport he loved ever since he attended his first game.
That happened to be at Chandler Field in Topeka. Dodson, who would go on to play professionally before coaching and organizing scores of teams and leagues, watched that day as his father managed a club.
“I couldn’t figure out,’’ said Dodson, “how the person who invented this game I was watching could make it so a ball hit to the shortstop could result in a play that was so close involving the batter who was running to first base. It was such a close race. That, and a lot of other things, absolutely hooked me.’’
Over time, Dodson figured quite a bit regarding baseball. So too did the other inductees in the inaugural class — Ken Berry, Beany Conwell, Bingo DeMoss, Marion McDonald, Mike Torrez, Fred White and Gene Wilson. The wide-ranging group represented players, builders, coaches, media and umpires.
The hall does not yet have a permanent display, though information on the inductees and history of baseball in Shawnee County can be found at www.sncobaseballhof.org.
When addressing the audience Wednesday, Berry told how he agreed to have his name affixed to a complex that would eventually be home to numerous youth teams.
“They called me up in 1969 and asked if they could put my name up,’’ recalled Berry, “and I said, ‘Sure, but you guys should know I’m only hitting .230.’ ’’
That recollection came from his 14-year career in the major leagues, in which Berry was an All-Star outfielder and two-time Gold Glove winner. Berry credited Conwell for leading the innovators who started the Ken Berry League. Conwell became the league’s first chairman of the board and was a fixture at the facility. He engaged in every task imaginable while also helping organize several teams.
In accepting the glass obelisk presented to each of the inductees, Conwell’s son, Kent, said: “As I know my dad would like to say, ‘Thank you. Now let’s go build something.’ ’’
For McDonald, his most enduring project was at Washburn.
It was in 1957 that he reinstituted a baseball program for the Ichabods as their coach.
His son, Bill, recently moved back to Topeka after spending 42 years in Michigan. He remains impressed by all the people who recall his father, who also served as a professional scout.
“I hear so many wonderful stories about my dad connecting people with baseball,’’ McDonald said.
One favorite that McDonald shared was the origin of the uniforms Washburn once wore that read “Topeka’’ across the chest.
Turns out, Marion McDonald got the Topeka Reds to donate them to WU after the minor-league team left town following the 1961 season. Bill McDonald said he heard that Pete Rose’s name tag was stitched into one of the uniforms, a story he still needs to research.
One inductee into the Shawnee County baseball hall who pitched to Rose was Torrez, who won 185 games and posted a 3.96 earned run average over 18 big-league seasons.
Another inductee, Fred White, called many of the games Torrez worked. The longtime anchor for both WIBW television and radio went on to become a broadcaster for the Kansas City Royals.
Although a family commitment prevented Torrez from attending, Berry was a contemporary who shared his respect for White, who passed away earlier this summer after battling cancer.
“I was very lucky to have someone like Fred and also Bob Hentzen of The Capital-Journal cover my games,’’ Berry said. “You couldn’t have asked for two greater guys to interview you after you played your heart out. I was very appreciative of Fred and all he did for me.’’
The inductee who was as responsible as anyone keeping games rolling smoothly was Wilson, a longtime umpire who first came to the state as a hot-shot recruit who played basketball for Kansas State. Wilson went on to umpire through four different decades. The manual he wrote for local American Legion umpires was incorporated at the national level.
“I had fun with the game,’’ said Wilson, “but I was serious too. Sometimes, though, you had to lighten up.’’
Like the time Wilson was working a Gopher League game at the very spot where he spoke Wednesday, the former SCABA diamonds.
“I crouched down and my pants ripped,’’ he recalled. “Before long, I had three mothers come down from the stands offering me safety pins.’’
Stories. Many were shared Wednesday reflecting the impressive history of baseball in Shawnee County.
DeMoss, an inductee who began playing for Negro League teams while in high school and went on to become the standout second baseman of his time, gave the class a feel that dates to almost the beginning of the 20th century.
Yet here we are in 2013 and baseball remains vibrant.
“I thank the inventors and the people that improved on it,’’ Dodson said. “Baseball has been total enjoyment for me.’’
Ed note:
Lee Dodson of the 1946 Chanute, KS Owls and Bill Virdon of the 1950 Independence Yankees are both very special individuals. I have got to know each of these fellows over the years and it was especially difficult to miss their induction ceremonies into halls of fame in two Kansas cities. It was very tough to ignore them at a high point in their lives when both of those guys came to Carthage when they hung my mug on the entrance to the Carthage ballpark in 1999. But, although I wasn’t in attendance of either of those events I’m especially proud of both those guys and want them to know it.
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Predictions
Back in 2004 there was a KOM league reunion held at Carthage, MO and when a group of old ballplayers arrived on the scene at the baseball field there was a large number of young ballplayers who were touring the nation as the representatives of the American National team. Sam Dixon struck up a conversation with one of the leaders of that group and the gentleman told him to keep an eye on one player in particular. He was a lad from San Diego and Dixon promised to look out for his eventual rise to major league stardom. After that reunion concluded Dixon handed me the sheet of paper the coach of the team had given him and told me that I should keep it. Well, I looked at it again after nine years and started down the list. I got as far as “S” and recalled the guy with that initial for his last name and he never made it. I figured with just a few names left on the list that none of those guys made it. And, then I saw two fellows with the same last name... Upton. Quickly, it came to me that Melvin Emmanuel and Justin are the same guys who play for the Atlanta Braves. Most people recognize Melvin as “B. J.”
What struck me that morning, nine years ago in Carthage, was an exodus from the ball field when it was announced that a team of random drug testers were there to check the young American team. Those guys who exited the field came out on the sidewalk slamming down their equipment and crying like babies with the full knowledge that they hadn’t played by the rules and their time on the team was over. Now roll the clock forward just nine years and word came down today that some guys who didn’t play by the rules will get to sit it out for a while. Isn’t it great that “Time wounds all heels?” These guys are getting what they deserve but maybe they aren’t getting enough of what they deserve. When the rules set forth permanent banishment from the game for rule breaking then fairness will have a new meaning.
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Conclusion:
In the last exciting edition of this newsletter it was mentioned that although all the copies of “Majoring in The Minors” were in the hands of others I still was able to share a copy that the late Tom Tarascio handed back prior to his death. I sent it along to a new friend in Pennsylvania who was coached by Jim McHugh former KOM leaguer for parts of four years.
Within days of sending along the big green book and a Mickey Mantle-Before The Glory copy I received this note. “Thank your for the book ‘Majoring in The Minors’ and ‘Mickey Mantle-Before the Glory’ and the Mantle pin. The books will be part of my summer reading. Maria McHugh donated the Jim McHugh-Jimmy Foxx letters to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, PA. The Athletics Historical Society closed this past spring and re-located to Spikes’ Trophies, 2702 Grant Ave. Philadelphia. Thanks again John--your book made my summer.” Sincerely, Bob. G.
Ed comment:
Many years ago Jim Mc Hugh sent along a letter he had written to Jimmy Foxx when the Philadelphia A’s great Hall of Famer was ill. Foxx sent him a letter in return promising to get better in order to make his young fan happy. McHugh gave me that material a number of years ago. One day I took both of the letters and added a photo of Foxx and McHugh and sent it back to him with the explanation that it was such a great item he should share it with the family. I was pleased to learn it was now in the Philadelphia A’s Historical Society.
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Well, that’s it for this time
If you have anything to share with regard to the Flash Reports, let me know.
P. S.
Oh, I’m not done. Last week I received a CD from Nick DeMaio of the 1952 Miami Eagles and a teammate of the late Jim McHugh. Nick is the “big guy” with Gunsmoke. That is a country-western band out of Darien, CT. In recent weeks his group appeared on the “Shot Gun Red” show on the cable channel, RFD. Sine I couldn’t that channel through my cable service Nick was kind enough to send me a CD. The music of Gunsmoke is of the genre and era when music was still be made and the lyrics weren’t “x” rated. Gosh, I love the past for a lot of reasons and one of the biggest was the music. Thanks again Nick for your kindness.
Another P. S. or P. S. S.
As I was finishing up this report a telephone call was received from a gentleman who remembered me from my last fling at theater. A few years back I was the voice of Lou Gehrig in a performance attended by few and appreciated by even fewer at a local playhouse. A group from that playhouse performed at one of our KOM league reunions and they were top flight in every aspect and may well have been the top group ever at any of the dozen or so reunions conducted. Anyway, a fellow who attended that performance was the most recent caller and told me he wanted to meet me for coffee. He said that he had recently picked up a baseball card of a former KOM leaguer and wanted to give it to me. So, a coffee date has been set for Thursday morning at a local grocery store. Oh, the baseball card he has of a former KOM leaguer is that of a guy he called “Mickey Mantle.” Has anyone ever heard of that name? I’ll let you know next time about the card and a little more about the guy who is purportedly on it.
The Fagaima Road also turns into a river whenever there's a heavy rain.
A FLOOD OF VERSES...
IMMIGRATION
Nature has its own form of
immigration, where you
can't cross the border
unless your credentials
are in order. This can
cause delays, the heart's
own red tape.
Future generations are
contingent upon this
decision! Got the engine,
got the fuel, but there's
nothing like making the
journey only to learn
your passport needs
renewal. Damn you,
Immigration! Try again.
Nonetheless, your fair
country is the land of
opportunity to me, a
place my customs can
continue, contribute.
You're not convinced
yet, but I'm certain
you'll never regret
permitting me entry.
MONSTER PSYCHOLOGY
Frankenstein has the mind of a
killer, and as for fashion sense,
pure disorder – one look at him
and you know, here comes a
non-conformist. Frankenstein
has the heart of a farmer, all
hard work and no nonsense.
Frankenstein has conflicting
impulses. It would be less
complicated if he hated you,
then when you run he’d just
say la de dah, but oh woe to
anyone Frankenstein actually
likes and tries to follow after.
He moves slow but won’t stop,
obsessing on the answer he
thinks you hold – balance for
his sharply divided soul. Lo,
he comes! Stumbles into your
kitchen - inconsiderate, not
very articulate, inconvenient –
saying listen, I know you’re
not obligated to accommodate
me, but at least I’m good at
poetry so…uh… here’s a poem
I would really appreciate
exchanging for a cure.
VOLCANO
Volcano still for now, but still
a volcano. Surface has turned
hard, impenetrable, but below
something still churns, burning
inside. This restlessness will
someday shake your foundation
when the volcano can’t contain
its own hot ash any longer,
and shoots fire at the sky, as if
screaming, “I am here – how
could you leave me like this?
SONG
I wish I could speak like a song,
not confronting the problem
head-on, just by telling a story
that may have nothing to do
with reality as we know it.
Songs enter the reality of
feelings, intangible qualities
that bring sorrow or joy.
Guilt, blame, recrimination –
these wouldn’t be in my
words, but might be there in
the feeling the song conveys.
Or from a limitless choice of
feelings, it could be my
favorite – the sweet peace
when problems resolve and
all is well for everyone. While
that may not be true outside
the song, better somewhere
than nowhere.
WATER
Water won’t stop for you –
you can only dive in and
go with it if you desire.
Hold water and soon it’s
not itself anymore – the
pure needs to move to
bring life. Water will
drown you if you don’t
know how to flow with it.
Water can clean you,
heal – we’re baptized in
water, not fire. Water is
that part of us that comes
and goes, warm or cold,
just going with the flow,
just seeing to the needs
of its partner the earth.
SUPER-VILLAINS
I don’t play the villain very well –
no reason, no evil vision. I’d only
hurt by omission, not knowing.
But if I were a super-villain, a
challenger of Batman, nemesis
of Superman, I wouldn’t be
The Joker or The Penguin, I’d
be The Teacher, with a mystical
ability to bore to death my
enemies no matter what I say.
Or else I’d be The Preacher,
with a supernatural power to
render anyone who comes
in contact with me so utterly
guilty they fall on their knees
begging forgiveness. Or better
yet, The President, preying on
everyone’s loyalty to home and
family till they do whatever I
tell them unquestioningly.
Heroes quietly resist becoming
corrupted by their own power,
but others holding authority
without moral values find the
easy slide to the Dark Side
too tempting to avoid.
TOAST
My moods fly all over the place
like kamikaze insects, controls
set for my candle, in thrall to
their conviction its burning tip
will bring truth and purity, not
death or injury. They’re piling
up in the wax. Sacrifice in vain?
Perhaps not, if in the last flash
before turning to toast these
brave but misguided pilots
catch a glimpse of why we aim
for the sun. One with fire, life
itself blazing, even if it changes
them to toast, a trail of crumbs
other naïve seekers can follow.
My moods rise from their ashes
like new planets forming.
MR. RAIN
Too much –intense – more than
we can handle – rain brings life
but too much brings disruption.
Is there some point you’re trying
to make, Mr. Rain? Tired of us
dissing your bud the sun? Or just
concerned for the hydration of
this place? Gentle rains can be
sensual, but this intensity speaks
of angrier intent, like someone
doesn’t take you seriously so
you’re gonna show ‘em. As for
collateral damage, too bad, this
whole island can wash away
for all you care. Tell you what –
let me know who displeased
you and I’ll do the job just as
a favor, then you can turn off
this tap that’s flooding your
friends with your enemies. If
this entreaty leaves you angry
still, consider instead your
utility bill, Mr. Rain.
SYMBOLS
Given his natural accent, this
singer’s attempt to mimic the
vocal mannerisms of Stevie
Wonder resulted in the words
“ribbon In the sky” sounding
more like “lizard in the sky.”
Careful how you bend the
vowels and mangle the
consonants, especially if
you’re born in a village,
not some inner city. I had
visions of a giant lizard
soaring in the clouds,
signifying love immortal
with a regal wave of its little
front leg. How grateful I was
the gesture didn’t originate
from its little back leg, given
what that typically portends.
But anyway, this momentary
re-visioning of Stevie’s lyric
at least filled the day’s quota
for something completely
different. As far as symbols
go, who’s to say it’s any less
appropriate than chocolate?
PIECES
Of course people used to ride
dinosaurs - everybody knows
that. It was on that show, The
Flintstones. When they went
extinct because some aliens
with poor vision were shooting
at Uranus but hit us instead,
we switched from dinosaurs
to horses. Then when all the
horses became Muslims due
to global warming, we had to
invent the car. But you know,
Henry Ford was a secret
Muslim, just like Obama. He
knew we'd have to buy our
gas from Allah Oil. Now they
keep trying to bomb our solar
cars to save their economy,
but their religion won't let
them wear glasses so they
keep leaving bombs in the
wrong place or forget they're
wearing them till they go off.
All these little historical pieces
fit together just fine once you
suspend your common sense.
GOODBYES
Saying goodbye to someone who’s
dying, it’s like you’re trying to rush
them along or something. No, this
is supposed to be a tribute, a thank
you for the part you played in my
life. Good, bad or indifferent, all is
forgiven and some things we'll
always celebrate.. By all indication,
this visit with my Dad will be my last.
Some stupid part of me thinks that
if I don’t go, this will somehow alter
the inevitable. I know better, even
if my feelings don’t. Some people,
you just want to be there for them,
even knowing it won’t make much
difference. My showing my face
at this time of important transition
hopefully won’t hasten it. He’s had
some issues with me, and I with him,
but they all seem insignificant now.
And when I say goodbye, it will be
like all our other goodbyes, not
farewell forever, more like, ok,
gotta go, but catch you next time.
CONFLICT
Conflict inside someone else, I just
happened to give it a face without
trying - without trying - I don't let
myself into these things just for fun.
It's not fun, and you know your idea
far better than the person your idea
is about . I just happened to give it
a face, but behind that mask I never
asked to wear there's more going
on than you want to see because
I just happened to give a face to a
conflict inside yourself. No fun to
contemplate your own conflict - far
easier to just insist the source is
external and looks a lot like me.
And it just goes around in circles,
in a predictable cycle like the moon.
GUARANTEE
I would like a guarantee, signed
in blood, a sense of commitment
besides just mine. But guess what -
I'm on my own till harvest time
looks guaranteed, then they all
want to be concerned. How did
it get this way? Is it any different
for anyone else? If you gather
around you everyone with the
same assumptions, fall into line,
is some agreed-upon outcome
really guaranteed? Or is it all
just going through the motions,
hoping that our familiar songs
and dances will guarantee our
once and future prosperity,
same as the Aztecs once were
certain that the change of the
seasons was only guaranteed
by them feeding a hungry sun?
UNPRODUCTIVE
Bright sunny days and rainy,
cold nights - it's like I never
left home. I have unlimited
mileage and knowledge of
the Big Island highways, so
I'm re-visiting while I'm
visiting. I like not having
to worry about deadlines
or headlines or anything
but keeping an eye on the
oncoming cars. This isn't
the most productive use
of my time, but I've earned
the privilege of being
unproductive. It's calming,
I have time to reflect, no
one is relying on me for
anything as far as I know.
Holidays will pass and I'll
have to be productive
again, and remember you
have to keep going at all
costs just to earn the
temporary right to stop.
PORPOISES
My father remembers very clearly
how the Air Force transferred him
from Tokyo to Guam in the months
after World War Two. He recalls
how Japanese in the city streets
would collect cigarette butts and
carefully fashion a desperate puff,
then sleep in concrete pilings, or
sleep in doorways. I like it better
when he tells of how as a boy he
took ships from Hawaii home to
Samoa for school vacations. On
clear days, he'd crawl out on the
stern and see porpoises riding
on the waves the ship made, like
they were surfing. Yet for all my
patient explaining, he still can't
recall the Lee Auditorium, even
though he drove by it every day
since it was built. Some memories
live far longer than others. He
might leave soon, and when he
does, I hope in his thoughts he's
not with the Japanese, broken,
but with the porpoises, finding
bliss in something as simple as
just staying on a wave.
SELL
Can I sell you on an idea? No,
I won't even try, it's Christmas
time when giving is legitimate,
or rather, more legitimate than
the rest of the time, when
giving often looks like selling
in disguise. Everything here is
still free, anything valuable
perhaps disguised as worthless,
no obvious profit to be made
from trying to bottle what you
find or recycle what you feel.
It cannot be anything other
than what it is - a little gift, as
valuable or worthless as it
seems upon first impression,
or maybe much later when
the idea has had time to take
root and appears as something
very different when blooming
than it did when just trying to
hang on and not blow away in
the wind as a flake would.
DULL
You can't drink, smoke, inject
or snort something good. None
of these make things right or
make things gone, they only
make things dull. Ironic how
so many need to fully dull
themselves to how wrong
things really feel, yet refer
to it as feeling good.This is
not to say I won't get every
bit as dull as everyone else
if nothing else is happening,
or even enjoy it like any
other intentional stupidity.
all the while knowing that
to buy into the synthetic
happiness the dullness tries
to sell me in place of the real
thing would be a big mistake.
GIFTS
Some gifts don't come in pretty
paper, like the gift of freedom,
being free to come or go, free
to answer or to question, free
from the shackles of external
stimuli, free in the heart and
mind to roam or settle down,
free to see yourself as either
old or perpetually new, or both.
The real gifts may or may not
be under the tree, and some
are meant to be enjoyed and
soon forgotten while others
will require every second of
your attention or else they'll
turn around and bite. The gift
of freedom is like the gift of
a tiger on a short leash.
MARGINALIZED
Most of us are marginalized
in some way or other, but the
trick is to not identify with that
intangible status imposed from
who knows where by God only
knows who. Marginalized -
consigned to the margins, by
comparison with those who
supposedly have an advantage.
Advantage is like gasoline -
it doesn't mean anything
without the right vehicle. You
are the vehicle, marginalized
or otherwise, and remember
what happened with the
tortoise and the hare - those
who take their advantage for
granted become like Humpty
Dumpty, unprepared for the
going getting bumpy because
they've never had to survive
on life's margins.
CARPENTRY
If you want to get closer to the
truth, you can always sharpen
your carpentry skills. You'll
gain an appreciation of proper
structure, well put together,
balanced, true - the fruits of
your labor will either stand up
or collapse. How much closer
to the truth could you ask for?
Remember how a humble
carpenter of Nazareth once
applied his principles of
symmetry to his people's
most sacred oratory to
lovingly construct a way
of living and believing that
even today is still standing.
ALWAYS OPEN
I came to the Big Island
hoping for a sense of
closure. Well, I didn't
get it. What I got instead
is the realization that for
some people the heart
is like 7-11 or Jack In The
Box, always open,even
if you never stop by,
always there for you
just in case you need
something, even in the
dead of the stormy night.
FLAWED PERFECTION
GI Joe is a man with one part
missing, and Barbie is lacking
something in her anatomy too.
This is intentional - these are
dolls after all, incomplete by
design. Those missing parts
aren’t meant to be played with,
but if you do anyway, let it never
be said you got the idea from
the dolls. You can imagine GI
Joe as protector, and Barbie as
companion to someone worthy
(a protector, for instance), but
they lack the design for a union
of their energies, a blending of
their qualities to be anything
but theoretical. Perpetuating
life is not their business, thus
they become natural targets
for abuse when admiration is
no longer entertaining. Dolls
can take anything and never
seem to hurt, but once you
break them out of frustration,
they lose that perfection you
once found comfort in, even
if it was a flawed perfection.
GOSSIP
The gutter grabs the conversation
soon enough. It started out very
politely, just how you doing, then
devolved quickly into I know what
you’re doing and who you’re doing
it with. (No you don't.) All part of our
daily bread-baking I guess, this
morning’s morality review, what’s
hot, what’s going down in our little
Garden of Eden, some vicarious
stimulation on the back of someone
else’s reputation, but in the end
it’s just a trail of crumbs that still
hasn’t led anyone out of their
imaginary gingerbread forest
back to some big rock candy
mountain of wisdom. Why can’t
you just mind your own business?
PASSING THOUGHT #732
I don’t remember what we
even disagreed about. Do
you? It must just happen
spontaneously.
HEAVY FUEL
Emotional nuclear waste,
still active but of no known
practical use, potentially
explosive if not handled
properly. Sealed up tight
in the bottom of the sea
till it burns out or leaks
out. Created by us, then
quickly beyond control.
Safety requires its very
existence be denied. It's
a scandal anything this
powerful resists being
channeled positively.
SURFACE INDIFFERENCE
Long ago I chose to let it
weigh on me, thinking it
would make me strong at
carrying that kind of load.
Lo and behold, it feels no
less heavy now than it did
to begin with. Letting it
weigh on me just became
a habit taxing my peace of
mind. Attitudes that come
so easily convince us we
can program ourselves like
machines, as if mechanical
is more advantageous than
flexible. Think circulation.
It may be human to cling
to what’s precious, but to
hold on too hard is to risk
crushing what we should
instead seek to nurture.
WORLD GO ‘ROUND
Wherever we happen to be at,
we all make the world go ‘round
with our joys and sorrows, with
our triumphs and failures, with
our mistakes and when we’re
right and we know it. I will not
lie – I’m tired of problems, but
it’s been in facing problems
that I discovered so much that
I would otherwise never have
bothered to find out, so who’s
to say, really, what’s a blessing
or a curse. I stay on my path
with no idea of what’s going to
happen next. They say that God
watches over fools and drunks.
I know I’m not a drunk, but as
far as being a fool, well, it just
depends on who you ask.
HOME
You carry home around with
you, so in those moments it
feels like you’ll never return
there’s still a history where
you began if not where you
ended. Ah yes, history, how
things got this way. Choices
and results. No changing it,
except in how you relate.
Home made me who I am,
and as much as I may try to
shake it off like a maverick
trying to lose a saddle, at
my core will always be my
home, come what may.
MINEFIELD
Minefield of ego is a curse
from deepest hell, distortion
of good intentions, bent out
of shape by self-glorification.
Comparison is the weapon
often known to backfire,
then the minefield of ego
falls prey to its own traps,
blows itself apart. Woe the
aftermath – ego emerges,
bloody but unbroken, uglier
than ever. Ego rules over an
empty field of rubble. Can’t
really recall any reason for
the battle, but self-satisfied
simply to have won.
EXORCISM
This music chases away demons.
One listen and the buggers don’t
have a chance. They hear it and
they’re headed for the pavement.
Screaming, off they flee, wringing
their ears. Still the music lingers
in them, eating at their evil like
a cancer we can finally be happy
with. See them writhe, moan,
agonize, paralyze. Finally they’re
neutralized, free souls again. Big
Boss Demon fears this music, so
that’s why he’s always tried to
own it, slow it down, stow it, but
once it really gets going, even he
can’t control it. This music chases
away demons. I just wonder what
keeps bringing them back.
BIG CHICKENS
So many big chickens wandering
in and out of my poem. Giant
chickens, too fat to fly. Bashful
chickens, clucking fowl reflections
between the lines. Unfulfilled
chickens, withholding eggs as a
point of negotiation, threatening
to ruffle feathers unless treated
fairly, plotting to crow 24-7 so
dusk becomes confused with
dawn and whatever sleep we
can steal is filled with dreams
of secret ingredients and deep
fryers. Oppressed big chickens,
never fairly represented on the
collective menu, know full well
we’ll just laugh at them, but
when their civil disobedience
renders the nation’s breakfasts
one continual catastrophe, who
will have the last chuckle then?
SECURITY
Security – we’re all friends if not
family under the same security
blanket. Security bestows status,
sets us apart from the average.
Security comes at the cost of
silence when the most secure
dip fingers in the public till for
private reasons. Security divides
the spoils. As goes my security,
so goes the well-being of our
country. An equation even a
baby could follow. Well follow
this, all you political paunukus –
bending over for security and
expecting us to do the same -
security is an illusion, like fancy
clothes give an impression you
somehow look special when
stripped to your well-stretched
skin. Drums of corruption, sirens
of hypocrisy sometimes get so
loud that even the deaf and the
blind sense vampires nearby,
attracted by the scent of the
defenseless – an easy feed.
VACUUM HEART
Not to sound redundant, but Vacuum
Heart really sucks. Mechanism for
joy removal patrols the room. Goes
right for the dirt every time. Down
to earth suddenly means covered
in it. Why can't Vacuum Heart
partner with someone just as
obsessed with cleanliness? The
sight of me apparently makes
Vacuum Heart's hoses clog up,
motor overheat, plug exit the
well socket. Ok, I get it, I deserve
to be chased away with a broom.
Left to Vacuum Heart, antiseptic
splendor would prevail, all and
sundry spotless as a hospital,
no dirty corners of the mind left
unswept. For filth never sleeps,
it waits patiently for opportunity
to dominate. To sidestep that
soily fate we rely on Vacuum
Heart, superhero of spiritual
housecleaning.
DIG ME OUT
Aluminum cans will preserve
soda and beer till the caveman
renaissance. Enclosed unto itself,
protected from time like the
mummies, a soda or beer can
may not outlast eternity but will
easily outlive you and me. Life
is short compared to unopened
soda and beer. We have no time
for what doesn’t suit our taste
when more appealing options
compete for our attention on
the shelves of our existence.
Exaltation of convenience, just
use it, lose it, and on to the
next one. You take it in, into
your body’s confidence, more
a part of you than your dearest
friend, but only until the drill
of mutual usury completes its
exchange, then what remains
makes its less illustrious exit.
Possibly as a punishment for
awareness like this, I remain
unopened on the shelf, passed
over in favor of more current
designs. Do soda and beer
change their flavor over time?
Cavemen or future apes may
dig me out of the rubble one
day, mysterious remnant of a
strange long gone age. That’s
if someone doesn’t dig me out
of the bargain bin first.
WISHES
My wishes – so intense – it must
mean I’m not dead – that’s good
to know. I hold no one under any
obligation to grant me one single
wish or even the time of day, but
still I whisper my wishes to the sky,
the wind, the rain, passing cars,
dogs prolonging their species in
the street, just any old thing. But
never people, who’d use that
knowledge as leverage. No one
asks me my wishes – I appreciate
that discretion or that disinterest.
And so I wouldn’t splash across
the page the exact nature of my
wishes. This isn’t a bulletin board.
Cutting through a jungle of ideas,
the vines of abstraction, I wish I
could find expression for a wish
you were wishing too.
DISCLAIMER II (III?)
My poetry is probably not
the best way to get to know
me, if you want my opinion.
I have a pretty good filter,
but this Is what emerges
when it’s switched to off
mode. I take an energy
that might make some
turn to a bottle, a needle
or a gun, and I try to do
something different with it.
Don’t ask me how this
energy came to be – too
long a story. Poetry is what
I do with feelings to keep
from being eaten by them.
Enter at your own risk. If
you see something you
recognize clearly, then all
this blood on the pages
hasn’t been in vain.
LEGEND
Have I the heart to tell the
story yet again? This disaster
repeats itself predictably, like
the city clock. Likewise, if I
repeat the tale enough, it
passes into legend, a lesson
for anyone who’ll go down
the same path. I’ll change
the names in case it makes
you feel you’re under attack.
Once upon a time someone’s
faith was badly misplaced.
From there, tell the legend
yourself, your personal take
on faith and faithlessness.
Legends can be reinvented –
it’s fairer that way. Have I
the heart to render a story
so personal in anonymity’s
cloaked terms? Just another
old tale no one takes very
seriously till suddenly it’s
about them.
DON QUIXOTE
The Windmill Man, the walking
metaphor, aiming his lance at
the windmills and still missing –
God forbid he should connect,
that would be a catastrophe.
Windmill standing in for whole
other glory. Defined – assigned
to a corner of your mind – a
place in the natural order. I’d
go for the opposite. Already
starting to rebel, test the limits,
formulate an escape. Catch me.
Let me go. Be my windmill and
you needn’t worry I’ll never
return. Keep me dreaming the
impossible dream – simply
remain impossible.
BIG SHIP
I wanna be a barnacle – attach
myself to a Big Ship and travel
economy. See the world and
not even join the Navy. Calm
or rough seas, it doesn’t matter –
you just keep me hanging on.
But please, Big Ship, don’t sail
the Hudson River, it’s polluted
and barnacles don’t have the
benefit of protection. We might
catch an infection from those
sick New York waters, turn
unhappy campers on your
hull, disgruntled eco-tourists
poisoned en masse. A 9-11 for
crustaceans and our Big Ship
could care less, just scrape us
all off casually as shaving. Ok,
so maybe I don’t wanna be a
barnacle after all. Big Ship,
floating diva - Titanic-sized
ego, why not try a blind date
with an iceberg.
MIRRORS
If you want me to greet you as a
friend, you have to greet me as
a friend. We’re mirrors – we see
ourselves in each other – the open
warmth or closed defensiveness,
the easy exchange or difficult
minimum civility, unquestioning
embrace or involuntary revulsion.
So many ways it can go. We have
no indicator of which way is up
except each other. Like any
mirror, the image reflected may
not always be a true picture, but
don’t we all look a bit different
depending on which side of
ourselves someone chooses
to focus on or to overlook.
GAIN
Careful in that period of gain,
It makes me grateful, but also
uncomfortable, apprehensive
that the scale will swing back
the other way with a period
of loss. That’s the nature of
the scale. But for now, enjoy
a period of gain, when you
feel like it isn’t just pointless
toil after all, when you feel
like your luck has returned
from a long journey, when
you can dare to believe you
actually deserve it. So this is
how it feels – I’d forgotten.
Like the first fine clothes that
really fit. I could get used to
this. There I go again – I know
better than to get used to this.
AVOIDANCE
Were I allowed to levy a two cent
tax on every hint my critics lob
at me like grenades to a foxhole
that my love of travel betrays an
elaborate avoidance of settling
down, I could retire and travel
for life. Since I’m so well-versed
at avoidance, I avoid the subject,
avoid my critics, and carry on
traveling. Avoidance is their
term, not mine. I prefer terms
like adventure, discovery, and
revelation. The world is not yet
done revealing itself to me –
nor to them – they’ve settled
down prematurely. Besides, if
settling down is all it’s cracked
up to be, and I’m truly Mr. Bad
Example, why are they even
watching me? I’m supposed
to be miserable and they’re
supposed to be happy.
BULLDOZER
Bulldozer, like a sumo wrestler
you push, push, push me out
of the circle, out of the picture,
out of history. Make certain
I stay on the margins of the
existence you’re comfortable
with. Bulldozer, like a giant
pecking chicken you dig, dig,
dig away at the foundation
of any relation between us.
Anything once assumed is
now assumed meaningless.
Bulldozer, you’ve flattened
any reason to feel. Efficiency
empty of humanity is nothing
but machinery. Bulldozer, like
Jack the Ripper you prefer to
see yourself as simply clearing
a path of the detritus blocking
progress. If it’s in your tracks,
it’s asking for it.
PIE
Shame on you ungrateful relations,
all scrambling for your slice of the
pie. The estate tastes the same no
matter who serves it – at least for
the moment. This is a perfectly
reasonable pie – it’s you disputing
your portions. Hey, I warmed the
oven. Hey, I cleaned the kitchen.
Hey, I took out the garbage. Hey,
I went to the market. Hey, I wiped
the plates. Hey, I just ate off the
plates, but I gave him the recipe
and he baked it for me. You’ve
all got such a compelling story.
It takes a committee to raise a
pastry. Can one little pie cause
such controversy? May its fruit
be less bitter than the dispute.
No Thanksgiving pumpkin nor
sweet apple tarted was left out
to cool by our dearly departed.
ARK
The endless rains have rent our
Flag Day asunder. I say it’s God’s
commentary on the Fono pay
raise. Think you’ve got money
to waste? Maybe I’ll just ruin
you Flag Day entertainment
Sense of entitlement brought
the tsunami – how soon you
forget. Everyone build their
own fautasi – you’ll all need a
modern day ark to sail the few
remaining clean hearts away
from this South Seas Sodom
to somewhere kinder where
there is no Fono, no matai,
no faalavelave, no bingo -
your most enduring values
can start again from scratch.
IRRIGATION
Sun took a vacation and we
won’t be complaining about
the heat for awhile. Enough
water now to wash all our
cars. Scenery greener than
green, plants drunk on
moisture – careful you don’t
overdo a good thing. Does
anyone or anything still
need irrigation? Nature
is upping her thoroughness,
getting to the cases that
complain they’re left out.
No one goes thirsty on my
watch – you’re all my babies
and I’ll make sure you’re
healthy. Everyone needs a
friend like her, but how do
you say politely, Mother
Nature, enough is enough?
CORE
Childhood seemed so much less
complicated – lines so clearly
drawn, and besides, who expects
kids to be responsible anyway?
Questions answered simply.
Now, as time goes on, it’s more
a matter of answers I don’t have.
Mysteries overtake conventional
wisdom. We’re forced to relate
outside our frame of reference –
it can get overwhelming. But as
complex as it seems, existence
at its core is absurdly simple.
We’re all just here for awhile -
seeing, feeling, reflecting, and
evolving if we let ourselves.
Facing the mysteries the way
people always have, sometimes
coming in on a wing and a prayer.
Always returning to a core, while
at the same time trying to get the
most out of what’s beyond it.
FAIRFAX
Fairfax, one less paramedic tramp
threatens to compromise your
firefighters. Fight fire with fire –
crucify her online. It’s called slut
shaming – It takes on a life of its
own so no wonder now it’s taken
a life. She may or may not have
the dirty hands they imagine, so
you have to wonder why they’d
even bother paying attention.
Pornographic minds will conjure
X-rated situations, and jealousy
ferments venom in the envious.
We call fundamentalist Muslims
barbaric for stoning to death
adulterous women, but In the
USA we stone those we don’t
like with words. Why use sticks
and stones when words alone
can put a paramedic slut in her
place? If that place just happens
to be a grave, don’t blame us.
Moral superiority needs cruelty,
even barbarity, or else it’s only
theoretical, only as powerful
as a schoolyard bully secretly
scared of his own vulnerability.
(Note: The above was triggered by a story that made the
national news, but not in a very big way. If you're curious,
search on the words "fairfax slut shaming," and that should get you to the story.)
To: Anyone Awaiting An Email Reply
The image above is my unread email count and I want you to know I am working on reading all my email but please bear with me. Thank you for your understanding and patience. :)
Best,
FRANK
For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20
The world faces a problem: recession and a spiraling fall in trade. The Economist puts it like this, “Trade is contracting again, at a rate unmatched in the post-war period. This week the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would shrink by 9% this year. This will be the first fall in trade flows since 1982. Between 1990 and 2006 trade volumes grew by more than 6% a year, easily outstripping the growth rate of world output, which was about 3% (see chart 1). Now the global economic machine has gone into reverse: output is declining and trade is tumbling at a faster pace. The turmoil has shaken commerce in goods of all sorts, bought and sold by rich and poor countries alike.” According to the Economist, “The immediate cause of shrinking trade is plain: global recession means a collapse in demand. The credit crunch adds an additional squeeze, thanks to an estimated shortfall of $100 billion in trade finance, which lubricates 90% of world trade.”
According to the Guardian, “On Thursday 2 April Gordon Brown is going to host the G20 summit in London. Leaders from 22 countries will be at the summit. The G20 is an organisation for finance ministers and central bankers, who in the past met once a year to discuss international cooperation in finance. There are 19 countries who are members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by whichever country holds the EU presidency (currently, it's the Czech Republic). These countries represent 90% of global GDP, 80% of world trade and two thirds of the world's population. The IMF and the World Bank also attend G20 meetings, although technically the London event isn't a normal G20 meeting.”
This G20 meeting will be for the leaders of all G20 countries. According to the Guardian the policy agenda developed by the last G20 meeting “did not in fact go much beyond pre-existing international initiatives that had recently been developed in more technocratic international bodies.” According to the Guardian, “On the London summit website, the British government has explained what it hopes to achieve. At the summit, countries need to come together to enhance global coordination in order to help restore global economic growth. World leaders must make three commitments:
• First, to take whatever action is necessary to stabilise financial markets and enable families and businesses to get through the recession.
• Second, to reform and strengthen the global financial and economic system to restore confidence and trust.
• Third, to put the global economy on track for sustainable growth.
Gordon Brown has argued that the world must avoid protectionism. According to the Economist, “The World Bank says that, since the G20 leaders last met in November in Washington, DC, 17 of their countries have restricted trade. Some have raised tariffs, as Russia did on second-hand cars and India did on steel. Citing safety, China has banned imports of Irish pork and Italian brandy. Across the world, there has been a surge in actions against “dumping”—the sale of exports, supposedly at a loss, in order to undermine the competition. Governments everywhere are favouring locally made goods.” The Economist also says, “Kei-Mu Yi, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, argues that trade has fallen so fast and so uniformly around the world largely because of the rise of “vertical specialisation”, or global supply chains. This contributed to trade’s rapid expansion in recent decades. Now it is adding to the rate of shrinkage. When David Ricardo argued in the early 19th century that comparative advantage was the basis of trade, he conceived of countries specialising in products, like wine or cloth. But Mr Yi points out that countries now specialise not so much in final products as in steps in the process of production.”
Protectionism in itself sounds bad – but it is a policy option available and used in all political economies – including the most liberal. Protectionism can also lead to a more self-sustainable economy, and can lead to the internal development of an economy, which means the economy is less reliant and dependent on external sources of finance. Development will be slower, but it can be more secure and sustainable. It is likely that if countries do operate protectionist policies it will be a short-term opportunist and populist response to workers and unions, but it could be seen as an alternative economic model of development. It worked in Brazil and Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s for a while, until a more neo-liberal and external finance model was preferred.
The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was reported on Channel 4 News to have told Mr Brown the crisis was caused by "white blue eyed people". This overtly racist remark has been noted, but there has been no visible backlash. It is interesting how the whole agenda about racism never applies to the dominant one, i.e. you can racially slur white people, and white people with blue eyes without anyone batting an eye lid, whereas if you racially slur other ethnic groups you can find yourself battered. I find this state of affairs deeply offensive to the human race in general, and very patronizing to those groups who don’t come from the dominant ethnic group (i.e. its almost to say the whole anti-racist thing is a way of patting you on the head and saying there, there – because when it comes to racism we don’t really give a shit – see the way we couldn’t give a f*** if you slur our own dominant white ethnic group).
The reality is that the summit will represent a reshuffling of position, support and dependencies between the world’s twenty richest countries. Spectators are expecting China to come out feeling puffed up and proud, given that China has faired relatively in recent years, or so we are led to believe. Meanwhile national demonstrations seem to be focusing our attention to the fact that a different way of working is needed. In fact it will be work as usual – the question is who will come out on top.
In anticipation of the G20 summit a demonstration was held in London. 10,000 were predicted to attend the demonstrations. The police reported 35,000. I was there at the demonstration and I don’t believe I saw 35,000 people walk past Big Ben – and I saw it from start to finish. As one commentator, on the Guardian observed, “Apart from the small contingent of student SWP calling 'One solution, Revolution' and about 20 anarchists making noise the spirit was generally depressed and lacking any anger or sense of direction.” Cognitator joked, “Perhaps the police were adding their number to the protesters. As opposed to taking them away as per usual.”
According to the Guardian, “The Put People First march yesterday was organised by a collaboration of more than 100 trade unions, church groups and charities including ActionAid, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth. The theme was "jobs, justice and climate" and the message was aimed at the world leaders who will be gathering for the G20 summit here this week.”
The march started on the Embankment. When I arrived there I walked around desperately finding somewhere where I could have a piss for free. I tried Starbucks and Costa Cofee, but they seemed to have no toilets, I even tried the stamp collectors fayre a subterranean culture of badly dressed old people, with poor eyesight and even worse posture, which was momentary distraction from my full bladder, but which did not provide the answer to my pressing problem as the toilet door was locked and for staff only. Stephen Moss writing for the Guardian said, “Westminster is not a great place for someone like me, who has a weak bladder, to go on a march. The public loos there cost an outrageous 50p a go. The Socialist Worker magazine-seller next to Embankment tube station is on to this in a flash. "50p to have a piss – a lesson in capitalism," he is soon shouting. Later, I'm pleased to see someone has punched a hole in the wooden sign advertising the price.” In the end I walked all the way to the National Portrait Gallery where you can always be assured a good quality toilet seat.
The Guardian continued, “The marchers, estimated at 35,000 by police, accompanied by brass bands and drummers and a colourful assortment of banners and flags, walked the four miles from Embankment to Hyde Park, where speeches from comedian Mark Thomas and environmental campaigner Tony Juniper, and music from the Kooks, made for a party-like atmosphere.”
The Guardian reported, “A group of fewer than 200 anarchists joined the march and were kept isolated and surrounded by police. Chants of "Burn the bankers!" were the closest anyone came to any show of aggression.’ Yes I witnessed this, it was clear that the anarchists, dressed in black, some of them with scarves covering their faces, generally looked cool as fuck, like some post-nuclear vigilante gang, their black signifying the dark depressing reality from which humanity starts, and the point from which they wish to depart. Whether the police presence was heavy is debatable but they certainly had a line of police accompanying them, whereas no other group were honored with such a presence. Of the anarchists Stephen Moss says, “I fall in with some anarchists halfway through the march – a delightful young Greek called Alex and an Italian, who is happy to talk about Bakunin, but is, I sense, a little suspicious of me. The anarchists march together – with the police flanking them in a way they don't with the rest of the march – and I am intrigued that they never shout slogans or bang drums. Their mission is a serious one.” Moss goes on, “Alex tells me a reporter from the Sunday Times has already approached him to ask why anarchists wear masks. "Work it out for yourself – you're a journalist," he'd told him. "People always ask why we wear masks; they never ask about our ideology," he complains. In essence, that ideology is: power corrupts; all elites will be corrupt; so government should be by the people, for the people – a mass movement of the type they claim is emerging in South America. Hezbollah is also mentioned favourably, a movement they see as developing organically. "Organic" is a key word for anarchists, and it would save a lot of aggro and bad press if they were called organicists rather than anarchists.” Good point. But who wants to be called an organicist? And in any case everything is organic really – its just that some organisms develop in a way we or anarchists done like and some do. To call anarchists, organic is to miss the point, anarachists are like Christian, they dream of a reality which transcends human nature as it is and known. Structure, corruption, self-interest and greed underpin all human activity – the question is not how we can do away with it, but how can we manage it in a fair way.
Stephen Moss wrote about the variety of organizations on the march. He said, “Socialist Worker has a three-point strategy: "Seize their wealth," "Stamp out poverty," "End all wars." Sounds good, but I can't work out exactly who "their" refers to. The Socialist party is hot on slogans, colder on the mechanism by which they are put into practice. The likely outcome to the current crisis still appears to be government by Etonians.” Most of these movements are nothing to do with instituting political change. The people involved in them do not want to genuinely change things. Instead what these groups function as is self-help groups for people, for whatever reason, feel that they have been wronged in life, probably at a personal level, and feeling quite hopeless about their personal wrongs, they want to transpose their personal woe on to a faceless, unintelligible other – the government, the state, the capitalist, the rich and the greedy. Its not so much that socialist workers and anarchists want to change things, they know they are completely ineffectual, and too screwed up and traumatized, too aggressive, unintelligent and incapable of engaging people into a different way of organizing; they just want to shout out to people ‘we hurt’. Fair enough.
The TUC don’t seem to be turning up to do anything more than saying ‘there there’ to threatened workers, and stating the downright bloody obvious to the government. Their message is “The importance of this summit cannot be underestimated. Unemployment and deprivation will grow massively over the next two years unless governments work together. People need to know that there is an international solution to this crisis. If the summit suggests that there is not, many will turn to nationalist and protectionist politics with all that implies for the global economy and world peace.” Mind you they do go on to say that, “But while the immediate response to the crisis will be at the forefront of the leaders' minds, the unprecedented Put People First coalition shows there is a huge appetite for a new economic direction. Thirty years of the increasing dominance of the neo-liberal agenda has got us into this mess. The summit must show that the next 30 years need to be about a renewed era of economic growth based on a much fairer share of the proceeds. One that is environmentally sustainable and one that does not end in the burst of yet another financial bubble.” But what are they really saying? Nothing much.
There is of course something about how all of this is just about having a laugh, getting a kick, getting an emotional fix. There’s something very similar to the way that some of the more violent groups get ready for a rumble with the police and football hooliganism. Football hooligans are much more honest about the emotional kick they get from fighting. The protestors pretend that they are doing it for the people. Whatever the so called reasons, it is clear that a lot of protestors enjoy confrontation. They are much more focused on the enemy and combating the enemy than they are on creating peaceful societies. So Stephen Moss makes the interesting observation, “When the march eventually gets to Hyde Park, the anarchists refuse to join the "TUC bureaucrats" for the official rally and hold their own open-platform meeting at Speakers' Corner, dominated by elderly men in hats who talk less about Bakunin than about beating up the BNP and confronting the police on the streets of Whitechapel. It's all a bit depressing (and expletive-filled – I take serious exception to the denunciation of "Oxbridge cunts"), though I like the fact that the elderly men refuse even to use a megaphone – only the ordinary human voice is organic enough.” The media and police have both hyped the April 2009 marches as like the possible end of the British way of life, of democracy, of capitalism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but its like we all want to will it to happen – we all are looking for excitement – war may be bad but peace is fucking boring – I once read.
The Guardian also reported, “Thomas told the Observer he believed the protest marked "the start of a grassroots movement". He added: "This is a moment. This is the first time people have had a chance to come out on to the streets in a big way." But this is nonsense. This was just an opportunity for a plethora of groups, amongst whom there are more differences, and the only thing that can unite them is a general concern for jobs, justice and climate, which incidentally are three themes that unite most of the country, and all the main political parties, to catch the government at a weak moment, and hope to build up support for whatever cause they have, on the back of the anger and desperation amongst people at this time.
The protest ended up in Hyde Park. I didn’t go, it was too cold and rainy, and although I did aim to walk there via a short-cut through Victoria, I ended up taking refuge in Westminster Cathedral, where I saw another procession, of Catholic priests and altar boys, who were holding a service for the Union of Catholic Mothers. I listened to the Catholic priests, they sounded much more happy and at peace with themselves and their surroundings, than the rankerous socialist bile spitting leaders.
People are blaming the bankers, but there is in actual fact no-one to blame for this. The this needs to be qualified too. The ‘this’ is the fact that people are loosing their jobs, consumption will have to be reduced. It is ironic that it is precisely that people are facing the prospect of lower consumption that they are out on the streets protesting against greedy bankers, it is not so much the greed of the bankers that people resent, so much as the increased consuming power of the bankers that they are envious of. The bankers are not to blame for working within a system, which promoted risky investments, a system which was encouraged and deregulated by politicians who realized that whilst the bubble was growing there were huge financial gains to be made from encouraging bankers to reap the rewards both for themselves but through the state through taxation, and politicians who were encouraged by the people who voted them in, who probably formed the majority of people marching in demonstration and protest today, who voted in the governments believing the deregulation of banks not to be a serious enough issue to vote against a government for, and realizing that even if it was a risk, whilst the bubble was growing, they were happy enough to see their elected government ensuring that the country got a share of the pie. We all contributed to this fucking mess – if you can call it a mess – its only a mess for those who no longer have jobs and cannot consume so much – by voting in the government, who deregulated the banks and encouraged the lending of our money several times over to riskier and riskier ventures which in actual fact were not producing anything of material benefit, but were instead relying on house prices going up and up, as more people poured their money into it. Now we are in deep shit, because Gordon Brown has poured what little remaining money we have, and we have on credit into the black hole – it has simply disappeared.
There are some people who are saying the bankers should pay for the crisis they created. It doesn’t work like that – it works by people putting their money into a bank – and entrusting the bank to invest it wisely. Where the bank looses the money – the original investor looses the money. This creates a motivation on behalf of the investor to invest wisely, e.g. on the basis of what we know right now investing in Barclays rather than Lloyds TSB or the Royal Bank of Scotland. However reality begins to change once one’s livelihood is threatened – now it is solely the banker’s responsibility to have invested the money wisely, the public who invest their money into the banks are seen to be helpless, powerless twits, whose securities should have been looked after by a paternalistic and caring banking sector. So for example, according to Fox New, “Berlin police estimated that around 10,000 people gathered in front of the capital's city hall and more than 1,000 in Frankfurt, Germany's banking capital, for similar demonstrations under the slogan: "We won't pay for your crisis." Its not a crisis – its just that there are now lots of personal crises – the public didn’t bother to check whether their banks were investing their money properly or wisely and now they are paying for it. But the banks aren’t responsible for this – they really aren’t.
We have two problems. The first was created by the fact that banks lent out our money several times over – so we thought the country was several times as wealthy as it actually was. This led to inflationary pressures especially in the housing market – where the same money was lent to several different people – all investing in housing leading to unrealistic housing prices. We now realize we have a fraction of the wealth we thought we had. This creates deflationary pressures – i.e. where everyone has less money prices are reduced. This problem can be solved by creating a soft deflationary landing to a level where the price of labor and goods reflects the value of the money we have not the value of the money we have and we loaned. This means everyone has to accept lower wages – we can either do this peacefully based around a consensus and agreement between corporations, banks, trade unions or governments – or we can do it aggressively – letting perfectly good companies whose workers refuse to take pay cuts go to the wall – and then watch as millions of unemployed people try to reform and reorganize new companies and enterprises.
The second problem is that banks are no longer making such risky investments – so they are not looking to lend their money on to others – which means there is less money to be lent to people – which means less activity and less economy. We have to get used to less activity – but at least the activity will be invested in activities which are genuinely producing material benefit for people – not leading to an apparent generation of wealth – which is the artificial effect of lending x amount of money to people ten times, making it seem that we are ten times as rich as previously – when actual fact we are equally as wealthy – but with prices ten times as high. We should have also let the banks go to the wall – and started again with a heavily regulated banking sector – which was not allowed to lend out peoples’ money irresponsibly. No-one wants to have to feel the pain from this – i.e. the rich bankers who keep their pensions and bonuses, the people who have banked with them who want to keep their savings, and the businesses who are funded by the banks who want to hang on to their business and jobs. So what Gordon Brown is doing, is in the name of the people, funneling money into the banking system, paying for the debts, and thus, keeping the bankers sweet, keeping the investors sweet, keeping the businesses sweet. Who looses out? All of us – the poor! They never really had anything to loose in the first place, however whilst Gordon Brown borrows money to give to the banks so they can lend to businesses and pay bankers bonuses and salaries, we move a step closer to becoming bankrupt – i.e. not being able to borrow any more money because no-one believes we can pay it back. Once we become bankrupt, social services and welfare will be cut.
According to Gaby Hinsliff, “Many economists believe a recovery now requires bursting that artificial bubble and rebalancing the economy so that Chinese consumers are encouraged spend a little more - reducing America's trade deficit - and Americans a little less. Malloch Brown suggests Britons, too, will need to relearn the art of saving.”
According to the Guardian, “But Scotland Yard is expecting a greater challenge on Wednesday 1 April, dubbed "Financial Fools Day", with a series of protests aiming to cause disruption in the Square Mile and elsewhere.” The Guardian says, “On 1 April an alliance of anti-capitalist groups called G20 Meltdown is organising a carnival headed by "Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse", which will converge in front of the Bank of England. Anarchists are planning to target the second day of the summit at ExCel. Other groups mounting demonstrations include Climate Camp, the Stop the War Coalition, and Government of the Dead. An alternative summit will be held a few hundred yards from the ExCel centre at the University of East London.”
The alternative G20 summit website provides the following manifesto: Can we oust the bankers from power? Can we get rid of the corrupt politicians in their pay? Can we guarantee everyone a job, a home, a future? Can we establish government by the people, for the people, of the people? Can we abolish all borders and be patriots for our planet? Can we all live sustainably and stop climate chaos? Can we make capitalism history? YES WE CAN!
According to the Daily Telegraph, “The G20 conference will lead to a London "lockdown" next week, with parks, roads and businesses closed to keep world leaders safe, Government officials are warning.” The media are really building this up, as an attempt to build readership and sell advertising. Its interesting how a force created by the desire to advertise and promote consumption causes papers to distort and promote a threat and confrontation to the very system upon which it is built. The Daily Telegraph article continues, “Protesters with armed with buckets and spades are among several thousand people who are planning to bring chaos to the heart of central London.Last night it emerged that City workers were being advised to "dress down" next week to avoid drawing attention to themselves.”
To anyone really wanting revolution bear in mind these words from Stephen Moss, “Changing society is hard, and usually starts with a split in the elite. The English civil war and the French revolution both began with a fissure in the governing classes; their falling-out created the space for populist movements to develop. For a grassroots movement to effect change is enormously difficult. It was only possible in Russia in 1917 because of the devastation wrought by war.”
The reality of the demo was perhaps best summer up by ‘one789’ who said, “My experience of the demo, in talking to people and observing, is that no one had any real clue of why they were there. They recognise 'blame the bankers' to be futile and a distraction, think capitalism 'is rubbish' and 'want change', but say nothing beyond that.I at least expected a high degree of frustration and anger, but more than anything what came across was disillusionment and confusion. But then, that's what you get I suppose from such a middle-class yummy-mummy bleeding-heart rally.”
As rabbit95 said, “Be glad we live in a society free enough to protest and where, apart from the police possibly taping your presence at such a demo, there will be no comeback.”
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/
www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13362...
www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13362027
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-protests-london
www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/mar/28/g20-protest-...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2009/mar/28/g20-su...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/g20-protest
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit-globalisa...
www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/25/g20-q-a
news.google.co.uk/news?q=G20+summit+London+2009&oe=ut...
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5050...
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/global-update/cp-china/active-...
www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/qu...
www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics...
www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_pol...
For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20
The Groovy and Grails eXchange has been a cornerstone conference for the London and European community since it's birth nearly 8 years ago. This year, we explored the latest innovations in the community, how you can optimise the languages powerful features, plus meet others in the community trying to solve similar software problems.
With the help of Peter Ledbrook, we were excited to present this year's line-up. Guillaume LaForge keynoted on the latest in the Groovy world and will give insights on the road ahead. We were also fortunate to welcome the likes of Russell Winder, Jeff Brown, and Cedric Champeau.
See all the Skillscasts (film/code/slides) at skillsmatter.com/conferences/1957-groovy-grails-exchange-...
ROME ARCHEOLOGY: "The Tragedy of Line C: The World's Great Cities Have a Monumental Problem. By Building for the Future, Must They Erase the Past?" World Policy Journal 27, no. 4 (2010): 49-58.
Fonti / source:
Amanda Ruggeri. "The Tragedy of Line C: The World's Great Cities Have a Monumental Problem. By Building for the Future, Must They Erase the Past?" World Policy Journal 27, no. 4 (2010): 49-58.
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6669/is_4_27/ai_n5657739... (accessed May 1, 2012).
Foto: ROMA, Largo Lorenzo Perosi - Via Giulia. in: GOOGLE / MAPS (05/2012 [date 2010-11?]).
maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
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ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA - Roma. Centro Storico. Largo Lorenzo Perosi - Via Giulia. Indagine archeologica preventiva all’autorizzazione del P.U.P. n. 138
(2009 – 2010 in corso). SSBAR / Roma (05/2012).
archeoroma.beniculturali.it/attivita/scavi/scavo-largo-pe...
Diario dello scavo archeologico:
archeoroma.beniculturali.it/node/388
Marzo 2009
Luglio 2009
Settembre 2009
Marzo 2010
Giugno 2010
Settembre 2011
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ROME - All roads leading to Rome are measured from a patch of grass in the middle of Piazza Venezia. Overlooking the square, a 400-foot monument celebrates the reunification of Italy. It was here, at the piazza, that Mussolini hung over a balcony and declared, to the electrified crowds below, a new Italian empire. Both the republican and imperial forums, with their triumphal arches and ruined temples, stand a few steps away. And at the end of the road leading southeast from the piazza, against the sky, looms the Colosseum.
But something else in the corner of this historic city center illustrates the spirit of a place enamored with the old while striving for the new--a metro stop turned excavation site.
For the past three and a half years, Rome has been building a new subway line underground to link the city's two other underground lines. Instead of skirting the historic center, Line C will drive right through it. The plan is convenient for locals and tourists alike, who currently have to ride the bus or walk to get from, say, the Colosseum to Piazza Navona, a distance of 1.6 miles. But by carving through the underbelly of the centro storico, the line also passes beneath neighborhoods that made up Rome's commercial and political center 2,000 years ago.
Most of these ruins--the heart and soul of ancient Rome--are 12 to 35 feet underground. To avoid them, the city planned to dig the subway tunnel nearly 100 feet below street level. However, entrances into the system are problematic. One stop originally planned for Largo Argentina, the site of four Republican temples and the theater where Julius Caesar was murdered, got scrapped. And when preliminary digs found ruins where planners initially wanted a Piazza Venezia metro stop, the city judged the remains so important that the Venezia stop will be built elsewhere.
The result? The proposed Line C that was meant to serve the centro storico may make hardly any central stops at all. Some locals aren't happy. "All of Rome has underground archaeological finds. So if we remain prisoners of manic conservationists, we cannot dig anywhere. Farewell subways," Mauro Suttora, an Italian journalist and editor, wrote on his eponymous biog. "A metro without stops--what sense does that make?" asked Mario Staderini, secretary of Italy's Radical Party.
Many of Rome's residents aren't surprised by the changes to the subway plan. They know it has to be this way. In a city that's littered with historic sites--the ruins of an empire that once made the Mediterranean into its private lake--the balance between modern development and historical preservation has never been easy. Urban planners and locals alike are used to facing down an increasingly prescient question: How to develop and modernize while still preserving a rich cultural heritage?
NOT JUST FOR THE ELITES
Without a city's residents fighting to protect their cultural heritage, even the best preservation policies can founder. Given their roots among the educated and wealthier classes, preservationists have had a historically difficult time appealing beyond elites. Many assume that urban preservation is just about aesthetics, an issue for people who don't have to worry about paying their rent or putting food on the table. But urban planners and conservationists insist this is not the case. Preserved buildings and neighborhoods help more than just the upper classes.
Some of it is simple math. Since knocking down an old building to build a new one costs money, the investor is faced with the challenge of how to recoup that outlay. A new structure's purpose, therefore, will likely be commercial or residential--in both cases targeting wealthier tenants. "Just using the existing buildings means you can actually afford to have poor people living in them, and that generates greater diversity, greater variety of cultural traditions. That in itself is worth value," says Scan O'Reilly, director of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation in Edinburgh. Historic areas also tend to have a greater variety of buildings, adding to the diversity of uses. This creates a range of professions and classes coming together, all making for a vibrant neighborhood.
On a practical note, older structures tend to be built to last. Take the trend of placing "maintenance-free" plastic windows in an 18th-century building that always used glass. The plastic windows cost less, but their lifespan is often 20 years at most, whereas the glass, if maintained correctly, could last for centuries. Old buildings are "green," particularly their thick stone walls doubling as natural insulation. Even compared to sustainable architecture, some old buildings come out ahead, particularly when you factor in the cost of bulldozing one building, trucking its materials to the landfill and replacing it with a new structure.
The least tangible reasons for preservation, though, might be the most important--primarily, historians say, the cultural and social aspects. "A sense of place is critical to a healthy community. So much 'sense of place' comes out of the built environment that we inhabit," says Don Linebaugh, director of the University of Maryland architectural school's historic preservation program. "So it's a form of identity, both personal and political and national...and [it] can have a huge impact on the way we live our lives."
INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES
In the past few decades, archaeological remains and historic sites have faced ever larger, seemingly unstoppable threats that can destroy old neighborhoods faster than any amount of water seepage. These new dangers include rapid urbanization, uncontrolled development and invasive tourism. And they all are rooted in the same modern phenomenon--globalization. Every city on earth now takes part in the world economy, and historic cities are particularly vulnerable to the real estate and tourism markets. Even in cities like Rome, where urban residents want to protect their cultural heritage, historic buildings are under threat. Residents enjoy increasingly less power over how their cities look and function.
These are relentless pressures, and conservationists hasten to argue that they aren't fighting simply to freeze cities in time. Instead, they use the catchphrase "controlled change." Controlled change means avoiding unregulated, rapid development. As long as development occurs--and, to keep a city thriving, it should--investors and urban planners need to pay close attention to how new structures fit in with the rest of the city. Instead of knocking down an old neighborhood to build a strip mall, for example, old buildings could be carefully repurposed to provide more shops.
Yet viewing urban development through the lens of preservation, while trying to wed both efforts, is relatively new and quite tricky. After all, it's not enough to have a perfectly preserved 14th-century church if its surrounding medieval neighborhoods are being razed to build skyscrapers. Nor is it a job well done to keep a medieval neighborhood, but squeeze out the residents and businesses that give it character. It's a fine balance--keeping a city modern, but not over-commercialized; preserved, but not Disneyfied.
"Cities are living bodies," says Lodovico Folin-Calabi, program specialist at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "You can't freeze them into museums, and you can't prevent development. What you can do is put together a platform of good principles."
International associations like UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee are adapting solutions against increasingly global urban challenges. The World Heritage Committee is compiling a new list of recommendations for cities, Folin-Calabi says. This "toolkit," set to be adopted in 2011, will update a set of 1976 recommendations. The new list aims to help cities balance preservation with development.
The United Nations created the World Heritage Committee, the most influential international preservation agency, in 1972 in reaction to two major threats. The first was Egypt's plan to build the Aswan High Dam, which would have flooded the Abu Simbel valley along with its 3,000-year-old Temple of Ramses II and 2,000-year-old Sanctuary of Isis. UNESCO launched an $80 million campaign in 1959 to move the temples higher to dry ground. The second threat was flooding that nearly destroyed Venice in 1966. Again, UNESCO stepped in. Six years later, the Heritage Convention was adopted.
All 187 countries that signed the convention promise to conserve their cultural heritage--buildings or sites deemed to be of "outstanding universal value" from a historic, artistic or scientific point of view. Properties selected by the committee's panel of experts, one from each of the 21 different member states, are placed on the World Heritage list. There are 911 World Heritage properties today, including 250 in urban areas. Signatory nations have access to the World Heritage Fund, which provides restoration and preservation assistance. Just $4 million is available annually, but the visibility as a World Heritage site can attract funds from other national and international organizations.
Listed sites also have to submit any major development projects to the committee for analysis. If the committee decides the project is detrimental to the site's "outstanding universal value," it can be removed from the list. This might seem a small price to pay for a billion-dollar development contract, but urban planners and preservationists argue that the system can work. "The World Heritage Committee is acting like a schoolmaster," says Francois Vigier, president of the nonprofit Institute of International Development, which researches urban development in emerging economies. "That's a very healthy relationship," he adds.
Vigier points to the case of Old Damascus, a World Heritage site in Syria. In 2007, the local government announced it would redevelop Damascus' ancient center. Plans included turning King Faisal Street, a road dating back to the 8th century, into a 130-foot-wide highway, destroying shops and homes along the way. Preservationists, along with the local media, erupted in protest.
So did the World Heritage Committee. Although the street would run outside the walled city center--and, therefore, outside of official World Heritage-listed property--the committee's experts saw the neighborhood as a "buffer zone" around the Old City. Undermining the historical character of that district, they argued, would irreversibly damage the city's cultural value. And, they added, the larger suburban area is linked inextricably to the World Heritage-listed Old City because of the neighborhoods' shared histories, architecture, social patterns and commercial activities.
After the committee threatened to delist the Old City if development continued apace, plans to change King Faisal Street were withdrawn. But another project to dig up Damascus' oldest road, the Via Recta, to update its sewer system, continued--destroying the Roman columns that lined the street and triggering the collapse of several houses. Although the committee demanded Damascus run archaeological impact assessments before continuing, the damage had already been done.
By contrast, that same year, construction began on a four-lane, 2,100 foot bridge across the Elbe River in Dresden, Germany. Supporters, including the municipality itself, said the bridge was necessary to ease traffic congestion. Opponents said it would damage the ecology of the area and spoil the beauty of the Elbe River Valley. Negotiations stalled. In 2009, the World Heritage Committee pulled the Elbe Valley from its list. The bridge remains under construction.
"Our international experts assessed that the outstanding universal value of the site, because of the works, was irremediably lost," says Folin-Calabi. He points out that while only two sites, the Elbe Valley and Oman's Oryx Sanctuary, have been pulled from the list, both removals occurred in the past three years. "There is a trend of being a little bit more severe," he says.
ROME: IMPERFECT PRESERVATION
In many ways, the city of Rome is one of the world's best examples of controlled change. While new construction occurs, it's only allowed after thorough review. Rome's residents are, for the most part, acutely aware of the need to preserve their ancient ruins and historic neighborhoods. This is typical of Western Europe, where most people seem to accept the importance of urban preservation, or at least carefully weigh its value against development. Even so, the battle--to raise funds, recruit personnel, and combat global pressures--is still being fought.
Much of Rome's ability to control change comes from strongly established legal protections. Italy's most recent (and exhaustive) law on heritage, passed in 2004, states that "cultural properties may not be destroyed, damaged or adapted to uses not compatible with their historic or artistic character or of such kind as to prejudice their conservation." The English translation of the law is 153 pages. The statute also defines punishments, including imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to 38,734.50 [euro] for removing, modifying or restoring those properties. Of course, for many sites, legal protections come too late. Since the end of the 19th century, Rome's historical center--3,460 acres in all--has lost some 250 acres of buildings and 1,730 acres of gardens, vineyards and open space.
Furthermore, developers need permits for every step of the process. Even if a builder obtains a permit to knock down one building and put up a new one, the site's subterranean value must first be surveyed. By reviewing past studies, making exploratory trenches, or (usually) both, archaeologists can get a fairly clear picture of what might be under the ground. And when they find ruins, as they nearly always do in the centro storico, construction grinds to a halt and excavation begins. Only when it's completed--and only if the ministry of culture and the municipality determine that the findings are not important enough to scrap the project--can development resume.
While the safeguards sound strong in principle, in practice, the government attempts to simplify the process and minimize protections, explains Elizabeth Fentress. Fentress, an archaeologist who has worked in Rome for 30 years and is the president of the International Association for Classical Archaeology, says that the builders' lobby in Italy is particularly influential. "The real war is between the current government, which regards antiquities as a pain, and the sopraintendenza [ministry of culture] and the public, who care," Fentress says. Some residents, for example, are upset over the planned parking lot off Largo Lorenzo Perosi in the centro storico. The underground, multistory lot is a stone's throw from Via Giulia, a road that was built by Pope Julius II in 1508, designed by Bramante and punctuated with famous buildings like the Palazzo Farnese and Church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. Local residents protested the project, fearing damage to the area's beauty and, possibly, to the foundations of the historic buildings themselves. Some archaeologists were wincing as well, particularly since testing revealed several-hundred-year-old ruins. But after years of wrangling--the parking lot first got the tentative go-ahead back in 2004--the project was given the definitive green light this April. That surprised many, given that another multilevel car park, originally planned for the Pincian hill overlooking Piazza del Popolo, was called off in 2008 to avoid destroying ruins and undermining both the hill's Aurelian walls and its scenic 19th-century walkway.
SHREDDING THE FABRIC
Rome's major challenge, though, is not the threat of modern development--it is preserving a cultural heritage already exposed to the vagaries of a modern city. After all, as soon as a site is unearthed, it starts deteriorating. "It's not like the American situation, where most of your cultural heritage sites are in museums. These things are outside. There's a slow path of decay that's going to be taking place, no matter what," says Darius Arya, a Rome-based archaeologist and director of the American Institute for Roman Culture. "The best thing you can do, if you want to preserve these sites, is just have them buried." But that's not practical--or in line with the spirit of a city so renowned for the tangibility and accessibility of its past.
Instead, conservationists can only limit the amount of damage by fencing off delicate areas or opening sites to visitors at certain times of the year. But to undo inevitable wear and tear, restorations and repairs are necessary. And in Rome, as elsewhere, the major difficulty is resources. The cash just isn't there. Italy's current debt runs to more than 115 percent of its gross domestic product, and the ministry of culture's budget has been cut by 280 million [euro] through 2012, bringing the proportion of its budget Italy spends on culture to just 21 cents of every l00 [euro].
Rome has already witnessed the effects of these limited resources. Part of the Domus Aurea--the fantastical palace erected by Emperor Nero in the first century--collapsed earlier this year, even though the city had long been aware of water damage to the structure. The Aurelianic Walls have collapsed several times in the past decade, despite frequent calls for an overhaul. And in May, three chunks of mortar fell off the Colosseum--hurting no one, but underscoring the need to better protect the nearly 2,000-year-old site. Weeks later, Rome announced that it was searching for private sponsors for a 25 million [euro] restoration of the amphitheatre.
Meanwhile, the cultural fabric of the city is under threat. Though less tangible than the Colosseum or Forum, Rome's culture is just as important to residents and preservationists, who have widened their definition of conservation in recent years.
Sitting in his flat near Piazza del Popolo, Rome-born archaeologist Francesco Siravo details the changes he's seen to the city over the past several decades. When he first moved into his apartment more than 12 years ago, his narrow street still claimed a number of artisans' workshops. Today, with rents sky-high, all the artisans have fled. And the shops themselves, which once featured traditional decor, have been altered for modern purposes. "I don't think there is a long-term vision for what we want these areas to be," Siravo says.
He particularly fears Rome going the way of a city like Venice. While Venice has retained much of its architectural heritage, it has become a fantasy of what it once was. The rising cost of living has forced old-time residents out and shuttered schools and shops. From 136,000 inhabitants in 1978, only 60,000 are left in Venice today. "In 2030 someone will cut the ribbon of a ghost town," a reporter wrote for La Repubblica in 2006, estimating that by then, "They'll open the gates in the morning and close them in the evening, and it will not be a scandal, but will be normal, to charge a ticket to enter."
With bustling business and government sectors, it's unlikely that Rome will become a city only for show anytime soon. But as the city continues to modernize and commercialize, and as its historic sites continue to require restorations and repairs, it's not a stretch to think that the centro storico of Rome, too, will change irrevocably in the next few decades--with more international chains and modern buildings, and fewer artisanal shops. After all, even the Champs Elysees in Paris, long among the world's most fashionable addresses, is now lined with fast food parlors and airline offices.
Problems with uploading today! Photos obviously not being seen - no views. Flickr is apparently working to fix the upload issue.
Wednesday, 10 June 2020: our temperature around 2:00 pm is 20C (windchill 20C). Sunrise is at 5:21 am, and sunset is at 9:50 pm. Sun and cloud.
Yesterday, 9 June 2020, I drove SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. Though the gate has been open for a while, the water level is higher than I have ever seen it in years. Really not worth the drive at the moment, as the blind is boarded up to prevent people going in there while social-distancing is in effect. The boardwalk is totally under water and the blind looks like it is floating out in a lake. I stayed on the road, rather than walk across the grass to get closer - had visions of suddenly sinking down into flooded grass. Presumably the water level of the whole area will eventually lower. The only photos I took was when I was driving along the gravel road.
I did see one interesting thing along the gravel road - a Brown-headed Cowbird doing a head-down display. This was something I had never seen before and I was totally unaware that Brown-headed Cowbirds have this behaviour. Many times, I have seen several of these highly gregarious birds sitting together on a fence railing, with their heads all pointing upwards at the exact same angle. When I first saw this bird, it had its back to me and it was lying flat on a rock. It looked iridescent and reminded me a little of a Tree Swallow. Then it stood up and eventually put its head down and spread its wings. There were several other Cowbirds flying around. Nice to learn something new!
After checking out the blind area from my car, I drove around the lake, finding just a handful of birds to photograph. Nothing unusual, but I enjoyed seeing and photographing 'anything' right now : ) From there, I drove north and out on to the main highway back to the city.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous - blue sky with masses of white clouds. Pretty windy, but I was in my car most of the time, so it didn't matter.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background
The history of Focke Wulf's Fw 190 in Japan started with a rejection: in 1943 a single FW 190 A-5 had been supplied to Japan for evaluation, but at first, the type was not put into production by the Japanese. Anyway, the results of the study by Japanese engineers were incorporated in the design of the Ki-61 fighter. This evaluation did not go unnoticed, since the type received the Allied code-name 'Fred'.
By that time, the teething development problems of Mitubishi's J2M ‘Raiden’ (Thunderbolt) 'Jack' led to a slowdown in production. Biggest issues were the Kasei engine, an unreliable propeller pitch change mechanism and the main undercarriage members. Another drawback of the type was that its design put emphasis on performance and pilot protection rather than maneuverability. By the time the Fw 190 was tested, only fourteen J2M had been completed.
To make matters even worse, the Mitsubishi A7M 'Reppu' fighter was also behind schedule, so that replacements for the A6M 'Zero', backbone of the IJN’s air force, were overdue.
This situation left the Imperial Japanese Navy without a land-based interceptor. The first few produced J2M2 were delivered to the development units in December 1942 but further trials and improvements took almost a year, and it took until June 1944 that the ‘Raiden’ could make its combat debut, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
While the Raiden was to be developed further for the high-altitude interceptor role, the IJN decided in January 1944 to adopt the highly effective Fw 190 as a supplementary interceptor for medium heights - only as a stop-gap at first, but the type quickly evolved into various sub-variants, much like in Germany.
License production of the adopted Fw 190 started at Hitachi in May 1944. The original airframe was modified to cater to Japanese needs and customs, and the most obvious difference of the J10F1, how the plane was officially called, was the use of the Mitsubishi MK4R Kasei 23c radial engine instead of the original BMW 801. It was a modified version of the engine in the J2M, but simplified and made more reliable. The engine produced 1.820hp and drove a four-bladed propeller. Another distinctive feature was a small fin fillet, which compensated directional instability due to the longer forward fuselage.
By its pilots, the J10F quickly became called “hueruge” (フエルゲル), a transcription of the Fw 190's German nickname "Würger" (=Shrike).
Variants:
J10F1
The original main variant with the MK4R Kasei 23e and armed with 2× 13.2 mm Type 3 machine guns and 4× 20 mm two Type 99 Model 2 cannons, 354 aircraft produced.
While no official sub-variant was developed or designated, single machines differed considerably in equipment. This included field-modifications like reduced armament for better performance or ground-attack equipment, e .g. racks for a total of four unguided 60kg air-to-air missiles under the outer wings.
J10F1-G
In late 1945 a few J10F1 were modified for the anti-ship role and night attacks, and they received the "-G" suffix for their new land-based bomber role. These planes had a reduced gun armament, flame dampers and an IR sight, similar to the German “Spanner” device.
Most of these planes were to carry special weapons, like a single indigenous Ke-Go 110 heat-seeking guided bomb under the belly, or, alternatively, a copy of the German Bv 246 "Hagelkorn" gliding bomb, which had been delivered to Japan in 1944 for tests and adopted for production. To allow more space under the fuselage while carrying these bombs on the ground, some of these aircraft had a longer tail wheel strut fitted. Additionally, tests were made with a torpedo on the centerline hardpoint. It is uncertain if these weapons were actually used in combat, though.
J10F2
The only variant that was developed so far that it entered service, incorporating many detail modifications and improvements. These included thicker armored glass in the cabin's windshield (from 5.5 cm/2.2” to 7.6cm/3”) and extra armor plating behind the pilot's seat. The wing skinning was thickened in localized areas to allow for a further increase in dive speed. A water-methanol engine boost was added, which allowed an engine output of 2.050 hp for short periods, which boosted the top speed to 695 km/h. 52 were produced.
J10F3
High altitude project with a pressurized cabin, a larger wing span of 11.96 m (39 ft 2 in) and a turbo-supercharged MK4R-C Kasei 23c engine, with the turbo-supercharger mounted behind the cockpit (itself made wider). This doubled the altitude at which the engine could produce its rated power, from 15,750ft up to 30,185ft. The J10F3 only carried two 20mm cannons in the wing roots, but had two extra oblique-firing 20mm cannon installed aft of the cockpit for use against high flying American B-29 bombers (much like the German "Schräge Musik" installments). Two prototypes were completed in June 1945, but the turbo-supercharger proved troublesome, and no further aircraft of this type were produced.
From late 1944 on, the J10F1 was quickly thrown into service and became a nasty surprise for Allied aircraft. The modified Focke Wulf design proved to be agile, fast and much tougher than earlier Japanese fighters, coupled with a relatively heavy armament. Beyond interception duties, the J10F1 was frequently employed in close support and anti-shipping tasks, since its low level handling and ordnance load was excellent.
Its only drawback was - as with the original Fw 190 - that performance dropped at heights above 6.000m. This should not have posed a problem with the J2M, but that type's delay left the Allied high-altitude bomber attacks relatively unharmed, so that the J10F3 version was hastily developed, but failed to realize. In Germany, the similar situation resulted in the Fw 190 D-9 variant and finally in the superb Ta-152.
J10F1General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 9.29 m (30 ft 6¾ in)
Wingspan:10.51 m (34 ft 5 in)
Height: 3.95 m (12 ft 12 in)
Wing area:18.30 m² (196.99 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,490 kg (7,694 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 4,840 kg (10,670 lb)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 656 km/h (408 mph) at 19,420 ft (5,920 m)
Rate of climb:17 m/s (3,300 ft/min)
Range: 800 km (500 mi)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,370 ft)
Engine: 1 Mitsubishi MK4R Kasei 23e radial engine with 1.820hp
Armament:
2 × 13.2 mm Type 3 machine guns, 300 rpg, in the nose
4 × 20 mm two Type 99 Model 2 cannons, 200 rpg, two in the wing roots, two outside of the landing gear.
Three hardpoints, one under the fuselage (max. 500 kg/1.102 lb) and one under each wing for 250 kg/550 lb each for bombs or fuel tanks. Total external ordnance load of 1.000kg (2.205 lb).
The kit and its assembly
The 'Japanese Fw 190' is a popular what-if topic, so I wanted to add my interpretation to the plethora of whifs and replicas of the real test machine. Actually, a clean Fw 190 looks pretty Japanese with its radial engine and sleek lines. When I recently came across a similar build at britmodelers.com, I thought that painting a Fw 190 green/grey and putting some Hinomarus on is logical and simple, but there's more in the subject than just cosmetics. I wanted a bit more... And while the concept remained simple, I had enough ideas and spare parts for a twin combo! In the end, the J10F was built as a pure interceptor and as a 'special purpose' night strike aircraft.
Basically, my limiting design idea for the J10F's design was the idea that Japan would not have received the Fw 190’s original BMW 801 radial engine, so that an alternative powerplant had to be fitted. I had hoped that this would have set the 'new' plane outwardly a bit apart from its German ancestor, and also make you look twice because the result would not be a 1:1 "Japanized" Fw 190 A/F. I tried, but I suppose that the effect is not as 'powerful' as intended – but judge for yourself?
The basic kits for both conversions come from Hobby Boss. It is a simple and clean kit, but with very good fit and engraved details. In an attempt to change the plane's look a little, I tried to transplant other engines - radials, too. Donation parts for both kits come from an Italeri Ju 188, which features two pairs of engines. The radials I used are actually BMW 801’s, too, but they lack the typical cooling fan and the cowlings are 3-4mm longer because they'd carry the engine mountings on the Ju 188's wings. Actually, the fuselage is minimal longer now, maybe 4-5mm, but the shape is still very close to the original Fw 190, so I think that this mod hardly is recognizable at all?
The change was a bit tricky, due to the massive fuselage of the Hobby Boss kit, but it worked. The new cowlings received new cooling louvres and exhaust pipes. New, four-bladed propellers were added, scratch-built from leftover Mosquito NF.30 propellers from the Airfix kit and drop tank front halves.
Otherwise, though, not much was changed, the two kits just differ in equipment details and received Matchbox pilot figures in order to cover up the bleak and very deep cockpit.
The interceptor:
As an interceptor I left the plane clean, without external ordnance. I wanted to emphasize its elegant look, which makes it look like a Ki-43 on casual glance, or even an A6M. The plane carries the normal gun armament (from a Fw 190 A-8), this is supposed to be the original/standard J10F mentioned above.
The night attacker:
The J10F1-G variant saw more modifications, including a new exhaust system with flame dampers built from scratch. Other special equipment comprises an IR sight in front of the canopy, flare protectors, the fuselage hardpoint and the scratch-built Ke-Go 110 bomb. In order to cover the deleted gun access panels under the wings, I added streamlined bomb shackles for two Japanese 60kg bombs each, donated from a Matchbox Ju 87 kit.
About the Ke-Go bomb
This bomb, which looks like a penguin, is a fantasy derivate of a real Japanese development series until summer 1945. In a nutshell, the Ke-Go bomb actually was one of the first “fire and forget” weapons I have heard of. With the guidance of a bolometer seeker and a self-correcting steering mechanism, the bomb would (only) be useable against strong and clear heat sources – a ship’s kettle at night, when surrounding heat level was low, would qualify, and the bomb would be guided by deviation and correction from that heat source - if it locked on correctly, though! My Ke-Go 110 is a smaller version of the original Ke-Go bombs, suitable for lighter planes.
Painting
Being an IJN plane, paint scheme choices for the J10F were rather limited - and since it is a whif plane I stuck to my policy that I rather use a simple/subtle paint scheme.
The interceptor:
For the clean and rather conservative interceptor I settled for a simple IJN Green/Gray livery (N. 2 ‘Aomidori-iro’, a bluish, very dark green and N.10 ‘Hairyokushoku’, respectively), with Testors 2116 and 2117 as basic tones. Yellow wing leading edges were added, cut from an aftermarket decal sheet. As a design twist I painted the engine cowling black, A6M-style. The propeller spinner was painted in red brown (typical Japanese WWII primer color), with an orange tip, matching the arrow symbol decal on the tail fin. The propeller blades were painted with Testor’s ‘Rubber’, #1183.
A slightly worn look was achieved through a light wash with black ink and some dry painting with paler shades of Green (Humbrol 91 and 185) and Aluminum, plus light exhaust marks and gun smoke residues with flat black. Some bare metal spots were added, which also highlight some details and add to the worn look.
All decals for the green fighter come from a Hobby Boss A6M, only the arrows come from the Hobby Boss He 162. Finally, everything was sealed under a semi-matte varnish, for a light shine to the surface – typical IJN machines appear to be rather shiny?
The night attacker:
This variant received a more fantastic and stealthy paint scheme - I wanted to set the plane apart from the clean and shiny interceptor: a grunty, desperate strike aircraft against overwhelming sea forces.
AFAIK, there had not been specific nocturnal cammo schemes at the IJNAS, except for all-green aircraft? A bit boring, I thought, esp. with a typical green/gray sister plane.
So I made up a personal variant: In a first step, upper surfaces were painted in a brownish-grey basic tone, AFAIK called ‘Ameiro’ – it is the color which was used on early Zeroes which were based on carriers, and the tone faded quickly to a light gray. This color is very similar to RAL 7014 ‘Fenstergrau’ and reminds of B.S. ‘Hemp’. I improvised it with a mix of Humbrol 141 (60%), 83 (35%) and a bit of 155 (5%). On top of that a dense array of dark green blotches (Humbrol 185, Chrome Green, at first, and later also with Humbrol 116 for more contrast) was applied, breaking up the plane’s lines and covering the light gray tone almost completely.
Undersides originally sported ‘Ameiro’, too, but they were painted as if they had been covered with a very dark gray tone in the field (Humbrol 67), even leaving out the hinomarus and flaking off everywhere. The black engine cowling was retained.
Hinomaru and squadron emblems come from the same Mitsubishi A6M from Hobby Boss as mentioned above, featuring even less markings. As a side note: I have never seen Hinomaru with a black(!) rim before? I am not certain if this is correct or an authentic modification - it matches the night fighter role perfectly, though. This time I chose a matte varnish, except for the cowling which received some streaks with more shiny semi-matte varnish.
In both cases, cockpit interior surfaces and landing gear wells were painted in ‘Aodake Iro’, simulated with a base of Aluminium (Humbrol 56) and a coat of translucent blue lacquer on top.
All in all, these pair of rather simple model kit was built in a couple of days, taking the pictures and waiting for good light took almost the same time! I am not 100% happy, because the engine mod is not as obvious as I expected, even though the four-bladed prop and the slightly elongated fuselage give the J10F a menacing and fast look, like a “Baby Tempest”.
by Alfredo Fernandes
Alfi Art Production, Divar
41st Tiatr Competition A group of Kala Academy supported by TAG
13.10.2015
more here
joegoauk-tiatr.blogspot.in/2015/10/41st-tiatr-competition...
Nevil Cardozo and Evarist de Arambol
The Hilton of Cadboll Stone is a Class II Pictish stone discovered at Hilton of Cadboll, on the East coast of the Tarbat Peninsula in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is one of the most magnificent of all Pictish cross-slabs. On the seaward-facing side is a Christian cross, and on the landward facing side are secular depictions. The latter are carved below the Pictish symbols of crescent and v-rod and double disc and Z-rod: a hunting scene including a woman wearing a large penannular brooch riding side-saddle. Like other similar stones, it can be dated to about 800 AD.
The stone was formerly on in the vicinity of a chapel just north of the village. It was removed to Invergordon Castle in the 19th century, before being donated to the British Museum. The latter move was not popular with the Scottish public, and so it was moved once more, to the Museum of Scotland, where it remains today. A reconstruction, designed and carved by Barry Grove, was recently erected on the site.
In 1998 excavation in the vicinity of the Hilton of Cadboll chapel site was undertaken by Kirkdale Archaeology (Paul Sharman and Jon Triscott) on behalf of Historic Scotland. During this work approximately 40 fragments of carved micaceous sandstone were recovered; the likely origin for these was surmised to be the Hilton of Cadboll stone.
Subsequently, in 2001, Historic Scotland commissioned Kirkdale Archaeology (Dave Murray, Stuart Jeffrey, Meggen Gondek, and Angus Mackintosh) to undertake a further excavation. Assisted by Barry Grove, a further 740 carved sandstone fragments, and 122 possibly carved fragments, were recovered. In addition, the fabled missing lower portion of the cross-slab was discovered (by Angus Mackintosh), but left in-situ.
Later in 2001 the lower portion of the cross-slab, along with several thousand more carved fragments, was recovered by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) during an excavation funded by Historic Scotland. Following some controversy around where this section of the monument should be curated it was finally put on display in Hilton of Cadboll village hall rather than joining the upper portion at the Museum of Scotland. In parallel with the excavation, Historic Scotland also funded research carried out by Professor Sian Jones of the University of Manchester into the significance of Early Medieval Sculpture to local communities which concentrated on the historical fragmentation and movement of the Hilton of Cadboll monument as well its modern role in the production of meaning, value and place, The excavation and subsequent analysis of the 'biography' of the monument was the foundation of a major monograph published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 2008. The digital elements of the excavation archive were deposited with the Archaeology Data Service.
Six burials were also revealed during the work, indicating that the stone was likely (re)used to mark the cemetery. Only one skeleton was fully excavated and removed; the others remained undisturbed throughout the duration of the fieldwork. The burials contained various types of pottery and some stones with an unknown glaze on the surface. Several metatarsals were removed for radiocarbon dating, but were returned to the site once testing was complete.
Ten soil samples were taken from the site which appeared to contain charcoal or other evidence about the environment. These samples were subjected to optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating coupled with the analysis of the stratigraphy in order to establish the age and content of the soil. Five distinct levels were discovered in the soil which date from 9th century to present day.
The Hilton of Cadboll stone was carved around AD 800 in northern Scotland, then a heartland of the Picts.
At this time Scotland was becoming Christian and sculptured stones were created to celebrate the new religion. Carved from local sandstone, it displays sophisticated artistry and symbolism.
At some point the stone was toppled and broken, possibly in a storm in 1674, and the bottom portion lost. In 1676 the original carving of the Christian cross was chipped off and replaced with an inscription commemorating a local man, Alexander Duff, and his three wives.
From the 17th to the mid 19th centuries, the stone remained by the chapel at Hilton of Cadboll. For much of this time it lay with the original Pictish carving facing down.
In the 1860s the MacLeods of Cadboll took it to Invergordon Castle and installed it as a garden ornament.
When the MacLeods sold Invergordon Castle in 1921 they gave the stone to the British Museum in London. This led to public outcry, so the stone was returned to Scotland, arriving at the Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh later that year. In 1995 the stone was moved to its current prominent position in the Early People gallery.
The symbols at the top of this slab are found on many other carved stones from eastern and northern Scotland. The Hilton of Cadboll slab features some of the most elaborate and intricately decorated examples of these symbols.
Pictish symbols are unique to Early Historic Scotland and their meaning is the source of much speculation. If they were part of a language like Egyptian hieroglyphs, they remain indecipherable.
Pictish symbols are also found on stones that do not feature any Christian imagery, on high status jewellery, and on smaller stone and bone objects. Examples of these symbols can be seen in the ‘Glimpses of the Sacred’ section of the Early People gallery.
The hunting scene
The middle panel can be interpreted as an aristocratic hunting scene. At the bottom of the panel, a deer is being chased by two large dogs and two armed horsemen. Above this a person is shown sitting sideways on a horse, with glimpses of a second rider behind them. To the right are two trumpeters blowing long horns.
The central character has been interpreted as an important woman, perhaps someone that people would have recognised when the stone was carved. The mirror and comb in the top left hand corner are Pictish symbols traditionally associated with women.
Special care has been taken to add detail to the carving of this person’s robes and hair. She also wears a large brooch: surviving examples such as the Hunterston brooch emphasise how elaborate and prestigious these objects could be.
This hunting scene may illustrate the leisurely lifestyle of the elite members of society who commissioned the carving of this stone. However, in Christian art the hunt could also represent religious conversion and the salvation of the soul, and so a double meaning of this scene is possible.
The main rider is shown sitting sideways on a horse. Important people are sometimes shown facing towards the viewer, but in Christian art the Virgin Mary and Jesus are both depicted riding in this unusual way. The Hilton of Cadboll stone might be drawing on this important Christian imagery.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
Like sea pollution, plastic waste seems to appear everywhere. This is used to protect or mulch plants. Here it appears to have been ploughed in and would be difficult to separate out. Maybe it is biodegradable in which case what sort of residue does it leave?
articles.extension.org/pages/67951/current-and-future-pro...
Today I used a fifteen year old Sigma 12-25 adapted lens with my Sony A7RIII and while it worked much better than expected some of the time it presented way too many problems. As a result of my experience I decided that I would purchase the Sony 12-24 G lens but when I discovered that it is an f4 lens with a retail price of Euro 2000 I decided to purchase a Sigma 14mm 1.8 lens instead but it may not arrive until after Christmas.