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As one of the showpiece main rooms of Billilla mansion when male guests came to call, the billiard room is one of the grandest rooms in the house. With an interconnecting door between it and the adjoining dining room, whilst the women retired to the feminine surrounds of the drawing room, the men could retreat to this strictly male preserve with their brandy and cigars and discuss business over a game or two of billiards.
Although part of the original 1878 house and featuring some High Victorian detailing, the billiard room did not escape the 1907 redecoration, and as a result it also features some very fine Art Nouveau detailing.
The Billilla billiards room is also one of the most intact rooms in the whole house, as it still features its original and ornate Victorian carpet and the original walnut Alcock and Company billiard table and scoreboard.
A very masculine oriented room, the walls feature Victorian era dark wood dado panelling about a third of the way up the walls. Above that the walls are simply painted, and even to this day they still feature marks where chalked cues once rested. Original ornate Victorian gasoliers that could be swiveled into position still jut from the walls above the dado panelling. With their original fluted glass shades remaining in place, the gasoliers still have functioning taps to increase or decrease the gas supply.
The room is heated by a large fireplace featuring an insert of beautiful tube lined Art Nouveau peacock feathers, once again quietly underlining the fact that this is a man's room.
The Victorian era carpet of the billiard room is still bright and in remarkably good condition for its age. It is thick and dyed in bright colours in a pattern designed to imitate ornate floor tiles.
The ceiling of the billiard room is decorated with ornate stylised foliate Art Nouveau patterns and mouldings of leaves. Whilst Art Nouveau is often referred to as a feminine style, the ceiling of the billiard room shows how when applied in a particular way it could also be very strong and masculine.
Suspended over the walnut Alcock and Company billiard table the gleaming polished brass foliate style gasolier has subsequently been electrified and features five of its six green glass shades.
One of the few more feminine touches to what is otherwise a very masculine room are the stained glass lunettes over the billiard room's three windows. In keeping with other original windows of the house, they feature a single flower, in this case a red tulip.
Alcock and Company Manufacturers was established in 1853 when Melbourne was still a very new city of less than twenty years old. they still manufacture billiard tables from their Malvern establishment today.
Built in High Victorian style in 1878 for successful gold miner Robert Wright, Billilla mansion was originally a thirteen room mansion erected on seven and a half acres of land.
When economic boom turned to bust in the 1880s, the property was purchased in 1888 by wealthy New South Wales pastoralist William Weatherly who named it Billilla after his land holdings and established a home there for his wife Jeannie and their children Violet, Gladys and Lionel.
The house was substantially altered by architect Walter Richmond Butler in 1907, extending the house beyond its original thirteen rooms and adding the Art Nouveau façade seen today.
After William Weatherly's death in 1914, his wife, who was much younger, remained living there until her own death in 1933. She bequeathed the property to her daughter, Violet, who maintained the home with reduced staff until her own death in 1972.
The property was purchased in 1973 by the Bayside Council who subsequently used Billilla as a historical house with guided tours, a wedding and events venue, a school and finally in 2009 as an artist's precinct in the property's outbuildings. Billilla is a beautiful heritage property retaining many of its original features thanks to its long private ownership still incorporating a stately formal garden and the magnificent historic house.
Billilla, at 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, is one of Melbourne’s few remaining significant homesteads, built on land which had originally been owned by Nicholas Were. The house has a mixture of architectural styles, featuring a Victorian design with Art Nouveau features and has exquisite formal gardens, which retain much of their original Nineteenth Century layout.
Billilla retains many original Victorian elements and a number of outbuildings still stand to the rear of the property including the butler’s quarters, dairy, meat house, stable garden store and coach house.
Billilla was opened to the general public as part of the Melbourne Open House weekend 2022.
Billilla was used as a backdrop in the 1980 Australian Channel 10 miniseries adaptation of Sumner Locke Elliott's "Water Under the Bridge". It was used at the Sydney harbourside home of Luigi, Honor and Carrie Mazzini.
Chenggong (chinesisch 成功鎮, Pinyin Chénggōng Zhèn) ist eine Stadtgemeinde im Landkreis Taitung auf Taiwan (Republik China).
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1 Name
2 Lage, Klima
3 Bevölkerung
4 Wirtschaft
5 Sehenswürdigkeiten
6 Weblinks
7 Einzelnachweise
Name
Am Ort des heutigen Chenggong befand sich ursprünglich eine Siedlung der Amis, eines der indigenen Völker Taiwans. Der Ami-Name der Ansiedlung wurde chinesisch 麻荖漏, Moalaulau transkribiert. Während der japanischen Herrschaft über Taiwan 1895 bis 1945 wurde ein Fischereihafen erbaut und die Siedlung erhielt den Namen 新港街 (Shinkō machi, „Neue Hafenstadt“).[1] Nach der Übergabe Taiwans an die Republik China 1945 hieß der Ort Xingang (新港, „Neuer Hafen“, die chinesische Aussprache bei identischen Schriftzeichen). Da es noch zwei weitere Orte dieses Namens auf Taiwan gab (Xingang im Landkreis Chiayi sowie Sinkang - heute als Sinshih ein Stadtdistrikt von Tainan), wurde die Gemeinde nach 1945 umbenannt. Sie erhielt zu Ehren des chinesischen Eroberers Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) den Namen Chenggong (成功). Wörtlich bedeutet dies „Erfolg“. Chenggong Zhèn (成功鎮) ist damit gewissermaßen die „Stadt des Erfolges“ oder die „Erfolgreiche Stadt“.
Lage, Klima
Die Gemeinde besteht aus einem langgestreckten Küstenstreifen, der zum Landesinneren hin durch das parallel zur Küste verlaufende Haian-Gebirge getrennt wird. Das Klima ist feucht-warm und wie das des ganzen übrigen Landkreises Taitung durch den Monsun geprägt. Die Regenzeit beginnt im Mai und endet im Oktober.[2]
ChenggongKlimadiagr
Nachbargemeinden sind Changbin im Norden, Fuli (Landkreis Hualien) im Westen, und Donghe im Südwesten und Süden. Chenggong ist in die folgenden acht Stadtteile unterteilt: Xinyi (信義里), Heping (和平里), Zhongren (忠仁里), Zhongzhi (忠智里), Sanmin (三民里), Sanxian (三仙里), Zhongxiao (忠孝里), Boai (博愛里).
Gliederung von Chenggong
Chenggong villages.svg
Boai
博愛里
Zhongxiao
忠孝里
Sanxian
三仙里
Sanmin
三民里
Zhongzhi
忠智里
Zhongren
忠仁里
Heping
和平里
Xinyi
信義里
Bevölkerung
Archäologische Funde weisen auf eine menschliche Besiedlung seit einigen Jahrtausenden hin. An einigen Orten finden sich Relikte der jungsteinzeitlichen Changbin-Kultur. Die Örtlichkeit Xiaoma gehört neben Baxiandong in der Nachbargemeinde Changbin zu den wichtigsten Fundstätten.[3][4] Die Mehrheit (etwa 50-60 %) der heutigen Bevölkerung gehört der Ethnie der Amis an. Die traditionelle Ami-Volkskunst und Folklore spielt dementsprechend eine bedeutende Rolle.[5] Die nach offiziellen Erhebungen in Chenggong im Jahr 2010 zu Hause gesprochenen Sprachen waren: 82 % Hochchinesisch, 55 % Hokkien, 42 % indigene Sprachen, 2 % Hakka und 2 % andere. Ein Großteil der Bevölkerung war mehrsprachig.[6] Die Bevölkerung nimmt seit mindestens den 1980er Jahren aufgrund von Abwanderung und Überalterung ab.[7]
Wirtschaft
Chenggong ist der bedeutendste Fischereihafen an der Ostküste Taiwans.[8] Hauptsächlich werden Echter Bonito, Schwertfisch, Goldmakrelen (Mahi mahi), Thunfische und Dorsche gefangen.[5] Durch langdauernde Überfischung sind die Fangerträge in der Vergangenheit kontinuierlich zurückgegangen. Landwirtschaftliche Produkte der Region sind Jackfrucht, Orangen, Pflaumen und Mandarinen.[9]
Die Hauptverkehrsader bildet die Provinz-Schnellstraße 11, die die Gemeinde in Nord-Süd-Richtung durchquert.
Sehenswürdigkeiten
In Chenggong gibt es unter anderen die folgenden Sehenswürdigkeiten:
Ami-Volk-Museum, ein Freilandmuseum zur Volkskultur der Amis[10] (Welt-Icon)
Chengguangao Mazu-Tempel, der älteste Mazu-Tempel des Landkreises[11] (Welt-Icon)
Taitung-Museum für Meeresbiologie mit Aquarium[12] (Welt-Icon)
Naturhistorisches Museum[13] (Welt-Icon)
Shiyusan (石雨傘), der „Steinerne Regenschirm“, eine Felsformation[14] (Welt-Icon)
Sanxiantai (三仙台), kleine vorgelagerte Felsinsel, die durch eine pittoreske Rundbogenbrücke vom Festland aus erreichbar ist[15] (Welt-Icon)
Chenggong Township (Chinese: 成功鎮; pinyin: Chénggōng Zhèn; Wade–Giles: Ch'eng2-kung1 Chen4; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sêng-kong-tìn) is an urban township in Taitung County, Taiwan. It is a coastal town facing the Pacific Ocean. Fishery Harbor is just west of downtown.
History
Chenggong was originally an Amis settlement from which came the Hokkien name Moalaulau (Chinese: 麻荖漏; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Môa-láu-lāu).[1] During Japanese rule, it was renamed to Shinkō Town (Japanese: 新港街) of Taitō Prefecture. After 1945, to avoid confusion with Xingang Township of Chiayi County and to distinguish it from Tainan's Sinckan (now called Xinshi), it was changed to Chenggong, which commemorates Zheng Chenggong who expelled the Dutch.
Geography
The township has 14,943 inhabitants and its total area is 144.9938 km². The majority inhabitants of the township are the Amis people which makes up to 53% of the population.[2]
Taiwan (/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ (About this sound listen)), officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Its neighbors include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations.
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China. The Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China (ROC) was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROC's loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC continued to claim to be the legitimate government of China, its effective jurisdiction had, since the loss of Hainan in 1950, been limited to Taiwan and its surrounding islands, with the main island making up 99% of its de facto territory. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, when the PRC assumed China's seat, causing the ROC to lose its UN membership.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system. Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, healthcare,[15] public education, economic freedom, and human development.[e][13][16] The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most highly educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree.[17][18]
The PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refuses diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC. Today, 20 countries maintain official ties with the ROC but many other states maintain unofficial ties through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. Although Taiwan is fully self-governing, most international organizations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Internally, the major division in politics is between the aspirations of eventual Chinese unification or Taiwanese independence, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal. The PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible.[19]
Etymology
There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, derived from explorers or rulers by each particular period. The former name Formosa (福爾摩沙) dates from 1542,[verification needed] when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island".[21] The name "Formosa" eventually "replaced all others in European literature"[22] and was in common use in English in the early 20th century.[23]
In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia (modern-day Anping, Tainan) on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan",[24] after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe, possibly Taivoan people, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Tayowan, Teijoan, etc.[25] This name was also adopted into the Chinese vernacular (in particular, Hokkien, as Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tāi-oân/Tâi-oân) as the name of the sandbar and nearby area (Tainan). The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, which is seen in various forms (大員, 大圓, 大灣, 臺員, 臺圓 and 臺窩灣) in Chinese historical records. The area of modern-day Tainan was the first permanent settlement by Western colonists and Chinese immigrants, grew to be the most important trading centre, and served as the capital of the island until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name (臺灣) was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as "Taiwan".[26][27][28][29]
In his Daoyi Zhilüe (1349), Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it near to Penghu.[30] Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; indeed the name Ryūkyū is the Japanese form of Liúqiú. The name also appears in the Book of Sui (636) and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or even Luzon.[31]
The official name of the state is the "Republic of China"; it has also been known under various names throughout its existence. Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" Zhōngguó (中國), to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng ("central" or "middle") and guó ("state, nation-state"), [f] A term which also developed under the Zhou Dynasty in reference to its royal demesne[g] and the name was then applied to the area around Luoyi (present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qingera .[33] During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had fled to Taiwan due to losing the Chinese Civil War, it was commonly referred to as "Nationalist China" (or "Free China") to differentiate it from "Communist China" (or "Red China").[35] It was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become commonly known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts, especially official ones from the ROC government, the name is written as "Republic of China (Taiwan)", "Republic of China/Taiwan", or sometimes "Taiwan (ROC)."[36] The Republic of China participates in most international forums and organizations under the name "Chinese Taipei" due to diplomatic pressure from the People's Republic of China. For instance, it is the name under which it has competed at the Olympic Games since 1984, and its name as an observer at the World Health Organization.[37]
Prehistoric Taiwan
Taiwan was joined to the mainland in the Late Pleistocene, until sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago. Fragmentary human remains dated 20,000 to 30,000 years ago have been found on the island, as well as later artefacts of a Paleolithic culture.[38][39][40]
Around 6,000 years ago, Taiwan was settled by farmers, most likely from mainland China.[41] They are believed to be the ancestors of today's Taiwanese aborigines, whose languages belong to the Austronesian language family, but show much greater diversity than the rest of the family, which spans a huge area from Maritime Southeast Asia west to Madagascar and east as far as New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. This has led linguists to propose Taiwan as the urheimat of the family, from which seafaring peoples dispersed across Southeast Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans.[42][43]
Han Chinese fishermen began settling in the Penghu islands in the 13th century.[44] Hostile tribes, and a lack of valuable trade products, meant that few outsiders visited the main island until the 16th century.[44] By the 1700's visits to the coast by fishermen from Fujian, as well as Chinese and Japanese pirates, became more frequent.[44]
Opening in the 17th century
Main articles: Dutch Formosa, Spanish Formosa, and Kingdom of Tungning
Fort Zeelandia, the Governor's residence in Dutch Formosa
The Dutch East India Company attempted to establish a trading outpost on the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in 1622, but were militarily defeated and driven off by the Ming authorities.[45]
In 1624, the company established a stronghold called Fort Zeelandia on the coastal islet of Tayouan, which is now part of the main island at Anping, Tainan.[29] David Wright, a Scottish agent of the company who lived on the island in the 1650s, described the lowland areas of the island as being divided among 11 chiefdoms ranging in size from two settlements to 72. Some of these fell under Dutch control, while others remained independent.[29][46] The Company began to import labourers from Fujian and Penghu (Pescadores), many of whom settled.[45]
In 1626, the Spanish Empire landed on and occupied northern Taiwan, at the ports of Keelung and Tamsui, as a base to extend their trading. This colonial period lasted 16 years until 1642, when the last Spanish fortress fell to Dutch forces.
Following the fall of the Ming dynasty, Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong), a self-styled Ming loyalist, arrived on the island and captured Fort Zeelandia in 1662, expelling the Dutch Empire and military from the island. Koxinga established the Kingdom of Tungning (1662–1683), with his capital at Tainan. He and his heirs, Zheng Jing, who ruled from 1662 to 1682, and Zheng Keshuang, who ruled less than a year, continued to launch raids on the southeast coast of mainland China well into the Qing dynasty era.[45]
Qing rule
In 1683, following the defeat of Koxinga's grandson by an armada led by Admiral Shi Lang of southern Fujian, the Qing dynasty formally annexed Taiwan, placing it under the jurisdiction of Fujian province. The Qing imperial government tried to reduce piracy and vagrancy in the area, issuing a series of edicts to manage immigration and respect aboriginal land rights. Immigrants mostly from southern Fujian continued to enter Taiwan. The border between taxpaying lands and "savage" lands shifted eastward, with some aborigines becoming sinicized while others retreated into the mountains. During this time, there were a number of conflicts between groups of Han Chinese from different regions of southern Fujian, particularly between those from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and between southern Fujian Chinese and aborigines.
Northern Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were the scene of subsidiary campaigns in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung on 1 October 1884, but were repulsed from Tamsui a few days later. The French won some tactical victories but were unable to exploit them, and the Keelung Campaign ended in stalemate. The Pescadores Campaign, beginning on 31 March 1885, was a French victory, but had no long-term consequences. The French evacuated both Keelung and the Penghu archipelago after the end of the war.
In 1887, the Qing upgraded the island's administration from Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian to Fujian-Taiwan-Province (福建臺灣省), the twentieth in the empire, with its capital at Taipei. This was accompanied by a modernization drive that included building China's first railroad.[47]
Japanese rule
As the Qing dynasty was defeated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), Taiwan, along with Penghu and Liaodong Peninsula, were ceded in full sovereignty to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Inhabitants on Taiwan and Penghu wishing to remain Qing subjects were given a two-year grace period to sell their property and move to mainland China. Very few Taiwanese saw this as feasible.[48] On 25 May 1895, a group of pro-Qing high officials proclaimed the Republic of Formosa to resist impending Japanese rule. Japanese forces entered the capital at Tainan and quelled this resistance on 21 October 1895.[49] Guerrilla fighting continued periodically until about 1902 and ultimately took the lives of 14,000 Taiwanese, or 0.5% of the population.[50] Several subsequent rebellions against the Japanese (the Beipu uprising of 1907, the Tapani incident of 1915, and the Musha incident of 1930) were all unsuccessful but demonstrated opposition to Japanese colonial rule.
Japanese colonial rule was instrumental in the industrialization of the island, extending the railroads and other transportation networks, building an extensive sanitation system, and establishing a formal education system.[51] Japanese rule ended the practice of headhunting.[52] During this period the human and natural resources of Taiwan were used to aid the development of Japan and the production of cash crops such as rice and sugar greatly increased. By 1939, Taiwan was the seventh greatest sugar producer in the world.[53] Still, the Taiwanese and aborigines were classified as second- and third-class citizens. After suppressing Chinese guerrillas in the first decade of their rule, Japanese authorities engaged in a series of bloody campaigns against the mountain aboriginals, culminating in the Musha Incident of 1930.[54] Intellectuals and laborers who participated in left-wing movements within Taiwan were also arrested and massacred (e.g. Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水) and Masanosuke Watanabe (渡辺政之輔)).[55]
Around 1935, the Japanese began an island-wide assimilation project to bind the island more firmly to the Japanese Empire and people were taught to see themselves as Japanese under the Kominka Movement, during which time Taiwanese culture and religion were outlawed and the citizens were encouraged to adopt Japanese surnames.[56] The "South Strike Group" was based at the Taihoku Imperial University in Taipei. During World War II, tens of thousands of Taiwanese served in the Japanese military.[57] For example, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui's elder brother served in the Japanese navy and was killed in action in the Philippines in February 1945. The Imperial Japanese Navy operated heavily out of Taiwanese ports. In October 1944, the Formosa Air Battle was fought between American carriers and Japanese forces based in Taiwan. Important Japanese military bases and industrial centres throughout Taiwan, like Kaohsiung, were targets of heavy American bombings.[58] Also during this time, over 2,000 women were forced into sexual slavery for Imperial Japanese troops, now euphemistically called "comfort women."[59]
In 1938, there were 309,000 Japanese settlers in Taiwan.[60] After World War II, most of the Japanese were expelled and sent to Japan.[61]
Republic of China
On 25 October 1945, the US Navy ferried ROC troops to Taiwan in order to accept the formal surrender of Japanese military forces in Taipei on behalf of the Allied Powers, as part of General Order No. 1 for temporary military occupation. General Rikichi Andō, governor-general of Taiwan and commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces on the island, signed the receipt and handed it over to General Chen Yi of the ROC military to complete the official turnover. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be "Taiwan Retrocession Day", but the Allies considered Taiwan and the Penghu Islands to be under military occupation and still under Japanese sovereignty until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco took effect.[62][63] Although the 1943 Cairo Declaration had envisaged returning these territories to China, in the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Taipei Japan has renounced all claim to them without specifying to what country they were to be surrendered. This introduced the problem of the legal status of Taiwan.
The ROC administration of Taiwan under Chen Yi was strained by increasing tensions between Taiwanese-born people and newly arrived mainlanders, which were compounded by economic woes, such as hyperinflation. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic conflicts between the two groups quickly led to the loss of popular support for the new government, while the mass movement led by the working committee of the Communist Party also aimed to bring down the Kuomintang government.[64][65] The shooting of a civilian on 28 February 1947 triggered island-wide unrest, which was suppressed with military force in what is now called the February 28 Incident. Mainstream estimates of the number killed range from 18,000 to 30,000. Those killed were mainly members of the Taiwanese elite.[66][67]
The Nationalists' retreat to Taipei: after the Nationalists lost Nanjing (Nanking) they next moved to Guangzhou (Canton), then to Chongqing (Chungking), Chengdu (Chengtu) and Xichang (Sichang) before arriving in Taipei.
After the end of World War II, the Chinese Civil War resumed between the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong. Throughout the months of 1949, a series of Chinese Communist offensives led to the capture of its capital Nanjing on 23 April and the subsequent defeat of the Nationalist army on the mainland, and the Communists founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October.[68]
On 7 December 1949, after the loss of four capitals, Chiang evacuated his Nationalist government to Taiwan and made Taipei the temporary capital of the ROC (also called the "wartime capital" by Chiang Kai-shek).[69] Some 2 million people, consisting mainly of soldiers, members of the ruling Kuomintang and intellectual and business elites, were evacuated from mainland China to Taiwan at that time, adding to the earlier population of approximately six million. In addition, the ROC government took to Taipei many national treasures and much of China's gold reserves and foreign currency reserves.[70][71][72]
After losing most of the mainland, the Kuomintang held remaining control of Tibet, the portions of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Yunnan provinces along with the Hainan Island until 1951 before the Communists subsequently captured both territories. From this point onwards, the Kuomintang's territory was reduced to Taiwan, Penghu, the portions of the Fujian province (Kinmen and Matsu Islands), and two major islands of Dongsha Islands and Nansha Islands. The Kuomintang continued to claim sovereignty over all "China", which it defined to include mainland China, Taiwan, Outer Mongolia and other areas. On mainland China, the victorious Communists claimed they ruled the sole and only China (which they claimed included Taiwan) and that the Republic of China no longer existed.[73]
A Chinese man in military uniform, smiling and looking towards the left. He holds a sword in his left hand and has a medal in shape of a sun on his chest.
Chinese Nationalist one-party rule
Martial law, declared on Taiwan in May 1949,[74] continued to be in effect after the central government relocated to Taiwan. It was not repealed until 1987,[74] and was used as a way to suppress the political opposition in the intervening years.[75] During the White Terror, as the period is known, 140,000 people were imprisoned or executed for being perceived as anti-KMT or pro-Communist.[76] Many citizens were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and executed for their real or perceived link to the Communists. Since these people were mainly from the intellectual and social elite, an entire generation of political and social leaders was decimated. In 1998 law was passed to create the "Compensation Foundation for Improper Verdicts" which oversaw compensation to White Terror victims and families. President Ma Ying-jeou made an official apology in 2008, expressing hope that there will never be a tragedy similar to White Terror.[77]
Initially, the United States abandoned the KMT and expected that Taiwan would fall to the Communists. However, in 1950 the conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which had been ongoing since the Japanese withdrawal in 1945, escalated into full-blown war, and in the context of the Cold War, US President Harry S. Truman intervened again and dispatched the US Navy's 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent hostilities between Taiwan and mainland China.[78] In the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, which came into force respectively on 28 April 1952 and 5 August 1952, Japan formally renounced all right, claim and title to Taiwan and Penghu, and renounced all treaties signed with China before 1942. Neither treaty specified to whom sovereignty over the islands should be transferred, because the United States and the United Kingdom disagreed on whether the ROC or the PRC was the legitimate government of China.[79] Continuing conflict of the Chinese Civil War through the 1950s, and intervention by the United States notably resulted in legislation such as the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955.
With President Chiang Kai-shek, the US President Dwight D. Eisenhower waved to crowds during his visit to Taipei in June 1960.
As the Chinese Civil War continued without truce, the government built up military fortifications throughout Taiwan. Within this effort, KMT veterans built the now famous Central Cross-Island Highway through the Taroko Gorge in the 1950s. The two sides would continue to engage in sporadic military clashes with seldom publicized details well into the 1960s on the China coastal islands with an unknown number of night raids. During the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in September 1958, Taiwan's landscape saw Nike-Hercules missile batteries added, with the formation of the 1st Missile Battalion Chinese Army that would not be deactivated until 1997. Newer generations of missile batteries have since replaced the Nike Hercules systems throughout the island.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the ROC maintained an authoritarian, single-party government while its economy became industrialized and technology oriented. This rapid economic growth, known as the Taiwan Miracle, was the result of a fiscal regime independent from mainland China and backed up, among others, by the support of US funds and demand for Taiwanese products.[80][81] In the 1970s, Taiwan was economically the second fastest growing state in Asia after Japan.[82] Taiwan, along with Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, became known as one of the Four Asian Tigers. Because of the Cold War, most Western nations and the United Nations regarded the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China until the 1970s. Later, especially after the termination of the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, most nations switched diplomatic recognition to the PRC (see United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758).
Up until the 1970s, the government was regarded by Western critics as undemocratic for upholding martial law, for severely repressing any political opposition and for controlling media. The KMT did not allow the creation of new parties and those that existed did not seriously compete with the KMT. Thus, competitive democratic elections did not exist.[83][84][85][86][87] From the late 1970s to the 1990s, however, Taiwan went through reforms and social changes that transformed it from an authoritarian state to a democracy. In 1979, a pro-democracy protest known as the Kaohsiung Incident took place in Kaohsiung to celebrate Human Rights Day. Although the protest was rapidly crushed by the authorities, it is today considered as the main event that united Taiwan's opposition.[88]
Democratization
Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek's son and successor as the president, began to liberalize the political system in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the younger Chiang selected Lee Teng-hui, a Taiwanese-born, US-educated technocrat, to be his vice-president. In 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was formed and inaugurated as the first opposition party in the ROC to counter the KMT. A year later, Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law on the main island of Taiwan (martial law was lifted on Penghu in 1979, Matsu island in 1992 and Kinmen island in 1993). With the advent of democratization, the issue of the political status of Taiwan gradually resurfaced as a controversial issue where, previously, the discussion of anything other than unification under the ROC was taboo.
After the death of Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988, Lee Teng-hui succeeded him as president. Lee continued to democratize the government and decrease the concentration of government authority in the hands of mainland Chinese. Under Lee, Taiwan underwent a process of localization in which Taiwanese culture and history were promoted over a pan-China viewpoint in contrast to earlier KMT policies which had promoted a Chinese identity. Lee's reforms included printing banknotes from the Central Bank rather than the Provincial Bank of Taiwan, and streamlining the Taiwan Provincial Government with most of its functions transferred to the Executive Yuan. Under Lee, the original members of the Legislative Yuan and National Assembly(a former supreme legislative body defunct in 2005）,[89] elected in 1947 to represent mainland Chinese constituencies and having held the seats without re-election for more than four decades, were forced to resign in 1991. The previously nominal representation in the Legislative Yuan was brought to an end, reflecting the reality that the ROC had no jurisdiction over mainland China, and vice versa. Restrictions on the use of Taiwanese Hokkien in the broadcast media and in schools were also lifted.[citation needed]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Taiwan's special envoy to the APEC summit, Lien Chan, November 2011
Democratic reforms continued in the 1990s, with Lee Teng-hui re-elected in 1996, in the first direct presidential election in the history of the ROC.[90] During the later years of Lee's administration, he was involved in corruption controversies relating to government release of land and weapons purchase, although no legal proceedings commenced. In 1997,"To meet the requisites of the nation prior to national unification",[91] the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China was passed and then the former "constitution of five powers" turns to be more tripartite. In 2000, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party was elected as the first non-Kuomintang (KMT) President and was re-elected to serve his second and last term since 2004. Polarized politics has emerged in Taiwan with the formation of the Pan-Blue Coalition of parties led by the KMT, favouring eventual Chinese reunification, and the Pan-Green Coalition of parties led by the DPP, favouring an eventual and official declaration of Taiwanese independence.[92][clarification needed] In early 2006, President Chen Shui-bian remarked: “The National Unification Council will cease to function. No budget will be ear-marked for it and its personnel must return to their original posts...The National Unification Guidelines will cease to apply."[93]
The ruling DPP has traditionally leaned in favour of Taiwan independence and rejects the "One-China policy".
On 30 September 2007, the ruling DPP approved a resolution asserting a separate identity from China and called for the enactment of a new constitution for a "normal country". It also called for general use of "Taiwan" as the country's name, without abolishing its formal name, the Republic of China.[94] The Chen administration also pushed for referendums on national defence and UN entry in the 2004 and 2008 elections, which failed due to voter turnout below the required legal threshold of 50% of all registered voters.[95] The Chen administration was dogged by public concerns over reduced economic growth, legislative gridlock due to a pan-blue, opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan and corruption involving the First Family as well as government officials.[96][97]
The KMT increased its majority in the Legislative Yuan in the January 2008 legislative elections, while its nominee Ma Ying-jeou went on to win the presidency in March of the same year, campaigning on a platform of increased economic growth and better ties with the PRC under a policy of "mutual nondenial".[95] Ma took office on 20 May 2008, the same day that President Chen Shui-bian stepped down and was notified by prosecutors of possible corruption charges. Part of the rationale for campaigning for closer economic ties with the PRC stems from the strong economic growth China attained since joining the World Trade Organization. However, some analysts say that despite the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the diplomatic and military tensions with the PRC have not been reduced.[98]
On 24 May 2017, the Constitutional Court ruled that current marriage laws have been violating the Constitution by denying Taiwanese same-sex couples the right to marry. The Court ruled that if the Legislative Yuan does not pass adequate amendments to Taiwanese marriage laws within two years, same-sex marriages will automatically become legitimate in Taiwan.[99]
Like many heritage railways, The West Somerset Railway has been running a much-reduced service due to the Covid 19 pandemic and to facilitate the extension to Watchet, it was necessary to perform route refresher training for the drivers, guards, and secondmen that will be involved, so a special working took place on Friday 28th May using the Hawksworth-designed Taunton Inspector’s Observation Saloon W80976W with haulage provided by Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6566 (33 048). For the outbound leg of the journey, D6566 was propelling the inspection saloon from the rear while towing three ‘Dogfish’ hopper wagons, which were deposited at the Dunster Permanent Way Depot. This route refresher working was repeated on Saturday 29th – but this time, without the hopper wagons.
A very attractive cosplayer dressed up as "Storm."
I used the PS healing brush to reduce the appearance of skin blemishes and marks - most notably on her legs.
(Changed the title, thanks to Edson's question!) No grandchildren visiting today, so I've been reduced to finding summat in the house to photograph. Decided on the idea of reflections. I love shiny stuff so much. I'm waiting for someone to ask what the curly thing in the bowl is and why I'm not in the reflection.
UPDATE: This photo squeaked into Explore April 13th, 2010. Highest position: 447. Thanks so much!
This pair of towers (at 38 and 41 stories, the Bronx's tallest) was built to provide 871 units of affordable rental housing under the Mitchell-Lama program. Rudolph's design is reminiscent of his earlier Crawford Manor in New Haven: its futuristic-Brutalist appearance belies a fairly ordinary structure of concrete columns and slabs, with precast infill. The walls have Rudolph’s favored “corduroy” texture, which is detailed to imply continuous verticals, as if the huge oval “piers” are the structure and the other spaces are hung between them. In fact, the ovals are rather poorly-lit bedrooms, with closets shoved against the real columns, and the pre-fab corduroy surfaces are simply cladding. The project is thus a perfect “Duck” per Venturi and Scott Brown’s critique of Crawford: conveying the message “Super-Modern Building found here” displaces all other concerns. (The living rooms do take advantage of the kingly views, though.) The Baroque curviness is meant to evoke the geometry of the adjacent parkway, while staving off the client’s desire for a circular building.
The whole thing is an air-rights cap over the Mosholu rail yards; Rudolph had hoped to further cap the parking deck with a leafy trellis and townhouse-style units. Perhaps someone pointed out that two- and three-story buildings perched atop a three-story concrete cliff made for fairly unconvincing "townhouses." Nonetheless, the scheme's biggest failing (at a design level) is its insufficient urbanity; as with some other Mitchell-Lama projects, I suspect cost savings found in unconventional sites contributed to a long-term sense of (unpleasant) isolation. There is no walking route to, or into, the buildings that is not in some wise a slog. As well, today's residents are suffering from a major recent rent hike (after getting it partially reduced by the courts).
As landmarks, the buildings are another story - striking, visible for miles, with the rhythm of open and closed surfaces leading to fantastic sculptural effects in strong light. If they just plugged into something more convincing at ground level these might be thought of as classics.
Blinman.
Blinman has some distinctions in its story. It is the highest surveyed town in South Australia at 615 metres and the first town settled in the Flinders Ranges and the only town within the Flinders Ranges and not on the edge like Hawker, Beltana, Leigh Creek etc. It is located in the Hundred of Carr which was declared in 1877. The first white settlement in this region began in the early 1850s when a pastoral leasehold called Angorichina was taken out by Mr Boord but that soon passed to the Hayward brothers. It was one of his shepherds Robert Blinman who discovered some copper in December 1859. Blinman, Frost, Mole and Alfred got a mining lease in January 1861. A year later they sold their mine, at great profit, to the Yudanamutana Mining Company which carted the ore through the Ranges to Port Augusta. Cobb and Co coaches travelled from Burra to Blinman for travellers and miners. In 1864 the government surveyed a town named Blinman and another called North Blinman in 1867. By 1868 Blinman had a
school, hotel, Post Office, stores, a water supply and houses for 1,500 residents. The town had its own smelters to reduce the ores to copper which was lighter for the long transportation haul through the Ranges. This was shortened when the mine reopened in 1882 as ore could then be carted to the railway at Parachilna via Angorichina Gorge. Copper mining continued until 1918 when the international price for copper slumped causing Blinman to cease operations as did Moonta and other mines around 1920. In the five years before 1918 Blinman had a population of around 2,000 people but that quickly dropped with the closing of the mine. The copper mine was successful and profitable in its day. Apart from the old mine entrance the town has a heritage listed mine manager’s house. There is a stone police station as built in 1874, a quaint pine and pug miner’s cottage erected in 1862, the Blinman Hall built in 1896 and an historic cemetery. Around 1880 a new stone school was built and it closed in 1980. The old galvanised iron Methodist Church closed around 1943 and became the library. The first Wesleyan church services began in 1874. A minister was based here from 1911 and marriages were solemnised between 1914 and 1943. It has been reclad and is now the Information Centre. The town now has a population of about 25 adults and no children.
A stone of great antiquity, probably Saxon is incorporated into the southeast buttress of the tower. This pre-Norman stone was found in 1827 during church repairs that included a new floor. On the face it depicts a dragon attacking a quadruped and there is additional carving on the end. This amount of carving means the stone was probably an impost block. Several historians refer to this stone as being of particular interest. It is thought to be carved from local sandstone.
Further, it is thought that its discovery under the nave may indicate that there was an earlier church on the site (probably largely wooden) prior to the present building.
The tower was built by Temple Moor in 1901. It houses a peel of tubular bells that are rung for services today, and provides a gallery within the Church where the visiting choir from Christ
Church Great Ayton often sing for special services.
The lych-gate, erected in 1929 in memory of Margaret Corney, the first lady Churchwarden in the Country, was given by
her nephews and nieces. It is a grade II listed building in its own right.
The gabled Porch is believed to be mid/late XVIIc. The outer opening top stone is a medieval grave slab with floriated cross upon steps with the figure of an animal, which may be a crude Agnus Dei. Outside, at the apex of the roof, is an old circular cross. The doorway to the nave is an apparently modern reproduction or restoration of the XIIc opening.
An early stone coffin, also found under the floor of the nave in 1827, now lies outside the east side of the porch.
Stained Glass For a small Church, St Oswald’s has quite a collection of stained glass.
The East window is dedicated to Mary, and features scenes from the Annunciation and the Purification in the Temple. It was presented by Richard Hill, late of Pinchinthorpe Hall, in remembrance of his wife and family members who are buried in the churchyard In the chancel, the north window shows St John the Divine on the left and St Athanasius, with mitre and bishop’s crook, on the right. The south window shows St Maria “Ora pro nobis” (pray for us) on the left and St Thomas of Canterbury also “Ora pro nobis” with mitre and crown on the right.
The south wall window in the nave is a comparatively late opening with a rounded head (perhaps suggested by an older window), includes the image of St Oswald holding a crude cross and a large sword whilst the north wall window depicts St Christopher holding a staff as he crosses a stream holding a child. This window is dedicated to the memory of C Y Pease, a Yorkshire Hussars Captain who was killed in 1918, and “other men of Cleveland”.. Look to the west wall, and behind the bell ropes features Christ the Good Shepherd.
The XIIc Chancel Arch is of two orders, each with continuous roll moulding towards the nave. The soffit is plain and both orders spring from a plain chamfered impost returned on both sides along the walls. There are outer angle shafts with capitals and moulded bases, but the capitals are very badly worn and any carving or ornament they may have had has
disappeared. Either side of the arch are 10cm square squints.
The Norman Chancel was rebuilt in 1857.
The font is Norman XIIc, circular drum shaped. Its sides have continuous intersecting blind arcading and imposts with horizontal moulding and cable mounting at the rim, with intersecting arcading ‘somewhat shorn’. It was brought from the church at Ingleby Arncliffe.
A Brief History of Saint Oswald
Oswald was born in 605 AD as the second child to Aethelfrith,
King of Bernicia (modern day Durham and Northumberland)
When just 11 years old, his father was overthrown and killed in
battle. Oswald, with his mother and family fled to Scotland where they found refuge on the Isle of Iona.
Iona was the base of St Columba, who brought the Christian faith to the North of the Country. Oswald became a Christian, and in 634 led an army to retake his father’s Kingdom. Before the battle he had a vision of Columba, and he and his men prayed before a cross - the first time a Christian symbol was used in such a way in this country. Oswald proved victor at the battle of Heavenfield, near Hexham, and reunited Bernicia
with the southern kingdom of Deira (From the Tees to the Humber) thus creating Northumberland stretching from the Humber to Scotland.
He extended his influence with the aid of the Christian Faith, supported by Aidan of Lindisfarne, and soon united most of Saxon England who looked to Oswald as their King.
The pagan King Penda of Mercia (The Midlands) remained out of his influence and in 642 Oswald was killed by Penda at the battle of Maserfield at just 38 years of age. Venerable Bede says, His body was dismembered and remained on stakes on the battlefield until a year later when his remains were claimed. Oswald’s head was put in the coffin of St Cuthbert of Lindisfarne and now rests in Durham Cathedral. His arms are at Peterborough Cathedral.
Newton under Roseberry is a village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is on the A173, between Great Ayton and Guisborough and is close to the base of Roseberry Topping.
The village is situated near the edge of the North York Moors National Park, and also close to the border of Redcar and Cleveland with Middlesbrough and the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire.
A reference to Newton under Roseberry was featured in the folk-rock group America's "Hat Trick" from the Hat Trick album. The exact lyric stanza is:
Newton-Under-Roseberry-Topping
And it's cold and it's wet
And you feel like you're part of all time
The Anglican church of St Oswald's is a Grade II* listed building, with an Anglo-Saxon carving.
North Yorkshire is a ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber and North East regions of England. It borders County Durham to the north, the North Sea to the east, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the south-east, South Yorkshire to the south, West Yorkshire to the south-west, and Cumbria and Lancashire to the west. Northallerton is the county town.
The county is the largest in England by land area, at 9,020 km2 (3,480 sq mi), and has a population of 1,158,816. The largest settlements are Middlesbrough (174,700) in the north-east and the city of York (152,841) in the south. Middlesbrough is part of the Teesside built-up area, which extends into County Durham and has a total population of 376,663. The remainder of the county is rural, and the largest towns are Harrogate (73,576) and Scarborough (61,749). For local government purposes the county comprises four unitary authority areas — York, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and North Yorkshire — and part of a fifth, Stockton-on-Tees.
The centre of the county contains a wide plain, called the Vale of Mowbray in the north and Vale of York in the south. The North York Moors lie to the east, and south of them the Vale of Pickering is separated from the main plain by the Howardian Hills. The west of the county contains the Yorkshire Dales, an extensive upland area which contains the source of the River Ouse/Ure and many of its tributaries, which together drain most of the county. The Dales also contain the county's highest point, Whernside, at 2,415 feet (736 m).
North Yorkshire non-metropolitan and ceremonial county was formed on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972. It covered most of the North Riding of Yorkshire, as well as northern parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, northern and eastern East Riding of Yorkshire and the former county borough of York. Northallerton, as the former county town for the North Riding, became North Yorkshire's county town. In 1993 the county was placed wholly within the Yorkshire and the Humber region.
Some areas which were part of the former North Riding were in the county of Cleveland for twenty-two years (from 1974 to 1996) and were placed in the North East region from 1993. On 1 April 1996, these areas (Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton borough south of the River Tees) became part of the ceremonial county as separate unitary authorities. These areas remain within the North East England region.
Also on 1 April 1996, the City of York non-metropolitan district and parts of the non-metropolitan county (Haxby and nearby rural areas) became the City of York unitary authority.
On 1 April 2023, the non-metropolitan county became a unitary authority. This abolished eight councils and extended the powers of the county council to act as a district council.
The York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority held its first meeting on 22 January 2024, assumed its powers on 1 February 2024 and the first mayor is to be elected in May 2024.
The geology of North Yorkshire is closely reflected in its landscape. Within the county are the North York Moors and most of the Yorkshire Dales, two of eleven areas in England and Wales to be designated national parks. Between the North York Moors in the east and the Pennine Hills. The highest point is Whernside, on the Cumbrian border, at 2,415 feet (736 m). A distinctive hill to the far north east of the county is Roseberry Topping.
North Yorkshire contains several major rivers. The River Tees is the most northerly, forming part of the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham in its lower reaches and flowing east through Teesdale before reaching the North Sea near Redcar. The Yorkshire Dales are the source of many of the county's major rivers, including the Aire, Lune, Ribble, Swale, Ure, and Wharfe.[10] The Aire, Swale, and Wharfe are tributaries of the Ure/Ouse, which at 208 km (129 mi) long is the sixth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river is called the Ure until it meets Ouse Gill beck just below the village of Great Ouseburn, where it becomes the Ouse and flows south before exiting the county near Goole and entering the Humber estuary. The North York Moors are the catchment for a number of rivers: the Leven which flows north into the Tees between Yarm and Ingleby Barwick; the Esk flows east directly into the North Sea at Whitby as well as the Rye (which later becomes the Derwent at Malton) flows south into the River Ouse at Goole.
North Yorkshire contains a small section of green belt in the south of the county, which surrounds the neighbouring metropolitan area of Leeds along the North and West Yorkshire borders. It extends to the east to cover small communities such as Huby, Kirkby Overblow, and Follifoot before covering the gap between the towns of Harrogate and Knaresborough, helping to keep those towns separate.
The belt adjoins the southernmost part of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the Nidderdale AONB. It extends into the western area of Selby district, reaching as far as Tadcaster and Balne. The belt was first drawn up from the 1950s.
The city of York has an independent surrounding belt area affording protections to several outlying settlements such as Haxby and Dunnington, and it too extends into the surrounding districts.
North Yorkshire has a temperate oceanic climate, like most of the UK. There are large climate variations within the county. The upper Pennines border on a Subarctic climate. The Vale of Mowbray has an almost Semi-arid climate. Overall, with the county being situated in the east, it receives below-average rainfall for the UK. Inside North Yorkshire, the upper Dales of the Pennines are one of the wettest parts of England, where in contrast the driest parts of the Vale of Mowbray are some of the driest areas in the UK.
Summer temperatures are above average, at 22 °C. Highs can regularly reach up to 28 °C, with over 30 °C reached in heat waves. Winter temperatures are below average, with average lows of 1 °C. Snow and Fog can be expected depending on location. The North York Moors and Pennines have snow lying for an average of between 45 and 75 days per year. Sunshine is most plentiful on the coast, receiving an average of 1,650 hours a year. It reduces further west in the county, with the Pennines receiving 1,250 hours a year.
The county borders multiple counties and districts:
County Durham's County Durham, Darlington, Stockton (north Tees) and Hartlepool;
East Riding of Yorkshire's East Riding of Yorkshire;
South Yorkshire's City of Doncaster;
West Yorkshire's City of Wakefield, City of Leeds and City of Bradford;
Lancashire's City of Lancaster, Ribble Valley and Pendle
Cumbria's Westmorland and Furness.
The City of York Council and North Yorkshire Council formed the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority in February 2024. The elections for the first directly-elected mayor will take place in May 2024. Both North Yorkshire Council and the combined authority are governed from County Hall, Northallerton.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority was formed in 2016 by five unitary authorities; Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland Borough both of North Yorkshire, Stockton-on-Tees Borough (Uniquely for England, split between North Yorkshire and County Durham), Hartlepool Borough and Darlington Borough of County Durham.
In large areas of North Yorkshire, agriculture is the primary source of employment. Approximately 85% of the county is considered to be "rural or super sparse".
Other sectors in 2019 included some manufacturing, the provision of accommodation and meals (primarily for tourists) which accounted for 19 per cent of all jobs. Food manufacturing employed 11 per cent of workers. A few people are involved in forestry and fishing in 2019. The average weekly earnings in 2018 were £531. Some 15% of workers declared themselves as self-employed. One report in late 2020 stated that "North Yorkshire has a relatively healthy and diverse economy which largely mirrors the national picture in terms of productivity and jobs.
Mineral extraction and power generation are also sectors of the economy, as is high technology.
Tourism is a significant contributor to the economy. A study of visitors between 2013 and 2015 indicated that the Borough of Scarborough, including Filey, Whitby and parts of the North York Moors National Park, received 1.4m trips per year on average. A 2016 report by the National Park, states the park area gets 7.93 million visitors annually, generating £647 million and supporting 10,900 full-time equivalent jobs.
The Yorkshire Dales have also attracted many visitors. In 2016, there were 3.8 million visits to the National Park including 0.48 million who stayed at least one night. The parks service estimates that this contributed £252 million to the economy and provided 3,583 full-time equivalent jobs. The wider Yorkshire Dales area received 9.7 million visitors who contributed £644 million to the economy. The North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales are among England's best known destinations.
York is a popular tourist destination. A 2014 report, based on 2012 data, stated that York alone receives 6.9 million visitors annually; they contribute £564 million to the economy and support over 19,000 jobs. In the 2017 Condé Nast Traveller survey of readers, York rated 12th among The 15 Best Cities in the UK for visitors. In a 2020 Condé Nast Traveller report, York rated as the sixth best among ten "urban destinations [in the UK] that scored the highest marks when it comes to ... nightlife, restaurants and friendliness".
During February 2020 to January 2021, the average property in North Yorkshire county sold for £240,000, up by £8100 over the previous 12 months. By comparison, the average for England and Wales was £314,000. In certain communities of North Yorkshire, however, house prices were higher than average for the county, as of early 2021: Harrogate (average value: £376,195), Knaresborough (£375,625), Tadcaster (£314,278), Leyburn (£309,165) and Ripon (£299,998), for example.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added for North Yorkshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British pounds sterling.
Unemployment in the county was traditionally low in recent years, but the lockdowns and travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on the economy during much of 2020 and into 2021. The UK government said in early February 2021 that it was planning "unprecedented levels of support to help businesses [in the UK] survive the crisis". A report published on 1 March 2021 stated that the unemployment rate in North Yorkshire had "risen to the highest level in nearly 5 years – with under 25s often bearing the worst of job losses".
York experienced high unemployment during lockdown periods. One analysis (by the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership) predicted in August 2020 that "as many as 13,835 jobs in York will be lost in the scenario considered most likely, taking the city's unemployment rate to 14.5%". Some critics claimed that part of the problem was caused by "over-reliance on the booming tourism industry at the expense of a long-term economic plan". A report in mid June 2020 stated that unemployment had risen 114 per cent over the previous year because of restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic.
Tourism in the county was expected to increase after the restrictions imposed due the pandemic are relaxed. One reason for the expected increase is the airing of All Creatures Great and Small, a TV series about the vet James Herriot, based on a successful series of books; it was largely filmed within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The show aired in the UK in September 2020 and in the US in early 2021. One source stated that visits to Yorkshire websites had increased significantly by late September 2020.
The East Coast Main Line (ECML) bisects the county stopping at Northallerton,Thirsk and York. Passenger service companies in the area are London North Eastern Railway, Northern Rail, TransPennine Express and Grand Central.
LNER and Grand Central operate services to the capital on the ECML, Leeds Branch Line and the Northallerton–Eaglescliffe Line. LNER stop at York, Northallerton and on to County Durham or spur over to the Tees Valley Line for Thornaby and Middlesbrough. The operator also branch before the county for Leeds and run to Harrogate and Skipton. Grand Central stop at York, Thirsk Northallerton and Eaglescliffe then over to the Durham Coast Line in County Durham.
Northern operates the remaining lines in the county, including commuter services on the Harrogate Line, Airedale Line and York & Selby Lines, of which the former two are covered by the Metro ticketing area. Remaining branch lines operated by Northern include the Yorkshire Coast Line from Scarborough to Hull, York–Scarborough line via Malton, the Hull to York Line via Selby, the Tees Valley Line from Darlington to Saltburn via Middlesbrough and the Esk Valley Line from Middlesbrough to Whitby. Last but certainly not least, the Settle-Carlisle Line runs through the west of the county, with services again operated by Northern.
The county suffered badly under the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Places such as Richmond, Ripon, Tadcaster, Helmsley, Pickering and the Wensleydale communities lost their passenger services. Notable lines closed were the Scarborough and Whitby Railway, Malton and Driffield Railway and the secondary main line between Northallerton and Harrogate via Ripon.
Heritage railways within North Yorkshire include: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, between Pickering and Grosmont, which opened in 1973; the Derwent Valley Light Railway near York; and the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. The Wensleydale Railway, which started operating in 2003, runs services between Leeming Bar and Redmire along a former freight-only line. The medium-term aim is to operate into Northallerton station on the ECML, once an agreement can be reached with Network Rail. In the longer term, the aim is to reinstate the full line west via Hawes to Garsdale on the Settle-Carlisle line.
York railway station is the largest station in the county, with 11 platforms and is a major tourist attraction in its own right. The station is immediately adjacent to the National Railway Museum.
The main road through the county is the north–south A1(M), which has gradually been upgraded in sections to motorway status since the early 1990s. The only other motorways within the county are the short A66(M) near Darlington and a small stretch of the M62 motorway close to Eggborough. The other nationally maintained trunk routes are the A168/A19, A64, A66 and A174.
Long-distance coach services are operated by National Express and Megabus. Local bus service operators include Arriva Yorkshire, Stagecoach, Harrogate Bus Company, The Keighley Bus Company, Scarborough & District (East Yorkshire), Yorkshire Coastliner, First York and the local Dales & District.
There are no major airports in the county itself, but nearby airports include Teesside International (Darlington), Newcastle and Leeds Bradford.
The main campus of Teesside University is in Middlesbrough, while York contains the main campuses of the University of York and York St John University. There are also two secondary campuses in the county: CU Scarborough, a campus of Coventry University, and Queen's Campus, Durham University in Thornaby-on-Tees.
Colleges
Middlesbrough College's sixth-form
Askham Bryan College of agriculture, Askham Bryan and Middlesbrough
Craven College, Skipton
Middlesbrough College
The Northern School of Art, Middlesbrough
Prior Pursglove College
Redcar & Cleveland College
Scarborough Sixth Form College
Scarborough TEC
Selby College
Stockton Riverside College, Thornaby
York College
Places of interest
Ampleforth College
Beningbrough Hall –
Black Sheep Brewery
Bolton Castle –
Brimham Rocks –
Castle Howard and the Howardian Hills –
Catterick Garrison
Cleveland Hills
Drax Power Station
Duncombe Park – stately home
Eden Camp Museum –
Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway –
Eston Nab
Flamingo Land Theme Park and Zoo –
Helmsley Castle –
Ingleborough Cave – show cave
John Smith's Brewery
Jorvik Viking Centre –
Lightwater Valley –
Lund's Tower
Malham Cove
Middleham Castle –
Mother Shipton's Cave –
National Railway Museum –
North Yorkshire Moors Railway –
Ormesby Hall – Palladian Mansion
Richmond Castle –
Ripley Castle – Stately home and historic village
Riverside Stadium
Samuel Smith's Brewery
Shandy Hall – stately home
Skipton Castle –
Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications –
Studley Royal Park –
Stump Cross Caverns – show cave
Tees Transporter Bridge
Theakston Brewery
Thornborough Henges
Wainman's Pinnacle
Wharram Percy
York Castle Museum –
Yorkshire Air Museum –
The Yorkshire Arboretum
This frame is cropped 2,424 x 1,593 pixel image of the original 5,625 x 3,746 pixel, and this is comparable to a frame taken with an optics with focal length 900mm.
equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED, Reducer QE 0.73x, and Canon EOS 5Dmk2-sp2, modified by Seo san on Takahashi EM-200 Temma 2 Jr, autoguided with hiro-design off-axis guider, Starlightxpress Lodestar Autoguider, and PHD Guiding
exposure: 2 times x 30 minutes, 4 x 15 min, 5 x 4 min, and 5 x 1 minute at ISO 1,600 and f/3.6
site: 11,000 feet above sea level near Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii
Nonostante la restituzione di MIR la E483.319 non ha cambiato livrea (tolti solo i loghi).
Presa da DB Cargo eccola transitare da Brescia con un misto, probabilmente da Lonato.
German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3092. Photo: P.A.-C, Paris.
Sophie Desmarets (1922-2012) was a French stage, film and television actress. Desmarets played in several popular Sword and Dagger films during the late 1940s. In the following decades she played in dozens of comedies, both on stage and in films, and she also became a popular TV actress in her country.
Sophie Desmarets was born Jacqueline Desmarets in 1922 as the daughter of Bob Desmarets, director of the Vélodrome d'Hiver, creator of the cycling contest Les Six jours de Paris, and later pr-manager at the magazine L’Auto. When she was 16, the famous actor Louis Jouvet visited the house of her parents, set for sale. He remarked: 'Vous, vous avez un physique de théâtre. Si un jour vous voulez jouer, venez me voir."(You have a stage appearance. If you want to play, visit me). A few months after, Desmarets started acting classes at the Paris Conservatoire as an auditor, as well as classes at the Théâtre de l'Athénée where Louis Jouvet, Jean Meyer and Alfred Adam were teachers. When Jouvet went to Latin America, Desmarets became an auditor at the class of Madame Dussane, where she finally was admitted as an ordinary pupil, after being admitted to the Conservatoire in October 1941. Parallel she also followed the Cours René Simon and debuted on stage in 'Leonore de Sylva'. In June 1944 Desmarets won the Premier prix de comédie moderne when leaving the Conservatoire. She became a star at the Boulevard Theatre from 1945 on, in her performance in Armand Salacrou’s play 'Le Soldat et la sorcière', a historical comedy about the tumultuous affair between Marshal de Saxe and actress Justine Favart. She also performed in plays by André Roussin, Marcel Mithois, and in particular by her friends Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Grédy.
At the cinema, Sophie Desmarets debuted in Henri Decoin’s Premier Rendez-vous (1941), starring Danielle Darrieux. Decoin selected her from the pupils of Simon and gave her the small part of Henriette Lefranc. She was still credited with her original name. In 1942 she played her first substantial part in L’Homme qui joue avec le feu (Jean de Limur 1942), starring Ginette Leclerc. In the late 1940s Desmarets specialised in the Sword and Dagger genre, such as the film Le Capitan (Robert Vernay 1946), while on stage she played both in Molière’s 'Misanthrope' and a stage version of 'Ninotchka', previously a famous film with Garbo. She also played the loyal secretary of René Dary in 120 Rue de la gare (Jacques-Daniel Norman 1946), Baccarat in Rocambole (1948) and the sequel La revanche de Baccarat (1948) both by Jacques de Baroncelli and starring Pierre Brasseur. She was the love interest of Maurice Chevalier in the musical comedy Ma pomme (1950), the French mistress of Aldo Fabrizi in Luigi Zampa’s comedy Signori, in carrozza! (Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon 1951), and Rose Bertin in Si Paris nous était conté (Sacha Guitry 1956).
Sophie Desmarets' filmography counts dozens of B-pictures from the 1950s and 1960s, such as comedies with Jean Richard, Jean Poiret, Michel Serrault and Francis Blanche. In the same years Desmarets triumphed on stage with 'Fleur de cactus' (Cactus Flower) and after that 'Peau de vache' - in 1989 she would star in the TV version of Fleur de cactus. In 1962 Desmarets was a member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. In 1963 she debuted on TV in the title role of Madame Sans-Gêne. In the 1960s and 1970s, Sophie Desmarets’ popularity grew in particular because of her contributions to TV series and films. From around 1980 on, physical constraints forced her to reduce more and more her professional activities. In her last film performance in Fallait pas !... (Gérard Jugnot, 1996), she was the mother of Michèle Laroque. Sophie Desmarets married René Froissant in 1942. They had a daughter Catherine. In 1949 Desmarets divorced Froissant and married writer and film critic Jean de Baroncelli (1914-1998), son of filmmaker Jacques de Baroncelli. With him, she had a second daughter Caroline. Because of this marriage, she became Marquise de Baroncelli-Javon. Sophie Desmarets was Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Her memories were published in 2004 as 'Les mémoires de Sophie'. She died in her hometown Paris in 2012.
Sources: Vargen, Wikipedia (French) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The Austin Maestro may have been launched in 1983, but its beginnings go back to the mid-1970's when manufacturer British Leyland went bankrupt. Coming out of this financial stalling following a government bailout, the company wanted to design a world beating family hatchback to compete with Germany and France's array of modest motorcars. In spirit, designs for the Maestro first came about with 1975's Leyland Princess, after which the car takes its shape. The intention was to have this car replace the many old and outdated designs that were still on the market 10 years after their introduction, including the Morris Ital (a facelifted Marina), the Austin Maxi, the Austin Allegro and the descendant of the Princess itself the Austin Ambassador. After 6 years of development, the Maestro under project name LC10 (Leyland Cars) entered the market in 1983, reducing British Leyland's product range dramatically. The car had taken many leaves out of its replacement's books, mostly from the Austin Maxi, with a new R-Series engine developed from the original and the hatchback design, but sacrificed many of these to save on costs, including the scrapping of Hydragas suspension in favour of regular strut system. The car also had many endearing features including electronic engine management and plastic bumpers.
Initial reception was surprisingly positive for the Maestro, with motoring journalists admiring the car's roomy interior, comfortable drive and easy use. The car was launched also with a variety of optional models, including the top ranging Vanden Plas with a styled luxury interior (and thankfully no chrome nose), or the sporty MG Maestro with a 2.0L O-Series engine. Sales did get off to a bit of a good start, but immediately plummeted due to the unreliability of the hashed together R-Series engine that was hastily developed from the engine of the Austin Maxi. The result was that it would suffer heavily from premature crankshaft failure and hot starting problems. The flimsy dashboard was also a point of criticism due to its poorly built nature, making constant squeaking noises and rattling profusely. In 1985 these problems were addressed by the arrival of the Maestro City X, consisting of a new City X 1.3L engine and replacing the dashboard that of the similarly built Montego.
In 1986, British Leyland was sold and the Austin name was dropped, simply being dubbed the Maestro. However, sales were still falling rapidly due to the car's outdated design and poor reputation. From the 101,000 cars originally built in 1983, 1989 only saw 60,000 built, with new owners Rover Group looking once again for a replacement. With the introduction of the 1989 Rover 200, the Maestro was pushed back to being the entry-level car, and the car continued to sell poorly, with a majority of sales, like most British Leyland cars, being only in the UK.
However, 1989 did see the introduction of the MG Maestro EFi, which went on to become the fastest production hatchback in the world at 130mph. But this was not enough to save the MG Maestro which was discontinued in 1991. In that year alone the sales figures had dropped from 38,762 in 1990 to 18,450 in 1991. By 1993 however the car was selling simply for the fact it was cheap and economical, with no other redeeming factors keeping it truly afloat. Eventually in December 1994, the Maestro, after 11 years of construction, was brought to a close...
...for about 6 months.
Apparently the Maestro wasn't done yet, as a company in Bulgaria started building Maestro's out of left over kits from the original production run in September 1995, with 2,000 Bulgarian Maestros being built and sold in the UK at a dealership known as Apple 2000 in Bury St Edmunds. Most notoriously however, the most famous reincarnation of the Maestro has been from China, with the Etsong Lubao QE6400, which was built between 1998 and 2005, incorporating the nose of a Montego and the rear design of a Maestro. The result was a very strange hybrid that looked like it was permanently sinking due to the fact that a Montego is a much lower car than a Maestro. Even today, the underpinnings of the Maestro continue to live on in the Yema F12, which means even though production of the car started way back in 1983, it technically is still alive and very much kicking, but with a different body!
Today though the Maestro is a rare car to find, with most becoming victims of the Scrappage Scheme in the mid-2000's, where people could trade in their old car for scrap and receive either enough money to buy, or be allowed a choice of an equivalent car. Because of this, the Maestro's original 605,000 strong fleet has been reduced to just 1,012, and went on to become the 9th most scrapped car in Britain. For the MG Maestro, there are currently 169 left, 21 of which include Turbos.
For me though, the Maestro I always considered a nice car, it looks very happy, and many of my friend's parents owned them without much complaint, especially the later Rover models due to their more reliable nature. In the end though, I find the Maestro notorious because of the fact that in one form or another, this humble little family car that wasn't built to conquer the world isn't actually dead yet!
Although many people forget the MG Maestro, we were however reminded thanks once again to the endeavours of Top Gear! The first time an MG Maestro appeared on the show was when James May attempted to recreate the famous corkscrew jump made in the James Bond movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun' using an AMC Hornet. For some reason an MG Maestro was a perfect substitute for the Hornet (cost grounds I'm sure) and thus was driven by Top Gear Stuntman, being hurled through the air before smashing down and pirouetting on its ends several times before coming to rest in a mangled heap.
The 2nd time was on the 'Top Gear at the Movie's' special, where James and Top Gear Stuntman attempt to repeat the trick this time in a white Maestro, and this made all the difference as the car landed on all four wheels, despite the fact that it absolutely wrecked the rear right-hand axle upon landing!
But, in the infamous words of Jeremy Clarkson "That'll buff out!"
75x90 cm - Picture taken in my Art Gallery
What do we see here?
First of all: this art looks like ordinary painting done with a brush. It is not. It is a totaly different and complicate process. If you don´t know already how to make batik, please read the article below to understand the difference to our thinking about painting. The batik-artist doesn´t draw with colours, he draws with wax and the colouring is done by dipping the whole batik into the desired colour. Then removing the wax in boiling water and starting new for the next colour. And this so many times as the different colours in the finished batik. This takes month o finish. And you have to think opposit: you don´t draw the painting - you draw what will not be the painting!
That´s why this thousands of years old technic is declared as a
UNESCO Heritage Of Human Art.
You can see in his Batik Paintings elements of islamic art
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BATIK
Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to the whole cloth. This technique originated from the island of Java, Indonesia. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a canting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired.
Batik is an ancient art form of Indonesia made with wax resistant dye on fabrics. Indonesian coastal batik (batik pesisir) made in the island of Java has a history of acculturation, a mixture of native and foreign cultures. It is a newer model compared to inland batik, and it uses more colors, though the patterns are a lot less intricate. This is because inland batik used to be made by select experts living in palace areas, while coastal batik can be made by anyone.
Batik is very important to Indonesians and many people would wear it to formal or casual events. Batik is commonly used by Indonesians in various rituals, ceremonies, traditions, celebrations, and even in daily uses.
On October 2, 2009, UNESCO officially recognized the batik (written batik (batik tulis) and stamped batik (batik cap)) as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia, and encouraged the Indonesian people and the Indonesian government to safeguard, transmit, promote, and develop the craftsmanship of batik. Since then, Indonesia celebrates "the National Batik Day" (in Indonesian: Hari Batik Nasional) annually on October 2. Nowadays, Indonesians would wear batik in honor of this ancient tradition.
In the same year, UNESCO also recognized "Education and training in Indonesian Batik intangible cultural heritage for elementary, junior, senior, vocational school and polytechnic students, in collaboration with the Batik Museum in Pekalongan" as Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in Register of Good Safeguarding Practices List.
Batik is considered a cultural icon in modern Indonesia, where "National Batik Day" (in Indonesian: Hari Batik Nasional) is celebrated annually on October 2. Many Indonesians continue to wear batik on a daily basis for casual and formal occasions.
ETYMOLOY
The word batik is Javanese in origin. It comes from the Javanese ambatik that consist of amba means "wide" or "large", and tik or nitik means "dot" or "make a dot". The word bathikan also means "drawing" or "writing" in Javanese. When the word is absorbed to Malay (including both Indonesian and Malaysian standards), the "th-" sound is reduced to a "t-" sound more pronouncable to non-Javanese speakers.
The word batik is first recorded in English in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1880, in which it is spelled as battik. It is attested in the Indonesian Archipelago during the Dutch colonial period in various forms such as mbatik, mbatek, batik and batek. Batik known as euyeuk in Sundanese, cloth can be processed into a form of batik by a pangeyeuk (batik maker).
HISTORY
Batik is an ancient fabric wax-resist dyeing tradition of Java, Indonesia. The art of batik is most highly developed and some of the best batiks in the world still made there. In Java, all the materials for the process are readily available – cotton and beeswax and plants from which different vegetable dyes are made. Indonesian batik predates written records: G. P. Rouffaer argues that the technique might have been introduced during the 6th or 7th century from India or Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the Dutch archaeologist J.L.A. Brandes and the Indonesian archaeologist F.A. Sutjipto believe Indonesian batik is a native tradition, since several regions in Indonesia such as Toraja, Flores, and Halmahera which were not directly influenced by Hinduism, have attested batik making tradition as well.
The existence of the oldest Batik activities came from Ponorogo which was still called Wengker before the 7th century, the Kingdom in Central Java learned batik from Ponorogo. Because of this, Ponorogo batik is somewhat similar to batik circulating in Central Java, except that the batik produced by Ponorogo is generally dark black or commonly called batik irengan because it is close to magical elements. so that it was developed by the kingdoms in Central Java and Yogyakarta.
Based on the contents of the Sundanese Manuscript, Sundanese people have known about Batik since the 12th century. Based on ancient Sundanese manuscript Sanghyang Siksa Kandang Karesian written 1518 AD, it is recorded that Sundanese having batik which is identical and representative of Sundanese culture in general. Several motif are even noted in the text, based on those data sources the process of Batik Sundanese creation begins step by step.
Rouffaer reported that the gringsing pattern was already known by the 12th century in Kediri, East Java. He concluded that this delicate pattern could be created only by using the canting, an etching tool that holds a small reservoir of hot wax invented in Java around that time. The carving details of clothes worn by East Javanese Prajnaparamita statues from around the 13th century show intricate floral patterns within rounded margins, similar to today's traditional Javanese jlamprang or ceplok batik motif. The motif is thought to represent the lotus, a sacred flower in Hindu-Buddhist beliefs. This evidence suggests that intricate batik fabric patterns applied with the canting existed in 13th-century Java or even earlier. By the last quarter of the 13th century, the batik cloth from Java has been exported to Karimata islands, Siam, even as far as Mosul.
In Europe, the technique was described for the first time in the "History of Java", published in London in 1817 by Stamford Raffles, who had been a British governor of Bengkulu, Sumatra. In 1873 the Dutch merchant Van Rijckevorsel gave the pieces he collected during a trip to Indonesia to the ethnographic museum in Rotterdam. Today the Tropenmuseum houses the biggest collection of Indonesian batik in the Netherlands. The Dutch and Chinese colonists were active in developing batik, particularly coastal batik, in the late colonial era. They introduced new patterns as well as the use of the cap (copper block stamps) to mass-produce batiks. Displayed at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1900, the Indonesian batik impressed the public and artists.
In the 1920s, Javanese batik makers migrating to Malay Peninsula (present-day Malaysia, South Thailand, and southern tip of Myanmar) introduced the use of wax and copper blocks to its east coast.
In Subsaharan Africa, Javanese batik was introduced in the 19th century by Dutch and English traders. The local people there adapted the Javanese batik, making larger motifs with thicker lines and more colours. In the 1970s, batik was introduced to Australia, where aboriginal artists at Erna Bella have developed it as their own craft.
In Africa, it was originally practised by the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, Soninke and Wolof in Senegal.[20] This African version, however, uses cassava starch or rice paste, or mud as a resist instead of beeswax.
TECHNIQUES
Initially, batik making techniques only used "written batik" (batik tulis) techniques. This batik tulis is known as the original batik from generation to generation from the Indonesian nation's ancestors because the process and workmanship are still very traditional and manual. Then the technique developed with the discovery of the stamped batik (batik cap) technique which made batik work faster. The batik tulis and batik cap techniques are recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia because it still uses waxes in the making process.
WRITTEN BATIK (BATIK TULIS)
Written batik or batik tulis (Javanese script: ꦧꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠꦸꦭꦶꦱ꧀; Pegon: باتيق توليس) is made by writing wax liquid on the surface of the cloth with a tool called canting. Canting made of copper with a handle made of bamboo or wood. The making of hand-written batik takes approximately 1–3 months depending on the complexity and detail of batik. Because the working techniques are still traditional and manual, making hand-written batik takes longer and is more complicated than other batik techniques. In addition, the fundamental difference between written batik compared to other batik is that there are differences in each pattern, for example, a number of points or curved lines that are not the same because they are made manually by hand. This characteristic of hand-written batik makes hand-written batik more valuable and unique compared to other batiks.Written batik technique is the most complicated, smooth, and longest process to work with, so a piece of original batik tulis cloth is usually sold at a higher price. However, this is the advantage of batik with the written process, which is more exclusive because it is purely handmade. In Indonesia, premium hand-written batik clothes are usually only worn by certain people at special events, in the form of long-sleeved shirts or modern batik dresses. The batik motif in Indonesia has developed depending on its history and place of origin.
STAMPED BATIK (BATIK CAP)
Stamped batik or batik cap (Javanese script: ꦧꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦕꦥ꧀; Pegon: باتيق چڤ) is batik whose manufacturing process uses a stamp tool. This stamp tool is made of copper plates which form a batik motif on one of its surfaces. Stamp tool or canting cap is made by people who are experts in that field. Making batik with cap works the same way as using a stamp, but using waxes, not ink. This experience process is not easy to do. To make one piece of batik cloth, the process of deepening is carried out several times depending on the number of colors desired. Cap is used to replacing the canting function so that it can shorten the manufacturing time. Batik cap is produced from the process of dyeing a tool made of copper which has been shaped in such a way on the cloth. The batik cap motif is considered to have less artistic value because all the motifs are exactly the same. The price of printed batik is cheaper than written batik because it can be made en masse. The distinctive feature of batik cap can be seen from the repeating pattern and/or ornament motif. Historically, this batik cap process was discovered and popularized by the brethren as a solution to the limited capacity of batik production if it was only processed with hand-written techniques (batik tulis). The process of making this type of batik takes approximately 2–3 days. The advantages of batik cap are easier, faster batik processing, and the most striking of which is the more neat and repetitive motifs. While the drawbacks of batik cap include the mainstream design because it usually goes into mass production, in terms of art it looks stiffer and the motifs are not too detailed, and what is certain is the possibility of having the same batik as other people is greater.
PAINTED BATIK (BATIK TULIS)
Painted batik, batik painting, or batik lukis (Javanese script: ꦧꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦭꦸꦏꦶꦱ꧀; Pegon: باتيق لوكيس) is a technique of making batik by painting (with or without a pattern) on a white cloth using a medium or a combined medium like canting, brush, banana stalk, broomsticks, cotton, toothpicks, patchwork, or other media depending on the expression of a painter. Batik painting is the result of the development of batik art. The essence of batik painting is the process of making batik that does not use traditional motifs that are commonly found. The resulting motifs are the creation of the maker, usually producing contemporary (free) motifs or patterns with brighter, more striking colors, and more diverse color variations. The coloring in painted batik tends to be free and plays with many colors that are not often found in written batik (batik tulis). There are also gradation effects and other painting effects. The drawings are made as if painted batik is an ordinary painting poured on cloth using wax as the medium.
In principle, painted batik is almost the same way with written batik in the making process. Because of the development of classic written batik, painted batik still contains the same elements as written batik in the aspects of materials, processing, coloring, and highlighting (removing the wax). But there are also many differences due to the influence of modern painting, such as in terms of appearance, especially in motifs and colors. The most important thing in making painted batik is the combination of the batik work and coloring depending on the taste of the batik maker. Painted batik is popular because it has a very affordable price and a very creative manufacturing process. Painted batik can be used as decoration or ready-to-wear clothing (fashion). Painted batik which has human objects, landscapes, still objects, and other objects, are in high demand for display paintings.
MAKING PROCESS
The making of Indonesian batik is a labor-intensive process. The following are the stages in the process of making the original batik tulis cloth from the first steps to the last process: nyungging, njaplak, nglowong, ngiseni, nyolet, mopok, nembok, ngelir, nembok, the first nglorod, ngrentesi, nyumri, nyoja, and the second nglorod.
Firstly, a cloth is washed, soaked, and beaten with a large mallet. Patterns are drawn with pencil and later redrawn using hot wax, usually made from a mixture of paraffin or beeswax, sometimes mixed with plant resins, which functions as a dye-resist. The wax can be applied with a variety of tools. A pen-like instrument called a canting (Javanese pronunciation: [tʃantiŋ], sometimes spelled with old Dutch orthography tjanting) is the most common. A canting is made from a small copper reservoir with a spout on a wooden handle. The reservoir holds the resist which flows through the spout, creating dots and lines as it moves. For larger patterns, a stiff brush may be used.[38] Alternatively, a copper block stamp called a cap (Javanese pronunciation: [tʃap]; old spelling tjap) is used to cover large areas more efficiently.
After the cloth is dry, the resist is removed by boiling or scraping the cloth. The areas treated with resist keep their original colour; when the resist is removed the contrast between the dyed and undyed areas forms the pattern. This process is repeated as many times as the number of colours desired.
The most traditional type of batik, called written batik (batik tulis), is drawn using only the canting. The cloth needs to be drawn on both sides and dipped in a dye bath three to four times. The whole process may take up to a year; it yields considerably finer patterns than stamped batik (batik cap).
CULTURE
Batik is an ancient cultural element that is widespread in Indonesia. Making batik, in the sense of written batik, is not only a physical activity but has a deep dimension that contains prayer, hope, and lessons. Batik motifs in ancient Javanese society have a symbolic meaning and can be used as a means of communication for ancient Javanese people. The ancient Javanese community realized that through batik motifs the social stratification of society could be identified. Basically, the use of batik should not be arbitrary for both men and women because every element in Javanese clothing, especially batik, is always full of symbols and meanings.
Many Indonesian batik patterns are symbolic. Infants are carried in batik slings decorated with symbols designed to bring the child luck, and certain batik designs are reserved for brides and bridegrooms, as well as their families. Batik garments play a central role in certain Javanese rituals, such as the ceremonial casting of royal batik into a volcano. In the Javanese naloni mitoni ceremony, the mother-to-be is wrapped in seven layers of batik, wishing her good things. Batik is also prominent in the tedak siten ceremony when a child touches the earth for the first time. Specific pattern requirement are often reserved for traditional and ceremonial contexts.
TRADITIONAL COSTUME IN THE JAVANESE ROYAL PALACE
Batik is the traditional costume of the royal and aristocratic families in Java for many centuries until now. The use of batik is still sustainable and is a mandatory traditional dress in the rules of the Javanese palaces to this day. Initially, the tradition of making batik was considered a tradition that could only be practiced in the palace and was designated as the clothes of the king, family, and their followers, thus becoming a symbol of Javanese feudalism. Because many of the king's followers lived outside the palace, this batik art was brought by them outside the palace and carried out in their respective places. The batik motifs of each social class are differentiated according to social strata and nobility in the palace. The motifs of the Parang Rusak, semen gedhe, kawung, and udan riris are the batik motifs used by the aristocrats and courtiers in garebeg ceremonies, pasowanan, and welcoming honor guests. During the colonial era, Javanese courts issued decrees that dictated certain patterns to be worn according to a person's rank and class within the society. Sultan Hamengkubuwono VII, who ruled the Yogyakarta Sultanate from 1921 to 1939, reserved several patterns such as the Parang Rusak and Semen Agung for members of the Yogyakartan royalties and restricted commoners from wearing them.
TRADITIONAL DANCE COSTUMES
Batik is used for traditional dance performances in Java. Costume is one of the main things in presenting traditional Javanese dance. Kemben is a piece of cloth worn from the chest to the waist. Tapih is used to fasten the jarit of the dancers, it is decorated with a distinctive batik motif, and fastened with a stagen belt. Sampur is used by wrapping them around the dancer's body. This cloth is also known as Kancrik Prade which is usually dominated by yellow or red. Jarit is a subordinate, uses a long batik cloth. Some examples of Javanese dances include Bedhaya, Srimpi, Golek, Beksan, wayang wong, gambyong, and so on.
BIRTH CEREMONIES
In Javanese tradition, when a mother-to-be reaches her seventh month of pregnancy, a seven-month event or a mitoni ceremony will be held. One of the things that must be done in the ceremony is that the prospective mother must try on the seven kebayas and seven batik cloths. The batik used has rules and is not just any batik. Each batik cloth has a high philosophical value which is also a strand and hope for the Almighty so that the baby who is born has a good personality.
Prospective mothers must alternate wearing 6 batik cloths and 1 striated batik cloth. This batik substitution has a rule, that the last batik to be worn is the one with a simple motif. The motif rulers include:
Wahyu tumurun motif – This motif contains the hope that the baby will have a good position.
Cakar motif – This motif is expected to make the child diligent in seeking sustenance.
Udan liris motif – It is hoped that the child will have a tough character.
Kesatrian motif – It is hoped the child has a chivalrous nature.
Sidomukti motif – It is hoped that the child's life will be good and honorable.
Babon angrem motif – Motif depicting a hatchling hen, symbolizes the mother's love for her child.
Lurik lasem motif – The simplest motif. It has a philosophy that human life should be simple. There is also another philosophy, there are two lines in lurik lasem batik, namely the vertical line indicating the relationship between humans and God and the horizontal line indicating the relationship between humans and fellow humans.
WEDDING CEREMONIES
Every motif in classical Javanese batik always has its own meaning and philosophy, including for wedding ceremonies. Because each motif attached to Javanese batik has a different story and philosophy. In Javanese wedding ceremony, certain batik designs are reserved for brides and bridegrooms, as well as their families. Such as the truntum motif (flower motif in the shape of the sun) is used for midodareni ceremony (the procession of the night before the wedding ceremony, symbolizing the last night before the child separates from parents). This motif is also used during the panggih ceremony (the procession when the bride and groom meet after being secluded) by the parents of the bride and groom. The truntum motif means a symbol of love that never ends, when used by the parents of the bride and groom, it symbolizes the love of the parents for the child that never ends.
Some of the batik motifs that can be used for weddings are the grompol motif (hopefully the bride and groom will get a blessing and a bright future), Sidho asih motif (hopefully that the bride and groom will love each other), Sidho luhur motif (hopefully that the bride will have a noble and praiseworthy character), and ceker ayam motif (hopefully the bride and groom have the spirit of being married and given prosperity).
DEATH CEREMONIES (LURUB LAYON)
In Javanese society batik cloth is also used for death ceremonies, namely as a cover for the body or what is known as the lurub layon ceremony. The batik motif that symbolizes grief is the slobok motif. This batik motif symbolizes the hope that spirits will find it easy and smooth on their way to God. The word slobog is taken from the Javanese word lobok, which means loose. This motif is a geometric triangular shape that is usually black and white. The basic color of this batik is often black or brown with a natural dye which is often called soga.
In Madurese society, one of the batik motifs used for the cloth covering the corpse from generation to generation is the biren rice tompah motif. This biren leaf motif is filled with spilled rice using natural dyes. The washing also uses natural ingredients, squeezed papaya leaves.
FORMAL AND INFORMAL DAILY DRESS
Contemporary practice often allows people to pick any batik patterns according to one's taste and preference from casual to formal situations, and Batik makers often modify, combine, or invent new iterations of well-known patterns. Besides that, now batik has become a daily dress whether it is at work, school, or formal and non-formal events in Indonesia. Many young designers have started their fashion design work by taking batik as their inspiration for making clothes designs. The creativity of these young designers has given birth to various designs of batik clothes that are very elegant and meet the demands of a modern lifestyle.
In October 2009, UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. As part of the acknowledgment, UNESCO insisted that Indonesia preserve its heritage. The day, 2 October 2009 has been stated by Indonesian government as National Batik Day, as also at the time the map of Indonesian batik diversity by Hokky Situngkir was opened for public for the first time by the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology.
Study of the geometry of Indonesian batik has shown the applicability of fractal geometry in traditional designs.
PATTERNS AND MOTIVS
The popularity of batik in Indonesia has varied. Historically, it was essential for ceremonial costumes and it was worn as part of a kebaya dress, commonly worn every day. The use of batik was already recorded in the 12th century, and the textile has become a strong source of identity for Indonesians crossing religious, racial, and cultural boundaries. It is also believed the motif made the batik famous.
KAWUNG
The kawung motif originated in the city of Yogyakarta and comes in a variety of styles. The motif has a geometrically organized pattern of spheres that resembles the kawung fruit (palm fruit). This pattern is thought to also be a representation of a lotus flower with four blooming crown petals, representing purity. The geometrically organized kawung pattern is seen as a representation of authority in Javanese society. Power is symbolized by the dot in the center of the geometrically aligned ovals. This reflects the position of rulers being the center of authority, which may now be understood as a depiction of the relationship between the people and the government. Other kawung symbolisms are connected to wisdom, such as representing the ancient Javanese philosophy of life of sedulur papat lima pancer. As a result, it is intended signify human existence, in the hopes that a person would not forget their roots. The color scheme of the kawung batik pattern, which includes a combination of dark and bright hues represents human traits. As the kawung pattern is frequently regarded as a palm tree's fruit that is thought to be extremely beneficial for people, it is believed that whomever uses this motif would have a positive influence on the environment. Furthermore, the kawung batik motif is seen as a sign of power and justice. Since the Kawung motif is frequently associated with a symbolism of authority and has many philosophical meanings, it was formerly used only by the Javanese royal family. Over time, numerous influences such as colonization have influenced its exclusivity, enabling the kawung motif to be utilized by the general public.
PARANG
The word Parang comes from the word coral or rock. The motif depicts a diagonal line descending from high to low and has a slope of 45 degrees. The basic pattern is the letter S. The meaning of the parang motif can be interpreted in two ways. Some speculate this theme is derived from the pattern of the sword worn by knights and kings when fighting. Others say Panembahan Senapati designed the pattern while watching the South Sea waves crash against the beach's rocks, with the ocean waves symbolizing the center of natural energy, or the king. The parang motif's oblique construction is also a sign of strength, greatness, authority, and speed of movement. The parang motif, like the kawung design, is a batik larang as it is exclusively worn by the monarch and his relatives. The size of the parang motif also represents the wearer's position in the royal family's hierarchy.[68] The parang pattern has many variations, each of which has its own meaning and is allocated to a certain member of the royal family based on their rank. Barong, rusak, gendreh, and klithik are some variations of the parang motif. In general, the motif is meant to represent a person's strong will and determination. It also represents a strong relationship and bond, both in terms of efforts to improve oneself, efforts to fight for prosperity, as well as forms of family ties. Since members of the royal family are the only ones who may wear the parang motif, the parang batik is often passed down among generations.
MEGA MENDUNG
The mega mendung pattern has become a symbol of the city of its origin, Cirebon, due to its widespread popularity. The entrance of the Chinese traders is credited with the birth of the mega mendung motif. The motif is formed like a cloud, representing nirvana and the transcendental notion of divinity in Chinese culture. In another variant, the inspiration for this motif came from someone having seen a cloud reflected in a puddle of water while the weather was overcast. Mega mendung motifs must have a seven color gradations. The motif's name means "the sky will rain", and the motif's seven color gradations are supposed to represent the seven layers of the sky. The term mendung, which means "cloudy", is used in the pattern's name to represent patience. This means humans should not be quick to anger and should exercise patience even when confronted with emotional events. The cloud's structure should also be consistent, as the direction must be horizontal rather than vertical. The clouds must also be flat, as the cloud's purpose is to shield those beneath it from the scorching sun. As a result, the mega mendung design communicates that leaders must protect their people.
TUJUH RUPA
This pattern originates in Pekalongan and is the product of a fusion of Indonesian and Chinese cultures. Ceramic ornaments from China are frequently used in the Tujuh Rupa motif. However, the embellishments on these motifs sometimes include brilliantly colored ornaments of natural elements such as animals and plants. The Tujuh Rupa motifs signifies ancestral ties and to represent gentleness and compassion. The motifs portrayed frequently represent aspects of coastal people's life, such as their ability to adapt to other cultures.
TRUNTUM
The Truntum pattern was developed by Kanjeng Ratu Kencana (Queen Sunan Paku Buwana III) in the years 1749-1799 as a symbol of true, unconditional, and eternal love. It embodies a hope that as love becomes stronger, it will become more fruitful. Truntum comes from the word nuntun (guide). According to legend, Kanjeng Ratu Kencana's spouse disregarded her because he was preoccupied with his new concubine. She was inspired to design a batik with a truntum motif shaped like a star after looking up at the clear, star-studded sky. The king subsequently discovered the Queen creating the lovely pattern, and his feelings for her grew stronger with each passing day. Furthermore, the truntum pattern represents loyalty and devotion. The parents of the bride and groom usually use this motif on the wedding day. The hope is that the bride and groom would experience such steadfast love.
SOGAN
As the coloring technique of this Soga motif employs natural dyes extracted from the trunk of the soga tree, the batik motif is therefore known as Sogan. Traditional Sogan batik is a kind of batik unique to the Javanese Keraton, specifically Keraton Yogyakarta and Keraton Solo. The traditional Keraton patterns are generally followed by this Sogan motifs.The colors of Sogan Yogya and Solo are what differentiates the two Sogan motif variations from each other. Yogya sogan motifs are predominantly dark brown, black, and white, whereas Solo sogan motifs are often orange-brown and brown. The Sogan motif uses five primary colors to represent the human nature: black, red, yellow, white, and green are the five colors. The color black is used to represent worldliness, while red represents anger, yellow represents desire, and white represents righteousness. Brown, on the other hand, is a hue associated with solemnity and the distinctiveness of the Javanese culture, which places a strong emphasis on the inner self as a means of expression and impression. Furthermore, the color brown can be viewed as a symbol of modesty and humility, signifying a closeness to nature, which in turn implies a connection to the people.
LASEM
Lasem batik is a form of coastal batik that developed through a cross-cultural exchange between native Javanese batik that were influenced by the Keraton motif and the incorporation of foreign cultural aspects, particularly Chinese culture. Therefore, the Lasem Batik has a distinct look and is rich in Chinese and Javanese cultural subtleties. The Lasem motif is distinguished by its distinctive red hue, known as getih pitik or 'chicken blood'.[83] This is not to imply it is coloured with chicken blood, but in the past, the dye powder, which was generally imported from Europe, was combined with Lasem water to turn it crimson. Even if it is close to the traditional Lasem hue, the red colour is now a little different. The Lasem motif comes in many variations, but the most common is that of China's famed Hong bird. The origin of the motif started when Admiral Cheng Ho's crew member Bi Nang Un is reported to have moved to Central Java with his wife Na Li Ni, where she learnt to create batik motifs. Na Li Ni is credited as being the first to use dragon designs, hong birds, Chinese money, and the color red in batik. As a result, the Lasem patterns and colors have symbolic connotations linked to Chinese and Javanese philosophy, resulting in the motif carrying a meaning of unity and a representation of Chinese and Javanese acculturation.
SIDOMUKTI
The Sidomukti batik motif is a Surakarta, Central Java-based motif. The Sidomulyo motif has been developed into this motif, whereby Paku Buwono IV altered the backdrop of the white Sidomulyo batik motif to the ukel motif, which was eventually dubbed the Sidomukti batik motif. This batik design is a kind of Keraton batik produced using natural soga dyes. On Sidomukti batik cloth, the color of soga or brown is the traditional batik colour. The term Sidomukti comes from the word Sido, which means "to become" or "accepted", and "mukti", which means "noble", "happy", "powerful", "respected", and "prosperous". As a result, the Sidomukti motif represents the desire to achieve inner and external happiness, or for married couples, the hope of a bright and happy future for the bride and groom. The Sidomukti motifs are made up of various ornaments with different meanings and philosophies. A butterfly is the main ornament of this motif. Enlightenment, liberty, and perfection are all associated with this ornamentation. Furthermore, the butterfly represents beauty, great aspirations, and a brighter future. The Singgasana ornament, also known as the throne ornament, is the second ornament. This ornament is meant to important positions, implying that the person who wears it will ascend in rank and status. It is also envisioned that the individual would be recognized and appreciated by a large number of people. The Meru ornament, often known as mountain ornaments, is the third ornament. Meru is defined as a lofty mountain top where the gods live in Javanese Hindu tradition. Because the Meru ornament represents grandeur, magnificence, and firmness, it represents a want for the wearer to be successful. The flower ornament is the last ornament, and it is intended to represent beauty. This ornament represents the hope for something wonderful in life that is sturdy and substantial to hang on to, despite the numerous challenges that may arise.
SIDOMULYO
The Sidomulyo batik motif dates back to the Kartasura Mataram period, when Sultan Pakubuwono IV changed the pattern's base with isen-isen ukel. The Sidomulyo pattern is a type of Keraton batik, and originates from Surakarta, Central Java.[90] Sido means "to become" or "accepted" in Javanese, whereas mulyo means "noble”. During the wedding ceremony, a bride and groom generally wear a batik fabric with the Sidomulyo motif in the hope that the family would thrive in the future. Because the Sidomulyo and Sidolmukti batik motifs are essentially the same with the only difference being the minor color variations, the ornamentations and meanings of the two motifs are the same.
SEKAR JAGAD
The Sekar Jagad motif has been popular since the 18th century. The name Sekar Jagad is derived from the words kaart, meaning map in Dutch, and Jagad, meaning means world in Javanese, as the pattern resembles a map when viewed from above. As a result, Batik Sekar Jagad is intended to depict the beauty and diversity of the world's various ethnic groups. There are also others who claim that the Sekar Jagad motif is derived from the Javanese words sekar (flower) and jagad (world), as the motif could also symbolize the beauty of the flowers that are spread all over the world. The existence of curving lines matching the shape of islands that are adjacent to each other is one of the features of the Sekar Jagad motif, making it look like a map. This motif is distinct in that it is irregularly patterned, as opposed to other batik motifs that have a repeating pattern. The Sekar Jagad motif itself is also characterized by the presence of isen-isen in the island shaped lines of the motif that contains various motifs such as kawung, truntum, slopes, flora and fauna and others.
TERMINOLOGY
Batik is traditionally sold in 2.25-metre lengths used for kain panjang or sarong. It is worn by wrapping it around the hip, or made into a hat known as blangkon. The cloth can be filled continuously with a single pattern or divided into several sections.
Certain patterns are only used in certain sections of the cloth. For example, a row of isosceles triangles, forming the pasung motif, as well as diagonal floral motifs called dhlorong, are commonly used for the head. However, pasung and dhlorong are occasionally found in the body. Other motifs such as buketan (flower bouquet) and birds are commonly used in either the head or the body.
The head is a rectangular section of the cloth which is worn at the front. The head section can be at the middle of the cloth, or placed at one or both ends. The papan inside of the head can be used to determine whether the cloth is kain panjang or sarong.
The body is the main part of the cloth, and is filled with a wide variety of patterns. The body can be divided into two alternating patterns and colours called pagi-sore ('dawn-dusk'). Brighter patterns are shown during the day, while darker pattern are shown in the evening. The alternating colours give the impression of two batik sets.
Margins are often plain, but floral and lace-like patterns, as well as wavy lines described as a dragon, are common in the area beside seret.
TYPES
As each region has its own traditional pattern, batiks are commonly distinguished by the region they originated in, such as batik Solo, batik Yogyakarta, batik Pekalongan, and batik Madura. Batiks from Java can be distinguished by their general pattern and colours into batik pedalaman (inland batik) or batik pesisiran (coastal batik).[9] Batiks which do not fall neatly into one of these two categories are only referred to by their region. A mapping of batik designs from all places in Indonesia depicts the similarities and reflects cultural assimilation within batik designs.
JAVANESE BATIK
INLAND BATIK (BATIK PEDALAMAN)
Inland batik, batik pedalaman or batik kraton (Javanese court batik) is the oldest form of batik tradition known in Java. Inland batik has earthy colour[96] such as black, indigo, brown, and sogan (brown-yellow colour made from the tree Peltophorum pterocarpum), sometimes against a white background, with symbolic patterns that are mostly free from outside influence. Certain patterns are worn and preserved by the royal courts, while others are worn on specific occasions. At a Javanese wedding for example, the bride wears specific patterns at each stage of the ceremony. Noted inland batiks are produced in Solo and Jogjakarta, cities traditionally regarded as the centre of Javanese culture. Batik Solo typically has sogan background and is preserved by the Susuhunan and Mangkunegaran Court. Batik Jogja typically has white background and is preserved by the Yogyakarta Sultanate and Pakualaman Court.
COASTAL BATIK (BATIK PESISIRAN)
Coastal batik or batik pesisiran is produced in several areas of northern Java and Madura. In contrast to inland batik, coastal batiks have vibrant colours and patterns inspired by a wide range of cultures as a consequence of maritime trading.[96] Recurring motifs include European flower bouquets, Chinese phoenix, and Persian peacocks. Noted coastal batiks are produced in Pekalongan, Cirebon, Lasem, Tuban, and Madura. Pekalongan has the most active batik industry.
A notable sub-type of coastal batik called Jawa Hokoka is not attributed to a particular region. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in early 1940, the batik industry greatly declined due to material shortages. The workshops funded by the Japanese however were able to produce extremely fine batiks called Jawa Hokokai. Common motifs of Hokokai includes Japanese cherry blossoms, butterflies, and chrysanthemums.
Another coastal batik called tiga negeri (batik of three lands) is attributed to three regions: Lasem, Pekalongan, and Solo, where the batik would be dipped in red, blue, and sogan dyes respectively. As of 1980, batik tiga negeri was only produced in one city.
BLACKSTYLE BATIK (BATIK IRENGAN)
"Black-style Batik" or "Irengan batik" is batik with an average black background, this is because Ponorogo has always had activities that are close to magical practices, so most irengan batik from Ponorogo is used as a black magic ritual, Dutch people know batik irengan this with gothic batik.
SUNDANESE BATIK
There are several types of batik that come from Sundanese land.
PARAHYANGAN BATIK
Sundanese or Parahyangan Batik is the term for batik from the Parahyangan region of West Java and Banten. Although Parahyangan batiks can use a wide range of colours, a preference for indigo is seen in some of its variants. Natural indigo dye made from Indigofera is among the oldest known dyes in Java, and its local name tarum has lent its name to the Citarum river and the Tarumanagara kingdom, which suggests that ancient West Java was once a major producer of natural indigo. Noted Parahyangan batik is produced in Ciamis, Garut, and Tasikmalaya. Other traditions include Batik Kuningan influenced by batik Cirebon, batik Banten that developed quite independently, and an older tradition of batik Baduy.
BANTENESE BATIK
Bantenese batik employs bright pastel colours and represents a revival of a lost art from the Sultanate of Banten, rediscovered through archaeological work during 2002–2004. Twelve motifs from locations such as Surosowan and several other places have been identified. It is said that tribal people used to wear it.
BADUY BATIK
Baduy batik only employs indigo colour in shades ranged from bluish black to deep blue. It is traditionally worn as iket, a type of Sundanese headress similar to Balinese udeng, by Outer Baduy people of Lebak Regency, Banten.
MALAY BATIK
Trade relations between the Melayu Kingdom in Jambi and Javanese coastal cities have thrived since the 13th century. Therefore, coastal batik from northern Java probably influenced Jambi. In 1875, Haji Mahibat from Central Java revived the declining batik industry in Jambi. The village of Mudung Laut in Pelayangan district is known for producing batik Jambi. Batik Jambi, as well as Javanese batik, influenced the Malaysian batik.
The batik from Bengkulu, a city on west coast of Sumatra, is called batik besurek, which literary means "batik with letters" as they draw inspiration from Arabic calligraphy.
MINANGKABAU BATIK
The Minangkabau people also produce batik called batiak tanah liek (clay batik), which use clay as dye for the fabric. The fabric is immersed in clay for more than one day and later designed with motifs of animal and flora.
BALINESE BATIK
Batik making in the island of Bali is relatively new, but a fast-growing industry. Many patterns are inspired by local designs, which are favoured by the local Balinese and domestic tourists. Objects from nature such as frangipani and hibiscus flowers, birds or fishes, and daily activities such as Balinese dancer and ngaben processions or religious and mythological creatures such as barong, kala and winged lion are common. Modern batik artists express themselves freely in a wide range of subjects.
Contemporary batik is not limited to traditional or ritual wearing in Bali. Some designers promote Balinese batik as an elegant fabric that can be used to make casual or formal cloth. Using high class batik, like hand made batik tulis, can show social status.
POPULARITY
The batik industry of Java flourished from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, but declined during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. With increasing preference of western clothing, the batik industry further declined following the Indonesian independence. Batik has somewhat revived at the turn of the 21st century, through the efforts of Indonesian fashion designers to innovate batik by incorporating new colors, fabrics, and patterns. Batik has become a fashion item for many Indonesians, and may be seen on shirts, dresses, or scarves for casual wear; it is a preferred replacement for jacket-and-tie at certain receptions. Traditional batik sarongs are still used in many occasions.
After the UNESCO recognition for Indonesian batik on 2 October 2009, the Indonesian administration asked Indonesians to wear batik on Fridays, and wearing batik every Friday has been encouraged in government offices and private companies ever since. 2 October is also celebrated as National Batik Day in Indonesia. Batik had helped improve the small business local economy, batik sales in Indonesia had reached Rp 3.9 trillion (US$436.8 million) in 2010, an increase from Rp 2.5 trillion in 2006. The value of batik exports, meanwhile, increased from $14.3 million in 2006 to $22.3 million in 2010.
Batik is popular in the neighboring countries of Singapore and Malaysia. It is produced in Malaysia with similar, but not identical, methods to those used in Indonesia. Batik is featured in the national airline uniforms of the three countries, represented by batik prints worn by flight attendants of Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and Malaysian Airlines. The female uniform of Garuda Indonesia flight attendants is a modern interpretation of the Kartini style kebaya with parang gondosuli motifs.
BATIK MUSEUMS
Indonesia as the origin and paradise of batik has several museums that store various types of batik cloth that are hundreds of years old and a collection of equipment for batik that is still well preserved and maintained. Here are some museums in Indonesia that hold various types of batik collections:
MUSEUM BATIK KERATON YOGYAKARTA
Museum Batik Keraton Yogyakarta is located inside the Palace of Yogyakarta Sultanate, Yogyakarta. The museum which was inaugurated by Sultan Hamengku Buwono X on 31 October 2005 has thousands of batik collections. Some of batik collections here include kawung, semen, gringsing, nitik, cuwiri, parang, barong, grompol, and other motifs.
These batik collections come from different eras, from the era of Sultan Hamengkubuwono VIII to Sultan Hamengkubuwono X. The batik collections come from gifts from sultans, batik entrepreneurs, and batik collectors. Not only batik, visitors can also see equipment for making batik, raw materials for dyes, irons, sculptures, paintings, and batik masks. Unlike other museums in the Yogyakarta Palace complex, the Batik Museum management does not allow visitors to bring in cameras. This is in order to protect the batik from being photographed by irresponsible people, to then imitate the motive. This museum is part of a tour package offered by the Yogyakarta Palace. Open every day from 08.00–13.30 WIB, on Fridays at 08.00–13.00 WIB, and closes at the palace ceremony day.
MUSEUM BATIK YOGYAKARTA
Museum Batik Yogyakarta is located at Jalan Dr. Sutomo 13A, Bausasran, Yogyakarta. This museum is managed by the married couple Hadi and Dewi Nugroho. On 12 May 1977, this museum was inaugurated by the Yogyakarta Special Region Regional Office of P&K. This museum occupies an area of 400 m2 and is also used as the owner's residence. In 2000, this museum received an award from MURI for the work 'The Biggest Embroidery', batik measuring 90 x 400 cm2. Then in 2001, this museum received another award from MURI as the initiator of the establishment of the first Embroidery Museum in Indonesia. This museum holds more than 1,200 batik collections consisting of 500 pieces of written batik, 560 stamped batik, 124 canting (batik tools), and 35 pans and coloring materials, including wax. Its excellent collection consists of various batik fabrics from the 18th to early 19th centuries in the form of long cloths and sarongs. Other collections include batik by Van Zuylen and Oey Soe Tjoen, as well as batik made in the 1700s. Yogyakarta Batik Museum also provides batik training for visitors who want to learn to make batik, which results can be taken home. The museum is open every Monday to Saturday at 09.00–15.00.
MUSEUM BATIK PEKALONGAN
Museum Batik Pekalongan is located at Jalan Jetayu No.1, Pekalongan, Central Java. This museum has 1.149 batik collections, including batik cloth, hundreds of years old of batik wayang beber, and traditional weaving tools. Museum Batik Pekalongan maintains a large collection of old to modern batik, both those from coastal areas, inland areas, other areas of Java, and batik from various regions in Nusantara such as from Sumatra, Kalimantan, Papua, and batik technique type fabrics from abroad.
Not only displaying batik collections, but Museum Batik Pekalongan is also a batik training center and a batik learning center. Students and general visitors can learn to make batik or do research on batik culture. The museum opens every day from 08.00 to 15.00.
Museum Batik Danar Hadi is located on Jalan Slamet Riyadi, Solo City (Surakarta), Central Java. The museum, which was founded in 1967, offers the best quality batik collections from various regions such as the original Javanese Batik Keraton, Javanese Hokokai batik (batik influenced by Japanese culture), coastal batik (Kudus, Lasem, and Pekalongan), Sumatran batik, and various types of batik. This museum has a collection of batik cloth reaching 1000 pieces and has been recognized by MURI (Indonesian Record Museum) as the museum with the largest collection of batik. Visitors can see the process of making batik and can even take part in batik making workshop in person. Museum Batik Danar Hadi is open every day from 09:00 WIB in the morning to 16:30 WIB in the afternoon.
MUSEUM BATIK INDONESIA
Museum Batik Indonesia which is located in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), Cipayung, Jakarta is divided into six areas, namely the area of introduction, treasures, batik techniques, forms, and types of decoration, development of the batik world and the gallery of fame. Visitors can also enjoy the hundreds of batik motifs available in this place. The museum opens every day at 07.00 AM–10.00 PM.
MUSEUM TEKSTIL JAKARTA
Museum Tekstil Jakarta is located on Jalan KS Tubun No. 4, Petamburan, West Jakarta. On June 28, 1976, this building was inaugurated as a textile museum by Mrs. Tien Soeharto (First Lady at that time) witnessed by Mr. Ali Sadikin as the Governor of DKI Jakarta. The initial collections collected at the Textile Museum were obtained from donations from Wastraprema (about 500 collections), then further increased through purchases by the Museum and History Service, as well as donations from the community, both individually and in groups. Until now, the Textile Museum's collection was recorded at 1.914 collections.
The batik gallery is designed to showcase a number of ancient batik and batik developments (contemporary) from time to time. The batik gallery itself is the embryo of the National Batik Museum which is managed by the Indonesian Batik Foundation and the Jakarta Textile Museum. The museum opens on Tuesday–Sunday at 09.00–15.00.
Batik outside Indonesia
MALAYSIA
The origin of batik production in Malaysia it is known trade relations between the Melayu Kingdom in Jambi and Javanese coastal cities have thrived since the 13th century, the northern coastal batik producing areas of Java (Cirebon, Lasem, Tuban, and Madura) has influenced Jambi batik. This Jambi (Sumatran) batik, as well as Javanese batik, has influenced the batik craft in the Malay peninsula.
Dr. Fiona Kerlogue of the Horniman museum argued that the Malaysian printed wax textiles, made for about a century, are a different tradition from traditional Indonesian batik. The method of producing Malaysian batik is different, as the patterns are larger and simpler with only occasional use of the canting for intricate patterns. It relies heavily on brush painting to apply colours to fabrics. The colours also tend to be lighter and more vibrant than deep coloured Javanese batik. The most popular motifs are leaves and flowers. Malaysian batik often displays plants and flowers to avoid the interpretation of human and animal images as idolatry, in accordance with local Islamic doctrine.
INDIA
Indians are known to use resist method of printing designs on cotton fabrics, which can be traced back 2,000 years.[when?][citation needed] Initially, wax and even rice starch were used for printing on fabrics. Until recently batik was made only for dresses and tailored garments, but modern batik is applied in numerous items, such as murals, wall hangings, paintings, household linen, and scarves, with livelier and brighter patterns. Contemporary batik making in India is also done by the Deaf women of Delhi, these women are fluent in Indian Sign Language and also work in other vocational programs.
SRI LANKA
Over the past century, batik making in Sri Lanka has become firmly established. The batik industry in Sri Lanka is a small scale industry which can employ individual design talent and mainly deals with foreign customers for profit. It is now the most visible of the island's crafts with galleries and factories, large and small, having sprung up in many tourist areas. Rows of small stalls selling batiks can be found all along Hikkaduwa's Galle Road strip. Mahawewa, on the other hand, is famous for its batik factories.
CHINA
Batik is done by the ethnic people in the South-West of China. The Miao, Bouyei and Gejia people use a dye resist method for their traditional costumes. The traditional costumes are made up of decorative fabrics, which they achieve by pattern weaving and wax resist. Almost all the Miao decorate hemp and cotton by applying hot wax then dipping the cloth in an indigo dye. The cloth is then used for skirts, panels on jackets, aprons and baby carriers. Like the Javanese, their traditional patterns also contain symbolism, the patterns include the dragon, phoenix, and flowers.
AFRICA
Although modern history would suggest that the batik was introduced to Africa by the Dutch (especially in South Africa), the batik making process has been practiced in Africa long before the arrival of the colonial powers.[citation needed] One of the earlier sightings are to be found in Egypt, where batik-like material used in the embalming of mummies. The most developed resist-dyeing skills are to be found in Nigeria where the Yoruba make adire cloths. Two methods of resist are used: adire eleso which involves tied and stitched designs and adire eleko that uses starch paste. The paste is most often made from cassava starch, rice, and other ingredients boiled together to produce a smooth thick paste. The Yoruba of West Africa use cassava paste as a resist while the Soninke and Wolof people in Senegal uses rice paste. The Bamana people of Mali use mud as a resist. Batik was worn as a symbol of status, ethnic origin, marriage, cultural events, etc.
The African wax prints (Dutch wax prints) was introduced during the colonial era, through Dutch's textile industry's effort to imitate the batik making process. The imitation was not successful in Europe, but experienced a strong reception in Africa instead. Nowadays batik is produced in many parts of Africa and it is worn by many Africans as one of the symbols of culture.
Nelson Mandela was a noted wearer of batik during his lifetime. Mandela regularly wore patterned loose-fitting shirt to many business and political meetings during 1994–1999 and after his tenure as President of South Africa, subsequently dubbed as a Madiba shirt based on Mandela's Xhosa clan name. There are many who claim the Madiba shirt's invention. But in fact, according to Yusuf Surtee, a clothing-store owner who supplied Mandela with outfits for decades, said the Madiba design is based on Mandela's request for a shirt similar to Indonesian president Suharto's batik attire.
WIKIPEDIA
Millennium Bridge, taken looking towards Tate Modern.
This is my later version used in the club panel for Croydon Centenary Trophy 2016.
Previously a print I 'burned in' the top left-hand corner as Roger Force, our recent print competition judge, suggested. It seems he was correct! I also reduced the clarity a little to soften the rim lighting on some of the figures.
Winter doesn’t mess with the Lower Mainland all too often. But when it does, our maintenance efforts go beyond the standard plowing and sanding of highways. Our attention is also drawn skyward to the cables on the Alex Fraser Bridge and Port Mann Bridge.
Snow and ice can build up around the cables that support the bridges, becoming a safety hazard to traffic below if left to freeze, melt and potentially fall. To combat the risk, we developed cable collar systems as a mitigation measure to reduce snow and ice forming and falling.
How it Works
During a winter event, Rope Access Technicians (affectionately known as RATS) release the collars from the top of the cables – manually by rope access on the Alex Fraser Bridge, or remotely, as is the case with the Port Mann Bridge. The collars, which are basically chains that fit around the bridge cables, remove snow and ice as they move down the length of the cables. Think of the collars as specially-designed scrapers. It takes a collar under a minute to travel to the bottom of the cable; times vary due to the different lengths of the cables.
+++ 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 G.91Y was an increased-performance version of the Fiat G.91 funded by the Italian government. Based on the G.91T two-seat trainer variant, the single Bristol Orpheus turbojet engine of this aircraft was replaced by two afterburning General Electric J85 turbojets which increased thrust by 60% over the single-engine variant. Structural modifications to reduce airframe weight increased performance further and an additional fuel tank occupying the space of the G.91T's rear seat provided extra range. Combat manoeuvrability was improved with the addition of automatic leading edge slats. The avionics equipment of the G.91Y was considerably upgraded with many of the American, British and Canadian systems being license-manufactured in Italy.
Flight testing of three pre-production aircraft was successful, with one aircraft reaching a maximum speed of Mach 0.98. Airframe buffeting was noted and was rectified in production aircraft by raising the position of the tailplane slightly.
An initial order of 55 aircraft for the Italian Air Force was completed by Fiat in March 1971, by which time the company had changed its name to Aeritalia (from 1969, when Fiat aviazione joined the Aerfer). The order was increased to 75 aircraft with 67 eventually being delivered. In fact, the development of the new G.91Y was quite long, and the first order was for about 20 pre-series examples that followed the two prototypes. The first pre-series 'Yankee' (the nickname of the new aircraft) flew in July 1968.
AMI (Italian Air Force) placed orders for two batches, 35 fighters followed by another 20, later cut to ten. The last one was delivered around mid 1976, so the total was two prototypes, 20 pre-series and 45 series aircraft. No immediate export success followed, though, and the Italian G.91Ys’ service lasted until the early '90s as attack/recce machines, both over ground and sea, until the AMX replaced them until 1994.
However, upon retirement some G.91Ys were still in good condition and the airframes had still some considerable flight hours left, so that about thirty revamped aircraft were put up for sale from 1992 onwards. At the same time, Poland was undergoing a dramatic political change. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Eastern European country immediately turned its political attention westward, including the prospects of joining NATO. The withdrawal of Russian forces based in Poland and partly obsolete military equipment of the Polish forces themselves led to a procurement process from 1991 onwards, which, among others, included a replacement for the Polish MiG-17 (domestic Lim-5, Lim-6 and Lim-6bis types), which had been operated by both Polish air force and navy since the late Sixties, primarily as fighter bombers in their late career, but also for reconnaissance tasks.
The G.91Y appeared, even though a vintage design, to be a suitable replacement option, since its performance envelope and the equipment outfit with three cameras in the nose made it a perfect package – and the price tag was not big, either. Especially the Polish Navy showed much interest, and after 10 months of negotiations Poland eventually bought 22 G.91Y from Italy, plus five G.91T two-seaters for conversion training, which were delivered between June 1993 and April 1994.
For the new operator the machines only underwent minor modifications. The biggest change was the addition of wirings and avionics for typical Polish Air Force ordnance, like indigenous MARS-2 pods for 16 unguided 57mm S-5 missiles, iron bombs of Russian origin of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, SUU-23-2 gun pods as well as R-3 and R-60 missiles (which were very similar to the Western AIM-9 Sidewinder and actually date back to re-engineered specimen obtained by the USSR during the Korea war!). All machines were concentrated at Gdynia-Babie Doły in a newly founded, dedicated fighter bomber of the 1 Naval Aviation Squadron, which also operated MiG-21 fighters and PZL Iskra trainers. The Polish G.91Ys, nicknamed “Polski Fiat” by their crews (due to their compact size and overall simplicity, in reminiscence of the very popular, locally license-built Fiat 126), not only replaced the vintage MiG-17 types and some Polish Navy MiG-21 fighters, but also the handful of MiG-15UTI trainer veterans which were still used by the Polish Navy for observation duties over the Baltic Sea.
When Poland joined NATO on 12 March 1999, the G.91Ys (18 were still in service, plus all five trainers) received another major overhaul, a new low-visibility paint scheme, and they were updated with avionics that ensured inter-operability with other NATO forces, e .g. a GPS positioning sensor in a small, dorsal hump fairing. In 2006, when deliveries of 48 F-16C/D fighters to Poland started, the G.91Ys were to be retired within 12 months. But problems with the F-16s’ operability kept the G.91Y fleet active until 2011, when all aircraft were grounded and quickly scrapped.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 11.67 m (38 ft 3.5 in)
Wingspan: 9.01 m (29 ft 6.5 in)
Height: 4.43 m (14 ft 6.3 in)
Wing area: 18.13 m² (195.149 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,900 kg (8,598 lb)
Loaded weight: 7,800 kg (17,196 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,700 kg (19,180 lb)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric J85-GE-13A turbojets, 18.15 kN (4,080 lbf) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,110 km/h (600 kn, 690 mph, Mach 0.95) at 10,000 m (33,000 ft)
Range: 1,150 km (621 nmi, 715 mi)
Max. ferry range with drop tanks: 3,400 km (2,110 mls)
Service ceiling: 12,500 m (41,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 86.36 m/s (17,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 480 kg/m² (98.3 lb/ft² (maximum)
Thrust/weight: 0.47 at maximum loading
Armament:
2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons with 120 RPG
4× under-wing pylon stations with a capacity of 1,814 kg (4,000 lb)
The kit and its assembly:
This whiffy Yankee Gina was inspired by a profile that had popped up during WWW picture search a while ago. Tracking it back, I found it to be artwork created and posted at DeviantArt by user “Jeremak-J”, depicting a G.91Y in polish markings and sporting a two-tone grey camouflage with light blue undersides and a medium waterline. I found the idea bizarre, but attractive, and, after some research, I found a small historic slot that might have made this “combo” possible.
When I recently delved through my (growing…) kit pile I came across a Matchbox G.91Y in a squashed box and with a cracked canopy – and decided to use that kit for a personal Polish variant.
The Matchbox G.91Y bears light and shadow galore. While it is IIRC the only IP kit of this aircraft, it comes with some problem areas. The fit of any major kit component is mediocre and the cockpit tub with an integral seat-thing is …unique. But the overall shape is IMHO quite good – a typical, simple Matchbox kit with a mix of (very fine) raised and engraved panel lines.
The OOB canopy could not be saved, but I was lucky to find a replacement part in the spares box – probably left over from the first G.91Y I built in the early Eighties. While the donor part had to be stripped from paint and was quite yellowed from age, it saved the kit.
It was built almost OOB, since major changes would not make sense in the context of my background story of a cheap 2nd hand purchase for an air force on a lean budget. I just added some details to the cockpit and changed the ordnance, using missile pods and iron bombs of Soviet origin (from a Kangnam/Revell Yak-38).
The exhausts were drilled open, because OOB these are just blank covers, only 0.5 mm deep! Inside, some afterburners were simulated (actually main wheels from an Arii 1:100 VF-1).
The flaps were lowered and extended, which is easy to realize on this kit.
The clumsy, molded guns were cut away, to be later replaced with free-standing, hollow steel needles.
In order to add some more exterior detail I also scratched the thin protector frames around the nozzles with thin wire.
Since the replacement canopy looked quite old and brittle, I did not dare cutting the clear part in two, so that the cockpit remained closed, despite the effort put into the interior.
A personal extra is the pair of chaff/flare dispensers on the rear fuselage, reminiscent of Su-22 installations.
Painting and markings:
The inspiring profile was nice, but I found it to be a bit fishy. The depicted tactical code format would IMHO not be plausible for the aircraft’s intended era, and roundels on the fuselage flanks would also long have gone in the Nineties. Therefore, I rather looked at real world benchmarks from the appropriate time frame for my Polish Gina’s livery, even though I wanted to stay true to the artist’s original concept, too.
One direction to add more plausibility was the scheme that Polish Su-22 fighter bombers received during their MLU, changing the typical tactical camouflage in up to four hues of green and brown into a much more subdued two tone grey livery with lighter, bluish-grey undersides, combined with toned-down markings like tactical codes in white outlines only. Some late MiG-21s also received this type of livery, and at least one Polish Fishbed instructional airframe received white low-viz national insignia.
For the paint scheme itself I used the MiG-21 pattern as benchmark (found in the Planes & Pilots MiG-21 book) and adapted it to the G.91Y as good as possible. The tones were a little difficult to define – some painting instructions recommend FS 36118 (US Gunship Grey) for the dark upper grey tone, but this is IMHO much too murky. Esp. on the Su-22s, the two upper greys show only little contrast, and the lower grey does not stand out much against the upper tones, either. On the other side, I found a picture of a real-life MiG-21U trainer in the new grey scheme, and the contrast between the grey on the upper surfaces appeared much stronger, with the light grey even having a brownish hue. Hmpf.
As a compromise I settled for FS 36173 (F-15E Dark Grey) and 36414 (Flint Grey). For the undersides I went for FS 35414 (Blue Green), which comes close to the typical Soviet underside blue, but it is brighter.
After basic painting, the kit received a light black ink wash and subtle post-shading, mostly in order to emphasize single panels, less for a true weathering effect.
The cockpit was painted in Dark Gull Grey (Humbrol 140), with a light blue dashboard and a black ejection seat. The OOB pilot was used and received an olive drab suit with a light grey helmet, modern and toned down like the aircraft itself. The landing gear as well as the air intake interior were painted in different shades of aluminum.
The decals were, as so often, puzzled together from various sources. The interesting, white-only Polish roundels come from a Mistercraft MiG-21. I also added them to the upper wing surfaces – this is AFAIK not correct, but without them I found the model to look rather bleak. Under the wings, full color insignia were used, though. The English language “Navy” markings on the fuselage might appear odd, but late MiG-21s in Polish Navy service actually had this operator designation added to their spines!
The typical, tactical four-digit code consists of markings for Italian Tornados, taken from two different Italeri sheets. The squadron emblem on the fin came from a Mistercraft Su-22, IIRC.
Most stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, some of them were replaced with white alternatives, though, in order to keep a consistent overall low-viz look.
Finally the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
An interesting result. Even though this Polish Gina is purely fictional, the model looks surprisingly convincing, and the grey low-viz livery actually suits the G.91Y well.
Surgeonfish schooling offers various benefits, including predator avoidance, increased foraging efficiency, and potentially better access to food resources. Schooling can also provide energy-saving advantages through synchronized swimming and enhanced predator detection. However, schooling can also lead to increased competition among individuals, potentially reducing feeding rates, especially within conspecific groups (AI Overview).
Picture was taken in Misool - Raja Ampat, Indonesia.
These are my favorite objects in the constellation of Orion. The horse has creamy-white mane.
I tried ISO 1,600 of EOS 5Dmk2, and the result was nice. Stars got obviously smaller than those taken at ISO 6,400, though I needed to expose longer by four times. I tried new cover of the mirror in my off-axis guider, and the result was rather worse than ever. It made long spikes from bright stars near the mirror. I suspect it due to the thin edge of the black paper cover. I will try another cover made of a razor blade and black sponge.
equipment: FSQ-106ED and Reducer QE 0.73x and EOS 5Dmk2-sp2 by Seo san on EM-200 temma 2Jr. autoguided with hiro-design off-axis guider, Starlight Xpress Lodestar autoguider, and PHD Guiding.
exposure: 9 times x 15 minutes, 3 x 8 min, 5 x 4 min, 6 x 1 minute
location: a dark site at 4,000 feet above sea level in Nagano, 2 hour drive from home in Tokyo
This is the frame of the region taken with EOS 5D without mod. on Mauna Loa in January 2008.
Robert Harper, a builder and millwright from Philadelphia, was engaged by a group of Quakers in 1747 to erect a meeting house in the Shenandoah Valley near the present site of Winchester, VA. Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper proceeded to "The Hole" where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. Attracted by the ample water power and strategic location for travel and transport, Harper obtained a patent for 125 acres in 1751. Twelve years later, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harper's Ferry."
The convergence here of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Winchester & Potomac Railroad, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in the mid-1830s inaugurated an era of economic and industrial growth that lasted until the Civil War. Trains and boats reduced travel time from days to hours and served as avenues for local commerce. German and Irish laborers, who helped to build the railroad and canal, later settled in the area and diversified the local culture. The ferry service operated by Robert Harper in the mid-1700s became obsolete as bridges spanned the rivers. Even George Washington promoted commerce in the region as first president of the Patowmack Company, which was formed in 1785 to permit boats of "shallow draft" to navigate the Potomac River. Today, only the railroad remains as an active reminder of the town's rich transportation heritage. The photo in the comment below shows the 1894 steel truss bridge rising above the piers of the B&O Bollman Truss bridge of 1850.
The Civil War had a profound and disastrous effect on Harpers Ferry, leaving a path of destruction that wrecked the town's economy and forced many residents to depart forever. Because of the town's strategic location on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, Union and Confederate troops moved through Harpers Ferry frequently. The town changed hands eight times between 1861 and 1865.
equipment: Takahashi FSQ-106ED, Reducer QE 0.73x, and Canon EOS 5Dmk2-sp2, modified by Seo-san on Takahashi EM-200 Temma 2 Jr, autoguided with hiro-design off-axis guider, SX Lodestar, and PHD Guiding
exposure: 4 times x 1 hour, 5 x 15 minutes, 4 x 4 min, and 7 x 1 minute at ISO 1,600 and f/3.6
site: 11,00 feet above sea level near Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii
After my little break to Florida, it's back to the regularly scheduled program. Strong winds, blowing snow, and running long hood forward mean reduced visibility for the crew of the RRVW 2053 as they roll west of Olivia with covered hoppers of fertilizer for the co-op in Danube.
Yellowstone National Park (Arapaho: Henihco'oo or Héetíhco'oo) is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.
Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.
Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.
The park is located at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it takes its historical name. Near the end of the 18th century, French trappers named the river "Roche Jaune", which is probably a translation of the Hidatsa name "Mi tsi a-da-zi" (Rock Yellow River). Later, American trappers rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone". Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Native American name source is not clear.
The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake. The members of the Folsom party kept a journal and based on the information it reported, a party of Montana residents organized the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1870. It was headed by the surveyor-general of Montana Henry Washburn, and included Nathaniel P. Langford (who later became known as "National Park" Langford) and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt. Gustavus Doane.
The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens and naming sites of interest. A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a national park; he wrote a number of detailed articles about his observations for the Helena Herald newspaper between 1870 and 1871. Hedges essentially restated comments made in October 1865 by acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, who had previously commented that the region should be protected. Others made similar suggestions. In an 1871 letter from Jay Cooke to Ferdinand V. Hayden, Cooke wrote that his friend, Congressman William D. Kelley had also suggested "Congress pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever".
By 1915, 1,000 automobiles per year were entering the park, resulting in conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. Horse travel on roads was eventually prohibited.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds and the current system of park roads.
During World War II, tourist travel fell sharply, staffing was cut, and many facilities fell into disrepair. By the 1950s, visitation increased tremendously in Yellowstone and other national parks. To accommodate the increased visitation, park officials implemented Mission 66, an effort to modernize and expand park service facilities. Planned to be completed by 1966, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, Mission 66 construction diverged from the traditional log cabin style with design features of a modern style. During the late 1980s, most construction styles in Yellowstone reverted to the more traditional designs. After the enormous forest fires of 1988 damaged much of Grant Village, structures there were rebuilt in the traditional style. The visitor center at Canyon Village, which opened in 2006, incorporates a more traditional design as well.
A large arch made of irregular-shaped natural stone over a road
The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake just west of Yellowstone at Hebgen Lake damaged roads and some structures in the park. In the northwest section of the park, new geysers were found, and many existing hot springs became turbid. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in recorded history.
In 1963, after several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. In a paper known as the Leopold Report, the committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended management of Yellowstone's elk population.
The wildfires during the summer of 1988 were the largest in the history of the park. Approximately 793,880 acres (321,272 ha; 1,240 sq mi) or 36% of the parkland was impacted by the fires, leading to a systematic re-evaluation of fire management policies. The fire season of 1988 was considered normal until a combination of drought and heat by mid-July contributed to an extreme fire danger. On "Black Saturday", August 20, 1988, strong winds expanded the fires rapidly, and more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) burned.
The expansive cultural history of the park has been documented by the 1,000 archeological sites that have been discovered. The park has 1,106 historic structures and features, and of these Obsidian Cliff and five buildings have been designated National Historic Landmarks. Yellowstone was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a UN World Heritage Site on September 8, 1978. The park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1995 to 2003 due to the effects of tourism, infection of wildlife, and issues with invasive species. In 2010, Yellowstone National Park was honored with its own quarter under the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
Heritage and Research Center
The Heritage and Research Center is located at Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to the park. The center is home to the Yellowstone National Park's museum collection, archives, research library, historian, archeology lab, and herbarium. The Yellowstone National Park Archives maintain collections of historical records of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. The collection includes the administrative records of Yellowstone, as well as resource management records, records from major projects, and donated manuscripts and personal papers. The archives are affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. Another three percent is within Montana, with the remaining one percent in Idaho. The park is 63 miles (101 km) north to south, and 54 miles (87 km) west to east by air. Yellowstone is 2,219,789 acres (898,317 ha; 3,468.420 sq mi) in area, larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware. Rivers and lakes cover five percent of the land area, with the largest water body being Yellowstone Lake at 87,040 acres (35,220 ha; 136.00 sq mi). Yellowstone Lake is up to 400 feet (120 m) deep and has 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline. At an elevation of 7,733 feet (2,357 m) above sea level, Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America. Forests comprise 80 percent of the land area of the park; most of the rest is grassland.
The Continental Divide of North America runs diagonally through the southwestern part of the park. The divide is a topographic feature that separates Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean water drainages. About one third of the park lies on the west side of the divide. The origins of the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. As a result, the waters of the Snake River flow to the Pacific Ocean, while those of the Yellowstone find their way to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.
The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. The plateau is bounded on nearly all sides by mountain ranges of the Middle Rocky Mountains, which range from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,700 to 3,400 m) in elevation. The highest point in the park is atop Eagle Peak (11,358 feet or 3,462 metres) and the lowest is along Reese Creek (5,282 feet or 1,610 metres). Nearby mountain ranges include the Gallatin Range to the northwest, the Beartooth Mountains in the north, the Absaroka Range to the east, and the Teton Range and the Madison Range to the southwest and west. The most prominent summit on the Yellowstone Plateau is Mount Washburn at 10,243 feet (3,122 m).
Yellowstone National Park has one of the world's largest petrified forests, trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials. This ash and other volcanic debris, are believed to have come from the park area itself. This is largely due to the fact that Yellowstone is actually a massive caldera of a supervolcano. There are 290 waterfalls of at least 15 feet (4.6 m) in the park, the highest being the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 feet (94 m).
Three deep canyons are located in the park, cut through the volcanic tuff of the Yellowstone Plateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years. The Lewis River flows through Lewis Canyon in the south, and the Yellowstone River has carved two colorful canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone in its journey north.
Yellowstone is at the northeastern end of the Snake River Plain, a great U-shaped arc through the mountains that extends from Boise, Idaho some 400 miles (640 km) to the west. This feature traces the route of the North American Plate over the last 17 million years as it was transported by plate tectonics across a stationary mantle hotspot. The landscape of present-day Yellowstone National Park is the most recent manifestation of this hotspot below the crust of the Earth.
The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 km) long, 18 miles (29 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 km³) of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly five eighths of a mile (1 km) deep and 45 by 28 miles (72 by 45 km) in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 588 cubic miles (2,450 km³) of volcanic material and created the rock formation known as the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and created the Island Park Caldera. A smaller eruption ejected 67 cubic miles (280 km³) of material 1.3 million years ago, forming the Henry's Fork Caldera and depositing the Mesa Falls Tuff.
Each of the three climactic eruptions released vast amounts of ash that blanketed much of central North America, falling many hundreds of miles away. The amount of ash and gases released into the atmosphere probably caused significant impacts to world weather patterns and led to the extinction of some species, primarily in North America.
Wooden walkways allow visitors to closely approach the Grand Prismatic Spring.
A subsequent caldera-forming eruption occurred about 160,000 years ago. It formed the relatively small caldera that contains the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. Since the last supereruption, a series of smaller eruptive cycles between 640,000 and 70,000 years ago, has nearly filled in the Yellowstone Caldera with >80 different eruptions of rhyolitic lavas such as those that can be seen at Obsidian Cliffs and basaltic lavas which can be viewed at Sheepeater Cliff. Lava strata are most easily seen at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where the Yellowstone River continues to carve into the ancient lava flows. The canyon is a classic V-shaped valley, indicative of river-type erosion rather than erosion caused by glaciation.
Each eruption is part of an eruptive cycle that climaxes with the partial collapse of the roof of the volcano's partially emptied magma chamber. This creates a collapsed depression, called a caldera, and releases vast amounts of volcanic material, usually through fissures that ring the caldera. The time between the last three cataclysmic eruptions in the Yellowstone area has ranged from 600,000 to 800,000 years, but the small number of such climactic eruptions cannot be used to make an accurate prediction for future volcanic events.
The most famous geyser in the park, and perhaps the world, is Old Faithful Geyser, located in Upper Geyser Basin. Castle Geyser, Lion Geyser and Beehive Geyser are in the same basin. The park contains the largest active geyser in the world—Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year. Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 geothermal features altogether. Half the geothermal features and two-thirds of the world's geysers are concentrated in Yellowstone.
In May 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah created the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), a partnership for long-term monitoring of the geological processes of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, for disseminating information concerning the potential hazards of this geologically active region.
In 2003, changes at the Norris Geyser Basin resulted in the temporary closure of some trails in the basin. New fumaroles were observed, and several geysers showed enhanced activity and increasing water temperatures. Several geysers became so hot that they were transformed into purely steaming features; the water had become superheated and they could no longer erupt normally. This coincided with the release of reports of a multiple year United States Geological Survey research project which mapped the bottom of Yellowstone Lake and identified a structural dome that had uplifted at some time in the past. Research indicated that these uplifts posed no immediate threat of a volcanic eruption, since they may have developed long ago, and there had been no temperature increase found near the uplifts. On March 10, 2004, a biologist discovered 5 dead bison which apparently had inhaled toxic geothermal gases trapped in the Norris Geyser Basin by a seasonal atmospheric inversion. This was closely followed by an upsurge of earthquake activity in April 2004. In 2006, it was reported that the Mallard Lake Dome and the Sour Creek Dome— areas that have long been known to show significant changes in their ground movement— had risen at a rate of 1.5 to 2.4 inches (3.8 to 6.1 cm) per year from mid–2004 through 2006. As of late 2007, the uplift has continued at a reduced rate. These events inspired a great deal of media attention and speculation about the geologic future of the region. Experts responded to the conjecture by informing the public that there was no increased risk of a volcanic eruption in the near future. However, these changes demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Yellowstone hydrothermal system.
Yellowstone experiences thousands of small earthquakes every year, virtually all of which are undetectable to people. There have been six earthquakes with at least magnitude 6 or greater in historical times, including a 7.5‑magnitude quake that struck just outside the northwest boundary of the park in 1959. This quake triggered a huge landslide, which caused a partial dam collapse on Hebgen Lake; immediately downstream, the sediment from the landslide dammed the river and created a new lake, known as Earthquake Lake. Twenty-eight people were killed, and property damage was extensive in the immediate region. The earthquake caused some geysers in the northwestern section of the park to erupt, large cracks in the ground formed and emitted steam, and some hot springs that normally have clear water turned muddy. A 6.1‑magnitude earthquake struck inside the park on June 30, 1975, but damage was minimal.
For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes were detected in the northwestern section of the park, during what has been referred to as an earthquake swarm, and has been attributed to minor subsidence of the Yellowstone caldera. Beginning on April 30, 2007, 16 small earthquakes with magnitudes up to 2.7 occurred in the Yellowstone Caldera for several days. These swarms of earthquakes are common, and there have been 70 such swarms between 1983 and 2008. In December 2008, over 250 earthquakes were measured over a four-day span under Yellowstone Lake, the largest measuring a magnitude of 3.9. In January 2010, more than 250 earthquakes were detected over a two-day period. Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park continues and is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.
On March 30, 2014, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck almost the very middle of Yellowstone near the Norris Basin at 6.34am; reports indicated no damage. This was the biggest earthquake to hit the park since February 22, 1980.
Over 1,700 species of trees and other vascular plants are native to the park. Another 170 species are considered to be exotic species and are non-native. Of the eight conifer tree species documented, Lodgepole Pine forests cover 80% of the total forested areas. Other conifers, such as Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir and Whitebark Pine, are found in scattered groves throughout the park. As of 2007, the whitebark pine is threatened by a fungus known as white pine blister rust; however, this is mostly confined to forests well to the north and west. In Yellowstone, about seven percent of the whitebark pine species have been impacted with the fungus, compared to nearly complete infestations in northwestern Montana. Quaking Aspen and willows are the most common species of deciduous trees. The aspen forests have declined significantly since the early 20th century, but scientists at Oregon State University attribute recent recovery of the aspen to the reintroduction of wolves which has changed the grazing habits of local elk.
There are dozens of species of flowering plants that have been identified, most of which bloom between the months of May and September. The Yellowstone Sand Verbena is a rare flowering plant found only in Yellowstone. It is closely related to species usually found in much warmer climates, making the sand verbena an enigma. The estimated 8,000 examples of this rare flowering plant all make their home in the sandy soils on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, well above the waterline.
In Yellowstone's hot waters, bacteria form mats of bizarre shapes consisting of trillions of individuals. These bacteria are some of the most primitive life forms on earth. Flies and other arthropods live on the mats, even in the middle of the bitterly cold winters. Initially, scientists thought that microbes there gained sustenance only from sulfur. In 2005 researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that the sustenance for at least some of the diverse hyperthermophilic species is molecular hydrogen.
Thermus aquaticus is a bacterium found in the Yellowstone hot springs that produces an important enzyme (Taq polymerase) that is easily replicated in the lab and is useful in replicating DNA as part of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process. The retrieval of these bacteria can be achieved with no impact to the ecosystem. Other bacteria in the Yellowstone hot springs may also prove useful to scientists who are searching for cures for various diseases.
Non-native plants sometimes threaten native species by using up nutrient resources. Though exotic species are most commonly found in areas with the greatest human visitation, such as near roads and at major tourist areas, they have also spread into the backcountry. Generally, most exotic species are controlled by pulling the plants out of the soil or by spraying, both of which are time consuming and expensive.
Yellowstone is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. There are almost 60 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the threatened lynx, and grizzly bears. Other large mammals include the bison (often referred to as buffalo), black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.
Bison graze near a hot spring
The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the largest public herd of American bison in the United States. The relatively large bison populations are a concern for ranchers, who fear that the species can transmit bovine diseases to their domesticated cousins. In fact, about half of Yellowstone's bison have been exposed to brucellosis, a bacterial disease that came to North America with European cattle that may cause cattle to miscarry. The disease has little effect on park bison, and no reported case of transmission from wild bison to domestic livestock has been filed. However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has stated that bison are the "likely source" of the spread of the disease in cattle in Wyoming and North Dakota. Elk also carry the disease and are believed to have transmitted the infection to horses and cattle. Bison once numbered between 30 and 60 million individuals throughout North America, and Yellowstone remains one of their last strongholds. Their populations had increased from less than 50 in the park in 1902 to 4,000 by 2003. The Yellowstone Park bison herd reached a peak in 2005 with 4,900 animals. Despite a summer estimated population of 4,700 in 2007, the number dropped to 3,000 in 2008 after a harsh winter and controversial brucellosis management sending hundreds to slaughter. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Henry Mountains bison herd of Utah, at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and on Elk Island in Alberta.
Elk Mother Nursing Her Calf
To combat the perceived threat of brucellosis transmission to cattle, national park personnel regularly harass bison herds back into the park when they venture outside of the area's borders. During the winter of 1996–97, the bison herd was so large that 1,079 bison that had exited the park were shot or sent to slaughter. Animal rights activists argue that this is a cruel practice and that the possibility for disease transmission is not as great as some ranchers maintain. Ecologists point out that the bison are merely traveling to seasonal grazing areas that lie within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that have been converted to cattle grazing, some of which are within National Forests and are leased to private ranchers. APHIS has stated that with vaccinations and other means, brucellosis can be eliminated from the bison and elk herds throughout Yellowstone.
A reintroduced northwestern wolf in Yellowstone National Park
Starting in 1914, in an effort to protect elk populations, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to be used for the purposes of "destroying wolves, prairie dogs, and other animals injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry" on public lands. Park Service hunters carried out these orders, and by 1926 they had killed 136 wolves, and wolves were virtually eliminated from Yellowstone. Further exterminations continued until the National Park Service ended the practice in 1935. With the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the wolf was one of the first mammal species listed. After the wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone, the coyote then became the park's top canine predator. However, the coyote is not able to bring down large animals, and the result of this lack of a top predator on these populations was a marked increase in lame and sick megafauna.
Bison in Yellowstone National Park
By the 1990s, the Federal government had reversed its views on wolves. In a controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which oversees threatened and endangered species), northwestern wolves, imported from Canada, were reintroduced into the park. Reintroduction efforts have been successful with populations remaining relatively stable. A survey conducted in 2005 reported that there were 13 wolf packs, totaling 118 individuals in Yellowstone and 326 in the entire ecosystem. These park figures were lower than those reported in 2004 but may be attributable to wolf migration to other nearby areas as suggested by the substantial increase in the Montana population during that interval. Almost all the wolves documented were descended from the 66 wolves reintroduced in 1995–96. The recovery of populations throughout the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho has been so successful that on February 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population from the endangered species list.
An estimated 600 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with more than half of the population living within Yellowstone. The grizzly is currently listed as a threatened species, however the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that they intend to take it off the endangered species list for the Yellowstone region but will likely keep it listed in areas where it has not yet recovered fully. Opponents of delisting the grizzly are concerned that states might once again allow hunting and that better conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure a sustainable population. Black bears are common in the park and were a park symbol due to visitor interaction with the bears starting in 1910. Feeding and close contact with bears has not been permitted since the 1960s to reduce their desire for human foods. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States where black bears can be seen coexisting with grizzly bears. Black bear observations occur most often in the park's northern ranges and in the Bechler area which is in the park's southwestern corner.
Population figures for elk are in excess of 30,000—the largest population of any large mammal species in Yellowstone. The northern herd has decreased enormously since the mid‑1990s; this has been attributed to wolf predation and causal effects such as elk using more forested regions to evade predation, consequently making it harder for researchers to accurately count them. The northern herd migrates west into southwestern Montana in the winter. The southern herd migrates southward, and the majority of these elk winter on the National Elk Refuge, immediately southeast of Grand Teton National Park. The southern herd migration is the largest mammalian migration remaining in the U.S. outside of Alaska.
In 2003 the tracks of one female lynx and her cub were spotted and followed for over 2 miles (3.2 km). Fecal material and other evidence obtained were tested and confirmed to be those of a lynx. No visual confirmation was made, however. Lynx have not been seen in Yellowstone since 1998, though DNA taken from hair samples obtained in 2001 confirmed that lynx were at least transient to the park. Other less commonly seen mammals include the mountain lion and wolverine. The mountain lion has an estimated population of only 25 individuals parkwide. The wolverine is another rare park mammal, and accurate population figures for this species are not known. These uncommon and rare mammals provide insight into the health of protected lands such as Yellowstone and help managers make determinations as to how best to preserve habitats.
Eighteen species of fish live in Yellowstone, including the core range of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout—a fish highly sought by anglers. The Yellowstone cutthroat trout has faced several threats since the 1980s, including the suspected illegal introduction into Yellowstone Lake of lake trout, an invasive species which consume the smaller cutthroat trout. Although lake trout were established in Shoshone and Lewis lakes in the Snake River drainage from U.S. Government stocking operations in 1890, it was never officially introduced into the Yellowstone River drainage. The cutthroat trout has also faced an ongoing drought, as well as the accidental introduction of a parasite—whirling disease—which causes a terminal nervous system disease in younger fish. Since 2001, all native sport fish species caught in Yellowstone waterways are subject to a catch and release law. Yellowstone is also home to six species of reptiles, such as the painted turtle and Prairie rattlesnake, and four species of amphibians, including the Boreal Chorus Frog.
311 species of birds have been reported, almost half of which nest in Yellowstone. As of 1999, twenty-six pairs of nesting bald eagles have been documented. Extremely rare sightings of whooping cranes have been recorded, however only three examples of this species are known to live in the Rocky Mountains, out of 385 known worldwide. Other birds, considered to be species of special concern because of their rarity in Yellowstone, include the common loon, harlequin duck, osprey, peregrine falcon and the trumpeter swan.
As wildfire is a natural part of most ecosystems, plants that are indigenous to Yellowstone have adapted in a variety of ways. Douglas-fir have a thick bark which protects the inner section of the tree from most fires. Lodgepole Pines —the most common tree species in the park— generally have cones that are only opened by the heat of fire. Their seeds are held in place by a tough resin, and fire assists in melting the resin, allowing the seeds to disperse. Fire clears out dead and downed wood, providing fewer obstacles for lodgepole pines to flourish. Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Whitebark Pine, and other species tend to grow in colder and moister areas, where fire is less likely to occur. Aspen trees sprout new growth from their roots, and even if a severe fire kills the tree above ground, the roots often survive unharmed because they are insulated from the heat by soil. The National Park Service estimates that in natural conditions, grasslands in Yellowstone burned an average of every 20 to 25 years, while forests in the park would experience fire about every 300 years.
About thirty-five natural forest fires are ignited each year by lightning, while another six to ten are started by people— in most cases by accident. Yellowstone National Park has three fire lookout towers, each staffed by trained fire fighters. The easiest one to reach is atop Mount Washburn, though it is closed to the public. The park also monitors fire from the air and relies on visitor reports of smoke and/or flames. Fire towers are staffed almost continuously from late June to mid-September— the primary fire season. Fires burn with the greatest intensity in the late afternoon and evening. Few fires burn more than 100 acres (40 ha), and the vast majority of fires reach only a little over an acre (0.5 ha) before they burn themselves out. Fire management focuses on monitoring dead and down wood quantities, soil and tree moisture, and the weather, to determine those areas most vulnerable to fire should one ignite. Current policy is to suppress all human caused fires and to evaluate natural fires, examining the benefit or detriment they may pose on the ecosystem. If a fire is considered to be an immediate threat to people and structures, or will burn out of control, then fire suppression is performed.
In an effort to minimize the chances of out of control fires and threats to people and structures, park employees do more than just monitor the potential for fire. Controlled burns are prescribed fires which are deliberately started to remove dead timber under conditions which allow fire fighters an opportunity to carefully control where and how much wood is consumed. Natural fires are sometimes considered prescribed fires if they are left to burn. In Yellowstone, unlike some other parks, there have been very few fires deliberately started by employees as prescribed burns. However, over the last 30 years, over 300 natural fires have been allowed to burn naturally. In addition, fire fighters remove dead and down wood and other hazards from areas where they will be a potential fire threat to lives and property, reducing the chances of fire danger in these areas. Fire monitors also regulate fire through educational services to the public and have been known to temporarily ban campfires from campgrounds during periods of high fire danger. The common notion in early United States land management policies was that all forest fires were bad. Fire was seen as a purely destructive force and there was little understanding that it was an integral part of the ecosystem. Consequently, until the 1970s, when a better understanding of wildfire was developed, all fires were suppressed. This led to an increase in dead and dying forests, which would later provide the fuel load for fires that would be much harder, and in some cases, impossible to control. Fire Management Plans were implemented, detailing that natural fires should be allowed to burn if they posed no immediate threat to lives and property.
1988 started with a wet spring season although by summer, drought began moving in throughout the northern Rockies, creating the driest year on record to that point. Grasses and plants which grew well in the early summer from the abundant spring moisture produced plenty of grass, which soon turned to dry tinder. The National Park Service began firefighting efforts to keep the fires under control, but the extreme drought made suppression difficult. Between July 15 and 21, 1988, fires quickly spread from 8,500 acres (3,400 ha; 13.3 sq mi) throughout the entire Yellowstone region, which included areas outside the park, to 99,000 acres (40,000 ha; 155 sq mi) on the park land alone. By the end of the month, the fires were out of control. Large fires burned together, and on August 20, 1988, the single worst day of the fires, more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) were consumed. Seven large fires were responsible for 95% of the 793,000 acres (321,000 ha; 1,239 sq mi) that were burned over the next couple of months. A total of 25,000 firefighters and U.S. military forces participated in the suppression efforts, at a cost of 120 million dollars. By the time winter brought snow that helped extinguish the last flames, the fires had destroyed 67 structures and caused several million dollars in damage. Though no civilian lives were lost, two personnel associated with the firefighting efforts were killed.
Contrary to media reports and speculation at the time, the fires killed very few park animals— surveys indicated that only about 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000–50,000), 36 deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison had perished. Changes in fire management policies were implemented by land management agencies throughout the United States, based on knowledge gained from the 1988 fires and the evaluation of scientists and experts from various fields. By 1992, Yellowstone had adopted a new fire management plan which observed stricter guidelines for the management of natural fires.
from Wikipedia
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The tomb of Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror and Duke of Normandy (d.1134), denied the throne of England in favour of his brothers. (for more illuminating details see here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Curthose ). He joined the first Crusade, thus this figure supports the well known legend of cross-legged effigies, though the effigy dates from the century after his death (and the tomb chest below is much later still, dating from c1500).
Gloucester Cathedral is one of England's finest churches, a masterpiece of medieval architecture consisting of a uniquely beautiful fusion of Norman Romanesque and Perpendicular Gothic from the mid 14th century onwards. Until the Reformation this was merely Gloucester's Abbey of St Peter, under Henry VIII it became one of six former monastic churches to be promoted to cathedral status, thus saving the great church from the ravages of the Dissolution.
The most obviously Norman part is the nave, immediately apparent on entering the building with it's round arches and thick columns (the exterior is the result of Gothic remodelling). Much of the remainder of the building is substantially the Norman structure also, but almost entirely modified in the later Middle Ages inside and out, the result of the great revenue brought to the abbey by pilgrims to the tomb of the murdered King Edward II in the choir. It was this transformation of the Norman church that is credited with launching the late gothic Perpendicular style in England.
The gothic choir is a unique and spectacular work, the walls so heavily panelled as to suggest a huge stone cage (disguising the Norman arches behind) crowned by a glorious net-like vault adorned with numerous bosses (those over the Altar with superb figures of Christ and angels) whilst the east wall is entirely glazing in delicate stone tracery, and still preserving most of it's original 14th century stained glass. The soaring central tower, also richly panelled with delicate pinnacles, is another testament to the abbey's increasing wealth at this time.
The latest medieval additions to the church are equally glorious, the Lady Chapel is entered through the enormous east window and is itself a largely glazed structure, though the original glass has been reduced to a few fragments in the east window, the remainder now contains beautiful Arts & Crafts stained glass by Christopher and Veronica Whall.
The early 16th century cloisters to the north of the nave are some of the most beautiful anywhere, being completely covered by exquisite fan vaulting, with a separate lavatorium (washing room) attached to the north walk as a miniature version of the main passages.
There is much more of interest, from 14th century choir stalls with misericords to the comprehensive collection of tombs and monuments of various dates, including the elaborate tomb of Edward II and that of Robert Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror. The stained glass also represents all ages, from the 14th century to the striking contemporary windows by Tom Denny.
Further areas of the cathedral can be accessed at certain times, such as the Norman crypt under the choir and the triforium gallery above.
The Nine Sisters are a chain of nine volcanic mountains and hills running from from Morro Bay through San Luis Obispo. The peaks were created over twenty million years ago as volcanic plugs of magma which welled up and solidified inside softer rock which has since eroded away. Turri Road, San Luis Obispo County, California.
© 2010 Andrew A Reding. Comments (including corrections) invited. Photographed RAW, so customizable. Photos are reduced; check my profile page for information on use of full-size originals.