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www.buzzfeed.com/gabrielsanchez/photographs-of-candid-rom...
The places where I usually share my photographs - Flickr or 500px - are photo sharing communities where comment and discussion, when they do happen, tend to centre around purely photographic elements such as light, colour and cameras. And so it's been pleasing to read some of the more widely contextualised thoughts and criticisms of my work and the way it has been presented by BuzzFeed, which yesterday published a series of my photographs. Although I know that it's one of the world's top 100 websites by traffic, it didn't really occur to me that the series would be seen by so many people (almost 300,000 in the twelve hours from being posted to the time of writing). Or, if it did, I didn't think through fully the consequences of exposure of that kind.
Given that I know what the comments section of the internet can be like, it's refreshing that discussion has largely been civil, mature and occasionally insightful. Stephen Fry once said - as I'm sure others before him have - that if you believe good reviews of your work, then you must also believe the bad ones. I'm not sure that I fully agree, but I've enjoyed reading both the compliments and the criticisms for more than just narcissistic or masochistic indulgence: it forces me to engage with my work in ways I might not have previously. Occasionally my consciousness is raised to some moral or ethical implications I hadn't considered; occasionally I'm forced to admit that it simply isn't very good.
Discussion of the series has been along three main lines: veracity; appropriateness of the title; diversity. I'd like to - and am glad I'm able to - deal with the first two very quickly, because it's the third one that has given me most pause.
1. Veracity. The claim that "his subjects are unaware and unposed" is one that I made and which BuzzFeed have quoted. To the person who responded to this with the snide "RIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHT!" I can only say: believe what you want, but it's true in 24 of the 25 images. The exception is of the couple standing before St Paul's Cathedral. I had been commissioned to capture the projection of words onto the dome and, as I was setting up that evening, I saw a couple hugging in front of it. By the time was ready to shoot, they had finished and were walking away, but I approached them and asked them if they would re-stage the moment I had just missed. That is the only time. In the other 24 cases, the subjects might have been aware of my presence because of the confined or empty space in which the image was taken, but none were ever asked to pose, and none ever acknowledged - even implicitly or indirectly - that they were being photographed.
2. Appropriateness of the Title ("25 Pictures That Prove Love Is Real"). As many journalists and photographers know, titles, headings, headlines and subheadlines are often the remit of editors and not the producers or creators of the work contained within. So, while it has been interesting to read about whether or not the photographs depict people who are genuinely in love (whatever that means) or merely the preludes to one night stands, I make no claim either way. Many of these photographs are of strangers, of people whose stories I don't know but for one moment I photographed because I saw something I thought beautiful or real (even if just real lust or real drunken passion). I engaged with their story at that moment, and if by looking at these photographs others do the same, then I'm pleased.
3. Diversity. This criticism is the one that warrants the most consideration on my part because it's true: this series of photographs lacks diversity. "Seeing some girls that weren't only size 5 and under would be nice"; "...all young, thin, white and conventionally attractive"; "Whiter than a damn Klan rally."; "All around the globe? Really?" These are all fair statements ("All around the globe" are the words of an editor, but it's true that a few countries are pictured here.) My explanation for the lack of diversity is that, while they are not representative of the world, or of love, they are representative of my experience. I should be even more specific: they are not representative of my experience as a human being, but they are representative of my experience as a sometime photographer of strangers.
These photographs depict scenes and situations that I did not seek out, but that I happened to see. And while I see minority ethnic and elderly couples together, the occasions on which that coincided with a time when my camera was at the ready and when the photograph I took was considered by me to be good enough to be included in this series appears to be very small. In this series, there is one Chinese woman, admittedly thin and conventionally attractive ( although I suspect older than most of the subjects here) and one Chinese boy, again conventionally attractive. There are also Greek and Italian people depicted here, although less obviously, and a couple of others who I don't think are white but I'm not sure. Then there is the fact that, while I do see older couples and minority ethnic couples, I see them a lot less. The reason for this is that the majority of these photographs were taken while I was in my early to mid 20s, and the majority of them were taken in Scotland, where I live. I spent much of my early mid 20s in bars and nightclubs (still do, I suppose...) and the minority ethnic population of Scotland is a mere 4%. I sit typing this in a fairly busy cafe on a fairly busy street. I look around me, inside the cafe and out, and I count 35 people: 34 are white, 1 is East Asian. In the reflection of my laptop screen, I add one more person to the count: a half-Chinese man.
Intimacy of the kind depicted here - call it love, call it drunken lust, whatever - is far more often seen in bars and nightclubs than on the street, and those who frequent bars and nightclubs tend to be young. Moreover, young people are more comfortable being photographed candidly: the majority of "please remove this photograph" requests I receive are from older people. This is also the case - or I've worried that it's the case - not ethnically but culturally in many of the places I've visited where the majority population is non-white. For example, in my travels to Morocco, Thailand, India or Pakistan, I would be less willing (whether through cultural sensitivity or cultural ignorance) to point my camera at strangers being intimate.
I hope the reasons I've given explain why this series lacks diversity, and writing them has left me with a question for myself: do I have a RESPONSIBILITY to reflect the diversity of the world/ country/city when documenting it? I suspect the answer, as usual, is "it depends". This compilation of images was drawn from my archive: I did not set out to document "lovers from around the globe", which if I had then I believe I would have had a responsibility to reflect the different kinds of people who love (which is every kind of people). But perhaps in compiling the series, it's something I should have borne in mind.
This series of images makes no claims, but I realise now that perhaps it should carry a disclaimer of sorts: these images were taken, by happenstance rather than by design, by a young man who is largely surrounded in his existence by young, middle-class white people.
Thanks for making me think about this.
Glasgow, 2014.
Here is the whole article the shoot with the setup!
Ilko Allexandroff Photography on Facebook Check it out or updates ;)
Strobist info:
Shoot-through Umbrella with a Nikon SB-26 - Camera Right
Triggered by Pocket Wizard II Pus
Here is the whole article the shoot with the lighting setup! Check it out!
This time it will be a wedding photoshoot with very simple lighting setup, one I’ve been using on locations quite a lot, and still am when I am! For this shot I’m using only one shoot-through umbrella, balancing it with the ambient light I have to create some soft light on m model!
For more detailed info and explanation what gear I'm using, check my article: CLICK!
Strobist Japan:
By the way here is a Japanese group about strobist lighting, feel free to check it and join! Might be interesting to see how people in Japan are using lights!
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| ストロビスト・ジャパン / Strobist Japan |
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©2014 Ilko Allexandroff | Homepage |
Many visitors to Reims know the famous cathedral, but few are familiar with the Abbey of Saint-Remi. So you can't find an Wikipedia article in English language. We were no different; it was only this year, during another visit to Reims, that we visited this magnificent structure.
The abbey church was built over the (legendary) tomb of Saint Remigius and served as the burial place for many archbishops and several Frankish or French kings, including Carloman I (d. 771), Louis IV (d. 954), and Lothair (d. 986).
A new abbey church was consecrated by Pope Leo IX in 1049. Following a fire in 1098 that partially destroyed the building, it was further enlarged and embellished in the 12th century under Abbot Odon.
For centuries, the holy oil used to anoint French kings during their coronation was kept in the former royal Abbey of Saint-Remi.
The church's vault was destroyed during the First World War. Reconstruction took 40 years, lasting until 1958.
Today, it houses the municipal historical museum of Reims and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.
More Dolly. She is rumoured to have a very carefully hidden collection of tattoos; you never see her with bare arms nowadays. It does look like she has something deep down in her cleavage though.
An article in the Lapland University's Kide (Quartz) magazine about the "Northern Impressions" illustration series.
www.behance.net/gallery/Northern-impressions/2050095 my photo looks nice too, very Finnish ;)...
I am featured as a part of an article on Flickr in the March issue of What Digital Camera magazine. I was thrilled when approached about doing an interview for the feature. Now, seeing the results, I am filled with emotions- happiness, amazement, shock and joy (just to name a few). It is still hard for me to believe and I can’t wait to get a ‘real’ copy in my little hands! Being in a magazine is a lifelong dream for me and I am so excited to share this experience with me Flickr friends and fans. Without all of you this would have remained only a dream! I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for helping to make this girl’s dream a reality!
I copied the text below for those of us who do not have superhero eyes. I hope some of you enjoy learning a little more about me.
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"Carolina is a graphic artist and self-confessed 'computer geek' who has one of the most unusual Flickr photostreams, in that all of the photographs are of her. Her stunning looks and often provocative poses has also made it one of the most visited too, with nearly three million views. It isn't an original idea of course, but what elevates Carolina's work is the skill and artistry involved in their creation.
'I love having my photo taken' confesses Carolina, who discovered Flickr through a friend. 'In the beginning I thought it would be fun to post photos of myself wearing my collection of Juicy Couture clothing. After my photos began to get more popular I started pursuing a lifelong dream of modeling. I grew up in a family that was always taking photos and I have always loved being on both sides of the camera'
Carolina studied photography at college, and is an avid consumer of fashion photography. Some of her pictures are self-portraits but most are a collaboration with her partner Allen. 'We work well together,' she continues. 'I come up with most of the ideas, including styling, locations and poses. I also do any Photoshop post processing. Allen is great at directing and shooting.'
Carolina is very prolific. 'I like to post a new photo everyday. It keeps me motivated. My mind is always thinking of new ideas. At weekends we go out to locations I've thought of during the week.'
Carolina and Allen use an Olympus E1 and E500. 'I love the Four-Thirds system and have several lenses,' she enthuses. 'We are also lucky enough to have a studio in our home, with both continuous and flash lighting systems, and a 10ft backdrop which is kept erected all of the time, as if it were furniture. That motivates us for those unplanned shots too.'"
This article was written by ANDREW SCOTT - MASSETT - The other commercial centre is Masset (or Massett, as the post office name was originally spelled), located at the mouth of Masset Inlet on the north shore of Graham Island. It also got its start in the early 1900s. An application submitted in 1900 by post office inspector W. H. Dorman proposed Charles Harrison as postmaster but was rejected. “Residents at Massett now receive their mail from Port Simpson,” wrote Dorman, “from which place all supplies are obtained, by means of an Indian schooner which makes occasional trips between these places. It is possible that arrangements might be made to have an occasional mail conveyed between Massett and Port Simpson, but there would be no regularity about such a service. I do not consider a post office at Massett is required at present.” The post office was eventually authorized in 1906, it seems, but its opening was delayed until 1909 (Archives Canada lists Jan 6, 1910, as the date of establishment but Aug. 1, 1909, as the date of appointment of the first postmaster). This was Rev. William E. Collison, son of the noted Anglican missionary William Henry Collison. Do a search of "Early Postal History of B.C.’s Haida Gwaii" where you can read the complete article.
(from - Wrigley's 1918 British Columbia Directory) - MASSETT - a post office, fishing and lumbering village on the northern part of Graham Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, 86 miles from Prince Rupert, in Prince Rupert Provincial Electoral District, reached by Grand Trunk Pacific boats from Prince Rupert. Has telegraph office. Anglican church. The population in 1918 was 150. Local, resources: Lumbering, farming, mining and fishing.
MASSETT Post Office was opened - 1 August 1909. The spelling adjusted to MASSET Post Office - 28 May 1948.
LINK - to a list of all the Postmasters who served at the MASSETT / MASSET Post Office - central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=posoffposmas&id=2...
- sent from - / MASSETT / AU 25 / 11 / B.C. / - split ring cancel - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 25 June 1909 - (RF C).
- arrived at - / SOUTH HILL / AU 28 / 11 / B.C. / - split ring backstamp (poor strike) - this split ring hammer (A1-1) was proofed - 15 September 1908 - (RF D).
The South Hill Post Office was established - 1 October 1908 - it became Vancouver Sub Office South Hill - 1 July 1914.
Addressed to: Miss Dora Erlindsson / South Hill / B.C.
Halldóra Maren (nee Erlandsson) Glenzer / (Dora Marie Erlandson)
(b. 22 April 1894 In Winnipeg, Manitoba – d. in Washington, USA)
Her father - Vigfies Erlindsson
(b. 1859 in Iceland – Deceased)
Her mother - Oddbjorg (nee Saemundsdottir) Erlindsson
(b. 1857 in Iceland – Deceased) - they were married - 28 November 1885 in Stokkseyri, Árnessýsla, Suðurland, Iceland.
Her husband - John William Glenzer
(b. 20 February 1882 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, United States – d. 31 March 1944 at age 62 in Everett, Snohomish, Washington, United States) - they were married - 23 May 1917 in Bella Bella, Central Coast, British Columbia, Canada. Occupation - Mill worker.
I had the honor of writing an article for my favorite Lego blog on my recent experiences at various cons and why you should go to one. Give it a read and join the discussion if you're so inclined.
And if you haven't read the Manifesto before, you really should. It's some of the best-written commentary (present company excluded) on the Lego community you're likely to find anywhere.
Article link: keithlug.com/2017/09/15/convoluted/
I swear I will actually post a MOC one of these months.
This is an informed, important article about the inner workings of the oil industry, present & past governments in the U.S. & abroad, & the secret manipulations of markets that are always touted as 'free' by the very thieves whose hands are picking our pockets & whose propaganda is ruining our minds. And it's a tale about the greed of the oil men - the Bush family among them - & their handy dandy, immensely & cleverly profitable war in Iraq.
- Urgent & brilliant reading.
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Text below from: www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061406J.shtml
Keeping Iraq's Oil in the Ground
By Greg Palast
AlterNet
Wednesday 14 June 2006
World oil production today stands at more than twice the 15-billion a-year maximum projected by Shell Oil in 1956 - and reserves are climbing at a faster clip yet. That leaves the question, Why this war?
Did Dick Cheney send us in to seize the last dwindling supplies? Unlikely. Our world's petroleum reserves have doubled in just twenty-five years - and it is in Shell's and the rest of the industry's interest that this doubling doesn't happen again. The neo-cons were hell-bent on raising Iraq's oil production. Big Oil's interest was in suppressing production, that is, keeping Iraq to its OPEC quota or less. This raises the question, did the petroleum industry, which had a direct, if hidden, hand, in promoting invasion, cheerlead for a takeover of Iraq to prevent overproduction?
It wouldn't be the first time. If oil is what we're looking for, there are, indeed, extra helpings in Iraq. On paper, Iraq, at 112 billion proven barrels, has the second largest reserves in OPEC after Saudi Arabia. That does not make Saudi Arabia happy. Even more important is that Iraq has fewer than three thousand operating wells... compared to one million in Texas.
That makes the Saudis even unhappier. It would take a decade or more, but start drilling in Iraq and its reserves will about double, bringing it within gallons of Saudi Arabia's own gargantuan pool. Should Iraq drill on that scale, the total, when combined with the Saudis', will drown the oil market. That wouldn't make the Texans too happy either. So Fadhil Chalabi's plan for Iraq to pump 12 million barrels a day, a million more than Saudi Arabia, is not, to use Bob Ebel's (Center fro Strategic and International Studies) terminology, "ridiculous" from a raw resource view, it is ridiculous politically. It would never be permitted. An international industry policy of suppressing Iraqi oil production has been in place since 1927. We need again to visit that imp called "history."
It began with a character known as "Mr. 5%"- Calouste Gulbenkian - who, in 1925, slicked King Faisal, neophyte ruler of the country recently created by Churchill, into giving Gulbenkian's "Iraq Petroleum Company" (IPC) exclusive rights to all of Iraq's oil. Gulbenkian flipped 95% of his concession to a combine of western oil giants: Anglo-Persian, Royal Dutch Shell, CFP of France, and the Standard Oil trust companies (now ExxonMobil and its "sisters.") The remaining slice Calouste kept for himself - hence, "Mr. 5%."
The oil majors had a better use for Iraq's oil than drilling it - not drilling it. The oil bigs had bought Iraq's concession to seal it up and keep it off the market. To please his buyers' wishes, Mr. 5% spread out a big map of the Middle East on the floor of a hotel room in Belgium and drew a thick red line around the gulf oil fields, centered on Iraq. All the oil company executives, gathered in the hotel room, signed their name on the red line - vowing not to drill, except as a group, within the red-lined zone. No one, therefore, had an incentive to cheat and take red-lined oil. All of Iraq's oil, sequestered by all, was locked in, and all signers would enjoy a lift in worldwide prices. Anglo-Persian Company, now British Petroleum (BP), would pump almost all its oil, reasonably, from Persia (Iran). Later, the Standard Oil combine, renamed the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco), would limit almost all its drilling to Saudi Arabia. Anglo-Persian (BP) had begun pulling oil from Kirkuk, Iraq, in 1927 and, in accordance with the Red-Line Agreement, shared its Kirkuk and Basra fields with its IPC group - and drilled no more.
The following was written three decades ago:
Although its original concession of March 14, 1925, cove- red all of Iraq, the Iraq Petroleum Co., under the owner- ship of BP (23.75%), Shell (23.75%), CFP [of France] (23.75%), Exxon (11.85%), Mobil (11.85%), and [Calouste] Gulbenkian (5.0%), limited its production to fields constituting only one-half of 1 percent of the country's total area. During the Great Depression, the world was awash with oil and greater output from Iraq would simply have driven the price down to even lower levels.
• Plus ça change... [the more things change, the more they remain the same]
When the British Foreign Office fretted that locking up oil would stoke local nationalist anger, BP-IPC agreed privately to pretend to drill lots of wells, but make them absurdly shallow and place them where, wrote a company manager, "there was no danger of striking oil." This systematic suppression of Iraq's production, begun in 1927, has never ceased. In the early 1960s, Iraq's frustration with the British-led oil consortium's failure to pump pushed the nation to cancel the BP-Shell-Exxon concession and seize the oil fields. Britain was ready to strangle Baghdad, but a cooler, wiser man in the White House, John F. Kennedy, told the Brits to back off. President Kennedy refused to call Iraq's seizure an "expropriation" akin to Castro's seizure of U.S.-owned banana plantations. Kennedy's view was that Anglo-American companies had it coming to them because they had refused to honor their legal commitment to drill.
But the freedom Kennedy offered the Iraqis to drill their own oil to the maximum was swiftly taken away from them by their Arab brethren.
The OPEC cartel, controlled by Saudi Arabia, capped Iraq's production at a sum equal to Iran's, though the Iranian reserves are far smaller than Iraq's. The excuse for this quota equality between Iraq and Iran was to prevent war between them. It didn't. To keep Iraq's Ba'athists from complaining about the limits, Saudi Arabia simply bought off the leaders by funding Saddam's war against Iran and giving the dictator $7 billion for his "Islamic bomb" program.
In 1974, a U.S. politician broke the omerta over the suppression of Iraq's oil production. It was during the Arab oil embargo that Senator Edmund Muskie revealed a secret intelligence report of "fantastic" reserves of oil in Iraq undeveloped because U.S. oil companies refused to add pipeline capacity. Muskie, who'd just lost a bid for the Presidency, was dubbed a "loser" and ignored. The Iranian bombing of the Basra fields (1980-88) put a new kink in Iraq's oil production. Iraq's frustration under production limits explodes periodically.
In August 1990, Kuwait's craven siphoning of borderland oil fields jointly owned with Iraq gave Saddam the excuse to take Kuwait's share. Here was Saddam's opportunity to increase Iraq's OPEC quota by taking Kuwait's (most assuredly not approved by the U.S.). Saddam's plan backfired. The Basra oil fields not crippled by Iran were demolished in 1991 by American B-52s. Saddam's petro-military overreach into Kuwait gave the West the authority for a more direct oil suppression method called the "Sanctions" program, later changed to "Oil for Food." Now we get to the real reason for the U.N. embargo on Iraqi oil exports. According to the official U.S. position:
Sanctions were critical to preventing Iraq from acquiring equipment that could be used to reconstitute banned weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
How odd. If cutting Saddam's allowance was the purpose, then sanctions, limiting oil exports, was a very suspect method indeed. The nature of the oil market (a cartel) is such that the elimination of two million barrels a day increased Saddam's revenue. One might conclude that sanctions were less about WMD and more about EPS (earnings per share) of oil sellers.
In other words, there is nothing new under the desert sun. Today's fight over how much of Iraq's oil to produce (or suppress) simply extends into this century the last century's pump-or-control battles. In sum, Big Oil, whether in European or Arab-OPEC dress, has done its damned best to keep Iraq's oil buried deep in the ground to keep prices high in the air. Iraq has 74 known fields and only 15 in production; 526 known "structures" (oil-speak for "pools of oil"), only 125 drilled.
And they won't be drilled, not unless Iraq says, "Mother, may I?" to Saudi Arabia, or, as the James Baker/Council on Foreign Relations paper says, "Saudi Arabia may punish Iraq." And believe me, Iraq wouldn't want that. The decision to expand production has, for now, been kept out of Iraqi's hands by the latest method of suppressing Iraq's oil flow - the 2003 invasion and resistance to invasion. And it has been darn effective. Iraq's output in 2003, 2004 and 2005 was less than produced under the restrictive Oil-for-Food Program. Whether by design or happenstance, this decline in output has resulted in tripling the profits of the five U.S. oil majors to $89 billion for a single year, 2005, compared to pre-invasion 2002. That suggests an interesting arithmetic equation. Big Oil's profits are up $89 billion a year in the same period the oil industry boosted contributions to Mr. Bush's reelection campaign to roughly $40 million.
That would make our president "Mr. 0.05%."
• A History of Oil in Iraq
Suppressing It, Not Pumping It
1925-28 "Mr. 5%" sells his monopoly on Iraq's oil to British Petroleum and Exxon, who sign a "Red-Line Agreement" vowing not to compete by drilling independently in Iraq.
1948 Red-Line Agreement ended, replaced by oil combines' "dog in the manger" strategy - taking control of fields, then capping production-drilling shallow holes where "there was no danger of striking oil."
1961 OPEC, founded the year before, places quotas on Iraq's exports equal to Iran's, locking in suppression policy.
1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Iran destroys Basra fields. Iraq cannot meet OPEC quota. 1991 Desert Storm. Anglo-American bombings cut production.
1991-2003 United Nations Oil embargo (zero legal exports) followed by Oil-for-Food Program limiting Iraqi sales to 2 million barrels a day.
2003-? "Insurgents" sabotage Iraq's pipelines and infrastructure.
2004 Options for Iraqi OilThe secret plan adopted by U.S. State Department overturns Pentagon proposal to massively in crease oil production. State Department plan, adopted by government of occupied Iraq, limits state oil company to OPEC quotas.
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This article is excerpted from Greg Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse (Dutton Adult, 2006).
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As usual in my political posts, updates will be added below as appropriate.
Article sur le blog
#blog #fashion #fashionlover #blogger #ootd #outfit #outfitoftheday #mode #annsom #brand #paris #instalike #instafashion #picoftheday #photooftheday #mood #beauty #palette #fard
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My article this week is all about Beverage Photography. So here are 3 LIGHTING SETUPS (AND 2 TIPS) FOR TASTY BEVERAGE LIGHTING.
Check out the whole article here:
www.diyphotography.net/3-lighting-setups-2-tips-tasty-bev...
Strobist info:
Beer
Studiostrobe thru softbox and between scrim subject left @ 1/16
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject back and right for kick @ 1/8
Studiostrobe with yellow gel pointed at background @ 1/4
silver reflector subject right
Pepsi
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject left and right @ 1/8
Bare studiostrobe back of subject pointing at white seamless paper @ 1/2
Scrim camera right
Coke
Studiostrobe thru softbox subject back left and right @ 1/4
YN-470 speedlight with snoot top of subject @ 1/4
Here is the whole article the shoot with the setup and also a making video!
Ilko Allexandroff Photography on Facebook Check it out or updates ;)
Strobist info:
Nissin MG8000 in a RoundFlash camera left below
2x Nissin MG8000 in FlashBender XL Size Strip Boxes as rim lights both sides behind
A Nissin MG8000 with a Light Blaster for the background
All 3 strobes are Nissin MG8000
Triggered by Cactus V6
Here is the whole article the shoot with the lighting setup and making video! Check it out!
Any ideas for title are welcome!
This time I will be uploading a series of 3 different articles, well actually all of them were taken at the same day, using the Nissin Japan company studio, and they were kind enough to even video tape the whole shoot, so I will be embedding their video in the article! This is the first set from that day, I will be shooting from above, and I’m using 3 lights setup to lit my model! We have some beautiful flower art, and body art going on, see below the introduction of the artists involved!
この撮影だけでは3つ記事のシリーズをアップします！今回はスタジオ内で、東京のニッシン・ジャパンのセルフスタジオを使いました！そして、メイキング映像も撮っていただいてるので、記事にそれもアップしますよ！また、この最初のセットは上から撮影してるセッティングです！フラワーアーティスト&ボディメイクアーティストもいるので、みんなの紹介は下にありますよ！モデル: Yuzuki Aizawa
For more detailed info and explanation what gear I'm using, check my article: CLICK!
Strobist Japan:
By the way here is a Japanese group about strobist lighting, feel free to check it and join! Might be interesting to see how people in Japan are using lights!
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| ストロビスト・ジャパン / Strobist Japan |
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©2014 Ilko Allexandroff | Homepage |
Extract from 'A Day on the Road' article from the Commercial Motor Magazine October 21st 1909.
A Motor-transport Contractor's Leyland Steam Wagon on Greasy Stone Setts in Lancashire.
Recounted by a Member of the Editorial Staff.
" It is twenty minutes past three, Sir!" announced the night porter, at the Park Hotel, Preston, one recent Monday morning, after he had already alarmed me by vigorously knocking on the door of my bedroom. I conveyed to him, with as much grace as I could muster at that early hour, an intimation that I was no longer asleep, and that there was no need to awaken
every other visitor in the hotel. I had arrived at Preston not more than four hours previously, after a most tiresome journey, by train and taxicab, from York, and, if my manner was rather short, I sincerely hope that the obliging official who aroused me on that morning has not since been consumed with grief on account of my hastily-spoken words. When I readied the coffee-room, and discovered that he had prepared a tempting breakfast for me, 1 felt more kindly disposed towards him. Having done full justice to the meal. I left the hotel in order to keep an appointment, at the running-shed of H. Viney and Co., Ltd., Motor-transport Engineers, of Strand Road, Preston, whence I was to start with a Levland " steamer " on its usual Monday's round. The Preston Town Council had evidently neglected to settle the previous quarter's account for street lighting, and, as the streets were absolutely deserted at that early hour, I gave up the attempt, unguided, to reach the running shed, and awaited the arrival of the wagon in Fishergate, along which thoroughfare the machine was bound to pass, on its way to Burnley.
This five-ton wagon and trailer are loaded up each Saturday, and the start is made not later than 4 a.m. on the Monday morning following for the places named, where over 200 cases of Whitbread's bottled stout and beer are delivered during 22 calls. This " round " forms part of a large contract, which is to extend over many years, with Whitbread and Co., Ltd. The total distance for this run is about 50 miles, and the total imposed load on the wagon and its trailer is nearly eight tons. When the wagon put in an appearance, in Fishergate, shortly after four o'clock, I made myself as comfortable as possible among the cases of bottled goods, and by 6.15 we had reached Blackburn, and the wagon was climbing the long stonesett-armoured hill on the road to
Burnley. The greasy state of the surface caused the wheels to skid very badly, and, had not the vehicle been skilfully handled by the men in charge, there might have been a serious accident; as it was, we ultimately surmounted the hill after the use of sacks. grit and—nausele. When nearing Church, at 7 a.m., we made our first halt for water, and again, just before entering Burnley, we took in a further supply, not because it was immediately needed, but so that we might be enabled to complete the delivery of the bulk of our cargo in Burnley and Brierfield without making further stops for watering. The first delivery, consisting of 20 cases of bottled stout and ale, was made at Burnley at 8.20 a.m., and at several other places in this town were further deliveries made.
Burnley's streets have an unenviable reputation among drivers of heavy commercial vehicles; many a wagon is forced, by the electric tramcars, on to the excessive side-fall of the roads, and, once its wheels slide into the gutter of a Burnley street, a steel-tired machine is only " pinched" out again with great difficulty. We made the last local delivery in the Burnley district at 10.30, at a point less than eight miles from the boundary line which separates Lancashire from Yorkshire. Brierfield was our next place of call ; here we left over 100 eases of bottled goods, and received the same number of " empties." I took a. photograph of the wagon when in the position to which it was backed, along a narrow lane some 30 yds. long, for unloading, and this view shows how little room there was to spare between the two walls and the sides of the vehicle; a slight error of judgment on the part of the driver, and he would have had the not too-substantially-built walls falling in on his wagon. In addition to this man, " Joe " Ridgley, and the stoker, a. loader accompanies this wagon, and his duties are particularly responsible; lie must not only "do his little bit " so far as the handling of the load is concerned, but he must also, in many cases, collect the aeccents for the goods delivered, and make due allowances for " returned empties," etc. These three men formed a. N cry cheery " crowd," and I was pleased to note that they showed genuine interest in their work, and, when not occupied in the handling of the load, each would find some little duty to perform in connection with the wagon or its trailer-duties which were discharged automatically, and without a grumble; in fact, the stoker's " chuckle" was something to remember for many a day. I was informed that he is an ex-army man who had been through the South-African campaign. I can imagine that such a nature as is habitually displayed by him would make him a very popular man amongst the Tommies after a hard da3's work. Having witnessed the completion of the exchange of full bottles for empty ones, I left the men to partake of their mid-day meal, and sought. out • a satisfying, if not too-appetising, meal for myself at a neighbouring hotel. We were all on the road again by 12.45, and, before leaving Brierfield, we took up more water, from a stone trough at the side of the road. This trough receives its supply from a spring in the side of a neighbouring bill, and, consequently, is " free " water to all comers. Notwithstanding this, the local authorities have posted a notice to the effect that the taking of water is prohibited. How much regard we paid to this notice may be judged by those readers who choose to examine the accompanying illustration of the notice and the tank in question. The " snaky" object at the lower right-hand corner is our suction hose. I may add that a
Yorkshire " was standing near by, also waiting to take in water, and a " limb of the law " was not many yards away. Legal proceedings, I am told, can only be taken if the watering steamer causes any obstruction to the electric trams, the tracks for which take up the greater part of the road. We collected the last of the empties, in Burnley, at three p.m., and made for Preston, via Padtham, Read, Whalley and Mellowbrook, then along the Blackburn road, and through Sandesbury, to Preston. A very large part of the road taken on the return journey is macadam, and, consequently, good time was made.
We arrived at Strand Road, Preston, about 6.30 p.m., and I was there
met by Mr. C. be M. Gosselin, the managing director of H. Viney and Co., Ltd., who very kindly showed me his trading books for the past year, and permitted MB to make certain extracts relating to the cost of running for his Leyland wagons. The vehicle which I accompanied is " No. 6 " of a fleet of similar machines operated by this company over an area bounded by Blackburn, Burnley, Oldham, Manchester and Wigan, a map of which district was reproduced on page 490 of our issue of the 19th August last. " No. 6 " was purchased two years ago, its condition at that time being little better than scrap iron. A considerable sum was expended on repairs, and the replacement of broken and worn-out parts, and thus a good and serviceable machine was created out of the old wreck. The cost of this initial overhaul was, of course, charged to capital account. Since it was put into service, the wagon, which usually draws a loaded trailer behind it, has maintained a weekly average of 161:1 miles, whilst the average weekly mileage for the whole of the company's vehicles of the fleet is 15611
'the total cost per mile run for " No. 6 " is is. 10. per mile, whereas the average for all the vehicles of the fleet is is. 24d. per mile. The latter amount is made up as follows :— This total cast per mile is higher than many of the figures which we have given, from time to time, for wagons in ordinary employment, but it must be noted that, for work of this class, three men are generally needed -hence, the high charge for wages.
Depreciation, too, is necessarily placed at a higher rate by a contractor working in such a district OS Lancashire than would be necessary in the ease of a private owner situated in a district where work is less strenuous. Viney and Co., Ltd., intends to build up a motor-haulage business on sound commercial lines, and the excellent relationship which exists between the management and the men clearly indicates the determination, of both sides, to attain success. It may, therefore, safely be assumed that
the figures we have given are on the liberal side, and take into account every possible charge and contingency against the vehicles. I may add that this company pays the following price for its stores: gear oil, is. per gallon ; cylinder oil, le. 6d_ per gallon ; paraffin for lamps, 5d. per gallon ; and coke, 70. per cwt., or 15s. per ton. The tare weight of " No. 6 " is 4 tons 19 cwt. ; its trailer weighs 1 ton 7 cwt.; and the gross weight to be moved, when both wagon and trailer are loaded, is 15 tons 6 cwt.
An English Electric 50 that is.......20 205 and 20 189 trundle through, a deserted, Witton station with 50 049 Defiance in tow on 0Z50 09.40 Kidderminster S.V.R. to East Grinstead.
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated globally in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71, the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft. The Blackbird's performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War.
This Blackbird accrued about 2,800 hours of flight time during 24 years of active service with the U.S. Air Force. On its last flight, March 6, 1990, Lt. Col. Ed Yielding and Lt. Col. Joseph Vida set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging 3,418 kilometers (2,124 miles) per hour. At the flight's conclusion, they landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Designer:
Date:
1964
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 55ft 7in. x 107ft 5in., 169998.5lb. (5.638m x 16.942m x 32.741m, 77110.8kg)
Other: 18ft 5 15/16in. x 107ft 5in. x 55ft 7in. (5.638m x 32.741m x 16.942m)
Materials:
Titanium
Physical Description:
Twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft; airframe constructed largley of titanium and its alloys; vertical tail fins are constructed of a composite (laminated plastic-type material) to reduce radar cross-section; Pratt and Whitney J58 (JT11D-20B) turbojet engines feature large inlet shock cones.
Long Description:
No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird's performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation's subsonic U-2 (see NASM collection) reconnaissance aircraft was an able platform but the U. S. Air Force recognized that this relatively slow aircraft was already vulnerable to Soviet interceptors. They also understood that the rapid development of surface-to-air missile systems could put U-2 pilots at grave risk. The danger proved reality when a U-2 was shot down by a surface to air missile over the Soviet Union in 1960.
Lockheed's first proposal for a new high speed, high altitude, reconnaissance aircraft, to be capable of avoiding interceptors and missiles, centered on a design propelled by liquid hydrogen. This proved to be impracticable because of considerable fuel consumption. Lockheed then reconfigured the design for conventional fuels. This was feasible and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), already flying the Lockheed U-2, issued a production contract for an aircraft designated the A-12. Lockheed's clandestine 'Skunk Works' division (headed by the gifted design engineer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson) designed the A-12 to cruise at Mach 3.2 and fly well above 18,288 m (60,000 feet). To meet these challenging requirements, Lockheed engineers overcame many daunting technical challenges. Flying more than three times the speed of sound generates 316° C (600° F) temperatures on external aircraft surfaces, which are enough to melt conventional aluminum airframes. The design team chose to make the jet's external skin of titanium alloy to which shielded the internal aluminum airframe. Two conventional, but very powerful, afterburning turbine engines propelled this remarkable aircraft. These power plants had to operate across a huge speed envelope in flight, from a takeoff speed of 334 kph (207 mph) to more than 3,540 kph (2,200 mph). To prevent supersonic shock waves from moving inside the engine intake causing flameouts, Johnson's team had to design a complex air intake and bypass system for the engines.
Skunk Works engineers also optimized the A-12 cross-section design to exhibit a low radar profile. Lockheed hoped to achieve this by carefully shaping the airframe to reflect as little transmitted radar energy (radio waves) as possible, and by application of special paint designed to absorb, rather than reflect, those waves. This treatment became one of the first applications of stealth technology, but it never completely met the design goals.
Test pilot Lou Schalk flew the single-seat A-12 on April 24, 1962, after he became airborne accidentally during high-speed taxi trials. The airplane showed great promise but it needed considerable technical refinement before the CIA could fly the first operational sortie on May 31, 1967 - a surveillance flight over North Vietnam. A-12s, flown by CIA pilots, operated as part of the Air Force's 1129th Special Activities Squadron under the "Oxcart" program. While Lockheed continued to refine the A-12, the U. S. Air Force ordered an interceptor version of the aircraft designated the YF-12A. The Skunk Works, however, proposed a "specific mission" version configured to conduct post-nuclear strike reconnaissance. This system evolved into the USAF's familiar SR-71.
Lockheed built fifteen A-12s, including a special two-seat trainer version. Two A-12s were modified to carry a special reconnaissance drone, designated D-21. The modified A-12s were redesignated M-21s. These were designed to take off with the D-21 drone, powered by a Marquart ramjet engine mounted on a pylon between the rudders. The M-21 then hauled the drone aloft and launched it at speeds high enough to ignite the drone's ramjet motor. Lockheed also built three YF-12As but this type never went into production. Two of the YF-12As crashed during testing. Only one survives and is on display at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio. The aft section of one of the "written off" YF-12As which was later used along with an SR-71A static test airframe to manufacture the sole SR-71C trainer. One SR-71 was lent to NASA and designated YF-12C. Including the SR-71C and two SR-71B pilot trainers, Lockheed constructed thirty-two Blackbirds. The first SR-71 flew on December 22, 1964. Because of extreme operational costs, military strategists decided that the more capable USAF SR-71s should replace the CIA's A-12s. These were retired in 1968 after only one year of operational missions, mostly over southeast Asia. The Air Force's 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (part of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing) took over the missions, flying the SR-71 beginning in the spring of 1968.
After the Air Force began to operate the SR-71, it acquired the official name Blackbird-- for the special black paint that covered the airplane. This paint was formulated to absorb radar signals, to radiate some of the tremendous airframe heat generated by air friction, and to camouflage the aircraft against the dark sky at high altitudes.
Experience gained from the A-12 program convinced the Air Force that flying the SR-71 safely required two crew members, a pilot and a Reconnaissance Systems Officer (RSO). The RSO operated with the wide array of monitoring and defensive systems installed on the airplane. This equipment included a sophisticated Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) system that could jam most acquisition and targeting radar. In addition to an array of advanced, high-resolution cameras, the aircraft could also carry equipment designed to record the strength, frequency, and wavelength of signals emitted by communications and sensor devices such as radar. The SR-71 was designed to fly deep into hostile territory, avoiding interception with its tremendous speed and high altitude. It could operate safely at a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 at an altitude more than sixteen miles, or 25,908 m (85,000 ft), above the earth. The crew had to wear pressure suits similar to those worn by astronauts. These suits were required to protect the crew in the event of sudden cabin pressure loss while at operating altitudes.
To climb and cruise at supersonic speeds, the Blackbird's Pratt & Whitney J-58 engines were designed to operate continuously in afterburner. While this would appear to dictate high fuel flows, the Blackbird actually achieved its best "gas mileage," in terms of air nautical miles per pound of fuel burned, during the Mach 3+ cruise. A typical Blackbird reconnaissance flight might require several aerial refueling operations from an airborne tanker. Each time the SR-71 refueled, the crew had to descend to the tanker's altitude, usually about 6,000 m to 9,000 m (20,000 to 30,000 ft), and slow the airplane to subsonic speeds. As velocity decreased, so did frictional heat. This cooling effect caused the aircraft's skin panels to shrink considerably, and those covering the fuel tanks contracted so much that fuel leaked, forming a distinctive vapor trail as the tanker topped off the Blackbird. As soon as the tanks were filled, the jet's crew disconnected from the tanker, relit the afterburners, and again climbed to high altitude.
Air Force pilots flew the SR-71 from Kadena AB, Japan, throughout its operational career but other bases hosted Blackbird operations, too. The 9th SRW occasionally deployed from Beale AFB, California, to other locations to carryout operational missions. Cuban missions were flown directly from Beale. The SR-71 did not begin to operate in Europe until 1974, and then only temporarily. In 1982, when the U.S. Air Force based two aircraft at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall to fly monitoring mission in Eastern Europe.
When the SR-71 became operational, orbiting reconnaissance satellites had already replaced manned aircraft to gather intelligence from sites deep within Soviet territory. Satellites could not cover every geopolitical hotspot so the Blackbird remained a vital tool for global intelligence gathering. On many occasions, pilots and RSOs flying the SR-71 provided information that proved vital in formulating successful U. S. foreign policy. Blackbird crews provided important intelligence about the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its aftermath, and pre- and post-strike imagery of the 1986 raid conducted by American air forces on Libya. In 1987, Kadena-based SR-71 crews flew a number of missions over the Persian Gulf, revealing Iranian Silkworm missile batteries that threatened commercial shipping and American escort vessels.
As the performance of space-based surveillance systems grew, along with the effectiveness of ground-based air defense networks, the Air Force started to lose enthusiasm for the expensive program and the 9th SRW ceased SR-71 operations in January 1990. Despite protests by military leaders, Congress revived the program in 1995. Continued wrangling over operating budgets, however, soon led to final termination. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration retained two SR-71As and the one SR-71B for high-speed research projects and flew these airplanes until 1999.
On March 6, 1990, the service career of one Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird ended with a record-setting flight. This special airplane bore Air Force serial number 64-17972. Lt. Col. Ed Yeilding and his RSO, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Vida, flew this aircraft from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 20 seconds, averaging a speed of 3,418 kph (2,124 mph). At the conclusion of the flight, '972 landed at Dulles International Airport and taxied into the custody of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. At that time, Lt. Col. Vida had logged 1,392.7 hours of flight time in Blackbirds, more than that of any other crewman.
This particular SR-71 was also flown by Tom Alison, a former National Air and Space Museum's Chief of Collections Management. Flying with Detachment 1 at Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Alison logged more than a dozen '972 operational sorties. The aircraft spent twenty-four years in active Air Force service and accrued a total of 2,801.1 hours of flight time.
Wingspan: 55'7"
Length: 107'5"
Height: 18'6"
Weight: 170,000 Lbs
Reference and Further Reading:
Crickmore, Paul F. Lockheed SR-71: The Secret Missions Exposed. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1996.
Francillon, Rene J. Lockheed Aircraft Since 1913. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
Johnson, Clarence L. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Miller, Jay. Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works. Leicester, U.K.: Midland Counties Publishing Ltd., 1995.
Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird curatorial file, Aeronautics Division, National Air and Space Museum.
DAD, 11-11-01
HIERAPOLIS [excerpted from Wikipedia article]
There are only a few historical facts known about the origin of the city. No traces of the presence of Hittites or Persians have yet been found. However it was customary to build a temple on the site of such a natural phenomenon. The Phrygians built a temple dedicated to Hieron probably in the first half of the third century BC. This temple would later form the centre of Hierapolis. It was already used by the citizens of the nearby town Laodiceia, a city built by Antiochus II Theos in 261-253 BC.
Hierapolis was founded as a thermal spa early in the second century BC and given by the Romans to Eumenes II, king of Pergamon in 190 BC. The city was named after the name of the existing temple, or possibly to honour Hiera, wife of Telephos — son of Heracles by a Mysian princess Auge - the mythical founder of the Attalid dynasty. The city was expanded with proceeds from the booty from the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC, where Antiochus the Great was defeated by Eumenes II who had sided with the Romans. Thus Hierapolis became part of the Pergamon kingdom.
Hierapolis became a healing centre where doctors used the hot thermal springs as a treatment for their patients. The city began issuing bronze coins in the second century BC. These coins give the name Hieropolis (town of the temple Hieron). This name eventually changed into Hierapolis (Holy city). [1]
In 133 BC, when Attalus III the last Attalid king of Pergamon died, he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Hierapolis thus became part of the Roman province of Asia. The Hellenistic city was slowly transformed into a Roman town.
In the year 17 A.D., during the rule of emperor Tiberius, an earthquake destroyed the city. In 60 AD, during the rule of emperor Nero, an even more severe earthquake left the city completely in ruins. Afterwards the city was rebuilt in Roman style with the financial support from the emperor. It was during this period that the city attained its present form. The theatre was built in 129 AD when emperor Hadrian visited the town. It was renovated under Septimus Severus (193-211). When emperor Caracalla visited the town in 215 he bestowed on the city the much coveted title of Neocoros, according the city certain privileges and the right of sanctuary.
This was the "golden age" of Hierapolis. Thousands of people came to town to benefit from the medicinal properties of the hot springs. New building projects were started : two Roman baths, a gymnasium, several temples, a main street with a colonnade and a fountain at the hot spring. Hierapolis became one of the most prominent cities in the field of the arts, philosophy and trade in the Roman empire. The town grew to 100,000 inhabitants and became wealthy. According to the geographer Stephanus of Byzantium, the city was given its name because of the large number of temples it contained (again a sign of wealth).
.....
In the early 7th century, the town was devastated by Persian armies and again by a destructive earthquake. Afterwards came a slow recovery.
In the 12th century, the area came under the control of the Seljuk sultanate of Konya.
In the year 1190 crusaders under Frederick Barbarossa fought with the Byzantines and conquered the town of Philip the Apostle.
About thirty years later, the town was abandoned and the Seljuks built a castle in the 1220s.
The city was abandoned in the late 1300s.
This article is by: Gabriela Enamorado and Angela Abdala - November 3, 2020
As a result of the Challenger tragedy, memorials were built across the United States. The grandest and most celebrated was designed by famed Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who died a few weeks before the memorial was officially unveiled on December 30, 1988, without seeing his work completed. The double helix-shaped steel and granite sculpture firmly stands in the southwest corner of Bayfront Park in Miami.
Led by famed newscaster Ralph Renick, Miamians joined perpetual maintenance to create the memorial in honor of the seven crew members, including Christa McAuliffe, a high school teacher from Concord, New Hampshire who had been chosen from more than 11,000 applicants to be the first civilian in space.
Why a memorial in Miami? As local historian Professor Paul George said, “A city in Florida needed to do a beautiful, serious memorial to that tragedy in January 1986 because we’re the state that kind of birthed the whole space thing in the United States and beyond. And that’s exactly why Renick thought it would be important to pay tribute to those lives we lost.”
The memorial was funded by donations from Miami-Dade schoolchildren and their families, and the trust fund of Lamar Louise Curry, a social studies Miami Senior High School teacher who made many contributions to Miami. Besides being an only child and never getting married, Lamar inherited from her father a lot of real estate in the Florida Keys and in Miami. She had a lot of love for Miami and its people.
As Paul George said, “she had the time and the desire to help the community and so she had to be one of the moving forces for the idea”. And that’s exactly what she did.
Lamar’s fund along with the donations covers the expenses of the white granite monument that stands at 100 feet, its grassy green garden with several flowers surrounding it, and a stone triangle that lies in front of the sculpture that bears the last names of the victims and a poem dedicated to them.
Although the work of art was built with great precision and dedication, and cost $250,000, (about $790,000 in 2020), skateboarders in Miami have not given it the respect it deserves.
“It was a place where skateboarders liked to skateboard,” said Timothy Schmand, former Executive Director at Bayfront Park Management Trust. “So they would come off the monument and then hit that triangle with their skateboard.”
To this day, the sculpture requires repainting every four to five years. The garden surrounding it needs perpetual maintenance.
Almost three and a half decades after the tragedy, Bayfront Park continues to display a wonderful piece of art in honor of the seven crew members who perished in the accident.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
sfmn.fiu.edu/downtown-miamis-challenger-memorial-the-memo...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
An article by Patrick Barkham, reporting on my discovery of the pale giant oak aphid Stomaphis wojciechowskii in Cambridgeshire, which appeared on page 4 of The Guardian on Saturday 25 January 2020.
Because the scanning process doesn't reproduce newspaper images very well, I've replaced the image from the article with the original jpeg image, cropped as in the article. The uncropped image can be viewed here.
It probably goes without saying I was very pleased that the story was picked up by The Guardian, and especially that it appeared so near the front of the paper, beneath a story about the tax-avoiding Italian billionaire who runs the Ferrero Rocher chocolates empire. More than that though, it's an extremely well-written piece; apart from drawing out the point that these aphids have as much right to be given protection as any other species, the article also emphasises how the relationship between ants and aphids is really one of 'farming'.
Ant-aphid relationships are often described as 'mutualistic', but in reality many of them are about as mutual as that between humans and dairy cattle, which is why 'farming' is such an appropriate term - and even that's being generous. In some ways it's little more than a protection racket - 'pay us with honeydew and we'll protect you from predators, otherwise you'll get eaten'.
Article is copyright Guardian News and Media.
At least twelve plaques set in the same borders and skillfully worked in the same techniques are known to have survived, perhaps from a shrine or an altarpiece.
The imagery of the series is complicated, but not exclusively Christian as can be seen in the three examples shown here from the V & A museum.
Here we have a written name, Alexander. 'King Alexander the Great' is about to visit the heavens in a shallow cart drawn by two griffins who travel ever upwards in pursuit of the meaty food held up on the end of a long pole - which always eludes them.
For a thorough investigation of the art of the 'Fantastical Adventures of Alexander the Great', go to the fascinating article including work by Loomis, Schmidt, Khundadze and above all Julianna Lees,
www.green-man-of-cercles.org/articles/alexander.pdf
Meuse Valley, Liege region (Belgium) workshop.
One of the 'Rolls Plaques' (from the family who owned them) or 'Llangattock Plaques'.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London
From the Daily Mail, Saturday 16/04/05. This woman - Cathy Jung - achieves a 15" waist by wearing a corset almost 24/7.
On a side-note, the paper used the story as a way to debunk the whole 'Kylie-wearing-a-16"-corset' thing. Except that Kylie herself has said that she never wore such a tiny corset, so what's the point?
I hate the Daily Mail.
Perfume de Mulher
Não escrevo um poema,
espalho rosas no horizonte,
pensamentos no teto do firmamento...
Risos ao vento,
atiro pedras ao mar,
elevo as minhas mãos ao Pai,
vôo como gaivota com o olhar...
Destilo nas pétalas a essência de ser mulher,
salgo os pés na maresia aquecida,
nas cinzas das horas faço um brinde à vida,
na alma o meu Viver,
um hino ao amor impregnado de perfume...
Perfume de mulher!
(Do not write a poem,
I spread roses on the horizon,
thoughts on the ceiling of the sky ...
Laughter in the wind,
throw stones to the sea,
I lift my hands to the Father,
Gull flight as the look ...
Petals distil the essence of being a woman,
salgo feet in warm salty air,
the ashes of hours make a toast to life,
in my soul V! see
a hymn to love redolent of perfume ...
Scent of a woman!)
in the City Series (View Original Size)
On the streets of Ave. St. Laurent... Formula 1 happening
Montréal June 12, 2005
The three tin foil bowls on the end of the lower arms indicate that this space vehicle has feet and is intended to land somewhere. This is reinforced by the fully-extended digger arm (surface sampler arm in NASA-speak) that today hangs even lower.
The Surveyor programme was run by NASA from June 1966 to January 1968, sending seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Seen above is a test article, a full-scale mock-up, which is now suspended from the ceiling in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington DC.
The programme's primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63-65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.
The programme was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to prepare for the Apollo programme. JPL selected Hughes Aircraft to develop the spacecraft system which was launched into space aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket. The total cost of the Surveyor programme was officially $469 million.
Five of the Surveyor craft successfully soft-landed on the moon, including the first one. The other two failed: Surveyor 2 crashed at high velocity after a failed mid-course correction, and Surveyor 4 was lost to contact (possibly exploding) 2.5 minutes before its scheduled touch-down.
All seven spacecraft are still on the Moon; none of the missions included returning them to Earth. Some parts of Surveyor 3 were returned to Earth by the crew of Apollo 12, which landed near it in 1969. The camera from this craft is also on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
There is no sense of scale in the picture, but the whole craft is 3m high and 3.5m wide. Its sisters weighed 283 kg as they landed on the moon.
Information from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod
Cape Cod
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This article is about the area of Massachusetts. For other uses, see Cape Cod (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Cod (disambiguation).
Coordinates: 41°41′20″N 70°17′49″W / 41.68889°N 70.29694°W / 41.68889; -70.29694
Map of Massachusetts, with Cape Cod (Barnstable County) indicated in red
Dunes on Sandy Neck are part of the Cape's barrier beach which helps to prevent erosion
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is an island and a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States. It is coextensive with Barnstable County. Several small islands right off Cape Cod, including Monomoy Island, Monomoscoy Island, Popponesset Island, and Seconsett Island, are also in Barnstable County, being part of municipalities with land on the Cape. The Cape's small-town character and large beachfront attract heavy tourism during the summer months.
Cape Cod was formed as the terminal moraine of a glacier, resulting in a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1914, the Cape Cod Canal was cut through the base or isthmus of the peninsula, forming an island. The Cape Cod Commission refers to the resultant landmass as an island; as does the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in regards to disaster preparedness.[1] It is still identified as a peninsula by geographers, who do not change landform designations based on man-made canal construction.[citation needed]
Unofficially, it is one of the biggest barrier islands in the world, shielding much of the Massachusetts coastline from North Atlantic storm waves. This protection helps to erode the Cape shoreline at the expense of cliffs, while protecting towns from Fairhaven to Marshfield.
Road vehicles from the mainland cross over the Cape Cod Canal via the Sagamore Bridge and the Bourne Bridge. The two bridges are parallel, with the Bourne Bridge located slightly farther southwest. In addition, the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge carries railway freight as well as tourist passenger services.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Geography and political divisions
o 1.1 "Upper" and "Lower"
* 2 Geology
* 3 Climate
* 4 Native population
* 5 History
* 6 Lighthouses of Cape Cod
* 7 Transportation
o 7.1 Bus
o 7.2 Rail
o 7.3 Taxi
* 8 Tourism
* 9 Sport fishing
* 10 Sports
* 11 Education
* 12 Islands off Cape Cod
* 13 See also
* 14 References
o 14.1 Notes
o 14.2 Sources
o 14.3 Further reading
* 15 External links
[edit] Geography and political divisions
Towns of Barnstable County
historical map of 1890
The highest elevation on Cape Cod is 306 feet (93 m), at the top of Pine Hill, in the Bourne portion of the Massachusetts Military Reservation. The lowest point is sea level.
The body of water located between Cape Cod and the mainland, bordered to the north by Massachusetts Bay, is Cape Cod Bay; west of Cape Cod is Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal, completed in 1916, connects Buzzards Bay to Cape Cod Bay; it shortened the trade route between New York and Boston by 62 miles.[2] To the south of Cape Cod lie Nantucket Sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, both large islands, and the mostly privately owned Elizabeth Islands.
Cape Cod incorporates all of Barnstable County, which comprises 15 towns: Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. Two of the county's fifteen towns (Bourne and Sandwich) include land on the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal. The towns of Plymouth and Wareham, in adjacent Plymouth County, are sometimes considered to be part of Cape Cod but are not located on the island.
In the 17th century the designation Cape Cod applied only to the tip of the peninsula, essentially present-day Provincetown. Over the ensuing decades, the name came to mean all the land east of the Manomet and Scussett rivers - essentially the line of the 20th century Cape Cod Canal. Now, the complete towns of Bourne and Sandwich are widely considered to incorporate the full perimeter of Cape Cod, even though small parts of these towns are located on the west side of the canal. The canal divides the largest part of the peninsula from the mainland and the resultant landmass is sometimes referred to as an island.[3][4] Additionally some "Cape Codders" – residents of "The Cape" – refer to all land on the mainland side of the canal as "off-Cape."
For most of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, Cape Cod was considered to consist of three sections:
* The Upper Cape is the part of Cape Cod closest to the mainland, comprising the towns of Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and Mashpee. Falmouth is the home of the famous Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and several other research organizations, and is also the most-used ferry connection to Martha's Vineyard. Falmouth is composed of several separate villages, including East Falmouth, Falmouth Village, Hatchville, North Falmouth, Teaticket, Waquoit, West Falmouth, and Woods Hole, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Davisville, Falmouth Heights, Quissett, Sippewissett, and others).[5]
* The Mid-Cape includes the towns of Barnstable, Yarmouth and Dennis. The Mid-Cape area features many beautiful beaches, including warm-water beaches along Nantucket Sound, e.g., Kalmus Beach in Hyannis, which gets its name from one of the inventors of Technicolor, Herbert Kalmus. This popular windsurfing destination was bequeathed to the town of Barnstable by Dr. Kalmus on condition that it not be developed, possibly one of the first instances of open-space preservation in the US. The Mid-Cape is also the commercial and industrial center of the region. There are seven villages in Barnstable, including Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable, as well as several smaller hamlets that are incorporated into their larger neighbors (e.g., Craigville, Cummaquid, Hyannisport, Santuit, Wianno, and others).[6] There are three villages in Yarmouth: South Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouthport. There are five villages in Dennis including, Dennis Village(North Dennis), East Dennis, West Dennis, South Dennis and Dennisport.[7]
* The Lower Cape traditionally included all of the rest of the Cape,or the towns of Harwich, Brewster, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown. This area includes the Cape Cod National Seashore, a national park comprising much of the outer Cape, including the entire east-facing coast, and is home to some of the most popular beaches in America, such as Coast Guard Beach and Nauset Light Beach in Eastham. Stephen Leatherman, aka "Dr. Beach", named Coast Guard Beach the 5th best beach in America for 2007.[8]
[edit] "Upper" and "Lower"
The terms "Upper" and "Lower" as applied to the Cape have nothing to do with north and south. Instead, they derive from maritime convention at the time when the principal means of transportation involved watercraft, and the prevailing westerly winds meant that a boat with sails traveling northeast in Cape Cod Bay would have the wind at its back and thus be going downwind, while a craft sailing southwest would be going against the wind, or upwind.[9] Similarly, on nearby Martha's Vineyard, "Up Island" still is the western section and "Down Island" is to the east, and in Maine, "Down East" is similarly defined by the winds and currents.
Over time, the reasons for the traditional nomenclature became unfamiliar and their meaning obscure. Late in the 1900s, new arrivals began calling towns from Eastham to Provincetown the "Outer Cape", yet another geographic descriptor which is still in use, as is the "Inner Cape."
[edit] Geology
Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay from space.[10]
East of America, there stands in the open Atlantic the last fragment of an ancient and vanished land. Worn by the breakers and the rains, and disintegrated by the wind, it still stands bold.
“
”
Henry Beston, The Outermost House
Cape Cod forms a continuous archipelagic region with a thin line of islands stretching toward New York, historically known by naturalists as the Outer Lands. This continuity is due to the fact that the islands and Cape are all terminal glacial moraines laid down some 16,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Most of Cape Cod's geological history involves the advance and retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet in the late Pleistocene geological era and the subsequent changes in sea level. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers have determined that around 23,000 years ago, the ice sheet reached its maximum southward advance over North America, and then started to retreat. Many "kettle ponds" — clear, cold lakes — were formed and remain on Cape Cod as a result of the receding glacier. By about 18,000 years ago, the ice sheet had retreated past Cape Cod. By roughly 15,000 years ago, it had retreated past southern New England. When so much of Earth's water was locked up in massive ice sheets, the sea level was lower. Truro's bayside beaches used to be a petrified forest, before it became a beach.
As the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. Initially, sea level rose quickly, about 15 meters (50 ft) per 1,000 years, but then the rate declined. On Cape Cod, sea level rose roughly 3 meters (11 ft) per millennium between 6,000 and 2,000 years ago. After that, it continued to rise at about 1 meter (3 ft) per millennium. By 6,000 years ago, the sea level was high enough to start eroding the glacial deposits that the vanished continental ice sheet had left on Cape Cod. The water transported the eroded deposits north and south along the outer Cape's shoreline. Those reworked sediments that moved north went to the tip of Cape Cod.
Provincetown Spit, at the northern end of the Cape, consists largely of marine deposits, transported from farther up the shore. Sediments that moved south created the islands and shoals of Monomoy. So while other parts of the Cape have dwindled from the action of the waves, these parts of the Cape have grown.
Cape Cod National Seashore
This process continues today. Due to their position jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape and islands are subject to massive coastal erosion. Geologists say that, due to erosion, the Cape will be completely submerged by the sea in thousands of years.[11] This erosion causes the washout of beaches and the destruction of the barrier islands; for example, the ocean broke through the barrier island at Chatham during Hurricane Bob in 1991, allowing waves and storm surges to hit the coast with no obstruction. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches is being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by waters running through them.
[edit] Climate
Although Cape Cod's weather[12] is typically more moderate than inland locations, there have been occasions where Cape Cod has dealt with the brunt of extreme weather situations (such as the Blizzard of 1954 and Hurricane of 1938). Because of the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, temperatures are typically a few degrees cooler in the summer and a few degrees warmer in the winter. A common misconception is that the climate is influenced largely by the warm Gulf Stream current, however that current turns eastward off the coast of Virginia and the waters off the Cape are more influenced by the cold Canadian Labrador Current. As a result, the ocean temperature rarely gets above 65 °F (18 °C), except along the shallow west coast of the Upper Cape.
The Cape's climate is also notorious for a delayed spring season, being surrounded by an ocean which is still cold from the winter; however, it is also known for an exceptionally mild fall season (Indian summer), thanks to the ocean remaining warm from the summer. The highest temperature ever recorded on Cape Cod was 104 °F (40 °C) in Provincetown[13], and the lowest temperature ever was −12 °F (−24.4 °C) in Barnstable.[14]
The water surrounding Cape Cod moderates winter temperatures enough to extend the USDA hardiness zone 7a to its northernmost limit in eastern North America.[15] Even though zone 7a (annual low = 0–5 degrees Fahrenheit) signifies no sub-zero temperatures annually, there have been several instances of temperatures reaching a few degrees below zero across the Cape (although it is rare, usually 1–5 times a year, typically depending on locale, sometimes not at all). Consequently, many plant species typically found in more southerly latitudes grow there, including Camellias, Ilex opaca, Magnolia grandiflora and Albizia julibrissin.
Precipitation on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is the lowest in the New England region, averaging slightly less than 40 inches (1,000 mm) a year (most parts of New England average 42–46 inches). This is due to storm systems which move across western areas, building up in mountainous regions, and dissipating before reaching the coast where the land has leveled out. The region does not experience a greater number of sunny days however, as the number of cloudy days is the same as inland locales, in addition to increased fog. Snowfall is annual, but a lot less common than the rest of Massachusetts. On average, 30 inches of snow, which is a foot less than Boston, falls in an average winter. Snow is usually light, and comes in squalls on cold days. Storms that bring blizzard conditions and snow emergencies to the mainland, bring devastating ice storms or just heavy rains more frequently than large snow storms.
[hide]Climate data for Cape Cod
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 2.06
(35.7) 2.5
(36.5) 6.22
(43.2) 11.72
(53.1) 16.94
(62.5) 23.5
(74.3) 26.39
(79.5) 26.67
(80.0) 25.06
(77.1) 18.39
(65.1) 12.56
(54.6) 5.44
(41.8) 26.67
(80.0)
Average low °C (°F) -5.33
(22.4) -5
(23.0) -1.33
(29.6) 2.72
(36.9) 8.72
(47.7) 14.61
(58.3) 19.22
(66.6) 20.28
(68.5) 15.56
(60.0) 9.94
(49.9) 3.94
(39.1) -2.22
(28.0) -5.33
(22.4)
Precipitation mm (inches) 98
(3.86) 75.4
(2.97) 95
(3.74) 92.5
(3.64) 83.6
(3.29) 76.7
(3.02) 62.2
(2.45) 65
(2.56) 74.7
(2.94) 84.8
(3.34) 90.7
(3.57) 92.7
(3.65) 990.9
(39.01)
Source: World Meteorological Organisation (United Nations) [16]
[edit] Native population
Cape Cod has been the home of the Wampanoag tribe of Native American people for many centuries. They survived off the sea and were accomplished farmers. They understood the principles of sustainable forest management, and were known to light controlled fires to keep the underbrush in check. They helped the Pilgrims, who arrived in the fall of 1620, survive at their new Plymouth Colony. At the time, the dominant group was the Kakopee, known for their abilities at fishing. They were the first Native Americans to use large casting nets. Early colonial settlers recorded that the Kakopee numbered nearly 7,000.
Shortly after the Pilgrims arrived, the chief of the Kakopee, Mogauhok, attempted to make a treaty limiting colonial settlements. The effort failed after he succumbed to smallpox in 1625. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, measles and influenza caused the deaths of many other Kakopee and Wampanoag. They had no natural immunity to Eurasian diseases by then endemic among the English and other Europeans. Today, the only reminder of the Kakopee is a small public recreation area in Barnstable named for them. A historic marker notes the burial site of Mogauhok near Truro, although the location is conjecture.
While contractors were digging test wells in the eastern Massachusetts Military Reservation area, they discovered an archeological find.[citation needed] Excavation revealed the remains of a Kakopee village in Forestdale, a location in Sandwich. Researchers found a totem with a painted image of Mogauhok, portrayed in his chief's cape and brooch. The totem was discovered on property on Grand Oak Road. It is the first evidence other than colonial accounts of his role as an important Kakopee leader.
The Indians lost their lands through continued purchase and expropriation by the English colonists. The documentary Natives of the Narrowland (1993), narrated by actress Julie Harris, shows the history of the Wampanoag people through Cape Cod archaeological sites.
In 1974, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council was formed to articulate the concerns of those with Native American ancestry. They petitioned the federal government in 1975 and again in 1990 for official recognition of the Mashpee Wampanoag as a tribe. In May 2007, the Wampanoag tribe was finally federally recognized as a tribe.[17]
[edit] History
Cranberry picking in 1906
Cape Cod was a landmark for early explorers. It may have been the "Promontory of Vinland" mentioned by the Norse voyagers (985-1025). Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 approached it from the south. He named Martha's Vineyard Claudia, after the mother of the King of France.[18] The next year the explorer Esteban Gómez called it Cape St. James.
In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold named it Cape Cod, the surviving term and the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.[19] Samuel de Champlain charted its sand-silted harbors in 1606 and Henry Hudson landed there in 1609. Captain John Smith noted it on his map of 1614 and at last the Pilgrims entered the "Cape Harbor" and – contrary to the popular myth of Plymouth Rock – made their first landing near present-day Provincetown on November 11, 1620. Nearby, in what is now Eastham, they had their first encounter with Native Americans.
Cape Cod was among the first places settled by the English in North America. Aside from Barnstable (1639), Sandwich (1637) and Yarmouth (1639), the Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly. The final town to be established on the Cape was Bourne in 1884.[20] Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The Federal government purchased it in 1928.
Thanks to early colonial settlement and intensive land use, by the time Henry Thoreau saw Cape Cod during his four visits over 1849 to 1857[21], its vegetation was depauperate and trees were scarce. As the settlers heated by fires, and it took 10 to 20 cords (40 to 80 m³) of wood to heat a home, they cleared most of Cape Cod of timber early on. They planted familiar crops, but these were unsuited to Cape Cod's thin, glacially derived soils. For instance, much of Eastham was planted to wheat. The settlers practiced burning of woodlands to release nutrients into the soil. Improper and intensive farming led to erosion and the loss of topsoil. Farmers grazed their cattle on the grassy dunes of coastal Massachusetts, only to watch "in horror as the denuded sands `walked' over richer lands, burying cultivated fields and fences." Dunes on the outer Cape became more common and many harbors filled in with eroded soils.[22]
By 1800, most of Cape Cod's firewood had to be transported by boat from Maine. The paucity of vegetation was worsened by the raising of merino sheep that reached its peak in New England around 1840. The early industrial revolution, which occurred through much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, mostly bypassed Cape Cod due to a lack of significant water power in the area. As a result, and also because of its geographic position, the Cape developed as a large fishing and whaling center. After 1860 and the opening of the American West, farmers abandoned agriculture on the Cape. By 1950 forests had recovered to an extent not seen since the 18th century.
Cape Cod became a summer haven for city dwellers beginning at the end of the 19th century. Improved rail transportation made the towns of the Upper Cape, such as Bourne and Falmouth, accessible to Bostonians. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Northeastern mercantile elite built many large, shingled "cottages" along Buzzards Bay. The relaxed summer environment offered by Cape Cod was highlighted by writers including Joseph C. Lincoln, who published novels and countless short stories about Cape Cod folks in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and the Delineator.
Guglielmo Marconi made the first transatlantic wireless transmission originating in the United States from Cape Cod, at Wellfleet. The beach from which he transmitted has since been called Marconi Beach. In 1914 he opened the maritime wireless station WCC in Chatham. It supported the communications of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, Admiral Byrd, and the Hindenburg. Marconi chose Chatham due to its vantage point on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded on three sides by water. Walter Cronkite narrated a 17-minute documentary in 2005 about the history of the Chatham Station.
Much of the East-facing Atlantic seacoast of Cape Cod consists of wide, sandy beaches. In 1961, a significant portion of this coastline, already slated for housing subdivisions, was made a part of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy. It was protected from private development and preserved for public use. Large portions are open to the public, including the Marconi Site in Wellfleet. This is a park encompassing the site of the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the United States. (Theodore Roosevelt used Marconi's equipment for this transmission).
The Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport was President Kennedy's summer White House during his presidency. The Kennedy family continues to maintain residences on the compound. Other notable residents of Cape Cod have included actress Julie Harris, US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, figure skater Todd Eldredge, and novelists Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut. Influential natives included the patriot James Otis, historian and writer Mercy Otis Warren, jurist Lemuel Shaw, and naval officer John Percival.
[edit] Lighthouses of Cape Cod
Race Point Lighthouse in Provincetown (1876)
Lighthouses, from ancient times, have fascinated members of the human race. There is something about a lighted beacon that suggests hope and trust and appeals to the better instincts of mankind.
“
”
Edward Rowe Snow
Due to its dangerous constantly moving shoals, Cape Cod's shores have featured beacons which warn ships of the danger since very early in its history. There are numerous working lighthouses on Cape Cod and the Islands, including Highland Light, Nauset Light, Chatham Light, Race Point Light, and Nobska Light, mostly operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. The exception is Nauset Light, which was decommissioned in 1996 and is now maintained by the Nauset Light Preservation Society under the auspices of Cape Cod National Seashore. These lighthouses are frequently photographed symbols of Cape Cod.
Others include:
Upper Cape: Wings Neck
Mid Cape: Sandy Neck, South Hyannis, Lewis Bay, Bishop and Clerks, Bass River
Lower Cape: Wood End, Long Point, Monomoy, Stage Harbor, Pamet, Mayo Beach, Billingsgate, Three Sisters, Nauset, Highland
[edit] Transportation
Cape Cod is connected to the mainland by a pair of canal-spanning highway bridges from Bourne and Sagamore that were constructed in the 1930s, and a vertical-lift railroad bridge. The limited number of access points to the peninsula can result in large traffic backups during the tourist season.
The entire Cape is roughly bisected lengthwise by U.S. Route 6, locally known as the Mid-Cape Highway and officially as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway.
Commercial air service to Cape Cod operates out of Barnstable Municipal Airport and Provincetown Municipal Airport. Several bus lines service the Cape. There are ferry connections from Boston to Provincetown, as well as from Hyannis and Woods Hole to the islands.
Cape Cod has a public transportation network comprising buses operated by three different companies, a rail line, taxis and paratransit services.
The Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, with the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge in the background
[edit] Bus
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority operates a year-round public bus system comprising three long distance routes and a local bus in Hyannis and Barnstable Village. From mid June until October, additional local routes are added in Falmouth and Provincetown. CCRTA also operates Barnstable County's ADA required paratransit (dial-a-ride) service, under the name "B-Bus."
Long distance bus service is available through Plymouth and Brockton Street Railway, with regular service to Boston and Logan Airport, as well as less frequent service to Provincetown. Peter Pan Bus Lines also runs long distance service to Providence T.F. Green Airport and New York City.
[edit] Rail
Regular passenger rail service through Cape Cod ended in 1959, quite possibly on June 30 of that year. In 1978, the tracks east of South Dennis were abandoned and replaced with the very popular bicycle path, known as the Cape Cod Rail Trail. Another bike path, the Shining Sea Bikeway, was built over tracks between Woods Hole and Falmouth in 1975; construction to extend this path to North Falmouth over 6.3 miles (10.1 km) of inactive rail bed began in April 2008[23] and ended in early 2009. Active freight service remains in the Upper Cape area in Sandwich and in Bourne, largely due to a trash transfer station located at Massachusetts Military Reservation along the Bourne-Falmouth rail line. In 1986, Amtrak ran a seasonal service in the summer from New York City to Hyannis called the Cape Codder. From 1988, Amtrak and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation increased service to a daily frequency.[24] Since its demise in 1996, there have been periodic discussions about reinstating passenger rail service from Boston to reduce car traffic to and from the Cape, with officials in Bourne seeking to re-extend MBTA Commuter Rail service from Middleboro to Buzzards Bay[25], despite a reluctant Beacon Hill legislature.
Cape Cod Central Railroad operates passenger train service on Cape Cod. The service is primarily tourist oriented and includes a dinner train. The scenic route between Downtown Hyannis and the Cape Cod Canal is about 2½ hours round trip. Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is also planning to return passenger railroad services eventually to the Bourne-Falmouth rail line in the future. An August 5, 2009 article on the New England Cable News channel, entitled South Coast rail project a priority for Mass. lawmakers, mentions a $1.4-billion railroad reconstruction plan by Governor Deval Patrick, and could mean rebuilding of old rail lines on the Cape. On November 21, 2009, the town of Falmouth saw its first passenger train in 12 years, a set of dinner train cars from Cape Cod Central. And a trip from the Mass Bay Railroad Enthusiasts on May 15, 2010 revealed a second trip along the Falmouth line.
[edit] Taxi
Taxicabs are plentiful, with several different companies operating out of different parts of the Cape. Except at the airport and some bus terminals with taxi stands, cabs must be booked ahead of time, with most operators preferring two to three hours notice. Cabs cannot be "hailed" anywhere in Barnstable County, this was outlawed in the early nineties after several robbery attempts on drivers.
Most companies utilize a New York City-style taximeter and charge based on distance plus an initial fee of $2 to $3. In Provincetown, cabs charge a flat fare per person anywhere in the town.
[edit] Tourism
Hyannis Harbor on Nantucket Sound
Although Cape Cod has a year-round population of about 230,000, it experiences a tourist season each summer, the beginning and end of which can be roughly approximated as Memorial Day and Labor Day, respectively. Many businesses are specifically targeted to summer visitors, and close during the eight to nine months of the "off season" (although the "on season" has been expanding somewhat in recent years due to Indian Summer, reduced lodging rates, and the number of people visiting the Cape after Labor Day who either have no school-age children, and the elderly, reducing the true "off season" to six or seven months). In the late 20th century, tourists and owners of second homes began visiting the Cape more and more in the spring and fall, softening the definition of the high season and expanding it somewhat (see above). Some particularly well-known Cape products and industries include cranberries, shellfish (particularly oysters and clams) and lobstering.
Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, also berths several whale watching fleets who patrol the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Most fleets guarantee a whale sighting (mostly humpback whale, fin whale, minke whale, sei whale, and critically endangered, the North Atlantic Right Whale), and one is the only federally certified operation qualified to rescue whales. Provincetown has also long been known as an art colony, attracting writers and artists. The town is home to the Cape's most attended art museum, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Many hotels and resorts are friendly to or cater to gay and lesbian tourists and it is known as a gay mecca in the summer.[26]
Cape Cod is a popular destination for beachgoers from all over. With 559.6 miles (900.6 km) of coastline, beaches, both public and private, are easily accessible. The Cape has upwards of sixty public beaches, many of which offer parking for non-residents for a daily fee (in summer). The Cape Cod National Seashore has 40 miles (64 km) of sandy beach and many walking paths.
Cape Cod is also popular for its outdoor activities like beach walking, biking, boating, fishing, go-karts, golfing, kayaking, miniature golf, and unique shopping. There are 27 public, daily-fee golf courses and 15 private courses on Cape Cod.[27] Bed and breakfasts or vacation houses are often used for lodging.
Each summer the Naukabout Music Festival is held at the Barnstable County Fair Grounds located in East Falmouth,(typically) during the first weekend of August. This Music festival features local, regional and national talent along with food, arts and family friendly activities.
[edit] Sport fishing
Cape Cod is known around the world as a spring-to-fall destination for sport anglers. Among the species most widely pursued are striped bass, bluefish, bluefin tuna, false albacore (little tunny), bonito, tautog, flounder and fluke. The Cape Cod Bay side of the Cape, from Sandwich to Provincetown, has several harbors, saltwater creeks, and shoals that hold bait fish and attract the larger game fish, such as striped bass, bluefish and bluefin tuna.
The outer edge of the Cape, from Provincetown to Falmouth, faces the open Atlantic from Provincetown to Chatham, and then the more protected water of Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, from Chatham to Falmouth. The bays, harbors and shoals along this coastline also provide a robust habitat for game species, and during the late summer months warm-water species such as mahi-mahi and marlin will also appear on the southern edge of Cape Cod's waters. Nearly every harbor on Cape Cod hosts sport fishing charter boats, which run from May through October.[28]
[edit] Sports
The Cape has nine amateur baseball franchises playing within Barnstable County in the Cape Cod Baseball League. The Wareham Gatemen also play in the Cape Cod Baseball League in nearby Wareham, Massachusetts in Plymouth County. The league originated 1923, although intertown competition traces to 1866. Teams in the league are the Bourne Braves, Brewster Whitecaps, Chatham Anglers (formerly the Chatham Athletics), Cotuit Kettleers, Falmouth Commodores, Harwich Mariners, Hyannis Harbor Hawks (formerly the Hyannis Mets), Orleans Firebirds (formerly the Orleans Cardinals), Wareham Gatemen and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Pro ball scouts frequent the games in the summer, looking for stars of the future.
Cape Cod is also a national hot bed for baseball and hockey. Along with the Cape Cod Baseball League and the new Junior Hockey League team, the Cape Cod Cubs, many high school players are being seriously recruited as well. Barnstable and Harwich have each sent multiple players to Division 1 colleges for baseball, Harwich has also won three State titles in the past 12 years (1996, 2006, 2007). Bourne and Sandwich, known rivals in hockey have won state championships recently. Bourne in 2004, and Sandwich in 2007. Nauset, Barnstable, and Martha's Vineyard are also state hockey powerhouses. Barnstable and Falmouth also hold the title of having one of the longest Thanksgiving football rivalries in the country. The teams have played each other every year on the Thanksgiving since 1895. The Bourne and Barnstable girl's volleyball teams are two of the best teams in the state and Barnstable in the country. With Bourne winning the State title in 2003 and 2007. In the past 15 years, Barnstable has won 12 Division 1 State titles and has won the state title the past two years.
The Cape also is home to the Cape Cod Frenzy, a team in the American Basketball Association.
Soccer on Cape Cod is represented by the Cape Cod Crusaders, playing in the USL Premier Development League (PDL) soccer based in Hyannis. In addition, a summer Cape Cod Adult Soccer League (CCASL) is active in several towns on the Cape.
Cape Cod is also the home of the Cape Cod Cubs, a new junior league hockey team that is based out of Hyannis at the new communtiy center being built of Bearses Way.
The end of each summer is marked with the running of the world famous Falmouth Road Race which is held on the 3rd Saturday in August. It draws about 10,000 runners to the Cape and showcases the finest runners in the world (mainly for the large purse that the race is able to offer). The race is 7.2 miles (11.6 km) long, which is a non-standard distance. The reason for the unusual distance is that the man who thought the race up (Tommy Leonard) was a bartender who wanted a race along the coast from one bar (The Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole) to another (The Brothers Four in Falmouth Heights). While the bar in Falmouth Heights is no longer there, the race still starts at the front door of the Cap'n Kidd in Woods Hole and now finishes at the beach in Falmouth Heights. Prior to the Falmouth race is an annual 5-mile (8.0 km) race through Brewster called the Brew Run, held early in August.
[edit] Education
Each town usually consists of a few elementary schools, one or two middle schools and one large public high school that services the entire town. Exceptions to this include Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School located in Yarmouth which services both the town of Yarmouth as well as Dennis and Nauset Regional High School located in Eastham which services the town of Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown (optional). Bourne High School is the public school for students residing in the town of Bourne, which is gathered from villages in Bourne, including Sagamore, Sagamore Beach, and Buzzards Bay. Barnstable High School is the largest high school and is known for its girls' volleyball team which have been state champions a total of 12 times. Barnstable High School also boasts one of the country's best high school drama clubs which were awarded with a contract by Warner Brothers to created a documentary in webisode format based on their production of Wizard of Oz. Sturgis Charter Public School is a public school in Hyannis which was featured in Newsweek's Magazine's "Best High Schools" ranking. It ranked 28th in the country and 1st in the state of Massachusetts in the 2009 edition and ranked 43rd and 55th in the 2008 and 2007 edition, respectively. Sturgis offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in their junior and senior year and is open to students as far as Plymouth. The Cape also contains two vocational high schools. One is the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich and the other is Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School located in Bourne. Lastly, Mashpee High School is home to the Mashpee Chapter of (SMPTE,) the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. This chapter is the first and only high school chapter in the world to be a part of this organization and has received much recognition within the Los Angeles broadcasting industry as a result. The officers of this group who have made history are listed below:
* President: Ryan D. Stanley '11
* Vice-President Kenneth J. Peters '13
* Treasurer Eric N. Bergquist '11
* Secretary Andrew L. Medlar '11
In addition to public schools, Cape Cod has a wide range of private schools. The town of Barnstable has Trinity Christian Academy, Cape Cod Academy, St. Francis Xavier Preparatory School, and Pope John Paul II High School. Bourne offers the Waldorf School of Cape Cod, Orleans offers the Lighthouse Charter School for elementary and middle school students, and Falmouth offers Falmouth Academy. Riverview School is located in East Sandwich and is a special co-ed boarding school which services students as old as 22 who have learning disabilities. Another specialized school is the Penikese Island School located on Penikese Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands off southwestern Cape Cod, which services struggling and troubled teenage boys.
Cape Cod also contains two institutions of higher education. One is the Cape Cod Community College located in West Barnstable, Barnstable. The other is Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Bourne. Massachusetts Maritime Academy is the oldest continuously operating maritime college in the United States.
[edit] Islands off Cape Cod
Like Cape Cod itself, the islands south of the Cape have evolved from whaling and trading areas to resort destinations, attracting wealthy families, celebrities, and other tourists. The islands include Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, as well as Forbes family-owned Naushon Island, which was purchased by John Murray Forbes with profits from opium dealing in the China trade during the Opium War. Naushon is one of the Elizabeth Islands, many of which are privately owned. One of the publicly accessible Elizabeths is the southernmost island in the chain, Cuttyhunk, with a year-round population of 52 people. Several prominent families have established compounds or estates on the larger islands, making these islands some of the wealthiest resorts in the Northeast, yet they retain much of the early merchant trading and whaling culture.
article complet sur la FIM à lire ici : militaryphotoreport.blogspot.fr/2015/10/la-defense-lhonne...
This photograph was published online in an article in RADIO FRANCE in the France Culture section on May 11th 2023 titled:
'' SERIE MECANIQUES DU VIVANT, SAISON 3: LE CORBEAU ''
Épisode 1 : Un oiseau noir pourtant si brillant
In English:
'' Mechanics of life, season 3: The crow ''
Episode 1: A black bird yet so brilliant
It was also Published online in an article in RADIO FRANCE in the France Culture section on May 11th 2023
Chronique sur les animaux
Les corbeaux et les corneilles : de petits génies de la nature (chronicle on animals
Ravens and crows: little geniuses of nature).
It was previously published as my 3,819th image in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on November 5th 2019 (I now have 7,000+ images published)
CREATIVE RF gty.im/1185462929 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Twenty One metres, at 12:34pm on Monday 4th November 2019, off Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane A4202 in the grounds of Hyde park, a Grade 1 listed Royal Park (the largest of) of London.
LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY
By Paul Williams
Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.
In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.
In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds.
There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.
The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had become a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada.
Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom. The five-day dances seeking trance, prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.
Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows.
Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god).
The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare. Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.
In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors.
It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.
In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.
The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug
In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys.
In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow").
Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow-coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.
In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.
In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:
1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.
2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.
3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.
4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.
6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!
7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.
8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events
Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolizes potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it.
This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....
There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders.
The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.
The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK
So, let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.
Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice).
Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.
Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone
Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories.
Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm. They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old.
The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!
They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow, a more steeply raked ratio from head to beak, and longer straighter beaks as well as a different plumage pattern.
There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.
Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence.
Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1.
That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, intraneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.
A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events.
They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans,and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food. They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans.
Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.
Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.
Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally.
They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!
Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades. Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!
They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.
In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain.
Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps. They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN
Known mostly for my landscape work, Covid-19 changed everything for me photographically speaking thanks to a series of lock downs which naturally impeded my ability to travel. I began to spend more time on my own land, photographing the wildlife, and suddenly those wildlife photographs began to sell worldwide in magazines and books.
Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed around mid May 2021 when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them. She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food. Naturally I named her Sheryl (Crow).
Shortly afterwards she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me. I named him Russell (Crow). By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed.
Sheryl was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first, I used silent mode to reduce the noise, but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames, and she soon got used to the whirring of the mechanisms as the mirror slapped back and forth.
Russell would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat.
I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....
I swear she was expressing happiness, joy even....
On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.
A further revelation into the unseen sides to these beautiful birds came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds.
They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them. Into July and the pair started to bring their three youngsters to my garden, the nippers learning to use the birdbath for bathing and dipping food, the parents attentive as ever. Two of the youngsters headed off once large enough and strong enough.
I was privileged to be in close attendance as the last juvenile was brought down by the pair, taught to take food and then on a night in July, to soar and fly with its mother in the evening sky as the light faded. She would swoop and twirl, and at regular intervals just touch the juvenile in flight with her wing tip feathers, as if to reassure it that she was close in attendance.
What an amazing experience to view. A few days later, the juvenile, though now gaining independence and more than capable of tackling food scraps in the garden, was still on occasions demand feeding from its mother who was now teaching him to take chicken breast, hotdogs or digestive biscuits and bury them in the garden beds for later delectation.
The juvenile also liked to gather up peanuts (monkey nuts) and bury them in the grass. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of rumbunctious Pica Pica (Magpies), chasing the young crow on rooftops, leaping at him no matter how hard he tried to get away. He defended himself well and survived the attacks, much to my relief.
Into August and the last youngster remained with the adults, though now was very independent even though he still spent time with his parents on rooftops, and shared food gathering duties with his mum. Hotdog sausages were their favourite choice, followed by fish fingers and digestive biscuits which the adult male would gather up three at a time.
In October 2021, the three Crows were still kings of the area, but my time observing them was pretty much over as I will only put food out now for the birds in the winter months. The two adults are still here in December and now taking the food that I put out to help all birds survive in the winter months. They also have a pair of Magpies to compete with now.
Late February 2022 and Cheryl and Russell and their youngster are still with me, still dominant in the area and still taking raw chicken, hotdogs, biscuits and fat balls that I put out for them. Today I saw them mating for the first time this year in the tree and the cycle continues.
By October 2022 the pair had successfully reared a new baby who we nicknamed Baboo, and the other youngster flew the coup. The three now recognised our car returning from weekends away, and were enjoying sausages, hotdogs, raw chicken, fish and especially cheese, but life was hard as they aged with daily morning and evening tussles in the air with invaders and intruders hoping to take their land.
Russell picked up an injury during one fight and hobbled about for a few weeks before fully recovering, though a slight limp remained long-term, but Sheryl was visibly ageing and struggled at times to gain height from a vertical ground take off. I placed a garden chair near the house and she would often jump onto the top and then onto the fence and then the roof in stages.
Baboo became the dominant garden watcher, swooping in to take advantage of the food I put out, though he now faced competition from a gaggle eight resident Magpies, and gulls which seemed to have adopted the area, and brave enough to snatch food from under his nose and eat on the grass in his presence. The three crows still held on to our garden and the territory and loved cheese, hot dogs, raw chicken, fish fingers and digestive biscuits and also mixed nuts, crusty bread and cakes and fat from steak or gammon plus fish skin from salmon or haddock. But by December 13th 2022, feeding became almost impossible as Black headed gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and Common Gulls (Larus canus), seemed to take up residence, swooping from nowhere in dozens as soon as I tried to feed the crows and Magpies. I had to wait until any of my three crows were nestled in the Chestnut tree which seeps into my garden, before throwing food out to them, watching as they grabbed what they could, followed by the resident Magpies, before the gulls began to swoop once more!
The three crows could recognise my car and know if we were returning home, and call each other, and wait for me to feed them. They enjoyed Tesco finest mince pies, tinned Salmon steaks, fatballs and raw meatballs over the festive period, and Sheryl particularly loved her mature cheddar cheese in large chunks. Into February, March and April 2023 and the morning skirmishes with bands of four or more outsider crows grew in regularity and intensity. Russell and Sheryl are by now getting older, at least into their third year, probably fourth or more, and the battles must have been getting harder to win.
Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!
Paul Williams June 4th 2021 (Updated on April 3rd 2023)
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This article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on Apr. 10, 2004.
By CAROL JEFFARES HEDMAN
LeHeup Hill gets all the glory.
It’s thought by most to be the highest point in Pasco County, and at one time it was a contender for the highest point in Florida.
The summit, south of Dade City along Fort King Road, doesn't top the list. But it’s the state’s 23rd highest point above sea level, according to America’s Roof, americasroof.com, an organization that records such things.
But for a brief time in 1936, another Pasco County “mountain” vied for the title along with LeHeup Hill.
“Pasco Claims Highest Points in Florida,” the Jan. 10, 1936 edition of the Dade City Banner proclaimed. But the so-called highest point wasn't LeHeup Hill. It was the farm and grove property three miles northwest of Dade City purchased by L.E. Rowland, principal of Zephyrhills High School. Rowland believed the land was 330 feet above sea level.
From his home on the “brow of a hill” accessible via a little traveled road “can be seen a remarkable panorama of the eastern half of the county showing Dade City, the mills of Lacoochee, hills, lakes, groves and homes for miles around,” the article stated.
The view from there was unobstructed to the north and south. “But the longest distance can be seen to the east across the low river swamps between Dade City and Orlando,” the Banner said.
Rowland had reported seeing smoke from trains between Lakeland and Orlando and, at night, airport lights in Orlando, Lakeland and Plant City. And a “glow in the sky” came from Tampa and Brooksville.
But Rowland was most amazed on clear days to see smoke moving in the far distance. From its comparatively slow progress, Rowland believed it came from coastal steamships.
Rowland wished he could have measurements taken to measure his property against LeHeup Hill.
Many years earlier, Dade City, Clermont and other Florida towns were claiming the highest land in Florida, the Banner said. Dade City’s claim was the property of Gertie M. Dew on Fort King Road. The site, now called LeHeup Hill, overlooks Lake Pasadena and was measured at 330.2 feet above sea level, slightly more than the height given the Rowland property, the article said.
But “which ever point is finally proved to be the highest, it is certain that no other section of the state can surpass Pasco County in the height of its hills and beauty of its views,” the Banner said.
LeHeup Hill is now designated at 242 feet above sea level, records show. Not making Florida’s Highest Named Summits list is Clay Hill, six miles northwest of Dade City, recorded at 301 feet. That would make it the highest point in both Pasco and Hernando counties. Frazee Hill, at 251 feet above sea level and perhaps where the Rowland property was located, even tops LeHeup Hill.
But still the hill named for the family that moved there in 1911 gets the glory as Pasco’s highest point. Its adjoining Nursery Hill, also 242 feet above sea level, and nearby Greer Hill, at 229 feet above sea level, both made the Florida Highest Named Summits list.
The highest summit on the list is Britton Hill, at 345 feet above sea level, in Walton County.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/fl/pasco-county-12101/s...
www.fivay.org/lake_pasadena.html
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
This article about Barbie designer Carol Spencer was in the New York Times while we were visiting New York City. We picked up a N.Y. Times paper at our hotel, and here was the top story of the Styles section with a big article and pictures of Barbie! 👱♀️🌺💕👗👚
Leechburg, PA. April 2017.
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If you would like to use THIS picture in any sort of media elsewhere (such as newspaper or article), please send me a Flickrmail or send me an email at natehenderson6@gmail.com
reminds us that seeing things as others see us can give us broader perspectives on the world around us: www.spiegel.de/international/world/donald-trump-is-a-mena... Photo by Frank.
Taken with a Canon 5D Mk II and 28-300 mm lens.
Music from the movie Chariots of Fire
LINK
Info about this remarkable journey: www.takepart.com/article/2016/01/29/all-female-record-bre...
Video summary of these images: www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51412711599/
Images from this series:
1. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51252378364/
2. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51251627456/
3. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51251627366/
4. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51267010996/
5. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51267741234/
6. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51267741114/
7. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51268262077/
8. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51268261927/
9. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51269002226/
10. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51276031045/
11. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51275736049/
12. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51275006906/
13. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51354906429/
14. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51355183045/
15. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51354393808/
16. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51354905789/
17. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51354903357/
18. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51355873708/
19. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51355873583/
20. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51354903032/
21. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51356661915/
22. www.flickr.com/photos/jbrimacombe/51412664079/
Wellsville, NY. February 2019.
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From an article on "The Phonotypes of Robert Bridges", by Simon Nowell-Smith, in the 1947 issue of Alphabet & Image, No. 5. The periodical is an amazing source of information on contemporary typography and the graphic arts, edited by Robert Harling and published by James Shand of the Shenval Press. The article on the phonetic alphabets by Bridges includes various examples such as this from the English Association's Essays and Studies of 1910.
Edward Johnston is, of course, one of the most important British calligraphers of the Twentieth Century, recalled both for his teachings and his work. He would also design the typeface still used by London's transport system to this day.
Elmira, NY. November 2015.
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This is a good article. Follow the link for more information.
Armenian Quarter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other Armenian quarters, see List of Armenian ethnic enclaves.
Map of the Armenian Quarter, without the area considered by Israel as part of the Jewish Quarter (centre right). The monastery (Patriarchate) compound is shown in grey. The Cathedral of St. James is shown in darker grey.
The Armenian Quarter (Arabic: حارة الأرمن, Harat al-Arman; Hebrew: הרובע הארמני, Ha-Rova ha-Armeni; Armenian: Հայոց թաղ, Hayots t'agh)[1][2][a] is one of the four quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, it can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. It occupies an area of 0.126 km² (126 dunam), which is 14% of the Old City's total. In 2007, it had a population of 2,424 (6.55% of Old City's total). In both criteria, it is comparable to the Jewish Quarter. The Armenian Quarter is separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street (Suq el-Bazaar) and from the Jewish Quarter by Habad Street (Suq el-Husur).
The Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century AD, when Armenia adopted Christianity as a national religion and Armenian monks settled in Jerusalem. Hence, it is considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland. Gradually, the quarter developed around the St. James Monastery—which dominates the quarter—and took its modern shape by the 19th century. The monastery houses the Armenian Apostolic Church's Jerusalem Patriarchate, which was established as a diocese in the 7th century AD. The patriarchate is the de facto administrator of the quarter and acts as a "mini-welfare state" for the Armenian residents. The Armenian community has been in decline since the mid-20th century, and is in immediate danger of disappearing, according to Bert Vaux.
Though formally separate from Greek Orthodox and Latin (Catholic) Christians, the Armenians consider their quarter to be part of the Christian Quarter. The three Christian patriarchates of Jerusalem and the government of Armenia have publicly expressed their opposition to any political division of the two quarters. The central reasons for the existence of a separate Armenian Quarter is the miaphysitism and distinct language and culture of the Armenians, who, unlike the majority of Christians in Jerusalem (also in Israel and Palestine), are neither Arab nor Palestinian.[b] However, for all intents and purposes, the Armenians living in the Armenian Quarter are considered Palestinians by Israel and the United Nations (UN). They have faced many of the same restrictions on their lives as have the Palestinians.
Contents
1Location, borders and surface
2History
2.1Origins
2.2Byzantine, Arab, and Mamluk periods
2.3Ottoman period
2.4World War I, British, and Jordanian periods
2.5Israeli period
3Demographics
3.1Decline of Armenian population
4Landmarks and institutions
4.1Armenian
4.2Other (non-Armenian)
5Political status and views
5.1Armenian views
5.2U.S. Old City division proposal
5.3Palestinian views
5.4Israeli and Jewish views
5.5Christian views
6See also
7References
8Bibliography
8.1Books & book chapters
8.2Journal articles
8.3Other
9External links
Location, borders and surface
The Armenian Quarter is located in the southwestern corner of Jerusalem's Old City.[5] The quarter can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate.[6] According to a 2007 study published by the International Peace and Cooperation Center, the quarter occupies an area of 0.126 km² (126 dunam), which is 14% of the Old City's total.[7] The Armenian Quarter is formally separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street (Suq el-Bazaar) and by Habad Street (Suq el-Husur) from the Jewish Quarter.[8]
History
Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate Rd. signs in Hebrew (top) , Arabic (middle), English (bottom) and classical Armenian (bottom photo)
Origins
In the early 4th century[c] Armenia, under king Tiridates III, became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion. A large number of Armenian monks are recorded to have settled in Jerusalem as early as the 4th century,[12][13] after the uncovering of Christian holy places in the city.[14] However, the first written records are from the 5th century.[15] Jerusalem is thus considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland.[16] Philip Marsden wrote that the survival of Armenians in Jerusalem–"most intense of all cities"—proves their extraordinary resilience.[17] Armenian churches were constructed during that period, including the St. James Monastery.[18] The latter was last expanded in the mid-12th century.[19] An Armenian scriptorium was in operation by the mid-5th century.[20] A secular community composed of merchants and artisans was established in the 6th century in the Zion Quarter, where an Armenian street existed (Ruda Armeniorum).[13][21]
Byzantine, Arab, and Mamluk periods
In the First Council of Dvin (506), the Armenian Church broke off from the rest of Christianity by rejecting the dual nature of Christ, which was agreed upon in the Council of Chalcedon of 451. Thus, the Armenians found themselves in direct confrontation with the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Justinian I persecuted the Monophysite Armenians, forcing them to leave Jerusalem.[20]
A 7th-century Armenian chronicler mentioned the existence of seventy Armenian monasteries in Palestine, some of which have been revealed in excavations.[12] The Byzantines ceded Jerusalem to the Rashidun Caliphate after a siege in 637. Until this point, Jerusalem had a single Christian bishop. In 638 AD,[20] Armenians established their own archbishop, Abraham I.[22] He was officially recognized by Rashidun Caliph Umar.[23] The foundation of the Armenian migration to Jerusalem thus solidified.[15] In the 12th century, around one thousand Armenians moved to Jerusalem with the Crusaders, presumably mainly from the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.[15]
The entrance to St. James monastery
In 1311, during Mamluk rule, Archbishop Sarkis (1281–1313) assumed the title of patriarch according to a decree by Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad.[21] In the 1340s, the Armenians were permitted to build a wall around their quarter. This signified that the Mamluk rulers felt that the quarter did not pose a threat. Destroying city walls and fortifications had been a staple of Mamluk governance in order to prevent the Crusaders from returning and reestablishing their rule. The Mamluk government also engraved the following declaration in Arabic on the western entrance to the quarter:
The order of our master Sultan Jaqmaq [has been issued] which stipulates that the taxes levied [ahdaiha] recently by the town governor (?) regarding the payment by the Armenian enclosure [dayr alarmani] be cancelled, ... and it has been requested that this cancellation be recorded in the Honored Books in the year 854 of the Hijra (1451 C.E.). Anyone who renews the payment or again takes any tax of extortion is damned, son of the damned, and the curse of Allah will be upon him.[24]
Jerusalemite historian Mujir al-Din provided a detailed description of pre-Ottoman Jerusalem in 1495 in which he mentioned Dir el-Arman (Monastery of the Armenians) or Kanisat Mar Ya'qub (St. James Cathedral).[25]
Ottoman period
An Armenian priest in Jerusalem c. 1900 pictured smoking a hookah with the Dormition Abbey in the background
During Ottoman rule, Jerusalem developed into a cosmopolitan city. There was religious tolerance and an Ottoman administration existed to sort out religious differences between the rival Christian churches and Muslims. Israeli historians Kark and Oren-Nordheim wrote in 2001: "The Armenian Quarter, although Christian, represented a distinct ethnic group with its particular language and culture, intent on retaining separate identity and unity, minimizing the contacts with Arabs and the Ottoman authorities for fear of persecution."[26] However, the Armenian community in Jerusalem was Arabic-speaking (in addition to Armenian or European languages) and self-identified with Palestinian society.[27]
In 1538, the current walls of Jerusalem were completed on the orders of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. These walls, along with the internal walls built by the Armenians, determined the outline of the quarter. In the 1562–63 record, only 189 Armenians were counted, whereas 640 were counted by the Ottomans in 1690, an increase of 239%.[28] According to the chronicler Simeon Lehatsi only some twelve Armenian families lived in Jerusalem in 1615–16.[13] The significant increase in the population in 1690 is attributed to urbanization experienced by the Armenians and other Christians. Thus Armenians came to make up 22.9% of Jerusalem's Christians by 1690, becoming the second largest Christian community.[28]
In the 19th century, most of the Armenian and Christian quarters had "European-style gable roofs" as opposed to the domes preferred in the Muslim and Jewish quarters.[29] In 1833 the Armenians established the city's first printing press.[19][30][31][32] A seminary was opened in 1857.[20] In 1855 the first photographic workshop in Jerusalem was founded in the Armenian Quarter.[19] Schools for boys (1840) and girls (1862) were united in 1869 under the name Holy Translators' School[20] and became the first coeducational school in Jerusalem.[4]
An 1883 map of the Old City, showing the four quarters
In 1883, 102 Armenian families (8%) constituted the third largest Christian community in the Old City after the Greek Orthodox and Catholic (Latin) communities.[33] Besides these residents, in the same year, 46 Armenian priests and monks and 55 servicemen lived within the St. James Monastery.[34] According to the 1905 Ottoman census in the Old City, the Armenian Quarter had a population of 382, of which Armenians (121) comprised less than one-third (31.7%). Jews (127) made up 33.2%, other Christians (94) 24.6% and Muslims (40) 10.5%.[35] The Jews, who numbered a little more than the Armenians, inhabited the eastern part of the Armenian Quarter, which in the second half of the nineteenth century, became the western part of the Jewish Quarter.[36]
World War I, British, and Jordanian periods
Prior to World War I, there were some 2,000–3,000 Armenians in Palestine, mostly in Jerusalem, which was captured by the British in 1917. From 1915 and onward, thousands of Armenian Genocide survivors from Cilicia (Adana Vilayet) found refuge, and settled in the quarter, increasing its population. [37][38] In 1925, around 15,000 Armenians are believed to have lived in all of Palestine, with the majority in Jerusalem.[39] During the British Mandate period, the number of Armenians is estimated to have reached up to 20,000.[39][31] However, the 1931 British census showed only 3,524 Armenians in all of Palestine.[39]
In 1947, around 1,500 Armenians from Palestine repatriated to Soviet Armenia as part of the Soviet government's efforts to boost Armenia's population by a large-scale repatriation of ethnic Armenians, mostly from the Middle East. This marked the beginning of the long-term decline of the Armenian community of Jerusalem.[40] During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Armenian Quarter was damaged by bombs.[5] It housed many Armenians from around Palestine. An Armenian civil guard, armed with what Der Matossian describes as "makeshift weapons", was formed to defend the quarter. Over 40 Armenians died during the war.[41]
Israeli period
Jerusalem's Old City came under Israeli control in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967. However, the Armenian patriarchate is the de facto administrator of the quarter and acts as a "mini-welfare state" for the Armenian residents.[4] The Arab-Israeli conflict significantly impacted the quarter's politically uninvolved Armenian population. A 1992 article published by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association stated that "Armenians in Jerusalem try to maintain good relations with Arabs and Israelis, but they do not deny that their community has been affected by tensions in the city."[19]