Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie

The mute swan (Cygnus olor) is a species of swan and a member of the waterfowl family Anatidae. It is native to much of Eurosiberia, and (as a rare winter visitor) the far north of Africa. It is an introduced species in North America, home to the largest populations outside of its native range, with additional smaller introductions in Australasia and southern Africa. The name "mute" derives from it being less vocal than other swan species. Measuring 125 to 160 cm (49 to 63 in) in length, this large swan is wholly white in plumage with an orange beak bordered with black. It is recognizable by its pronounced knob atop the beak, which is larger in males.

Taxonomy

The mute swan was first formally described by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Anas olor in 1789 and was transferred by Johann Matthäus Bechstein to the new genus Cygnus in 1803. Both cygnus and olor mean "swan" in Latin; cygnus is a variant form of cycnus, borrowing from Greek κύκνος kyknos, a word of the same meaning.

Despite its Eurasian origin, its closest relatives are the black swan of Australia and the black-necked swan of South America, not the other Northern Hemisphere swans of the genus Cygnus. The species is monotypic, with no living subspecies.

Evolution

Mute swan subfossils, 6,000 years old, have been found in post-glacial peat beds of East Anglia, Great Britain. They have been recorded from Ireland east to Portugal and Italy, and from France, 13,000 BP (Desbrosse and Mourer-Chauvire 1972–1973). Cygnus olor bergmanni, a paleosub species which differed only in size from the living bird, is known from fossils found in Azerbaijan. A related paleospecies recorded from fossils and subfossils is the Giant swan, Cygnus falconeri, a flightless species which lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily during the Middle Pleistocene.

Fossils of swan ancestors more distantly allied to the mute swan have been found in four U.S. states: California, Arizona, Idaho and Oregon. The timeline runs from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene or 10,000 BP. The latest find was in Anza Borrego Desert, a state park in California. Fossils from the Pleistocene include Cygnus paloregonus from Fossil Lake, Oregon, Froman's Ferry, Idaho, and Arizona, referred to by Howard in The Waterfowl of the World as "probably the mute type swan".

Description

Adults of this large swan typically range from 140 to 160 cm (55 to 63 in) long, although can range in extreme cases from 125 to 170 cm (49 to 67 in), with a 200 to 240 cm (79 to 94 in) wingspan. Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill. On average, this is the second largest waterfowl species after the trumpeter swan, although male mute swans can easily match or even exceed a male trumpeter in mass. Among standard measurements of the mute swan, the wing chord measures 53–62.3 cm (20.9–24.5 in), the tarsus is 10–11.8 cm (3.9–4.6 in) and the bill is 6.9–9 cm (2.7–3.5 in). The plumage is white, while the legs are dark grey. The beak of the mute swan is bright orange, with black around the nostrils and a black nail.

The mute swan is one of the heaviest extant flying birds. In several studies from Great Britain, males (known as cobs) were found to average from about 10.6 to 11.87 kg (23.4 to 26.2 lb), with a weight range of 9.2–14.3 kg (20–32 lb) while the slightly smaller females (known as pens) averaged about 8.5 to 9.67 kg (18.7 to 21.3 lb), with a weight range of 7.6–10.6 kg (17–23 lb). While the top normal weight for a big cob is roughly 15 kg (33 lb), one unusually big Polish cob weighed almost 23 kg (51 lb) and this counts as the largest weight ever verified for a flying bird, although it has been questioned whether this heavyweight could still take flight.

Young birds, called cygnets, are not the bright white of mature adults, and their bill is dull greyish-black, not orange, for the first year. The down may range from pure white to grey to buff, with grey/buff the most common. The white cygnets have a leucistic gene. Cygnets grow quickly, reaching a size close to their adult size in approximately three months after hatching. Cygnets typically retain their grey feathers until they are at least one year old, with the down on their wings having been replaced by flight feathers earlier that year.

All mute swans are white at maturity, though the feathers (particularly on the head and neck) are often stained orange-brown by iron and tannins in the water.

Polish swan

The colour morph C. o. morpha immutabilis (immūtābilis is Latin for "immutable, unchangeable, unalterable"), also known as the "Polish swan", has pinkish (not dark grey) legs and dull white cygnets; as with white domestic geese, it is found only in populations with a history of domestication. Polish swans carry a copy of a gene responsible for leucism.

Behaviour

Mute swans nest on large mounds that they build with waterside vegetation in shallow water on islands in the middle or at the very edge of a lake. They are monogamous and often reuse the same nest each year, restoring or rebuilding it as needed. Male and female swans share the care of the nest, and once the cygnets are fledged it is not uncommon to see whole families looking for food. They feed on a wide range of vegetation, both submerged aquatic plants which they reach with their long necks, and by grazing on land. The food commonly includes agricultural crop plants such as oilseed rape and wheat, and feeding flocks in the winter may cause significant crop damage, often as much through trampling with their large webbed feet, as through direct consumption. It will also feed on small proportions of aquatic insects, fish and frogs.

Unlike black swans, mute swans are usually strongly territorial with just a single pair on smaller lakes, though in a few locations where a large area of suitable feeding habitat is found, they can be colonial. The largest colonies have over 100 pairs, such as at the colony at Abbotsbury Swannery in southern England, and at the southern tip of Öland Island, Ottenby Preserve, in the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, and can have nests spaced as little as 2 m (7 ft) apart. Non-mated juveniles up to 3–4 years old commonly form larger flocks, which can total several hundred birds, often at regular traditional sites. A notable flock of non-breeding birds is found on the River Tweed estuary at Berwick-upon-Tweed in northeastern England, with a maximum count of 787 birds. A large population exists near the Swan Lifeline Station in Windsor and lives on the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle. Once the adults are mated they seek out their territories and often live close to ducks and gulls, which may take advantage of the swan's ability to reach deep water weeds, which tend to spread out on the water surface.

The mute swan is less vocal than the noisy whooper and Bewick's swans; they do, however, make a variety of sounds, often described as "grunting, hoarse whistling, and snorting noises." During a courtship display, mute swans utter a rhythmic song. The song helps synchronize the movements of their heads and necks. It could technically be employed to distinguish a bonded couple from two dating swans, as the rhythm of the song typically fails to match the pace of the head movements of two dating swans. Mute swans usually hiss at competitors or intruders trying to enter their territory.[30] The most familiar sound associated with mute swans is the vibrant throbbing of the wings in flight which is unique to the species and can be heard from a range of 1 to 2 km (0.6 to 1 mi), indicating its value as a contact sound between birds in flight. Cygnets are especially vocal and communicate through a variety of whistling and chirping sounds when content, as well as a harsh squawking noise when distressed or lost.

Nesting in spring, Cologne, Germany

Mute swans can be very aggressive in defence of their nests and are highly protective of their mate and offspring. Most defensive acts from a mute swan begin with a loud hiss and, if this is not sufficient to drive off the predator or intruder, are followed by a physical attack. Swans attack by striking at the threat with bony spurs in their wings, accompanied by biting with their large bill, while smaller waterbirds such as ducks are normally grabbed with the swan's bill and dragged or thrown clear of the swan and its offspring. Swans will kill intruders into their territory, both other swans, and geese and ducks, by drowning, climbing onto and pecking the back of the head and forcing the other bird underwater.

The wings of the swan are very powerful, though not strong enough to break an adult man's leg, as is commonly misquoted. Large waterfowl, such as Canada geese, (more likely out of competition than in response to potential predation) may be aggressively driven off, and mute swans regularly attack people who enter their territory.

The cob is responsible for defending the cygnets while on the water, and will sometimes attack small watercraft, such as canoes, that it feels are a threat to its young. The cob will additionally try to chase the predator out of his family territory and will keep animals such as foxes and raptors at bay. In New York (outside its native range), the most common predators of cygnets are common snapping turtles. Healthy adults are rarely preyed upon, though canids such as coyotes, felids such as lynx, and bears can pose a threat to infirm ones (healthy adults can usually swim away from danger and nest defence is usually successful.) and there are a few cases of healthy adults falling prey to the golden eagles. In England, there has been an increased rate of attacks on swans by out-of-control dogs, especially in parks where the birds are less territorial. This is considered criminal in British law, and the birds are placed under the highest protection due to their association with the monarch. Mute swans will readily attack dogs to protect themselves and their cygnets from an attack, and an adult swan is capable of overwhelming and drowning even large dog breeds.

The familiar pose with the neck curved back and wings half raised, known as busking, is a threat display. Both feet are paddled in unison during this display, resulting in more jerky movement. The swans may also use the busking posture for wind-assisted transportation over several hundred meters, so-called windsurfing.

Like other swans, mute swans are known for their ability to grieve for a lost or dead mate or cygnet. Swans will go through a mourning process, and in the case of the loss of their mate, may either stay where their counterpart lived or fly off to join a flock. Should one of the pair die while there are cygnets present, the remaining parent will take up their partner's duties in raising the clutch.

Breeding

Mute swans lay from 4 to 10 eggs. The female broods for around 36 days, with cygnets normally hatching between May and July. The young swans do not achieve the ability to fly before about 120 to 150 days old. This limits the distribution of the species at the northern edge of its range as the cygnets need to learn to fly before the ponds and lakes freeze over.

Distribution and habitat

The mute swan is found naturally mainly in temperate areas of Europe then across the Palearctic as far east as Primorsky Krai, near Sidemi.

It is partially migratory throughout northern latitudes in Europe and Asia, as far south as North Africa and the Mediterranean. It is known and recorded to have nested in Iceland and is a vagrant in that area as well as in Bermuda, according to the UN Environment Programme chart of international status chart of bird species, which places it in 70 countries, breeding in 49 countries, and vagrant in 16 countries.[citation needed] While most of the current population in Japan is introduced, mute swans are depicted on scrolls more than 1,000 years old, and wild birds from the mainland Asian population still occur rarely in winter. Natural migrants to Japan usually occur along with whooper and sometimes Bewick's swans.[citation needed]

The mute swan is protected in most of its range, but this has not prevented illegal hunting and poaching. It is often kept in captivity outside its natural range, as a decoration for parks and ponds, and escapes have happened. The descendants of such birds have become naturalised in the eastern United States and Great Lakes, much as the Canada goose has done in Europe.

World population

Mute swans with cygnets in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire

The total native population of mute swans is about 500,000 birds at the end of the breeding season (adults plus young), of which up to 350,000 are in Russia. The largest single breeding concentration is 11,000 pairs in the Volga Delta.

The population in the United Kingdom is about 22,000 birds as of the 2006–2007 winter, a slight decline from the peak of about 26,000–27,000 birds in 1990. This includes about 5,300 breeding pairs, the remainder being immatures. Other significant populations in Europe include 6,800–8,300 breeding pairs in Germany, 4,500 pairs in Denmark, 4,000–4,200 pairs in Poland, 3,000–4,000 pairs in the Netherlands, about 2,500 pairs in Ireland, and 1,200–1,700 pairs in Ukraine.

For many centuries, mute swans in Great Britain were domesticated for food, with individuals being marked by nicks on their webs (feet) or beaks to indicate ownership. These marks were registered with the Crown and a Royal Swanherd was appointed. Any birds not so marked became Crown property, hence the swan becoming known as the "Royal Bird". This domestication saved the mute swan from extirpation through overhunting in Great Britain.

Populations in Western Europe were largely exterminated by hunting pressure in the 13th–19th centuries, except for semi-domesticated birds maintained as poultry by large landowners. Better protection in the late 19th and early 20th centuries allowed the species to expand and return to most or all of their former range. More recently in the period from about 1960 up to the early 1980s, numbers declined significantly again in many areas in England, primarily due to lead poisoning from birds swallowing lead shots from shooting and discarded fishing weights made from lead. After lead weights and shots were mostly replaced by other less toxic alternatives, mute swan numbers increased again rapidly.

Introduced populations

Since being introduced into North America, the mute swan has increased greatly in number to the extent that it is considered an invasive species there. Populations introduced into other areas remain small, with around 200 in Japan, fewer than 200 in New Zealand and Australia, and about 120 in South Africa.

North America

The mute swan was introduced to North America in the late 19th century. Recently, it has been widely viewed as an invasive species because of its rapidly increasing numbers and its adverse effects on other waterfowl and native ecosystems. For example, a study of population sizes in the lower Great Lakes from 1971 to 2000 found that mute swan numbers were increasing at an average rate of at least 10% per year, doubling the population every seven to eight years. Several studies have concluded that mute swans severely reduce the densities of submerged vegetation where they occur.

In 2003, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to "minimize environmental damages attributed to Mute Swans" by reducing their numbers in the Atlantic Flyway to pre-1986 levels, a 67% reduction at the time. According to a report published in the Federal Register of 2003 the proposal was supported by all thirteen state wildlife agencies which submitted comments, as well as by 43 bird conservation, wildlife conservation and wildlife management organisations. Ten animal rights organisations and the vast majority of comments from individuals were opposed. At this time mute swans were protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act due to a court order, but in 2005 the United States Department of the Interior officially declared them a non-native, unprotected species. Mute swans are protected in some areas of the U.S. by local laws, for example, in Connecticut.

The status of the mute swan as an introduced species in North America is disputed by the interest group "Save the Mute Swans". They assert that mute swans are native to the region and therefore deserving of protection. They claim that mute swans had origins in Russia and cite historical sightings and fossil records. These claims have been rejected as specious by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Oceania

The mute swan had absolute protection in New Zealand under the Wildlife Act 1953, but this was changed in June 2010 to a lower level of protection. It still has protection, but is now allowed to be killed or held in captivity at the discretion of the Minister of Conservation.

A small feral population exists in the vicinity of Perth, Australia; however, it is believed to number less than 100 individuals.

In popular culture

The mute swan has been the national bird of Denmark since 1984. Before that, the skylark was considered Denmark's national bird (since 1960).

The fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen tells the story of a cygnet ostracised by his fellow barnyard fowl because of his perceived unattractiveness. To his delight (and to the surprise of others), he matures into a graceful swan, the most beautiful bird of all.

Today, the British Monarch retains the right to ownership of all unmarked mute swans in open water, but King Charles III exercises his ownership only on certain stretches of the Thames and its surrounding tributaries. This ownership is shared with the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies, who were granted rights of ownership by the Crown in the 15th century.

The mute swans in the moat at the Bishops Palace at Wells Cathedral in Wells, England have for centuries been trained to ring bells via strings attached to them to beg for food. Two swans are still able to ring for lunch.

The pair of swans in the Boston Public Garden are named Romeo and Juliet after the Shakespearean couple; however, it was found that both of them are females

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Siso Moses and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

30 lx

VIRGILE SIMON BERTRAND

Opening reception in the presence of the artist and curator 14 January 2010 at 6.30pm

Exhibition period: 14 January 2011 – 26 February 2011 Curated by Davina Lee

30 lx or ‘30 lux’ is the minimum light intensity required by the Code of Practice for the Provision of Means of Escape. Couched in terms of “minimums” and “not less thans” the Code delineates a matrix of measurements and light levels, distances and configurations that dictate the form and composition of these compulsory escape routes. Constructed using low cost, low maintenance materials, devoid of any ornamentation, these functional architectural elements are perhaps the purest examples of entropic architecture, consciously created without regard to aesthetics.

Virgile Simon Bertrand’s photographic studies, as minimal as they are elegant, draw attention to an inadvertent phenomenon, how despite the common genesis of these architectural features, each example offers subtle but surprising structural variations, creating a formal vocabulary. Bertrand’s studies reveal the dualities of such places:- ubiquitous but invisible; accessible to the public yet isolated and unvisited, immutable and individual.

Bertrand studied Applied Arts at Ecole Boulle (1988 - 1991, Paris), Graphic Design at Ecole Duperré (Paris) and Photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie (1993, Arles). He began his career assisting Magnum photographer Abbas and working as a photographer for the Opéra National de Paris. After completing his National Service at the Service Photographique des Armées, Bertrand moved to Asia, establishing a successful commercial practice. His work has been exhibited in Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris, Arles and in London in the 2008 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery. Bertrand was a finalist in the Architectural Category of the 2009 Hasselblad Masters Competition. In 2009 a retrospective of Bertrand’s work under the title Proxemics was held at Artistree, and was selected as one of the best exhibitions of 2009 by the South China Morning Post.

Dutch Photographer specializing in wildlife photography

Tortoises at Dawn, Galapagos Islands, 1984..Giant tortoises in pond, Geochelone elephantopus, Alcedo Volcano, Galapagos Islands.."The Galápagos Islands provide a window on time. In a geologic sense, the islands are young, yet they appear ancient. The largest animals native to this archipelago are giant tortoises, which can live for more than a century. These are the creatures that provided Darwin with the flash of imagination that led to his theory of evolution. ..Immutable as the tortoises seem, they were utterly vulnerable to the buccaneers and whalers who took them by the thousands in the last two centuries. But one population eluded them. Inside the Alcedo volcano on Isabela Island, an earlier era lingers. This caldera is sealed off from the outside world by steep lava slopes that rise to 3,860 feet on the equator. It was not until 1965 that an Ecuadorian biologist found a way down inside and discovered a world where giant tortoises roamed in primordial abundance. This group had presumably never seen humans. ..They hadn't seen many more when I entered the time capsule of the caldera. For one memorable week, I lived among the tortoises of Alcedo. Photography one morning was one of those precious experiences where I could be part of a scene rather than a distant observer. The tortoises were resting in a pond as soft mist mingled with sulfur steam from nearby fumaroles and dust from an erupting volcano to the west, and I was able to create an image that evokes the era when reptiles dominated life on land."..- Frans Lanting. Original Filename: 004169-01_M.JPG

This portrait of my friend, David, was painted during a particularly turbulent period of my life. My mother had died the previous November and an all-enveloping cloud of deepest mourning and grief had descended upon me. I had been very close to my mother and I felt her loss acutely. Incomprehensibly, into my disconsolate state at that time swaggered David’s immutably laconic presence. We first met through a mutual friend in early 1991, not long after Mum had been diagnosed with inoperable, terminal cancer. I was in a deep state of despair, though I managed to function cheerfully when in my mother’s company and we had many happy times together in the final months of her life. David was everything that I was not. He worked as a tradesman and was from Sydney’s outer western suburbs. He was nine years my junior. He was confident in a cocky sort of way, with a decidedly contagious joie de vivre about him. He was a tonic. But there was also a dark side to his personality. On the night I painted his portrait, he gave me a small piece of blotting paper with a little printed image of a robot on it. I didn’t know what it was, but he assured me it would lift my spirits. “Put it on your tongue and let it dissolve,” David told me. I knew nothing of drugs. For a man in his forties, I was decidedly naïve about them. So when the LSD began to seize me, I had no idea what was happening. Initially I slunk into a corner and stared into space. But then, for no conceivable reason, I rushed to my easel, grabbed some paints and brushes, and started to paint David’s portrait. David soon grew tired of such esoteric pursuits and departed, leaving me to finish the portrait alone, working on into the wee small hours of the night with a manic intensity. I never really have fully recovered from my beloved mother’s death. I was sitting by her bed, holding her hand, at the moment of her death. And I know that she will be sitting by my bed, holding my hand, when my turn comes. David’s portrait presently hangs in his home in Sydney, Australia.

TV3, la televisió prohibida. De què tenen por els censors?...... Tot plegat, aquesta llarga història m’omple de tristor, i d’un profund sentiment de repugnància.

El País Valencià deixa de veure avui TV3

Demà entra en vigor una modificació de la llei valenciana de l'audiovisual que sanciona l'entitat amb 60.000 euros cada 15 dies mentre durin les emissions

Acció Cultural (ACPV) ha decidit cessar les emissions de TV3 al País Valencià avui en entrar en vigor la modificació de la llei de l'audiovisual que imposa sancions de 60.000 euros cada 15 dies si continua emetent. Fonts d'ACPV han explicat que de continuar emetent no podrien fer front a les elevades sancions, posant en joc la supervivència d'ACPV. A banda de les sancions a les quals s'exposa, Acció Cultural ha de pagar abans del 20 de març més de 600.000 euros en multes sota risc d'embargament de comptes, subvencions i propietats immobiliàries.

L'entitat ha pres aquesta determinació després d'una junta directiva celebrada d'urgència davant l'amenaça d'elevades multes.

Segons el nou text, que ACPV considera fet expressament per castigar l'entitat, el govern valencià multaria amb 60.000 euros cada 15 dies durant tant de temps com es continue emetent, segons consta en els requeriments enviats per la Generalitat Valenciana a l'entitat.

L'amenaça de multa es fonamenta en la modificació de la Llei 1/2006 de la Generalitat Valenciana del Sector Audiovisual. La modificació 16/2010 de 27 de desembre de mesures fiscals, de gestió administrativa i financera i d'organització permet imposar aquestes multes.

VILAWEB

Una multa. I una altra.

Article de Joan F. Mira al Quadern de 'El País'

Fa poc més de mig any recordava, en aquesta mateixa pàgina, els inicis d’una persecució metòdica, incessant i brutal, que dura ja un quart de segle. Recordava la dedicació persecutòria de Joan Lerma, una inútil visita al ministre Josè Barrionuevo, un repetidor de televisió tancat per la força armada, les primeres estacions d’un calvari inacabable. La aplicació continuada d’una antiga obsessió, d’una hostilitat irracional. O perfectament racional i compresible: el vell anticatalanisme espanyol, en la seua miserable i virulenta versió valenciana. El menyspreu, la violència dels uns i dels altres. Ara, aquesta hostilitat immutable, repressiva i mortal és obra sobretot del senyor Camps i els seus col·legues de govern i de partit. Deu ser que el simple intent de voler veure una televisió com la catalana és un atemptat a la salut pública, un perill de contagi, un risc de malaltia, o vés a saber què, davant del qual cal mostrar contundència autoritària i, si pot ser, la més alta eficàcia destructiva. També per al govern espanyol la idea sembla nefanda, i per això han bloquejat (amb intervenció personal de la senyora De la Vega, valencianíssima) la tramitació d’una ILP amb més 650.000 firmes, en prova de profunds sentiments democràtics. I les multes administratives i arbitràries que imposa Francisco Camps, valencià exemplar per tants conceptes, arriben ja a quantitats tan brutals que només busquen l’aniquilació total de l’enemic, destrucció física inclosa. He llegit que el fiscal del Tribunal Superior, atesos els indicis de delictes previstos en el Codi Penal, com ara rebre repetits regals indumentaris en virtut de càrrec presidencial, ha demanat una condemna rigorosa de l’imputat o presumpte, en forma d’una multa de poc més de 40.000 euros. Quantitat digna de tal delicte, o viceversa. Quin deu ser, doncs, el delicte de voler veure una certa televisió, quan les multes exigides arriben, tot sumat, a prop dels 800.000? Deu ser, doncs, un delicte vint vegades més gros. Dubte, però, que a Camps l’obliguen mai a pagar sota amenaça d’embargament i de ruïna, com ell a Acció Cultural. Tot plegat, aquesta llarga història m’omple de tristor, i d’un profund sentiment de repugnància.

by JOANOT in flickr

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Siso and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

While walking through the parking lot to my car this afternoon, I was admiring the beautifully blooming tree (pear, I think) and then I noticed it's neighbor was still essentially barren, providing a distinct contrast between the winter & spring seasons. There are even some stubbornly clinging fall leaves in there if you look closely. I though this fit the weekly theme perfectly.

52 week project - week 16 theme - "Life / Death ~ Entropy / Renewal" described as "One of the profound oddities of our universe is how different it looks up close. From the outside, we can't help but know that our tiny lives and all that surround them are bound by immutable laws of entropic decline. As the great machinery of our existence ticks ever onward, we are each of us, as Shakespeare observed, simply "passing through nature to eternity."

And yet caught as we are in our inexorable march towards death, this existential decay, we are surrounded by renewal and rebirth. We are born and we die within a spiral of futility, and yet we are titans of creativity and optimism. We erect great monuments knowing they will one day crumble to dust and yet we do not despair. We grow. We plan. And we plunge ever onward as a monument to our own existence."

Bill Chiang, Interplast’s volunteer liaison in China, believes that “yuan” helped bring this team together to help those in need in Ganzhou City and its surrounding areas. As an explanation, he shared with me the following. “There are certain words that are unique to each culture and therefore impossible to translate. For example, the phrase ‘to be or not to be’ has yet to find its Chinese equivalent. The word ‘yuan’ is one of these words. ‘Yuan’ is part destiny, part karma and part fate; it describes the connection between people or between people and the events of their lives that are to be treasured forever. ‘Yuan’ is one of those bedrock words in the Chinese language that defines certain immutable aspects of the Chinese culture and civilization. It is not the same as Yuan, the Chinese currency unit, though that is always treasured. An ancient Chinese poem reads You Yuan qian li lai xian hui. Wu Yuan dui mien bu xian pon. Translated it means: if there is ‘yuan,’ you are a thousand miles apart but you will meet. If there is no ‘yuan,’ you are face-to-face yet you will miss each other.” Interplast is very thankful for the “yuan” that brought us together with Bill. Here is Bill, trying to keep one of our first patients smiling. We went to visit her at her village a couple of days after surgery. More on the Wu baby will follow.

Molto spesso non ci facciamo caso, le nostre attenzioni viaggiano in velocità e in divenire, per noi osservare diventa sempre più difficile. Ma le cose comuni che spesso riteniamo immutabili, immobili da anni nel loro ambiente, meritano una visione ravvicinata e consapevole. Ogni volta che tutto ciò accade ci stupisce inesorabilmente.

Il soggetto e il suo ambiente circostante.

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Very often we do not pay attention, our attention traveling speed and become, for us it becomes increasingly difficult to observe. But the common things that we often immutable properties for years in their environment, they deserve a closer look and aware. Whenever this happens amazes us inexorably.

The subject and its surroundings.

Why are the nurses in recruiting posters always brunettes? Because, as we project back to 1940's sensibilities and think about movie and comic book themes of those times, everybody knew that brunettes are smarter than silly blondes or flighty redheads. Look at our nurse cadet, front and center, strong, intelligent and resolute. The poster is clearly aimed at high school girls who haven't yet graduated (notice the books) and what high school girl didn't want to be envied and admired by the most popular blondes and redheads? Nursing as a vehicle for popularity transcendance is expressed by clear admiration from the very pretty background girls. In the 1940's, as now, one of the immutable formulas in human society is pretty = popular, and no one was ever as popular as the pretty blonde. This sub-message is provided by the rehead, who has to peer around her to admire our brave Cadet. The power of this image is to place nursing as a calling - an endeavor so important that the most popular high school girl will surrender her perch in open admiration of the Nurse Cadet.

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Tonic Siso and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

Fotos der Bundesbank-Veranstaltung Banken im Dialog, am 12. Juni 2024 in Frankfurt am Main

Podiumsdiskussion

Doris Dietze, BMF

Katharina Gehra, Immutable Insight GmbH

Ruth Burkert, BaFin

Oliver Vins, Börse Stuttgart Digital

Foto Nils Thies

This rocksolid basaltic massif "perceives" change in a somewhat different time frame than ours. To our eyes is as if its almost immutable, eventhough each day it endures significant changes that make part of a broader cycle. But, as some greek philosophers wisely stated in the past, the only permanent and immutable certainty is the everchanging nature of things.

You and me,

meant to be immutable, impossible.

It's destiny,

pure lunacy incalculable, inseparable.

And for the last time,

you're everything that I want and asked for,

you're all that I dream...

Who wouldn't be the one you love?

Who wouldn't stand inside your love?

Protected and the lover of

a pure soul and beautiful...

You don't understand,

don't feel me now.

I will breath for the both of us.

Travel the world, traverse the skies,

your home is here: within my heart.

And for the first time,

i feel as though I am reborn in my mind

recast as child and mystic sage...

Who wouldn't be the one you love?

Who wouldn't stand inside your love?

Who wouldn't be the one you love and live for?

Who wouldn't stand inside your love and die for?

Who wouldn't be the one you love?

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie

Descension

HD video, color, 9:19 second loop

2011

Imaginings, beliefs, aspirations depart to individual realms.

Gravity, hunger, need unite at this solitary hole.

Nomad, cultivator (and tourist) dwell on this immutable clod.

Cradles quake, civilizations submit, revolutions orbit this steady sand.

The camera holds, camels bend, grass falls, and insects crawl — a glimpse of our collective Egypt.

Bio:

Andrew Ellis Johnson’s exhibition topics have ranged from the apocalypse to animal nature and disasters of war to the culture of class. Venues for his work have included museums, galleries, electronic arts and video festivals, public collaborations, conferences, books and journals in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is cofounder of the socially engaged collective, PED, that has performed in Buffalo, Belfast, Chongqing, Rio de Janeiro, St. John’s and Tonawanda. Johnson received his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA at Carnegie Mellon where he is Associate Professor of Art.

Photograph by Tom Little

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away." - Marcus Aurelius

For some people, the river is calm with gentle currents. Others must endure eddies of indignation. Some do a spot of fishing or just float by on inflatable air mattresses, others just manage to keep their head above the relentless turbulence....

Be mindful of the rocks, they can appear without warning - and can be treacherous. For the adventurous, successful navigation brings bouts of breathtaking exhilaration - with near drownings.

The irony of the river is that it is as ever changing as it is immutable.

You always know you're alive along the Chronos River, whether you ride on top of it or are thrusted to it's very depths....

35mm film_ no photoshop filters

View On Black

Second reading of the shape through the light.

In the same place, in different ways and times, the figures are mysteriously intangible. The shapes invested from the light generate new messages depriving the "things" of their heavy and cumbersome armor.

The invisibility hides various, hidden presences.

If the light for definition illuminates and reveals, in my case it assumes a disintegrating role, in order to reach to a vision lacking in the esagerazione aesthetic in which we are immersed and of our obtuse attachment to the shape, as if it were be a matter of precious matter, immutable in the time.

Nothing is in order always.

© 11 LUX_2000/2007 Nicola Cipriani_All Rights Reserved

Special thanks to FRANZ

Una riscrittura della forma attraverso la luce.

Nello stesso luogo, in modi e tempi differenti, figure misteriosamente intangibili. Le forme investite dalla luce generano nuovi messaggi privando le “cose” della loro armatura pesante ed ingombrante. L’invisibilità nasconde presenze diverse, occulte. Se la luce per definizione illumina e svela, nel mio caso assume un ruolo disgregante, per giungere ad una visione priva dell’esagerazione estetica in cui siamo immersi e del nostro ottuso attaccamento alla forma, come se si trattasse di materia preziosa, immutabile nel tempo. Niente è per sempre.

© 11 LUX_2000/2007 Nicola Cipriani_All Rights Reserved

Special thanks to FRANZ

All Rights Reserved: NIcola Cipriani

The owner of this image is Nicola Cipriani. This image can not be modified and must always indicate its author name. Nicola Cipriani must be interested in case of use of publication. Any different use must be considered a copyright abuse. The original high definition master of this image is owned by the author of the work.

Ramón Llull was a 13th century philosopher, mystic, writer, and martyr. In his lifetime, Llull fought in the Crusades, converted Muslims to Christianity, gave his wealth to the poor, and had visions of Christ. This work, like Reisch's Margarita philosophica, is an encyclopedia, a format which remained a useful pedagogical tool for many centuries. Compare the zodiacal man here with the one that appears in Margarita philosophica. Although more abstract than some other versions of the zodiacal man, this image has both charm and humor. This work displays another diagram of the geocentric cosmos, but without the labeled spheres. Unlike the image of the cosmos shown in Margarita philosophica, the earth at center is clearly shown as the sublunar sphere, the realm of humankind and change (since the heavens are immutable). The central image shows a town but the atmosphere is depicted in flames—air and fire are the two elements within the sublunar sphere that characterize both our atmosphere and the mutability of our world. Oddly, the concentric circles are not labeled with the visible planets but the firmament is shown by the band of the zodiac that encircles the image. The third image shows a volvelle (see: Viridarium Mathematicorum, 1563). This volvelle was used to compute planetary aspects, that is, their relationship to one another. If planets occupy the same part of the sky, they are in conjunction. If 180 degrees apart, they are in opposition. The diagram shows other configurations. The line including the small box or square denotes a 90-degree aspect; the triangle denotes a 120-degree separation (or trine). The line with the asterisk denotes a 60-degree separation, or sextile. These aspects in combination with movements of the sun and moon gave astrology a sophisticated store of mathematical computations. www.cppdigitallibrary.org/exhibits/show/astrology/llull

Το κάστρο της Μονεμβασιάς

Το 375 μ.Χ. μία σεισμική δόνηση απέκοψε τη χερσόνησο δημιουργώντας ένα βράχο που έμελλε να μείνει στη θάλασσα αγέρωχος και αναλλοίωτος στην αιωνιότητα, φυσικό φρούριο, προστάτης ψυχών, διακηρυγμένος πόθος των μεγαλύτερων αυτοκρατοριών που γνώρισε ο πλανήτης. Αυτός ο βράχος, κάποτε μονοπάτι του Μυκηναϊκού και του Μινωικού πολιτισμού, χάρη στη μία και μοναδική πρόσβαση (μόνη έμβαση) που τον ενώνει με την Πελοπόννησο ονομάστηκε Μονεμβάσια.

The castle of Monemvasia

In 375 AD an earthquake cut off the peninsula, creating a rock that was to remain at sea cocky and immutable in eternity, a natural fortress, professed desire of the largest empires the world has known. This rock, sometimes the path of the Mycenaean and Minoan culture, through a single access who joins the Peloponnesus, called Monemvasia.

May 17-30, 2018

Opening Reception: Thursday May 17 from 6-8:00 pm

The clock’s influence is inseparable from contemporary life – not only does it synchronize individual circadian rhythms but it also produces the stable temporal foundation for both scientific tradition and capitalism to flourish. However, there is a significant gap between what is measured by clocks and what is perceived by the individual. The perceived acceleration of time in contemporary life leaves us with a feeling of being continually deprived of this precious resource. While many technologies promise to help us get-time-back, they only entangle us further in their construction. Scientific time, duration measured by clocks, is regarded as immutable, indefatigable, and infallible – the opposite of the humans it ostensibly serves. Slower Than Time Itself uses the syncopated rhythms and unquantifiable output of mechanical clocks to suggest a slowing and plurality to the current monoculture of time, more sympathetic to the human condition and timescapes outside of human perception. Trueman’s sculptural and video works explore the idea of slowness as a gateway to multiplicity and ponders whether it is possible to use a clock to escape time itself.

Artist Biography

After studying mechanical engineering at Fanshawe, Trueman completed his undergraduate degree in fine arts at Western University where he is currently a Master of Fine Art candidate. He will be completing a clock installation at I-Park Residency (East Haddam, Connecticut) this summer, and will be exhibiting at PLUS Art Fair 2018 (Toronto). His first publication So Long South Street, a photographic series showing the demolition of famed South Street Hospital, was launched earlier in 2018. His work has been shown at Museum London, McMaster Museum of Art (Hamilton), Thames Art Gallery (Chatham), and DNA Art Space (London).

Artlab Gallery

John Labatt Visual Arts Centre

Department of Visual Arts

Western University

London, ON

© 2018; Department of Visual Arts; Western University

The early snow of November 2010 froze the roses still in full blooming.

Now they had emerged crispy and papery in their immutable beauty.

(no editing besides raw->jpg adjustments)

Frédéric never leaves home and never sees anyone. He has a telecommuting work and when he needs something, it is delivered. His everyday life, immutable, seems written in stone... Until a mysterious girl burst into his life...

The play, between utopia and science fiction, is asking for the place of the other when the technology is building is own reality, between us and the world, when virtuality comes true.

The scenography was designed to show this omnipresence of the virtual, using video mapping, video, sounds and light interactivities to create the space, the flat of Frederic, where the action takes place. It's a living place, a sprawling matrix, stilfling, but probably also an illusion created by humans to rock his eternal solitude.

Written and staged by: Gildas Loupiac

Scenography: Barthélemy Antoine-Loeff and Alexandra Petracchi (iduun)

Sound design: Charles Dubois

Costumes: Marilyne Morel

With: Thomas Lequesne, Géraldine Szajman and Etienne Bodi

From the 7th of september to the 2nd of october (except monday and tuesday) at 20 PM.

FUNAMBULE MONTMARTRE

53 rue des Saules, 75018 Paris

Métro : Lamarck-Caulaincourt (12)

Rocks of Back Beach #13

A natural archway used to stand on this spot. This is a location I've used for photo shoots on many occasions and visited since my childhood. I was quite disturbed to discover that this immutable feature of the landscape was completely gone, seemingly overnight. It reminded me that nothing lasts forever and that even these volcanic stone cliffs will crumble.

In other news; is it strange that I've take to listening to French Reggae while editing photos?

Descension

HD video, color, 9:19 second loop

2011

Imaginings, beliefs, aspirations depart to individual realms.

Gravity, hunger, need unite at this solitary hole.

Nomad, cultivator (and tourist) dwell on this immutable clod.

Cradles quake, civilizations submit, revolutions orbit this steady sand.

The camera holds, camels bend, grass falls, and insects crawl — a glimpse of our collective Egypt.

Bio:

Andrew Ellis Johnson’s exhibition topics have ranged from the apocalypse to animal nature and disasters of war to the culture of class. Venues for his work have included museums, galleries, electronic arts and video festivals, public collaborations, conferences, books and journals in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is cofounder of the socially engaged collective, PED, that has performed in Buffalo, Belfast, Chongqing, Rio de Janeiro, St. John’s and Tonawanda. Johnson received his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his MFA at Carnegie Mellon where he is Associate Professor of Art.

Photograph by Tom Little

Consumer Discretionary = CD

consumerdiscretionary.exchange/?afmc=SNiB980NX5If0cRQAZkU3

4 of 11

THE CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY SECTOR ON THE BLOCKCHAIN ECOSYSTEM

The Global Industry Classification Standard used by Morgan Stanley defines the consumer discretionary sector and industry that includes those businesses that tend to be the most sensitive to economic cycles. Its manufacturing segment includes automotive, household durable goods, leisure equipment and textiles & apparel. The services segment includes hotels, restaurants and other leisure facilities, media production and services, and consumer retailing and services. Using CrowdPoint’s next generation Blockchain all members of the ecosystem benefit from the transparency, speed and immutable transactions associated with automobiles, and components, consumer durables, apparel, consumer services and retailing

CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to horizontally and vertically unite Automobiles, Components, Consumer Durables, Apparel, Consumer Services and Retailing on our NexGen Blockchain in order to DEMOCRATIZE the Consumer Discretionary Experience for your HUMAN IDENTITY.

Blockchain Ecosystem = BE

blockchainecosystem.exchange/?afmc=SNiB980NX5If0cRQAZkU3

Ellipsis - portal.theellipsis.exchange/welcome/?afmc=SNiB98ONX5lf0cR...

#BlockchainEcosystem #Energy #Materials #Industrials #ConsumerDiscretionary #ConsumerStaples #Healthcare #Financials #InfomationTechnology #CommunicationServices #Utilities #RealEstate #SeanBrehm #MarleneBrehm #ValindaLWood

Non / Where: Muskildi, (Zuberoa) (Basque Country)

Noiz / When: 2016/01/24

Kamara / Camera: CANON EOS5D MKIII

Objetiboa / Lens: TAMRON SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD (24mm)

ISO: 400

Programa / Program: Av (Irekidurari lehentasuna / Aperture priority)

Exposizioa / Exposition time: 1/250"

F zenbakia / number F: 2.8

Software: Photoshop

MASKARADAK: PROBABLY THE OLDEST CARNIVAL IN EUROPE

The maskarada [mas̺ˈkaɾada] is a popular set of traditional, theatrical performances that take place annually during the time of carnival in the Basque region of Soule, Basque Country (Zuberoa in the Basque language). It is generally referred to in the plural (maskaradak) as it is repeated across the region on the streets of villages (one day per village) over the span of a month or two in late winter through spring. The plays are performed by the villages' (usually younger) inhabitants, and the arrangements for each maskarada are the responsibility of each participating village. Sometimes, when two villages are very small, they will share the duties together.

Though naturally the actors change from year to year, a friendly air of informality, formed of deep familiarity pervades throughout. The Maskaradak follow variations on very traditional themes that make use of time-honoured sets and age-old, immutable characters. A motley parade of musicians (atabal, ttun-ttun and xirula players), traditional dancers and assorted actors, villagers and visitors walk merrily along a route that meanders up and down the village's streets.

At particular points of the parade, the barrikadak take place, where the marchers stop in front of a stall put there by the villagers, and bestow on them a dance, sometimes even a song, this in exchange for snacks (biscuits, crisps, and the like), and refreshments (wine and liquor), which is then shared with bystanders. The process is repeated over and over, perhaps lasting all day, from early in the morning till afternoon (with a popular lunch somewhere in the middle), until the end of the final performance at the parade terminus - usually the village market place or Basque pelota court.

Maskaradas represent a genuine example of traditional popular carnival theatre struggling to survive, much in step with the modest revival of the Basque language. It's connected to pastoral in many aspects, such as recurrent fixed characters, a marked distinction in the group (e.g. the reds stand for the good, while the blacks represent the evil) or a rigid structuring and development. The language used by the actors remains bilingual Zuberoan Basque, for the most part, and Bearnais, despite some difficulties to hand either language over to new generations.

MGS Memorabilia South African Bills. R1210 = £66.11 exch rate 18.302 Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Moses Siso Tonic and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Siso and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Tonic Siso and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

May 17-30, 2018

Opening Reception: Thursday May 17 from 6-8:00 pm

The clock’s influence is inseparable from contemporary life – not only does it synchronize individual circadian rhythms but it also produces the stable temporal foundation for both scientific tradition and capitalism to flourish. However, there is a significant gap between what is measured by clocks and what is perceived by the individual. The perceived acceleration of time in contemporary life leaves us with a feeling of being continually deprived of this precious resource. While many technologies promise to help us get-time-back, they only entangle us further in their construction. Scientific time, duration measured by clocks, is regarded as immutable, indefatigable, and infallible – the opposite of the humans it ostensibly serves. Slower Than Time Itself uses the syncopated rhythms and unquantifiable output of mechanical clocks to suggest a slowing and plurality to the current monoculture of time, more sympathetic to the human condition and timescapes outside of human perception. Trueman’s sculptural and video works explore the idea of slowness as a gateway to multiplicity and ponders whether it is possible to use a clock to escape time itself.

Artist Biography

After studying mechanical engineering at Fanshawe, Trueman completed his undergraduate degree in fine arts at Western University where he is currently a Master of Fine Art candidate. He will be completing a clock installation at I-Park Residency (East Haddam, Connecticut) this summer, and will be exhibiting at PLUS Art Fair 2018 (Toronto). His first publication So Long South Street, a photographic series showing the demolition of famed South Street Hospital, was launched earlier in 2018. His work has been shown at Museum London, McMaster Museum of Art (Hamilton), Thames Art Gallery (Chatham), and DNA Art Space (London).

Artlab Gallery

John Labatt Visual Arts Centre

Department of Visual Arts

Western University

London, ON

© 2018; Department of Visual Arts; Western University

Niki's Oasis Restaurant & Jazz Bar 138 Bree Street Newtown Cultural Precinct Johannesburg South Africa with Simnikiwe Sondlo and Bushy Dubazana Jazz Band with the Immutable Themba Fassie with Tonic Siso and MGS

Great Food and Music Highly Recommended

Zion National Park Utah

All this is the music of waters, John Wesley Powell, 1895

Wrought by Water

The cliffs of Zion stand resolute, Immutable yet ever changing. They are a glowing presence in late day and a wild calm. Melodies of waters soothe desert parched ears, streams twinkle over stone, wren song cascades from red-rock cliffs, and cottonwood leaves jitter on the breeze. But when lightning flashes waterfalls erupt from dry cliffs, and floods flash down waterless canyons, exploding log jams, hurling boulders, croaking wild joyousness, and dancing stone and water and time.

Zion is alive with movement, a river of life always here and always changing.

Everything in Zion takes life from the Virgin River’s scarce desert waters. Water flows, and solid rock melts into cliffs and towers. Landscape changes as canyons deepen to create forested highlands and lowland deserts. A ribbon of green marks the river’s course as diverse plants and animals take shelter and thrive in this canyon oasis. From the beginning people sought this place, this sanctuary in the desert’s dry reaches. The very name Zion, a Hebrew word for refuge, evokes its significance.

More than the river’s music and the soaring heights alone, Zion’s nature multiplies with each slope, aspect, and soil type, with each minute change in precipitation or temperature. Add to these influences species from nearby ecosystems, and Zion becomes an assemblage of plants and thus of animals, found nowhere else exactly like this. Although the southwest desert may look homogeneous, each fold, wrinkle, bend, slope, mesa top, and canyon bottom creates its unique conditions. This unlikely desert harbors a mosaic of environments, each fine-tuned to place. Welcome to the one called Zion!

The blockchain (through Bitcoin) is unarguably the key invention of the 21st century. The accelerating forces of decentralization do not only change how we think about electronic cash, but also changed our perception of organizations, trust and non-human agency through the introduction of immutable and unstoppable code on the blockchain. RIAT examines the global crypto-economic condition and its effects on culture and society.

Credit: Florian Voggeneder

"I had a finer and a grander sight, however, where I was. This was the mighty dome of the Jungfrau softly outlined against the sky and faintly silvered by the starlight. There was something subduing in the influence of that silent and solemn and awful presence; one seemed to meet the immutable, the indestructible, the eternal, face to face, and to feel the trivial and fleeting nature of his own existence the more sharply by the contrast. One had the sense of being under the brooding contemplation of a spirit, not an inert mass of rocks and ice--a spirit which had looked down, through the slow drift of the ages, upon a million vanished races of men, and judged them; and would judge a million more--and still be there, watching, unchanged and unchangeable, after all life should be gone and the earth have become a vacant desolation." -- Mark Twain, "A Tramp Abroad" (seen from Interlaken Switzerland)

Frédéric never leaves home and never sees anyone. He has a telecommuting work and when he needs something, it is delivered. His everyday life, immutable, seems written in stone... Until a mysterious girl burst into his life...

The play, between utopia and science fiction, is asking for the place of the other when the technology is building is own reality, between us and the world, when virtuality comes true.

The scenography was designed to show this omnipresence of the virtual, using video mapping, video, sounds and light interactivities to create the space, the flat of Frederic, where the action takes place. It's a living place, a sprawling matrix, stilfling, but probably also an illusion created by humans to rock his eternal solitude.

Written and staged by: Gildas Loupiac

Scenography: Barthélemy Antoine-Loeff and Alexandra Petracchi (iduun)

Sound design: Charles Dubois

Costumes: Marilyne Morel

With: Thomas Lequesne, Géraldine Szajman and Etienne Bodi

From the 7th of september to the 2nd of october (except monday and tuesday) at 20 PM.

FUNAMBULE MONTMARTRE

53 rue des Saules, 75018 Paris

Métro : Lamarck-Caulaincourt (12)

Το κάστρο της Μονεμβασιάς

Το 375 μ.Χ. μία σεισμική δόνηση απέκοψε τη χερσόνησο δημιουργώντας ένα βράχο που έμελλε να μείνει στη θάλασσα αγέρωχος και αναλλοίωτος στην αιωνιότητα, φυσικό φρούριο, προστάτης ψυχών, διακηρυγμένος πόθος των μεγαλύτερων αυτοκρατοριών που γνώρισε ο πλανήτης. Αυτός ο βράχος, κάποτε μονοπάτι του Μυκηναϊκού και του Μινωικού πολιτισμού, χάρη στη μία και μοναδική πρόσβαση (μόνη έμβαση) που τον ενώνει με την Πελοπόννησο ονομάστηκε Μονεμβάσια.

The castle of Monemvasia

In 375 AD an earthquake cut off the peninsula, creating a rock that was to remain at sea cocky and immutable in eternity, a natural fortress, professed desire of the largest empires the world has known. This rock, sometimes the path of the Mycenaean and Minoan culture, through a single access who joins the Peloponnesus, called Monemvasia.

© david morris dtmphotography.co.uk

Llandrindod Wells is an amalgam of two very different settlements. Early Llandrindod in the

form of the old parish church and Llandrindod Hall occupies a spur sandwiched between

valleys that drop down towards the Ithon from the high ground to the east. One kilometre to

the north-west on lower ground which has been ridged and hollowed by several streams is the

Victorian and modern creation of Llandrindod Wells.

This brief report examines Llandrindod’s emergence and development up to 1750. For the

more recent history of the settlement, it will be necessary to look at other sources of

information and particularly at the origins and nature of the buildings within it.

The accompanying map is offered as an indicative guide to the historic settlement. The

continuous line defining the historic core offers a visual interpretation of the area within

which the settlement developed, based on our interpretation of the evidence currently to hand.

It is not an immutable boundary line, and may need to be modified as new discoveries are

made. The map does not show those areas or buildings that are statutorily designated, nor

does it pick out those sites or features that are specifically mentioned in the text.

We have not referenced the sources that have been examined to produce this report, but that

information will be available in the Historic Environment Record (HER) maintained by the

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust. Numbers in brackets are primary record numbers used in

the HER to provide information that is specific to individual sites and features. These can be

accessed on-line through the Archwilio website (www.archwilio.org.uk).

History of development

The name refers to the 'Church of the Trinity', but the former name of the church and its

parish was Llandow in 1283 and Lando in 1291 meaning ‘church of God’. Llandynddod

appears only in 1535, but the change to the Trinity is one that can be recognised in several

other churches in Wales.

The earlier focus occupies a spur overlooking this area. Whether the church represents an

early medieval foundation is unclear. The 'llan' prefix might suggest this but there is no

corroborative evidence. Its later history, too, is uncharted. The occurrence of platforms

opposite the church hints at more than just an isolated church, but the evidence as yet is not

compelling.

Llandrindod Hall by the old church was converted into a large hotel in about 1749, but it

functioned for less than forty years and was demolished by its proprietor, reportedly because

of its unsavoury clientele. It was replaced in the 19th century by a farmstead.

Reportedly the origins of the spa town go back to the late 17th century. Cae-bach Chapel

(30000; Grade II listing) in Brookland Road was founded in 1715. Saline and sulphur springs

were discovered in the 1730s and these were noted in various publications in the following

twenty years. But the emergence of Llandrindod Wells is essentially a 19th-century

phenomenon and thus falls outside the scope of this report, although in expanding over

Llanerch Common, the town enveloped the Llanerch Inn, which has some 17th-century

features.

The heritage to 1750

The old parish church of Holy Trinity (16027) lies more than 1km south-east of the town and

was sited on the edge of an extensive tract of common upland. It originally had a single

chamber of 13th/14th-century build with a south porch and small west spire. It was completely

rebuilt in 1894, after the archdeacon of Llandrindod had removed the roof in order to

'encourage' townspeople to attend the new church in the town. The old church houses several

18th and 19th-century monuments but its 'sheel-na-gig' (5960) uncovered during building work

in 1894 and presumably of medieval origin, is now in the local museum.

The churchyard (16199) is irregular in design, its shape on the west and south dictated by the

natural topography. The Tithe map depicts a smaller enclosure around the church, a short

distance away from the road and no longer distinguishable at ground level, but may not be an

accurate representation. A holy well (81710) lay close to the churchyard, though the story

attached to it point to a healing well.

The spur on which the old church sits is naturally irregular with rock outcrops protruding.

North of the church on land that was common until the 19th century are several flat terraces

some of which are certainly artificial constructions that probably supported dwellings

(16094); there is at least one authentic platform and perhaps two others, together with

enclosure boundaries and a trackway. Further earthworks (16095), the most obvious a low

curvilinear bank of unknown function, are apparent just to the south-east of Llandrindod Hall

(30020).

Capel Maelog (2055) which was excavated between 1984 and 1987 lay off Cefnllys Lane less

than 1km east of the town centre. Its foundations have now been reconstructed near County

Hall.

Information can be found here

www.cpat.org.uk/ycom/radnor/llandrindod.pdf

Frédéric never leaves home and never sees anyone. He has a telecommuting work and when he needs something, it is delivered. His everyday life, immutable, seems written in stone... Until a mysterious girl burst into his life...

The play, between utopia and science fiction, is asking for the place of the other when the technology is building is own reality, between us and the world, when virtuality comes true.

The scenography was designed to show this omnipresence of the virtual, using video mapping, video, sounds and light interactivities to create the space, the flat of Frederic, where the action takes place. It's a living place, a sprawling matrix, stilfling, but probably also an illusion created by humans to rock his eternal solitude.

Written and staged by: Gildas Loupiac

Scenography: Barthélemy Antoine-Loeff and Alexandra Petracchi (iduun)

Sound design: Charles Dubois

Costumes: Marilyne Morel

With: Thomas Lequesne, Géraldine Szajman and Etienne Bodi

From the 7th of september to the 2nd of october (except monday and tuesday) at 20 PM.

FUNAMBULE MONTMARTRE

53 rue des Saules, 75018 Paris

Métro : Lamarck-Caulaincourt (12)

Wander through pleasant mixed woodland down to the Skelbo burn

Families love the variety in Skelbo, from dipping for mini beasts in the wildlife pond beside the car park to hunting out the chainsaw-carved woodland creatures along the trail. It's a fun forest full of interesting twists and turns, open views and fascinating features, including the remains of an iron age broch and some impressive drystone walls.

Wander down to Skelbo Burn, listening for birdsong and spying sculptured carvings among the pines, before returning past the remains of a 200-year old broch.

Firm gravel surface with uneven and occasionally muddy sections. One long fairly steep slope. Includes some steps and a narrow bridge.

The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.

The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim  The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.

The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.

Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.

Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".

Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".

Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West.  Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way.  The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes. 

Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities.  Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land.  In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.

In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.

When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected.  This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms.  Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.

The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.

Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.

According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".

The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.

For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.

In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.

A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.

Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.

The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.

There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.

Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.

The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.

These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.

The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.

Climate

The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.

Places of interest

An Teallach

Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)

Arrochar Alps

Balmoral Castle

Balquhidder

Battlefield of Culloden

Beinn Alligin

Beinn Eighe

Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station

Ben Lomond

Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)

Cairngorms National Park

Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore

Cairngorm Mountains

Caledonian Canal

Cape Wrath

Carrick Castle

Castle Stalker

Castle Tioram

Chanonry Point

Conic Hill

Culloden Moor

Dunadd

Duart Castle

Durness

Eilean Donan

Fingal's Cave (Staffa)

Fort George

Glen Coe

Glen Etive

Glen Kinglas

Glen Lyon

Glen Orchy

Glenshee Ski Centre

Glen Shiel

Glen Spean

Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)

Grampian Mountains

Hebrides

Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.

Highland Wildlife Park

Inveraray Castle

Inveraray Jail

Inverness Castle

Inverewe Garden

Iona Abbey

Isle of Staffa

Kilchurn Castle

Kilmartin Glen

Liathach

Lecht Ski Centre

Loch Alsh

Loch Ard

Loch Awe

Loch Assynt

Loch Earn

Loch Etive

Loch Fyne

Loch Goil

Loch Katrine

Loch Leven

Loch Linnhe

Loch Lochy

Loch Lomond

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park

Loch Lubnaig

Loch Maree

Loch Morar

Loch Morlich

Loch Ness

Loch Nevis

Loch Rannoch

Loch Tay

Lochranza

Luss

Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)

Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran

Rannoch Moor

Red Cuillin

Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83

River Carron, Wester Ross

River Spey

River Tay

Ross and Cromarty

Smoo Cave

Stob Coire a' Chàirn

Stac Polly

Strathspey Railway

Sutherland

Tor Castle

Torridon Hills

Urquhart Castle

West Highland Line (scenic railway)

West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)

Wester Ross

The 1967 Cadillac Calais we used for the filming of The Immutables. It's seen here waiting for the cue.

"All men and beasts, lions, eagles, and quails, horned stags, geese, spiders, silent fish that inhabit the waves, starfish from the sea, and creatures invisible to the eye—in one word, life—all, all life, completing the dreary round imposed upon it, has died out at last. A thousand years have passed since the earth last bore a living creature on her breast, and the unhappy moon now lights her lamp in vain. No longer are the cries of storks heard in the meadows, or the drone of beetles in the groves of limes. All is cold, cold. All is void, void, void. All is terrible, terrible—

The bodies of all living creatures have dropped to dust, and eternal matter has transformed them into stones and water and clouds; but their spirits have flowed together into one, and that great world-soul am I! In me is the spirit of the great Alexander, the spirit of Napoleon, of Caesar, of Shakespeare, and of the tiniest leech that swims. In me the consciousness of man has joined hands with the instinct of the animal; I understand all, all, all, and each life lives again in me.

I am alone. Once in a hundred years my lips are opened, my voice echoes mournfully across the desert earth, and no one hears. And you, poor lights of the marsh, you do not hear me. You are engendered at sunset in the putrid mud, and flit wavering about the lake till dawn, unconscious, unreasoning, unwarmed by the breath of life. Satan, father of eternal matter, trembling lest the spark of life should glow in you, has ordered an unceasing movement of the atoms that compose you, and so you shift and change for ever. I, the spirit of the universe, I alone am immutable and eternal.

Like a captive in a dungeon deep and void, I know not where I am, nor what awaits me. One thing only is not hidden from me: in my fierce and obstinate battle with Satan, the source of the forces of matter, I am destined to be victorious in the end. Matter and spirit will then be one at last in glorious harmony, and the reign of freedom will begin on earth. But this can only come to pass by slow degrees, when after countless eons the moon and earth and shining Sirius himself shall fall to dust. Until that hour, oh, horror! Horror! Horror! Satan, my mighty foe, advances; I see his dread and lurid eyes."

-Nina's monologue from Anton Chekov's "The Seagull."

These are my personal notes taken during a presentation. I give them here because they may be of some interest. Do not expect the notes to always be in complete sentences, etc.

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Creationism and Evolution in the U.S., On Anti-Intellectualism and Scientism

Presented by: Massimo Pigliucci (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA) (now with the Department of Philosophy at CUNY-City College, New York, New York, USA) (www.ccny.cuny.edu/profiles/Massimo-Pigliucci.cfm)

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Pigliucci)

21 April 2000

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Aspects of anti-intellectualism:

1) Anti-rationalism - says that intellectualism is bad because it leads to moral relativism and leads to skepticism for authority. Also, it says that reason is cold and dull.

2) Anti-elitism - it is not good to have people who know better than you (intellectualism is anti-democratic). This is an American attitude. It is not something you see in Europe. Europeans don’t have a problem with accepting the reality of an intellectual hierarchy in society. As a culture, Americans tend to be skeptical of experts. But, this thinking doesn’t apply to sports experts or health care experts (doctors).

3) Unreflective instrumentalism - thought has no value if it is not practical (the basis for capitalism). This idea leads to disdain for theoretical inquiry.

4) Unreflective hedonism - points out that the media and mass entertainment provide pre-interpreted information to the public, which willingly accepts it without objection, because thinking is hard work, and therefore thinking is not desirable.

5) Post-modernism - the only non-American idea of this list, it originates from France. This idea says that all knowledge is relative (all opinions are equal, and equally good), and therefore you must have equivalency of different cultural traditions. Also, this idea concludes that science has not and should not have special pre-eminence. Advocates of post-modernism are considered the academic and cultural left, but they agree with creationist thinking. This is ironic, because creationists represent the academic and cultural far-right.

Anti-intellectualism converges upon public education by suggesting that book learning is elitist, vocational schooling is preferrable, and social development of students is more important than critical thinking or teaching of information.

A problem on the other side is excess of scientism. Scientism says that the scientific method is the most powerful tool for investigating reality. This is an OK statement and is fairly defensible, though some disagree with it. What isn’t OK to say is that science can solve any problem given enough time and money and resources (though this is what you say to the National Science Foundation!). The problem with this idea is that is gives people a too-high expectation for science. It is important to realize and admit that science does have limits, though. This is difficult to explain to the general public or the media or politicians.

Science is based on philosophical assumptions, but they are well-founded assumptions:

1) realism - says there is a real world to be investigated, and that it is not a figment of one’s imagination.

2) naturalism - says that all things can be explained using only natural laws. Intelligent design advocates reject this, of course.

3) Occam’s Razor - an idea from a 13th century monk that says the simplest explanation is likely the correct one. This is an assumption that works very well, but not always.

4) Hume’s Dictum - extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This was a view held and emphasized by Carl Sagan.

Intellectual snobbism is dangerous and unjustified. No society could exist with only intellectuals. Intellectual achievement is admittedly an arbitrary human value - lots of human societies in history and now lived and live without intellectual advancement, but they were more than happy and content with their lot in life. It is also important to recognize that the products of science are not always good.

Logical fallacies of creationism (this listing is just a subsample):

1) science must be ethical - tree of evil metaphor, with the root of unbelief and the tree of evolution and the fruits of the tree include racism, abortion, alcohol, humanism, drugs, dirty books, hard rock, inflation, etc. Why the metaphor? Well, some consequences of science can lead to things that are not good. Therefore, science is bad. Is genetics bad because Hitler wanted to use eugenics to improve the Aryan race? Is physics bad because we dropped atomic bombs? There is no excuse for scientists to not care or to be unethical, though. Science per se is not bad - it’s what people (scientists, the public, politicians, anybody) do with that science that can be bad (or not).

2) discussions among scientists are a sign of crisis - Gould’s punctuated equilibrium is the classic example. He pushed the idea to sound like it was very different from Darwinism, but it isn’t very different. This argument misses the point of science - changing your mind and progress are what science is all about.

3) evolution is “just” a theory - the old and tired mixing up of 2 definitions of the word “theory”.

4) natural processes occur at random - how can complex human beings be the result of randomness? Well, evolution is not the same as a jumbo jet being assembled from a junkyard by a tornado. Two forces shape evolution - mutations (which are random) and natural selection (which is anything but random).

5) no intermediate fossils - by now, it is quite puzzling why creationists continue to raise this point. Actually, it is not a puzzle. They will always see and point out a gap in the fossil record no matter how many fossils are found to fill pre-existing gaps.

6) the world is easy and simple to understand - this is just plain wrong. The world is not easy to explain. For example, the Flood could not possibly covered the entire world, and could not possibly have created the Grand Canyon. The entire biosphere could not fit onto Noah’s Ark.

7) living organisms are perfect and therefore were designed - this is a very important argument behind why lots of people believe creationism. Watchmaker argument. Well, have you ever wondered why people have hemorrhoids, back pain, and vericose veins? Ever wonder why it takes a year for babies to learn how to walk? It’s because humans aren’t well-designed for bipedal locomotion. This isn’t a perfect design. The design is easy to understand using evolutionary theory - humans relatively recently became bipedal from arboreal & ground-dwelling, knuckle-walking apes. Design? Yes. Perfect design? Well...

8) science is an arbitrary assemblage of disconnected facts - this denies biology, astronomy, geology, and physics. You have to come up with better substitutes for explaining the universe before you can toss these out.

9) education must be democratic - this idea is obvious for many. After all, taxpayers fund public schools, therefore taxpayers must have a say in what is taught and how it is taught. Europeans don’t make this argument, though. To counter this, we can point out examples of other possible equal-time curricula (there are people who are living today that believe these): flat-earthers, geocentrists.

10) science is a religion - well, let’s compare the two:

Religion

- immutable doctrine

- based on faith

- taught by authority

- dogma

Science

- self-correcting

- based on evidence

- discovery by critical thinking

- peer-review & hypothesis-testing

Common mistakes of scientists:

1) We don’t really understand macroevolution [sic] - scientists need to recognize and admit this. For example, the phylogeny of cetaceans (whales) shows that what we know now is incomplete and is a work in progress. Admitting this is not a defeat, but should be an encouraging thing. If everything is already solved, why should new people become scientists? What more would there be to do? While Behe's idea of irreducible complexity is a non-concept, understanding of molecular evolution is at a beginning. Just because we don’t know doesn’t imply or demand a designer. There is plenty we know and there is plenty we don’t know.

2) We don’t have much of a clue as to the origin of life [~sic] - we really don’t know. We may never solve the problem, but we’ll certainly learn more in the future. This is not an evolutionist’s problem, though. Evolution is concerned with what happens after life appears, not how life appears.

3) Anthropic Principle is flawed, but we don’t know the origin of physical constants [sic] - the old fine-tuning argument. There are several versions of the Anthropic Principle. We know something about these things (from quantum mechanics and general relativity and superstring theory).

4) Scientists make mistakes - not admitting this is bad. The classic example is Piltdown Man. Yes, it was a fraud, but the fraud was discovered by scientists (evolutionary biologists, in this case), not creationsists. And it was discovered by finding and learning about numerous other fossil finds. This led to the realization that Piltdown Man didn’t fit in at all, prompting a re-examination. This is a good example of how science works, not how it fails. Science is self-correcting.

What to do?

1) Adapt the style (but not the content) to the audience - there are 3 types of audiences, and your approach has to be different in front of the 3 different types. One type is the teachers and educators (teach them how to teach). Second is the general public (emphasize science is relevant to them - not all the little details, but the big ideas are relevant). The third type is the religious fundamentalists - talking to them is almost a waste of time, but the "almost" makes it worth it. The key with the 3rd type of audience is to teach them to think critically. Remember that it isn’t essential for the entire world’s population to understand evolution, but it is essential for as many people as possible to know how to think critically.

2) Good teaching of science - science is an open-ended inquiry. Science is a process, not just a body of knowledge. Hands-on learning is OK, but not to the exclusion of minds-on learning.

3) Learn from neurobiology - much is known about the psychology of education, but we don’t apply neurobiological knowledge to it. We know nowadays a lot about how the brain works - this should be applied to teaching methodologies. For example, the left brain is the rationalizing hemisphere, and the right brain is the challenging hemisphere. The left side controls what is considered to be acceptable paradigm. The right side supplies seeds of doubt (i.e., critical thinking!!). It turns out that lecture is one of the worse ways for communicating information. [sic]

If you want to change a creationist’s mind, ask questions and put seeds of doubt in their right hemispheres. If they change their minds, it won’t be instantaneous. Just be content to put seeds of doubt and questions in an audience’s mind & in debate opponents’ minds. This sort of thing does work. The threshold for how much seed of doubt is required to result in a change of mind is low in some, and high in others.

4) If all else fails, remind people that teaching creationism is illegal - use this argument as a last resort only.

Lots of Pigliucci’s colleagues say that he’s wasting his time with this interest in creationists. But, there is a need for people to do this work.

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© david morris dtmphotography.co.uk

Llandrindod Wells is an amalgam of two very different settlements. Early Llandrindod in the

form of the old parish church and Llandrindod Hall occupies a spur sandwiched between

valleys that drop down towards the Ithon from the high ground to the east. One kilometre to

the north-west on lower ground which has been ridged and hollowed by several streams is the

Victorian and modern creation of Llandrindod Wells.

This brief report examines Llandrindod’s emergence and development up to 1750. For the

more recent history of the settlement, it will be necessary to look at other sources of

information and particularly at the origins and nature of the buildings within it.

The accompanying map is offered as an indicative guide to the historic settlement. The

continuous line defining the historic core offers a visual interpretation of the area within

which the settlement developed, based on our interpretation of the evidence currently to hand.

It is not an immutable boundary line, and may need to be modified as new discoveries are

made. The map does not show those areas or buildings that are statutorily designated, nor

does it pick out those sites or features that are specifically mentioned in the text.

We have not referenced the sources that have been examined to produce this report, but that

information will be available in the Historic Environment Record (HER) maintained by the

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust. Numbers in brackets are primary record numbers used in

the HER to provide information that is specific to individual sites and features. These can be

accessed on-line through the Archwilio website (www.archwilio.org.uk).

History of development

The name refers to the 'Church of the Trinity', but the former name of the church and its

parish was Llandow in 1283 and Lando in 1291 meaning ‘church of God’. Llandynddod

appears only in 1535, but the change to the Trinity is one that can be recognised in several

other churches in Wales.

The earlier focus occupies a spur overlooking this area. Whether the church represents an

early medieval foundation is unclear. The 'llan' prefix might suggest this but there is no

corroborative evidence. Its later history, too, is uncharted. The occurrence of platforms

opposite the church hints at more than just an isolated church, but the evidence as yet is not

compelling.

Llandrindod Hall by the old church was converted into a large hotel in about 1749, but it

functioned for less than forty years and was demolished by its proprietor, reportedly because

of its unsavoury clientele. It was replaced in the 19th century by a farmstead.

Reportedly the origins of the spa town go back to the late 17th century. Cae-bach Chapel

(30000; Grade II listing) in Brookland Road was founded in 1715. Saline and sulphur springs

were discovered in the 1730s and these were noted in various publications in the following

twenty years. But the emergence of Llandrindod Wells is essentially a 19th-century

phenomenon and thus falls outside the scope of this report, although in expanding over

Llanerch Common, the town enveloped the Llanerch Inn, which has some 17th-century

features.

The heritage to 1750

The old parish church of Holy Trinity (16027) lies more than 1km south-east of the town and

was sited on the edge of an extensive tract of common upland. It originally had a single

chamber of 13th/14th-century build with a south porch and small west spire. It was completely

rebuilt in 1894, after the archdeacon of Llandrindod had removed the roof in order to

'encourage' townspeople to attend the new church in the town. The old church houses several

18th and 19th-century monuments but its 'sheel-na-gig' (5960) uncovered during building work

in 1894 and presumably of medieval origin, is now in the local museum.

The churchyard (16199) is irregular in design, its shape on the west and south dictated by the

natural topography. The Tithe map depicts a smaller enclosure around the church, a short

distance away from the road and no longer distinguishable at ground level, but may not be an

accurate representation. A holy well (81710) lay close to the churchyard, though the story

attached to it point to a healing well.

The spur on which the old church sits is naturally irregular with rock outcrops protruding.

North of the church on land that was common until the 19th century are several flat terraces

some of which are certainly artificial constructions that probably supported dwellings

(16094); there is at least one authentic platform and perhaps two others, together with

enclosure boundaries and a trackway. Further earthworks (16095), the most obvious a low

curvilinear bank of unknown function, are apparent just to the south-east of Llandrindod Hall

(30020).

Capel Maelog (2055) which was excavated between 1984 and 1987 lay off Cefnllys Lane less

than 1km east of the town centre. Its foundations have now been reconstructed near County

Hall.

Information can be found here

www.cpat.org.uk/ycom/radnor/llandrindod.pdf