Rivals is a television series. It is an adaptation of the 1988 Jilly Cooper novel of the same name. It stars an ensemble cast including David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Katherine Parkinson, Lisa McGrillis, Alex Hassell, Nafessa Williams, Emily Atack and Danny Dyer.

Set in 1986, old money MP Rupert Campbell-Black and nouveau riche (though married into old money) Lord Tony Baddingham have a rivalry that seeps into the world of Baddingham's Corinium independent commercial television station, located in the (fictional) county of Rutshire, in the Cotswolds region of southwest England. Baddingham brings American producer Cameron Cook to help stengthen Corinium's programming, and hires dynamic Irish newsman Declan O'Hara, husband of actress Maude, away from the BBC.

Diseño de Carolina Rival (clothes by) www.flickr.com/photos/7834503@N08/

Maquillaje y peinado por Raúl Sparks (make up)www.flickr.com/photos/biteandscratch/

 

Foto por (photos by) Leopoldo Correa www.fotoestudio1.cl

Acuarela

@Gran Turismo Polonia 2013

Rushmore Cave is the closest show cave to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the United States. It contains a wide variety of natural formations. It is the ninth longest cave in South Dakota. It measures a distance of 3,652.6 feet (1,113.3 m).

 

It was discovered in 1876 when a log flume that supplied water to mining operations in town of Hayward broke and spilled onto the side of the hill. As the water flowed down the hill it started flowing into a small hole in the hillside. The local miners who went up to fix the flume noticed this abnormality and became suspicious of where this water was going. After fixing the flume, the men decided to go inside and explore. After about 30 feet (9.1 m), the men came to a large drop off which went down about 15 feet (4.6 m). They exited the cave, and went out into the woods where they cut down a tree and then used this tree as a ladder to access the cave. The miners then noticed that the majority of the cave was made out of limestone. Knowing that limestone doesn't contain any gold deposits, they abandoned the cave as a mining opportunity, and left it alone. Some of the local townspeople heard news of this discovery, and became very curious as to what they might find inside the cave.

 

The cave was created by a very long process stretching over a 360 million year time period. It started during the Mississippian Period, during which the entire Black Hills area was covered by a large inland sea. In this sea lived many kinds of sea creatures, and crustaceans. As these sea creatures died, their bodies sunk down to the sea floor. The flesh rotted away leaving behind many solid bone fragments which then compressed, and over time hardened into a rock known as limestone.

 

The cave has a cornucopia of rooms including the Entrance Room, Post Office, Image Room, Big Room, Fairyland, Rope Room, Geode Room, The Rouge Room (Party Room), Arrowhead Room, and the Floral Room.

 

The cave also includes boxwork and many dripstone formations including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, helictites and flowstone.

 

South Dakota is a landlocked U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota Sioux tribe, which comprises a large portion of the population with nine reservations currently in the state and has historically dominated the territory. South Dakota is the 17th largest by area, but the 5th least populous, and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Pierre is the state capital, and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 213,900, is South Dakota's most populous city. The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River". South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota (to the north), Minnesota (to the east), Iowa (to the southeast), Nebraska (to the south), Wyoming (to the west), and Montana (to the northwest).

 

Humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a gold rush in the Black Hills and the construction of railroads from the east. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. As the southern part of the former Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with North Dakota. They are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union; President Benjamin Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them so that no one could tell which became a state first.

 

Key events in the 20th century included the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, increased federal spending during the 1940s and 1950s for agriculture and defense, and an industrialization of agriculture that has reduced family farming. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state's population, and the area's fertile soil is used to grow a variety of crops. West of the Missouri River, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are in West River. The Black Hills, a group of low pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, is in the southwest part of the state. Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination, is there. South Dakota has a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west. The state's ecology features species typical of a North American grassland biome.

 

While several Democrats have represented South Dakota for multiple terms in both chambers of Congress, the state government is largely controlled by the Republican Party, whose nominees have carried South Dakota in each of the last 14 presidential elections. Historically dominated by an agricultural economy and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently sought to diversify its economy in other areas to both attract and retain residents. South Dakota's history and rural character still strongly influence the state's culture.

 

The history of South Dakota describes the history of the U.S. state of South Dakota over the course of several millennia, from its first inhabitants to the recent issues facing the state.

 

Human beings have lived in what is today South Dakota for at least several thousand years. Early hunters are believed to have first entered North America at least 17,000 years ago via the Bering land bridge, which existed during the last ice age and connected Siberia with Alaska. Early settlers in what would become South Dakota were nomadic hunter-gatherers, using primitive Stone Age technology to hunt large prehistoric mammals in the area such as mammoths, sloths, and camels. The Paleolithic culture of these people disappeared around 5000 BC, after the extinction of most of their prey species.

 

Between AD 500 and 800, much of eastern South Dakota was inhabited by a people known as the 'Mound Builders'. The Mound Builders were hunters who lived in temporary villages and were named for the low earthen burial mounds they constructed, many of which still exist. Their settlement seems to have been concentrated around the watershed of the Big Sioux River and Big Stone Lake, although other sites have been excavated throughout eastern South Dakota. Either assimilation or warfare led to the demise of the Mound Builders by the year 800. Between 1250 and 1400 an agricultural people, likely the ancestors of the modern Mandan of North Dakota, arrived from the east and settled in the central part of the state. In 1325, what has become known as the Crow Creek Massacre occurred near Chamberlain. An archeological excavation of the site has discovered 486 bodies buried in a mass grave within a type of fortification; many of the skeletal remains show evidence of scalping and decapitation.

 

The Arikara, also known as the Ree, began arriving from the south in the 16th century. They spoke a Caddoan language similar to that of the Pawnee, and probably originated in what is now Kansas and Nebraska. Although they would at times travel to hunt or trade, the Arikara were far less nomadic than many of their neighbors, and lived for the most part in permanent villages. These villages usually consisted of a stockade enclosing a number of circular earthen lodges built on bluffs looking over the rivers. Each village had a semi-autonomous political structure, with the Arikara's various subtribes being connected in a loose alliance. In addition to hunting and growing crops such as corn, beans, pumpkin and other squash, the Arikara were also skilled traders, and would often serve as intermediaries between tribes to the north and south It was probably through their trading connections that Spanish horses first reached the region around 1760. The Arikara reached the height of their power in the 17th century, and may have included as many as 32 villages. Due both to disease as well as pressure from other tribes, the number of Arikara villages would decline to only two by the late 18th century, and the Arikara eventually merged entirely with the Mandan to the north.

 

The sister tribe of the Arikaras, the Pawnee, may have also had a small amount of land in the state. Both were Caddoan and were among the only known tribes in the continental U.S. to have committed human sacrifice, via a religious ritual that occurred once a year. It is said that the U.S. government worked hard to halt this practice before their homelands came to be heavily settled, for fear that the general public might react harshly or refuse to move there.

 

The Lakota Oral histories tell of them driving the Algonquian ancestors of the Cheyenne from the Black Hills regions, south of the Platte River, in the 18th century. Before that, the Cheyenne say that they were, in fact, two tribes, which they call the Tsitsistas & Sutaio After their defeat, much of their territory was contained to southeast Wyoming & western Nebraska. While they had been able to hold off the Sioux for quite some time, they were heavily damaged by a smallpox outbreak. They are also responsible for introducing the horse to the Lakota.

 

The Ioway, or Iowa people, also inhabited the region where the modern states of South Dakota, Minnesota & Iowa meet, north of the Missouri River. They also had a sister nation, known as the Otoe who lived south of them. They were Chiwere speaking, a very old variation of Siouan language said to have originated amongst the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin. They also would have had a fairly similar culture to that of the Dhegihan Sioux tribes of Nebraska & Kansas.

 

By the 17th century, the Sioux, who would later come to dominate much of the state, had settled in what is today central and northern Minnesota. The Sioux spoke a language of the Siouan language family, and were divided into two culture groups – the Dakota & Nakota. By the early 18th century the Sioux would begin to move south and then west into the plains. This migration was due to several factors, including greater food availability to the west, as well as the fact that the rival Ojibwe & other related Algonquians had obtained rifles from the French at a time when the Sioux were still using the bow and arrow. Other tribes were also displaced during some sort of poorly understood conflict that occurred between Siouan & Algonquian peoples in the early 18th century.

 

In moving west into the prairies, the lifestyle of the Sioux would be greatly altered, coming to resemble that of a nomadic northern plains tribe much more so than a largely settled eastern woodlands one. Characteristics of this transformation include a greater dependence on the bison for food, a heavier reliance on the horse for transportation, and the adoption of the tipi for habitation, a dwelling more suited to the frequent movements of a nomadic people than their earlier semi-permanent lodges.

 

Once on the plains, a schism caused the two subgroups of the Sioux to divide into three separate nations—the Lakota, who migrated south, the Asiniboine who migrated back east to Minnesota & the remaining Sioux. It appears to be around this time that the Dakota people became more prominent over the Nakota & the entirety of the people came to call themselves as such.

 

The Lakota, who crossed the Missouri around 1760 and reached the Black Hills by 1776, would come to settle largely in western South Dakota, northwestern Nebraska, and southwestern North Dakota. The Yankton primarily settled in southeastern South Dakota, the Yanktonnais settled in northeastern South Dakota and southeastern North Dakota, and the Santee settled primarily in central and southern Minnesota. Due in large part to the Sioux migrations, a number of tribes would be driven from the area. The tribes in and around the Black Hills, most notably the Cheyenne, would be pushed to the west, the Arikara would move further north along the Missouri, and the Omaha would be driven out of southeastern South Dakota and into northeastern Nebraska.

 

Later, the Lakota & Assiniboine returned to the fold, forming a single confederacy known as the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven council fire. This was divided into four cultural groups—the Lakota, Dakota, Nakota & Nagoda-- & seven distinct tribes, each with their own chief—the Nakota Mdewakan (Note—Older attempts at Lakota language show a mistake in writing the sound 'bl' as 'md', such as summer, Bloketu, misprinted as mdoketu. Therefore, this word should be Blewakan.) & Wahpeton, the Dakota Santee & Sisseton, the Nagoda Yankton & Yanktonai & the Lakota Teton. In this form, they were able to secure from the U.S. government a homeland, commonly referred to as Mni-Sota Makoce, or the Lakotah Republic. However, conflicts increased between Sioux & American citizens in the decades leading up the Civil War & a poorly funded & organized Bureau of Indian Affairs had difficulty keeping peace between groups. This eventually resulted in the United States blaming the Sioux for the atrocities & rendering the treaty which recognized the nation of Lakotah null and void. The U.S., however, later recognized their fault in a Supreme Court case in the 1980s after several decades of failed lawsuits by the Sioux, yet little has been done to smooth the issue over to the best interests of both sides.

 

France was the first European nation to hold any real claim over what would become South Dakota. Its claims covered most of the modern state. However, at most a few French scouting parties may have entered eastern South Dakota. In 1679 Daniel G. Duluth sent explorers west from Lake Mille Lacs, and they may have reached Big Stone Lake and the Coteau des Prairies. Pierre Le Sueur's traders entered the Big Sioux River Valley on multiple occasions. Evidence for these journeys is from a 1701 map by William De L'Isle that shows a trail to below the falls of the Big Sioux River from the Mississippi River.

 

After 1713, France looked west to sustain its fur trade. The first Europeans to enter South Dakota from the north, the Verendrye brothers, began their expedition in 1743. The expedition started at Fort La Reine on Lake Manitoba, and was attempting to locate an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean. They buried a lead plate inscribed near Ft. Pierre; it was rediscovered by schoolchildren in 1913.

 

In 1762, France granted Spain all French territory west of the Mississippi River in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. The agreement, which was signed in secret, was motivated by a French desire to convince Spain to come to terms with Britain and accept defeat in the Seven Years' War. In an attempt to secure Spanish claims in the region against possible encroachment from other European powers, Spain adopted a policy for the upper Missouri which emphasized the development of closer trade relations with local tribes as well as greater exploration of the region, a primary focus of which would be a search for a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Although traders such as Jacques D'Eglise and Juan Munier had been active in the region for several years, these men had been operating independently, and a determined effort to reach the Pacific and solidify Spanish control of the region had never been undertaken. In 1793, a group commonly known as the Missouri Company was formed in St. Louis, with the twin goals of trading and exploring on the upper Missouri. The company sponsored several attempts to reach the Pacific Ocean, none of which made it further than the mouth of the Yellowstone. In 1794, Jean Truteau (also spelled Trudeau) built a cabin near the present-day location of Fort Randall, and in 1795 the Mackay-Evans Expedition traveled up the Missouri as far as present-day North Dakota, where they expelled several British traders who had been active in the area. In 1801, a post known as Fort aux Cedres was constructed by Registre Loisel of St. Louis, on Cedar Island on the Missouri about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of the present location of Pierre. This trading post was the major regional post until its destruction by fire in 1810.[30] In 1800, Spain gave Louisiana back to France in the Treaty of San Ildefonso.

 

In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon for $11,000,000. The territory included most of the western half of the Mississippi watershed and covered nearly all of present-day South Dakota, except for a small portion in the northeast corner of the state. The region was still largely unexplored and unsettled, and President Thomas Jefferson organized a group commonly referred to as the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the newly acquired region over a period of more than two years. The expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, was tasked with following the route of the Missouri to its source, continuing on to the Pacific Ocean, establishing diplomatic relations with the various tribes in the area, and taking cartographic, geologic, and botanical surveys of the area. The expedition left St. Louis on May 14, 1804, with 45 men and 15 tons of supplies in three boats (one keelboat and two pirogues). The party progressed slowly against the Missouri's current, reaching what is today South Dakota on August 22. Near present-day Vermillion, the party hiked to the Spirit Mound after hearing local legends of the place being inhabited by "little spirits" (or "devils"). Shortly after this, a peaceful meeting took place with the Yankton Sioux, while an encounter with the Lakota Sioux further north was not as uneventful. The Lakota mistook the party as traders, at one point stealing a horse. Weapons were brandished on both sides after it appeared as though the Lakota were going to further delay or even halt the expedition, but they eventually stood down and allowed the party to continue up the river and out of their territory. In north central South Dakota, the expedition acted as mediators between the warring Arikara and Mandan. After leaving the state on October 14, the party wintered with the Mandan in North Dakota before successfully reaching the Pacific Ocean and returning by the same route, safely reaching St. Louis in 1806. On the return trip, the expedition spent only 15 days in South Dakota, traveling more swiftly with the Missouri's current.

 

Pittsburgh lawyer Henry Marie Brackenridge was South Dakota's first recorded tourist. In 1811 he was hosted by fur trader Manuel Lisa.

 

In 1817, an American fur trading post was set up at present-day Fort Pierre, beginning continuous American settlement of the area. During the 1830s, fur trading was the dominant economic activity for the few white people who lived in the area. More than one hundred fur-trading posts were in present-day South Dakota in the first half of the 19th century, and Fort Pierre was the center of activity.[citation needed] General William Henry Ashley, Andrew Henry, and Jedediah Smith of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and Manuel Lisa and Joshua Pilcher of the St. Louis Fur Company, trapped in that region. Pierre Chouteau Jr. brought the steamship Yellowstone to Fort Tecumseh on the Missouri River in 1831. In 1832 the fort was replaced by Fort Pierre Chouteau Jr.: today's town of Fort Pierre. Pierre bought the Western Department of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company and renamed it Pratte, Chouteau and Company, and then Pierre Chouteau and Company. It operated in present-day South Dakota from 1834 to 1858. Most trappers and traders left the area after European demand for furs dwindled around 1840.

 

Main articles: Kansas–Nebraska Act, Nebraska Territory, Organic act § List of organic acts, and Dakota Territory

In 1855, the U.S. Army bought Fort Pierre but abandoned it the following year in favor of Fort Randall to the south. Settlement by Americans and Europeans was by this time increasing rapidly, and in 1858 the Yankton Sioux signed the 1858 "Treaty of Washington", ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to the United States.

 

Land speculators founded two of eastern South Dakota's largest present-day cities: Sioux Falls in 1856 and Yankton in 1859. The Big Sioux River falls was the spot of an 1856 settlement established by a Dubuque, Iowa, company; that town was quickly removed by native residents. But in the following year, May 1857, the town was resettled and named Sioux Falls. That June, St. Paul, Minnesota's Dakota Land Company came to an adjacent 320 acres (130 ha), calling it Sioux Falls City. In June 1857, Flandreau and Medary, South Dakota, were established by the Dakota Land Company. Along with Yankton in 1859, Bon Homme, Elk Point, and Vermillion were among the new communities along the Missouri River or border with Minnesota. Settlers therein numbered about 5,000 in 1860. In 1861, Dakota Territory was established by the United States government (this initially included North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts of Montana and Wyoming). Settlers from Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, Czechoslovakia[citation needed] and Russia,[citation needed] as well as elsewhere in Europe and from the eastern U.S. states increased from a trickle to a flood, especially after the completion of an eastern railway link to the territorial capital of Yankton in 1872, and the discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 during a military expedition led by George A. Custer.

 

The Dakota Territory had significant regional tensions between the northern part and the southern part from the beginning, the southern part always being more populated – in the 1880 United States census, the population of the southern part (98,268) was more than two and a half times of the northern part (36,909), and southern Dakotans saw the northern part as bit of disreputable, "controlled by the wild folks, cattle ranchers, fur traders” and too frequently the site of conflict with the indigenous population. Also, the new railroads built connected the northern and southern parts to different hubs – northern part was closer tied to Minneapolis–Saint Paul area; and southern part to Sioux City and from there to Omaha. The last straw was territorial governor Nehemiah G. Ordway moving the territorial capital from Yankton to Bismarck in modern-day North Dakota. As the Southern part had the necessary population for statehood (60,000), they held a separate convention in September 1883 and drafted a constitution. Various bills to divide the Dakota Territory in half ended up stalling, until in 1887, when the Territorial Legislature submitted the question of division to a popular vote at the November general elections, where it was approved by 37,784 votes over 32,913. A bill for statehood for North Dakota and South Dakota (as well as Montana and Washington) titled the Enabling Act of 1889 was passed on February 22, 1889, during the Administration of Grover Cleveland, dividing Dakota along the seventh standard parallel. It was left to his successor, Benjamin Harrison, to sign proclamations formally admitting North and South Dakota to the Union on November 2, 1889. Harrison directed his Secretary of State James G. Blaine to shuffle the papers and obscure from him which he was signing first and the actual order went unrecorded.

 

With statehood South Dakota was now in a position to make decisions on the major issues it confronted: prohibition, women's suffrage, the location of the state capital, the opening of the Sioux lands for settlement, and the cyclical issues of drought (severe in 1889) and low wheat prices (1893–1896). In early 1889 a prohibition bill passed the new state legislature, only to be vetoed by Governor Louis Church. Fierce opposition came from the wet German community, with financing from beer and liquor interests. The Yankee women organized to demand suffrage, as well as prohibition. Neither party supported their cause, and the wet element counter-organized to block women's suffrage. Popular interest reached a peak in the debates over locating the state capital. Prestige, real estate values and government jobs were at stake, as well as the question of access in such a large geographical region with limited railroads. Huron was the temporary site, centrally located Pierre was the best organized contender, and three other towns were in the running. Real estate speculators had money to toss around. Pierre, population 3200, made the most generous case to the voters—its promoters truly believed it would be the next Denver and be the railway hub of the Dakotas. The North Western railroad came through but not the others it expected. In 1938 Pierre counted 4000 people and three small hotels.

 

The national government continued to handle Indian affairs. The Army's 1874 Custer expedition took place despite the fact that the western half of present-day South Dakota had been granted to the Sioux by the Treaty of Fort Laramie as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The Sioux declined to grant mining rights or land in the Black Hills, and the Great Sioux War of 1876 broke out after the U.S. failed to stop white miners and settlers from entering the region. The Sioux were eventually defeated and settled on reservations within South Dakota and North Dakota.

 

In 1889 Harrison sent general George Crook with a commission to persuade the Sioux to sell half their reservation land to the government. It was believed that the state would not be viable unless more land was made available to settlers. Crook used a number of dubious methods to secure agreement and obtain the land.

 

On December 29, 1890, the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It was the last major armed conflict between the United States and the Sioux Nation, the massacre resulted in the deaths of 300 Sioux, many of them women and children. In addition 25 U.S. soldiers were also killed in the episode.

 

Railroads played a central role in South Dakota transportation from the late 19th century until the 1930s, when they were surpassed by highways. The Milwaukee Road and the Chicago & North Western were the state's largest railroads, and the Milwaukee's east–west transcontinental line traversed the northern tier of the state. About 4,420 miles (7,110 km) of railroad track were built in South Dakota during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though only 1,839 miles (2,960 km) were active in 2007.

 

The railroads sold land to prospective farmers at very low rates, expecting to make a profit by shipping farm products out and home goods in. They also set up small towns that would serve as shipping points and commercial centers, and attract businessmen and more farmers. The Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL) in 1905, under the leadership of vice president and general manager L. F. Day, added lines from Watertown to LeBeau and from Conde through Aberdeen to Leola. It developed town sites along the new lines and by 1910, the new lines served 35 small communities.

 

Not all of the new towns survived. The M&StL situated LeBeau along the Missouri River on the eastern edge of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. The new town was a hub for the cattle and grain industries. Livestock valued at one million dollars were shipped out in 1908, and the rail company planned a bridge across the Missouri River. Allotment of the Cheyenne River Reservation in 1909 promised further growth. By the early 1920s, however, troubles multiplied, with the murder of a local rancher, a fire that destroyed the business district, and drought that ruined ranchers and farmers alike. LeBeau became a ghost town.

 

Most of the traffic was freight, but the main lines also offered passenger service. After the European immigrants settled, there never were many people moving about inside the state. Profits were slim. Automobiles and busses were much more popular, but there was an increase during World War II when gasoline was scarce. All passenger service was ended in the state by 1969.

 

In the rural areas farmers and ranchers depended on local general stores that had a limited stock and slow turnover; they made enough profit to stay in operation by selling at high prices. Prices were not marked on each item; instead the customer negotiated a price. Men did most of the shopping, since the main criterion was credit rather than quality of goods. Indeed, most customers shopped on credit, paying off the bill when crops or cattle were later sold; the owner's ability to judge credit worthiness was vital to his success.

 

In the cities consumers had much more choice, and bought their dry goods and supplies at locally owned department stores. They had a much wider selection of goods than in the country general stores and price tags that gave the actual selling price. The department stores provided a very limited credit, and set up attractive displays and, after 1900, window displays as well. Their clerks—usually men before the 1940s—were experienced salesmen whose knowledge of the products appealed to the better educated middle-class housewives who did most of the shopping. The keys to success were a large variety of high-quality brand-name merchandise, high turnover, reasonable prices, and frequent special sales. The larger stores sent their buyers to Denver, Minneapolis, and Chicago once or twice a year to evaluate the newest trends in merchandising and stock up on the latest fashions. By the 1920s and 1930s, large mail-order houses such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward provided serious competition, making the department stores rely even more on salesmanship and close integration with the community.

 

Many entrepreneurs built stores, shops, and offices along Main Street. The most handsome ones used pre-formed, sheet iron facades, especially those manufactured by the Mesker Brothers of St. Louis. These neoclassical, stylized facades added sophistication to brick or wood-frame buildings throughout the state.

 

During the 1930s, several economic and climatic conditions combined with disastrous results for South Dakota. A lack of rainfall, extremely high temperatures and over-cultivation of farmland produced what was known as the Dust Bowl in South Dakota and several other plains states. Fertile topsoil was blown away in massive dust storms, and several harvests were completely ruined. The experiences of the Dust Bowl, coupled with local bank foreclosures and the general economic effects of the Great Depression resulted in many South Dakotans leaving the state. The population of South Dakota declined by more than seven percent between 1930 and 1940.

 

Prosperity returned with the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941, when demand for the state's agricultural and industrial products grew as the nation mobilized for war. Over 68,000 South Dakotans served in the armed forces during the war, of which over 2,200 were killed.

 

In 1944, the Pick-Sloan Plan was passed as part of the Flood Control Act of 1944 by the U.S. Congress, resulting in the construction of six large dams on the Missouri River, four of which are at least partially located in South Dakota.[83] Flood control, hydroelectricity and recreational opportunities such as boating and fishing are provided by the dams and their reservoirs.

 

On the night of June 9–10, 1972, heavy rainfall in the eastern Black Hills caused the Canyon Lake Dam on Rapid Creek to fail. The failure of the dam, combined with heavy runoff from the storm, turned the usually small creek into a massive torrent that washed through central Rapid City. The flood resulted in 238 deaths and destroyed 1,335 homes and around 5,000 automobiles.[84] Damage from the flood totaled $160 million (the equivalent of $664 million today).

 

On April 19, 1993, Governor George S. Mickelson was killed in a plane crash in Iowa while returning from a business meeting in Cincinnati. Several other state officials were also killed in the crash. Mickelson, who was in the middle of his second term as governor, was succeeded by Walter Dale Miller.

 

In recent decades, South Dakota has transformed from a state dominated by agriculture to one with a more diversified economy. The tourism industry has grown considerably since the completion of the interstate system in the 1960s, with the Black Hills being especially impacted. The financial service industry began to grow in the state as well, with Citibank moving its credit card operations from New York to Sioux Falls in 1981, a move that has since been followed by several other financial companies. In 2007, the site of the recently closed Homestake gold mine near Lead was chosen as the location of a new underground research facility. Despite a growing state population and recent economic development, many rural areas have been struggling over the past 50 years with locally declining populations and the emigration of educated young adults to larger South Dakota cities, such as Rapid City or Sioux Falls, or to other states. The Cattleman's Blizzard of October 2013 killed tens of thousands of livestock in western South Dakota, and was one of the worst blizzards in the state's history.

Taken: NJ, USA.

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).

 

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions

 

"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".

 

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.

 

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

 

Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.

 

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

 

Wet with cool dew drops

fragrant with perfume from the flowers

came the gentle breeze

jasmine and water lily

dance in the spring sunshine

side-long glances

of the golden-hued ladies

stab into my thoughts

heaven itself cannot take my mind

as it has been captivated by one lass

among the five hundred I have seen here.

 

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.

 

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.

 

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

 

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.

 

The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.

 

In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:

 

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".

 

Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.

 

While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’

 

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

 

An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.

 

Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983

 

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

Main article: Commercial graffiti

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

 

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".

 

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.

 

Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.

 

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

 

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.

 

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.

 

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

 

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

 

Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis

 

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.

 

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

 

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"

 

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal

 

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

 

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

 

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

 

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

 

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

 

Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

 

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.

 

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.

 

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.

 

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

 

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

 

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

 

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

 

I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.

 

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.

 

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

 

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.

 

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".

 

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.

 

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.

 

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.

 

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.

 

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.

 

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

 

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

 

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.

 

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.

 

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.

 

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.

  

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.

 

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.

 

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

 

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."

 

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.

 

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.

 

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.

 

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.

 

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.

 

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.

 

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."

 

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

 

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.

 

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".

 

Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

 

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

 

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.

 

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

 

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.

 

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.

 

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.

 

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.

Caracterizando a Kylie Minogue

The French naturalist and physician Pierre Belon (1517-1565) was born in Soultière and is best known for his texts, works of a self-taught naturalist, than for his services as secret agent to cardinals du Bellay and of Tournon. He worked first as an apothecary and later as an agronomist. He studied Medicine in Wittenberg with Valerius Cordus in 1540-1541 and in Italy in 1551. At that time, helped by the political situation, he completed his studies in physic at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des Prés, from where he graduated "cum laude" in 1560, although he was never awarded the title of doctor.

 

Belon owed his career mainly to his political patrons. From 1542 onwards he was in the service of the Cardinal of Tournon and took part in various diplomatic legations. Entrusted with missions to the court of Charles V and to Germany, he later followed his teacher Valerius Cordus to Rome, collecting flora also from the gardens of Venice, Padua, Milan and the lakes of Northern Italy.

 

Again in the service of the Cardinal de Tournon, now minister to the king, Belon frequented the court and the palace of Saint Germain en Laye, admiring the monarch’s collection, which included curious specimens from all over the then known world, such as lions, panthers, ostriches, timber from Brazil and rare plants. It was then that Belon decided to translate Dioscurides and Theophrastus, collating ancient and modern plant names in his work. In 1546, at the age of just thirty, he joined Ambassador d’Aramon’s diplomatic mission to the East, a move that was to determine the rest of his life and work.

 

D’Aramon left Paris secretly in December 1546, with a numerous embassy, including for the first time a team of scientists. After crossing France and Switzerland, they arrived in Venice, from where they sailed away in three galleys, in February 1547. Coasting the Adriatic, the party arrived in Ragusa, from where the ambassador took the land route to Constantinople, via the southern Balkan Peninsula. Belon and Bénigne de Villers, an apothecary from Dijon, chose the maritime route through the Ionian Sea.

 

At Paxi, while Belon was collecting flora, his companion was kidnapped by pirates. In the spring of 1547, Belon arrived on Crete. He stayed in the house of Callergis, who provided him with guides to Mount Ida, Rethymnon and the mountains of Sphacia. The French naturalist observed the flora and fauna of the island, was tricked by the false labyrinth, watched how labdanum was collected, wandered about, collected and tried specimens, and asked questions on everything he was looking for or came upon.

 

Belon left Crete for Constantinople on a Venetian felucca. While sailing by Cea, the ship was attacked by pirates, but finally, by way of southern Euboea, it reached the Bosporus coast, probably in late spring. Together with Pierre Gilles, also attaché to the French embassy, Belon explored the maze of bazaars and alleys of the Ottoman capital. He became friends with a wise Turk who knew Arabic, with the help of whom and of the Avicenna Canon, which gave the names of the medicinal flora, he compiled a glossary of plants in Turkish. With this in hand, Belon explored the bazaars, in order to get to know all the edible and medicinal plants bought and sold in Turkey.

Such products were among the most important imports in the trade with the East, which was till in the hands of Venetian middlemen. Thus, Belon’s researches were to be of great help to France, mercantile rival of Venice.

 

Famous among the curative products of the time was “Lemnian earth” ("terra lemnia" or terra "sigillata"), the medicinal clay of Lemnos, which all European ambassadors sought to bring to their masters as a precious gift. Belon decided to visit the place of extraction of this mineral. Carrying his letters of recommendation, he embarked on a brigantine and sailed to Lemnos. Due to windless weather, the ship was again in peril from pirates and sought refuge in a harbour of Imbros, where it stayed for two days. Finally, the party reached Lemnos by rowing. In spite of Belon’s fervent wish to see the extraction of "terra lemnia", this was not possible as is it takes place only once a year, on 6 August, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. Nonetheless, Belon explored Lemnos in depth and studied its flora and fauna. He offered medical services to local patients, was housed by the island’s authorities, and finally managed to arrive in the area of the "terra lemnia" deposits, escorted by a janissary. From Lemnos, Belon reached Thasos, in the company of two monks, after a storm blew them off course near Skyros. Finally, he managed to sail by boat in four hours from Thasos to the coast of Mount Athos. He collected plants, fished, chased insects and birds and was only disappointed when he was unable to locate traces of Xerxes’ canal.

 

Within two days, Belon arrived in Thessaloniki. He was the first to visit and describe the metal mines of Siderocausia in the Chalcidice. He then took the route to the Strymon river, visited Serres and Drama, and toured the ruins of Philippi. He stayed in the "imaret" in Cavala and wrote on hospitality provided in similar "vakuf" ("waqf" – religious endowment) hostelries. He also passed through the lagoon of Porto Lagos, the city of Comotini, the alum mines at Sapes, and from Heraclea, Rhaidestos (Tekirdag) and Silivri in Eastern Thrace. There, he came across four thousand Ottoman troops bound for Persia, camped next to a caravanserai and moving about in exemplary discipline and quiet.

 

At the beginning of August 1547, Belon returned to Constantinople. In the company of Mr de Fumel and many other French noblemen, escorted by janissaries, subalterns ("çavuş") and dragomans (interpreters), they departed on the voyage to the East, starting from Egypt. Exiting the Dardanelles, Belon becomes the first European traveller to locate the ruins of Troy. He wrote on the edible plants of Lesbos, the mastic and the kindly women of Chios. Sailing by Samos, he speaks of the Greek sailor travelling with them, who was a native of that island. On visiting Patmos, he also mentions Saint John and the "Apocalypse", as well as the islands of Leros and Pserimos, Kos and Hippocrates. The ship finally dropped anchor in Rhodes. The city of the Knights, its market and port, local products and inhabitants unfold in Belon’s notes.

 

The company arrived in Alexandria at the end of August. They visited Cairo, Memphis, the Giza pyramids and reached the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Egyptian part of Belon’s journey is one of the first and most insightful approaches made by a European traveller to the exotic Arab Muslim world of the East. The Nile and its canals, the markets and the fauna of Africa, the womenfolk, curiosities of dress, mummies, the pyramids, the oases and the desert of Arabia, boats on the Red Sea, minerals and wild animals find their place for the first time in a dense text with unique style.

 

From Egypt, the company proceeded to Palestine, where they arrived ten days later, and the Holy Land becomes Belon’s new field of research. He lists rare animals, semiprecious stones, fish, birds, the uses of water, wells, and identifies trees, shrubs and native flora. He does this according to his favourite model, that is, the contrasting of modern information with ancient testimonies, without failing to record the uses and the varieties of each species. Thus, he made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in his own way and was moved to tears in such hallowed places as Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jericho.

 

After touring Palestine, the travellers headed northwards. Walking across fields of sesame and cotton, they reached Damascus within five days. Belon makes a systematic classification of every remarkable thing he sees: the walls of Damascus, Syrian medicine and justice, caravanserais and pilgrims to Mecca, rare flora of the land, cedars, local methods of cultivation, the ruins of Baalbek, Aleppo (ancient Beroea), alleyways and coins, Antioch and the remains of early Christianity, Adana and the fields where Alexander the Great fought his battles, and every curiosity he came upon in the Middle East.

 

In central Asia Minor, Belon makes observations on the local dietary habits, especially of the Turks, and on the textiles, without neglecting plants, therapeutic springs, horses and a local species of goat. By way of Iconium (Konya) and Aksehir (he makes mention of Ankara), Belon reached Afyonkarahisar, where he stayed the rest of the winter of 1547 and until early spring of 1548. In that city he was able to write the third part of his chronicle, which speaks of the origin of the Turks, their public and private life, the institutions and administration of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the customs and religious beliefs of the Muslims.

 

Belon then visited to Kütahya, and toured Bursa. When he finally arrived in Constantinople, the French ambassador d’Aramon was preparing to follow Suleiman the Magnificent on his campaign against Persia. The military expedition left Ottoman capital in May 1548. The indefatigable Belon, together with Gilles and Thevet, came along as well, but this time the French naturalist only made it to Nicomedia. He returned to Constantinople and sailed to Venice at the beginning of 1549. In 1550 he left France again on a new diplomatic mission to England.

Belon became a protegé of the Montmorency family. He divided his time between botanical explorations in the provinces of France and Italy (from where he brought cypresses, plane trees and rhododendrons to his country), and his clerical duties, becoming more and more fervently opposed to the Reformation. In the last years of his life he became embroiled in the religious wars as a fanatic supporter of the Catholics. He was murdered mysteriously in the Bois de Boulogne of Paris, on an April night of 1565, while on his way to the Château de Madrid, where he had been offered a place to stay. The perpetrator was probably a fanatical Huguenot. Belon was just 48 years old.

From 1551, Belon had dedicated himself to writing and publishing his works, starting with his essay entitled "Histoire naturelle des étranges poissons marins", with his own illustrations. In 1553, he published another work on fish, "De aquatilibus", which was followed two years later by its French version, "De la nature & diversité des poissons". Again in 1553, the chronicle of his voyage circulated, which was republished in 1554 and in a revised and expanded version in 1555, together with "Histoire de la nature des oiseaux". In that same year, Belon published two studies on two different subjects, "De arboribus coniferis" and "De admirabile operum antiquorum".

 

Belon’s travel chronicle was reprinted in 1558, 1585, and 1588. The last edition was enriched with two engravings absent from the previous editions (Mount Sinai and Lemnos-Mount Athos). It was translated into Latin, English and German during the eighteenth century, and into Bulgarian in 1953. Extracts from this work (on Lemnos and Mount Athos) have on occasion been translated into Greek, and a publication of the chapters on Crete is currently in preparation.

 

Belon was a man of the sixteenth century, a pragmatist, barely sensitive to the enchantments of nature. He is a fine example of a humanist traveller-researcher, devoted as he is to the quest for truth, in his case almost exclusively in relation to matters of botany or zoology. He is the first model of a truly reliable informant, and his work was the basic manual for all travellers until Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who visited the Aegean archipelago and the East in 1700-1702, and whose work, published in 1717, became the model for the description of the Greek islands.

 

Belon travelled in foreign lands with the passion of the humanist naturalist. He abandoned his books in order to don the habit of the wandering researcher, with a zeal for life and scientific knowledge

 

Written by Ioli Vingopoulou

  

Fransız asıllı doğa bilimci ve doktor Pierre Belon (1517-1565) Soultière'de doğar. Adı, Du Bellay ve Tournon Kardinalleri hesabına gizli ajan olarak verdiği hizmetlerden çok kendi kendini eğitmiş bir doğa bilimci olarak kaleme aldığı kitaplar sayesinde tarihte kalır. İlk başta eczacı daha sonra ise ziraatçı olan Belon, 1540-41 yıllarında Witteberg'de Valerius Cordus yanında ve daha sonra İtalya'da (1551) tıp öğrenimi görür. Dönemin siyasal durumundan yararlanarak Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Près manastırında tıp öğrenimini tamamlayıp 1560 yılında üstün başarıyla mezun olur, ancak profesör doktor ünvanını hiçbir zaman elde etmez.

 

Kariyerini özellikle siyasi destekleyicilerine borçlu olan Belon, 1542 yılından sonra Tournon Kardinali hizmetine atanıp birçok diplomatik sefere katılır. Başta Şarlken (V. Karl) sarayı olmak üzere Almanya'da çeşitli görevlerde bulunur. Hocası Valerius Cordus'u Roma seyahatinde izler ve Venedik bahçelerinde, Padova, Milano ve kuzey İtalya göllerinde bitki incelemeleri yapar. Dönüşünde yeniden, artık kraliyet bakanı olan Kardinal de Tournon'un hizmetine girer; bu görevdeyken sık sık kral sarayı ve Saint Germain en Laye sarayında bulunup hükümdarın o devrin bilinen dünyasından derlemiş olduğu görülmeğe değer (aslanlar, panterler, zürafa kuşları, Brezilya odunu, nadir bitkiler) koleksiyonlarını hayranlıkla seyreder. İşte tam bu sırada Belon Anavarzalı Dioskorides ve Teofrastos'un eserlerini çevirerek bu metinlere bitkilerin eski ve yeni adlarını içeren bir listeyi eklemeyi kafasına koyar. Henüz 30 yaşındayken, 1546 yılında, elçi D’Aramon'un Doğu'ya yaptığı diplomatik sefere katılır; bu yolculuk tüm yaşamını ve yazarlık uğraşını belirleyecektir.

 

Elçi D' Aramon 1546 yılının Aralık ayında yanına güçlü bir maiyet alarak gizli bir diplomatik sefere çıkar. Bu sefere ilk kez bilimadamlarından oluşan bir ekip de katılır. Fransa ve İsviçre'yi geçip Venedik'e varırlar, buradan üç kadırgayla 1547'nin Şubat ayında denize açılırlar. Ekip, Adriyatik kıyılarını geçerek Ragusa'ya gelir; buradan elçi D' Aramon güney Balkanlar kara yoluyla İstanbul'a doğru yol alırken Belon da Dijon'lu eczacı Bénigne de Villers ile birlikte deniz yolunu seçip İyon denizini geçer ve İstanbul'a doğru yönelir. Paksos adalarında bitki araştırması yaptığı sırada oraya gelen korsanlar yol arkadaşını kaçırırlar. 1547 yılının baharında Girit'e gelir ve Kallergis tarafından misafir edilir. Kallergis ona İda dağında, Rethimno (Resmo) ve Sfakia (İsfakiye) dağlarında gezebilmesi için rehberler sağlar. Fransız doğabilimci adanın flora ve faunasını gözlemler, sözde labirentle yanılgıya düşer, laden (labdanum) toplamasını izler, gezinir, toplar, dener, aradığı her eski şey rasladığı her yeni şey hakkında sorular sorar. Belon, Girit'ten bir Venedik filikasına binip İstanbul'a doğru yol alır, gemi Kea adasından geçerken korsanlarla bir maceraları olur, nihayet güney Evia'dan (Eğriboz) geçerek İstanbul Boğazı kıyılarına gelirler, zaman tahminen bahar sonudur. İstanbul'da Belon kendisi gibi Fransa elçiliğinde ataşe olan P. Gilles ile birlikte şehrin dolambaçlı çarşı ve sokaklarını keşfe çıkar. Arapça bilen bir Türk bilge ile arkadaşlık kurup onun yardımıyla, İbn-i Sina'nın şifa bitkilerinin adlarını belirten Tıp Kanunu'ndan yararlanarak, türkçe bir dizin hazırlar ve bununla pazar yerlerini gezip Türkiye'de satılıp alınan gıda ve şifa bitkilerini öğrenmeye çalışır. Bu tür ürünlerin ithalâtı o devirde Doğu ile ticaretin en önemli öğelerinden birini oluşturmaktaydı. Ne var ki şifa otu ticaretini hâlâ Venedikli aracılar halletmekteydi. Bu yüzden Belon'un araştırmaları Venedik'in rakibi Fransa için büyük önem taşımaktaydı.

 

Şifalı türler arasında tüm Avrupalı elçilerin hükümdarlarına değerli bir hediye olarak sunmak istedikleri ve bu nedenle daima önemle aradıkları bir tür de "tıyn-ı mahtûm" (Limni toprağı) ürünüydü. Belon bu toprak türünün çıkarılma eyleminde şahsen bulunmayı aklına koyar. Birkaç referans mektubu sağlayarak bir perkendeye biner ve Limnos'a (Limni) doğru yol alır. Denizin sakin oluşu yolcuları korsan saldırısına uğrama riskine sokar, bu yüzden Gökçeada'nın (İmroz) bir limanına çekilirler, orada iki gün bekledikten sonra kürek gücüyle Limnos'a varırlar. Belon'un büyük arzusuna karşın "tıyn-ı mahtûm"un çıkarılma eylemi Limnos'ta yılda sadece bir kez, 6 Ağustos Tecelli bayramında (İsa'nın metamorfozu) yapılmaktadır. Belon adada uzun uzun gezip flora ve faunayı inceler, yerli hastalara tıbbî hizmetlerde bulunur, yerel yöneticiler tarafından misafir edilir ve, nihayet, bir yeniçeri refakatinde "tıyn-ı mahtûm"un çıkarıldığı bölgeye gelmeyi başarır. Belon Limnos'tan ayrıldıktan sonra fırtınalar gemisini Skiros'a sürükler ancak daha sonra iki rahiple birlikte Thasos (Taşoz) adasına gelir. Oradan bir sandalla dört saat içinde Ayion Oros (Aynaroz) kıyılarına yanaşır. Burada bitki toplar, balık, böcek ve kuş avlar, Aynaroz dağı tepesinden Ege denizine bakar, mamafih Kserkses'ten iz bulamayınca düş kırıklığına uğrar. Buradan ayrıldıktan sonra iki gün içinde Selânik'e varır. Halkidiki'nin Siderokapsa (Seder Kapı) maden ocaklarını ziyaret edip betimleyen ilk kişidir. Daha sonra Struma nehrine doğru yönelir, Seres (Serez) ve Drama'dan geçer, antik kent Filippi'nin harabelerini gezer, Kavala'da İmarette kalıp bunun gibi vakıf misafirhanelerinin misafirperverliği hakkında yazar. Belon daha sonra Porto Lagos iç denizinden, Komotini'den (Gümülcine), Sapes'deki (Şapçı) şap madeni ocaklarından, Tekirdağ, Marmara Ereğlisi, Silivri'den geçip bunlardan seyahatnamesinde sözeder. Bu sırada İran seferine çıkan, örnek olabilecek bir düzen ve sessizlik içinde hareket eden ve bir kervansaray yakınlarında karargâh kurmuş olan 4.000 kişilik Osmanlı ordusu ile karşılaşır.

 

1547'nin Ağustos ayında, Belon, İstanbul'a döner ve bay De Fumel'den başka birçok Fransız soylu, yeniçeri, çavuş ve tercümandan meydana gelen kalabalık bir maiyetle Doğu gezisine çıkar. Amaçları ilk olarak Mısır'ı ziyaret etmektir. Belon Çanakkale Boğazı çıkışında Truva harabelerinin yerini tespit eden ilk Avrupalı gezgin olur. Midilli'den geçerken adanın yetiştirdiği ürünler, Sakız'dan geçerken adanın sakızı ve sevecen kadınları, Samos'ta yanlarına aldıkları adanın yerlisi yunanlı denizci, Patmos'da Yuhanna'nın Vahiy kitabı, Leros ve Pserimos adaları, Kos'ta (İstanköy) Hipokrat hakkında yazar; en sonunda Rodos'a demir atarlar. Belon'un seyahat notlarında buradaki şövalye kenti, çarşı ve liman, yerli ürünler ve adanın sakinlerinden sözedilir. Gezginler Ağustos sonunda İskenderiye'ye varırlar. Kahire ile Memfis'i ve Giza piramitlerini ziyaret edip Sina dağındaki Azize Katerina manastırına kadar gelirler. Belon'un seyahatnamesinin Mısır'la ilgili bölümünde bir Avrupalı gezgin tarafından Doğu'nun arap müslüman egzotik dünyasına karşı yöneltilen ilk ve en keskin bakışlardan birini bulmaktayız. Nil nehri ve kanallar, çarşılar, Afrika faunası, kadınlar ve kıyafet gariplikleri, mumyalar, piramitler, Arabistan çölü ve vahalar, Kızıldenizdeki kayıklar, mineraller ve vahşi hayvanlar; bunların tümü ilk kez olarak bir kitap içinde yoğun ve özel bir tarzda konum almaktadır.

 

Gezginler Mısır'dan Filistin'e doğru yayan olarak yola çıkarlar, on gün sonra oraya varırlar. Kutsallaşmış Yerler Belon için yeni bir araştırma alanı olur. Metninde nadir hayvan, yarı değerli taş, balık, kuş adları sayar, suyun kullanımları ve kuyular hakkında yazar, ağaçlar, fundalar ve yerel bitkilerin adlarını özdeşleştirir. Daima yaptığı gibi çağdaş bilgileri eski metinlerdeki verilerle kıyaslayıp her türün çeşitlerini ve kullanım biçimlerini de kaydeder. Belon Kutsal Yerlere kendi bildiği gibi ibadet eder; ancak tabii ki huşu içinde olan Kudüs, Celile, Nasıra, Beytüllahim ve Eriha gibi mekânlar onu heyecanlandırır.

 

Kutsal Yerlerde gezilerini tamamladıktan sonra kuzeye doğru yürürler. Susam ve pamuk tarlaları arasından geçip beş gün içinde Şam'a varırlar. Yazar burada da aynı düzenli biçimde Şam şehrinin surları, Suriye'de tıp, hukuk ve kervansaraylar, Mekke'ye giden hacılar, bölgenin nadir faunası, sedir ağaçları, tarım biçimleri, Baalbek harabeleri, Halep sokakları ve eski sikkeler, Antakya ve erken hristiyanlığın kalıntıları, Adana ve Büyük İskender'in muharebe yaptığı ovalar ve Orta Doğu'da görülmeğe değer tüm garip şeyleri sırayla kaydeder.

 

Orta Anadolu'ya vardıklarında özellikle Türklerin beslenme alışkanlıkları ve dokumacılıkları hakkında gözlemler yapar, ancak bitki araştırmasından bir an bile vazgeçmez, ayrıca kaplıcalar, atlar ve bölgedeki özel koyun cinsini (tiftik) kaydeder. Gezginler Konya ve Akşehir'den geçerek Ankara'ya oradan da Afyon Karahisar'a gelirler ve 1547 yılı kışının geri kalan kısmını 1548'in baharına dek burada geçirirler. Belon bu arada seyahatnamesinin üçüncü bölümünü yazma fırsatını bulur. Bu bölümde Türklerin kökenleri, özel ve kamu hayatları, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun toplumsal kurumları ve yönetimi, müslümanların adetleri ve dinî inançları hakkında yazar. Yolu Kütahya'ya doğru devam eder ve Bursa'yı ziyaret eder; nihayet İstanbul'a vardığında Fransa elçisi D' Aramon'u Kanuni Sultan Süleyman'ın İran'a karşı yapacağı seferde izlemeye hazır bulur. Seferberlik 1548'in Mayıs ayında gerçekleşir ve yorulmak bilmeyen Belon yanında Gilles ve Thevet ile beraber seferberliğe katılır. Ancak bu kez Fransız doğabilimci sadece İzmit'e kadar ulaşabilir. Buradan İstanbul'a dönüp bir gemiye biner ve 1549 yılı başlarında nihayet Venedik'e ulaşır. 1550'de ise yeni bir diplomatik görevle İngiltere'ye doğru yola çıkar.

 

Daha sonra Montmorency'lerin himayesine girip bundan sonraki zamanını Fransa taşrasından İtalya'ya kadar uzanan bir alanda bitki araştırmalarına ayırır - nitekim İtalya'dan ülkesine selvi, çınar ve zakkum çeşitleri götürür. Öte yandan gittikçe Reform rejimine karşı tavır alan kilisedeki görevini de sürdürür. Ömrünün son yıllarında, süregitmekte olan dinî çarpışmalarda kendisi de fanatik bir katolik taraftarı olarak faal rol alır. Nihayet 1565 yılının Nisan ayında bir akşam Paris'te esrarengiz bir biçimde öldürülür. Boulogne ormanında bulunan Madrid sarayında kendisine sağlanan misafirhaneye giderken fanatik bir Hugueno tarafından vurulduğu sanılıyor. Henüz 48 yaşındaydı.

 

Belon 1551 yılından itibaren kitaplarını yazmaya ve yayınlamaya başlar. İlk başta gelen Histoire naturelles des étranges poissons marins adlı yapıtı kendi desenleriyle tamamlanmış bir çalışmadır. 1553 yılında, balıklar hakkında latincede yazılmış De aquqtilibus kitabını yayınlar. Aynı kitap iki yıl sonra De la nature & diversité des poissons başlığıyla fransızca olarak basılır. Gine 1553'te seyahatnamesini de yayınlar. Bu yapıt 1554'te ikinci baskı yapar, 1555'te ise Histoire de la nature des oiseaux çalışması ile birlikte düzeltmeler ve eklemeler yapıldıktan sonra üçüncü kez yayınlanır. Bunlardan başka 1553'de De arboribus coniferis ve De admirabile operum antiquorum başlıklı değişik konulu iki çalışmasını da yayınlar.

 

Seyahatnamesi 1558, 1585, 1588 yıllarında tekrar basılır, son baskı ise daha öncekilerde bulunmayan iki gravürle zenginleştirilir. Bu gravürler Sina dağı ve Limnos ile Aynaroz dağını görüntülemektedir. Eser 18. yüzyıl içinde latince, ingilizce ve almancaya, 1953'te bulgarcaya çevrilir. Limnos ve Aynaroz ile ilgili bölümler yunancada bulunmakta, ayrıca Girit ile ilgili bölümlerin yunanca olarak yayınlanması da öngörülmektedir.

 

Belon bir 16. yüzyıl insanı olarak doğanın cazibesine karşı hemen hemen hiç duyarlı olmayan bir pragmatisttir. Kendini tamamen gerçeğin arayışına vermiş bir hümanist gezgin-kâşif in mükemmel örneğini oluşturmaktadır. Belon için gerçek tamamen bitki ve hayvan bilimi konularıyla ilintili olup biriktirdiği özgün bilgiler ilerideki gezginler için (Joseph Pitton de Tournefort'un eseri yayınlanana dek) temel bir el kitabı oluşturur. Belon'dan sonra Joseph Pitton de Tournefort 1700-1702'de Ege adaları ve Anadolu'da seyahat etmiş ve 1717'de yayınlanan seyahatnamesi özellikle yunan adaları betimlemesinde örnek bir eser olmuştu.

 

Belon hümanist bir doğabilimci coşkusuyla bilginin kuramsal çerçevesini terkedip doğa yürüyüşlerini yaparken gezici bir araştırmacı kılığına bürünür ve sabit fikir derecesinde olan bilimsel düşünüş ve yaşama tarzını fanatik bir biçimde gezindirir .

  

Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou

   

Rivals or best friends, sometimes I wonder lol. XD

Taken: NJ, USA.

www.kidsofgrime.com RIVAL

One Bounty two Professionals

www.davidcoynephotography.com

A male shelduck being seen off by another. (Tadorna tadorna)

 

Many thanks to all who take the time to view, comment or fav my images

The Bugatti EB110 faces the model across the room which unseated it as the fastest in the world, the McLaren F1.

 

Check out what I've been shooting lately, on Instagram

From the online game “Marvel Rivals.” Malice is a psychic entity who takes over characters; in this instance, she is “wearing” The Invisible Woman.

 

Cosplayer: k8sarkissian

Some friends of mine are just finishing the final touches for their new band and needed some promos to go up on their myspace page.

 

www.myspace.com/rivalsstl

 

Strobist:

B800 through large octobox overhead

SB600 behind group

SB800 on camera fill

 

Nikon d300 / 17-35 2.8-4

 

Copyright © 2009 David Mullis. All rights reserved. This photo may not be used for any purpose without my consent.

 

Rivals on the road. Pedestrian, cyclists and trains.

The Stadtbahn has right of way as 2-car GT6-80C first generation AVG Stadtbahn unit 506 (Waggon-Union 1984/32643) passes Ettlinger Schloß at the rear of the westbound S 30027 S1 service from Bad Herrenalb to Hochstetten on 12.09.2018.

Forever Rivals Wrestling - Taunton 2022 - Kian Fox Vs Samuel Jacobs, Abreu

 

Kian Fox Def. (Pin) Samuel Jacobs, Abreu

 

Type of match : Triple Threat Match

 

( LIVE in Taunton this Sun, Nov 20 only!

An all action, pro wrestling event is coming to town!

Tickets & info: foreverrivals.com/

Tix also available on the door.

Featuring a tonne of amazing matches + top wrestlers & luchadors

from all across the UK & Europe, these shows have it all!

All ages welcome - bar at the venue - meet the wrestlers after the show!

One day, two different epics shows!

Body slams & battle royales, don't miss & join us for an unforgettable show the whole family can enjoy!

6 HUGE matches on each show.

In the afternoon it's a 6 man tag main event featuring villians vs Luchadors & in the evening its our 500lbs of pro wrestling's finest when Iestyn Rees (England) takes on A-Buck (France)

See you all there! )

(notes moved to tags)

A slight play with homophobia

Sans Rival Football Cup, Dumaguete, Philippines

As seen from Porth Dinllaen near Morfa Nefyn.

 

Yr Eifl on WIkipedia

 

Other pictures taken of Yr Eifl

Forgiven Rival promo shot

1973 Porsche 3.0 RSR Prototype leading a 1974 BMW 3.5 CSL in Group 4A (1973-1982 IMSA, GT, GTX, AAGT Cars) at the 2011 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

Clone Wars Season 5 inspired pic. When the Brothers Darth Maul and Savage Oppress take weeks of episode after episode to hatch their plan of vengence, The evil Lord Sidious comes and lays down the law to the Lawless. It takes about 4 minutes. Savage is killed and Maul is left on his knees.

Ferrari Enzo and Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4.

Retired rivals, still looking pretty sweet!

2014.06.06

Brunsbüttel-Reede

Whenever I see a Cubs-Cardinals couple, it reminds me of a great commercial that ran a few years ago.

 

It had a couple passionately kissing, and as the camera panned away you could see one was wearing an Ohio State shirt, the other University of Michigan. Then, simple text that read "without sports, this wouldn't be so disgusting." LOL

Things found at the Saturday antique auction:

 

Uncut matchbook print