Project Room

Barry McGee (TWIST)

Site-Specific Loft Installation

 

"Running concurrently with the group exhibition Do Not Stack, McGee takes over the project space, transforming the room’s physical relationship with the visitor into an interactive viewing. A distinctive cluster of McGee’s various paintings, works on paper and urban objects can be accessed by ascending through the floor of the utilitarian structure to the lofted space above."

 

Barry McGee "Site-Specific Loft Installation" at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in L.A.

 

I spoke with the director of the gallery. He said that the gallery offered this 10' x 10' room to Barry McGee to do something with it. He said they got to talking and then Barry asked, "Can I build a loft?" And they did. A real interesting space. Well worth a visit in my opinion.

site specific vitrine

camera obscura, stereoscoop, mixed media

 

A recurring element in Melissa’s working process is the research and exploration of unstable media. This exploration results in drawings, objects, installations, machines and public-rural interventions. Cruz Garcia is interested in an artisan and portable way of creating performative machines and digital media intending to put the public in a situation where he/she is active part of the work. Using purely what the possibilities and the circumstances provide and in contrast with the concept-subject she is currently employing, Melissa aims to formulate hypothetical futures. She takes discarded materials attributed to different cultures, de-contextualizes and refreshes them by a physical and conceptual transformation.

 

www.melissacruzgarcia.com/

 

There will be more season specific shots soon but my first new post in two weeks is another shot taken at this years Heidelberg Historic oldtimer rally back in summer.It shows a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger MK 1A a roadster built between 1964 and 1967.

In specific, Holy Week is the week just before Easter that extends from Palm Sunday until Holy Saturday and marks the last week of Lent. It has earned the name 'Holy', according to the Orthodox Church, due to the significant events that take place for Christianity in regard to the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

 

Saturday evening is filled with the anticipation of celebrating Easter Sunday. In some areas, people begin to gather in the churches and squares in cities, towns and villages by 11pm for the Easter liturgies. A few minutes before midnight, all the lights are turned off and the priest exits the altar holding candles lit by the Holy Light, which is distributed to everyone inside and outside the church. At midnight, the priest exits the church and announces the resurrection of Jesus. Many people carry large white candles called lambada, and the church bells toll as the priests announce “Christ is Risen!” at midnight.

Each person in the crowd replies with a similarly joyous response.

The capital of the Republic of Cyprus is also its cultural heartbeat.

 

Nicosia is the capital and largest city on the island of Cyprus, as well as its main business centre.

 

There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.

 

We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.

 

The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.

 

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

 

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.

 

Some of you may have noticed that, unfortunately, owing to the fact that a certain person who sells truck photos on eBay commercially has been lifting my images from this album and selling them I have had to remove 2300 photos that didn't have a watermark. I have now run around 1700 through Lightroom and added a watermark with the intention of bulk uploading them again. Rather than watermark the existing (hidden) files in Flickr one at a time it will be easier to do it this way. I definitely won’t be adding individual tags with the make and model of each vehicle I will just add generic transport tags. Each photo is named after the vehicle and reg in any case. For anyone new to these images there is a chapter and verse explanation below. It is staggering how many times I get asked questions that a quick scan would answer or just as likely I can’t possibly answer – I didn’t take them, but, just to clarify-I do own the copyright- and I do pursue copyright theft.

 

This is a collection of scanned prints from a collection of photographs taken by the late Jim Taylor A number of years ago I was offered a large number of photographs taken by Jim Taylor, a transport photographer based in Huddersfield. The collection, 30,000 prints, 20,000 negatives – and copyright! – had been offered to me and one of the national transport magazines previously by a friend of Jim's, on behalf of Jim's wife. I initially turned them down, already having over 30,000 of my own prints filed away and taking space up. Several months later the prints were still for sale – at what was, apparently, the going rate. It was a lot of money and I deliberated for quite a while before deciding to buy them. I did however buy them directly from Jim’s wife and she delivered them personally – just to quash the occasional rumour from people who can’t mind their own business. Although some prints were sold elsewhere, particularly the popular big fleet stuff, I should have the negatives, unfortunately they came to me in a random mix, 1200 to a box, without any sort of indexing and as such it would be impossible to match negatives to prints, or, to even find a print of any particular vehicle. I have only ever looked at a handful myself unless I am scanning them. The prints are generally in excellent condition and I initially stored them in a bedroom without ever looking at any of them. In 2006 I built an extension and they had to be well protected from dust and moved a few times. Ultimately my former 6x7 box room office has become their (and my own work’s) permanent home.

I hope to avoid posting images that Jim had not taken his self, however should I inadvertently infringe another photographers copyright, please inform me by email and I will resolve the issue immediately. There are copyright issues with some of the photographs that were sold to me. A Flickr member from Scotland drew my attention to some of his own work amongst the first uploads of Jim’s work. I had a quick look through some of the 30 boxes of prints and decided that for the time being the safest thing for me to do was withdraw the majority of the earlier uploaded scans and deal with the problem – which I did. whilst the vast majority of the prints are Jims, there is a problem defining copyright of some of them, this is something that the seller did not make clear at the time. I am reasonably confident that I have since been successful in identifying Jims own work. His early work consists of many thousands of lustre 6x4 prints which are difficult to scan well, later work is almost entirely 7x5 glossy, much easier to scan. Not all of the prints are pin sharp but I can generally print successfully to A4 from a scan.

 

You may notice photographs being duplicated in this Album, unfortunately there are multiple copies of many prints (for swapping) and as I have to have a system of archiving and backing up I can only guess - using memory - if I have scanned a print before. The bigger fleets have so many similar vehicles and registration numbers that it is impossible to get it right all of the time. It is easier to scan and process a print than check my files - on three different PC’s - for duplicates. There has not been, nor will there ever be, any intention to knowingly breach anyone else's copyright. I have presented the Jim Taylor collection as exactly that-The Jim Taylor Collection- his work not mine, my own work is quite obviously mine.

Unfortunately, many truck spotters have swapped and traded their work without copyright marking it as theirs. These people never anticipated the ease with which images would be shared online in the future. I would guess that having swapped and traded photos for many years that it is almost impossible to control their future use. Anyone wanting to control the future use of their work would have been well advised to copyright mark their work (as many did) and would be well advised not to post them on photo sharing sites without a watermark as the whole point of these sites is to share the image, it is very easy for those that wish, to lift any image, despite security settings, indeed, Flickr itself, warns you that this is the case. It was this abuse and theft of my material that led me to watermark all of my later uploads. I may yet withdraw non-watermarked photos, I haven’t decided yet. (I did in the end)

To anyone reading the above it will be quite obvious that I can’t provide information regarding specific photos or potential future uploads – I didn’t take them! There are many vehicles that were well known to me as Jim only lived down the road from me (although I didn’t know him), however scanning, titling, tagging and uploading is laborious and time consuming enough, I do however provide a fair amount of information with my own transport (and other) photos. I am aware that there are requests from other Flickr users that are unanswered, I stumble across them months or years after they were posted, this isn’t deliberate. Some weekends one or two “enthusiasts” can add many hundreds of photos as favourites, this pushes requests that are in the comments section ten or twenty pages out of sight and I miss them. I also have notifications switched off, I receive around 50 emails a day through work and I don’t want even more from Flickr. Other requests, like many other things, I just plain forget – no excuses! Uploads of Jim’s photos will be infrequent as it is a boring pastime and I would much rather work on my own output.

 

Title: Entrance

 

Specific Date: 2/5/1935

 

Architect: Lair, Joe C., draftsman

 

Remarks: Pencil on paper showing entrance, including plan, elevation, cattle guard details.

 

Dimensions: HT:22.5" x WD: 34.5"

 

Coincidentally, these three specific dolls together remind me of Cady, Regina, and Gretchen from Mean Girls... Hahaha.

 

All of the 1990 Easy Living fashions shared the product number #772 so it doesn't mean much. Barbie also had Easy Living clothing lines in 1989 and 1991.

 

The fluorescent green tutu style dress has hot pink accents and bows. Also included are a pair of pink pumps.

It is modeled by Wedding Day Midge #9606 (also included in #9852 Wedding Day Midge Gift Set) from 1990. Her jewelry is from the Jewel Secrets Jewelry Emerald Collection #1924 from 1986.

 

The black and white dress has an off shoulder design and has three hot pink bows on the bottom. It also came with a pair of white pumps.

It is modeled by Skating Star Barbie #4547 (also known as Sears exclusive Star Dream barbie #4550) from 1987. Her pearl necklace is from Little Extras Fashion Accessories #67036-97 from 1995.

 

The pink dress has black and white striped ruffles as well as a black bow, and came with a pair of white pumps.

It is modeled by the Heart Family mom from the Heart Family Surprise Party Mom & Baby #2381 or Heart Family Surprise Party Set #2383 both from 1985. Her ring and necklace came with her, the bracelet is from Dinner Date #9170 from 1989, and the earrings are from Pretty Changes Barbie #2598 from 1978.

(more pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of the side!)

Photo: Vienna City Park plan - Flower - Lake

City Park Plan - Flower - Lake Ltd. © Vienna - specific

The Viennese City Park stretches from the park ring in the first district of Vienna up to the Haymarket in the third district of Vienna and is a of both tourists and local citizens well-visited park in Vienna. Its area is 65,000 m².

History

Yet in the Biedermeier the Water Glacis was a popular entertainment venue before the Karolinenstadttor (city gate). As part of the by the demolition of the city wall happened remodeling in the Ringstrasse, the project of a public park has been promoted on that site by the then Mayor of Vienna, Andreas Zelinka. This park was designed in the style of English gardens by the landscape painter Josef Selleny, the plannings were carried out by the city gardener Rudolf Siebeck. On 21th August 1862 the city park was opened as the first public park in Vienna.

Vienna River flows through the city park

The Wien River flows through the city park, Vienna © concrete

"Wien" (Vienna River) in the city park

On the right bank of the river Wien (Wienfluss) was 1863 the so-called children's park, today mainly characterized by paved playgrounds and sports facilities, which over the Karoline bridge (Karolinenbrücke) (since 1918 Stadtparkbrücke), built in 1857, with the on the left bank situated town park is connected.

In the years 1903-1907 was in the parking area after the regulation a by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer planned Vienna river engineering structure with the river gate, pavilions and river banks built, which is one of the sights in the park.

In earlier times visitors of the park for the stay in placed chairs had to pay fees that were collected by the chair women (the so-called Sesselweiber).

Attractions in the park

Kursalon

The Kursalon

The water Glacis was a spa pavilion in which healing waters for drinking cures were served. To that affect, in the years 1865 to 1867 for the city park also the Kursalon was built according to plans of Johann Garben. This historicist imposing home in the style of the Italian Renaissanceg is located at the John street (Johannesgasse) and has a large terrace in the park:

After the opening on 8th May 1867 were originally forbidden pleasures. As this concept was not adopted, yet on 15th October in 1868 was taking place the first concert of Johann Strauss (son) whereupon became the Kursalon a popular dance and concert venue in particular at the time of the Strauss brothers. Today, the Kursalon after a renovation phase is again venue for balls, concerts, clubbings and conferences and houses a café-restaurant.

Photo: Johann Strauss monument in the city park; © RM

Monuments

With the gilded bronze statue of Johann Strauss (son) stands in the city park one of the best known and most frequently photographed monuments in Vienna. It was on 26th June 1921 unveiled and is framed of a marble relief by Edmund Hellmer. The gilding was removed in 1935 and in 1991 applied again. Other monuments there are, for example, of Franz Schubert, Franz Lehar and Robert Stolz and Hans Makart, the City Park is in monuments and sculptures the richest park in Vienna.

The dairy (Meierei)

The former milk bar was built as part of the Wienflußverbauung (Vienna river engineering structure) according to plans by Friedrich Ohmann and Josef Hackhofer from 1901 until 1903. After suffering heavy damages during the Second World War the building was extended in the reconstruction. Today is in the dairy after another annex a restaurant.

Planting

The planting of the city park is characterized by a great diversity of species and is, as possible, focused on a year-round flowering. Through an avenue to the ring road noise and exhaust gases are filtered. Some trees are protected, such as a ginkgo, a crown of thorns (Honeylocust, Christusdorn), cottonwood tree and Caucasian wingnut.

www.wien-konkret.at/sehenswuerdigkeiten/stadtpark/

   

Dalkey Cemetery. This is the only specific Lutheran cemetery that we know of on the Adelaide Plains. The cemetery, Lutheran church and government school were all established here by 1872 when the land had been recently acquired. The Hundred of Dalkey was declared in 1856 but no one took up land here until 1865. The first to do so was Ernst Traeger who took up 600 acres of land in 1865 which he soon increased to 1,700 acres. His grain was carted by teams to Port Wakefield the nearest township. The other pioneering families were two Schaeche families and the Stein family. They were soon followed by other German families – Winter, Lange, Beinke, Schoenbergh, Zobel etc. More German settlers followed in the mid-1870s. Wilhelm Schaeche sold five acres to the Lutheran church for a church, school and cemetery. 1869 was the year in which the school opened and it was also used as a church until a new church was built a year or so later. A new stone Lutheran school was built in 1906 but that school closed during World War One in 1917 by act of parliament. (Sichem was not one of the 69 SA place names changed by that 1917 as it was only a locality and that locality already had the name of Dalkey.) Pupils from Sichem School then had to transfer to the government Dalkey School which operated in the Bible Christian church. (The Dalkey School had opened in 1879 and finally closed in 1946.) The Sichem Lutheran church closed in 1899 as a new Lutheran church opened in Balaklava. Like the school room it was eventually demolished. The District Council of Dalkey was formed in Traeger’s home in 1875 and for many years into the 1890s Ernst Traeger was a local councillor. When the council chamber was built in the 1882 it was sited in Owen. Eventually in the 1930s it became the District Council of Owen. Locally the English settlers of Dalkey district called the village German Town rather than Sichem. Sichem was a Hebrew city near Canaan. The most famous resident of Sichem was a son of Ernst Traeger who invented the pedal radio which was essential for the establishment of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and later the School of the Air. Another Traeger son established an implements business in Hamley Bridge. The Sichem or Dalkey cemetery was established around 1870. Although later headstones were all written in English look for some of the early ones like the Neumann family headstones and Traeger family headstones which are written in old German script. Dalkey was named by Governor MacDonnell in 1856 for the Hundred. Dalkey was a seaside place in Dublin the home place of Governor MacDonnell who was the first Catholic governor of South Australia.

  

United Nations 1951 First Day Cover: A Cold War Artifact Signed by Yakov Malik

 

This ArtCraft First Day Cover (FDC) marks a landmark moment in both postal and diplomatic history. Postmarked on October 24, 1951, it commemorates the very first regular issue of postage stamps by the United Nations. This release established the UN as the only non-sovereign body in the world with the authority to issue its own valid postage, a symbol of its independent status on the global stage.

 

Philatelic Features:

 

The Stamps: The two 1.5¢ stamps Scott (#2) featured here show the iconic UN Headquarters in New York City, which had just been completed earlier that year.

The Cachet: The engraved artwork on the left, produced by the renowned firm ArtCraft, depicts the UN Security Council in session. This "vignette" is a fitting backdrop for the signature it carries.

 

Historical Significance: The Yakov Malik Connection

The cover is hand-signed by one of the most consequential figures of the early Cold War: Yakov Alexandrovich Malik (1906–1980). Malik served as the Soviet Ambassador to the UN from 1948 to 1952, a period defined by the start of the Korean War and the deepening "Iron Curtain" divide.

 

Malik is perhaps best remembered for his 1950 boycott of the Security Council, which inadvertently allowed the UN to intervene in Korea without a Soviet veto. However, he also played a key role in ending that same conflict by proposing the initial armistice in a 1951 radio address.

 

A Unique Dual-Language Autograph:

This specific piece is exceptionally well-documented. Malik applied his autograph first in his native Russian (Cyrillic) script as "Я. Малик," followed by the English transliteration "(Y. Malik)" in brackets. He also hand-dated the signature "7.4.1952"—marking the final year of his first historic term at the United Nations. This triple-dated piece (1951 postmark, 1952 signature, and his 1948–52 term) serves as a rare, tangible link to the high-stakes diplomacy of the mid-20th century.

 

Yakov Alexandrovich Malik (1906–1980) was a leading Soviet diplomat whose career spanned the most intense decades of the Cold War. Best known for his two tenures as the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations (1948–1952 and 1968–1976), he is most famously remembered for his January 1950 walkout from the UN Security Council to protest the presence of Nationalist Chinese representatives. This boycott inadvertently allowed the Council to authorize UN military intervention in the Korean War without a Soviet veto. Despite this hardline reputation, Malik also played a key role in de-escalating tensions, famously using a 1951 radio broadcast to propose the armistice that eventually led to the end of the Korean conflict. Later in his career, he served as the Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom and as Deputy Foreign Minister, remaining a formidable and permanent fixture in 20th-century international relations until his retirement.

 

This cover came from the collection of Fred R. Waters - most of the other UN autographed covers from his collection were addressed to Fred R. Waters at The Victory Arms, 198-40 32nd Ave, Flushing 58, N.Y.

 

In 1951, Flushing was also home to the interim United Nations headquarters at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park (where the General Assembly met before moving to Manhattan), which likely made it convenient for him to obtain these rare signatures. "

 

LINK to video - Soviet Ambassador to United Nations Jacob Malik says the conflict in Korea can be...HD Stock Footage - www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lc0Qlsbq2Y

 

LINK to video - Korean War, Malik Says Formula Can Be Found - 250043-19 | Footage Farm Ltd - www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8BaLpG9Gq8

Artistic ConventionsPaintings, sculptured reliefs, engravings, and drawings - referred to as two dimensional art since they are produced on flat surfaces, whether papyrus, plastered walls, flat rock outcrops, or nicely cut stone walls - followed specific rules dictating how to draw the human body. Egyptians did not depict the body as they saw it with their naked eyes, but the way they thought corresponded to the truth, the way each body part was clearly identifiable. Such rendition of the human figure may appear extremely strange to us, yet, to the ancient Egyptians, these were very logical conventions: the head was drawn in profile, but the eye and the eyebrow were depicted in full view. Men's shoulders and upper torso were also depicted frontally so that the arms, hands, and fingers were visible as well. The belly and the waist were shown in three-quarters putting the belly button not in the middle of the stomach but more to the side of the figure. The posterior, legs, and feet were shown in profile thus balancing the head. The feet were always depicted from the inside, thus showing the arch of the foot, but from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty onwards, the Egyptians preferred showing the outside of the foot. Needless to say, such contortions are absolutely impossible! Women's anatomical perspective differed slightly since the artists had to show the body from the under the arms all the way down to the feet in profile in order to make apparent the breasts. Exceptions were rare but nevertheless occurred sometimes to facilitate a certain movement of the arms. An interesting exception was the dwarf god Bes, who was depicted in two-dimensional art with his face seen from the front, just like in sculpture. Egyptian sculpture (three-dimensional art) has often been described as static, very cubic, and constrained. Ancient Egyptian statuary, unlike ancient Greek statues, had limited numbers of position in which people could stand, sit, or kneel because artists did not free the sculpted form from the block of stone. They rarely created voids and spaces that would create a lighter and more expressive sculpture. Whether this was typical Egyptian artistic expression or, as a famous Egyptologist recently said, the effort of an elite to define and sustain an ideology, scholars have no explanation. However, it must be said that wooden sculptures made of composite pieces (body parts that could be attached to the torso like a big 3D puzzle) allowed more possibilities of positions. Possible reasons for these more lively sculptures may reside in the fact that any damaged parts (during the carving or later) could easily be replaced unlike stone sculptures, which had to be entirely re-carved should any accident occur in the workshop. By creating a more cubic sculpture, the Egyptian sculptors certainly avoided the breaking small thin sections and parts easily. Statues are primarily to be viewed from the front, although there are a few exceptions notably the statue of King Pepy the Second and his mother. There were fewer conventions regarding the actual representation of the human body in three dimensions. Sculptors depicted the body the way it really was, without contortions. Except for a few cases, ancient Egyptians were depicted in a more or less idealised manner, the way they would have wanted to be for the rest of their eternal lives. The majority of the time they are beautiful, young and slim, however there were many occasions where a person was depicted both as a young adult and as a mature person in their tombs. Signs of maturity were a more plump stature, a longer kilt, and the person wore no wig. People were, in some instances, depicted as being corpulent - whether as true to nature or as a sign of prosperity. The most impressive sculpture of corpulent man must be the statue of Hemiunu, a royal architect, vizier, priest, scribe (among his many titles) who worked under King Khufu's (Fourth Dynasty). The statue (Hildesheim, Germany) must absolutely be seen, since it is exceptional in its physical rendering of the man, its skilled execution, and its incredible size (it weighs around 2 tons, if I am not mistaken). King Akhenaton's figure also is another exception to these artistic rules. His elongated cranium, drooping features, long neck, pot belly, large hips and thighs, spindly arms, and short legs are so surprising that Egyptologists have been debating for years (and many more to come) as to the exact reason for this caricature and strange portraiture. It must be said though, that, in spite of the unexpected figure, Amarna art generally conforms to regular artistic and colour conventions. Kings were clearly identifiable in art, as they stood much taller than the rest of the humans, and approximately the same size as the gods depicted in the same scene. Evidently size served to emphasise the divine office, the social status and power of the king. Occasionally, queens were represented as tall as their husbands, suggesting their own importance. More often than not, though, women - all women, queens included - were depicted rather small, barely taller than children. Yet, females in ancient Egypt seem to have enjoyed much more power than their likes in Greece or Rome. Furthermore, kings sported royal garments and accessories, such as a variety of crowns with a cobra (uraeus) on the brow, special kilts, a false beard (held to the chin with a string), and crooks, flails, and other sceptres. Famous Queen Hatschepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty, even though a woman, was depicted wearing the same accoutrement since she was the actual ruler. Queens' regalia were much simpler, although their regal appearance is obvious. The most famous headdress worn by royal women is undoubtedly the vulture headdress with the vulture's head on the brow and the wings on either side of the ears. Queen Nefertiti (Akhenaten's wife) also wore a unique tall blue coiffe. Depictions of children, royal or not, in Egyptian art also followed specific rules. Children are easily recognisable by the simple fact that they were depicted naked. Needless to say, Egyptian children did wear clothes, as proven by very small garments found in archaeological excavations. Nudity, in this particular case, indicated the young age of the child. However, adults were sometimes depicted naked, as a symbol of rebirth in the Afterlife (in the case of a funerary statue) or simply because certain tasks were better performed without clothing impeding movements. Small children, in addition to being naked, were shown with their index finger on their lower lip, not unlike our own children sucking their thumbs, as well as sporting the 'side lock of youth,' a braid of hair worn usually at one side of the head. Adolescents, on the other hand, were represented wearing full clothing and adult hairstyle or wigs. Yet, just like small children, they were depicted much smaller than their parents were, sometimes barely keen-high, no matter how tall they really were. Pepi the Second and his mother from the 6th Dynasty found at the Brooklyn Museum Interestingly, these conventions did not apply to Pepi the Second, a six-year old who became the fifth king of the Sixth Dynasty. Unlike boys of his age, little King Pepi was not represented naked, he did not sport the side-lock of youth, nor did he have his index finger on his lower lip. The magnificent alabaster statuette from the Brooklyn Museum shows Pepi sitting on his mother's lap wearing his royal regalia. Decorum would not allow that King Pepi, even though a young child, to be depicted like other boys his age. Nonetheless, he is represented as small as other children would be, with his mother holding him protectively. Children and adolescents either stood or sat quietly at their parents' feet or accompanied them in various family activities. The former docile behaviour was typically rendered in statuary since artists had much less choice in their composition than in paintings or reliefs, were they actively participate in the action of the scene. Canon of Human Proportions The Canon of Human proportions was a square-grid of 18 units applied to a drawn human figure (standing) allowing its reproduction in various sizes, but always anatomically proportionate. There were 2 squares allowed for the face (from the hairline to the base of the neck), 10 squares from the neck to the knees, and 6 squares from the knees to the sole of the feet. There was a nineteenth square used for the hair, but it was not counted with the rest of the body. A sitting figure was divided into a 14 square-grid (15 including the hair). Not surprisingly, the Amarna artists (Eighteenth Dynasty) had to used a different square-grid of twenty units. The usual 6 units were kept between the sole of the feet and the knees, but two extra squares were added to the between the knee and the neck, creating shorter lower legs and a longer neck if one of the squares had been added to the neck rather than the torso. These square-grid divisions corresponded to general human proportions, although Akhenaton's physical appearance is still the subject of hot debates among Egyptologists. Nevertheless, the 18 unit square grid remained in use until the Late Period, when the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty adopted a square-grid of 21 and a quarter units that was in used until the end of Pharaonic civilisation.

The same square-grid was also used in statuary and pale red lines can still be seen on some unfinished reliefs, painting and sculptures. The concept of the square-grid is still used by architects, draftsmen, designers, and artists nowadays.

  

The Zebra longwing doesn't wait for a specific time to mate. A female Zebra longwing can be smelled through the wall of the chrysalis and male Zebra longwings will often hover around the chrysalis in anticipation of mating when the new female emerges! Or even penetrate the pupa.

 

Butterflies reproduce the way other animals do -- sperm from a male fertilizes eggs from a female. Males and females of the same species recognize one another by the size, color, shape and vein structure of the wings, all of which are species specific. Butterflies also recognize each other through pheromones or scents. During mating, males use clasping organs on their abdomens to grasp females.

 

Many male butterflies deliver more than just sperm to their mates. Most provide a spermatophore, a package of sperm and nutrients the female needs to produce and lay eggs. Some males collect specific nutrients to produce a better spermatophore in an attempt to attract a mate. Some females, however, don't have a choice -- in some species, males mate with females before they have left their chrysalis or swarm the chrysalis waiting for the female to appear. In most species, males and females look a lot a like, but females often have larger abdomens for carrying their eggs.

 

Females store the sperm in a sac called a bursa until she's ready to lay her eggs. She fertilizes her eggs as she lays them, using the last sperm she received first. For this reason, males of some species will leave a substance that dries into a film on the female's abdomen in an effort to keep her from mating with other males. Females lay their eggs one at a time or in batches of hundreds depending on their species.

 

A butterfly has to take special care when laying eggs. The eggs must be kept warm and at the right humidity level. Too much moisture and the egg will rot or be attacked by fungus. Too little and the egg will dry out. Caterpillars also need to start eating as soon as they hatch, so most of the time females place the eggs directly onto a plant the caterpillar will eat. Typically, the eggs attach to the underside of a leaf so they are hidden from predators.

 

In spite of all the effort female butterflies make to protect their eggs, very few make it to adulthood. Ants, birds and other animals can eat the eggs themselves. Also caterpillars and butterflies are popular snacks for everything from birds to bats. Some insects also lurk in or around flowers to prey on adult butterflies. A butterfly's chrysalis also has few defenses from predators and, at all stages of life, a butterfly can succumb to fungi and diseases.

 

Zebra longwing, Heliconius charitonius

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, FL

For more, see my set Florida Butterflies.

www.flickr.com/photos/jungle_mama/albums/72157637085639434

  

THE SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION OF THIS ANCIENT MONOLITHIC STRUCTURE:

 

This is magnificent "Dharmaraja Ratha (chariot)" seen from the southern side...clearly reflecting its unfinished work. Dharmaraja Ratha is another monument in the Pancha Rathas complex at Mahabalipuram, India. It is a splendid example of monolith Indian rock-cut architecture. Dating from the late 7th century, it is attributed to the reign of King Mahendravarman I and his son Narasimhavarman I (630–680 AD) of the Pallava Kingdom.

 

Resembling a chariot (ratha), it is carved out of a single, long stone of pink granite.

 

Though sometimes mistakenly referred to as a temple, the structure was not consecrated because it was not completed following the death of Narasimhavarman I.

 

The structure is named after the eldest of the Pancha Pandavas, of epic Mahabharata fame, though this nomenclature is not supported by its iconography. It is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

 

There are many sculptures on the corners of the sanctum, which depict Shiva; Harihara, Brahma-Sasta, Skanda, Brahma, Ardhanarisvara (half Shiva half Parvati) and Krishna are depicted alongside an inscribed portrait of a king, indicated to be Narasimhavarman I, who commissioned the temple.

  

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

The monolithic ‘Pancha Ratha Temples’ of Mahabalipuram (The Five chariot temples):

 

In the southern Mahabalipuram is a set of five magnificent monolithic rock structures, built by the Pallavas in early 7th century A.D. This group of monuments is maintained by Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and is part of the UNESCO Heritage Site.

 

The five rathas are named after the 'Pandavas' (five brothers) of Mahabharata and one after Draupadi. The five rathas are Dharmaraja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, Arjuna Ratha, Draupadi Ratha and Nakul-Sahadev Ratha.

 

All the rathas are aligned in north-south direction, and are made up of monolithic granites. Though they are mistakenly referred to as temples, but they were never regarded as such, because none of them were completed before the death of Narasimhavarman I.

  

Descriptions of ‘Pancha Ratha Temples’:

 

Draupadi Ratha

Upon entering the complex the first smallest temple on the left is dedicated to Draupadi, the common consort of Pancha Pandavas. The roof of this is a special arch, like thatched cottage. The temple is guarded on two sides of its entrance by two beautiful sculptures of women. This unfinished structure is dedicated goddess Durga.

 

Arjuna Ratha

The very next to Draupadi Ratha is the temple dedicated to Arjuna. The Arjuna ratha resembles a small palace or pavilion. It is a two-tier structure, and is having an octagonal dome. The walls are curved into panels with fourteen sculptures of gods and humans.

 

Bhima ratha

Bhima ratha is the largest ratha here and is also the most beautifilly carved one.

It is a single tiered oblong structure with a barrel-vaulted roof with an unfinished passage supported on pillars mounted with lion posts as the base.

 

Dharmaraja ratha

The Dharmaraja ratha is a three-tier temple, and has an octagonal dome with a stone lion carved in the front yard. Dharmaraja ratha is at the southern most end of the complex, and has a square structure with a pyramid shaped tower atop.

 

Nakula & Sahadeva Ratha

The ratha dedicated to Nakula & Sahadeva stands isolated towards the northern end with a large sculpture of an elephant adjoining it.

 

There is a big sculpture of a bull behind Draupadi & Arjun Rathas.

 

The premises has a few rocks with unfinished works which indicate more structures were still in plan to be finished.

  

Mamallapuram/ Mahabalipuram:

 

Mamallapuram, also known as Mahabalipuram, is a town in Chengalpattu district in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is best known for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 7th- and 8th-century Hindu Group of Monuments. The town was named after Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, who was also known as Mahamalla. It is about 60 kilometres south of Chennai. The site is managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

  

History

Mahabalipuram was the capital region during the reign of Pallava Dynasty in the 7th century AD. The Pallava rulers used to hold the definitive command in the southern part of India. The rulers were popular for their inclination towards Tamilian art and culture. The power and creativity was at its peak during the kingdom of Narasimha Varman-I and II. The rulers immortalized their glories with the splendid monuments they built. The Monuments reflect their finest architectural splendour, and rich cultural heritage.

 

Source: Wikipedia and others

  

The Haft Sîn

 

Haft Sîn (هفت سین) or the seven 'S's is a major tradition of Norouz. The haft sin table includes seven items specific starting with the letter S or Sîn (س) in Persian alphabet). The items symbolically correspond to seven creations and holy immortals protecting them. Originally called Haft Chin (هفت چین), the Haft Sin has evolved over time, but has kept its symbolism. Traditionally, families attempt to set as beautiful a Haft Sîn table as they can, as it is not only of traditional and spiritual value, but also noticed by visitors during Norouzi visitations and is a reflection of their good taste.

 

The Haft Sin items are:

 

* sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth

* samanu - a sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing affluence

* senjed - the dried fruit of the oleaster tree - symbolizing love

* sîr - garlic - symbolizing medicine

* sîb - apples, - symbolizing beauty and health

* somaq - sumac berries - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise

* serkeh - vinegar - symbolizing age and patience

 

Other items on the table may include:

 

* traditional Iranian pastries such as baghlava, toot, naan-nokhodchi

* dried nuts, berries and raisins (Aajeel)

* lit candles (enlightenment and happiness)

* a mirror

* decorated eggs, sometimes one for each member of the family (fertility)

* a bowl with goldfish (life, and the sign of Pisces which the sun is leaving)

* a bowl of water with an orange in it (the earth floating in space)

* rose water for its magical cleansing powers

* the national colours, for a patriotic touch

* a holy book (e.g., the Qur'an, Avesta, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bible, or Torah) and/or a poetry book (almost always either the Shahnama or the Divan of Hafez)

Nice "dappled" sunshine on the Beans Around The World patio off Cornwall Avenue. The "goodie" is a Nanaimo bar - a specific BC invention. Chocolate, custard etc - very tasty too.

One of the best afternoon patios around.

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618

 

www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/view.php?uid=242553#.U16A7i_hK5c....

 

www.starnow.co.uk/christopherw33618

 

I work Full time in the media and have amassed over 30 years Full time experience on both sides of the camera, I am a Walk On Artist or Body Double (for a Number of "A" list Actors & Presenters) / Skill Double / Stand In (Principle or Utility) Supporting Artist or Assistant Director, / Production Assistant. - I am professional, reliable, enthusiastic and determined. I am also authoritative, creative and have a good sense of humour. I am able to portray a good range of emotions. I am eager and willing to learn and am open to new ideas. Please take the time to look over my profile information and photos, - I am also very flexible and versatile, I specialise in playing Authoritarian or Uniformed roles. I have Access to a considerable number of Genuine & Very Expensive Costumes / Uniforms, Including Period. Please let me know of Your Individual Specific requirements, i promise i will do my best to help.

 

www.filmandtvpro.com/uk/view.php?uid=242553#.U16A7i_hK5c....

One of several mission specific posters made for the U.S. Marshals Service.

 

The Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Program is a key component of the federal government’s law enforcement

efforts to combat major criminal activity by disrupting and dismantling illegal enterprises, depriving criminals of the

proceeds of illegal activity, deterring crime and restoring

property to victims

.

  

More about Asset Forfeiture www.usmarshals.gov/duties/factsheets/asset_forfeiture.pdf

  

Photos and layout by: Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals

Unit postcard written by Grenadier Paul Fischer from the 3 Kompagnie. Deutsche Feldpost 55 (around Rethel).

 

Thanks to Hans it can be linked to a specific trench raid, here is the extract from the historic book of the Sturmbataillon 1 (translated with google traduction):

“And for Operation “Schöne Aussicht” (Beautiful View): 3rd Assault Company and a platoon of the Machine Gun Company with Infantry Regiment 477 of the 227th Infantry Division (Prosnes Group). The purpose of the operation is threefold:

1. Determining the enemy's defensive tactics (main line of resistance, machine gun nests, wiring of trenches);

2. Taking prisoners;

3. Destroying the enemy installations located within the attack objectives.

 

In the case of the 227th Infantry Division, the own line is also to be advanced to the first French trench. After reaching the attack objective, it is to be held by the assault troops during the night and then evacuated according to plan. The ambitious objectives require extensive preparations. On the nights of February 18th to 27th, all elements of the assault battalion will conduct thorough reconnaissance and then practice with the assault troops at the model fortification.” On February 21, a large-scale exercise with a barrage of fire took place, essentially as a dress rehearsal, in the presence of the German Crown Prince. The assault time for the three operations was set for March 1 at 6:15 p.m. During the preceding night, the assault troops moved into position and took up positions.

[…]

The 3rd Assault Company at Langer Rüden was also favored by the gods of war. The devastating barrage against the enemy position and trenches proved exceptionally effective. When the assault troops left their own position at 6:15 a.m., only machine guns and a few enemy heavy batteries were firing. The infantry assault troops advanced with renewed vigor, overcame the enemy obstacle under machine-gun fire, and pushed across the first and second enemy trenches to the designated objective, often even beyond, until the signal from their own artillery called a halt. At 6:20 a.m., the right assault column under Lt. Großkopf and the middle assault column under Unteroffizier Embacher had already reached the third enemy trench. The task, and therefore the advance, of the left assault column under Lt. Hellmann was more difficult. Friendly and enemy artillery hurled their shells into them, and enemy machine guns from Cornillet repeatedly forced them into shell craters. But by 6:40 p.m., they too had reached their objective. The enemy shelled the captured position with heavy batteries but otherwise remained quiet, advancing only with patrols, which were repulsed. In the first enemy trench, engineers and infantry dug out entrenchments and fortified it into their own position. At 4:00 a.m., under the cover of the assault troops, the evacuation of the second and third enemy trenches began, undisturbed by the enemy. Well over 100 Frenchmen were taken prisoner, along with many machine guns and other war materiel. The French have once again experienced that the old German fighting spirit is not yet dead. But once again, there are insurmountable gaps in their own ranks. The 3rd Assault Company lost 20 men, and the attached machine gun platoon lost 4. We will let a comrade from the central assault column report on the details of the battle.

 

The French have once again experienced the Germans' struggle firsthand. Unteroffizier Embacher, the column leader at the time, recounts:

"On the evening of February 28th, we first traveled a short distance forward on the narrow-gauge railway and then moved into position. Due to the long route and the transport of the gas pipes, we only reached our assigned tunnel at dawn, just in time, as all units were to be in formation by 6:00 a.m., when our own artillery preparations began. From 6:00 to 8:00 a.m., the enemy artillery was contaminated with gas. This was followed by a barrage of fire on all known command posts, dugouts, machine gun nests, access routes, and reserves, which intensified again from 3:00 p.m. onward into a drumfire across the entire sector under consideration. After a prior clock check, the infantry aircrews confirmed the exact time again at 3:15 a.m. by firing flares. At 4:00 a.m., the firing of medium and heavy mines began to destroy the enemy barbed wire obstacle." of the front lines. Having paid little attention to the firing up until now, things were becoming uncomfortable in our bunker as well.

The heavy mortars were positioned far forward and very close behind our ready position. As a result of the heavy shelling and the enormous detonations of the mines just in front of us in the barbed wire obstacle, every colossal air pressure was felt, and the candle that had been burning until then went out with every shot until we gave up trying to relight it. A continuous trembling and shaking ran through the earth, so that one had to believe all hell had broken loose, and indeed, many felt intimidated and considered it impossible to go outside when preparations were made at 5:45 a.m. Only when the squad leader outside determined that the pressure was up in the air did we finally decide to leave.

Since the sound of the falling mines and grenades, and since they were only our own, hadn't been felt at all, the spell was broken. As planned, the Cornilletberg hill to the left had also been almost completely obscured by artillery fire, so the flanking fire feared from there had been virtually eliminated.

Meanwhile, Embacher's assault column had moved to the breakout point in our own forward trench, where the infantry (the regimental assault detachment, which had already suffered losses from short-range mine fire while on standby) was also present. Since the gas tube had sustained minor damage and I didn't want to carry anything questionable, and also because, after the preparations, I could only imagine a destroyed barbed wire entanglement, I decided to leave the extended charge behind. The disgusting heavy mine fire had stopped.

 

6:13! Two minutes! Tension on every face, everyone is ready to jump, so everything is clear. One last joking encouragement and

6:15! Command: Go!

My half-platoon leaps out of the trench as planned, and in no time, our own obstacle is overcome. To our left, we see other columns advancing. No man's land lies behind us. But now the enemy barbed wire! The tremendous shelling has almost completely subsided. The wires have been torn loose and now hang in a tangled mess. But they form an even greater obstacle. And over 30 meters wide! If only we had the gas pipe with us! Luckily, the feared barrage never materializes, and only machine gun fire sweeps across the area from the left. Our hands and gaiters have suffered, but we're finally through and inside the French trench without losses. We quickly get our bearings and now roll backwards along the correct trench. Except for a machine gun visible on the left, which had previously hampered our breakout, the trench is empty. The bearded crew of the same quickly recognized their perilous situation and surrendered without further intervention from us. With an understandable gesture, we showed them the way back. Then, without firing, we advanced at top speed. We established cover to the right and left outside the trench. In this way, we crossed the first, second, and third trenches and reached our objective unmolested.

 

A further line of defense had been posted ahead, and we were about to begin sealing off the trench when we heard a crash behind us. Hand grenades detonating! In the twilight, we just barely recognized Sergeant Andrezki with the second platoon, who had presumably gotten lost in a diagonally running connecting trench and was now, instead of heading for his objective to my left, approaching my position by laying down hand grenades in front of him. After the signal was given by shouts, the error was quickly cleared up by the narrow-gauge railway tracks running alongside us, and the second half-platoon immediately took up its assigned position in the next rear communication trench.

 

By now it had become completely dark. The artillery on both sides radioed each other, as the French had also resumed firing. The sentries peered anxiously ahead. Meanwhile, our dugout had also been searched, and only a few French coats, left behind in the haste, were discovered. These proved useful to us in the cold night, which was still bringing light snowfall. The most important thing now was to report to the company commander, who had remained with the K.T.K. This task fell to Grenadier Sabel, who had been assigned as a messenger. He was also ordered to supply us with fresh flares. Due to the pitch-black night and the uncertainty at our forward position, the area in front had to be scanned with flashlights from time to time, and this depleted our supply of flares.

 

The night reconnaissance was interrupted only once, when the engineers visited us to disable the French dugouts with explosives and gas. The enemy remained in a state of complete uncertainty, and so this long, cold, and unpleasant night passed. Even before the agreed-upon time, we received the signal to withdraw.

 

REF: 65-75-9

Processed with VSCO with f1 preset

Showing the specific characteristic of 10 large, clearly annulated sensory pits at the top of each of the forewing pads, near their inner angles. In nymphal I. muscaeformis these pits are smaller, less broadly annulated, typically number seven and tend to be contiguous.

 

An adult can be seen here: www.flickr.com/photos/hoppy1951/51357953917

 

My garden, Gilwern, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK.

I have never reviewed a specific episode of Arrow but this one is so good hat I just had to! This is probably the best episode of Arrow yet! Grant Gustin was AMAZING as Barry Allen and I wish that he could be Flash for the movies ( but I don't think that will ever happen) If you are not watching Arrow WHAT KIND OF A SICK CREATURE ARE YOU?! *just kidding* But if you don't watch Arrow Season 1 is on Netflix now so stop shat you are doing, get a Netflix account, AND WATCH ARROW!!! P.S If you like Arrow, join my fan club! www.flickr.com/groups/2449016@N23/

The black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic including Europe and also in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters further south, but some birds reside in the milder westernmost areas of Europe. The species also occurs in smaller numbers in northeastern North America, where it was formerly known as the common black-headed gull. As is the case with many gulls, it was previously placed in the genus Larus.

 

The genus name Chroicocephalus is from Ancient Greek khroizo, "to colour", and kephale, "head". The specific ridibundus is Latin for "abundant".

 

The black-headed gull displays a variety of compelling behaviours and adaptations. Some of these include removing eggshells from the nest after hatching, begging co-ordination between siblings, differences between sexes, conspecific brood parasitism, and extra-pair paternity. They are an overwintering species, found in a variety of different habitats.

 

Description

This gull is 37–44 cm (14+1⁄2–17+1⁄2 in) long with a 94–110 cm (37–43+1⁄2 in) wingspan and weighs 190–400 g (6+3⁄4–14+1⁄8 oz).

 

In flight, the white leading edge to the wing is a good field mark. The summer adult has a chocolate-brown head (not black, although does look black from a distance), pale grey body, black tips to the primary wing feathers, and red bill and legs. The hood is lost in winter, leaving just two dark spots. Immature birds have a mottled pattern of brown spots over most of the body, and a black band on the tail. There is no difference in plumage between the sexes.

 

It breeds in colonies in large reed beds or marshes, or on islands in lakes, nesting on the ground. Like most gulls, it is highly gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts. It is not a pelagic species and is rarely seen at sea far from coasts.

 

The black-headed gull is a bold and opportunistic feeder. It eats insects, fish, seeds, worms, scraps, and carrion in towns, or invertebrates in ploughed fields with equal relish. It is a noisy species, especially in colonies, with a familiar "kree-ar" call. Its scientific name means laughing gull.

 

This species takes two years to reach maturity. First-year birds have a black terminal tail band, more dark areas in the wings, and, in summer, a less fully developed dark hood. Like most gulls, black-headed gulls are long-lived birds, with a maximum age of at least 32.9 years recorded in the wild, in addition to an anecdote now believed of dubious authenticity regarding a 63-year-old bird.

 

Distribution

Black-headed gulls can be found over much of Europe. It is also found in across the Palearctic to Japan and east China. Small numbers also breed in northeastern Canada and can be seen in winter in northeast North America as far south as Virginia, often with the similar-looking Bonaparte's Gull and also in some Caribbean islands. Recorded as a very rare transient gull in the Carolina coast.

 

Behaviour

Eggshell removal is a behaviour seen in birds once the chicks have hatched, observed mostly to reduce risk of predation. Removing the eggshell acts as a way of camouflage to avoid predators seeing the nest. The further away egg shells are from the nest, the lower the predation risk. Black-headed gull eggs experience predation from different species of birds, foxes, stoats, and even other black-headed gulls. Although mothers show some form of aggressiveness when a predator is near, in the first 30 minutes, wet chicks can be easily taken by other black-headed gulls after hatching when the parents of the wet chick are distracted.

 

Black headed gulls also carry away other objects that do not belong in the nest. The removal of eggshells and other objects is important not only in the incubation period but also during the first few days after the eggs hatch. However, the removal process seems to increase as time goes on. The removal is done by both the male and female parents, normally lasts a few seconds and is done three times a year.

 

A black-headed gull is able to differentiate an egg shell from an egg by acknowledging its thin, serrated, white, edge. Therefore, the weight of the egg or eggshell does not play a role when determining its value.

 

Earlier eggshell removal hypotheses

Other hypotheses have attempted to explain the survival value of black-headed gulls removing their eggshells from the nest, including:

 

The sharp edges of the shells after hatching could harm the chicks

 

The eggshell could somehow intrude during the brooding

 

The eggshell could slip over the unhatched egg, creating a double shell

 

Some of the moist organic material left from the shell could lead to a production of bacteria and mould

 

Breeding

Begging coordination between siblings

Black-headed gulls feed their young by regurgitating onto the ground, rather than into each chick one at a time. The parents tend to accommodate their regurgitation amounts for how intense the nest begging is, from both an individual chick or a group of chicks begging together. Chicks who are siblings, have learned this behaviour and begin synchronizing their begging signals to decrease the costs as an individual and increase the benefits as a whole. The rate of parental food regurgitation to chicks increases with begging intensity.

 

The amount and response of begging signals differs throughout the nestling period. Usually, there are 3-5 begging events/hour, each lasting around one minute. High intensity begging behaviour appears at the end of the first week in the nest, but the coordination between multiple chicks emerge during the last week of the nestling period. The more siblings present, the more they coordinate their begging while decreasing the number of begging.

 

Sex differences

Male chicks have less of a chance of survival when compared to female chicks. Black-headed gulls are a sexually size-dimorphic species, so the larger sex is at a disadvantage when the amount of food sources are low.

 

Male birds are more likely to be born in the first egg and female birds are more likely to be born in the third. The position of a female black-headed gull in response to the food available when laying the eggs can predict the offspring's characteristics.

 

Conspecific brood parasitism is a behaviour that occurs when females lay their eggs in another female's nest, of the same species.[16] It can reduce the cost of incubation and nestling young by passing it on to another bird. Black-headed gulls usually lay three egg clutches, and the first two are normally larger than the third. The third egg normally has the lowest survival rate, while the first or second are usually the parasitic eggs.

 

Most of the egg dumping occurs within the beginning of the egg laying period. The parasitic eggs being laid in another conspecific's nest increases the chance of hatching and may occur because of nest desertion or a nest being taken over by another bird.

 

Multiple eggs in a nest from different mothers may also result from intra-specific nest parasitism, joint female nesting, and nest takeover. Intra-specific nest parasitism is a disadvantage to the hosts because the female could end up taking care of the parasitic chicks over her own and therefore neglecting them and reducing their fitness. Another disadvantage for the host is that incubating more chicks than their own takes up more energy.

 

Extra-pair paternity

The rate of extra-pair paternity (EPP) has a large variation between populations of black-headed gulls. It is primarily a context-dependent strategy, meaning not all black headed gulls experience this behaviour. The variation between populations of extra-pair paternity can be explained by the variation it has on the advantages and disadvantages it has on a female, as well, as the variation in pressure on a females choice.

 

The differences in the rate of EPP may be determined by multiple different factors: life history traits, ecological factors or different behavioural strategies of males.

 

Central–periphery gradient within colonies

Egg-laying can be earlier in Black-headed Gulls nesting in the centre of the colony, with central pairs tending to lay larger eggs, which have a higher hatching success, than pairs nesting at the periphery of the colony. Centrally nesting individuals have also been found to be in better condition and have higher genetic quality.

 

Walking displays

Black-headed gulls display both head-bobbing walking (HBW) and non-bobbing walking (NBW). Head-bobbing walking is expressed by a hold phase and a thrust phase. The hold phase in black-headed gulls occurs mainly during the single support phase and is when the bird balances its head to equal the environment. Head-bobbing walking occurs during a seeking type foraging by walking through water and includes benefits such as enhancing motion and pattern detection and gathering depth information from motion parallax during the thrust phase. Non-bobbing walking occurs when black-headed gulls are displaying a waiting behaviour while foraging on flat surfaces.

 

Uses

The eggs of the black-headed gull are considered a delicacy by some in the UK and are eaten hard boiled. The collection of black-headed gull eggs is heavily regulated by the UK government. Eggs may only be taken by a small number of licensed individuals at six sites between 1 April and 15 May each year and only a single egg may be taken from each nest. No eggs are permitted to be sold after 30 June. As the gulls tend to lay in late April and early May, the eggs are only available to purchase for 3 or 4 weeks per year.

 

Synchronization

Observations on the behavior of black-headed gulls show that black-headed gulls individuals synchronize their vigilance activity with other black-headed gulls neighbors. Synchronization in black-headed gulls groups is dependent on the distance between the black-headed gulls members.

 

Australian discovery

On 19 October 1991, local Broome birder Brian Kane saw a strange species of bird while trawling the local sewer ponds. Upon seeing this bird, he contacted the Broome Bird Observatory by telephone to verify the species, however there was conjecture regarding its identity. Kane took photos of the bird and recorded field notes, before sending this information to the Appraisals Committee in Hobart, Tasmania, who were able to confirm that it was indeed a black-headed gull. This was the first recorded sighting of the species in Australia.

 

In popular culture

In Richard Adams' 1972 novel Watership Down, a black-headed gull named Kehaar (who claims his name is the onomatopoeia of waves breaking against the shore) plays a major part in the story. Injured by a farm cat and left behind during the seasonal migrations, Kehaar finds himself stranded on the Downs and is taken in by a warren of European rabbits. He later becomes their friend and ally, and helps to save the rabbits from danger many times; instincts eventually force him to return to his colony, but he promises to visit the rabbits each winter. True to Adams' stated intentions of trying to keep the animals' behavior close to reality, Kehaar is characterized as intelligent, gregarious, noisy, messy, and impatient. He has a guttural accent, inspired by a Norwegian Resistance fighter Adams once had known. Kehaar appears in all three screen adaptations of the novel; the character was voiced by Zero Mostel in the 1978 film, Rik Mayall in the 1999 TV series, and Peter Capaldi in the 2018 miniseries.

 

The black-headed gull is the official bird of Tokyo, Japan,[34] and the Yurikamome automated guideway transit in Tokyo Bay is named after it.

Painted on Australia Day, January 26, 1994, on location in London UK, outside the Australian Embassy , Australia House.

 

Australia House, designed by Scots Architects was officially opened in 1918 by His Majesty King George V; and the Australian Prime Minister Mr W M Hughes was in the presentation party. The building is on the UK statutory list of government building, listed as a Category II building.

 

" Painting on specific anniversaries has often been a theme throughout my work - creating a statement at a specific time to which one can never return - very moving; and the architecture of this building was of much inspiration. Although I have yet to visit , Australia represents to me light , brilliance, space, vibrant birds...one of my Great Aunts emigrated there in the first half of the 20th century; and during her last return visit to Britain I was born- and she held me.

Happy Australia Day!"

-Stephen B Whatley

 

Oil on canvas,

30 x 40in/76 x 102cm

www.stephenbwhatley.com

Chiharu Shiota, site specific installation

Exhibition view "Francis Bacon and Existential Condition in Contemporary Art", CCC Strozzina, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze

© photo Martino Margheri

APPROXIMATE RELEASE DATE: 1990s

MANUFACTURER: Kid Kore

BODY TYPE: 1992; twist 'n turn waist; flexible rubber legs

HEAD MOLD: 1990

IMPORTANT NOTES: I have yet to find a boxed photo of this doll, so I am unsure if she was sold with a specific line name and box date.

Both models included in ”Trailer Tr4 MkII 8258 Add1”, the jeep and the booster, are build with LEGO® in scale 1:17,5 and have simple LEGO® Power Functions. It is not build after a specific brand or type of trailer. This build represents both a two axle jeep and a two axle booster.

This specific version of "Trailer Tr4 MkII” fits and works perfect with LEGO® Technic set 8258 Crane Truck. This LEGO® Technic set 8258 Crane Truck needs to be slightly modified. Free instructions on how to modify your set are available!

 

The trailers features: solid axle suspension on all axles, one set of lights, the jeep has both a kingpin and fully functional fifth wheel and both have manually operated landing gears.

 

Different states, different regulations! Depending on the combinations overall weight, so the total weight of the truck, the trailer and the load, more axles might be required. Adding axles however is not that easy, it's not that you go to your local dealership and ask them to add an extra axle to your truck and trailer.

 

This model is another custom design by Ingmar Spijkhoven AKA 2LegoOrNot2Lego that comes with building instructions and inventory/parts list!

You can build it yourself! To do so you can buy the Building Instructions. Early in the building process you will see what it is that you are building. You will be very excited from the moment you start the build of "Trailer Tr4 MkII 8258 Add1" till you finish it with a total number of about 1150 pieces.

 

A jeep or dolly is basically a simple chassis with a couple of axles and a fifth wheel. It is much like the rear end of a semi-truck. The booster is located at the rear end of the lowboy. It has a pivot point to make the axles follow the trailer easily. The purpose of both is to spread load over more axles, this way the weight per axle is suppressed.

 

As one of the designer's trademarks this truck model is provided with full solid axle suspension on all axles, so including the front steered axle. Regular LEGO® Technic shock absorbers proved too large. Instead Rubber Belts are used, to achieve this the movement is converted using a lever constructions.

 

A Runebomme først publisert av Friis (1871) og senere av Sigurd Agrell (1934). Sjaman tromme fra Norge. This and other drums are documentation of serpent and tree worship in the Nordic areas until 1600 - 1700 eds. The sun cross can be seen in the middle of the drum. The religious universe of the Sami people had 3 Saiva levels, each with specific symbolic helper animals: The deer, the serpent and the bird. They offered reindeer's, horses, and pigs. They had 3 main Gods, and likely it is the trinity of these and not the tree wise men that are depicted at the bottom right of this image. Many other Runic Shaman drums had symbols of the tree Main Gods. saamiblog.blogspot.com/

 

Keep in mind that the comments are interpretations made by Christian priests. Their aim have been to Christianize the people and wipe out the ancient religion.

 

Ha i mente at kommentarene er tolkninger gjort av kristne prester. Deres intensjon var å kristne folket og å viske ut den gamle religionen.

 

The symbols belong to a religious mythology and should be understood in that context. Symbolene tilhører en religiøs mytologi og må forstås i en slik kontekst. Friis (1871) commented on and interpreted the figures. Kommentarer til og tolkning av figurene ble gjort av Friis (1871) på dansk. Mine kommentarer / My direct translations […] :

1. Radien acce, Almagtens Fader. [Almighty father]

2. Radien akka, Alfaders Hustru. [The wife of the Almighty father]

3. Iddedes guovso, Morgenrøden. [Sunrise / Dawn]

4. Radien noaide, Alfaders Noaide. [Noaide of Almighty father]

5. Radien bardne, Alfaders Søn. [Son of Almighty father]

6. Hora-gales, Tordenens Gud. [Thunder God Thor, Horagales was a name introduced by a christian priest in the 1800eds].

7. Tordengudens Hund. [Dog of the thunder God]

8. Biegga-gales, Stormens Gud. [The Storm God]

9. Stormgudens Hustru. [Wife of The Storm God]

10. Mader-akka, Stam-Moder. [Origin Maternal Mother]

11. Sarakka, Skabelsens Moder. [Mother of creation]

12. Juks-akka, Bue-Moder. [Bow Mother]

13. Sælge-ædne, Ryg-Moder, eller Jordemoder. [Mid wife]

14. Eatos ædne (?).

15. 16. 17. De 3 Helligdags-Mænd. [The Three Wise Men]

18. Bæivve, Solen. [The Sun in the middle of the drum]

19. Skytter. [shooter]

20. Elg. [Elk]

21. Læib-olmai, Skovens Gud. [Skogens Gud. The Forest God]

22. Rensdyr. [Reinsdyr, Reindeer]

23. Elg. [Elk]

24. Saivvo - sarvak, Saivvo-Renoxer. [Saiva Reinokse. Saiva Reindeer Ox]

25. Stouk - olmai (?)

26. Mørket. [The Darkness]

27. En Baad. [Båt. Boat]

28. En Noaide, som kjøber en Gjed i Bygden. [Noaide kjøper geit i bygden. Noaide that buys a goat in the village].

29. En Gjed. [ En geit. A goat]

30. Bumands Hus. [nordmanns hus]

31. Bumands Kone. [nordmanns kone]

32. Bumands Kirke. [nordmanns kirke]

33. Indhægning, hvori Renen holdes under Malkingen. [en innhengning hvor reinsdyret holdes under merkingen (?). A fence where the reindeers are kept when marked (?)]

34. Et Lappetelt. [Et samisk telt. A Sami tent]

35. Stabur med Stige. [Et stabbur med stige. A Saami storehouse with ladder]

36. Goarmes-guolle, Troldfisk. [trollfisk. Troll fish. A more correct name is Saiva Guolle. The Christian priests make up the ”troll” description].

37. Vuornes-lodde, Troldfugl. [Trollfugl. Troll bird. A more correct name is Saiva Loddle.]

38. Offersvin. [Offersvin. Råne. Pig for offering]

39. Smaakopperne.

40. Offerren til Jabmi-aibmo. [Offer reinsdyr til dødsriket. Offering Reindeer to the kingdom of the dead]

41. Jabmi - aibmo, de Dødes Rige, eller første Hjem, i den anden Verden. [Dødsriket. The kingdom of the dead or the other world]

42. Sygdom, som følger med Rota. [Disease that follows Rota]

43. Rota og en Offerhest. [Rota and a offer horse.]

44. Rota's Hustru, som fører Sygdom med sig. [Rota’s wife brings disease]

46. Rota-aibmo, Rotas Opholdssted i den anden Verden. [Rota’s place in the other world]

47. Ækkedes-guovso, Tusmørket. [Twilight]

48. Ulv. [Wolf.]

49. Noaidernes Kampren. [The fight reindeer of the Noaide.]

50. VuoIle - aibmo, underste Hjem i den anden Verden. [The lowest home or place in the other world.]

51. Ganflue. [Gan flie].

   

Mt.Yubari, Hokkaido. This mountain is famous for various kinds of flowers. Some of them are specific to this mountain.

Fujica GF 670, EBC Fujinon 80mm F3.5, negative ISO 160 exposed as ISO 80 developing time shortened.

18 French start-ups have been selected, by a jury of experts from France and Ireland, on specific criteria such as the potential drive of their products or their offers, the relevance of their Business Plan and their potential for development. These gems, which will benefit from a privileged support, will exhibited at the French Pavilion, in the Web Summit’s main hall. They were also be guests of honour during the French Tech Night, which took take place at the Opium pub on November 4th at 6:30pm.

  

Axelle Lemaire (born 18 October 1974) is a French Socialist politician who currently serves as a Secretary of State in the French Government.

In 2012, she was elected as Deputy for the Third constituency for French overseas residents in the National Assembly of the French Parliament. In May 2014, Prime Minister Manuel Valls appointed her to the French Finance Ministry as minister responsible for Digital Affairs.

 

Since joining the Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in Paris, Lemaire has been a leading proponent of net neutrality legislation. She is a major actor in the French Tech movement, which unites french digital startups worldwide.

 

French Tech is a label assigned to French metropolises recognised for their startup ecosystem. It is also a name used by technologically innovative French businesses.

 

The French Tech aims to provide a strong common visual identity to French startups as well as to promote entrepreneurial exchange between them.

 

Nine French cities received the French Tech label in November 2014 during a first wave of certification. Cities like Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Nice, Avignon, Angers, Brest and Saint-Étienne preferred to wait to register their candidatures later in 2015. In January 2015, Axelle Lemaire announced a budget of €15 million to develop the attractiveness of the French Tech abroad.

 

Axelle Lemaire also announced the establishment of 'French Tech Hubs' in major international cities like New York City, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Tel Aviv and São Paulo.Two of which (New York City and Tokyo) were already active in October 2015.

Cropping down to specific eye attraction (element), the lighting on the trunk scaffold. An example of the rendering difference I like in Voigtlanders.

 

You can see that the buds have begun to swell. :) three weeks to the arrival of the Bees.

 

We have received ~9 inches so far. 3 more on the radar tracking for us would get us to balancing soil salts. And another 12 on top of that would be necessary to get to statistical normal. I'm not holding my breath.

 

Now is when I need to decide if I flood the fields with the pond water or not. I need to pull some pond water out so I might as well give it a try for experience.

 

3 projects for this year. Replace 3 irrigation valves to increase pressure to zone 3. Purchase of shaker / receiver set for custom harvest. Purchase and build another dryer.

 

Handheld, IC and sky burnt with lots of cropping.

@algonquinoutfit : Sunrise: December 21, 2016 at 07:53AM Cloudy today! With a high of: 1 and a low of:-4 t.co/K3bab3aMI8 (via Twitter twitter.com/algonquinoutfit/status/811526756133904384)

It's not very home-like, but this week, sweater means home.

It's the first day I get to eat at home since the beginning of this freaking crazy week. And there are more 2 days to end it!!!

Saturday I have a test for a German's certification, the written part, Monday the spoken part. Quite sure I'll pass it...

Tomorrow a game in a place that Nowhere is closer...I need some rest!

Glad I had a couple of seconds to achieve the 9th week...

 

I was almost forgetting: today is my grandma's birthday! =D

 

The General Specific - Band Of Horses

  

Treviso

 

US (and China)-specific NMS Passat.

2015 - site specific (photos, painting on wall) for the #artnexusfoundation exhibition in Bogota/Colômbia - 315cm x 310cm - #brasil #artesalva #arte #brazil #fotografiamoderna #aluguelnaodorme #tudipretoebranco #blackandwhitephotography #cellphonephotography #fotodecelular #streetphotography #fotografiaderua #rua #supportyourartist #artistsunited #bogota #colombia #artnexus #artnexusmagazine #modernart #concreteart #photographersunited #photograpy #sitespecificart #sitespecific

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

More on my Bike obsession.

I have tried to break down the bike and focus on specific elements.

The grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus), also known as the Congo grey parrot, Congo African grey parrot or African grey parrot, is an Old World parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot (Psittacus timneh) once was identified as a subspecies of the grey parrot, but has since been elevated to a full species.

 

Taxonomy

The grey parrot was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus erithacus. Linnaeus erroneously specified the type locality as "Guinea": the locality was later designated as Ghana in West Africa. The genus name is Latin for "parrot". The specific epithet erithacus is Latin and is derived from the Ancient Greek εριθακος (erithakos) for an unknown bird that was said to mimic human sounds, perhaps the black redstart. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

 

The Timneh parrot was formerly treated as a subspecies of the grey parrot but is now considered to be a separate species based mainly on the results from a genetic and morphological study published in 2007. Although Linnaeus placed all the parrots known to him in the genus Psittacus, only the grey parrot and the Timneh parrot are now assigned to this genus.

 

Description

The grey parrot is a medium-sized, predominantly grey, black-billed parrot. Its typical weight is 400 g (14 oz), with an approximate length of 33 cm (13 in), and a wingspan of 46–52 cm (18–20+1⁄2 in). The grey colour on the head and wings is generally darker than its body. The head and body feathers have slight white edges. The tail feathers are red.

 

Due to selection by parrot breeders, some grey parrots are partly or completely red. Both sexes appear similar. The colouration of juveniles is similar to that of adults, but typically their eyes are dark grey to black, in comparison to the yellow irises around dark pupils of the adult birds, and their undertail coverts are tinged with grey. Adults weigh 418–526 g (14+3⁄4–18+1⁄2 oz).

 

Grey parrots may live for 40–60 years in captivity, although their mean lifespan in the wild appears to be shorter—approximately 23 years. They start breeding at an age of 3–5 years and lay 3-5 eggs per brood.

 

Distribution and habitat

The grey parrot is native to equatorial Africa, including Angola, Cameroon, the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. The species is found inside a range from Kenya to the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. Current estimates for the global population are uncertain and range from 630,000 to 13 million birds. Populations are decreasing worldwide. The species seems to favor dense forests, but can also be found at forest edges and in more open vegetation types, such as gallery and savanna forests.

 

A population study published in 2015 found that the species had been "virtually eliminated" from Ghana with numbers declining 90 to 99% since 1992. They were found in only 10 of 42 forested areas, and three roosts that once held 700–1200 birds each, now had only 18 in total. Local people mainly blamed the pet trade and the felling of timber for the decline. Populations are thought to be stable in Cameroon. In the Congo, an estimated 15,000 are taken every year for the pet trade, from the eastern part of the country, although the annual quota is stated to be 5,000.

 

Grey parrots have escaped or been deliberately released into Florida, U.S., but no evidence indicates that the population is breeding naturally.

 

Behaviour and ecology in the wild

Little is known about the behaviour and activities of these birds in the wild. In addition to a lack of research funding, it can be particularly difficult to study these birds in wild situations due to their status as prey animals, which leads them to have rather secretive personalities. It has been shown that wild greys may also imitate a wide variety of sounds they hear, much like their captive relatives. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two greys sound-recorded while roosting reportedly had a repertoire of over 200 different calls, including nine imitations of other wild bird songs and one of a bat.

 

Feeding

Grey parrots are mainly frugivorous, with most of their diet consisting of fruit, nuts, and seeds, including oil palm fruit. They sometimes also eat flowers and tree bark, as well as insects and snails. In the wild, the grey parrot is partly a ground feeder.

 

Breeding

Grey parrots are monogamous breeders who nest in tree cavities. Each mated pair of parrots needs their own tree for their nest. The hen lays three to five eggs, which she incubates for 30 days while being fed by her mate. The adults defend their nesting sites.

 

Grey parrot chicks require feeding and care from their parents in the nest. The parents take care of them until 4–5 weeks after they are fledged. Young leave the nest at the age of 12 weeks. Little is known about the courtship behaviour of this species in the wild.[9] They weigh 12–14 g (7⁄16–1⁄2 oz) at hatching and 372–526 g (13+1⁄8–18+1⁄2 oz) when they leave their parents.

 

Conservation

Natural predators for this species include palm-nut vultures and several raptors. Monkeys target eggs and the young for food.

 

Humans are by far the largest threat to wild grey populations. Between 1994 and 2003, more than 359,000 grey parrots were traded on the international market. Approximately 21% of the wild population was being harvested every year. Mortality rates are extremely high between the time they are captured and they reach the market, ranging from 60 to 66%. This species also is hunted for its meat and for its body parts, which are used in traditional medicines. As a result of the extensive harvest of wild birds, in addition to habitat loss, this species is believed to be undergoing a rapid decline in the wild and therefore, has been rated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

 

In October 2016, the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Fauna and Flora (CITES) extended the highest level of protection to grey parrots by listing the species under Appendix 1, which regulates international trade in the species.

 

In 2021, the Kenyan government held a short amnesty, during which grey parrot owners could pay a fee to obtain a permit for their birds and facilitate legal ownership. Following the expiry of this time period, it is now illegal to own this species without a permit.

 

In captivity

The species is common in captivity and regularly kept by humans as a companion parrot, prized for its ability to mimic human speech, which makes it one of the most popular avian pets. An escaped pet in Japan was returned to his owner after repeating the owner's name and address.

 

Grey parrots are notorious for mimicking noises heard in their environment and using them tirelessly. They are highly intelligent birds, needing extensive behavioral and social enrichment as well as extensive attention in captivity or else they may become distressed. Feather plucking is a common symptom seen among such distressed grey parrots, affecting up to 40% of captive individuals. They may also be prone to behavioural problems due to their sensitive nature. Social isolation hastens stress and aging.

 

The grey parrot is a highly social species which relies on a flock-type structure, even when raised in captivity. Because they are so dependent on the other birds within their flock, much of their speech and vocal ability is acquired through interaction with the humans with whom they reside. Both wild and captive parrots have been shown to use contact calls, which allow them to interact with their flock mates and communicate information about their location, detection of predators, availability of food, and safety status. In addition, contact calls are used to form strong social bonds with their flock mates, or in the case of captive greys, with their human housemates. In captivity, they have been shown to display communicative competence, meaning they not only use human language correctly, but also in such a way that is appropriate for the social situation which they are in.

 

Diet

In captivity, they may be fed bird pellets, a variety of fruits such as pear, orange, pomegranate, apple, and banana, and vegetables such as carrot, cooked sweet potato, celery, fresh kale, peas, and green beans. They also need a source of calcium.

 

Disease

Grey parrots in captivity have been observed to be susceptible to fungal infections, bacterial infections, nutritional insufficiency, malignant tumors, psittacine beak and feather disease, tapeworms, and blood-worms. Young grey parrots are more commonly infected by psittacine beak and feather disease than adults. Infected birds show symptoms such as loss of appetite, fluffy feathers, sluggishness, and reduced walking abilities due to brittle bones.

 

Grey parrots are more likely to have rhinitis,[clarification needed] an inflammatory and infectious disease of the nasal cavity. Birds may exhibit signs like wheezing, sneezing, nasal snuffling, and swelling or occlusion of the nares. Treatment options include gentle debridement and nasal irrigation.

 

Intelligence and cognition

Grey parrots are highly intelligent and are considered by many to be one of the most intelligent species of psittacines. Many individuals have been shown to perform at the cognitive level of a four- to six-year-old human child in some tasks. Several studies have been conducted, indicating a suite of higher-level cognitive abilities. Experiments have shown that grey parrots can learn number sequences and can learn to associate human voices with the faces of the humans who create them. It has been reported that grey parrots are capable of using existing known English words to create new labels for objects when the bird does not know the name of the object. For example "banerry" ("banana" + "cherry") for "apple", "banana crackers" for "dried banana chips" or "yummy bread" for "cake".

 

The American scientist Irene Pepperberg's research with Alex the parrot showed his ability to learn more than 100 words, differentiating between objects, colours, materials and shapes. Pepperberg spent several decades working with Alex, and wrote numerous scientific papers on experiments performed, indicating his advanced cognitive abilities. One such study found that Alex had the ability to add numbers as well as having a zero-like concept, similar to that of young children and apes.

 

In addition to their striking cognitive abilities, grey parrots have displayed altruistic behavior and concern for others. Researchers found that while blue-headed macaws were unlikely to share a nut with other members of their own species, grey parrots would actively give their conspecific partner a nut, even if it meant that they would not be able to get one themselves. When the roles were reversed, their partners were overwhelmingly likely to return the favor, foregoing their own nut to their partner's benefits. This indicates not only a display of selflessness but also an act of reciprocity.

 

A 2012 study demonstrated that captive grey parrots have individual musical preferences. When presented with the opportunity to choose between two different pieces of music via a touch screen monitor located in their cage, the two birds in the test consistently chose different songs, to which they then danced and sang along. Some pet grey parrots have also been observed using the music feature of smart speakers (such as Alexa or Amazon Echo) to verbally request playback of specific favored songs.

 

Some research has shown that foot preference can be linked to the number of words a particular parrot may know and use. Researchers found that grey parrots who prefer to use their right foot showed a marked increase in the number of words within their lexicon as compared to parrots who were left-footed. Scientists postulate that parrots may have lateralization of brain function, much like mammals do.

 

In two murder trials, one in 1993 and another in 2017, there was consideration to use the deceased victim's pet grey parrot's "testimony" as evidence due to the pet parrot's witnessing and repeating the victim's last words. In the 1993 murder trial of Gary Joseph Rasp, the defendant was accused of murdering Jane Gill. Public defender Charles Ogulnik wanted to use Jane's pet grey parrot Max as evidence to prove Gary's innocence due to Max repeating Jane's last words "Richard, no, no, no!". In the 2017 murder trial of Glenna Duram, the defendant is accused of murdering her husband Martin Duram. The prosecutor was exploring the possibility of using the couple's pet parrot Bud as evidence when Bud kept repeating Martin's last words "Don't fucking shoot."

 

Mutations

Grey mutations occur naturally in the wild, such as the Blue Ino (albino), the Incomplete Ino, and the Blue varietals. The Blue Ino is all white. The Incomplete Ino has light pigmentation. The Blue has a white tail.

 

Breeders from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Scandinavia have bred greys intensively since the 1800s. These bred varieties include the Red Pied, F2 Pied, Grizzles, Ino, Incomplete, Parino, Lutino, Cinnamon, and Red Factor. South African bird breeder Von van Antwerpen and New Zealand partner Jaco Bosman selected F2 Pieds and created the first Red Factor Greys. They are rare, may be predominantly red-pigmented, and vary in price depending upon the extent of the red plumage displayed.

 

History

The domestication of grey parrots has a history dating to 2000 B.C., depicting native birds in Egyptian hieroglyphics as pets. They were used for values by the Greeks and the Romans who kept them in birdcages. The grey parrots, due to recent years of illegal trading, have been classified as Endangered in 2016 by the IUCN Red List.

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04/10/2007

Baqubah Search

 

U.S. Army Spc. Douglas Harlan, left, and a fellow soldier conduct a cordon and search for weapons caches and insurgents in Old Baqubah, Iraq, April 2, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy L. Pearsall

I’m sort of surprised no one has asked about the swans. Their eggs failed this year. A neighbor said the female sat and sat and sat on the nest, long after the eggs should have hatched. They both look worse for the wear but at least they’re moving about the lake and feeding again.

 

I had to sit down on the wet grass to get the angle I wanted on this shot. A few months ago, I’d been viewing “what’s in the camera bag” videos and saw a guy that carried a waterproof cloth with him for just such occasions. I’ve been carrying one ever since. I got a black one (actually it’s a ground cloth for a single-person tent) to use as an old-fashioned cloth hood to hide under when I’m trying to see the review screen in the middle of the day. I can’t recommend that specific idea but I couldn’t bear the thought of being under black plastic in the Georgia sunshine. So, I like the waterproof. I like the cloth. But the long shape of a tent ground cloth is all wrong (even if it is a good, packable size). I’ll keep searching for a suitable shape and size.

 

Nikon D7000 -- Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 ED

105mm

F8@1/80th

ISO 200

 

(DSC_9395) L#19

©Don Brown 2014

This specific car, s/n 026, participated in the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1967 but was taken out of the race due to suspension problems 65 laps in. Nearly two months later, it burned to ashes during practice for the Nurburgring 1000km. After the accident, the chassis was sent back to Maranello to await repairs, but the damage was to such an extent that Ferrari deemed it not worth the expense to repair. In 1969, it was purchased by a French collector, Pierre Bardinon, but the chassis remained untouched and unrepaired. In 1982, the chassis was purchased by Italian Ferrari collector Currado Cupellini. He began a lengthy and comprehensive restoration with help from Ferrari. However, the engine and gearbox were not the same as used in the original. It was an Ex-Tasman 246 F2 unit wîth Hewland gearbox. The car was raced a few times in the mid-90's at tracks such as Mugello and Spa-Francorchamps. In 1997, it participated in Ferrari's 50th anniversary celebration. Shortly after, it was sold to Bernie Carl in Wahsington DC. He sent it to the UK to have a proper engine (Tipo 231B) and gearbox (Tipo 537) fitted to it. The engine used was a rare twin-plug, fuel-injected unit which produces over 240hp.

 

www.barchetta.cc/english/All.Ferraris/Detail/Dino/026.206...

www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z8788/Ferrari-206-S.aspx

 

The team, Scuderia Filipinetti, was based in Geneva, Switzerland. It no longer exists today.

 

Herbert Müller (Swiss, 1940-1981) and Günter Klass (German, 1936-1967) were the drivers in the Sebring race. Both drivers died in racing accidents. Herbert was killed in a Porsche 908 at the Nurburgring 1000km in 1981, while Günter was killed in a Dino just like this one at Mugello just under two months after this one burned. While Herbert returned for the Nurburgring 1000km, he was partnered with Jean Guichet (French, 1927- ).

Turtles are reptiles of the order Chelonia /kɪˈloʊniə/ or Testudines /tɛˈstjuːdɪniːz/. They are characterized by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. Colloquially, the word "turtle" is generally restricted to fresh-water and sea-dwelling Testudines. Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. Its earliest known members date from the Middle Jurassic. Turtles are one of the oldest reptile groups, more ancient than snakes or crocodilians. Of the 360 known extant species, some are highly endangered.

 

Turtles are ectotherms—commonly called cold-blooded—meaning that their internal temperature varies according to the ambient environment. However, because of their high metabolic rate, leatherback sea turtles have a body temperature that is noticeably higher than that of the surrounding water. Turtles are classified as amniotes, along with other reptiles, birds, and mammals. Like other amniotes, turtles breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water.

 

NAMING AND ETYMOLOGY

The common terms "turtle", "tortoise" and "terrapin", depending on the English dialect used, are common names and do not reflect precise biological or taxonomic distinctions. "Turtle" may denote the order as a whole, or a non-monophyletic form taxon within the order, or only aquatic species. "Tortoise" usually means any land-dwelling, non-swimming chelonian. "Terrapin" is used for several species of small, edible, hard-shell turtles, typically those found in brackish waters.

 

In North America, all chelonians are commonly called "turtles", just as in Spanish, they are all called tortuga.[9] "Tortoise" is used only in reference to fully terrestrial turtles or, more narrowly, only those members of Testudinidae, the family of modern land tortoises. Terrapin may refer to small semi-aquatic turtles that live in fresh and brackish water, in particular the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). Although the members of the genus Terrapene dwell mostly on land, they are referred to as box turtles rather than tortoises. The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists uses "turtle" to describe all species of the order Testudines, regardless of whether they are land-dwelling or sea-dwelling, and uses "tortoise" as a more specific term for slow-moving terrestrial species.

 

In the United Kingdom, the word turtle is used for water-dwelling species, including ones known in the US as terrapins, but not for terrestrial species, which are known only as tortoises.

 

The word chelonian is popular among veterinarians, scientists, and conservationists working with these animals as a catch-all name for any member of the superorder Chelonia, which includes all turtles living and extinct, as well as their immediate ancestors. Chelonia is based on the Greek word for turtles, χελώνη chelone; Greek χέλυς chelys "tortoise" is also used in the formation of scientific names of chelonians. Testudines, on the other hand, is based on the Latin word for tortoise, testudo. Terrapin comes from an Algonquian word for turtle.

 

This article uses "turtle" for the entire order, which is a single clade.

 

ANATOMY AND MORPHOLOGY

The largest living chelonian is the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), which reaches a shell length of 200 cm and can reach a weight of over 900 kg. Freshwater turtles are generally smaller. The largest terrestrial species, the Asian softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii), produced a few individuals up to 200 cm. This dwarfs the better-known alligator snapping turtle, the largest chelonian in North America, which attains a shell length of up to 80 cm and weighs as much as 113.4 kg. Giant tortoises of the genera Geochelone, Meiolania, and others were relatively widely distributed around the world into prehistoric times, and are known to have existed in North and South America, Australia, and Africa. They became extinct as humans appeared, and it is assumed humans hunted them for food. The only surviving giant tortoises are on the Seychelles and Galápagos Islands. They can grow to over 130 cm in length, and weigh about 300 kg.

 

The largest ever chelonian was Archelon ischyros, a Late Cretaceous sea turtle known to have been up to 4.6 m long.

 

The smallest extant (living) turtle is the speckled padloper tortoise of South Africa. It measures no more than 8 cm in length and weighs about 140 g.

 

NECK RETRACTION

Turtles are divided into two groups, according to how they retract their necks into their shells (something the ancestral Proganochelys could not do). The mechanism of neck retraction differs phylogenetically: the suborder Pleurodira retracts laterally to the side, anterior to shoulder girdles, while the suborder Cryptodira retracts straight back, between shoulder girdles. These motions are largely due to the morphology and arrangement of cervical vertebrae. In recent turtles, the cervical column consists of nine joints and eight independent vertebrae. Since these vertebrae are not fused and are rounded, the neck is more flexible, bending in the backwards and sideways directions. The primary function and evolutionary implication of neck retraction is thought to be for feeding rather than protection. Neck retraction and reciprocal extension allow the turtle to reach out further to capture prey while swimming. Neck expansion creates suction when the head is thrust forward and the oropharynx is expanded. This morphology suggests the retraction function is for feeding purposes, as the suction helps catch prey. The protection the shell provides the head when it is retracted is on this hypothesis not the main function of retraction, but an exaptation. Both Pleurodirans and Cryptodirans use the quick extension of the neck as a method of predation, so the difference in retraction mechanism is not due to a difference in ecological niche.

 

HEAD

Most turtles that spend most of their lives on land have eyes positioned to look down at objects in front of them. Some aquatic turtles, such as snapping and soft-shelled turtles, have eyes closer to the top of the head. These species can hide from predators in shallow water, where they lie entirely submerged except for eyes and nostrils. Near their eyes, sea turtles possess glands that produce salty tears that rid their body of excess salt absorbed from the water they drink.

 

Turtles have rigid beaks and use their jaws to cut and chew food. Turtles appear to have lost their teeth about 150–200 million years ago. Their upper and lower jaws are instead covered by horny ridges. Carnivorous turtles usually have knife-sharp ridges for slicing through their prey. Herbivorous turtles have serrated-edged ridges that help them cut through tough plants. They use their tongues to swallow food, but unlike most reptiles, they cannot stick their tongues out to catch food.

 

SHELL

Its upper shell is called the carapace. The lower shell that encases the belly is called the plastron. The carapace and plastron are joined on the turtle's sides by bony structures called bridges. The inner shell layer is made up of about 60 bones that include portions of the backbone and the ribs, meaning the turtle cannot crawl out of its shell. In most turtles, the shell's outer layer is covered by horny scales called scutes that are part of its outer skin, or epidermis. Scutes are made up of the fibrous protein keratin. Keratin also forms the scales of other reptiles. These scutes overlap the seams between the shell bones and add strength. Some turtles do not have horny scutes; for example, the leatherback sea turtle and the soft-shelled turtles have shells covered with leathery skin instead.

 

The shell's shape gives clues about how a turtle lives. Most tortoises have a large, dome-shaped shell that makes it difficult for predators to crush the shell between their jaws. One of the few exceptions is the African pancake tortoise, which has a flat, flexible shell that allows it to hide in rock crevices. Most aquatic turtles have flat, streamlined shells, which aid in swimming and diving. American snapping turtles and musk turtles have small, cross-shaped plastrons that give them more efficient leg movement for walking along the bottom of ponds and streams, and the Belawan turtle (Cirebon, West Java) has a sunken-back soft shell.

 

The shell's color may vary. Shells are commonly colored brown, black, or olive green. In some species, shells may have red, orange, yellow, or grey markings, often spots, lines, or irregular blotches. One of the most colorful turtles is the eastern painted turtle, with a yellow plastron and a black or olive shell with red markings around the rim.

 

Tortoises have rather heavy shells. In contrast, aquatic and soft-shelled turtles have lighter shells that help them avoid sinking in water and swim faster and with more agility. These lighter shells have large spaces called fontanelles between the shell bones. The shells of leatherback sea turtles are extremely light because they lack scutes and contain many fontanelles.

 

Jackson (2002) suggested that the turtle shell can function as a pH buffer. To endure through anoxic conditions, such as winter periods beneath ice or within anoxic mud at the bottom of ponds, turtles utilize two general physiological mechanisms: their shell releases carbonate buffers and uptakes lactic acid.

 

RESPIRATION

Respiration, for many amniotes, is achieved by the contraction and relaxation of specific muscle groups (i.e. intercostals, abdominal muscles, and/or a diaphragm) attached to an internal rib-cage that can expand or contract the body wall thus assisting airflow in and out of the lungs. The ribs of Testudines, however, are fused with their carapace and external to their pelvic and pectoral girdles, a feature unique among turtles. This rigid shell is not capable of expansion. With their immobile rib-cage, Testudines have had to evolve special adaptations for respiration.Turtle pulmonary ventilation occurs by using specific groups of abdominal muscles attached to their viscera and shell that pull the lungs ventrally during inspiration, where air is drawn in via a negative pressure gradient (Boyle's Law). In expiration, the contraction of the transversus abdominis is the driving force by propelling the viscera into the lungs and expelling air under positive pressure. Conversely, the relaxing and flattening of the oblique abdominis muscle pulls the transversus back down which, once again, draws air back into the lungs. Important auxiliary muscles used for ventilatory processes are the pectoralis, which is used in conjunction with the transverse abdominis during inspiration, and the serratus, which moves with the abdominal oblique accompanying expiration.

 

The lungs of Testudines are multi-chambered and attached their entire length down the carapace. The number of chambers can vary between taxa, though most commonly they have three lateral chambers, three medial chambers, and one terminal chamber. As previously mentioned, the act of specific abdominal muscles pulling down the viscera (or pushing back up) is what allows for respiration in turtles. Specifically, it is the turtles large liver that pulls or pushes on the lungs. Ventral to the lungs, in the coelomic cavity, the liver of turtles is attached directly to the right lung, and their stomach is directly attached to the left lung by the ventral mesopneumonium, which is attached to their liver by the ventral mesentery. When the liver is pulled down, inspiration begins. Supporting the lungs is the post-pulmonary septum, which is found in all Testudines, and is thought to prevent the lungs from collapsing.

 

SKIN AND MOLTING

As mentioned above, the outer layer of the shell is part of the skin; each scute (or plate) on the shell corresponds to a single modified scale. The remainder of the skin has much smaller scales, similar to the skin of other reptiles. Turtles do not molt their skins all at once as snakes do, but continuously in small pieces. When turtles are kept in aquaria, small sheets of dead skin can be seen in the water (often appearing to be a thin piece of plastic) having been sloughed off when the animals deliberately rub themselves against a piece of wood or stone. Tortoises also shed skin, but dead skin is allowed to accumulate into thick knobs and plates that provide protection to parts of the body outside the shell.

 

By counting the rings formed by the stack of smaller, older scutes on top of the larger, newer ones, it is possible to estimate the age of a turtle, if one knows how many scutes are produced in a year. This method is not very accurate, partly because growth rate is not constant, but also because some of the scutes eventually fall away from the shell.

 

LIMBS

Terrestrial tortoises have short, sturdy feet. Tortoises are famous for moving slowly, in part because of their heavy, cumbersome shells, which restrict stride length.

 

Amphibious turtles normally have limbs similar to those of tortoises, except that the feet are webbed and often have long claws. These turtles swim using all four feet in a way similar to the dog paddle, with the feet on the left and right side of the body alternately providing thrust. Large turtles tend to swim less than smaller ones, and the very big species, such as alligator snapping turtles, hardly swim at all, preferring to walk along the bottom of the river or lake. As well as webbed feet, turtles have very long claws, used to help them clamber onto riverbanks and floating logs upon which they bask. Male turtles tend to have particularly long claws, and these appear to be used to stimulate the female while mating. While most turtles have webbed feet, some, such as the pig-nosed turtle, have true flippers, with the digits being fused into paddles and the claws being relatively small. These species swim in the same way as sea turtles do (see below).

 

Sea turtles are almost entirely aquatic and have flippers instead of feet. Sea turtles fly through the water, using the up-and-down motion of the front flippers to generate thrust; the back feet are not used for propulsion but may be used as rudders for steering. Compared with freshwater turtles, sea turtles have very limited mobility on land, and apart from the dash from the nest to the sea as hatchlings, male sea turtles normally never leave the sea. Females must come back onto land to lay eggs. They move very slowly and laboriously, dragging themselves forwards with their flippers.

 

BEHAVIOR

SENSES

At least some turtles species can see color and different species prefer different colours. Indeed, the males of some species such as the painted terrapin change colour during breeding season which is thought to help individuals find a suitable mate.

 

Turtles are thought to have exceptional night vision due to the unusually large number of rod cells in their retinas. Turtles have color vision with a wealth of cone subtypes with sensitivities ranging from the near ultraviolet (UVA) to red. Some land turtles have very poor pursuit movement abilities, which are normally found only in predators that hunt quick-moving prey, but carnivorous turtles are able to move their heads quickly to snap.

 

COMMUNICATION

While typically thought of as mute, turtles make various sounds when communicating. Tortoises may be vocal when courting and mating. Various species of both freshwater and sea turtles emit numerous types of calls, often short and low frequency, from the time they are in the egg to when they are adults. These vocalizations may serve to create group cohesion when migrating. The big-headed turtle is said to growl when removed from the water in an effort to scare off predators. Turtles also have non-vocal ways of communicating that may be employed during courtship. For example male slider turtles use their long foreclaws to stroke the female's face while courting.

 

SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Most turtle species do not display social behavior outside of mating season but a few exceptions have been noted. It has been suggested that gopher tortoises, more than most other tortoise species, exhibit social behaviour. Gopher tortoises live in well-defined colonies which are similar to those of highly social animals such as the prairie dog. The distribution and proximity of burrows might be the consequence of social relationships between tortoises. Some females have been observed visiting the burrows of a particular female repeatedly, even if there are other tortoises nearer to them. Some researchers have called this "a sort of friendship".

 

Hatchling Arrau turtles are thought to communicate with each other and with females that wait for the hatchlings in order to migrate from the nesting site to the foraging sites.

 

INTELLIGENCE

It has been reported that wood turtles are better than white rats at learning to navigate mazes. Case studies exist of turtles playing. They do, however, have a very low encephalization quotient (relative brain to body mass), and their hard shells enable them to live without fast reflexes or elaborate predator avoidance strategies. In the laboratory, turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni) can learn novel operant tasks and have demonstrated a long-term memory of at least 7.5 months. Similarly, giant tortoises can learn and remember tasks, and master lessons much faster when trained in groups. Remarkably, tortoises that were tested 9 years after the initial training still retained the operant conditioning.

 

REPRODUCTION

Turtles have a wide variety of mating behaviors, but do not form pair-bonds or social groups. Once the eggs have hatched, neither parent provides care for the offspring. Females generally outnumber males in various turtle species (such as green turtles), and as a result, most males will engage in multiple copulation with multiple partners throughout their lifespan. Most terrestrial species are sexually dimorphic, with males larger than females, and fighting between males often determines a hierarchical order for access to mates. For most semi-aquatic species and bottom-walking aquatic species, combat occurs less often. Males belonging to semi-aquatic and bottom-walking species instead often use their larger size advantage to forcibly mate with a female. In fully aquatic species, males are often smaller than females, and rely on courtship displays rather than strength to gain mating access to females.

 

MALE COMPETION

In some terrestrial species such as wood turtles, the males have a hierarchical ranking system based on dominance through fighting; the males with the highest rank and thus the most wins in fights have the most offspring.

 

Galapagos tortoises are another example of a species which has a hierarchical rank that is determined by dominance displays, and access to food and mates is regulated by this dominance hierarchy. Two male saddle backs most often compete for access to cactus trees, which is their source of food. The winner is the individual who stretches their neck the highest, and that individual gets access to the cactus tree, which can attract potential mates.

 

FORCE MATING

The male scorpion mud turtle is an example of a bottom-walking aquatic species that relies on overpowering females with its larger size as a mating strategy. The male approaches the female from the rear, and often resorts to aggressive methods such as biting the female's tail or hind limbs, followed by a mounting behavior in which the male clasps the edges of her carapace with his forelimbs and hind limbs to hold her in position. The male follows this action by laterally waving his head and sometimes biting the female's head in an attempt to get her to withdraw her head into her shell. This exposes her cloaca, and with it exposed, the male can attempt copulation by trying to insert his grasping tail.

 

Male radiated tortoises are also known to use the force mating strategy wherein they use surrounding vegetation to trap or prevent females from escaping, then pin them down for copulation.

 

COURTSHIP DISPLAYS

Red-eared sliders are a fully aquatic species. The male courts the female by extending his forelegs with the palms facing out and fluttering his forelegs in the female's face. Female choice is important in this method, and the females of some species, such as green sea turtles, are not always receptive. As such, they have evolved certain behaviors to avoid the male's attempts at copulation, such as swimming away, confronting the male followed by biting, or a refusal position in which the female assumes a vertical position with her limbs widely outspread and her plastron facing the male. If the water is too shallow to perform the refusal position, the females will resort to beaching themselves, which is a proven deterrent method, as the males will not follow them ashore.

 

ECOLOGY AND LIFE HISTORY

Although many turtles spend large amounts of their lives underwater, all turtles and tortoises breathe air and must surface at regular intervals to refill their lungs. Immersion periods vary between 60 seconds and 1 hour depending on the species. Some turtles spend much or all of their lives on dry land. Aquatic respiration in Australian freshwater turtles is currently being studied. Some species have large cloacal cavities that are lined with many finger-like projections. These projections, called papillae, have a rich blood supply and increase the surface area of the cloaca. The turtles can take up dissolved oxygen from the water using these papillae, in much the same way that fish use gills to respire.

 

Like other reptiles, turtles lay eggs that are slightly soft and leathery. The eggs of the largest species are spherical while the eggs of the rest are elongated. Their albumen is white and contains a different protein from bird eggs, such that it will not coagulate when cooked. Turtle eggs prepared to eat consist mainly of yolk. In some species, temperature determines whether an egg develops into a male or a female: a higher temperature causes a female, a lower temperature causes a male. Large numbers of eggs are deposited in holes dug into mud or sand. They are then covered and left to incubate by themselves. Depending on the species, the eggs will typically take 70–120 days to hatch.[citation needed] When the turtles hatch, they squirm their way to the surface and head toward the water. There are no known species in which the mother cares for her young.

 

Sea turtles lay their eggs on dry, sandy beaches. Immature sea turtles are not cared for by the adults. Turtles can take many years to reach breeding age, and in many cases, breed every few years rather than annually.

 

Researchers have recently discovered a turtle's organs do not gradually break down or become less efficient over time, unlike most other animals. It was found that the liver, lungs, and kidneys of a centenarian turtle are virtually indistinguishable from those of its immature counterpart. This has inspired genetic researchers to begin examining the turtle genome for longevity genes.

 

DIET

A turtle's diet varies greatly depending on the environment in which it lives. Adult turtles typically eat aquatic plants,[citation needed] invertebrates such as insects, snails, and worms, and have been reported to occasionally eat dead marine animals. Several small freshwater species are carnivorous, eating small fish and a wide range of aquatic life. However, protein is essential to turtle growth and juvenile turtles are purely carnivorous.

 

Sea turtles typically feed on jellyfish, sponges, and other soft-bodied organisms. Some species with stronger jaws have been observed to eat shellfish, while others, such as the green sea turtle, do not eat meat at all and, instead, have a diet largely made up of algae.

 

SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION

FOSSIL HISTORY

Based on body fossils, the first proto-turtles are believed to have existed in the late Triassic Period of the Mesozoic era, about 220 million years ago, and their shell, which has remained a remarkably stable body plan, is thought to have evolved from bony extensions of their backbones and broad ribs that expanded and grew together to form a complete shell that offered protection at every stage of its evolution, even when the bony component of the shell was not complete. This is supported by fossils of the freshwater Odontochelys semitestacea or "half-shelled turtle with teeth", from the late Triassic, which have been found near Guangling in southwest China. Odontochelys displays a complete bony plastron and an incomplete carapace, similar to an early stage of turtle embryonic development. Prior to this discovery, the earliest-known fossil turtle ancestors, like Proganochelys, were terrestrial and had a complete shell, offering no clue to the evolution of this remarkable anatomical feature. By the late Jurassic, turtles had radiated widely, and their fossil history becomes easier to read.

 

The earliest known fully-shelled member of the turtle lineage is the late Triassic Proganochelys. This genus already possessed many advanced turtle traits, and thus probably indicates many millions of years of preceding turtle evolution; this is further supported by evidence from fossil tracks from the Early Triassic of the United States (Wyoming and Utah) and from the Middle Triassic of Germany, indicating that proto-turtles already existed as early as the Early Triassic. Proganochelys lacked the ability to pull its head into its shell, had a long neck, and had a long, spiked tail ending in a club. While this body form is similar to that of ankylosaurs, it resulted from convergent evolution.

 

Turtle fossils of hatchling and nestling size have been documented in the scientific literature. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University found the fossilized remains of the world's largest turtle in a coal mine in Colombia. The specimen named as Carbonemys cofrinii is around 60 million years old and nearly 2.4 m long.

 

On a few rare occasions, paleontologists have unearthed large numbers of Jurassic or Cretaceous turtle skeletons accumulated in a single area (the Nemegt Formation in Mongolia, the Turtle Graveyard in North Dakota, or the Black Mountain Turtle Layer in Wyoming). The most spectacular find of this kind to date occurred in 2009 in Shanshan County in Xinjiang, where over a thousand ancient freshwater turtles apparently died after the last water hole in an area dried out during a major drought.

 

Though absent from New Zealand in recent times, turtle fossils are known from the Miocene Saint Bathans Fauna, represented by a meiolaniid and pleurodires.

 

EXTERNAL PHYLOGENY

The turtles' exact ancestry has been disputed. It was believed they are the only surviving branch of the ancient evolutionary grade Anapsida, which includes groups such as procolophonids, millerettids, protorothyrids, and pareiasaurs. All anapsid skulls lack a temporal opening while all other extant amniotes have temporal openings (although in mammals, the hole has become the zygomatic arch). The millerettids, protorothyrids, and pareiasaurs became extinct in the late Permian period and the procolophonoids during the Triassic.

 

However, it was later suggested that the anapsid-like turtle skull may be due to reversion rather than to anapsid descent. More recent morphological phylogenetic studies with this in mind placed turtles firmly within diapsids, slightly closer to Squamata than to Archosauria. All molecular studies have strongly upheld the placement of turtles within diapsids; some place turtles within Archosauria, or, more commonly, as a sister group to extant archosaurs, though an analysis conducted by Lyson et al. (2012) recovered turtles as the sister group of lepidosaurs instead. Reanalysis of prior phylogenies suggests that they classified turtles as anapsids both because they assumed this classification (most of them studying what sort of anapsid turtles are) and because they did not sample fossil and extant taxa broadly enough for constructing the cladogram. Testudines were suggested to have diverged from other diapsids between 200 and 279 million years ago, though the debate is far from settled. Even the traditional placement of turtles outside Diapsida cannot be ruled out at this point. A combined analysis of morphological and molecular data conducted by Lee (2001) found turtles to be anapsids (though a relationship with archosaurs could not be statistically rejected). Similarly, a morphological study conducted by Lyson et al.. (2010) recovered them as anapsids most closely related to Eunotosaurus. A molecular analysis of 248 nuclear genes from 16 vertebrate taxa suggests that turtles are a sister group to birds and crocodiles (the Archosauria). The date of separation of turtles and birds and crocodiles was estimated to be 255 million years ago. The most recent common ancestor of living turtles, corresponding to the split between Pleurodira and Cryptodira, was estimated to have occurred around 157 million years ago. The oldest definitive crown-group turtle (member of the modern clade Testudines) is Caribemys oxfordiensis from the late Jurassic period (Oxfordian stage). Through genomic-scale phylogenetic analysis of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) to investigate the placement of turtles within reptiles, Crawford et al. (2012) suggest that turtles are a sister group to birds and crocodiles (Archosauria).

 

The first genome-wide phylogenetic analysis was completed by Wang et al. (2013). Using the draft genomes of Chelonia mydas and Pelodiscus sinensis, the team concluded that turtles are likely a sister group of crocodilians and birds (Archosauria). This placement within the diapsids suggests that the turtle lineage once had diapsid skull characteristics but has lost them, as turtles now possess an anapsid-like skull. The external phylogeny of the turtles is shown in the cladogram.

 

TAXONOMY

Turtles are divided into two extant suborders: Cryptodira and Pleurodira. The Cryptodira is the larger of the two groups and includes all the marine turtles, the terrestrial tortoises, and many of the freshwater turtles. The Pleurodira are sometimes known as the side-necked turtles, a reference to the way they retract their heads into their shells. This smaller group consists primarily of various freshwater turtles. Until 3,000 years ago, the family Meiolaniidae was also extant, but this family is outside the Testudines crown group, belonging to Perichelydia.

 

IN HUMAN CULTURE

In Hindu mythology, the World Turtle Kacchapa, an avatar of Vishnu, supports the whole world on his back.

 

Lewis Carroll's 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland features a Mock Turtle, named for a soup meant to imitate the expensive soup made from real turtle meat.

 

AS PETS

Some turtles, particularly small terrestrial and freshwater turtles, are kept as pets. Among the most popular are Russian tortoises, spur-thighed tortoises, and red-eared sliders.

 

In the United States, due to the ease of contracting salmonellosis through casual contact with turtles, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made it illegal to sell turtles under 10 cm long as pets, but many stores and flea markets exploit a loophole which allows turtles under 100 mm to be sold for educational purposes.

 

Some states have other laws and regulations regarding possession of red-eared sliders as pets because they are looked upon as invasive species or pests where they are not native, but have been introduced through the pet trade. As of July 1, 2007, it is illegal in Florida to sell any wild type red-eared slider.

 

In Europe, turtle and tortoise keeping became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, when large numbers of wild-caught turtles and tortoises were imported. This was especially devastating to the Mediterranean tortoise population. In the 1980s the import of wild-caught tortoises started to be banned in various countries. Most turtles and tortoises for sale in Europe today are captive-bred.

 

Turtles and tortoises are seen by some people as cheap pets that need little care. The complexity and expense of proper turtle and tortoise husbandry is often underestimated. Most species of tortoise need a spacious outdoor enclosure with areas at different temperatures so they can thermoregulate. They also need opportunities to climb, dig and forage. Most species of tortoise should be fed dark, leafy greens with calcium and vitamin supplements.

 

Turtles require a large tub or aquarium with land areas where they can dry off completely and other areas where they can rest near the water's surface, on a piece of submerged driftwood for example. Like tortoises, turtles need access to UVB lighting and a varied diet rich in calcium.

 

FOR FOOD, TRADONAL MEDICINE AND COSMETICS

The flesh of turtles, calipash or calipee, has long been considered a delicacy in a number of cultures. Turtle soup has been a prized dish in Anglo-American cuisine. Gopher tortoise stew has been popular with some groups in Florida.

 

Turtles remain a part of the traditional diet on the island of Grand Cayman, so much so that when wild stocks became depleted, a turtle farm was established specifically to raise sea turtles for their meat. The farm releases some turtles to the wild to help repopulate the Caribbean Sea.

 

Fat from turtles is used in the Caribbean and in Mexico as a main ingredient in cosmetics, marketed under its Spanish name crema de tortuga. The supposed aphrodisiac or medicinal properties of turtle eggs created a large trade for them in Southeast Asia.

 

Turtle plastrons are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine; Taiwan imports hundreds of tons of plastrons every year. A popular medicinal preparation based on herbs with or without powdered turtle plastron is guilinggao jelly. The shell of the hawksbill turtle has been used for centuries to make jewellery, tools and ornaments around the Western Pacific.

 

CONSERVATION

In February 2011, the Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group published a report about the top 25 species of turtles most likely to become extinct, with a further 40 species at very high risk of becoming extinct. This list excludes sea turtles; however, both the leatherback and the Kemp's ridley would make the top 25 list. The report is due to be updated in four years time allowing to follow the evolution of the list. With between 48 and 54% of all 328 of their species considered threatened, turtles and tortoises are at a much higher risk of extinction than many other vertebrates. Of the 263 species of freshwater and terrestrial turtles, 117 species are considered threatened, 73 are either endangered or critically endangered and 1 is extinct. Of the 58 species in to the family Testudinidae, 33 species are threatened, 18 are either endangered or critically endangered, 1 is extinct in the wild and 7 species are extinct. 71% of all tortoise species are either gone or almost gone. Asian species are the most endangered, closely followed by the five endemic species from Madagascar. Turtles face many threats, including habitat destruction, harvesting for consumption, and the pet trade. The high extinction risk for Asian species is primarily due to the long-term unsustainable exploitation of turtles and tortoises for consumption and traditional Chinese medicine, and to a lesser extent for the international pet trade. Turtle extinction is progressing much faster than during the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction; at the current rate, all turtles could be extinct in less than a century.

 

Efforts have been made by Chinese entrepreneurs to satisfy increasing demand for turtle meat as gourmet food and traditional medicine with farmed turtles, instead of wild-caught ones; according to a study published in 2007, over a thousand turtle farms operated in China. Turtle farms in Oklahoma and Louisiana raise turtles for export to China.

 

Nonetheless, wild turtles continue to be caught and sent to market in large number (as well as to turtle farms, to be used as breeding stock), resulting in a situation described by conservationists as "the Asian turtle crisis". In the words of the biologist George Amato, "the amount and the volume of captured turtles ... vacuumed up entire species from areas in Southeast Asia", even as biologists still did not know how many distinct turtle species live in the region. About 75% of Asia's 90 tortoise and freshwater turtle species are estimated to have become threatened.

 

Harvesting wild turtles is legal in a number of states in the US. In one of these states, Florida, just a single seafood company in Fort Lauderdale was reported in 2008 as buying about 5,000 pounds of softshell turtles a week. The harvesters (hunters) are paid about $2 a pound; some manage to catch as many as 30–40 turtles (500 pounds) on a good day. Some of the catch gets to the local restaurants, while most of it is exported to Asia. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimated in 2008 that around 3,000 pounds of softshell turtles were exported each week via Tampa International Airport.

 

Nonetheless, the great majority of turtles exported from the US are farmed. According to one estimate by the World Chelonian Trust, about 97% of 31.8 million animals harvested in the U.S. over a three-year period (November 4, 2002 – November 26, 2005) were exported. It has been estimated that about 47% of the US turtle exports go to the People's Republic of China (predominantly to Hong Kong), another 20% to Taiwan, and 11% to Mexico.

 

In Australia, Queensland's shark culling program, which uses shark nets and drum lines, has since 1962 killed over 5,000 turtles as bycatch. The program has killed 719 loggerhead turtles and 33 critically endangered hawksbill turtles. New South Wales's shark control program has similarly killed at least 5,000 turtles.

 

WIKIPEDIA

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_Museum

 

Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.

 

The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century. Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of industrial revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres (140 ha) estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.

 

The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has influenced other living museums. It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.

 

History

Genesis

In 1958, days after starting as director of the Bowes Museum, inspired by Scandinavian folk museums, and realising the North East's traditional industries and communities were disappearing, Frank Atkinson presented a report to Durham County Council urging that a collection of items of everyday history on a large scale should begin as soon as possible, so that eventually an open air museum could be established. As well as objects, Atkinson was also aiming to preserve the region's customs and dialect. He stated the new museum should "attempt to make the history of the region live" and illustrate the way of life of ordinary people. He hoped the museum would be run by, be about and exist for the local populace, desiring them to see the museum as theirs, featuring items collected from them.

 

Fearing it was now almost too late, Atkinson adopted a policy of "unselective collecting" — "you offer it to us and we will collect it." Donations ranged in size from small items to locomotives and shops, and Atkinson initially took advantage of a surplus of space available in the 19th-century French chateau-style building housing the Bowes Museum to store items donated for the open air museum. With this space soon filled, a former British Army tank depot at Brancepeth was taken over, although in just a short time its entire complement of 22 huts and hangars had been filled, too.

 

In 1966, a working party was established to set up a museum "for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and the way of life of the north of England", and it selected Beamish Hall, having been vacated by the National Coal Board, as a suitable location.

 

Establishment and expansion

In August 1970, with Atkinson appointed as its first full-time director together with three staff members, the museum was first established by moving some of the collections into the hall. In 1971, an introductory exhibition, "Museum in the Making" opened at the hall.

 

The museum was opened to visitors on its current site for the first time in 1972, with the first translocated buildings (the railway station and colliery winding engine) being erected the following year. The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973. The Town station was formally opened in 1976, the same year the reconstruction of the colliery winding engine house was completed, and the miners' cottages were relocated. Opening of the drift mine as an exhibit followed in 1979.

 

In 1975 the museum was visited by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and by Anne, Princess Royal, in 2002. In 2006, as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, The Duke of Kent visited, to open the town masonic lodge.

 

With the Co-op having opened in 1984, the town area was officially opened in 1985. The pub had opened in the same year, with Ravensworth Terrace having been reconstructed from 1980 to 1985. The newspaper branch office had also been built in the mid-1980s. Elsewhere, the farm on the west side of the site (which became Home Farm) opened in 1983. The present arrangement of visitors entering from the south was introduced in 1986.

 

At the beginning of the 1990s, further developments in the Pit Village were opened, the chapel in 1990, and the board school in 1992. The whole tram circle was in operation by 1993.[8] Further additions to the Town came in 1994 with the opening of the sweet shop and motor garage, followed by the bank in 1999. The first Georgian component of the museum arrived when Pockerley Old Hall opened in 1995, followed by the Pockerley Waggonway in 2001.

 

In the early 2000s two large modern buildings were added, to augment the museum's operations and storage capacity - the Regional Resource Centre on the west side opened in 2001, followed by the Regional Museums Store next to the railway station in 2002. Due to its proximity, the latter has been cosmetically presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works. Additions to display areas came in the form of the Masonic lodge (2006) and the Lamp Cabin in the Colliery (2009). In 2010, the entrance building and tea rooms were refurbished.

 

Into the 2010s, further buildings were added - the fish and chip shop (opened 2011)[28] band hall (opened 2013) and pit pony stables (built 2013/14) in the Pit Village, plus a bakery (opened 2013) and chemist and photographers (opened 2016) being added to the town. St Helen's Church, in the Georgian landscape, opened in November 2015.

 

Remaking Beamish

A major development, named 'Remaking Beamish', was approved by Durham County Council in April 2016, with £10.7m having been raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £3.3m from other sources.

 

As of September 2022, new exhibits as part of this project have included a quilter's cottage, a welfare hall, 1950s terrace, recreation park, bus depot, and 1950s farm (all discussed in the relevant sections of this article). The coming years will see replicas of aged miners' homes from South Shields, a cinema from Ryhope, and social housing will feature a block of four relocated Airey houses, prefabricated concrete homes originally designed by Sir Edwin Airey, which previously stood in Kibblesworth. Then-recently vacated and due for demolition, they were instead offered to the museum by The Gateshead Housing Company and accepted in 2012.

 

Museum site

The approximately 350-acre (1.4 km2) current site, once belonging to the Eden and Shafto families, is a basin-shaped steep-sided valley with woodland areas, a river, some level ground and a south-facing aspect.

 

Visitors enter the site through an entrance arch formed by a steam hammer, across a former opencast mining site and through a converted stable block (from Greencroft, near Lanchester, County Durham).

 

Visitors can navigate the site via assorted marked footpaths, including adjacent (or near to) the entire tramway oval. According to the museum, it takes 20 minutes to walk at a relaxed pace from the entrance to the town. The tramway oval serves as both an exhibit and as a free means of transport around the site for visitors, with stops at the entrance (south), Home Farm (west), Pockerley (east) and the Town (north). Visitors can also use the museum's buses as a free form of transport between various parts of the museum. Although visitors can also ride on the Town railway and Pockerley Waggonway, these do not form part of the site's transport system (as they start and finish from the same platforms).

 

Governance

Beamish was the first English museum to be financed and administered by a consortium of county councils (Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear) The museum is now operated as a registered charity, but continues to receive support from local authorities - Durham County Council, Sunderland City Council, Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council and North Tyneside Council. The supporting Friends of Beamish organisation was established in 1968. Frank Atkinson retired as director in 1987. The museum has been 96% self-funding for some years (mainly from admission charges).

 

Sections of the museum

1913

The town area, officially opened in 1985, depicts chiefly Victorian buildings in an evolved urban setting of 1913.

 

Tramway

The Beamish Tramway is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, with four passing loops. The line makes a circuit of the museum site forming an important element of the visitor transportation system.

 

The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973, with the whole circle in operation by 1993.[8] It represents the era of electric powered trams, which were being introduced to meet the needs of growing towns and cities across the North East from the late 1890s, replacing earlier horse drawn systems.

 

Bakery

Presented as Joseph Herron, Baker & Confectioner, the bakery was opened in 2013 and features working ovens which produce food for sale to visitors. A two-storey curved building, only the ground floor is used as the exhibit. A bakery has been included to represent the new businesses which sprang up to cater for the growing middle classes - the ovens being of the modern electric type which were growing in use. The building was sourced from Anfield Plain (which had a bakery trading as Joseph Herron), and was moved to Beamish in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The frontage features a stained glass from a baker's shop in South Shields. It also uses fittings from Stockton-on-Tees.

 

Motor garage

Presented as Beamish Motor & Cycle Works, the motor garage opened in 1994. Reflecting the custom nature of the early motor trade, where only one in 232 people owned a car in 1913, the shop features a showroom to the front (not accessible to visitors), with a garage area to the rear, accessed via the adjacent archway. The works is a replica of a typical garage of the era. Much of the museum's car, motorcycle and bicycle collection, both working and static, is stored in the garage. The frontage has two storeys, but the upper floor is only a small mezzanine and is not used as part of the display.

 

Department Store

Presented as the Annfield Plain Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd, (but more commonly referred to as the Anfield Plain Co-op Store) this department store opened in 1984, and was relocated to Beamish from Annfield Plain in County Durham. The Annfield Plain co-operative society was originally established in 1870, with the museum store stocking various products from the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), established 1863. A two-storey building, the ground floor comprises the three departments - grocery, drapery and hardware; the upper floor is taken up by the tea rooms (accessed from Redman Park via a ramp to the rear). Most of the items are for display only, but a small amount of goods are sold to visitors. The store features an operational cash carrier system, of the Lamson Cash Ball design - common in many large stores of the era, but especially essential to Co-ops, where customer's dividends had to be logged.

 

Ravensworth Terrace

Ravensworth Terrace is a row of terraced houses, presented as the premises and living areas of various professionals. Representing the expanding housing stock of the era, it was relocated from its original site on Bensham Bank, having been built for professionals and tradesmen between 1830 and 1845. Original former residents included painter John Wilson Carmichael and Gateshead mayor Alexander Gillies. Originally featuring 25 homes, the terrace was to be demolished when the museum saved it in the 1970s, reconstructing six of them on the Town site between 1980 and 1985. They are two storey buildings, with most featuring display rooms on both floors - originally the houses would have also housed a servant in the attic. The front gardens are presented in a mix of the formal style, and the natural style that was becoming increasingly popular.

 

No. 2 is presented as the home of Miss Florence Smith, a music teacher, with old fashioned mid-Victorian furnishings as if inherited from her parents. No. 3 & 4 is presented as the practice and home respectively (with a knocked through door) of dentist J. Jones - the exterior nameplate having come from the surgery of Mr. J. Jones in Hartlepool. Representing the state of dental health at the time, it features both a check-up room and surgery for extraction, and a technicians room for creating dentures - a common practice at the time being the giving to daughters a set on their 21st birthday, to save any future husband the cost at a later date. His home is presented as more modern than No.2, furnished in the Edwardian style the modern day utilities of an enamelled bathroom with flushing toilet, a controllable heat kitchen range and gas cooker. No. 5 is presented as a solicitor's office, based on that of Robert Spence Watson, a Quaker from Newcastle. Reflecting the trade of the era, downstairs is laid out as the partner's or principal office, and the general or clerk's office in the rear. Included is a set of books sourced from ER Hanby Holmes, who practised in Barnard Castle.

 

Pub

Presented as The Sun Inn, the pub opened in the town in 1985. It had originally stood in Bondgate in Bishop Auckland, and was donated to the museum by its final owners, the Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. Originally a "one-up one down" cottage, the earliest ownership has been traced to James Thompson, on 21 January 1806. Known as The Tiger Inn until the 1850s, from 1857 to 1899 under the ownership of the Leng family, it flourished under the patronage of miners from Newton Cap and other collieries. Latterly run by Elsie Edes, it came under brewery ownership in the 20th Century when bought by S&N antecedent, James Deuchar Ltd. The pub is fully operational, and features both a front and back bar, the two stories above not being part of the exhibit. The interior decoration features the stuffed racing greyhound Jake's Bonny Mary, which won nine trophies before being put on display in The Gerry in White le Head near Tantobie.

 

Town stables

Reflecting the reliance on horses for a variety of transport needs in the era, the town features a centrally located stables, situated behind the sweet shop, with its courtyard being accessed from the archway next to the pub. It is presented as a typical jobmaster's yard, with stables and a tack room in the building on its north side. A small, brick built open air, carriage shed is sited on the back of the printworks building. On the east side of the courtyard is a much larger metal shed (utilising iron roof trusses from Fleetwood), arranged mainly as carriage storage, but with a blacksmith's shop in the corner. The building on the west side of the yard is not part of any display. The interior fittings for the harness room came from Callaly Caste. Many of the horses and horse-drawn vehicles used by the museum are housed in the stables and sheds.

 

Printer, stationer and newspaper branch office

Presented as the Beamish Branch Office of the Northern Daily Mail and the Sunderland Daily Echo, the two storey replica building was built in the mid-1980s and represents the trade practices of the era. Downstairs, on the right, is the branch office, where newspapers would be sold directly and distributed to local newsagents and street vendors, and where orders for advertising copy would be taken. Supplementing it is a stationer's shop on the left hand side, with both display items and a small number of gift items on public sale. Upstairs is a jobbing printers workshop, which would not produce the newspapers, but would instead print leaflets, posters and office stationery. Split into a composing area and a print shop, the shop itself has a number of presses - a Columbian built in 1837 by Clymer and Dixon, an Albion dating back to 1863, an Arab Platen of c. 1900, and a Wharfedale flat bed press, built by Dawson & Son in around 1870. Much of the machinery was sourced from the print works of Jack Ascough's of Barnard Castle. Many of the posters seen around the museum are printed in the works, with the operation of the machinery being part of the display.

 

Sweet shop

Presented as Jubilee Confectioners, the two storey sweet shop opened in 1994 and is meant to represent the typical family run shops of the era, with living quarters above the shop (the second storey not being part of the display). To the front of the ground floor is a shop, where traditional sweets and chocolate (which was still relatively expensive at the time) are sold to visitors, while in the rear of the ground floor is a manufacturing area where visitors can view the techniques of the time (accessed via the arched walkway on the side of the building). The sweet rollers were sourced from a variety of shops and factories.

 

Bank

Presented as a branch of Barclays Bank (Barclay & Company Ltd) using period currency, the bank opened in 1999. It represents the trend of the era when regional banks were being acquired and merged into national banks such as Barclays, formed in 1896. Built to a three-storey design typical of the era, and featuring bricks in the upper storeys sourced from Park House, Gateshead, the Swedish imperial red shade used on the ground floor frontage is intended to represent stability and security. On the ground floor are windows for bank tellers, plus the bank manager's office. Included in a basement level are two vaults. The upper two storeys are not part of the display. It features components sourced from Southport and Gateshead

 

Masonic Hall

The Masonic Hall opened in 2006, and features the frontage from a former masonic hall sited in Park Terrace, Sunderland. Reflecting the popularity of the masons in North East England, as well as the main hall, which takes up the full height of the structure, in a small two story arrangement to the front of the hall is also a Robing Room and the Tyler's Room on the ground floor, and a Museum Room upstairs, featuring display cabinets of masonic regalia donated from various lodges. Upstairs is also a class room, with large stained glass window.

 

Chemist and photographer

Presented as W Smith's Chemist and JR & D Edis Photographers, a two-storey building housing both a chemist and photographers shops under one roof opened on 7 May 2016 and represents the growing popularity of photography in the era, with shops often growing out of or alongside chemists, who had the necessary supplies for developing photographs. The chemist features a dispensary, and equipment from various shops including John Walker, inventor of the friction match. The photographers features a studio, where visitors can dress in period costume and have a photograph taken. The corner building is based on a real building on Elvet Bridge in Durham City, opposite the Durham Marriot Hotel (the Royal County), although the second storey is not part of the display. The chemist also sells aerated water (an early form of carbonated soft drinks) to visitors, sold in marble-stopper sealed Codd bottles (although made to a modern design to prevent the safety issue that saw the original bottles banned). Aerated waters grew in popularity in the era, due to the need for a safe alternative to water, and the temperance movement - being sold in chemists due to the perception they were healthy in the same way mineral waters were.

 

Costing around £600,000 and begun on 18 August 2014, the building's brickwork and timber was built by the museum's own staff and apprentices, using Georgian bricks salvaged from demolition works to widen the A1. Unlike previous buildings built on the site, the museum had to replicate rather than relocate this one due to the fact that fewer buildings are being demolished compared to the 1970s, and in any case it was deemed unlikely one could be found to fit the curved shape of the plot. The studio is named after a real business run by John Reed Edis and his daughter Daisy. Mr Edis, originally at 27 Sherburn Road, Durham, in 1895, then 52 Saddler Street from 1897. The museum collection features several photographs, signs and equipment from the Edis studio. The name for the chemist is a reference to the business run by William Smith, who relocated to Silver Street, near the original building, in 1902. According to records, the original Edis company had been supplied by chemicals from the original (and still extant) Smith business.

 

Redman Park

Redman Park is a small lawned space with flower borders, opposite Ravensworth Terrace. Its centrepiece is a Victorian bandstand sourced from Saltwell Park, where it stood on an island in the middle of a lake. It represents the recognised need of the time for areas where people could relax away from the growing industrial landscape.

 

Other

Included in the Town are drinking fountains and other period examples of street furniture. In between the bank and the sweet shop is a combined tram and bus waiting room and public convenience.

 

Unbuilt

When construction of the Town began, the projected town plan incorporated a market square and buildings including a gas works, fire station, ice cream parlour (originally the Central Cafe at Consett), a cast iron bus station from Durham City, school, public baths and a fish and chip shop.

 

Railway station

East of the Town is the Railway Station, depicting a typical small passenger and goods facility operated by the main railway company in the region at the time, the North Eastern Railway (NER). A short running line extends west in a cutting around the north side of the Town itself, with trains visible from the windows of the stables. It runs for a distance of 1⁄4 mile - the line used to connect to the colliery sidings until 1993 when it was lifted between the town and the colliery so that the tram line could be extended. During 2009 the running line was relaid so that passenger rides could recommence from the station during 2010.

 

Rowley station

Representing passenger services is Rowley Station, a station building on a single platform, opened in 1976, having been relocated to the museum from the village of Rowley near Consett, just a few miles from Beamish.

 

The original Rowley railway station was opened in 1845 (as Cold Rowley, renamed Rowley in 1868) by the NER antecedent, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, consisting of just a platform. Under NER ownership, as a result of increasing use, in 1873 the station building was added. As demand declined, passenger service was withdrawn in 1939, followed by the goods service in 1966. Trains continued to use the line for another three years before it closed, the track being lifted in 1970. Although in a state of disrepair, the museum acquired the building, dismantling it in 1972, being officially unveiled in its new location by railway campaigner and poet, Sir John Betjeman.

 

The station building is presented as an Edwardian station, lit by oil lamp, having never been connected to gas or electricity supplies in its lifetime. It features both an open waiting area and a visitor accessible waiting room (western half), and a booking and ticket office (eastern half), with the latter only visible from a small viewing entrance. Adorning the waiting room is a large tiled NER route map.

 

Signal box

The signal box dates from 1896, and was relocated from Carr House East near Consett. It features assorted signalling equipment, basic furnishings for the signaller, and a lever frame, controlling the stations numerous points, interlocks and semaphore signals. The frame is not an operational part of the railway, the points being hand operated using track side levers. Visitors can only view the interior from a small area inside the door.

 

Goods shed

The goods shed is originally from Alnwick. The goods area represents how general cargo would have been moved on the railway, and for onward transport. The goods shed features a covered platform where road vehicles (wagons and carriages) can be loaded with the items unloaded from railway vans. The shed sits on a triangular platform serving two sidings, with a platform mounted hand-crane, which would have been used for transhipment activity (transfer of goods from one wagon to another, only being stored for a short time on the platform, if at all).

 

Coal yard

The coal yard represents how coal would have been distributed from incoming trains to local merchants - it features a coal drop which unloads railway wagons into road going wagons below. At the road entrance to the yard is a weighbridge (with office) and coal merchant's office - both being appropriately furnished with display items, but only viewable from outside.

 

The coal drop was sourced from West Boldon, and would have been a common sight on smaller stations. The weighbridge came from Glanton, while the coal office is from Hexham.

 

Bridges and level crossing

The station is equipped with two footbridges, a wrought iron example to the east having come from Howden-le-Wear, and a cast iron example to the west sourced from Dunston. Next to the western bridge, a roadway from the coal yard is presented as crossing the tracks via a gated level crossing (although in reality the road goes nowhere on the north side).

 

Waggon and Iron Works

Dominating the station is the large building externally presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works, estd 1857. In reality this is the Regional Museums Store (see below), although attached to the north side of the store are two covered sidings (not accessible to visitors), used to service and store the locomotives and stock used on the railway.

 

Other

A corrugated iron hut adjacent to the 'iron works' is presented as belonging to the local council, and houses associated road vehicles, wagons and other items.

 

Fairground

Adjacent to the station is an events field and fairground with a set of Frederick Savage built steam powered Gallopers dating from 1893.

 

Colliery

Presented as Beamish Colliery (owned by James Joicey & Co., and managed by William Severs), the colliery represents the coal mining industry which dominated the North East for generations - the museum site is in the former Durham coalfield, where 165,246 men and boys worked in 304 mines in 1913. By the time period represented by Beamish's 1900s era, the industry was booming - production in the Great Northern Coalfield had peaked in 1913, and miners were relatively well paid (double that of agriculture, the next largest employer), but the work was dangerous. Children could be employed from age 12 (the school leaving age), but could not go underground until 14.

 

Deep mine

Reconstructed pitworks buildings showing winding gear

Dominating the colliery site are the above ground structures of a deep (i.e. vertical shaft) mine - the brick built Winding Engine House, and the red painted wooden Heapstead. These were relocated to the museum (which never had its own vertical shaft), the winding house coming from Beamish Chophill Colliery, and the Heapstead from Ravensworth Park Mine in Gateshead. The winding engine and its enclosing house are both listed.

 

The winding engine was the source of power for hauling miners, equipment and coal up and down the shaft in a cage, the top of the shaft being in the adjacent heapstead, which encloses the frame holding the wheel around which the hoist cable travels. Inside the Heapstead, tubs of coal from the shaft were weighed on a weighbridge, then tipped onto jigging screens, which sifted the solid lumps from small particles and dust - these were then sent along the picking belt, where pickers, often women, elderly or disabled people or young boys (i.e. workers incapable of mining), would separate out unwanted stone, wood and rubbish. Finally, the coal was tipped onto waiting railway wagons below, while the unwanted waste sent to the adjacent heap by an external conveyor.

 

Chophill Colliery was closed by the National Coal Board in 1962, but the winding engine and tower were left in place. When the site was later leased, Beamish founder Frank Atkinson intervened to have both spot listed to prevent their demolition. After a protracted and difficult process to gain the necessary permissions to move a listed structure, the tower and engine were eventually relocated to the museum, work being completed in 1976. The winding engine itself is the only surviving example of the type which was once common, and was still in use at Chophill upon its closure. It was built in 1855 by J&G Joicey of Newcastle, to an 1800 design by Phineas Crowther.

 

Inside the winding engine house, supplementing the winding engine is a smaller jack engine, housed in the rear. These were used to lift heavy equipment, and in deep mines, act as a relief winding engine.

 

Outdoors, next to the Heapstead, is a sinking engine, mounted on red bricks. Brought to the museum from Silksworth Colliery in 1971, it was built by Burlington's of Sunderland in 1868 and is the sole surviving example of its kind. Sinking engines were used for the construction of shafts, after which the winding engine would become the source of hoist power. It is believed the Silksworth engine was retained because it was powerful enough to serve as a backup winding engine, and could be used to lift heavy equipment (i.e. the same role as the jack engine inside the winding house).

 

Drift mine

The Mahogany Drift Mine is original to Beamish, having opened in 1855 and after closing, was brought back into use in 1921 to transport coal from Beamish Park Drift to Beamish Cophill Colliery. It opened as a museum display in 1979. Included in the display is the winding engine and a short section of trackway used to transport tubs of coal to the surface, and a mine office. Visitor access into the mine shaft is by guided tour.

 

Lamp cabin

The Lamp Cabin opened in 2009, and is a recreation of a typical design used in collieries to house safety lamps, a necessary piece of equipment for miners although were not required in the Mahogany Drift Mine, due to it being gas-free. The building is split into two main rooms; in one half, the lamp cabin interior is recreated, with a collection of lamps on shelves, and the system of safety tokens used to track which miners were underground. Included in the display is a 1927 Hailwood and Ackroyd lamp-cleaning machine sourced from Morrison Busty Colliery in Annfield Plain. In the second room is an educational display, i.e., not a period interior.

 

Colliery railways

The colliery features both a standard gauge railway, representing how coal was transported to its onward destination, and narrow-gauge typically used by Edwardian collieries for internal purposes. The standard gauge railway is laid out to serve the deep mine - wagons being loaded by dropping coal from the heapstead - and runs out of the yard to sidings laid out along the northern-edge of the Pit Village.

 

The standard gauge railway has two engine sheds in the colliery yard, the smaller brick, wood and metal structure being an operational building; the larger brick-built structure is presented as Beamish Engine Works, a reconstruction of an engine shed formerly at Beamish 2nd Pit. Used for locomotive and stock storage, it is a long, single track shed featuring a servicing pit for part of its length. Visitors can walk along the full length in a segregated corridor. A third engine shed in brick (lower half) and corrugated iron has been constructed at the southern end of the yard, on the other side of the heapstead to the other two sheds, and is used for both narrow and standard gauge vehicles (on one road), although it is not connected to either system - instead being fed by low-loaders and used for long-term storage only.

 

The narrow gauge railway is serviced by a corrugate iron engine shed, and is being expanded to eventually encompass several sidings.

 

There are a number of industrial steam locomotives (including rare examples by Stephen Lewin from Seaham and Black, Hawthorn & Co) and many chaldron wagons, the region's traditional type of colliery railway rolling stock, which became a symbol of Beamish Museum. The locomotive Coffee Pot No 1 is often in steam during the summer.

 

Other

On the south eastern corner of the colliery site is the Power House, brought to the museum from Houghton Colliery. These were used to store explosives.

 

Pit Village

Alongside the colliery is the pit village, representing life in the mining communities that grew alongside coal production sites in the North East, many having come into existence solely because of the industry, such as Seaham Harbour, West Hartlepool, Esh Winning and Bedlington.

 

Miner's Cottages

The row of six miner's cottages in Francis Street represent the tied-housing provided by colliery owners to mine workers. Relocated to the museum in 1976, they were originally built in the 1860s in Hetton-le-Hole by Hetton Coal Company. They feature the common layout of a single-storey with a kitchen to the rear, the main room of the house, and parlour to the front, rarely used (although it was common for both rooms to be used for sleeping, with disguised folding "dess" beds common), and with children sleeping in attic spaces upstairs. In front are long gardens, used for food production, with associated sheds. An outdoor toilet and coal bunker were in the rear yards, and beyond the cobbled back lane to their rear are assorted sheds used for cultivation, repairs and hobbies. Chalkboard slates attached to the rear wall were used by the occupier to tell the mine's "knocker up" when they wished to be woken for their next shift.

 

No.2 is presented as a Methodist family's home, featuring good quality "Pitman's mahogany" furniture; No.3 is presented as occupied by a second generation well off Irish Catholic immigrant family featuring many items of value (so they could be readily sold off in times of need) and an early 1890s range; No.3 is presented as more impoverished than the others with just a simple convector style Newcastle oven, being inhabited by a miner's widow allowed to remain as her son is also a miner, and supplementing her income doing laundry and making/mending for other families. All the cottages feature examples of the folk art objects typical of mining communities. Also included in the row is an office for the miner's paymaster.[11] In the rear alleyway of the cottages is a communal bread oven, which were commonplace until miner's cottages gradually obtained their own kitchen ranges. They were used to bake traditional breads such as the Stottie, as well as sweet items, such as tea cakes. With no extant examples, the museum's oven had to be created from photographs and oral history.

 

School

The school opened in 1992, and represents the typical board school in the educational system of the era (the stone built single storey structure being inscribed with the foundation date of 1891, Beamish School Board), by which time attendance at a state approved school was compulsory, but the leaving age was 12, and lessons featured learning by rote and corporal punishment. The building originally stood in East Stanley, having been set up by the local school board, and would have numbered around 150 pupils. Having been donated by Durham County Council, the museum now has a special relationship with the primary school that replaced it. With separate entrances and cloakrooms for boys and girls at either end, the main building is split into three class rooms (all accessible to visitors), connected by a corridor along the rear. To the rear is a red brick bike shed, and in the playground visitors can play traditional games of the era.

 

Chapel

Pit Hill Chapel opened in 1990, and represents the Wesleyan Methodist tradition which was growing in North East England, with the chapels used for both religious worship and as community venues, which continue in its role in the museum display. Opened in the 1850s, it originally stood not far from its present site, having been built in what would eventually become Beamish village, near the museum entrance. A stained glass window of The Light of The World by William Holman Hunt came from a chapel in Bedlington. A two handled Love Feast Mug dates from 1868, and came from a chapel in Shildon Colliery. On the eastern wall, above the elevated altar area, is an angled plain white surface used for magic lantern shows, generated using a replica of the double-lensed acetylene gas powered lanterns of the period, mounted in the aisle of the main seating area. Off the western end of the hall is the vestry, featuring a small library and communion sets from Trimdon Colliery and Catchgate.

 

Fish bar

Presented as Davey's Fried Fish & Chip Potato Restaurant, the fish and chip shop opened in 2011, and represents the typical style of shop found in the era as they were becoming rapidly popular in the region - the brick built Victorian style fryery would most often have previously been used for another trade, and the attached corrugated iron hut serves as a saloon with tables and benches, where customers would eat and socialise. Featuring coal fired ranges using beef-dripping, the shop is named in honour of the last coal fired shop in Tyneside, in Winlaton Mill, and which closed in 2007. Latterly run by brothers Brian and Ramsay Davy, it had been established by their grandfather in 1937. The serving counter and one of the shop's three fryers, a 1934 Nuttal, came from the original Davy shop. The other two fryers are a 1920s Mabbott used near Chester until the 1960s, and a GW Atkinson New Castle Range, donated from a shop in Prudhoe in 1973. The latter is one of only two known late Victorian examples to survive. The decorative wall tiles in the fryery came to the museum in 1979 from Cowes Fish and Game Shop in Berwick upon Tweed. The shop also features both an early electric and hand-powered potato rumblers (cleaners), and a gas powered chip chopper built around 1900. Built behind the chapel, the fryery is arranged so the counter faces the rear, stretching the full length of the building. Outside is a brick built row of outdoor toilets. Supplementing the fish bar is the restored Berriman's mobile chip van, used in Spennymoor until the early 1970s.

 

Band hall

The Hetton Silver Band Hall opened in 2013, and features displays reflecting the role colliery bands played in mining life. Built in 1912, it was relocated from its original location in South Market Street, Hetton-le-Hole, where it was used by the Hetton Silver Band, founded in 1887. They built the hall using prize money from a music competition, and the band decided to donate the hall to the museum after they merged with Broughtons Brass Band of South Hetton (to form the Durham Miners' Association Brass Band). It is believed to be the only purpose built band hall in the region. The structure consists of the main hall, plus a small kitchen to the rear; as part of the museum it is still used for performances.

 

Pit pony stables

The Pit Pony Stables were built in 2013/14, and house the museum's pit ponies. They replace a wooden stable a few metres away in the field opposite the school (the wooden structure remaining). It represents the sort of stables that were used in drift mines (ponies in deep mines living their whole lives underground), pit ponies having been in use in the north east as late as 1994, in Ellington Colliery. The structure is a recreation of an original building that stood at Rickless Drift Mine, between High Spen and Greenside; it was built using a yellow brick that was common across the Durham coalfield.

 

Other

Doubling as one of the museum's refreshment buildings, Sinker's Bait Cabin represents the temporary structures that would have served as living quarters, canteens and drying areas for sinkers, the itinerant workforce that would dig new vertical mine shafts.

 

Representing other traditional past-times, the village fields include a quoits pitch, with another refreshment hut alongside it, resembling a wooden clubhouse.

 

In one of the fields in the village stands the Cupola, a small round flat topped brick built tower; such structures were commonly placed on top of disused or ventilation shafts, also used as an emergency exit from the upper seams.

 

The Georgian North (1825)

A late Georgian landscape based around the original Pockerley farm represents the period of change in the region as transport links were improved and as agriculture changed as machinery and field management developed, and breeding stock was improved. It became part of the museum in 1990, having latterly been occupied by a tenant farmer, and was opened as an exhibit in 1995. The hill top position suggests the site was the location of an Iron Age fort - the first recorded mention of a dwelling is in the 1183 Buke of Boldon (the region's equivalent of the Domesday Book). The name Pockerley has Saxon origins - "Pock" or "Pokor" meaning "pimple of bag-like" hill, and "Ley" meaning woodland clearing.

 

The surrounding farmlands have been returned to a post-enclosure landscape with ridge and furrow topography, divided into smaller fields by traditional riven oak fencing. The land is worked and grazed by traditional methods and breeds.

 

Pockerley Old Hall

The estate of Pockerley Old Hall is presented as that of a well off tenant farmer, in a position to take advantage of the agricultural advances of the era. The hall itself consists of the Old House, which is adjoined (but not connected to) the New House, both south facing two storey sandstone built buildings, the Old House also having a small north–south aligned extension. Roof timbers in the sandstone built Old House have been dated to the 1440s, but the lower storey (the undercroft) may be from even earlier. The New House dates to the late 1700s, and replaced a medieval manor house to the east of the Old House as the main farm house - once replaced itself, the Old House is believed to have been let to the farm manager. Visitors can access all rooms in the New and Old House, except the north–south extension which is now a toilet block. Displays include traditional cooking, such as the drying of oatcakes over a wooden rack (flake) over the fireplace in the Old House.

 

Inside the New House the downstairs consists of a main kitchen and a secondary kitchen (scullery) with pantry. It also includes a living room, although as the main room of the house, most meals would have been eaten in the main kitchen, equipped with an early range, boiler and hot air oven. Upstairs is a main bedroom and a second bedroom for children; to the rear (i.e. the colder, north side), are bedrooms for a servant and the servant lad respectively. Above the kitchen (for transferred warmth) is a grain and fleece store, with attached bacon loft, a narrow space behind the wall where bacon or hams, usually salted first, would be hung to be smoked by the kitchen fire (entering through a small door in the chimney).

 

Presented as having sparse and more old fashioned furnishings, the Old House is presented as being occupied in the upper story only, consisting of a main room used as the kitchen, bedroom and for washing, with the only other rooms being an adjoining second bedroom and an overhanging toilet. The main bed is an oak box bed dating to 1712, obtained from Star House in Baldersdale in 1962. Originally a defensive house in its own right, the lower level of the Old House is an undercroft, or vaulted basement chamber, with 1.5 metre thick walls - in times of attack the original tenant family would have retreated here with their valuables, although in its later use as the farm managers house, it is now presented as a storage and work room, housing a large wooden cheese press.[68] More children would have slept in the attic of the Old House (not accessible as a display).

 

To the front of the hall is a terraced garden featuring an ornamental garden with herbs and flowers, a vegetable garden, and an orchard, all laid out and planted according to the designs of William Falla of Gateshead, who had the largest nursery in Britain from 1804 to 1830.

 

The buildings to the east of the hall, across a north–south track, are the original farmstead buildings dating from around 1800. These include stables and a cart shed arranged around a fold yard. The horses and carts on display are typical of North Eastern farms of the era, Fells or Dales ponies and Cleveland Bay horses, and two wheeled long carts for hilly terrain (as opposed to four wheel carts).

 

Pockerley Waggonway

The Pockerley Waggonway opened in 2001, and represents the year 1825, as the year the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened. Waggonways had appeared around 1600, and by the 1800s were common in mining areas - prior to 1800 they had been either horse or gravity powered, before the invention of steam engines (initially used as static winding engines), and later mobile steam locomotives.

 

Housing the locomotives and rolling stock is the Great Shed, which opened in 2001 and is based on Timothy Hackworth's erecting shop, Shildon railway works, and incorporating some material from Robert Stephenson and Company's Newcastle works. Visitors can walk around the locomotives in the shed, and when in steam, can take rides to the end of the track and back in the line's assorted rolling stock - situated next to the Great Shed is a single platform for passenger use. In the corner of the main shed is a corner office, presented as a locomotive designer's office (only visible to visitors through windows). Off the pedestrian entrance in the southern side is a room presented as the engine crew's break room. Atop the Great Shed is a weather vane depicting a waggonway train approaching a cow, a reference to a famous quote by George Stephenson when asked by parliament in 1825 what would happen in such an eventuality - "very awkward indeed - for the coo!".

 

At the far end of the waggonway is the (fictional) coal mine Pockerley Gin Pit, which the waggonway notionally exists to serve. The pit head features a horse powered wooden whim gin, which was the method used before steam engines for hauling men and material up and down mineshafts - coal was carried in corves (wicker baskets), while miners held onto the rope with their foot in an attached loop.

 

Wooden waggonway

Following creation of the Pockerley Waggonway, the museum went back a chapter in railway history to create a horse-worked wooden waggonway.

 

St Helen's Church

St Helen's Church represents a typical type of country church found in North Yorkshire, and was relocated from its original site in Eston, North Yorkshire. It is the oldest and most complex building moved to the museum. It opened in November 2015, but will not be consecrated as this would place restrictions on what could be done with the building under church law.

 

The church had existed on its original site since around 1100. As the congregation grew, it was replaced by two nearby churches, and latterly became a cemetery chapel. After closing in 1985, it fell into disrepair and by 1996 was burnt out and vandalised leading to the decision by the local authority in 1998 to demolish it. Working to a deadline of a threatened demolition within six months, the building was deconstructed and moved to Beamish, reconstruction being authorised in 2011, with the exterior build completed by 2012.

 

While the structure was found to contain some stones from the 1100 era, the building itself however dates from three distinct building phases - the chancel on the east end dates from around 1450, while the nave, which was built at the same time, was modernised in 1822 in the Churchwarden style, adding a vestry. The bell tower dates from the late 1600s - one of the two bells is a rare dated Tudor example. Gargoyles, originally hidden in the walls and believed to have been pranks by the original builders, have been made visible in the reconstruction.

 

Restored to its 1822 condition, the interior has been furnished with Georgian box pews sourced from a church in Somerset. Visitors can access all parts except the bell tower. The nave includes a small gallery level, at the tower end, while the chancel includes a church office.

 

Joe the Quilter's Cottage

The most recent addition to the area opened to the public in 2018 is a recreation of a heather-thatched cottage which features stones from the Georgian quilter Joseph Hedley's original home in Northumberland. It was uncovered during an archaeological dig by Beamish. His original cottage was demolished in 1872 and has been carefully recreated with the help of a drawing on a postcard. The exhibit tells the story of quilting and the growth of cottage industries in the early 1800s. Within there is often a volunteer or member of staff not only telling the story of how Joe was murdered in 1826, a crime that remains unsolved to this day, but also giving visitors the opportunity to learn more and even have a go at quilting.

 

Other

A pack pony track passes through the scene - pack horses having been the mode of transport for all manner of heavy goods where no waggonway exists, being also able to reach places where carriages and wagons could not access. Beside the waggonway is a gibbet.

 

Farm (1940s)

Presented as Home Farm, this represents the role of North East farms as part of the British Home Front during World War II, depicting life indoors, and outside on the land. Much of the farmstead is original, and opened as a museum display in 1983. The farm is laid out across a north–south public road; to the west is the farmhouse and most of the farm buildings, while on the east side are a pair of cottages, the British Kitchen, an outdoor toilet ("netty"), a bull field, duck pond and large shed.

 

The farm complex was rebuilt in the mid-19th century as a model farm incorporating a horse mill and a steam-powered threshing mill. It was not presented as a 1940s farm until early 2014.

 

The farmhouse is presented as having been modernised, following the installation of electric power and an Aga cooker in the scullery, although the main kitchen still has the typical coal-fired black range. Lino flooring allowed quicker cleaning times, while a radio set allowed the family to keep up to date with wartime news. An office next to the kitchen would have served both as the administration centre for the wartime farm, and as a local Home Guard office. Outside the farmhouse is an improvised Home Guard pillbox fashioned from half an egg-ended steam boiler, relocated from its original position near Durham.

 

The farm is equipped with three tractors which would have all seen service during the war: a Case, a Fordson N and a 1924 Fordson F. The farm also features horse-drawn traps, reflecting the effect wartime rationing of petrol would have had on car use. The farming equipment in the cart and machinery sheds reflects the transition of the time from horse-drawn to tractor-pulled implements, with some older equipment put back into use due to the war, as well as a large Foster thresher, vital for cereal crops, and built specifically for the war effort, sold at the Newcastle Show. Although the wartime focus was on crops, the farm also features breeds of sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry that would have been typical for the time. The farm also has a portable steam engine, not in use, but presented as having been left out for collection as part of a wartime scrap metal drive.

 

The cottages would have housed farm labourers, but are presented as having new uses for the war: Orchard Cottage housing a family of evacuees, and Garden Cottage serving as a billet for members of the Women's Land Army (Land Girls). Orchard Cottage is named for an orchard next to it, which also contains an Anderson shelter, reconstructed from partial pieces of ones recovered from around the region. Orchard Cottage, which has both front and back kitchens, is presented as having an up to date blue enameled kitchen range, with hot water supplied from a coke stove, as well as a modern accessible bathroom. Orchard Cottage is also used to stage recreations of wartime activities for schools, elderly groups and those living with dementia. Garden Cottage is sparsely furnished with a mix of items, reflecting the few possessions Land Girls were able to take with them, although unusually the cottage is depicted with a bathroom, and electricity (due to proximity to a colliery).

 

The British Kitchen is both a display and one of the museum's catering facilities; it represents an installation of one of the wartime British Restaurants, complete with propaganda posters and a suitably patriotic menu.

 

Town (1950s)

As part of the Remaking Beamish project, with significant funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the museum is creating a 1950s town. Opened in July 2019, the Welfare Hall is an exact replica of the Leasingthorne Colliery Welfare Hall and Community Centre which was built in 1957 near Bishop Auckland. Visitors can 'take part in activities including dancing, crafts, Meccano, beetle drive, keep fit and amateur dramatics' while also taking a look at the National Health Service exhibition on display, recreating the environment of an NHS clinic. A recreation and play park, named Coronation Park was opened in May 2022 to coincide with the celebrations around the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

 

The museum's first 1950s terrace opened in February 2022. This included a fish and chip shop from Middleton St George, a cafe, a replica of Norman Cornish's home, and a hairdressers. Future developments opposite the existing 1950s terrace will see a recreation of The Grand Cinema, from Ryhope, in Sunderland, and toy and electricians shops. Also underdevelopment are a 1950s bowling green and pavilion, police houses and aged miner's cottages. Also under construction are semi-detached houses; for this exhibit, a competition was held to recreate a particular home at Beamish, which was won by a family from Sunderland.

 

As well as the town, a 1950s Northern bus depot has been opened on the western side of the museum – the purpose of this is to provide additional capacity for bus, trolleybus and tram storage once the planned trolleybus extension and the new area are completed, providing extra capacity and meeting the need for modified routing.

 

Spain's Field Farm

In March 2022, the museum opened Spain's Field Farm. It had stood for centuries at Eastgate in Weardale, and was moved to Beamish stone-by-stone. It is exhibited as it would have been in the 1950s.

 

1820s Expansion

In the area surrounding the current Pockerley Old Hall and Steam Wagon Way more development is on the way. The first of these was planned to be a Georgian Coaching Inn that would be the museum's first venture into overnight accommodation. However following the COVID-19 pandemic this was abandoned, in favour of self-catering accommodation in existing cottages.

 

There are also plans for 1820s industries including a blacksmith's forge and a pottery.

 

Museum stores

There are two stores on the museum site, used to house donated objects. In contrast to the traditional rotation practice used in museums where items are exchanged regularly between store and display, it is Beamish policy that most of their exhibits are to be in use and on display - those items that must be stored are to be used in the museum's future developments.

 

Open Store

Housed in the Regional Resource Centre, the Open Store is accessible to visitors. Objects are housed on racks along one wall, while the bulk of items are in a rolling archive, with one set of shelves opened, with perspex across their fronts to permit viewing without touching.

 

Regional Museums Store

The real purposes of the building presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works next to Rowley Station is as the Regional Museums Store, completed in 2002, which Beamish shares with Tyne and Wear Museums. This houses, amongst other things, a large marine diesel engine by William Doxford & Sons of Pallion, Sunderland (1977); and several boats including the Tyne wherry (a traditional local type of lighter) Elswick No. 2 (1930). The store is only open at selected times, and for special tours which can be arranged through the museum; however, a number of viewing windows have been provided for use at other times.

 

Transport collection

Main article: Beamish Museum transport collection

The museum contains much of transport interest, and the size of its site makes good internal transportation for visitors and staff purposes a necessity.

 

The collection contains a variety of historical vehicles for road, rail and tramways. In addition there are some modern working replicas to enhance the various scenes in the museum.

 

Agriculture

The museum's two farms help to preserve traditional northcountry and in some cases rare livestock breeds such as Durham Shorthorn Cattle; Clydesdale and Cleveland Bay working horses; Dales ponies; Teeswater sheep; Saddleback pigs; and poultry.

 

Regional heritage

Other large exhibits collected by the museum include a tracked steam shovel, and a coal drop from Seaham Harbour.

 

In 2001 a new-build Regional Resource Centre (accessible to visitors by appointment) opened on the site to provide accommodation for the museum's core collections of smaller items. These include over 300,000 historic photographs, printed books and ephemera, and oral history recordings. The object collections cover the museum's specialities. These include quilts; "clippy mats" (rag rugs); Trade union banners; floor cloth; advertising (including archives from United Biscuits and Rowntree's); locally made pottery; folk art; and occupational costume. Much of the collection is viewable online and the arts of quilting, rug making and cookery in the local traditions are demonstrated at the museum.

 

Filming location

The site has been used as the backdrop for many film and television productions, particularly Catherine Cookson dramas, produced by Tyne Tees Television, and the final episode and the feature film version of Downton Abbey. Some of the children's television series Supergran was shot here.

 

Visitor numbers

On its opening day the museum set a record by attracting a two-hour queue. Visitor numbers rose rapidly to around 450,000 p.a. during the first decade of opening to the public, with the millionth visitor arriving in 1978.

 

Awards

Museum of the Year1986

European Museum of the Year Award1987

Living Museum of the Year2002

Large Visitor Attraction of the YearNorth East England Tourism awards2014 & 2015

Large Visitor Attraction of the Year (bronze)VisitEngland awards2016

It was designated by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 1997 as a museum with outstanding collections.

 

Critical responses

In responding to criticism that it trades on nostalgia the museum is unapologetic. A former director has written: "As individuals and communities we have a deep need and desire to understand ourselves in time."

 

According to the BBC writing in its 40th anniversary year, Beamish was a mould-breaking museum that became a great success due to its collection policy, and what sets it apart from other museums is the use of costumed people to impart knowledge to visitors, rather than labels or interpretive panels (although some such panels do exist on the site), which means it "engages the visitor with history in a unique way".

 

Legacy

Beamish was influential on the Black Country Living Museum, Blists Hill Victorian Town and, in the view of museologist Kenneth Hudson, more widely in the museum community and is a significant educational resource locally. It can also demonstrate its benefit to the contemporary local economy.

 

The unselective collecting policy has created a lasting bond between museum and community.

Some of you may have noticed that, unfortunately, owing to the fact that a certain person who sells truck photos on eBay commercially has been lifting my images from this album and selling them I have had to remove 2300 photos that didn't have a watermark. I have now run around 1700 through Lightroom and added a watermark with the intention of bulk uploading them again. Rather than watermark the existing (hidden) files in Flickr one at a time it will be easier to do it this way. I definitely won’t be adding individual tags with the make and model of each vehicle I will just add generic transport tags. Each photo is named after the vehicle and reg in any case. For anyone new to these images there is a chapter and verse explanation below. It is staggering how many times I get asked questions that a quick scan would answer or just as likely I can’t possibly answer – I didn’t take them, but, just to clarify-I do own the copyright- and I do pursue copyright theft.

 

This is a collection of scanned prints from a collection of photographs taken by the late Jim Taylor A number of years ago I was offered a large number of photographs taken by Jim Taylor, a transport photographer based in Huddersfield. The collection, 30,000 prints, 20,000 negatives – and copyright! – had been offered to me and one of the national transport magazines previously by a friend of Jim's, on behalf of Jim's wife. I initially turned them down, already having over 30,000 of my own prints filed away and taking space up. Several months later the prints were still for sale – at what was, apparently, the going rate. It was a lot of money and I deliberated for quite a while before deciding to buy them. I did however buy them directly from Jim’s wife and she delivered them personally – just to quash the occasional rumour from people who can’t mind their own business. Although some prints were sold elsewhere, particularly the popular big fleet stuff, I should have the negatives, unfortunately they came to me in a random mix, 1200 to a box, without any sort of indexing and as such it would be impossible to match negatives to prints, or, to even find a print of any particular vehicle. I have only ever looked at a handful myself unless I am scanning them. The prints are generally in excellent condition and I initially stored them in a bedroom without ever looking at any of them. In 2006 I built an extension and they had to be well protected from dust and moved a few times. Ultimately my former 6x7 box room office has become their (and my own work’s) permanent home.

I hope to avoid posting images that Jim had not taken his self, however should I inadvertently infringe another photographers copyright, please inform me by email and I will resolve the issue immediately. There are copyright issues with some of the photographs that were sold to me. A Flickr member from Scotland drew my attention to some of his own work amongst the first uploads of Jim’s work. I had a quick look through some of the 30 boxes of prints and decided that for the time being the safest thing for me to do was withdraw the majority of the earlier uploaded scans and deal with the problem – which I did. whilst the vast majority of the prints are Jims, there is a problem defining copyright of some of them, this is something that the seller did not make clear at the time. I am reasonably confident that I have since been successful in identifying Jims own work. His early work consists of many thousands of lustre 6x4 prints which are difficult to scan well, later work is almost entirely 7x5 glossy, much easier to scan. Not all of the prints are pin sharp but I can generally print successfully to A4 from a scan.

 

You may notice photographs being duplicated in this Album, unfortunately there are multiple copies of many prints (for swapping) and as I have to have a system of archiving and backing up I can only guess - using memory - if I have scanned a print before. The bigger fleets have so many similar vehicles and registration numbers that it is impossible to get it right all of the time. It is easier to scan and process a print than check my files - on three different PC’s - for duplicates. There has not been, nor will there ever be, any intention to knowingly breach anyone else's copyright. I have presented the Jim Taylor collection as exactly that-The Jim Taylor Collection- his work not mine, my own work is quite obviously mine.

Unfortunately, many truck spotters have swapped and traded their work without copyright marking it as theirs. These people never anticipated the ease with which images would be shared online in the future. I would guess that having swapped and traded photos for many years that it is almost impossible to control their future use. Anyone wanting to control the future use of their work would have been well advised to copyright mark their work (as many did) and would be well advised not to post them on photo sharing sites without a watermark as the whole point of these sites is to share the image, it is very easy for those that wish, to lift any image, despite security settings, indeed, Flickr itself, warns you that this is the case. It was this abuse and theft of my material that led me to watermark all of my later uploads. I may yet withdraw non-watermarked photos, I haven’t decided yet. (I did in the end)

To anyone reading the above it will be quite obvious that I can’t provide information regarding specific photos or potential future uploads – I didn’t take them! There are many vehicles that were well known to me as Jim only lived down the road from me (although I didn’t know him), however scanning, titling, tagging and uploading is laborious and time consuming enough, I do however provide a fair amount of information with my own transport (and other) photos. I am aware that there are requests from other Flickr users that are unanswered, I stumble across them months or years after they were posted, this isn’t deliberate. Some weekends one or two “enthusiasts” can add many hundreds of photos as favourites, this pushes requests that are in the comments section ten or twenty pages out of sight and I miss them. I also have notifications switched off, I receive around 50 emails a day through work and I don’t want even more from Flickr. Other requests, like many other things, I just plain forget – no excuses! Uploads of Jim’s photos will be infrequent as it is a boring pastime and I would much rather work on my own output.

 

Model "Trailer Tr4 MkII” is build with LEGO® in scale 1:17,5 and motorized using LEGO® Power Functions. It is not build after a specific brand or type of trailer. This build represents a three axle detachable gooseneck lowboy trailer with liftable third axle.

 

The trailer features: solid axle suspension on all axles, one set of lights, kingpin, mechanical parking break, gooseneck frame support, remotely controlled liftable third axle, remotely lowering and lifting of the deck and this model has many details.

 

This newly design and engineered trailer utilizes the same suspension as both "US Truck T1 MkII" and "US Truck T2 MkII". It uses LEGO® rubber belts and LEGO® rubber axle connectors.

Designing and engineering this trailer parts availability is checked. So it can easily be build in the color as it is, Yellow, but it can also be build in Red, Blue and Black.

 

Attention!!!: Both "US Truck T1 MkII" and "US Truck T2 MkII" needs to be adapted to be combined with "Trailer Tr4 MkII”!!!

Else could be used a so called dolly which acts as a convert to fit the trailer. For this dolly building instructions will be available soon.

Attention!!!: LEGO® Technic set 8258 Crane Truck needs to be adapted and requires a modified gooseneck!!! Instructions for "Trailer Tr4 MkII” to go with LEGO® Technic set 8258 Crane Truck will be available soon!

 

This model is another custom design by Ingmar Spijkhoven AKA 2LegoOrNot2Lego that comes with building instructions and inventory/parts list! So, you can build it yourself!

To do so you can buy the Building Instructions. Early in the building process you will see what it is that you are building. You will be very excited from the moment you start the build of "Trailer Tr4 MkII" till you finish it with a total number of parts of about 1450 pieces.

 

With this type of lowboy trailer the gooseneck is removed to make the deck accessible. Because the front part of the trailer rests on the surface the truck with the gooseneck still attached can drive off. In order to keep the gooseneck elevated at the correct hight is as a support. This support rests on the trucks frame.

 

The ramps can be lowered and any self propelled load can enter the trailers deck. With the trailer loaded and the load secured the gooseneck can be reattached. This is done by backing up the truck aligned with the trailer. With a support that rests on the trucks frame the gooseneck can be lowered of lifted to make sure it comes in place. Finally the deck can be lifted again and the gooseneck can be locked so it doesn’t go anywhere without the trailer itself.

Project Room

Barry McGee (TWIST)

Site-Specific Loft Installation

 

"Running concurrently with the group exhibition Do Not Stack, McGee takes over the project space, transforming the room’s physical relationship with the visitor into an interactive viewing. A distinctive cluster of McGee’s various paintings, works on paper and urban objects can be accessed by ascending through the floor of the utilitarian structure to the lofted space above."

 

Barry McGee "Site-Specific Loft Installation" at the Roberts and Tilton Gallery in L.A.

 

I spoke with the director of the gallery. He said that the gallery offered this 10' x 10' room to Barry McGee to do something with it. He said they got to talking and then Barry asked, "Can I build a loft?" And they did. A real interesting space. Well worth a visit in my opinion.

American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus). These guys are invasive species to this specific region. They are native and common to the midwestern U.S., where I grew up (Kansas).

 

As a young adult, I took advantage of the managed harvest season on bullfrogs. We hunted them at night with headlamps and a small spear called a "gig." What I can say is, their meat is nothing less than delicious. As the image shows, those hind legs are ample with meat. In restaurants, they're considered a delicacy and are relatively expensive. I'm sure they're cultured on farms for restaurants.

 

I see them on the refuge, often. Usually, they're quite timid, and getting close for an image is nearly impossible. Today I packed the 70-200 lens hoping to zoom onto one if they were out and about.

 

This fellow was sitting docile beside a small wetland pond. I approached quietly through the brush. I tried my bumble bee approach by gradually decreasing the distance between me and the frog.

 

Well, before it was over, he permitted me within 3 meters of his roost. It was almost too close for a zoom lens, but I pushed the limits of minimum focal distance. He wasn't sick by any means, but I suspect the heavy heat and humidity may have played a role, or, he decided I was no threat and posed for as long as I wanted.

 

Unfortunately, I could not move to a perspective without the large stick overhead. As overall size goes, he was about the size of two hands. Big as frogs go, and quite a distinguished gentleman.

The only part that has survived from the monastery's original structure is the ossuary, which has a specific architectural design and ancient frescoes, and is situated 300 m away from the contemporary monastery complex. It looks inaccessible when viewed from the north. The building has two storeys, of which only one can be seen from the south. From architectural point of view the plan of the ossuary looks foreign to the local traditions. It is reminiscent of Syrian-Palestine mortuaries with its two floors of identical design. Each floor has a narthex, a single nave and an apse. The ground floor is intended for a crypt and has 14 burial niches. It would appear that the original ossuary was designed to house fourteen specific corpses under the floor pavement. Wikipedia