With concern about hackers, tools for remembering so many codes; no more pet names or 123456.
For
all its benefits, the Internet can be a hassle when it comes to
remembering passwords for email, banking, social networking and
shopping.
Many people use just a single password across the Web. That's a bad idea, say online-security experts.
"Having
the same password for everything is like having the same key for your
house, your car, your gym locker, your office," says Michael Barrett,
chief information-security officer for online-payments service PayPal, a
unit of eBay Inc.
Mr.
Barrett has different passwords for his email and Facebook accounts --
and that's just for starters. He has a third password for financial
websites he uses, such as for banks and credit cards, and a fourth for
major shopping sites such as Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN - News).
He created a fifth password for websites he visits infrequently or
doesn't trust, such as blogs and an online store that sells gardening
tools.
A spate of recent attacks underscores how hackers are
spending more time trying to crack into big databases to obtain
passwords, security officials say. In April, for instance, hackers
obtained passwords and other information of 77 million users in Sony
Corp.'s (NYSE: SNE - News) PlayStation Network, while Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG - News) said this month that hackers broke into its email system and gained passwords of U.S. government officials.
So-called
brute force attacks, by which hackers try to guess individual
passwords, also appear to be on the rise, Mr. Barrett says.
PayPal
says two out of three people use just one or two passwords across all
sites, with Web users averaging 25 online accounts. A 2009 survey in the
U.K. by security-software company PC Tools found men to be particularly
bad offenders, with 47% using just one password, compared with 26% of
women.
Another
PC Tools survey last year showed that 28% of young Australians from 18
to 38 years old had passwords that were easily guessed, such as a name
of a loved one or pet, which criminals can easily find on Facebook or
other public sites. Other passwords can be easily guessed, too. Hackers
last year posted a list of the most popular passwords of Gawker Media
users, including "password," "123456," "qwerty," "letmein" and
"baseball."
"If your password is on that list, please change it,"
says Brandon Sterne, security manager at Mozilla Corp., which makes the
Firefox browser and other software. Hackers "will take the first 100
passwords on the list and go through the entire user base" of a website
to crack a few accounts, he says.
People typically start changing
online passwords after they've been hacked, says Dave Cole, general
manager of PC Tools. However, "after a relatively short time, all but
the most paranoid users regress to previous behaviors prior to the
security breach," he says. He and other security experts recommend
people change or rotate passwords a few times a year.
To come up
with a strong password, some security officials recommend taking a
memorable phrase and using the first letter of each word. For example,
"to be or not to be, that is the question," becomes "tbontbtitq." Others
mash an unlikely pair of words together. The longer the password -- at
least eight characters, experts say -- the safer it is.
Once
people figure out a phrase for their password, they can make it more
complex by replacing letters with special characters or numbers. They
can also capitalize, say, the second character of every password for
added security. Hence "tbontbtitq" becomes "tB0ntbtitq."
No
matter how good a password is, it is unsafe to use just one. Mr.
Barrett recommends following his lead and having strong ones for four
different kinds of sites -- email, social networks, financial
institutions and e-commerce sites -- and a fifth for infrequently
visited or untrustworthy sites.
Even the strongest passwords,
however, are useless if criminals install so-called malware on computers
that allow them to track a person's keystrokes. Security experts say
people can avoid this by keeping their antivirus and antispyware
software updated and by avoiding downloading files from unknown websites
and email senders.
Some security experts recommend slightly
modifying passwords within each category of site. Companies such as
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News)
offer free password-strength checkers, but users shouldn't rely on them
wholly because such strength tests don't gauge whether a password
contains easily found personal information, such as a birthday or a
pet's name.
It's especially important to have a separate password
for an email account, says Mozilla's Mr. Sterne. Many sites have "Forgot
my password" buttons that, when clicked, initiate a password-recovery
process by email. Hackers who break into an email account can then
intercept those emails and take control of each account registered using
that address.
Some
websites, such as Google and Facebook, now let people register a phone
number along with their account. If a person forgets his passwords, the
sites reset the passwords by calling or sending a text message to that
person.
Mr. Barrett says people should be able to remember four or
five good passwords. If not, they can write them down on a piece of
paper and stick it in their wallet, and then throw the cheat sheet away
once all the passwords are memorized.
People who still struggle to
remember them all can use a password manager. Several, such as
LastPass, are free. LastPass prompts users to create a master password
and then generates and stores random passwords for different sites. Some
security experts warn against using managers that store passwords
remotely, but LastPass Chief Executive Joe Siegrist says hackers can't
access the passwords because all data is encrypted.
The worst
thing that people can do after creating their different passwords: Put
it on a sticky note by their monitor. "That defeats the entire purpose,"
says Mr. Sterne.
Heather O'Neill, a 27-year-old tech-company
employee in San Francisco, had her Google email account broken into
earlier this year. She says she used the same password for several
sites, and that it was a weak one.
"I can't have one password for everything," she says. "Everything is going to be different."
The recent earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent fears over
nuclear radiation have prompted many to turn to the Web for advice
on disaster preparedness. Online lookups for "disaster
kits" and "how to make a disaster kit" have both
more than tripled during the past week.
In short, folks are wondering, what they should have in their
kit? Opinions vary depending on what sort of disaster you happen to
be preparing for. However, most experts, like the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross, agree that the
following items are essential.
Water
This is the big one. You must have plenty of water. Just
how much? FEMA, the
disaster preparedness wing of the US Government, insists that you
should have at least a three-day supply. A rule of thumb -- have
one gallon of water per person per day. If you happen to live in a
hot climate, you'll want to increase that amount. "Very
hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed," the
site writes. Also, keep in mind that children, the elderly, nursing
mothers, and people who are ill will need more water. Of course,
you'll want to store the water in non-breakable containers and
keep an eye on the expiration date. Water doesn't spoil in the
traditional sense, but it
can taste bad after a while.
First aid supplies
There's no telling what you'll be faced with in the wake of
a disaster, but a few basic first aid supplies will certainly come
in handy. Again, according to FEMA, you'll want several
bandages of various sizes, gauze pads, adhesive tape, scissors,
tweezers, antiseptic, a thermometer, antiseptic, petroleum jelly,
sunscreen, safety pins, and more. You'll also want a good
supply of non-prescription medication, including aspirin,
anti-diarrhea medicine, antacid, laxative, and some poison control
supplies. For a full list, check
here.
Food
Like water, you're going to want a healthy supply of
non-perishable food should the unexpected happen.
The American Red Cross writes that you should have a three-day
supply ready in case you are forced to leave your home. And
you should also have a two-week supply in the event that you stay
in your home. Of course, the food should be easy to open and
prepare.
Clothing and sanitation supplies
This mostly applies to people in cold-weather areas. Should
disaster strike, have some warm clothes at the ready. You'll
want to have at least one complete change of clothes for each
person. FEMA suggests
a coat, sturdy shoes or boots, long pants, gloves, hat, scarf,
thermal underwear, and rain gear. You'll also want to have
plenty of blankets, sunglasses, and various sanitation supplies
like soap, toilet paper, detergent, and more.
Tools and special items
Just a few things you'll want to have on you: battery operated
radio and batteries, flashlight, cash, nonelectric can opener,
pliers, compass, matches, signal flare, paper and pencil, wrench to
shut off household gas and water, whistle, and map of the immediate
area. Important documents like IDs, birth certificates, credit card
information, prescription numbers, and extra eyeglasses are also
good ideas. Again, this is just a partial list. For the full list,
please visit FEMA.gov.
10 Most Photographed Places on Earth
Join us for a photographic countdown to the
most recorded place on earth—plus, tips from our photo editors for
breaking the mold if you so choose.
By Sean O'Neill Editors comment:
In this article and it's links, it is noticeable that there are no
images from either Asia or Oceanania (The Pacific / Australia & New
Zealand). Hmmm!
Crowds can make a space seem more alive. This photographer has used the plaza at Dam Square as a backdrop to capture its local talent.
Mining data from 35 million Flickr
photos, scientists at Cornell University made some surprising
discoveries: Not only did the world's most photographed cities (and the
most captured landmark in each) emerge, but also so did the most
common angles for shooting each place. So what do the results say about
us as travelers? The findings suggest that through our cameras, we
"vote" for our favorite places, things, and the best representation of
them—and, by and large, we
agree. We reached out to the researchers to see if the results had
changed since the study was released in April 2009, and they crunched
the numbers for us again—with a few exceptions (the Lincoln Memorial,
for example, has replaced the
Washington Monument as most photographed place in D.C.) not much had
changed.
But how can you photograph world wonders in a way that makes
something special out of the overly familiar? In our slide show, we
showcase the most commonly shot landmarks from the top 25 cities—first
showing you its classic angle and
then offering fresh alternatives, with tips from our photo editors on
how to put your own unique spin on these iconic destinations. Consider
this your photographer's guide to the Flickr Wonders of the World.
Created in the 13th century as a dam around the Amstel River, this
expansive plaza is now flooded with street performers and tourists (and
pigeons). It's hard to capture the frenzied feeling in a wide shot.
Standard shot: Wide, with buildings and lots of space
Tip: Try keeping other people in the frame. There's a natural
temptation to shy away from shooting photos of strangers, but including
people can give viewers a contextual clue about the relative size of the
subject you're
photographing. Plus families and groups of travelers can make a space
seem more alive. Here, the photographer has used the plaza as a backdrop
to capture its local talent.
The archways at Rome's Colosseum give shape to the photo.
This ancient site is filled with the ghosts of dueling gladiators,
tormented prisoners, and slaughtered animals, contained, centuries after
the fact, within a stunning framework of Corinthian, Doric, and Ionic
columns. It's a gorgeous
dichotomy indeed, and it's hard to not want to capture it all.
Standard shot: The structure, in its entirety.
Tip: Take advantage of a natural "frame." The archways at
Rome's Colosseum give shape to the photo. Shooting through windows,
courtyards, doorways, and other openings can create an appealing
inside/outside dynamic.
Seattle's Space Needle reflected in the windows of a building.
What began as the symbol of the World's Fair in 1962 has now become
the symbol of this supercool city. The 360-degree view from the top is
expansive, taking in sights from the Puget Sound to Mount Rainier.
Standard shot: From directly below.
Tip: Create a mirror image. Reflective surfaces are common in
urban areas. For a unique take on a classic monument, look around for
how an object might be mirrored in a car window, a building's glass
front, or the surface of a
fountain.
Including other objects in the picture, like this $5 bill in front of the Lincoln Memorial, adds a creative element of whimsy.
This marble memorial to the 16th president—featuring Ionic columns,
oil-paint murals, and a 120-ton statue of Abe himself—is a striking part
of the National Mall.
Standard shot: The full building, from a distance.
Tip: Put things in "perspective." A straight-on shot is the
most obvious one to take of the Lincoln Memorial, as it puts the main
subject front and center. But including other objects in the picture,
like this $5 bill, adds a
creative element of whimsy to what might otherwise be a dime-a-dozen
postcard image.
The photographer went underneath the Cloud Gate "bean" sculpture and shot upward for a unique view.
Anish Kapoor's 110-ton bean of stainless steel is the shiny
centerpiece of Millennium Park's AT&T Plaza and makes for a striking
photo in just about any composition.
Standard shot: A direct shot of the bean, taken from the side.
Tip: Avoid the obvious. Whether it's a sculpture, a person, or
a building, you can always walk around your subject to get a different
view. In this case, the photographer went underneath the bean
sculpture—made of highly
polished steel and inspired by liquid mercury—and shot upward for a
truly unique view.
The photographer shot the Hollywood stars in a line to bring context to the shot.
Begun in 1960 as a Hollywood marketing tool (with filmmaker Stanley
Kramer the first honoree), the series of coral-colored stars was at
2,441 in May 2011 and continues to grow.
Standard shot: One star, shot from above.
Tip: Use distance as a frame of reference. Rather than rush in
and snap away, pre-visualize your image, thinking about how to
photograph a subject from different directions. In this case, the
photographer chose to present the
stars in a line—a decision that brings context to the shot.
Most pictures of the Eiffel Tower are taken from a distance, but close-up shots of architectual present a fresh view.
Gustave Eiffel's 1889 masterpiece, constructed in celebration of the
French Revolution's 100th anniversary, is magnificent at any angle; but
why choose one that you can easily find on a postcard?
Standard shot: Full-on, from far away.
Tip: Keep an eye out for unexpected patterns. Most pictures of
the Eiffel Tower are taken from a distance. But its detailed iron
latticework also captures attention. In general, close-up shots of
patterns in architecture help a
viewer see iconic attractions with fresh eyes.
A close-up photo can sometimes be as powerful as a wide-angle one, as in this tight shot of a sculpture in Union Square.
The main downtown plaza—used as a rallying site to support troops
during the Civil War—is now a mecca for hardcore shopping and
people-watching. It's also a great place to hop aboard a cable car.
Standard shot: A wide-angle view of Union Square from the Macy's Building.
Tip: Less is more. A close-up photo can sometimes be as
powerful as a wide-angle one. As Belgian fashion designer Dries Van
Noten once said: "It's more interesting to have just a picture of a
small detail. Then you can dream
all the rest around it." Here, a tight shot of a sculpture in the square
takes that advice to heart.
The photographer juxtaposed an urban icon, St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, with the surface of Trafalgar Square fountain.
John Nash designed and developed this former palace courtyard into a
public space in the early 1800s; it has since been further transformed
with sculptures, fountains, and staircases, and has become a local
hotspot for protests—all
worthy subjects for your lens.
Standard shot: A wide-angle shot of the National Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Fields church.
Tip: Shift direction. Tilt your lens down to get some
surprising texture in the foreground of your shot. Here, the
photographer juxtaposed an urban icon, St. Martin-in-the-Fields church,
with the surface of a Trafalgar Square
fountain. (And, in case you were curious, the tree stumps in this photo
were part of an exhibition that warned about deforestation.)
This shot was taken from a distance and 70th floors up, on the Top of the Rock Observation Deck in Rockefeller Center.
First off, not every pick on our list is indeed a "place," per se.
One is actually a scientific phenomenon, while another is considered a
massive
living organism home to more than 1,500 fish species and nearly 3,000
individual coral reefs. Several are wide-open spaces, but a few are
brick-and-
mortar sites built for kings (and in one case, a queen). Three have been
included on the listing of the Seven Natural Wonders; three were also
selected for the listing of the New 7 Wonders of the World. But no
matter how you slice and dice them, all 10 have something important in
common:
Sometimes, it is all about what pleases the eye. Here's our list of the
World's Prettiest Places.
Our next selection is largely unknown to tourists from the United
States, and perhaps that makes it even more precious. The limestone
caves of the
Plitvice Lakes National Park make the water of its 16 lakes and a
handful of waterfalls shimmer brilliant shades of turquoise, silver and
green. And
to get a better view the lakes' beauty, you'll find a web of wooden
plank walkways scattered throughout. But note that there is no true best
or worst
season to stop by this site in central Croatia. Snow and ice transforms
the area into a winter wonderland; in summer the surrounding trees
further
enhance the hues of the lake water. If at all possible, though, avoid
the onslaught of local tourists in July and August.
Molded out of red sandstone and white marble, and sparkling with the
glint of semi-precious stones, this mausoleum of northeastern India
needs no
justification to appear on our list. Frommer's says, "It's not just the
perfect symmetry, the ethereal luminescence, the wonderful proportions,
or the
sheer scale," that makes us revere the Taj Mahal.
It's also "the
exquisite detailing covering every inch of marble that justifies it as a
wonder of the world." Its amorous background also feeds our admiration:
It
was commissioned by a 17th century Mughal emperor to honor the memory of
his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Consider planning a trip for sometime
between October and March to behold Taj's majestic domes, chambers and
minarets; that way the weather will be somewhat cooler for walking
around. If
you have time, stay from the early morning until the late night, as "the
radiance of the Taj under the moonlight is beyond any explanation,"
notes
TajMahal.org.uk.
Australia's luscious islands, cays and coral reef system of the Great Barrier Reef
are awesome in scope and visuals -- in fact, this
reef covers more of the world than any other entry on our list
(approximately 135,000 square miles; the only living thing visible from
outer space).
All who encounter even a small portion of this gorgeous giant are
dazzled by its aquamarine waters and honeycomb beaches. Even more beauty
awaits you
below the water surface: a maze of more than 2,900 spectacular coral
reefs and countless marine life. Come to this area just off the coast of
Queensland between June and October, so you can avoid the worst of
Australia's oppressive heat.
The true origins of this impressive Buddhist monument, located in central Java, are somewhat disputed. According to the UNESCO World
Heritage website, the Borobudur
temple was founded by a
Saliendra dynasty king sometime between 750 and 842 A.D. Still, you
don't need a definitive history lesson to fully appreciate its grandeur.
Just
feast your eyes on its intricately sculpted gray-stone relief panels
(slats of stone carved with artwork to depict the life of Buddha) and
the
perfectly symmetrical stupas (mound-shaped structures containing
Buddhist relics). They're even more precious due to their resilience:
Borobudur is
still gorgeous despite nearby bombings and volcanic eruptions. Try to
visit in May; that's when the air is supposedly the cleanest in Java.
And plan
your trek at sunrise or sunset to witness how the light catches the
stupas' perforations.
We have to root a little for the home team. And here in the United States, the astonishing depths and incredible sunsets of the Grand Canyon
make it a shoe-in on this list. Plus you can enjoy
the scenery while you work up a sweat, hiking the rigorous Bright Angel
Trail or rafting the Colorado River. As President Theodore Roosevelt
famously
noted, this park is "one of the great sights which every American, if he
can travel at all, must see." Many take Teddy up on his word -- so if
you
want to explore this northern Arizona park, we suggest you avoid the
staggering crowds of the summer. Consider visiting between March and May
or
September and November, when the weather is pleasant and the lodging
rates are reasonable.
The Palace of Versailles
might have had humble
beginnings, but times have changed. Now, this ain't no simple hunting
lodge, but rather an opulent tribute to the former French monarchy.
Highlights
include the reflective Hall of Mirrors, where world leaders met to sign
the 1919 treaty that ended World War I; the manicured French-style
gardens,
which prominently feature the iconic Bassin d'Apollon (fountain) and the
verdant Orangerie garden; and the Petit Trianon, a smaller chateau
gifted to
the infamous Marie Antoinette by her husband, King Louis XVI. Early
summer is idyllic in the Île-de-France region, so plan your sojourn for
that
season. That's also when you'll find a few music concerts and special
events taking place in the Versailles gardens.
Machu Picchu's
12 acres of mysterious temples and exquisite
terraces are perpetually shrouded in cloud tufts, proving that this
ancient site of Peru's Urubamba Valley still lives up to its reputation
as the
“Lost City of the Incas.” Or at least it seems like it from the
pictures. In reality, this ancient city is always overrun with hikers
exploring the
Inca Trail or catching the view from the Temple of the Sun. So come with
plenty of camera film and patience. For fewer crowds -- though not by
much --
visit between October and April.
During his 67-year reign, Pharaoh Ramses II left many visual
reminders of his greatness. Perhaps the best known are the four
larger-than-life
statues carved into a mountainside of southern Egypt. Many don't realize
there's more to this site -- sometimes called Abu Simbel
for the town you'll find it in -- than those seated
statues seated on the facade. Pass through them and you'll find more
detailed statues and intricate hieroglyphs depicting the Egyptian army's
victory
over ancient Libya, Syria and Nubia. Next door is the smaller Temple of
Nefertari, dedicated to the Pharaoh's favorite wife. If you truly want
to be
wowed, you should swing by Abu Simbel around Feb. 20 or Oct. 20. Twice a
year around those days the sun's rays shine directly into the larger
temple
to illuminate the artwork and statues within.
Fiction: The Great Wall of China
can be seen from outer space
(with the naked eye). Fact: it is pretty fantastic to view up close and
personal. It sweeps through approximately 4,000 miles of northern China,
and
different sections guarantee different tourist experiences: The jungly
sections of Simatai and Jinshanling are good for hiking; the arresting
and
gorgeous Mutianyu stretch is good for snapping photos; and the crowded
Badaling portion is good for convenience (it's only an hour away from
exciting
Beijing). Plan your trip for anytime (just imagine the contrast of the
Great Wall with the white snow of winter, the red leaves of fall and the
green
grass of spring and summer), but do try to bypass the hordes of tourists
that visit on the weekends year-round.
This scientific phenomenon occurs when charged solar particles
collide in the earth's geomagnetic field and create a colorful,
magnificent glow in
the sky's upper atmosphere. According to the Huffington Post, "ideal
viewing conditions are crisp, cold, clear and cloudless skies with
little light."
And though it is possible to see the Northern Lights in other parts of
the globe, this phenomenon is most prevalent in the world's polar
regions; the
name Aurora Borealis refers to the lights as seen from northern
latitudes (Aurora Australis is the name for the lesser-known Southern
Lights of the
South Pole). For the best viewing, Fodor's recommends visiting
Anchorage, Alaska or Calgary, Alberta. You can also see the Northern
Lights in parts of
Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Russia, among other countries.
The recent earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent fears over
nuclear radiation have prompted many to turn to the Web for advice
on disaster preparedness. Online lookups for "disaster
kits" and "how to make a disaster kit" have both
more than tripled during the past week.
In short, folks are wondering, what they should have in their
kit? Opinions vary depending on what sort of disaster you happen to
be preparing for. However, most experts, like the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the Red Cross, agree that the
following items are essential.
Water
This is the big one. You must have plenty of water. Just
how much? FEMA, the
disaster preparedness wing of the US Government, insists that you
should have at least a three-day supply. A rule of thumb -- have
one gallon of water per person per day. If you happen to live in a
hot climate, you'll want to increase that amount. "Very
hot temperatures can double the amount of water needed," the
site writes. Also, keep in mind that children, the elderly, nursing
mothers, and people who are ill will need more water. Of course,
you'll want to store the water in non-breakable containers and
keep an eye on the expiration date. Water doesn't spoil in the
traditional sense, but it
can taste bad after a while.
First aid supplies
There's no telling what you'll be faced with in the wake of
a disaster, but a few basic first aid supplies will certainly come
in handy. Again, according to FEMA, you'll want several
bandages of various sizes, gauze pads, adhesive tape, scissors,
tweezers, antiseptic, a thermometer, antiseptic, petroleum jelly,
sunscreen, safety pins, and more. You'll also want a good
supply of non-prescription medication, including aspirin,
anti-diarrhea medicine, antacid, laxative, and some poison control
supplies. For a full list, check
here.
Food
Like water, you're going to want a healthy supply of
non-perishable food should the unexpected happen.
The American Red Cross writes that you should have a three-day
supply ready in case you are forced to leave your home. And
you should also have a two-week supply in the event that you stay
in your home. Of course, the food should be easy to open and
prepare.
Clothing and sanitation supplies
This mostly applies to people in cold-weather areas. Should
disaster strike, have some warm clothes at the ready. You'll
want to have at least one complete change of clothes for each
person. FEMA suggests
a coat, sturdy shoes or boots, long pants, gloves, hat, scarf,
thermal underwear, and rain gear. You'll also want to have
plenty of blankets, sunglasses, and various sanitation supplies
like soap, toilet paper, detergent, and more.
Tools and special items
Just a few things you'll want to have on you: battery operated
radio and batteries, flashlight, cash, nonelectric can opener,
pliers, compass, matches, signal flare, paper and pencil, wrench to
shut off household gas and water, whistle, and map of the immediate
area. Important documents like IDs, birth certificates, credit card
information, prescription numbers, and extra eyeglasses are also
good ideas. Again, this is just a partial list. For the full list,
please visit FEMA.gov.
How the West was REALLY won: Early settlers on the coach to Deadwood
and in pow-wows with the natives revealed in 19th century photographs
The Wild West as it really
was rather than how Hollywood has imagined it is revealed in this
extraordinary collection of pictures.
The grainy photographs,
taken in the late 19th century in and around the notorious gold mining
town of Deadwood, provide a unique, sepia-toned glimpse of the Wild
West. The images were published in American papers this week after being
released by the U.S. Library of Congress.
Deadwood — recently
brought to life in an acclaimed TV drama series of the same name,
starring Ian McShane — has gone down in legend as a riotous and lawless
town that was home to the likes of ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, Calamity Jane and
Wyatt Earp.
Modern travel: The photograph taken
by John C.H Grabill in the 1880s was titled 'The Deadwood Coach' and
shows formally dressed passengers both on top and inside
Striking it rich: Washing and
panning for gold in Rockerville, Dakota. Three old timers named Spriggs,
Lamb and Dillon are pictured in 1889
Ready to roll: A line of oxen and
wagons along the main street in Sturgis in the Dakota Territory which
was taken between 1887 and 1892
Horse hero: Comanche, the only
survivor of the Custer massacre of 1876. It was a regimental order that
the 7th Cavalry cared for the animal 'as long as he shall live'
And yet many of the
pictures, taken by the pioneering photographer John C.H. Grabill, show
how the reality was rather different to the traditions instilled by
decades of Hollywood Westerns.
The bushy-bearded old
timers are pictured panning for gold, native American Indian chiefs are
seen posing solemnly in full headdress. There is the ugly scar of a
mining town on a hillside and the tepee encampments of ‘hostiles’ such
as the Lakota Sioux.
The expressions of
weather-beaten earnestness on the faces of frontiersmen and Native
Americans alike are what we have come to expect, but there is barely a
six-shooter to be seen hanging from anyone’s hip, the wagon trains are
pulled by oxen, not horses, and everyone on the Deadwood Stage is
wearing a jacket and tie, dressed more for a business meeting than a
Sioux attack.
THE LEGEND OF DEADWOOD
In 2004 a three-series TV Show based on the early days of Deadwood was aired in the U.S.
The first season was based
on the founding of the town in 1876, soon after Custer's Last Stand,
and shows the lawlessness of Deadwood where greed and corruption are
rife.
It also introduced well-known characters such as Wild Bill Hickok, Colonel Custer, the Sundance Kid and Calamity Jane.
Season two represents life
a year after the first season and marked the arrival of the telegraph
and showed the town progressing in early 1877 with new conveniences
including a bank.
The architecture of the
town starts to take shape with inhabitants moving out of walled tents
and into more permanent structures.
The final season
concentrated on the establishment of law and commercialisation before
Deadwood is brought into the Dakota territory.
When it was finished there was talk of TV movies being filmed but they are yet to come to fruition.
Between 1887 and 1892,
Grabill sent 188 photographs — taken using an early technique that used
albumen, or egg white, to bind together the chemicals — to the Library
of Congress for copyright protection.
Deadwood in South Dakota was founded shortly after the discovery of gold in the neighbouring Black Hills in 1876.
As miners flocked to the
town and its population quickly grew to 5,000, the wagon trains brought
in not only supplies but gamblers, prostitutes and gunfighters.
Grabill (who also famously
photographed the aftermath of the Wounded Knee massacre in which the
U.S. Seventh Cavalry killed up to 300 Native American men, women and
children) chronicled the settlement’s rapid expansion from a collection
of tents to a fully-fledged town that celebrated the completion of a
connecting railway with a parade down its main street in 1888.
Long before the arrival of the white man, the land was home to the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Pawnee, Crow and Sioux (or Lakota) Indians.
The settlement of Deadwood
began in the 1870s, despite the town lying within the territory granted
to Native Americans in the 1868 Treaty of Laramie, which guaranteed
ownership of the Black Hills to the Lakota tribes.
However, in 1874, Colonel
George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the Hills and announced
the discovery of gold on French Creek.
This triggered the Black
Hills Gold Rush and gave rise to the town of Deadwood, which quickly
reached a population of around 5,000.
In early 1876,
frontiersman Charlie Utter and his brother Steve led a wagon train to
Deadwood containing what were deemed to be needed commodities to bolster
business.
The wagon train also brought gamblers and prostitutes, helping the town to boom - but with a bawdy reputation.
As the economy changed
from gold rush to steady mining, Deadwood lost its rough and rowdy
character and settled down into a prosperous town.
One of the subjects of Grabill's photographs is the last survivor from the battle of Little Bighorn - a horse called Comanche.
The battle took place
between soldiers under the command for General Custer and the combined
forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people
Every soldier in the five
companies under Custer was killed and Comanche, who belonged to Captain
Keogh, was found wondering the battlefield.
It is thought, however, that the Indians may have captured some of the American army's animals.
Other images chronicle a
time otherwise only imagined on film; from prospectors panning for gold
to the early interactions between settlers from the East and the native
Americans who inhabited the Midwest.
Little is known about Grabill’s life before or after his work in the Midwest.
There is speculation that
he moved to Colorado - Denver Public Library is in possession of some of
his work - or that he moved back to Chicago.
What is surprising is that
a man who dedicated his life to charting people and communities left no
self portrait, memoir or anything else with which to remember Grabill
the man.
Legendry: Deadwood has long
captivated the imagination of writers. In 1953 Doris Day starred in the
Wild West themed film musical, Calamity Jane (left). Then, 51 years
later Ian McShane played Al Swearengen, the owner of the Gem Saloon, a
popular brothel in the centre of the town
Indian camp: Titled Villa of Brule,
this was the home of the Lakota (Sioux) tribe pictured in 1891 near the
Pine Ridge reservation with the White Clay Creek watering hole
New town: John Grabill charted how towns such as Hot Springs, South Dakota, sprung up across the Midwest as the railways grew
Wagon train: Oxen lead out the wagons in a photograph titled 'Freighting in the Black Hills' taken between Sturgis and Deadwood
Braves: A portrait of a band of Big
Foots (Miniconjou) at a Grass Dance on the Cheyenne River, watched by
soldiers from the 8th U.S. Cavalry and 3rd Infantry
Peace council: The Indian chiefs
who ended their war with the U.S. Army. Their names included Standing
Bull, High Hawk, White Tail, Little Thunder and Lame
Rebel: A native American named
Little, leader of the Oglala band, started the 1890 Indian Revolt at
Pine Ridge. He sat for this studio portrait between two Euro-Americans
Two faces of the native American:
Oglala chiefs Red Cloud in full headdress and American Horse wearing
western clothing and gun-in-holster. Women and children seated inside an
uncovered tipi frame in an encampment near Pine Ridge Reservation.
Progress: The people of Deadwood
celebrate the completion of a stretch of railroad in 1888 with a parade
along the town's Main Street
Army exercise: Soldiers from Company C of the 3rd U.S. Infantry carry their rifles as they spread out near Fort Meade
Happy band: Mining engineers with their wives and a couple of tame deer get together for an impromptu campside musical concert
Living side-by-side: A school for
Indians at Pine Ridge, South Dakota. There is a small Oglala tipi camp
in front the large government school buildings
As the railroads went further west,
so the settlers followed. Grabill's image Horse Shoe Curve in the
shadow of the Buckhorn Mountains
Welcome to Mayanmar (Burma) – 2011's hippest holiday destination
Travellers are poised to return after Aung San Suu Kyi's release
By Phoebe Kennedy Monday, 21 February 2011
ALAMY
Western tourists explore the ancient temples of Bagan
Despite the lure of its gleaming
pagodas, fabled cities and pristine beaches, military-ruled Burma has
been off the tourist map for years, shunned by conscientious travellers
who feared that visiting the country would help only to prop up one of
the world's most oppressive dictatorships. But with the release late
last year of the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose calls for a
tourism boycott have long kept holidaymakers away, travel industry
experts are cautiously hopeful that foreign visitors might once again
beat a path to one of south-east Asia's unspoilt gems.
Accolades such as being named
Wanderlust magazine's "top emerging travel destination of 2011" should
help to propel Burma from a tourism backwater to an exciting new
destination – although activists warn that the nation needs to make a
lot of progress before becoming a guilt-free holiday paradise. "Burma
needs to be visited with care. But those who do visit carefully...
inevitably return with exceptional memories," said Wanderlust in its
award citation. "There are the sights, natural and man-made – the
stupa-studded plains of Bagan, Yangon's giant golden pagoda, the
floating gardens of Inle Lake – but it's the resilient and welcoming
Burmese people who create the lasting impression."
Burma – still in the grip of
dictatorship, despite holding its first elections in 20 years last
November – has far to go if it is to seriously compete with its Asian
neighbours as a tourism destination. Last year, more than 300,000
tourists visited the country, according to the Bangkok-based
Pacific-Asia Travel Association. That was nearly a 30 per cent increase
on the year before, but still a trickle compared to the 15 million who
visited Thailand and 17 million who went to Malaysia.
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD) party first called for tourists to boycott Burma – or
Myanmar as it is officially known – in 1995 in response to the junta's
"Visit Myanmar" campaign and amid reports of forced labour being used to
build new airports and luxury hotels. The boycott campaign was
particularly effective in Britain, where travellers were happy to bypass
Burma in favour of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia – a sentiment that was
reinforced by the bloody suppression of the Burmese monks' protests in
2007, followed by the regime's callous response to the devastating
Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
But the release of Ms Suu Kyi from
house arrest last year, following a peaceful, albeit fraudulent,
election, has already improved Burma's image in the eyes of tourists,
those in the industry say. "The release [of Ms Suu Kyi] and peaceful
elections has given tourism quite a substantial boost," said Brett
Melzer, an Australian who, with his Burmese wife, owns Balloons Over
Bagan, a private company that takes tourists on hot air balloon rides
over the ancient temple city. "We are seeing an increase in numbers
right across the board, but big increases from the US and the UK – which
were traditionally opposed – and the emerging markets of Russia,
Brazil, Mexico and Australia from almost zero a few years ago."
Since her release, Ms Suu Kyi says
she is no longer in favour of a total boycott and that some tourism
could be beneficial. While package tours and cruises should not be
encouraged, she believes, "individuals coming in to see, to study the
situation in the country might be a good idea".
Those who do come to Burma find
gentle, hospitable people and a wealth of attractions: Rangoon's fading
colonial grandeur, the romance of Mandalay, windswept beaches on the Bay
of Bengal, stilted villages on Inle Lake and the stunning temples of
Bagan on the banks of the Ayeyarwaddy River. Burma's relative
underdevelopment and the absence of global brands, cash machines and
fast internet, is marketed as a "step back in time" or "a glimpse of
authentic Asia". Most Western tourists try to avoid government-owned
hotels in favour of family-run establishments, following the advice
given in guidebooks such as Lonely Planet, so as to hand as much of
their tourist money as possible to ordinary Burmese, who are not
associated with the government. But with hotel taxes, admissions charges
and airport duties, it is impossible to visit Burma without paying
something to one of the world's most brutal regimes.
One of the largest domestic
airlines is owned by Tay Za who, according to the US Treasury
Department, is "an arms dealer and financial henchman of Burma's
repressive junta". Nor can tourists avoid being corralled into a fairly
small number of sites, as much of Burma remains off-limits, such as the
sensitive border areas inhabited largely by ethnic minority groups and
the Ayeyarwaddy Delta, the area that took the full force of the 2008
cyclone.
Mark Farmaner, director of the
Burma Campaign UK, which highlights abuses by the regime, said: "No one
should be under the illusion that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi means
that there is any positive change in Burma, there isn't. Horrific human
rights abuses continue to be committed by the dictatorship."
Nevertheless, visitors are often
surprised by the warmth and friendliness of locals and their willingness
to talk and joke about the deficiencies of their government. It is far
from the downtrodden, repressed image that many have of Burmese people.
"We don't want to be cut off from
the world," said Htay Oo, an unofficial tour guide and taxi driver in
Rangoon. "We want people to come. We can learn from them and they can
learn from us. If they stay in their country, how does that help?"
what the guidebooks say
The Rough Guides group, which
unlike Lonely Planet refuses to publish a guide to Burma on ethnical
grounds, says it has no plans yet to reverse its stance.
"We're greatly heartened by the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi and hope this will ultimately help open
Burma to travellers. However, we think it is too soon for a complete
change of mind," said Clare Currie, the company's publishing director.
"We are not currently planning to publish a guidebook to Burma – such a
guide would really depend upon sustained improvements in the political
situation as well as on a proven and robust travel infrastructure."
Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
Historical facts
Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who was martyred about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome, and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.
Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been martyred during the persecution under Emperor Aurelian.
He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than
Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in
Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).
The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of companions, but nothing more is known about him.
No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval
biographies of either of these martyrs. By the time a Saint Valentine
became linked to romance in the 14th century, distinctions between
Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni were utterly lost.
In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints,
the feastday of Saint Valentine on February 14 was removed from the
General Roman Calendar and relegated to particular (local or even
national) calendars for the following reason: "Though the memorial of
Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since,
apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he
was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14." The feast day is still celebrated in Balzan (Malta) where relics of the saint are claimed to be found, and also throughout the world by Traditionalist Catholics who follow the older, pre-Second Vatican Council calendar.
The Early Medieval acta of either Saint Valentine were expounded briefly in Legenda Aurea According to that version, St Valentine was persecuted as a Christian and interrogated by Roman EmperorClaudius II
in person. Claudius was impressed by Valentine and had a discussion
with him, attempting to get him to convert to Roman paganism in order to
save his life. Valentine refused and tried to convert Claudius to
Christianity instead. Because of this, he was executed. Before his
execution, he is reported to have performed a miracle by healing the
blind daughter of his jailer.
Since Legenda Aurea still provided no connections whatsoever
with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern
times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law
attributed to Roman EmperorClaudius II,
allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly
did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for
good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed
marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this,
he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.
There is an additional modern embellishment to The Golden Legend, provided by American Greetings to History.com, and widely repeated despite having no historical basis whatsoever. On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he would have written the first "valentine" card himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine."
Attested traditions
Lupercalia
Though popular modern sources link unspecified Greco-Roman February
holidays alleged to be devoted to fertility and love to St. Valentine's
Day, Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas argued that prior to Chaucer, no links between the Saints named Valentinus and romantic love existed. Earlier links as described above were focused on sacrifice rather than romantic love. In the ancient Athenian calendar the period between mid-January and mid-February was the month of Gamelion, dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.
In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia, observed February
13 through 15, was an archaic rite connected to fertility. Lupercalia
was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning "Juno the purifier "or "the chaste Juno," was celebrated on February 13–14. Pope Gelasius I (492–496) abolished Lupercalia.
For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
["For this was Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate."]
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. (When they were married eight months later, they were each only 15 years old).
Readers have uncritically assumed that Chaucer was referring to
February 14 as Valentine's Day; however, mid-February is an unlikely
time for birds to be mating in England. Henry Ansgar Kelly has pointed
out that in the liturgical calendar, May 2 is the saints' day for Valentine of Genoa. This St. Valentine was an early bishop of Genoa who died around AD 307.
Chaucer's Parliament of Foules is set in a fictional context
of an old tradition, but in fact there was no such tradition before
Chaucer. The speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as
historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints,
and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. Most
notably, "the idea that Valentine's Day customs perpetuated those of the
Roman Lupercalia has been accepted uncritically and repeated, in various forms, up to the present"
Medieval period and the English Renaissance
Using the language of the law courts for the rituals of courtly love, a "High Court of Love" was established in Paris
on Valentine's Day in 1400. The court dealt with love contracts,
betrayals, and violence against women. Judges were selected by women on
the basis of a poetry reading. The earliest surviving valentine is a 15th-century rondeau written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife, which commences.
Je suis desja d'amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée...
Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in Hamlet (1600–1601):
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes, And dupp'd the chamber-door; Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more.
Hayle Bishop Valentine whose day this is All the Ayre is thy Diocese And all the chirping Queristers And other birds ar thy parishioners Thou marryest every yeare The Lyrick Lark, and the graue whispering Doue, The Sparrow that neglects his life for loue, The houshold bird with the redd stomacher Thou makst the Blackbird speede as soone, As doth the Goldfinch, or the Halcyon The Husband Cock lookes out and soone is spedd And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed. This day more cheerfully than ever shine This day which might inflame thy selfe old Valentine.
—John Donne, Epithalamion Vpon Frederick Count Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth marryed on St. Valentines day
She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew, And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.
The modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton's Garland (1784):
The rose is red, the violet's blue The honey's sweet, and so are you Thou are my love and I am thine I drew thee to my Valentine The lot was cast and then I drew And Fortune said it shou'd be you.
Valentine's Day postcard, circa 1910
Modern times
In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man’s Valentine Writer,
which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young
lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a
limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical
valentines,” and a reduction in postal rates
in the next century ushered in the less personal but easier practice of
mailing Valentines. That, in turn, made it possible for the first time
to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the
sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.
Paper Valentines became so popular in England
in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy
Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace
introduced in the mid-19th century.
In the UK, just under half the population spend money on their
Valentines and around 1.3 billion pounds is spent yearly on cards,
flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards
being sent. The reinvention of Saint Valentine's Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt. As a writer in Graham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday." In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Child dressed in Valentine's Day-themed clothing.
Her father operated a large book and stationery store, but Howland
took her inspiration from an English Valentine she had received from a
business associate of her father.
Intrigued with the idea of making similar Valentines, Howland began her
business by importing paper lace and floral decorations from England. The English practice of sending Valentine's cards was established enough to feature as a plot device in Elizabeth Gaskell's Mr. Harrison's Confessions (1851): "I burst in with my explanations: '"The valentine I know nothing about." '"It is in your handwriting," said he coldly. Since 2001, the Greeting Card Association has been giving an annual "Esther Howland Award for a Greeting Card Visionary."
Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The mid-19th century Valentine's Day trade was a harbinger of further commercialized holidays in the United States to follow.
In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging
cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States. Such
gifts typically include roses and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.
The U.S. Greeting Card Association
estimates that approximately 190 million valentines are sent each year
in the US. Half of those valentines are given to family members other
than husband or wife, usually to children. When you include the
valentine-exchange cards made in school activities the figure goes up to
1 billion, and teachers become the people receiving the most
valentines. In some North American elementary schools,
children decorate classrooms, exchange cards, and are given sweets. The
greeting cards of these students sometimes mention what they appreciate
about each other.
The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is
creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital
means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards. An estimated 15 million e-valentines were sent in 2010.
Antique and vintage Valentines, 1850–1950
Valentines of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries
Esther Howland Valentine, circa 1850: "Weddings now are all the go, Will you marry me or no"?
While sending cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts is
traditional in the UK, Valentine's Day has various regional customs. In Norfolk,
a character called 'Jack' Valentine knocks on the rear door of houses
leaving sweets and presents for children. Although he was leaving
treats, many children were scared of this mystical person. In Wales,
many people celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen (St Dwynwen's Day) on January 25 instead of (or as well as) Valentine's Day. The day commemorates St Dwynwen, the patron saint of Welsh lovers. In France, a traditionally Catholic country, Valentine's Day is known simply as "Saint Valentin", and is celebrated in much the same way as other western countries. In Spain Valentine's Day is known as "San Valentín" and is celebrated the same way as in
the UK, although in Catalonia it is largely superseded by similar festivities of rose and/or book giving on La Diada de Sant Jordi (Saint George's Day). In Portugal it is more commonly referred to as "Dia dos Namorados" (Lover's Day / Day of those that are in love with each other).
In Denmark and Norway, Valentine's Day (14 Feb) is known as Valentinsdag.
It is not celebrated to a large extent, but is largely imported from
American culture, and some people take time to eat a romantic dinner
with their partner, to send a card to a secret love or give a red rose
to their loved one. The flower industry in particular is still working
on promoting the holiday. In Sweden it is called Alla hjärtans dag
("All Hearts' Day") and was launched in the 1960s by the flower
industry's commercial interests, and due to the influence of American
culture. It is not an official holiday, but its celebration is
recognized and sales of cosmetics and flowers for this holiday are only
exceeded by those for Mother's Day.
In Finland Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä
which translates into "Friend's day". As the name indicates, this day
is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones. In
Estonia Valentine's Day is called Sõbrapäev, which has the same meaning.
In Slovenia,
a proverb says that "St Valentine brings the keys of roots," so on
February 14, plants and flowers start to grow. Valentine's Day has been
celebrated as the day when the first work in the vineyards and in the
fields commences. It is also said that birds propose to each other or
marry on that day. Nevertheless, it has only recently been celebrated as
the day of love. The day of love is traditionally March 12, the Saint Gregory's day. Another proverb says "Valentin – prvi spomladin" ("Valentine — first saint of spring"), as in some places (especially White Carniola) Saint Valentine marks the beginning of spring.
In Romania, the traditional holiday for lovers is Dragobete, which is celebrated on February 24. It is named after a character from Romanian folklore who was supposed to be the son of Baba Dochia. Part of his name is the word drag ("dear"), which can also be found in the word dragoste
("love"). In recent years, Romania has also started celebrating
Valentine's Day, despite already having Dragobete as a traditional
holiday. This has drawn backlash from many groups, reputable persons and
institutions[42] but also nationalist organizations like Noua Dreaptǎ, who condemn Valentine's Day for being superficial, commercialist and imported Western kitsch.
Valentine's Day is called Sevgililer Günü in Turkey, which translates into "Sweethearts' Day".
According to Jewish tradition the 15th day of the month of Av – Tu B'Av
(usually late August) is the festival of love. In ancient times girls
would wear white dresses and dance in the vineyards, where the boys
would be waiting for them (Mishna Taanith end of Chapter 4). In modern Israeli culture this is a popular day to pronounce love, propose marriage and give gifts like cards or flowers.
Mexico, Central and South America
In some Latin American countries Valentine's Day is known as "Día del
Amor y la Amistad" (Day of Love and Friendship). For example Mexico,Costa Rica, and Ecuador,
as well others. Although it is similar to the United States' version in
many ways, it is also common to see people do "acts of appreciation"
for their friends.
In Guatemala it is known as the "Día del Cariño" (Day of the Affection).
In Brazil, the Dia dos Namorados
(lit. "Day of the Enamored", or "Boyfriends'/Girlfriends' Day") is
celebrated on June 12, when couples exchange gifts, chocolates, cards
and flower bouquets. This day was chosen probably because it is the day
before the Festa junina (Saint Anthony's day), known there as the marriage saint, when traditionally many single women perform popular rituals, called simpatias, in order to find a good husband or boyfriend. The February 14's Valentine's Day is not celebrated at all, mainly for cultural and commercial reasons, since it usually falls too little before or after Carnival, a major floating holiday in Brazil — long regarded as a holiday of sex and debauchery by many in the country — that can fall anywhere from early February to early March.
In Venezuela, in 2009, President Hugo Chávez
said in a meeting to his supporters for the upcoming referendum vote on
February 15, that "since on the 14th, there will be no time of doing
nothing, nothing or next to nothing ... maybe a little kiss or something
very superficial", he recommended people to celebrate a week of love
after the referendum vote.
In most of South America the Día del amor y la amistad and the Amigo secreto ("Secret friend") are quite popular and usually celebrated together on the 14 of February (one exception is Colombia,
where it is celebrated every third Saturday of September). The latter
consists of randomly assigning to each participant a recipient who is to
be given an anonymous gift (similar to the Christmas tradition of Secret Santa).
Asia
Thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentine's Day is celebrated in some Asian countries with Singaporeans, Chinese and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine's gifts.
In South Korea, similar to Japan, women give chocolate to men on February 14, and men give non-chocolate candy to women on March 14 (White Day).
On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on the 14th
of Feb or March go to a Chinese restaurant to eat black noodles (자장면 jajangmyeon) and "mourn" their single life. Koreans also celebrate Pepero Day
on November 11, when young couples give each other Pepero cookies. The
date '11/11' is intended to resemble the long shape of the cookie. The
14th of every month marks a love-related day in Korea, although most of
them are obscure. From January to December: Candle Day, Valentine's Day,
White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day.Korean women give a much higher amount of chocolate than Japanese women.
In China, the common situation is the man gives chocolate, flowers or both to the woman that he loves. In Chinese, Valentine's Day is called (simplified Chinese: 情人节; traditional Chinese: 情人節; pinyin: qíng rén jié).
Traditional Chinese Valentine's day is called "qixi" in pinyin, and is
celebrated on the 7th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar,
commemorating a fabled day on which the cowherder and weaving maid are
allowed to be together. Modern Valentines day is also celebrated on
February 14 of the solar calendar each year.
In Republic of China (Taiwan) the situation is the reverse of Japan's. Men give gifts to women in Valentine's Day, and women return them in White Day.
In the Philippines,
Valentine's Day is called "Araw ng mga Puso" or "Hearts Day". It is
usually marked by a steep increase in the prices of flowers.
Japan
In Japan, Morozoff Ltd.
introduced the holiday for the first time in 1936, when it ran an
advertisement aimed at foreigners. Later in 1953 it began promoting the
giving of heart-shaped chocolates; other Japanese confectionery
companies followed suit thereafter. In 1958 the Isetandepartment store ran a "Valentine sale". Further campaigns during the 1960s popularized the custom.
The custom that only women give chocolates to men appears to have
originated from the typo of a chocolate-company executive during the
initial campaigns. In particular, office ladies give chocolate to their co-workers. Unlike western countries, gifts such as greeting cards, candies, flowers, or dinner datesare uncommon, and most of the activity about the gifts is
about giving the right amount of chocolate to each person. Japanese chocolate companies make half their annual sales during this time of the year.
Many women feel obliged to give chocolates to all male co-workers,
except when the 14th falls on a Sunday, a holiday. This is known as giri-choko (義理チョコ), from giri ("obligation") and choko, ("chocolate"), with unpopular co-workers receiving only "ultra-obligatory" chō-giri choko cheap chocolate. This contrasts with honmei-choko (本命チョコ, Favorite chocolate); chocolate given to a loved one. Friends, especially girls, may exchange chocolate referred to as tomo-choko (友チョコ); from tomo meaning "friend".
In the 1980s the Japanese National Confectionery Industry Association
launched a successful campaign to make March 14 a "reply day", where
men are expected to return the favour to those who gave them chocolates
on Valentine's Day, calling it White Day for the color of the chocolates being offered. A previous failed attempt to popularize this celebration had been done by a marshmallow manufacturer who wanted men to return marshmallows to women.
Men are expected to return gifts that are at least two or three times
more valuable than the gifts received in Valentine's Day. Not returning
the gift is perceived as the men placing himself in a position of
superiority, even if excuses are given. Returning a present of equal
value is considered as a way to say that you are cutting the
relationship. Originally only chocolate was given, but now the gifts of
jewelry, accessories, clothing and lingerie are usual. According to the
official website of White Day, the color white was chosen because it's
the color of purity, evoking "pure, sweet teen love", and because it's
also the color of sugar. The initial name was "Ai ni Kotaeru White Day"
(Answer Love on White Day).[52][53]
In Japan, the romantic "date night" associated to Valentine's Day is celebrated in Christmas Eve.
In a 2006 survey of people between 10 and 49 years of age in Japan, Oricon Style found the 1986 Sayuri Kokushōsingle, Valentine Kiss, to be the most popular Valentine's Day song, even though it sold only 317,000 copies. The singles it beat in the ranking were number one selling Love Love Love from Dreams Come True (2,488,630
copies), Valentine's Radio from Yumi Matsutoya (1,606,780 copies), Happy Happy Greeting from the Kinki Kids (608,790 copies). The final song in the top five was My Funny Valentine by Miles Davis.
In Japan, a slightly different version of 七夕 called Tanabata has been celebrated for centuries, on July 7 (Gregorian calendar). It has been considered by Westerners as similar to St. Valentine's Day, but it's not related to it, and its origins are completely different.
India
In India, in the antiquity, there was a tradition of adoring Kamadev, the lord of love; exemplificated by the erotic carvings in the Khajuraho Group of Monuments and by the writing of the Kamasutra treaty of lovemaking.
This tradition was lost around the Middle Ages, when Kamadev was no
longer celebrated, and public displays of sexual affections became
frowned upon.[60] Around 1992 Valentine's Day started catching in India, with special TV and radio programs, and even love letter competitions.The economic liberation also helped the Valentine card industry.
In modern times, Hindu and Islamic traditionalists consider the holiday to be cultural contamination from the West, result of the globalization in India.Shiv Sena and the Sangh Parivar
have asked their followers to shun the holiday and the "public
admission of love" because of them being "alien to Indian culture".
These protests are organized by political elites, but the protesters
themselves are middle-class Hindu men who fear that the globalization
will destroy the traditions in his society: arranged marriages, hindu joint families, full-time mothers (see Housewife#India), etc.
Despite these obstacles, valentine's day is becoming increasingly popular in India.
However, leftist and liberal critiques of Valentine's day remain strong in India. Valentine's Day has been strongly criticized from a postcolonial perspective by intellectuals from the Indian left . The holiday is regarded as a front for Westernimperialism, neocolonialism, and the exploitation of working classes through commercialism by multinational corporations.[65] Studies have shown that Valentine's day promotes and exacerbates income inequality in India, and aids in the creation of a pseudo-westernized middle class. As a result, the working classes and rural poor become more disconnected socially, politically, and geographically from
the hegemonic capitalist power structure. They also criticize mainstream media attacks on Indians opposed to valentine's day as a form of demonization that is designed and derived to further the valentine's day agenda.
Middle East
In Egypt, Egyptians celebrate Valentine's Day on February 14, and the indigenous Eid el-Hob el-Masri
(Egyptian Love Day) on November 4, to buy gifts,and flowers for their
lovers. It has been recorded on the February 14th, 2006 flower movement
in the country, worth six million pounds, formed a gain of 10 per-cent of the total annual sale of flowers.
In Iran, the Sepandarmazgan,
or Esfandegan, is an age-old traditional celebration of love,
friendship and Earth. It has nothing in common with the Saint Valentine
celebration, except for a superficial similarity in giving affection and
gifts to loved ones, and its origins and motivations are completely
unrelated. It has been progressively forgotten in favor of the Western
celebration of Valentine's Day. The Association of Iran's Cultural and
Natural Phenomena has been trying since 2006 to make Sepandarmazgan a
national holiday on 17 February, in order to replace the Western
holiday.
In Israel, the Tu B'Av,
is considered to be the Jewish Valentine's Day following the ancient
traditions of courtship on this day. Today, this is celebrated as a
second holiday of love by secular people (besides Saint Valentine's
Day), and shares many of the customs associated with Saint Valentine's
Day in western societies.
Conflict with Islamic countries and political parties
Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, in 2002 and 2008, religious police
banned the sale of all Valentine's Day items, telling shop workers to
remove any red items, as the day is considered a Christian holiday. In 2008 this ban created a black market of roses and wrapping paper.
Pakistan
The Jamaat-e-Islami political party has called for the banning of the holiday.[64] Despite this, the celebration is increasingly popular and the florists expect to sell great amount of flowers, especially red roses.
Iran
In the 21st century, the celebration of Valentine's Day in Iran
has been harshly criticized by conservatives who see the celebrations
as opposed to Islamic culture. In 2011, the Iranian printing works
owners' union issued a directive banning the printing and distribution
of any goods promoting the holiday, including cards, gifts and teddy bears.
"Printing and producing any goods related to this day including
posters, boxes and cards emblazoned with hearts or half-hearts, red roses and any activities promoting this day are banned... Outlets that violate this will be legally dealt with," the union warned.
Walks like a man. But just how close IS Ambam the gorilla to being human?
The pictures of Ambam the gorilla standing up on his hind legs and
walking, for all the world just like one of us, are quite captivating.
Not only do they serve as a powerful reminder that, after
chimpanzees, gorillas are the second closest living relative to humans,
but for me they also brought back so many happy memories of my own
encounters with these gentle giants of the great ape world.
Nothing, not even David Attenborough, prepares you for the moment you come face-to-face with a wild gorilla for the first time.
Scroll down for video
Standing tall: Ambam on hind legs at
Kent zoo. Nothing prepares you for for the first time you come
face-to-face with a wild gorilla, says Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek
For me, this came just over a decade ago when I, until then very
much a chimpanzee specialist, was dispatched to Rwanda by the BBC to
observe the mountain gorillas made famous by the late Diane Fossey.
In preparation I’d been specially schooled in gorilla etiquette,
which involves approaching a group of gorillas while making a noise
known as the belch grunt.
It sounds a little like someone repeatedly clearing their throat
and apparently lets the gorillas know you’re not a threat. It worked.
Kneeling amid the undergrowth in a non-threatening way, I had the
privilege of observing at close quarters a family group of 12, doing
what gorillas spend most of their time doing: eating.
About half were adult females, with offspring of various ages
including two ‘black-backs’ - the gorilla equivalent of male teenagers.
Presiding over everyone was the patriarch or silverback, so called
because of the silver saddle of hair males acquire at full maturity.
He looked at me thoughtfully, almost human-like, with those big, dark eyes, and chomped. Clearly, I was not considered a threat.
Into the wild: A group of mountain gorillas in Rwanda allow Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek to observe them
But it was when the silverback wandered off in search of more food,
taking most of his family with him, that it became clear my initiation
into gorilla society was not complete. Left behind, as some sort of
rear-guard, were the black-backs who started to do what so many teenage
boys like to do: show off.
But when a gorilla shows off he doesn’t muck about. As the first
stood upright and snapped off a sizeable sapling with one hand, as if it
had been a twig, he turned to gauge my reaction. I looked down,
avoiding eye contact, trying to diffuse the situation.
But when the second followed up with a classic display of chest-beating my adrenalin started pumping.
And they hadn’t finished. The first gorilla casually approached
and gave what I’m sure was intended as a playful rearward kick to my
lower back, but which was powerful enough to wind me. While I was still
recovering, the second one charged from behind and sent me sprawling.
As a result, I must be one of the few women in the world to know what it feels like to be run over by a teenage gorilla.
It was that experience, together with others that soon followed,
which caused me to be just as enchanted as everyone else by those
extraordinary pictures of Ambam, but not surprised.
Walking tall: It was Dr
Uhlenbroek's amazing experiences of gorillas in the wild which caused
her to be just as enchanted as everyone else by these extraordinary
pictures of Ambam walking upright at Kent zoo
For like all great apes, gorillas do regularly walk on their hind
legs, helped by the same hip-alignment (it seems to have evolved in
species that hang from trees) that eventually made us humans so good at
it.
In the wild, gorillas do it in many situations. When I was in the
Central African Republic, I learned just how intimidating it is to have
a gorilla stand on its hind legs directly in front of you.
A very protective Western lowland silverback that was unused to
people stood upright and beat his chest several times before returning
to all fours and charging with a roar.
The best response is to lower your gaze and stand your ground.
Trust me, that’s very hard. But when I just about managed it, it proved
surprisingly effective.
An actual attack on a human by a gorilla is very rare. They are
more interested in demonstrations of their power than actually using it
in anger.
Walking on our hind legs - bipedal motion, as it’s called - is one
of the distinguishing characteristics that makes us humans human, and
we’re always impressed by an animal, be it dog, bear or, indeed,
gorilla that can mimic it.
But there’s another reason why those pictures of Ambam are so
powerful and that’s because, quite unwittingly, he is reproducing that
almost mythical moment from evolutionary history when one of our
ape-ancestors came down from the trees and walked on its hind legs for
the first time.
I vividly remember seeing wild Western lowland gorillas also
demonstrating this, as they came out of the safety of the rainforest on
to the swampy plain and instantly stood up on their hind legs to survey
the exposed ground for dangers.
You see them doing the same when they hear a sudden noise. The
silverback does exactly what a human would do — he stands up and looks
anxiously around for danger.
But we should be wary, perhaps, of over-emphasising the
similarities between humans and gorillas, despite the estimated 95-98
per cent of genetic material the two species share.
You have to go back eight to nine million years to find the common
ancestor from which both gorillas and humans evolved, while the split
with chimpanzees happened later, some five to six million years ago,
which explains why chimps and humans differ in their genetic make-up by
just 1 per cent.
Research: Having studied both great
ape species, Dr Uhlenbroek believes chimp intelligence is closer to
human intelligence than that of gorillas, because of the differences in
the social grouping and lifestyle of the two great ape species
Having studied both great ape species, I believe chimp intelligence
is closer to human intelligence than that of gorillas. And that’s
because of the differences in the social grouping and lifestyle of the
two great ape species.
For while gorillas live in relatively small patriarchal groups and
spend most of their sedentary lives feeding, chimps live in much larger
groups and interact in a way that resembles human society much more
closely.
There are multiple males and multiple females and a much more unpredictable social environment, far more similar to our own.
But if chimps are the more intelligent species, where does that
leave a high-performing gorilla like Ambam? Is walking on his hind legs
simply another form of showing off, something that male gorillas love to
do? I’m not convinced.
If you look at the internet footage of him walking, none of the other gorillas is paying much attention.
A more likely explanation is that having been raised in a wildlife
park, Ambam has seen people walking, simply mimicked them and discovered
that he has an aptitude for it.
In a distant echo of what gorillas experience in the wild, he may
also have discovered that he can see farther, too, if he stands up.
Ambam’s ambulatory efforts, however, do fit in with an emerging
pattern that has seen a small number of gorillas, all of them kept in
captivity, achieve truly remarkable things.
Chief among these, famously, is Koko, the 39-year-old female kept
at San Francisco Zoo, who it is claimed, somewhat controversially, can
understand 1,000 words of American sign language and a further 2,000
words of spoken English.
The controversy is about whether Koko’s own use of signs is simple, reward-related mimicry or something more meaningful.
I came across evidence of another gifted gorilla when I took an
afternoon off from a recent conference being held in Prague and visited
the city’s zoo.
Here, all the talk near the ape enclosures was of the response of a
female gorilla to coming out one morning and discovering the ground
covered with a thick blanket of snow.
Having realised how cold it was, she went straight back into her
pen and attempted to fashion an improvised pair of snowshoes out of her
bedding straw.
Alas, she was clever enough to make something that worked for a few
seconds, but not to tie the knots that might have kept them on.
Her behaviour, however, is fairly typical of these high-achieving
gorillas in captivity, who when given a helping hand by man are more
than capable of demonstrating their ingenuity.
They can sit on stools, climb ladders and poke things with sticks.
Until recently there was no evidence of them using tools in the wild.
A kind of man: Ambam has become an internet hit after teaching himself to swagger like a human
Five years ago, however, researchers were photographing a wild female gorilla attempting to cross a swampy pool.
She advanced slowly on her hind legs until the water came up to her
waist. But when it did so, after a moment’s hesitation, she retraced
her steps and collected a nearby branch.
She then proceeded across the pool and started to use the branch
repeatedly to test the depth of the water just like you or I might do.
Such reports of tool use by wild gorillas remain very rare, backing
up my personal belief that, as is the case with captive apes, one or
two animals — like Ambam, like Koko — will be capable of extraordinary
things, but the vast majority are just happy being typical gorillas.
That said, there is very little for wild gorillas to be happy about
today. It is their species’ tragedy that their natural habitats in
central and western Africa straddle what have been, and in some cases
still are, some of the most dangerous countries in the world.
Rwanda, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo — these are the
countries in which wild gorillas are found, along with Cameroon and the
Central African Republic.
But even in those countries where civil wars have ended,
gorilla-related tourism has begun and organisations such as the
International Gorilla Conservation Programme are doing wonderful work,
wild gorillas still face multiple threats - from bush-meat and trophy
hunters, from deforestation and, most recently and devastatingly, from
the deadly ebola virus which is as lethal to gorillas as it to
chimpanzees.
As a result, there are only about 700 adult mountain gorillas
anywhere in the wild, while populations of eastern lowland gorillas and
western lowland gorillas are probably in the very low thousands and
very low tens of thousands respectively.
Ambam may be in captivity; he may have to stand on his legs to
catch even the smallest glimpse of a world beyond his enclosure. But,
unlike his endangered relatives in the wild, at least he’s safe.
If you consider yourself a classically well-balanced Libra or a typically
stubborn Aries, you may be in for quite a shock – you could belong to a
completely different star sign.
Over the past 3,000 years, the Earth’s shift on its axis has changed the 12
astrological signs as we know them. Astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium
Society have discovered that because of the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth,
the alignment of the stars was pushed by about a month.
Essentially, your astrological sign is determined by the position of the sun
on the day you were born. This new information in effect means that what we thought
we knew about our Zodiac sign is wrong. "Because of this change in the
tilt, the Earth is over here and the sun is in a different constellation than
it was 3,000 years ago when this study of the stars began," astronomer
Parke Kunkle told the Twin Cities' KARE-TV. “When [astrologers] say that the
sun is in Pisces, it’s really not in Pisces,” Kunkle says.
In fact, astrology has had major issues since it began. Babylonians
originally had 13 constellations but opted for 12 instead, completely ignoring
Ophuchicus, the snake holder, which has now been reintroduced into the star
sign line-up. The Libra star sign didn’t even come to exist until the time of
Julius Caesar.
So forget everything you thought you knew about your star sign, and get ready
for a brand-spanking new version of the astrological chart. The Minnesota
Planetarium Society has revealed the following list as where the real Zodiac
signs fall.
Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16 Aquarius:
Feb. 16-March 11 Pisces:
March 11-April 18 Aries:
April 18-May 13 Taurus:
May 13-June 21 Gemini:
June 21-July 20 Cancer:
July 20-Aug. 10 Leo:
Aug. 10-Sept. 16 Virgo:
Sept. 16-Oct. 30 Libra:
Oct. 30-Nov. 23 Scorpio:
Nov. 23-29 Ophiuchus:
Nov. 29-Dec. 17 Sagittarius:
Dec. 17-Jan. 20
China's vaulting economic ambition has set a new record with the construction
of the world's longest bridge over water.
Image 1 of 2
The sheer scale of the Qingdao Haiwan Bridge reveals the advances made by Chinese engineers in recent yearsPhoto: WENN
Image 1 of 2
World's top ten longest bridges
By David Eimer, Beijing8:02PM GMT 08 Jan 2011
At 26.4 miles long, the Qingdao Haiwan Bridge would easily cross the English
Channel and is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder,
the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in the American state of Louisiana.
The vast structure links the centre of the booming port city of Qingdao in
easternChina's
Shandong Province with the suburb of Huangdao, spanning the wide blue waters
of Jiaozhou Bay.
Built in just four years at a cost of £5.5 billion, the sheer scale of the
bridge reveals the advances made by Chinese engineers in recent years.
No longer dependant on western expertise for such sophisticated projects, the
six-lane road bridge is supported by more than 5,200 columns and was
designed by the Shandong Gausu Group. When it opens to traffic later this
year, the bridge is expected to carry over 30,000 cars a day and will cut
the commute between the city of Qingdao and the sprawling suburb of Huangdao
by between 20 and 30 minutes.
At least 10,000 workers toiled in two teams around the clock to build the
bridge, which was constructed from opposite ends and connected in the middle
in the last few days.
A staggering 450,000 tons of steel was used in its construction – enough for
almost 65 Eiffel Towers – and 2.3 million cubic metres of concrete,
equivalent to filling 3,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Chinese officials said that the bridge will be strong enough to withstand a
magnitude 8 earthquake, typhoons or the impact of a 300,000 tonne vessel.
With its economy growing by 16 per cent a year, Qingdao is one of China's
fastest-growing and most prosperous cities. The main port of the Chinese
navy and home of Tsingtao Beer, China's best-known brew, it hosted the
sailing events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Briefly occupied by Germany between 1898 and 1914, Qingdao's mix of early 20th
century European-style villas and churches, sandy beaches and reputation for
fine seafood has seen it become one of China's most popular domestic tourist
destinations in recent years. It is also regarded as a highly desirable
place to live. A 2009 Chinese survey named Qingdao as China's most liveable
city.
Qingdao's residents have hailed the bridge as a long overdue marvel.
"I'm so happy the bridge is finished. The old road between Qingdao and
Huangdao is so crowded and now my journey will be much easier. We are a
tourist city with beautiful beaches, so it is important we have good
transport links," said one commuter on sina.com, China's biggest
internet portal.
But people from other parts of China have denounced the huge cost of the
bridge, especially as it only cuts the distance between Qingdao and Huangdao
by 19 miles.
"To spend billions to save 20 minutes driving time is a waste of
taxpayers money. It's just a show project to make the governor of Shandong
look good," complained one commentator from Jilin Province in China's
northeast.
China is already home to seven of the world's 10 longest bridges, including
the world's lengthiest, the 102 mile Danyang-Kunshan rail bridge, which runs
over land and water near Shanghai.
And with Beijing pumping billions into boosting China's infrastructure, the
Qingdao Haiwan Bridge will not be the world's longest sea bridge for very
long.
Yorkshire-born Tres Ammerman caught the 14ft, 3.5in male alligator in Florida's Lake Washington.
The catch broke the previous official state length record set in 1997 by nearly 3in.
Mr Ammerman's wife, Janette, said it is very rare to seen an alligator over 14ft long.
"This really is the longest one that has ever been caught," she told the Orlando Sentinel.
Mr Ammerman was in a boat with two other trappers on October 31 when he spotted the alligator.
"I knew he was a giant 'gator when we saw his head," Mr Ammerman said.
The boat crew harpooned the alligator twice and although it attempted to swim away they were able to pull it alongside the boat.
"He
was running, jumping, rolling, fighting and trying to bite up on my
boat... I was thinking we got Godzilla here," Mr Ammerman said.
His nephew on board the boat, TJ Schause, said the reptile was so large they had to tow it.
In
all it took them more than two hours to land the alligator before
putting it in a tarpaulin filled with ice in Mr Ammerman's garage.
Arnold
Brunell, a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
biologist who inspected the alligator, confirmed it broke the state
record for length, but not weight.
The deadly catch weighed in at a whopping 654 lbs.
"We haven't decided what we are going to do with him yet, probably sell him," Mrs Ammerman said.
"The
previous record holder was apparently sold for $1,000 a foot, back in
1997 or '98, so my husband is going to keep his options open to see
what sort of deal we can do with this big boy."
With taxidermists
willing to pay more than £8,000 for the beast Mr Ammerman, who is a
registered nurse, is hoping for a big cheque.
"I feel like I hit the lottery. I do, it's just amazing," he told Fox News.
How the leopard really got his spots
Scientists suggest an evolutionary explanation for the leopard's spots and the markings of other wild cats
In
Kipling's story, a hunter paints spots on a leopard to help it blend
into the 'speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows'. Photograph: Randy
Wells/Corbis
More than a century after Rudyard Kipling offered his own explanation in the Just So Stories, scientists have revealed how the leopard got his spots.
The animals' dark, rosette-like markings, and those of other wild cats, are evolution's response to the creatures' surroundings and to whether they hunt by day or night, say researchers at Bristol University.
Cats
that
hunt on open, rocky ground by daylight tend to have evolved
plain-coloured coats, while those that pounce from rainforest tree
branches typically sport dappled fur. In each habitat, the cat's
markings improve its camouflage and make it a more effective predator.
For smaller cats, fur colour can help them hide from larger carnivores.
Will
Allen, a behavioural ecologist, studied the coat patterns of 35 wild
cat species and compiled details of their habitats, hunting styles and
when they went on the prowl.
Cats with complex and irregular
markings, such as the familiar spotted leopard, were commonly found in
dense, dark forests and hunted at night.
In Kipling's 1902 tale,
an Ethiopian hunter paints spots on a leopard to help it blend into the
"speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows" of the forest. "Apart from the
painting part, Kipling was quite right," said Allen. "The leopard got
its spots from a life in forested habitats, where it made use of the
trees and nocturnal hunting."
Ten
cats in Allen's study had plain coats and lived in open, often barren
landscapes. The sand cat is found in the arid deserts of Asia and
Africa and has particularly furry feet to protect them from the
scorching sands.
The plain-furred Pallas's cat melts into the
treeless steppes of central Asia, while the small Andean mountain cat
has a silver-grey coat that matches the rocky landscape.
In some
parts of the world, jaguars and leopards are completely black, an
adaptation that only seems to arise in species that live in a diverse
range of habitats.
In the study, Allen asked volunteers to match
the fur of different wild cats to computer-generated coat patterns that
varied from plain and simple to complex and irregular markings. When
Allen compared the markings across the cat family tree, he found that
similar patterns emerged quickly and several times during feline
evolution.
Some cats appear to have markings that are not suited
to their natural stalking grounds. The cheetah, for example, has a
distinctive spotted coat but lives in the sparse deserts of sub-Saharan
Africa.
But the animal's impressive athleticism means it can
reach more than 60 miles per hour in three seconds, and so it may rely
less on camouflage than other cats.
Just in time for Halloween, we found 11 burial grounds that are
destinations in their own right. From a mausoleum that was closed down
after too many ghost sightings to a graveyard that doubles as a small
town, these places are perfect for a fall tour — if you dare.
Text by Brendan Spiegel, Budget Travel
Lafayette
Cemetery in New Orleans, with its chilling collection of aboveground
tombs, was the setting for Interview with the Vampire.
In
a city set below sea level, there is no hiding the dead underground, so
in New Orleans, cemeteries are collections of aboveground tombs, a
creepy novelty that attracts many visitors to these Gothic graveyards.
Concerned about disrepair, local licensed guides volunteer their time
to give tours of two of New Orleans's oldest graveyards, Lafayette
Cemetery—setting for Interview with the Vampire — and St. Louis
Cemetery No. 1 — where you'll see "voodoo queen" Marie Laveau's Greek
Revival tomb. All proceeds are donated to Save Our Cemeteries, a group
that works to preserve and restore the city's graveyards.
Coca-Cola named world's best brand for 11th year in a row
Coca-Cola has held its spot as the world's best
brand for the 11th year in a row despite the soaring value of
technology companies, a survey has found. 16.09.2010.
Coca-Cola
has held its spot as the world's best brand for the 11th year in a row
despite the soaring value of technology companies, a survey has found.Photo: REUTERS
IBM, Microsoft and Google made up the top four,
according to consultancy Interbrand's 11th annual ranking of the
world's best global brands.
Apple enjoyed the biggest increase in value of all
top 100 brands at 37 per cent, with a year of technical glitches with
the iPhone 4 made up by the success of its iPad.
Coca-Cola has taken the top ranking for 11 years in a row.
The environmental disaster surrounding BP led to it
falling off the list and helped competitor Shell emerge an an industry
leader at number 81, up from 92 last year.
The Toyota recall caused the brand to lose 16 per
cent of its value, but the company still managed to rank at number 11,
down from 8th last year.
Interbrand group chief executive Jez Frampton said: ''2010 was the beginning of a long road back towards economic recovery.
''From real-time customer feedback through social
media to increased transparency about corporate citizenship, brands
were faced with a profound change in the way they relate to customers
and demonstrate their relevance and value. ''Despite this new paradigm
of brand management, the advantages of building a solid brand remain
the same.''
Luxury carmakers Mercedes Benz and BMW took 12th and 15th place respectively.
Despite the economic downturn, luxury brands
Cartier (77), Armani (95), Louis Vuitton (16), Gucci (44), Tiffany
& Co (76) and Hermes (69) all saw the value of their brands
increase.
In the financial sector, Citi (40) and UBS (86)
both dropped 13% in brand value, while Santander (68), Barclays (74)
and Credit Suisse (80) made the list for the first time.
The top 10 global brands as ranked by Interbrand are:
1. Coca-Cola
2. IBM
3. Microsoft
4. Google
5. GE
6. McDonald's
7. Intel
8. Nokia
9. Disney
10. HP
Couple share 80 years marriage
While many of today's couples seem to be
afflicted with the seven-year itch, Zhang Mucheng and Xu Dongying are
celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary. Living in a century-old
house in suburban Shanghai, the couple have seen it all - war, famine
and hardship.
They are often asked about the secret
of their long marriage, but they say they really don't know. "We are
from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), so we do things the old way," says
Xu, 102. "Life is good, especially when you have a diligent wife,"
says Zhang, 101.
Zhang and Xu got married in January
1930. It was their parents, both small business owners, who arranged
their marriage. They came to the marriage as complete strangers, as was
common then.
"We knew that we would have many years to get to know one another," Zhang laughs.
As the only son, Zhang learned to
shoulder responsibilities early when his mother died when he and his
two sisters were still young. "I went to school at the age of 10 and
started helping my father in his drugstore that sold traditional
medicine when I was 14," Zhang says.
Getting married was seen as an
important responsibility for a man, so the family line could continue.
"At that time we didn't have many choices. All you could do was hope to
find a good girl who could help you with the housekeeping."
Xu spent her childhood years living
away from her parents after "a fortuneteller said my horoscope showed I
was not compatible with my father".
Like many girls at that time, Xu did
not have access to schooling and devoted herself to household chores.
The couple have five sons and three daughters.
While it was not easy to maintain such a large family, Zhang never compromised his generosity.
"He often gave free medicine to the
poor, although he was not rich," says Huang Ayi, their youngest
daughter-in-law. "Sometimes, when someone died and the family could not
afford a coffin, he gave them money so the dead could rest in peace."
Xu never complained about any of this
and worked hard to make ends meet. At their poorest, Xu would walk an
hour every day so she could grow vegetables on wasteland.
In the early 1950s, Zhang's drugstore
and other private businesses were merged into the public sector. Zhang
continued to work at the drugstore as a clerk until his retirement.
Looking back on his life, he says being honest with his customers was
most important to him.
The couple lived a very simple, even
frugal life, and helped raise their grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. When asked what they understand "love" to mean,
the couple say they don't know
"We are not used to kissing and hugging," Xu says. "We just feel good when we are together."
With their children living with their
own families, Xu and Zhang enjoy their time together. Zhang has lost
some of his hearing, but Xu always repeats what's on TV for him. Xu has
lost some of her eyesight, and Zhang is always happy to read her the
newspaper.
"We have so many things to do together," Xu says. "We don't have time for fights."
China Daily 2010.09.13.
Green, fun and free: How to dance and make merry without spending a penny
Fretting endlessly about your carbon footprint is no fun. So relax. The Moneyless Man knows how to party for free
Forest-walking, foraging and wild-swimming - all fun, all free. Photograph: Mark Boyle
There's got to be more to life than carbon footprints, climate
change and peak oil. The new design for society many of us want
shouldn't just be better for the environment, it should be a shedload
more fun into the bargain. As Emma Goldman, a hugely influential early
20th-century political philosopher and activist, once said: "If I can't
dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
If life doesn't inspire me to get up and do a little Irish jig every morning before breakfast, what the hell is the point of it?
Living without money and having a great time are by no means
mutually exclusive. If anything, it wasn't until I gave up using money
in November 2008 that I started to really enjoy life, not just
two-sevenths of it. In hindsight, my old Groundhog Weekend was
incredibly boring – mundanely going for a few drinks to the pub, a nice
restaurant or to see a movie at the cinema. Worse still, spending 3.8
hours of each precious day – or an entire 11 years of my time on this
planet – watching TV. Where's the adventure in any of that?
Necessity really is the mother of invention. Instead of going for a
pint, why not make your own booze? Organise a day out with friends
foraging wild apples for cider – any variety will do – but the sweeter
the better (Jonagolds and Red Delicious are perfect). Ideally find some
windfalls, as these have natural yeasts already on them, meaning that
apples are the only ingredient you'll need. If you see any neighbours
with unused apple trees, don't be afraid to ask if you can do the work
for them; you can always surprise them with a share once its made.
Alternatively, grow your own hops, check out some recipes on Self-sufficientish, and forage your own flavourings (such as yarrow) before brewing your own beer.
Now you've got your alcohol supply, you're going to want to party.
Anyone can organise a house party, but these often just end up pissing
off the neighbours. Getting them involved is a much better idea, and
instead of making sworn enemies you'll make a load of friends.
One of my favourite organisations for this are Streetsalive,
who will guide you through the process of organising the mother of all
street parties, and can often even help you to get your council to
agree to close your road for the day.
Being moneyless in the winter can seem really unappealing to most
people, I admit, but you'd have to be bonkers to at least not try it –
even for a week – in the summer. Long evenings walking in the woods,
camping by the beach at the weekend, cooking food al fresco that you've
grown and picked yourself, cycling, playing – or listening to –
acoustic music by a camp fire, wandering in the wilds foraging berries
and nuts, skinny-dipping (swimming naked) in the lake and sleeping under the stars.
If you like art, there are always free exhibitions in and around big
towns and cities. Some even have a free bar – this doesn't fit in with
the philosophy of the Freeconomy community,
however, so go easy on it. If movies are more your thing, there really
is no need to go to the cinema (except to watch mindless Hollywood
crap). I live near Bristol and there are constantly free films night
showing online movies such as Money as Debt or Earthlings.
If they aren't happening where you live, why not organise one yourself?
They're a great way of sharing information and getting like-minded
people together.
Music is my thing, so I often go along to free open-mic nights at
a local venue. These events are not just great entertainment but a
wonderful way to support new local talent playing acoustic music. If
you are even slightly musically-gifted, work up the courage and get on
stage yourself.
And instead of watching the TV, turn off the light, stick on a few
beeswax candles (from local bees, of course, who haven't been fed
sugar), and fritter the hours away making love. It increases your
health, will strengthen your relationship and is infinitely more
pleasurable than EastEnders. If you're single, abandon fear and ask the
one you've got your eye on to come out for a wild food forage. Who
cares if you don't know your ramsons from your rosehips, you'll have
them exactly where you want them: in the bush.
So if you were thinking of doing something nice and comfortable
this weekend, shame on you. Put your credit card away (better still,
cut it up), dust off your tent, get on your bike and go and put the
adventure back in your life.
• Mark Boyle is the founder of the Freeconomy Community and has lived moneyless for the last 19 months. His book, The Moneyless Man, is out now, published by Oneworld – sales from the book will go to a charitable trust for the Freeconomy Community.
Hancox, the house where NOTHING has been thrown away for 120 years
Wartime rations in the larder. Fifty-year-old logs in the grate. And love tokens for a Victorian mistress under the stairs...
Have you got one of those attics packed full of stuff you keep
meaning to clear out? Or cupboards whose contents haven't seen the
light of day for years?
Well, if you think your house is cluttered, I can assure you it
has nothing on mine - a rambling, dilapidated place in Sussex, with a
timber-framed Tudor hall at its centre and all sorts of bits and pieces
added on over the years.
It's a place that has been occupied by five generations of my
family since 1888, and each of them has added their own very personal
collections of treasure - or junk. And when you are lucky enough to
have a large house like Hancox, things can be left to silt up,
peacefully forming geological layers.
Charlotte Moore and her son Jake, at the family home, Hancox
Having gone away to work in London for a time, I moved back in 20
years ago and took over care of the house from my mother. Since then, I
have lived here with my three sons - George, 20, Sam, 18, and Jake,
12. Once, such continuity would have been commonplace. Now it's
unusual.
The modern way is to move house often, to throw out other people's
old things, and to remodel your living quarters to suit your own tastes
and needs without reference to the past. But for me and my sons, the fabric of daily life is woven from
what our forebears left behind. We use their furniture, their books,
their crockery, even their bed linen.
Things last for a long time if you don't mind a bit of shabbiness. I have never in my life bought a new towel.
Wartime supplies lurk at the back of the larder - rusty tins of
powdered eggs and vegetable fat from Australia. Blackout curtains are
rolled up in the sewing basket, and pasted to the kitchen cupboard is a
list of obsolete three-digit telephone numbers for home deliveries:
butcher, baker, district nurse.
All have become untouchable pieces of historical evidence, like Anglo-Saxon coins turned up by a plough.
One of the many treasures at Hancox, which has been home to five generations of the same family
As a child, my imagination was nourished by the antiquity of the
place, but only in the past few years did I settle down to make sense
of it all.
It was my great-grandfather's wife, Milicent, who bought Hancox in
the 1880s with a legacy she'd received after being orphaned. The man
she married had gone to Cambridge, became a doctor and rose to become
president of the Royal College of Physicians. His son - my grandfather, who was also a doctor - took on the
house and had four children, of whom one was my father. A lifelong
liberal activist, he and my mother raised me and my brothers, Charles
and Rowan, at Hancox.
My forebears were highly literate people living in an age when the
written word was revered. They wrote diaries, nature notes, memoirs,
poems, stories, and thousands and thousands of letters.
The famously efficient Victorian postal system meant that a letter
posted at breakfast time in London would reach Sussex in time for
lunch.
My relations valued their letters, and kept them: they're stored
all over the house. Modern technology means that an accidental archive
like the one at Hancox won't ever accumulate again. So I decided to explore the history of the place, which had always seemed so familiar and yet contained so much that was not.
I read through letters and diaries, scrutinised sketch books and
photograph albums. Hidden human stories leapt into life and linked up
with one another to form the outline of a bigger picture.
Every man-made object has a story to tell, but taken out of
context, meaning evaporates and the stories remain silent. In context,
things are re-animated.
To take a small example, I found some crystals, folded in a piece
of yellowed paper, in a box in the black hole under the stairs. The
leather box in which they were discovered was embossed with the
initials E.M.P.; the paper was inscribed 'Three little Irish crystals.'
Before I began my researches, this find would have been pretty,
quaint, but mysterious, its meaning hidden. Now, I know that the
initials are those of Ethel Mary Portal - the woman who became my
great-grandfather's mistress while somehow contriving to remain his
wife's best friend. And I recognise the handwriting on the paper as my
great-grandfather's, an Irishman who carried a faint sense of exile.
'Three little Irish crystals' - a love-offering from him packed with
personal significance which obviously found their way back into the
house.
No wonder they were shoved out of sight under the stairs.
Charlotte Moore's forebears were highly literate people living in an age when the written word was revered
The room where I'm writing now was this same Irishman's
'scriptorium', as he called it. An eminent doctor, an antiquarian,
naturalist, historian and linguist, he was what was known as 'a man of
letters' - which in his case was especially true. His output was
prodigious. I found in the attic a letter from him, written in the 1870s, in
which he apologises for the untidiness of his handwriting, 'but this is
the 53rd letter I have written so far today'. He would have sat where I am now sitting, at the big bay window,
distracted, as I am, by the garden and the farm and the bullocks
strolling in and out of the barn, the view distorted in the same way by
the shakes and ripples in the ancient greenish glass.
His meals would have been sent up by one of his six servants from
the kitchen below via a dumb waiter, a lift shaft built into the wall. No one sends meals up to me, more's the pity. Nothing happens to
the dumb waiter now, except that our cats occasionally get stuck in it.
My great-grandfather would have eaten his meals by the fire. This
fireplace, too, is long unused. Beside it, set into the panelling, is a
cupboard, still housing his poker and tongs. There are even a couple of
logs in there, survivors of the last fire ever laid in that grate,
before I was even born.
There are other things in the cupboard, too: chipped china, boxes of buttons, my childhood Advent calendar. In the Sixties, you didn't get a new one each year - or at least
we didn't. My mother pushed the little doors back into place and, as we
re-opened them each successive year, feelings of festive surprise gave
way to cosy recognition. That dear old robin again!
The cupboard also holds a black leather attaché case, bulging with
more than 300 letters. These are letters of condolence written to my
great-grandfather after the death of his son Gillachrist, shot through
the heart, aged just 20, in the first Battle of Ypres.
Hancox was Gillachrist's boyhood home, and it is full of relics of
his brief life. Like his father (and like many of his relatives alive
today), Gillachrist - 'Gilla' - loved natural history. He cycled,
walked and rode all over the surrounding countryside, collecting
shells, bones, nests, horns and butterflies, which still reside here in
the drawers in which he stored them.
His rambles included clandestine visits to Mary, his sweetheart,
who lived in a village a few miles away. Mary's parents were
overprotective, but the co-operation of her governess was easily bought
by chocolates. Gilla kept Mary's love letters in a tin box. On the lid
he scratched 'Faint heart never won fair lady.'
Every family has its World War I hero. There's nothing in the
short life and tragic death of Gilla that is intrinsically remarkable.
But because so much of him is still here, under this roof, I feel the
shock of his loss and, through him, the suffering of that doomed
generation.
The Great War shaped the 20th century and still reverberates in all our lives today
Gilla's effects were sent back from the Front. His grieving father
stored them in a trunk. If there was a fire, that trunk is one of the
first things I'd save.
His gun belt, his watch, his army socks, brittle with age, the
diary that he kept up until the day of his death in 1914, the
photographs of Mary that were in his pocket when he died - they're
all there.
So is his soldier's Christmas present from 'The Princess Mary and
friends at home' - tobacco and a pipe in a fancy box, bearing a note:
'It is regretted that non-smoker gifts are not available.' Gilla was a
smoker, but the tobacco remains unbroached; the gift arrived after his
death.
We’re often told, these days, that hanging on to 'clutter' is
psychologically unhealthy. Taken to the point of obsession, hoarding
can, I suppose, have emotional and even physical dangers. But, for me, decluttering this house would be just as damaging. A
respect for the past, and therefore for the objects that make the past
real, is of fundamental importance to my reading of human nature, and
therefore to my psychological health.
When 12-year-old Jake stirs his cocoa with the christening spoon
engraved with his great-great-uncle's name, I tell him about Gilla,
giving him a direct route to the Great War - the cataclysm that
shaped the 20th century and still reverberates in all our lives today. On the wall of my son Sam's bedroom - which was once Gilla's -
there's a frieze of waterbirds, chalked there in his carefree boyhood
before the war cast its shadow.
Drawings, marks and scribbles can be found on walls all over the
house, from the puffins and oystercatchers painted over the bath by my
aunts, to the childish felt-tipped insults my brothers and I aimed at
each other as youngsters, to an inaccurate sum furtively inscribed by a
very young Jake.
And there are marks left by much earlier hands: Roman numerals
painted on to beams to show Tudor builders where the different pieces
should go, carved Vs and Ms (possibly asking the Virgin Mary to protect
the house against evil spirits); a curly signature, 'Thos Christy
1789', scratched on to one of the diamond-paned windows. No wonder Jake says that graffiti is his favourite art form.
Shovelling snow off the roof lest it leak through the lead last
winter, I was pleased to spot that a BT engineer in the Eighties had
carried on the tradition by etching into the lead flashing, 'Remember
Culloden you English loons.'
To me, the sense of connection with past lives is not a burden but
a source of endless fascination. Everyone should try to live in the way
that suits them best.
For many, clean, white-walled minimalism is the right environment.
But for me, this dark, draughty, cave-like house is right. I'm happy to
be an English loon.
Even though I have to admit that mingled with the scent of lime blossom, hay and roses there is a less welcome aroma.
Yes, the drains are blocked again. Tree roots have cracked the
Victorian pipes. The system needs major surgery, which I can't afford,
so once again out I go with my shovel and my bucket. On a day like this
it seems worth it .
• Hancox: A House And A Family, by Charlotte Moore, is published by Viking/Penguin.
A total of 52,500 bronze and silver coins dating from the 3rd century AD found by hobby metal detectorist Dave Crisp
Just a small selection of the Roman coins found by Dave Crisp in a field near Frome, Somerset. Photograph: British Museum/PA
The largest single hoard of Roman coins ever found in Britain has been unearthed on a farm near Frome in Somerset.
A total of 52,500 bronze and silver coins dating from the 3rd
century AD – including the largest ever found set of coins minted by
the self proclaimed emperor Carausius, who lasted seven years before he
was murdered by his finance minister – were found by Dave Crisp, a
hobby metal detectorist from Devizes, Wiltshire.
Crisp first dug up a fingernail-sized bronze coin only 30cm below
the surface. Even though he had never found a hoard before, when he had
turned up a dozen coins he stopped digging and called in the experts,
who uncovered a pot bellied pottery jar stuffed with the extraordinary
collection, all dating from 253 to 293 AD – the year of Carausius's
death.
Just giving them a preliminary wash, to prevent them from sticking
together in a corroded mass as the soil dried out, took conservation
staff at the British Museum a month, and compiling the first rough
catalogue took a further three months.
How they got into the field remains a mystery, but archaeologists
believe they must represent the life savings of an entire community –
possibly a votive offering to the gods. A Roman road runs nearby, but
no trace of a villa, settlement or cemetery has been found.
Roger Bland, a coins expert at the British Museum, said: "The
whole hoard weighs 160 kilos, more than two overweight people, and it
wouldn't have been at all easy to recover the coins from the ground.
The only way would have been the way the archaeologists had to get them
out, by smashing the pot that held them and scooping them out.
"No one individual could possibly have carried them to the field in the pot, it must have been buried first and then filled up."
Bland, who heads the Portable Antiquities service which encourages
metal detectorists to report all finds, said the hoard had already
absorbed more than 1,000 hours of work. He admitted his first stunned
reaction when he saw the coins in the ground in April, was "oh my god,
how the hell are we going to deal with this? Now I think it will see me
out, the research will keep me going until my retirement."
"This find is going to make us rethink the nature of such hoards,"
he said. "The traditional thinking was that they represent wealth
hidden in times of trouble and invasion – the Saxons were coming, the
Irish were invading as always – but that doesn't match these dates."
The archaeologists praised Crisp for calling them in immediately,
allowing the context of the find to be recorded meticulously. When a
coroner's inquest is held later this month in Somerset, the coins are
likely to be declared treasure, which must by law be reported. Somerset
county museum hopes to acquire the hoard, which could be worth up to
£1m, with the blessing of the British Museum.
Women and body image: a man's perspective
Ever wondered why a man can look at an advert
featuring a six-pack and laugh, while a woman might look at a
photograph of female perfection and fall to pieces? William Leith
thinks he might have uncovered the answer
By William Leith 23.05.2010
Advertising for lingeriePhoto: PHILIPPE HAYS / ALAMY
Plenty of guys have told me this story. The guy in question is
preparing to go to a party with his girlfriend. She is trying on shoes
and dresses. He is telling her how good she looks. She tries on more
shoes, more dresses. And then: the sudden, inexplicable meltdown. She
crumples on the bed.
Something is horribly wrong. Now the party is out of the question.
The guy sits down. He hugs her. What's the problem? Gradually the
truth emerges. 'Do you know what it was?' the guy will say later to his
friends. 'She said she "didn't look right". She felt … I don't know.
Fat. Or that she was the wrong shape. It's all about her body.' He goes
on: 'I told her she looked great. Which she does, right?'
At this point the other guys will say, 'Yeah – she looks great.'
And: 'She looks fine.' And: 'I saw her the other day, wearing those
shorts.' And: 'She is hot.' Then the first guy will say, 'That's what I
kept telling her. And that's when she got really upset. She said, "You
just don't understand."'
It's true – men, by and large, do not understand. In her book The Beauty Myth,
Naomi Wolf made this point very powerfully. When a woman has a crisis
of confidence about the way she looks there is nothing a man can do to
console her.
'Whatever he says hurts her more,' says Wolf. 'If he comforts her
by calling the issue trivial, he doesn't understand. It isn't trivial
at all. If he agrees with her that it's serious, even worse: he can't
possibly love her, he thinks she's fat and ugly.'
But it doesn't stop there, says Wolf. What if the man were to say
he loves the woman just as she is – that he loves her for her? An
absolute no-no, of course, because then 'he doesn't think she's
beautiful'. Worse still, though, if he says he loves her because he
thinks she's beautiful.
There's no way out. It seems to be, in Wolf's words, 'an
uninhabitable territory between the sexes'. So why don't men
understand? And, given a bit of education, can the situation be
improved?
Well, I'm a man, so let's see. The first thing to say is that,
when it comes to their bodies, men have a completely different
attitude. I'm not saying they don't think about their bodies, or worry
about them, because they do. But men relate to their bodies in a simple
way.
A man's body is either fine, or it's not fine. For a man, the body
is a practical object. It's a machine. Sometimes it works well;
sometimes it needs fixing. Some guys know how to fix it, by taking up a
sport, maybe, or cutting down on the carbs. Some don't, and go to seed.
Men see their bodies as machines because, for most of their time
on this earth, they have defined themselves as hunters and protectors.
They equate being attractive with being strong and fast and muscled.
That's a simple concept, isn't it? And that simplicity is hard-wired
into the male brain.
When his girlfriend has a meltdown, and says she hates her body,
that is not a simple concept. Unlike men, women do not have a simple
relationship with their bodies. They have a complex relationship with
their bodies. This is what men often don't understand. When it comes to
their bodies, women are extremely vulnerable – and, what's more, lots
of people take advantage of that vulnerability. This makes the
situation worse.
Men don't have to contend with this – the hair people, and the
make-up people, and the fashion people, and the shoe people, and the
bra people, and the nail people, and the eyelash people, and the Botox
people, and the cosmetic surgery people, and the perfume people, and
the hair-removal people. Oh, and the diet people.
Men are not at the mercy of corporate manipulation on remotely
this scale. Sure, there are six-packs creeping into our field of vision
every so often. And, sure, this is making us feel insecure. I know – I
was fat, and it's no fun being fat, especially with all those pictures
of Brad Pitt nagging away.
And then there are the adverts for Lynx, and the Reebok advert in
which a man is chased around town by a big fat hairy belly. But for men
the message is very direct. Buy some running shoes. Go to the gym. Cut
down on the carbohydrates. For men there is no mystery behind the veil
of the adverts. You either tackle the situation, or become a fat slob.
End of story.
For men the holy grail is within reach – you just need to get fit,
and then you'll be fine; then you can think about something else. But
the messages aimed at women are much more complex and confusing. As the
American social commentator Warren Farrell has pointed out, women's
magazines often contain articles about being Superwoman, which are next
to adverts about being Cinderella.
In other words, the words tell women how to be independent and in
control. But the adverts, where the money is, tell them they have to be
beautiful.
Farrell said this more than two decades ago – and, shockingly,
nothing has changed. There's a solid pulse running through everything
our culture aims at women – be beautiful, be beautiful, be beautiful.
But being beautiful, it turns out, is a near-impossible task. It
keeps getting harder and harder. Everybody knows that it entails being
slim – and every year the ideal gets slimmer and slimmer. In 1960 the
average model weighed 10 per cent less than the average woman. Now she
weighs 25 per cent less. Soon she will weigh 30 per cent less. But she
doesn't have the breasts of a skinny woman – nor, as Susie Orbach has
recently pointed out, the bottom. To achieve the ideal is vanishingly
impossible.
And it's getting worse. Orbach believes that we are exposed, on a
weekly basis, to several thousand images that have been digitally
manipulated. And this, in turn, makes more women opt for cosmetic
surgery – which, of course, moves the goalposts even farther away.
When lots of people have surgery to make themselves look more
beautiful this has the effect of making everybody else feel less
beautiful. And this is happening on a global scale – in 2007 people
spent £9 billion on cosmetic surgery; the vast majority of them, of
course, were women.
So: men are told they should aspire to fitness and strength, and
women are told they should aspire to something more nebulous. But that
still does not explain, in terms a man could understand, why the female
message is so much more powerful and disturbing.
It doesn't explain why a tenth of women are anorexic, why a
growing number are bulimic, why almost half of women, at any given
time, are on a diet. It doesn't quite explain the meltdowns. And it
doesn't explain why women want to be so skinny. Why they think they are
fat, when they are not. It doesn't explain why, when a woman's body is
perfectly attractive, she often thinks it isn't, and can't be persuaded
otherwise.
In short, it does not explain why a man can look at an advert
featuring a six-pack and laugh at it, whereas a woman might look at a
picture of Gisele Bündchen and feel a sense of unease that hangs around
for days.
John Updike once said that the female body is the world's prime
aesthetic object – we look at it more than we look at anything else,
including landscapes, gadgets, cars. In fact, cars and gadgets are
often designed to resemble the female body, and landscapes can be
painted to remind us of it. When we talk about 'the nude' in art we are
almost certainly referring to the female nude. As far as nudes are
concerned, the male nude is a distant runner-up.
I once wrote the introduction to a book of male nudes by the
photographer Rankin; it was a sequel to his previous book of female
nudes. One thing struck me above all – male nudes were a much, much
harder thing to portray than female ones.
That's because the female body carries with it a huge weight of
iconic significance – thousands of years of being looked at. The female
body has meaning. Pictures of the female body can be profound, serious
and complex. For thousands of years they have been depicted with
reverence. Now imagine having one of those bodies. It puts a bit of
pressure on, doesn't it?
Now I'm beginning to see why women might be so addicted to
perfection. They have a lot to live up to – a couple of thousand years
of art history, and a couple of thousand airbrushed boobs and bums to
deal with every week.
But what started this off in the first place? Why aren't there so
many airbrushed pictures of men around? Of course, these pictures do
exist, and their numbers are increasing. But why are women so much more
vulnerable to pictures of perfect bodies than men?
In his book The Evolution of Desire, the American
psychologist David Buss goes some way towards explaining why this
should be so. Since the Stone Age, he explains, men and women have had
different attitudes towards sex. Men can pass on their genes with very
little risk – all they need is a fertile woman.
But it's different for women, because pregnancy is incredibly
risky. What women need is a man who looks like a good provider – better
still, who looks like a proven provider.
So let's think about our Stone Age man and woman. If he's going to
settle down, and stop playing the field, he wants one thing above all –
a woman who looks fertile. More than that, he wants a woman who looks
as if she'll be fertile for many years to come. In other words, he
might consider being a provider and protector, as long as his mate
looks young, fertile and unblemished.
And now consider his mate. What does she want? Not just a man who
is a good hunter and a good fighter, but a man who has a track record
as a hunter and fighter. In other words, an older man. And this is not
only true of Stone Age couples. In a survey conducted by David Buss,
10,000 people, in 37 cultures, were polled. 'In all 37 cultures
included in the international study on choosing a mate,' writes Buss,
'women prefer men who are older than they are.'
Now I'm getting close to understanding why women are so critical
of their bodies. Since prehistoric times they have had a hard-wired
link to how they look. For tens of thousands of years it was crucial;
it could be the difference between having a protector and not having
one – between life and death, even.
For men it's not the same at all. The odd wrinkle or grey hair
doesn't matter. Hell, it might even be an advantage. As long as you're
good at throwing spears and building shelters, you'll be fine.
Twenty thousand years on, what has changed? Well, as David Buss
points out, it's unlikely that a Stone Age man would have seen
'hundreds or even dozens of attractive women in that environment'. But
now, when he looks at a Playboy centrefold, he is seeing a
woman who has competed with thousands of other women for the part – not
only that, he's seeing the best picture out of thousands.
And it's not just centrefolds, is it? Just look at newsreaders –
mostly, it's a pretty girl and a grey-haired man. Message to men:
relax. Message to women: panic! And then there are the girl groups, and
the short-skirted girl on Countdown, and even the characters in
the Harry Potter films, where the boys are allowed to look like geeks
but the girl must look like a model.
As the art critic John Berger wrote: 'Men look at women. Women
watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the
relations of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves.'
It's a tough one, isn't it?
Surely guys can understand that, at least. If it happened to us, we'd have a meltdown, too.
Korda looking at a 3 Cuban Peso banknote, which also bears his famous photograph.
The man who gave Che to the world
Moves to protect Alberto Korda's iconic image from exploitation
"Guerrillero Heroico," photograph, 1960.
HIS remarkable photograph of Che Guevara became an
icon for revolutionaries everywhere. When Alberto Korda pointed his
Leica camera at the bearded Latin American freedom fighter, he
unwittingly created an image that became a legend of the twentieth
century.
Now, following the death of Korda in Paris on Friday at the age of
72, a battle has begun to protect the extraordinary picture from
commercial exploitation, and to ensure that the photographer's legacy
to the world is not besmirched by a battle to cash in.
For more than 30 years, Korda turned a blind eye to its use on
T-shirts and posters by students and radicals all over the world. But
he firmly resisted a string of lucrative offers to hand over the rights
to the image he saw as sacred.
Last year he successfully sued Lowe Lintas, a British advertising
agency, and picture agency Rex Features for using the picture in a
Smirnoff vodka campaign. The British-based Cuba Solidarity Campaign
helped Korda to fight the action, in which he won undisclosed damages.
'If Che was still alive, he would have done the same,' Korda said
after the settlement was reached. 'To use the image of Che Guevara to
sell vodka is a slur on his name and his memory. He never drank. He was
not a drunk, and drink should not be associated with his immortal
memory.'
Now the campaign has launched a new battle to defend the 'heroic
guerrilla' amid fears it will be used by firms eager to cash in on its
popularity.
Dr Stephen Wilkinson, the group's national co-ordinator, told The
Observer : 'The family [Korda] have asked us to continue policing the
picture and all inquiries about its use should be addressed to us. Our
most abiding memory of him was in November last year when we took him a
large sum of money from the sale of the photograph and he immediately
had us hand it over to the Cuban Health Ministry to purchase much
needed antibiotics for children.'
The picture was taken on 5 March 1960 at a memorial service for
more than 100 crew members of a Belgian arms cargo ship, killed in an
attack for which Cuba blamed counter-revolutionary forces aided by the
US. Korda was assigned by the magazine Revolución to cover the
ceremony, whose guests included Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul
Sartre.
'Che was standing on the row behind Fidel [Castro] on the
platform,' said Korda. 'You couldn't see him. Then suddenly he stepped
forward to the edge of the platform. I was standing below. I saw him
step forward with this absolute look of steely defiance as Fidel spoke.
It was only a brief moment that I had. I managed to shoot two frames
and then he was gone.'
Korda's newspaper was more interested in his pictures of Castro,
but the photographer liked the image of Guevara and hung it on the wall
in his Havana studio.
Seven years later, yellowed by tobacco smoke, the picture was
still on the wall when an Italian publisher, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli,
called, brandishing a letter of introduction from a senior official in
the Cuban administration and asked Korda for a copy. Korda handed the
visitor two prints, for no charge. Guevara was killed a few months
later and was immediately hailed as a martyr to the revolution.
There are conflicting stories of how the photograph came to gain
such currency, but it became a rallying image in the student revolts in
Paris in 1968, and Feltrinelli was quick to capitalise on its value. Of
the millions of posters featuring the image that appeared around the
world, some, Korda has said, even bore the notice 'copyright
Feltrinelli'. Yet Korda did not bear a grudge against the
enterprising publisher. 'I still forgive him, because by doing what he
did he made it famous.'
'It is one of the great icons of the twentieth century,' said the
artist Peter Blake, who designed the cover of the Beatles' Sergeant
Pepper album. 'You can compare its visual impact with Warhol's Marilyn
or with Roy Lichtenstein's comic book pictures.'
So powerful is the legacy of Guevara that this year, together with
the publication of new editions of the revolutionary's personal
diaries, Mick Jagger and Robert Redford are producing rival films about
his life.
Jagger, whose student bedroom at the London School of Economics
was one of those decorated by a Che poster, is hoping that Antonio
Banderas will star, while Redford has Benicio Del Torro signed up.
Argentine-born Guevara became a popular hero in Cuba after helping
to lead Fidel Castro's rebel army to victory against Fulgencio
Batista's dictatorship in 1959. But his mythic status - and the
enduring power of Korda's photograph - was sealed when he was killed in
October 1967 during an abortive attempt to foment a Cuban-style
socialist uprising in Bolivia.
For many years Korda claimed to have made no money from the
picture. This was chiefly because Cuba was not a signatory to the Berne
Convention on intellectual property until the early 1990s and so Korda
could not take legal action to establish official copyright.
He wore a reproduction in a medallion strung around his neck: 'It will stay with me until I die,' he said.
Korda, whose real name was Alberto Díaz Gutiérrez, was born on 14
September 1928 in Havana. He got his first taste of photography when he
took his father's Kodak 35 and began taking pictures of his girlfriend.
During the Fifties he worked as a fashion photographer.
But his career changed direction after Castro came to power in Cuba.
After the revolution, he took pictures of demonstrations, sugar
cane harvests and factory scenes. For 10 years he served as the Cuban
leader's official photographer, accompanying Castro on trips and in
meetings with foreign personalities.
Other less-known images by Korda include shots of Castro staring
warily at a tiger in a New York zoo, playing golf and fishing with
Guevara, skiing and hunting in Russia, and with Ernest Hemingway.
Korda's work also includes remarkable pictures of Castro's rebels
riding into Havana after their triumph, and one known as 'The Quixote
of the Lamp Post' showing a Cuban wearing a straw hat and sitting on a
lamp post against a sea of people during a rally.
'[Korda's death] is a great loss for Cuban culture. He was one of
the top chroniclers of the revolution,' said Liborio Noval, a
photographer for Cuba's official Communist Party newspaper Granma who
was also one of Alberto Korda's contemporaries. Korda was visiting
Paris last week attending an exhibition of his works when he died.
'We had expected him to come home tomorrow,' said his daughter, Norka
Korda, one of his five children, on Friday.
His body is expected to be returned to Havana.
Rome tourists to get new lowdown on Colosseum
Public will soon be allowed to visit underground area where wild animals were caged and gladiators prepared for fights
Rome's culture officials say the arena's underground area will be open for tours from late summer. Photograph: Associated Press
Tourists in Rome
will soon be able to visit the underground of the Colosseum, where
gladiators once prepared for fights and lions and tigers were caged
before entertaining a bloodthirsty public.
The city's culture officials said today that, after several
months of work to make the area safe for visits, the public will be
allowed to add the underground section to tours of the arena starting
in late summer. No exact date has been set.
Architect Barbara Nazzaro said tourists will be able to see the
spaces where lions, tigers and bulls were kept in cages before they
were hoisted on elevators to ground level for entertainment in the
ancient arena.
Elephants were too heavy for the rope-hoisted elevators. They made their grand entrance into the Colosseum through main gates.
The ingenious system of lifts allowing the animals to suddenly pop
up at ground level would have made for an awesome sight, she said.
The animal show was just one part of a day's entertainment at the
arena. First the audience watched a hunting spectacle, then came
executions, and finally the gladiators squared off, said Nazzaro, who
worked on the project to open the space to the public.
A piece of mortar recently broke off from a part of the Colosseum
during closing hours, but caused no injuries. Officials say the
monument is in need of constant monitoring and maintenance, but its
overall stability is not at risk.
Chelsea flower show: Opening day
Tim Lusher looks at outdoor living, the plant of the year and the show gardens
Surfer Andy Marr surfs a wave at an offshore reef known as Dungeons off Cape Town, South Africa. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA
What exactly is an ocean wave? You may think the answer is
obvious: it is a moving mound of water. But if you think that, you are
not watching carefully enough. The best way to understand is to observe
the effect waves have on something floating in the water – a sprig of
seaweed, for example. Watch it as it rises and dips and ducks and
weaves, rather like a featherweight boxer. As the peaks move below it,
the bobbing seaweed remains in the same general position. It isn't
swept along with the crests.
So if these waves aren't travelling water, what exactly are they?
What is moving from out at sea to the shore? The answer is energy.
Water is just the means by which energy moves from one place to
another. It is the medium through which the wave's energy travels.
When you gaze at the waves lapping up the beach of some exotic
holiday location they look calm and tranquil, like the relaxed
breathing of the ocean. But such a graceful arrival belies the waves'
troubled upbringing. These serene visitors will often have begun life
amid the chaotic, wind-torn tumult of a storm somewhere out at sea –
one that has long since dissipated.
Waves are formed all the time, right across the world's oceans,
but it would help to observe their formation in a clutter-free
environment: on a patch of smooth, calm and wave-free sea. In reality,
no such place exists. The closest approximations are probably within
the "horse latitudes", the bands of the seas that fall between 30
degrees and 35 degrees latitude in both the northern and southern
hemispheres, and the "doldrums", the band at the equator, extending
five degrees or 10 degrees to the north and south. In both regions, the
winds can be feeble and inconsistent.
The periods of calm can be persistent in the perpetually high
pressure of the horse latitudes (the name is thought by some to derive
from 18th-century Spanish merchant ships transporting horses to the New
World having to jettison their cargo to conserve dwindling water
supplies). But we don't want to wait around for ever, so let's choose a
patch of water in the doldrums. As the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge
famously described them, the winds here can be so feeble and dithering
that they leave a sailing vessel "stuck, nor breath nor motion;/As idle
as a painted ship/Upon a painted ocean". The word "doldrums" derives
from the old English word "dol", meaning "dull". But these regions
experience consistently low pressure; their sultry, eerie calm will
soon be broken by weather of a very different character that will
conveniently turn the gentle, glassy undulations into towering waves.
The warm, humid air around this equatorial belt can lead to
intense atmospheric instability. Squalls and storms near the doldrums
develop suddenly and can keep growing into enormously destructive
tropical cyclones. But we don't need anything as violent as that to
bring our waves into being. A simple storm at sea will do the job. Once
the wind's speed has reached a couple of knots, or one metre per
second, the friction it exerts on the water starts to leave subtle
imprints. Tiny ripples dance across the surface, each no higher than a
centimetre or so. Soon, scattered, diamond-shaped ripples, known as
"cat's paws", sparkle in the light "where the wind's feet shine along
the sea", to borrow a phrase from the Victorian poet Algernon Swinburne.
These incipient ripples are the newborns: the very first stage in
the life cycle of a wave. They soon become established as they are
nourished by the stiffening air currents of the building storm into an
enduring roughening of the water's surface. This in turn increases the
friction between the water and the winds. Tiny eddies develop just
above the capillary waves, resulting in fluctuations in the pressure
that the air exerts upon the water. The ripples respond
enthusiastically to such stimuli: they lift a crest here and sink a
trough there and grow in size.
Once they have risen to a couple of centimetres in height, our
waves are no longer infants. They are now known as "gravity waves"
because the weight of the water – the force gravity exerts on it – has
become the more significant influence on them. This is now the dominant
force in opposing the disturbance of the wind, tending to restore the
water to its level and so powering the young waves forwards through the
ensuing melee.
As the wind builds in force and becomes more sustained, so the
waves' appearance changes completely. The crests and troughs now grow
agitated and chaotic. They rush this way and that, running into each
other, tumbling over each other, like a roomful of toddlers under the
dubious guidance of a hyperactive childminder. This confused and
irregular ocean surface is known simply as a "wind sea".
Before long, the significant wave height has grown to a metre.
They are waves now, rather than wavelets. They grow angrier and more
aggravated under the wind's abusive guardianship, until plumes of foam
begin to form at their crests. Now emerging into adulthood, the waves
have "badass" written all over them. This stage is marked by the
appearance of foaming lips of white water on the larger specimens.
Known as "whitecaps", these are the waves beginning to tumble over
themselves, under the relentless, harrying force of the gale.
If storm-force winds blow for long enough, and over a large enough
area, they begin to tear plumes of spray, or "spindrift", from the
crests. Each wave face becomes marbled with streaks of white foam,
described by Joseph Conrad as "like a wall of green glass topped with
snow". The waves keep on growing, their significant heights eventually
surpassing 5m. Now the whitecaps have become commonplace. Mariners
sometimes describe them as "white horses", occasionally as "skipper's
daughters" – the latter, presumably, because you don't want to mess
with them. These spitting mountains of water are most dangerous to
ships. Not only are they the steepest of waves, they are also liable to
break over the ship, bringing tonnes of seawater crashing down on to
deck.
To try to avert such a danger, mariners have, since classical
times, had a trick up their sleeves. They have poured fish oil
overboard, or hung sacks containing oil-soaked rags into the water, to
calm the waves in a storm. It seems that the ancient Greeks considered
that this curious effect might be explained by the film of oil that
spreads over the surface, reducing friction between wind and water: "Is
it, as Aristotle says," wondered the Greek historian Plutarch, "that
the wind, slipping over the smoothness so caused, makes no impression
and raises no swell?"
In fact, the effect the oil has on the water's surface tension is
the critical factor. It spreads over it as an extremely thin film, or
skin, which has a lower surface tension than the surface of water. This
makes the water less able to riffle under the influence of the wind and
form the centimetre-high capillary waves. By suppressing the surface
ripples, the oil can make enough of a difference to the wind's grip to
stop an enormous crest from being thrown on to, rather than under, the
deck of a ship.
While we've been distracted, the storm has continued to howl and
the waves have grown to significant heights, to 12–15m brutes the size
of four-storey buildings. This is now a fully developed sea, which
means that the waves have grown as high as they can under these wind
speeds. For a good idea of how our waves might appear, we need look no
further than Jan Porcellis's 1620 mini-masterpiece Dutch Ships in a
Gale, in London's National Maritime Museum (pictured on previous page).
Porcellis was hailed as the "Raphael of marine painters" by a
contemporary, the artist Samuel van Hoogstraten.
Characteristically of Porcellis at this time, the painting was small,
not much larger than an A4 piece of paper. But the low, dramatic
perspective makes you feel as if you are peering through a window on to
the marine equivalent of a ferocious tavern brawl, thanks to the sheer
mayhem of these deranged and uncontrollable waves.
Only when the storm eventually passes and the winds die down do
our waves enter the next stage in their lives. The waves that were
generated in the wind sea continue to travel over the water – but
without the need to be pushed along. They've changed from "forced
waves", driven by the winds, into "free waves". And how their mood can
shift as they mature and enter middle age.
No longer a wind sea, the surface is now what is known as a
"swell", which seems an appropriately harmonious name. Although the
storm may have passed, the energy it transferred to the water cannot
simply disappear. They just roll on, doing their thing. Waves on the
surface of the sea lose remarkably little of their energy to the
surroundings once they are up and running. This means they can travel
enormous distances. As they do so, the heights of the ocean swells
diminish to minuscule levels. This is not because the energy ebbs away.
It is merely a result of the way waves spread out, fan-like, from their
source, the energy imparted to the surface by the storm winds spreading
over increasingly greater areas of ocean.
Gone are the steep, peaked crests of the wind sea. Their smoother
appearance now makes them more like the swell in Claude Monet's The
Green Wave. Monet was something of a pioneer in the deployment of
impressionistic techniques for painting the sea and was described by
his fellow impressionist Edouard Manet, unoriginally, as the "Raphael
of Water".
The swell is now a most peculiar procession of crests. They are in
the form of groups of larger waves, separated by gaps, in which the
waves are smaller, and sometimes barely even there. What is so strange
is that each individual wave crest travels faster than the group it is
in. The crest appears from the calmer water at the back of the group,
travels through it and disappears again in the calmer water at the
front. It is like a train, on which are running the ghosts of marathon
runners. As this train chugs along in the approach to a station, it
happens to be travelling at about jogging speed. Being deceased
marathon runners, the ghosts on the train can't actually stop jogging.
They therefore appear at the back of each carriage, run through it and
disappear again at the front. As seen from the platform, the ghosts
will be moving twice as fast as the carriages. This is how the waves in
the swell move.
And so we come to the final stage in the life of our waves.
Perhaps they have travelled in the peculiar grouped arrangement of wave
adulthood for many hundreds of miles. Only as they approach landfall do
they make one more transformation. This is the stage with which many of
us are most familiar, when waves release their energy in a churning,
foaming crash on to the shore.
Their swansong begins as they enter shallower water. Where the
wave base first makes contact with the rising seabed, the waves "feel"
the ground beneath them. The progress of their bases is slowed by
friction. As they slow, they bunch up and steepen, so that their shapes
change from smooth undulations back into the sharp peaks of their youth.
One rule comes to dominate their behaviour: the shallower the
water, the slower they travel. Due to the gradient of the seabed, the
crests at the front of the wave train slow down before those behind.
Again, like a marathon runner stumbling so that those behind fall and
ride up on top of each other, so the undulations in the water are
concertinaed. As the waves are squeezed, there is nowhere for the water
to go but upwards. If the gradient is just right, and the waves have
enough energy, they can rise up so dramatically that they become
unstable: below the water, the wave's feet slow down, while the top
keeps going, and the wave trips over itself, causing the crest to pitch
forward and crash over on itself.
Oceanographers tend to divide breaking waves into three types:
"spilling breakers", "plunging breakers" and "surging breakers". When
the slope of the beach is very shallow, the waves crumble at the crests
as spillers. These fringes of white water stretch down from the lip
along the front of the wave, making it look as if it is wearing one of
those Tudor ruffs.
The waves depicted in Sennen Cove, Cornwall, painted by John
Everett in 1919, are spilling breakers. Everett made extensive voyages
around the world, often aboard merchant vessels as a working member of
the crew, in order to study and paint waves. He hasn't had the
acknowledgement he deserves, and I feel compelled to call him the
"Raphael of Spilling Breakers".
Plunging breakers form when the slope of the beach or reef is
steeper, and they are the most beautiful of the three types. The lip of
the wave is thrown forward so that it curls over to form a tube before
crashing to the water below. At their most impressive, these breakers
are the "barrels" that surfers ride within, the canopy of water thrown
over their heads as they disappear from view.
Surging breakers, which occur on the steepest gradients of the
seabed, look completely different. They are hardly breakers at all. The
water just sloshes up against the steep shore and back again, like
water at the end of the bathtub as you sit yourself down with a thump.
Whatever the particular style of their demise, our waves finally
die on the unyielding shore, as their energy dissipates. They are gone
in a tumble of white water.
Military medics hope the experiments on Prahlad Jani can help soldiers develop their survival strategies.
The long-haired and bearded yogi is under 24-hour observation by a team
of 30 doctors during three weeks of tests at a hospital in the western
city of Ahmedabad.
Two cameras have been set up in his room, while a mobile camera
films him when he goes outside, guaranteeing round-the-clock
observation. His body will be scanned and his brain and heart activity
measured with electrodes.
"The observation from this study may throw light on human survival
without food and water," said Dr G. Ilavazahagan, who is directing the
research.
"This may help in working out strategies for survival during
natural calamities, extreme stressful conditions and extra-terrestrial
explorations like future missions to the Moon and Mars by the human
race."
Since the experiment began on April 22, Jani has neither eaten nor
drunk and has not been to the toilet. "The exercise of taking this
yogi under the medical scanner is to understand what energy supports
his existence," Dr Ilavazahagan added. "Jani says he meditates to get
energy. Our soldiers will not be able to meditate, but we would still like to find out more about the man and his body."
Jani, who dresses in red and wears a nose ring, grew up in Charod
village in the Mehsana district in Gujarat. He claims to have been
blessed by a goddess when he was aged eight, which has enabled him to
survive without sustenance.
Iceland volcano: why we were lucky we weren't wiped out
The volcanic ash cloud
from Eyjafjallajokull has caused travel chaos and misery. But we were
lucky. An eruption in the future could wipe out the human race.
A phone booth lies half-buried in volanic ash after the eruption on Montserrat, 1998. Photograph: AP/Gregory Bull
The map is almost uncannily similar to today's: a spray of black
dots showing the recorded sightings of a foul grey haze spreading
across Europe, from Helsinki to Naples, from Heligoland to Mallorca,
and reaching eventually to Aleppo and Damascus – and all of it caused
by clouds of ash from an immense volcano erupting far across the sea in
Iceland.
But this was a map made from data collected in 1783. The volcano
was called Laki, it erupted for eight dismal months without cease,
ruined crops, lowered temperatures and drastically altered the weather.
It killed 9,000 people, drenched the European forests in acid rain,
caused skin lesions in children and the deaths of millions of cattle.
And, by one account, it was a contributing factor (because of the
hunger-inducing famines) to the outbreak six years later of the French
revolution.
Great volcanoes have a habit of prompting profound changes to the
world – very much greater in extent than the most savage of earthquakes
and tsunamis, even though the immediate lethality of the latter is
invariably much more cruel. Though ground-shaking events are generally
fairly local in extent, their potential for killing can be terrific:
250,000 died after the Tangshan earthquake in China in 1975; and a
similar number died in the Indian ocean tsunami of 2004. Volcanoes seem
by contrast relatively benign: the accumulated total number of deaths
in all of the great volcanoes of the last 300 years has probably not
exceeded a quarter of a million: the total number of casualties from a
hundred of the biggest recent eruptions has been no more than those
from a single giant earthquake.
But there is a signal difference. Earthquakes and their
aftershocks, once done, are done. Volcanoes, however, often trigger
long-term and long-distance ill-effects, which history indicates
generally far outweigh their immediate rain of death and destruction.
Emanations of particles from the tiniest pinprick in the earth's crust,
once lifted high into the skies by an explosive eruption, can wind
themselves sinuously and menacingly around the entire planet, and leave
all kinds of devastation in their train. They can disrupt and pollute
and poison; they can darken skies and cause devastating changes in the
weather; they can and do bring about the abrupt end to the existence of
entire populations of animals and people.
Earthquakes and tsunamis have never been known to cause
extinctions; but volcanoes and asteroid collisions have done so
repeatedly – and since the earth is today still peppered with scores of
thousands of volcanoes ever yearning to erupt, they and the dramatic
long-term effects of their eruptions are in fact far more frequent, far
more decisive, and far greater than those that are triggered by any
other natural phenomenon on the planet.
It is worth remembering that ours is a world essentially made from
and by volcanoes. They are creatures that will continue to do their
business over the aeons, quite careless of the fate of the myriad
varieties of life that teems beneath them and on their flanks.
Including, of course, ours.
There is perhaps no better recent example of the havoc that a big
eruption can cause than that which followed the explosive destruction
of Mt Toba, in northern Sumatra, some 72,000 years ago (which, in
geological time, is very recent indeed). The relics of this mountain
today are no more than a very large and beautiful lake, 60 miles long
and half a mile deep – the caldera that was left behind by what is by
most reckonings the largest volcanic explosion known to have occurred
on the planet in the last 25 million years.
On the widely used volcanic explosivity index (VEI), Toba is
thought to have been an eight – meaning that in the unusually
flamboyant official language of vulcanology it was a super-plinian type
eruption with mega-colossal characteristics (Eyjafjallajökull is by
contrast listed as a strombolian type, with its characteristic regarded
as merely gentle, and having a probable VEI rating of just two).
About 680 cubic miles of rock were instantly vaporised by the
super-eruptive blast of Toba, all of which was hurled scores of
thousands of feet into the air. This this is what did the lasting
damage, just as Iceland's high-altitude rock-dust is doing today. But
while we today are merely suffering a large number of inconvenienced
people and a weakening of the balance sheets of some airlines, the
effect on the post-Toban world was catastrophic: as a result of the
thick ash clouds the world's ambient temperature plummeted, perhaps by
as much as 5C – and the cooling and the howling wave of deforestation
and deaths of billions of animals and plants caused a sudden culling of
the human population of the time, reducing it to maybe as few as 5,000
people, perhaps 1,000 breeding pairs. Many anthropologists believe that
the event caused a sudden evolutionary bottleneck, with genetic
implications that linger to this day. Put more crudely, humanity was
nearly wiped out by Toba, and only by the merest hair's-breadth did our
ancestors of 72,000 years ago manage to cling on and bequeath to us our
current existence.
Mercifully, from humanity's point of view, there have been very
few Tobas known in planetary history. They are probably so large that
they reach the upper limit of the kind of eruptions that can physically
occur on earth – one VEI-8 event occurs only every 100,000 years or so.
Yet of those known to have occurred, two have taken place in Britain
(mainly because Britain has such a vast variety of geology, with almost
every age of rock known in the world found somewhere between Cape Wrath
and the Port of Dover). They are comfortingly ancient: both – the
volcano that created Scafell in the Lake District, and the other that
gave us Glen Coe in the Western Highlands – took place more than 400
million years ago.
But others of the 47 known VEI-8 volcanoes are more alarmingly
recent. Taupo in New Zealand erupted with mega-colossal force some
22,500 years ago. The newer of the great eruptions that helped form the
mountains of today's Yellowstone national park in Wyoming took place
just 640,000 years ago, and all the current signs – from such phenomena
as the rhythmic slow rising and falling of the bed of the Yellowstone
river, as if some giant creature is breathing far below – suggest
another eruption is coming soon. When it does, it will be an American
Armageddon: all of the north and west of the continent, from Vancouver
to Oklahoma City, will be rendered uninhabitable, buried under scores
of feet of ash. (I mentioned this once in a talk to a group of lunching
ladies in Kansas City, soothing their apparent disquiet by adding that
by "soon" I was speaking in geologic time, and that meant about 250,000
years, by which time all humankind would be extinct. A woman in the
front row exploded with a choleric and incredulous rage: "What?" she
said. "Even Americans will be extinct?")
Ratcheting down the scale a couple of notches, to the only
slightly less gigantic eruptions that are classified as VEI-7 and
VEI-6, and a host of more familiar eruptions come into view. These
include Santorini, the Aegean volcano whose destruction around 4,000
years ago may have triggered the collapse of the Minoan civilisation;
Laki, the 1783 Icelandic volcano mentioned above, and which most
obviously parallels today's events at Eyjafjallajökull; the Javan
volcano of Krakatoa, which erupted so infamously in August 1883; and
the rather more profoundly world-affecting eruption of 1815, also in
the Dutch East Indies, of the huge stratovolcano on Sumbawa Island,
known as Tambora. Each of these had massive after-effects, and all of
the effects were global in their extent.
Tambora is the most notorious, not least because it was so
immense: almost 40 cubic miles of pulverised Sumbawan rock were hurled
into the sky, which darkened, cooled and polluted a world that, unlike
in Toba's day, was already well populated and widely civilised. The
consequences ranged from the dire – a lowering of temperature that
caused frosts in Italy in June and snows in Virginia in July, and the
failure of crops in immense swathes across Europe and the Americas – to
the frankly ludicrous – Irish migrants, promised better weather in New
England, found it on landing to be every bit as grim as the Connemara
and Cork they had left, and so either went home, or pressed on in hope
to California.
And Tambora's eruption had its effects on art also: a gloomy Byron
wrote the gloomiest of poems, Darkness ("Morn came and went, and came,
and brought no day/ And men forgot their passions in the dread/ Of this
their desolation . . ."); Mary Shelley, it is said, became so fed up
with the rain while visiting Byron in Geneva that she followed suit and
wrote her exceptionally gloomy novel Frankenstein. Only JMW Turner rose
more cheerfully to the occasion: the lurid colours of many of his
paintings, it is said, owe much to the flaming Tambora sunsets that had
half the world astonished, and Turner evidently inspired.
Krakatoa's immediate aftermath was dominated initially by dramatic
physical effects – a series of tsunamis that were measured as far away
as Portland Bill and Biarritz, a bang of detonation that was clearly
heard (like naval gunfire, said the local police officer) 3,000 miles
away on Rodriguez Island, and a year's worth of awe-inspiring evening
beauty – astonishing sunsets of purple and passionfruit and salmon that
had artists all around the world trying desperately to capture what
they managed to see in the fleeting moments before dark. A Londoner
named William Ascroft left behind almost 500 watercolours that he
painted, one every 10 minutes like a human film camera, from his
Thames-side flat in Chelsea; Frederic Church, of America's so-called
Hudson River School, captured the crepuscular skies over Lake Ontario
in their full post-Krakatoan glory; and many now agree that Edvard
Munch had the purple and orange skies over Oslo in mind when 10 years
afterwards he painted, most hauntingly, The Scream.
Yet there was an important legacy to Krakatoa's eruption that was
not shared by the other giant volcanoes of the time. Close mapping of
the spread of the 1883 sunsets showed them girdling the earth in a
curious set of spirals, the stratospheric aerosols evidently being
borne around the world on high-altitude winds that no one at the time
knew even existed. An atmospheric scientist in Hawaii mapped them and
decided to call the air current the equatorial smoke stream; it later
became, more elegantly and economically, the jet stream. There has to
be some irony that the jet stream that drives today's Icelandic dust so
dangerously over Britain and mainland Europe is a phenomenon that was
first discovered as a direct consequence of the study of Krakatoa.
And yet, of all the consequences of the truly great volcanoes of
the past, the phenomenon of mass extinctions of life must surely be the
most profound and world-changing of all. Between two and five major
extinction events occur in the world every million years or so. We
humans have not thus far been privileged to observe one of them –
hardly surprisingly, since they would probably occur so slowly as to be
barely noticeable. However, with painstaking care, palaeontological
evidence is currently being amassed to link sudden and catastrophic
changes in world climate, changes that promote such extinction crises,
with the known major eruptions of the past, and with what are known as
flood basalt events (such as those that have been triggered
specifically in the past by eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull and her
neighbouring volcano in Iceland, Katla, which is herself currently well
overdue for an eruption). It is a study that opens up a fascinating
speculative possibility.
For what if the kind of event that we have seen this month, and
which caused us all in Europe such commercial inconvenience, is in fact
not just a minor volcanic hiccup, but the beginning of an event that
causes in time a mass extinction of some form of earthbound life? And
further, since we know from the history books that the massive eruption
of Santorini once had the power to destroy one proud part of human
society, what if the extinction we might be beginning to see turns out
to be what will one day surely occur, and that is the extinction of us?
Simon Winchester is a journalist and author; one of his books is Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded.
Indians celebrate International Day of the American Indigenous People in Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela
Andre Apurina, of the Apurina tribe, talks to a sunbather at Rio
de Janeiro's Ipanema beach, where members of different tribes built a
tent to promote their culture on American Indigenous Peoples' Day
After the longest winter in more than 30 years, what could be more delightful than row upon row of golden daffodils.
But while this picture may be an uplifting sign of spring for most of us, for daffodil growers it signifies a major problem.
Shops and supermarkets
don't want to buy stems that have already bloomed, and so soon this
glorious scene will turn brown as most of the crop is left to rot in
the field.
Shops and
supermarkets don't want to buy stems that have already bloomed, and so
soon this glorious scene will turn brown as most of the crop is left to
rot in the field
The glut of blooms is being blamed on the long winter.
It delayed the
start of the daffodil season by a month, and when the weather did
finally warm up, the flowers bloomed too quickly.
The 1939 copy of Detective Comics #27, which marked the first appearance of Batman. Photograph: AP
The 70-year-old comic book in which Batman made his debut has
sold at auction for more than $1m (£655), breaking a record set earlier
this week by a Superman comic. The rare copy of Detective Comics
No. 27, which cost 10 cents when it was first sold in 1939, fetched
$1,075,500 from an anonymous buyer on Thursday, according to Heritage
Auction Galleries.
"It pretty much blew away all our expectations and now it's the
highest price ever raised for a comic book," said Barry Sandoval,
director of operations of Heritage's comics division.
A copy of the first comic book featuring Superman, a 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, sold on Monday for $1m in a deal between a private seller and private buyer. The transaction was conducted by the New York City auction site ComicConnect.com.
"We can really say that Batman has nosed out Superman, at least for now," Sandoval said.
He said the consigner had bought the Batman comic in the late
1960s for $100. With a bright yellow background, the comic features
Batman swinging on a rope above city rooftops. "That cover is one of
the most famous of all comic book covers," Sandoval said.
JC Vaughn, associate publisher of The Overstreet Comic Book Price
Guide, said most people had predicted it would be the comics with the
first appearance of Superman and Batman that broke the $1m barrier.
Both comics that sold this week were in great condition – scoring an
8.0 on a scale that goes to 10, he said. "I think that you can greenly
ascribe this to a real comfort with the liquidity of rare, high grade
vintage collectibles," Vaughn said.
George Pantela, owner of Melbourne, Australia-based GP Analysis,
which tracks sales of certified comics from more than 20 auction houses
and dealers, said the previous record was about $317,000 paid a year
ago for a lesser grade Action Comics No. 1 than the one sold this week.
Vincent Zurzolo, chief operating officer of Comicconnect.com, took
the breaking of their record in stride. "It's an exciting week in
comic books when you have two comics selling for $1 million," he said.
Great Himalayan Trail: trekking's holy grail
For the first time walkers can take a guided trek traversing the entire length of the Himalayas in Nepal
The full traverse ... the newly mapped
route through the remotest peaks of the Great Himalaya Range joins all
the major trekking regions in Nepal. Photograph: Ed Douglas
Have you got six months off? Do you fancy a long walk? If so,
World Expeditions may have just the holiday for you. They have become
the only trekking outfit to offer a guided trip along the first
completed section of the Great Himalayan Trail (GHT).
Stretching for 1,700km along the length of Nepal,
the GHT will take you a mere 157 days to complete. You'll see eight of
the world's 14 peaks over 8,000m, including Everest, and cross passes
reaching up to 6,000m, climbing a total of 150,000m. That's a Snowdon
every day for half a year. Oh, and it will set you back £20,500.
The GHT isn't the world's longest long-distance footpath. The
Continental Divide Trail in the US is 5,000km and the Trans Canada will
be three times that. But this steroidal version of the Pennine Way
looks like being the most coveted of all. Eventually, the trail's
originators hope it will stretch from the mighty 8,000m peak Nanga
Parbat in Pakistan, considered the westernmost outlier of the Himalaya,
to Namche Barwa in Tibet. It will connect five Asian countries -
Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
That version will stretch for 4,500km, a with a predicted
completion date of February 2011. But for now the focus is on Nepal.
For as well as being an enormous challenge, the GHT could also prove to
be a welcome money-spinner for a country still recovering from 10 years
of civil war. Some parts of Nepal have benefited hugely from tourism,
like the Everest and Annapurna regions. Those areas without such famous
mountains, particularly in remote western Nepal, haven't fared nearly
so well.
Last year, I trekked along a section of the GHT through the Mugu
district of western Nepal, a remote region peopled by Tibetan traders
and animist tribes. Thousands of people were relying on aid from the
World Food Programme, flown in by helicopter with the nearest roads a
week's walk away. Many young men leave to find work abroad. Tourism,
for all its faults, could really make a difference here.
Several adventurous souls have travelled the arc of the Himalaya
before, while Richard and Adrian Crane, cousins of television presenter
Nicholas Crane, actually ran it in 1983. But the idea of a defined and
designated route for trekkers is more recent. In 2006, the Dutch
development agency SNV and the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development based in Kathmandu committed to developing the
idea, and have brought together government agencies and local people.
But it's the hard work of one man, Australian trekker Robin
Boustead, that has moved the project along most. After years of
research (read his account here), he completed the trek in two sections, and has drawn an excellent free map of the trail's route
as well as writing a guidebook. Every water source, camping ground and
elevation has been meticulously logged with GPS, but he says that the
route will undoubtedly develop as more people do it and discover better
alternatives.
For those without the time – or the knees – to do the whole thing
in one go, Boustead has broken the GHT down into nine sections, which
you can pick off at your leisure. And if you think 20 grand is a lot of
chapatties to spend on an adventure holiday, it's still a lot less than
the current price of a trip up Everest – and a lot more exclusive.
There have been four thousand ascents of the world's highest mountain,
but only one man has done the GHT.
• The full-length Great Himalaya Trail opens in February 2011.
Currently, only the Nepal section (1,700km) is available to traverse,
as it is the only part that has been walked and mapped thoroughly. It
costs £20,500, not including interntaional flights. It takes 157 days
to complete, although it can be broken down to seven smaller stages up
to 34 days. For more information and bookings call World Expeditions on
0800 0744 135 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0800 0744 135end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0800 0744 135end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting0800 0744 135 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0800 0744 135end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0800 0744 135end_of_the_skype_highlightingend_of_the_skype_highlighting or visit worldexpeditions.co.uk
Diamond the size of a 'chicken's egg' sells for record $35.3 million
A 507½-carat gem discovered in South Africa last year has become most expensive rough diamond ever sold. Published: 26.02.2010
Diamond the size of a 'chicken's egg' sells for record $35.3 million
Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company bought the Cullinan Heritage stone for $35.3m, Petra Diamonds announced
on Friday. Petra recovered the gem, the 19th largest ever found –
described as the size of a chicken's egg, from its Cullinan mine near
Pretoria in South Africa in September last year .
Petra said that record price reflected the "incredible rarity" of
stone based on its "remarkable size" and "exceptional colour and
clarity". “It is fitting that the Cullinan Heritage should achieve a
sale price of $35.3 million, the highest sale price on record ever
achieved for a rough diamond, as it has the potential to produce one of
the world’s most important polished gems. The sale proceeds further
bolster Petra’s treasury and will be invested in the growth of our core
assets.” said Johan Dippenaar, Petra's chief executive.
Chow Tai Fook has yet to outline its plans for the stone.
The world’s biggest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, was
discovered in the same mine in 1905. That was cut to form the Great
Star of Africa and Lesser Star of Africa, set in Britain’s crown
jewels.
Petra got $9.48 million at a sale in May for a polished 7.03-carat
blue gem, also from the Cullinan mine, setting a per-carat record. A
carat is a fifth of a gram. Diamond prices have soared as producers
cut output after the credit crunch. Rough diamonds rose 48pc in the
first 11 months of 2009, according to WWW International Diamond
Consultants. Demand in China, which overtook Japan as the
second-largest gem market, added to the jump in prices.
Petra reported first-half profits of $37.9m (£24.5m) after racking
up losses of $88m a year earlier. The shares rose 2p to 60.75p.
Danza Contemporanea de Cuba at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, review by Mark Monahan 25.02.2010
This glamorous young contemporary troupe from the Caribbean start their first ever UK tour in high style. Rating: * * * *
High-energy: DCC's dancers make a strong impression
There was a heady atmosphere to the opening night of Danza
Contemporanea de Cuba’s first-ever UK tour – the sense that its members
were not a little thrilled to be here, and determined to show us
mild-mannered Brits exactly what they could do. DCC’s last appearance
on these shores, at 2007’s Manchester Festival (on the invitation of
their brilliant compatriot Carlos Acosta), had set hopes high. And,
although I’d have liked more variation of dynamics, a touch more light
and shade from the three works that made up the opening night at
Newcastle’s Theatre Royal, these 20-odd young dancers did not
disappoint.
Facially and physically, they are as drop-dead gorgeous a clutch
of people as you are ever likely to see in any one place at any one
time. But, above all, it is the quality of their movement – a seamless
and urgent fusion of Afro-Caribbean, Latin and modern-American – that
holds the attention like glue.
The piece that showed them to best advantage is also, in many
ways, the simplest. Set to heady Latin house music, much of Mambo 3XXI
– by their gifted resident choreographer George Céspedes – has the air
of a souped-up aerobics class: a step forward, then back; a shoulder
raised, then lowered; a bounce to one side, then back again. Hardly
earth-shattering stuff, you might think, yet these passages are
performed in such perfect synch, and with such sexy intensity, that you
can’t tear your eyes away.
This piece also contains several gorgeous little solos and duets
in which dancers are let completely off the leash, and displays clever
use of the stage, with five-strong clusters of performers darting
between each other at extreme corners of it. There are also brief
moments of uneasy stillness between sections, hinting perhaps at the
escapist nature of dance.
Dutchman Jan Linkens’s Folia feels in many ways a warm-up for
Mambo. Formally precise but still energetically celebratory, it is
richly sensuous and preferable overall to the first piece of
Programme A, Rafael Bonachela’s athletic but overwrought Demo-n/Crazy.
Some rave about Bonachela. To these eyes, despite his fondness for
a sort of high-intensity romantic angst, he seems a gifted
choreographer who hasn’t quite found a voice yet. And, although
Demo-n/Crazy sees DCC arch their backs and hyper-extend their limbs
like pros, they seem happier in the subsequent two pieces.
Still, do see DCC if you can. They are a cracking bunch of dancers
– Daileidys Carrazana and Thais Suárez the first among gifted equals –
and there are two bills on offer, with Programme B promisingly yoking
Mambo 3XXI to a work by Mats Ek.
Whatever they’re dancing, you’ll find them a very welcome ray of tropical sunshine.
Touring until late March. Details: danceconsortium.com
Relic reveals Noah's ark was circular
• Newly translated tablet gives building instructions • Amateur historian's find was almost overlooked
Maev Kennedyguardian.co.uk, 01.01.2010
A 19th-century illustration by Currier & Ives shows the traditional vision of Noah’s ark. Photograph: Brooklyn Museum/Corbis
That they processed aboard the enormous floating wildlife
collection two-by-two is well known. Less familiar, however, is the
possibility that the animals Noah shepherded on to his ark then went
round and round inside.
According to newly translated instructions inscribed in ancient
Babylonian on a clay tablet telling the story of the ark, the vessel
that saved one virtuous man, his family and the animals from god's
watery wrath was not the pointy-prowed craft of popular imagination but
rather a giant circular reed raft.
The now battered tablet, aged about 3,700 years, was found
somewhere in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, a largely
self-educated Londoner who indulged his passion for history while
serving in the RAF from 1945 to 1948.
The relic was passed to his son Douglas, who took it to one of the
few people in the world who could read it as easily as the back of a
cornflakes box; he gave it to Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert,
who translated its 60 lines of neat cuneiform script.
There are dozens of ancient tablets that have been found which
describe the flood story but Finkel says this one is the first to
describe the vessel's shape. "In all the images ever made people
assumed the ark was, in effect, an ocean-going boat, with a pointed
stem and stern for riding the waves – so that is how they portrayed
it," said Finkel. "But the ark didn't have to go anywhere, it just had
to float, and the instructions are for a type of craft which they knew
very well. It's still sometimes used in Iran and Iraq today, a type of
round coracle which they would have known exactly how to use to
transport animals across a river or floods."
Finkel's research throws light on the familiar Mesopotamian story,
which became the account in Genesis, in the Old Testament, of Noah and
the ark that saved his menagerie from the waters which drowned every
other living thing on earth.
In his translation, the god who has decided to spare one just man
speaks to Atram-Hasis, a Sumerian king who lived before the flood and
who is the Noah figure in earlier versions of the ark story. "Wall,
wall! Reed wall, reed wall! Atram-Hasis, pay heed to my advice, that
you may live forever! Destroy your house, build a boat; despise
possessions And save life! Draw out the boat that you will built with a
circular design; Let its length and breadth be the same."
The tablet goes on to command the use of plaited palm fibre,
waterproofed with bitumen, before the construction of cabins for the
people and wild animals. It ends with the dramatic command of
Atram-Hasis to the unfortunate boat builder whom he leaves behind to
meet his fate, about sealing up the door once everyone else is safely
inside: "When I shall have gone into the boat, Caulk the frame of the
door!"
Raiders of the lost ark
The human fascination with the flood and the whereabouts of
the ark shows few signs of subsiding. The story has travelled down the
centuries from the ancient Babylonians and continues to fascinate in
the 21st century.
Countless expeditions have travelled to Mount Ararat in Turkey,
where Noah's ark is said to have come to rest, but scientific proof of
its existence has yet to be found.
Recent efforts to find it have been led by creationists, who are
keen to exhibit it as evidence of the literal truth of the Bible. "If
the flood of Noah indeed wiped out the entire human race and its
civilization, as the Bible teaches, then the ark constitutes the one
remaining major link to the pre-flood world," says John D Morris of the
Institute for Creation Research. "No significant artefact could ever
be of greater antiquity or importance."
In the Victorian era some became obsessed with the ark story.
George Smith – the lowly British museum assistant who, in 1872,
deciphered the Flood Tablet which is inscribed with the Assyrian
version of the Noah's ark tale – could apparently not contain his
excitement at his discovery.
According to the museum's archives: "He jumped up and rushed about
the room in a great state of excitement and to the astonishment of
those present began to undress himself."
The Chagos archipelago – where conservation meets colonialism
Islanders
expelled from their homes in the 1960s won't be welcome back under
plans to convert the idyllic archipelago into a 'nature reserve'
The
sons of Chagos Islander Louis Onesime, born in Mauritius, will not be
allowed to return to their father's birthplace. Photograph: Graeme
Robertson
How do you greenwash a large airforce
base? A base that is responsible for bombing nearby countries, and
which was built on an island you confiscated from residents who are now
living in exile on the other side of the world?
Easy. You
announce the creation of a giant nature reserve which will be
off-limits to its former inhabitants. Not to the military, of course.
That might create complications. But the people-free zone will cover
the islands and oceans all around. Then, if you're really clever, you
get the world's premier network of conservation scientists to endorse
your plan. That's what happened last week.
The
Foreign Office is currently "consulting" on the establishment of a
marine protected area covering the Chagos archipelago, a large swathe
of coral islands across the Indian Ocean that Britain neglected to hand
back to the locals when it abandoned most of the rest of its empire
east of Suez in the 1960s.
This is bad news for the
Chagossians, who were removed from the islands by British naval vessels
almost half a century ago, so that the US could establish a large air
base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia. The Chagossians have
always wanted to return, and two years ago they published detailed
plans to go back to some of the more distant islands of the archipelago.
But
successive British governments have said this can never be. Foreign
secretary David Miliband appears intent on cementing this position by
creating a protected area where Chagossians would not be allowed to
live. Americans will be welcome, of course. The consultation document (pdf)
notes coyly that "it may be necessary to consider the exclusion [from
the protected area] of Diego Garcia and its territorial waters."
Last week, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) endorsed the plan despite, as New Scientist magazine has revealed, angry dissent from its own legal advisers.
The
conservation case for protecting the Chagos archipelago is undoubtedly
strong. It is one of the most pristine coral reef systems in the world.
Announcing his plan last November,
Miliband said: "This is a remarkable opportunity for the UK to create
one of the world's largest marine protected areas and double the global
coverage of the world's oceans benefiting from full protection."
More than 10,000 British greens have signed in support of the move to create "Britain's [sic] Great Barrier Reef". The campaign is backed by the Chagos Environment Network, a coalition that includes Kew Gardens, London Zoo, the RSPB, the Royal Society and the Marine Conservation Society.
The question is whether Britain has any legal or moral right to do this unilaterally. What
about the claims of the 4,000-plus Chagossian exiles – many of them
live close to Gatwick airport in readiness for their return home? The glossy pamphlet (pdf) encouraging people to support the conservation plan is silent on their expulsion and desire to return.
Most
international lawyers believe the expulsion was a breach of
international law, and the exiles should be allowed to return
forthwith. Robin Cook is the only British foreign secretary to have
agreed with them. Under the conservation plan, the only way any of them
could return would be as employees of the park.
What about
the fact that Britain accepts that neighbouring Mauritius should have
sovereignty over Chagos when the Brits and Americans no longer need it?
Protests from the Mauritian government about the plan last week fell on
deaf ears.
The Chagos Conservation Trust
says: "Strong support for this initiative for conservation was
expressed by both Chagossian leaders who spoke at [a] meeting on 9
April 2009 at The Royal Society. The creation of a protected area would
clearly be without prejudice to the outcome of the pending legal case
[in the European Court of Human Rights] in regard to Chagos Islanders
and the arrangements for the protected area could be modified if
necessary in the light of any change in circumstances."
Indeed
so. The law would have to be obeyed. But some environmental lawyers see
the conservation plan as an attempt to greenwash the status quo.
Conservation seems to be the last hurrah of the British Empire.
On 11 February 1990, the then president of South Africa, FW de Klerk, took the fateful decision to release Nelson Mandela, the charismatic hero of the struggle against apartheid. Twenty years on, he talks about the circumstances that led him to set the world's most famous political prisoner free, launching a new era in a divided country Mandela's release *
FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela at a photocall on Wednesday, May 2, 1990 in Cape Town. Photograph: Denis Farrell/Associated Press
After 26 years in captivity, Nelson Mandela did not want to be set free straight away. Two days before his release, the world's most famous political prisoner was taken to see President FW de Klerk in his Cape Town office.
The president got a surprise. "I told him he would be flown to Johannesburg and released there on 11 February 1990. Mr Mandela's reaction was not at all as I had expected," said De Klerk. "He said: 'No, it is too soon, we need more time for preparation.' That is when I realised that long hours of negotiation lay ahead with this man."
Twenty years after the event, sitting in the study of his Cape Town home, Frederik Willem de Klerk, now 73, still has the headmasterly style and deliberate speech that the watching world came to know as he played a crucial role in dismantling apartheid. But the winner of the 1993 Nobel peace prize still recalls the enormous leap of faith that was required to negotiate the end of white minority rule with what he describes as the "fundamentally socialistic" African National Congress of the time.
Just after 4pm on the date appointed by De Klerk, Mandela, then 71, walked free, holding the hand of his wife, Winnie. The prisoner had lost his argument for a later release date but had persuaded De Klerk to allow him to leave directly from Victor Verster prison, in Paarl, near Cape Town. Mandela held up his fist in an ANC salute. In an instant he switched from being a symbol of the oppressed to the global symbol of courage and freedom that he remains today.
Mandela's release did not signal the end of apartheid. In fact, the white-ruled pariah state was entering the most dangerous chapter in its history since the introduction of racial separateness in 1948.
Four hours after leaving prison, Mandela arrived in Cape Town to address thousands of people gathered outside city hall. The impatient crowd had clashed with police and bullets had been fired. But Mandela did not bring a message of appeasement. "The factors which necessitated armed struggle still exist today," he told the cheering onlookers.
Mandela called on the international community to maintain its sanctions. "I have carried the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. I hope to live to see the achievement of that ideal. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die," he shouted.
With hindsight, Mandela used the fiery address to take up a negotiating position and convince the black majority that he had not made a secret pact with the authorities.
De Klerk had his moment of truth nine days earlier, in an address to the all-white parliament that coined the phrase "a new South Africa". "There were gasps in the house, yes," said De Klerk, "but not at the news of Mr Mandela's release. The gasps came when I announced the unbanning not only of the ANC but also the South African Communist party and of all affiliated organisations, which included the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe. There were gasps then and, from the far-right party, protests and boos."
De Klerk speaks slowly and clearly – and charmlessly. He is a lawyer from a strict, Calvinist tradition in which displays of emotion are a seen as a sign of weakness. His one quirk seems to be the incessant chewing of gum. He has lived in this modern house in Fresnaye for 18 months, having moved into Cape Town with his second wife, Elita, from his farm in Paarl. He points out that, from his garden, he has a view of Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 years in prison. It is a fact. He does not reveal whether it leaves him hot or cold.
But radical change requires steely nerves. De Klerk had become president in September 1989.
1 / 7
A bronze statue depicting Mandela as he walked to freedom in 1990 stands outside the Groot Drakenstein prison in Paarl
Royal Society meet to discuss if extra-terrestrials are here on Earth
Mono Lake, California: 'home to arsenic-loving beings'Hannah Devlin
It is the classic sci-fi scenario: discovering aliens, not in outer space, but right here on Earth, sitting next to you in the workplace, serving food in your local restaurant, or, scariest of all, in your own home.
The premise might sound like the film Men in Black, but this week it will consume the great minds of science at a meeting of Britain’s most venerable institution, the Royal Society.
Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State University, will suggest tomorrow that the search for extra-terrestrial life should be focused right under our noses. His audience will include representatives from Nasa, the European Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs, while Lord Rees, President of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal, will also lead one of the sessions.
Addressing the meeting to mark the 50th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme — a quest that has fallen far short of its objectives — Professor Davies will argue that demonstrating that life has appeared more than once on Earth would be the best evidence yet that it must exist elsewhere in the Universe.
He told The Times: “We need to give up the notion that ET is sending us some sort of customised message and take a new approach.”
According to Professor Davies, “weird” microbes that belong to a completely separate tree of life, dubbed the “shadow biosphere”, could be present in isolated ecological niches in which ordinary life struggles to survive. Likely hiding places include deserts, scalding volcanic vents, the dry valleys of Antartica or salt-saturated lakes.
One team, led by Felisa WolfeSimon, of the US Geological Survey, is investigating the possibility that places that are heavily contaminated with arsenic, such as the Mono Lake in California, might support forms of life that use arsenic in the same way that other life forms use phosphorus.
Not all are convinced by the “shadow biosphere” concept. Colin Pillinger, who led the Beagle 2 Mars landing mission, said: “I prefer to deal in scientific fact — this is wildly science fiction. You’d be off your trolley to go searching for arsenic-based life.”
Professor Pillinger, who is due to speak at the Royal Society today, argues that Mars remains the best bet for finding alien organisms.
The conference will also address the social implications of the search for alien life. Albert Harrison, from the University of California, Davis, will discuss how human beings might respond to the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.
“It is easy to imagine scenarios resulting in widespread psychological disintegration and social chaos,” he said. “But historical prototypes, reactions to false alarms and survey results suggest that the predominant response to the discovery of a microwave transmission from light years away is likely to be equanimity, perhaps even delight.”
Victorian Rhapsody: Queen guitarist Brian May on the photos of a forgotten Britain that became his secret obsession By BRIAN MAY on the detective trail. 16.01.2010. editing in progress
When I was about 12 years old, Weetabix gave away a series of 3-D picture cards featuring animals - you would find them nestling between the box and the inner bag. The idea was that you could send off for a special 'Vista-Screen' viewer which, when the pictures were inserted, made them leap into amazing 3-D.
The effect was pure magic - a window into another world. It was the beginning of a love affair that has lasted most of my life, and has drawn me into an extraordinary trail of historical discovery.
Stereoscopy - to give 3-D imaging its proper name - is simple in principle. In real life our eyes see two slightly different versions of the same view - and our brains work to combine these into an instant read-out. Stereoscopy is a form of photography that works in the same way.
Two photographs are taken of the same scene, one from the position of each eye. When viewed through a stereoscope (like the one pictured below) the brain combines these images and interprets the small differences to give us a perception of depth, and the three-dimensional shape of objects. The original pictures were taken long before colour film and were painstakingly hand-coloured.
As a youngster growing up in Feltham in the suburbs of London, I was transfixed by these images and began to scour street markets for old stereo cards. Little was known about the creators of the most ancient and intriguing images, but the same proprietary marks cropped up again and again: Elliott, Silvester, and TRW.
TRW, or Thomas Richard Williams (1824-71), rapidly became my favourite. But frustratingly, the only reference I could find to him was in a little book about stereo cards, which gave just one picture and contained scant detail: the rough dates of his birth and death and that he had created a series of rural stereo views called Scenes In Our Village. But it was enough to capture my imagination.
The series has fascinated and enchanted me ever since, and after 30 years of detective work, I now know that it comprises 59 exquisite scenes, taken in and around an idyllic village of the Victorian age, featuring many local characters.
Scenes In Our Village achieved great popularity at the time it was produced, in the 1850s, but then all but disappeared, until my co-researcher and I were able to rescue it. It's been a bit like an archaeological dig! The photographs now represent an important historical document of a bygone age.
Cards from the series are rare, but, on tour for many years with Queen, I got to know specialist dealers in all the cities that we played in, and would spend hours trawling through dusty boxes in their backrooms, seeking out these gems. I found them all over the world - in America, France, Germany, even Australia. This is not, I admit, the usual leisure activity for rock stars on the road..
BRIAN MAY WRITES: A magnificent 1850s view of the river - tranquil with a hint of suspense. Across the water lies Ferry Farm, busy with goods for the village of Hinton Waldrist, to be delivered by ferry. To the right we can see nets drying
TURNING BARLEY: The photographer, T.R. Williams, captures perfectly the locals of Hinton Waldrist going about their daily pursuits (although to take the photo without blurring, he would have persuaded them to freeze for a minute or two).
Despite the century and a half between us, I have always felt a powerful affinity with TR Williams - an almost physical connection that spans the decades. He was interested in art for art's sake, but he was also compelled to communicate his art to an audience, to elicit a response.
As a musician, I feel the same way. I make music because I love it, and I really can't help doing it, but the greatest thrill is in the communication - in the fact that people 'out there' get excited about it as well.
When Queen stopped touring, I enlisted the help of photographic historian Elena Vidal to help piece together information about Williams's life and work. The biggest mystery of all was the identity of 'Our Village'. Some people even questioned whether the village was real or merely a composition of images from different places.
I had wrestled with this problem for years when suddenly, in a Eureka moment, I realised that someone out there must live near the church in the series. I published a picture of it on my website, and within 36 hours six people (including two from Italy) had correctly identified it as St Margaret's Church in Hinton Waldrist, which now lies in Oxfordshire, but then in Berkshire. This was the discovery I had been waiting for. I immediately jumped in the car and drove there with a great feeling of anticipation.
THE SCHOOLMISTRESS: A poignant image, the retired village schoolmistress sitting in her neat, ordered world. Is she fondly musing on the fortunes of all her former pupils - or was she a fearsome battleaxe?
GLEANERS RETIRING: The weariness of the labourers, returning from the fields, is palpable. The lady in pink has, understandably, moved during exposure - hence her head appears to have disappeared.
It was an extraordinary spine-chilling moment when I finally saw the church that I had been studying remotely for half of my life. It was almost unchanged - almost suspended in time. I tried to find the same position from which Williams had first photographed it - which just so happened to involve standing on the roof of my car. I took a snap from there.
Today Hinton Waldrist has four streets, 160 houses, two farms and a population of 333 - and is stuffed with cars - but in the Victorian age it was a rural idyll: thatched cottages, rosy- cheeked girls and contented elderly women
LITTLE MARY AND HER MAGPIE: On the table sits a magpie, at which the girl gazes fondly. As the magpie is not blurred by movement, it's unlikely to have been alive. A mechanical model bird, perhaps.
THE DAME AND SPINNING WHEEL: This could not be further away from the industrial madness of the Victorian age. A traditional way of life that was under threat, and this was the last in the village.
After an apprenticeship to a pioneering daguerreotypist, Antoine Claudet, he became a hugely successful portrait photographer in his own right. His daughter Elizabeth married a famous lens-maker, Dallmeyer; my chap with the suitcase was - and is - a Dallmeyer.
Scenes In Our Village is probably TRW's greatest work - a labour of love. In our book A Village Lost And Found, Elena and I have compiled and annotated the whole series for the first time ever, and the book comes with a new plastic stereoscopic 'viewer' of my own design.
It has been an amazing journey, and I hope people will get as much pleasure from these pictures as I have. They really do portray a lost world - perhaps a better world in many ways - and in startling realism. It is, forgive me, a kind of magic.
• A VILLAGE LOST & FOUND by Brian May & Elena Vidal is published by Frances Lincoln at £35.sat at spinning wheels. Elena Vidal and I were soon able to find other buildings that stand to this day, and 19th century maps have helped us to pinpoint the site of many houses long since gone.
In the churchyard we found the crumbling gravestone of one of the characters featured in the photographs - pig farmer John Sims. Finally it had become clear to us that TR Williams's picture series was set entirely in Hinton Waldrist and that we were standing on the very same ground as those people he'd photographed 150 years earlier.
THE BLACKSMITH'S SHOP: A wonderful scene showing a cross-roads of the Hinton Waldrist where this vital man worked. His house is still there in the picturesque Oxfordshire settlement.
JOHN SIMS AT HIS PIGSTY: I love this picture because after finding the village in 2003, we found John Sims's gravestone - the first proof that the beautiful picture series WAS the story of real people in a real village.
Our research was further helped along by some amazing strokes of fate. A chap wrote to me, out of the blue, and asked if he could visit my house in Surrey. It used to belong to his grandfather, and he remembered spending Christmas there.
I invited him down, and he said he was bringing a suitcase full of material relating to an old photographer, TR Williams - had I heard of him?
In a remarkable coincidence, it turned out that my correspondent was a direct descendant of Williams, and it dawned on us that this suitcase of TRW memorabilia must have resided in my own house at the end of the 19th century. I was living in a house which had belonged to the grandchild of the man I had been researching for so long.
Educated as a scientist, I don't really relate to 'destiny' or 'fate', but such an extraordinary coincidence does make me wonder if there aren't 'more things in Heaven and Earth....'
By now we had managed to piece together something of Williams's life. He was a Londoner who seems to have spent some time in Hinton Waldrist as a boy.
Old Map Shows China was the Centre of World. 2010-01-13
A rarely seen 400-year-old map that put China at the centre of the world and identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" went on display on January 12th at the Library of Congress in the United States.
North America part of a 400-year old map created by Matteo Ricci [Photo: Global Times]
The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was among the first westerners to live in what is now Beijing in the early 1600s. Known for introducing western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.
Ricci's map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions "humped oxen" or bison, wild horses and a region named "Ka-na-ta."
Several Central and South American places are named, including "Wa-ti-ma-la" (Guatemala), "Yu-ho-t'ang" (Yucatan) and "Chih-Li" (Chile).
The Ricci map gained the nickname the "Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography" because it was so hard to find.
This map - one of only two in good condition - was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust in October for $1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map ever sold. The library bought another of the world's rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to name "America," for $10 million in 2003.
The Ricci map going on display had been held for years by a private collector in Japan and will eventually be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota. It map symbolizes the first connection between Eastern and Western thinking and commerce, said Ford W. Bell, co-trustee of the fund started by his grandfather, General Mills founder James Ford Bell.
The map was being shown publicly for the first time in North America. It measures about 3.7 by 1.5 metres and is printed on six rolls of rice paper.
The Library of Congress rarely exhibits artifacts it does not own because its holdings are so vast, but curators made an exception for the Ricci map. It will be on view through April alongside the Waldseemuller map and later will be shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
The library also will create a digital image of the map to be posted online for researchers and students.
Ti Bin Zhang, first secretary for cultural affairs at the Chinese Embassy, said the map represents "the momentous first meeting of East and West" and was the "catalyst for commerce."
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Only a few original copies are known to exist, held by the Vatican's libraries and collectors in France and Japan.
Editor: Du Xiaodan | Source: CRI
Vatican reveals Secret Archives
A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time. By Nick Squires in Rome 01.01.2010
In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk, pictured, to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan's grandson demands that the Pontiff travel to central Asia in person
Although scholars have had access to the secret archives since 1881, they remain closed to the general public
The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years.
High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots.
The book documents the Roman Catholic Church’s often hostile dealings with the world of science and the arts, including documents from the heresy trial against Galileo and correspondence exchanged with Erasmus, Voltaire and Mozart. It also reveals the Church’s relations with princes and potentates in countries far beyond its dominion.
In a letter dated 1246 from Grand Khan Guyuk to Pope Innocent IV, Genghis Khan’s grandson demands that the pontiff travel to central Asia in person – with all of his “kings” in tow – to “pay service and homage to us” as an act of “submission”, threatening that otherwise “you shall be our enemy”.
Another formal letter in the archive highlights the papacy’s political role. In 1863 Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States, wrote to Pope Pius IX claiming that the civil war raging across America was entirely due to “Northern aggression”.
“We desire no evil to our enemies, nor do we covet any of their possessions; but are only struggling to the end that they shall cease to devastate our land and inflict useless and cruel slaughter upon our people.”
Other letters in the archive are more personal. In a 1550 note, Michelangelo demands payment from the papacy which was three months late, and complains that a papal conclave had interrupted his work on the dome of St Peter’s Basilica.
A yellowed parchment covered in neat black script reveals details of the 14th century trials of the Knights Templar on suspicion of heresy, after which members of the warrior-monk order were pardoned by Pope Clement V.
Some of the documents are already well-known, including a parchment letter written by English peers to Pope Clement VII in 1530, calling for Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be annulled.
An entreaty written to Rome by another British monarch, but in very different circumstances, is also reproduced in exquisite detail. In 1586 Mary, Queen of Scots, wrote from Fotheringay in Northants to Pope Sixtus V, a few months before she was beheaded for plotting against her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, pledging her eternal allegiance to Rome.
The document includes letters written to Hitler by Pope Pius XI in 1934 and one received by his controversial successor, Pius XII, from Japan’s Emperor Hirohito.
“An aura of mystery has always surrounded this important cultural institution of the Holy See due to the allusions to inaccessible secrets thanks to its very name, as well as to the publicity it has always enjoyed in literature and in the media,” Cardinal Raffaele Farina, a Vatican archivist, writes in the preface to the book, which was produced by a Belgian publisher, VdH Books.
One of the most unusual documents is a letter written on birch bark in 1887 by the Ojibwe Indians of Ontario, Canada, to Pope Leo XIII. The letter, written in May but datelined “where there is much grass, in the month of the flowers”, addresses the pontiff as “the Great Master of Prayer” and offers thanks to the Vatican for having sent a “custodian of prayer” (a bishop) to preach to them.
Although scholars have had access to the secret archives since 1881, they remain closed to the general public.
This is a brilliant story... The boy who paints like an old master
His pictures cost upwards of £900, there are 680 people on a waiting list to buy them, and his second exhibition sold out in 14 minutes. Patrick Barkham meets the gifted artist Kieron Williamson, aged seven
After Gliman by Kieron Williamson. Click on the magnifying glass for a larger version
Kieron Williamson kneels on the wooden bench in his small kitchen, takes a pastel from the box by his side and rubs it on to a piece of paper.
"Have you got a picture in your head of what you're going to do?" asks his mother, Michelle.
"Yep," Kieron nods. "A snow scene."
Because it is winter at the moment, I ask.
"Yep."
Do you know how you want it to come out?
"Yep."
And does it come out how you want it to?
"Sometimes it does."
Like many great artists, small boys are not often renowned for their loquaciousness. While Kieron Williamson is a very normal seven-year-old who uses his words sparingly, what slowly emerges on the small rectangle of paper in his kitchen is extraordinarily eloquent.
This month, Kieron's second exhibition in a gallery in his home town of Holt, Norfolk, sold out in 14 minutes. The sale of 16 new paintings swelled his bank account by £18,200.
There are now 680 people on a waiting list for a Kieron original. Art lovers have driven from London to buy his work. Agents buzz around the town. People offer to buy his schoolbooks. The starting price for a simple pastel picture like the one Kieron is sketching? £900.
Kieron lives with his dad Keith, a former electrician, his mum, who is training to be a nutritionist, and Billie-Jo, his little sister, in a small flat overlooking a petrol station. When I arrive on a Saturday afternoon, Kieron and Keith are out. When Kieron returns in football socks and shorts, I assume he has been playing football. But no, he has been replenishing his stock of pastels in Holt, a chichi little place where even the chip shop has grainy portraits for sale on its walls.
Artist Kieron Williamson, age seven, painting at home in Holt, Norfolk. Photograph: Graham Turner
From Jan Lievens to Millais, there have been plenty of precocious geniuses in the art world. Excitable press coverage has compared Kieron to Picasso, who painted his first canvas, The Picador, aged eight.
"We don't know who Picasso is really," says Keith.
"I know who Picasso is," interrupts Kieron. "I don't want to become Picasso."
Who would he like to become? "Monet or Edward Seago," he says.
These days, however, we are often suspicious of child prodigies. We wonder if it is all their own work, or whether their pushy parents have hot-housed them. People who don't know the Williamsons might think Kieron is being cleverly marketed, particularly when they hear that Keith is now an art dealer.
The truth is far more innocent. Two years ago, a serious accident had forced Keith to stop work and turn his hobby – collecting art – into an occupation. The accident also stopped Keith racing around outside with his son. Confined to a flat with no garden, surrounded by paintings and, like any small boy, probably influenced by his dad, Kieron decided to take up drawing. Now, father and son are learning about art together.
Kieron is rubbing yellows and greys together for his sky. "There's some trees going straight across and then there's a lake through the centre," he explains. Is this picture something you have seen or is it in your imagination? "I saw it on the computer and every time I do the picture it changes." he says, handling his pastels expertly.
Keith ducks into the kitchen and explains that Kieron finds pictures he likes on the internet. Rather than an exact copy, however, he creates his own version. This winter scene is imagined from an image of the Norfolk Broads in summer.
Figures at Holkham by Kieron Williamson
At first, Kieron's art was pretty much like any other five-year-old's. But he quickly progressed and was soon asking questions that his parents couldn't answer. "Kieron wanted to know the technicalities of art and how to put a painting together," says Michelle. Hearing of Kieron's promise, one local artist, Carol Ann Pennington, offered him some tips. Since then, he has had lessons with other Norfolk-based painters, including Brian Ryder and his favourite, Tony Garner.
Garner, a professional artist, has taught more than 1,000 adults over the last few decades and Kieron, he says, is head and shoulders above everyone. "He doesn't say very much, he doesn't ask very much, he just looks. He's a very visual learner. If I did a picture with most students, they will copy it but Kieron is different. He will copy it and then he will Kieronise it," he says. "It might be a bit naive at the moment but there's a lovely freshness about what he does. The confidence that this little chap has got – he just doesn't see any danger."
Garner says his parents have been brilliant at shielding Kieron from the business side and the pressure this invariably brings. Keith and Michelle are extremely proud, and protective, and perhaps slightly in awe of their son. They insist that Kieron only paints when he wants to.
"We judge ourselves every day, wondering whether we are making the right choices," says Michelle. "Kieron is such a strong character you wouldn't get him to do anything he didn't want to do anyway. It's a hobby. Some could argue he's got such a talent, why aren't we doing more for him in terms of touring galleries every weekend. We are a family and we've got Billie-Jo to consider; you've got to strike a balance."Boat at half way house by Kieron Williamson
With all the people wanting paintings, I ask Kieron if he feels he has to do them. He says no.
So you only paint when you want to? "Yep."
Do you have days when you feel you don't want to paint?
"Yep."
So you only do it when you're in the mood?
"Yep."
How many paintings or drawings do you do each week? One or two? "About six."
Is he a perfectionist? "You've got a bit of an artist's temperament, haven't you?" says Michelle, softly, as Kieron continues wielding his pastels. "You get really frustrated if it doesn't work out. You punched a hole in the canvas once, didn't you?"
That was rare. Sometimes, however, Kieron will produce "what we classify as a bag of trosh," says Michelle. "He's just got to go through the motions. It's almost as if it's a release. It's difficult to explain – it's the process that he enjoys, because there are days when he is not really focused on his work but he just enjoys doing it."
Sometimes, when they have taken Kieron out on painting trips in the countryside, the little boy has had other ideas: he has gone off and played in the mud or a stream. He is still allowed to be seven years old.
What do his school friends think? Are they impressed? "Yep." A few moments later, Kieron pauses. "I am also top of the class in maths, English, geography and science," he says carefully, rubbing the sky in his picture.
Kieron explains he is sticking to landscapes for now but plans to paint a portrait of his 98-year-old nan when she turns 100. What does he think about people spending so much money on his paintings? "Really good." Would he like to be a professional painter? "Yep." So he doesn't want to be a footballer when he is older? "I want to be a footballer and a painter."
Kieron enjoys playing football and, like his dad, supports Leeds United ("I haven't ever pushed him into it," says Keith quickly). What other things does Kieron like doing? "You played on the Xbox but then you got bored of it didn't you?" says Keith.
"You said I could have it out when Christmas comes," says Kieron.
"You can have it out in the holidays," promises Michelle. "He's a bit all-or-nothing with whatever he does, like the artwork. You have to pull the reins in a bit because otherwise he'd be up all night."
What would his parents say if Kieron turned around and told them he was not going to paint any more? "Leave him to it. As long as he's happy. At the end of the day, he's at his happiest painting," says Keith. "It's entirely his choice," says Michelle. "We don't know what's around the corner. Kieron might decide to put his boxes away and football might take over and that would be entirely his choice. We're feeling slightly under pressure at the moment because there is such a waiting list of people wanting Kieron's work, but I'm inclined to tell them to wait, really."
I doubt many artists could paint or draw while answering questions and being photographed but Kieron carries on. When he finishes, we lean over to look. "Not bad. That's nice," says Keith, who can't watch Kieron at work; I wonder if it is because he is worried about his son making a mistake but Keith says he just prefers to see the finished article.
"Is it as good as the one I did this morning or better?" asks Kieron.
"What do you think?" replies Keith. "It's got a nice glow on it, hasn't it?"
Kieron nods.
I would love one of his pictures but, I tell Kieron, he is already too expensive for me. "I can price one down for you," he says, as quick as a flash.
No, no, I couldn't, I say, worried I would be exploiting a little boy who is eager to please. I thank him for his time and hand him my business card. And Kieron trots into his bedroom, comes out with his business card and says thank you back.
Kieron's tips for landscape painting
1 "Go on holiday to where you really want to go, and be inspired."
2 "Start with acrylics, then watercolours, then pastels and then oils"
3 When you set out to do a landscape, "start with the sky first, top to bottom."
4 "When you do distance, it's lighter, and when you do foreground it comes darker."
5 "If you're doing a figure in the winter, do a brown head, leave a small gap, do a blue jacket and brown legs. Then with the gap get a red pastel and do a flick of red so it looks like a scarf."
6 "Keep on painting." Top 10 British myths and legends
Whether they’re true, just good stories or somewhere in between, we all love a juicy myth or legend. Here are some of Britain’s best and the places to experience them.
Tintagel, Cornwall Head to the wild and unspoiled cliffs of Tintagel to discover the mythical birthplace of King Arthur. It was medieval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth who first proposed the theory that Arthur was born here and that the wizard Merlin lived in a cave nearby. Ruined Tintagel Castle, set on the blustery cliff top, is a wonderfully romantic setting from which to explore the legend.
Robin Hood, Nottingham We all know this one. Or do we? The outlaw hero and expert archer who robs the rich to feed the poor is about as English as tea and crumpets. But surprisingly little is known about the man himself. So don your suit of green, assemble some merry men and head to Nottingham to see if you can discover this elusive chap yourself. You might find him at the Major Oak, the ancient tree in Sherwood Forest rumoured to be his hideout.
Glastonbury, Somerset Glastonbury is knee-deep in supernatural associations. It stands at the junction of ley lines, the supposed mystical motorways of spiritual energy and is said to be the final resting place of King Arthur. Many believe a young Jesus Christ visited the site and that the town’s Chalice Well is the hiding place of the Holy Grail. A visit from Jesus is not as far fetched as it sounds - Joseph of Arimathea, a relation of Mary, owned a mine in the area.
The Loch Ness Monster, Loch Ness, Scottish Highlands Few things shout Scotland louder than the mythical monster that skulks in Loch Ness, Britain's longest body of fresh water. Sightings of Nessie have declined over recent years and despite high-profile submarine searches and much-disputed photographs, the beast seems quite content to maintain its low profile. Don’t be disheartened if you don’t catch a glimpse of Nessie, though. The loch itself is beautiful enough and the Highlands have sufficient mystery and magic for anyone.
Rosslyn Chapel, Roslin, Scotland This medieval church outside Edinburgh has long-standing links to the Knights Templar and Freemasonry. Carvings, rich in symbolism, sprout from every surface in an astonishing ‘essay in stone’ and many believe the Chapel is the repository for the Holy Grail – as speculated in The Da Vinci Code. Whatever you believe, Rosslyn’s forest of carvings is inspiring, mystifying and truly unique.
Jack the Ripper, East London The serial killer known as Jack the Ripper was scarily real and the fact that 5 London prostitutes were brutally murdered in 1888 is beyond dispute. More mysterious is the identity of the killer with suspects ranging from artist Walter Sickert to author Lewis Carroll. Tour the fog-cloaked streets of East London to review the evidence for yourself. While Whitechapel retains something of the night, by day it has a great mix of hip boutiques, designer bars and, on Brick Lane, curry houses as far as the eye can see.
St Michael’s Mount, Cornwall St Michael's Mount at Penzance is a small tidal island just off the coast of Cornwall. Legend has it the Mount was the work of Cornish giant Cormoran who built a fortified home from where he could terrorise the locals living in the coastal village of Marazion. But one night, local lad Jack crept over to the island and dug a hole disguising it with straw. When Jack woke him, Cormoran blundered into the hole never to escape. Walk up St Michael's Mount, see Jack’s hole and put your head against the nearby rock. It is said you can still hear the giant's heart beating.
Stonehenge, Salisbury Stonehenge is the most famous megalithic (literally meaning ‘big stone’) monument in the world. Dating back an amazing 50,000 years, it’s drawn visitors for literally millennia. A place of ritual sacrifice and sun worship or a massive calendar? Nobody really knows its purpose, but no one who has ever been there will deny, it is truly awe inspiring.
Caves near Wells Deep within the dank, underground caves of Wookey Hole lived the fearsome Wookey Hole Witch. Long ago, the villagers of Wookey implored the Abbot of Glastonbury to send a protector against this malevolent hag. Enter Father Bernard, Benedictine monk and crack exorcist. Bernard scooped up some water, quickly blessed it and threw it over the witch turning her to stone. You can still see the witch’s petrified form deep in these extraordinary caves.
Cerne Abbas Giant, Cerne Abbas near Dorchester A gigantic figure etched in a chalk hillside guards the village of Cerne Abbas near Dorchester. Naked apart from a huge club he’s certainly an arresting sight. But his true meaning and even his age are in dispute. Is he an ancient fertility symbol, a cheeky 17th-century joke or something else entirely? The only time he’s been clothed is during World War II when he was disguised to prevent the enemy from using him as an aerial landmark.
The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, has commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. It marked the occasion on Thursday by releasing a new status report and holding a news conference in New York.
The State of the World's Children is a special edition of UNICEF's flagship report showcasing progress made since the Convention entered into force in September 1990.
The report noted that one of the Convention's outstanding achievements has been the improvement in child survival rates. The number of children who die before they reach the age of five has declined 28 percent between 1990 and 2008.
Nevertheless, UNICEF said that the rights of children are far from assured. An estimated one billion children lack access to proper health care, adequate nutrition, education, clean water, sanitation facilities or adequate shelter.
Ann Veneman, UNICEF Excutive Director, said, "The convention stands at a pivotal moment. Its relevance remains timeless. The challenge for the next 20 years is to build on the progress achieved, working together to reach those children who are still being denied their rights to survival, development, protection and participation."
1. Highgate Cemetery, London By night, Highgate Cemetery is like something out of a horror movie. Eerie crooked gravestones, headless angles covered in ivy, dark overgrown passages between the tombs, it's no wonder this is Britain's number one ghost spot. Despite its chilling atmosphere, by day Highgate Cemetery showcases some of the Britain's most spectacular Gothic architecture, offers fascinating guided tours and is also the burial place of Karl Marx.
2. Borley Rectory, Essex The stories of Borley Rectory mainly come from the work of famous 18th-century ghost hunter, Harry Price. Price got involved in a case at the rectory after a newspaper ran a story about a phantom nun in 1929. His investigations led to the rectory being named 'The Most Haunted House in England'. The building was destroyed by a fire in 1939, but this has done nothing to dispel stories of spooky happenings, or deter ghost hunters from visiting the site.
3. Pendle Hill, Lancashire The area known as Pendle Witch Country in the Lancashire Pennines is dominated by the dark brooding mass of Pendle Hill. Nearby is the site of Britain's most famous (and most grim) witch trial – the case of the 'Witches of Pendle'. In 1612 ten so-called witches were hanged at Lancaster Castle and they are said to still haunt the local area. The hill itself has even featured on Living TV's Most Haunted.
4. Red Lion, Avebury, Wiltshire Pubs in Britain are often said to be haunted. This might be because they are often in ancient buildings, or it could just be that ghosts like a pint as much as the rest of us. The 400-year-old Red Lion Inn in Wiltshire is one Britain's most haunted pubs and is actually situated inside Avebury Stone Circle – the largest stone circle in Europe and a World Heritage Site. The pub is never short of weird shadows, orbs or light, ghostly figures, sudden cold spots and unexplained noises in the night... should you dare to stay over.
5. Ancient Ram Inn, Wotten-under-Edge, Gloucestershire Whether you believe in ghosts or not, a trip to the Ancient Ram Inn is an unsettling experience. Its creaky floorboards, cold bare walls, musty smells and dimly lit nooks and crannies epitomise everything a haunted house should be. And the stories attached to this creepy building are not for the fainthearted: Murder, satanism and child sacrifice are just a few of the dark deeds said to have occurred here, oh and did we mention apparently it's built on a pagan burial ground?
6. Glamis Castle, Angus, Scotland The spires, turrets, towers and statues seize your attention immediately. Glamis Castle is one of Scotland's most impressive castles, but not just for the amazing architecture and 600 years of royal history. Glamis is also one of Scotland's most haunted castles. Among the many spirits said to inhabit the place is the ghost of the Monster of Glamis – a hideously deformed child who was kept locked up in a hidden room his entire life.
7. Tower of London, London Not only is the Tower of Londona World Heritage Site and one of the capital's favourite attractions, it's also home to many inhabitants of the undead variety. Which is no surprise really when you consider the number of beheadings, hangings and tortures that have gone on there. Some of the most-sighted ghouls include the Princes in the Tower, allegedly murdered by their uncle Richard III, Anne Boleyn and the White Lady, who apparently brings a strange perfume smell with her on her hauntings.
8. Culloden Moor, near Inverness On the 16 April 1746 the last-ever battle to take place on British soil was fought on Culloden Moor. Here the Jacobite rebellion, vastly outnumbered, was massacred there on the moor. And as you might think, any battle as bloody as this is bound to leave a few tormented souls. Legend has it that every year on the battle's anniversary, war-cries can still be heard as the warriors battle on in the after world.
9. Llancaiach Fawr Manor, near Caerphilly The peaceful, rural setting of Llancaiach Fawr Manor gives no clue to the turmoil of its history and the bloody civil war that was fought there. And these great battles have left no shortage of spectres wondering around the manor. In fact, strange things have been experienced in almost every room, along corridors and on stairs. Things seen, heard or felt, or sometimes odours in the air of violets or lavender - and on some occasions, roast beef!
10. Berry Pomeroy Castle, near Totness, Devon The 14th-century Berry Pomeroy Castle has two famous female ghosts; the White Lady and the Blue Lady. According to legend the White Lady is the spirit of Margaret Pomeroy, who starved to death while imprisoned in the dungeons by her jealous sister. Apparently she haunts the dark dungeons and rises from St Margaret's Tower to the castle walls. The Blue Lady is not confined to specific areas and is supposed to lure people into hidden parts of the ruin. Apparently it's a very bad idea to follow her!
Why are pirates called pirates?... because that's their name! Ahhh...ha..ha!
My preference for relaxing reading, are biogaphies. I came across this new publication about one of our most famous pirate hunters, Captain Woodes Rogers and Blackbeard, probably Britain's most notorious pirate of the 18th century. A second feature gives more information of his background and escapades.
PIRATE HUNTER: The Life Of Captain Woodes Rogers by Graham A. Thomas (Pen & Sword Ltd).
He beheaded Blackbeard and hanged cut-throats by the dozen... the life of history's most ruthless pirate hunter. By Andrew Roberts 6th December 2008
Despite the calm sea, the chase was on. Sand was thrown across the decks to stop them becoming slippery with blood, and the men set up nets under the masts in case rigging came tumbling down, shot off by cannon fire. To stop flying splinters, hammocks and bedding were stuffed in the netting, while sheets of lead were laid out ready to plug leaks from small arms fire and cannon shot at the waterline. To prevent the men from scuttling to safety below deck while the fight was on, hatches were shut tight.
The date was December 21, 1709, and after 16 months at sea, two tiny British frigates under the command of Captain Woodes Rogers had finally caught sight of one of the richest prizes afloat - the 500-ton Spanish galleon, the Encarnacion, on her way to Acapulco.
A painting by the artist Jean Leon Jerome Ferris depicts the capture of notorious pirate Blackbeard (left)
The Encarnacion was loaded down with bejewelled snuffboxes, pearls, rich tapestries and priceless china made for the Queen of Spain, as well as laced ivory fans, embroidered silk gowns, more than 1,000 pairs of silk stockings, chests of musk, tons of rare spices and other plunder valued at more than £1 million on the London market - equivalent to several hundred million pounds today.
Captain Woodes Rogers was a privateer - a pirate in all but name - whose expeditions were funded by British businessmen in return for a share of the booty, and sanctioned by the Navy on condition that he confined his attacks to enemy vessels.
And he was so successful, so consummately aware of the tricks of the trade, that he was eventually persuaded by George II to turn from poacher to gamekeeper.
In an age when brutality and ruthlessness were the law of the ocean, he become the most successful pirate hunter of all time. Utterly fearless, he circumnavigated the globe, overcoming mutiny, scurvy, tornadoes and starvation, not to mention the cutlasses, grapeshot and broadsides of the vessels he attacked.
He discovered the real Robinson Crusoe - a Scots seaman named Alexander Selkirk, who had been marooned on an uninhabited island off Chile for four-and-a-half years after a row with his captain - and it was his friendship with the writer Daniel Defoe that led to the novel. By the end of his career, he had become Governor of the Bahamas, charged with stopping the 2,000 or more pirates who were decimating British trade in the area.
Following intense hand-to-hand fighting, his men killed and beheaded the infamous Blackbeard, leaving the body of the world's most feared pirate riddled with pistol balls and slashed raw by 20 cutlass wounds.
Such was their triumph in his death, they displayed his 'glowering head' on the bowsprit of one of their vessels.
Now, 300 years after he captured that fabulous Spanish galleon the Encarnacion, a new book, The Pirate Hunter, by the veteran military historian Graham A. Thomas, tells Woodes Rogers' remarkable story.
Nor does the author attempt to romanticise the tale: he rightly points out that then - as now - piracy was a murderous, vicious way of life, based on heartless plunder, terror and rape.
James Purefoy portrays Blackbeard in the 2006 BBC docu-drama
Born in Bristol in 1679, the son of a sea captain, Woodes Rogers married the daughter of an admiral. Before the age of 30, he had shown such seamanship and leadership that a consortium of Bristol merchants raised the money to buy two frigates - the Duke (320 tons and 36 guns) and the Duchess ( 260 tons and 26 guns) - with the commission to capture, ransom and rob any ships he found anywhere in the world.
As a privateer, Woodes Rogers was bound by no laws beyond his own morality. It was agreed that the plunder he brought home would be split two-thirds for the expedition's backers, and one-third to his officers and the crew of 340. On August 22, 1708, Rogers weighed anchor from Bristol, first setting sail for the Canaries. He was fortunate enough to have secured the services of William Dampier, an explorer who had twice circumnavigated the world and whose experience was to be invaluable.
Unfortunately, he was also forced to take along Dr Thomas Dover, who, as a major investor in the enterprise and the representative of the Bristol merchants, had to be given a major say in decision-making during the expedition. Woodes Rogers told his merchant backers that he hoped 'the blessing of God may bring vast riches to Great Britain'. As a precaution, he took 36 officers, twice the usual number, 'to prevent mutinies, which often happen in long voyages, and that we might have a large provision for a succession in case of mortality'.
Within a month, the little fleet had captured their first prize off Tenerife - a Spanish vessel loaded with two butts of wine and a hogshead of brandy. 'Now we are well stocked with liquors we shall be better able to endure cold when we get the length of Cape Horn,' Woodes Rogers wrote in his journal.
It took the two tiny ships - hardly bigger than modern fishing trawlers - ten days to round Cape Horn in January 1709, being buffeted by high gales that sent them rolling from beam to beam. Sails were lost and icebergs narrowly avoided, with every sailor soaked to the skin for days on end; but, nonetheless, they made it around the most treacherous sea lane in the world.
They were in the South Seas of the Pacific Ocean, and desperately short of food and fresh water. Going ashore on Juan Fernandez Island for new provisions, they found an 'abundance of crawfish and a man in goat's skins who looked wilder than the first owners of them'.
This was Alexander Selkirk, who had been put ashore on the island four years and four months previously, by a Captain Stradling with whom he had fallen out. He had been allowed to take his clothes, bedding, a pistol and some powder, tobacco, a hatchet and knife, a kettle, the Bible and some mathematical instruments - but no food.
He expected it to be a short visit, as he was convinced he would soon be picked up. Sadly, he was mistaken. Although ships visited the island during Selkirk's lonely sojourn, they were mostly Spanish and their crews had fired on him. Selkirk built a camp of goatskin tents. He found the first eight months the worst, but had succeeding in making fire by rubbing together two sticks of pimento wood, and had lived off goats that inhabited the island after they had escaped - along with cats and rats - from the ships and pirate vessels that had anchored there.
Johnny Depp stars as Captain Jack Sparrow in the film Pirates of the Caribbean
He devoured the turnips which grew plentifully; he exercised, ate well and became extraordinarily fit. When his knife broke, he made replacements out of the hoops of rotten barrels left by earlier ships that had come in for water.
To keep down the island's rat population after he had woken one night to find them gnawing his feet, he used goat meat to lure more than 100 cats into his compound, where they slept every night.
In 1709, he saw sails and a British flag on the horizon, and then Woodes Rogers' men came ashore in long boats. They were startled by the 'wildman' running at them along the beach. 'He ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods and up the rocks and hills,' said Woodes Rogers later. 'We had a bulldog, which we sent with several of our nimblest runners to help him in catching goats; but he distanced and tired both the dog and men.'
At first it was hard to understand what Selkirk was saying, because he had not heard English spoken in more than four years. The terror of being alone 'in such a wild and desolate place,' he said, had been dulled by regular prayer and psalm-singing.
He told how he had danced with his pet cats and goats in the moonlight to avoid the near- suicidal loneliness that fell upon him, and how he had 'diverted himself sometime by cutting his name on trees'.
On his rescue, Selkirk joined the expedition and was soon given command of one of the vessels Rogers captured. He was introduced to foreigners as 'the Governor of Juan Fernandez Island', which in a way he had been. History sadly does not relate what passed between him and Captain Stradling when next they met, if ever they did.
After three months of waylaying ships off the west coast of South America, Rogers' fleet had increased to eight vessels, as well as the Duke and Duchess. Sadly, his 20-year-old brother Thomas was killed, shot through the head in one engagement against the Spanish.
On April 22, 1709, Rogers conceived a plan to capture and pillage the Peruvian town of Guayaquil, which he had learned contained a rich treasury.
A statue of Alexander Selkirk, on Robinson Crusoe Island. 'Rogers ordered his pinnace forward, heading for the shore, fully confident that the other boats would follow,' records Graham Thomas. Yet at the key moment, cowardly Dr Dover, representing the investors, argued that the town had been warned - bells were being rung and fireworks were going off - and that the assault was therefore hopelessly compromised. By the time they realised the next day that Guayaquil had merely been celebrating a saint's day, the town was, indeed, warned, and carried a vast fortune in gold inland to be buried in secret.
Rogers attacked nonetheless, but when they captured the town by a brave frontal assault, all they found was 'flour, peas, beans and jars of wine and brandy'. So, they negotiated with the Spanish not to raze it to the ground and managed to extract 22,000 silver pieces of eight out of the authorities before sailing away.
Throughout his piratical career, Rogers enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for treating his prisoners with respect. They were ransomed for the maximum possible price, it was true, but the women were treated with civility, and the men allowed to retain their dignity, often being invited to dine with Rogers.
The ultimate prize for all English pirates between 1565 and 1815 was the Manila galleons. These vast, well-armed ships carried huge riches on both legs of their journey between Manila and Acapulco.
Going westwards, they carried silver pesos, rubies, pearls, jade, gold and silver plate. Those sailing eastwards towards New Spain (Mexico, California and Central America) carried spices and silks for the European markets.
For a privateer to capture a well-laden Manila galleon meant never having to work again. By late November 1709, things were going badly for Rogers' fleet. Water was low, all the turtles (their emergency rations) had been eaten, many of the crew were ill and sailors were stealing each other's bread, even at the risk of being flogged and then clapped in irons in the hold.
Rogers knew they could not backtrack southwards to Cape Horn because the Spanish, with hugely superior forces, were waiting for them there. 'We are now something dubious of seeing the Manila ship,' he wrote disconsolately. 'It's nearly a month after the time they generally fall in with this coast.'
Yet just as doubt was giving way to despair, at 9am on December 21, off the coast of California, a lookout in the crow's nest spotted a sail seven leagues (21 miles) away, and the fleet gave chase.
Rogers had spent the many months at sea drilling his gun-crews so that they could fire faster and more accurately than any enemy. That way, he hoped the British pirates would be able to take on the larger, 500-ton, 50-gun Encarnacion. After a long chase, 'both ships were parallel, and firing broadsides at each other at point-blank range.
'Thickening, choking smoke from the roaring guns filled the air, shrouding both ships with a black gloom, while above the whine of shot, the splintering of wood and the ripping of sails came the whip-crack sounds of small arms fire as the snipers in the rigging of both ships opened fire, trying to pick off the officers on the decks of each ship.' Rogers later wrote of how 'They return [fire] as thick for a while, but they did not ply their guns as fast as we'.
'Surgeons lit their lanterns below decks,' records Graham Thomas, 'spreading canvas on the wooden operating tables and laying out their instruments, knives, saws, probes, ligatures and gags to stop the men screaming as they cut off arms or legs while assistants brought boiling pitch to cauterise the men's wounds.'
At one time, a 12lb cannonball hit and split the mizzenmast of the Duke. Had it come down, it would have spelled the end for the ship, with the crew winding up prisoners of the Spanish. Luckily, it held. Soon afterwards, Rogers was hit in the left cheek by a musket ball which tore away a large part of his upper jaw and knocked several teeth out onto the deck. He stayed conscious and fought on, however, writing out his orders 'to prevent the loss of blood and because of the pain I suffered by speaking'. The Spanish struck their colours - or surrendered - soon afterwards.
Rogers' capture of the Encarnacion was a great feat of leadership and seamanship, but after long legal wranglings once he had returned home with his plunder, he wound up with only £1,600 of the prize money. It hardly covered the debts his wife had notched up in the three years of his absence.
For this reason, he decided to accept George II's commission to sail to the West Indies as Governor of the Bahamas, to root out the piracy that was threatening to strangle all trade in the Caribbean. Rogers landed at Nassau in 1718 and conducted a vicious, but ultimately successful war against the 'disorderly, unwashed bunch of cutthroats' he hunted down there.
On one occasion, he hanged eight pirates in one day (although he spared a ninth at the last minute when he discovered his 'loyal and good' parents came from Weymouth.)
Understanding well the mind of a pirate, he was the scourge of the Jolly Roger until his death in 1732.
Shipwreck clues could clear Blackbeard of sinking his ship to swindle his crew
He was history's most feared pirate, striking terror into seafarers as he cut a bloodthirsty swathe through the Caribbean and North Atlantic. By Jasper Copping
Blackbeard. Photo: from Hulton Archive.
New research has found that Blackbeard may be innocent of one of the most notorious charges against him. For almost 300 years, the British pirate captain has stood accused of deliberately sinking his flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, so he could swindle his crew out of their share of loot they had plundered.
Marine archaeologists, who are conducting a diving expedition on the vessel's presumed wreck, now believe it may have run aground by accident. They have even found evidence suggesting that Blackbeard made repeated attempts to rescue the stricken craft.
They have discovered a large pile of ballast, including anchors and several cannon, in the middle section of the ship. They believe Blackbeard ordered the crew to move the heavy items from their original positions, near the bow of the vessel, back towards the stern in an effort to lift the vessel's bows from the submerged sandbank onto which it had run.
It follows the discovery of an anchor on the sea bed, 450ft (137m) away from the ship, which experts believe would have been used to try to winch the boat free.
Chris Southerly, chief archaeologist for the project, said: "If Blackbeard had intended to sink the ship on purpose, this seems an awful lot of labour and effort to make it look good to the crew, to allay their fears that he was abandoning them. "The main ballast pile, which has two large anchors and at least six cannon and a huge pile of ballast stones, is just about amidships, roughly where the upper aft deck would have started. "It would have been very hard to move things further aft than that, because the deck is on a different level and there is a wall in the way. They may have moved things as far aft as could easily be done, to try to save the ship and then abandoned the effort, realising it still wouldn't save the ship. The impression, from what I have seen, is that it was an accident."
The ship ran aground on a sandbank about a mile from shore on June 10 1718, as Blackbeard's flotilla of four vessels was heading for Beaufort Inlet, in the British colony of North Carolina. Days earlier, Blackbeard had blockaded the major port of Charleston, South Carolina, and knew that the Royal Navy would be closing the net around him. Historians have long believed that he deliberately grounded his largest vessel so that he could split up his followers in the ensuing chaos, thus "downsizing" his crew and ensuring the loot was transferred to another vessel.
In the event, that is precisely what he did, escaping with the treasure and stranding 30 men on a nearby island. But Mr Southerly added: "I think he probably just made the most of a bad situation."
Blackbeard is believed to have been born Edward Teach, or Edward Thatch, in Bristol, in 1680. He fought as a privateer for the British, attacking Spanish and French ships in the War of the Spanish Succession before turning to piracy. His troop captured a French slave ship called La Concorde near the Caribbean island of St Vincent in November 1717 and renamed it Queen Anne's Revenge.
It became his flagship, sailing alongside three smaller sloops. His flotilla is said to have taken 45 ships. Blackbeard's striking appearance and character has inspired many subsequent depictions of pirates, most recently in Pirates of the Caribbean, the Hollywood trilogy starring Johnny Depp. He is said to have had 14 wives and would tie burning fuses into his long beard during battle, to give himself a demonic appearance.
On one occasion, while playing cards with a member of his crew, he is said to have shot him in the kneecaps under the table. After the loss of the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard sought and was granted a pardon. But he continued to seize ships, and the Royal Navy were sent to track him down. He was killed in a battle with the Royal Navy in November 1718.
Blackbeard's head was cut off and his body tossed overboard. According to legend, his headless body swam around his ship five times before he finally died. His head was attached to the bowsprit of a Navy ship and his skull was later used as a punch bowl.
The wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge lies in about 23 feet (seven metres) of water. It was first discovered in 1996 but the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources is now funding a project to excavate and recover items from the ship, as it is feared they could be lost as sand around the wreck is eroded away.
Previous expeditions have recovered items from the stern section and the current project, which started last month and is expected to continue until November, is examining the mid section, where the ballast pile is located.
The team have so far recovered 9,000 flecks of gold, which add up to just a quarter of an ounce (seven grams), suggesting that Blackbeard was able to get the treasure off the ship. Mark Wilde-Ramsing, project leader, added: "The crew don't seem to have been in survival mode. They were able to get most things they wanted off."
Items recovered so far include navigational instruments, carpentry tools and bells. The new findings have provoked controversy among experts. Angus Konstam, author of Piracy: The Complete History, welcomed the research but said the discoveries could still be consistent with Blackbeard having deliberately run the ship aground.
"Blackbeard would have had to try to dupe his crew," he said. "When the ship went aground, it was in his interest to make it look as if it was an accident, to avoid getting lynched by his own crew. But the great thing about archaeology is that it can come up with new ways to stand theories on their head."By Jasper Copping
I feel Fine.. Some things in China never cease to amuse me. Some people refer to them as 'Chinglish', which I think is rather insulting, as although the companies or organisations concerned clearly haven't consulted a natural English Speaker with their translations - and there are many of us around in schools and universities, who would willingly help out, at least they have made an effort. I prefer to call it 'Peoney English'. I think it sounds better and goes someway to bridging the cultural divide.
Begining with the Nescafe, individual sachets (packets) of coffee. The instructions for opening the item said 'Tear here', but the nick for begining the operation was on the other side of the packet.
I love this one... from information leaflet in Dabao SOD Milk moisturising cream.
'Dabao SOD Milk contains rich SOD (Superoxide Dismietase) and extract of Ginseng and Astragalus Root (percious Chinese herbal medicine) as it's main ingredients. It can effectively retard the progress of the skins senility, resolve pigmentation and nourish the skin..... Through constant use, it would bestow on you a look so graceful and tender that you could become more lovely and charming.' That makes me feel good. There's hope for me yet!
Then I opened a new toothbrush from Sion to clean my teeth...
'The highest quality shape hair brush, it can go deep into the tooth sews, which is the commonest can't, pure out the dental dirts, and work the brush the bacteria spot of tooth.'
'The completely new streamlined and antislide brush handle designing according to the hand type, brushing is comfort, and holding to feel relaxed.'
'The well loved transparent handle adds esthetic taste to your daily life.' Yes, I have to admit, that after shaving and washing in the morning, it has revolutionised my outlook on the day ahead. Thank you Sion.
More pictures
Over the past 3,000 years, the Earth’s shift on its axis has changed the 12
astrological signs as we know them. Astronomers from the Minnesota Planetarium
Society have discovered that because of the moon’s gravitational pull on Earth,
the alignment of the stars was pushed by about a month. 
Coca-Cola named world's best brand for 11th year in a row
Fred Pearce guardian.co.uk
Victorian Rhapsody: Queen guitarist Brian May on the photos of a forgotten Britain that became his secret obsession By 
![North America part of a 400-year-old map created by Matteo Ricci [Photo: Global Times]](http://p3.img.cctvpic.com/20100113/images/1263374840846_1263374840846_r.jpg?546)
A painting by the artist Jean Leon Jerome Ferris depicts the capture of notorious pirate Blackbeard (left)
James Purefoy portrays Blackbeard in the 2006 BBC docu-drama 
Johnny Depp stars as Captain Jack Sparrow in the film Pirates of the Caribbean
A statue of Alexander Selkirk, on Robinson Crusoe Island. 'Rogers ordered his pinnace forward, heading for the shore, fully confident that the other boats would follow,' records Graham Thomas. Yet at the key moment, cowardly Dr Dover, representing the investors, argued that the town had been warned - bells were being rung and fireworks were going off - and that the assault was therefore hopelessly compromised. By the time they realised the next day that Guayaquil had merely been celebrating a saint's day, the town was, indeed, warned, and carried a vast fortune in gold inland to be buried in secret. 
Blackbeard. Photo: from Hulton Archive.
