i * Dancing stars * What makes a password stronger? * Preparing a disaster kit * The most photographed places on Earth * The world's prettiest places * Preparing a disaster kit * How the West was won * Hi! Welcome to Mayanmar * Valentine's Day * Walks like a man * Record breaking alligator * How the leopard got his spots * The worlds most haunting cemeteries * Top 10 brands for 2010 * Green fun and free * Roman coins * Card slices through cucumber * Big catch * Man who gave Che to the world * Carp the weight of Kilie Minogue * Amazon cloud roll * Spooky... Britain's 10 most haunted places * Stalin's grandson in court to clear the dictator's name * Lake Iseo * Italian Frecce Tricolori perform at Moscow International Airshow * Taichi performance breaks Guiness World Record * Record-braking kayak waterfall drop * V is for very exciting * Bird uses body as dam to stop drainpipe soaking chicks * Super Hornet breaks the sound barrier * To the struggle against World Terrorism * Walking with dinosaurs * Cleopatra's sister * World's most expensive carpet * Pot of gold...? * Dormouse * Now that's what I call a river dance * The Pirate Hunter * Blackbeard * Rare fragments * Theo Paphitis - 12 Rules for Success in Business * C B Song * Stolen by the Nazis * Christmas lights (UK) & Santa competition
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 apture 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.
Built in one year and 45 days in the midst of the Great Depression,
this iconic skyscraper draws about 3.5 million visitors a year to its
observatories. On a clear day, you can see as far as Massachusetts, but
backward glances at the
soaring architecture are pretty seductive, too.
Standard shot: The view of the Empire State Building from the street below.
Tip: Broaden your perspective. Photographing an expected sight
from an unexpected place can add a lot to your photo. To get this shot,
head 16 blocks north and up 70 floors to the Top of the Rock
Observation Deck in Rockefeller
Center, where you'll get the best view of the Empire State
Building—along with a 360-degree panorama of the city.
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
Thireparing a dister kit * s 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.P
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.
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.ut 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 cat
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
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.
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
.
Card slices through cucumber
Bai
Dengchun (L), 23, cuts a cucumber in half by flinging a poker card at
it from two meters away during a show in Ji'nan, capital of East
China's Shandong province, on Friday July 2, 2010. Bai has practiced
this since he was 6 years old, adding to it martial arts techniques.
Cucumbers, water melons and eggs all fall to pieces before his
lightning-speed poker card. [Photo/CFP]
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.
Man catches carp the weight of Kylie Minogue Angler Martin Locke braved sub-zero temperatures in just a T-shirt to break the world record for catching the biggest ever carp.
Martin Locke with the Carp that got him out of his bedPhoto: BNPS
Brit
Mr Locke jumped out of his lakeside tent at 6am in temperatures of -3C
to net the monster fish that tipped the scales at 94lbs. The enormous
mirror carp weighed the same as Kylie Minogue and beat the previous
record by 3lbs.
The
fish - nicknamed Lockey's Lump - was the first and only bite Mr Locke,
47, had during the week-long freezing fishing trip to the Rainbow Lake
near Bordeaux in France.
Mr Locke was alerted to the catch when his rod alarm sounded during the early hours.
Wearing only a T-shirt and trousers, he jumped in his boat and motored 200 yards out to the fish and began reeling it in.
At
first he thought he had hooked a sunken tree trunk due to the weight of
it but was gobsmacked when he heaved the carp to the surface.
Getting
it in his landing net was like 'trying to land a small hippo with a
tennis racket,' but after succeeding he towed it to the shore to weigh
it.
Despite the early hour and freezing temperatures, many other anglers gathered round to celebrate with the new record holder.
Mr
Locke, from South Darenth, Dartford, Kent (England), left the fish in
the shallows until daylight when he photographed the aquatic beast
before returning it to the lake in good health.
Amazing cloud roll captured on camera 06.01.2010. This
amazing picture shows a rare phenomenon called a roll cloud which tend
to form ahead of a cold front and can stretch for miles.
Photographer Daniela Eberl took this snap at Las Olas Beach in Maldonado, Uruguay. Photo: NATIONAL NEWS
They
are most common when an advancing storm front causes moist air to rise,
then cool to the point where it becomes a cloud known as the dew point.
When
this happens along a front, a roll cloud can form, often with air
actually circulating along the horizontal axis of the cloud.
Although it looks like a sideways tornado, these clouds cannot become one.
Photographer Daniela Eberl took this snap at Las Olas Beach in Maldonado, Uruguay.
Spooky!... Britain's 10 most haunted places
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 London
a 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.
Lake Iseo: Italy's secret treasure:Tourist feature
Iseo is not the most famous of the Italian lakes, but it could be the most charming, says Annie Deakin. By Annie Deakin. 2009.08.20.
The countryside surrounding the lake is dotted with immaculate vineyards, medieval castles and monasteriesPhoto: GETTY IMAGES
Little
known outside Italy, Lake Iseo is smaller than Lake Como but
considerably quieter and more charming. With fewer sun-blotched
tourists, and situated just north of the cities of Brescia and Bergamo,
it is the unsung gem of northern Italy.
An
hour's train journey north east of Milan brings travellers to
Franciacorta, an area in the heart of Lombardy's wine-growing region –
and the gateway to Lake Iseo. The countryside surrounding the lake is
dotted with immaculate vineyards, medieval castles and monasteries.
From
the lakeside towns of Sale Marasino or Iseo, you can take the short
ferry ride – almost empty even during high season – to Monte Isola, the
largest inhabited lake island in southern Europe. Three kilometres in
length and with only 2,000 residents and no cars, the remote island has
a quiet calm. Walk along its cobbled waterside track and admire the
blue and white paper flowers that are strung across paths and tied to
doorways.
In
the island's picturesque fishing village, Peschiera Maraglio, faded,
hand-woven fishing nets are draped above sleepy cafés. When people
think of the Italian lakes, it is Lake Como or Lake Garda that spring
to mind. Few consider Lake Iseo, so go now before this secret jewel
becomes too well known.
Travel by…
Plane. British Airways (www.ba.com), easyJet (www.easyjet.com) and Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) all fly direct to Milan from major British airports. Tour operator Citalia (0871 664 0253, www.citalia.com) offers three nights from £495 per person inclusive of flights and accommodation on a room-only basis. Hire a car (www.europcar.co.uk) at the airport.
Stay at...
L'Albereta (0039 030 776 0550, www.albereta.it)
in Erbusco, if you're after sophisticated indulgence. This 19th-century
villa has long been a favourite with the jet set, who make good use of
the helipad. The bedrooms are supremely comfortable – one even has a
retractable roof for a night under the stars – and the bathrooms are
exquisite. Double rooms from £176.
A more modest option is the Iseo Lago Hotel (0039 030 98891, www.iseolagohotel.it) in Iseo town. A three-minute walk to the lakeshore, it offers comfortable double rooms from 139 euros.
Spend the morning...
Exploring
the beautiful countryside by foot, bike or horseback. Lake Iseo, the
seventh largest in the country, is big enough for swimming, fishing,
diving and sailing. The region is famous for its sparkling wines, so be
sure to taste the local fizz on a tour of the Contadi Castaldi winery (www.contadicastaldi.it)
Have lunch at...
Any of the lakeside restaurants on Monte Isola. Order tinca al forna, a speciality of baked fish with garlic, parsley and parmesan. For ferry times to the island, call 0039 035 971483 or visit www.navigazionelagoiseo.it
Spend the afternoon...
Being
pampered in the Albereta's Henri Chenot spa, which has a large swimming
pool, sauna, Turkish bath, hydrotherapy area and gym.
Shop for...
Bargain
ballet pumps and designer labels in Brescia, where there is an antique
market under the porticoes of Piazza Vittoria every second Sunday of
the month.
Dine out at...
The
Gualtiero Marchesi restaurant – whether you stay at L'Albereta or not.
The first Italian chef to win three Michelin stars, Marchesi is deadly
serious about food. Last year a scandal erupted when the Michelin Guide
stripped him of two of his stars, and he was so incensed that he "gave
back" the third. His food, however, remains Michelin-worthy. Order
risotto with saffron and pure gold leaf, followed by lobster; and drink
Franciacorta Bellavista, the hotel's own sparkling wine.
For a lighter dinner, head to the trendy Dispensa Pani e Vini (0039 030 745 0757, www.dispensafranciacorta.com), in a winery 2km from Lake Iseo, for tapas in miniature tea cups and fresh pasta.
At all costs avoid…
Milan during August, when many restaurants and boutiques are shut.
The
2008 Beijing Olympics brought China to the world, and featured a number
of stunning performances. One year after, the people of China have
turned in their own stunning performance.
This
morning, a new Guinness World record was set as 33 thousand, 9 hundred
and 96 people performed taichi at the National Stadium. The rain didn't
dampen the enthusiasm of people who turned out to celebrate the
anniversary of the Beijing Olympics.
Almost
34 thousand people from all walks of life gathered at the bird's nest
for a 6 minute taichi performance. They successfully created a new
Guinness World Record, breaking the record that was made by 30 thousand
and 648 people in 2004 in Henan province.
This morning, a new Guinness World record was set as 33 thousand, 9 hundred and 96 people performed taichi at the National Stadium.
Now that's what I call a river dance. It’s the kind of scene that most anglers, wearied from hours sitting on the bank with barely a nibble to show for it, can only dream about. This is a 'superswarm' of silver carp, caused by the hum of a fishing boat's electric motor. The carp react to the vibrations as they would to a predator - jumping up to 10ft out of the water.
Jumping silver carp in the Mississippi river.
The jumping is a collective reaction to perceived danger, which in the Mississippi comes from boat engine noise The aerial dance - captured by documentary makers in August on the Illinois river, a tributary of the Mississippi - is a spectacular sight as the water churns with fish. But the frenzied silver carp, which weigh up to 40lb (18kg), can swamp boats and cause serious injury to anyone in their path. Film-maker John Downer said the ferocity of the swarm astonished the team. 'It was like all hell had broken loose, they had to return with better protected equipment. 'For a fisherman it's like paradise. They don't even have to drop a line, the fish just jump into the boat.'
Why are pirates called pirates?....because that's their name! Ahhh...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 todayCaptain 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.
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.
'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
.
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
Space walk factfile
In more than 40 years since the first space walk, astronauts have turned the science of weightlessness into an art - and learned lessons which will help China's first man to follow suit today.
By Alastair Jamieson 27 Sep 2008
Here are some fascinating facts which the Chinese astronauts may have learned before they set off from Earth:
During space walks, astronauts wear adult nappies described by Nasa as "maximum absorbency garments".
The longest excursion was eight hours and 56 minutes, performed by the American astronaut Susan Helms on 11 March 2001.
A backpack propulsion unit, incorporating small nitrogen thrusters controlled by hand and moderated by computer, is worn to allow astronauts to return if they become separated from the space station. Otherwise they might drift away for ever.
Apart from floating away, the biggest danger during space walks is collision with the growing volume of space debris floating in orbit from earlier missions.
The first human to walk in space was Russian Alexy Leonov on March 18, 1965. His outing lasted only 24 minutes. Since then the feat has been repeated almost 300 times.
The first untethered space walk was by American Bruce McCandless on February 7, 1984. Until then, astronauts were always attached to the space craft by reins.
Astronauts who perform space walks risk suffering from "the bends", much like divers returning too quickly to the surface of the sea, because of the lower air pressure in their space suits. To help adjust more slowly, many "camp out" the night before in an airlock on the spacecraft, where the pressure is gradually reduced.
Russian Alexey Leonov nearly got locked out after a space walk in 1965 because his suit became so highly pressurised and rigid that he could not get back through the door. Affter switching his suit to a lower pressure setting and with immense effort, he was finally able to pass through into the airlock and secure himself inside.
The first woman to perform a space walk was Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, on 25 July 1984.
The first black astronaut to perform a space walk was Texan Bernard Harris Jnr, on February 9, 1995.
One US astronaut suffered a potentially deadly spacesuit puncture but was saved because the object that made the hole stayed in place, avoiding decompression that would have caused anoxia and rapid death.
The first American to walk in space, Ed White, floated at the end of a 25 foot golden tether for 22 minutes. He even tried a small "zip gun," powered by compressed nitrogen, to propel himself through space. White found spacewalking so easy and enjoyable that he joked over the radio transmission to the space craft that he wasn't coming back inside.
Not all early space walks were so easy. Gene Cernan found it impossible to turn the knobs on his propulsion unit because the lack of gravity meant his weightless body turned instead. He became so overheated that his visor clouded over with moisture.
Feeling under the weather?* It appeared in the sky for the briefest of moments.
Rare: Dr Mitton photographed this unusual upside-down rainbow, a circumzenithal arc, near her home in Cambridge
But unlike a rainbow, the sky has to be clear of rain and low level clouds for it to be seen. Relatively rare in Britain, the arc only appears when sunlight shines at a specific angle (22 degrees) through a thin veil of wispy clouds at a height of around 20,000 to 25,000 feet. At this altitude the cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals, the size of grains of salt.
Meteorologists say the clouds must be convex to the sun with the ice particles lined up together in the right direction to refract the light.This results in the sunlight bouncing off the ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up and bending the sunlight like a glass prism into a spectrum of colour.
* 'Feeling under the weather' is an English expression which means to feel a little unwell
Alexander the Great
Alexander, bust from Delos (Louvre)
Alexander the Great (*356; r. 336-323): the Macedonian king who defeated his Persian colleague Darius III Codomannus and conquered the Achaemenid Empire. During his campaigns, Alexander visited a.o. Egypt, Babylonia, Persis, Media, Bactria, the Punjab, and the valley of the Indus. In the second half of his reign, he had to find a way to rule his newly conquered countries. Therefore, he made Babylon his capital and introduced the oriental court ceremonial, which caused great tensions with his Macedonian and Greek officers. A short biography can be found here.
Kong Deyong, a 77th generation descendant of Confucius, founded the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee. It is based in the family's hometown, Qufu, in eastern China.
Mr Kong, a senior member of the Confucius clan, fled to Hong Kong after the Cultural Revolution when he and members of his family were persecuted, the sage's home vandalised, and family tombs, destroyed. He is now compiling a massive register of descendants, with the backing of the Chinese Government, who have restored the family's home, and turned it into a tourist attraction.
Confucius was little honoured during his lifetime, and his work has been rejected at times since his death 2,500 years ago. However, he has been regarded as the founding father of Chinese political and ethical thought throughout most of that time.
It is thought that the clan may have more than 3 million members, all of whom are united by the family name 'Kong', also written as 'Kung' and 'Hung'. Confucius's proper name was 'Kong Zi'.
2008.02.20.
Traditions : The Mayan Indians of Mexico.
Edited and revised from '21st Century' - 2006.11.01 Agencies.
Eighty-three-year-old Maya Indian, Cenorio Colli, gazed lovingly at his wife's long brown hair and recalled how carefully she combed it when she was still alive.
Then he returned to cleaning her skull and every bone she left behind.
Grieving Maya Indians in a sweltering village deep in the limestone flatlands of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, painstakingly clean the remains of their late loved ones during a unique annual family reunion with the dead on November 1st and 2nd.
In a tradition dating back centuries, families exhume their ancestors after three years in the grave, and transfer their dried bones and skulls - often with hair attached - to wooden crates on permanent display in open funeral niches. Families gather at the brightly painted tombs to replace the box's embroidered cloth linings. The festival brings back floods of memories for mourning relatives, struggling with the loss of life companions.
'I was talking to her', Colli, a widower of nine years, recalled as he lifted his dead wife Concepcion's brittle pelvis from a large pile of bones and dusted it off with a cloth. 'She lowered her head and that was it.' But the retired farmer said he took solace from knowing she was at peace. 'I feel happy because she died happy.'
The Next World: According to Maya beliefs - Mayan Indians are decended from the Aztec's, an ancient civilisation that ruled Central America, death is a stage in life in which the deceased evolve into higher, more spiritual beings.
In the village of Pomuch, the dead are believed to be 'purified' during the first three years after their death. They are then exhumed and welcomed back as highly respected members of extended families, in which past and present generations merge.
Old women in colourfully patterned traditional dresses chattered in the Maya language on Monday, as they fussed over the bones of long lost mothers and the skulls of babies who barely lived a day. Marta Helena Chipool, 35, lovingly cleaned the remains of a mother- in -law she never met, and the twin girls who died with her 40 years ago in childbirth.
'(When)..you go to the cemetery and you can see your dead sister, mother and father and talk to them,' said Lazaro Tuz, an anthropologist from Pomuch who has spent years documenting the ritual. 'This keeps the family together. The dead person is no longer dead because you can touch him,' he said.
'She is not dead to me, she lives in my heart,' said Maria Euan, a 52-year-old woman with braids and bright cross-stitch flowers, spread across her white blouse, as she and her husband arranged her dead mother's bones. 'This is her party,'
Origins. The origins of the ritual, which is celebrated almost exclusively in Pomuch, are murky, and it is unclear whether the practice predates the Spanish Conquest during the late 16th Century.
One theory suggests that villagers, faced with an overflowing cemetery, may have begun digging up their dead for health reasons.
Some fear the tradition is dying out as pomuch's youth, increasingly hooked on video games, action films and reggae music, embrace modern culture. According to village folklore, the spirit of a Pomuch native can become angry and wander lost through the streets if proper care is not taken of his or her remains.
Martin de Porras cleaned his dead father's thigh bone, still bearing the shiny metal joint that made his last months after a road accident miserable, and wondered whether his children would do the same for him.
'I can't make them do it,' he said. 'but if they don't, I don't know where I'm going to end up.'
ee®
Translate http://www.translatorbar.com Easy to translate text, webpages and documents into and from a choice of 53 language. Six easy steps...
More pictures
Coca-Cola named world's best brand for 11th year in a row
Play Video
James Purefoy portrays Blackbeard in the 2006 BBC docu-drama 
Photo: Dr Jaqueline Mitton - Astronomer
